Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Mia Winther-Tamaki @miawintam.bsky.social · Sep 12

Come hang out (hosted at The Convent) , there will be pizza , vibes and BYOB! We will read and discuss excerpts from Joshua Davila's book; Blockchain…

luma.com

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Mia Winther-Tamaki @miawintam.bsky.social · Sep 12

new yorkers, come hang with us next wed (9/17) to learn more about the political theory + purpose behind blockchain socialism.

we’ll read excerpts from @tbsocialist.bsky.social ’s book “Blockchain Radicals: How Capitalism Ruined Crypto and how to fix it,” discuss and ask questions as a group

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Mia Winther-Tamaki @miawintam.bsky.social · Sep 5

Asked about Network States in the glen weyl vs curtis yarvin debate on tech CEO dictators

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Mia Winther-Tamaki @miawintam.bsky.social · Sep 5

Anti-fascist protesters disrupted tonight’s debate in NYC between Curtis Yarvin and Glen Weyl, which was framed around the question: Should the U.S. be ruled by a CEO dictator?

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Mia Winther-Tamaki @miawintam.bsky.social · Aug 21

Housing & affordability aren’t separate from tech or entrepreneurship. They’re the foundation. If people can’t afford to live here, if small business owners are squeezed, then the city can’t sustain the creative, risk-taking energy that makes NYC a hub for both startups and neighborhood businesses.

Anil Dash @anildash.com · Aug 20

This is one I've been thinking about for a long time, and I do hope you'll read it, and share it. The stakes have never been higher, but it'ss never been clearer: @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social is exactly what NYC's entrepreneurial community needs. www.anildash.com/2025/08/20/z...

Zohran Mamdani is the leader NYC needs for innovation and entrepreneurship - Anil Dash

A blog about making culture. Since 1999.

www.anildash.com

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Mia Winther-Tamaki @miawintam.bsky.social · Aug 21

Whoa hostile

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Reposted by Mia Winther-Tamaki

Shane Phillips @shanedphillips.bsky.social · Aug 19

Here's the public comment I wrote opposing this anti-SB 79 resolution. Cowardice is the right word, especially after council opposed similar legislation almost a decade ago and then used that much-vaunted "local control" to turn the housing crisis up to 11. Kudos to the 5 progressives who voted no.

Text: I am writing to express my strong opposition to the proposed resolution opposing Senate Bill 79. Los Angeles needs SB 79.
I am a housing researcher at UCLA, author of The Affordable City, and host of UCLA Housing Voice, a podcast where we share new and important housing research with an audience of planners, elected officials, students, and advocates across the US. A message we hear again and again on our show, from researchers studying policies all over the world, is that ambitious zoning reforms lead to increased homebuilding, and increased homebuilding makes housing more affordable.

Text: Los Angeles, like most California cities, is far, far behind on meeting its state-mandated housing goals, and Angelenos are bearing the costs with high rents and housing prices, shameful levels of homelessness and housing insecurity, torturous commutes without viable car-free alternatives, and a broken municipal budget. SB 79 will help us make significant progress solving all these problems. Research by me and my colleague at the Lewis Center shows that the city's current policies, even after adopting the Citywide Housing Incentive Program, are not nearly enough to meet our housing needs. CHIP's approach of further increasing allowable density only in neighborhoods already zoned for multifamily housing, where renters and lower-income people make up a disproportionate share of the population, is also likely to increase displacement unnecessarily. SB 79 will reduce displacement by upzoning transit-oriented neighborhoods where lower-cost multifamily housing is currently prohibited, residents are wealthier on average, and more of them are homeowners. These are also the neighborhoods where zoning reform is most likely to result in redevelopment because the existing built environment is so drastically underbuilt — and existing homes are thus extraordinarily unaffordable. Unaffordability is LA's true "neighborhood character," and it a character that must be undone, not preserved. Neighborhood character means nothing without our neighbors, and the restrictions on our built environment are driving them out by the thousands.

Text: The proposed resolution frames SB 79 as an attack on local control, but this is the wrong way of thinking about state preemption of zoning, especially in Los Angeles. Bills like SB 79 are a gift to the City of LA. Our city, for all its faults on housing and land use policy, is among the better actors in the state. It is already moving in the direction of SB 79, albeit much too slowly. But California is home to over 500 municipalities, and the overwhelming majority have demonstrated far less commitment to solving the housing crisis. SB 79 will increase homebuilding in LA — as it should — but it will do far more in the many jurisdictions that remain obstinate. Without bills like SB 79, Los Angeles will be forced to try to solve the crisis on its own — and fail, because no individual city can solve the problems of an entire region or state. With SB 79 as law, nearly every city in California will be obligated to do its part, lightening the load for everyone; many hands make light work. We will not improve affordability if every city is permitted to go it alone, choosing to contribute to the endeavor or not. We know from experience that most will opt out, and Angelenos will pay the price as much as the residents of those other jurisdictions.

