Jon Orcutt

was thinking about this “Oh yeah this War on Terror is gonna rule”

Making Sense of Iran War Thinking Live conversation with military historian Phillips O'Brien

Just finished a discussion with @timothysnyder.bsky.social
about the political implications and possible causes of Trump’s decision to bomb Iran. It’s important not to normalise the discussion of what is happening.

open.substack.com/pub/snyder/p...

Looks like the US has a great deal to learn about anti-drone defense. What has the Pentagon been doing for the last year. Did they prepare for this?

Chuck Schumer: ‘The American People Deserve A President Who Can More Credibly Justify War With Iran’ WASHINGTON—In a pointed critique of President Trump’s foreign policy leadership, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer stated to members of the press Thursday that “the American people deserve a presid...

From The Archives:

Truly remarkable how spot on his and MAGA's psychological projection is over and over and over again. Every accusation is a confession.

You do strengthen the regime’s hand vs dissidents

Making it easy for the regime to cast dissidents/rebels as allied w US & Israel seems like the hardest road to political change

They did take a while building a huge new (and excellent/super successful) rail line under that axis. So finally the huge volume of buses can go away. Cars were already mostly banned

But to your point, we already have a rail line under Broadway! And buses haven't used that part of Bway since 2009

5 years is a good project. Remember Flushing Ave?

A normal city would pedestrianize Broadway and have early morning truck delivery hours. But that would require traffic/parking rules enforcement 🤷

The city can veto state DOT highway plans within the 5 boroughs. Dunno if anyone knows this

“Such designs, plans, specifications and estimates of costs shall require the approval of the city”

codes.findlaw.com/ny/highway-l...

This is an awful project and it's not getting nearly the attention it deserves because it's the Bronx

Oxford Street pedestrianisation plan gets final official approval City Hall hopes to stop traffic from using the street by September.

Delighted to announce that following the consultation, I'm giving the green light to make Oxford Street traffic-free.

At the risk of wading into spandex bike discourse, this is an asinine position for Mamdani to take. There’s no way to enforce a limit like this without shoehorning more cops in the park, which will only make it shittier and more dangerous (especially for deliveristas) than anyone riding a bike 20mph

I feel like they should assert control & new approaches quickly & suddenly while the admin is new

“.. a 17-page draft executive order that claims China interfered in the 2020 election as a basis to declare a national emergency that would unlock extraordinary presidential power over voting.”

@washingtonpost.com
www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

Appreciate this point, but how was the commissioner unaware her chief was heading into a public forum to feed Council reactionaries w seriously retro POV?

City Hall trying to pretend there's no issue when it's right there in public is so de Blasio-esque

I dunno about the viper's nest - internally, city govt is not a democracy - you do what the mayor tells you to do.

Gotta call bullshit. Note how this concern is never brought up for one-way, one-lane streets with no bike lane with parking on both sides leaving no room for drivers to pull over to make way for emergency vehicles. Same thing with big arterials such as Flatbush or Atlantic that are often jammed.

YouTube video by Climate Town How Your Parents Ruined Driving

@climatetown.bsky.social's got a great new piece on how federal regulatory loopholes-by-design make the U.S. automotive industry more polluting, more deadly & more profitable youtu.be/JPm4de6-eTg?...

This is unimpressive:

“A City Hall spokesman disagreed that Woods was contradicting Mamdani's transportation policies”

Do you control city govt or not @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social?

Seems like treating the construction-substitute-not-as-good-as-train thing as an experiment is something one wouldn’t do

These look like relations of Adams’ subway robot

Good factoid from the MTA board meeting today - $5B of the $15B in commitments for capital projects in 2025 came from congestion pricing revenues. That's huge - 2024 was their biggest year ever and shows how important CP is as a revenue stream.

The golden formula of Dutch mobility: cycling from home to the station, then catching the train for longer trips.

Expert Jan-Willem de Bie explains how they keep innovating and how they make sure Dutch commuters can park their bikes safely and efficiently.

Read here: buff.ly/O6bWkr5

Restler says he's disappointed that the FDNY leadership on the panel are calling into question the safety of protected bike lanes.

He backs the mayor's evidence-based approach to making streets safer.

Considering what city they work in, wouldn't parking enforcement be a bigger issue/demand by FDNY than bike lanes?

Judge Blocks City From Implementing 15 MPH Bike Speed Limit In Central Park - Streetsblog New York City It's an indication that opponents of this "illegal application" of the so-called "Sammy's Law" may prevail on the merits at an upcoming full hearing.

NEW: Judge blocks city from implementing 15mph bike speed limit in Central Park. nyc.streetsblog.org/2026/02/25/j...

Let's involve DOT in the inter-departmental communications of another city department. Sure, that's well intentioned