Hansi Munasinghe
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hansimunasinghe.bsky.social
Hansi Munasinghe
@hansimunasinghe.bsky.social
440 followers 1.1K following 310 posts
Researcher 👩🏾‍💻 Cities and transportation policy | Sociology PhD 🔬 Immigration, social & political inequality | also here to chit chat about 📺 TV and movies, 📚 books, 🧶 fiber arts, 🌱gardening | 🇩🇪 🇱🇰 🇺🇸 she/her
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hansimunasinghe.bsky.social
Inspiring and insightful keynote by #APPAM2025 President Ingrid Gould Ellen on importance of and opportunities for policy research at local and state government levels.
Photo of a slide with purple text. Heading reads: "Summary: Arguments for Unique Value of Local Govt Policy/Mgmt Research". Bullet points read: Local governments perform critical/unique functions; lots of variation to exploit; robust demand;create policy impact; and access to administrative data.
November 14, 2025 at 3:33 AM
hansimunasinghe.bsky.social
Finally gave into Hello Fresh coupons and browsed their recipes. And look what I found - spicy Sri Lankan inspired butter shrimp! #lka
Image shows a screenshot of the Hello Fresh website. Image of a bowl of rice topped with shrimp coated in a red curry sauce. Text underneath reads - global straight eats, s. Spicy Sri Lankan inspired butter shrimp with bell pepper, red onion, chili flakes and rice.
October 11, 2025 at 7:53 AM
hansimunasinghe.bsky.social
Oh found this image of Colombo from 2004 via wikimedia:
commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Co...
Street scene. That is an asphalt mode that curves away from the screen and disappears behind a building. The whole street is lined with small shops and buildings that are about two stories tall. Almost every building has multiple signs on it with the names of various businesses, some horizontal signs and some vertical that each letter takes up a panel. The signs are colorful, reds and oranges and contrasting colors to grab your attention but all together to create a blow of letters. The buildings cast a shadow halfway across the street indicating it must be in the early afternoon. Vehicles are seen moving away from the camera while a couple of cars are parked on the side of the street. On the center of the street is a bicycle with two people sitting on it.
September 13, 2025 at 8:40 AM
hansimunasinghe.bsky.social
Now that we are in September, it's time LOCK IN to achieve completely arbitrary goals!
Screenshot reads: 2025 reading goals. You have read 7 books this year. A progress bar shows 20% of the goal has been achieved. Small print says "16 books until you're back on track!"
September 2, 2025 at 7:28 AM
hansimunasinghe.bsky.social
Spotted a waterfall that looked like it was falling from the sky. Tahoma (Mt Rainier), near the Nisqually Glacier.

#Washington #MtRainier #PNW #NaturePhotography
The image appears almost black and white. The top third is covered in white most or clouds. Where it begins to fade away you can see jagged black rock face. The bottom third has patches of snow in the scree. A bright white cascade of water is cascading from above, and almost looks like it is falling from the sky.
August 20, 2025 at 7:41 AM
hansimunasinghe.bsky.social
Forgot to post this pic from the best sandwich spot from a couple of weeks ago - hike Mt Rainier (Tahoma) National Park with views of the Emmons Glacier and the starting point of the White River.
In the foreground is a hand holding a sandwich wrapped in cling wrap. Someone has taken a few bites of the sandwich and the peanut butter and jelly layers are showing. The purple color of the jam matches the nail varnish of the person holding the sandwich. You can tell that the person must be sitting on a cliffside because their feet are stretched out in front of them and the dusty rocky ground abruptly ends a foot or two in front of their hiking shoe clad feet. Below this cliff is a valley of dark green trees, mostly pines. On the other side of this valley, a mountain rises steeply. Only a few trees can be seen on the slopes on the hillside closest to the viewer, further out you can see snow covered ridges. Where the mountain meets the valley is a brooding mound of what looks like dirt - this is the glacier! There is a gaping hole in the glacier from which a snaking river emerges - the White River.
August 8, 2025 at 3:57 AM
hansimunasinghe.bsky.social
The average Ezra Klein fan.
Screenshot shows a comment made by the user lm602 and shows it was made 4 days ago. The comment reads: "Complete nonsense, this is the most consistent podcast I unfortunately listen to. It's always stupid psychobabble."
August 4, 2025 at 9:43 AM
hansimunasinghe.bsky.social
Got to experience the breathtaking Olympic mountains recently.
Image of pine covered mountains. In the foreground is some brown earth with some shrubbery and small pine trees. Then a sharp drop off. Ahead is a valley that zigzags between mountains. You can see the details of countless pine trees on the mountain nearest but the further away they get the more blurrier and bluer they appear. At the horizon the mountains appear to have some snow and rocks at the very top.
July 29, 2025 at 7:46 AM
hansimunasinghe.bsky.social
Meet my senior dog, Rusky!

We rescued him more than a decade old and we think he's about 14 years old. We found out using a DNA test that he is a Chihuahua and Chow Chow mix. He is a very good boy!
Dog with reddish long fur and white boots is happily panting with his eyes closed on a night and sunny sidewalk. You can see a red leash and purple lavender bush in the background.
July 14, 2025 at 7:43 PM
hansimunasinghe.bsky.social
Something missing from this conversation is that mostly red states have been in the lead for investment in renewables and renewable energy production as a percentage of energy generated.

