Favorites April 1st 2022

No April fools jokes here, and they’ve become less popular generally, maybe the last few years have just been too much.

Alec Stapp @AlecStapp

This is what an unemployment rate of 2.1% means for workers in Nebraska:

Jobs report was also out today, unemployment down to 3.6% nationwide. We've definitely overshot our inflation target, but the high employment at least seems good.

Timothy B. Lee @binarybits

On the left is a map of where in San Francisco Waymo is testing its self-driving cars. On the right is a map of where people take the most Uber and Lyft rides. This explains a lot. fullstackeconomics.com/one-image-that…

In the Arizona trials, you can't take Waymo to the airport! All the best uses for taxis are still unavailable, and it's not gonna be economical till they are.

Steven Greenhouse @greenhousenyt

In my 25 years writing about labor, the unionization victory at the Amazon warehouse in Staten Island is by far the biggest, beating-the-odds David versus Goliath unionization win I've seen A fired Amazon worker took on Amazon's union busters & unionized a 5,000-worker warehouse

Steven Greenhouse @greenhousenyt

When Christian Smalls & other current & former Amazon workers began organizing Amazon in Staten Island last year, many said his chances of winning were infinitesimal. But after today's count, 1518 to 1154, a win for Smalls' union is inevitable—That's huge https://t.co/6VQJrYhuv6

He also speculates that Amazon hoped their super high turnover for warehouse workers (8 months on average) would prevent unionization. Unfortunately, Amazon warehouses probably aren't the highest leverage places for unions to organize.

southpaw @nycsouthpaw

"These reports suggest the forced relocations of Ukrainian civilians to Russia are systematic, pre-planned, and intended to be permanent," the US Ambassador to OSCE says. osce.usmission.gov/the-russian-fe…

Seems bad folks, presumably they'd be doing this to more people if they controlled more cities...

Donald Shoup @DonaldShoup

Explainer: Changing Parking Requirements in Toronto urbantoronto.ca/news/2022/03/e… via @Urban_Toronto

urbantoronto.caExplainer: Changing Parking Requirements in Toronto | UrbanTorontoHow many parking spaces need to be built in new developments in Toronto? The City has made changes to its parking requirements, no longer employing a formula to come up with a minimum number of regular spaces that developers would have to build, and is now letting the market determine it.

This is terrific! Toronto is removing any requirement for standard parking spaces. Apparently they finally noticed that they have a transit oriented city, and many residents didn't have any need for a parking spot bundled with their apartment.

Redwood Grove, Los Altos, September 2020