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Rob Reid

@robcat26.bsky.social
3.4K followers 189 following 185 posts

Education Data Developer @texastribune.org, proud product of public schools, immersing myself in all things Texas through reading and building community and long-distance walking

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Rob Reid @robcat26.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Excited to interview Diane Ravitch! Born in Texas and educated in its public schools, her career included education roles under Bush and Clinton. Observing the unintended consequences of national reform efforts later challenged her beliefs in school choice and standardized testing.
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Rob Reid @robcat26.bsky.social · 13/05/2026
Catches my attention when someone's been around long enough or studied history enough to talk about centuries: “If there is one consistent lesson that one may glean from studying school reform over the past century, it is the danger of taking a good idea and expanding it rapidly, spreading it thin.”
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Rob Reid @robcat26.bsky.social · 08/05/2026
🧵 @audacityofdespair.bsky.social and Ed Burns self-describe their work as "stand-around-and-watch" journalism, but I'd label it something like "relational" journalism or "I see you" journalism. It respects their real-life corner characters by truthfully capturing their depth and flawed humanity. 1/
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Rob Reid @robcat26.bsky.social · 04/05/2026
My first collaboration with our Austin newsroom, and a good example of where data can help find a story. The proportion of Austin ISD students receiving dyslexia services nearly doubled in the past year to 23%, compared to 7% statewide. austincurrent.org/2026/05/04/a...
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Rob Reid @robcat26.bsky.social · 05/03/2026
Indianapolis, IN—here for a conference but found a place to stay a couple miles' walk from the conference hotel, half the price, and astoundingly Victorian in all directions as far as I can see
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Rob Reid @robcat26.bsky.social · 01/02/2026
...3/3 from Chapter 2 of @christopherbrown.bsky.social 's "A Natural History of Empty Lots," which sets the scene along the Colorado I think near where I scouted a half-abandoned trail between Bolm District Park and the Montopolis Bridge. Saw two 'dillos, countless birds, and no humans.
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Rob Reid @robcat26.bsky.social · 01/02/2026
"An accidental refuge, paradoxically protected by industrial land uses that were oblivious to their ecological imprint but kept most of the human activities out of the riparian corridor hidden behind them."
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Rob Reid @robcat26.bsky.social · 01/02/2026
“...a stretch of river that seemed so wild that we immediately felt transported to a different time...the river clear and bright as it flowed over mussel shoals and cut deep channels around unexplored islands.”
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Rob Reid @robcat26.bsky.social · 01/02/2026
1.5 years and 16 cross-city walks in to being an Austinite, I feel more strongly than ever that the best way to get to know a city is to travel across it as inefficiently as possible-- on foot. I just put four more walks on the calender for the spring. If you're in town, hope you can join one!
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Rob Reid @robcat26.bsky.social · 19/01/2026
...and winding up at an MLK festival at HBCU Huston-Tillotson, where I waited 30 minutes for delicious fried catfish and met a retired soul singer who Google Search AI Overview confidently misassured me had died two years ago.
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Rob Reid @robcat26.bsky.social · 19/01/2026
neighborhoods in flux between gentrification and displacement...
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Rob Reid @robcat26.bsky.social · 19/01/2026
thru three historic black cemeteries these days clearly labeled with a little history lesson they forgot in school...
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Rob Reid @robcat26.bsky.social · 19/01/2026
I'm thankful for the holiday and a beautiful day for a walk thru Austin's Black history, from early councilman Henry Madison's restored cabin...
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Rob Reid @robcat26.bsky.social · 25/12/2025
decades of Christmas: 1950s record/1960s custom built media cabinet and centralized audio distribution system/1990s wave radio/2010s turntable
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Rob Reid @robcat26.bsky.social · 07/07/2025
I wanted to shout out to my "tireless" colleagues at the Texas Tribune reporting on the weekend's flooding, but on Monday morning it's clear that they're very tired. The reporting is insightful, the photos visceral, and the tips for how to help purposeful. www.texastribune.org/series/texas...
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Rob Reid @robcat26.bsky.social · 05/06/2025
From Beto to Karl Rove, John Bolton to Maureen Dowd, a former chief justice to the CEO of the Marshall Project...TribFest 2025's lineup of thought leaders is wildly eclectic. I'm really looking forward to it, and hope you can join us. festival.texastribune.org/event/c17d2d...
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Rob Reid @robcat26.bsky.social · 20/04/2025
…and learned a bit of history on the way, discovering this surviving 1950s model windmill that outlasted its accompanying home- which was demolished to make way for the MoPac in the late 1960s.
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Rob Reid @robcat26.bsky.social · 20/04/2025
After rounding the tip of the isle, we headed back to Deep Eddy/Tarrytown, planning some future adventures based on steps not taken…
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Rob Reid @robcat26.bsky.social · 20/04/2025
A narrow sidewalk along the Shelton Bridge led us to Red Bud Isle- a man-made island built on the surface of a dam that collapsed 125 years ago.
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Rob Reid @robcat26.bsky.social · 20/04/2025
Part VII of Walking Austin’s Neon Wilderness avoided busy streets in favor of a meandering residential route around Deepy Eddy- where we noticed homesteads with more to offer than the brute opulence the area is known for.
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Rob Reid @robcat26.bsky.social · 17/03/2025
News nerds unite! Or news nerds compete against each other? Five rounds of trivia on current events, history, sports, arts and culture, hosted by Texas Tribune and Texas Standard. It’s okay to show up as an individual- we’ll put you on a team. triviawithtxtribuneandtxstandard.splashthat.com
