Alon (they/them)
@alonlevy.bsky.social
Transit researcher in Berlin. Lived in Tel Aviv, Singapore, the Riviera, New York, Providence, Vancouver, Stockholm, Paris. https://pedestrianobservations.com/ http://patreon.com/alonlevy alon@pedestrianobservations.com @alon@mastodon.social
1. To add to this (and please don't brigade the person upthread that this responds to): in the 2024 exit polls, American voters split evenly three-way between thinking US support for Israel is too much, too little, or just right. Pro-Palestine activists often get this wrong, for several reasons. 🧵
AIPAC isn't even the primary reason Israel keeps getting US weapons & aid.
November 10, 2025 at 8:30 PM
1. To add to this (and please don't brigade the person upthread that this responds to): in the 2024 exit polls, American voters split evenly three-way between thinking US support for Israel is too much, too little, or just right. Pro-Palestine activists often get this wrong, for several reasons. 🧵
Reposted by Alon (they/them)
The difference in time between now and I can has cheezburger
Is the same between I can has Cheezburger and the Berlin Wall falling
Is the same between I can has Cheezburger and the Berlin Wall falling
November 10, 2025 at 5:46 PM
The difference in time between now and I can has cheezburger
Is the same between I can has Cheezburger and the Berlin Wall falling
Is the same between I can has Cheezburger and the Berlin Wall falling
Leider werden die Union und der deutsche Staat nichts tun, weil diese Antisemitisten haben keinen Migrationshintergrund.
Ein bemerkenswerter Aufkleber am Megaphon rechts: I ❤NS
Noch extremer, noch martialischer, noch rassistischer: So tickt die neue Neonazi-Vereinigung „Jägertruppe“
Beitritt nur mit „reiner deutscher Herkunft“: Die neue Neonazi-Vereinigung „Jägertruppe“ drängt aus dem virtuellen Raum auf die Straßen der Region. Ein Einblick in die Strukturen.
www.tagesspiegel.de
November 10, 2025 at 5:32 PM
Leider werden die Union und der deutsche Staat nichts tun, weil diese Antisemitisten haben keinen Migrationshintergrund.
Reposted by Alon (they/them)
one of my first blog posts is about inclusionary zoning mandates and how they so often backfire by resulting in *less* subsidized housing being built
November 10, 2025 at 4:17 PM
one of my first blog posts is about inclusionary zoning mandates and how they so often backfire by resulting in *less* subsidized housing being built
Pedestrian Observations: High-Speed Rail is not for Tourists pedestrianobservations.com/2025/11/09/h...
High-Speed Rail is not for Tourists
Foreigners to a country often get a warped idea of what its infrastructure is like. Most infrastructure is used for day-to-day domestic travel, for commuting to work or school, for visits to family…
pedestrianobservations.com
November 10, 2025 at 1:56 AM
Pedestrian Observations: High-Speed Rail is not for Tourists pedestrianobservations.com/2025/11/09/h...
Reposted by Alon (they/them)
In 2018, then-Mayor Ada Colau called Barcelona’s new 30% inclusionary housing requirement for projects over 600m^2 a “paradigm shift,” making housing “a right and not a commodity.” It was supposed to produce 330 affordable units a year. The reality: just 31 affordable apartments in all these years.
Cuando se ha aprobó esta medida dije repetidamente que iba a ser un fracaso y que no construirían nada de vivienda asequible. Se ha probado en mil sitios y no funciona.
Acerté. www.lavanguardia.com/local/barcel...
Acerté. www.lavanguardia.com/local/barcel...
La reserva del 30% solo ha generado 31 nuevas viviendas protegidas en siete años en Barcelona
Otros 123 pisos disponen de licencia ya aprobada, mientras los gremios afectados reclaman un marco legal estable para poder despertar al sector de su letargo
www.lavanguardia.com
November 9, 2025 at 6:28 PM
In 2018, then-Mayor Ada Colau called Barcelona’s new 30% inclusionary housing requirement for projects over 600m^2 a “paradigm shift,” making housing “a right and not a commodity.” It was supposed to produce 330 affordable units a year. The reality: just 31 affordable apartments in all these years.
Setting aside that John Rentoul is racist: asylum as used in Europe is a punt. It's a way of avoiding saying overtly "we need a net migration target of XYZ" for XYZ > 0, so instead the state lets people show up semilegally and claim asylum when it would reject ~100% of applications from abroad.
Genuinely surprised and kinda shocked that JR's response below is just a bare 'it is wrong to provide asylum to refugees'. We're all entitled to our opinions, but I think most civilized people would recognise this as a truly reprehensible opinion. Personal prejudices very much given away I reckon😬
November 9, 2025 at 6:20 PM
Setting aside that John Rentoul is racist: asylum as used in Europe is a punt. It's a way of avoiding saying overtly "we need a net migration target of XYZ" for XYZ > 0, so instead the state lets people show up semilegally and claim asylum when it would reject ~100% of applications from abroad.
