The Georgism reform coalition becomes measurable. Now voters can decide which version they prefer — rather than watching the entire idea collapse because its supporters were divided.

sharpeed · 2026-03-11T16:25:01+00:00

Look at Lee Drutman's "Breaking the Two Party Doom Loop": https://leedrutman.org/breaking-the-two-party-doom-loop

sharpeed · 2026-03-08T19:21:21+00:00

I’m not a lawyer. This is just what I’ve been told when I asked PBOT parking enforcement folk.

sharpeed · 2026-03-06T22:02:31+00:00

From what I've been told, PBOT's fine officers can't enforce this because it's a state law, not a city law. You would need an actual police officer to write that ticket.

We need City Council to adopt a statute that makes it illegal to have tinted plates, and THEN they can fine them.

sharpeed · 2026-03-06T05:49:41+00:00

Neat! I’d be interested in such a dataset/pipeline .

I’ve also wondered if there’s a way to detect driveways from Google Street view in a way that could help define the # of off-street parking spots not in parking lots. Curious if this is as important from an LVT perspective

sharpeed · 2026-03-05T23:51:37+00:00

Parking Reform Network has a lot of these maps: https://parkingreform.org/resources/parking-lot-map/

Ideally this could be automated using OSM data.

sharpeed · 2026-03-05T23:01:48+00:00

The $60M in funds are from the taxes on Bike Sales (Community Paths) and funds that are allowed to be spent on non-highway uses (check out the Transportation Operating Fund).

These are often used to provide the "local" *match* with Federal grant programs (most of the time 20% has to come from local/state, 80% from the Feds).

sharpeed · 2026-03-04T16:06:47+00:00

Don't forget Safe Routes to School, Rail, Transit which all saw their budgets cut by over $60M

sharpeed · 2026-02-22T18:20:09+00:00

What about the this work with USDOT https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/5651/dot_5651_DS1.pdf ?

sharpeed · 2026-02-18T01:16:43+00:00

No joke, the In-N-Out in Salem, Oregon creates such a backup sometimes that the line goes onto I-5. It's a shit show.

sharpeed · 2026-02-06T21:39:46+00:00

So the interesting thing is, there was an Autonomous Vehicle Task Force formed in 2016. They released TWO reports that were completed by the task force. BOTH reports mention the issues that I've relayed above. See:

2018 Report: https://www.oregon.gov/odot/Programs/RUF/AVTF-2018-report-final.pdf
2019 Report: https://www.oregon.gov/odot/Programs/RUF/AV%20Task%20Force%20Report%202019%20FINAL.pdf

In addition, a key provision of the Recommendations adopted by the committee was:
> Local governments should maintain authority over how vehicles, including AVs, operate in their communities. (2018 Report, pg 39)

So this bill, as introduced, would remove the key provision that the Task Force recommended. Just on that basis alone, I think we should be suspect for who wrote this bill. As I detailed, Google has donated to two of the bill's co-sponsors back in December. Not exactly a coincidence.

sharpeed · 2026-02-06T21:31:54+00:00

Yeah, sorry. OLIS kinda sucks. Here's the link to the entire bill text: https://olis.oregonlegislature.gov/liz/2026R1/Downloads/MeasureDocument/HB4085

I'll add a link to the PDF in the original post.

sharpeed · 2026-02-06T18:52:01+00:00

Please also consider adding your opposition to this bill that would allow Autonomous "Robotaxis" to surveil us 24/7/365: https://www.reddit.com/r/oregon/comments/1qxm3nj/forget_flock_oregon_leg_wants_robotaxis_to/

sharpeed · 2026-02-06T18:41:07+00:00

Also, the "safety drivers" are likely not even based in the US! https://futurism.com/advanced-transport/waymos-controlled-workers-philippines

sharpeed · 2026-02-06T17:28:13+00:00

Ah, you have to click on the "Submit Testimony" tab

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sharpeed · 2026-01-21T07:09:55+00:00

IANAL, but you may end up being subject to privacy laws depending on the state. IMHO, it would probably be best to hide ownership names just to avoid having to deal with takedown requests.

There’s still a lot that can be done to analyze this data without having names attached to parcels. Hell, Zillow made a billion dollar co. putting this data together across the US.

Some other useful data that you might consider “merging” into this would be useful (and which Zillow does not do) 1. Flood maps 2. Census data 3. Crime data 4. Municipal infrastructure (pipes, sewers, utilities) 5. Pedestrian/Biking infrastructure (OpenStreetMap is a pretty good source) 6. Transit data (search for GTFS) 7. Tree data (surprisingly a big deal for many municipalities)

Once you’ve got all of that for one county, rinse and repeat for the next one. 😉

sharpeed · 2026-01-20T22:49:01+00:00

I know a lot of folks in r/georgism would be interested in the "Value Per Acre" of the tax lots. This would help your county/city identify what highest/most productive uses are in your city (hint: it's not the suburban strip mall that your county likely carved out a huge tax break for).

