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Liora Halperin

@lioracle.bsky.social
2.4K followers 4.7K following 2K posts

History Prof. (Israel/Palestine, Jewish history, Middle East), urbanist, map-lover, punster, ebike and public library enthusiast. Seattle, WA

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Liora Halperin @lioracle.bsky.social · 13m
I love golf as much as the next person (ie not at all) but Jackson Park, or at least a part of it, needs to be redeveloped with neighborhoods, commerce, and dense housing.
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Liora Halperin @lioracle.bsky.social · 1h
Welcome Pinehurst station, and welcome residents of Haller Lake and Lake City to the joys of biking to a Link station and taking the train
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Liora Halperin @lioracle.bsky.social · 16h
As a person who hates putting on sunscreen, I welcome the return to UV index of 0-1 in Seattle
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Liora Halperin @lioracle.bsky.social · 17h
Welp, 12000 miles in this (cheap, replaceable) part of my e-bike charger has given up the ghost.
Severed Black charging cable shown attached to charger
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Liora Halperin @lioracle.bsky.social · 18h
RapidRide J stop starting to take shape in the U-District (Roosevelt/41st) @seattletru.bsky.social @seattletransitblog.com
Red bus stop erected amidst orange and white construction barriers
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Liora Halperin @lioracle.bsky.social · 21h
Fun fact from Alaska Airlines, expanding into more long haul routes from Seattle: SEA is closer than Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) or San Francisco International Airport (SFO) to 90% of the world's population news.alaskaair.com/wp-content/u...
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Liora Halperin @lioracle.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
I’m an evangelist for e-bikes and public libraries. Like I kind of literally believe that people can find salvation and peace by discovering and using these things and want to spread the good word. What are you an evangelist for?
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Liora Halperin @lioracle.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Why are library books the best? The plastic-covered, taped jacket creates a perfect pocket to store a bookmark while reading (works best with a stiff/hard bookmark with a string/cord attached) #booksky @spl.org
Close up of green and black back cover of book showing library tape holding the jacket on and brown bookmark with brown cord tucked inside
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Liora Halperin @lioracle.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
The fruit gems affair has American Jews debating the meaning of being a Sunkist, and whether it’s something anyone should feel proud about. What really is Sunkism?
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Liora Halperin @lioracle.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Whoever decided that ebook pagination need not even include the corresponding print pagination should burn for all eternity. Do the people who make these decisions not read books?
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Liora Halperin @lioracle.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Given that I am doing this anyway: is it officially allowed for a biker turning right from one protected bike lane to another to turn right on red in a place that has a “no turns on red” sign? Would there be any logic to me following the no-turns sign for cars at such an intersection?
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Liora Halperin @lioracle.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Nice fodder for Seattle boosters, if a bit baffling.
Seattle ranks fourth among global cities
The 2026 Oxford Economics Global Cities
Index ranked Seattle fourth among the world's top cities.
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Liora Halperin @lioracle.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Thanks to the Seattle visiting Nurse Association for offering Covid and flu vaccines at elementary schools!
Sign reading “shots today!” With green arrow
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Liora Halperin @lioracle.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
My fwing (fall,winter,spring) wardrobe is about three times larger than my summer wardrobe (it being useful for 3/4 of the year) and bringing it back out in the fall feels like real abundance #seattle
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Liora Halperin @lioracle.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
The article focuses only on bus connections to the station and doesn’t mention how useful it can be for people who take their bike on the train (and those who might soon realize they can do it). The bike improvements along 130th and Roosevelt / 125 should really help.
seattletimes.com
Seattle gets a new light rail station, and then a long wait
Sound Transit built Pinehurst Station despite grim ridership projections. Will anything be done now to transform the neighborhood and attract passengers?
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Liora Halperin @lioracle.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Latest entry in NYT spelling bee hates the Levant
Effendi marked as not in word list
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Liora Halperin @lioracle.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Seattle has two seasons: summer and fwing (fall, winter,spring). It’s nearly fwing, with some last gasps of summer.
