@seattletimes Tough call because concerns about surveillance are valid. But @MayorofSeattle told us on @RealSeattleNice she's a big soccer fan so I'll be a little surprised if she doesn't authorize these cameras temporarily since it's kind of de rigueur for the World Cup.
Thanks @skaushik100 it’s one of my favorite podcasts: deep dives into history and total esoterica, that somehow feels like you’re eating a big bowl of ice cream. Hoping to hear you on @omnibusproject soon!
This is a very fun listen: my podcasting partner in crime @hyded joined host John Roderick on John's excellent @omnibusproject pod (which John created with Jeopardy host @KenJennings) to tell the improbable story of the Astor Place Riot in NYC in 1849.
It's an amazing tale of class and cultural conflict as hard-bitten Gangs of New York Bowery Boys engaged in violent rioting (at least 22 people died) over... Shakespearean theater and acting styles. Really! It's a very strange-but-true, undeservedly obscure slice of American history, entertainingly told.
https://t.co/ghVfgURDcl
Worth reading on why you can't trust Maine polls. But here's the thing bugging me: now if Platner loses, do we learn anything about populist left candidates? Was it the sexts? The tattoo? Some weird Maine thing?
There's been lots of people pointing to the polls to allay concerns about Platner. But polls have underestimated Republicans by an average of 4 points in Maine since 2014.
The latest BCB episode (link to follow) primarily consists of three aging Gen Xers yelling, “get off my lawn!”
But in between our “kids today don’t know how rough we had it!” nostalgia trip with John Roderick, front man for legendary Seattle indie rock band The Long Winters and now host of the excellent (and omnivorous) @omnibusproject podcast (which John founded with Ken Jennings), we discuss what makes a city authentically cool.
And we dissect how the cultural and economic conditions in America 30 plus years ago that made blue cities like Seattle, Portland and New York cool have shifted, and why Gen Z, rebelling against the simultaneously censorious and affirming culture of the Millennials, may be about to invent their own version of urban cool.
We just launched PELE, our new soccer model! It is kind of insanely detailed. But we think you'll really like it and hope you'll check it out. Argentina *just* edges out Spain in the initial rankings. The US is ... much further down the list.
Super fun conversation about "Solid B cities" and world class city snobs with reporter @halbennet of https://t.co/UpJLZodurL on our latest @bluecitypodcast
Unfortunately the same thing can be said for some news organizations that changed their approach unevenly and without announcing it. But I would quibble and call it the pursuit of objectivity.
Some academics who denounced the idea of objectivity and declared themselves activists are for some reason shocked that policymakers and the public now view them not as trusted, objective scientists but as...activists.
Five years ago blue cities, particularly on the West Coast, were embracing a progressive-libertarian approach to addiction, decriminalizing hard drug use and leaning into the supposed personal “autonomy” of the addicted. Which flopped, badly,
Now some blue city mayors are innovating on drug policy in a very different direction, advocating more proactive interventions to push the addicted towards recovery. So we had Stanford’s @KeithNHumphreys, onto Blue City Blues to talk about the shifting tides on drug policy in cities like Philadelphia, San Francisco, and San Jose (link in the next tweet).
These efforts are nascent and experimental, Keith tells @hyded and I, but also promising and perhaps the leading edge of a broader reset in blue urban America.
This was a great discussion with @robertmgordon and the hosts for Blue City Blues about public sector unions, Democratic politics, and the future of our cities.