Either date works for me. Would much prefer somewhere close to Metro but can adjust if needed. Which is to say, I'll most likely show up no matter what so y'all make a plan and I'll mindlessly follow it.
Either date is good for me, too. I think previous suggestions include G'town Waterfront Park, Biergarten Haus (not very Metro friendly), and Marvin's rooftop.
Also, Stranded? I refrained from calling you the Lubbocks. Please admire my restraint.
Ooh, I'll be in DC the night of April 20 (for Science! appropriately) although it's with work people so I might be expected to socialize with them.
Ditch the work people and come hang with your imaginary internet friends!
3: Restraint admired and much appreciated.
We're in for either date and flexible re: activity and location, but we would prefer something that starts earlier than, say, dinner.
hm... prefer opportunity to bring kids, but the latter date works much better. I'm trying to bring a project at work to completion and might have to work the wkd of the 20th.
We will also be in DC on the 20th, for family visiting purposes though, so not sure if we could make it. But we were stranded in Lubbock too, for a while. So it might be interesting to compare notes.
8: Definitely, Molly. Feel free to email even if the larger meetup doesn't happen on the 20th. We're always up for a quick cup of coffee or a drink or something.
Yay dedicated thread! Either date works for me.
4: Can you use google glass to hang out with us?
Semi off-topic, but DCish: so, Iberian Fury and I will be in town from this Thursday morning until Sunday afternoon. The department still hasn't given us a schedule for the visit, or even told us where we're staying. One thing we want to do while we're here is check out possible neighborhoods--where might one live in DC, if one were commuting to UMD College Park? (Getting a sense of how bad that commute is is one of our goals for the visit.)
For my part, I'm about to look over DC tech Meetups to see if there's anything I could check out that might give me a sense of the tech ecosystem in the city, but if anyone here has suggestions for other ways to answer that question, please do email me at the link. (I'd love to meet with people, too, but again I have no idea if they're scheduling stuff for me the way Georgia did, or I'll just be on my own for large blocks of time.)
And yes, obviously I should have asked this earlier, but I kept thinking they must surely be about to send us a schedule.
where might one live in DC, if one were commuting to UMD College Park? (Getting a sense of how bad that commute is is one of our goals for the visit.)
College Park is on the Green Line, which also goes through many of the neighborhoods in DC where you would be likely to live (U Street, Columbia Heights, Shaw, etc.), so not horribly inconvenient in that sense. The university is actually not particularly close to the College Park metro stop, though, and you have to take a shuttle to get there, so it would still not be a great commute. Actual DC people would be able to give you more details on all of this, of course, but I suspect they're all asleep right now.
11: I don't have much to say about the commute to CP or the tech environment, but we'd be happy to meet for breakfast in the U-Street area on Sunday, if you guys are free. Busboys and Poets is generally fun.
At UMD I've heard about people using a combination of metro and bike to commute. I was also told that leaving a bike at the metro station probably means it's going to get stolen eventually. But then, I was also told that I shouldn't walk across the campus by myself because it isn't safe. The people who were interviewing me there seemed really invested in painting a picture of their campus as a crime-ridden hellscape, which it didn't seem to be at all. Maybe they were just trying to make it so I wouldn't feel too disappointed when they failed to offer me a job.
I'm unavailable for the 20th (see: Catholic mother, Easter) and a maybe for the 27th.
Teo pretty much gets it right. There aren't great options for transit to the UMD campus, plus bikes aren't allowed on Metro during rush hour. You'd probably be 5-10 miles away. Hate to say it, but a car would truly be easiest. It's a reverse commute, so there won't be much traffic. I'd guess it would be a 15-20 minute drive from most NE neighborhoods.
Other neighborhoods: Petworth and Takoma Park. You could also consider Silver Spring, which has fewer nice things (bars, restaurants) in walking distance but costs much, much less. I really like Columbia Heights. Living in MD vs DC has different costs as far as taxes if that matters. DC is generally cheaper.
Also? The area surrounding UMD is very, very sad, even for a college town.
The one UMD professor I knew who lived in DC and commuted by metro and bike and was generally happy to be in an urban area lived in Columbia Heights, but then moved to the west coast. All the others live in Bethesda or Takoma Park. I've never been to Bethesda and was a little surprised when so many people told me about how it's the greatest place they've ever lived.
