Good to know, thank you!

Thanks, this was very helpful! I know exactly where the clean out is, don’t have any backups, and I do have a snake of modest length. But it’s that time of year again — the time I worry about whether I should’ve gotten X insurance coverage 😂

The real question I guess is, since there’s nothing alive anywhere near the drain lines, I guess there’s no risk of roots (we have a handful of city planted trees on the sidewalk but nothing in the alley in back). Is there anything else that I should be reasonably concerned that drano or a snake can’t fix between my house and where the city takes over?

What in proposing is a little different. Since you basically said infrastructure doesn’t scale with construction, in proposing a tax on new construction that will be used to help fund more infrastructure. This could help solve that problem.

I figure there’s a bunch of “but what about xyz” pushbacks to this suggestion, so a carve out for affordable housing (so the same bill could also serve as part of a financial incentive to build more of it), and maybe a very few additional exceptions might be effective, but definitely applies to commercial and industrial spaces, who use the most electricity by far, and maybe anything that fits the all-too-easily thrown around “luxury” housing term.

Make it green because there’s no reason our tax dollars should be used to build coal plants. Solar & wind are the typical responses there, but probably also things like battery capacity, general electrical infrastructure, and charging stations. And creativity about placement can make a big difference from simply finding fallow land: Ranchers often lease their land out for solar farms, with the panels built high enough that cattle/etc can take shelter under them. Seems a nice 2-for-1. My rooftop will never be big enough for whole home power from solar, but could house a couple panels that contribute to a collective run by the city or my neighborhood and/or a solar water heating system, which is much smaller.

> As we know the surrounding counties are building building building, homes and stores, but no infrastructure. Every new housing development and strip shopping center add additional burden to the electric grid.

Seems like a good incentive to pass some sort of new construction tax that goes toward building new green power generation. Make exceptions like for affordable housing.

Yeah one problem with 5G is that the signal has lower radius compared to LTE. So unless you’re really close to a tower, you’ll often see slower speeds.

When you’re close though, 🔥

I’m glad wifi in jail seems to be better at least. Sounds like a win to me…

Amen.

There’s a statistically probable chance that, if I stay here long enough, I’ll get robbed at least once. But the chance of me getting straight up murdered (without being an agitator or involved in drugs/gangs) is much, much lower. That kid’s life is more valuable than the inconvenience to me of replacing some cards, maybe a phone, or $40 cash. Assuming I actually have cash on me.

Agreed. I’d rather lose my wallet and making take a punch to the face than have someone’s death on my conscience. If it comes down to it, sure I’ll defend myself, but I, personally, wouldn’t want to live with that decision if I can avoid it. Besides, SYG ups the stakes in a real situation where many of us say deadly force is justified: by whipping out that gun, I could also be a lot more likely to get shot myself. Am I as fast, accurate, and desperate to kill as the other guy?

This exactly. The limited routes only make sense for a sliver of the population, and the whole thing stinks of “well we wanted one, but it’s getting prohibitively expensive so we stopped”, a la Honolulu’s monorail, a travesty that began construction over a decade ago, and is now about to open up its first section, a 10 mile stretch of rail that stops about 8 miles outside the airport and doesn’t quite reach Honolulu proper, much less the tourist areas like Waikiki, making it almost completely useless.

Ardmore PA, right outside Philly, has Maido, a Japanese grocery. If you’re already heading that way, I highly recommend it. It’s right next to the train station too, so you could ride there if you wanted.

Not all their prices are great, but they have tons of Japanese goods and food that I miss a lot!

You mean like a 100¥ store?

Thanks, this was fascinating to read! I had always wondered why these cities disappeared and how it is we keep seeing that new cities were often literally built on top of older ones. This seems to explain that quite well.

I highly, highly recommend Tides of History podcast by Patrick Wyman. He has a long arc on the late Bronze Age, as well as a bunch of other looks into early historical states like Egypt. One interesting tidbit from the Bronze Age arc is the large number of advanced contemporary states in the Mediterranean / Near East world, of which Egypt was but one (but perhaps one of the most powerful and oldest).

