This was my first day back in NY since returning to US last month after 4.5 months in Germany. When I was in NY over summer, you could sense things opening up. But now, the contrast with Germany seems so, so stark, especially as regards the basic fact of people going to work. 1/3
In Germany, even during their rough Delta surge of Nov and Dec, many people were still going to work, going downtown. The regional trains from the suburbs were still heavily used; you had to search for a seat. The train stations were bustling--in Berlin, in Essen, in Cottbus. 2/3
In NY, my goodness. Penn Station and shiny new Moynihan Hall are ghostly. There are no commuter crowds. Newsstands are closed. The bar at Moynihan closes at 8 (in NY!). There are so many visible people in distress bc there are so few others around. Public transit needs people.3/3
Clearer syntax: the people in distress are so visible because there are so few other people around them.
And an addendum with crucial context: 1) to those who say it's the fault of NY vaxx passport, well, Germany has an even stricter one 2) to those who say it's because of our low vaxx rates, well, they are barely any higher in Germany.
A lot of good numbers in this recent piece, including: "Subway ridership, which had been nearing 60 percent of prepandemic levels, has dropped to below 50 percent. The commuter railroads sank to less than 40 percent of their prepandemic loads." nytimes.com/2022/01/21/nyr…
What a bar that closes at 8 in NY looks like:

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More from @AlecMacGillis

Jan 28
The rise of Amazon and the rest of Big Tech used to be yoked to the Democrats. In the pandemic era, their fortunes have diverged. My latest, to mark the occasion of the paperback release of FULFILLMENT: washingtonpost.com/outlook/2022/0…
"The Democratic Party was becoming the Amazon coalition: highly educated professionals (mostly white) relying on home deliveries, and working-class people (mostly not white) getting stuff to them...There's undeniable awkwardness in the former keeping safe by relying on latter."
Read 4 tweets
Jan 1
Philadelphia ended 2021 with 562 homicides, 62 above its all-time high, from 1990, when it had the same size population as it does now.

Among other cities setting records in 2021: Louisville (188), Columbus (201), Indianapolis (271), and Portland (90).
I was remiss in not including another record-breaker: Jackson, Miss. It had 152 homicides, in a city of only 166,000. That's up from the previous record of 130, set last year. clarionledger.com/story/news/202…
Read 4 tweets
Dec 28, 2021
Three small moments of humanity observed while in transit in past day at a time sorely lacking in such:
1) A 40ish Texan, ex-Army, chatting up the Dutch couple across aisle of a NE Corridor Amtrak. "This is my first time riding a train in America. We don't have trains in Texas."
2) The young woman behind counter of a deli near Penn Station in NY buying large cookies from the deli counter to give to her two co-workers as a holiday gesture during a quiet moment before shift change. They are startled and visibly moved by her generosity.
3) The tow-truck driver in upstate NY, who did 10 years in a Puerto Rican prison for drug dealing etc. and is delighted to now own his own business, spending a 50-minute drive cheering up a guy with serious car troubles.
Read 4 tweets
Dec 23, 2021
President: 79
Possible 2024 GOP nominee: 75
Speaker of House: 81
House Majority Leader: 82
House Whip: 81
Supreme Court Justice: 83
Most influential Covid authority: 80
"Old men are dangerous: it doesn't matter to them what is going to happen to the world." --George Bernard Shaw
And let's not overlook:

Senate Minority Leader: 79

(h/t @TweetBenMax)
Read 6 tweets
Nov 2, 2021
Some context for the debate over why education became such a big issue in #VAgov: school closures in the state were among the most extended in the country, partly because the state gov't offered far less guidance than others (e.g. WV & OH) that set clear thresholds for reopening.
As a result of the state offering so little guidance, districts were left to own devices and many defaulted toward extreme caution, even though Virginia was blessedly less affected by virus than many other states. So there were lots of headlines like this: washingtonpost.com/local/educatio…
The NoVa disenrollment numbers in this @zachdcarter piece are eye-opening. You didn't necessarily need to rely on polling to detect the rising frustration and anger among parents. theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…
Read 4 tweets
Oct 31, 2021
Sixty years ago yesterday, W. Germany signed the agreement with Turkey for 900K "guest workers." There's an amazing show of 1990 photos of the Turkish-German community (now 2.5 million strong), by Ergun Çağatay, in Essen. It's ending today, but will be in Hamburg and Berlin soon. Image
A couple more: Image
Image
Read 4 tweets

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