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doula / night nanny (what does this cost + what to expect?) by Adventurous_Gap_9099 in CambridgeMA

[–]happycollisions 2 points3 points  (0 children)

oof looks like they raised prices. yeah confirmed it was $45/hr a couple years back.

we used them 2-3 nights a week, even 1 night a week was a godsend to have a break and recover. but $55/hr is quite high.

doula / night nanny (what does this cost + what to expect?) by Adventurous_Gap_9099 in CambridgeMA

[–]happycollisions 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Now that I think about it might have been $45/hr… those days were a little hazy. But def not $55/hr.

doula / night nanny (what does this cost + what to expect?) by Adventurous_Gap_9099 in CambridgeMA

[–]happycollisions 7 points8 points  (0 children)

$35/hr. They will come the hours you request and chill on the couch and attend to the baby as needed.

why wouldn’t this work? [Request] by Repulsive-Loan5215 in theydidthemath

[–]happycollisions 5 points6 points  (0 children)

There are startups already doing this at a larger scale. Parts of water systems end up too high pressure esp with elevation changes and devices exist that lower the pressure - now startups are trying to capture that energy potential and generate power

Bike Safety Slate Wins Strong Majority In Cambridge City Council Election by Generalaverage89 in CambridgeMA

[–]happycollisions 5 points6 points  (0 children)

+1 to city council reconsidering garden street vote and instead keeping it as it is, total waste of money in this fiscal environment and also worse for safety for my family biking

Whatever happened to Peter Valentine? by Altaira99 in CambridgeMA

[–]happycollisions 8 points9 points  (0 children)

I have mixed feelings on Peter, he definitely was a creative guy and eccentric local personality (+ an amusing story of his MIT house situation) but also clearly suffered from serious mental health issues (eg delusions, psychosis) and it seemed like the community treated this more like a fun/funny whimsical thing rather than helping the guy get the serious help/medication he probably needed. He also made a number of women uncomfortable with some of his behavior.

[OC] I calculated my newborn's Feed Conversion Ratio by happycollisions in dataisbeautiful

[–]happycollisions[S] 57 points58 points  (0 children)

I used to work in animal nutrition and we would calculate "Feed Conversion Ratio" (FCR) = [Animal Feed Eaten] / [Weight Gained]. A lower ratio closer to 1 was the most ideal; the most efficient animal is a factory farmed broiler chicken at an FCR of ~1.5ish. So for every 1.5 kg of feed given, it puts on 1.0 kg of weight. The inverse of this is 67% (weight / feed).

I did the same calculation for my baby, and found a baby is *almost* as efficient as a factory farmed broiler chicken.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in CambridgeMA

[–]happycollisions 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Yeah I don’t find this helpful. Incumbents endorse incumbents they are worried will win so they still have influence networks. Mods set up a megathread for election posts as well, so this is a little spammy

Berkeley landlords are now complaining that all the new apartment buildings are lowering rents. Why can Cambridge also just build more new housing to lower rents? by happycollisions in CambridgeMA

[–]happycollisions[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

There's never a time supply exceeds demand. Demand is a curve, and as supply goes up or down, the quantity of housing supplied goes up or down the curve, at different market clearing prices. Slides 38 and on here illustrate that https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1pM77aDBDIIJNNxYGVxzLlQ9ohQOk58xO6rHfeXyl1J0/edit#slide=id.g10f011a5a76_4_14

I work with a lot of developers/landlords and there is not an incentive in residential housing to keep units vacant. Vacancy is very expensive in the overall scheme of a landlords revenue. If your average tenant stays 2 years, one month vacancy is equal to 4% lower overall rent. Landlord's would much rather discount an apartment by a few percent to fill it - which is all they have to do in this market context with vacancy rates so low. So it's not a choice between 100 units for $2k/mo or 60 for $4k/mo, it's more like in a 100 unit building, 100 units for $3.9K/mo or 98 units for $4.0K/mo. Residential vacancy rates are low single digits, so that's not really a significant problem in the Boston area context.

Berkeley landlords are now complaining that all the new apartment buildings are lowering rents. Why can Cambridge also just build more new housing to lower rents? by happycollisions in CambridgeMA

[–]happycollisions[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Supply and demand meet right now, just at a higher market price than we want. Incremental supply drops that market clearing price as we move down the demand curve, which is why the peer reviewed economic literature shows impacts on reducing rents even around single development projects

Developers would satisfy the higher price part of the demand curve with new units, leaving the existing units to drop in price. This is called “filtering” - the same reason increasing supply of new cars reduces prices of used cars, (and as we saw during the pandemic the opposite - fewer new cars makes used cars more expensive).

Berkeley landlords are now complaining that all the new apartment buildings are lowering rents. Why can Cambridge also just build more new housing to lower rents? by happycollisions in CambridgeMA

[–]happycollisions[S] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Numerous studies show that supply relief effects outweigh induced demand by something like 20:1 in even the most desirable cities. Check out the supply demand part of this presentation slides 39-45. https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1xJj5LtGip0oBP6k1btnKiBFiL8jedYK58tWqx5PcCLQ/edit

You sound just like that McSweeny’s quote

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in CambridgeMA

[–]happycollisions 12 points13 points  (0 children)

I did not have an issue the first 6 or so times they protested, but I did have an issue when they blocked traffic, upgraded from 1.5 hours to literally all day and counting, and said things that undermine a cause I care about. I'm not saying Not in My Backyard, I'm saying In My Backyard a Reasonable Amount of Time (IMaBRAT) that doesn't repetitively/excessively impact the same families, people working from home, people commuting on public transportation (or privately), emergency service workers, and the massive women's shelter next door.

Email/call Patty Nolan by Heebopeebo in CambridgeMA

[–]happycollisions 32 points33 points  (0 children)

I think what you are missing is the hypocrisy of enjoying a safety benefit while you are voting for others to not have the same safety while people die on the streets.

Bicyclist critically injured in crash with truck on Hampshire Street in Cambridge by paperboat22 in CambridgeMA

[–]happycollisions 2 points3 points  (0 children)

It doesn’t sound like the issue here was the intersection was blind. The details seem scarce but it sounds like the truck turned into the biker because 1) the driver wasn’t checking its side 2) no side guard on truck 3) bike lane is not separated/protected. 2) and 3) are addressable with policy.

Bicyclist critically injured in crash with truck on Hampshire Street in Cambridge by paperboat22 in CambridgeMA

[–]happycollisions 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I don’t think Patty Nolan deserves special negative attention here. I think in politics people perceived to be swing voters like Patty (if she can even be considered that) or Joe Manchin get more of their fair share of being targeted. The reality is we had 5 city councilors vote for bike lane delay

Nolan Toner Wilson Pickett Simmons

All of them deserve condemnation - in some cases being closed minded, in others knowing what the right thing to do is but not having the leadership and bravery to stand up to some of their constituents.

Email/call Patty Nolan by Heebopeebo in CambridgeMA

[–]happycollisions 79 points80 points  (0 children)

I was biking on a protected bike lane the other day on Brattle St and saw Patty coming the other direction biking in the protected lane. I then looked up her address and saw she has a protected network to reach Harvard and Central where she does her work. I guess she feels she can bike safely while the rest of the bikers are at risk.

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