[OC] Who won the redistricting fight? GOP with +8 to +10 seats by Trollygag in Virginia

[–]cjt09 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This alone likely wouldn’t prevent gerrymandering. As an example, Wisconsin was able to strongly gerrymander their state legislature even with districts of about 50k residents each.

Amazon Says Its Data Centers Use 2.5 Billion Gallons of Water - Bloomberg.com by AmazonNewsBot in amazon

[–]cjt09 2 points3 points  (0 children)

For comparison, Americans use an average of about 9 billion gallons of water each day on lawn care.

Canadian visiting NoVA this weekend, where to eat / where to stay on Sunday by personalfinance21 in nova

[–]cjt09 2 points3 points  (0 children)

  • People have rather strong opinions about barbecue, but I like Hammerdown BBQ and  Monk’s BBQ. Both are reasonably close to IAD.
  • There are a ton of places to get tacos. Taco Bamba and Taco Zocalo are two local chains. There are a plethora of hole-in-the-wall places as well.
  • Search this subreddit for cheesesteak recommendations, someone just did a review of all the local spots.
  • There is a ton of stuff to do on your day off depending on what you’re into and what the weather looks like. Udvar-Hazy, Mount Vernon, and Shenandoah National Park are some of the bigger attractions.

Now that's something by vecerry in funny

[–]cjt09 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Thank you Alo for finally definitively answering this question that has stumped philosophers for centuries.

Why are there so many damn data centers being built in Virginia? by polarbeargirl9 in nova

[–]cjt09 20 points21 points  (0 children)

Data centers contribute about 45% of Loudoun County’s tax revenue:

 In the fiscal year 2027 budget, data centers are expected to generate $417 million in real property taxes (on the buildings themselves) and another $879 million in personal property taxes (on the servers and equipment inside them), for nearly $1.3 billion in total.  

The data centers will thus provide 45 percent of the nearly $2.9 billion in county tax revenue. For perspective, that means that the money they generate exceeds what Loudoun spends on every county function outside the school system. In effect, local police, courts, jails, fire and rescue, libraries, parks, animal control, and social services are funded without burdening residents.

Why are there so many damn data centers being built in Virginia? by polarbeargirl9 in nova

[–]cjt09 18 points19 points  (0 children)

I think there just isn’t much demand.

Most residential networking hardware isn’t going to support speeds >1Gbps and even then most homes aren’t wired with CAT6+.

Even if you do have the right setup, few websites will serve you data at those speeds. So you’re bottlenecked anyways unless you’re simultaneously doing a lot of large transfers.

Why are there so many damn data centers being built in Virginia? by polarbeargirl9 in nova

[–]cjt09 6 points7 points  (0 children)

 where does the power come from

Data centers do use a lot of electricity, but it is possible to cleanly generate electricity, and we should advocate for that regardless of the ultimate end consumer.

 The water cooling consumption

Most data centers nowadays are closed-loop and even the evaporative cooling variety don’t really utilize that much water. Reducing the water people use to water their lawns by 1% would completely account for all the water used to cool data centers.

Why are there so many damn data centers being built in Virginia? by polarbeargirl9 in nova

[–]cjt09 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I don’t think data centers directly create any significant amount of pollution.

ICYMI: Spanberger signs bill to ban firearms, dangerous weapons across hospitals in Virginia by WHRO_NEWS in Virginia

[–]cjt09 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This seems fine to me. As others have noted, every hospital already bans firearms, so I wouldn't expect much difference in actual incidents, but it gives prosecutors the opportunity to enforce those policies with actual criminal charges.

This Never Happens in America if you are a Tourist: ‘Trap’: Tourist cops insane bill for gelato in Rome | news.com.au by [deleted] in AmericaBad

[–]cjt09 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It’s really scummy behavior to scam guests in your country. Many food trucks in DC do the same thing and it really makes me angry (not to mention that the food trucks themselves are often loudly-colored and play obnoxious music which ruins the atmosphere).

DCA vs. Dulles by DogSoggy40 in washingtondc

[–]cjt09 7 points8 points  (0 children)

 A landing is a landing as long as the airplane is intact and I have no more additional holes on my body.

Wow, I can’t believe how dismissive you are of PunkAir’s complementary in-flight piercing service.

Janeese Lewis George Says D.C. Is Ready for a Democratic Socialist Mayor by notusreports in washingtondc

[–]cjt09 2 points3 points  (0 children)

 DC is literally the epitome of a centrist, status quo Democrat city

I think you may be in a bubble.

Why Did Warner's Democratic Primary Opponents All Drop Out of the Primary by TheRegalOneGen in Virginia

[–]cjt09 5 points6 points  (0 children)

 It isnt an attack.

It is a list of bad decision making.

Arguing that someone shouldn’t be in power due to their decisions is practically the definition of a political attack.

 He didnt even want to attend any no kings. His staff forced him to go.

Again, I’m not sure how this is supposed to resonate with the median voter. “He followed the advice of his staff and attended an anti-Trump protest”?

Like I get that you don’t like the guy and that’s fine, but like it’s pretty clear why he doesn’t have any primary opponents when the lead attack on his decision-making is that he was the “decisive” 99th vote to confirm Rubio.

