Corbin A. Smith

Charlotte NC-based CPA/CITP. I follow gaming, internal audit, finance, urbanism, and geopolitics. Opinions are my own.

[Corbin A. Smith @CAS_CPA]

I normally do not post on vacation, but after some deliberation I thought I would share how I saw that Japan is our greatest ally.

[Corbin A. Smith @CAS_CPA]

It would be extremely foolish for the GOP to follow Trump into this particular hole. Housing affordability is the issue in America today.

[FactPost @factpostnews]

Trump: I don't want to drive housing prices down. I want to drive housing prices up

[𝙷𝚒𝚌𝚔𝚖𝚊𝚗 @shagbark_hick]

Compare driving cars to living in the ghetto.

A large majority of Americans enthusiastically drive but believe that US cities are incredibly dangerous, high-crime, "no-go zones".

But in real terms, your odds of dying in a car wreck are far, far higher than the average ghetto resident's odds of dying by homicide are. This assumes (correctly) that the average ghetto resident avoids drugs, prostitutes, gangs, and public displays of wealth.

Statistically, you'd literally be "safer" to move to Southside Syracuse or even rough parts of Chicago and Philly to live a zero-driving, no-car lifestyle than you'd be living in a zero-crime, automobile-intensive suburban environment.

This is, of course, a serious narrative violation for a lot of Americans. Many are irritated at the very idea that what I am saying here might really be plausible, or will even (erroneously) deny it -- but a pretty cursory examination of the facts quickly confirms that it is true.

It proves that our ideas of "safety" are far more social-emotional than objective. Making gestures about what is and is not "safe" are more than anything ways of projecting one's identity -- they are not straightforward and unbiased assessments of actual safety.

[Corbin A. Smith @CAS_CPA]

@The_Iron_Van @CLTdevelopment Agreed - which is why I find it odd that people seem to think that a public transportation system has that responsibility.

It's there to address congestion.

[Corbin A. Smith @CAS_CPA]

@The_Iron_Van @CLTdevelopment I ride that train. Trust me. I'm aware. I'm also aware that if the same guy for the same reason shot her at a Quiktrip or ran her over with an Altima, you would not know or care who she was. Meanwhile, there were 81 traffic deaths in Charlotte that same year.

[Corbin A. Smith @CAS_CPA]

@The_Iron_Van @CLTdevelopment Because as we all know, criminals cannot drive.

[Corbin A. Smith @CAS_CPA]

@CedarPosts I mean, it looks to me that CMPD is just putting in the work to make Charlotte safer. I'm happy to see it.

[Corbin A. Smith @CAS_CPA]

@candiedwishkey @CLTAirport I was annoyed at a four hour Amtrak delay not long ago.

I didn't know how good I had it.

[Cory in San Francisco @coryfromphilly]

High land values signaling more density is the EXACT thing YIMBYs fucking talking about. This is basic urban economics.

YIMBYs harp about zoning because we shouldn't need urban planners and politicians lagging price signals by 2 decades!! Just let markets work!

[clara the urbanist @SlopHq]

$965 a month to own the average new car and nobody blinks. a transit agency raises the fare a quarter and it's a crisis hearing with angry public comment. we audit the bus to the penny and hand the car a blank check. interesting which one we call subsidized

[Steve Harrison @Sharrison_WFAE]

The Matthews attorney says in a memo that @SenatorSawyer draft amendment to require Charlotte, Matthews and other governments to repay the DOT for money spent designing I-77 tolls is "unlawful." The memo comes as Monroe looks to support I-77 again, and it's on CRTPO agenda Wed.

[Corbin A. Smith @CAS_CPA]

We're firmly in improvement territory. That guy threatening another passenger on the blue line with a knife? CMPD identified him, obtained a warrant, and now has him in custody. Charlotte is taking security on public transportation seriously.

[CMPD News @CMPD]

After officers were made aware of a video circulating online showing a heated exchange on the light rail, they immediately began an investigation. No 9‑1‑1 calls were made during the incident. They reviewed available video footage on social media as well as security footage obtained from @CATSRideTransit and were able to positively identify the suspect and obtain warrants for his arrest.

On June 11, at approximately 10 p.m., a CMPD officer working off-duty security on the CATS Blue Line located the suspect on a Blue Line platform. Derek Lamont Hutchinson, 36, was apprehended with assistance from Central Division officers.

A knife was seized during the arrest.

Hutchinson was transferred to the custody of the Mecklenburg County Sheriff’s Office and is charged with the following:
· Going Armed to the Terror of the People
· Carrying a Concealed Weapon
· Disorderly Conduct
· Felony Possession of a Schedule I Controlled Substance
· Possession of Marijuana
· City/Town Violation

Hutchinson is currently being held under a $40,000 secured bond.

See full release here: https://t.co/fysuzY6Cad

[Max Dubler 🏳️‍🌈 @maxdubler]

Schrodinger's apartments: simultaneously bringing poor people of color and wealthy white yuppies into your neighborhood.

[Corbin A. Smith @CAS_CPA]

@dbsb3233 @socialgreenmh @Boenau .... Why not? If people died left and right on airplanes, we wouldn't fly on them.

[Corbin A. Smith @CAS_CPA]

@humantransit I must reply that for most of my neighbors, who like me live within walking distance of a light rail stop, this is the reason they don't ride. I don't think downplaying transit crime is the right move. Public authorities need to be seen as serious in dealing with it.

[Corbin A. Smith @CAS_CPA]

@m_a_h_o_n_e_y I think we might be looking at them for different reasons.

I'm normally using these to get to someplace. Driving to another Greenway and using that wouldn't meet my objective.

[Corbin A. Smith @CAS_CPA]

@m_a_h_o_n_e_y I would point at the segments between Tyvola and Elizabeth. These are the parts that are more or less the competing corridor to the Blue Line rail trail.

[Corbin A. Smith @CAS_CPA]

This is a great article. But if you don't have time to read all of it, I wanted to share this piece of it.

Regarding the "locked out" generation of young professionals:

[Pedro Santa Clara @psantacl]

Six famous economists — @JosephEStiglitz , @PikettyWIL , @jasonhickel among them — published a manifesto in the @guardian last week: "growth is a doomed strategy." They say they've done the maths.

I checked the maths.

The claim that growth failed the poor is contradicted by the most uncontroversial dataset in economics: extreme poverty fell from 44% of humanity in 1981 to under 10% today — during the very decades they call a failure. China alone lifted 800 million people, not with a UN roadmap, but with growth.

The "92% of excess emissions" statistic? It's one of the authors citing his own paper, without saying so — and it's not a measurement, it's a moral allocation dressed up as data.

The policy toolkit — "public control of strategic assets," "credit guidance" — has a track record: Soviet collectivization, the Great Leap Forward, Venezuela, and Sri Lanka's 2021 fertilizer ban, which starved the poor it claimed to serve within eighteen months.

What worries me most: degrowth is being marketed to young people who feel locked out — telling them their stagnation is virtue. It's a swindle. The young aren't victims of too much growth. They are the first victims of its absence.

Growth is the only anti-poverty program that has ever worked.

[Corbin A. Smith @CAS_CPA]

We're going to have wall to wall national coverage on the dangers of taking public interstates now, right?

Right?

[Joe Bruno @JoeBrunoWSOC9]

Victim’s son says road rage led to shooting on Charlotte interstate https://t.co/Bc8Ld7iFI1