iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Mike English @mocomikee.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

13/x the dog got up but the cat is still here and adorable as fuck under this blanket

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Mike English @mocomikee.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

7/x the cat and dog I’m watching are riveted

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Mike English @mocomikee.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

I, uh, think the animals I’m watching might be lonely

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Mike English @mocomikee.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

This responder to a similar post I made on Nextdoor is also a helpful case in point, fucking yikes

A reply on Nextdoor reading “Turning Montgomery county into a ghetto one neighborhood at a time. One big ass townhome development and urban sprawl for as far as the eye can see”

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Mike English @mocomikee.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

For the second time in a week I would like to express my thanks to a Republican candidate for office in Montgomery County for making clear that opposing zoning reform to allow more types of homes in traditionally single family neighborhoods is a conservative position, not a progressive one

A Facebook post from current District one and former County Executive candidate Reardon Sullivan reading “Recently the County Council approved Zoning Text amendment 25-2 which will allow developers to build multi-family housing in established single family neighborhoods by right.
This will mean more traffic and parking issues, growing pressure on local infrastructure and changes to established single family neighborhoods where many families have invested their futures.
I believe that growth must be responsible, transparent, and shaped by the people who live in the community.
I believe that the fabric of our neighborhoods are worth protecting and that the voices of the residents that have invested in their homes matter.
Let's bring common sense and accountability back to Montgomery County.”

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Mike English @mocomikee.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

I’ll say this about Ms. Wells, I appreciate her helping make clear that allowing only single family homes to be built is a conservative stance.

A screenshot from Esther Well’s website noting that we should “protect single family zoning by opposing “by-right” high density reasoning.

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Mike English @mocomikee.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Just had a telehealth call and this happened and as an Italian-American (last names are weird) I’ve never felt more attacked in my life

A prompt during a telehealth appointment telling me I can “Use hand gestures to send reactions during a video call. To turn on Reactions, open Control Center, tap Video Effects, then tap Reactions”

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Mike English @mocomikee.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

This is an exquisitely hilarious thing for Marc Elrich of all people to say. Link here www.thebanner.com/community/lo...

Quote reading

"Not everybody's as up-front dismissive as he is, I'Il just put it that way," Elrich said.

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Mike English @mocomikee.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

For the uninitiated this was his response to my question in a meeting like six years ago that was more or less “hey agreed on the affordable housing efforts but would you at least entertain the notion that zoning is part of this” and suffice to say his answer was no

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Mike English @mocomikee.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

Important announcement that the dog I’m watching is a very active “let me adjust this blanket with my nose” dog and my weighted blanket has been a puzzle to her. She’s like “wtf this usually works better” and then I have to help

A curled up tan fur husky mix deeply exhausted after her trial getting this blanket to be just right

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Mike English @mocomikee.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

Taking a walk in the DTSS suburbs (the suburbs of course being DC)

Lukka the golden furred husky mix walking around Shepherd Park as party to my instigating

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Mike English @mocomikee.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

Leaving alone the fact this person is making a lot of assumptions about what I want here, once again I will emphasize that NIMBYism is a fundamentally conservative mindset, one focused on maintaining the status quo by definition, not a progressive one, as once again demonstrated here.

My Nextdoor post reading “Please read this good piece on a terrible idea.
Lautman is spouting the same type of misleading half truths he did when he helped lead the nine districts effort, which like this one had Republican backing.
Side bar, this measure was started by the current D1 and former CE Republican candidate
Reardon Sullivan
Which like, fine, that's a perfectly okayish life choice to make, but don't then go around saying these things are "non partisan" when they are not in any meaningful way.”

A response reading “ Mike, so you're saying you want to grow the size of government. I'm not sure that you have been paying attention to the disappearance of green space all over the county in the name of development. The number of residents keeps growing, thus, the tax base keeps growing.
Thus, the council keeps spending and my taxes keep growing. The council has shown no restraint and continues to need more and more of our money for more and more of their programs to
'make life better!
How about we try something novel and shrink the size of government, put money back in the pockets of the residents, and let them decide how best to spend what they have earned?
Time for a new tack, not the same old track.