11: I'd add Petworth to teo's list of neighborhoods. Closer to CP, more affordable, and a little less bro-ified than those neighborhoods (for now anyway). The CP metro stop isn't all that far from campus, maybe a mile? certainly walkable. I don't think it'd be too bad a commute (by local standards), and would also be fairly bikeable.
If you wanted to be closer to CP, there's Brookland in DC (which is still a little sparse on middle-class amenities but that's changing), or Takoma Park and Silver Spring in MD. None of those on the Green Line though. And they would all put you farther from Northern Virginia, where most (but not all) of the tech is.
I've never been to Bethesda and was a little surprised when so many people told me about how it's the greatest place they've ever lived.
Hahahaha. Well, if you like rich white people, it's probably true. Maybe that's why CP was so very scary.
Metro bike rules
The reason I say car is that if IF needs to run to campus for a quick errand, it's a pain to have 45 min transit time one way when it's a six mile trip.
18: Pwned!
It's 0.7 miles from the metro stop to the edge of campus. Shit, we have to walk that far to get to the nearest peruvian chicken place!
20: It's a pretty campus with lots of green space, hence more distance to travel. My guesses on distance are door-to-door guesses, not walking to the edge of campus from Metro. Also, you pay $200 or so premium in rent to live within walking distance to a Metro stop in DC if money is a factor.
The university is actually not particularly close to the College Park metro stop, though, and you have to take a shuttle to get there,
You really don't, unless you're in a rush, especially if you're going to the near side of campus -- it's a pleasant walk.
Good places to live for an easy car commute are annoying places to live for an easy Metro commute, because the former tend to be on the Red line, while (as mentioned above) the campus stop is on the Green line. It's about a 15 minute drive from Takoma Park to central campus, but then finding a parking spot often takes another 20 minutes, unless you've got some kind of super great parking permit setup.
11: I hear there's a new journalism site there that's looking for developers!
The whole competition-for-on-campus-parking thing was such an unwelcome shock to me when I started CC in California. What an annoying thing to have to deal with every day! And yet it turns out that the vast majority of campuses have this problem? Hello, here is where I have been sheltered, let me show you.
19.1: none of the people who told me about the greatness of Bethesda or the horrors of College Park are white, but none of them are black, either. Mostly south Asian.
Bethesda is dull but (residentally) very pretty. College Park is EXTREMELY dull and not pretty, and larded with drunken dudebros.
24 cont'd: there was a whole thing a few years back where UCLA students were up in arms because the city was trying to crack down on the previously accepted practice of parking second car behind the first car in a driveway, the second car blocking the sidewalk and protruding out into the road. Absent this feature, the students argued, it would be impossible for people in the apartments near campus to own cars, as street parking near campus was impossibly tight from overflow from commuting students who couldn't park on campus. Holy Do Not Want.
and larded with drunken dudebros.
Worst braise ever.
25: You don't have to be white to think rich white people are the best eva, racist.
I lived for a while In Silver Spring and found it very nice. Takoma Park is also nice in its own way. College Park proper depends on where you live. If you live on the Metro side of campus it's Dudebro city and occasional muggings. The other side of the University is nice but far from everything except campus.
Having lived in Bethesda for 18 years, I can speak up for it a bit. No sane person would move there hoping to commute to CP -- or to the tech corridors out towards Dulles or up 270 -- but its great to be close to the river. We were (for the second half of that time) a short walk from FH and/or Tenley, so no problem getting about (betw, Rockville & Downtown -- farther than that would've been a chore).
What's dull is the culture of workaholism. Which permeates DC, and can't be escaped.
I find downtown Silver Spring too... something. It used to be sort of a desert/home of world's most depressing 80s-style mall, and then it gained a prefabby pedestrian mall (and the Silver Theater), which provided a lot more stuff to do and lively evening action but also a lot more glurg.
The other side of the University part of College Park is so far from everything except campus that it's sort of hard for me to see it as nice, I guess. There's no there there. Is there?
32 - On the other hand, when I was growing up in the area, Silver Spring was full of a bunch of grubby nothing plus a big Metro garage and a really good record store.
Is that the other hand or just the early desert/most depressing mall period?
They could live in Laurel and trapnel could see if there are any government programming jobs around there.
