this is not true. there was no conspiracy. it didn't matter whether the streetcars were publicly owned (seattle, detroit) or private (los angeles, atlanta). a thread (because i wrote a whole-ass book on this): 1/?

David Ho@davidho.bsky.social · 3d ago

Is everyone aware of the General Motors streetcar conspiracy? In the mid-20th century, auto and oil interests bought up electric streetcar systems across the US and systematically replaced them with bus routes and paved roads, funneling commuters toward private cars.

Online shopping eliminated these gatekeepers and disintermediated the market, allowing consumers to express their desires more directly. And it turns out that what people really want is cheap disposable goods, not more expensive but higher quality stuff that lasts a long time.

I’ve basically come around to the idea that liberalism is deeply unnatural to human psychology, which evolved in the context of communal living. It's the "delicate fruit of a mature civilization" as Acton put it, and takes constant effort to preserve

This is our mockup of a "village" area (33rd and Mackenzie) densifying with small lot apartment buildings / corner cafes.

I do think that social media allows crazy people to find each other and create communities where they fall into rabbit holes of snowballing fascist psychosis

Played Jet Lag's Hide & Seek game across Toronto yesterday (very fun) and one of my friends figured out where we were from this photo of a bus stop. Some people are too online but I worry that some of you are too "on transit".

Be among the first to watch Jet Lag: Japanorama in Picturehouse Cinemas across the UK

climate change is real. all costs of beating climate change must be born by other people, who produce emissions purely for fun, unlike the emissions I produce, which are all life or death necessities

Urban Land Rent 🇸🇴🚰@urbanlandrent.bsky.social · 2w ago

In 2026 the modal center left opinion is: Climate change is real! But the actuarial risk posed by climate change? Fake news spread by usurious financial institutions.

Capitulation in the face of these threats is the wrong choice because: a) Showing weakness against this counterparty won't work b) This counterparty treats capitulators like crap. You give up your dignity for nothing. c) I have pride and don't want to live as a vassal state.

It's a very frustrating thing because the reason these are illegal is out of consideration for nearby homeowners, who do not want to live near poor people. but the *official reason* is out of consideration for the poor residents (who otherwise - whoops! - just become homeless).

The two hardest and most unforgiving facts in housing policy are that it actually costs a lot of money to build new homes and that the rents that poor people can afford are not enough to pay off the cost of construction.

Eli Friedmann @eligit.bsky.social · 2w ago

Although I do understand the frustration with the brutally high cost of housing, people tend to deemphasize the actual cost. of materials, maintenance (which goes on indefinitely), insurance etc. The want to think all of the cost is due to the greed of whoever owns the building.

It’s incredible. Biden: “We have the strongest economy in the world, and our biggest wage gains are at the bottom of the scale.” Bluesky: “I personally know people who are worse off.” Also Bluesky: “The Dems can’t message and they also don’t talk about their successes.”

This is essentially "crime is always going up" but from the left. "You can't tell this young mother whose beautiful teenage girl was raped and murdered (by an immigrant, of course) that crime is going down, you heartless bastard" is just a straight-up refusal to engage with the issues.

Will Stancil@whstancil.bsky.social · 2w ago

Nobody is going to poor people and saying "You aren't poor." They are poor. We know they are poor. We don't like that they are poor. But for years the bulk of the American population has erroneously believed the economy is declining, in ways that it empirically has not been. That's a big mystery.

@hankgreen.bsky.social 's and my notions of difficulty are so close yet so far away.

The good news is that this technology has been available since the 1900s! It's called a BOARDING ISLAND, and has since been greatly perfected, with solutions adapted to most urban environments! Come on, Toronto, let's join us in the 20th century!

Matt Elliott@graphicmatt.com · 3w ago

TTC ran a “pilot project” to track the number of cars illegally passing streetcars at stops: “Preliminary data indicates that near-miss incidents may be very pervasive and that there is likely merit to developing a technology-based solution to this problem” Shocker. secure.toronto.ca/council/agen...

I don't think I should take up a full-time job in soccer clairvoyance obscurvoyance perhaps

Koji@kojisposts.bsky.social · 3w ago

I regret to inform you that an England-France final was revealed to me in a dream

Three polls in the last month put the Nova Scotia NDP at first, second, or third, all by sizeable margins

Preparing for my trip to London by looking through all the events they host on the Thames and on canals, and I am once again calling for Building The Piers

Koji@kojisposts.bsky.social · 2y ago

Upon further thought Instead of playing around with existing buildings, build out a pier (are we digging up enough dirt with all our subway projects?) Commercial centre that's like 40% outdoor terraces on each floor (coverable for winter). And a big public plaza for festivals

I come back to @steveakehurst.bsky.social's article on how words are magic (open.substack.com/pub/strongme...) so often because there so many instances like this

Words aren't magic

Or, when we can’t ‘reframe’: how Lakoff taught us to over-think communications

open.substack.com

Gould Street, Toronto. Students fought for a decade to pedestrianize it. In 2010 city council voted to enact a 1 year pilot, and by 2012 it was made permanent.

510 Spadina Streetcar crawling through King St intersection. Double Point switches were needed decades ago to allow faster speeds thru intersections, but the next best time is now, especially when we’re already rehabilitating intersections and sections of tracks.

The thing about this Taylor Swift lyric is that it's not correct English grammar but it is correct German grammar

hot take: no one actually wants 'authenticity' in politicians: people want a performance that is both competent and has them as the target audience. lots of politicians derided as wooden and stiff are being more 'authentic' than politicians who are personable and likable, who are performing

*taps sign* The government running party primary elections instead of letting parties pick their own nominees in the manner of their choosing is a weird American thing that eviscerates the fundamental purpose of political parties and it's bad, actually.

🧵 One feature of a social media world -- or more broadly, an information environment where anyone/everyone has a microphone -- is that, if you focus in on any particular ideological or policy or shared interest group, you can find obnoxious people making bad arguments.

humanities teach you to think critically, I say as I uncritically share a screenshot of an article I didn't read

Rennes, France will increase frequencies on its Metro A Line to every 60 seconds (down from every 80 seconds), perhaps making it the most frequent metro in the world. The automated light metro line has 140,000 daily riders, in a city with a population of 230,000 (Line B carries ~80,000/day).

Avec une rame toutes les minutes, le métro rennais va accélérer la cadence

En 2028, un métro circulera toutes les minutes en heure de pointe sur la ligne A du métro rennais, contre 80 secondes aujourd’hui, ce qui permettra d’augmenter la capacité de 25 %

20minutes.fr

Came up with a new hot take, which is that Waterloo sounds better about 12% faster (which you can do now on YouTube!)

it's so funny that one of things the german national team is blaming their bad world cup on is that they had such a great time in chicago it made their actual basecamp in winston-salem seem deadly boring and depressing in comparison www.bild.de/sport/fussba...