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…Now they’re just grasping at straws. We asked for something like this back in 2018 complete with a framework to provide AirBNB style housing and helping with Japanese government services like hoken, and the like. I’m sure none of the support part is included here and we all know how hard that is for anyone new to Japan.
Hello COVID my old friend, I hoped we'd never meet again
Here we go again with the bullshit.
This time, my sense of smell is 90% gone. 😩
Paxlovid enroute and no real symptoms other than post-nasal drip from hell and sore back though, so hopefully this'll be over in a few days. 🤞🏾
Last Week Today! S2024E1&2
In the tradition of those of us who can't do the daily "my day be like" journaling posts, there's the tradition of the weekly post that sums up what happened the week before. In my nod to one of my favorite TV shows, Last Week Tonight, I'm swashbuckling (🏴☠️) the hell out their title and using it on this blog series. Shiver me timbers! And, I'm ripping off my buddy James with the formatting here. Walk the plank!) Also I'm late AF as two whole weeks of January already passed. GyattDayum 2024 is already faster than '23. OK, let's dive in.
🎄So Xmas came and went with little fanfare other than the usual merriment of a Japanese/Afro-American family with very little time and money can make on such occasions. We exchanged gifts with each other, everyone got generally what they wanted but most of all just was glad to be able to enjoy time off with each other, my mom and oldest brother.
🛣️ Big Ass Hank (our RV) got some time on the road -- we hustled down to Orlando for some R&R in a warmer place than metro Atlanta. We used our Boondockers Welcome privileges for a nice layover spot in Live Oak, FL when traffic got too much and continued on down the next day. Normally this is a 6 hour drive, but sometime between 2008 and now, about 5 million more people decided to move into the space between us and Central Florida, making I-75 look like a 320 mile urban expressway complete with crack-ups and speed traps every 20 miles. A train between ATL and ORL is needed.
👨👩👧👦 Once in Orlando, we kinda didn't do much except be in awe of our campsite on Lake Dora (a COUNTY park with cheap camping that blows some of the really expensive sites away) and Old Town Orlando's Eola Park area. Orlando is a nice town even if you're not visiting the theme parks; worth the visit just to hang out and chill for 2 days.
👨🏾💻 I actually only took a few days off for the holiday; my on-call shift usually has nothing going on this time of year and I work from home. But there were some bonkers edge cases coming into my queue and I really wish I could talk...vent about them here. I'm compiling them elsewhere, and someday dammit...someday I'm gonna sing like Dionne Warwick!
😷 Of course in the middle of all this, my entire household got sick! It wasn't COVID but, that didn't stop my doctor from probing my schnoz...
🎌 There's lots of Japanese related stores around our part of Atlanta, and we kinda never visit them... So since the kiddos had their Xmas/お年玉 money burning holes in their pockets, we decided to check out Tokyo Kuma (which seemingly got TikTok'd and Instagrammed to death in the last 4 months) and Kinokuniya Atlanta (which has been a 20 year pipe dream 'til now because I swear they were 6 months from opening a location in Buckhead in 1999, but it didn't happen. Were those just rumors?) Needless to say, I'm glad these are a little out of the way for me, else I'd be treating it like the Daiso or DonKi I so miss and desparately want over here.
🚊 I've decided to try my best to advocate officially for bringing a good transport solution to at least my part of Atlanta and Northern Georgia. The ATLTrains concept along with Beltline Lightrail and I-285 BRT concepts need to be combined somehow. Going down to central Florida and seeing Brightline along with SunRail, Lynx and the fledgling but strong grassroots changes in THAT area makes me think we still have a fighting chance up here. And Atlanta ain't doing nothing but getting bigger. It's high time we all started thinking regionally and collectively about solutions not just involving 2 ton machines on asphalt all the time.
And that kinda catches us up! If you read this far, you've got stamina. Or you're just really bored. Either way, thank you and see ya next week!
What's the difference between a blog and a social posting site?
