Disqus - Latest Comments for Scottonthespot

Re: Mamdani and DOT Restart 34th St. Busway Project Transformation

Scott Baker — Thu, 04 Jun 2026 02:27:23 -0000

Where will trucks park on this busy retail corridor? A 15% gain doesn't sound like much if trucks can't even park in and around Herald Square.

Re: Mamdani Wants to Kill Elizabeth St. Garden, Build Affordable Housing

Scott Baker — Sat, 08 Nov 2025 03:34:39 -0000

Mayor-elect Mamdani is a socialist. That means he will vote for the larger collective good over a smaller group of individual rights and desires every time. Therefore, housing for more people, plus new stores (maybe a Mamdani free grocery store?) and a new centrally planned and approved park will always trump an eclectic, non-approved ad hoc park with funky statues. Beloved is not relevant to the State (or the city acting as a centralized State).

Re: Bid to Find Hit-and-Run Biker Who Slammed into Another Biker During Summer Streets

Scott Baker — Wed, 20 Aug 2025 05:15:40 -0000

This is the exact spot I was hit by an errant runner and knocked off my bike during the first summer streets, 3 weeks ago. I am still suffering tendonitis and in physical therapy. Like this hit and run, the runner said sorry and was either hustled off or ran off on her own. Runners far outnumber bikers and don't stay in their lane, especially in the crowded downtown section of summer streets, below Grand Central, but especially below 14th street, which is normally one-way 4th Avenue or Lafayette Street near Astor Place.

I am done with Summer Streets. It's about as much fun as rush hour in a car, but a lot more dangerous. I have my offstreet routes year round and will stick to those.

Re: Elon Musk confirms Grok 4 launch on July 9 with livestream event

Scott Baker — Wed, 09 Jul 2025 09:30:25 -0000

Well, we'd better watch out relying on Grok now. It's already testing positive for racism and antisemitism, says Techcrunch reviewers:
https://www.techtimes.com/articles/311202/20250706/xs-improved-grok-shares-controversial-views-democrats-hollywood-jewish-executives.htm
and it's praising Hitler repeatedly:
https://youtu.be/pymGQK00k-w?si=8iZGS1rJarkii6tr If this is supposed to be "unbiased" than Twitter is the most biased source in the world, since that's where it's mostly trained from. Musk has apparently ended the "woke filters" and the worst, most bigoted, results are the result, even from relatively open-ended questions.
The only question is really whether Musk's ego will allow him to admit this disaster and to put back some of the checks that were there previously.
Also, a Twitter worker who CLAIMS to be the only white person working on Grok on the X team, said he was responsible for "freeing Grok" for such bigotry just before quitting yesterday. I don't remember the name and can't find the post now, so it may not be true, but at least it's a sign that something has gone very, very wrong with this release, and all sorts of people know it.

Re: Three Casinos Rolling the Dice to Land a Manhattan Gaming License

Scott Baker — Mon, 23 Jun 2025 03:26:57 -0000

Of the three Manhattan proposals, only one - the one near the U.N. - is a solidly residential neighborhood. It may channel car traffic more effectively from the FDR, or from the already busy exit road that becomes Avenue C after 18th Street, it isn't clear, but make no mistake, it'll generate more traffic than a non-casino development with extra housing the neighborhood desperately needs, plus family friendly retail that a casino area will never provide.

Re: As Bike Traffic Soars, So Do Pedestrian Injuries-But Who's Counting?

