Brian Highsmith

institutions, inequality, geography, democracy | asst prof, UCLA Law

[Brian Highsmith @bd_highsmith]

🚨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]

[M. Nolan Gray 🥑 @mnolangray]

This thicket of veto points is why US cities are so uniquely dysfunctional. Decision rights over projects that transcend the boundaries of multiple cities should rest entirely with a metropolitan planning entity.

[nicølina 🪿 @ellonico]

california should wanna campaign of cultural revolution against the idea of city autonomy and just start merging little cities together to create big metropolises with massive power over eminent domain and transit that are backed by the threat of force if the state

[Susannah Black Roberts @suzania]

A major reason that it didn’t make sense to use AI to write an essay about a substantive topic is that until you write the essay you don’t actually know what you want to say or what you think. You think you do, but it is the writing itself that actually gets the thinking done.

[lej @_lej44]

this is fantastic nuts and bolts stuff, if implemented would really make it easier for businesses to survive LA as commercial rents, operating costs, and wages remain high and difficult

[Blank Slate @blankslate2017]

This line is such a shot in the arm for LA. Underground rail is so much faster than above ground rail. LA can really build this thing out and connect the whole city. Fix the housing situation and LA will be the world's best city.

[Brian Highsmith @bd_highsmith]

All of this, by the way, came after *Utah voters* directly amended their constitution to take the task of drawing districts away from the legislature. The Utah Supreme Court was applying that constitutional requirement.

[Hunter📈🌈📊 @StatisticUrban]

Here's what the Utah GOP did:
1. They sued federally to block the new map.
2. They packed the UT Supreme Court, creating two brand new justices
3. They created a brand new “constitutional court” panel that will hear challenges to state law, avoiding the Supreme Court altogether

[Jacob Wasserman @JacobLWasserman]

Very excited for the @metrolosangeles D Line extension opening today—it will be transformative! But worth remembering that success rests on service:

"Late at night…every 20 min.! You come in, you see the next train is in 19 min., you take an Uber."

https://t.co/p1r8d2Bs3g

[Hannah Riley Fernandez @hannahcrileyy]

actually if you’re an expert in anything (and I use that term broadly) one of the most useful things you can do with your knowledge is share it with journalists on background so the story is reported more accurately! talking to press isn’t a vanity project it’s public education

[Brian Highsmith @bd_highsmith]

Classic for a reason: https://t.co/bmF0jTVWWD

[Brian Highsmith @bd_highsmith]

Gerald Frug in "City Services" (1998):

[Matthew Zeitlin @MattZeitlin]

guy who beats the "you're a leftist but you send your kid to a private school" rap by moving to an affluent suburb and sending their kids to their local public school

[hellogan1 @gebrauchsmusik]

When you don’t understand why there’s a [sic] it’s like okay which of the three of us is stupid

[Julia Turner @juliaturner]

SOME PERSONAL NEWS: For the last year I’ve been working with a terrifyingly talented team to put together L.A. Material, a new local news outlet covering Los Angeles. We’re launching TODAY, so please check us out at https://t.co/m0CKoHtcRa.

[David Dayen @ddayen]

The application for our next writing fellow is live! We hire early-career reporters for an intensive 2-year reporting and writing stint on our staff. Come join the best team in journalism.

The application is at the link.

https://t.co/fLYSfx6hnm

[Cynthia godsoe @cynthia_godsoe]

I’m very excited to have this piece with Sarah Swan coming out in @georgetownlaw journal

[Alex Yablon @AlexYablon]

My friend @emilyctamkin wrote a piece of the terrible aptness of comparing the targets of ICE terror to Anne Frank and her family https://t.co/o1XpK3glzW

[nxthompson @nxthompson]

An extraordinary paragraph. https://t.co/4FH7q8XzSU

[Brian Highsmith @bd_highsmith]

This is co-authored work w @robertmanduca (lead author) & Jacob Waggoner. It's been several years in the making: we are excited to share it!

Our full dataset of tax base by municipality for the entire US is available for download & further analysis here: https://t.co/daniC6zvx3

[Brian Highsmith @bd_highsmith]

🚨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]

[Brian Highsmith @bd_highsmith]

Particularly in a moment of federal retrenchment—with deep cuts to redistributive programs like Medicaid & education funding—the amount of taxable wealth within municipal boundaries (local fiscal capacity) is likely to become an even more important determinant of life outcomes.