iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Mavrick @mavrickfitz.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

Sharing this in case anyone is interested: Over the past 5 months I've been using Claude Code to develop a project that scrapes campaign finance filings from scanned pdfs (for Memphis) and excel files (TN state) and turns them into useable, searchable websites. whofundsmemphis.org whofundstn.org

whofundsmemphis.org

Who Funds Memphis

Campaign finance disclosures for every candidate in the 2026 Shelby County election — every dollar, every donor, searchable and free.

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Mavrick @mavrickfitz.bsky.social · 26/06/2026

This would have happened without Trump. The Census Bureau has a dual mandate to publish useful data while preserving privacy. Over the last decade, they've chosen to solve this by increasingly disregarding the "publish useful data" half of the mandate for small geographies.

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Mavrick @mavrickfitz.bsky.social · 29/08/2025

Going through stages of shock and bewilderment learning that in the UK, "Build to Rent" apartment buildings are apparently a controversial new 21st century development????

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Mavrick @mavrickfitz.bsky.social · 05/06/2025

Post the craziest argument against building more housing that you've ever seen. I'll go first.

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Mavrick @mavrickfitz.bsky.social · 25/04/2025

This is of a piece with RFK Jr wrecking HHS. Complete abandonment of data expertise in favor of vibes, leading to decisions we know are going to kill people.

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Mavrick @mavrickfitz.bsky.social · 25/04/2025

Glad to see vehicular cyclists are having a normal one.

A Facebook comment which reads: Real cyclists, INCLUDING the ones of us who would like to see the creation of more uses for junk tires, DON'T WANT segregationist crap such as "bike lanes". Even breathing the soot from SIMPLY BURNING the tires would KILL FEWER CYCLISTS.

A second facebook comment from the same person which reads: Yes. All vehicular roads are, by definition, of adequate width for cycling. You'll be forced to learn this after we report your beloved DEI-for-cyclists crap to DOGE for defunding.

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Mavrick @mavrickfitz.bsky.social · 24/04/2025

Planning folks, please consider donating (if you're able) to this GoFundMe for the medical bills of a student in the first year of her Urban Planning grad program who was seriously injured in the mass shooting at Florida State. gofund.me/1ca8559c

gofund.me

Donate to Support Madison Askin's Healing Journey, organized by Dennis Smith

On Thursday, April 17, there was a mass shooting incident at Florida State Univer… Dennis Smith needs your support for Support Madison Askin's Healing Journey

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John Leavitt @leavittalone.bsky.social · 16/03/2025

Always funny how big companies aren’t really in the industry they’re supposed to be , McDonalds is a real estate company, GE is mostly insurance, Amazon is a cloud compute company that outsources delivery to the USPS, Volkswagen sold more sausages then cars last year etc

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Mavrick @mavrickfitz.bsky.social · 14/03/2025

This is pretty awesome as a way to get temporarily rural bridge replacements on the ground as fast as possible.

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Mavrick @mavrickfitz.bsky.social · 01/03/2025

Over/under on Trump selling Taiwan for 100 leased pandas and the rights to build Trump Tower Hong Kong?

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Kathleen Romig @kathleenromig.bsky.social · 26/02/2025

I worked with US Digital Service at SSA. They were gems & we were all lucky to have them. They spearheaded SSA's award-winning website redesign. They were working to get simplified applications online for Social Security survivors & SSI. They were *actually* making gov more efficient.

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Mavrick @mavrickfitz.bsky.social · 24/02/2025

Does anyone know where the belief that third places are "supposed" to be free/non-commercial came from? I keep seeing this on social media whenever coffeeshops, pubs, or breweries are brought up as places for in-person community.

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Alfred Twu @alfredtwu.com · 20/02/2025

In many ways it's fitting that the showdown between monarchy and democracy ends up being over NYC congestion pricing. Cities are where the power of kings were first challenged, and few things are more fundamental to government than control of public space. The cameras are staying on!

A cartoon with a sign that looks like a classic NYC no parking sign but is modified to say "No King Any Time", above a cartoon showing a cybertruck with a crown on it running over speed bumps and sawhorse barricades labeled Congress, Executive Branch, and Courts. It is stopped in front of bollards with a Congestion Pricing sign above it. In the background on the left is the Washington DC skyline with tire tracks coming out of a building. On the right behind the congestion pricing sign are the Statue of Liberty in front of the Jersey City skyline, an NYC walkup apartment with a bodega, people on bikes and walking, the Manhattan skyline, a subway train, and a bus in a bus only lane, and Pizza Rat.