Reposted by Alon (they/them)
I will never forgive the TERFs for making me sympathize with Catharine "What is a White Woman, Anyway?" MacKinnon.
Exactly!
“Honestly, seeing “women” as a turf to be defended, as opposed to a set of imperatives and limitations to be criticized, challenged, changed, or transcended, has been pretty startling.”
“Honestly, seeing “women” as a turf to be defended, as opposed to a set of imperatives and limitations to be criticized, challenged, changed, or transcended, has been pretty startling.”
if you terfs actually spent time reading radical feminists instead of selectively quoting them you’d realise, very quickly, that ‘gender critical’ is just bigotry rooted in patriarchy.
here is catherine mackinnon:
here is catherine mackinnon:
November 9, 2025 at 5:24 PM
I will never forgive the TERFs for making me sympathize with Catharine "What is a White Woman, Anyway?" MacKinnon.
November 9, 2025 at 11:09 AM
To add to yesterday's discussion on European racism: a serious problem across Europe, especially in the countries that style themselves humanitarian superpowers (Sweden, Switzerland, etc.), is that their activists dgaf about domestic racism and only care about policing non-Westerners abroad.
November 9, 2025 at 10:34 AM
To add to yesterday's discussion on European racism: a serious problem across Europe, especially in the countries that style themselves humanitarian superpowers (Sweden, Switzerland, etc.), is that their activists dgaf about domestic racism and only care about policing non-Westerners abroad.
Reposted by Alon (they/them)
Today is the day that "everything in German history happened". Good things and bad.
Never forget what Germans did to other Germans on November 9, 1938.
Never forget what Germans did to other Germans on November 9, 1938.
November 9, 2025 at 9:49 AM
Today is the day that "everything in German history happened". Good things and bad.
Never forget what Germans did to other Germans on November 9, 1938.
Never forget what Germans did to other Germans on November 9, 1938.
Happy Mauerfall to all. But don't forget to memorialize and mourn Kristallnacht as well.
November 9, 2025 at 9:42 AM
Happy Mauerfall to all. But don't forget to memorialize and mourn Kristallnacht as well.
The angel on my shoulder tells me I need to finish up my To the Pedestrian, City Center; to the Car, the World post critiquing New Left urbanism in the mold of Hidalgo. The devil tells me to do a 1 like = 1 skeet-length theorem thread to see how far I can go over an abstract algebra course.
November 9, 2025 at 2:36 AM
The angel on my shoulder tells me I need to finish up my To the Pedestrian, City Center; to the Car, the World post critiquing New Left urbanism in the mold of Hidalgo. The devil tells me to do a 1 like = 1 skeet-length theorem thread to see how far I can go over an abstract algebra course.
Do I want to try intellectualizing why Americans in Europe repeatedly portray Europeans as horrifically antizigan, Islamophobic, etc., and meanwhile literally the only people who've said anything about Roma to me here are Eastern Europeans speaking out against their societies' antiziganism?
November 8, 2025 at 8:04 PM
Do I want to try intellectualizing why Americans in Europe repeatedly portray Europeans as horrifically antizigan, Islamophobic, etc., and meanwhile literally the only people who've said anything about Roma to me here are Eastern Europeans speaking out against their societies' antiziganism?
How does Hungary even get oil from Russia? Via Serbia?
November 8, 2025 at 6:14 PM
How does Hungary even get oil from Russia? Via Serbia?
Reposted by Alon (they/them)
Has anyone done a comparison of how lethal-to-incumbents the post-2022 high inflation period was compared to the Great Financial Crisis? Restricting ourselves to the democratic 1st world.
Merkel and Stephen Harper survived the GFC, anyone else?
Then Sanchez and the Canadian Liberals hung on?
Merkel and Stephen Harper survived the GFC, anyone else?
Then Sanchez and the Canadian Liberals hung on?
November 8, 2025 at 6:57 AM
Has anyone done a comparison of how lethal-to-incumbents the post-2022 high inflation period was compared to the Great Financial Crisis? Restricting ourselves to the democratic 1st world.
Merkel and Stephen Harper survived the GFC, anyone else?
Then Sanchez and the Canadian Liberals hung on?
Merkel and Stephen Harper survived the GFC, anyone else?
Then Sanchez and the Canadian Liberals hung on?
Unless I'm misunderstanding something, this is 2.1b CHF/114 150-m long bilevel trains, which is pretty average for single-deckers and cheap for double-deckers. www.tagesschau.de/wirtschaft/u...