This is gonna be a radical and controversial statement but in 2024, anything posted to the internet at-large, should be considered a “social post”. In fact, the same could be said for anything posted on the internet in 1994 too. Only the technology and methodology, and yes, nomenclature along with vernacular has changed. We don’t “upload to a site” or “update via FTP” so much anymore; we simply “post to the internet” or “tweet/tiktok/instagram” something. But the same effect is true once it leaves our thoughtstreams and becomes pixels/waveforms/electrons circuiting the internet: if the content is interesting to someone, it’s going to be interacted with _whether you realize it or not.
This may be the rub for a lot of folks, especially those in marginalized and vunerable groups-- how to be able to post something online without fear of harassment? How to put forth valuable (or just ancecdotal) content, opine, or just shoot the breeze without catching a flamestorm? I get it-- I’m a card-carrying African-American, and we constantly catch hell from certain factions whenever we bring up uncomfortable truths, both online and IRL. Being able to have a refuge where one can air out an incedient, write about something experienced, or just vent --without persecution-- should be an inalienable right! …right? I think so, but also I’m not sure the internet is that place, at least in the sense that protection in the form of someone not having a view counter to yours won’t get all stalky, bitchy and rageful about it won’t be there. There’s always the risk a “keyboard warrior” or worse will show up with that bullshit and start harrassing the OP and everyone else. Anytime you post anything even a gnat-booty-hair towards controversial, assume you’re gonna draw these people out, no matter how protected you think your space is.
https://unsplash.com/photos/man-in-black-and-white-crew-neck-t-shirt-g8yJjfQrOJA" style=“border-radius:10px”>Now of course you should expect someone to reply, repost, and click on all the icons to make your post go "brrrr" if you're on a social media site somewhere, but what happens when you've commented on a blog that happened to be tied to a social media network and your comment gets exposed to a wider audience? Some argue there's an expectation that one's comments in places like blogs, forums and other so-called "closed discussion sites" shouldn't show up in other places unexpectedly and there's a reasonable expectiation that "what's commented there, stays there."
Are Blog Comments considered Social Media?
My opinion has always been and will remain the exact 180º opposite: Anything you post online is liable to be propagated, remixed, rebroadcast, and otherwise indexed somewhere, and wherever that some_where_ may be, some_one_ may be talking about it if there’s enough interest. This includes the main post and any ancillary posts (comments) about it. The internet is a public square and while there may be buildings and paths branching off of it, I always assume whatever I say in one place (an instagram post for example) will wind up being discussed in other place (on twitter). This actually happens all the time, even from the social media silos like TikTok and Facebook. For example, I don’t have a Tiktok account, no have I ever felt the need to have one because almost all the content I’m interested in coming from there, winds up being reposted on Instagram or YouTube anyway.
What’s a blog in 2024?
This blog in particular is also an ActivityPub instance. Pretty much all the posts from here can also be tracked at by searching for and following @starrwulfe@starrwulfe.xyz in the client of your choice (which at the time of this writing, likely means a Mastodon instance, but there’s lots out there!) Local commenting is not allowed, but you can interact with the post from anyplace you see in the syndication line (denoted by the links after 📡🔀) It’s also a full-fledged #indieweb site with Webmention commenting as well; you can post on your own site and it will find its way here as well. (there’s a textbox on the page if you don’t have webmentions set up on your blog locally; just put a link to this post somewhere in your reply, then read the instructions there and I’ll handle the rest!
I try to PESO my posts and POSSE the resulting comments so what may appear as one article here is really the nexus of a cloud of similar posts elsewhere (for example Facebook, BlueSky and Micro.Blog) and their resulting discussions all filter back here, the “primary” article.
So.. Is a connected website the "future of blogging"?
…When was a website ever NOT connected? 😜
- UPDATE 20 JAN:
Added a link to Ryan's really good post that tangentially describes context collapse from an ethically thinking app development point of view.
Fifteen Years Of Wordpressing
Unfortunately my previous blogs are lost to the ether but they were all mostly powered by Wordpress. I might gather some of my backups and make some "backfill" posts and relive whatever moments I can find.
