RE Development. Language Activist. Gulf Coast + Mediterranean. Rebuilding TX: https://nitter.gq/t.co/ATm48PHDo0 Sicilian: https://nitter.gq/t.co/YywpdmtvfT
Akokisa Land (HOU)
Joined October 2010
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Very few are building this kind of product today. I'm honored to be working with one of the few groups in the US doing this now here in the Houston area. And we've got 22 units coming down the pipeline!
🍤Nicky Panzareḍḍa🌴 retweeted
How do traffic engineers plan highways? Take this year's growth rate, compound it over 25 years, and build today for that demand. Apply the same logic to Amtrak's 7.2% annual growth and we'd be building for 213 million riders a year, right now.
🍤Nicky Panzareḍḍa🌴 retweeted
"Until 1930, rail passenger service was operated over nearly every mile of main line track in Texas. [...] From 1920 to 1930, nearly 1600 cities, towns, and villages in Texas had scheduled rail passenger service."
-The History of Rail Passenger Services in Texas 1820-1970 (1976)
🍤Nicky Panzareḍḍa🌴 retweeted
Democrats can help our new officials govern by recognizing that public service neither starts nor ends with an elected official: Go to work for one of them. Submit your resume to serve on a board or commission. Prepare now to advocate during the upcoming legislative session. And give them grace when you don’t agree 100%.
🍤Nicky Panzareḍḍa🌴 retweeted
It’s insane that this is literally what Austin will look like in a few years.
Trams on grass, Barcelona edition.
ALT A green and white tram glides along a grassy right of way lined with trees, buildings, and bike infrastructure in Barcelona.
ALT A green and white tram glides along a grassy right of way lined with trees, buildings, and bike infrastructure in Barcelona.
ALT A green and white tram glides along a grassy right of way lined with trees, buildings, and bike infrastructure in Barcelona.
ALT A green and white tram glides along a grassy right of way lined with trees, buildings, and bike infrastructure in Barcelona.
One of the major arguements against this was that with the inevitable lack of agreement with the surrounding cities, the governor would step in to adjudicate. Now that Abbott won't be governor...
The "radical wing" of Dem commentators is talking about quality constituent services...the US is truly about to be governed efficiently
🍤Nicky Panzareḍḍa🌴 retweeted
Senator, every local official in every fast-growing (formerly) Republican city and county lay this loss partly at your feet. Your attacks on our cities turned us blue, as I have predicted they would for years. We explained to you and your staff what was happening, and you did not care. Every single city hammered by SB2038 turned blue. That’s on you.
What we should be comparing the 2026 Blue wave to is the 1974 mid-term election after #Watergate. That year Republicans lost 48 US house seats, 5 US Senate Seats, and statehouse after statehouse.
This mid-term loss is bigger and growing for Republicans with 54 House Seats lost plus 7 Senate seats; however, the parallels between what was happening in the US are substantial.
I watched the Watergate hearings, and it was quite the media show at the time on @NBCNews, @CBSNews, @ABC, @PBS with Chair Sam Ervin, Howard Baker, Barbara Jordan, Fred Thompson, all captivating the public. When President Nixon resigned, the revulsion at the break-in scandal and cover-up dropped his approval ratings to 23/24%, which propelled Winning Democrat candidates.
The final end of the Vietnam War, Brush Wars with Communist groups in Africa, all had strong public disapproval like the Iran War. Also, inflation and economic conditions were dicey then, too, before people knew the label "affordability."
Bottomline is for many of the same reasons, the 1974 midterm loss for the majority party is a much closer parallel to what happened to Republicans in 2026 all across America and in Texas. I include a couple of screenshots from @theoelections using their Maps to highlight the large amount of Blue vs. Red in Texas and the Houston Metro areas and SE Texas election results. #txlege
PS I will be discussing this on KSEV 700AM Amigos Show from 4pm to 6pm tomorrow. You can stream at or replay later at ksevradio.com. Enjoy!
