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Mary Donegan

@drdonegan.bsky.social
1.7K followers 559 following 1K posts

Planning/policy research and teaching. All the yarn things, always tired, interested in making places better. Parent to kids in too many activities. She/her in nutmeggerland by way of NH MA & NC. Not my employer's views.

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Mary Donegan @drdonegan.bsky.social · 19/02/2026
I mean, I kind of hate hosting at a winery for anyone -- even if it were for more typical employees. This is unbelievably dumb but on brand for AI.
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Nathan Kalman-Lamb @nkalamb.bsky.social · 17/02/2026
“I don’t want to be in this place I want to go to my school.” - 7 year old imprisoned by ICE for 70 days in a concentration camp in Texas. Today, after @propublica.org published this story, the camp was raided to confiscate letters from the children. www.propublica.org/article/ice-...
Mia Valentina Paz Faria
A 7-year-old from Venezuela who was living in Austin, Texas 
Detained for 70 days

“I don’t want to be in this place I want to go to my school.”UPDATE: Staff at the ICE concentration camp in Dilley, Texas have begun raiding the dormitories of kids and their parents to confiscate and destroy letters from the children. This is in response to the ace reporting by 
@micarosenberg
 et al for ProPublica:
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Mary Donegan @drdonegan.bsky.social · 13/02/2026
Months ago at a local event a CT Dem insider stood up to say that (1) he learned more relevant skills for his job in his ivy humanities & soc sciences classes than in any other but (2) the problem with UConn is that we aren't giving students enough STEM skills. The double standard idiocy is real.
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Mark Copelovitch @mcopelov.bsky.social · 13/02/2026
This elitist view that only rich/Ivy/private school kids should study/have access the liberal arts is so deeply ingrained in so many highly educated Democrats’ views (including tons who majored in the lib arts themselves) that they don’t even realize they hold it, let alone how ugly & elitist it is
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Brandon Friedman @brandonfriedman.bsky.social · 24/01/2026
This is courage. Looking a masked, government fascist dead in the eye, face to face, knowing full well that your life is on the line. If elected officials had 1/10th of Alex Pretti's resolve, we would have far fewer troubles.
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Mary Donegan @drdonegan.bsky.social · 10/11/2025
In the stage of life when I mention a ~20 year old movie that's tangentially related to class and no one has seen it and they all just stare blankly at me. Anyways, it was Buckminster Fuller Day! And Biosphere 2 but none of them knew that either.
Bucky Fullers done over Manhattan Cartoon dome over Springfield from the Simpsons movie
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Mary Donegan @drdonegan.bsky.social · 09/11/2025
Hey hey checking in from across town with a 13yo trumpet player in the jazz band! Your side's high school band director is known in town as the best for trumpet.
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Mary Donegan @drdonegan.bsky.social · 09/11/2025
Also because lord knows I complain about this governor every chance I get, credit where credit is due: Thank you, Governor Lamont, for using state funds to ensure CT SNAP recipients receive their benefits this month.
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Mary Donegan @drdonegan.bsky.social · 09/11/2025
Do you know what this former tarheel current husky really likes? Any time my current students beat my former rivals.
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Elisabeth R. Anker @libankerdc.bsky.social · 05/11/2025
The #1 lesson from yesterday’s blowout: Humanities majors killed on the job market 1) Mamdani- Africana Studies 2) Spanberger -French 3) Sherill - Global History
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Mary Donegan @drdonegan.bsky.social · 05/11/2025
Take note, Governor Lamont.
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Mary Donegan @drdonegan.bsky.social · 16/09/2025
My spouse still talks about what a perfect phone that was & I'm honestly shocked we're not the only people on this earth who remember it.
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Mary Donegan @drdonegan.bsky.social · 16/09/2025
I love taking trains. And at the YIMBYtown conference, when a woman from AR said I was living the dream taking the train every day, I thought yes. I am. Connecticut is a great place to live. But it could be a bit better if the boards were right & folks didn't have to guess/go on vibes.
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Mary Donegan @drdonegan.bsky.social · 16/09/2025
Being an urban planning researcher, I of course approached folks on the platform to chat. 😂 They confirmed yes, the boards do this. Yes, they just go on vibes -- "you get a feeling for when they'll be late" (FTR: you can go to the Hartford Line website and see updates and sign up for text alerts).
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Mary Donegan @drdonegan.bsky.social · 16/09/2025