I can't actually remember if the most depressing mall existed then. My forays into Silver Spring were usually limited to going to Vinyl Ink (and sometimes the Tastee Diner) and then heading into the city on the Metro.
CONFIDENTIAL TO X. TRAPNEL: Don't go to the Tastee Diner, even if it was featured on the cover of a Tsunami 7".
Unless you're a diner car enthusiast, in which case godspeed.
Anyway, I endorse Takoma Park and its near relatives over the border into NW DC for a nice balance of easy to commute to campus and easy to zip to various places in the city. It will suck, though, if the other one of you is going to have a job in Northern Virginia.
32.last: There's nothing there but houses, which is OK if all you're doing is walking in to campus to work or study and then going home.
It will suck, though, if the other one of you is going to have a job in Northern Virginia.
This is very true.
Silver Spring still has a very good record store. (A couple, actually.) But the "downtown" is as rfts says very prefabby. The AFI theater is the only real draw, and there are a few worthwhile places to eat, but that's about it.
Sunday breakfast/brunch on U street sounds good; they're unlikely to schedule anything for then.
Thanks for all the advice! I.F. doesn't mind long walks, so probably wouldn't need the campus shuttle after the metro, but we'll see. I hadn't really thought about the tech-stuff-is-mostly-in-VA wrinkle. Sadness.
I.F. has never learned how to drive, and I've never owned a car; we're really looking to avoid car commute.
There is nothing depressing or weirdly soul-destroying about Northern Virginia, at all.
There is nothing depressing or weirdly soul-destroying about Northern Virginia, at all.
It's positively life affirming! Heaven on earth.
43: Have you considered employment as a chauffeur?
42: Great! Among other things, we can discuss the relationship of Northern Virginia to the soul, as that's where we're living while in town. Anyone else interested in breakfast/brunch the morning of 4/6?
It appears that the bicycle problem on the metro is linguistic: get a folder
x. trapnel, for info about the tech ecosystem in DC, you could try looking here.
Anyone else interested in breakfast/brunch the morning of 4/6?
I'd be up for that!
49: Awesome. Maybe you and trapnel (and anyone else! not meant to be exclusive!) could email me at the address in 9, and we could work out the details independent of the main meetup thread?
I lived in DC and commuted to UMD on the Green Line for a year. (Lived toward the southern end of the Green Line within the District.) It was about an hour door-to-door, half of that spent on the train. I didn't mind it, but I usually only made the trip three or four days a week. The College Park metro station isn't right by campus. I usually walked rather than waiting for the shuttle bus -- if you're a fast walker it's not bad, through a pretty average residential neighborhood.
A former regular commenter is heavily involved in a tech-oriented open government nonprofit in DC.
Huh, from looking at the map on the UMD website it seems the campus is actually a lot closer to the metro station than I remember it being when I visited. I was going to the far end of campus, but still.
The couple of times I went out there from DC I got the impression that the shuttle route makes it seem farther because it doesn't take as direct a line as you could walking. I didn't walk, though.
Hey, people. Torrey pine, x. trapnel, Iberian Fury, and the Strandeds will be meeting for breakfast at the Busboys & Poets near the U Street metro this Sunday, 4/6, at 10:00am, if anyone else would like to join us. If not, looking forward to seeing everyone later this month!
Looking forward to it! Any chance of a FPP pinning this to the front for today, and add SIL's comment to the OP?
Seriously, everyone should come out tomorrow, the weather is so nice.
It really is. We're eating lunch outside right now in Columbia Heights. Beautiful day!
Enjoy yourselves. My outside time involves walking to and from work.
59: Try Sticky Fingers bakery for dessert.
There is an outside chance I could make an appearance if I can bring the 18mo daughter along. Not that I rank (and, if Halford is on the panel, I may have provided incentive for a kid-free event!).
Yes! Come! The more the merrier!
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Sweet Christ, UMD does not fight fair with recruitment dinners.
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Running late, should be there in 15 minutes.
We are in a booth in the far back room, the one with gandhi and Dalai Lama posters, if any latecomers are looking for us.
Be the attendee you want to see at the meetup.
I don't suppose you'll be there for another 12 hours?
|| For those not meeting for breakfast, here's a question: who's a liar and who's a fool? http://www.lrb.co.uk/2014/04/06/seymour-m-hersh/the-red-line-and-the-rat-line |>
Articles like that just make me hate everybody.
