iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Also, and this really should be obvious, but bringing more middle and upper middle class renters into your coalition (as opposed to treating them like the enemy, as in CA chapters) is beneficial for getting more tenants rights. A broad constituency builds power!

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That’s because the median California voter unfortunately likes freeway widenings, at least in the abstract. They don’t want one in their neighborhood, but they would support widening a freeway through someone else’s neighborhood if it’s along their commute route.

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So I would like to see DSA embrace the inverse strategy of pursuing renter majorities.

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20th-century America policymakers explicitly stated that achieving and maintaining widespread homeowner majorities would ensure that no left wing movement could ever gain momentum, so they spent decades pushing policies to make homeownership easier (especially for white people).

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Yeah I think gender is the bigger factor. Similar issue with the Teamsters as compared to a union with significantly more women like SEIU.

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For instance, I think having more places with a renter-majority population will make it more likely that we can do things like increase property taxes to fund public services and increase state capacity.

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I think building more urban rental housing is good for a myriad of reasons, but one political reason in particular is that building more rental units means increasing the population share of renters and therefore the support for left policies.

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Urban renters, of all incomes, are the core of support for DSA and left policies. And in NYC, most renters see themselves as long-term tenants.

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California chapters also tend to use "tenant" to mean specifically low-income renters, and are sometimes even defining it to be inclusive of low-income homeowners. Doing so ignores the fact that renters of all incomes share class interests that are in tension with homeowners of all incomes.

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I think what makes California DSA chapters suck ass is that so many of the members think of themselves not as tenants but as temporarily embarrassed homeowners (and many probably stand to inherit their parents' Prop 13-subsidized homes if they haven't already).

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Meanwhile, Mamdani's DSA director of tenant protections:

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Kirsten Bladh @kerstanley.bsky.social · 12h

LIRR is 60% white, MTA is just 19% white. Both overwhelmingly men, though. Even for administrative/professional positions.

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But most likely this is just local culture war bullshit. People they don't like want to keep the park, so they don't want to support keeping the park but they're trying to come up with a more ideological justification.

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Kirsten Bladh @kerstanley.bsky.social · 12h

They seem to think all of the externalities of car dominance/dependency are not inherent qualities but rather the result of private ownership of car companies and transit not being free. That's my best and most generous guess.

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Kirsten Bladh @kerstanley.bsky.social · 13h

Yeah I suspect the place that support is collapsing for the GOP in Ohio is somewhere like Warren County (suburb of Cincinnati), where McMansion sprawl has brought in a highly educated and more diverse population.

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Kirsten Bladh @kerstanley.bsky.social · 13h

What does decommidified transit even mean, particularly in this context? Are they saying it’s unjust to take away space from cars until we seize General Motors?

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Should specify I mean housing production growth, not home price/rent growth.

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Yeah last I checked, the Albany suburbs had the highest growth rate in the state (excluding the high % growth of Adirondack counties due to vacation mansions). Unfortunately, it’s almost all sprawl in Saratoga County.

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Lloyd Alter @lloydalter.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

Planners in Buffalo have told me that much of their growth is from immigrants who initially moved to NYC but couldn't afford to stay there. So the worsening shortage in the NYC metro is now causing upward price pressure statewide.

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Reposted by Kirsten Bladh

I have often complained that “The big fridge, the big car, and the big grocery store are all part of one economic machine; in a sense, you cannot have one without the other two.” Now people are installing special "costco doors" to make it easier to move stuff from car to fridge.

lloydalter.substack.com

Jargon Watch: “Costco Doors” for connecting your SUV to your monster fridge

The big fridge, the big car, and the big grocery store are all part of one economic machine. The Costco Door is another cog.

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Log into BlueSky. See that my former therapist’s office is the subject of a new conspiracy theory about James Talarico. Log off.

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Women gaining money doesn’t just gain them more economic security. It often also gains them more autonomy, maybe a more fulfilling career path, more vacations. Having a child is likely going to decrease at least one of those things (unless you’re rich enough to afford round-the-clock childcare).

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A bit more tangential, but I see the limited definition of material conditions surface when (mostly) men say that women would have more babies if they had more money. Because I think the more education, autonomy, and money a woman has, the more she has to lose by having children.

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But you also see this with rural white Trump voters, the quintessential “voting against their own interest” example. They want immigrants, minorities, and urbanites to be worse off than themselves. Relative economic and political status is what’s important, and that is how they vote.

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You can see this with the billionaires and business owners who hated the Biden economy in spite of record profits because the low unemployment rate gave workers more leverage compared to the prior years.

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Sarah Taber @sarahtaber.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

I think this tendency, at least on the left, comes from a very limited definition of material conditions and/or a failure to consider that some groups have a greater interest in their relative material conditions than their absolute conditions.

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Reposted by Kirsten Bladh

Tired: These Fools Are Voting Against Their Own Interests! Wired: Or maybe, just maybe, the idea that anyone "acts against their own interests" comes from a flawed & naive view of what people's interests actually are ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

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Reposted by Kirsten Bladh

Katherine Alejandra Cross @quinnae.com · 11/10/2026

Me: *slams buzzer* What is a car dealership? Ken Jennings: Yes! Bizarre little men. You're still in control of the board.

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Reposted by Kirsten Bladh

Max Kennerly @maxkennerly.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

I'm convinced Newsom isn't running for President at all. Sure, he might have a committee and use it as a slush fund, but he's running to be appointed to corporate boards and fake think tanks and stuff. Just too many examples of him going out of his way to show he's not aligned with the Dem base.

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Kirsten Bladh @kerstanley.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

Can you elaborate on #2? Do you mean like, social consequences?

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Reposted by Kirsten Bladh

Yonah Freemark @yonahfreemark.com · 09/10/2026

What's the status of transit projects awaiting federal funds? I built a tracker: www.thetransportpolitic.com/openlines/fe... There are 20 transit projects that should have been funded by the Trump administration by now... but are waiting. For each project, you can see delays & cost increases ⏬

Project cost increases and delays for the Veirs Mill Road BRT project in Montgomery County, Maryland.

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Reposted by Kirsten Bladh

dereksagehorn.bsky.social @dereksagehorn.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Center Right tech CEOs trying to understand transit costs: Imagine a burger restaurant

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Median voter / state legislator: What I’m hearing is we need to cap the price of parking garages.

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More complicated than a definition of materialism that is limited to amount of cash on hand.

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I didn’t realize this particular nimby conspiracy made it to the west coast, but I’m sure Hydee is in a dozen or so nimby group chats that share shit like this all the time.

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I think they’re mad that the boulder makes it impossible to park at the corner (and likely block a crosswalk).

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Ned Resnikoff @resnikoff.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

I doubt this person thinks of themselves as right wing. Which is why they need to frame bike lanes as something pushed by PE, rather than left-leaning street safety activists. It allows him to justify his opposition.

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Reposted by Kirsten Bladh

Tacit alliance of convenience between socialist politicians and productive capital against their mutual enemy, rentier capital, is starting to bear fruit therealdeal.com/new-york/202...

therealdeal.com

Building for the “Commie Corridor”: the projects and players in the territory of NYC’s most left-leaning politicians

Progressive bloc of Brooklyn, Queens still home to major projects as socialist politicians play ball with developers

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Mentally preparing myself for a Nextdoor post blaming AI/data centers for bike lanes.

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This is an all-timer for “Private equity is anything I don’t like” type glonzoism.

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“Corporate Dem” is very 1999/WTO-coded. Morello’s politics are stuck in that era.

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