An asylum for the preservation of illusion.

So Would That be a Pollock-Projection?

A Google Alert recently brought to my attention the existence of the blog http://www.chicagoist.com/. I'm not quite sure what it was, but something about the tone--the pretentious folksiness of it--made me smell a carpet-bagger. And as it turns out, I was right! The site is run by the New York company Gothamist LLC who, in their desire to add all trendy cities to their repertoire, seem have located Toronto a wee bit north of Montréal.

High Speed Rail: Slowly Getting There

Here's an unfortunately not-too-detailed look at the technology behind the "high-speed rail" being developed in Michigan and Illinois (former Amtrak president David Gunn, among others have argued that the 110mph trains should be called "higher-speed" rather than diluting the term "high-speed," which in Europe only applies to trains traveling faster than 250kph, or about 155mph.)

Still, the system appears to be working on the test track in Michigan, which is impressive in itself, and it is cheap enough that it can be funded by states without a strong Federal commitment (which is not going to come in the near future). David Gunn has previously said that the way to rebuild the national railroad network is in small improvements in service and reliability: new sidings and flyovers, better signaling, new passenger carriages, and a better attitude from the freight railroads, rather than glitzy and expensive technological showcases like Acela. The excellent organization, Midwest High Speed Rail Association has a vision of what a Chicago-centered 110mph "higher speed" rail network built on those principles would look like.

Who Are the Rats Now?

The Nation has an analysis of the strike in New York which is very harsh (somewhat surprisingly given their neo-liberal ideological bent) towards the MTA board and Governor Pataki. While mercifully holding their ideological punches against the Union's attempt to save the pension, they paint a picture of a corrupt, politically motivated board. A board which acts as a sock puppet for the Governor, wasting billions of dollars to reward cronies with lucrative contracts, running up huge deficits to pay for the largess, manipulating financial records to deceive the public, and flirting with the mob.