verity freebern
@verityfreebern.bsky.social
Art, design, housing, rocks. NE LA.
Reposted by verity freebern
The music cuts off awkwardly before the end, but this is an incredible NYC Halloween costume compilation.
October 31, 2025 at 9:53 PM
The music cuts off awkwardly before the end, but this is an incredible NYC Halloween costume compilation.
Reposted by verity freebern
More than 1800 detainees are missing after the closure of Alligator Alcatraz. Their families and lawyers can’t find them and they’ve vanished from the ICE database. Feels like this should be a much bigger story www.miamiherald.com/news/local/i...
Hundreds of Alligator Alcatraz detainees drop off the grid after leaving site
As of the end of August, the whereabouts of two-thirds of more than 1,800 men detained at Alligator Alcatraz during the month of July could not be determined by the Miami Herald.
www.miamiherald.com
September 23, 2025 at 5:39 PM
More than 1800 detainees are missing after the closure of Alligator Alcatraz. Their families and lawyers can’t find them and they’ve vanished from the ICE database. Feels like this should be a much bigger story www.miamiherald.com/news/local/i...
Reposted by verity freebern
I wrote about Nithya Raman's evolution on housing from cautious DSA lefty to full-throated prohousing leader. She's gone on a Buffy Wicks-like policy tear in 2025, tackling everything from single stair to permitting reform. Zoning is likely next.
Could housing politics in LA be getting better?
Could housing politics in LA be getting better?
Nithya Raman's YIMBY moment
Finally, an LA politician is taking our housing crisis seriously.
futureis.la
September 17, 2025 at 5:30 PM
I wrote about Nithya Raman's evolution on housing from cautious DSA lefty to full-throated prohousing leader. She's gone on a Buffy Wicks-like policy tear in 2025, tackling everything from single stair to permitting reform. Zoning is likely next.
Could housing politics in LA be getting better?
Could housing politics in LA be getting better?
Reposted by verity freebern
I've got some extra copies of There Is No Place for Us, and I'd love to give away 5 signed books.
Just repost, like, or comment to signal your interest. I'll pick names at random on Friday.
Totally optional: feel free to share how the struggle for stable housing shows up in your life or community.
Just repost, like, or comment to signal your interest. I'll pick names at random on Friday.
Totally optional: feel free to share how the struggle for stable housing shows up in your life or community.
September 17, 2025 at 7:03 PM
I've got some extra copies of There Is No Place for Us, and I'd love to give away 5 signed books.
Just repost, like, or comment to signal your interest. I'll pick names at random on Friday.
Totally optional: feel free to share how the struggle for stable housing shows up in your life or community.
Just repost, like, or comment to signal your interest. I'll pick names at random on Friday.
Totally optional: feel free to share how the struggle for stable housing shows up in your life or community.
Reposted by verity freebern
Why is the rent so damn high in LA? Simple economics: the demand for housing is extremely high and our housing supply is extremely low.
August 26, 2025 at 11:51 PM
Why is the rent so damn high in LA? Simple economics: the demand for housing is extremely high and our housing supply is extremely low.
LA leaders prove yet again that they should not be leading.
Los Angeles, home to the least affordable housing in the United States and the largest homeless population in the Western Hemisphere, will vote to formally oppose state legislation that would make it easier to build apartments near mass transit on Tuesday. This city should be disincorporated.
August 16, 2025 at 8:22 PM
LA leaders prove yet again that they should not be leading.
Reposted by verity freebern
One cool way to solve homelessness that isn’t an authoritarian take over of a city is to give everyone homes
August 11, 2025 at 7:03 PM
One cool way to solve homelessness that isn’t an authoritarian take over of a city is to give everyone homes
WtAF is wrong with Mayor Bass? Sooo disappointing.
Killing SB 79 will make Los Angeles a less affordable, less sustainable place -- it'll keep us on the same trajectory we've been on since SB 827 and SB 50 were killed almost a decade ago. Why is the mayor going out of her way to oppose it? There's no excuse for this.
Call @mayor.lacity.gov to tell her to support - and stop telling other lawmakers to oppose - SB 79 and statewide standards for transit-oriented development! docs.google.com/document/d/1...
August 8, 2025 at 1:28 AM
WtAF is wrong with Mayor Bass? Sooo disappointing.
Reposted by verity freebern
You probably learned about homonyms in school: words that are pronounced or spelled the same but differ in meaning.
bear (animal)
bear (carry)
But did you know there are actually two kinds of homonyms: homophones and homographs.
Let’s dew this.
🧵⬇️
bear (animal)
bear (carry)
But did you know there are actually two kinds of homonyms: homophones and homographs.
