Writer, urban planner
Rhode Island
Joined March 2010
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In my latest for @curaffairs , I show how the administrative state was once a powerful force for good in many Americans’ lives, and how it can be again: currentaffairs.org/news/make…
Allison retweeted
"We then excuse our dissonance and our want to like Obama by kidding ourselves that he has made good on at least some of his promises. But has he? Take healthcare, his prized accomplishment, for example: it's a watered-down reform that kowtows to the interests of healthcare lobbies before it provides meaningful, secure access to healthcare for our society's most desperate." - Abdul El-Sayed 2012
Allison retweeted
A crystal-clear presentation of the worst, most reactionary shit in America that describes itself as left. Listen to this and you won't even need a ultra flank to sabotage your project, you can do it all by your dumbass selves damagemag.com/p/how-far-will…
Allison retweeted
Michael Pollan reveals how the introduction of caffeine completely changed human history and consciousness.
"Before caffeine, it was a very different world and a very different consciousness. People were drunk a lot of the time, buzzed almost all of the time because it was safer than water"
"Water was really how you got diseases. If you fermented things, even low alcohol, it killed a lot of the microbes. So people, even kids, drank hard cider for breakfast"
"Tea, chocolate, and coffee all arrive in the same decade in England, and things start to change... no one ate or drank boiling water or hot beverages before"
"Boiling it made it much safer. This gave this incredible public health boost to these places, and then you have the drug that fosters a kind of more linear, rational, focused way of thinking"
"People in the 1600s started writing about it saying, 'Wow, we have this new civil and sober drink that we can use.' And that, I think, makes possible things like the Industrial Revolution"
Allison retweeted
I grew up in a world Dolores Huerta helped make. Every time a worker in this city organizes for a fair wage, every time a tenant, delivery worker, or a nanny stands up and demands better, they join a tradition she forged.
She led without asking permission. She organized farmworkers when the country looked away, took the grape boycott to every corner of America, and won protections that changed millions of lives. Her work started in California’s fields, but it was never only for California. Families in New York, in Texas, and in the Midwest followed in her footsteps and learned from her example, without ever meeting her.
Her bravery and fight for justice continued until the very end of her life, when she came forward to share the truth about what she had survived -- even though silence would have been easier.
She taught us that sí se puede and lived it every day.
New York mourns Dolores Huerta. Let us honor her by continuing the work.
BREAKING: Labor leader, feminist and civil rights icon Dolores Huerta has died at 96. apnews.com/article/dolores-h…
Allison retweeted
Never forget, a 13-year study found that protected bike-lanes led to a drastic decline in fatalities for all road users.
ALL ROAD USERS.
What about painted bike-lanes? No safety improvement at all.
For sharrows, it’s actually safer to NOT have them.
Via @StreetsblogUSA @StreetsblogNYC
usa.streetsblog.org/2019/05/…
Allison retweeted
NEW!
"Responding with counterpoints about the historical brilliance of Arab culture may be necessary, but what is the end result? To put this differently: what if RFK Jr. were right?"
yasminnair.com/what-if-rfk-j…
Allison retweeted
Madeline Albright is infamous for telling Leslie Stahl on 60 Minutes that half a million dead Iraqi children "is worth it" to pressure Saddam Hussein. You can't say Jamie Metzl doesn't tell you for what he stands.
I am a proud and loyal Democrat. I served in President Clinton’s National Security Council and worked for Madeleine Albright at the State Department. I ran for Congress as a Democrat, have voted Democratic all my life, and expect to continue doing so.
But I would never vote for Abdul El-Sayed. In my judgment, he does not represent the values of our party or our nation. I urge my fellow patriotic Democrats in Michigan to leave the Senate line blank or vote for Republican Mike Rogers.
This is an exceptional case, and I do not make this recommendation lightly. We can support Democratic majorities nationally while refusing to support a candidate who violates our core values. Loyalty to our party should strengthen our principles, never require us to abandon them.
Allison retweeted
Incredibly reckless for any Democrat, let alone a DSA member, to condemn Cuba while Trump and Rubio are busy planning to invade. Just plays directly into their war propaganda.
I say it plainly: I do not celebrate Castro. I call Cuba what it is, an authoritarian regime, and I will fight for the Cuban families who fled it.
Meanwhile, Ashley Moody backs deporting Cuban families back to the regime they escaped.
#AngieforFlorida
Allison retweeted
NEW: The latest paper from the Center for Working Class Politics has serious methodological problems - among them, excluding anyone with a degree from the working class.
Allison retweeted
Oh, jfc, please let this all be over soon. <crawls back under bed>
I say it plainly: I do not celebrate Castro. I call Cuba what it is, an authoritarian regime, and I will fight for the Cuban families who fled it.
Meanwhile, Ashley Moody backs deporting Cuban families back to the regime they escaped.
#AngieforFlorida
Allison retweeted
it's where I've lived for ten years? it's where my friends live? this isn't complicated
Why don't they just leave NYC? I'm not trying to be callous, but there's a whole wonderful world out there that's more affordable.
nytimes.com/2026/10/25/nyreg…
Allison retweeted
Generations before us fought for our right to walk.
In 1966 Louisville community leader Vernice Hunter told a reporter: “There have been three deaths there—some say five—in the last two years. One little boy’s eye was knocked out. One of my neighbors had both legs broken.” ...
But doesn’t “treating class as a social & not merely economic relation” also require recognizing that social relations have class consequences? As @NairYasmin has said, “cultural” issues are economic issues! damagemag.com/p/how-far-will…
Allison retweeted
Dino Guastella and Damage have the magic formula: "patriotism over globalism, family duty over self-expression, and tradition over cosmopolitan sophistication." Insular philistinism—works for Trump!
substack.com/inbox/post/2223…
Allison retweeted
Hillary's proxies, including Paul Krugman, leaned hard into the lie that Bernie had a problem with Black voters too.
Glengariff poll | 10/19-10/22 LV
US Senate Michigan 2026 (Black voters)
🟦Abdul El-Sayed 88%
🟥Mike Rogers 4%
Link to poll: detroitnews.com/story/news/p…
Allison retweeted
Living my best Oakland life rn: PG&E power outage on my block, on a normal night, for no reason. Estimated repair time: 5 am.
Allison retweeted
The South Side has to fight for the basics, all the time: groceries, shopping areas, trauma centers (won after a long fight), and now maternity wards. In all this, the Obama Center looms over the area, chomping away at bits of land and driving people out.
The closure of Roseland Hospital's maternity ward is a huge blow to South Side parents:
"What is the plan?"
buff.ly/xCsShnA
Allison retweeted
my 9,000 word piece about visiting Jefferson Davis's fake "presidential library" is out:
currentaffairs.org/news/a-se…
Allison retweeted
“Arabs don’t produce literature” is really something you can only say if you’ve never had a moment’s contact with genuine civilization. A mind totally consumed by television and self-help books.
