“America has the greatest road network in the world … [and] includes 10 of the 25 most congested cities.“ Someone in Sean Duffy’s office is both so close and so far from getting it.

You can definitely bet on Trump extending the deadline.
But I would never bet on which lie he will tell...

Help for Medicare Advantage Patients Who Lose Doctors Is Shelved, for Now

Trump regime decides that seniors with "Medicare Advantage" can't keep their doctor if the doctor leaves (or is kicked out of) the plan.
Practical advice: Don't sign up for Medicare Advantage! Stick with traditional Medicare.
www.nytimes.com/2026/04/16/b...

The 60s (maybe even the 50s) were the heyday of the term "planned obsolescence." In those days automakers discontinued car models after three years, pushing people who wanted to own the current model to get a new car every three years.

ACT & The Purple Line

Here's a short history of the Purple Line. www.actfortransit.org/act_and_purp...

To be fair, the Baltimore light rail had some serious design flaws that had to be fixed later. And what we're getting next year is a 16-mile double-tracked line, where the 1989 plan was a 4-mile single-tracked line.
Still....

Schaefer also announced funding for light rail from Bethesda to Silver Spring, to give the DC area some parity with Baltimore. Montgomery County began its usual approval processes. Baltimore light rail ran on Opening Day 1992. Ours is scheduled to run at the end of next year.

The story of building the Baltimore light rail is like this; I don't know where it's written up.
The then MTA chief & one other designed the route on a napkin. They took it to Gov Schaefer who said, Can you get it open by Camden Yards opening day? They gulped & said yes. They made it, barely.

I don't think it's that people want to trade off the long commute with a bigger house. I think people always preferred 2000 sq ft to 1100 sq ft. It's that only the people who can afford a 2000 sq ft house are able to afford the long car commute.

I disagree. 1980s starter homes were built on the exurban fringe. Close-in zoning was worse then than now. Zoning is still lax on the fringe.
What's changed is sprawl. Cities are now so spread-out that people who can afford exurban starter homes can't afford the long commute. So there's no demand.

It's not the McMansion owners who pay.* It's the owners of the undeveloped land that the McMansions were subsequently built on. Their property was worth less because there was room for somewhat fewer McMansions on it.

*OK, they pay a little more because of reduced supply of McMansions.

The commercial landowners & developers in Montgomery County support our IZ program, which was designed along these lines.
I'd guess that the zoning effects have raised the value of urban land more than compliance decreased it. Owners of land developed with McMansions almost certainly lost money.

Yes, the land value goes down. That is not a cross-subsidy from market-rate tenants or owners. It is a subsidy paid by the landowner.
Its purpose is social integration, not housing for the poor.
It adds to housing supply only so far as it aids the politics of upzoning. Where I am, it is a big help.

Only where IZ requires cross-subsidy. And IZ with cross-subsidy has a further problem: the cross-subsidy becomes unsustainable over time with filtering in a normal market.
IZ properly aims at social integration, building for mid-income, not poor. Lowers land price, rent pays for structure & upkeep.

They did a lot more of this when they had a lot more reporters.

Inside the NYC Power Stations That Keep Trains Moving — or Bring Them to a Halt (Gift Article) Transit officials are spending billions of dollars to upgrade New York City’s aging electrical substations, the mostly invisible backbone of the subway system.

For all transit fans - a great article about the NY subway's $4 billion dollar program to replace & upgrade electrical substations.
With great photos of a 94-year-old substation and the newest one. Gift link!
www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Kudos to @bannermoco.bsky.social for covering this important story that media rarely bother to report after intensely promoting the opposite news.

Do you believe that ethnic groups that feel attached to a specific parcel of land need to give up that belief?
If not, why are you giving theological advice to religions you don't believe in?
If yes, why are you lecturing Jews & Muslims & not Americans, French, Italians, Chinese, etc etc?

I hope you mean a study of their resting heart rate, not during the commute. There's certainly plenty of data about heart rate while cycling. Although would be interesting to know how a driver's heart rate varies over the course of a drive in heavy traffic.

It was clear enough to me six weeks ago.
bsky.app/profile/benr...

The line between Leninism & social democracy is nearly identical to the line between dogmatism & what this article calls open-minded thinking.
Karl Kautsky insisted that Marxism is a "an infinite process of learning" with no fixed truths; its essence is "learning from experience."

I passed a driver on the W&OD Trail a week ago. First time I had ever seen one, and I have used the Custis & W&OD Trail very frequently (more than once per week in spring & summer) for many years. Is this a trend?

Problem I have with the Transit app is that it is accurate when it tells me the bus will come before I get to the stop but inaccurate when it says the bus will arrive soon after I get to rhe stop.

I just finished David Gwyn's The Coming of the Railway and you need to take back "worst track ever used." Did you know that the first two B&O lines, from Baltimore to Frederick & Washington, used a mixture of wooden and granite track?

I really don't think we're disagreeing much at all. I think it's just a difference of emphasis, you're looking more at Russian elites & I'm thinking more of why a different elite did not emerge.

I think 70 years did more damage than 40 or 50 years, morally if not institutionally. It's been a long & difficult path for Ukraine.

The Russians I knew in the 90s who then thought shock therapy was a mistake (a very diverse group) blamed Russians. The West-blaming comes now from the beneficiaries.

I don't disagree at all, see my second post.
I recall in late 1992 telling my relative who taught in Novosibirsk about Russian economists who came to DC spouting Marx & returned a few years later spouting Friedman.
He said, "They didn't believe it then & don't believe it now."

That said, any kind of outcome with a democratic Russia integrated into the world economy was an uphill battle. The institutional & moral damage from 70 years of totalitarianism was vast. There wasn't much in the way of the ruling nomenklatura jettisoning an obsolete ideology & keeping power. 2/2

The wrong turn began with accepting the Western advice on "shock therapy" & uncontrolled denationalization. Russia lost a lot of industry that could have survived with a more gradual transition, some of which (eg, in metallurgy) could have become very competitive in the world market. 1/2

Re: Needed Improvements to the Planned Shuttle Buses on MD 355

The shuttle plan, as presented to the County Council last month, is woefully incomplete:
* Gaps in the bus lanes
* No plans for enforcement
* No adjustment of traffic signals to speed up the buses
www.actfortransit.org/shuttle_buse...