alex block
cities, transportation, transit, and other intermittent discussion.
- know the signs
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- They got the flood walls up this time?
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- I don’t know much about Canadian historic preservation law, but I could easily see how US HP law would land at that outcome.
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- Totally agreed; but I suspect the clearance issue is more about preserving the shed (eg can’t use it for supporting the OLE, can’t change the look, maybe can’t even obstruct the “view”) than if it were a regular obstacle
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- I’d imagine it’s not just clearance but maybe other impacts to the “historic” train shed. Hoboken has had electric trains since 1930.
- This is one of those things where we need a better terminology than just equating “historic” with “old”.
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- Maybe the bio sensors could track better, but the distance covered won’t match effort exerted as well with skating
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- We all do what we need to do
- A detailed plan for trains to run from DC to Boston in less than four hours for about 10 percent the cost of Amtrak's current proposal for upgrading the northeast corridor rail. www.slowboring.com/p/at-last-a-...
[Not loaded yet]- This is the biggest problem with the report. The $12b cost estimate (and specific scope) isn’t really important; the important part are the general policy recommendations.
- Denser than six stories would be great, but unclear that it would pencil with higher construction costs. Particularly given DC’s height limit.
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- Yeah; we’re going to need so many more solutions that are cost competitive with just dumping riprap along the shore.
- They haven’t even had a meeting about this yet?
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- “Situation normal. How are you?”
- Aha. More information here: The law requires a balanced budget and financial plan, and that sure seems hard to do when Congress keeps moving the goalposts. mailchi.mp/54b6af86c458...
- I have lots of technical disagreements with the details of the NEC proposal here, but absolutely appreciate the value of laying out these items in a compelling way.
- Unsurprisingly I love Matt’s take on the value of boring fact-based policy analysis, using @alonlevy.bsky.social’s NEC study as an example:
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View full threadGood case here of a disagreement with the specifics: the broad policy argument to coordinate timetables is good. But the specific choices they made are much more contested: bsky.app/profile/dono...
- In other words, I hope elected officials who read this don’t latch on to the specifics or the lower price tag; but instead to some of the key principles for what funding an ongoing modernization program should look like.
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- The quotes about the CFO suggest (to me) some arcane difference of opinion about the out years of the financial plan or something like that; something similar happened last year. The CFO didn’t sign off on the transmittal at first
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- Wilson Building elevators out of service, I guess
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- That’s fair, but I don’t know if anyone saying the projects “must” be this expensive. At the same time, there are lots of bad faith criticisms that are aimed for austerity, not efficiency
- I like the policy goal of shifting to renewal and ongoing modernization vs. mega projects, for example. Now they need actual fixes to get there. However, it’s worth remembering that the $117b price tag is directly responding to the funding and governance framework Congress has created.
- These problems aren’t limited to the US…
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- How would you kn… …oh.
- I remember “verbal government approval”
- What's interesting is that in 2019, Boring Co submitted plans to build a 35-mile underground loop between Baltimore and DC, claiming the project would be done in two years. Nothing of note was ever built and the co removed the project from its site in 2021: www.washingtonpost.com/local/traffi...
- Caps season on the line here. Gotta convert the 5 on 3
- Yeah, just like that.
- Ah. Well. Nevertheless.
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- It always threw me off visiting Duluth, MN and seeing the visitor center there be part of the Detroit District. But it makes sense!
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- Oh, absolutely! I’ve had the same conversation with my FIL. But old habits (and pearls of wisdom?) die hard. Haven’t convinced him.
- My father in law doesn’t like it, it that’s because he’s inherently worried about wearing out the engine’s starter motor.
- I hear this myth all the time and it’s bizarre. Rich people hire property management companies to handle all the logistics for them and still get 90% of the rent each month. The idea that landlords are forgoing free money en masse makes no sense.
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- It’s a survey, not an enumeration (like the decennial census). The data sources are the ACS, the current population survey, and American Housing Survey. My house got picked for the CPS once.
- It’s absolutely amazing how quickly and how well the program has worked.
- Policy changes often take years to show results. And then there is congestion pricing in New York. Here are all of the ways we could find it having an immediate effect: www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
- For the “all models are wrong, some models are useful” file: bsky.app/profile/step...
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- We’re going to let a thousand museums bloom
- This is insane?
- PIVOT!
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- Him changing the AF1 paint scheme is one of the small things I get irrationally angry about.
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- I think it’s a reference to the $11 million for the Marx Brothers park, which is maybe illustrative but certainly not a driver of the overall cost. pedestrianobservations.com/2022/11/26/i...
- The structure of funding (and how that limits developing state capacity) is something for the Abundance-pilled to focus on…
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- It’s been so much fun
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- that’s amazing
- The big truck has a) a huge front blind spot so you can’t see a giant boulder, and b) a correspondingly high center of gravity
- This video is perfect, especially when you learn it happened as this man was driving his Super Tough Man Truck™ into the parking lot of a business for "Self Reliance and Civilian Tactical Enthusiasts" www.instagram.com/p/DJc9S_MsXND/
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- I get why LAWA didn’t want to do that; they benefit from connecting parking in land under the approaches that basically can’t be used for much else. But big miss for those property owners.
- Terrifying story, but worth nothing this was in 2018.
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- “It doesn’t matter if you use an old, out of date ward map. Use whatever you think looks good!”
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- There was an old (2005?) election security blog post about how all the rituals around the actual papal voting and counting process are well designed to ensure accuracy. Like the smoke: burning the ballots ensures there’s no mistakes or malfeasance of double counting.
- I bet the bingo balls are used for randomly assigning the roles for collecting ballots, etc. www.schneier.com/blog/archive...
- Jesse does an admirable job of explaining the technical elements of operating the grid in an accessible way: highly recommend
- Investigating a blackout is like a murder mystery. On this week's SHIFT KEY, Rob and I consider the suspects and dig into the mystery of what caused the massive blackout in Spain and Portugal last week. Along the way, we try to demystify the magic behind modern grids heatmap.news/podcast/shif... 🔌💡
- Seems telling that the largest category opposed are “not sports fans”
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- Haven’t read this book yet, but seems like an odd fit here. The CAB was the veto point for improving air service!
