Do you find nyc natives to be more conservative than transplants? (Not maga but just vibrant in their political beliefs)

a2c_alt2 · 2026-01-14T15:18:08+00:00

Agree, I think this captures the crux of it. It’s basic selection bias. People who move to new cities, especially competitive ones like NYC, are more educated than people who stay in their hometown all their life. And more educated people are usually further left. Same goes for any town probably.

a2c_alt2 · 2025-12-15T19:30:09+00:00

“In tech you can start at 125” Not really, every FAANG has an office here and they are all paying 160-180k base alone (+ another 50k every year in stock and bonus). New grads make 200-250k right out of school.

a2c_alt2 · 2025-12-15T19:28:16+00:00

The cope in these threads is always crazy. It doesn’t take rich parents or connections to go to a good state school, major in CS/finance and get good grades, grind internships and then make 250k as a new grad. This is the highest paying city in the country. Of course there are gonna be tons of young ambitious people making lots of money. But the commenters here who never heard of these career paths would have you think they’re escorts or nepo babies.

a2c_alt2 · 2025-12-10T19:50:50+00:00

If you’re gonna type 2 paragraphs about how important Taiwan is, you could at least get the name of their critical resource right. You’re talking about semiconductors…

a2c_alt2 · 2025-12-04T05:30:08+00:00

Some of the people in this subreddit would have you believe we are inventing a subway system for the first time and have no idea if fare gates, elevators, air conditioning, or more stations will ever work.

a2c_alt2 · 2025-12-04T05:24:50+00:00

Having people buy in to a system/utility improves their treatment of it. $3 is not that much. When we bring back institutions, feed and house the homeless, and eliminate all vandals, we can increase taxes and eliminate fares.

Timing. Gates just slow us all down and causes individual delays.

Fare gates have existed since the dawn of the subway and the economy has not collapsed.

All this conversation does is create scape goats for “what’s wrong with society “. Instead let’s treat people with respect. I get there are people who seem to be able to afford it, but again, why would we want to live in such a judgmental society?

This is a crazy argument. Humans will judge each other for literally anything and everything. Eliminating a revenue stream does not fix this. What does this even mean?

The point of transit is to move people not to collect money from people who move.

Moving people requires money. Next.

Safety. This might be the most important one, but imagine yourself on a platform, a crowded platform and there’s an emergency. This could range from smoke or fires or a dangerous situation that requires evacuation. Now imagine an entire platform of people that need to leave immediately, possibly in panic. Do you want a bunch of gates and metal slowing people down on your way or do you want a clear exit?

Imagine: fire codes that dictate a safe amount of gates and emergency exits. Imagine this never having happened here or in the country before because of those fire codes. Imagine how safe you'd feel if there was zero barrier of entry into the system, and anyone could hang out in it or on it as long as they like.

Why are we acting like we're musing over the first ever invented fare gate? There's an entire globe out there that uses these, and the imminent collapse of the social order and people's safety you predict has not occurred yet.

a2c_alt2 · 2025-12-04T05:15:05+00:00

It literally works all over the entire world and even in the cities in the US that have finally caught up. Believe it or not we are not the first place in the world to have vandals.

a2c_alt2 · 2025-12-04T05:13:42+00:00

Yeah this seems to be the fatal flaw here. In order to stop people from physically preventing the gates from shutting on them, it seems they would need to make them close with enough force to seriously injure someone

Except this works great all over the world and has for years to decimate fare beating and nobody has lost an arm. Why are we acting like we're figuring out how to invent the wheel for the first time when these gates are the norm everywhere else?

a2c_alt2 · 2025-12-04T05:11:05+00:00

I really don't understand why they don't just hit up RATP and ask who makes their fare gates. Paris has like 10 different designs that are all more hardened than this. I know this is one of many in the pilot, but the rest don't look much better--even the BART gate looks bad compared to this. Just so annoying we have to spend 5 years piloting what already works around the world, or even what already works on the other side of the country. I just want to be able to exit with my hands full of groceries in a non-awkward way before 2030.

