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Aaron W. Gordon

@agordon.me
13K followers 189 following 76 posts

Data reporter at Bloomberg News. Opinions are my cat's. Clips and contact info at agordon.me.

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Aaron W. Gordon @agordon.me · 19/07/2026
In which @suryamattu.com and I try to answer the age-old question: Are we smarter than Billy the Cat, the World Cup-predicting phenom? The answer is, definitively: No.
bloomberg.com
What Happened When We Let Claude Pick Our World Cup Brackets
Could Claude narrow the gap between a soccer expert and a novice? A World Cup prediction contest put AI-assisted forecasting to the test.
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Aaron W. Gordon @agordon.me · 01/05/2026
“The players reached out to me and said, ‘Thank you for what you have made.’ They told me story after story of what they did. The letters coming from people’s deathbed telling me, ‘Thank you, High 5. Thank you, High 5.’ People with cancer saying, ‘You got me through this. Thank you."
bloomberg.com
The $11 Billion Casino-Style Economy Built on Players Who Can Never Cash Out
Apple and Google are raking in money from social casinos that replace real winnings with virtual coins and dopamine hits. Some players have spent more than $1 million to keep playing.
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Aaron W. Gordon @agordon.me · 26/02/2026
Behind the preserved historical facades, the ultra-rich are buying up adjacent townhomes in the West Village and Upper East Side, combining them into a megamansion. It's part of a broader trend of small multifamily buildings being turned into single-family homes. www.bloomberg.com/graphics/202...
bloomberg.com
The Rise of the Manhattan Mega-Mansion
In the West Village and other historic neighborhoods, buyers are consolidating apartments and combining townhomes, a sign of New York’s allure to the ultra-rich.
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Aaron W. Gordon @agordon.me · 17/02/2026
He thinks it is named after the state www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
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Aaron W. Gordon @agordon.me · 21/01/2026
Today in Guess Who Wants A Pardon
bloomberg.com
Elizabeth Holmes Asks Trump for Early Prison Release After Fraud
Disgraced Theranos Inc. founder Elizabeth Holmes has formally asked President Donald Trump to release her from prison with almost six years left to serve on her term.
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Aaron W. Gordon @agordon.me · 02/01/2026
One thing working on this series helped me realize is how long it can take regulatory failures to manifest in people's lives. In these cases, we're talking decades later. www.bloomberg.com/graphics/202...
bloomberg.com
How Banks, Regulators Spawned the Zombie Mortgage Nightmare
Federal officials and banks dealing with the subprime mortgage mess helped create the “zombie” mortgages crisis
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Aaron W. Gordon @agordon.me · 02/01/2026
One thing I wrote about here is how technology has made buses *way* more convenient while techno-futurists were obsessed with flying taxis and self-driving cars.
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Aaron W. Gordon @agordon.me · 19/12/2025
I wrote about how surprised I still am a candidate for NYC mayor won in large part by talking incessantly about buses, and also about how making them fast as promised will be an immense challenge. www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
bloomberg.com
With Mamdani, the Humble Bus Gets Its Due
Enthusiasm for NYC’s mayor-elect may reflect a little-understood reality about the essential role of buses. Still, making them faster won’t be easy.
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Aaron W. Gordon @agordon.me · 15/12/2025
The government shutdown got me thinking: How many flights in the US are actually replaceable by train? It depends on how insane you are, but the basic answer is: Not Many! 70% of flights shorter than 500 miles have no train option at all. Out of those that do, 65% would likely be faster by car.
bloomberg.com
Where Is Traveling by Train a Good Option in the US?
When air travel falters, how many travelers even have the train available as backup?
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Aaron W. Gordon @agordon.me · 17/11/2025
Congratulations to all the abundance bros who joined the fight behind "permitting reform" on your victory today www.nytimes.com/2025/11/17/c...
nytimes.com
E.P.A. Rule Would Drastically Curb Protections for Wetlands
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Aaron W. Gordon @agordon.me · 14/11/2025
New from me: Global Entry revocations are surging in the last ~2 years, well outpacing enrollment, according to data from a FOIA. People often don't know why their membership was revoked. www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
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Ted Mann @whereisted.bsky.social · 03/11/2025
There's a persistent reflex to assume that projects like this are liberally coded, only popular in progressive enclaves. But the actual evidence goes the other way. Liberals aren't the only ones who like to cross the street safely. Conservatives also ride bikes and like to do so without dying.
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Aaron W. Gordon @agordon.me · 30/10/2025
There are hundreds of thousands of homeowners in the US who probably don't realize there's a ticking time bomb on their American Dream in the form of a zombie second mortgage. And the agency tasked with policing this—wait for it—has been gutted by the Trump admin. www.bloomberg.com/graphics/202...
bloomberg.com
Trump Gutted Agency Investigating Zombie Mortgage Debt Collectors
Many homeowners were blindsided by huge bills from zombie mortgages. A federal investigation of unlawful debt collections has stalled after the Trump administration gutted the Consumer Financial Prote...
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Aaron W. Gordon @agordon.me · 27/10/2025
NYC people: @suryamattu.com, @mariepastora.bsky.social and I will be talking about our NJ Transit/NYC commuter rail story on Nov 5. Hope to see some of you there! www.meetup.com/transit-tech...
meetup.com
Transit Techies #35: Aaron Gordon, Surya Mattu, Marie Patino / Elif Ensari, Wed, Nov 5, 2025, 6:30 PM | Meetup
This will be **Transit Techies NYC**'s final session of the year, and we have some amazing speakers to look forward to. Talks will start at 6:30pm, and we'll mingle over li
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Aaron W. Gordon @agordon.me · 24/10/2025
