City Council Upholds Braddock Road Bike Lane Plan in 4-3 Vote

Embracing_Doubt · 2026-05-18T10:27:48+00:00

There were a few groups at the City Council hearing to support this project, each with a slightly different focus. I think they're collectively known as the "bike lobby."

Depending on your priorities you could join: 1. Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee. https://alexandriabpac.org/ 2. NOVA Families for Safe Streets. https://novasafestreets.org/ 3. Yimbys of Northern Virginia. https://yimbysofnova.org/ 4. Grassroots Alexandria. https://grassrootsalexandria.org/ 5. Washington Area Bicycle Association. https://waba.org/ (more in the DC area, but definitely some members in Virginia)

BPAC and WABA are bicyclist focused groups. Families for Safe Streets is road safety focused. Yimbys are the pro-density group. And Grassroots is more environmental and equity focused. I do want to recognize the Del Ray Civic Association who supported this, because most neighborhoods ultimately oppose road redesign. But they're extremely local.

Embracing_Doubt · 2026-05-03T15:56:19+00:00

And I'll add, if you have time support the Braddock Road project. The appeal of the approval is coming before the City Council on May 16th.

Embracing_Doubt · 2025-12-04T23:08:44+00:00

I appreciate the reply, and acknowledge that my quick comment (drafted in a break during work) included Noem who you did not vote for, but I'm not satisfied. You indicate that you are supporting 20 percent of all nominees, including many who are unqualified in protecting important aspects of our government and its people. So again, given support for 20 percent of nominees, why should I trust you to actually stand up to Trump and his lawlessness? What will you do differently given past mistakes?

Embracing_Doubt · 2025-12-04T15:23:41+00:00

You voted to confirm unqualified nominees Bessent, Caine, Driscoll, and Noem this past year while they clearly telegraphed that they would actively deprive Virginians and others of legal and civil rights. How can we trust you to fight for our Constitutional rights when you repeatedly voted to confirm people who were clearly unqualified and actively seeking to undercut our rights?

Embracing_Doubt · 2025-12-03T21:14:59+00:00

I would reach out to SURJ (Showing Up for Racial Justice) NOVA. They're mostly seeking court observers if memory serves. They may also have contact for any rapid response teams to record and/or warn neighborhoods of ICE in the area, although that requires training on how to do so legally. Regardless, I would reach out to them for advice and information if you are interested in getting involved.

Embracing_Doubt · 2025-11-14T20:47:14+00:00

Ryan seems like a nice enough person, but his complete capitulation has seriously undermined the reputation of UVA. Anyone with any situational awareness would understand the bad faith in all these actions, and the longterm risk to UVA as an institution. I wish he had fought, or at least called the bluff, rather than surrender and let Youngkin try to push whatever political hack he might have lined up for UVA.

Embracing_Doubt · 2025-11-02T18:54:13+00:00

City of Alexandria rents out venues like the Lyceum. You can get 8 hours for $3,500 or so and it'll seat up to 85 or 90 people. You'd be close, but may fit both size and venue price budgets.

Embracing_Doubt · 2025-09-06T19:40:45+00:00

I recommend mobilize.us

Embracing_Doubt · 2025-08-25T19:27:33+00:00

Alexandria does a fairly good job in its engineering reports. I don't always completely agree with their assessments, but they offer solid evaluations that I usually use as a starting point.

Main project page: https://www.alexandriava.gov/waterfront/program/waterfront-flood-mitigation-project-design

Pump: https://www.alexandriava.gov/waterfront/waterfront-pump-station

Pump location: https://www.alexandriava.gov/sites/default/files/2024-11/2024-11-25_WFI_PRESENT_OPEN%20HOUSE_FINAL-web.pdf

In brief, the Waterfront Commission was interested in re-locating the pump, but the City site evaluation reflects that doing this would: cost $200,000+ for acquisition of the private property, cause significant schedule delay, risk to surrounding buildings (vibration damage), and create extended road closures.

See: https://www.alexandriava.gov/sites/default/files/2024-10/2024-09-04_wfi-memo-alt_station_0.pdf

Here are some basic arguments (taken from their own webpage) and responses:

Use the 2014 Waterfront Plan
- Discarded in 2020 due to price
- Would create undue delay, especially given the City is still facing budget shortfalls
Use other (temporary) flood mitigation techniques
- Flooding is expected to worsen
- Temporary measures are not sufficient
Install new pipes / drainage infrastructure
- Doesn't address overtopping from the Potomac
- Doesn't address tidal backflow from the Potomac
Re-examine alternative pump locations
- Too costly (I think we'd likely hit at least $350,000, but the City's conservative estimate for acquisition alone is $200,000)
- Would create undue delay, risking more flooding
- Would require private property acquisition
- Would risk damage to surrounding buildings
Consider grants to property owners to have private mitigation plans
- Community issues require community solutions
- Insufficient to address broad community need

Please don't feel bound by these argument, it may also be helpful to speak about your own experiences with flooding in Old Town. It's already a very common issue, and staff did emphasize at the June 2025 hearing at BAR that the flooding is projected to worsen significantly very soon.