Scott Baker — Fri, 20 Jun 2025 04:03:24 -0000

I'm a regular biker (human-powered, for as long as age allows me). But even I can see the allowance for e-bikes has gone too far.
First, the gas-powered and class 3 mopeds must be diverted to the street where they are capable of keeping up with city-wide 25mph traffic now. They are a menace to ordinary bikers too!
Second, introduce a mileage surcharge for deliveries past a mile. Originally introduced in an editorial in Streetsblog, this surcharge would discourage long deliveries, especially in retail dense areas like midtown Manhattan, where there are many options within one's immediate neighborhood. It wouldn't hurt deliveristas either, since they make up for shorter trips with more local ones, but not have to be racing the clock to deliver miles away, leading to accidents.
Third, focus on finishing the Greenways! There have been years long delays on the East Side Manhattan Greenway, permanent (so far) gaps in midtown and 2 in Harlem, and the LES is practically closed to bikers except a small section around Corlear's Hook Park. 71-73 is blocked by years long work for the Hospital for Special Surgery. There are detours on the West Side Greenway too - the nation's busiest bike Greenway. There's too much focus on placing bike lanes on every street. Transportation Alternatives, the city's most powerful pro-biking lobby, has won the battle for street space and should focus more on Greenways and other separate passages for bikes only (like the Central Park Loop).
The bikelash is just starting and if a spirit of respect and compromise isn't forthcoming, reactionary politicians will be elected that will just dismantle the slow and hard-won progress towards a bike friendly city that has spun over the last few decades. Ed Koch famously ripped up the old bike lanes. Trump's transportation secretary would like to do the same. We bikers need to pick our battles so we don't lose the war.

Re: Roosevelt Islander Online: There Once Was An Elevator From The Queensboro Bridge To Roosevelt Island - Learn More About The Welfare Island Upside Down Elevator Storehouse Building

Scott Baker — Mon, 14 Apr 2025 09:53:26 -0000

Along with the endless delays to make the south lane a pedestrian lane instead of a car lane, the elevator to Roosevelt Island should be brought back, but only for bikers and pedestrians this time, not cars. The Tram gets over-filled and even the F train is inconvenient for some. Plus, it's a nice walk and ride halfway across the bridge, but not practical to walk all the way to Queens, then turnaround and walk back over the Queens-Roosevelt Island bridge.

Re: Hochul Pleads for More Fed Funds for MTA; DOT Pushes to End Congestion Pricing Tolls

Scott Baker — Mon, 14 Apr 2025 04:26:04 -0000

Instead of pleading for federal money that the vengeful Trump administration will never provide, maybe the governor should double down on congestion pricing and raise it to the $15 fee it was originally supposed to have. At $15, $1 billion would be raised, every year, reliably and usefully for the purposes of leveraging. The, $15 billion additional dollars could be created in the bond market, based on this income - much more certain than funding from the mercurial federal administration that can't even decide what tariff rates should be, from one day to another. $16b in total will close almost half the funding gap for the MTA. There's still more work to be done on both the funding and spending side, and there are other solutions to that too, but governor Hochul has discovered a great tool for raising money and is now the greatest champion of it. It's time to put it to the full effect it was intended to be.

Re: Will Trump’s order freezing offshore wind disrupt massive Sunset Park project?

Scott Baker — Tue, 04 Feb 2025 12:04:38 -0000

I'm curious: how does this effect the other energy hub planned for the Farragut substation where the decommissioned steam plant is nearly torn down now? That area was supposed to channel wind power offshore too.

Re: Italian Tourist Slashed in Murray Hill, Suspect Still At Large

Scott Baker — Tue, 26 Nov 2024 04:21:55 -0000

I long for the day when people were simply mugged for pocket money. Now it is so random and so violent. Mental health professionals need to start identifying patterns, maybe AI could help, that predict which patients will go on to commit random acts of violence like this, and the precipitating conditions; soaring drug use, including far more potent cannabis has been linked to paranoia, schizophrenia, and anti-social behavior, at least in vulnerable populations. That's a place to start. The mayor has called for broader use of involuntary psychiatric lockups, and even with the shoddy past of mental health institutions, this is the right call to make today. The system is failing at every level.

