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Parker Welch @parkerwelch.bsky.social · 17h

On the bright side, Austin’s vision zero tracker shows 2025 is on pace for another big decline in serious injuries: visionzero.austin.gov/viewer/

Making our city truly safe will be a daunting task—but we should take pride in our success so far & continue in the faith that no crash is a necessity.

215 serious injuries in 2025 (as of Sept 30th), down from 322 at this time last year

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Parker Welch @parkerwelch.bsky.social · 17h

Unfortunately, there is a rising tide of death on state-owned roads, including not just freeways like I-35 and MoPac, but portions of major arterials like Koenig Lane, North Lamar, & South Congress.

Without real change at the state level, cars will likely kill more & more people in TX

Chart of increasing non-city roadway deaths inside the city limits vs. a flat or slightly declining trend line of city roadway deaths. A once relatively small gap in total fatalities has widened to a 2:1 ratio of non-city to city roadway deaths

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Parker Welch @parkerwelch.bsky.social · 17h

To mark the 10-year anniversary of Austin’s vision zero goal, the City has released a report on its efforts to end road deaths in Austin: www.speakupaustin.org/c51366#path-...

We are the safest city in Texas, & getting safer, thanks to a sea change in our transportation policy. Let’s keep going!

Chart of road deaths & serious injuries per 100k people from 2015 to 2024 of the six major Texas cities. Dallas is the highest with a little under 250 per 100k in 2024 and Austin is the lowest with less than 50 per 100k in 2024

Stacked bar chart of absolute numbers of road fatalities and serious injuries in the City of Austin by year, 2023 and 2024 show marked declines from both the post- and pre-pandemic peaks

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Parker Welch @parkerwelch.bsky.social · 1d

Sources for Detroit data here:

thomashamming.com/2021/08/04/d...

www.newgeography.com/content/0052...

(Note the second source worked for one of the suburban counties in question in the 80s so, while the data is really just from the census, caveat emptor for the rest of the website)

Detroit Land Use Study – Past and Present

For this project, I sought to compare the land use of downtown Detroit of the past and present. Due to suburbanization, the construction patterns of Post-WW2 America, and De-Industrialization, Detr…

thomashamming.com

Parker Welch @parkerwelch.bsky.social · 1d

So much misery could have been avoided if mid-century America had believed in its cities and in its downtowns

Map of downtown Detroit land use, with freeways colored purple, vacant undeveloped land in cyan, and parking in red

Bar chart showing the pop of the City of Detroit, the rest of Wayne County, and the pop of other suburban counties in the metro for every decade from 1950 to 2010 (plus 2015). The city’s population falls in every decade, with the suburban counties growing in every decade. Initially the city’s population is roughly twice that of the suburbs, but by 2015 the suburban population is nearly seven times the city’s population

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Parker Welch @parkerwelch.bsky.social · 1d

It’s really the core purpose of cities

People work, live, and think better when they’re with other people. Downtown is where that happens, transit is how they get there. The rest is commentary.

Nilo @nilo.bsky.social · 1d

The more downtown grows better transit does.

BART @bart.gov · 1d

Take transit.

It’s safer, better for the environment and it will support our ability to fund service and make improvements.

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Reposted by Parker Welch

Joey Politano🏳️‍🌈 @josephpolitano.bsky.social · 1d

As US job growth slows, 11 major metro areas have lost jobs over the last year

Fastest growth: Charlotte (2.5%), San Juan (2.3%), Richmond (2.2%), San Antonio (1.9%), Philadelphia (1.9%)

Largest decline: Milwaukee (-.7%), St. Louis (-.6%), SF (-.5%), DC (-.3%), Denver (-.2%)

A graph of year-on-year change in nonfarm payrolls among the 50 largest metro areas by population

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Reposted by Parker Welch

Cutter W. González @cutterwgonzalez.bsky.social · 1d

I’m a doctoral student at TXST.

The feeling on campus is worse than you imagine. Faculty afraid to speak, grad students feel like they could lose their entire futures if they draw the university president’s ire, undergrads openly worrying about the complete loss of a fundamental right.

Julie Greene @greeneland.bsky.social · 1d

I just learned, Thomas Alter, tenured professor, has been terminated effective immediately. Shame on Texas State! We mst build support for Tom. spectrumlocalnews.com/tx/south-tex...

Texas State upholds the firing of associate history professor Thomas Alter

Alter’s termination occurred on Sept. 10, stemming from his remarks at the Revolutionary Socialism Conference on Sept. 7.

spectrumlocalnews.com

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Parker Welch @parkerwelch.bsky.social · 3d

These people are puffing out their chest every chance they get, and every time they have to back down they just look weaker

Lena Sun @lenasun.bsky.social · 3d

BREAKING: Some of the layoffs at CDC are being REVERSED.
Here is my updated story.
www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/...

More than 1,000 CDC staff receive layoff notices during government shutdown

Another round of mass layoffs has struck CDC. The agency had already been cut during a reorganization this year, and more employees are now being shed amid the government shutdown.

www.washingtonpost.com

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Parker Welch @parkerwelch.bsky.social · 3d

This country was born in the town halls of Massachusetts and they ain’t about to let it die on their watch

Miles Grant @milesgrant.bsky.social · 3d

For most national protest events, I usually have to choose between Boston or Providence

#NoKings October 18 isn’t just more protests than usual - it’s **10 times** more

www.nokings.org#map

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Reposted by Parker Welch

Doug @doug.city · 3d

The standard—and not totally incorrect—narrative is that the US basically abandoned transit after WWII, but there was a real revival underway in the 1970s that stalled out by the mid-1980s as the political winds shifted. Things have improved since, but we've never fully recovered that ambition.