Text: Before SB 79, SB 827 and SB 50 were proposed and defeated in the state legislature nearly a decade ago. Since that time, median home value in the city has risen from under $600,000 to nearly $1 million, and rents have similarly ballooned. Homelessness has increased despite billions of dollars of spending because rising prices have increased the number of people becoming homeless each year. And today our city faces a billion dollar budget deficit that could be sharply lower if we'd built more homes. Underlying all these problems is the fact that annual housing production remained essentially flat since 2017, in LA and statewide. We would be in a dramatically better position had we passed SB 827 in 2017 or SB 50 in 2018, but the bills were opposed by public officials claiming that they knew better and could solve the housing crisis on their own. They were wrong then and they're wrong now. We can't afford for them to make the same mistake again.

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Mia Winther-Tamaki @miawintam.bsky.social · Jul 30

The increased ICE budget makes it more likely that Asian immigrants—comprising 24% of the state’s undocumented immigrants—get arrested, experience a workplace raid, or are separated from their family. About 501,100, or 27%, of non-citizen New Yorkers are Asian.

www.news10.com/news/ny-news...

Mia Winther-Tamaki @miawintam.bsky.social · Jul 24

- front image and caption for the truck carrying humanitarian aid, as if that’s the trend

Mia Winther-Tamaki @miawintam.bsky.social · Jul 24

- this meets the legal definition of genocide: mass killing, forced displacement, and deliberate conditions to destroy a people ‘in whole or in part nothing diluted about it
- “evacuation warnings” mean nothing when every zone gets bombed

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Mia Winther-Tamaki @miawintam.bsky.social · Jul 24

- “chaotic food distribution system” is a lie: its not chaotic, it’s engineered starvation. Israel is intentionally limiting food and aid to punish and break a civilian population

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Mia Winther-Tamaki @miawintam.bsky.social · Jul 24

-“Why hasn’t it been more deadly?” is obscene: Over 55k palestinians are dead, many in stage 5 malnutrition (the final, irreversible stage). suggesting it’s not deadly enough to be genocide is grotesque.

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Mia Winther-Tamaki @miawintam.bsky.social · Jul 24

This is such an irresponsible article from the times. Just a few of the things that particularly infuriated me:

www.nytimes.com/2025/07/22/o...

Opinion | No, Israel Is Not Committing Genocide in Gaza

www.nytimes.com

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Mia Winther-Tamaki @miawintam.bsky.social · Jul 23

I love this building because it is beautiful, and because it is a physical manifestation of both the glamour and the rot behind the American dream.

If you want a clear view of both towers, visit the small public courtyard in the back. It’s especially wonderful at night when it’s lit up by lights.

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Mia Winther-Tamaki @miawintam.bsky.social · Jul 23

He died suddenly of an infected tooth; he never signed a will. He left his fortune to a family he’d largely neglected. His wife suffered from chronic depression and died soon after; one daughter died by suicide, another was financially exploited by 7 husbands and gambled much of her inheritance.

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Mia Winther-Tamaki @miawintam.bsky.social · Jul 23

Woolworth was a rags-to-riches story. he rose from poverty to become one of America’s first billionaires. He chose the Broadway & Park Place site for maximum visibility. you can spot it from the Brooklyn Bridge. It was also very important to him to “win” the race for Manhattan’s tallest skyscraper.

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Mia Winther-Tamaki @miawintam.bsky.social · Jul 23

architect Cass Gilbert designed the limestone facade with ornately engraved neo-gothic details. Its twin turrets and their turquoise crowns is a nod to london’s Houses of Parliament, earning it the nickname “Cathedral of Commerce.”

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Mia Winther-Tamaki @miawintam.bsky.social · Jul 23

F.W. Woolworth, the “five-and-dime” magnate, finished the tower in 1913. for 17 years it was the world’s tallest building.

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Mia Winther-Tamaki @miawintam.bsky.social · Jul 23

Today I walked past my favorite building in NYC: the Woolworth Building. I wrote an essay on it in grad school and still love its story.

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Mia Winther-Tamaki @miawintam.bsky.social · Jul 22

Yes

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Reposted by Mia Winther-Tamaki

Jarrett Walker @humantransit.bsky.social · Jul 22

It's time for clear eyed thinking about the potential for the large-scale destruction of public transit in American cities. It could happen in the next two years. Thread... 1/

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Reposted by Mia Winther-Tamaki

Bellingcat @bellingcat.com · Jul 8

Armed officers, frequent use of force and people grabbed on the street or at their places of work. Working with @evidentmedia.org and @calmatters.org we have monitored the LA raids, discovering recurring trends and tactics used by officers. www.bellingcat.com/news/2025/07...

Masked, Armed and Forceful: Finding Patterns in Los Angeles Immigration Raids - bellingcat

Bellingcat collected videos and images from recent immigration raids in Los Angeles, analysing trends and apparent tactics used by law enforcement.

www.bellingcat.com

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Reposted by Mia Winther-Tamaki

United Farm Workers @ufw.bsky.social · Jun 11

We feed you.
They hunt us.

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Reposted by Mia Winther-Tamaki

talia jane ❤️‍🔥 @taliajane.bsky.social · Jun 10

Thousands of New Yorkers march in lower Manhattan calling for ICE out of New York.

Starting at Foley Square and organized by PSL, the masses have flooded the streets and are moving west. This demo is permitted but even if it wasn’t, it would be far too large for NYPD to contain.

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Mia Winther-Tamaki @miawintam.bsky.social · Jun 10

Sadly I will be in California but looks like a wonderful event!!! Cool to see the UN collabing on events like this

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