Brian Highsmith
@bhighsmith.bsky.social
institutions, inequality, geography, democracy | asst law prof at UCLA
Pinned
Brian Highsmith
@bhighsmith.bsky.social
· Nov 24
🚨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]
Reposted by Brian Highsmith
The Wisconsin component of the analysis here is revealing. Evidence is consistent with DOGE strategically delaying contract terminations in WI until after the 2025 state Supreme Court elections to mitigate electoral risk.
December 26, 2025 at 1:25 PM
The Wisconsin component of the analysis here is revealing. Evidence is consistent with DOGE strategically delaying contract terminations in WI until after the 2025 state Supreme Court elections to mitigate electoral risk.
Reposted by Brian Highsmith
“The proposed exchange, which has not previously been reported, has alarmed some conservationists and archaeologists. They worry that SpaceX could degrade tracts that are home to numerous endangered species as well as artifacts from a Civil War-era battlefield.”
Trump May Give 775 Acres of a Federal Wildlife Refuge to SpaceX
www.nytimes.com
December 23, 2025 at 4:01 PM
“The proposed exchange, which has not previously been reported, has alarmed some conservationists and archaeologists. They worry that SpaceX could degrade tracts that are home to numerous endangered species as well as artifacts from a Civil War-era battlefield.”
Reposted by Brian Highsmith
Year 1 data on congestion pricing in Manhattan…
* Vehicle traffic: -11%
* Foot traffic: +3.4%
* Storefront vacancy: -0.9%
* Pollution: -22%
* Revenue for mass transit: $548M
So YES this has been a huge success.
* Vehicle traffic: -11%
* Foot traffic: +3.4%
* Storefront vacancy: -0.9%
* Pollution: -22%
* Revenue for mass transit: $548M
So YES this has been a huge success.
December 23, 2025 at 2:00 PM
Year 1 data on congestion pricing in Manhattan…
* Vehicle traffic: -11%
* Foot traffic: +3.4%
* Storefront vacancy: -0.9%
* Pollution: -22%
* Revenue for mass transit: $548M
So YES this has been a huge success.
* Vehicle traffic: -11%
* Foot traffic: +3.4%
* Storefront vacancy: -0.9%
* Pollution: -22%
* Revenue for mass transit: $548M
So YES this has been a huge success.
Reposted by Brian Highsmith
Fantastic paper here. And of course I’m going to go for a local angle. The sheer dominance of Charlotte within Mecklenburg County has prevented local tax havens and I think that is one of our greatest strengths. Here compared to few other metros.
December 16, 2025 at 3:39 AM
Fantastic paper here. And of course I’m going to go for a local angle. The sheer dominance of Charlotte within Mecklenburg County has prevented local tax havens and I think that is one of our greatest strengths. Here compared to few other metros.
Reposted by Brian Highsmith
I'm really late to this paper, but wow, what an enormous data + methods + theory lift
🚨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]
December 16, 2025 at 2:34 AM
I'm really late to this paper, but wow, what an enormous data + methods + theory lift
Reposted by Brian Highsmith
I'm catching up on some older, bookmarked pieces. This one, from right before the incorporation of Starbase, TX, is a fascinating time capsule.
‘He’s Trying to Colonize This Community’: Inside Elon Musk’s Plan to Take Over This Texas Town
Elon Musk gave it a shot in Washington. Now he’s aiming to be the de-facto mayor of a small Texas town.
www.politico.com
December 14, 2025 at 5:15 PM
I'm catching up on some older, bookmarked pieces. This one, from right before the incorporation of Starbase, TX, is a fascinating time capsule.
Yes, and: the work of politics is to make public case that this (popular) policy agenda is connected to institutional reform. In early 19c, socialists+unions devoted extensive efforts to profile judges blocking labor legislation, arguing for court reform not in abstract but as part of worker agenda.
If we want to actually be a representative democracy, then the platform needs to be institutional reform. All the Popularism and all the policies follow from that, not the other way around.
- DC/PR/USVI statehood
- Enlarging the House
- MMDs
- New VRA
- Totally revamping SCOTUS: bsky.app/profile/mcop...
- Automatic universal voter registration
- Rewriting the "national emergency" laws: bsky.app/profile/mcop...
- Subordinating the Senate: bsky.app/profile/mcop...
Etc.
- Enlarging the House
- MMDs
- New VRA
- Totally revamping SCOTUS: bsky.app/profile/mcop...
- Automatic universal voter registration
- Rewriting
- Subordinating the Senate: bsky.app/profile/mcop...
Etc.
December 14, 2025 at 5:55 AM
Yes, and: the work of politics is to make public case that this (popular) policy agenda is connected to institutional reform. In early 19c, socialists+unions devoted extensive efforts to profile judges blocking labor legislation, arguing for court reform not in abstract but as part of worker agenda.
Reposted by Brian Highsmith
If we want to actually be a representative democracy, then the platform needs to be institutional reform. All the Popularism and all the policies follow from that, not the other way around.
