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Braden Holmes

@bluecollarbrades.bsky.social
77 followers 201 following 152 posts

He/him woodworker and zoning enthusiast of dubious intent St. Paul politics enjoyer

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Braden Holmes @bluecollarbrades.bsky.social · 5h
A gentle reminder to my fellow parking policy folks: The goal of market rate parking is *not* to raise money but to effectively allocate a scarce resource, sometimes $0 is the best price for parking. On that note, market rate parking will absolutely raise money for cities that use it
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Dave Jorgenson @davejorgenson.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
when you google "dutch angle" the entire results page does a Dutch angle
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Tom Basgen, Mr. Saint Paul @tombasgen.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
It's that special time of year where we talk about the City Budget. Based on the questions I still receive I should be doing this twice a year. leaflet.pub/dae3de62-299...
leaflet.pub
Tom's 2027 Budget and Tax Thoughts
Let’s talk municipal budgets for 2027. This year I’m writing earlier than usual so folks have more time to digest the process in real time but it means I won’t have my personal tax numbers to share wh...
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Nicholas Grossman @nicholasgrossman.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Trump’s insider trading is, on its own, the worst corruption scandal in US history, with $$$ dwarfing Teapot Dome. So are Trump’s bribes-for-pardons. So is the Qatar bribe plane. So is all the Saudi money he (and Kushner) have pocketed. And the ballroom. And more. Each alone would be the worst.
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Roger Parloff @rparloff.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
When Trump launched “the largest deportation operation in the history of our country” without ICE facilities to accommodate it, inhumane overcrowding was inevitable. Judge Kaplan’s 9/24 ruling shows the results. Diagrams simulating a NYC holding cell in Aug 2025 look like slave ships. 1/5
Hold Room 1(820.78 sq. ft.)
With 87 people
(out of 193 people total)
Lying Down/Sitting
Diagram showing the largest tenth-floor hold room containing eighty-seven detainees in which each rectangle represents one lying-down detainee with the average height and shoulder width of an adult man and each circle represents one sitting-down detainee with the average shoulder width of an adult man. PX303, Ex. 1.
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Kendra "Gloom is My Beat" Pierre-Louis @kendrawrites.com · 26/09/2026
Mamdani was out there racking up photo ops with prime ministers like he was collecting pokemon.
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Braden Holmes @bluecollarbrades.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
www.taxnotes.com/tax-notes-li... Apparently DOGE cut a quarter of the IRS' IT staff while they were in the middle of switching from some ancient code to Java. Now the new hires who are trying to do the modernizing work can't, because they don't understand the old code.
taxnotes.com
Modernizing the IRS: What's The Plan?<!-- --> | Tax Notes
Tax Notes is the first source of essential daily news, analysis, and commentary for tax professionals whose success depends on being trusted for their expertise.
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Luke Hanson @lukehanson.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
I promise, this is the last essay I have about zoning policy in Saint Paul! (At least for a few months.) Thanks @streets.mn for publishing.
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Dan Weiner @danw329.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Super PACs enabled by Citizens United have become an integral part of many candidates’ campaigns, and giving money to a super PAC is seen as an important way to win favorable treatment from the government. That’s the diametric opposite of what the Court said in CU and other cases.
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ProPublica @propublica.org · 22/09/2026
Sen. Susan Collins helped steer millions in federal defense contracts to Navatek, whose CEO illegally funneled thousands of dollars to her campaign. The FBI sought to launch a probe and was eyeing Collins and other lawmakers. Then Trump gutted the unit in charge. THREAD 🧵
Martin Kao, CEO of defense contractor Navatek, poses next to Sen. Susan Collins for a photo. Collins is holding a model of a boat in her hands. Behind them is a large sign with the Navatek logo.
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Braden Holmes @bluecollarbrades.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
This is why MNDOT's insistence that replacing I-94 with a boulevard would be catastrophic for traffic rings so hollow. I'm supposed to believe that highway removal will result in *worse* emissions?
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Braden Holmes @bluecollarbrades.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Gotta boost this, if you have a bike you would want recovered, put it on BikeIndex! Also for the e-bike folks, bike insurance is relatively inexpensive
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Scott Berger @scottbergermn.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
when they rebuilt university, it really should’ve been built as a one lane each way road. As I walk along it, there are groups of a few cars going 40+ miles an hour and then long periods where there are no cars at all.
