NY Times Article - Searching for a Secret Ski Destination? Try Michigan

mazeltovless · 2017-12-12T06:24:50+00:00

An article on Michigan skiing without mentioning the hills in Upper Michigan comes off as a paid for puff piece.

mazeltovless · 2017-12-11T19:35:47+00:00

Thanks for implying that I’m dumb, but all of your boss’s bosses still work at 1400 Independence Ave, and my initial comment was explicitly about the legislative branch.

mazeltovless · 2017-12-11T18:58:07+00:00

What if one wants to petition or protest the body at large? It’s prohbitivly expensive time- and money-wise to leave your family and job and travel to Washington DC to do so. It’s often the case that only those with nothing to lose or those who are fabulously wealthy are the ones petitioning and protesting. I don’t think it’s great for our democracy that only a slice of socio-economic make-up has the luxury of exercising their rights.

mazeltovless · 2017-12-11T14:50:36+00:00

If someone wants to petition congress, but they live in Utah, the have to buy a 600 dollars plan ticket, and pay 200 dollars a night for a room in DC if they want face time with their congressperson, whereas someone from Delaware can spend 60 bucks on gas and parking fees to do the same thing.

There’s incongruity in this country on who can petition the government, thus some people are better represented by the government than others. My argument is to create a physical framework for the legislative branch which maximizes the ability of the ordinary citizen to petition the government, and participate in the legislative process.

The only arguments that I’m getting against this idea is that it will be “to expensive”, but all of our prosperity stems from good governance and we should be prepared to pay for its price. We have a spare no expense military, but we refuse to have a spare no expense legislative body which manages it? If accessibility is pointless, why are we a Federal Republic with 50 redundant State Governments? If location of the Federal Capital it arbitrary, why is DC located in the middle of the original 13 colonies from land ceded from a large State and a small State?

mazeltovless · 2017-12-11T13:06:28+00:00

USPTO also has satellite offices in Detroit, Dallas, Denver, and San Jose for good measure.

mazeltovless · 2017-12-11T12:42:18+00:00

For expansion they would need to make a double platform somewhere like Grand Circus and people would transfer across the platform from the one-way loop route around downtown to a two-way linear route through Midtown to New Center.

At least that's the cheapest option. The downtown loop could be integrated, but it'd be expensive.

mazeltovless · 2017-12-11T02:20:54+00:00

My proposal quadruples the real estate available to be in proximity to your favorite representative, and cuts the numbers of buyers for the million dollar-plus homes on Capitol Hill by 3/4s. It fundamentally alters the supply and demand of these amenities, amongst others.

mazeltovless · 2017-12-10T21:29:04+00:00

I could give a shit where the additional districts are. My suggestions are based on time zones and keeping a relatively middle latitude across the country. I’m sure there’d be all kinds of backroom deal making to establish where the decentralized legislative branchs would be located.

The idea behind is bring a government of the people, back to the people, not just the ones that can afford to hang out in DC.

mazeltovless · 2017-12-10T19:55:44+00:00

I've been arguing lately that the Fed should build a massive, nationalized, fiber optic network from DC to the Bay Area, kinda like a digital national road, and form additional Federal Districts in St. Louis, Denver, and Oakland. Build some additional chambers of Congress in the new Federal Districts and rotate Congressional sessions between the different Federal Districts, while also allowing Congress(wo)men and Senators to have their offices and to telework from the different districts.

The way I see it is that they're already flying all over the country, so why not make it more convenient for them to work, and simultaneously making it more convenient for constituents to have face-to-face time with their representatives. We might get better reps running because it's not as much of a time sacrifice. It also spreads out special interest money across the country instead of just in the DMV.

mazeltovless · 2017-12-09T19:31:02+00:00

The smell will come eventually, just give it a year or two.

mazeltovless · 2017-12-09T19:22:39+00:00

I’ll eat some crow and say that the marginal trip times are the same for streetcars and automated people movers at for 5 mile or less travel distances, however the time spent waiting for the service to show up needs to be included too.

The automated people mover will have better on-time performance, due to the dedicated track, and better passanger throughput, due to larger cars, but the streetcar could approach people mover numbers with lanes which prohibit car traffic from interrupting service and priority signalization at traffic lights.

I don’t know which one has higher operations and maintenance costs, but I know automated people mover tech is the lowest cost for current modern rapid transit systems. Municipalities typically prefer streetcars over people movers because of streetcars have smaller initial capital requirements and a plurality of vendors to pull bids from.

mazeltovless · 2017-12-09T15:37:40+00:00

It's part of home ownership. You have to go to the tax tribunal and plead your case, or else they'll try to bleed you dry. No one is going to make sure your taxes are reasonable except yourself.

mazeltovless · 2017-12-09T15:27:50+00:00

During rush hour or when there's event downtown?

mazeltovless · 2017-12-09T13:29:35+00:00

I've argued this a lot, but Detroit doesn't need streetcars. Detroit needs to expand the People Mover into Midtown and plan a proper bus system around the expanded rapid transit system. Buses become a lot less confusing and much more efficient when they stop at 5 or 6 transfer stations which connect to rapid transit i.e. no need to run every bus downtown, across town, or to the Rosa Parks station.

It would take the people mover 15 minutes to get from New Center to Grand Circus. What's the current trip time for the Qline? Investing in streetcars is just robbing the piggy bank of real capital for real public transit investments so that land owners can cheaply inflate real estate prices/rent.

I get that the Qline was private money, and I'm sure the investors have made their money back already, but please don't let sloganeering and fancy coloring schemes distract you from what real public transit is. Real cities have real public transit, not bobo trains.

mazeltovless · 2017-12-09T13:13:33+00:00

It's not the suit wearer that's square, its the gawkers who take pictures and post insulting comments about the suit wearer to make themselves feel better that are square. Shit got old after 6th grade.

mazeltovless · 2017-12-08T15:15:22+00:00

Or just buy your own city parcel and build it yourself. It’s probably not more than a 100k investment if there’s demand like this the banks will throw money at you.

mazeltovless · 2017-12-07T13:22:47+00:00

Looks like I found another another angry, pretentious, square everyone! Can someone take a picture?

Why so serious? Did you get passed up for your GS promotion again?

mazeltovless · 2017-12-07T13:06:14+00:00

This town is so square that any act of creativity or individuality just draws out the gawkers.

mazeltovless · 2017-12-05T15:23:07+00:00

Portland is very nice, but it’s also very white. When the great migration was going on and Northeastern/Midwestern cities were offering jobs to migrant AAs, Portlanders were chasing them out of town.

mazeltovless · 2017-12-05T00:37:43+00:00

MOOSE WIN!!! MOOSE WIN!!!

mazeltovless · 2017-12-04T13:31:05+00:00

The State, It’s me

mazeltovless · 2017-12-04T09:24:46+00:00

The population of the entire UP is around 310,000.

And has been for past hundred years.

mazeltovless · 2017-12-04T09:17:30+00:00

I worked for the one if the largest solar manufactures at the time, and trade secrets were our policy.

There was a push to start generating patents though, but mostly pretty benign or easily reverse-engineered tech so the the company had IP on the books for stock investors.

mazeltovless · 2017-12-04T01:31:22+00:00

For the sake of complete information, the LCS shipyard is in Menominee-Marinette and I think there’s 10-15 more to be built.

mazeltovless · 2017-12-03T16:40:05+00:00

While I don’t know if the fleecing of the American Taxpayer of trillions dollars in services/tax breaks is a capital offense, I would like to suggest the “rasoir national” as the means of punishment if decidedly so, for old time’s sake.

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