How the Sports Stadium Went Luxe
Is the race to create ever more lavish spectator offerings in Americaβs largest venues changing the fan experience?
A big omission from this piece is the role of public funding, which has been growing at an increasing rate. When taxpayers pick up a portion of the tab, it lowers the effective price of adding luxury amenities. James Quirk called this "gold-plating."
07.12.2025 17:54 β π 16 π 4 π¬ 1 π 1
Very pleased to be one of the signatories on this. We called for really bold ambition, including 50% of trips under 5 miles to be made actively soon
07.12.2025 19:34 β π 67 π 12 π¬ 3 π 1
COME HOME bsky.app/profile/mich...
07.12.2025 00:05 β π 109 π 8 π¬ 7 π 0
from a state party director
06.12.2025 06:52 β π 2552 π 735 π¬ 52 π 62
Yeah. I can't really think of any reason *not* to expect this.
05.12.2025 16:43 β π 197 π 25 π¬ 12 π 0
I cant imagine complaining that your grocery store will get housing on top of it and you keep the grocery store. Most places are just outright losing their grocery stores. SF has some of the greatest privileges in the world and high concentration of ppl complaining about them regularly.
05.12.2025 15:26 β π 274 π 41 π¬ 11 π 3
The ideology that was sold to tech workers by tech owners was that the workers were not like other workers, that they were very special boys who were entitled to high salaries and cushy perks due to the STEMy brilliance required to do their job. Easy to see the lie now that it's falling apart.
05.12.2025 17:55 β π 341 π 50 π¬ 10 π 3
Bongino saying the quiet--and cynical--part out loud.
In other words: I was making money shoveling conspiracy bullshit without having any facts and conning my audience to make a buck. After I leave the FBI, I will get back to that.
What a confession.
05.12.2025 17:11 β π 4997 π 1657 π¬ 259 π 102
The USPS posting a NINE BILLION DOLLAR LOSS!!! sounds terrible. Certainly worse than if you said "USPS costs thirty dollars per person per year" even though that means the same thing and more accurately describes a government service
05.12.2025 13:35 β π 22308 π 6646 π¬ 647 π 411
"We need regulation of e-bikes!!!" people scream as SUVs and trucks get larger and deadlier and people speed and drive distracted with impunity.
I'm happy to talk about e-bike regulation as long as folks agree that the *most urgent* problem is cars.
03.12.2025 13:48 β π 220 π 44 π¬ 1 π 3
Statehood for D.C. is an ethical obligation at this point, required to protect the rights of our residents to govern ourselves against such out-of-state troops being sent to patrol our city.
02.12.2025 20:51 β π 3541 π 1052 π¬ 20 π 24
People in the USA are really fixated on personal ownership of stuff. Iβm not particularly anti-materialist but, folks, we can share stuff (cars, bikes, books, tools, buildings) and it makes the world better.
02.12.2025 15:19 β π 121 π 15 π¬ 5 π 5
Should be noted that crash reduction and a systemic safety analysis werenβt even the motivations for the project.
It was the need to draw a bold bike line on a map between two parts of the District. When you build a bike network, safer travel is just one of the many benefits.
02.12.2025 14:48 β π 47 π 9 π¬ 1 π 0
"The only way to have nice things is if a billionaire picks you, but if you want the billionaire to pick you, you need to offer him generous tribute" should be an obvious tautology, but not if you believe the billionaire is the only one with the "turn-money-into-stuff-machine"
02.12.2025 14:04 β π 0 π 0 π¬ 0 π 0
The modem day circuses are not simply the distracting spectacles within the walls, but the structure itself as a load-bearing promise that this time, surely, an external hero will break the status quo and usher in an era of renewal.
02.12.2025 13:57 β π 1 π 0 π¬ 1 π 0
I have come to see stadium politics as a real commentary on state capacity and political imagination. In a world where avg citizens see govt as ineffectual, stadiums become the only conceivable public works project, onto which they then project decades worth of hopes and dreams.
02.12.2025 13:51 β π 9 π 2 π¬ 2 π 0
βΌοΈβΌοΈ
"Over the year, bike and scooter share carried about 60% as many trips as the stateβs $2.15 billion SR-99 highway tunnel under downtown Seattle. During summer months, that number may have been more like 80%."
02.12.2025 02:06 β π 151 π 38 π¬ 0 π 1
Every sentence here is even crazier than the last.
02.12.2025 01:48 β π 4001 π 631 π¬ 141 π 107
Bike parking right next to the supermarket entrance and cycle lane. Not hidden, not second-class, but prioritised. Want more people to shop by bike? Then make it an easy and accessible option. Convenience drives behavior.
01.12.2025 16:32 β π 167 π 33 π¬ 4 π 4
Detroitβs own clown documents show taxpayers losing $39m on $45m soccer stadium subsidy
After I reported here Friday about Detroit's WXYZ-TV reporting without comment that the newΒ Detroit City F.C. soccer stadium getting $88 million in tax breaks "is expected to generate $25 million in a...
Detroit City FC owners will be able to use a large chunk of $45m worth of tax kickbacks on amenities for their stadium, in exchange for contributing just $6m in new taxes β and that's the *best*-case scenario, according to the team's own rosy projections.