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Scott Berger @scottbergermn.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
I ended up going down a rabbit hole of esoteric Saint Paul zoning, and realized there was some real hand-waiving going on. Should we waive our very intentional and very intense zoning in view of unsightly and long-term big-box vacancy?
streets.mn
Guesswork at City Hall: How Midway’s Zoning Cap Got Waived
Saint Paul waived a zoning cap to let LuLuLand fill a vacant Herberger’s, without publicly examining why the cap, or the corridor’s transit vision, exist.
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David Zipper @davidzipper.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
After 9/11, many Americans opted to drive instead of fly. But because plane travel is much safer than car travel, the shift led to a surge in crash deaths. Researchers have found that the number of lives lost (2,000+) is comparable to those killed on 9/11. www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1...
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Braden Holmes @bluecollarbrades.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
It's like offering 100 bags of peanuts to 100 flight passengers, and wondering why a bunch are left over. Some people are thirsty and want water, some people are allergic, some people have other dietary needs! Except in this case they offered 75, and anyways who calls a bag of nuts a meal?
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Max Dubler 🏳️‍🌈 @maxdubler.com · 06/09/2026
We should regulate pollution directly instead of using land use policy and private-party litigation over projects’ compliance with public disclosure laws to fight over where pollution happens.
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Braden Holmes @bluecollarbrades.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
TWENTY👏FOUR👏HOUR👏BUS LANES👏
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Michael Hobbes @michaelhobbes.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
This is what shutting down scientific debate actually looks like
bloomberg.com
A Top Virus Scientist Stared Down Covid Lab-Leak Proponents. Now His Life’s Work Is at Stake
The battle over Covid’s origins has come for Bob Garry, who’s faced some of the world’s deadliest viral threats.
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Braden Holmes @bluecollarbrades.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
I think this idea trickles down to non-elites as well. If the leader of your party is ostentatiously idiotic, cruel and chauvinistic, and other elites act in a way that normalizes it, then the door is open for ordinary folks to dwell in their worst impulses.
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Daniel Moser @dmoser.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Pollution levels in London after 10 years of advancing sustainable transport.
Map showing Lower Pollution levels in London after 10 years of advancing sustainable transport.
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BikeMN @bikemn.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
We sent a letter to state leaders urging long-overdue action on retailers selling electric motorcycles as "e-bikes." The laws to stop this have existed since 2024 — now they need enforcement. Acting at the point of sale, keeps these machines off our trails and streets and out of kids' hands.
bikemn.org
Minnesota State Leaders Must Act on E-Moto Retailers - Bicycle Alliance of Minnesota
September 1, 2026 The Bicycle Alliance of Minnesota has sent a letter to Governor Walz, Attorney General Ellison, and the commissioners of Commerce, Transportation, and Health, urging a coordinated re...
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Quinta Jurecic @qjurecic.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
two pieces from me this morning: 1. the right is not giving up on its quest to overturn birthright citizenship. will trump v barbara be the next roe?
theatlantic.com
How the Right Could Actually End Birthright Citizenship
The conservative legal movement doesn’t consider the Supreme Court’s recent ruling to be the final word on the Fourteenth Amendment. And it already has a playbook for overturning it.
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Braden Holmes @bluecollarbrades.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
Riding the midnight Amtrak listening to Sufjan Stevens' Carrie and Lowell album is the most I've felt like I was a character from Spirited Away
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Braden Holmes @bluecollarbrades.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
🥲
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Adrian Daub @adriandaub.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
Gonna take a wild stab and assume that PinkerKraussWaxAbbotDawkinsCoyne won't be writing any open letter for this person?
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Braden Holmes @bluecollarbrades.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
The Power Broker at 50: Assessing Caro’s Robert Moses biography today. slate.com/business/202...
slate.com
Read Another Book
The Power Broker leaves us ill-equipped to understand or confront the struggles that face the city today.
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Braden Holmes @bluecollarbrades.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
Public reminder that Waymos in CA spent approx 46% of their road time completely empty, or 40 million road miles clogging up the roads
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Ned Resnikoff @resnikoff.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
It's impossible to overstate how bad organizing our entire society around cars has been for our children. giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...
giftarticle.ft.com
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Braden Holmes @bluecollarbrades.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
A good move by New Ulm! And a nice mention of statewide zoning reform by mpr
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Bec Hamilton @bechamilton.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
If you read one thing today, make it this stunning essay in @theatlantic.com by @juliacurlee.bsky.social www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...
theatlantic.com
The Wrong Kind of American
The Trump White House needed me—until the fact that I am trans became public.