Of course, there’s also China, who by end of the Mediterranean Bronze Age, was a series of massive, advanced states as well, and India, which I know less about.

I wouldn’t go so far as to call Egypt the greatest ancient civilization, but during its very long peak, it appears to have been pretty incredible. But again, comparing with other kingdoms and entities can be difficult as there’s a bit less understood on them.

High Grounds is my favorite Obi Wan themed coffee shop in Baltimore!

Pie time is hella fun! I’m not a massive pie fan personally but the coffee is spectacular and it’s right down the street :)

Ah, Dunkin, almost as good as RoFo and slightly better than Wawa! I’m surprised there aren’t more locations in Baltimore… /s

Shout out to Order & Chaos! Their coffee and food are great and the merch is hella fun, too.

I’m also a huge fan of High Grounds, Pie Time, and OneDo.

My thoughts exactly. I knew it existed somewhere but it’s nowhere I need to be, so I drive.

Maybe in 15-20 years we’ll have the red line 🤷🏻‍♂️ not holding my breath though because in 15-20 years we’ll probably also have self driving cars available as a subscription service for about the same price.

Exciting? Depends on where you are and how far you like to walk. My part of Highlandtown is mostly quiet ish considering it’s a ton of rowhomes. But down on Eastern or Fleet (sort of Canton) there’s a lot there and a lot that goes on. This neighborhood does a bunch of community events and has a thriving neighborhood association. There’s often stuff at the park on warm days, lots of sports, and as others said, so much food and drink. There are at least three breweries (Monument City, Mobtown, and Ministry) along the periphery of the neighborhood too. We even have groceries and a fairly large branch of the Enoch Pratt library!

I moved here a year ago, and I’ve never been happier to live somewhere in my entire life. A couple months ago, my block came together to add cafe lights down the street, and now it feels like Christmas every god damn day and I love it.

If you’re looking for dense urban rowhome living that’s walkable to Stuff, there are more lively neighborhoods, like Fed, Hampden, or Canton, but this one isn’t bad; for me it’s just the right mix of quiet rows abutting busy main streets. And it’s just out of the way enough that we don’t get a ton of frat boy parties in my area (unlike Canton and Fells).

Parking still sucks, unless you have a parking pad tho

With the current pay raise, it’s only $76k, which is about the same as early career tech or cleared gov contractor pay — translation: not that much for a professional working in a senior leadership role.

We are fortunate that Baltimore has a relatively low cost of living compared to the rest of this area, and that’s easily enough to support a family and own a home here, but not much more than that. I’m surprised anyone who can get elected wants to do more than 2 terms at that salary, actually, except… that pension! (For reference, Mosby makes about 135k, Scott makes just shy of 200k, and most members of congress make ~175k. Maryland legislature only makes 50k, but I imagine they may not be in session often enough to prevent most of them from working full time jobs elsewhere. (I honestly have no clue how busy city council work is though)

I’m not saying their new pension rule is good of course. But I definitely understand where they’re coming from with the new term limits rule (it’s still corrupt though).

OP, u/2468975, if you wanna start gathering signatures, I’d sign a petition. But maybe give them a choice with the legislation:

Either they restore 20-year pensions to police and firefighters, or they restore 12-year pension to the council. Maybe have the voters vote on both as separate measures!

Maybe there’s a reason we don’t sing those verses anymore. We also don’t count slaves as 3/5 of a person for the census anymore. Made mistakes, fixed some of them. I guess that’s progress.

Our flag was put at half mast for the death of the leader of a BUNCH of America’s closest allies, a leader who had stuck with us for 70 years. Given that 1812 was 210 years ago, and we’ve fought on the same side for well over a century now, I think we’ve gotten over the original enmity and just might be close friends.

It’s a lovely way to honor someone of that status and importance to our national goals, even if they’re not American.

Well let’s have a field day making it happen. We can’t let the closeted-or-not folks step in the way of progress without running them over a little.

Makes sense. And a lot of people like me like to at least pretend we are comparison shopping. Basically impossible to do on a smart speaker. It’s just not a good model.