Chris Friend
@friendchristoph
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Current set of
@transitmatters
labs products:
Travel time, headway & dwell time stats (subway):
Recent ridership & service levels (all)
Tracking new trains in service (OL/RL/GL):
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Nantucket: we can’t have offshore wind turbines, they’ll ruin the natural splendor of the coast we’ve spent decades preserving
the natural splendor:
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I feel like I have to really squint to understand that the image on the right is the better one
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walking over the Longfellow during the past year has fully radicalized me from “flex posts are fine, probably” to “anything less than a concrete barrier is a crime against God”, I am now a bike lane zealot
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new all-time record for most slow zones on the
#MBTA
Red Line set yesterday.
it’s been 6 months and things have only gotten worse. does anyone care. could someone pretend this is a crisis
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really sad to dismantle a great idea and replace it with a very mediocre one just because you weren’t the one to come up with it
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the T is rebuilding 3 bus garages all next to rapid transit stations and not putting a single home on top of any of them. these could support thousands of homes, and the T can use their zoning exemption to do it. something for Healey to think about if she’s serious about housing
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I hadn’t seen this posted anywhere but
@SomervilleCity
just won a $4m US DOT grant to build 12 miles of protected bike lanes. Wow.
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If we implemented electrified EMUs on the Providence Line, one could easily live in Providence and commute to Boston in ~45 minutes (and vice versa). We really don't grasp how transformative frequent, electrified Regional Rail could be in this country.
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Congrats to the
@MBTA
for breaking the all-time (last 7 years) record for Red Line slow zones. Now clocking in at over 30 minutes
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the T is hiring bus operators at an $33k annual salary for a job that can happen anywhere at any time in the Boston area
no wonder they’re down 300 operators and cutting (probably, tbd) bus service
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tomorrow is may 13th. the high will be 79. it is porchfest. and there is not a single street-level outdoor dining patio open in Davis Sq. such an unforced error by the City of Somerville
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these articles have to go a bit deeper & have better headlines.
MassDOT, not the T, is closing the Union Sq branch
MassDOT planned the staging of this project so the bridge will always be open to cars, but the transit line is closed. Is that fair?
That new Green Line branch to Union Square? The T is closing it for 42 days this summer.
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Red Line trains should arrive every 8 minutes or so but they actually arrive randomly every 3 to 15 minutes
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maybe we could build more offshore wind if the projects didn’t have to pay $34m in ransom money to some of the wealthiest people on the planet
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listening to the Big Dig podcast all I can think about is how many problems in Boston transportation are caused by treating Storrow Drive as a highway and not a boulevard
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combined with moving from part time to full time, this represents an 80% pay bump for new MBTA bus operators. finally believe the T is going to be able to dig itself out of its bus operator hole. great job by everyone involved.
HUGE operator pay increase news at the MBTA coming out this morning
$30+/hr for NEW operators plus significant sign-on bonuses and benefits!
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Congratulations to the
#MBTA
Red Line on a new all time record of 83 minutes of slow zones, about 15 minutes worse than it was when the systemwide slow order was issued a month ago
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the MBTA is cutting weekday Red/Orange/Blue Line service to run at Saturday levels, starting this Monday. Looks like about a 25-35% service cut across all three lines. What a disaster
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Each line is the article is more incredible than the last one
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with democrats like this who needs republicans
The Senate budget proposal calls for making community college free for all students and eliminating fares for all bus rides provided by regional transit authorities. The plan also provides money for the RTAs to launch service between their service areas.
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yet again,
@MassDOT
forces the T to make the Blue Line free to mitigate their highway project, depriving the
#MBTA
of much needed revenue
The Sumner Tunnel will be closed for one month this summer to allow MassDOT to complete a major overhaul of the critical transportation connection to East Boston that began last year — and brought with it major traffic headaches for Greater Boston.
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So we finally have the proximate cause of the
#MBTA
slow zone crisis: nobody bothered to follow up on track defects identified by geometric testing for 6+ months
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Just a reminder that as of last year there was someone who owed $90,000 in Mass EZPass tolls but no one ever ever suggests prosecuting them
The MBTA board puts an end to the two-year hiatus on fare enforcement at the transit authority, but board members are skeptical the new “non-punitive” approach will work. New, lower fines are now in place, but there is no punishment for not paying them.
