Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Daniel Trubman @danieltrubman.bsky.social · 10h

Seems like a bit of a sunk cost fallacy when maintaining it will cost $29 million
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/12/a...

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Daniel Trubman @danieltrubman.bsky.social · 10h

proponents of more public fountains should definitely not focus on advocating for brutalist pieces

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Daniel Trubman @danieltrubman.bsky.social · 10h

Does that mean Hamas gets no credit for theoretically complying with the terms of the ceasefire given their own history?

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Daniel Trubman @danieltrubman.bsky.social · 11h

Crazy they'll be at least one Obama era streetcar shut down before this line opens up

Daniel Trubman @danieltrubman.bsky.social · 12h

This was immediate inspiration, but this problem has been bouncing around my head for a minute

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Daniel Trubman @danieltrubman.bsky.social · 12h

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Daniel Trubman @danieltrubman.bsky.social · 12h

How many times would you wait an extra 2 hours to get home because SEPTA can't keep trains running and evening service is atrocious before you permanently gave up on Regional Rail?

Ongoing collapse will depress ridership for decades, even if things quickly improve (they won't).

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Daniel Trubman @danieltrubman.bsky.social · 14h

"More of the economy should be publicly owned" and "It's good to steal from publicly owned agencies" seem like obviously contradictory statements, but somehow it's the primary stance of a lot of DSA types?

Sewer Socialists would hate these people.

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Daniel Trubman @danieltrubman.bsky.social · 14h

One day I'll walk through Washington Heights without buying some of the cheap as hell berries from the sidewalk vendors, but today was not that day.

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Daniel Trubman @danieltrubman.bsky.social · 15h

Oh look another community garden in Northern Manhattan (Hope: The Friendly Garden On The Hill) locked up during listed open hours.

Seems like a nice place to hangout, too bad it's de facto privatized though 😥

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Daniel Trubman @danieltrubman.bsky.social · 17h

Counterintuitively all the double parking on the avenues on street cleaning day sort of acts as traffic calming, reducing the number of active traffic lanes pedestrians need to cross.

Ideal solution is some road diets, because Harlem obviously doesn't need this many arterials.

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Daniel Trubman @danieltrubman.bsky.social · 23h

Raising the prices of transit passes more than individual fares is a mistake: we should be encouraging riders to buy passes, and this does the opposite.

This is a step backward for an agency that was actually doing better on this than most US transit agencies.

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Daniel Trubman @danieltrubman.bsky.social · 23h

These fare increases sound substantial, but not when you realize this is the first increase since 2018.

Refusing to raise fares sufficiently to keep up with inflation is a backdoor transit cut: nothing equitable about defunding transit.
www.chicagotribune.com/2025/10/13/c...

CTA proposes fare hikes as it stares down budget gap

If the fare hikes of 25 cents per ride are approved by the agency’s board, it will be the first time the CTA has raised ticket prices since 2018.

www.chicagotribune.com

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Daniel Trubman @danieltrubman.bsky.social · 1d

Lightly encouraging riders to stop paying with cash is fine.

The real problem with the incredibly modest CTA fare proposal is the unwillingness to propose an adjustment that comes anywhere close to catching up with all of the inflation which has occurred since 2018.

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Daniel Trubman @danieltrubman.bsky.social · 1d

The CTA's cheap day and monthly passes (currently $5 and $75) is a vastly superior fare policy than focusing on fare capping.

Steven @stevevance.net · 1d

why won’t the CTA implement fare capping???

Chicago Tribune @chicagotribune.com · 1d

The fare increases come as the CTA has warned it could have to cut bus and train service by as much as 25% starting in the middle of next year.

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Daniel Trubman @danieltrubman.bsky.social · 1d

Pension Fund Socialism sounds like a win-win until its your retirement on the line because politicians aren't willing to admit they broke a market which they also directed hundreds of millions of public dollars into because the politics would look bad.
therealdeal.com/new-york/202...

Rent-stabilized losses have hit NYC pension funds. Will the city finally care?

New York City pension fund investments in rent-stabilized housing suffered steep losses after 2019 rent law.

therealdeal.com

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Daniel Trubman @danieltrubman.bsky.social · 1d

Seeing all the kids dance around at Simchat Torah felt especially heartwarming tonight.

And now more than ever I really appreciate the brave NYPD and security team members putting their lives on the line to keep celebrating Jewish New Yorkers safe throughout the city.

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Daniel Trubman @danieltrubman.bsky.social · 1d

I'm all for repurposing on-street parking spaces, but how are we still allowing vendors to get away with running foul smelling and obnoxious generators instead of using batteries?!

Or let's arrange some electric outlets for these semi-permanent locations, like outside @amnh.org and other museums.

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Daniel Trubman @danieltrubman.bsky.social · 1d

My time covering development and land-use regulations for Naked Philly has wrapped up as the blog winds down. It was a fantastic run, but now I'm actively seeking new opportunities in NYC.

Open to leads and suggestions and I'd love to grab coffee or a beer to chat.

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Reposted by Daniel Trubman

Stephen Jacob Smith @stephenjacobsmith.com · 2d

Brazilian guy installing an elevator in Liverpool. One of the big drivers of cost differences in Europe vs. the U.S. for elevators (about $40k vs. $160k for a mid-rise building in total) is that in Europe, immigrants are allowed to work in the elevator industry; in the U.S., they’re not really.

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Daniel Trubman @danieltrubman.bsky.social · 2d

So does reparations discourse exist solely to create a few academic jobs, like this Scholar-in-Residence posting from the Urban League?

Is this helping us build a multi-racial social democracy? Is it just going to be reparation studies & reports forever?

jobs-iamempowered.icims.com/jobs/1218/sc...

jobs-iamempowered.icims.com

Daniel Trubman @danieltrubman.bsky.social · 2d

The median voters simultaneously believes "No, aesthetic issues should not be a consideration in ensuring abundant parking for my car" AND "Yes aesthetic considerations should be paramount for any and all new buildings, regardless of the housing shortage."

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Daniel Trubman @danieltrubman.bsky.social · 4d

Walking south down Central Park West is visually stunning; it's too bad it's also an arterial road that's so aggressively unpleasant for pedestrians.

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Reposted by Daniel Trubman

Felicity M. Maxwell @cityjane.bsky.social · 8d

And playgrounds! And benches! And beer gardens!

Of course we need open green space + more trees in urban parks, but efforts to move to a more "natural" state focusing on "re-wilding" likely leads to less park usage by local residents and visitors vs. having more amenities that everyone loves.

Daniel Trubman @danieltrubman.bsky.social · 8d

There were definitely some people hanging out in the sun in the middle of the Sheep Meadow yesterday, but A LOT of the visitors to Central Park were spending time in the shade.

A little bit of open space is fine, but honestly most American urban parks just need more trees.

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Daniel Trubman @danieltrubman.bsky.social · 4d

Marcus Garvey Park always has a decent number of visitors when the weather is pleasant, but I'm not sure I've ever seen anyone spending much time on the big empty lawn. Maybe a few dog owners?

Unshaded grass fields are just not a particularly useful urban park amenity.

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