Sign in

Emily Badger

@emmbadger.bsky.social
3.3K followers 715 following 206 posts

New York Times journalist covering cities and urban policy for The Upshot. emily.badger@nytimes.com, ebadger.21 on Signal

PostsRepliesMedia
Emily Badger @emmbadger.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
The program, Capital Investment Grants, illustrates a subtler tactic in how the Trump administration is managing federal funds: not just terminating grants, as it did in droves last year, but quietly declining to give out new ones.
0145
Emily Badger @emmbadger.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
The Trump administration is sitting on more than $7 billion meant for big transit construction projects around the country: www.nytimes.com/2026/07/27/u...
nytimes.com
Congress Budgeted Billions for Big Transit Projects. Trump Isn’t Spending It. (Gift Article)
“It’s hard to look at the last year and see anything other than a deliberate slowdown of these grants.”
1221378
Emily Badger @emmbadger.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
On the strange direction where this is headed next, and the NCPC meeting today: www.nytimes.com/2026/07/09/u...
nytimes.com
Can Trump’s Arch Be So Tall? A Panel May Redefine a Law to Get to Yes.
062
Emily Badger @emmbadger.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
NCPC staff says the Height of Buildings Act *does* apply to Trump's arch -- but that he can still build it to 250 feet. He just has to make the arch itself shorter and the statue 40 feet taller...
393
Emily Badger @emmbadger.bsky.social · 16/06/2026
I just loved working on this, and learning new things about D.C. as a resident: www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
nytimes.com
Washington Has Been Carefully Planned for Two Centuries. Now Trump Has His Own Designs. (Gift Article)
The city is unlike any in America for its accumulation of intricate details, a whole that is a work of civic art.
2307
Emily Badger @emmbadger.bsky.social · 16/06/2026
Washington is full of these incredibly thoughtful details -- it's part of what makes the capital unlike any other city in America.
1244
Emily Badger @emmbadger.bsky.social · 16/06/2026
Or did you ever notice that Maya Lin's Vietnam Veterans Memorial was designed to point directly at the Washington and Lincoln monuments?
1130
Emily Badger @emmbadger.bsky.social · 16/06/2026
Did you all realize that the National Mall is slightly crooked compared to the rest of D.C.'s L'Enfant street grid? The McMillan Commission did that!
2164
Emily Badger @emmbadger.bsky.social · 16/06/2026
Careful planning is Washington’s whole thing: symbolic sightlines; monuments that speak to one another; columns, rooflines and axes aligned just so. The whole city is supposed to be a work of civic art. Trump’s projects test this 235-year-old idea: www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
nytimes.com
Washington Has Been Carefully Planned for Two Centuries. Now Trump Has His Own Designs. (Gift Article)
The city is unlike any in America for its accumulation of intricate details, a whole that is a work of civic art.
914053
Emily Badger @emmbadger.bsky.social · 20/05/2026
Tomorrow the Commission of Fine Arts will take another look at Trump's proposed arch, including renderings of it viewed from around the area. Here is its winged statue, peeping over the trees from the National Mall.
011
Emily Badger @emmbadger.bsky.social · 10/04/2026
More detailed renderings now available for Trump's proposed arch: www.cfa.gov/system/files...
658
Emily Badger @emmbadger.bsky.social · 02/04/2026
"'Pay no attention to the man in the corner’ is a little difficult to me when the man in the corner who is tweeting is the president," Chutkan says.
0100
Emily Badger @emmbadger.bsky.social · 02/04/2026
The East Wing demolition is now making it difficult for the government to argue in the Arch lawsuit that no injunction is needed because construction isn't imminent. Judge Chutkan just doesn’t believe it, when the president himself has said he wants the arch by July 4th.
49331
Emily Badger @emmbadger.bsky.social · 02/04/2026
Catching up on this thorough and thoughtful @philipkennicott.bsky.social piece on Trump's designs on the capital, until now a city of simple symmetry and unfussy architecture: www.washingtonpost.com/style/2026/0...
washingtonpost.com
Column | Trump is the biggest threat to D.C.’s architectural splendor since War of 1812
President Trump’s garish, piecemeal changes to Washington’s urban design and architecture are poised to destroy symbolism upheld for centuries.
061
Emily Badger @emmbadger.bsky.social · 02/04/2026
Great WaPo story here ahead of the meeting about how the White House got NCPC to water down a description of its own authority over the project: www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...
washingtonpost.com
Ballroom commission changed documents at White House’s request
Records show a staffer asked the commission to soften language about its own authority over the president’s project — and it complied.
