Kirsten Bladh
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kerstanley.bsky.social
Kirsten Bladh
@kerstanley.bsky.social
Policy @ Open New York. She/her. Cargo bike mom. Bassist for Leggy in my former life. NYC via LA via Cincinnati. Left urbanist 🏙️🚆🌹 Lamentably, a Bengals fan 🐅
They also hate their own kids
February 10, 2026 at 1:43 PM
Reposted by Kirsten Bladh
If everyone reacting to this incredulously/asking why we can’t have nice things could take a few mins to email Manhattan CB 2 about how the proposed project’s design and aesthetics are appropriate for the historic district that would be great. 🫶🏻

📧 cbmanhattan.cityofnewyork.us/cb2/contact/
Currently dialed into a community board meeting where a bunch of boomer NIMBYs are trying to argue this NoHo parking lot needs to be preserved and not turned into affordable housing.

god, NIMBYs are beyond parody. they must be politically crushed
February 10, 2026 at 3:30 AM
I do think there’s something to that, and my most direct experience with this phenomenon was when an old man from the LA Sierra Club told me he was against SB 79 because it would upzone his childhood home.
February 10, 2026 at 1:22 PM
Reposted by Kirsten Bladh
The current NIMBY speaking literally just said “I live right next to this parking lot and it gives the area a real neighborhood feeling”
February 10, 2026 at 12:04 AM
Reposted by Kirsten Bladh
Personally I don't think CA should give Tesla or any other Musk company a single penny of public subsidy after Elon's war on democracy and the state budget. Basic exercise in fighting back!
CA's climate+air regulators present their support of Tesla as the only way to decarbonize freight - but they're ignoring the state's freight rail system, which could take a huge bite out of the problem at a fraction the cost, while supporting passenger rail infrastructure!

h/t @niedermeyer.online
"Nevertheless, the reservation of vouchers effectively limited access to funding for other manufacturers with production-ready electric trucks, as HVIP operates on a first-come, first-served basis and funding rounds are typically oversubscribed within days."

Always frustrating.
February 9, 2026 at 9:50 PM
Reposted by Kirsten Bladh
It really annoys me that the moral panic over e-bikes obscures the incredible impact they have had for disabled people.
This. For the disabled they are a vital tool, and without mine, I am housebound. The inherent ableism infuriates me, especially since I am a careful rider. In every incident I have been in, and there are very few, I was the victim not the cause. Every time.
February 9, 2026 at 7:16 PM
Reposted by Kirsten Bladh
February 9, 2026 at 2:16 AM
Reposted by Kirsten Bladh
They should start showing cut scenes of Santa Clara. Give us a dilapidated 1970s strip mall and an 8 lane arterial road. Show us how many restaurants are already closed even though it's only 5:30.
February 9, 2026 at 1:44 AM
Also, baby food pouches are processed food! Which is totally fine, just quite hypocritical in this instance.
February 8, 2026 at 7:08 PM
I think you might be looking at a retail vacancy rate. The residential vacancy rate in Manhattan is ~1.5%, and almost all of those are apartments in between tenants.
February 8, 2026 at 6:16 PM
Reposted by Kirsten Bladh
this interaction (about me!) says everything you need to know about the Bay Area neolibs
February 8, 2026 at 1:38 PM
Reposted by Kirsten Bladh
Very telling that the initiative exempts all home value for CA seniors. Could have easily capped the exemption to the first $1M in value, but the motivation isn't about low-income seniors in modest homes, it's about the rich wanting an exemption.
February 8, 2026 at 4:37 PM
This one does take that into account, and says that $60k puts you in top 2% once adjusted for cost of living in the U.S.
How Rich Am I?
Calculate how rich you are compared to the rest of the world. Are you in the top global income percentile? Does your household income make you wealthy?
www.givingwhatwecan.org
February 8, 2026 at 1:01 PM
I think a lot of people forget/don’t know that Mamdani was a state assemblymember when he ran for office. I don’t see how that’s more of an outsider than a city councilmember.
February 7, 2026 at 10:40 PM
Moderate is not synonymous with liberal. There are plenty of moderates with no liberal values.
February 7, 2026 at 1:28 AM
Reposted by Kirsten Bladh
Wow. While neighbors marched for safety, CM Joann Ariola chose to drive on Freedom Dr through the rally. Her message to families in the area and kids who attend school 2 blocks away? Their safety matters less than a 0.3 mile shortcut for a few. 🎥: Safer Streets Richmond Hilll
February 6, 2026 at 11:56 PM
Reposted by Kirsten Bladh
The bad news: our amazing Chief of Staff and Policy Director @andrewdfine.bsky.social is leaving.

The good news: He’s joining the Mamdani administration as Senior Advisor for Policy & Regulatory Reform to Deputy Mayor Leila Bozorg! 🥳

Exciting news: We’re hiring a new policy director ⬇️
February 6, 2026 at 8:06 PM
Reposted by Kirsten Bladh
This is Maria, a 6-year-old detained by ICE last year.

She began to unravel soon after arriving at a detention center in Texas, wetting the bed after years without accidents, crying through the night and begging to breastfeed again.

Most of all, she wanted to be reunited with her cat, Milo. 1/
February 6, 2026 at 6:25 PM
Reposted by Kirsten Bladh
Importantly, it also means we are hiring for a new Policy Director - job posting is here, please share far and wide!
open-new-york.breezy.hr/p/851ac1ee79...
Policy Director at Open New York
About Open New York Open New York (ONY) is a grassroots, non-profit organization advocating for abundant homes and lower rent. With a rapidly growing staff and hundreds of active volunteer members acr...
open-new-york.breezy.hr
February 6, 2026 at 7:32 PM
Reposted by Kirsten Bladh
Some exciting (& bittersweet) news: our Chief of Staff & Policy Director @andrewdfine.bsky.social will be leaving Open New York to join the Mamdani admin, where he will be a senior advisor to DM Bozorg overseeing housing policy 🧵
February 6, 2026 at 7:32 PM
By 2030, 1 in 4 Californians will be over age 60 and 1 million will be over 85.
February 5, 2026 at 10:35 PM
Reposted by Kirsten Bladh
America: where the alignments of $100B transportation projects are chosen based on whether a chain store would have to be relocated.
February 5, 2026 at 6:37 PM
Reposted by Kirsten Bladh
dawg the pedophiles are unionizing
very weird “I am Spartacus” thing happening right now with the worst people on earth
February 5, 2026 at 2:25 PM
Reposted by Kirsten Bladh
This I think is a big part of the appeal of AI to the oligarchs. Not that it will replace labor or raise profits in general, but that it will specifically replace the labor whose autonomy impinges on them personally.
February 5, 2026 at 2:35 PM