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40 minutes of slow zones on the
#MBTA
Red Line is a crisis. Would be great if the T thought so
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the community path crossings should have stop signs for cars, not people
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biggest lesson from the Sumner shutdown so far is that the MBTA has way too much parking
🚗Parking Update:
Wonderland Garage 29% full
Salem Garage 37% full
Beverly Garage 46% full
Newburyport Lot 27% full
Orient Heights Lot 76% full
Beachmont Lot 66% full
Lynn Ferry Lot 51% full
Swampscott Lot is full. Park at Swampscott HS with a free shuttle to the Station
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despite months of shutdowns, diversions, and other opportunities for maintenance, the
#MBTA
Red Line is as slow today as it was on May 1st
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just a reminder that if anyone at today’s MBTA board meeting says ridership has plateaued but doesn’t mention that they’ve cut service on the two highest ridership lines by 40%, you do not have to take them seriously
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another disastrous day on the
#MBTA
Red Line—one of every 5 trips being dropped (only running 16 trains instead of 20), and the trains they are running are coming at random intervals
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wait, the Governor lives less than a 5 min walk from Porter and the plan for her big MBTA Red Line photo op is ride it through a pair of downtown stops?
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this is just so lame. there’s no actual plan or money or desire from the T to electrify CR. the T is committed to kicking the can down the road on CR electrification for as long as possible
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I hadn’t really thought about it like this but it’s almost certainly true—slowest speeds, least service in the last 7 years and almost certainly this century
@friendchristoph
As far as I can tell, this is the worst week in modern history for Red Line Trips.
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in late Feb, the
@MBTA
did a weekend of shuttling on the Red Line from Alewife to Kendall to address a slow zone south of Harvard.
Harvard to Central is now a minute slower than it was when this work was announced
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in contrast, the
@MBTA
’s highest post-Covid subway ridership day was on June 16 2022, the last Thursday before they cut service by over 20%
Since mid-June ‘22
> NYC subway ridership is up ~12%
> MBTA subway ridership is down ~10%
COVID Era Ridership update: Yesterday's subway ridership of 3,946,310 was the highest single-day total since March 12, 2020.
So close to 4 million paid trips.
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tired: an outdoor, open air market to support restaurants & other businesses in a public square
wired: a fucking parking lot
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bus operator hiring.
Portland, ME: starts at full time, $21.53/hr
Boston, MA: starts at 30hrs/week, $21.13/hr
why can’t the MBTA hire more bus operators???
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last week, the MBTA Red Line ran less than half of pre-Covid service. which makes it a pain to use in the core but makes branch headways regularly 20 min, at which point most people say why bother
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it's not just that the T trains are slow. the slow zones are resulting in even further degraded service levels, with both the Red and Orange lines operating at less than 60% of pre-Covid levels on weekdays
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I think it says something pretty damning about
#MBTA
Green Line operations that after a lot of pain for riders & good work to improve track conditions the net impact to travel times was…nothing
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small smile on my face as we rip from Kendall to Central today
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corporate needs you to find the difference between these two pictures
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just one more shutdown bro. i promise bro just one more shutdown and it’ll fix everything bro. bro, just one more shutdown. one more shutdown and we can fix this whole problem bro. bro c’mon just give me one more shutdown I promise bro. bro bro just one more shutdown to
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Good news: if you can run an 8 minute mile, you can now beat the Red Line from South Station to MGH
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closed the Orange Line for a month and they still couldn’t fix all the slow zones
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now that the T will be getting just under $500m from the latest stimulus, I’m sure those service cuts (savings—> about $15m for FY21) will be reversed any day now
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based on latest available data, it is faster to take the 1 bus to go from Central to Harvard than it is to take the Red Line (h/t
@DevinInMA
for the idea)
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underrated in zoning conversations is that Boston has (at least) two inner core residential neighborhoods that have been frozen in amber for 40+ years
This is Greater Boston’s ‘Achilles heel.’ We’re landlocked on one side and essentially “zoning locked” by large lot, R1 zoning on all other sides, stunting our ability to produce the housing our region needs.
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no delays here 😎
woah — reports that an FAA outage is causing flight problems nationwide
just seeing a dozen delays out of Logan in Boston early this morning per flight aware, but that could change based off these reports
listen to
@GBHNews
for the latest
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this site, right next to the Davis Square headhouse, should be an enormous residential tower with a ground floor grocery store. instead it will be a single story office (?) building, because Somerville’s zoning is designed to exacerbate the regional housing crisis
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Eng is correct but the longer you spend trying to improve service the stickier mode shift becomes.