There are signs in Meriden telling you to listen to announcements for track assignments -- but the announcements don't list tracks, and because the north and southbound trains came at the same time the southbound never got an announcement.
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Mary Donegan @drdonegan.bsky.social · 16/09/2025
The trains came! On time! But you have to dig to find alerts. The app's link for service alerts leads to a dead Twitter page -- not the buried page on the Hartford Line website.
Picture of CT rail app with HL service alertsPicture of ctrail Hartford line alerts page on Twitter saying "this account is no longer active"
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Mary Donegan @drdonegan.bsky.social · 16/09/2025
Hey @ct-ptc.bsky.social could you look into the issue that the Hartford Line stops of Berlin and Meriden remove train info at least 15-30 minutes before scheduled departure time? Pics taken at 9:24 and 7:42 aren't showing 9:40 and 7:58 departures.
Picture of rail departure board. Earliest train departure is listed as 11:35. Picture of rail departure board. Earliest New Haven train departure listed as 9:03.
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Mary Donegan @drdonegan.bsky.social · 16/09/2025
I saw some in Bushnell Park in Hartford so yes, on their way. TOH seem to be everywhere in highway and rail right of ways.
media.tenor.com
a close up of a man with a beard and long hair saying they are coming
Alt: a close up of gandalf from lotr saying they are coming
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Mary Donegan @drdonegan.bsky.social · 15/09/2025
Reupping this message after seeing about 30 spotted lantern flies on a short stretch of Chapel in New Haven today 😬 felt good to stomp on them but geesh, awful.
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Mary Donegan @drdonegan.bsky.social · 05/08/2025
Nothing helped me understand how much energy a car uses like having solar on my roof. On a good day my house generates enough for my house + a comparable house -- or my house + my car going 200 miles. 200 miles in an EV = an entire hot summer day of AC, hot water, dishwasher, dryer, etc.
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Mary Donegan @drdonegan.bsky.social · 30/07/2025
Hello to everyone else who turns into an irrational fire breathing dragon when the heat index hits 100+, I highly recommend hiding in a dark room for an hour in the afternoon to self regulate. 🫠
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Mary Donegan @drdonegan.bsky.social · 30/07/2025
My kids are at camp with a family from Houston that thought they would come up north for a week to get away from the heat and he was like wtf is this nonsense.
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Bob Duff @bobduffct.bsky.social · 24/07/2025
Elections matter and public policy can make a difference. Work we did in 2020 to remove non-medical exemptions in Connecticut has made our state safer for children and hopefully a continued place of good health for all. ctnewsjunkie.com/2025/07/24/d...
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Mary Donegan @drdonegan.bsky.social · 24/07/2025
Thrilled that this is how you chose to celebrate my birthday, good job.
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Mary Donegan @drdonegan.bsky.social · 23/07/2025
Choosing 2025 as the moment to change your registration from Democrat to Republican says a lot about some West Hartford folks.
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Mary Donegan @drdonegan.bsky.social · 14/07/2025
The incompetence might be the renovation contractors about a decade ago. HVAC was installed with water collection pans -- but the sensors were installed incorrectly so they don't ever empty/alert anyone that they need emptying.
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Mary Donegan @drdonegan.bsky.social · 14/07/2025
Sadly I'm not on campus enough in the summer (the only time this happens) to empty it. The office next to me has one -- and just leaving it for a week grew an extraordinary amount of mold.
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Mary Donegan @drdonegan.bsky.social · 14/07/2025
This is the third year in a row that my office has grown mold (I caught it early -- trust, it would have been worse in a week). Every year, EHS comes and cleans it. And every year, university/college/state declines to do anything about the building. Because who cares about books at a university.
Mold growth on top of book Mold growth on side of bookMold growth on front of book
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Mary Donegan @drdonegan.bsky.social · 11/07/2025
This is the real reason we need density -- and the real reason fascists hate it.
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Mary Donegan @drdonegan.bsky.social · 03/07/2025
We just put it on the house. Eversource is allowed to take roughly forever to upgrade your transformer and then roughly forever to turn it on -- and no credit until it's on. Hopefully it gets turned on this year. 🫠
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Mary Donegan @drdonegan.bsky.social · 03/07/2025
But what about the male loneliness epidemic, surely girls and women should be required to respond to ChatGPT flirting? 🙄
