Disqus - Latest Comments for MikeWebkist

Re: Can Unions Save Adjuncts?

MikeWebkist — Tue, 07 Jan 2014 13:23:20 -0000

Require universities to provide a certain percentage of their students' loans directly. Capital requirements for graduate degree programs!

Re: Externalities Are the Rule, Not the Exception

MikeWebkist — Tue, 26 Nov 2013 10:13:45 -0000

The late Ronald Coase explained this (and won the Nobel Prize!) quite well in the 60s:

http://www.thebigquestions....

Re: Is the Birth Rate Properly a Political Question?

MikeWebkist — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 17:00:35 -0000

In other words, we're all too decadent to act now, sacrifice now, to solve this problem looming on the horizon. I'm beginning to think Douthat might be on to something with this whole decadence thing...

Re: Is the Birth Rate Properly a Political Question?

MikeWebkist — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 16:17:42 -0000

And yet, most Americans – even environmentally concerned Americans – continue to drive cars and eat meat. What rational response, beyond cloth grocery bags and voting Democratic should we expect?

Re: Is the Birth Rate Properly a Political Question?

MikeWebkist — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 16:05:25 -0000

"Ad hominem" or "Guilt by association". I can't decide.

Re: Sorry, No More First Run Cinemas in Center City

MikeWebkist — Tue, 25 Sep 2012 16:36:28 -0000

The Pearl on Broad at Temple is great. Broad Street Line, dudes.

Re: Leo Geo, a lengthwise comic about a journey through the Earth

MikeWebkist — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 12:07:11 -0000

My 8-year-old daughter just found this book at the library and really enjoyed it. Although, to be honest, she's spent more time with "What Stinks?" by Marilyn Singer. Rocks are great, but poop is hard to beat for a second grader.

Re: The Worrisome Success of Index Funds - Megan McArdle - Business - The Atlantic

MikeWebkist — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 16:28:46 -0000

Doesn't this assume a fairly simple definition of "Index Fund"? If you have more than one index fund whose components are algorithmically chosen (but using different criteria), you could have both low-fees and an efficient market. A particular stock might be in the FOO500 and the BAR125 while another is in the BAR125 and the BAZ50. Each of those three funds could be picked by a computer with little overhead, but have different risk/return profiles, and hence do not just cancel each other out.

But obviously, take this too far and you need some sort of professional to advise you on which index fund to buy...

Re: Book Review: The Rent Is Too Damn High

MikeWebkist — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 12:49:11 -0000

Yglesias has a style which I think is interesting to compare to Robin Hanson and Steven Landsburg. Like the two of them, he's a classical liberal, but wrapped in progressive clothing (hence the conniptions into which he sends his commenters). Hanson comes across sometimes as a robot with very good emotion emulation software, programmed to avoid the harsh libertarian notes. Landsburg is good at the armchair economics, but comes across as the asshole libertarian you hate to agree with.

Yglesias though seems to have the Hansonian ability to make the rational, classical core seem youthful and liberal without the Landsburgian snark. The only time it fails is when he says things (like the affordable housing provisions stuff) which it seems like he probably doesn't believe. He knows better, and we know he knows better. He just needs to say it so people don't write him off as a conservative -- which would be incorrect and bad overall.

Re: Why Do People Oppose Development? - Atlantic Mobile

MikeWebkist — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 12:10:54 -0000

The traffic conversation always has the risk of turning into the old "it's so crowded, nobody goes there" cliche. But the fact is, the traffic isn't just caused by the *new* people. You're just as responsible for the traffic as they are. The people driving next to you might have moved there later, but that doesn't make them less entitled to the road. So they used to live in Rockville and were stuck on 270 every morning for two hours, now you're both stuck on 476 for an extra 5 minutes. Seems like a win to me.

Re: Why Do People Oppose Development? - Atlantic Mobile

MikeWebkist — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 11:25:33 -0000

But really, is that true? I lived in Alexandria 15 years ago and remember the same fears. When I go back now I see vast increases in business and housing, but driving seems no worse. Sure, DC traffic sucks, but is there any actual evidence of a tipping point? It's not like it would kill people to combine their trip to Trader Joes with a trip to Panera instead of making two separate trips. I suspect that's exactly what people do.

