@candiedwishkey Oh! Oh! Go with @united! They'll drag you all over the United States with missed connections and compound delays like they did for me! It's the closest thing to a 21st century Odyssey money can buy!
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Corbin A. Smith
1.4K posts
Corbin A. Smith
@CAS_CPA
Charlotte NC-based CPA/CITP. I follow gaming, internal audit, finance, urbanism, and geopolitics. Opinions are my own.
Charlotte, NC Katılım Ağustos 2017
399 Takip Edilen178 Takipçiler
I think I’m flying next year 😔
Gluten Morgan 🦫🌐@candiedwishkey
If you want to replicate the feeling of going on your own personal 10 year odyssey home, ride Amtrak :^)
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@SteveHiltonx This is one of the most frustrating parts about the GOP.
"Democrats can't build it right, so we just won't build at all."
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SHOCKING: The French team originally tasked with building High-Speed Rail left to go to North Africa, because it was “less politically dysfunctional” than California.
We’re not France. We’re not Spain. We're a car culture. Time to scrap this ideological "bullet train" fantasy!
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@KevinTartis @Noahpinion Without getting into the debate over privatization, I think it would at least put things on an even playing field. My point is just that in the U.S. such a thing did not exist and it put rail at an enormous artificial disadvantage.
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I'd argue the federal government involvement makes it much more expensive for air travel.
Yes, nearly half of all US states divert state fuel taxes and road fees to expenses completely unrelated to roads. Mismanagement, however, could privatize vehicle infrastructure. Before 1900, 98% of turnpikes, paved highways and bridges were built by the private sector. Privatize it.
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The notion that trains are some outmoded, obsolete type of transportation is just nuts. Trains will always have a geometrical advantage over cars in dense areas, even with self-driving cars.
Jeremy Horpedahl 🥚📉@jmhorp
The richest country on Earth has moved beyond 19th century transportation
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@KevinTartis @Noahpinion I'm not sure what point you hoped to make here, but the issue is very simple. The United States subsidizes infrastructure for car and air travel, and doesn't with rail.
Acting like rail just lost in the market is false. The government picked winners and losers.
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@CAS_CPA @Noahpinion If you subsidize hot air balloons enough, people will use them to commute.
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@KevinTartis @Noahpinion Politicians do not subsidize them to the scale that they subsidize roads and air travel. In both cases operators need only bring the vehicles, in the U.S. with trains, they need to bring the infrastructure too.
I don't see how you compete under those conditions.
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@Noahpinion Long-distance passenger trains are market-obsolete. They don't exist because consumers demand them; they exist because politicians subsidize them
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Two things need to happen at this point.
1. The United States needs to conduct a thorough and immediate investigation into the circumstances of his death.
2. @NikkiHaley needs to do everything possible to succeed him in the Senate.
OSINTtechnical@Osinttechnical
Senator Lindsey Graham died at his home in DC tonight. He had just returned from his 10th trip to Ukraine, where he met directly with senior leadership on streamlining deals to accelerate air defense production to protect the Ukrainian people.
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@FinTechInnov8r We do. Ride the Greenway and you will see them.
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Corbin A. Smith retweetledi
"We have not had a free market in American housing or transportation for at least seventy years. What we have had, instead, is the most ambitious land-use experiment in human history: a continent-scale effort to make one specific lifestyle mandatory."
Matthew Yglesias@mattyglesias
The main source of economic dysfunction for young people is housing where the problem isn’t free markets but their absence. Still this only works as a defense of “capitalism” if capitalism’s advocates actually fix it — and fast. slowboring.com/p/to-save-capi…
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I normally do not post on vacation, but after some deliberation I thought I would share how I saw that Japan is our greatest ally.
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It would be extremely foolish for the GOP to follow Trump into this particular hole. Housing affordability is the issue in America today.
FactPost@factpostnews
Trump: I don't want to drive housing prices down. I want to drive housing prices up
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Corbin A. Smith retweetledi
Compare driving cars to living in the ghetto.
A large majority of Americans enthusiastically drive but believe that US cities are incredibly dangerous, high-crime, "no-go zones".
But in real terms, your odds of dying in a car wreck are far, far higher than the average ghetto resident's odds of dying by homicide are. This assumes (correctly) that the average ghetto resident avoids drugs, prostitutes, gangs, and public displays of wealth.
Statistically, you'd literally be "safer" to move to Southside Syracuse or even rough parts of Chicago and Philly to live a zero-driving, no-car lifestyle than you'd be living in a zero-crime, automobile-intensive suburban environment.
This is, of course, a serious narrative violation for a lot of Americans. Many are irritated at the very idea that what I am saying here might really be plausible, or will even (erroneously) deny it -- but a pretty cursory examination of the facts quickly confirms that it is true.
It proves that our ideas of "safety" are far more social-emotional than objective. Making gestures about what is and is not "safe" are more than anything ways of projecting one's identity -- they are not straightforward and unbiased assessments of actual safety.
VB Knives@Empty_America
Speeding and Swimming Pools are the two mysterious exceptions to our culture of safteyism. They both subject your family to GREATLY increased risk of tragic death. But speaking of this is "weird." While we condemn others for taking far less signficant risks in other areas.
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@The_Iron_Van @CLTdevelopment Agreed - which is why I find it odd that people seem to think that a public transportation system has that responsibility.
It's there to address congestion.
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@CAS_CPA @CLTdevelopment You are correct in 2025 there was 81 traffic deaths.
How many murders in the city in 2025?