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Nathan Kalman-Lamb @nkalamb.bsky.social · 03/07/2025
AI is deskilling our young people to the extent that they no longer have the ability, or at least resolve, to craft their own *texts.* The widespread adoption of these technologies is actually a form of child abuse. We are systematically destroying human potential www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...
Weeks earlier, when I’d messaged Alex, he had said that everyone he knew used ChatGPT in some fashion, but that he used it only for organizing his notes. In person, he admitted that this wasn’t remotely accurate. “Any type of writing in life, I use A.I.,” he said. He relied on Claude for research, DeepSeek for reasoning and explanation, and Gemini for image generation. ChatGPT served more general needs. “I need A.I. to text girls,” he joked, imagining an A.I.-enhanced version of Hinge. I asked if he had used A.I. when setting up our meeting. He laughed, and then replied, “Honestly, yeah. I’m not tryin’ to type all that. Could you tell?”
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Joe Katz @joekatz45.bsky.social · 02/07/2025
Mike Kennedy (R-UT) talking about how his children benefited from Medicaid and he himself grew up on SNAP and is now explaining why fewer people should have access to these benefits that helped him so much. Perfect Republican.
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Mary Donegan @drdonegan.bsky.social · 01/07/2025
Waiting for the fare hikes for the money losing highways.
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Tab C @drtcombs.bsky.social · 25/06/2025
#PedBike people!!! The amazing @pedbikeinfo.bsky.social is building a national database on the monetary costs of different kinds of #pedestrian & #bicycle #infrastructure, and needs data from professionals across the US. More info & how to contribute ⤵️ #BikeSky #RoadSafety #ActiveTransport
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Mary Donegan @drdonegan.bsky.social · 24/06/2025
Cuomo using chatGPT to write housing policy & CT Gov Lamont endorsing Cuomo after vetoing housing policy (that was passed by both houses of the CT general assembly, and backed by advocates and academics) helps understand the endorsement: neither cares about affordable housing.
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Mary Donegan @drdonegan.bsky.social · 24/06/2025
The "I used AI for brainstorming and research but not for writing so it's not cheating" argument is painfully familiar.
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Mary Donegan @drdonegan.bsky.social · 24/06/2025
Reading summer course paper proposals and feeling old: "In recent years, many old residential areas in [CITY], built in the 1990s or earlier.... "
Dorothy from the Golden Girls giving side eye.
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Mary Donegan @drdonegan.bsky.social · 24/06/2025
In addition to vetoing HB 5002 and SB 8: didn't think I'd have to call an elected Dem Gov in CT to complain about endorsing a sexual harasser in another state (!! why !!) but here we are. So incredibly disgusted with him and every elected CT state Dem not speaking out against his actions.
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Urban Dispatch @urbandispatch.bsky.social · 23/06/2025
🔥 860-566-4840
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Mary Donegan @drdonegan.bsky.social · 24/06/2025
And the city itself, not what the festival organizers pay out in wages to public works, police, etc.
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Mary Donegan @drdonegan.bsky.social · 24/06/2025
When Connecticut loses a congressional seat in 2030 I would like everyone to call it the "Lamont Loss."
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Jillian Gilchrest @jilchrest.bsky.social · 24/06/2025
This, right here, is the problem. We need men in positions of power who will not tolerate the sexual harassment & abuse of women. Hard stop. Not men who discount the treatment of women because it doesn’t suit them politically.
ctmirror.org
It wasn't the plan, but Lamont endorsed Cuomo
Gov. Ned Lamont made an unplanned endorsement of Andrew Cuomo for mayor of New York on Monday, saying he'd rank Cuomo first on a ballot.
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Mary Donegan @drdonegan.bsky.social · 24/06/2025
Oh wait so in addition to crapping on (by veto) anyone hoping for affordable housing or looking to stand up to shareholders by striking, Lamont also endorsed a sex pest? For the love of all things that aren't sexual harassing out of touch old rich dudes, please Democrats, primary this man.
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Mary Donegan @drdonegan.bsky.social · 23/06/2025
The problem, of course, is that we'll get Lamont vs a Republican trying to succeed at the national level -- and I can't let that level of bonkers win and will vote for Lamont. Why Democrats don't realize that this *also* means a progressive can win against bonkers Republican, I don't know.
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Chris Polansky @chrispolansky.bsky.social · 23/06/2025
The following Hartford Public Library @hplct.bsky.social branches will act as cooling centers during this week's heat wave:
Downtown Library

