I want to gently push back on this from my perch in NYC. Pre-Uber, taxis had their monopolistic issues but were:
- available at most times on major thoroughfares with a raise of the hand.
- reliable - I was never once jerked around or overcharged by an NYC yellow cab, which I can not say about private cab companies I've seen in other cities.
The worst problem was finding cabs in the outer boroughs, and that was improved greatly with the "green cab" program (they were restricted to beginning their fares in the outer boroughs).
There's been a lot of time and gradual change since then, but what I see now (Post-Uber):
- In most of the city, it is difficult or impossible to hail a cab without an app.
- The Uber/app drivers are worse, clearly much less experienced and don't know where they are going.
- Price gouging has been outsourced to the app itself, and happens very frequently.
- Even once cabs are called on the app they often cancel or fail to show in anywhere near the advertised time.
Personally, I greatly prefer the Pre-Uber situation.
I want to push back against your pushback as someone who’s lived in both NYC and the SF area. I agree with you that Uber barely made sense in Manhattan. I never once used it and taxis were plentiful.
I’ve since realized that in the US, NYC is an exception. When I first came to SF and Seattle for job interview related things, I used taxis, only to find out that the taxis were so terrible I never used them again:
- In the suburbs of Seattle, I was given a taxi chit from the place I was interviewing. I called in for a cab and had to wait over a half an hour for one to pick me up.
- In SF, the airport cab I was using had his GPS unmounted from his dash, and ended up handing me the machine and asking me to help him navigate from the back seat. Then when we got to the hotel, he lamented my choice to pay by credit card as it meant he would get the money much later than if he had cash. After I told him I didn’t have the circa $100 in cash he was charging, he sadly acquiesced, then proceeded to take a literal paper rubbing imprint of the card number before I could leave.
I like to say that the Bay Area made Uber make sense, both in terms of urban planning and in terms of how terrible taxis were.
And I think those may be related: if you can get around well in a place like NYC using public transit or walking, taxis have to be a lot more attractive in order to justify their existence. In SF or Seattle they had much less competition due to the suburban sprawl and worse public transit.
Trying to identify and remove bias in any direction is a worthy goal. That said, an evenhanded and factual approach to doing this may result in more negative sentiment towards people or organizations that deny facts; push fringe ideas without the benefit of widespread public support, or evidence, or academic consensus; or who have similarities with historical people or organizations who have come to be viewed negatively with the benefit of hindsight.
They are not great for listening to music in high fidelity. The are great for spoken word, and fine for music if you're not super concerned about quality; I liken it to listening to music from the speaker on a small portable FM radio.
I've found it to not work consistently. When I first started it showed the whole thing, but after playing for a while and some refreshes it only shows the path that this browser has seen. So if I switch apps for a while with it running in the bg, then come back, it skips straight from where we were when I last played to where we are now
My cynical and informed-only-by-observation take is that it is a win win for lawmakers of both parties. It allows people who want to buy weed to get it, without those local politicians seeming overly radical or permissive by decriminalizing fully.
With root and installing LineageOS, do you feel confident that any stock malware/spyware is eradicated? Or do you feel that the risk, or whatever may be left over, is worth it for the benefits?
Ah, I run lineageOS without root. Well, while, I have yet to see if it still does any outgoing... malicious connections, it is certainly safer than stock rom with massive amount of bloatware, and all.. the built in things..., and the version itself, being quite outdated.
And to be fair, this is good enough for me. If I worry about such built in firmware every time I get a device, well, my hair would be gray by the time I hit 30s lol.
As for benefits, I mean, in the end, this is what I wanted. An e-ink phone, with a proper, normal ROM. And because LineageOS is cute.
The Governor is pretty clearly doing this with the intent of saving vulnerable House seats. HOWEVER, it is misguided IMO because the political capital to get congestion pricing to the finish line has ~already~ been expended. The Governor, most local Democratic politicians, have already come out in favor of the project and advanced it against heavy opposition. The common refrain, that is a very reasonable interpretation, is that this will be re-implemented after the next election. But if all the voters know that, if we elect the Democratic candidate, this possibly unpopular plan will be passed, delaying it until after the election doesn't help; in fact, it makes it less likely for Democrats to get elected, or for the plan to pass.
In summary, Governor Hochul has now pissed off both opponents to congestion pricing, and also supporters of it. It was a terrible move, politically.
I understand maybe just 1 to 3 of every 30 articles I see here, but they're usually the most educational and thought provoking content I've found all day. Seeing so much interesting subject matter that I don't know keeps me humble as well.
