Was just reading the Polish paper of record to get some perspective on our elections and they have a story about the shocking state of health care in the USA. Literally lines like “you wouldn’t believe this to be true but it is,” or “usually if your family member is having a heart attack, you call an ambulance, but in America people weigh whether they can afford the bill”.
Anyway go team blue lol.
I have a lot of faith that the Liz Cheney DNC will get right on it.
Palate cleanser from national issue
why do we have to put up with the helicopters if they’re just gonna high speed chase people through pedestrians?
this was 50 metres from my house yesterday arvo. Astounding that no one was killed. Happened right in front of a child care centre.
I’m not sure how the Democratic Party works, but it’s traditional that you be a member of the party before you can be part of its leadership.
good business model actually. it’s like the big money version of dentists giving out candy.
also fuck dentists
Fuck teeth!
When the “ progressive” party accepts endorsements from members of a party so deeply rooted in racism, misogyny, transphobia, imperialism, Islamophobia and fascism it’s probably not a great sign. That’s all I meant.
Let’s put little cars on your MUP, because reasons ($$$).
https://x.com/ThreadATL/status/1854933867901190372
Beltline pods are a proposed transit option for the Atlanta BeltLine that would involve autonomous vehicles traveling along the greenway:
- What are they? The pods would be driverless vehicles that could carry up to eight people.
Why would they not go on roads?
last night riding home I passed an oversized steel box delivery tadpole that had collided with a deliverista who was down hard.
didn’t there used to be lights up there? is that what the construction is doing?
on the wbb? yeah it’s dark innit.
It’s a last mile solution for an imaginary commuter group and tourists who don’t want to walk more than 100 feet.
Damn would be terrible.
I lived on the beltline right near Ponce from 2013-2015 (in an apartment I could no longer afford lol) and it was so great to have a way to walk to different neighborhoods that didn’t involve cars.
those little pods would be perfect if they were on, say, an elevated system of tracks or maybe underground. if only there were a way to do that.
Once again attended a Business Community meeting about an upcoming construction project as the Token Pro Bike/Pro Walk/Pro Bus business operator in a sea of infuriated small business owners.
In particular, a husband and wife owner of a dive pizza place down the street (Leaning Tower of Pizza for anyone familiar with the area) were just apoplectic about all of the changes being proposed. He and I really started getting into it at our table.
The street was changed from a 4 lane street to a 2 lane street with center turn lane. Average speeds dropped immediately and collisions are down 50%. It’s not perfect, but it’s a huge improvement.
Some of the new designs proposed include a partial two lane bikeway (I’m not enthusasitic about it for a number of reasons and probably won’t ever use it that often). Of course everyone is PISSED OFF about it, claiming it’s taking away parking and traffic lanes. It’s not.
Also a bus lane is being proposed for two blocks (one has the co-op on it, the other has the pizza shop on it) and the pizza guy just hates it. “It’s going to ruin traffic! Why are they taking away traffic lanes for this?” I kept asking him, “how is this reducing the lanes? it’s the same number of lanes” but such logic seemed to escape him.
Pizza guy also said he wanted to go back to the 4 lane road, because “what good did two lanes do? NOTHING. NO GOOD. Terrible!” Did not have any comeback when I reminded him that a 50% reduction in collisions is definitely a good thing.
After I shared my opinion that I would love for bus service to be more reliable for my employees who take busses, he responded “why should I give a fuck about people on busses? why is that my problem?” I wanted to ask him why his concern about traffic was my problem.
At one point the government planners were asking for feedback and the planner at my table said “mixed support for bus lanes” and the Pizza Guy yelled “ONE PERSON. that is ONE PERSON!” and another lady said “ONE PERSON? that is ridiculous” so I felt obligated to call out “I’m proud to support the things I support!” which almost caused the room to erupt in arguments before the Project Manager calmed everyone down again.
Then everyone started screaming about parking (parking is reduced, but only by about 15% in most places, and there are several highly underutilized public parking lots in the most dense parts of th neighborhood) and once again Pizza Guy is moaning and complaining about parking. His pizza place HAS A PARKING LOT with less than 20% typical utilization. I refrained from asking him about that since I was representing the co-op and didn’t want to get in a real fight over this. My experience is that parking isn’t challenging at all – guess none of these bumpkins have ever tried parking in a real city like Seattle.
Then some rich looking boomer lady who seems to have assigned herself the position of Local Business Leader starting giving multiple speeches about “having one voice to fight against the other side” in conspiratorial terms. Referring, of course, to the Livable Lyndale group advocating for safer streets with more options for people not in cars. Lots of “they’re making EMOTIONAL appeals and are reacting with their EMOTIONS, not FACTS” and it took everything I had to not point out that everyone in the room was kinda having emotional diva moments.
Since she didn’t introduce herself and wasn’t wearing a nametag, I asked her who she was and told her that I didn’t think she represented my voice. She did not respond, but then hovered over our table glowering and telling us that we needed to support the option with no bike lanes and no bus lanes for the health of the district.
It was pretty crazy. These biz owners operate businesses in what is probably the densest, most car-free neighborhood in the entire STATE and they cannot fathom making any concession of any kind to non-car transportation. It’s ludicrous and infuriating. I wanted to tell them to move their businesses to the suburbs if they only want to serve customers who drive to their stores.
Of course I have to admit the co-op has 63 car parking spaces so I definitely don’t need street parking to survive. Maybe they do. I’m more worried about the massive construction disruption – I think it’ll cost the co-op $13M in sales over two years, conservatively. Reality check: most of these business might not survive, or will just move to the suburbs during construction.
Yeah their pizza sucks ass
I’ve never been since my days of post-work endrunkenings are behind me, but I wish I had so I could have told him that his business wouldn’t be suffering if his pizza tasted better