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Liora Halperin @lioracle.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Peak Picks is back at @spl.org after a LONG hiatus for system overhaul! #booksky
blog.spl.org
A Peek at Peak Picks – late September/October 2026
We’re back, with NINETEEN new Peak Picks coming your way over the next few weeks! In fiction, YA novelist Ríoghnach Robinson’s magnetic, undeniably clever debut for adults— perfect for fans o…
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Liora Halperin @lioracle.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Every fall I re-remember how much I like, even prefer, biking in the dark. Headlights on cars allow you to really see cars coming around corners in a way that isn’t possible in the daylight. @kellireef.bsky.social
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Liora Halperin @lioracle.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
@spl.org putting their Peak Picks program on hold during their system updates lately has led me to just browse the stacks for books (and look up reviews on @thestorygraph.com, my tracking app). Started with A, which is how I discovered Ayobami Adebayo’s beautiful novel Stay with Me. #booksky
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Liora Halperin @lioracle.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Read Damon Galgut’s The Promise and it’s one of my favorite books of the year. Family, land, religion, race, and loss in South Africa across the decades before and after the end of apartheid. #booksky @spl.org
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Liora Halperin @lioracle.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Excellent episode on organized crime among Pal. citizens of Israel on @972mag.com podcast.Hosted by Ghousoon Bisharat,w/Eilat Maoz. “Organized crime networks have penetrated almost every aspect of Palest. life in Israel,from local government to education,welfare, banking,and even waste collection”
972mag.com
PODCAST: The making of Israel's Palestinian mafias
Eilat Maoz breaks down how organized crime took over Arab communities — and why it reveals the contradictions of Israeli state power.
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Liora Halperin @lioracle.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Major pet peeve: bike racks installed next to walls, barriers, fixed trash cans or other things that mean bikes with front baskets, trikes, anything wide can’t make use of the spaces on the ends.
Bike rack with bike located between two concrete walls
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Liora Halperin @lioracle.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
How to do AI-aware teaching? Get yourself the print copy
Ad: “The Norton Guide to AI-Aware Teaching-Print copies available!”
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Liora Halperin @lioracle.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
There’s a new thing in the world (and I’m proud to be on its advisory council) www.theforumfcjt.org
theforumfcjt.org
The Forum for Critical Jewish Thought
The Forum generates compelling and creative Jewish thought to advance justice, equality, and solidarity. Public scholarship, webinars, and a law fellowship.
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Liora Halperin @lioracle.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
The estate includes “a garage that also functions as a ballroom.” Sounds awesome.
seattletimes.com
Hunts Point estate hits market as WA’s priciest residential listing. Peek inside
Áegis Living CEO Dwayne Clark listed the home shortly after announcing he would step down as CEO and move to Arizona.
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Liora Halperin @lioracle.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
In cities that have both bike and scooter share, why do so many people choose scooters? As a bike rider I find it baffling given how awkward scooters feel to ride (not to mention no basket to put stuff in). But the more options the merrier!
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Liora Halperin @lioracle.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Everyone’s getting on (no, driving) the (pedal powered, e-assisted) bandwagon
kuow.org
Seattle had record-breaking bike traffic over the summer. What’s behind the numbers?
More people than ever biked around Seattle this summer — and one cycling advocate says this could be just the beginning of a new normal in the city.
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Liora Halperin @lioracle.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Intersection of 5th Ave NE and Banner Way NE Seattle. Right now, it’s a complex, multi-lane four-way stop, which can be hard to navigate for people walking, biking, and driving. SDOT is proposing a new traffic signal and protected bike lanes at the intersection. www.seattle.gov/transportati...
Map of intersection showing locations of new signal and bike lanes
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Liora Halperin @lioracle.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
“The West Thomas Street Overpass needs a new name.” It’s elementary: Watso
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Liora Halperin @lioracle.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Seattle: NAZA is coming to SIFF uptown for a week starting Oct 9 and to Tasveer in Columbia City for 3 days Oct 9-11. SIFF link below, Tasveer here: filmcenter.tasveer.org/movie/naza-2...
siff.net
Calendar
A calendar of all current SIFF Cinema and Seattle International Film Festival film and events.