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Rob Reid @robcat26.bsky.social · 14/03/2025
Our data viz team helped put together this interactive explainer which gets into where your Texas water comes from (depending on where you live), when supply will exceed demand, and who to contact to provide input on water planning in your region. www.texastribune.org/2025/03/13/t...
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Rob Reid @robcat26.bsky.social · 20/02/2025
Correlation, causation, whatever. All I know is, I ha'ent seen nary a Texas-sized roach or cricket in my home since the day I hung this giant beetle illustration by @marthaisermanart.bsky.social
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Rob Reid @robcat26.bsky.social · 16/02/2025
6/ ...in some places rural, some places urban, different from Texas, and still unmistakably Texas.
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Rob Reid @robcat26.bsky.social · 16/02/2025
5/ There's no place quite like Austin...
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Rob Reid @robcat26.bsky.social · 16/02/2025
4/ ...and stray horizontal spiral staircases.
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Rob Reid @robcat26.bsky.social · 16/02/2025
3/ ...community gardens...
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Rob Reid @robcat26.bsky.social · 16/02/2025
2/ like fencetop art...
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Rob Reid @robcat26.bsky.social · 16/02/2025
🧵 1/ Part 5 of Walking Austin's Neon Wilderness: East Side by Street, Creek, and Lake. Walking may be the most efficient means of transportation, if you prioritize conversation (with yourself and others) and noticing things...
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Rob Reid @robcat26.bsky.social · 18/01/2025
we eventually reached a mysterious set of gothic windows at the end of the boulevard on 31st. I later learned, via @indelibleaustin.bsky.social's writing, that they’d been scavenged from an historic train station in Chattanooga www.statesman.com/story/news/2...
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Rob Reid @robcat26.bsky.social · 18/01/2025
Ignored by a fearless Red-Shouldered hawk by Seiders Springs…
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Rob Reid @robcat26.bsky.social · 18/01/2025
stumbling on only a trace of Austin’s famous historic eccentricity on the way.
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Rob Reid @robcat26.bsky.social · 18/01/2025
walked past wildly eclectic architecture and brash front-yard landscapes…
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Rob Reid @robcat26.bsky.social · 18/01/2025
Following a group member’s recommendation, I led Walking Austin’s Neon Wilderness down Shoal Creek Boulevard last weekend for our 4th walk. We crossed the boulevard's namesake creek a few times...
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Rob Reid @robcat26.bsky.social · 17/01/2025
No texting and walking. A cactus might attack you.
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Rob Reid @robcat26.bsky.social · 19/12/2024
Not to mention that Eli Hartman, who sits just behind me, is the best Rio Grande dog wash photographer in the business.
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Rob Reid @robcat26.bsky.social · 19/12/2024
Yuriko, one of our enormously talented data viz developers, put in her time to get this right
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Rob Reid @robcat26.bsky.social · 12/12/2024
4) the backstory of "Fred Jones"- a courageous southern local news editor reporting on civil rights in the '60s and '70s, laid off by his now-zombie outlet and relegated to creating bad art in his basement
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Rob Reid @robcat26.bsky.social · 12/12/2024
2) his disappointment in a billionaire-owned legacy outlet leading to subscription cancellation 3) his 7th grade classmate from the same good public school emailing him links to low-quality disinfo...
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Rob Reid @robcat26.bsky.social · 12/12/2024
🧵 While fielding a torrent of paper-airplane-delivered song requests in Austin, @actualbenfolds.bsky.social repeatedly reflected on the role newspapers played in helping him make sense of the world: 1) his songwriting lessons asking students to write based on articles in today's news…
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Rob Reid @robcat26.bsky.social · 08/12/2024
Our group's still small enough to be spontaneous. After reaching 38 1/2 at its end in Manorwood, we turned up the greenway into Mueller to find a place to restore all the calories lost on our walk.
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Rob Reid @robcat26.bsky.social · 08/12/2024
As a new Austinite, I still sometimes mistake licensed child care facilities for hipster speakeasies
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Rob Reid @robcat26.bsky.social · 08/12/2024
After enduring the sprawling medical district, we continued past the humbler homes of North University and Hancock by Waller Creek
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Rob Reid @robcat26.bsky.social · 08/12/2024
But the park was just the starting point of our 5 mile trek across Austin on 35th, which passed Camp Mabry and some statlet mansions before crossing the MoPac
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Rob Reid @robcat26.bsky.social · 08/12/2024
Here's a view of a Colorado River inlet at the edge of Mayfield Park
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Rob Reid @robcat26.bsky.social · 08/12/2024
...and Mayfield's daughter and son-in-law used this limestone aviary to house Moorhead pigeons imported from Wisconsin (see mayfieldpark.org/wp-content/u...)
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Rob Reid @robcat26.bsky.social · 08/12/2024
The 23-acre estate, now on the National Register of Historic Places, had been the property of Allison Mayfield, the Chairman of the Railroad Commission...
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Rob Reid @robcat26.bsky.social · 08/12/2024
Walking Austin's Neon Wilderness #3 (35th/38th/38 1/2) began fortuitously: the celebrating peafowl were roaming the Mayfield Cottage grounds, as advertised.
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Rob Reid @robcat26.bsky.social · 08/12/2024
The rain stopped a lot of people from doing a lot of things today, but the Austin Bike Polo Social Club tournament rolled on.
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Rob Reid @robcat26.bsky.social · 05/12/2024
Feeling oversaturated with customer experience surveys, but I'll humbly accept my Transit app's gamified bus rider survey respondent ranking and robot-generated stage name.
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