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Mike English @mocomikee.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

Weekend dog, husky mix edition

Lukka a husky mix doing a blep and getting scrithces

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Mike English @mocomikee.bsky.social · 02/08/2026

As my love of hot beverages reminds me of my love for housing reform, once again excellent mug @ggwash.org @justupthepike.bsky.social

A Greater Greater Washington mug but like, all whimsical and shit with two “greater than” math symbols and then George Washington’s face

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Mike English @mocomikee.bsky.social · 25/07/2026

At the risk of stating the obvious, there is no compromise that will make people calling 3 homes an “invasion” happy, and a lot of NIMBYs react this way to the most modest of proposals. Policy makers need to stop moderating policies to try to placate them. It never works, just do the thing.

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Mike English @mocomikee.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

FYI about an event this Sunday in Rockville people!

SUPPORT
MD TRANS
YOUTH
Join author Nico Lang* (@queernewsdaily) for
a critical conversation on how to be an ally to trans kids during a turbulent era
GET THE BOOK!
July 26, 12pm
Faith UMC
6810 Montrose Rd.
Rockville, MD 20852
AMERICAN TEENAGER
FAITH UMC
belong • become • believe • be love
SURVIVING HATE AND FINDING JOY
IN A TURBULENT ERA
NICO LANG
* Nico is currently traveling the country on a historic, 50-state book
tour

ABRAMS The Art of Books
195 Broadway. New York, NY 10007
tel 212.206.7715 fax 212.519.1210
For Immediate Release Contact: Andrew Gibeley
agibeley@abramsbooks.com
From an award-winning journalist comes a vivid and moving portrait of trans and nonbinary teenagers across the country, following their daily triumphs, struggles, and all that encompasses growing up trans in America today
sationia work a sid act a last on and it ange me.
acceptance becomes the story we carry forward into the future."
-GARRARD CONLEY, author of Boy Erased: A Memoir
"Lang weaves this broad bleak terrain with warm insights and a clear immediacy of message. Expansive and compassionate."
-GABE DUNN, New York Times bestselling coauthor of I Hate Everyone But You
AMERICAN TEENAGER
How Trans Kids Are Surviving Hate and Finding Joy in a Turbulent Era
by Nico Lang
On sale: October 8, 2024
AMERICAN TEENAGER
Media coverage tends to sensationalize the fight over how trans kids should be allowed to live, but what is incredibly rare are the voices of the people at the heart of this debate: transgender and gender nonconforming kids themselves. For their groundbreaking new book, journalist Nico Lang spent a year traveling the country to document the lives of transgender, nonbinary, and genderfluid teens and their families. Drawing on hundreds of hours of on-the-ground interviews with them and the people in their communities, American Teenager: How Trans Kids Are Surviving Hate and Finding Joy in a Turbulent Era (Abrams Press; October 8, 2024; U.S. $30.00; Hardcover) paints a vivid portrait of what it's actually like to grow up trans today.
From the tip of Florida's conservative panhandle to vibrant queer communities in California, and from Texas churches to mosques in Illinois, American Teenager gives readers a window into the lives of Wyatt, Rhydian, Mykah, Clint, Ruby, Augie, Jack, and Kylie, eight teens who, despite what some lawmakers might want us to believe, are truly just kids looking for a brighter

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Mike English @mocomikee.bsky.social · 19/07/2026

Immediate context is more exhausting anti trans shit, but also he’s just an overall arrogant contrarian douche

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Mike English @mocomikee.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

POV, you email councilmembers too much

A whole lot of Montgomery county councilmembers in my email history, only some of whom represent me or are like, in office

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Mike English @mocomikee.bsky.social · 28/06/2026

Pretty classic response to my related post on the local subreddit (which is actually pretty full of people who understand the issue and agree with me, which, while still a bubble, is still nice)

Someone in my Reddit replies saying “Are you a paid influencer for a builder like Ryan homes or something? Why do you personally want high density track housing built? It's weird that you are just saying "build more" while ignoring reality.”

Me replying “I mean, I'm not "just" saying build more, I also helped get the county's rent stabilization law passed and regularly push for more funding for affordable housing, but no 1 am not paid for this, I'm just tired of people getting hurt by the cost of housing”

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Mike English @mocomikee.bsky.social · 26/06/2026

This isn’t a one off anecdote btw. Here are sales in the area over the last 3 years (and a picture showing the condition of the one sale under half a million I could see)

A bunch of mid to upper six and some 7 figure home sales, and an example showing the “cheap” nearly 500k homes has boards in the windows

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Mike English @mocomikee.bsky.social · 26/06/2026

I should note that the poster/seller here isn’t doing anything wrong, just highlighting for the absurdity of the situation about 20 minute walk from the forest glen metro. That this is a price *reduction* undercuts claims that such neighborhoods are full of “modest, affordable” homes.

