NYT reports that some older adults are moving to NYC instead of retiring in Florida? Of course. Walkability, transit, culture, parks, and the freedom of not needing a car make it possible to stay active, connected, and engaged at any age.
https://t.co/mqAbw4aqWN
The US spent 70 years building a country optimized for cars instead of people. This is what that looks like at full resolution.
MetLife Stadium sits on 2.1 million square feet of parking. 28,000 spaces. The parking lots are larger than the stadium itself. The entire Meadowlands complex was purpose-built so that the only way a human being can reach it is inside a 4,000-pound metal box. The New Jersey State Police printed that sign because pedestrians were never part of the design.
And here’s where it gets interesting: the 2026 World Cup Final is being played at this stadium in five months. FIFA’s biggest event on Earth, hosted at a venue where walking is literally illegal. International fans from countries where you stroll to the stadium from a pub three blocks away are about to encounter a place where the nearest hotel requires a car to travel a distance you can see with your eyes.
The US has 700 million to 2 billion parking spaces. Eight parking spots for every car in the country. Parking lots cover more than 5% of all developed land, an area larger than Rhode Island and Delaware combined. Minimum parking requirements forced every building, every stadium, every shopping center to dedicate more square footage to storing empty vehicles than to serving the humans inside. American cities didn’t accidentally become unwalkable. They were zoned that way.
During the recent Club World Cup at MetLife, only 12.5% of fans used public transit to reach the stadium. The other 87.5% drove. Now imagine that ratio flipping for the World Cup, when the majority of attendees will be international visitors without cars. NJ Transit is spending $100 million to try to move 20,000 people per hour through a single transfer point at Secaucus Junction, a system that already had door malfunctions and 13-minute delays during games with 29,000 fans. Scale that to 82,500.
The sign in this hotel lobby is American car culture in a single frame: we built the richest country on Earth, then made it illegal to walk across it.
@andruyeung What is the criteria for this list ranking? Proximity to core Manhattan? There are so many non gentrified neighborhoods not even mentioned let alone a core borough missing
If you are a software engineer "experiencing some degree of mental health crisis", now hear this, because I've been coding for 50 years since the days of punched cards and I have a salutary kick in your ass to deliver.
Get over yourself. Every previous "programming is obsolete" panic has been a bust, and this one's going to be too.
The fundamental problem of mismatch between the intentions in human minds and the specifications that a computer can interpret hasn't gone away just because now you can do a lot of your programming in natural language to an LLM.
Systems are still complicated. This shit is still difficult. The need for people who specialize in bridging that gap isn't going to go away.
As usual, the answer is: upskill yourself and adapt. If a crusty old fart like me can do it, you can too.
A Washington Post article suggests that, beyond a certain threshold, larger homes don't make people happier. Instead, well-being is correlated with affordable housing in walkable neighborhoods where they feel socially connected.
🚨 MICROSOFT'S INTERNAL H-1B GUIDANCE JUST LEAKED
Microsoft tells employees:
- If in US: "Remain in the U.S. for the foreseeable future" to "avoid being denied reentry"
- H-4 dependents: Also stay in US (even though proclamation doesn't mention them)
- If abroad: "Strongly recommend you return to the U.S. tomorrow before the deadline"
- Extensions/Status changes: Likely unaffected if you're currently in the US
Microsoft setting up individual tracking for employees outside US and admits "there isn't much time to make sudden travel arrangements"
Translation:
Even Microsoft with unlimited legal resources is telling H-1B workers to avoid international travel entirely.
If Microsoft is this cautious, everyone should be.
When Big Tech says "don't travel" - listen. RT to warn others.
Hi, this is Meg Barnette, Brad's wife.
While escorting a defendant out of immigration court at 26 Federal Plaza, Brad was taken by masked agents and detained by ICE.
This is still developing, and our team is monitoring the situation closely.