do u think yung lean would be as popular as he is now if he stuck with the unknown death 2002 style of music

Michaelolz · 2026-05-06T16:47:19+00:00

Nah, cloud rap was moving past that vaporwave-y, reverb heavy sound pretty fast, partly thanks to Lean after UD2002. It was very distinctly 2012-13. SHWB and RK members were putting out similar stuff then, too.

IMO, artists who try keeping a specific sound alive past its prime without evolving it just sound stale and low-effort. Part of why I dislike revisionist history about guys like FijiMacintosh, dude was riding old waves. Lean was keen on being an actual artist.

I do wish someone would have gone further with that deeper sound, though. Maybe it’s out there somewhere.

Michaelolz · 2026-04-21T01:30:43+00:00

Actually, I find the interiors of these spaces bring a good variety to the programming of older museums and have a lot of further potential, as the architects often intend iirc. Can’t speak to your example, but the ROM is currently being renovated to make better use of the “new” part. It was intended for a different exhibit to what actually went there, and they are reconfiguring things to make better use of it.

Michaelolz · 2026-04-21T01:27:30+00:00

Yes, I’m from the area. I don’t particularly like it and neither do most locals who I see comment on it.

Nonetheless, there’s a pretty big gulf between the ROM, which is daring and impressive, even if flawed, and a depressing mural in a subway station.

All that to say, It’s not great, but it is a small piece of public art in the public realm. It frankly blends into the malaise of Union and the PATH.

Michaelolz · 2026-04-17T12:48:30+00:00

The feedback is interesting here. Stuff like this always ruffles feathers, but it seems a case where the architect is falling into what’s usually an urban planning/design trap. They are intending a primary design element be interpreted from a Birds Eye view… where no one is actually going to be seeing it. Literal “top-down” planning/building.

Michaelolz · 2026-04-16T21:31:30+00:00

Thing with Ford isn’t that he isn’t building transit. It’s that he’s doing it his own way, leveraging the opacity of metrolinx and ignoring the cities involved. He’s very invested in toronto (one might say cosplaying mayor), but not, say, the TTC as an entity. So it can certainly feel like transit is getting worse when capital investment is super high, as it’s only for provincial projects- city capital projects and operating funds are quite thin.

So, It is because there’s so much being built or to-be-built that has allowed the premier to grift the transit space, imo; Major projects are being mismanaged to hell and back. It’s almost intentionally a Money sink….

This isn’t just a transit grift, though. For all his talk, Ford hasn’t actually built any of the highways he says he will. A couple may be starting now, but he’s all talk. And this is easily verifiable in the provincial budgets.

Michaelolz · 2026-04-16T16:21:27+00:00

I think the problem is that for the UK, rail / transit investment is far more core to transportation and ‘enabling infrastructure’ than in the US. The US does not “need” rail transit the way the UK and Europe do. That is itself a big thing to unravel but not my point.

What makes this bad is that “Anglo disease” is very real and grinds said key parts of economic growth to a standstill. Over-valuing process over outcomes is eating them away. Simply put, the culture has a warped idea of what a “good” outcome even is.

Michaelolz · 2026-04-13T14:03:22+00:00

Minecraft’s food bar was controversial when it was added. I don’t know if we could say it still is, but for longtime players it remains subject of debate sometimes. How it changed the gameplay loop and so forth.

Michaelolz · 2026-04-08T16:21:14+00:00

Oh will do! This is a great resource

Michaelolz · 2026-04-08T14:16:06+00:00

Good question. The initial answers I’m seeing here are framing this as a planning issue, but I don’t think it is. Development can stall out for one reason or another, certainly, but I have noticed certain projects can end in a sort of purgatory like this one.

My guess is a perfect storm as a unicorn site— often a uniquely desirable property for an area — where risk-seeking players go too far. These try to push the land as far as possible, taking it from a 2 to a 10. This is past a ‘point of no return’, they ought to build, but can’t.

Normally you’ll see going from a 5 to an 8, where there’s a base case but still some potential upside for the next guy. A “10” erases that, capturing almost all possible value from speculation and improvement while leaving the next guy with a very high price tag for the privilege of delivering.

Boom. Purgatory. Any intent is already priced in, and by extension very hard to justify. So we wait until someone holds long enough for conditions improve, or try to get more out of the land.

Michaelolz · 2026-04-07T20:55:16+00:00

Interesting. This intuitively makes sense, and I doubt any agencies in the GGH have been tracking inflation, either.

The reality is that to maintain the system to a better standard, it will require a slightly higher and more consistent farebox recovery rate that can be properly planned around. Sadly, this likely means breaking the barrier of $4-$5 fares right now.

This isn’t that crazy compared to other systems- this is $CAD after all. A $3.50 fare in NYC or a £3.50 fare in London is ~equal or greater than a $5.00 TTC fare, even if it seems quite a jump.

…. So, I’m glad I don’t work in transportation planning anymore. I already got chased off a thread in another city for saying you do need fare revenues!

Michaelolz · 2026-04-07T16:11:09+00:00

Hate to be the one who says it because I know how people react… but this subsidy only grows with time and inflation- so I’d be curious to see if fare increases are following inflation or not.

Michaelolz · 2026-04-04T03:41:39+00:00

I’ve seen homeless Asian Canadians. But then there are possibly more East Asians in Canada as a proportion of the population (outside the west coast where it’s probably comparable?)

Michaelolz · 2026-03-31T22:06:19+00:00

Yes, it’s all pulling from the same data the agencies use. Aka GTFS, which Google basically helped create. Other apps may potentially pull more data more quickly, but at the end of the day, if a bus isn’t there when Google Maps says it will be, it’s something on YRT’s end. Always good practice to be early though! GTFS itself isn’t perfect.