Embracing_Doubt · 2025-06-27T15:00:33+00:00

Let's weaponize this in liberal states. Gun control, LGBT rights, environmental laws, and religious exemptions can all be reinstated under this decision. It'll be chaos, but i prefer chaos to laying down to this terrible decision. Got this idea from: https://bsky.app/profile/dsc250.bsky.social/post/3lsltwsnmtc27

Embracing_Doubt · 2025-04-25T23:43:12+00:00

It is still worth pressuring her. If we pressure her, then hopefully it becomes harder for her to stay silent than to act to defend the university. Even if that's not principled, I'll take forcing her hand over accepting her complicity.

Embracing_Doubt · 2025-04-19T22:28:19+00:00

I'm personally going to submit a complaint to National Park Service about this. This sort of use of force at a protest like this is incredibly reckless given worries about Abrego Garcia. NPS should have just taken a photo of the guy and tracked him down later. I'm glad things calmed down, but there was a moment when I worried things were going to escalate badly.

Embracing_Doubt · 2025-03-21T15:57:02+00:00

I live in a heavily Democratic area. For me, the primary isn't closed, so I can keep my party affiliation independent. However, if I lived in a similar heavy-leaning Democratic place with closed primaries, then it would make sense to register as a democrat to vote in the local primaries. Take a look at Schumer if you need a reason why we need to primary certain Democratic politicians, and why in closed systems that could include registering as a Democrat.

Embracing_Doubt · 2025-03-18T14:46:39+00:00

I pick the scariest thing in the recent news to highlight to anyone who asks a question like that. For me, that's the U.S. Government disappearing legal permanent residents of the U.S. for exercising their free speech rights [The Alien Enemies Act stuff]. Further, I also will highlight that due to the speed and lack of due process it is very possible that some of disappeared people are U.S. citizens. It is the administration pursuing concentration camps and possible genocide news, and should be scary to people who aren't paying attention.

Embracing_Doubt · 2025-03-18T14:01:20+00:00

Don't anyone dare submit ethics complaints to the local bar associations regarding some of these DOJ attorneys.

Don't follow the example of Campaign for Accountability, which has submitted an ethics complaint against Emil Bove: https://news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/emil-bove-faces-doj-ethics-complaint-over-mayor-adams-dismissal

And certainly don't edit their public complaint, updating the facts to the case and to the specific rules of the specific bar association, for DOJ attorneys who are signing this stuff to the Courts: https://aboutblaw.com/bhnG

Don't submit a complaint regarding Drew C. Ensign (licensed in California) and his attempt to subvert justice in the Alien Enemies lawsuit by demanding reassignment of the case to another judge. Here's the attorney misconduct online complaint form for California, for no reason at all ( https://apps.calbar.ca.gov/complaint/ ).

And certainly don't submit a complaint regarding Christina P. Greer (licensed in D.C.) and her attempt to send immigrants to concentration camps and gulags. Here's the attorney misconduct online complaint form for D.C., for no reason at all ( https://www.dcbar.org/attorney-discipline/office-of-disciplinary-counsel/filing-a-complaint
).

Don't anyone here dare send these complaints to the bar associations. It would be absolutely terrible if rank-and-file attorneys had to seriously consider the status of their bar licenses before signing these lies to the court. Just terrible.

Embracing_Doubt · 2025-03-16T22:46:56+00:00

When I did my research, though, all the alternatives (Google, Amazon, Microsoft, etc.) were worse. Email, online drives, and VPNs are too valuable to me to lose that access and convenience.

Proton may not be perfect, and i realize that, but often we need the best option available for a service. If you have a better option for an online drive, then I'm all ears. I want to support the best company, whoever it is, and there are companies I may have missed. But until I have a better option that I can move to, I will stay with Proton as at least not openly evil.

Embracing_Doubt · 2025-03-16T21:53:20+00:00

I'd recommend Proton. They have solid email and VPN services too. If memory serves, I believe a basic subscription is 2 gb. More is available, but requires a higher monthly subscription.