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Liora Halperin @lioracle.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
STOOP, as in small porch, comes directly from Dutch stoep. Originally brought to the Hudson Valley of New York by settlers from the Netherlands.
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Liora Halperin @lioracle.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Google AI search assumes I am driving everywhere. I am biking everywhere. It always gives me answers to questions I didn’t ask about parking, traffic. Even if I correct it, it goes back to default for the next search. How do I get a setting placed over Google to default to assuming I am on a bike?
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Liora Halperin @lioracle.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
There has got to be a way to improve this gap in bike infrastructure at a tricky intersection that is a node between bike routes. There’s an EB bike line on 50th that ends a block before intersection, with no obvious way to navigate the left turn onto bike lane on NB Grn Lk Wy. @seattlebikeblog.com
Map with red line drawn showing left turn from EB 50th to NB Green lake way
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Liora Halperin @lioracle.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Car, go. Bike!
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Liora Halperin @lioracle.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
This is great news and more counties/municipalities should do the same
kuow.org
New signs are coming for King County restaurants with labor violations
The next time you visit a restaurant you might see an extra placard from the health department. Health placards often indicate the business’s food safety rating, but the second sign will have a differ...
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Liora Halperin @lioracle.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Always gets me that you click the “more recent posts” button on blogs to see less recent posts
“More recent posts”
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Liora Halperin @lioracle.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
TIL that the original bollards were dock bollards, for tying up boats. They come in all sorts of shapes. Maybe we could start to have more fun with such things as part of bike infrastructure too
Various shapes of black dock bollards
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Liora Halperin @lioracle.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Haha, maybe pedestrianized it should remain
seattletimes.com
35 circles and 5 thick white lines are painted on this downtown street. It won’t come off
A block of Ninth Avenue can’t reopen until the colorful design is gone. The center has tried graffiti remover and pressure washers, but the work is ongoing.
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Liora Halperin @lioracle.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Spotted by a friend in Denver. Resurrected and selling real estate.
Real estate sign outside house. Realtor: Ghassan Kanafani
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Liora Halperin @lioracle.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Bike lane is the real LOVe (low occupancy vehicle) lane
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Liora Halperin @lioracle.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Outside the ymca, three people gathered around me to gawk at my ebike and ask questions. Yup, ebike not motorcycle! Yup, space for a kid and cargo capacity. 12,000+ miles on it in 4 years.
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Liora Halperin @lioracle.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
If ever there was a morning to indoctrinate kid (on back of cargo bike on the way to school) about why we are so lucky to be able to bike not drive... It was gridlock in every visible direction. But thanks to good bike lanes, and a few quick jaunts on sidewalk, we zipped right past.
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Liora Halperin @lioracle.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Our existence unfortunately does not prevent them from breaking rules and endangering everyone else. If only it did.
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Liora Halperin @lioracle.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Have opinions about Seattle’s bike and scooter share programs? Opine here
survey.alchemer.com
2026 Seattle Bike & Scooter Share Survey
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Liora Halperin @lioracle.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
I have to assume that Dave Matthews (who is from Seattle) wrote his song “Satellite” to ensure that all of us would instinctively sing the word “Seattlite” to the same catchy tune.
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Liora Halperin @lioracle.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Seattle is becoming a really good city for biking. Increasingly I find that for nearly any trip there is a low stress combination of protected bike lanes, paths, and neighborhood streets/greenways that can get me there. But there are some key missing/subpar links.
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Liora Halperin @lioracle.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
This dock was built for Jewish ritual (namely, tashlich)
Wood plank with star hex bolts in shape of six pointed star
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Liora Halperin @lioracle.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Parking costs might seem like the “convenience charge” of using a car. But, man, it’s so inconvenient. Long search for parking, long walk from parking, navigating confusing garages, getting stuck in traffic on the way out after big event. The free/cheap modes can and should be MORE convenient.
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Liora Halperin @lioracle.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Good timing to get to this surprise line in Colson Whitehead, Cool Machine: “The High Holidays usually found Zippo in synagogue smug and content, wracking his brain for something to atone for: Nada.”
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