01.12.2025 14:48 β π 10 π 1 π¬ 0 π 0
At some point you just run out of things to say, right? Thereβs no argument to make. Thereβs nothing to discuss. The executive branch is saying βWe make our own law and obey no oneβ and either you say βOkay, I guess you doβ or you put down the whole administration and salt the earth where it stood
30.11.2025 18:46 β π 475 π 95 π¬ 13 π 1
βIn the Netherlands π³π±, data shows that for a 30 minute trip on a regular bike, only 13% of people are willing to ride. But for a 25 minute trip on an e-bike, that probability jumps to 28%.
βE-bikes don't just make riding easier, they drastically expand the acceptable range for bike commuting.
30.11.2025 15:06 β π 187 π 33 π¬ 9 π 6
A map showing most of ANC 7F
This is the ANC (7F) with boundaries designed to let its chairman control the Reservation 13 development. Check out SMD 7F07.
Itβs what the ward task force wanted, and it had the support of the ward councilmember or whoever was speaking for him.
30.11.2025 14:18 β π 4 π 1 π¬ 2 π 0
Unfortunately, in US journalism it is considered neutral to spread a lie, but it is considered "biased" to call out a lie. So, there is a structural asymmetry that rewards colorful lies with virality.
30.11.2025 01:16 β π 4506 π 1358 π¬ 46 π 66
Wise policymakers would seize this opportunity to increase the federal gas tax for the first time since 1993, encouraging EVs while fortifying the Highway Trust Fund.
Zero chance that will happen, but it should.
29.11.2025 23:31 β π 89 π 11 π¬ 5 π 1
Have you ever seen a bike lane sweeper - pulled behind a bike?
Volunteers in Kirkland have a new tool that attaches to the back of an e-bike. It's good for protected bike lanes, sidewalks, and narrow trails.
My @kuow.org story: www.kuow.org/stories/clea...
28.11.2025 18:21 β π 267 π 72 π¬ 7 π 26
The $25 million econ impact is nonsense concocted by project supporters, yet it's repeated in the "news" story as if it's a reasonable expectation. This is a major reason why such boondoggle projects continue to be approved. Journalists *have* to do better than this. @wxyzdetroit.bsky.social
28.11.2025 14:44 β π 9 π 3 π¬ 1 π 2
Little men like simple stories because the complexity of the world scares them
28.11.2025 14:46 β π 3 π 0 π¬ 0 π 0
Founder & reigning monarch at TPM. Lapsed historian. Hand tool woodworker. Jew.
Assistant Professor of Political Science, University of South Carolina. Democratic Theory. Book: The Dispersion of Power: A Critical Realist Theory of Democracy. Bylines Dissent, Boston Review, etc
A power network of organizers, activists and donors. We're here to upend politics as usual with research, intelligence and strategic action from across the winning diverse Democratic coalition. Listen to our new podcast, Charting the Way Forward!
I turn Art into Sports (and vice versa) | NO AI USED | βEverything I didn't know I needed" - follower testimonial
Director - Housing policy | Directeur - Habitation, Vivre en Ville
MontrΓ©al, QuΓ©bec
EN/FR
Editor-at-large, World Politics Review. Spent more than a year in Provence. Used to be an American in Paris. Currently bringing coal to Newcastle.
https://www.worldpoliticsreview.com/
@wpr.bsky.social
Staff writer at The Atlantic. Host of Plain English podcast. Books.
Journalist, writing narrative features for Businessweek and other places. My book Bad Company: Private Equity and the Death of the American Dream is out now! Order it here: https://bookshop.org/a/109816/9780063299351
Biking news up Seattleβs hills since 2010.
https://www.seattlebikeblog.com/
#SEAbikes #Seattle
"Fietser" (Dutch) 'feet-ser' Meaning: A Person Who Bikes For Transportation; Infrastructure, City Design, E-Cargo Bike Ambassador, Brasil π§π·π, Train & Aviation Enjoyer
All about cycling in the Netherlands
Cycling ambassador with the Dutch Cycling Embassy | Mark Wagenbuur
Chicagoans working together to make our streets better for walking, rolling, bicycling and public transit.
π§βπ¦ΌπΆπ²π
linktr.ee/betterstreetschicago
Strategy/Creative/Content/Branding @ rovΓ©lo creative. Lectures & workshops on reframing the mainstream narrative around road safety/road violence and active transportation but mostly trying to catch up on vacuuming.
Creativebyrovelo.com
Architecture critic @theglobeandmail.com. Also author, University of Toronto Daniels Faculty instructor, husband, father of two city kids.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/authors/alex-bozikovic/
Hi! I'm John Simmerman, founder of Active Towns, a channel dedicated to profiling the people, places, and programs promoting a "Culture of Activity" for "All Ages & Abilities." Learn more π https://www.youtube.com/@activetowns
Author of Straphanger, Shanghai Grand, Devilβs Picnic | Words NYT NatGeo Smithsonian WSJ | Talks: http://taras-grescoe.com/contact
https://www.highspeed.blog
https://linktr.ee/tarasgrescoe
IG: https://www.instagram.com/i.ride.trains/
Professor IAE-Paris1 Sorbonne
French Academy of Technologies
Happy Proximities pionneer
15-Minute City concept creator
18 books in 11 languages
MultiAwarded π
π
Sigma Xi Scientific research honor society Fellow
Since 1 July 2024 βX/Twitter
Fr En Es It
Helping cities make big ideas happen. A program of
@worldresources.bsky.social. Producer of http://TheCityFix.org. Home of #PrizeForCities.
Sustainable transport and car optional cities. I lead a small company focused on public transport, urban design, parking reform and investment advice. Auckland, New Zealand.
Posting live from Squamish Nation territory (Vancouver, BC). Posts are my opinion, which is subject to change based on new information.