Siemens erhält Milliardenauftrag aus der Schweiz
Siemens hat den Zuschlag für einen Milliardenauftrag aus der Schweiz bekommen. Der Münchner Industriekonzern liefert neue Doppelstockzüge für die S-Bahnen in der Region Zürich und in der Westschweiz.
www.tagesschau.de
November 7, 2025 at 3:31 PM
Unless I'm misunderstanding something, this is 2.1b CHF/114 150-m long bilevel trains, which is pretty average for single-deckers and cheap for double-deckers. www.tagesschau.de/wirtschaft/u...
Reposted by Alon (they/them)
Oh my god, 1.6 billion for 1.5km tunnel? And giant 1.5 billion single PM/DB contract? AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH.
www.ianvisits.co.uk/articles/tfl...
www.ianvisits.co.uk/articles/tfl...
TfL begins supplier search for £1.6bn DLR link to Thamesmead
The proposed DLR extension to Thamesmead has taken a significant step forward, with Transport for London (TfL) issuing the first tender documents.
www.ianvisits.co.uk
November 7, 2025 at 1:29 PM
Oh my god, 1.6 billion for 1.5km tunnel? And giant 1.5 billion single PM/DB contract? AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH.
www.ianvisits.co.uk/articles/tfl...
www.ianvisits.co.uk/articles/tfl...
Having horns would be badass and I'm sad the anti-Semites are wrong and Jews don't have them.
November 7, 2025 at 11:26 AM
Having horns would be badass and I'm sad the anti-Semites are wrong and Jews don't have them.
Reposted by Alon (they/them)
Choose your moral condemnation of emigration:
US lib - Immigrants here are welcome. Emigrants leaving in the age of Trump are cowards and traitors.
Atlanticist - The Berlin Wall was evil. But today, preventing Russians from leaving Russia is a great way to sanction the Russian war machine.
US lib - Immigrants here are welcome. Emigrants leaving in the age of Trump are cowards and traitors.
Atlanticist - The Berlin Wall was evil. But today, preventing Russians from leaving Russia is a great way to sanction the Russian war machine.
November 7, 2025 at 9:37 AM
Choose your moral condemnation of emigration:
US lib - Immigrants here are welcome. Emigrants leaving in the age of Trump are cowards and traitors.
Atlanticist - The Berlin Wall was evil. But today, preventing Russians from leaving Russia is a great way to sanction the Russian war machine.
US lib - Immigrants here are welcome. Emigrants leaving in the age of Trump are cowards and traitors.
Atlanticist - The Berlin Wall was evil. But today, preventing Russians from leaving Russia is a great way to sanction the Russian war machine.
True, Mamdani supports building more housing, which would make him persona non grata in the Greens and Die Linke here.
Europeans recognize Zohran Mamdani’s supposedly radical policies as ‘normal’ -- Critics of New York City’s mayor-elect have said his pledges of free bus service and universal childcare are unrealistic, but in Europe it’s a given www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
Europeans recognize Zohran Mamdani’s supposedly radical policies as ‘normal’
Critics of New York City’s mayor-elect have said his pledges of free bus service and universal childcare are unrealistic, but in Europe it’s a given
www.theguardian.com
November 7, 2025 at 9:12 AM
True, Mamdani supports building more housing, which would make him persona non grata in the Greens and Die Linke here.
Reposted by Alon (they/them)
We are so moved by the words of Rabbi Sarah Reines, who visited the West Bank with T'ruah and witnessed the settler attack: "The rising danger only increases my resolve to represent the highest Jewish values of respect, lovingkindness, peace and preservation of life in the land Jews call home.”
US teen deported, Israeli rabbi wounded as tensions mount for Jewish activists in the West Bank - Jewish Telegraphic Agency
In a second incident, a settler who was a soldier fired a gun near rabbis and Jewish leaders from the United States.
www.jta.org
November 7, 2025 at 12:01 AM
We are so moved by the words of Rabbi Sarah Reines, who visited the West Bank with T'ruah and witnessed the settler attack: "The rising danger only increases my resolve to represent the highest Jewish values of respect, lovingkindness, peace and preservation of life in the land Jews call home.”
Are there interesting skeet-length proofs in math? Trying to figure out some foundational results in number theory, like existence of the integral basis (doable if you accept that the trace is nondegenerate). @matthematics.com
November 6, 2025 at 4:32 PM
Are there interesting skeet-length proofs in math? Trying to figure out some foundational results in number theory, like existence of the integral basis (doable if you accept that the trace is nondegenerate). @matthematics.com
What did you think "always an angel, never a god" meant? Vibes? Papers? Essays?
November 6, 2025 at 3:23 PM
What did you think "always an angel, never a god" meant? Vibes? Papers? Essays?