Until then, let’s celebrate this milestone and thank the contributors and community around this great open source project.
What happened to passenger rail (in Georgia)?
Last month I talked about how with Georgia's new federal funding for rail corridors, we could imagine a regional rail system that would make moving through the area so much better?
Turns out, I'm not the only one, and our new favorite ATL urbanist Youtuber Nathan Davenport is back with another video detailing a bit about Atlanta rebuilding its rails would also be recapturing its true identity.
A few fun facts I like to remind people:
- Atlanta is the only city in the US that was born from the rails, not the river. (no, Chicago started because of the Chicago River, the rails came much later!)
- It used to be called "Terminus" because 3 railroads terminated here. Before there was much of a town actually.
- In the 1920's, over 150 trains ran through Atlanta's busy railroad stations... Yes, that's an 's' on the end. We had THREE STATIONS.
- We will have close to 10 million living our state within the next 20 years. There's no way all of us can fit on I-20, 75 or 85 so we need a good plan!
Check out the video, then make sure to visit ATLTrains.com for a detailed "what if" look at what we could be using in just a decade's time with a few small changes to how things get done in Georgia.
I'm dreaming of a new website engine
Let me get right to the point:
I want a way to use my space on Craft.do as a blog. I love using Craft as my space to outline and organize and it ticks all the boxes Tantek raises about capturing all the thoughts surrounding a good post first, then publishing it later after refining. It literally is the place where it all happens, negating a whole bunch of extra steps.
I already have been using CraftDocs to host my “official/professional” website for a few years now because of the ease of use and don’t-have-to-do-a-damn-thing ability to just publish changes and add new content. I got this likely foolish goose-chase of an idea because whenever I need to throw something like a gist/code snippet on the web even if only for a few hours, it’s way quicker just to make my note public or even lock it behind a password… And it looks good to boot. But there’s more advantages as well:
- There’s already great mobile apps available. I think I might have created the majority of content on either my phone or the iPad.
- I like the responsive block content file. Wordpress really could learn some things and refactor Glutenberg in this manner.
- The ability to create sub-sites-- little self contained places with its own navigation structure and style–can be made. Here’s an example. These are good for knocking together a series of posts that have a theme to group them together. The best part is it’s easy to do this afterwards as it is with preplanning.
- Navigation and menu structure is like butter. It looks pretty and logical.
But there are a few major drawbacks to just going totally with the off-the-shelf version of how CraftDocs does web-share:
- While they finally support subdomain shares (YourHandle.craft.me), the ability to use a whole custom domain is a premium business plan feature. (but there’s a way around this I’ll explain in a bit.)
- There’s no RSS! I kinda need this to make it really easy for different services and people to consume content.
- Of course there’s no microformats and anyway to mark up content for that, so no change of using Brid.gy
- There’s a comment system, but it’s proprietary and there’s no way to connect it to something like Disqus even.
Here’s the thing though; I’ve seen some cool things done with Notion pages, using something like Simple Ink to transform it into a “flat” static website that would theoretically eliminate this, there’s nothing like that for CraftDocs (and I really don’t know why.) There’s kinda two ways to semi-sidestep around it:
The first one I use is a hacky Cloudflare WebWorker method to do this, authored by Zuolan It gets the job done, but all it really does is let Cloudflare do a bunch of DNS redirects internally by using a textfile to make a virtual directory and DNS table. It’s really nice and free and I haven’t had any issues with how it’s done over the last 2½ years. I still can’t do anything about markup, comments, or RSS though.
Now the second way is how Zuolan improved and developed a new way to do this using some client-side java script files to rewrite the server-side javascript and do client-side routing to do some extra tricks. I’m testing it out at the moment. Note the addition of a menu at the lower-left corner by clicking on the floating icon there.
This pops a menu open that also has an “Archive” section that seems to generate a static version of the navigation of the site. That’s interesting…
The “floaty” menu is interesting too… It all has me thinking:
- is there some way to make this “transcribe” a page, read the contents and generate a “sidecar” pagelet that allows for the following ideas?