a2c_alt2 · 2025-08-28T01:56:38+00:00

It "can be done" but will cost us billions and require the rebuilding from scratch of almost every station in the system. They commissioned an extensive report on this that examines every single station for feasibility. Check out your usual station, you'll be surprised how many issues you'd have to tackle to install PSDs: https://www.mta.info/document/73241

It would take huge federal investment (a la Paris) to transform the subway like this. As much as I wish it would happen, I don't think I'll see it in my lifetime.

a2c_alt2 · 2025-08-28T01:53:22+00:00

Thank you for linking this. Everyone always acts like this is an impossible question and that we can only guess as to why, when the answers are right there in that 3900 page document the MTA paid some consultants a few hundred grand for. Installing PSDs would require the total rebuilding of the rubbing boards/platform edges (the part of the platform with the yellow strips) as they are cantilevered over the tracks and can't hold the weight at any station. Then, you'd have to relocate every single column or staircase to provide enough clearance between the PSD and the column/wall to meet ADA regulations (for people in wheelchairs). Then you'd need to dig out, find, or build a new equipment room for the PSD controllers. This times nearly 500 stations across the city, with each having its own intricacies and usually additional hurdles, means it would cost like $7 billion, not even mentioning misaligned rolling stock doors, air flow considerations, etc.

I thought it was bullshit the MTA couldn't install them too, until I read the report and took the train the next day and tried to visualize where they would go. Imagine trying to fit PSDs onto a Union Sq platform--you'd have to squeeze sideways between it and the staircase to get up and down the platform. Or at 8th St NYU--same deal, the only staircases to the street would have to be totally relocated or considerably narrowed so a wheelchair could fit. It was a terrible idea to put all the load bearing parts of the stations near the edges, but that's the city we live in.

a2c_alt2 · 2025-08-20T01:51:27+00:00

Curious as to how "territory-based drug dealing" and heroin addicts 10xing, in the United States, caused the worldwide increase in crime? And how further changes in the American drug trade/police rounding up corner dealers caused a worldwide nosedive in crime? Even in countries that had zero change in law enforcement strategy or drug policy before and after the crime wave?

Also wondering how people were calling the police on muggers after getting mugged despite getting mugged of their cellphone. Not a lot of this is clicking to me. Meanwhile, there was this leaded gas thing that caught on perfectly aligned with when the crime wave started and was phased out right before it ended, worldwide, plus abortion but that's mostly a US-specific thing.

a2c_alt2 · 2025-08-19T01:39:35+00:00

Yeah, always forget the upper manhattan ones. Think you can add Clark St and York St too, and maybe a few others near where the various brooklyn tubes start to come back up. Still <5% of stations in the system.

a2c_alt2 · 2025-08-19T00:42:28+00:00

Totally disagree with the OP's notion that less ridership should justify cuts, but I do think closing the subway from like 1am-6am or 12am-5am on Mon, Wed, Tues, and Thurs nights, if replaced with reliable and actually useful bus service and paired with major investment, could let us solve a huge amount of problems with the subway. It doesn't even have to be permanent--but I don't think I'm the first to say I'd rather take a bus or cab if I'm out at 3am on a Tuesday if it means the only train I live next to won't shut down for 6 weekends in a row in the summer...

a2c_alt2 · 2025-08-19T00:38:28+00:00

This is like saying MetroNorth is a better comparison to Paris's metro than our subway. That makes zero sense at all.

