alex block ⚽️

@alexblock.bsky.social

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cities, transportation, transit, and other intermittent discussion.

Addendum 2: My live-in editor (my wife) notes that European soccer stadiums-such as Barcelona's Camp Nou or Madrid's Bernabéu-are commonly centrally located and adjacent to mixed-use neighborhoods. To the extent this is true, I'll bite the bullet and say that this is actually a bad planning outcome! These football stadiums often serve as border vacuums, deadening the surrounding area with largely unused facilities while also killing street life with large, blank walls. Could these issues be fixed by parceling off the parking/staging lots for development, and lining the perimeter with storefronts? Perhaps. But then you're back to the core problem with football stadiums: How do you achieve the traffic needed to sustain secondary uses in a neighborhood where a massive, largely unused structure takes up so much space? In both cases mentioned above, even secondary uses most relevant to soccer fans-bars and restaurants-seem to have retreated to the interior of nearby mixed-use blocks.
Aerial photo of Yankee Stadium in the Bronx, just before opening in 1923, surrounded by undeveloped land with a few streets laid out.
Side by side aerial images of Camp Nou in Barcelona, from 1956-57 and present day.
Side by side aerial images of Madrid from 1956 and present day, focused on the Santiago Bernabeu stadium, located then on the fringe of the city and now surrounded by it on all sides.
Zoom in of lots of gridlocked cars trying to park at the shopping mall next to “NY/NJ Stadium”
2026 World Cup composite schedule; 39 days total
Yellow flyer: WARNING MANY VISITORS HAVE BEEN GORED BY BUFFALO BUFFALO CAN WEIGH 2000 POUNDS AND CAN SPRINT AT 30 MPH, THREE TIMES FASTER THAN YOU CAN RUN THESE ANIMALS MAY APPEAR TAME BUT ARE WILD, UNPREDICTABLE, AND DANGEROUS DO NOT APPROACH BUFFALO With a picture of a man with a camera tossed in the air
Pooh aristocrat meme: leisure tourism, and cultural tourism
A large rock, with a ceremonial plaque, marking the location of the first Culver’s in Sauk City, WI. Culvers FROZEN CUSTARD BUTTERBURGERS The George Culver family opened the original Culver's Frozen Custard Restaurant on this site July 18, 1984 The current restaurant opened April 27, 2000 This monument is a tribute to the Sauk-Prairie area residents who have assisted with Culver's growth across the United States.
Proposed bike network from the RFK plan.
Screenshot of the roadway network from the draft RFK master plan.
Side by side comparison of the current Chevy Tahoe vs the 1995 model, the older one with a lower hood and shorter stature.
Pontiac Silverdome hosting the 1994 World Cup
destination madison How many hotel rooms are in downtown Madison? - MENU • 1,400+ hotel rooms (and growing!) in Downtown Madison • 14 downtown hotels within walking distance of Monona Terrace Community and Convention Center • 12,000 hotel rooms across Greater Madison
The downside is that the negotiation process is slow, expensive, and unpredictable. Von Bergmann notes that planners 'typically get it wrong - they either charge too much or too little'. Getting it right requires predicting market conditions years in advance. Charge too much and the project is rendered unviable and dies, potentially taking the developer and many jobs down with it. Charge too little and the city misses out on valuable capital spending opportunities. Frances Bula, a journalist who has covered Vancouver planning for decades, describes the practical reality: Big developers just cough up when planners demand.' Smaller builders, including homeowners wishing to add small extensions to their own houses, lack the resources to play the game.
Dew point: 79°
Weather station console showing a dew point of 76°
3d map of the MKE terminal.
USA Today screenshot: two sentences of the article, comprising about 20% of the screen, the rest all space for poorly formatted ads that won’t load.
My 82-0 squad 70s Jerry West - the logo Dame Lillard 80s Jordan 90s Horace Grant And 60s Wilt from the 76ers
80-2, with: Charlie Scott Allen Iverson Dale Ellis Chris Webber Wilt Chamberlain
A liquor store display stack of 30-racks of something called “Busch Light Apple” with a single proclaiming “BAPPLE IS BACK”
Me (my hand, more appropriately) holding an open can of Miller Lite with a lake in the background
