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Matt da Silva

@mdasilva.bsky.social

2K followers 690 following 6.3K posts

City planner. Reconstruction Democrat. Housing is good and fascism is bad.

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Matt da Silva @mdasilva.bsky.social · Jul 26

@idothethinking.bsky.social I put this walk together for an approximate quick circuit of the Jersey City Experience. maps.app.goo.gl/wGgG8NYhySq9...

maps.app.goo.gl

Reposted by Matt da Silva

Hannah Pumpkins 🎃 🍂 @hannahposts.bsky.social · 5h

Milhouse's dad pointing to his race car bed, but instead it's a cybertruck. The caption says "her name is aura"

Matt da Silva @mdasilva.bsky.social · 2h

A Levantine Arab would put just as much effort into a simple homemade hummus or tabouleh as this Mexican put into their table salsa.

Also fresh cheeses like mozzarella and ricotta and fresh salads/condiments like caponata are considerably more common in the south of Italy.

Matt da Silva @mdasilva.bsky.social · 2h

There’s nothing uniquely elaborate compared to other global cuisines about making blender salsa from the peppers tomatoes and herbs in your window garden and garnishing with some factory-made quesa fresca from the corner store.

Matt da Silva @mdasilva.bsky.social · 2h

Plus - no need for complete segregation. NEC and NJCL express trains will always be part of a blended operation with Amtrak on the NEC so no need to go crazy separating those, but there is no good reason to force M&E and RVL trains to mingle with Amtrak in perpetuity.

Matt da Silva @mdasilva.bsky.social · 5h

Looking closer at the hour by hour ridership - 2025 patterns consists of 2014 rush hour ridership combined with 2019 midday and overnight ridership, which of course equals lower ridership all around.

TNCs chipped away at off-peak usage in the 2010s and WFH hurt rush hour ridership in the 2020s.

Matt da Silva @mdasilva.bsky.social · 5h

Uber/Lyft is the story here. Overnight ridership in 2019 looks a lot more like 2025 than 2014.

Matt da Silva @mdasilva.bsky.social · 5h

I could see Uber/Lyft taking a bigger bite out of late night transit than other times. When frequencies are worst/when walking to/from the station feels sketchiest is when paying for a car has the most value proposition.

Matt da Silva @mdasilva.bsky.social · 5h

Overnight service got a lot worse between 2012 and now! It used to be 20 minute overnight frequencies - now it’s 35 minute frequencies and the switchover to overnight service patterns is earlier - 11:30 instead of midnight.

Matt da Silva @mdasilva.bsky.social · 5h

Harrison 2012: 6,961
Harrison 2019: 9,143
Harrison 2025: 6,692

Newark 2012: 29,273
Newark 2019: 30,186
Newark 2025: 18,178

Grove St 2012: 15,724
Grove St 2019: 22,191
Grove St 2025: 16,995

Matt da Silva @mdasilva.bsky.social · 5h

Ok I’m looking at 2019 now and everything was as high or much higher than 2012. I think the reality is WFH and hybrid work is the story here - not anything about towers. It seems Harrison DID see a big ridership boom - COVID/work from home destroyed it.

Matt da Silva @mdasilva.bsky.social · 5h

Most of those JSQ towers opened in the past 5 years. What does 2018 or 2019 look like?

Matt da Silva @mdasilva.bsky.social · 5h

I will say 2025 traffic makes Harrison less attractive as a park and ride vs 2012. I wonder if we are seeing former Harrison users park deeper in the suburbs.

Matt da Silva @mdasilva.bsky.social · 5h

On the other hand aren’t Grove Street and Journal Square at or near peak ridership? What’s the difference?

Matt da Silva @mdasilva.bsky.social · 6h

Why not just fund this with a property tax? That’s how we fund our Arts Trust Fund in Jersey City.

Matt da Silva @mdasilva.bsky.social · 6h

Some potential good comparisons of similar vintage mostly on freight ROWs:

Minneapolis Blue Line
Hudson-Bergen Light Rail - especially the southern branches
St Louis Metrolink - especially the Illinois extension

Matt da Silva @mdasilva.bsky.social · 7h

It helps immensely that the MTA has the staff to complete large portions of the EIS in-house.

Matt da Silva @mdasilva.bsky.social · 7h

Very good piece that had relevance in the Jersey City affordable housing debate.

Aaron 🏗️🚲🌲🏀 @aceckhouse.bsky.social · 7h

via this very informative @sightline.org piece on funded IZ

www.sightline.org/2024/10/28/t...

To Fix Inclusionary Zoning, Fund It | Sightline Institute

Takeaways On Labor Day weekend, Sound Transit opened four more stops of its light rail line north of Seattle. But when I took my inaugural ride, I had my eye on something equally important as the shin...

www.sightline.org

Matt da Silva @mdasilva.bsky.social · 7h

Let’s just hope some of these red states get greedy and dummymander a map that breaks in the anticipated 2026 Dem wave.

Matt da Silva @mdasilva.bsky.social · 8h

Good-government technocratic conservatism doesn’t exist in the US political landscape. There’s no junior coalition partner to tell a left wing government “if you want to do this it better be run well” or tell a right wing government “cutting that thing will cost us more money in the long run.”

Matt da Silva @mdasilva.bsky.social · 8h

If it wasn’t for Republicans we would have a more efficient and better planning process.

Because the entire right half of the political spectrum in the U.S. is hostile to transit, the pro-transit coalition relies on groups pretty hostile to efficiency - trade unions, consultants, contractors, etc.

Matt da Silva @mdasilva.bsky.social · 8h

“My train can actually get to Manhattan and the current bridges and tunnels won’t fail without a replacement ready to go” is a pretty big benefit.

Gateway should’ve been something bigger and better but we are out of time.

Matt da Silva @mdasilva.bsky.social · 8h

I don’t disagree lon the narrow point that we need long term planning connected to a service vision, but that’s a debate for the planning process, not project funding or delivery. Scrapping this and going back to planning sets us back another 20 years - the North River Tubes don’t have that time.

Matt da Silva @mdasilva.bsky.social · 8h

There’s no version of “starting over” that saves us money here.

We need to learn for the next projects but in the meantime we need to see this own through.

Matt da Silva @mdasilva.bsky.social · 8h

Please tell me what about the Hudson Tunnel project is out of scope or not an appropriate use of funds.

We fund a lot of wasteful projects in the U.S. but this isn’t one of them.

Matt da Silva @mdasilva.bsky.social · 8h

This. There are legit criticisms of Penn Station expansion, but nothing about the tunnel project itself (ie the part that is currently funded precludes the further improvements needed for through-running.

4 tracks between Newark and NYC is a prerequisite for segregating Amtrak and suburban service.