So is it normal Amtrak practice to close train doors on a NEC train 4 minutes before departure? I was later than I wanted to be because of subway issues, but still arrive 4 mins before departure – and the train just sat there with doors closed for 2 more mins before leaving 2 mins early!

Got asked to donate to a Dem candidate last year. I said only if I won’t be spammed. They said yes, I’ll delete immediately so it doesn’t get passed along. I now get at least half a dozen spam texts a day. Not giving a penny until they make this stop and guarantee it won’t happen again.

Extremely cool policy job opening for anyone interested in transportation. Can be fully remote (US only)! www.metroabundance.org/jobs/transpo...

After all the complaints about Airbnbs displacing housing, now we’re complaining about replacing an empty two-story building with a real hotel? And an argument for preserving the old building is that the ground floor *used to be* a famous Senegalese restaurant? Spanish NIMBYism is on another level

The great thing about being a transit nerd is that I’ve never respected Elon Musk

Next I’d like to see the city get authorization to install box-blocking cameras in Midtown. It could save a lot of money on traffic cops, and make it cheaper to do any kind of business that involves a lot of deliveries or site visits (groceries, building maintenance, construction, etc.)

“The most important piece of news for the future of the [South American] lift market is the agreement to be signed between the European Union (EU) and MERCOSUR.” Small EU exporters and consumers have the most to benefit. elevatorworld.com/pdf/online_e...

The main failure was the self-closing doors, and as a condo board president, I have received zero communication in the years since from the city about the importance of maintaining these, suggestions for inspecting them, etc. Feels like no lessons were learned.

Should there not be a stop at Magnolia Blvd?

Code nerds: any idea how this building got away with not enclosing either of its stairways?

For the two Iowa metro areas: 1. Ames used to be ~100 in ‘14. 2. Iowa City Transit, 1/3 agencies in IC, went fare free but the metro slipped from 11th to 16th. 3. Both metros have lost ridership in last decade to *walking*, as new mid/high-rise student-serving apartments were built near campus.

The sharp rise in unemployment among foreign-born workers during the immigration surge during the Biden years (and fall after Biden and Trump closed the border) does explain why Latino voters turned sharply for Trump in 2024

I can’t understand how the restoration of the Houses of Parliament will cost… £15 billion! That’s…. £133,000 a square metre! For context, to build a brand new skyscraper in London is around £10,000 /m2. What the hell? www.politico.eu/article/mp-q...

Strong Towns' Chuck Marohn betraying all of his principles on behalf of the Michigan League in opposition to a pro-housing package of bills that would (among other things) legalize duplexes and ADUs, reduce parking requirements, and speed up permitting. This guy has completely lost the plot.

I'm very happy by the imminent signing of the EU-Mercosur agreement. Important diplomatic and economic win for Lula as he faces a still strong authoritarian right. Important win for the EU as we refuse to be taken hostage by the deranged farmer fringe.

Betting markets expect the IEEPA tariffs to be overturned @Kalshi kalshi.com/markets/k...

The EU ratified the trade deal with Mercosur, creating one of the largest free trade areas in the world and allowing Europe to sell things like cars and wine and for South America to sell agricultural products like beef more easily www.wsj.com/world/europe...

Wow – legalizes single-stair up to six stories *and* wheelchair-sized elevators (cuts the stretcher requirement). Does anybody have any contact with the legislators or their staffers? I'm interested in talking to them...

Mamdani and Weaver are playing a dangerous legal game with this argument. The bid is just $88,000 per apartment, so the admin is arguing that, due to its own rent regulation, the value is below that. So why shouldn't the Supreme Court find that rent stabilization is an unconstitutional taking?

Airport authorities do spend a ton of money on this roadway infrastructure, so if they're going to charge for transit, I don't see why they shouldn't charge for using the road networks they're building and maintaining too

Anybody else find @apoorvanyt.bsky.social’s justifications for why it’s fine for Denmark to give so few childhood vaccines but not the US a bit odd? Maybe it’s bad for Danish kids too that they don’t get many vaccines! open.spotify.com/episode/1rk0...

Bluesky community! This is my official NYC mayor account. I’ll be posting updates on what’s happening at City Hall and how we’re delivering for New Yorkers. It’s great to be here.

New: Dan Garodnick, who has served as NYC's top planning official for the past four years, is stepping down from his role — a move that comes after he didn’t land a senior post in Mayor Mamdani’s City Hall. Story coming shortly via @nydailynews.com

Something interesting about arctic construction: it strongly resembles that of the metropole. Some climactic adaptation, but Nuuk, Murmansk, Fairbanks, and Yellowknife are all very different. It suggests that mainland construction differences are also driven more by socioeconomics than geography.