- DC/PR/USVI statehood
- Enlarging the House
- MMDs
- New VRA
- Totally revamping SCOTUS: bsky.app/profile/mcop...
- Automatic universal voter registration
- Rewriting the "national emergency" laws: bsky.app/profile/mcop...
- Subordinating the Senate: bsky.app/profile/mcop...
Etc.
- Enlarging the House
- MMDs
- New VRA
- Totally revamping SCOTUS: bsky.app/profile/mcop...
- Automatic universal voter registration
- Rewriting
- Subordinating the Senate: bsky.app/profile/mcop...
Etc.
👇🎯💯
Again, the needs to be & all the committees & commissions that want to Do A Popularism & focus on Kitchen Table Issues are engaged in a category mistake about What Democrats Must Do the next time they ever have power.
bsky.app/profile/mcop...
Again, the
bsky.app/profile/mcop...
November 8, 2025 at 11:01 PM
If we want to actually be a representative democracy, then the platform needs to be institutional reform. All the Popularism and all the policies follow from that, not the other way around.
Reposted by Brian Highsmith
The pundit class, the political class… social media has broken so many brains via exactly this mechanism
related to this a lot of people in the pundit class need to learn how to just be annoyed by someone or something without turning it into What’s Wrong With America
i am fascinated by how nate silver turns everything he doesn’t like into a bespoke ideology. it’s not that he is annoyed by HCR, it is that she is a dreaded “ism” responsible for everything he doesn’t like about the democratic party. same with bluesky.
December 14, 2025 at 1:32 AM
The pundit class, the political class… social media has broken so many brains via exactly this mechanism
Reposted by Brian Highsmith
Their closing message to Indiana: change your maps to artificially benefit the President's political party or 'roads will not be paved' as punishment.
They are openly saying this.
Who would want to live in a country that works like that?
They are openly saying this.
Who would want to live in a country that works like that?
December 11, 2025 at 9:30 PM
Their closing message to Indiana: change your maps to artificially benefit the President's political party or 'roads will not be paved' as punishment.
They are openly saying this.
Who would want to live in a country that works like that?
They are openly saying this.
Who would want to live in a country that works like that?
Reposted by Brian Highsmith
America is a mafia state running a protection racket in the interest of the boss, not the people www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1... bsky.app/profile/john...
December 12, 2025 at 11:54 AM
America is a mafia state running a protection racket in the interest of the boss, not the people www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1... bsky.app/profile/john...
Reposted by Brian Highsmith
Max Huntsman, the inspector general tasked with holding the LA Sheriff’s Department to account, is retiring… and going out with a bang in this letter 🔥
December 9, 2025 at 6:43 AM
Max Huntsman, the inspector general tasked with holding the LA Sheriff’s Department to account, is retiring… and going out with a bang in this letter 🔥
Reposted by Brian Highsmith
again, it is just arrogance. “there is one true meaning of the constitution and it can only be derived by a special caste of lawyers with a special interpretative lens and once discovered it is binding.”
December 7, 2025 at 7:26 PM
again, it is just arrogance. “there is one true meaning of the constitution and it can only be derived by a special caste of lawyers with a special interpretative lens and once discovered it is binding.”
Reposted by Brian Highsmith
the idea that a handful of conservative legal scholars have an understanding that should supersede a settlement affirmed my generations of american is astoundingly arrogant, and the idea that trump — or any president — can unilaterally overturn that settlement is just despotism
December 7, 2025 at 7:18 PM
the idea that a handful of conservative legal scholars have an understanding that should supersede a settlement affirmed my generations of american is astoundingly arrogant, and the idea that trump — or any president — can unilaterally overturn that settlement is just despotism
Reposted by Brian Highsmith
The Supreme Court, Presidency, Senate and two party system are all quite anti-democratic institutions as presently constructed.
Our institutions are not only incapable of preventing tyranny—they’re currently enabling it.
When democracy returns, we need to reform our political system.
Our institutions are not only incapable of preventing tyranny—they’re currently enabling it.
When democracy returns, we need to reform our political system.
December 8, 2025 at 4:39 PM
The Supreme Court, Presidency, Senate and two party system are all quite anti-democratic institutions as presently constructed.
Our institutions are not only incapable of preventing tyranny—they’re currently enabling it.
When democracy returns, we need to reform our political system.
Our institutions are not only incapable of preventing tyranny—they’re currently enabling it.
When democracy returns, we need to reform our political system.
Reposted by Brian Highsmith
The Financial Times finally covers the Network State cult.
Is this tech fascism?
"I mean,we are funding companies that will operate non-democratic cities...and if you're not into that you shouldn't move there," says Peter Thiel protégé Patri Friedman.
Is this tech fascism?
"I mean,we are funding companies that will operate non-democratic cities...and if you're not into that you shouldn't move there," says Peter Thiel protégé Patri Friedman.
