institutions, geography, democracy | UCLA Law
Los Angeles, CA
Joined June 2010
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🚨We analyzed 138 million geocoded property tax records to quantify how municipal boundaries spatially overlap onto economic segregation in every US metro area—creating disparities in localities’ ability to fund public goods. And we made an interactive map of our results! [1/16]
Brian Highsmith retweeted
1) As should have been obvious: this debate itself (outcome aside) is affecting how ppl see DSA
2) If DSA national has no problem glibly, negatively impacting a race like this (affecting 4 million real ppl) why would any politician / potential member trust or desire involvement?
The DSA's National Political Committee came to a decision Monday... to make two decisions in the future, but on different timelines...
Got it?
latimes.com/california/story…
Brian Highsmith retweeted
early voting is underway, the election is TUESDAY!!! and the NPC is demanding that the 2nd-largest chapter hold a meeting in the next 4 days and Nithya alter her GOTV schedule & drop everything to ~say the line~ in precisely the right way to satisfy 15 people across the country.
Brian Highsmith retweeted
Big news! The @HPE_Project is thrilled to invite applications for two residential fellowships at the @RemarqueNYU for AY 27-28, in our Histories and Futures of Global Governance Initiative. Info and call for applications here: hpeproject.org/hfgg-cfa
Brian Highsmith retweeted
LA is basically run by a "good old chuds" network.
Incumbent officials who have run the city into the ground playing petty-tyrant machine politics are furious that Nithya might actually follow laws and professionalize operation of the city. politico.com/news/2026/10/20…
I’m always saying this
Brian Highsmith retweeted
the irony of LOS ANGELES being one of the best places to be a transit nerd in the 21st century 😍🤓
This is the SECOND major transit project to break ground in Los Angeles this week.
First: the East San Fernando Valley light-rail line.
Now: the 12.4-mile Vermont Avenue BRT
• 12.4 miles of BRT
• Dedicated bus lanes
• Connections to the B, D, E and C Lines
• Trips up to 24% faster
• Upgraded service for 38,000 daily riders
@metrolosangeles hopes to finish the Vermont Corridor before the 2028 Olympics.
No American city is doing more for transit that Los Angeles
Brian Highsmith retweeted
So let met get that straight: paying a wealth tax is impossible (“billionaires have no liquidity”, “it would be taxing unrealized gains”, “their wealth is virtual”) but paying half a billion to influence elections is possible. Did I understand well?
Elon Musk has cemented his record as the largest individual political donor in modern American history.
Musk poured $446 million of his own money into this year’s midterm elections, mostly aimed at preserving the Republican Party’s control of Congress. wapo.st/4igb5Kq
Brian Highsmith retweeted
Padilla is the one you might remember from her bragging to @jonlovett about getting an affordable housing project reduced from 6 stories to 3
Brian Highsmith retweeted
This point of view has been made for years now, and I'm getting frustrated because it's very clear that he means he doesn't think Democrats represent the interests of working class white people, which are not strictly economic. That's what he doesn't want to lose.
There is almost nothing in GOP Trump policy that economically benefits the working class, which saw disproportionate wage gains and stable, low unemployment under Biden. I wish our journalists would be more honest and critical when folks say this.
Brian Highsmith retweeted
I haven’t followed this closely but regardless of how you feel about the merits of this, doing it literally a week before the election is just incredibly unserious in so many ways
I’ve been doing archival research on municipal socialism for a new project (watch this space), and have to laugh when I see these old headlines: it really has always been this way!
I’m enjoying the @sunraysunray Blueprint book and as usual finding myself in broad agreement with many of his goals.
But I’m also reminded of one of several reasons why I could never be a socialist, which is that I hate meetings while socialists really, really love meetings.
Brian Highsmith retweeted
Property owners holding parking lots for this exact reason is one of the things holding DTLA back from its full potentially. Every surface level lot could be housing <on top of even more parking>. Super random interview but it highlights one of the challenges/opps for DTLA.
Frankie Muniz reveals he bought downtown LA parking lots that skyrocketed in value and generated massive cash flow with zero overhead
"I owned some parking lots in downtown LA."
"Then you know downtown LA from, I don't know, 2002, there was really nothing there, and now it became like a pretty trendy, there's so much down there. So they did really well there."
"You have like one or two employees who take money all day from cars. There's no overhead. Every once in a while they paint the lines."
Brian Highsmith retweeted
Beast Mode Leslie Chang quote - she honestly one of my heros
"When talking to D.S.A.-ers, I often had the sense that they sincerely believed in a class revolution that they were not in any immediate way working toward."
This one should make the rounds @benwallacewells
newyorker.com/magazine/2026/…
Brian Highsmith retweeted
If we block housing over driver views while on a freeway I respectfully ask the aliens to just take us
View from I-80 will be very different if controversial developer moves ahead sfgate.com/local/article/sf-…
ALT View from I-80 will be very different if controversial developer moves ahead
Brian Highsmith retweeted
There is absolutely no logical reason why someone who has a mortgage should pay property tax while someone who owns their house outright should not.
"I own my house, therefore I shouldn't pay property tax" is a total non sequitur.
“I’m old. I’ve paid my home off,” said Ray Warner, a 72-year-old Akron resident. “Why would I pay property tax?”
Across the country, homeowners are asking the same question and revolting against property taxes at a scale not seen in a half century.
politico.com/news/magazine/2…
Brian Highsmith retweeted
Some socialists have revealed their profound inconsistency in the Nithya situation. I understand if you’re anti AOC as well and just want to retract into hermit sectarianism, I’m familiar with this position all too well. But to be Pro AOC, Pro Zohran (all oscillators on Palestine historically), and then Anti Nithya is just myopic inside baseball apolitical personalism to the highest degree.