500 Main Street

860-695-6300

Monday - Thursday: 9:30 a.m. - 6:00 p.m.

Fridays: 9:30 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.

Saturdays: 9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.

 

Albany Library

1250 Albany Avenue

860-695-7380

Monday - Thursday: 9:30 a.m. - 6:00 p.m.

Fridays: 9:30 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.

Saturdays: 9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.

 

Barbour Library

261 Barbour Street

860-695-7400

Monday - Thursday: 9:30 a.m. - 6:00 p.m.

Fridays: 9:30 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.

(On the second and fourth Thursdays of the month, the Library will only be open from 3:00 – 6:00 p.m. to accommodate our Connecticut Foodshare distribution)

 

Camp Field Library

30 Campfield Avenue

860-695-7440

Monday - Thursday: 9:30 a.m. - 6:00 p.m.

Fridays: 9:30 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.

 

Dwight Library

7 New Park Avenue

860-695-7460

Monday - Thursday: 9:30 a.m. - 6:00 p.m.

Fridays: 9:30 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.

 

Park Street Library @ the Lyric

603 Park Street

860-695-7500

Monday - Thursday: 9:30 a.m. - 6:00 p.m.

Fridays: 9:30 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.

Saturdays: 9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.

 

Ropkins Library

1750 Main Street

860-695-7520

Monday - Thursday: 10:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m
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Mary Donegan @drdonegan.bsky.social · 22/06/2025
Really did not think I would have to join Round 3 of "don't start a pointless, unprovoked war in the middle east" protests but here we are. Every damn Republican president I've lived through, since Bush 1, has done this. We're 3 for 3 since 1988.
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Mary Donegan @drdonegan.bsky.social · 17/06/2025
I don't recall that being in the action plan, and a quick search yielded nothing for high vis, high-vis, arm bands, or clothing. Perhaps it's there under another term. But I believe handing out high vis reflects the town ignoring its own action plan.
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Mary Donegan @drdonegan.bsky.social · 17/06/2025
Below is the High Injury Network from the West Hartford Vision Zero Action Plan. Both pedestrians killed in recent weeks were on this network. A plan is only as good as the level and pace of action (and funding) dedicated to it. The plan is a good one, IMO -- the town just isn't doing enough.
Map of West Hartford. Blue lines of the High Injury Network overlay many streets in town, including the two sites of recent deaths on South Main Street.
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