David Binnig

@binnig.bsky.social

1368 Followers 1563 Following

Portlander. Transportation & housing hobbyist.

Zoning map on Euclid Avenue including the Euclid v. Ambler historic marker
Me, gesturing at the Euclid v. Ambler Realty historical marker sign, Euclid, Ohio.
Karl Popper, The Open Society and Its Enemies, Vol. 2: Hegel and Marx
Morning Oregonian, April 28, 1922: LONDON TODDLING TO AMERICAN JAZZ Pep of United States Intoxicates Dull City. WOMEN TAKING TO LINGERIE Feminine England No Longer Wants Muslin Underthings MEN WEARING SILK SOCKS "My Word, I Feel Like a Silly Ass," Says Briton in Attempt to Be Like New Yorker.
6-yr-old kid’s drawings on a card: unicorn (symbolic body shapes, looks nothing like a unicorn); ornate moth (Utetheisa ornatrix), accurate markings, looks pretty good
San Jose: “Turnout averaged around 500, in a district of about 100,000 residents.”
Project Selection. The PB qualified projects are placed on a ballot and subject to a binding selection process open and accessible to all residents. The project selection process shall be developed and administered by the PB Program. Ballots may include both citywide and city council district-specific projects. This binding selection process is distinct from and not subject to city or state laws governing elections and voting
PROPOSITION 13 THE PEOPLES AMENDMENT TO CONTROL TAXATION
Your 2 Cents FAQ: This measure allocates 2% of funds from the existing budget. This includes existing revenue from property tax, business license taxes, lodging taxes, and other existing taxes and fees, such as Portland Clean Energy Fund.
Your 2 Cents FAQ: 8. What happens if we don't pass Your 2 Cents? More of the same! Residents get no say, and special interests dominate spending decisions at City Hall. Not great!
“Your 2 Cents” FAQ: 9. Can we afford to do this? Can we afford not to? Some public officials may claim that the City can't afford to give residents more voice and vote over (our two cents) of our city budget, while they control the entire budget (all 100 cents). But this isn't about the amount of available money, it's about how we spend it and who gets a say. Portlanders agree that they want a say in how public funds are spent on their behalf. We want Our Two Cents PDX!
“Anarchy, State, and Utopia” on a striped blanket, Willamette Park
Capital vol. 3: “(At this point the manuscript breaks off. - F.E.)”
Oregon initiative manual: “Each circulator must have a complete copy of the text available for signers to review unless printed on the cover sheet.”
Empty bathroom
The Kinks, “Sunny Afternoon”, 1966: The tax man's taken all my dough And left me in my stately home Lazin' on a sunny afternoon And I can't sail my yacht He's taken everything I've got All l've got's this sunny afternoon
Boots Riley’s lyrics on “Wear Clean Draws,” advising his daughter: “If you play house, pretend that the man clean up.”
1970 Rolling Stone review of Uriah Heep’s debut album Very 'Eavy, Very 'Umble URIAH HEEP (Mercury SR 61294) “If this group makes it I’ll have to commit suicide. From the first note you know you don't want to hear any more. Uriah is watered down, tenth-rate Jethro Tull, only even more boring and inane. UH is composed of five members: vo-cals, organ, guitar, bass, and drums. They fail to create a distinctive sound tonally; the other factor in their uninteresting style is that everything they play is based on repetitive chord riffs.
“The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit”by Sloan Wilson (1955): Parkington began in a deep voice. "If you vote no on this school, you vote against further development of this community-and, if I may say so, against further deterioration. What I'm trying to tell everyone here tonight is that's exactly what you should do." "That's bad for our housing project," Tom whispered to Betsy. "Parkington's nuts, but he's pretty powerful around here." 'This has always been a good town, a beautiful town," Parkington continued passionately. "I was born and brought up here. I've never been able to understand why people move here because they like the place and then start to change it. This new school will send taxes up. That will drive the owners of big estates out. If the big estates are broken up, housing projects will come in. Housing projects bring more children than they do money. The average small house owner pays the town only about a third of what it costs to educate his chil-dren. Who's going to make up the difference?"
Cover, “The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit”by Sloan Wilson (1955)
Kids bikes, & American flags, Portland Oregon, July 4, 2024.
Friedrich Engels: “To want to solve the housing question while at the same time desiring to maintain the modern big cities is an absurdity. The modern big cities, however, will be abolished only by the abolition of the capitalist mode of production, and when this is once set going there will be quite other issues than supplying each worker with a little house of his own.” –On the Housing Question