96.
I don't think trains will help with bad policy. There should be no such thing as a 17 time repeat offender.
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Siemens S700 light rail vehicles – up to 65 mph
Average Commuter Rail Train – up to 79 mph
BUILD RAIL TO THE SUBURBS!
𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐨𝐭𝐭𝐞 𝐓𝐫𝐚𝐟𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐆𝐮𝐲@Clt_TrafficGuy
🏃If you're a runner, it would take a six minute mile to go as fast as this traffic on I-85 Sb headed toward Gaston...that's right 10 mph. Somehow it seems slower in a car!
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@The_Iron_Van @CLTdevelopment I ride that train. Trust me. I'm aware. I'm also aware that if the same guy for the same reason shot her at a Quiktrip or ran her over with an Altima, you would not know or care who she was. Meanwhile, there were 81 traffic deaths in Charlotte that same year.
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@CAS_CPA @CLTdevelopment You know one of the worst murders in the country took place on your light rail?
Ukrainian refugees are safer in Ukraine than in your city.
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@The_Iron_Van @CLTdevelopment Because as we all know, criminals cannot drive.
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@CLTdevelopment That way stabbers and murderers can get to your house easier!
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@CedarPosts I mean, it looks to me that CMPD is just putting in the work to make Charlotte safer. I'm happy to see it.
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This has become just comical
CMPD News@CMPD
This past weekend was another strong example of proactive enforcement, community protection and coordinated crime‑reduction efforts with significant results from two major initiatives: Queen City Safe and Center City Weekend High‑Visibility Enforcement. Our North Tryon and Central Divisions, along with our Alcohol Beverage Control Unit, Crime Reduction Units, DWI Task Force, Motors Unit, K9 Unit, Juvenile Accountability and Diversion Empowerment Team, Entertainment District Unit and Special Investigation Bureau partnered with Alcohol Law Enforcement, Mecklenburg County ABC, the Department of Juvenile Justice and the North Carolina State Highway Patrol to provide a large-scale citywide crack down on criminal activity, illegal substances and juvenile crime. Collectively, these efforts led to: · More than 174 traffic stops · 52 arrests - including 23 juveniles · Over 85 citations - including 13 parents cited for their juvenile's criminal activity · 538 grams of suspected illegal narcotics seized · 11 illegal firearms seized Officers also dismantled illegal gambling machines, recovered stolen vehicles and dispersed a large-scale teen-takeover of more than 200 juveniles at Romare Bearden Park. Both Queen City Safe and the Center City Weekend High-Visibility Enforcement operation highlight CMPD’s continued focus on reducing violent crime and strengthening partnerships with state and local agencies. Click the link in bio to read the full release 🔗 @NCPublicSafety @MeckABC @NCSHP
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@candiedwishkey @CLTAirport I was annoyed at a four hour Amtrak delay not long ago.
I didn't know how good I had it.
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@CLTAirport why are you understaffed to where it is affecting operations? Thank Christ I don’t have a connecting flight
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It’s not just Charlotte’s public transit that is run shoddily, the airport sucks ass too! Love flying into a major hub just to be stuck waiting for the jetway. Is everyone at a high level just a weapons-grade dumbass?
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Corbin A. Smith retweetledi
High land values signaling more density is the EXACT thing YIMBYs fucking talking about. This is basic urban economics.
YIMBYs harp about zoning because we shouldn't need urban planners and politicians lagging price signals by 2 decades!! Just let markets work!
Mike Fellman@MikeFellman
In fact, high cost building modes necessary to produce dense housing means that high density is only viable if prices are already "unaffordable." If land prices are high, zoning should permit high density. It's an engineering solution to allow more people to live in a place where price signals already indicate high desirability. This increases welfare, but it's a separate issue from the affordability arguments we constantly get from YIMBYs
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Corbin A. Smith retweetledi
$965 a month to own the average new car and nobody blinks. a transit agency raises the fare a quarter and it's a crisis hearing with angry public comment. we audit the bus to the penny and hand the car a blank check. interesting which one we call subsidized
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Corbin A. Smith retweetledi
The Matthews attorney says in a memo that @SenatorSawyer draft amendment to require Charlotte, Matthews and other governments to repay the DOT for money spent designing I-77 tolls is "unlawful." The memo comes as Monroe looks to support I-77 again, and it's on CRTPO agenda Wed.
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We're firmly in improvement territory. That guy threatening another passenger on the blue line with a knife? CMPD identified him, obtained a warrant, and now has him in custody. Charlotte is taking security on public transportation seriously.
CMPD News@CMPD
After officers were made aware of a video circulating online showing a heated exchange on the light rail, they immediately began an investigation. No 9‑1‑1 calls were made during the incident. They reviewed available video footage on social media as well as security footage obtained from @CATSRideTransit and were able to positively identify the suspect and obtain warrants for his arrest. On June 11, at approximately 10 p.m., a CMPD officer working off-duty security on the CATS Blue Line located the suspect on a Blue Line platform. Derek Lamont Hutchinson, 36, was apprehended with assistance from Central Division officers. A knife was seized during the arrest. Hutchinson was transferred to the custody of the Mecklenburg County Sheriff’s Office and is charged with the following: · Going Armed to the Terror of the People · Carrying a Concealed Weapon · Disorderly Conduct · Felony Possession of a Schedule I Controlled Substance · Possession of Marijuana · City/Town Violation Hutchinson is currently being held under a $40,000 secured bond. See full release here: charlottenc.gov/cmpd/News-Info…
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