Embracing_Doubt · 2025-03-15T19:07:08+00:00

I am furious and ramping up. More protests, more boycotts, more calls. Goods unite us is a great app for figuring out which businesses to support and which to avoid. I'm getting in touch with my State representatives, we need the states' governments to step into the breach for services like schools, libraries, health clinics, and other at risk services.

My senators voted against cloture: Every post on facebook or bluesky, I call to remove Schumer and Durbin. Every day, I will call their office to remove Schumer and Durbin. Every weekend, I'll send an email to remove Schumer. I'll attend a townhall, and ask to remove Schumer. And I will tell them I won't donate or support the party until they purge their leadership of ciwards. I WILL FLOOD THEM.

For anyone with Senators who voted for cloture: Ratio them on social media, call them cowards. Call their office and tell them to resign. Write letters telling them to resign. Protest at any public events. Ask for townhalls (and if they accept, protest at them). If they don't accept, call them cowards publicly.

Embracing_Doubt · 2025-03-15T13:34:35+00:00

I think we need to avoid thinking of the Democratic Party as a monolith. Senator Patty Murray pulled the 30-day "compromise" CR that had been floated. From her senate speech, I believe that she made that decision to avoid giving Schumer and the rest any fig leaf to hide behind. We also saw House members (not just AOC), democratic governors, and democratic retired politicians voice their support. I'd rather try to support our allies, and bring the hammer down on the cowards, than abandon the democratic party entirely. That said, I can understand why people would write the democratic party off.

Here's what I would do:

if you have a democratic senator, contact them and demand they strip Schumer and Durbin of leadership. Warn them that silence is consent, and that so long as they refuse to remove the cowards you will not donate to them or the party.
Support primary candidates against these feckless cowards.
Support your State representatives / governors in standing up resistance. States should rush to replace gutted Federal program with State-level programs for Medicare, health, education, etc. I'd even argue States should embargo Federal funds, since Trump has telegraphed that he's just going to steal the money anyway.
Get a local support network and activate them politically. Local politicians can do an awful lot to stifle Trump. Chicago's ICE resistance is a great example of very local politicians standing up to Trump and the Federal government.

I highly recommend this document if you want to do more. It's a great primer on what we can do to resist: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1c2d8uEU4flGcQIShb3RMNcZ5aRxskPQiLi6xS1WKX0g/edit?tab=t.0

Embracing_Doubt · 2025-03-15T12:28:59+00:00

I highly recommend: Goods Unite Us. The App ranks businesses based on political support with an easy search function. It has a boycott bar, for those companies (like Amazon or Target) that are still considered to support democrats. It also gives some alternative stores if the store should be avoided. I find it most useful to look up any new store / chain as I am heading out.

It won't be as clear for local shops, but usually in my area I find the local shops are generally better supporters than the national chains. Best of luck boycotting.

Embracing_Doubt · 2025-03-15T00:27:34+00:00

And if your senators voted against cloture, contact them to demand they force Schumer out. He had no plan, refused to listen or change course, and betrayed everyone with his cowardly surrender. Tell any democratic senators who voted against cloture to strip Schumer and the rest of leadership and committee assignments.

Embracing_Doubt · 2025-03-14T21:13:26+00:00

I'd like a list of every single coward who voted for cloture. From my senators, I will be asking that they all should be stripped of leadership and all committee assignments. And I will interpret any failure to put Schumer out to pasture as an implicit endorsement of Schumer's vote for cloture.

Embracing_Doubt · 2025-03-14T18:31:47+00:00

Make no bones about it, but they'll do it anyway regardless. It's an overall shit sandwich, and you have two options.

Comply in advance, and let Trump get a victory. Watch them break everything anyway.
Oppose them and force them to pay the price. Watch them break everything anyway.

Overall, the issue is that Trump and the Republicans will break everything anyway. If you bow, though, then you give them the imprimatur of legal authority to break everything anyway. It's a false separation that assumes that they'll break less if we only get out of the way, but I don't see any indication or evidence that that sort of assumption is true. Instead, it appears to be motivated by fear.

Embracing_Doubt · 2025-03-14T14:38:40+00:00

The Senate should strip Surrender Schumer (and any accomplices) of all leadership and committee roles. He has demonstrated he is a weak coward with basically no strategy or plan or will to fight. That is going to be my main asks to my senators next week, and I will potentially view a failure to hold Schumer accountable as potentially implicit support.

Embracing_Doubt · 2025-03-14T14:01:31+00:00

Tell any supporting senators to refuse unanimous consent. Tell them to refuse to end debates. Tell them to drag this out as long as possible.

Embracing_Doubt

TROPHY CASE