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Braden Holmes @bluecollarbrades.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
I too think it's ridiculous to let landless peasants vote. Property ownership is the true mark of wisdom for the gentry
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Norm Charlatan @normcharlatan.bsky.social · 08/08/2026
Far side cartoon of dog on a boat “hey, boy! How ya doing?… Look at him, Dan. Poor guy’s been floating out here for days but he’s still just as fat and happy as ever.”
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Max Dubler 🏳️‍🌈 @maxdubler.com · 06/08/2026
We should ban this kind of betting entirely.
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THE FAR SIDE DAILY @bot.cowtools.org · 04/08/2026
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Braden Holmes @bluecollarbrades.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
Trapped between horror at the murderous policy implications and the conclusion that Trump officials are a Confederacy of Dunces
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Miser @misernyc.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
These two vehicles were just involved in a very public fatal crash in NYC, can you guess which everyone rushed to blame and called to ban? (PS: they should both be banned.)
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bettybarcode (she/her) @bettybarcode.com · 27/07/2026
The people who complain about empty bike lanes do not want full bike lanes. They want no bike lanes.
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Max Dubler 🏳️‍🌈 @maxdubler.com · 25/07/2026
This is dumb slopulist policy that would make transit worse and encourage more people to drive. Vote for Nithya.
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Jesse Eisinger @jeisinger.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
Ridiculous insistence on not understanding who the president is
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Braden Holmes @bluecollarbrades.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
This is an important read for those interested in urban planning. Jane Jacobs was an consequential start in my journey, but her intense focus on grassroots planning in part let the choking vines of NIMBYism hold us back from a robust urbanism in our cities placesjournal.org/article/jane...
placesjournal.org
Reconsidering Jane Jacobs: The Death and Life of American Planning
An urban historian assesses the complex legacy of Jane Jacobs, including the rise of community activism and the marginalization of professional planning.
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The Onion @theonion.com · 20/07/2026
Study Finds There Aren’t Enough Occasions Where You Get To Eat Rolls theonion.com/study-finds-there-aren…
Study Finds There Aren’t Enough Occasions Where You Get To Eat Rolls
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Bill Lindeke @blindeke.bsky.social · 19/07/2026
Naomi and I agree: Noecker is the best candidate in this race, and the best one to reform the County’s lackadaisical approach St Paul.
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Braden Holmes @bluecollarbrades.bsky.social · 19/07/2026
Second Lowest First Quarter Fatality Rate is the weakest shit I've ever heard, even before you realize the rate isn't even per capita, it's *per mile*
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Pedaling Professor @pedalingprof.bsky.social · 19/07/2026
I think it's worth remembering that a small group of vocal, well-resourced people fought and sued to stop the new library. Yet it's obviously hugely popular and a great resource for the community. If/when Summit Ave bike lanes get upgraded to a separated bikeway, the result will be the same.
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Peter @notalawyer.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
a thing about these “priorities” is that they cannot be achieved without comprehensive Supreme Court reform, which means THAT is your actual priority
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David Zipper @davidzipper.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
Take note, urban dwellers: San Francisco has more robotaxi experience than any city in the country, and its mayor—a tech booster!— is warning that AVs make the transportation network vulnerable to collapse.
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Braden Holmes @bluecollarbrades.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
I hear rumblings now and again about the twin cities introducing AV's, and I continue to be highly skeptical. Fire departments gripe about putting in roundabouts or tighter turn radii, but just wait until there are 73 Waymos deadheading on some random residential street
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Tina Smith @smith.senate.gov · 16/07/2026
Cancer doesn’t give a shit about DEI policies. The disease will continue impacting some populations more than others and refusing to research why is asinine and hurts us all.
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Aubrey Gordon @yrfatfriend.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
The underlying rhetoric is that anti-fatness that targets fat people is generous and reasonable, while anti-fatness that targets straight size people is cruel and unhinged. The implication is: I'm fine with this behavior when it targets people who I think deserve it (fat people) but not me!
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