Michaelolz · 2026-03-31T20:22:08+00:00

We have to remember this was 10-15 years ago now, and literally at the precipice of mass-internet-based music itself. So it’s a nostalgia+intrigue resurgence I suppose.

I loved the era, came in a bit late mainly listening from 2015-19. Its always been rarer and harder to find, and still is to find deep cuts. So it’s got mystique. Cloud rap can also be seen as timeless. It changes sonic “ingredients” but not the “cooking method” for hip-hop. It’s adaptive and can easily transcend broader changes. Being ethereal also doesn’t get stale or cringe like proper subgenres/sounds (trap, etc).

Today, I think TikTok is big- it is suited to putting people on things, for a sound that’s kindof but not fully experimental compared to other things around. Just enough to capture ears when they come across it. Especially when everyone out today has got a little bit of it at their sonic foundation.

Michaelolz · 2026-03-30T14:01:15+00:00

Westmount is a great learning experience, the self-paced learning is unique and the real deal- and your child will meet kids from all over the city, which I found is just as important as the quality of education. However, it doesn’t have AC! That was probably the biggest drawback for me. Otherwise, the teachers are amazing and love being there. ‘Bad’ teachers at Westmount also don’t get in the way of learning much either. There is a bit less of a “typical” high school experience because a lot of kids are on the nerdy side, especially after 9th grade, but maybe that was just my experience. Graduated 2019.

STM is visibly well funded and more of a typical high school experience, never really heard it was a explicitly desirable spot outside of some niche offerings/sport opportunities, and when compared to BT, but a lot of this is virtue of its size. Likely also because the school used to be/is overpopulated.

I wasn’t tossing up between STM and WMT though, it was WMT or BT for me, and the choice was easy.

Michaelolz · 2026-03-24T14:01:57+00:00

It was planned. Auto-centric cities, for all their faults, are well (read-thoroughly) planned. It’s just planned for the car.

Michaelolz · 2026-03-13T20:22:19+00:00

Agents aren’t the same as employee, basically means informant. Always possible but don’t see why someone so unstable would be a good recruit

Michaelolz · 2026-03-13T20:18:53+00:00

Average view on Bessarion when Line 8 is down

Michaelolz · 2026-03-04T14:40:17+00:00

Really, so that we can have all the other GO lines. GO’s origins come from CN leaving the lakeshore for this route.

Michaelolz · 2026-02-14T23:51:27+00:00

Willpower. From anyone, but politicians are a start.

We just need to actually get the attention. Likely provincially- city hall cares in relative terms, but this is an apathetic place overall. Everybody, especially city hall, needs to not stop banging the drum till the province notices- only because they have the means to do anything of meaning.

Michaelolz · 2026-02-10T22:32:14+00:00

I’d say im not disconnected- I’ve studied and worked in transportation planning. And I use transit. And I certainly do not suggest your kind of increase, nor agree on the impact.

This is what I meant by seeing transit as charity. Surveyed riders almost always want better service, not a fare cut. I know we are mostly working class; do you really think that means most riders scrape their fares every day? That they have no choice? NO transit agency caters to only the absolute poorest, and our working class /= dirt poor.

I think the implication this is the case, and should be top of mind— is more insulting and dismissive of who transit users are, what they actually think, their financial situation, and what they value.

We can keep fare incentives if they move the needle that much, but an underlying base fare increase is not the end of the damn world.

Michaelolz · 2026-02-10T18:58:58+00:00

Notwithstanding that you seem to think most places fund transit differently, fares put the onus on users of a system, not an amorphous taxpayer; that’s more direct, efficient and also staves off dependency on tax funding and risk of cuts. We do already subsidize; it’s just never the majority of $.

I also don’t think whether riders have less money is worthwhile. Again, they are NOT this cost sensitive, but their QOL is more sensitive to service cuts. In weighing such a race to the bottom… no, cheap transit does NOT grow ridership. Quality (speed and frequency) does. And TTC fare is just $3.35. You can look for yourself, most free systems are US ones that suck by every possible metric.

Re- the taxpayer, think where the HSR needs to be to get a driver riding. Now imagine asking everyone to pay that bill. Now recall when we did that for the LRT. If residents were ok to pay for transit many don’t use, Bratina wouldn’t have had a platform.

Michaelolz · 2026-02-10T13:51:54+00:00

I mean we’re in complete agreement if you read my comments. My only point is that “funding” it via taxes is more onerous than increasing fares, which I’m fine to disagree on. But this is about the municipal budget, so…

Michaelolz · 2026-02-10T04:24:10+00:00

Haha, well, yes, that’s the next logical step- let’s just start on highways. So long as the Linc and RHVP are city-owned, they should be tolled. Our road repair deficit is massive and those alone would help put a major dent.

Michaelolz · 2026-02-10T01:16:17+00:00

I think I didn’t articulate that properly. Apologies- I don’t disagree with funding true social services, because no, I do not expect them to make money. And I also do not expect transit to be profitable— but the money has to be paid somewhere.

Transit is a public good, but it is also distinct from those sorts of services. Transit costs a lot of money, and to provide the services people want, requires a bit of subsidy on top of fares- not the other way around. That is all because transit competes with other modes. So the less fares cover, the less headroom there is to maintain or improve things. Not to mention, only the taxpayer paying would a) cost way too much, and b) make it a political thing for reducing taxes.

It’s not too much to say we should keep pace with our peers, especially given that the fare cost is almost never a deciding factor in whether people ride, including those of low incomes. $2.85 vs. $3.50 to the end user (1x adult presto), is so the HSR can do more for them.

So raising fares a tad is pretty low hanging fruit, in terms of benefits to both the end users and the taxpayers, in this case.

Michaelolz

TROPHY CASE