To me, what's missing from that set of recommendations is some method to increase the liability of companies who mishandle user data.
It is insane to me that I can be notified via physical mail of months old data breaches, some of which contained my Social Security number, and that my only recourse is to set credit freezes from multiple credit bureaus.
I am currently ~400 pages into the Power Broker. I was motivated to pick it up again by a "read along" with Roman Mars from the 99% Invisible podcast. He's spacing out the book over the course of a year and interviewing fellow Caro fans and recapping major portions of the book. Never been a better time to tackle the beast! I am not sure I'll ever read a better biography in my life. At least, not until I read the Lyndon Johnson books.
Thank you for your incredible book Cliff. I found a copy when I was in high school about ten years ago and it changed my trajectory. It got me into hacking and tinkering with computers and led me to a career I love today. I always make a point of loaning my copy to anyone I see who was my age then with an interest in computers.
If you are living in a place that forces you into car ownership as a means of transportation, then you are receiving a subsidy in the form of the infrastructure that enables car dependent city planning. You're also compelled to own a car, which is enormously expensive, getting even more expensive, and is probably the thing you do on a regular basis which is most likely to kill you. Sprawl is expensive, and so is car ownership.
Hugely agree on transit access to the airport, but it has gotten somewhat better. The GCT Madison connection has enabled another connection to Jamaica for the JFK AirTrain alongside LIRR and the E-train. And no longer do you need a separate MetroCard, as the Port Authority has finally modernized with contactless payments.
And the Q60 bus serving LGA also couldn't be easier. It picks up from a clearly designated spot on the lower level and drops you off right at Jackson Heights for E and 7 access. Could there be a direct rail connection a la O'Hare? Yes, and there should be.
Great, now expand it to all of Manhattan, instead of just 60th and below.
And while they're at it, build the QueensLink so people actually take transit instead of just turning it into a park so that it can never be built.
It boggles my mind how unable NYC seems to be able to invest it its largest comparative advantage to every other city in the country: its density and transit access.
If you're referring to the number of folks who work in the central business district of Manhattan but have no choice but to drive (given the enormous catchment area of MTA services), that number is vanishingly small, and congestion pricing does have low income discounts.
If you're referring to those who drive taxis or cars-for-hire in Manhattan, yes, the idea is the cost should be borne by riders who choose those services instead of transit.
This also assumes that Amazon never gives up the ghost and finds ways to make sideloading books onto Kindle more difficult than it currently is.
I've always been surprised that they haven't cracked down on it, given the relative ease with which you can circumvent the necessity of the Kindle store for the majority of popular titles. Simply load up Calibre, pop almost any file type into your library, and away you go. We're really living in the Limewire age for e-book piracy, even if we don't realize it.
My guess is, someone has run the math and figured out that it's better to keep people on a Kindle device and occasionally spending a few dollars, in exchange for the slow death of physical media and legitimate alternatives. When those become less readily available, then perhaps you can begin to boil the frog.
You can be sure I won't buy a kindle if I can't sideload onto it. I buy at least 5/6 new hardcover books a year from local independent retailers to support authors I like. I wish more authors would allow an e-book copy to be distributed with hardcovers they sell. Do what vinyl did.
This is just what Kahn's FTC does.