December 7, 2025 at 7:59 PM
The Financial Times finally covers the Network State cult.
Is this tech fascism?
"I mean,we are funding companies that will operate non-democratic cities...and if you're not into that you shouldn't move there," says Peter Thiel protégé Patri Friedman.
Is this tech fascism?
"I mean,we are funding companies that will operate non-democratic cities...and if you're not into that you shouldn't move there," says Peter Thiel protégé Patri Friedman.
Reposted by Brian Highsmith
Lesson 6: If you have a theory of the Supreme Court that does not include political ideology, its going to be wrong. During the Biden administration it was all major questions because they did not like his policies, and during Trump it is mostly unitary executive, because they do.
December 3, 2025 at 2:02 PM
Lesson 6: If you have a theory of the Supreme Court that does not include political ideology, its going to be wrong. During the Biden administration it was all major questions because they did not like his policies, and during Trump it is mostly unitary executive, because they do.
Reposted by Brian Highsmith
TN07 is a story about gerrymandering: the GOP cracked Nashville into 3 districts when it redrew the 2022 map, destroying the Dem seat there.
Fast-forward: a section of Nashville, which just 5 years ago had a Dem representative, is now voting Dem by huge margins but it's been designed to not matter.
Fast-forward: a section of Nashville, which just 5 years ago had a Dem representative, is now voting Dem by huge margins but it's been designed to not matter.
December 3, 2025 at 2:14 AM
TN07 is a story about gerrymandering: the GOP cracked Nashville into 3 districts when it redrew the 2022 map, destroying the Dem seat there.
Fast-forward: a section of Nashville, which just 5 years ago had a Dem representative, is now voting Dem by huge margins but it's been designed to not matter.
Fast-forward: a section of Nashville, which just 5 years ago had a Dem representative, is now voting Dem by huge margins but it's been designed to not matter.
Reposted by Brian Highsmith
I wrote last year about what became popularized as surveillance pricing: companies offering individualized prices based on reams of personal data. This is far more widespread than anyone imagined. One grocery chain builds customer profiles 62 pages long.
prospect.org/2025/12/02/p...
prospect.org/2025/12/02/p...
December 2, 2025 at 1:25 PM
I wrote last year about what became popularized as surveillance pricing: companies offering individualized prices based on reams of personal data. This is far more widespread than anyone imagined. One grocery chain builds customer profiles 62 pages long.
prospect.org/2025/12/02/p...
prospect.org/2025/12/02/p...
Reposted by Brian Highsmith
Not wanting to disappoint you so much that it lies is the last quality I want in a computer.
November 28, 2025 at 12:02 AM
Not wanting to disappoint you so much that it lies is the last quality I want in a computer.
Reposted by Brian Highsmith
A lot of us reposted and like this yesterday. Just an FYI that the authors have made this data available as well, including in shapefiles!
🔎 We used the results to make an interactive web map that allows people to look up how the property wealth in their own metro area (or any other) is fragmented across different local municipalities. This tool visualizes tax base fragmentation across the US—check it out: www.taxbasefragmentation.net
Tax Base Fragmentation | Discover Fiscal Insights — Explore Now
Explore data on tax base fragmentation and fiscal capacity across municipalities with interactive maps and analysis tools.
www.taxbasefragmentation.net
November 25, 2025 at 2:04 PM
A lot of us reposted and like this yesterday. Just an FYI that the authors have made this data available as well, including in shapefiles!
Reposted by Brian Highsmith
For all the discourse over Bay Area inequality, LA is on a totally different level
November 25, 2025 at 6:14 AM
For all the discourse over Bay Area inequality, LA is on a totally different level
Reposted by Brian Highsmith
Check out our new paper (+ the accompanying web viz)!
🚨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]
November 25, 2025 at 4:27 PM
Check out our new paper (+ the accompanying web viz)!
Reposted by Brian Highsmith
Today while browsing an interactive map about tax base fragmentation in metro areas (I'll link further down) I learned about a tiny city called Hilltop, MN, 16 city blocks in size, an enclave fully inside Columbia Heights.
Its history: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hilltop...
Its history: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hilltop...
Hilltop, Minnesota - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
November 25, 2025 at 3:54 PM
Today while browsing an interactive map about tax base fragmentation in metro areas (I'll link further down) I learned about a tiny city called Hilltop, MN, 16 city blocks in size, an enclave fully inside Columbia Heights.
Its history: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hilltop...
Its history: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hilltop...
Reposted by Brian Highsmith
Check out this 🧵 on our own @robertmanduca.bsky.social's work with @bhighsmith.bsky.social and Jacob Waggoner. 👇 #AcademicSky #WealthInequality
🚨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]
November 25, 2025 at 1:21 PM
Check out this 🧵 on our own @robertmanduca.bsky.social's work with @bhighsmith.bsky.social and Jacob Waggoner. 👇 #AcademicSky #WealthInequality