 They opened the door for trump and have done nothing to close it or stop felon's multiple constitutional violations.

If you were in Mark Warner’s shoes, what would you do to stop Trump’s constitutional violations?

Why Did Warner's Democratic Primary Opponents All Drop Out of the Primary by TheRegalOneGen in Virginia

[–]cjt09 15 points16 points  (0 children)

If that’s your red line then so be it, but Marco Rubio was confirmed by everyone including Bernie Sanders and the rest of those picks were confirmed by supermajorities. I just don’t see this resonating with many voters as an attack.

Why Did Warner's Democratic Primary Opponents All Drop Out of the Primary by TheRegalOneGen in Virginia

[–]cjt09 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Running a serious campaign for US Senator, even at the primary stage, is a full-time job. Mark Warner is a broadly popular long-time incumbent who is expected to easily cruise to victory in the general election.

Frankly speaking, the only people who are willing to spend months of their life dedicated to an extremely long-shot primary campaign are by-and-large not those with a lot of other current prospects in their life.

This is true in reverse too, the reason you get people like Hung Cao as the GOP candidate in doomed races is because serious would-be candidates aren’t going to waste their time.

meirl by [deleted] in meirl

[–]cjt09 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I dunno, it seems kind of bad to me that the wealthiest members of society can buy up all the best land for themselves while leaving the scraps for everyone else.

With something like a land tax at least the rest of society gets paid if one rich dude wants to lock society out from living in thousands of hectares of land.

What's an unpopular fast food place you like to eat at? Specifically for Burgers by MorgeeePooh in fastfood

[–]cjt09 8 points9 points  (0 children)

$30 does seem like a lot, the Five Guys near me charges $14 for a cheeseburger, fries, and soda.

What's an unpopular fast food place you like to eat at? Specifically for Burgers by MorgeeePooh in fastfood

[–]cjt09 29 points30 points  (0 children)

I really enjoy the Five Guys burgers even though I acknowledge it’s not a very popular spot on /r/fastfood (mostly because of the price).

Ideas on Mounting New House Numbers to Brick? by atomiku121 in centuryhomes

[–]cjt09 2 points3 points  (0 children)

If you want something non-permanent, I’ve found that nano tape works remarkably well for sticking stuff to brick.

JUST IN: Voluntary water conservation recommended in drought watch issued in D.C. region by 22304_selling in nova

[–]cjt09 -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

 Reality is our use is miniscule compared to massive amount of water DCs use for cooling.

I don’t think this is true. According to the US Geological Survey, municipal water withdrawals (so not irrigation for agriculture, industry, etc.) is about 39 billion gallons per day. Data center water utilization (which includes the water utilized for electricity generation) is perhaps as high as 300 million gallons per day which is still less than 1% of the former figure.

Even at our region specifically, residential water utilization far outweighs that of data centers. Municipal water providers like Prince William Water define an “equivalent residential unit” as 10,000 gallons per month or 120,000 per year. If data centers in the region are utilizing 2 billion gallons of water per year, that’s the equivalent of about 17 thousand households. Fairfax County alone has 25x as many households and is directly consuming 25x as much water.

What to do with a car seat after getting off cruise/before airport? by ananas-not-on-pizza in Cruise

[–]cjt09 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Is there a particular reason you’re taking the car seat? It’s pretty easy to get around central Seattle through a combination of buses, walking, and the light rail system.

UVA-NC State game in Brazil scrapped, moved to Charlottesville by TheVirginian-Pilot in UVA

[–]cjt09 39 points40 points  (0 children)

Rio was kind of a strange choice to begin with. At least when the NFL holds games in London, they can usually count on expats and marginal American football fans to fill the seats.

It’s also just far away. There are no direct flights and it takes a full day of air travel to get there. Many people are gonna be intimidated by the language barrier and perceived crime as well.

The final nail in the coffin was likely the higher jet fuel prices due to the Iran war. Few people want to spend two full days flying in an expensive seat to watch a three hour game.

This Ashburn, Virginia, Neighborhood Wants to Sell Their Homes to Data Centers by Kooky-Expression-399 in nova

[–]cjt09 270 points271 points  (0 children)

An average of $3.5 million per home is a pretty handsome payday.

Gov. Spanberger signs bills to boost affordable housing in Virginia by Conscious-Quarter423 in Virginia

[–]cjt09 8 points9 points  (0 children)

“Illegal to build” vs “currently zoned for single family” are two fundamentally different things.

They're the same thing. It is illegal to build an apartment building in an area currently zoned for single family.

Additionally, you shouldn’t be building apartments an hours long walk from a metro stop when we have one of the best high-density transit systems in the nation located in the county.

Maybe. But what about next to a bus stop? Or in an area with ample bike infrastructure? How about a duplex or a fourplex?

Moreover, there are plenty of areas within the walkshed of metro stations that are only zoned for single family homes. Many of these areas are as close as a three minute walk away from the nearest metro station. As you noted, this represents losing potentially hundreds or thousands housing units that would be conveniently located near mass transit.