- An RSS version would be generated
- A comments pagelet would be generated and can slide in or out at will
- webmentions and activitypub support.
These probably mean some sort of database and parsing engines would need to be running at set intervals to parse the CraftDocs, generate the data and feeds and deal with the commenting subsystem. We already know that this is possible thanks to commenting systems like Disqus and Commento that plug into dispirate websites.
…the real question is: Can I scrape my own CraftDocs and make a CMS from scratch on my own???
Me looking hella disheveled after getting a giant qtip up my snout. All I wanted was more powerful meds to dam up the waterfall in my sinuses.
👩🏾⚕️:“We gotta check you for flu and Covid”
🐺: “Y’all didn’t do that so the my wife when she was here a few days ago”
👩🏾⚕️: takes out big ass q-tip from quantum space “look up right quick…”
an entire eternity of poking all my childhood memories into mash later
👩🏾⚕️: “give it 15 minutes and we’ll know…”
🐺: achooooo!!! “I can’t stop sneezi—" aaaaachoooo!!!
Time to get the last of the 年賀状wannabe cards shipped off to Japan! 🏣
(Some of y’all may know you are based on 郵便番号)
The Week ending 12.24.2023
The week before Christmas — not much going on except the twice checking of lists and making sure of naughty or niceness.
The Tribe: celebrating one week since school holidays began, they mostly got into their Christmas shopping/making. I’m really glad Wifey and I made point of instilling making stuff rather than buying stuff for gifts. People should appreciate sweat and creativity more than good credit and next day delivery. I also taught them how to burn leaves. Here in GA, our trees don’t totally de-leaf until about now; no point in raking until then.
Me: still working and teaching myself NixOS and some tinkering with indieweb and fediverse stuff. Really now thinking I need to learn more web stuff. I am mostly a “this is what I want to do so let me learn how to do it” guy and I’m thinking the thing I want to do is gonna be really hard (for me) so I need to sit and really think which way to do it.
Next up: after Xmas we’re going to Florida in Big Hank, our RV. Just a few days. No Agenda. Just go and see what’s up down there. When we get back, there’s a big family gathering on New Year’s Day (which is why Xmas is just for the Tribe this year).
Feels: somewhat melancholic with peaks of satisfaction and optimism. I miss Japan around this time because O-Shogatsu is coming and the hustle into that calm period is a dopamine hit. There’s a similar vibe for Christmas but I don’t get to see the whole of humanity doing it like I did in Tokyo. But I’m extremely satisfied to see Wifey and Kiddos mixing what we did in Japan with what we do here. It’s really cool to see the excited expressions on their faces.
🔗[starrwulfe.xyz/b/1GVw](https://starrwulfe.xyz/b/1GVw)
Content Creators: Substack's dumpster fire should also be the one lit underneath your @$$
If 2010-2020 was the Great Social Media Consolidation, looks like 2022 and beyond are gonna be the Great Innanet Decentralization, and I’m 1oo% present for it. Thanks to our friends #indieweb and #fediverse, you already know how easy it is to plug into some great communities on the interwebs while keeping your content under your control and being able to keep a record of the dialog around it at your own site.
If you’re reading this on my website, then just look down where on a traditional blog there’d be a “leave a comment” doohickey there for you to fill out a form and say how you feel about what you read. But here you can just comment on any of the syndicated sites where this same content exists and it’ll find its way back here via “a series of tubes” I’ve arranged. And with some hacky tomfoolery, my comments here will flow back to wherever they need to go in most places. To me, this is what real social media is supposed to be like– Your media on in a space you control and interact with the right circle of people you want to see it. And if you want, you can network your site with others, forming a mesh network of sites. That’s the premise (and promise) of decentralized social networking I’ve stressed again and again here.
