The Deleted Scenes - New and Old #173
Drive Ethically: On The Morality of Speeding, Church Life Journal, Terence Sweeney, July 16, 2024
Good stuff. Popes have written on driving before; there was an old prayer a Catholic motorist organization sent out that went something like, Lord, let me understand the gravity of sitting behind the wheel. I remember my pastor used to say everything we just heard in church applies in the parish parking lot too. And yet it’s true that we rarely think of driving as a moral question at all. More:
And:
Now tell that to a traffic engineer. Read the whole thing.
I’ve never played this game, but apparently it was programmed in a manner that made inexorable rent increases happen, in a way that has seemed to happen in a lot of markets in real life. It’s a short piece but it’s a really interesting phenomenon, especially because the story makes it sound like it wasn’t exactly intentional. Do People Think the Economy Is Bad Because the Media Failed, or Because the Economy Is Actually Bad?, The Nation, Dena Baker and Wesley Bignell, July 19, 2024 I always thought Dean Baker was interesting. I applied for an internship at his organization years ago (I didn’t get it), and one of his talking points about trade is very insightful: intellectual property protections and licensing requirements and things like that function as trade barriers for affluent professions, while trade barriers for less affluent professions are derided as “trade barriers.” Anyway, I also find this controversy over a fairly strong economy versus low confidence in the economy in opinion polls really interesting. Baker argues the economy is fine and the media is wrong. I don’t know, but this stands out to me:
Yeah, a lot of regular people want to see a snap back to pre-pandemic prices and consider the absence of that to be “inflation.” Yeah, that isn’t generally how it works. (Higher interest rates on loans are also “inflation” for normal people, but not for economists.) This observation is kind of where I fall on this question, which is to sidestep “is the economy good?” and just acknowledge that a global crisis took place, a million Americans and many other millions died, and of course neither the economy nor a lot of social norms are just going to snap back. We think of the post-war years as a time of explosive growth, but it took a few years after World War II ended for the economy to really pick up. The pandemic can only, at most, be said to have ended two years ago, and for many people never ended. The other economist, who is apparently more progressive than Baker, has a less interesting answer, which comes down to this:
I’ve featured a couple of articles here that I read in Sicily or found reading about it later. I think at least one other one was about the mafia. Sorry. Sadly, the mafia is a very real thing there even today, and there’s nothing glamorous about it. Obviously, this is not what emptied out American urban cores, but it’s interesting to see something similar happen in a totally different place:
American urban cores have often been repopulated by affluent people, while it’s aging American suburbs that are being reinvented by immigrants in many cases. That’s kind of reversed here. But it’s not necessarily typical:
The article details the 20th-century decline of Palermo as corruption and decay emptied it out. And what’s left of the mafia, which is not nothing, doesn’t like the vibrant reinvention of the city right under its nose. Interesting read. Related Reading: Thank you for reading! Please consider upgrading to a paid subscription to help support this newsletter. You’ll get a weekly subscribers-only piece, plus full access to the archive: over 1,000 pieces and growing. And you’ll help ensure more like this! You're currently a free subscriber to The Deleted Scenes. For the full experience, upgrade your subscription. |
Older messages
Why *Does* It Feel Like Things Are Always Getting Worse?
Thursday, August 1, 2024
Is "density" a stand-in for other things? ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏
Hut Hut!
Wednesday, July 31, 2024
What Do You Think You're Looking At? #173 ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏
Drink And (Let Him) Drive
Tuesday, July 30, 2024
Why didn't we think of it? ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏
The Only Thing Worse Than Disorder
Monday, July 29, 2024
How do you make the median rider feel welcome on public transit? ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏
What Makes Good Urbanist "Content"?
Saturday, July 27, 2024
Three suggestions from the Strong Towns/CNU conference in Cincinnati ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏
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