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Kea Wilson @keawilson.bsky.social · 14/02/2025

🚨: This got super buried in all the memos that followed Sean Duffy's confirmation, but on February 18th, USDOT is going to recommend that Congress rescind funding for anything the administration deems too "woke." Read: probably everything you care about. And it's time to call your reps.🧵

usa.streetsblog.org

Sec. Duffy Moves to Rescind Billions for 'Woke' Transportation on Feb. 18 — So Advocates Must Speak Up Now — Streetsblog USA

The U.S. Transportation Secretary has promised to call on Congress to slash vast funding for climate and DEIA.

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Kate Lowe (she/hers) @kateontransport.bsky.social · 13/02/2025

This starter pack (from @aninehartmann.bsky.social & @cathytuttle.bsky.social) includes women and non-binary people bsky.app/starter-pack... This starter pack (from @chanface.bsky.social) includes a mix of gender and racial identities bsky.app/starter-pack...

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Tony Dunn @tony873004.bsky.social · 10/02/2025

Here are 70 clones of #asteroid 2024 YR4 that do hit Earth, highlighting the impact risk corridor. There are some big cities along that line: #Bogota, #Lagos, #Mumbai.

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William B. Fuckley @opinionhaver.bsky.social · 11/02/2025

This is sort of the skeleton key to understanding a lot of shit: there 100% is a non-trivial amount of inefficiency and waste in the federal bureaucracy, and most of it is a *direct result* of ‘reforms’ that are meant to assuage the people who complain about “waste and inefficiency in govt”

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M. Nolan Gray 🥑 @mnolangray.bsky.social · 10/02/2025

This amount of state capacity is unthinkable in Los Angeles.

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Mavrick @mavrickfitz.bsky.social · 05/02/2025

Love this. Also, I didn't know until recently that these photos of cuneiform tablets are practically life-size, with most tablets being smaller than the palm of your hand and packed with tiny writing.

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Mavrick @mavrickfitz.bsky.social · 04/02/2025

They're literally keyword searching research proposals for terms as broad as "female", "disability" or "systemic" and tossing them. I honestly don't have any words.

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Mavrick @mavrickfitz.bsky.social · 03/02/2025

The Daily Memphian today is full of just the most *shocking* news that no one could have predicted.

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Mavrick @mavrickfitz.bsky.social · 02/02/2025

Reading @mnolangray.bsky.social's Arbitrary Lines has radicalized me. Not on zoning per se, but against endnotes with comments at the back of book. Stop making me flip between sections! Legalize footnotes!

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Mike Dickison @adzebill.bsky.social · 01/02/2025

The Internet Archive has to date downloaded 500 terabytes of US government websites, which it crawls at the end of every presidential term. The whole archive is fully searchable. This effort's housed by a donation-funded nonprofit, not a branch of the US government. blog.archive.org/2024/05/08/e...

blog.archive.org

End of Term Web Archive – Preserving the Transition of a Nation | Internet Archive Blogs

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Mavrick @mavrickfitz.bsky.social · 31/01/2025

You, a midwit: Utah is going to have the smoothest roads in the country! Me, a genius: Virginia, which has no waiting period for marriage or divorce, can use a few volunteers to achieve a near-infinite marriage rate and pave the streets with gold.

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Jeremy Yoder says no war @jbyoder.org · 28/01/2025

Here's your topic for calls to Senators now that the freeze is forestalled

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joffre.bsky.social @joffre.bsky.social · 28/01/2025

The memo reads for all the world like whoever drafted it thought that "including, but not limited to" is just a cute rhetorical flourish. I think he thought he was turning off "federal spending on the woke stuff", but he wrote "turn off all spending, including but not limited to the woke stuff."

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Mavrick @mavrickfitz.bsky.social · 18/01/2025

I will not be lectured on SMART goals and KPIs by a fortune cookie.

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Mavrick @mavrickfitz.bsky.social · 15/01/2025

Never change, Memphis. Never change.

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Alex Pemberton @yellowbrickurban.com · 12/01/2025

I remain stunned at the level of commitment the Nashville Metropolitan Historic Zoning Commission maintains to whitewash the history of the neighborhoods under its public covenants. Its neighborhood histories often reference all restrictive covenants *except* the ones that barred Black occupancy.

