@BenRossTransit@mastodon.social
@BenRossTransit@mastodon.social avatar

BenRossTransit

@BenRossTransit@mastodon.social

Transit advocate. Author of Dead End: Suburban Sprawl and the Rebirth of American Urbanism. Chair of Maryland Transit Opportunities Coalition. Searchable.

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BenRossTransit, to random
@BenRossTransit@mastodon.social avatar

The 1968 protests at Columbia were aimed against the university's plan for a gym in Morningside Park as much as, or more than, the Vietnam War. This was part of a nation-wide SDS campaign against university expansion, from which today's left-nimbyism largely originated.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1968_Columbia_University_protests

Sherifazuhur, to israel
@Sherifazuhur@sfba.social avatar

Israel intensifies strikes on Rafah ahead of threatened invasion (why is there no pushback to the planned « all-out assault on Rafah »? Did the US, EU & Egypt greenlight it?) @israel @palestine

https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israel-intensifies-strikes-gazas-rafah-ahead-threatened-invasion-2024-04-25/

BenRossTransit,
@BenRossTransit@mastodon.social avatar

@Sherifazuhur @israel @palestine Maybe because Hamas refuses to agree to a cease-fire. Obviously, Hamas does not care about Palestinian lives, and in fact believes it benefits from Palestinian deaths.

BenRossTransit,
@BenRossTransit@mastodon.social avatar

@Sherifazuhur @palestine @israel "The United States has proposed a deal through Egyptian and Qatari intermediaries in which Hamas would release 40 of the most vulnerable hostages in exchange for a six-week cease-fire in Gaza and the release of hundreds of Palestinians held in Israeli prisons. A senior administration official who briefed reporters on Thursday on condition of anonymity under official ground rules put the blame solely on Hamas for blocking the deal." https://www.nytimes.com/live/2024/04/25/world/israel-gaza-war-hamas/biden-and-17-other-world-leaders-turn-up-heat-on-hamas-to-free-hostages?smid=url-share

BenRossTransit,
@BenRossTransit@mastodon.social avatar

@Sherifazuhur @israel @palestine You have provided no sources at all.
And yes, I consider the State Dept a reliable source. It is certainly not beholden to the current Israeli government.

BenRossTransit,
@BenRossTransit@mastodon.social avatar

@Sherifazuhur @israel @palestine You have provided no sources at all.
And yes, I consider the State Dept a reliable source about the facts. It is certainly not beholden to the current Israeli government & has been extremely critical while being careful about the facts.

capntransit, to random
@capntransit@urbanists.social avatar

RT @streetsblogkea Having feelings about the secretary of transportation applauding "America's first high speed rail project" not for providing alternatives to driving/flying, but for … giving people who work on it money to put "a new car or truck in the driveway."

Feeling #1: I get, politically, this kind of framing is sometimes necessary to get rail projects funded. Feeling #2: makes me nervous for future projects that might more meaningfully challenge automobility.

https://www.transportation.gov/briefing-room/secretary-buttigiegs-remarks-historic-groundbreaking-las-vegas-brightline-west-high

BenRossTransit,
@BenRossTransit@mastodon.social avatar

@capntransit @Alon @Colinvparker Not only is it normal to give rivals for party leadership cabinet jobs (Bryan was Wilson's Sec of State, eg) but it's a good fit for Buttigieg who was quite urbanist as mayor.