🍤Nicky Panzareḍḍa🌴 retweeted
It is impossible to quantify a feeling. The atmosphere around Houston feels lighter and it isn't just the nice weather. I won't dare belittle anyone's experiences but it feels like a siege has lifted. Abbott and his ilk loved to target Houston. 1
🍤Nicky Panzareḍḍa🌴 retweeted
A video like this is how you earn yourself a starring role in a committee hearing next Congress. If I’m a Democrat on any number of committees, I’m now asking my staff how I can haul in Union Pacific. You’ve made yourself an affordability problem
🍤Nicky Panzareḍḍa🌴 retweeted
I’m a Rockets fan. I promise you don’t want to keep Chuck and Hakeem around after their usefulness
Calls to Replace Jeffries and Schumer Explode After Democratic Wins trib.al/G1SVsmY
I saw an article bringing up Hinojosa's old plan to write checks to every Texan...GINA DON'T DO IT! Fund water infra instead! Disaster preparedness! Transit! Anything but checks!
🍤Nicky Panzareḍḍa🌴 retweeted
Gina Hinajosa, fund fast, frequent, convenience rapid transit all over the state and you will be reincarnated into a lotus flower
🍤Nicky Panzareḍḍa🌴 retweeted
Prop 3 removed the requirement for the DOT to consult with NYPD and FDNY for street safety projects, bus lanes, and bike lanes (which the firemen were really annoying about)
🍤Nicky Panzareḍḍa🌴 retweeted
NYC is putting the design of their streets back into the hands of actual engineers to build safer, better streets - instead of the city being designed around the personal preferences of firefighters.
More cities need to do this.
🍤Nicky Panzareḍḍa🌴 retweeted
I do not say this lightly, and I’m only speaking for myself, but we need to have a serious conversation about nationalizing the rail lines in this country.
🍤Nicky Panzareḍḍa🌴 retweeted
The TX Dem State Chair is Kendall Scudder. Guy's 36. From the pines. Former Walker County Dems. He ran to be state chair just on the simple idea of making the state party more helpful to people who want run for office. The man should never buy another drink or meal in his life.
🍤Nicky Panzareḍḍa🌴 retweeted
The view that a Catholic can never vote for or belong to the Democratic Party was once a fringe position.
It gained wider traction in the 2000s, largely through the efforts of certain groups (mostly of converts from Evangelical Christianity) and with the support of a small number of conservative priests and bishops.
However, neither the Vatican nor the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has ever endorsed or agreed with this assessment, and Catholics remain free to vote for Democrats.
Not true: The Catholic Church has never officially stated that “one cannot be a Democrat and a Catholic."
👉 What the Church actually teaches:
Official guidance comes primarily from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ document *Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship*. It repeatedly stresses that:
- The Church does not endorse or oppose political parties or candidates.
- Catholics must form their consciences according to Catholic moral teaching and exercise prudential judgment.
- “Our participation in political parties or other groups to which we may belong should be influenced by our faith, not the other way around.”
On abortion (the usual flashpoint in these debates), the document and related Vatican statements (including a 2004 letter from then-Cardinal Ratzinger) are clear:
- Abortion is an intrinsic evil and a preeminent priority.
- A Catholic may **not** vote for a candidate *precisely because* of that candidate’s support for abortion (or other intrinsic evils). That would be formal cooperation in evil.
- Voting for such a candidate *despite* their position on abortion, for other serious (“proportionate”) reasons, is remote material cooperation and can be permissible.
This standard applies to candidates of any party. The Church has never banned membership in the Democratic Party (or the Republican Party). Canon law does not prohibit lay Catholics from belonging to political parties; it mainly restricts active partisan involvement by clergy.
Pope Francis has also said there is not only one form of political commitment for Catholics: “the same Christian faith can lead to different commitments,” and Catholics may join different parties while seeking the common good.
The view that a Catholic can never vote for or belong to the Democratic Party was once a fringe position. It gained wider traction in the 2000s, largely through the efforts of certain groups (mostly of converts from Evangelical Christianity) and with the support of a small number of conservative priests and bishops. However, neither the Vatican nor the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has ever endorsed or agreed with this assessment, and Catholics remain free to vote for Democrats.
