Tom Bardenett

The Other Reason Americans Don’t Use Mass Transit People will take buses and trains only if they feel safe while riding them.

The American centrist punditocracy has decided that what the US transit industry needs are endless lectures about the importance of security.

These writers misunderstand the problem, and are making things worse. 1/

www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

There're similar worries to the re-development of the East Adams neighborhood. Affordable housing is needed and should remain the main focus but this development, if done in this way, essentially creates a “poor” building and a “wealthy” building which does not help create a truly mixed neighborhood

Councilor Hogan is correct to be worried about this. A true mixed-income development should emphasize mixed-income in all phases. By placing market rate in the later phase, it runs the risk of never occurring.

Walsh administration pushes to start biggest Syracuse housing development in decades Some common councilors have questions about the complex deal.

“Hogan said his biggest concern is that the market-rate housing planned for a future phase might never get built. That would alter the original concept of building homes for a wide range of income levels.”
www.syracuse.com/news/2025/10...

Urbanism Lessons from the Great White North — Thomas Bardenett Did you know that Syracuse is the only place in the world that experiences winter?  Yeah, me neither.  But when you talk about ways to improve the City and create more comfortable places t...

Whenever I travel I look for ideas that we can borrow and adopt as our own here in Syracuse. This is especially true when visiting other northern cities who prove that you can embrace other forms of transportation even in the face of rain, snow, and cold.

www.thomasbardenett.com/blog/2025/9/...

This campaign has produced the best ads/content of any Democratic campaign I’ve covered since Obama ‘08 and it’s not really close.

Yes, the City can continue to adhere to this guidance in some way shape or form anyways, but it can also choose not to. By adopting it, it gives the plan more weight and signals that this is a long term strategy, not just another plan to collect dust on the shelf.

By adopting the Action Plan, it would strengthen the City’s commitment to its goals and ensure ...that all projects must consult with its guidelines as it goes through the design process. The critique that “it’s just a plan,” is short sighted and doesn’t capture why having a plan is important.

Syracuse lawmakers support new traffic safety plan, but won’t vote to approve it Mayor Ben Walsh's administration asked Common Council to formally back Vision Zero Action Plan.

I don’t really understand why you wouldn’t vote to adopt this as a framework for how we design our streets. The Vision Zero Action Plan highlights the streets and intersections of concerns and provides a guide for how to address them.
www.syracuse.com/news/2025/09...

Disgusting.

mike johnson doesn't give a shit

We haven’t even heard one thing Cuomo *likes* about the city. Contrast that with Brad Lander and Zohran Mamdani who have made the symbols of New York part of their campaigns, from the Cyclone to the Subway.

Sometimes I think about the Senate and get ridiculously angry at the amount of propaganda that has gone into convincing the American people that rural voters deserve more of a voice than urban voters.

A list of 50 things Andrew Cuomo has ‘gotten done’ The disgraced former governor loves to tout his long record in public life — so let's actually take a look at it

I forgot this one. Don't rank Cuomo.

"Kept a COVID vaccination site from opening at Citi Field over a grudge he held against former Mayor Bill de Blasio."

Broadway's 2024-2025 Season is the Highest Grossing Season in History The Broadway League has released end-of-season statistics for the 2024-2025 season, which began on May 20, 2024, and ended on May 25, 2025. See the statistic here!

It obviously doesn't hurt that there were some hit shows with big stars this season, but claims that congestion pricing would kill Broadway were always among the most ridiculous.

When you provide safe spaces to ride and convenient ways to access bikes, people want to use them

Destiny USA and the City — Thomas Bardenett Some people would be surprised to learn just how many malls the Syracuse area had at one point in time. Not just the recently closed suburban shopping malls like Shoppingtown and Great Northern, but C...

Many people see "the mall" as the antithesis of a city's urban core, yet malls are often found in urban centers in cities across the globe. Syracuse's lone remaining mall is in trouble and, at this point, I think our city would be worse without it.

www.thomasbardenett.com/blog/2025/5/...

“Life is better when we leap together.” Kermit the Frog delivered a commencement speech at the University of Maryland on Thursday, the alma mater of his creator, Jim Henson. nyti.ms/4dwMuhQ

He wants to turn Alcatraz into a domestic gulag right in the middle of San Francisco Bay. He calls out judges who won’t let him deport whomever he wants without due process. It’s an attack on rule of law.

Putting aside that Alcatraz is a museum & tourist attraction, this is both nuts & terrifying.

Urban Reinvention and the Ballpark: Baseball's Place in Pittsburgh's Urban Fabric — Thomas Bardenett Baseball is often referred to as “America’s Pastime,” and a reflection of the American ideal. At the same time, few cities represent the traditional picture of American success, failure, and reinventi...

And here is my annual reminder that baseball is an urban sport at heart and that's where it should always be played

www.thomasbardenett.com/blog/2019/12...

What Going to the Ballpark Means to Me — Thomas Bardenett Increasingly it feels as though society has become more isolated. Often we blame phones and social media, but those don’t necessarily have to isolate us. In the right context they can be used to bring...

It's Opening Day for Major League Baseball, that means it's time to head back to the ballpark. So, as I do every year, let me share my thoughts on what the ballpark means to me. Every year this post feels truer than the year before

www.thomasbardenett.com/blog/2019/10...

One mile on a bike is a $.42 economic gain to society, one mile driving is a $.20 loss Copenhagen, the bicycle-friendliest place on the planet, publishes a biannual Bicycle Account, and buried in its pages is a rather astonishing fact.

“One mile on a bike is a $.42 economic gain to society, one mile driving is a $.20 loss.”

“Which means that Copenhagen, a city of 1.2 million people, saves $357 million a year on health costs because something like 80% of its population commutes by bike.” #CityMakingMath

Some costs aren’t costs.

The longest rainbow bike path in the world is located in the Utrecht Science Park. With the rainbow bike path, Utrecht University, Utrecht University of Applied Sciences, and UMC Utrecht raise awareness for acceptance, equality, and safety for all people in the LGBTQ+ community.

In many ways this feels like a forced move to privatize a key safety function that government plays. By disrupting the FAA, Musk is positioning his private companies to take on larger roles. We should never be looking to privatize agencies focused on safety. Our safety should not be for profit.

The FAA’s Troubles Are More Serious Than You Know The agency responsible for air safety is facing deep cuts and interference by Elon Musk.

“'This isn’t Twitter, where the worst that happens is people losing access to their accounts,' the former senior executive said. 'People die when FAA workers are distracted and processes are broken.'”

www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc...

@aoc.bsky.social: "You have a right to see your elected member of Congress... Our job is to hear from people. And if you aren't doing town halls because your own residents and members of your community are upset with what you're doing, the answer is you’ve got to own your decisions."

the question i have for the "we must bring the entire consumer goods sector to american shores" folks is, with what workers?

democrats will spend months having heated debates on small policy wording tweaks meanwhile republicans will just come out and say they think veterans don’t deserve jobs

Mass deportations would reduce the construction labor force and exacerbate the housing shortage nationwide. More than 30% of construction workers were born outside the US in California, Florida, Maryland, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, and Texas.

New research @urbaninstitute.bsky.social shows that mass deportations would likely worsen the housing shortage by decimating the labor force.

Immigrants make up >23% of the construction workforce & more in FL, TX. About half are estimated to be undocumented immigrants. www.urban.org/urban-wire/m...