71 is exactly the sort of thing that has made me develop a knee-jerk opposition to the US getting involved in any conflict anywhere.
The meetup was fun! Thanks everyone!
75: Agreed! Thanks for coming!
Have we decided on a date/location yet for the meetup later this month?
|| The answer to both questions in 'everyone involved.' |>
77: In all seriousness, you're not going to be anywhere near Arlington, are you?
SP, are you just in for Monday? Also, if we try to do something the 20th, is there a time that would work for you? You can totally ditch coworkers for imaginary friends.
Or hire an actor to chat with your coworkers.
80: I hear it's a great place to live.
79, 80, 81 -- !!
You Easterners have a pretty funny concept of what isn't "near."
... you are even farther from Arlington.
OK, proposed (1): April 27, convene at Georgetown Waterfront Park, say approx. where Wisconsin Ave. ends, noonish, spend a few hours outside, then walk to Farmers Fishers Bakers for drinks. They've got non-alcoholic phosphates and egg creams as well as beer and cocktails.
Proposed (2): April 20 for out-of-towners, time flexible, maybe 4-8ish, meetup at a bar, let's say Marvin, unless elsewhere is more geographically convenient.
I'm in Arlington now actually, Blue line was at the airport and yellow not for another 10 minutes. But I'll be out of Arlington in 2 minutes. Live transit blogging!
Leaving tomorrow night right after the meeting.
I'm not sure about the 20th, stuff is weird at work this month.
Oops, didn't post before going back underground, not in VA any more.
I would have guessed it was further, but I have a poor sense of where many of the cities around DC are, in part because in my head they're all just DC neighborhoods instead of discrete municipalities.
Tomorrow morning I have to go somewhere 10 miles away and it's going to take me at least 90 minutes on public transit. A ten-mile distance is a lot longer in some cases than in others.
Yeah, there are definitely relatively short trips here that would take a long time on public transit.
89: Jacobians would be up for 27th outing as proposed in 89
Tomorrow I start driving to the west coast. If I'd planned things better or had more energy in the last couple of days, I'd probably leave relatively early and cover a few hundred miles. But looking at the state of my apartment, I'll be happy to get 10 miles.
90: I'm surprised you're at a hotel near a Metro stop. That isn't usually the case, assuming I'm right about your trip. I think usually those folks end up at staying a hotel that requires a taxi.
95: Hooray!
96: Safe travels.
We're in for sure for 89.1 and a maybe for 89.2.
Also, I am now duly embarrassed about the patheticness of 81. My Sunday-evening laziness, let me show it to you. (Sorry, SP.)
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Apparently the big Vox innovation is frequently-updated FAQs.
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From the FAQs in 99 (I really am not making this up!) "What's an individual man date?" Any responses, gents?
100: I thought you were pointing out a comic typo. It turns out to be an intentional, groanworthy attempt at humor. Still, good to know those superserious young policy wonks can have a little fun too!
101: Stupid. And I'm just mad at them in general about the way they've written these. You can't define Obamacare as "what we've apparently decided to call the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, a set of health insurance and industry reforms passed by Congress and signed by President Obama in March 2010." and then answer questions like "Can I buy Obamacare?" with something other than, "No, because as explained above Obamacare is the law and lesbianism is the practice you can only buy actual healthcare coverage and/or politicians themselves."
102: Ah, I was looking for that too link and couldn't find it. (It was actually completely on-topic to the OP.)
||
If anyone from Boston is reading this, I need recommendations for a place to have a dinner discussion/meeting. (A group I volunteer with is finishing up our formal commitment to someone, and we are trying to figure out what the next step is once he graduates.)
I need to find a spot where we can eat and talk in Central Square. I suggested Garden at the Cellar and the Green Street Grill, but someone thought that they were too fancy and asked for somethign a bit lower key.
Any recommendations?
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89: Both 4/27 and 4/20 would work for me.
4/20 is no good for me, I'm afraid, though I notice that the proposal would support meeting at 4:20 on the day behind some local high school. Possibly in on 4/27 for whatever it's worth.
To be fair on Vox, I did like this piece on Amtrak weirdness. I guess Saiselgy had some pent-up topics from his last gig.