Re: Building in Chinatown Could Be Getting Taller

MikeWebkist — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 14:07:21 -0000

Why is parking even a question? Let them pay a garage to store their car. Let them park a mile away. Why is that the building's problem?

Re: Grumman Greenhouse Bookends Lenfest Plaza

MikeWebkist — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 11:53:57 -0000

The Grumman Greenhouse is by far the better sculpture.

Re: Update: Former Warehouse Coming Down on Fairmount Ave.

MikeWebkist — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 09:43:20 -0000

The problem with the Divine Lorraine is the same problem most old high-rises have: small rooms, low ceilings, very little light. It's great to look at from the outside, but even if it were fully gutted, you can't change the fundamental structure of an old stone building.

Re: http://lineara.tumblr.com/post/13971677026

MikeWebkist — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 11:42:48 -0000

Agreed. I buy falafel from a truck that is IN THIS PICTURE and I never "saw" it.

Re: Huge Development Coming to 1400 Block of Fairmount

MikeWebkist — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 12:37:17 -0000

Clemente and Francisville playgrounds are close enough. A park here would be as empty as the one in Franklintown. And who cares about parking and traffic? It's Broad and Fairmount. On nice days it's like a 10 minute walk downtown, and the rest of the time, hop on the subway. The traffic at that intersection is people from OTHER neighborhoods driving through there. The whole Avenue of the Arts corridor should be underground parking and traffic be damned. Anything else is just treating it like King of Prussia.

Re: Huge Development Coming to 1400 Block of Fairmount

MikeWebkist — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 12:05:00 -0000

The worst choice for that triangular lot is a park. It's less than a block from the Broad Street subway. Put a high rise there and pack it with people. Density, density, density.

Re: Can You Name the New Public Space at 30th Street Station?

MikeWebkist — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 10:57:20 -0000

You know what's never going to be in that space: umbrellas and cafe tables. What will be in that space: security barriers.

That's the problem with these projects: the drawings are idealistic and beautiful but in practice, you end up with brutalist spaces for the homeless and other forgotten citizens. What they *should* have done here is reduced the width of the driveway *and* market street and auctioned the property to developers.

Re: Yet Another Church for Sale

MikeWebkist — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 13:25:01 -0000

I don't know what the inside looks like, but the outside is pretty ugly.

Re: We Dream of a Park on the Reading Viaduct

MikeWebkist — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 10:39:49 -0000

Look at the population and wealth of Chelsea in New York versus that of Spring Garden or the Eraserhood. It'll be decades before that neighborhood has even close to the population -- much less the money -- to replicate what NY did with the High Line.

Re: Rehab Mortgage Security Building at 18th and Fairmount. Please.

MikeWebkist — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 15:39:04 -0000

Easier said than done. Here's 18th street-facing second floor: http://flic.kr/p/75KeWL

Re: Old Urbanist on the failure of Boston’s newest park

MikeWebkist — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 13:27:00 -0000

Speaking of Philadelphia, my biggest gripe here is the Benjamin Franklin Parkway. A mile long and six lanes of traffic wide, it's a very short, hard to navigate highway occupying what should be prime cultural, economic real estate. It's daunting to drivers and pedestrians alike. And worst of all: you can't buy a coffee or ice cream or anything without walking blocks out of the way.

Close the east-bound half and lease the land to businesses and make the parkway something other than a Batan Death March between the Franklin Institute and the Art Museum.

Re: Old Urbanist on the failure of Boston’s newest park

MikeWebkist — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 13:27:00 -0000

Close the east-bound half and lease the land to businesses and make the parkway something other than a Batan Death March between the Franklin Institute and the Art Museum.

Re: How Many New Yorkers Can Fit on an Island? - Megan McArdle - Business - The Atlantic

MikeWebkist — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 11:31:47 -0000

Search costs, lock-in, etc. are all part of the price too. Even if nominal rents stayed sky high, not having to bribe the real estate agent to even hear about an open place would be an improvement.

Re: http://mikewebkist.tumblr.com/post/3583559761

MikeWebkist — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 11:25:53 -0000

I agree fully. The stamp story seems to simply be one of them tracking inflation. Anytime there's a claim of "if you had done X at point Y you would be much better off!" you can be pretty sure the advice is useless.