Today one of my “transit content” friends I’ve followed for years is finding out first had why this is a good idea, thanks to the whole Substack debacle. Reece Martin (@rm_transit@mstdn.social) who runs RMTransit on YouTube experienced this firsthand by having to make the hard decision to move his popular Substack newsblog to Wordpress, but to me that means he just upgraded. By switching he’s able to:
- Immediately take advantage of RSS feeds, newsletters, and the mobile app.
- A whole ass ecosystem of plugins to make your blog do everything except tuck him in at night.
- Implement the ActivityPub plugin and publish content into the fediverse
- Grab the Indieweb plugins and use Webmentions and syndicate comments and content with other blogs
- Use the above with Bridgy and crosspost, backfeed and more with more SNSs
- Use IFTTT, Zapier and more to automate external things like kicking off a job to auto post his video content on his new blog when he comes out with a new video on YouTube.
I’m happy he decided to go this route and I hope others out there do the same. If your message and voice are your livelihood, there’s no excuse for not using all the products available to make sure it stays that way.
What are post kinds?
I needed a way to have a decent taxonomy for my posts on this incarnation of the blog, especially given its social features. A few places I hang out in online were using a dead-simple method for categorizing their posts and making it easy to find the stuff they saved later on, called Post Kinds.
Post kinds are a way of categorizing different types of posts on the web, based on the IndieWeb standards1. Hang on, let me explain that too– The IndieWeb is a movement that advocates for people to own their own data and identity online, rather than relying on third-party platforms2. Post kinds can help users express themselves in various ways, such as replying, liking, bookmarking, reading, listening, watching, and more3. Post kinds also enable richer interactions between websites, by using webmentions and microformats to send and receive notifications and display contextual information4.
The tool I’m using to make this easier is David Shanske’s Post Kinds Plugin for WordPress5. This plugin adds a taxonomy called Kind to the WordPress editor and allows users to fill in the blanks for the relevant properties of each kind of post. It also automatically parses URLs to display rich context and integrates with the Webmention Plugin to send and receive webmentions5.
Post kinds are not the same as post formats, which are a WordPress feature that allows users to choose a format for their posts, such as standard, aside, image, video, etc. Post formats are more limited and less semantic than post kinds, and do not support the IndieWeb standards3.
While not implemented on my site, post kinds can be determined by an algorithm called Post Type Discovery, which looks at the content properties and values of a post, rather than an explicit post type property. This way, the post kind can be inferred from the combination of text, media, and other elements in the post, without requiring the user to specify what kind of post they are creating4.
Post kinds are a powerful and flexible way of creating and interacting with content on the web, following the IndieWeb principles of owning your data, expressing yourself, and connecting with others, which is definitely what I’m trying to achieve with this webiste.
Let’s take a look at the different kinds of post kinds that I’m actively using:
📰Article - traditional long form content: a post with an explicit title and body 🗒Note - a short quick thought, usually under 200 words and without a title ↩Reply - a reply to content typically on another site ♻Repost - a complete reposting of content from another site ♥Like - a way to pay compliments to the original post/poster of external content ⭐Favorite - special to the author 🔖Bookmark - storing a link/bookmark for personal use or sharing with others 🖼Photo - a post with an embedded image/photo as its primary focus 🎞Video - a post with an embedded video as its primary focus 🔊Audio - a post with an embedded audio file as its primary focus 🗓RSVP - a specific type of reply regarding attendance of an event 🎧Listen - listening to audio; sometimes called a scrobble 📺Watch - watching a movie, television show, online video, play or other visual-based event 📍Checkin - identifying you are at a particular geographic location 🎮Play - playing a game 🍖Eat - what you are eating, perhaps for a food diary ☕Drink - what you are drinking, perhaps for a food dairy 🎵Jam - a particularly personally meaningful song (a listen with added emphasis) 📚Read - reading a book, magazine, newspaper, other physical document, or online post 🗨Quote - quoted content ⚠Issue - Issue is a special kind of article post that is a reply to typically some source code, though potentially anything at a source control repository. 🤔Review - A review is a post evaluating a product or service, usually involving a written description, sometimes with summary numerical evaluations, also known as just a rating. 🛠Craft - Activities like knitting, crocheting, cross stitch, wood working, restoration, 3d printing...the activity of building something.