Nextdoor post that reads “Home for sale in Montgomery hills! We love our house but have to move for work, otherwise we would never leave. Price reduced! Open this Sunday! Please let me know if you or anyone you know is interested.”

The listed home, which has been cut 30k and is still seven an a half hundred thousand dollars

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Mike English @mocomikee.bsky.social · 20/06/2026

Once again reminding everyone that this isn’t called “Woodside *sub* Urban Park”

The sign for Woodside Urban Park, which borders and exclusionary predominately SFH zoned neighborhood and Downtown Silver Spring

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Mike English @mocomikee.bsky.social · 15/06/2026

On a related note I fixed this ad

An add from Marc Elrich saying he’s is “fighting for affordable housing”

Me having crossed out the “for” so that it reads “Marc Elrich is fighting affordable housing” because I’m ever so cheeky and clever

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Mike English @mocomikee.bsky.social · 14/06/2026

Anti renter classism is so causal and so pervasive and so harmful and it’s just exhausting. I’ve spent about half of my time in Montgomery county as each and I haven’t been more or less of an asset or a liability to the place at either time.

Reddit comments from my MPDU thread reading

PaL-
Some MPDU homes are being rented to subsidized tenants who aren't respecting community standards, and their late-night noise and off-leash dogs are disrupting the neighborhood. They should ban renting of these units.

MocoMikeE OP • 1h
No, absolutely not. Banning rentals because of a few bad experiences is classist bullshit. Get that shit out of here.
There is a reason that both homes for sale and for rent are part of the program, both are valid forms of housing that a lot of people need help getting.
Also a lot of homeowners "don't adhere to community standards" too.

PapaRora • 53m
Why does a MPDU owner need to rent? These homes are made for low income families to experience home ownership.

MocoMikeE OP • 33ml
They are meant for people to have a home, which rentals also are. More info on the program here https://
www.montgomerycountymd.gov/departr
housing-community-affairs/moderately-
Join the conversation

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Mike English @mocomikee.bsky.social · 13/06/2026

Me disliking Marc Elrich but wanted to take this opportunity (as someone who supports the MPDU program) to say that doubling the requirements from 15% of homes to be offered below market rate to 30% is a bad idea that would crater already weak housing production, which increases housing costs.

A flyer from Marc Elrich saying he wants to, among other things, double the MPDU program requirement to nearly a third of all housing

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Mike English @mocomikee.bsky.social · 12/06/2026

Like, my guy, this isn’t woodside (and have to check if this address is just inside or outside the plan borders but it’s in the immediate area and closer to Wheaton than Woodside

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Mike English @mocomikee.bsky.social · 12/06/2026

Screenshotting cause Aaron will delete this later as he always does

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Mike English @mocomikee.bsky.social · 12/06/2026

Anyway, here is the report montgomeryplanning.org/wp-content/u... It’s mostly good stuff and if you asked me “hey Mike, is this a sign things are getting better and recovering?” I would say yes! But we still have a long way to go because private sector building is still low. (Though increasing!)

This paragraph and the chart that follows show a big big rebound in housing permits (yay!), most in years and back over a thousand for the quarter (yay!) including a lot of affordable units (that’s good) but relatively few market rate units (that’s bad, since most people make too much for affordable units), but it’s still an increase from last quarters (that’s good!)

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Mike English @mocomikee.bsky.social · 28/05/2026

Prompted by a lot, but… reminder that anyone looking for developers to be paragons or looking to demonize them as a big bad is going to be disappointed. They are building stuff we need, and are no more or less self interested or savvy than other political actors. Don’t love or hate them.

Article text reading:

In that fight it's easy for homeowners to feel like the "little guy," but they aren't. The "little guys" are the people that will live in the housing that could be built and yet are almost always left out of the conversation because of the unrepresentative way we conduct public forums on the matter.
There are no saints in this game
I am, frankly, ambivalent about developers themselves. Some are nice, some are jerks, most are remarkably unremarkable, no more or less virtuous than the people on the other side of the issue. They have a self interest in profit from building housing. Homeowners have self interest in neighborhood familiarity and property values.
One isn't better than the other.
Like for healthcare, I wish we lived in a world where we did not rely on the private sector so heavily for something so basic. That's why I and others support the Affordable Housing Opportunity Fund and other forms of social housing, advocate for low income housing tax credit (LIHTC) projects and expanding housing choice vouchers (aka "Section 8"), and support raising taxes to fund more affordable housing.
But most people live in housing that was built by private, for-profit builders, and chances are a
"greedy developer" built the home you live in, too.
That isn't changing in the next year, decade, or really, in my lifetime.