How many Red Line riders have dealt with half service and far longer commutes for the last 2+ years and finally gave up and bought a car, etc
MBTA Gen. Manager Phillip Eng says ridership will bounce back as service improves, but his budget team thinks growth will be fairly modest.
More from
@BruceMohl
.
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hello. this tweet was deleted because it was wrong, because I read through the original doc too quickly. tl;dr a lot of the MBTA capital program on the NEC is still outsourced to Amtrak. I regret the error & any harm caused
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I think is finally now safe to say the Orange Line is faster than it was pre-shutdown
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the problem here is that in the time it took to eliminate 66 speed restrictions, 42 new speed restrictions were added
MBTA General Manager Phillip Eng says 66 slow zones have been eliminated, leaving 204 to address. At an MBTA board meeting, he offered no timetable for completion and no explanation for the cause.
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the T could lose up to $10m this summer because MassDOT isn’t planning to reimburse them for Sumner Tunnel mitigation
the MBTA board has an fiscal obligation to reject the mitigation plan unless full reimbursement from MassDOT is guaranteed
so, MassDOT is trying to siphon millions from the MBTA to mitigate their highway tunnel restoration project
somehow paying the T for making the Blue Line free is still being “debated internally” (???)
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This is just the cost of the MBTA running 24 hour service—sometimes you have to do track inspections during the day
Orange Line: Trains may travel at reduced speeds or stand by at stations while maintenance personnel conduct track inspections.
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How is this “accelerated” when trains to Haverhill will be shut for a year? How does a bridge of this size require a year long shutdown?
We're using accelerated bridge construction to rebuild
@mbta_cr
South Elm Bridge. Located between Bradford & Haverhill stations, we're replacing the bridge from 1906 with a modern single span for safer, more resilient & reliable service.
#BuildingABetterT
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A trip to downtown Boston from Milton on transit takes the same amount of time as a trip from Quincy Adams, Newton Highlands, or Brighton
Milton Planning Board tries to resolve the town’s dispute with the state over MBTA Communities Act while honoring town vote against initial multi-family zoning plan. Most on board feel Milton should not have been classified as a rapid transit community.
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I am somehow amazed that this is allowed but the Silver Line still cannot use the Seaport ramp specifically built for the Silver Line
Massachusetts to allow buses to drive on highway shoulder
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but the thing that sticks out to me most is this: the MBTA knew at the end of the shutdown it hadn’t addressed all of the slow zones and just went ahead and said they did anyway
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look, at least there’s no event in Somerville today, and no way this work could have been done on the 12th
GLX Reminder: Today - May 11 (From start to end of service)
Magoun Square station will be bypassed, in both directions, to allow for work on an accessibility ramp at the station.
Riders can use Bus Route 80 & 88 for alternate service. An accessible van will be available.
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so, MassDOT is trying to siphon millions from the MBTA to mitigate their highway tunnel restoration project
somehow paying the T for making the Blue Line free is still being “debated internally” (???)
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hi. a few years ago I got interested in a Red Line slow zone over the Longfellow Bridge. today our analysis on MBTA rapid transit slow zones was featured in a front page Globe article. I am beaming. great work from
@elizabethrkoh
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We are over a year into Eng’s tenure and I have seen no plans or timeline on when the T will be running pre-Covid service, much less the service increases (3 min Red, 4 min Orange, Bus NR) that had been promised for 2025
Effective April 7, new spring schedules will take effect for bus and Red, Blue, and Green lines. There are no service changes to Orange Line, Mattapan Line, or The RIDE.
⛴️Ferry service changes will take effect in April and May.
For more details, visit:
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the Blue Line can carry more people between Eastie and downtown in 30 minutes than the Ferry can for the entire day
This is Brian McDonald. He’s captain of the ferry I just took to Eastie and is pretty stoked to be offering the service to
@MBTA
riders while the Blue Line is shut down
Everyone I talked to wants it permanent. Hear more in the next
#SpillTheT
on
@GBHNews
w
@BonjourParis_
& me!
