Depends on what crabs we're talking about. Are they big blue claws like you'd see in the restaurant, or are they small, only a couple inches across? Blue claws are eaten but you shouldn't eat them from the river. If they're the latter, they're invasive European green crabs, and a very popular bait for blackfish.

There are some people in New England trying to develop a culinary fishery for them, but it involves catching them, waiting for them to shed, and then eating them as soft shell crabs.

You're off the scent. We are talking long haul container shipping, not local deliveries. I said 25%, u/trafficSNAFU said 25-35%, but its still by far a minority of LONG HAUL shipping. Retail shipping is probably a tiny fraction of ALL cargo traveling the country.

>Effective freight rail systems aren't measured by speed but by efficiency.

Interesting. I'm a ship nerd not a rail nerd, and with shipping time=money because the cargo value of tens of thousands of containers is so high, and it's all financed, with interest accruing every day at sea. The biggest container ships will pay a $1m toll at the Panama Canal because it's cheaper than the time to go round the Horn. (Fun fact I learned visiting the canal!)

People often wonder why we don't revive sail cargo ships to reduce fuel consumption, and thats why. The last market for sail cargo was the Australia to Europe grain trade before WW2.

That doesn't jibe with the recent stat I read that only 25% of long haul is by rail.

Why is it so hard? Back in the day JC was lousy with rail spurs to warehouses. And with containers those trains could be moving in and out far, far faster than the breakbulk days. If there were incentives to build on them, I'm sure there's plenty of sites in NJ with legacy rail spurs.

Long haul freight does not respond to induced demand the way commuters do. It's pure economics. We subsidized roads and fuel, creating competitive advantages for trucks over rail while letting them offload their externalities like pollution and traffic. Rail lines had to build and maintain their entire system themselves, what's not to like having the taxpayers do it for them!

Like most of the problems we face, carbon taxes would go a long way towards solving this. Unfortunately this country's leadership is likely heading in the exact opposite direction starting tomorrow.

Fantastic answer! Thanks!

<Another issue is that many modern warehouse facilities aren't suited to being rail served.

Surely this is a choice that can be changed with the proper incentives, not a natural logistical feature. Before the Interstates all factories and warehouses were rail served. We let Detroit destroy that infrastructure.

I get sick every time I drive the Cross Bronx and it's so back to back trucks it looks like train, except they're stopped dead burning diesel for hours. We can do better.

I'd be surprised if 'multiple trains per day' is anywhere near capacity, but I really don't know how to find out. I recently read that only 25% of long haul cargo in the US goes by rail, which seems scandalously low. The average ship has 15k containers, that's a lot of fucking trucks burning diesel needed if it doesn't move out by rail!!!

One of my favorite factoids: The PA was created a century ago to build a rail crossing over the lower Hudson or the Harbor. They built a huge empire of ports and vehicular bridges, but never accomplished their original mission!

I actually really like the idea of building a new bridge and having the old one rehabbed with added BRT Lanes. Anyone who travels past 14a knows that there's a tremendous amount of container cargo coming out of the port and that adding a couple of lanes of bridge would ease the problems there. They could even have the lanes on the old one reverse like the third tube at the Lincoln.

But anyone with a brain knows that widening from 14a to the tunnel is idiotic. You'll just be creating a larger parking lot!

All that said, I would love to understand the reasoning that the containers from the port aren't being put on rail cars instead of trucks. Rail is just so much more efficient and environmental.

>I have a knee-jerk aversion to voting for the developer-backed slate

More than an aversion to a BOE controlled by the union it supposedly negotiates with?

The entire Public Safety budget, both police & fire, is less than the BOE budget increase. Follow the money!!!

That would be tragic if someone died during morning gridlock, but I doubt it would cause change. It's been a decade since Sandy, and absolutely nothing has been done to change our vulnerability there.

Taking a kayak on a bus is somewhat difficult, and they don't let you off at the side of the water.

>Fulop became mayor without establishment support.

He was opposed by the HCDO, but made lots of deals with other power brokers like Sandra Cunningham. Deals brokered by seasoned political operative Tommy Bertoli. That's how the sausage is made.

>It'd just take actual effort from a lot of folks who don't care to put forth effort.

Wow, thanks. I had no idea that was the answer!

People who are unrealistic are doomed to disappointment at best, the wall at worst. Your naïve attitude is like "why doesn't someone tell Putin to stop being so mean?" Until you have the votes, guns, or sometimes both, optimism is idiotic. Ask an Iranian or Venezuelan.

These power structures are powerful and stay powerful because they're really, really good at it. We can't even successfully take on a local self serving teacher's union, never mind appointed and unaccountable statewide and interstate "Authorities".

Yes! Of course! You're as practical and realistic as always.

They're not locals, they're just heading to the tunnel. The PA & TPK could easily eliminate all Downtown tunnel transients using the EZ-Pass system, but they have no incentive. To them, DT gridlock is a feature not a bug, otherwise the TPK would not have built and paid for the Jersey Ave Bridge.

Solomon cannot get elected Mayor without making the exact same deals with the corrupt JC power brokers that Fulop did. As a councilman, Fulop was exactly the reformist gadfly Solomon is.

Don't want to blow your mind or anything, but sometimes people actually NEED to drive, like an out of JC trip or, like me when I encountered this tunnel traffic shitshow, going to Home Depot for building supplies. And no, they could not be carried home on foot!

This is a species of sub-human called an "asshole", defined by a total lack of the social skill known as "The Golden Rule". Then do what they want when they want, without a bit of consideration for its effects on other people.

You can find them just about anywhere, but situations like on the road where they intrude into your activity, or being trapped like you were on a train, are typically where their attitude of "no one else is real and has wants and needs, except for me" truly shines.

Cell phones are merely the latest way for the Asshole to make his presence known, it's direct predecessor was the boombox used to share their shitty taste in music with the known universe. It's current iteration is the car with the absurdly high-powered audio system and windows down blaring their shitty music.

I'm trying to figure out why 2 separate articles in my google news feed on this from NPR and CBS show different photos of United Synagogue of Hoboken. WTF, do they know something? It's not like they sent someone to a convenient NJ shul, one was an aerial shot.

EDIT: now the New York Times posting has a picture of USH! WTF?

I don't buy this in the least. All these teachers, firemen and cops would not be investment bankers. A relative has 2 Ivy degrees, manages a couple of dozen people in private health care, doesn't make what a teacher of similar seniority would, and has nothing like the Bennies.

If you're getting flour on your pendants I would say they're too low! In my experience the ceiling of a kitchen gets grosser than anything else because of the rising grease from inadequate range venting.

IMO a ceiling fan fixture, under-cabinet lights, and perhaps a pendant over the sink is far superior to cans. Not least because the downward pointed cans don't shed light INTO the cabinets so you can see what's in there! I have a 2nd row of glass door 18" cabs over a row of 30", and the ceiling fan lights them up beautifully, as well as making the kitchen more comfortable in warm weather.