Andrew Ruvkun
@aruvkun.bsky.social
The advocacy space would benefit a fair bit from having more seasoned operators in their ranks
December 30, 2025 at 5:00 PM
The advocacy space would benefit a fair bit from having more seasoned operators in their ranks
The math issue for the GOP is that even if they make those gains with Hispanic voters, it at best cancels out the fact that a left-leaning group in the aggregate is becoming a larger share of the electorate.
November 7, 2025 at 3:42 PM
The math issue for the GOP is that even if they make those gains with Hispanic voters, it at best cancels out the fact that a left-leaning group in the aggregate is becoming a larger share of the electorate.
Your everything old is new again bit really hits
October 30, 2025 at 2:24 AM
Your everything old is new again bit really hits
Should have used design-build for this bailout and not design-bid-build
October 15, 2025 at 5:40 PM
Should have used design-build for this bailout and not design-bid-build
I think the goal with Section 8 changes, and this is to stoke more homelessness and a refugee crisis to consolidate further power. They need their policies to be unsuccessful to ask for more.
September 30, 2025 at 3:21 AM
I think the goal with Section 8 changes, and this is to stoke more homelessness and a refugee crisis to consolidate further power. They need their policies to be unsuccessful to ask for more.
Can someone run a poll that asks people what they think Trump's approval rating actually is?
September 20, 2025 at 7:08 PM
Can someone run a poll that asks people what they think Trump's approval rating actually is?
What's annoying is he's right that there are certain states where a Dem or Independent who is pro-life should run vs. the Republican. It's just not necessarily these states!
September 20, 2025 at 5:40 AM
What's annoying is he's right that there are certain states where a Dem or Independent who is pro-life should run vs. the Republican. It's just not necessarily these states!
The idea is they're gonna bond off that and try to probably push something like $17-18 billion of that forward, I assume?
September 12, 2025 at 2:36 PM
The idea is they're gonna bond off that and try to probably push something like $17-18 billion of that forward, I assume?
Would make sense. It's unclear to me what the added benefits of a new R268 rolling stock are vs. the benefits of economies of scale with the R211 and continuing production. If the 211s work, don't change it. That sets the B division up to be good on rolling stock through 2040.
September 10, 2025 at 10:09 PM
Would make sense. It's unclear to me what the added benefits of a new R268 rolling stock are vs. the benefits of economies of scale with the R211 and continuing production. If the 211s work, don't change it. That sets the B division up to be good on rolling stock through 2040.
I presume this also applies to instances of road rage, drunk driving, reckless driving, and other assorted instances of criminality on hour roads and highways?
September 8, 2025 at 11:52 PM
I presume this also applies to instances of road rage, drunk driving, reckless driving, and other assorted instances of criminality on hour roads and highways?
Man, the holy grail of transit fare policy. Can you make fare products that increase revenue and ridership? Half-off fares for low-income riders might be pretty close to that. My mental model is that it's only select unlimited ride products: i.e., a flat fare for commuter rail on select weekends
September 3, 2025 at 8:11 PM
Man, the holy grail of transit fare policy. Can you make fare products that increase revenue and ridership? Half-off fares for low-income riders might be pretty close to that. My mental model is that it's only select unlimited ride products: i.e., a flat fare for commuter rail on select weekends
^ This is meant to be in addition to your point about what counts as fully fare free travel on the MTA
September 3, 2025 at 12:53 PM
^ This is meant to be in addition to your point about what counts as fully fare free travel on the MTA
The student passes provided are actually paid for by the NYC City government and the Department of Education. So it's not strictly speaking free
September 3, 2025 at 12:53 PM
The student passes provided are actually paid for by the NYC City government and the Department of Education. So it's not strictly speaking free
This also ignores that for most cities with public transit systems, kids under 18 already ride free. I think we've just made a societal choice (in the same way free lunch is good policy) that the fares paid for by adults are also subsidizing the free rides of kids.
September 3, 2025 at 12:43 PM
This also ignores that for most cities with public transit systems, kids under 18 already ride free. I think we've just made a societal choice (in the same way free lunch is good policy) that the fares paid for by adults are also subsidizing the free rides of kids.
