Josh Messmer 🐝☀️🇨🇦
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joshmessmer.com
Josh Messmer 🐝☀️🇨🇦
@joshmessmer.com
Former Video & Web guy (ThisHereVancouver). Current Econ & Data guy advocating for better social infrastructure (CoFounder VisThinkCo). Future Coureur des bois.

Langley, Metro Vancouver, 🇨🇦

https://bio.site/joshmessmer
Am I blocked by this person or does bluesky protect posts when the poster blocks their quoter?
February 2, 2025 at 8:56 PM
Especially in market or supply-adequacy contexts where prices / costs can tell you the story more clearly.
January 6, 2025 at 3:47 AM
Just seems like local initiative/energy is really compatible and complimentary (non econ meaning) to the social value of pro sports more generally
January 6, 2025 at 3:44 AM
Doesn’t solve the supply issue you bring up, necessarily.

But you could also say something like a Canada/US league should have 50 states + 10 provinces (3 territories) = 60 (63) spots in every league. Or multiply that by some factor > 1. But then still use relegation to filter quality.
January 6, 2025 at 3:43 AM
I’ve always wished pro sports teams were socialized in some way. Owned by local government or at least local (recreational) sports orgs. Some sort of quota % of players being from the same state / province. Any city can sponsor its own team, and then use euro soccer style relegation/promotion.
January 6, 2025 at 3:42 AM
Because that’s basically leaving the “character” up to the local governments, while using a very simple policy lever to ensure local aesthetics aren’t entirely trumping basic regional supply elasticity/ welfare/ needs.
January 6, 2025 at 12:38 AM
I also think provinces regulating [FAR-maximum]-minimums (“can’t zone lower than 2FAR” for ex.), while giving municipalities the flexibility to set the coverage and setbacks to determine how that density looks / interacts with the surroundings… is a good compromise.
January 6, 2025 at 12:36 AM
Sounds like the internet.
January 5, 2025 at 1:15 AM
This is better imo, though, than having Oak St and Renfrew stations be on Broadway, Burrard and Granville station being downtown (on different crossstreets!), and, say, Dunbar being on 41st.

Burrard-Hastings, Burrard-Broadway, Burrard-41st is unambiguous.
January 3, 2025 at 10:00 AM
You also get the issue of having a dozen+ stations with the same starting noun, running along whichever street axis you name first. Eg, either: Broadway-Main, Broadway-Cambie, Broadway-Oak; or Cambie-Broadway, Cambie-King Ed.
January 3, 2025 at 10:00 AM
broadway line flips that); and some lines don’t follow the grid (Expo in Vancouver); not so bad for Fraser Hwy line or a hypothetical Kingsway line where the grid intersects clearly despite the diagonal.
January 3, 2025 at 10:00 AM
Part of me thinks you should order the cross streets to be [Direction of Line] -[Cross street] so the name communicates direction of travel as well as point info. Eg, should be Cambie-Broadway, not Broadway-Cambie.

But then you run into issues at transfers (eg future
January 3, 2025 at 10:00 AM
lines/stations in the future that might end up with confusing disambiguations.

This might be long in some cases, but it will be entirely clear. “Cambie-41st”. No doubt about where that is, even if it’s not as cool as “Oakridge”. People can learn the damn grid.
January 3, 2025 at 9:52 AM
What’s the redesign? I would have thought this was on the better end of things. Raised crossings across 10th? &?
December 28, 2024 at 7:31 AM
I think their relative rarity compared to here is why the “libraries should have xyz too” posts always get popular. Libraries are many Americans main/sole referent for public, casual, indoor spaces.

Prob varies a lot by local government, tho.
December 28, 2024 at 7:25 AM
IIRC, the rolling stock qualifies as light rail, but most people use the word to mean the general form/aesthetic of rail transit that’s mostly not-grade-separated, so it’s also kind of wrong to call it LRT
December 28, 2024 at 7:22 AM
the majority of Canada (say, more than 3 provinces) seems incredibly unlikely to me — far, far from inevitable.

Several independent state/ province clusters in an EU like structure seems more likely, even, as far as unlikely scenarios of an entire NA political body go.
December 25, 2024 at 8:04 AM
It seems inevitable that sometime in future human history the current Canada / US border changes. A province or two joining the union; a state or two joining confederation; a few border states + provinces going out on their own.

But all 50 US states being in the same country as
December 25, 2024 at 8:02 AM