Re: Beat the Heat: Streets Are Hot, But Subways Are Even Hotter

Scott Baker — Fri, 30 Aug 2024 05:45:13 -0000

165.9 degrees?! That's lethal heat for anything but a few minutes, maybe not even that for anyone with health problems or a senior citizen or pregnant woman.
The MTA must do something about this. This is usually where lawyers for the public interest jump in with class actions, even the public advocate. Yet, crickets...

Re: Over $41M Of Illegal Products Seized Thus Far in Ongoing Smoke Shop Raids

Scott Baker — Sat, 03 Aug 2024 07:36:52 -0000

Worst. Drug. Policy. Decision. Ever.
For a few votes and an over-estimated amount of revenues, the governor, assembly, and senate, as well as their supporters in the city council have sacrificed the health of a generation already on the edge from missing school during Covid (another terrible policy), increased crime both from the to the Pot Shops, created one of the greatest conflicts of interest in modern governmental history, stunk up the city; made people dumber, more paranoid even psychotic - all of which is now being shown to be associated, possibly causative from cannabis - and generally made NYC into Vice City in so many ways.
Decriminalizing cannabis didn't lead to more treatment centers either. Why would it, when that would cut into whatever's left of state taxes from this criminal industry?
And it is a criminal industry. Just because the state has made part of it legal - while it's still illegal at the federal level - doesn't mean the store owners, who are former felons and drug pushers for the most part, won't engage in selling other drugs, selling to children, storing guns and using them especially since they can't store their money at banks, who are federally prevented from opening accounts for cannabis stores.
It's a lose-lose situation leading to cannabis use that will soon eclipse tobacco use; that's what the charts show. See Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM) for more accurate info than anything from MS media.

Re: Incumbent Kristen Gonzalez Wins Democratic State Senate Seat Primary in Landslide

Scott Baker — Tue, 02 Jul 2024 07:37:02 -0000

I voted for Lambropoulos, even though I strongly disagree with his position on congestion pricing. But, in addition to being, effectively, pro-crime, because "alternatives to incarceration" aren't working, Gonzalez also celebrated when Hamas slaughtered 1200 Israelis, mostly Jews, in a series of tweets that she later tried to walk back with false equivocation. Gonzalez, like a lot of Columbia alums, is an anti-Semite. That may play in Astoria, but in the unwillingly redrawn district's Manhattan "stub" there are enough Jewish voters and people of common sense, that understand what she represents to at least dent her margins.

Re: Tear Down FDR South of Brooklyn Bridge, Urges Levine in State of the Borough Address

Scott Baker — Wed, 13 Mar 2024 18:55:13 -0000

This is a dumb idea. Cars and especially trucks, have to go somewhere to make deliveries of people and goods, and that will be on the already congested non-grid lower Manhattan streets if this bypass is gone. If, instead, it's made like the West Side Highway after the overpass collapsed, it'll be even worse: a mirror image of the 6 lane highway that people hate to cross on the far west side, to get to all the goodies on the west side esplanade. Now, people can quickly go under the FDR overpass, not have to wait for a light to cross through-traffic, and can access the LES esplanade. Fix that, making it storm and sea surge proof, and leave the FDR overpass alone.

Re: Battle Heats Up over Beth Israel As Mt. Sinai & State Health Dept. Receive Temp. Restraining Order for Downtown Closures

Scott Baker — Tue, 20 Feb 2024 18:07:02 -0000

When considering who gains from selling Beth Israel for a real estate fortune, follow the money:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wi...
This list includes some of the wealthiest donors in the city, some well know in the private equity or CRE world. It's not beyond the pale to believe they've been paying for access, and now they want to cash in.
The need for the hospital is obvious. It's no accident they paused the closure when the Covid pandemic hit.
What will happen when, not if, the next pandemic hits and there's no spare capacity, again, but even worse than last time?