No, it's dumb. Revealing the secret to skipping the line at 30th Street is not going to lead to a rethinking of security theater, but a cut-off of the short-cuts.
I suspect, though, that a reason they check at 30th street is that you won't be asked for a ticket until you're most of the way to Wilmington. Why not check at the small stations? Because far fewer people are getting on, and the risk of people riding without tickets is lower.
110: that piece really pissed me off. There are already enough entitled pricks in Union Station who think it's fine to just breeze past the line and cluster at the gate. Now they can be even bigger pricks with Yggles' tip. And since the trains don't sell more tickets than there are seats, the only possible advantage for them is to grab an empty two-seat and passive-aggressively try to keep the whole thing for themselves by putting their Macbook and copy of the Economist on the seat next to them. So enraging.
Skipping lines won't do anything, but advocating for change might, considering the policy is so odd.
I suppose it does illustrate the problems with how MY envisions change happening.
It's odd but who cares? It's not actually an inconvenience, the train departs when it departs and why is it preferable to be waiting on the platform rather than inside the station?* And given how many hundreds of people board at Union and Penn Stations, with a high percentage of entitled pricks among them, I could see massing on the platform getting ugly.
*Actually, come to think, I have not once but twice had a pigeon shit on me from the rafters while queued up inside Union Station so maybe the platform would be better.
and why is it preferable to be waiting on the platform rather than inside the station
Because allowing multiple entries means much less waiting time anywhere before getting seated?
When I take the Amtrak over to Sacramento, it arrives, I walk to the platform and get on. Back when I took it to Austin, despite it being the same station, we had to wait in line forever while tickets were checked one by one.
116: The ticket check in Union and Penn stations consists of holding your ticket up as you walk past someone standing next to the gate. It takes 5-10 minutes for the entire line to clear the gate. And if that's unbearable you can simulate a line-free experience by just staying seated and waiting for it to clear (or just show up 5 min before departure) and then go through. (You'll just have to deal with the passive-aggressive pricks trying to keep the seat next to them empty.) The alternative of having, what, 6-700 people? waiting on the platform and then massing at the doors when the train pulls in sounds like a lot less pleasant to me (and also a major pain in the ass for the 6-700? people trying to get off the train when it arrives).
Yglesias has been ranting about the train thing for a while, so I was amused to see it featured so prominently on Vox. I guess this is what happens when the pundits run the show.
One Weird Trick to keep from Waiting in this One Particular Line.
Thinking about how it works in UK, pretty much any terminus, where the train can't go any further because there's a set of buffers and a hundred metres of concrete in font of it, you wait at the end until they've got it ready to go out again and then they let you onto the platform. Oddly enough for Britain, you don't queue, you just stand around till they open the gate.
Any station where the track runs through it and the train comes in and goes out again in the same direction, you wait on the platform. The difference is that they open the gates in the terminus ten minutes before departure, so you have time to walk down the length of the train, but the thing stays in the intermediate stations for about three minutes tops, so you don't. Also, there isn't a concourse to wait on, because there are tracks at both ends. It seems quite logical to me and I don't see what Yggles is whining about.
It's not the biggest thing in the world, but I see what he's complaining about and why it bothers him.
First, the justification for making people line up makes no sense as security, which is the explanation Amtrak gives for it, for all the reasons he explains (they're not actually checking anything meaningful from a security point of view, and there isn't a similar lineup at other stations, so anyone who wanted to get on a train without going through the checkpoint can).
Second, it really is going to make boarding more annoying. If people are allowed on the platform before the train is ready to board, they're going to naturally spread out and get on all the cars at once. If they have to line up and get on the platform single file, they're going to fill up the closest car, and then people will get on that car, reject it as too full, and blunder through to the next car, and so on and so forth. It's not the worst thing in the world, but it is definitely an inferior process. (You can avoid having to deal with the inefficiently filling train by being first on line, but then you have to stand around in line longer. It's not a huge tradeoff, but it is a tradeoff that there's no good reason for.)
Again, tiny, small, insignificant problem, but I can see it being naggingly annoying because there's no good reason to do it the wrong way.
Amtrak's perspective makes sense if the interior of the stations are badly policed and there's a strong preference to keep requests for spare change and luggage pilfering down on the platform. A feeble security measure, aimed against nuisance rather than against real crime.