Star Trek: TNG title card, but it says Episode IV a new hope
A, like, modern vertical lift bridge.
Nats losing to the Mets 16-6… in the bottom of the 12th? Somehow?
Google Maps screenshot showing 38 min drive time with traffic from Framingham to BOS.
A COMPUTER CAN NEVER BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE THEREFORE A COMPUTER MUST NEVER MAKE A MANAGEMENT DECISION
Disco Stu pointing at the chart for disco record sales, up and to the right, 1973-76… 📈
Map of us metro areas and their 2024 GDP.
TV news infographic showing how tolling the bridges actually reduced the travel so much so that despite almost doubling cross river capacity, total traffic actually fell.
Sources at NJ Transit told The Athletic that the overall cost to the agency to put on services for the eight games, and account for disruption, will cost as much as $48 million. They say that FIFA's security requirements are such that the games constitute the highest level security perimeter of any events hosted in New Jersey. As such, it leaves them in the position of needing to transfer the vast costs either to New Jersey taxpayers or those attending World Cup games, with Gov. Sherrill making clear that she does not want New Jersey taxpayers to carry the burden. Sources familiar with the plans at NJ Transit denied that their increased prices will be about profiteering, instead arguing that they need to raise the prices in order to prevent losses or excessive costs to local taxpayers.
Modified dril tweet: wint @dril Traffic Engineering may kill a lot of people, but it also helps a lot of people get to work on time, so, it;s impossible to say if its bad or not,
Annotated map of the RFK plan, showing the apparent asymmetry between the Riverfront District and the Recreation District
Map of the RFK campus plan, showing the different development districts.
Breaking news: local badger in great mood
r/trains u/Cs_Marcell • 33 Steam trains could make a comeback? I'm really curious about this so I'II ask: If oil prices keep rising and rising and reach ridiculously high prices because of the current (and perhaps new future conflicts) in the Middle East wouldn't it be cheaper for companies to start using steam locomotives instead of diesel? Coal or wood will be cheaper and way more simple to get thus making steam trains more affordable. Its just a silly thought so feel free to correct me if I'm wrong. I vote 8 $ 11
capt. Hikaru Sulu on the bridge of the USS Excelsior
Google street view from East Capitol St looking down on old RFK stadium with the Capitol dome and Washington monument in the background
Existing roads and new roads - red existing implies one way circulation; green two way arrows imply a change?
Landscape plans for the East Plaza
Perimeter security slide, showing assumed arrival shares by side of the stadium. Only 10% at the east gate.
Three different renderings of the exterior of the new RFK stadium
Simpsons screen shot of a sideways oil Derrick with the sign: BURNS SLANT DRILLING CO.
Today Hi/Lo Temp Hi: 85°F @ 4:28 PM Lo: 58°F @ 7:36 AM
Scoreboard: Washington Generals, 92 Harlem Globetrotters 90
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad @Ahmadinejad1956 • Follow With a hard work ethic Inshallah the U of M will return to its glory days. 7:44 AM • Oct 16, 2018
"It's so f***ing bad," one CSO said. "Just the way they built out that one side where it's just like a cavern underneath. It's just very bizarre." Said another: "Their field is a disgrace. It's not at our level."
Worst stadium in MLS? Two giant multi-purpose stadiums, and then… Audi Field
POLITICO Boddye insists he is "absolutely not" influenced by the campaign donations. Rather, he said, he was initially drawn to data centers as a means to expand the county's commercial tax base. Indeed, in fiscal 2023, data centers accounted for 7 percent of Prince William County revenue, largely from business, personal property and real estate taxes. In Loudoun County, which had roughly double the number of data centers at the time, data center revenue accounted for 31 percent of county revenue. Taxes from data centers can be particularly attractive to localities because the supercomputing facilities don't require as many public services as other developments of similar sizes.
Picture of my TV showing Zambonis resurfacing the ice of a speed skating oval.
Picture of my TV, showing the GoldZone feed with four simultaneous mixed doubles curling matches…