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Mike English @mocomikee.bsky.social · 15/05/2026

In light of CM (and CE candidate) Jawando once again deviating from his previously strong housing record and deriding “luxury housing” I ask that people read this, and ask better of our leaders than to be Marc Elrich 2.0 ggwash.org/view/93183/w...

An excerpt of a piece I wrote a couple years ago, reading as follows:

The more luxurious thing is the one that costs more
Apartments and condos won't work for everyone, but they do work for the significant number of households in Montgomery County with three or fewer people.Even if they may be more expensive per square foot than a house, you buy or rent all of the home you live in. Something that costs less per square foot, but costs more in total is in fact more expensive, even if you don't use all of it. I think it's fair to say that the more luxurious item is the one that costs more dollars than the other.
When I bought my condo in 2019, I was pretty lucky: I had a mortgage rate in the low 4% range, a 20% down payment, and I live in a newer building you might call "luxury condos." Even factoring in my fees, my monthly payment is under $2,000, mostly because it's less than 650 square feet.
Detached houses work great for a lot of people, and even if we allow denser options they will continue to be allowed everywhere they are now.
But if you are reading this in a single family home in Montgomery County, someone trying to buy that home today would almost certainly have a much easier time affording an apartment or condo, even a "luxury" one. Opposing them on the grounds of them being "luxury housing" isn't helping anyone.

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Mike English @mocomikee.bsky.social · 15/05/2026

Well that’s not great www.thebanner.com/politics-pow...

Article text reading “The chair of the Prince George's County
Planning Board is facing allegations that he pushed the planning commission to hire his sister, promoted members of his business network for
government contracts, and requested the commission purchase box seats at Capital One Arena, according to an 11-page complaint reviewed by The Banner.”

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Mike English @mocomikee.bsky.social · 08/05/2026

My friend’s cat I’m watching, who sometimes likes me and sometimes apparently finds me terrifying, is very fluffy and very silly

An impossibly fluffy and soft void cat having just dove out from under the bed to grab a treat and then glared at me.

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Mike English @mocomikee.bsky.social · 07/05/2026

And yet I still worry about hurting peoples’ feelings enough that I tell white lies like this way too much

Someone afraid to tell someone else they, in fact, did not eat the food made for them lovingly

“"I didn't want to. I didn't want my grandma — he pauses. "So I was just like,
'Oh, Grandma, thank you. I just ate
at home.”

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Mike English @mocomikee.bsky.social · 02/05/2026

I will never fully get how people don’t get this

A reply to a posting of mine saying “We need more control of greedy private sector business. The more rules regulations hindrances taxes uncertainty the betters .
Otherwise how are we going to return to yesteryear and our rural roots. Stop development Less people equal less stress on the environment”

And my reply reading “you do realize that at some point you were "more people" too yes?”

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Mike English @mocomikee.bsky.social · 02/05/2026

There are valid criticisms of this piece of mine but hooooo boy are these not two of them. Though I also get called both a communist and a libertarian for supporting more market rate housing so fuck if I know

A Nextdoor comment on my posting of the same piece reading “Maybe, Just Maybe ... Has Nothing To Do With "Rent.Stabilization". Maybe, Just Maybe, Is Far More Likely, Folks, Just Don't Like What MoCo, In General, Has Become.
Tax/Spend -Socialist- Polices, Zero Transparency ... MoCo, Isn't "Nice" Anymore.
Assess, A Very Small House, In Not A "Prime" Location, At $500K, Tax Increases, Year, After Year, To Pay Via Rental Assistance, For Far Too Many... MoCo, A -Socialist-MerryGoRoundTo Nowhere ... <That From A Lifelong JFK Blue Who Is NOT A -Socialist-, And, Is Quite Sick And Tired Of Paying For Fish Rather Than Anything Even Remotely Teaching People How To Fish For Themselves ”

Another comment reading “
You may be too young to remember the bread lines in the Soviet Union. Socialism is very good at producing one thing, and that is scarcity.”

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