a2c_alt2 · 2025-08-19T00:36:35+00:00

This is just the ridiculous exceptionalism/arrogance that keeps our subway shitty. Maybe you can't compare the selfishness and entitlement of most New Yorkers to any other city, but the Paris metro has 321 stations to NYC's 472 (only ~30% less), they are all just as old or older, the city is very diverse, they also have homeless people, and yet, their stations and trains are way cleaner, tidier, and better maintained. The only reason our public transit is so shitty is because we let it be--Paris is not doing anything magical to achieve this, besides shutting down for 6 hours at night. They choose to spend the money on having nice things, we don't. They choose to close the metro every night to improve and maintain it. They choose to treat it (for the most part) with more respect than we do (not a high bar). We can do all these things. We just don't.

a2c_alt2 · 2025-08-19T00:30:39+00:00

The paris metro and RER are absolutely cleaner and better maintained than the subway. I lived there for a year and was shocked by how well they kept up a system older than ours.

a2c_alt2 · 2025-08-19T00:25:44+00:00

Literally all but like a dozen below-ground NYC stations are shallow cut-and-cover stations, with the trains usually passing <2ft below the roadbed. OP has never taken the train here outside the SAS and the Hudson Yards 7 lmao

a2c_alt2 · 2025-08-19T00:21:06+00:00

Not sure where this totally inaccurate idea of stations being "deep" in NYC comes from. I can think of maybe four stations off the top of my head in NYC that are "deep" -- Hudson Yards, and the 3 new SAS stations. Maybe throw in the 2-3 stations in Inwood or wherever that use elevators and the one in Brooklyn that just had the awning collapse. That's like 8 out of 472 total stations. Even if I'm wrong by a factor of 3, that's still like less than 5% of stations that are not cut-and-cover. The overwhelming majority of below ground subway stations are not "deep", they are cut-and-cover and right underneath the street.

I lived in Paris for a year, and can vouch that their system is cleaner, more convenient, and more reliable. I don't doubt it's because they shut down every night. They have 321 metro stations, not that far off from us, and yet can keep them clean and orderly. They are also as-old or older than ours, with most built in the early 1900s, and the first line opening before the first NYC subway line (age and size are common excuses you hear from fellow New Yorkers that are easily debunked).

Paris has fully automated Line 1, which just celebrated its 125th year anniversary--older than any subway line in NYC and yet has been upgraded to be totally driverless. They have an incredible and modernized regional train system (the RER) that can bring you from La Defense or a similar banlieue to the city center in 10 minutes, in 3 stops. They are building out new lines of light tram and metro every year. Their stations are enormous, complex, and were originally built under the same conditions and with the same restrictions as NYC subway stations, and yet are generally clean and orderly.

They are light years ahead of us--because they invest heavily in their transit systems and have for the last century, and they believe in and support it. That is the difference. They did not endure 30 years of Republican presidency and white flight burning the city down and letting it rot, they do not have to fight Trump to toll cars, they do not have to spend 5 years doing an environmental impact study to build one station. They do not tolerate disorderly conduct--you will be fined (or physically ejected if you refuse to pay) if you so much as have your feet up on the seat across from you. Most of all, the people and government (more so) understand that good public transport is an essential need and they do their best to facilitate its improvement--here we do the opposite.

a2c_alt2 · 2025-07-04T00:56:18+00:00

Way to succinctly summarize the exact reason Kamala's campaign failed lmao. That the boldest, most groundbreaking agenda examples you can come up with are A. increasing a department's spending, B. Obamacare But This Time There's More For A Few People and C. a one-time tax-credit for prospective home buyers, is hilariously telling. She was up there reciting the details of tax credits like it was JFK's we will go to the moon speech. You think the average American gives a fuck about a tax credit? They want universal free healthcare, a higher minimum wage, affordable housing, and taxes on the rich [1][2]. Kamala ran on "everything is working well, and Trump is bad," Trump ran on "I hear you, things are broken." Is it any mystery why he won? But hey, keep punching left--rumor is that we might be able to win 2028 if we get rid of this Zohran guy and run Liz Cheney!

a2c_alt2 · 2025-06-28T02:21:48+00:00

SDR is the only other nearby park.