Oregon’s Bottle Bill: The 1982 Report https://digitalcollections.library.oregon.gov/nodes/view/124764 The Bottle Bill has had a positive impact on Oregon's solid waste problem in three lasting ways: Roadside litter Beverage container litter in Oregon was nearly eliminated by the Bottle Bill. This litter was reduced by 83 percent within 2 years of the law's implementation. Before the Bottle Bill came into effect in October 1971, beverage containers made up as much as 40 percent of the litter by item count along Oregon's roads. During 1973, only 10.8 percent of the litter was found to be beverage containers. Iwo years after the law, in 1974, it was 7.7 percent. By 1979, the beverage container portion in the roadside litter shrank to 6 percent.
Han Solo, embodied in carbonite.
Carbon embodied in the physical form of a freeway bridge.
Pitch regarding Portland’s Lloyd Center mall: “Demolishing the full mall … releases the embodied carbon locked in 66 years of concrete and steel.”
Saturday Oregonian, May 29 1909: WOMAN WHIPS MAN WHO ANNOYS GIRLS
The Oregonian 1909 or 1910: PIGS DRUNK AFTER WAKE Angry Relative of Dead Man Pours Beer Into Feed Trough.
1910 Oregonian ad for Laurelhurst neighborhood, showing arches at entrances to neighborhood
1909 or 1910 Oregonian ad for Laurelhurst neighborhood, promising one million Portlanders by 1920
1910 Oregonian ad for Laurelhurst, touting streetcar access and deed restrictions
1909 Oregonian ad for property in Laurelhurst
1909 Oregonian ad for Laurelhurst
1909 Oregonian real estate ad for Laurelhurst
1909 Oregonian real estate ad for Laurelhurst
Overhead view of green-painted “bike box” in the “Wildwood” trailer.
Engraving of the vegetable lamb of Tartary (presumably a medieval misunderstanding about cotton)
Speed reader board for speed enforcement camera on SE Powell Boulevard, Portland, Oregon. Posted speed limit is 30; “your speed” display reads 40; sign at bottom reads “traffic laws photo enforced.”
Email signature: Portland Public Schools aspires to graduate compassionate, critical thinkers who are able to collaborate to solve problems, and lead a more socially-just world. Central to this goal is affirming and operationalizing our deeply held community value of racial equity, social justice and inclusion.
Kids’ picture books about urban transportation: The Busiest Street in Town Bicycle Bash Last Stop on Market Street Spot’s Parking Lot
A mint julep
https://www.portland.gov/transportation/code-rule-updates/documents/trn-1434-automated-vehicles-draft-february-2026/download
ODOT brochure: “Starting in 2020, a person riding a bicycle may treat a stop sign or flashing red light as a yield sign.” https://www.oregon.gov/odot/Safety/Documents/StopAsYield_Brochure.pdf
I have tried many ways of explaining that it is the absolute size of the sample, not the size of the sample relative to the population, that matters for our confidence in an estimate. For example, I point out that we could surely get a pretty accurate estimate of the probability of heads from a few thousand coin flips, even though the population is theoretically infinite. Whether judged by their skeptical looks or their answers to test questions, many students remain unconvinced by these arguments.
Omelette
Pdxreporter.org submission screen for pothole reporting
Car parked in a crosswalk
Pdxreporter.org
Post Hidden by Muted Word
Vera Katz in bronze
“I will ask the Bureau of Planning and Sustainability to begin early concepting for the burial or removal of 1-5 on the Eastside.” Former Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler, 2017 State of the City speech
Cover: “The Man Who Sold the Moon.” Robert A. Heinlein, 1950
St. Patrick: “And so, on that day, I refused to suck the breasts of these men from fear of God, but nevertheless I had hopes that they would come to faith in Jesus Christ because they were barbarians…”
Bunnies
Mitch Green: “WE CAN SPREAD THE COST OF THAT LAND OVER MORE UNITS OF HOUSING”
Portland cabbies’ representative Red Diamond in 2012, arguing against allowing Ethiopian immigrants to have more taxi permits. “"I don't think it's a racist comment.," says Diamond. "It's an observation. I don't think there are any American-born people in that union. I don't think there are any European-born people in that union. I dont think there are any white people in that union.”
“Records show that throughout the course of 2025, Wimmer sent messages to councilors city-issued devices, but sent a handful of other messages to Pirtle-Guiney, Smith, Zimmerman, and Novick on their personal phones. Novick is seen repeatedly telling Wimmer not to message about city business on his personal phone.” https://www.portlandmercury.com/news/2026/03/09/48369246/in-the-shadows-records-show-labor-leaders-campaign-to-influence-city-councilors