Excerpt from "A Short History of Richland-West End" in the design guidelines for the Neighborhood Conservation Zoning Overlay which covers the Richland-West End neighborhood in Nashville. The history references "protective covenants" applied by the subdivider, the Bransford Realty Company—but with a critical omission, detailed in the next image.

The restrictive covenants referenced in "A Short History of Richland-West End" also included the following clause:

5. That neither the premises nor any part thereof shall be sold, aliened, conveyed or devised to any person or persons of African blood or descent, and that no person or persons of African blood or descent shall own or acquire title thereto, either in fee or otherwise, or as tenants or lessees, but this covenant does not preclude or prohibit persons of African blood or descent from living on the premises in the capacity of servants.

As the MHZC overlay literature references verbatim other restrictions—such as the preceding clause, that "no swine shall be kept on the premises"—the omission of the racial restriction is illuminating.

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mtsw @mtsw.bsky.social · 10/01/2025

the number of units lost in the fire is likely equivalent to like an entire year's housing production in the city of Los Angeles, almost all at the very high end of the market

chart of housing production in the city of LA showing around 10-15000 new units produced per year

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Mavrick @mavrickfitz.bsky.social · 08/01/2025

Only southerners can survive driving in the lawless pandemonium caused by southerners attempting to drive in a single inch of snow.

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Eric Allix Rogers @ericallixrogers.com · 04/01/2025

I was too busy having the flu to post any of the photos on the one good bike ride I managed to take in Memphis, so here are a few!

Derelict sign for Metro Shopping Plaza in an empty parking lot. It also says "Think GOD!"

Looking over a large expanse of water under a blue sky towards a double arched bridge with a pyramid and other buildings visible on land on the other side.

Looking dramatically up the side of a tall Gothic skyscraper, with shorter wings to the left and right, and a taller Central section. The ground floor windows are boarded up.

Grass in the foreground, overgrown, and a large industrial structure in the middle distance, with roofs sloping downward on either side of the tall Central section.

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Sandy Johnston @sandypsj.bsky.social · 27/12/2024

God knows transit agencies are frequently guilty of dragging their feet on change they are suspicious of, but I don't feel like electrification issues are an example of that. People *want* it to work--and there are real benefits. But the tech just isn't mature, and service matters most, by far.

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The Mall Krampus @themallkrampus.bsky.social · 24/12/2024

The main character spends a great deal of time in the ventilation system (read: industrial age chimney) and judges who among the building’s inhabitants is naughty and who is nice, delivering judgment to the naughty

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Mavrick @mavrickfitz.bsky.social · 24/12/2024

The fact that the Art of War is a beloved bestseller among modern business leaders indicate how little has changed in the last 2500 years

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Wedge LIVE!™ @wedge.live · 02/12/2024

MnDOT analysis shows that I-94 expansion is better for bikes and pedestrians ("meets purpose and need") than replacing with an at-grade boulevard option. Proving that there's nothing that a larger urban freeway can't solve. Or their analysis is cooked.

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Mavrick @mavrickfitz.bsky.social · 18/12/2024

If you're getting a lot of spam calls, it's worth double-checking that you're on the Do Not Call Registry. Took me like 3 minutes to check, learn that I was not, and sign up. www.donotcall.gov

donotcall.gov

National Do Not Call Registry

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Robert Cruickshank @robertcruickshank.com · 15/12/2024

Yep. The entire coastal plain of Southern California could look like Barcelona with beautiful streets and 5-6 story apartment buildings (or higher). But instead it’s just ugly ‘50s sprawl of cheaply built homes and strip malls. And because nothing else was allowed there, those homes are worth $1M.

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Benjamin A. Engel @benjaminaengel.bsky.social · 06/12/2024

This is really interesting so I’ll do a thread translating-summarizing it. 1/

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Mavrick @mavrickfitz.bsky.social · 05/12/2024

The worst thing that can happen to a microtransit service is that it succeeds and becomes popular.

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Mavrick @mavrickfitz.bsky.social · 02/12/2024

This is the worst thing I've read all year.

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Mavrick @mavrickfitz.bsky.social · 02/12/2024

While he's at it, there are a few downtown Interstate widening that Biden could pull permission from, for a final climate change win.

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Elle @biknmusicmama.bsky.social · 28/11/2024

Everyone following the women on bikes starter pack? go.bsky.app/FvouhGQ Thankful for women, bicycles and route planning designed around trip chaining today!!

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