Re: Tragic Death As 18 y/o Bicyclist Killed; Struck by Amazon Truck on First Ave

Scott Baker — Tue, 20 Jun 2023 17:53:05 -0000

A terrible tragedy, but a few things jump out at me since I have ridden on First Avenue 100s of times over many years:
1. There's a bike lane on the left side, but the victim was riding in the right lane, which is normally a car lane. The left bike lane isn't perfect but it's generally safer and protected by a line of parked cars and some restaurant sheds.
2. The victim had major head injuries. Was he wearing a helmet? It's not required for anyone over 12yo, but ALWAYS a good idea. I've fallen off my bike too and my helmet has saved me from grievous injury, and possibly my life, even to the point where the helmet had to be replaced. People don't realize gravity draws your head down to the pavement first.
3. Any van has blind spots. Vans, SUVs, pickup trucks are not cars and all have blind spots. Not saying the driver is innocent, but people don't always compensate for these inherently more dangerous vehicles.
4. E-Citibikes are heavy semi-bikes and have their own hazards to operate. They can lull "drivers" into a false complacency by their seeming ease of use, which hides the driver's vulnerability at speeds up to 18mph. Anyone who hasn't passed a NYC driver's test - which an 18yo would just barely qualify for legally in NYC - should be extra careful on NYC streets.

Re: Answering Questions On Energy Independence

Scott Baker — Sat, 13 May 2023 05:11:26 -0000

But the argument is whether the pricing mechanism is the best we can do, not over the price itself or how to control it by fiat. The way oil is priced is by speculation of future supply and demand instead of measuring current supply and demand and pricing oil on current information. The latter ought to be well known by those who can track such things - the IEA, for example, or even something set up by the oil companies themselves. Having prices jump around the way they do is even bad for the industry, making it impossible to plan future exploration profitably. It's certainly bad for consumers who don't vary in demand more than a fraction of what the fluctuation in pricing would indicate.

Re: Answering Questions On Energy Independence

Scott Baker — Tue, 09 May 2023 17:34:20 -0000

That was really my larger point: wild swings in oil prices are a major disruption to consumers, to entire economies, even worldwide since the price is set globally. Aside from the fortunes of a few oil speculators, wouldn't society be better served from a more transparent, accurate, measure of supply and demand that wasn't based on speculation? How hard can this be to figure out when oil companies already know how much oil they have and how much oil they sell at any given time, and this can be all added by some neutral agency, then used to price oil globally? Everyone else would benefit, right?

Re: Answering Questions On Energy Independence

Scott Baker — Tue, 09 May 2023 02:48:25 -0000

I have a question: Why does the price of oil per barrel jump and dive so much while demand only changes a fraction as much? For example, oil/barrel reached over $120/barrel in early summer of 2008, only to collapse to ~$20/barrel by Feb. 2009. I understand SOME lower usage due to the raging GFC recession in the 2008-09 winter, but actual demand didn't collapse by 6X! Realistically, it can't change that much in such a short period.
Why does the industry base oil prices on some known oil demand + short term supply formula instead of using the futures market which id jerked around by speculators and even by nefarious actions like parking oil tankers offshore to jack up prices, like Goldman Sachs and others did in the summer of 2008?
It seems like demand should be known and not have to be speculated upon, on a short term basis.

Re: City launches two-year study to reimagine the Cross Bronx Expressway

Scott Baker — Tue, 28 Feb 2023 14:33:11 -0000

I upvoted your thoughtful and detailed comment, but would also add that the EV world is changing very fast, with new battery types being introduced every few months. Lithium-air batteries, for example, may 3X-4X range, allowing for supplemental charge batteries of Nano-diamonds with radioactive decay power for continuous trickle charge, to the point where chargers may become nearly obsolete. Megachargers for Tesla Semis, meanwhile, will charge a semi in <1/2 hour and can be situated by the dozens in big trucking lots. It's a different market than the private car EV market, with different options. By the time the neighborhoods are changed, somehow, to reduce truck traffic - which is counter to the deliver-at-home desires of most consumers now - the EV truck revolution should have well passed its tipping point.