BenRossTransit, to random
@BenRossTransit@mastodon.social avatar

Wall Street pressures Norfolk Southern for short-term cost savings that will undermine railroad's ability to serve customers in the future. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/norfolk-southerns-earnings-offer-railroad-124811303.html

BenRossTransit, to random
@BenRossTransit@mastodon.social avatar

Even for aficionados, this SF nimby story is way over the top.
Homeowner wants to raise roof 7.25 ft, add top story, put apt for parents on ground floor. Has spent $250,000 & doesn't have a permit yet.
4 neighbors appealed planners' OK to City Council.
One lives in a $7.4M 5,100-sq-ft glass-walled teardown. (Appeal says house is historic & should stay intact.)
Another, an ex-developer, doubled size of his own house next door 8 years ago, moved to Boston, now rents it out.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/23/us/san-francisco-home-renovation.html?unlocked_article_code=1.mk0.HKni.pi8Wg-BpLMqa&smid=url-share

BenRossTransit, to random
@BenRossTransit@mastodon.social avatar

Ode to the urban tree says we must stop cutting them down & then notes in passing that "Here in Nashville, we actually have a tree-protection ordinance, though it doesn’t apply to duplexes or single-family homes."
Did you consider that maybe this ordinance is about keeping apartments out, not keeping trees in? And that the effect of such an ordinance would be to cut more trees down to build 1-family houses in the suburbs?
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/22/opinion/trees-cities-earth-day.html?unlocked_article_code=1.mU0._K74.gjhPUK5E2e-J&smid=url-share

BenRossTransit, to random
@BenRossTransit@mastodon.social avatar

Purple Line tracks in place just east of downtown Bethesda.

interfluidity, to random
@interfluidity@zirk.us avatar

what’s right and what’s wrong with this analogy?

biden : bibi :: trump : putin

BenRossTransit,
@BenRossTransit@mastodon.social avatar

@interfluidity @Alon How about Biden : Erdogan, Biden : Orban, or Biden : Emir of Qatar? We have lots of troublesome allies.

BenRossTransit,
@BenRossTransit@mastodon.social avatar

@interfluidity @Alon Biden doesn't criticize Erdogan at all in public. Even the armtwisting over Sweden in Nato was not overtly public.

BenRossTransit, to random
@BenRossTransit@mastodon.social avatar

In one figure: Why affordable housing should whenever possible be built in places where you don't need a car.
And also why a person with below-median income will usually come out ahead financially if a new transit line lets them live without a car, even if it raises their rent a whole lot.
https://www.bts.dot.gov/data-spotlight/household-cost-transportation-it-affordable

BenRossTransit, to random
@BenRossTransit@mastodon.social avatar

Coal is the source of marginal electricity supply in the mid-Atlantic states. That means that electric cars driven there are coal-powered & emit more greenhouse gases than gasoline-powered cars. https://wapo.st/3JjUN2f

endantisemitism, to random
@endantisemitism@mastodon.social avatar

The Streisand effect means I have a lot of new followers. This is mostly a reporting account, with a specific format. I usually go for breadth and only post once on any given user. For this :thread: I am going for depth.

We will be talking about a person who is Pro-Palestine ... but also other things.

Like advocating that the holy sites of Islam, Judaism, and Christianity be nuked:

https://social.linux.pizza/@farseen/112215079302628140
https://ghostarchive.org/archive/31ged

1/

BenRossTransit,
@BenRossTransit@mastodon.social avatar

@endantisemitism @Alon For a lot these, the question is whether they're motivated by hatred for Jews or hatred for Israelis. That really misses the point, since hatred for Israelis is also despicable.

capntransit, to random
@capntransit@urbanists.social avatar

It's not fair that New York City provides acres of asphalt completely free, with taxpayer-funded traffic cops to prevent drivers killing each other in a hellscape that deters pedestrians, but Sam Schwartz wants us to think of the poor drivers.

'A driver on the Brooklyn Bridge taking the southbound exit for the FDR Drive will be tolled, because that route travels on a city street for about 80 feet before entering the FDR.

'“I don't think that's fair,” Schwartz said.'

https://gothamist.com/news/which-drivers-get-tolled-under-congestion-pricing-on-the-brooklyn-and-queensboro-bridges-its-complicated

In a Google Street View screnshot, a traffic cop in a reflective vest stands on the median next to the FDR onramp at Pearl Street.
Screenshot from Crashmapper.org for Robert M. Wagner Place showing 8 motorists injured and 1 pedestrian injured between August 2011 and March 2024.