Also possible is that east coast residents are basically impervious to social norms, and need to be treated as children when in large groups.
First, the justification for making people line up makes no sense as security, which is the explanation Amtrak gives for it
Actually, it may just have been poorly written, but his #5 in that piece struck me as very tendentious. He answers the question "[w]hy does Amtrak think the queuing system is a good idea?" with the non-sequitur report that Amtrak thinks ticket check is a good idea for security reasons. I agree with him that ticket check is silly as a security measure. But at least as he writes it up, Amtrak doesn't say "we need queues so we can check tickets", and I don't see any practical reason you would (since it just involves flashing your ticket at someone standing there, and that could happen at any bottleneck without a queue).
If they have to line up and get on the platform single file, they're going to fill up the closest car, and then people will get on that car, reject it as too full, and blunder through to the next car, and so on and so forth.
I take the NE Corridor Amtrak all the time, and that's really not what happens. People don't get on the first car, they trickle down the platform toward the front of the train and get on wherever it makes sense to do so (e.g., where there aren't currently people hauling bags up the steps, or where you can look in the window and see empty seats). The only blundering around happens at the tail end of the process, and that's only because of the pricks who put their crap on the empty seat next to them and studiously avoid eye contact in the hope that you'll move on rather than ask "is anyone sitting there?" I really do think that having ~600 people mass with their suitcases all at once on 16 doors or whatever would be much uglier.
119: The amusing thing is that Yggles apparently doesn't know about the much better trick for skipping the Amtrak lines at Union Station than the one he reveals (or maybe he does but doesn't want to risk spoiling it for himself?).
Hrm. I take it less much less often than it sounds like you do, but I've found the process blundery .
Is Amtrak in the NE always those double-decker cars where it's hard to see seat usage from outside? It is out here.
I can imagine that you might need a more sophisticated system if you're having people board in the hundreds. But everywhere abroad where I've gone on high-capacity trains (Japan, India, Benelux), there are plenty different systems, but nothing similar to what Amtrak does.
One avoidable fault Amtrak may be trying to correct for is that they often don't label the cars well, and in those cases if you have an assigned seat or berth you can't just walk down the platform to locate it. That's definitely something done better abroad.
124: Well, I don't take it out of Penn as often as I do out of Union, so maybe it's blunderier on that end and I just haven't been that attuned to it (it's certainly true that the platforms at Penn narrower/more encumbered than at Union so maybe people do just hop on the closest car)? And I'm not denying the blunder altogether, but I think most of it starts happening when the empty two-seats start drying up and people wander around still hoping to find one to themselves, and that's going to happen whatever the boarding process.
Anyway as 120 suggests it's not much different than in enlightened topless Europe, but if you want to align yourself with Yggles on this....
125.1: No, just single deckers. 125.3: No assigned seats/berths. If there were I'd be more inclined to agree that the queuing is counterproductive.
No, 120 says that in ETEurope, there's a gate open ten minutes early rather than an enforced queue. That seems to avoid most of the queueing problems.
127: I don't see a material difference. On Amtrak they open the gate ~15 minutes before departure at Union and Penn. What's the difference if it's a queue or just standing around waiting for the gate to open?
This is incredibly petty, but the width of the bottleneck. Making people line up single file for a ticket inspection seems to me to set up a race-for-a-seat dynamic that letting people flow freely onto the platform doesn't.
I look forward to hearing about LB down at Penn Station leading the queued masses in "Attica! Attica!"
As long as we're fixing minor annoyances with lines, can we prevent certain people from using self-checkout at the grocery store? Specifically, the people who show up with like six types of produce and then act really baffled at this bizarre foreign language known as PLU codes and then they call for help, so they might as well have gone through regular check-out in the first place. I mean, it's really not that annoying. But it's kind of annoying.
129: Ok, but in practice the line at Union tends not to be single file, more like 2-3 abreast. Which is what the gate itself will physically accommodate regardless of ticket inspection, and the inspection itself isn't slowing anyone down. Admittedly it is slower at Penn because of those narrow escalators, which only some of the gates at Union have. Also there really isn't an orderly queue at Penn because they only announce the gate when it's ready to open, so what you have is a mob descending on the gate spontaneously trying to form itself into a queue. Again, though, that's because the physical bottleneck is small, not because of ticket check or whatever. (And the only alternative--announce the gate way earlier--would presumably make it impossible for people to get off the train on Penn's cramped platforms.)