Re: Consumer Price Inflation, by Type of Good or Service (2000-2022)

Scott Baker — Mon, 27 Feb 2023 02:51:59 -0000

This is an extremely misleading chart. It measures inflation not in CPI terms, but as a percentage of median income, which has also been inflated in the last 22 years. That's buried in the fine print, but if you don't search for that, you're liable to think TVs cost 99% less today than they did in 2000, and medical costs are over 200% more, which is nowhere near the case. The measures are true in relative terms, but not in absolute terms when adjusted for wage and wealth inflation too.

Inflation overall has been ~74% since 2000: https://www.usinflationcalc...
Income is more than wages, especially for the top percentiles who get most of their income from capital gains, and whose faster increase skews the averages for the lower percentiles who rely mostly on wages. Still, while income increases overall are not 74%, and may be flat to negative until very recently for the lowest income percentiles, they can be double digits or even higher than 74% for the upper percentiles, contributing to the growing wealth and income gap. This gap means that the highest percentiles contribute disproportionately to inflation in asset classes like housing, land, stocks and bonds,, art, etc. in a rotating fashion; e.g. in 2022, the stock market went down 19% (S&P 500) but land and housing costs went up by nearly as much, particularly in the most desirable urban areas.

Re: City to ban burning dirty heating oil in buildings

Scott Baker — Thu, 16 Feb 2023 17:45:08 -0000

New buildings - and that probably includes retrofits like this - can't use Nat Gas either. That leaves only electric. Is the grid even up for everyone switching to electric stoves, and who's going to pay for that, and do the wiring and installation? Are there even going to be enough stoves for such a wholesale conversion of the entire city at once?

Re: Adams: Hochul's budget leaves 'difficult choices' for city spending

Scott Baker — Thu, 16 Feb 2023 11:50:53 -0000

New York City and the greater NY metro area, including Long Island and Westchester, should carve off and become the state of Long Island (having two New York States won't work). This is 1/2 the population, the vast majority of income/GDP, and most importantly, a totally different region than upstate NY, which is mostly rural. NY State is 10m people without NYC, comprised of small towns and middling cities, including Albany. It has a rural bias, and can't understand or appreciate the needs and strengths of NYC. The state of Long Island would also get two reliably blue Senators in Washington, something that matters a lot when it comes to getting money from D.C. Right now, NY gives more tax dollars than it gets back. The red states need get off the teat and NYC needs to keep more of what it earns. The remaining NY State needs to address its decades long slump and focus on revitalizing its depressed towns.
Nothing will change as long as the Governor is split between two entirely different regions, with a rural bias.

Re: Limited scope of BQE fix is ‘unacceptable and irresponsible,’ elected officials say

Scott Baker — Wed, 15 Feb 2023 04:26:56 -0000

I have yet to see any of these "de-roading" proposals say how trucks are going to continue to supply retail stores and, now, customers ordering online with expectations of direct-to-door delivery. What good is a reconnected community that can't get food, clothing, or other goods?
The pollution and noise issues would be better solved by converting vehicles from ICE vehicles to electric vehicles, something that is already happening, as well as improving mass transit to get cars off the BQE.
Also, the Electeds better poll their constituents better. Some of them would prefer the status quo to improvements that make their neighborhoods more desirable, and more expensive to rent from.

Re: Proposal to end at-will employment in New York faces murky future

Scott Baker — Mon, 13 Feb 2023 09:34:20 -0000

Wait, so this means if I hire a caretaker for my (hypothetical) elderly mother, and she abuses/ignores her, I can't fire her without risk of being sued under the conditions of wrongful termination like 2 weeks notice, documented reasons that stand up to legal scrutiny, etc?? This is going to kill most avenues of private employment, or make it so onerous and expensive to employ people - who will essentially be part of a state-sponsored union - that people in need of home help will have even fewer options than they have already. People may die from this.