022
Emily Badger @emmbadger.bsky.social · 02/04/2026
The National Capital Planning Commission is scheduled to vote today to approve the president's ballroom. As of March, this is where the project stood. By this afternoon, it will jump to the "final" step. (NCPC is no longer showing this tracker on their website tho.)
262
Emily Badger @emmbadger.bsky.social · 01/04/2026
NCPC has posted an addendum to the ballroom plans incorporating the removed stairs as the president showed Sunday night. No new renderings, detailed plans, dimensions, landscape. Just the images Trump showed. www.ncpc.gov/files/projec...
152
Emily Badger @emmbadger.bsky.social · 31/03/2026
NCPC says they're still voting on the ballroom on Thursday, despite this ruling. Unclear tho, what plans they're voting on -- the ones they saw earlier this month, or the changed ones the president revealed on Air Force One on Sunday.
030
Emily Badger @emmbadger.bsky.social · 31/03/2026
Federal judge rules construction must stop on the president's ballroom until Congress authorizes it: storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
511824
Emily Badger @emmbadger.bsky.social · 22/03/2026
We’re reading @birdyword.bsky.social fascinating “The Land Trap” for the next Reading The City book club at Solid State in DC, on April 1. If you’re one of those people who is *always* trying to talk about Henry George, this month's book is for you!
062
Emily Badger @emmbadger.bsky.social · 11/03/2026
Good @heatherknightsf.bsky.social and Soumya Karlamangla story about the dire situation for BART in SF: www.nytimes.com/2026/03/10/u...
nytimes.com
The Bay Area Considers the Unthinkable: Life Without BART
094
Emily Badger @emmbadger.bsky.social · 06/03/2026
Great @jonathanmahler.bsky.social story on the new politics of housing in the Mamdani era: www.nytimes.com/2026/03/06/m...
152
Emily Badger @emmbadger.bsky.social · 06/03/2026
The Upshot is hiring a data graphics/multimedia editor. Come work with us and make weird things that help people understand the world! job-boards.greenhouse.io/thenewyorkti...
02621
Emily Badger @emmbadger.bsky.social · 05/03/2026
You can explore the full model here: www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
nytimes.com
Trump’s East Wing Ballroom Plan: See the Design
See how much his East Wing ballroom design will upend the White House symmetry.
271
Emily Badger @emmbadger.bsky.social · 05/03/2026
The administration is also planning to alter the elliptical driveway south of the White House to fit its plans.
230
Emily Badger @emmbadger.bsky.social · 05/03/2026
This 3D model by the NYT of the proposed East Wing ballroom really makes clear how out of scale it is with the rest of the complex...
142
Emily Badger @emmbadger.bsky.social · 04/03/2026
We've been tracking nearly 200 lawsuits against the Trump administration over its attempts to leverage federal funding to impose the president's agenda. The most startling pattern: The administration seems entirely undeterred when it loses in court. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
nytimes.com
Trump Has Been Sued 198 Times for Withholding Funding. It Hasn’t Stopped Him. (Gift Article)
Immigration demands for highway dollars, D.E.I. rules for homeless grants: how Trump has tried to wield spending to get his way.
20595290
Emily Badger @emmbadger.bsky.social · 03/03/2026
A reminder that one year in, congestion pricing has clearly been a successful policy: www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
nytimes.com
27 Million Fewer Car Trips: Life After a Year of Congestion Pricing
How life has changed in the New York area, according to data on traffic, transit and the responses of 600 readers.
29920
Emily Badger @emmbadger.bsky.social · 03/03/2026
A federal judge finally ruled today that the Trump administration acted illegally in trying to shut down New York's congestion pricing program, via @stefanoschen.bsky.social + Winnie Hu www.nytimes.com/2026/03/03/n...
nytimes.com
Congestion Pricing Wins in Court After Lengthy Battle With Trump
29214
Emily Badger @emmbadger.bsky.social · 28/01/2026
Great @natecohn.bsky.social piece on what "affordability" really means to people in this moment, drawing on our most recent polling: www.nytimes.com/2026/01/28/u...
35717
Emily Badger @emmbadger.bsky.social · 22/01/2026
"The second Trump coalition has unraveled." via @natecohn.bsky.social www.nytimes.com/2026/01/22/u...