Have a look-see at the different posts above (some aren’t populated yet) and you’ll get a sense for what I’m trying to do here.
Also give me some advice– how do you/would you do it? Use the syndication links (next to the 📡🔀 icon) and let me know.
Rudolph's grades won't be having his parents shouting out with glee...
[embed]www.instagram.com/p/C09Rgbg…[/embed]
When Mastodon Met Threads 🐘➕🧵🟰❓
It has started:
I have been saying for a very long while now that ActivityPub as a protocol and within it Mastodon as the flagship app need to separate themselves from the fringe in order to gain more traction and usage.
Understand that ActivityPub itself is a protocol not unlike IMAP and HTTP under the W3C. Just like email doesn’t rely on any one server to transport mail traffic across the Internet, By using ActivityPub social media can enjoy the same freedom and transparency. I shouldn’t have to join every single social media and existence to get a complete picture of what everyone is up to… we actually had this about 20 something years ago when the then biggest part of the fledgling social media universe decided to use XMPP as a standard to federate their instant messenger networks. What that meant was my ICQ handle was able to contact all my friends on AOL instant messenger and MSN without having to do anything strange. Ironically it was Facebook that broke this paradigm when they took Facebook messenger behind closed doors in order to add all the functionality that it has now.
OK, but you know Meta ain't doin' this outta the kindness of their hearts, right? 😒
It should not be forgotten that the reason why this is probably happening is because of the very strict policies that the European Union has imposed on how companies operate on the open Internet. It’s far easier for Mattar, the company that owns Facebook to create this new net work and design it from the start with open standards and then slowly bring everything over to it, rather than having to bolt on the same functionality to Facebook or Instagram as it stands now. While it may be seen as a self-serving move on their behalf, I personally welcome it because it means suddenly it might be one less thing to have to join and maintain in order to still be a part of the social media landscape.
Imagine a world where people on TikTok can communicate with people on YouTube and people on twitch. It might sound kind of strange at first but the same is already happening here in the #fediverse with Mastodon , PeerTube, and WordPress.
(Obligatory "how it works" link here.)
This integration is happening methodically and with a lot of advice from all stakeholders it appears; Threads users are going to get a window into the fediverse soon; as I type this, some accounts are getting read-only access. Evan Prodromou, one of the founding architects of the very underpinnings of ActivityPub (@evan@cosocial.ca and @evanprodromou@threads.net) has been able to talk to the team over at Meta in charge of this undertaking along with a host of others in the #indieweb realm. Believe me when I say, these discussions got into the weeds and no stone was left untouched according to most of the attendees. This is the part that makes me feel Meta is acting in good faith.
Will everyone be OK with federation though?
It’s very easy to say “I’m not going to federate with Threads” or “I don’t want to associate with those Mastodon loons” (posts I won’t link to here, but use the appropriate search technique and you will find them in short order). The point is being missed insofar as the networks being interoperable if nothing else for the sake of creating a new standard and influencing the wider internet to “de-silo” all this content is a good thing and needs to be encouraged, not shunned.
As of this writing, there are no official timelines on when any of this will go into effect for us, but I have my educated guesses that it will coincide with the opening of Threads.net to EU signups and the move to be a federated network should keep regulators over there from breaking out the ban hammer. That’s supposed to be in a few days so we’ll see.
Stay tuned!
Good news everyone! Georgia has federal passenger train study funding!
In combination with some great news about funding a lot of sorely needed railroad projects and studies at the federal level, Georgia's U.S. Senators Jon Ossoff and Rev. Raphael Warnock announced new grants to explore three new Georgia passenger rail corridors made possible by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
The new rail routes would connect major economic centers in Georgia and neighboring states, providing additional public transit options, increased mobility, and a sustainable, clean-energy future.
Proposed rail corridor studies that are being funded include one between Memphis and Savannah and a high-speed route from Charlotte with Atlanta in the center of it all.