BenRossTransit,
@BenRossTransit@mastodon.social avatar

@capntransit Why would anyone go southbound on the FDR from the Brooklyn Bridge, unless they're headed into the tolled portion of Manhattan? If you would drive from downtown Brooklyn to Bay Ridge via the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel, you deserve a lot more punishment than a $15 toll.

Alon, to random
@Alon@mastodon.social avatar

Iran is confirmed to have launched dozens of UAVs and cruise missiles to attack Israel, in retaliation for the assassination of an IRGC commander in Syria. The drones are slow and will take six to nine hours to get there; the missiles are faster and estimated to make contact in two hours.

BenRossTransit,
@BenRossTransit@mastodon.social avatar

@Alon This is an enormous strategic defeat for Iran and its leadership. I wonder what the political repercussions will be inside Iran. Also for the relations between Iran and its proxies, whose attacks on Israel have been much more successful. They are likely to now feel that Iran needs them as much as they need Iran.

BenRossTransit,
@BenRossTransit@mastodon.social avatar

@Alon Exactly.

BenRossTransit,
@BenRossTransit@mastodon.social avatar

@Alon I suspect even John Bolton would tell Bibi not to attack. His anti-Trump stance shows that he believes in neocon hawkish defense of democracy & isn't just an opportunist. He said Israel crossed a red line with the Damascus attack. He might well think that when you cross a red line and your enemy can't do anything about it, that's a victory to stand on.

BenRossTransit,
@BenRossTransit@mastodon.social avatar

@Alon People live and learn. Look at the evolution of Max Boot.

enobacon, to random
@enobacon@urbanists.social avatar

LoL people who say we need "balanced conversations about transport" and then skip bikes.

BenRossTransit,
@BenRossTransit@mastodon.social avatar

@enobacon "Balanced" transportation is a euphemism for maintaining the status quo. The status quo is extremly unbalanced.

BenRossTransit, to random
@BenRossTransit@mastodon.social avatar

Tesla has canceled its project to make a less expensive electric car. Will focus on developing a fully self-driving taxi.
Watch out if you're walking!
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/exclusive-tesla-scraps-low-cost-150726195.html

Alon, to random
@Alon@mastodon.social avatar

Tablet wants American Jews to be "more Israeli." So here's a taste: your mothers' cunts, go to fucking hell, Bibist choleras. John Ganz's attempt at this was too mild; he only said "fuck." Israel isn't with you and your death toll trutherism, or with your casual anti-woke veneration of Haredis because they're the only Jews in the US who tolerate your shit. Israel bashers. https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/community/articles/american-jews-become-more-israeli

BenRossTransit,
@BenRossTransit@mastodon.social avatar

@failedLyndonLaRouchite @Alon I agree that American Jews should go on the offensive, but not on how (at least in center & left spaces). It's necessary to point out how justification of Oct 7 is part of an anti-democratic project that divides the world into good & bad ethnicities, supports Chinese oppression of Hong Kong & Uighurs (see PSL & ANSWER), opposes democratization in Iran & Russia etc etc

BenRossTransit,
@BenRossTransit@mastodon.social avatar

@Alon @failedLyndonLaRouchite It's both, but the campism is easier to demonstrate. Pointing out the anti-Semitism sends you down the rabbit hole picking apart when "anti-Zionism isn't anti-Semitism" applies & doesn't.

BenRossTransit,
@BenRossTransit@mastodon.social avatar

@Alon @failedLyndonLaRouchite Actually, campism isn't quite the right word for what I'm talking about. It overlaps with both campism & anti-Semitism. It's what we called in the 70s "third-worldism" - dividing ethnicities into white oppressors and third-world/BIPOC oppressed. Brezhnev then & Putin now wind up on the oppressor side, but Jews & Arabs are somehow at opposite racial poles.

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