(Good lord, who knew I felt so strongly about all this?)
Hrm. Being familiar with Penn, the tight physical bottleneck is what I was thinking of. If you can walk on several people abreast at Union Station without each person having to individually stop to get their ticket checked, I have no idea what Yggles is on about.
But the tight physical bottleneck at Penn isn't the result of some stupid Amtrak queuing/ticket check policy, it's the result of a tight physical bottleneck. It was like that before they started doing ticket check (post 9/11), and it's like that for NJ Transit as well as Amtrak, for the very same physical reasons. So what is Yggles on about there?
As Yggles points out, there are additional physical entry points at Penn other than the one narrow escalator, you're just discouraged from using them. It's still cramped, but two cramped entry points are better than one.
Someone should tell MY that he ought to get his employer to spring for club memberships. Muffins in the line at Union, a spiffy elevator down to the platform at 30th, and God knows what in status-obsessed NYC.
While I have no first hand knowledge of any perks available at Penn, given everything else about Penn, they'd probably not be worth having.
Hell is other people trying to do what you are trying to do.
135: Fair enough; I agree that they should advertise the mezzanine access at Penn (assuming there aren't other crowd flow reasons not to do so), and if ticket check is so important put a second person on that. But other than that Yggles is nuts.
The Penn boarding process is insane, frustrating, and annoying. (Though Penn itself is insane, frustrating, and annoying, so perhaps one can't really blame the boarding process for following suit.) But the really insane "security procedure" is the guys with assault rifles. In what situation are you going to use an assault rifle in Penn Station on Thanksgiving? It's too fucking crowded, you'd kill 30 people trying to hit a bad guy. I really hope they don't have ammo, because otherwise it's just a matter of time until one of those guns kills a lot of people.
But the really insane "security procedure" is the guys with assault rifles
I was amazed in 2001 to see that in Charles De Gaulle Airport a patrol would occasionally pass by with 2 (women) soldiers in full combat gear with assault rifles and a much more casual gendarme who appeared to be unarmed. I presume he'd do the talking.
141: Not a 9/11 thing (not that you were implying that) - I remember seeing similar guns when I went to Paris in what I think was '99.
In what situation are you going to use an assault rifle in Penn Station on Thanksgiving? It's too fucking crowded, you'd kill 30 people trying to hit a bad guy.
With logic like this, it's almost like Texas shouldn't be allowing and training teachers to be armed with guns in the public schools.
143:
That's right, it was June 2001, so security was greater there than here.
I haven't flown since then, including the whole time since 911. I left an occasionally-traveling job that year and haven't gone anywhere since except by car.
Roving uniformed security people with semiautomatics in crowded places are comme il faut in enlightened topless Europe. I think not in schools there, but I am not sure.
The motels which most nearly approximate prisons that I have ever seen: Formule 1 in France, rather than roadside in Breezewood PA or at some other vicious and abandoned interstate exit in the US. Concrete sink.
In the little time I have spent in Enlightened Topless, every agent of the state I saw was either unarmed or carried enough armaments to bring pause to a Real True Texan. There was no in-between.
Hell is other people trying to do what you are trying to do.
This describes a lot of my experience living in New York, and also presumably what would happen if I got a hankering for some local artisanal toast here in the Bay Area.
I just traveled from my conference meeting room to where the bus dropped me off 300 feet from my house without going outside (unless you count the outdoor but covered train/bus platforms at DCA and BOS as outside.)
My understanding was that the armed patrols in the Paris metro and RER were a response to the bombings in the mid-90s.
Hey, is anyone still interested in the meetup proposed in comment 89 (April 27, Georgetown Waterfront Park)? Because the actor who represents me in real life says he's available.
Sure, we're game for at least part of 89.
Sorry, I've been buried at work. I'll e-mail Heebie tomorrow to request a bump for the post with the updated proposal.
153: No need to apologize! I can email Heebie tonight to update the post...
Oops, looks like no proposed meeting time in the update. I'd thrown out noonish in 89. If a different time is better, that's fine, too. I was thinking of being outdoors for a couple hours, then heading for drinks and food after the Sunday brunch crowd clears out. (Brunch at Farmers Fishers Bakers ends at 2.)