Let’s dew this.
🧵⬇️
July 23, 2025 at 1:39 PM
You probably learned about homonyms in school: words that are pronounced or spelled the same but differ in meaning.
bear (animal)
bear (carry)
But did you know there are actually two kinds of homonyms: homophones and homographs.
Let’s dew this.
🧵⬇️
bear (animal)
bear (carry)
But did you know there are actually two kinds of homonyms: homophones and homographs.
Let’s dew this.
🧵⬇️
Reposted by verity freebern
The NYT ethos: we will scrupulously and conspicuously use “whom” but we are kind of on the fence about freedom
NY Times showing how to both sides the secret police abduction squads story
July 21, 2025 at 3:37 PM
The NYT ethos: we will scrupulously and conspicuously use “whom” but we are kind of on the fence about freedom
Reposted by verity freebern
Hopefully, Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy can stop sobbing uncontrollably about a teenager on the C train who was watching TikTok without earbuds and devote a little of his attention to the near constant disaster that is air travel these days.
this is about as mad as you’re going to see a pilot on an intercom after they almost got directed into another plane on approach. also the reveal of what kind of plane almost slammed into them is a jaw-dropper
July 21, 2025 at 1:57 PM
Hopefully, Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy can stop sobbing uncontrollably about a teenager on the C train who was watching TikTok without earbuds and devote a little of his attention to the near constant disaster that is air travel these days.
Reposted by verity freebern
This is absolutely true: the boundary between "housed" and "unhoused" in America is brutally porous. Millions of people are one rent hike, one missed paycheck, one medical emergency away from homelessness.
And there's massive investment in keeping that reality hidden.
And there's massive investment in keeping that reality hidden.
Actually do things with homeless people — they are members of your community, half of them have jobs, they’re not people to play safari with and volunteer at a soup kitchen once and think you’re one and done — and you will find that the line between them and you becoming them is shockingly thin
If you have fears about homeless people in your neighborhood, I advise that you go talk to them. Bring a handful of twenties, if you can afford it, hand them out and talk to them like human beings.
You’ll stop feeling as scared and start feeling sad and angry that people have to suffer needlessly.
You’ll stop feeling as scared and start feeling sad and angry that people have to suffer needlessly.
July 21, 2025 at 3:15 PM
This is absolutely true: the boundary between "housed" and "unhoused" in America is brutally porous. Millions of people are one rent hike, one missed paycheck, one medical emergency away from homelessness.
And there's massive investment in keeping that reality hidden.
And there's massive investment in keeping that reality hidden.
Reposted by verity freebern
The subway risk chart you've been waiting for (Sawyer County, Wisconsin, is where Sean Duffy is from). Gift link: www.bloomberg.com/opinion/arti...
July 21, 2025 at 1:23 PM
The subway risk chart you've been waiting for (Sawyer County, Wisconsin, is where Sean Duffy is from). Gift link: www.bloomberg.com/opinion/arti...
Reposted by verity freebern
Good morning! I'm in Uganda to visit family and friends.
But depending on your perspective, don't worry or I'm sorry: I'll be back by the end of the month.
See you soon, NYC.
But depending on your perspective, don't worry or I'm sorry: I'll be back by the end of the month.
See you soon, NYC.
July 20, 2025 at 2:37 PM
Good morning! I'm in Uganda to visit family and friends.
But depending on your perspective, don't worry or I'm sorry: I'll be back by the end of the month.
See you soon, NYC.
But depending on your perspective, don't worry or I'm sorry: I'll be back by the end of the month.
See you soon, NYC.
Reposted by verity freebern
Reposted by verity freebern
🚨BREAKING: In a completely embarrassing moment, Donald Trump told the Liberian President “you speak such beautiful English…where did you learn to speak so beautifully” - even though English is the NATIONAL LANGUAGE OF LIBERIA. The world is watching America humiliate itself. 🤡
July 9, 2025 at 8:03 PM
🚨BREAKING: In a completely embarrassing moment, Donald Trump told the Liberian President “you speak such beautiful English…where did you learn to speak so beautifully” - even though English is the NATIONAL LANGUAGE OF LIBERIA. The world is watching America humiliate itself. 🤡
Reposted by verity freebern
Reposted by verity freebern
It’s cool how we just have to sit here and watch our future being stolen from us because one party is filled with the biggest psychopaths on the planet and the other is filled with geriatric losers who care more about civility with their gym buddies than winning
July 3, 2025 at 7:04 PM
It’s cool how we just have to sit here and watch our future being stolen from us because one party is filled with the biggest psychopaths on the planet and the other is filled with geriatric losers who care more about civility with their gym buddies than winning
Reposted by verity freebern
I don’t think anyone is prepared for what they just did w/ ICE.
