I am not caught up.
Pittsburgh
Homelessness
Hallie Lauer and Rebecca Spiess, “City Council launches new initiatives to combat homelessness in Pittsburgh,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, August 24, 2022, https://www.post-gazette.com/news/social-services/2022/08/23/pittsburgh-city-council-initiatives-combat-homelessness-shelter-transitional-housing-redevelopment-affordable/stories/202208230098
Infrastructure
Fig. 1. Intersection of Forbes Avenue and South Dallas Avenue, with surrounding intersections, screenshot from Google Maps, August 24, 2022, fair use.
Pittsburgh has a number of really screwy intersections and screwy intersections are always especially dangerous for bicyclists and pedestrians because motorists have too much to watch even before you add non-motor traffic to the mix. The one (figure 1) under discussion in Hannah Wyman’s article[1] is one of them.
I’m not sure what they mean by a “slip ramp”[2] but if you look at the map (figure 1) just to the east of Forbes Avenue and South Dallas Avenue there is this weird shortcut from Beechwood Boulevard to Forbes Avenue. The reality of this is that there’s hardly any room even to stop at that intersection with Forbes Avenue and Forbes Avenue is a pretty busy street. I certainly see the hazard there.[3]
The entire area is problematic from a traffic flow perspective. Beechwood Boulevard is here, not at its other end, relatively—only relatively—quiet, but Beacon Street hooks up with a main route through Schenley Park and thence, via Greenfield Road, to the other, much busier, end of, yes, Beechwood Boulevard and thus the Parkway East (Interstate 376). South Dallas Avenue connects with Penn Avenue, which is a main east-west thoroughfare through Pittsburgh and which itself hooks up with the Parkway East via a ramp from Ardmore Boulevard, which is also where U.S. Highway 30 breaks off from the Parkway, proceeding east. Then of course there’s Forbes Avenue itself. There’s a lot of fucking traffic here mostly on relatively narrow roads and a lot of it trying to get between Beacon Street and South Dallas Avenue.
The main commercial district of Squirrel Hill is to the west, along Forbes Avenue and Murray Avenue. On the way to all that other stuff, Beacon Street crosses Murray and so is also a main route to that commercial district. Frick Park is almost immediately to the east.
Squirrel Hill itself is what they call a “desirable” neighborhood. If money were no object and I were to remain in Pittsburgh, this neighborhood would certainly be one I might consider. (But if money were really no object, I’d probably be looking at Sewickley Heights, northwest of the city.)
Fig. 2. The area where I think there should be a traffic circle. It would occupy most of this space. Screenshot from Google Maps, August 24, 2022, fair use.
I think my solution for this would probably be a large traffic circle occupying most of the area shown in figure 2. The American Legion Memorial Gardens could, I presume, be relocated to the center of that circle, but one of an appropriate size would require taking some expensive private property through eminent domain and impinge on the cemeteries on the north side of Forbes. You’d have to move some graves. I don’t know how feasible all this would be.
Hannah Wyman, “Ed Gainey hears from residents on unsafe intersections by Fern Hollow Bridge,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, August 24, 2022, https://www.post-gazette.com/news/transportation/2022/08/23/ed-gainey-residents-unsafe-intersections-fern-hollow-bridge-listening-session-infrastructure-squirrel-hill-bike-pedestrian-paths/stories/202208230114
Gilead
Donald Trump
Coup attempt
There is a new blog post entitled, “It is now even more urgently orange jumpsuit time.”
Hannah Knowles, Josh Dawsey, and David Weigel, “Trump’s dominance in GOP comes into focus, worrying some in the party,” Washington Post, August 17, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/08/17/trump-cheney-wyoming-republicans/
Jordan Libowitz and Lauren White, “Secret Service held onto Pelosi threat until after insurrection,” Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, August 17, 2022, https://www.citizensforethics.org/reports-investigations/crew-investigations/secret-service-held-onto-pelosi-threat-until-after-insurrection/
Jordan Libowitz and Sara Wiatrak, “The Secret Service knew about Jan 6 threat. They dismissed it,” Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, August 17, 2022, https://www.citizensforethics.org/reports-investigations/crew-investigations/the-secret-service-knew-about-jan-6-threat-they-dismissed-it/
Molly Jong-Fast, “The People Who Can’t Stop Making Excuses for Trump,” Atlantic, August 18, 2022, https://newsletters.theatlantic.com/wait-what/62fd7788da4cea0020f4345e/trump-fbi-search-rand-paul-espionage-act/
Cat Zakrzewski, “Lawmakers demand data about online threats against law enforcement,” Washington Post, August 19, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/08/19/fbi-social-media-law-enforcement/
Chris McGreal, “US political violence is surging, but talk of a civil war is exaggerated – isn’t it?” Guardian, August 20, 2022, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/aug/20/us-political-violence-civil-war
Amy B. Wang and Tom Hamburger, “Sen. Graham gets temporary reprieve in testifying before Ga. grand jury,” Washington Post, August 21, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/08/21/lindsey-graham-trump-grand-jury-georgia/
Jon Swaine et al., “Files copied from voting systems were shared with Trump supporters, election deniers,” Washington Post, August 22, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2022/08/22/election-system-copied-files-trump/
Igor Derysh, “‘Lawyers are giggling’: Legal experts scratch their heads at Trump’s ‘very strange’ new DOJ lawsuit,” Salon, August 23, 2022, https://www.salon.com/2022/08/23/lawyers-are-giggling-legal-experts-scratch-their-heads-at-trumps-very-strange-new-doj/
Jennifer Rubin, “Trump’s risk of indictment for his document snatch just skyrocketed,” Washington Post, August 23, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/08/23/trump-documents-indictment-risk-skyrocket/
Asawin Suebsaeng and Adam Rawnsley, “Trump Tells His Lawyers: Get ‘My’ Top Secret Documents Back,” Rolling Stone, August 23, 2022, https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/trump-tells-lawyers-get-my-top-secrets-documents-back-1234580501/
- [1]Hannah Wyman, “Ed Gainey hears from residents on unsafe intersections by Fern Hollow Bridge,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, August 24, 2022, https://www.post-gazette.com/news/transportation/2022/08/23/ed-gainey-residents-unsafe-intersections-fern-hollow-bridge-listening-session-infrastructure-squirrel-hill-bike-pedestrian-paths/stories/202208230114↩
- [2]Hannah Wyman, “Ed Gainey hears from residents on unsafe intersections by Fern Hollow Bridge,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, August 24, 2022, https://www.post-gazette.com/news/transportation/2022/08/23/ed-gainey-residents-unsafe-intersections-fern-hollow-bridge-listening-session-infrastructure-squirrel-hill-bike-pedestrian-paths/stories/202208230114↩
- [3]Hannah Wyman, “Ed Gainey hears from residents on unsafe intersections by Fern Hollow Bridge,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, August 24, 2022, https://www.post-gazette.com/news/transportation/2022/08/23/ed-gainey-residents-unsafe-intersections-fern-hollow-bridge-listening-session-infrastructure-squirrel-hill-bike-pedestrian-paths/stories/202208230114↩