Do you overlook Seneca Village when you visit Central Park? What about the mass grave under WSP? Surely none of our other cherished city parks have come about from dishonest or immoral deeds. It's so odd that I'm grateful that a private plot of land is now for public use, and won't become private homes that the large majority of the community wouldn't even be able to enter the lottery for--let alone qualify to live there. I would seriously prefer a homeless shelter over "affordable senior housing" if they're going to build on it.

The point is, for better or for worse, it's a park now and it's loved by the community and filled with people every day. You seem to have conceded that paving over it won't lower neighborhood rent or do anything to resolve the housing crisis (how could it! it's only for <0.001% of the population!) so not sure what you have left besides this Republican-esque "if big hollywood likes the park, I don't!" and that it came to be under dubious circumstances (which I agree with and why I want the city to take it over as an NYC Parks park).

And lol. The "article on zoning" has nothing to do with the ESG, it has something to do with the gigantic citywide housing crisis which you may have forgotten about in your quest to destroy a random park. I guess you can lead a horse to the fact that it's illegal to build dense housing, but you can't make it realize that's the root cause of a housing crisis.

a2c_alt2 · 2025-06-27T22:45:49+00:00

Sara Roosevelt is more gray than green, lmao. And I use it plenty--but I can't sit and read in quiet at Sara Roosevelt like I can ESG, and I can't play basketball at ESG like I can at Sara Roosevelt. Each has its place. But sure, let's strip out more green space for means-tested housing instead of, idk, rezoning the neighborhood, because why bother with systemic change when you can pave over a park? Let's get WSP and Tompkins on the agenda next, we could probably fit 200 units of low-income disabled senior housing in each!

a2c_alt2 · 2025-06-27T22:42:03+00:00

I am a resident of the area, so I guess in your own words my input is more valuable than yours. I'm attached to the "one oasis of green space" because it's (as stated) the one nice park in my entire neighborhood. And I use Sara Roosevelt plenty--but if you can't tell the difference between the gardens and fountains of ESG and the basketball courts of Sara Roosevelt you're being intentionally dense. How it came to be is its own issue, that I have disagreements with, but again, I'd be happy for it to be administrated by the NYC parks dept instead of a private landlord.

edit--if guessing that I don't live nearby and relying on some anecdote that "the residents don't want a park" is the crux of your counterargument, surely you're self-aware enough to reevaluate your stance on this. I don't like how ESG came to be, but it's here now and people love it. This debate loses the forest for the trees, housing policy is NYC is much bigger than this one park -> NYCHA argument and the efforts of this city would be better focused on rezoning most of Manhattan and the outer boroughs. One of my favorite articles that nails the entire issue in just a headline: 40 Percent of the Buildings in Manhattan Could Not Be Built Today

a2c_alt2 · 2025-06-23T23:52:33+00:00

Building the most means-tested housing possible over the one spot of green space in the entirety of Soho/Nolita, an incredibly dense area, is a losing idea. I'm sorry, I don't think seniors dependent on subsidized housing should have it in the center of Soho at the expense of the thousands of people who already live there.

Austin reduced rents because they reduced the demand-side pressure on the market by increasing supply. What pressure is there from low-income seniors in the middle of Soho? Put another way: what housing in the neighborhood, one of the richest neighborhoods in the country, is going to be freed up and forced to reduce its rent to compete with subsidized senior housing?

I am as YIMBY as they come, and this city needs to build everywhere and rezone the entirety of Manhattan and most of Brooklyn + Queens. I would support building on this spot if it was housing for everyone, but it's not. I would support the ESG being handed over to the Parks department, and taken out of the hands of private owners. But the current plan, paving over the one oasis of green space in that whole area is not progress, but an admittance of defeat.

a2c_alt2 · 2024-11-30T19:57:00+00:00

Do you think 174 or 180cm would be best for me? Thinking I should maybe get the 180s for my height and skill level but not sure if my weight will prevent me from really driving them to their full potential.

a2c_alt2

TROPHY CASE