Looks like fun, and that's a great place for it. I probably won't make it, so the life of the party won't be there, but you can probably struggle through somehow. Enjoy.
We're more interested in the FFB part than the park part, so we're likely to meet up with everyone at FFB around 2:00, assuming that's still the plan. Thanks for organizing, ydnew and torrey!
I hope to come and bring one or more of my brood.
I hope to come and bring one or more of my brood.
While meet-ups are being planned: I've got a very short trip to England in a couple of weeks. Parenthetical and I are planning to meet for lunch somewhere in Oxford on Thursday, May 8. Anyone else want to come? asilon? ttaM?
I'll definitely try to make it. I assume we'll firm up location before then. Looking at Google maps makes it seem like there's a big thing of some sort at the end of Wisconsin Ave where it butts up against the park. Is this the meeting location?
162: Yeah, that's where I was thinking. Somewhere at least in line of sight where Wisconsin ends.
So noonish, at that nice open area? Nearest metro is what foggy bottom?
Followed by FFB at 2:00ish?
BTW, in case anyone hasn't been there before, note that it's slightly non-obvious how to get from Foggy Bottom metro to Georgetown. One good way is to walk northwest on Pennsylvania Ave, then west on M Street. You can also take the DC Circulator bus, which goes this way.
Although in this case there might be a shorter way going south on New Hampshire Ave and somehow getting on the bike paths along the river. Who knows?!
We've walked over there a couple of good ways and one bad way. I honestly can't recommend cutting south and taking any of the rock creek park trails. A lot of impatient bicyclists weaving around the runners. Adding slower pedestrians just sucks.
167: Great! We'll try to get to the park first, but if not, then we'll definitely see everyone around 2:00 at FFB.
I'm leaving DC Saturday evening, but have most of tomorrow free. Anyone want to go to the Newseum, or otherwise hang out?
J, Robot, I'm sorry to miss you, but I am working Saturday to be free Sunday. Have fun, though.
J, Robot, I probably make boring company, but I'm planning to see this on Saturday at 12:30pm, in case you're interested.
(Actually I should probably be working too, but I'm rationalizing that I will catch up on work once the weather gets too muggy to go outside.)
My back is acting up so I think I'm going to miss this one.
Togolosh, we'll miss you! Hope you feel better soon. If you change your mind, you can join us at FFB.
Excellent meetup, thanks to all who were able to. Better luck next time to those who were not. Again, super fun talking to Stranded and Strandey--we'll be sure to look you up in your next location, should we be in the area!
Sounds good, TJ. We had a great time, too. Thanks again to all the DCers for coming out!
Goddamit I was distracted and you people didn't liveblog AT ALL? People!
I know, I'm ashamed. One day the Strandeds will graduate to smartphones.
Sorry, Tweety. Would it make you feel better if I belatedly say that The Lubbock Strander is both hot and utterly charming? And that TJ's kids are both lovely, outgoing, cute, and very well-behaved?
And that TJ's kids are both lovely, outgoing, cute, and very well-behaved?
We already knew that.
But Tweety missed them last time, too.
The pig reported back in some detail.
One day the Jacobians will also graduate to smartphone.
Noser pronounces it UNfogged. Rilee pronounces it unFOGged.
Also we were outside the whole time, and it was warm and sunny! Very poor conditions for liveblogging...
There are no poor conditions for liveblogging! Do you think the poor bastards in steerage on the Titanic thought "gee, these are lousy conditions for liveblogging" as their cabins filled with icy water?
Ok, fair enough. But anyway, like the drowning passengers on the Titanic, I don't have a smartphone.
Although ydnew did check the water level of the Potomac, and it was -1.9 feet.
Jesus, doesn't anyone in DC have a smartphone? How do you people live?
OK, I guess it's all on me - I was the only one with the technology to liveblog? And I was the one who didn't make a reservation and didn't realize there was a half-marathon in Georgetown. God, this week just keeps getting better!
And yes, USGS reports that the Potomac depth at Georgetown is -1.98 feet. Science!
Aaaand I'm borrowing the boyfriend's laptop, which doesn't know my pseud.
Frankly, I'd never even considered the possibility that we'd collide with a marathon, and sink.
I seem to remember the Titanic had some trouble with the wireless. Or at least with getting responses.