I love how to be a French politician, you have to have an absolutely deranged love life. The two romantic partners listed on this Paris mayoral candidate’s Wikipedia page were born in 1997 and 1958, respectively. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_K...

Wow – real asking rents in Jersey City are completely flat since 2017 www.nytimes.com/2026/01/08/n... (🎁🔗)

New: Hochul and Mamdani are announcing a plan to this year launch free childcare for 2 year olds in NYC. But lots of details are unclear, including how much that'll cost and how it'll be funded. Hochul's team does say it won't require tax hikes in 2026. www.nydailynews.com/2026/01/08/h...

“Construction is already among the most dangerous jobs in the country, with about 1,000 people dying each year from work-related injuries, more than any other industry. But five times as many workers, 5,100, died by suicide, and 15,900 died from drug overdoses, in 2023…”

Interesting floor plan that shows what mitigations are possible that are not a second stair or sprinklers (neither of which are common in new apartment buildings in France). The lower floors have a short double-loaded corridor with five units of up to 4BR, which I... divisare.com/projects/548...

I’ve got an “Extraordinary threat to life and property” thanks to forecast lows that might dip below 40

Very interesting episode of The Daily about Delcy Rodríguez. I had not read anywhere else that she led a series of market reforms in Venezuela during and after the pandemic that seem to have worked (and I actually can’t really find anything else on it) open.spotify.com/episode/0Ynx...

Single-stair multifamily codes trend as states lean into affordability www.housingwire.com/articles/sin...

Context is US courts have ruled that standards organizations like the ICC lose their copyright on codes and standards once they are adopted into law, under the logic that you cannot copyright the law. ICC and others are trying to change that with the Pro Codes Act, which might make UpCodes illegal.

A lot of these are using noncombustible materials. I wonder if this reflects what’s actually being built in Altadena and the Palisades.

Wow sounds scary, this must be bad! I’ll have to click on it to find out what the severe weather is

In the topsy-turvy world of California housing policy, building six townhouses instead of a single McMansion will result in hundreds of thousands of "impact" fees that have nothing to do with impacts and "affordability" mandates that guarantee housing unaffordability.

Office space is the Elizabeth Line's bottleneck. The official evaluation shows jobs around Farringdon grew more slowly than London as a whole. But office rents increased twice as fast as the London average as office space actually fell. Demand increased but supply did not.

The Elizabeth Line hasn't increased commuting by as much as you might think. Even though Farringdon's tap-ins are up 64% from 2019 levels, displacement from the Central Line at Chancery Lane means total tap-ins for both are only up 18%. The reason is a lack of office space.

In German also eye (Treppenauge)

Fun fact: in Spanish the open space in the middle of the staircase is an eye (ojo de escalera).but in Italian it's a trumpet (tromba delle scale)

Firefighter injured when a window air conditioner fell on them during a fire in Ridgewood in Queens. Weird that we tolerate a/c units balanced on window frames above a brick if you’re lucky, but won’t allow minisplits secured onto facades. abc7ny.com/amp/post/2-f...

you will never find a double loaded corridor in our game as long as I live and breath and as long as players don't build it in their waystations

This type of smart, walkable, mixed-use urbanism is illegal to build in many American cities (...incidentally, it's very legal in Spirit Crossing)

I’m not a big fan of office-to-resi generally, but especially not in DC, where the strict height limit and built-out downtown mean that there is basically no room for further office building. Not to mention that the floor plates are VERY deep and so there will be tons and tons of windowless bedrooms

The issue with each homeowner choosing their own level of wildfire protection is that a lot of the benefit of noncombustibility accrues not to you, but to your neighbor, since the structure of your home doesn’t contribute fuel load that threatens theirs

The FDNY's response to a five alarm fire in the Bronx was delayed by drivers who parked their cars in front of three fire hydrants closest to the blaze. Two firefighters and one civilian were injured.

The problem for transit advocates is that the system is genuinely very bad. The proposed solution is to effectively destroy transit, but mode share in the Metroplex is so low that voters aren’t going to really care.

First time I’ve seen talk in Romania of installing elevators in old buildings – they cite a cost of up to €60,000 per elevator, to be covered by EU funds. A politician says Romania has fewer elevators than any EU state (no way that is true in absolute terms…), with just 55,000

Despite the transit focus of Mayor Mamdani's first post-inauguration appearance with Gov. Hochul today, one issue noticably went unmentioned at the event: His plan to make NYC's public buses free (a proposal Hochul opposes). www.nydailynews.com/2026/01/05/a...

2Stair Hallways allow a burning unit with an open door to infect a massive number of units with smoke, and then force people to travel long distances through that smoke. The idea that this status quo is good / better than single stair is just crazy.