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this is a clever turn of phrase that relies on the fact that most people (including many reporters today) don’t understand that Commonwealth support for the T budget is $187m, so doubling that represents a roughly 8.5% increase in the T’s operating budget
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Exciting day in steps towards
#MBTA
Regional Rail—all day, all week 30 min service on Fairmount and $60m in funding for future service enhancements & electrification
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MassDOT should ground McGrath. Would be great if they didn’t create another highway when they did it
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I emailed a MA state congressperson about MBTA commuter rail electrification. The response indicates that MBTA is holding out for battery electric trains. 😩
@transitmatters
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me (whispering): regional rail, regional rail
you (slightly louder): Regional Rail, Regional Rail
everybody (pounding tables): Regional Rail! Regional Rail!
Our Capital Investment Plan (CIP) outlines our investments in planning, construction & capital maintenance for our transit network for the next 5 years.
Join us tonight, March 31, at 6pm for a virtual public meeting to learn about the CIP & share input:
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> bridge replacement project over the Orange Line requires two 9 day shutdowns for the trains
> meanwhile, four travel lanes for cars will be maintained at all times
seems fair
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Union Sq to be closed for over a month for a MassDOT bridge project. No shuttle service to Lechmere and alternate bus routes see service cuts this summer. Wonder how much of that time McGrath will be closed to cars
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Newton is a quarter as dense as Somerville with arguably better transit.
the problem here isn’t hard, it doesn’t require investment or decking the Pike or hand wringing about displacement (med. income: $137k). you just need to upzone. everything else is a distraction
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by the end of the year—
Somerville will have 5 light rail stops & 2 heavy rail stops, and a density of 19,760/sq mile
Chelsea will have 0 light rail & 0 heavy rail stops, and a density of 18,450/sq mile
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some extremely strong runs on Ashmont branch today. one operator did NB in 7m19s, which as best I can tell is one of the best runs since May ‘20 (when no one was riding). impressive stuff
it’s great they were able to remove all the speed restrictions and incorporate inspections into the diversion calendar.
hopefully this changes over the coming week, but I don’t love how a trip from Ashmont to JFK is now over a minute slower than it was 5 years ago.
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boy, do I have a solution for you!
(it’s running more trains in the middle of the day)
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it’s bad that Massachusetts forced the MBTA to take on $1.5bn in debt to mitigate the Big Dig. what’s worse is that
@MassDOT
still forces the T to pay for mitigation for its highway projects!
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finally
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have really mixed feelings on this. on one hand, automated enforcement is key for keeping bus stops & lanes clear. on the other, Somerville just de facto legalized bus stops as 3 min loading zones
Meet the ‘SafetyStick,’ Somerville’s new robotic approach to doling out parking tickets
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the T removed 8 speed restrictions overnight (5 RL / 2 OL / 1 BL). most significant one at first glance looks like this 3 min one from Kendall to Central
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I assume the signs are designed this way so you can’t publicly shame the T for building a new multibillion dollar light rail extension and then running 13 min headways on it
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hey
@MBTA
shuttling shouldn’t result in people paying double fares for a single trip
either the operating Red Line stations or the transfer stations should be free
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I think a problem here is that the T spent a little too much time patting themselves on the back for the OL shutdown and maybe not enough time saying the first week back would have 15 min headways & more than doubling of travel time north of North Station
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GLX was shutdown for a month, and the top scheduled activity was fixing this slow zone. 45 days after trains returned to service, the slow zone is still there, and there’s been no word from the MBTA on when it will be resolved
Also, the 10 mph speed restriction along the old Lechmere viaduct is still in place.
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Just a brief reminder that these service cuts have nothing to do with the MBTA’s infrastructure and are entirely due to the Governor transferring >$500m from the operating budget to capital & not hiring enough heavy rail dispatchers/operators
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I wanted to make it to today’s
#MBTA
board meeting but can’t—so here’s my comment asking the T board to not let MassDOT get away with siphoning away millions of $ from the T for bridge & highway projects
Today's MBTA Board of Directors meeting will be held in person at 10 AM. The public is invited to join:
• In person: State Transportation Building, 10 Park Plaza, 2nd Floor, Boston
• Livestream:
• Zoom:
ℹ️
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.
@311Somerville
this crossing at Ball Sq is dangerously mistimed—pedestrian countdown is still at 1s/2s when the light turns green
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one reason we’ll never get ourselves out of the housing crisis is that journalists like
@andrewnbrinker
keep (incorrectly & without evidence) tying new development to higher rents
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