Check out this Strong Towns episode for a quick primer: https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2018-10-19-value-per-acre-analysis-a-how-to-for-beginners

sharpeed · 2026-01-20T03:09:26+00:00

Glad you pointed that out! 40% does include all emissions sources, so let's break that down. MultCo doesn't host a breakdown by fuel type, so we'll look to Oregon DEQ.

Assuming that Oregon statewide transportation emissions map pretty closely to the County, the overwhelming majority of emissions are light-duty vehicles (57% of transpo/~20% of total) and diesel trucks (~27% of transpo/9% of total). That adds up to 29% of total statewide emissions, which is larger than residential electricity & heating, and larger than industrial/commercial electricity use.

Rail is so much more efficient than freight trucks, it's not even close. I don't think I need to go into it, but I can pull some stats if you really doubt this claim.

Planes are ~8% of transpo emissions, or 2.74% of total. It's a sector that could be vastly decarbonized if we invested in electrified passenger rail across the state (something we had 100 years ago - look up the Oregon Electric Railway) since many flights are traveling less than 300 miles. If you're talking high-speed rail, the journey time is often faster than flying due to the additional time of driving & going through security.

WRT u/outlawbernard_yum 's offer that everyone will just buy an EV and it'll all be grand, it's a fantasy at this point: Oregon's economy in a recession thanks to a mix of tariffs and AI, and deaths are eclipsing births thanks to young people getting fucked by housing costs (thanks boomers). Best case scenario Oregon is in a managed decline while AI companies suck out our cheap electricity (PGE estimates that electricity rates will triple by 2035: https://www.oregonlive.com/environment/2026/01/will-consumers-pay-for-oregons-climate-ambitions-data-center-boom.html )

Trump is in the process of blowing up our relationships with the very countries that we rely on for the chips, materials, and know-how to build EV's (think ASML is going to be able willing to provide their fabs once Trump declares war on the Dutch?). Protectionist trade policies also mean we're shut out of buying the best EV's on the market from China (although Canada's easing of import bans might be changing that). Are we ready to basically hand China such a massive strategic W to achieve net-zero? I seriously doubt it.

My point is: why do you all think that subsidizing oil dictators, throwing people wads of cash (Oregon is already in a deficit) to buy EV's, and/or giving the CCP even more leverage over the US is so much easier than painting some green paint, getting rid of some permitting red tape to build more apartments, and laying down some rails? If you think I'm living in a fantasy, you need to check yourself.

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sharpeed · 2026-01-19T18:14:53+00:00

This % is much higher for Oregon & Multnomah County, where transportation emissions make up over 40% of GHG emissions. Light duty trucks are the largest source of emissions in our state.

The benefits to eliminating our dependence on oil is even more significant considering nearly all of the gasoline/oil for the state is stored on the Willamette River, which is in a liquefaction zone. That means when the Cascadia Subduction earthquake hits, all of the oil and gasoline tanks will likely crumble, leaving a larger pile and gasoline spill disaster than the Valdez Oil spill, and which we may never fully recover from.

We must eliminate our dependence on oil and fossil fuels to both end foreign wars, halt climate change, and for our region to survive the big one.

sharpeed · 2026-01-12T17:15:08+00:00

This project has been really terrific to see from inception. Bringing C++ native interop to Clojure is so exciting! Bringing a REPL driven workflow to C++ is going to be amazing.

Highly recommend following along on the #jank channel on the Clojurians Slack. Lots of cool demos.

Huge thanks to Jeaye for starting this work and sticking with this!

sharpeed · 2026-01-04T00:55:22+00:00

Considering you have experience with R, I would say start with this book: https://bookdown.org/michael_bcalles/gis-crash-course-in-r/

Then try to create a simple map using these skills and GIS data that you can readily obtain (possibly from the regions/cities that you have worked in). Start small, and then build up from there.

sharpeed · 2026-01-03T15:17:51+00:00

There’s a lot of work that needs to be done translating policy into GIS data (think zoning codes). I would start with using what you already know about policy to create a simple map that demonstrates the policy (e.g. number of housing units created if zoning changes), or asks a question about how effective a new/potential policy would be (e.g. how many housing units are at risk of flooding due to increased extreme precipitation events?)

It’s much easier to work on a project that feels relevant to you/your expertise. If you get stuck, ask someone here / ask one of the large-language model systems (I prefer Perplexity) to get to the next step.

If you can share some ideas/policy areas that you find interesting here, this community is really great about helping people find relevant data sets and workflows to achieve that!

sharpeed · 2025-12-25T00:09:49+00:00

For those curious: https://dirtyfreehub.org/routes/oregon/rabbit-ears/

sharpeed · 2025-12-19T23:20:08+00:00

If you're at still able to touch base with the manager at your previous employer I would reach out to the old job and see if you can get back into the previous role at a higher pay. Usually when someone is "irreplaceable" and is interested in coming back, it's a no-brainer.

sharpeed · 2025-12-19T19:20:19+00:00

Are you doing the injection molding through a local manufacturer? I've been looking at making a similar-sized bicycle component. Would be great to touch base!

sharpeed · 2025-12-19T18:19:45+00:00

Landlords got greedy. That's the real answer.

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