I wonder how much higher prices/rates and the expected lifespan of holding the car are correlated with one another vs. distinct phenomenon
August 26, 2025 at 1:09 PM
I wonder how much higher prices/rates and the expected lifespan of holding the car are correlated with one another vs. distinct phenomenon
A Dem presidential campaign should elevate building community using the campaign. A way to meet friends, feel involved in democracy as a sport, without it feeling political. Completely apolitical community-building events. It's Tammany Hall without the baggage.
August 23, 2025 at 4:19 PM
A Dem presidential campaign should elevate building community using the campaign. A way to meet friends, feel involved in democracy as a sport, without it feeling political. Completely apolitical community-building events. It's Tammany Hall without the baggage.
One general analysis that is hard to quantify, but I'd be curious if it can be: how many learnings and general technical expertise do we now have about the dos and don'ts of building HSR in America that will be translated to future projects because of the misfires of CA HSR in the 2010s?
August 22, 2025 at 9:54 PM
One general analysis that is hard to quantify, but I'd be curious if it can be: how many learnings and general technical expertise do we now have about the dos and don'ts of building HSR in America that will be translated to future projects because of the misfires of CA HSR in the 2010s?
At current construction costs, it's not an exaggeration to say that this decision might save $10-20 billion in 2025 dollars in construction costs. Certainly derisks the critical path immensely if you take out a lot more geotechnically complex projects
August 22, 2025 at 9:50 PM
At current construction costs, it's not an exaggeration to say that this decision might save $10-20 billion in 2025 dollars in construction costs. Certainly derisks the critical path immensely if you take out a lot more geotechnically complex projects
Isn't there a risk though that at some point, tariffs risk making a hot labor market a more inflationary one as workers try to use their leverage to claw back their real wage losses over a longer period of time?
August 22, 2025 at 2:17 PM
Isn't there a risk though that at some point, tariffs risk making a hot labor market a more inflationary one as workers try to use their leverage to claw back their real wage losses over a longer period of time?
papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
At the risk of being annoyingly pedantic, they updated the paper in 2025 with a newer dataset on road resurfacing and some new administrative data from Caltrans, along with more robust controls in the modeling.
At the risk of being annoyingly pedantic, they updated the paper in 2025 with a newer dataset on road resurfacing and some new administrative data from Caltrans, along with more robust controls in the modeling.
Procurement and Infrastructure Costs
<p>Why is building and maintaining infrastructure so expensive in the United States? We <span>collect new project-level data on infrastructure spending and
papers.ssrn.com
August 20, 2025 at 3:32 PM
papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
At the risk of being annoyingly pedantic, they updated the paper in 2025 with a newer dataset on road resurfacing and some new administrative data from Caltrans, along with more robust controls in the modeling.
At the risk of being annoyingly pedantic, they updated the paper in 2025 with a newer dataset on road resurfacing and some new administrative data from Caltrans, along with more robust controls in the modeling.
Do we know what Contracts 3 and 4 are going to cost yet?
August 18, 2025 at 4:55 PM
Do we know what Contracts 3 and 4 are going to cost yet?
Feels like a good place to start would be to require it in Manhattan and a few dense parts of the outer boroughs. Probably reduces the cost substantially and gets you most of the benefit of the policy
August 4, 2025 at 2:29 PM
Feels like a good place to start would be to require it in Manhattan and a few dense parts of the outer boroughs. Probably reduces the cost substantially and gets you most of the benefit of the policy
I'd definitely be interested in giving it a read!
August 3, 2025 at 8:20 PM
I'd definitely be interested in giving it a read!
Shouldn't these rising wages be a test case in whether or not non-undocumented people choose to work in construction? If there is a risk payment for undocumented workers, that should induce more native-born Americans to join, by Trump's logic. We'll see if it's low wages suppressing participation
July 28, 2025 at 7:08 PM
Shouldn't these rising wages be a test case in whether or not non-undocumented people choose to work in construction? If there is a risk payment for undocumented workers, that should induce more native-born Americans to join, by Trump's logic. We'll see if it's low wages suppressing participation