This is not a simple budget increase. It is an explosion - making ICE bigger than the FBI, US Bureau of Prisons, DEA,& others combined.
It is setting up to make what’s happening now look like child’s play. And people are disappearing.
This is not a simple budget increase. It is an explosion - making ICE bigger than the FBI, US Bureau of Prisons, DEA,& others combined.
It is setting up to make what’s happening now look like child’s play. And people are disappearing.
July 3, 2025 at 6:58 PM
I don’t think anyone is prepared for what they just did w/ ICE.
This is not a simple budget increase. It is an explosion - making ICE bigger than the FBI, US Bureau of Prisons, DEA,& others combined.
It is setting up to make what’s happening now look like child’s play. And people are disappearing.
This is not a simple budget increase. It is an explosion - making ICE bigger than the FBI, US Bureau of Prisons, DEA,& others combined.
It is setting up to make what’s happening now look like child’s play. And people are disappearing.
Reposted by verity freebern
Just heard Bill Kristol, former chief of staff for Dan Quayle, say he thinks ICE should be defunded and that the entire DHS should probably be disbanded, which puts him to the left of maybe the majority of elected Democrats. Truly wild times we’re living in.
July 1, 2025 at 11:03 PM
Just heard Bill Kristol, former chief of staff for Dan Quayle, say he thinks ICE should be defunded and that the entire DHS should probably be disbanded, which puts him to the left of maybe the majority of elected Democrats. Truly wild times we’re living in.
Reposted by verity freebern
DAILY MEMO: The 25th straight day of I.C.E.’s siege of L.A.
Topics:
- Weekend Taco Stand Raids
- Today’s Home Depot Raids
- Recommended reading, How to Spot misinformation
- Ventura Sheriff is “Glad” that ICE is there
- Montebello sets up relief program
- Border Patrol fueding?
- DOJ
Topics:
- Weekend Taco Stand Raids
- Today’s Home Depot Raids
- Recommended reading, How to Spot misinformation
- Ventura Sheriff is “Glad” that ICE is there
- Montebello sets up relief program
- Border Patrol fueding?
- DOJ
July 1, 2025 at 4:52 AM
DAILY MEMO: The 25th straight day of I.C.E.’s siege of L.A.
Topics:
- Weekend Taco Stand Raids
- Today’s Home Depot Raids
- Recommended reading, How to Spot misinformation
- Ventura Sheriff is “Glad” that ICE is there
- Montebello sets up relief program
- Border Patrol fueding?
- DOJ
Topics:
- Weekend Taco Stand Raids
- Today’s Home Depot Raids
- Recommended reading, How to Spot misinformation
- Ventura Sheriff is “Glad” that ICE is there
- Montebello sets up relief program
- Border Patrol fueding?
- DOJ
Reposted by verity freebern
“Organizers said they expected just 50,000 attendees.
They were off by a factor of more than 15”
www.sfchronicle.com/totalsf/arti...
They were off by a factor of more than 15”
www.sfchronicle.com/totalsf/arti...
S.F. threw a party for the Golden Gate Bridge. It descended into chaos
San Francisco threw the Golden Gate Bridge a birthday party expecting 50,000 revelers. When 800,000 people showed up, things got messy.
www.sfchronicle.com
June 30, 2025 at 6:12 PM
“Organizers said they expected just 50,000 attendees.
They were off by a factor of more than 15”
www.sfchronicle.com/totalsf/arti...
They were off by a factor of more than 15”
www.sfchronicle.com/totalsf/arti...
Reposted by verity freebern
They keep massacring people in line for aid and I see less outrage about that from legacy media than I do for the words Mamdani didn’t say
June 30, 2025 at 4:00 PM
They keep massacring people in line for aid and I see less outrage about that from legacy media than I do for the words Mamdani didn’t say
Reposted by verity freebern
This is weird and delightful: to create the otherworldly sound for Pixar’s new movie Elio, the composer mic’d up a group of singing wooden dolls designed by Teenage Engineering. (It’s hard to explain succinctly — best just to click through…) [kottke.org]
The Music of Pixar’s Elio, Created by a Choir of Wooden Dolls
Ok so this is weird and delightful. Swedish electronics company Teenage Engineering makes a collection of singing wooden dolls called the Choir. The dolls are basically speakers but with some autonomy and personality…a
kottke.org
June 30, 2025 at 6:16 PM
This is weird and delightful: to create the otherworldly sound for Pixar’s new movie Elio, the composer mic’d up a group of singing wooden dolls designed by Teenage Engineering. (It’s hard to explain succinctly — best just to click through…) [kottke.org]