Numbers for wind below (from Wikipedia):
Screenshot reads: The five states with the most wind capacity installed at the end of 2020 were: Texas (33,133 MW) Iowa (11,660 MW) Oklahoma (9,048 MW) Kansas (7,016 MW) Illinois (6,409 MW) The top five states according to percentage of generation by wind in 2020 were:[63] Iowa (57.5%) Kansas (43.3%) Oklahoma (35.4%) South Dakota (32.9%) North Dakota (30.8%)
June 29, 2025 at 9:03 PM
hansimunasinghe.bsky.social
Timeline cleanse!

Here are some busy bees buzzing about some flowers!
May 29, 2025 at 7:15 AM
hansimunasinghe.bsky.social
Got to see the incredible Ana Tijoux perform last night. In between songs she shared a message of embracing joy in resistance, which feels so important in this moment.
Ana Tijoux singing on stage, bathed in green stage lights and beams of lime light. Silhouettes of cheering fans are in the foreground.
May 3, 2025 at 5:58 AM
hansimunasinghe.bsky.social
There's even a nice song about this
Screenshot of the lyrics to the song Big Yellow Taxi by Joni Mitchell. The lyrics: "They paved paradise And put up a parking lot With a pink hotel *, a boutique And a swinging hot spot Don't it always seem to go That you don't know what you've got Till it's gone They paved paradise And put up a parking lot They took all the trees Put 'em in a tree museum * And they charged the people A dollar and a half just to see 'em"
April 19, 2025 at 7:49 AM
hansimunasinghe.bsky.social
There's also a consulate of El Salvador in Seattle, Washington:
The Broderick Building, 615 2nd Ave #50, Seattle, WA 98104
Screenshot showing Google search results information for the consulate of El Salvador in Seattle, Washington.
April 15, 2025 at 3:30 AM
hansimunasinghe.bsky.social
Another shot showing a fuller arc of the rainbow!
The foreground shows a gravel parking lines by a dance and trees. Through a break in the trees you can see a city skyline bathed in afternoon sun. The sky is a cloudy blue grey, with patches of light yellow appearing behind the trees on the right. A massive arc of a rainbow can be seen starting on the far horizon, rising hundreds of feet above the city, and disappearing into the clouds.
April 13, 2025 at 10:11 PM
hansimunasinghe.bsky.social
Rare combo of sun and rain last week gave us this stunning rainbow above the City of Seattle!
City skyline bathed in afternoon sun, including the iconic space needle on the far left. The sky is a cloudy blue grey. A massive arc of a rainbow can be seen emerging from the clouds and shining down on a part of the city further away on the horizon. Some ships and trees are visible in the foreground.
April 13, 2025 at 9:41 PM
hansimunasinghe.bsky.social
Always cracks me up when Orcas come up as a cause for NIMBYism.

Dense housing + transit is best for the environment, compared to urban sprawl that requires everyone to drive an hour or more to get to the city (wear and tear on tires going into waterways etc.).

www.theurbanist.org/2025/04/12/s...
Screenshot of a news article reads "negative impacts on the city's tree canopy. One of the appeals, filed by musician Jennifer Godfrey, specifically argued that the city didn't adequately consider the impacts of One Seattle plan on Washington's population of Southern Resident Killer whales."
April 13, 2025 at 9:32 PM
hansimunasinghe.bsky.social
Wanted to see what the Abundance hype was about and the line is long!
Screenshot of the Libby app showing Ezra Klein's new book Abundance on hold - "15 weeks wait at Seattle Public Library... 447th in line"
March 29, 2025 at 8:38 AM
hansimunasinghe.bsky.social
Post a warning
Warning sign made of laminated paper nailed to a post reads "Warning - Cougar frequenting area - be alert. Solo hiking not advised. Supervise children closely." Also has a black and white illustration of a cougar.
March 24, 2025 at 6:43 AM
hansimunasinghe.bsky.social
Spotted at a grocery store in Seattle
Cartons of guacamole sitting on a refrigerator shelf. Price tag reads $7.49. Next to the price tag is a sticker of Donald Trump with his finger pointed up, with text underneath his image saying "I did that!"
March 22, 2025 at 8:19 AM
hansimunasinghe.bsky.social
Mountains at dusk.

I don't love how I framed this but I'm happy with what I managed to capture with freezing fingers!
Snow capped mountains appear almost black against a radiant blue sky. A few bright orange lights dot the foreground.
March 8, 2025 at 11:47 AM
hansimunasinghe.bsky.social
Screen from the show Succession. Kendall Roy is in a sporty/leather jacket, talking to two women facing away from the camera. Caption reads: "it just feels like an asshole's birthday party."
March 1, 2025 at 8:37 AM
hansimunasinghe.bsky.social
I grew up in Sri Lanka and watched in horror from afar as the currency tumbled in 2022. Inflation had always been high, but the time it took for the Sri Lankan Rupee to be worth 1/2 of what it was before was the span of a few months, if not weeks. A handful of poor decisions just snowballed.
Screenshot of a chart showing value of US dollar compared to Sri Lankan Rupee. It shows a gradual decline in the Rupee starting around 2014, and a sharp decline in 2022.
February 23, 2025 at 11:51 AM
hansimunasinghe.bsky.social
Preserved limes.
Hand holding up a jar full of quartered limes with salt crystals and lime juice clinging to the inside of the jar. The beige color of the glass jar blends into the color of the wall behind in a satisfying way.
February 22, 2025 at 5:54 AM
hansimunasinghe.bsky.social
This movie was life changing in the sense that it immediately made me want to tell everyone I know to watch it too-

Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In
Movie poster. Dark and gritty image with Chinese text and smudged image of a group of men sitting on the floor and chairs and leaning against furniture. Some appear to be holding knives and other weapons.
January 27, 2025 at 8:21 AM