It’s all hyper focusing on the psychotic minority of people who drive into Manhattan and how hard it is for them, despite having commutes that could easily be done with public transit. There’s a scant few soundbites from strap hangers, the people who are the vast majority of commuters. One of the networks had a long interview with a tourist from Philadelphia who drove in for a Broadway show. She’s going on about how tough it’ll be for commuters, like, shut the fuck up, you are out of your element, you don’t live here, you don’t work here, stop opining on things you know nothing about.
imagine driving from Philly to NYC to go to a Broadway show when Grand Central is walking distance to most theaters
And its like the one part of the country where public transit is decent. SEPTA, NJ Transit, MTA.
In Philly, you can just decide to go to New York for the day by taking Regional Rail to Trenton, Trenton to NYC. Or if you plan ahead, an Amtrak train for less than $20 each way, or even a Megabus for even less.
imagine driving to see broadway theatre and then driving home instead of getting lit and seeing broadway theatre and getting on the train
Don't forget how much they talk about all the small business tyrants that are crying about how much they'll have to raise prices because of it too. Aside from quickly mentioning the potential funds that will be raised from it there almost nothing else said about the potential benefits (like reduced traffic) or how there are other things that make driving into Manhattan prohibitively expensive (never a peep about how ridiculously expensive parking can be). I'm so fucking tired of hearing the coverage.
small business
I fucking hate this about local news. "Small business owners small business owners small business owners sma--" No, shut the fuck up. I do not care about "small" business owners. It's such a tiny portion of the population, wedged between the actual 1% and the working class who actually do those jobs.
Nobody gives a shit about some chud's car dealership or antique store. Sales happening at Walmart have more impact on people's lives than some broken window at a local artisanal firewood shop in downtown Fucking Nowhere, Arkansas.
Where is that site tagline about “I will never be friends with a small business owner”
they’ll have to raise prices.
I doubt they have to, either they’re doing so as a form of protest or they simply just want to.
I hate it when the rich say “we have no choice” as if they wouldn’t charge a million dollars for an apple if they could get away with it.
But also, more people taking the train means more people walking from the train to their destination which means more foot traffic which means more potential customers which means more sales. The conventional wisdom is backwards when it comes to the relationship between brick and mortar retail sales and car dependency.
It popped off on my tiktok feed today. So many of them also being subtly racist/anti-immigrant in how "unsafe" the subway is...
All because some cagers have to pay $9 for the immense negative externalities of their toys
Americans when ~20k people are murdered each year (most of which don't take place on public transit): "The subway is unsafe because there's too much crime."
Americans when ~40k people die in car accidents each year: "This is literally the pinnacle of freedom! I feel so safe inside my personal tank!"
New York NIMBYs when they ghoulishly profited off of a housing scarcity by blocking new housing in one of the most in-demand places to live on the planet…and then they end up getting burned by having to pay to occupy space on some of the most valuable land on the planet.
Even at the very least, I’ll never understand why Long Island willingly has the same planning as Ohio. Robert Moses has done irreparable damage to that place.
LI right before Moses got his new job in the parks dept was part robber-baron vacation playground and scattered white fishermen enclaves. It was ripe for his specific neurotic fantasy of lebensraum for the educated middle-class he occupied.
That giant book on him written by another guy named robert was far too flattering imo. I’m sure he was a diligent worker but it didn’t lay into him hard enough about how he was an expert at acquiescing to rich ppl’s demands to get what he wanted & way too generous about how many hours he supposedly worked, his family life, etc. Maybe i’m recalling it was kinder than it is but i remember after listening to the audio book version thinking that the criticism leveled should’ve been harsher and there was plenty of criticism
The problem is that it may be impossible to be critical enough of Moses. Caro calls him the person who destroyed New York and yet you are still left with that impression (not saying you aren’t justified).
I think it's due to the fact that, since the book attempts to limits itself to the definition of 'biography', Caro can't (or wouldn't) examine the the conditions that allowed Moses to act as he did. It just so happens that all of Moses's grand plans align entirely with capital. Making parks out on Long Island connected by parkways built only to accommodate small vehicles, demolishing public housing, forcibly relocating immigrant neighborhoods to build highway. The way the book presents a lot of these problems, to my memory, gives the reader the impression that he was some exceptionally brilliant negotiator/bully whose extraordinary drive to create a legacy and earn respect caused him and his ill conceived plans to 'destroy new york' out of hubris instead of describing him as a particularly effective bureaucrat who did everything in his power to ensure the suburbs and cars became a fact of life in america according to the will of the biggest companies at the time.
All that said it's a good read or listen. It's called 'The Power Broker'
It’s been a bit since I’ve read it, but I think there were a few throw away lines about the Moses projects dovetailing with the interests of the automobile industry, as well as real estate interests. But yes, it mostly focuses on the bureaucratic machinations Moses employed to carry out his vision.
Probably the biggest acknowledgement of the influence of capital in the book comes at the end with the dismantling of the Moses empire. The thing that allows that to happen is the convergence of a Rockefeller governor and his family’s bank, Chase, being the bond representative for all the Triborough B&T Authority bonds. So it does present capital as having a power that most of the politicians, civic leaders, and bureaucrats that Moses opposed didn’t have.
You're correct. It's been awhile since I'd read/listened to it too and have j ust been firing from the hip loll
For anyone who has never experienced a commute into Manhattan during rush hour, just for perspective they could make the GWB, Lincoln Tunnel, and parking free and I'd still pay to take NJ Transit.
This has been a revealing outlook into bourgeois media. My favorite is where they interviewed a guy who refused to walk for 15 minutes, take a bus or a train.
Andrew Scott Heiberger (born January 18, 1968) is an American real estate agent and developer. He is the founder, owner and CEO of Buttonwood Development, a Manhattan-based real estate development firm. He is also the founder and owner of Town Residential, a residential real estate brokerage in Manhattan. He previously served as CEO of Citi Habitats, a residential brokerage in Manhattan that he founded in 1994 and sold in 2004.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Heiberger
I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