3309
Emily Badger @emmbadger.bsky.social · 21/01/2026
Many months later, the Social Security Administration acknowledged in court that DOGE employees at the agency shared sensitive data in violation of security policies last spring, just as critics and privacy advocates feared at the time: www.nytimes.com/2026/01/20/u...
nytimes.com
DOGE Employees Shared Social Security Data, Court Filing Shows
11611
Emily Badger @emmbadger.bsky.social · 16/01/2026
Latest NYT analysis of video footage from the Renee Good shooting capture Ross firing the 2nd and 3rd shots at her after his body is visibly clear of the path of her vehicle. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/15/v...
49846
Emily Badger @emmbadger.bsky.social · 14/01/2026
Long before construction jobs became dominated by immigrant workers, the appeal of those jobs for American workers began to collapse. Only *then* did immigrants start to fill them. From a *great* story by @rondakaysen.bsky.social + Rob Gebeloff: www.nytimes.com/2026/01/14/u...
0229
Emily Badger @emmbadger.bsky.social · 12/01/2026
“He’s tended to turn the other cheek, and he’s reached a moment where he can’t.” www.nytimes.com/2026/01/12/b...
nytimes.com
Fed Changes Course and Takes On Trump’s Political Fight
030
Emily Badger @emmbadger.bsky.social · 09/01/2026
A long-awaited update of federal employment data shows crippling staff reductions in some federal agencies and offices: www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
nytimes.com
220,000 Fewer Workers: How Trump’s Cuts Affected Every Federal Agency (Gift Article)
New data offers the first clear view of the impact of the buyouts and firings.
10199112
Emily Badger @emmbadger.bsky.social · 08/01/2026
The Times' Visual Investigations team is the best at trying to find clarity when clarity is hard to come by. Their view on the Minneapolis shooting yesterday: www.nytimes.com/video/us/100...
nytimes.com
Video: Videos Contradict Trump Administration Account of ICE Shooting in Minneapolis
An analysis of footage from three camera angles show that the vehicle appears to be turning away from a federal officer as he opened fire.
040
Emily Badger @emmbadger.bsky.social · 05/01/2026
Thank you!
010
Emily Badger @emmbadger.bsky.social · 05/01/2026
On balance, though, the MTA and Gov. Hochul have to be happy with the results of congestion pricing so far. They toll even raised more than they expected in its first year, about $550 million.
0161
Emily Badger @emmbadger.bsky.social · 05/01/2026
Some people described a real sadness at forgoing car trips they felt they couldn’t replace with transit.
190
Emily Badger @emmbadger.bsky.social · 05/01/2026
We also asked readers to tell us about their experiences with congestion pricing. Many described quieter, less stressful streets.
1619
Emily Badger @emmbadger.bsky.social · 05/01/2026
The resulting small improvements in speed aren’t necessarily visible to many people. But if you cross one of the chokepoints into Manhattan, you can likely see real change.
2325
Emily Badger @emmbadger.bsky.social · 05/01/2026
Pretty consistently, the toll has deterred about 11 percent of vehicle trips we might have otherwise expected to see in Manhattan’s central business district. That amounts to some real breathing room on roads.
1232
Emily Badger @emmbadger.bsky.social · 05/01/2026
We heard from many people who believed the benefits of the toll had tailed off since the spring. And we thought we might see that, too. But the number of car trips the toll has deterred has been remarkably stable.
1222
Emily Badger @emmbadger.bsky.social · 05/01/2026
That and other evidence from the policy, which is one year old today, in a big collab between @upshot.nytimes.com and the NYT Metro desk: www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
nytimes.com
Congestion pricing after one year: How life has changed. (Gift Article)
How life has changed in the New York area, according to data on traffic, transit and the responses of 600 readers.
13312
Emily Badger @emmbadger.bsky.social · 05/01/2026
My favorite evidence that congestion pricing in New York has reshaped peoples’ behavior: we can see a surge of people trying to enter the zone before the price kicks up at 5 a.m., and after it decreases at 9 p.m.
530553
Emily Badger @emmbadger.bsky.social · 30/12/2025
Love these little @aliciaparlap.bsky.social graphics that illustrate the absurdist ways DOGE claimed it saved money, at the end of a year of trying to chase their accounting. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/23/u...
1144
Emily Badger @emmbadger.bsky.social · 04/12/2025
Remarkably few of the immigrants arrested in big-city ICE operations have had violent criminal records, via Albert Sun: www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
33013
Emily Badger @emmbadger.bsky.social · 21/11/2025
NYT tracker here: www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
nytimes.com
President Trump’s Approval Rating: Latest Polls
Track the latest approval rating and polls on Americans’ approval of President Trump.
000
Emily Badger @emmbadger.bsky.social · 21/11/2025
May need a taller chart soon.
392