Starting from Atlanta, the routes being studied are:
- A route heading northward with stops likely in Marietta, Cartersville, Dalton and points north into Tennessee that would connect with Chattanooga and efforts in that state to create a line from there to Nashville.
- Extending south and eastward, a route that would likely have intermediate stations in McDonough, Macon and end in Savannah with a connection to the Amtrak route linking Florida and DC on the east coast. There's also the potential to create a branch that would go due south out of Macon, through Valdosta and link with Tampa or Orlando. It would be nice to get some two-state talks going with Florida on doing something together since Brightline is already plying the rails down there and its now a known quantity.
- Perhaps the most interesting and likely first to get going is a high-speed line between Atlanta and Charlotte. The in-state routing on this one is not known, but it'd be very strange if Athens was missed. The growing South Carolina towns of Greenville/Spartanburg definitely and perhaps Anderson/Clemson would get stops depending on routing.
Another point of discussion is where exactly in Atlanta would these routes be emanating from; ATL's current train station for Amtrak service on the thrice weekly Crescent service from DC to New Orleans is basically a glorified waiting room with rails and stairs that lead to Peachtree Rd just north of Midtown. There were some efforts to build a new multimodal station Downtown right across from the Five Points MARTA station, right where a bunch of railroad tracks pass through a trench. While we do need a world-class rail terminal for a world-class city like Atlanta (especially to help get a commuter rail service off the ground -- more on that later,) let's not ignore our 900-pound gorilla lying 8 miles south: Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport.
Remember, the reason Atlanta even exists is because of rail transportation.
Literally the World's Busiest Airport for 20+ years definitely needs to be tied into any long-distance (and commuter!) rail options here. The catchment area of passengers includes not just the entire state but anything that would beat a car ride from an area of about 200 miles in diameter around us. Every time I've been in one of Hartsfield's parking garages, I've seen cars with South Carolina, Alabama and Tennessee tags that are definitely not rentals. With frequent enough service, it could be very possible to simply leave the car and take the train to the airport and catch a flight. Most Americans can't realize this convenience right now but take it from me after living in Japan for almost 20 years, being able to just hop a train even in the most remote parts of the area and get to Haneda, Narita, Kansai and Nagoya Centrair airports without worrying about long-term parking or begging for a ride from friends is a great thing.
According to Axios, how much of the $8.2 billion will wind up in Georgia for its rail project — or the timeline for the project's start and completion is a big question mark. One thing I'd like to know is does some of this money help look into a regional rail solution here around Atlanta that's desperately needed. Just like NYC, LA and Chicago, whatever helps the commuter rail network, would ultimately be good for the longer distance trains as well since they could share the tracks. That ATL Trains idea is still the best idea I've ever seen and really, REALLY needs to be formally studied with this money. Check out the 146-page prospectus and the ATL Trains website yourself, it's that good!
My take: Just like the Eisenhower Interstate Highway projects of the 1960s, the US really needs a rail renaissance in order to help face this brave new world of climate change, population and demographic shifts into sunbelt cities that didn't keep up infrastructure-wise (building another lane isn't cutting it Chief!) and the simple paradigm shift of decentralization in our metro areas in general-- How many people do you know BEFORE the pandemic that worked "downtown?" OK, now how many people actually even go to an office every day? Our transportation network needs to be more dynamic and flexible to account for these shifts and overlaying a decent rail network, both nationally and locally, is paramount. This is in addition to dealing with improving road and air travel; those need to be sorted as well.
Seriously? Elon was trying to get a tax break for X here in Atlanta?!
As the [AJC](https://www.ajc.com/news/fulton-board-to-consider-10m-tax-break-to-x-formerly-twitter/4V66VOJ73RCFPA5DI54FAFVLBA/) reported, X (formerly Twitter) appealed to the Development Agency of Fulton County to try and grab over $10 million in property tax breaks on their data center here in Atlanta to upgrade the server farm... But providing no additional jobs... which is why the tax breaks are there in the first place! 🥴
source: Atlanta Journal Constitution dated 3 Dec 2023
Everyone knows that these tax breaks should be going to fund any development that directly enhances the livelihood of Atlanta residents and for no other purpose. Job creation, educational, cultural and infrastructure enhancement are all good reasons to consider giving a company a tax break as an incentive to be here and will soon show up tangibly as residents have easier ways to get around, are better educated, healthier and of course prosperous. This equates to a win-win as it usually shows a bump in tax revenues a few years later.