City Nolan @ndhapple.bsky.social · 3d

UMTA R&D spend from 1972-1989. The amounts in the 1980s appear to be overstated as a lot of those projects were commissioned in the 1970s and were finishing up. Dollars are not adjusted for inflation.

New spend by the late 80s was down to $13m/yr, $3m/yr of which went into 'privatization' =>

Tables of new R&D spend between 1985-1989. Spending on research related to train and system design had been entirely zeroed out.

Table of R&D spend from 1972-1985. The wind-down begins in 1982.

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Parker Welch @parkerwelch.bsky.social · 3d

“Give me my daughter back”

Laguna Beach Democratic Club @lagunabeachdems.bsky.social · 3d

Northwest Chicago Suburb: ICE Agents Rip 15-Year-Old Girl from Car, Slam Her to Ground She Screams “I’m 15!” as Man Kneels on Her Neck

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Reposted by Parker Welch

Parker Welch @parkerwelch.bsky.social · 3d

Unfortunately it is gated off, still a pretty little street though

Photo peering through the wrought iron fence at Springdale Green

Photo of the street trees and protected bike lanes at Springdale Green from the apartment complex across the street

Photo of the office & parking garage, with a Cap Metro just entering the frame at left. A pedestrian refuge island is visible on the street in the foreground, with a terra cotta red raised bike lane on the other side

Photo taken from a corner entrance to the parking garage, two shaded columns and a raised bike lane in the foreground, a second pedestrian island and a sheltered bus stop on the other side of the street

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Parker Welch @parkerwelch.bsky.social · 3d

Unfortunately it is gated off, still a pretty little street though

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Parker Welch @parkerwelch.bsky.social · 3d

I can’t say for sure but just going off satellite view, I think so!

It looks like there’s a route accessible from the public sidewalk, that may be my adventure for the day

Crude drawing of a possible route to the boardwalk at Springdale Green

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Parker Welch @parkerwelch.bsky.social · 3d

They planted more than 4,000 trees for the project

This is the bird blind at the highest point of the boardwalk, where the most red cardinals were seen perching in the elm trees. The wooden slats screen you from the birds, who don’t recognize humans as predators unless they’re standing in the open.

The bird blind, sited at a curve in the boardwalk, with outdoor seating under the pergola and evenly spaced vertical wooden slats partitioning it from the path.

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Parker Welch @parkerwelch.bsky.social · 3d

Some super cool landscaping & native ecology restoration work for these offices in East Austin

This land had been contaminated for more than 70 years by the infamous “tank farms” left by the oil majors, which once stored jet fuel for the old Mueller Airport

www.archpaper.com/2025/10/dwg-...

Aerial drone shot of Springdale Green from above the floodplain, the foreground is dominated by forest with a curving boardwalk running through it. Further back, the red curving corners of the office complex are lit by golden hour sunset rays.

Furnished pavilion jutting out into the forest with ceiling fans hung from a timber roofdeck above, supported by the slender white columns that ring the perimeter of the pavilion

Photo of an “s” curve been in the fenced .62 mile elevated boardwalk, trees surround the structure

Atmospheric shot of a curving top floor outdoor deck, with the downtown skyline visible in the background and the forest rising closer to the view. The deck has its own shaded canopy, supported by round concrete columns, and sits above the glass curtain walls of the office floor below. Chairs, tables, and green plantings are scattered across the deck.

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Parker Welch @parkerwelch.bsky.social · 4d

God it’s gonna be a great day to be an American

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Parker Welch @parkerwelch.bsky.social · 4d

They never tell the crowd to leave, people just sort of slowly filter out until YMCA is playing over a deserted bleacher scene

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Parker Welch @parkerwelch.bsky.social · 4d

Apparently the most innings Detroit has ever played in a postseason game

Parker Welch @parkerwelch.bsky.social · 4d

At least one of them suggests Vance should continue to title himself Vice-President, out of respect

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Parker Welch @parkerwelch.bsky.social · 4d

Absolutely gorgeous photo

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Reposted by Parker Welch

Stephen Jacob Smith @stephenjacobsmith.com · 4d

Costs aren’t going to come down, we’re going to bring them down

Ben Christopher @frombenc.bsky.social · 4d

Ben Metcalf @ternerhousing.bsky.social: "If costs come down and interest rates drop, you can imagine we’ve set the table for a building boom."

calmatters.org/housing/2025...

Gavin Newsom signs law overhauling local zoning to build more housing

After weeks of waiting, California’s governor signed a bill that will allow mid-rise apartment buildings near major transit stops in California’s biggest metro areas.

calmatters.org

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Parker Welch @parkerwelch.bsky.social · 5d

Cambridge, California, Texas, NYC, Washington—I think this year could really be remembered as the start of a new era

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Reposted by Parker Welch

Ned Resnikoff @resnikoff.bsky.social · 5d

UPDATE: Newsom has signed SB 79 into law!!

This is a great day for anyone who cares about ending California's housing and homelessness crisis, getting the state to net zero emissions, and recovering American democracy.

Ned Resnikoff @resnikoff.bsky.social · 6d

If you live in California, please call @gavinnewsom.bsky.social at (916) 445-2841 and urge him to sign SB 79. Here's my post about why the bill is so important: publiccomment.blog/p/newsom-s-f...

Newsom's Fateful Choice

Why the governor needs to sign SB 79

publiccomment.blog

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