Matt da Silva

Jesus…when I ate at Zahav on the regular a decade ago it was $70 with drinks.

Yeah that’s $100/person minimum. The GSA rate won’t get you into the likes of Semma or Sky Pavilion either.

Reminder that only 1% of the global population is on the autism spectrum…

You are still expecting everyone to just eat Asian food all the time. You see how idiosyncratic that is?

I think you have to accept that your ideal food situation when traveling (much like mine), does not fit that of the typical white collar travel worker, and giving people enough money to be flexible and treat themselves a bit in their own way isn’t a bad thing.

Yes and the average consultant on assignment expects a step above that! Think “experiential” restaurants, or for the less adventurous souls upscale chains like Ruth’s Chris.

Yeah and telling your employer can only eat ramen and Chinese for every dinner (and no drinks!) while traveling for work is how you get them to jump ship to a competitor.

The employer doesn’t want their workers trapsing around the city looking for a deal, they want them easily going down the street for a comfortable meal so it’s easy to work more hours.

You are indexing specifically to the Asian restaurants you like visiting - not the average restaurant a consultant on assignment eats at while they have 90 minutes off of work in the evening.

The per diem isn’t and shouldn’t be “the bare minimum to survive”. It’s a “this covers the cost of the slightly yuppified lifestyle we give you the dignity of living when working for us.”

Any normal white people restaurant in Midtown Manhattan.

Cafe China is great, but it’s on the cheap end of what is available.

Breakfast isn’t included in most 3 star hotels in the U.S. it costs extra.

Consultants are working through lunch and mostly eating Panera/chipotle etc. for that meal - dinner is when they can finally relax a bit and take a proper leisurely meal.

$10 breakfast or snacks

$20 lunch

$60 dinner with drinks

Yes full service vs fast casual matters.

One waiter service meal a day, often taken with colleagues in a social setting, is not extravagant at all - especially considering you are asking that person to be away from their home, family, and community for most of the week.

Yeah Jesus what a miser.

1. That’s only 2 meals a day, no breakfast and no snacks.

2. Not a single one of those is a full service sit down warm meal, which absolutely something you should promise someone traveling for work one of per day.

Maybe we need to pretend there’s WMDs in Quebec and invade for access to their cheap hydropower.

Availability of gas pipeline capacity is a factor I imagine. NJ is crisscrossed by pipelines connecting gas fields to LNG plants for exporting abroad.

Grocery delivery is a big part of getting VMT down in urban areas and making car-free living more feasible.

It’s not “burrito taxi” when you are ordering $300 worth of groceries for a family of four and that delivery driver is also delivering four more similarly sized orders in the same run.

In the 90s and 2000s NJ largely abandoned fuel oil. PSEG even had a program in place to help people finance the work.

Places like this do exist in the U.S.!

All I really need during an airport layover is lunch and a place to sit and charge my phone, which is to say all I need is a McDonalds or something.

Not to mention it’s just harder to get into elite schools these days because application numbers have grown but places have not.

The median matriculation outcome for your average “model student” with straight As is now your state’s public flagship and it drives them insane.

Not only did Senator Jim Beach’s conduct at last week’s hearing embarrass our state, but he also violated the right to free speech enshrined in our federal and state constitutions. Just like President Trump, everyone must follow the law.

Read my letter here:

As a proud member of the Ages 30-34 age bracket, can y’all just listen to us next time when we say a politician is bad news?

There’s a whole genre of high-achieving upper middle class parents who cannot cope when it turns out one of their kids isn’t academically-inclined.

Wait why would people not notice “they replaced my bus with this fancy trolley and now my commute takes 1.5 times as long”

The big @citibikenyc.bsky.social expansion in southern @jerseycity.bsky.social has resumed in earnest! At least 7 more new stations have been installed and activated this week, all in Greenville; check the app to see when they are balanced with available bikes. The ~50% expansion … 1/3 🧵

Surprised the Capitol Corridor, Empire South, and Hiawathas don’t qualify.

The author of One Billion Americans coming out against immigration and constitutionally-enshrined rights is bleak.

Just an open admission he wants to be seen as having beliefs without being weighed down by actually having beliefs.