Ben Ross

Centrist Democrats are much MORE nimby than progressive Democrats, on average. They represent the wealthy homeowner suburbs. The far left that hates the Democrats is most nimby of all, but they have little real power & they influence policy mostly by providing political cover for centrists.

The Big Dig plan included a rail connection between North and South stations but Reagan forced Dukakis to take it out.

You can't evaluate Trimet's effect without including the highway that wasn't built instead of it.

*would have been revised downward if calculated honestly

Unless they update the estimation algorithms for the initial data each month based on recent months' revisions, there's every reason to think that the initial July data will also be revised downard. And July starts from a lower level than May & June. @deanbaker13.bsky.social

After deadly Beltway crash, Express Lanes official urges vigilance A deadly crash in the Express Lanes on the Capital Beltway in Northern Virginia is raising safety concerns. Virginia State Police say they believe a driver of a Scion XB stopped in the roadway as she ...

Complexity of interchanges at multi-lane expressway with separate free & toll lanes confuses drivers & creates safety hazard. www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/t...

I hate to be simplistic, but if the problem is a housing shortage, the solution might be more housing.

Plans for North Bethesda affordable housing development move forward 154-unit project first to be approved through county’s fast-track process

Apt building with 114 highly subsidized units half-mile from Metro gets fast-track approval under new MoCo procedure.
If there's anything dislike about this project, and I can't blame developers, maybe it would look nicer with single-stair access. bethesdamagazine.com/2025/04/18/n...

It's not unique to New York, it's everywhere in the US. Traffic enforcement has collapsed. What's unique in NY is the high population density means there's a non-negligible chance that a policeman will be present to watch it (and will be on foot, not stuck in the traffic themself).

FYI while the northern half of the Town of Oyster Bay is ritzy, the mosque site is in Bethpage which is in the southern, less ritzy and much more populous, half.

Monopoly & zoning are not distinct causes of high home prices. Just the opposite.
The biggest force behind the spread of zoning in the 1920s was the organized real estate industry's wish to raise prices by restricting competition. By the 60s & 70s, nimbys got in their way & they began to switch. 1/2

To this day, large real estate enterprises sometimes exclude competitors in order to raise prices. I can't quantify this, but I doubt it is rare. But the method they use is almost always regulatory. You even see them financing nimby homeowners (& arguably the nimbys are themselves monopolists). 2/2

Monopoly & zoning are not distinct causes of high home prices. Just the opposite.
The biggest force behind the spread of zoning in the 1920s was the organized real estate industry's wish to raise prices by restricting competition. By the 60s & 70s, nimbys got in their way & they began to switch. 1/2

As I read this, it says that the R advantage in party registration was only 1.5%, but when ID was asked as a question it was 8%. So if the 2024 electorate was R+6, this would be a more Democratic electorate. (Maybe underpredicting the swing, but that's a different question.)

Anti-semitism is the pretext, not the real reason, for Trump's attack on universities.
Proof: He gutted the office that actually fights campus antisemitism.
www.usnews.com/opinion/arti...

When four homes replace a SFH, each new home is about the same price as the original, and at 5 units or more, the new homes tend to be more affordable. But the critical comparison is to the 1-for-1 replacement — a mansionization, in other words.

The part of woke that most triggered relatively nonpolitical people was the corporate diversity trainings & similar stuff. Which got lots of left criticism & deserved it.
To never criticize bad ideas because you could be distorted just builds juicier targets for the bad-faith actors to go after.

Recognizing a Palestinian state is a great way to doom Palestinians France and the United Kingdom intend to recognize a Palestinian state. It's too early for that to help Palestinians.

True, this is on the table solely due to Bibi's policy of punishing Gaza civilians for crimes of Hamas. Bibi's policies are a disaster for Israel.
But will it help bring peace? Or prolong war by punishing the Israeli public for Bibi's crimes? Good arguments both ways. forward.com/opinion/7592...

Even back in the 1950s, urban renewal tore down the neighborhoods closest to downtown, not the ones most blighted. Because even then the places closest to downtown were the most profitable to build in.

Their reporters are negotiating with their lawyers.

The combined Conservative & Orthodox sample was only 51 voters. Orthodox alone would have been below their reporting threshold of 50.
The 21% number would be around (weighting might change it a little) 11 respondents, so there is enormous uncertainty in it.

That Mamdani 21% is combined Conservative/Orthodox, surely the great majority of them Conservative.

The vote is in! 10-1 to approve the Master Plan of Highways and Transitways—and after 60+ years, M-83 is OUT of county plans!

Not at all. The milliions who demonstrated on June 14 overwhelmingly identified as Democrats. Too many of the online critics devote their energy to complaining about Democratic officeholders in lieu of working against Trump.

A lot of the "higher incomes" in the US is the money spent on a long drive to work. The assumption in economic statistics is that an expensive hour-long drive to work makes you better off than someone who walks to work in 15 minutes.

Tom Lehrer wrote a song too, "The Folk Song Army":

We all hate poverty, war and injustice
Unlike the rest of you squares...

www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tDZ...

Also, 2 of the 46 drivers who police stopped were cited for driving without a valid license. That's over 4%.
The whole traffic enforcement system is organized around license revocation as near-ultimate penalty (jail only in most extreme cases). If you can still drive with no license, it breaks down.

The Quintessential Urban Design of ‘Sesame Street’

How Jane Jacobs inspired the creators of Sesame Street. And how the set has gotten less grungy over the years as the image of the city has changed. [gift link]
www.nytimes.com/2025/07/28/r...

Looks like they needed an Act of Congress to get it.

Have you thought of filing a complaint about the flags with FHWA, with a copy to the city?