However since X’s datacenter currently only has 24 full-time staff and no other staff are planned on being hired, there’s really no reason to give away $10 million + of our tax bucks that really need to be spent on the things I outlined above.
I agree with @threadatl@threads.net when he says:
Atlanta needs to reject this ingrained culture of giving away tax inducements to major developments that offer little or no benefit to neighborhood residents (or to neighborhood small businesses for that matter).
https://www.threads.net/@threadatl/post/C0cglEUPAo7
We have to shake this culture of “giveaway to play” when it comes to our civic monies and assets unless they directly, tangibly, OSTENSIBLY provide benefit to ALL within the boundaries of the city/county/state’s taxpayers.
Thankfully, it did not pass, likely due to a lot of councilmembers suddenly hearing about it from their constituents I’ll bet:
Post by @threadatlView on Threads
Atlanta Beltline Loop Saga: The Man with the Original Plan drops big facts/FAQs
Over the past few days, the “Father of the Beltline” himself, Ryan Gravel, created a massive 70-something-odd long FAQ in response to the NIMBYist action group that popped up opposing the transit portion of the Atlanta Beltline.
His post is massively detailed and as pointed as one would expect of having to literally defend their graduate thesis even after half of it has been edified. It’s also a masterclass in how to keep fighting tooth-and-nail without resorting to name-calling and pettiness which seems to be the norm these days.
Anyone who is in favor of a more walkable, pedestrian and bike friendly version of Atlanta (or anywhere really) is encouraged to follow the link as it is very much worth the read in its entirety. Also feel free to comment if you want to ask questions that aren’t covered as the FAQ is happily still open to additions.
ATL is the transit Bizzaro Land we need to fix
Last time in this series, I talked about an organization called Better Atlanta Transit that counter to its name, wants to end all talk of having light rail alongside the Beltline Trail, the very popular, used-to-be-murder-tracks encircling central Atlanta that’s now a multipurpose trail, linear park, and real estate gentrification money printing machine.
Of course in a way only Upside/DownLand Atlanta could do, we somehow got the multipurpose trail part built first, and are behind in the light rail installation. We now seem to be on the precipice of bringing tracks to the trail but of course the NIMBYs aren’t done yet; under the guise of “making transit in Atlanta better,” they ask “should we be building an old-timey streetcar next to our beautiful trail?”
Of course this was a rallying cry to all rail supporters around our beleaguered metro area, a place which hasn’t seen any serious transit expansion since 2000 when MARTA opened the Red Line northern extension and added Sandy Springs and North Springs stations. We’re not gonna talk about how we’ve added over 1.7 million more people to the metro area since then according to the US Census Bureau. That’s bonkers.
Luckily I’m not the only one all worked up; Nathan Davenport also wanted to get his points across as well, and put together a video to really give insight into what the group is actually saying, why rails on the trails is a smarter idea, and how to get involved.
My take: Having the Beltline without tracks is like having a building with no door or airport with no runway and apparently even Ryan Gravel, the urban designer who dreamed up the city-shaping project as a graduate student at Georgia Tech, said rail transit is the "centerpiece of the Beltline's vision and funding” according to Axios. The opposition group says they’re still in favor of transit options along the corridor, then point at share bikes and scooters, autonomous vehicles and other “gadgetbahnery” to add transit there because “streetcars are old tech."
None of those concepts will offer the real throughput to move people around the corridor, don't help take the most cars off the road, but only help the able-bodied and well-heeled living immediately in the formerly-ghetto-now-ritzy areas around the trail itself. Most importantly isn’t the package we were sold 12 years ago when we voted on the measure.