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Michael Pavone @retrodev.com · 1h

Still! Greece is a pretty poor country by EU standards. Feels bad that we struggle to achieve a lot of the good I see here in one of the richest parts of the US

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Michael Pavone @retrodev.com · 1h

It's also not really the kind of city that makes it easy to sell this kind of density. While there are some beautiful buildings here and a lot of rich history, there's also a lot of eastern European grime to the look of the place. I find it kind of charming, but a it's hard sell for others.

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Michael Pavone @retrodev.com · 1h

There is also no fare integration between the bus system and metro, though they seem to have some plans to fix that. This has made things a bit more confusing as there are currently two incompatible types of ThessTicket (bus and metro).

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Michael Pavone @retrodev.com · 1h

There is not much in the way of bike infrastructure. Most of the 2-wheeled vehicles you see are gas-powered motorcycles and scooters (in the Vespa sense, not the kick-scooter sense). All the 2-cycle engines in those and the greater prevalence of diesel makes for somewhat poor air quality

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Michael Pavone @retrodev.com · 1h

On the more negative side, it still manages to feel somewhat car-centric. While the side streets are narrow enough to slow traffic down and some are fully pedestrianized, the main thoroughfares feel somewhat hostile with relatively high speeds and somewhat limited pedestrian crossings

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Michael Pavone @retrodev.com · 1h

I'm currently in Thessaloniki, Greece which has ~71% of the land area of Berkeley, but about 2.5X the population. It's a dense walkable city with a robust bus system and a small, but very modern (fully automated) and high frequency (3 minute headways) metro.

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Michael Pavone @retrodev.com · 5h

Isn't the threshold 48 trains per day? Or am I looking at the wrong part of the bill?

(e) “High-frequency commuter rail” means a commuter rail service operating a total of at least 48 trains per day across both directions, not including temporary service changes of less than one month or unplanned disruptions, and not meeting the standard for very high frequency commuter rail, at any point in the past three years.

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Michael Pavone @retrodev.com · 7h

More cats of Thessaloniki, this time some strays that seem to have little insulated cat boxes in YMCA park

A brick wall with large graffiti that says ESL. In the lower right are a number of improvised, insulated cat boxes. Some of these appear to be made from coolers and others from upside down covered litter boxes. It's not very visible, but the one second from the right is occupied

A black cat standing on a brick walkway in YMCA Park in Thessaloniki, Greece

An orange and white cat relaxing in the grass in YMCA Park

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Michael Pavone @retrodev.com · 15h

OP is about Emeryville though. I think it also gets 2 Coast Starlight and 2 California Zephyr (1 each way) per day. I think that only gets you to 42 total though, which is still below the Tier 2 threshold (48).

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Michael Pavone @retrodev.com · 1d

Found a very chill cat outside a supermarket in Thessaloniki

A cat sitting outside a glass automatic door in front of a supermarket in Thessaloniki, Greece

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Michael Pavone @retrodev.com · 3d

No sign of the Kristi Noem Hatch Act violation at the SFO international terminal. Not sure if they're only playing it at some airports, only in the domestic terminals or if they already stopped playing it.

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Michael Pavone @retrodev.com · 4d

On high solar production days, batteries are the largest power source for 2-3 hours in the early evening. Most recently on October 5th. We've got a ways to go before we have enough capacity to last the whole night, but that's more of a deployment problem than a technology problem at this point.

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Michael Pavone @retrodev.com · 4d

*Sees a bunch of Saturn games in the background* That looks like a really cool thrift store! Is it local?

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Michael Pavone @retrodev.com · 4d

Kristi Noem on an outdoor display in City 17 with Citadel 17 in the background

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Michael Pavone @retrodev.com · 4d

So many rich guys just totally cooked their brains during the pandemic

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