I am continually impressed by Alissa's coverage of LA transportation and also how insane LA's transportation spending is.
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Aaron W. Gordon @agordon.me · 23/10/2025
"Don't bother looking for me. I'll be next to my pool with a margarita."
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Aaron W. Gordon @agordon.me · 23/10/2025
Coffee futures hit a new record high. www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
bloomberg.com
Coffee Prices Reach Record as Trade and Supply Concerns Mount
Coffee futures rose to a fresh record in New York as crop concerns and US tariffs revived supply worries, risking further price hikes at cafes and supermarkets.
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Aaron W. Gordon @agordon.me · 21/10/2025
Tell 2018 me that in 2025 Andrew Cuomo will be running for mayor and proposing the city take over key parts of the MTA and I might have had an actual stroke www.nytimes.com/2025/10/21/n...
nytimes.com
Cuomo to Propose That New York City Take Partial Control of Subway
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Josh Campbell @campbelljd.bsky.social · 14/10/2025
Key stat from @amandamull.bsky.social article "The richest 10% of US households—those making roughly $250,000 or more—now account for almost half the country’s consumer purchases, according to Moody’s Analytics" www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...
bloomberg.com
Inside the Credit Card Battle to Win America’s Richest Shoppers
The fierce fight between Amex and Chase is playing out over higher fees, extravagant events and every perk imaginable.
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Aaron W. Gordon @agordon.me · 10/10/2025
"Mansion Boy" is also good because Andrew Cuomo owned a $1.8 million, 4,000 sq ft house with its own pond until his divorce. (Reportedly it would have sold for much more but was not maintained well and was "in dire need of considerable work.") nypost.com/2021/03/03/a...
nypost.com
Andrew Cuomo and Sandra Lee sell longtime Mount Kisco house before scandal
The four-bedroom, six-bathroom home spent over a year on the market before finding a buyer.
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Aaron W. Gordon @agordon.me · 10/10/2025
Fun fact: All of the MTA's rolling stock bought in the last several decades is capable of this too!
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Travis Waldron @traviswaldron.bsky.social · 10/10/2025
For Bessent’s $20 billion bet on Argentina to pay off, a lot of things have to go right. The problem is that in Argentina -- a nation with a track record of squandering other people’s money and defaulting on its own debts -- those things have tended to go wrong. www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
bloomberg.com
Bessent’s Big Gamble on Argentina Has a Narrow Road to Pay Off
For Scott Bessent’s $20 billion bet on Argentina to pay off, a lot of things have to go right – things that in the past, in Argentina, have tended to go wrong.
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Aaron W. Gordon @agordon.me · 07/10/2025
Since I've moved to Manhattan it has really sunk in just how useless the non-SBS buses are if you want to get anywhere faster than walking. The north-south routes stop every block or two! The bus literally travels 10-15 bus lengths at a time, up and down Manhattan. It's so stupid.
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Aaron W. Gordon @agordon.me · 07/10/2025
Some Personal News:
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Aaron W. Gordon @agordon.me · 07/10/2025
True New Yorker quizzes are fun and all but there is only one question in the actual True New Yorker test: Do You Take The Subway?
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Smalls @shutupsmalls.bsky.social · 05/10/2025
@agordon.me is so right about this buttondown.com/Booktime/arc...
I have become interested in the experience of ordinary Germans during the rise of Nazism. You know, for no particular reason whatsoever. There are classics in the field I could have tackled, but I chose to read two lesser known and more recent works on the subject. It was a harrowing couple of weeks but well worth the intellectual adventure.
I felt compelled to read Promise Me You'll Shoot Yourself based on the title alone (browsing library stacks is the original and undefeated recommendation algorithm).
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Aaron W. Gordon @agordon.me · 06/10/2025
A fun game is to ask people what they think "independent" journalism means and/or to rank various sources on a scale of independence. Answers vary wildly! www.nytimes.com/2025/10/06/b...
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Aaron W. Gordon @agordon.me · 03/10/2025
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Aaron W. Gordon @agordon.me · 03/10/2025
I once did a bunch of archival research on the origins and history of junk mail. This talking point—that not everyone has the same definition of "junk"—was used by the junk mail industry for *decades* to fight anti-junk mail policies. (It's also not true. ) www.nytimes.com/2025/10/02/t...
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Aaron W. Gordon @agordon.me · 02/10/2025
Back when I did this kind of thing, the pitch for why more NYC newsrooms should have dedicated MTA reporters—not even "transportation" generally, just MTA—was that the MTA's annual budget was larger than that of 10 states.
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Aaron W. Gordon @agordon.me · 30/09/2025
The amazing thing about the hundreds of billions of dollars being spent on AI development is it doesn't even include all the externalized costs like higher electricity prices for hundreds of millions of people.
bloomberg.com
AI Data Centers Are Sending Power Bills Soaring
Wholesale electricity costs as much as 267% more than it did five years ago in areas near data centers. That’s being passed on to customers.
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Aaron W. Gordon @agordon.me · 29/09/2025
One thing to know about the "Eric Adams Is The Future of the Democratic Party" takes from 2021 is not only were they obviously wrong at the time, not only are they embarrassing to the authors now, but they are objectively among the most wrong takes in the history of political punditry.
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Aaron W. Gordon @agordon.me · 26/09/2025
Watched The Odd Couple movie with Lemmon and Matthau (so good) but the biggest laugh of the night came halfway through was finding out Matthau's character, with an 8 room apartment on the top floor of a West End Drive doorman building, was a sports columnist writing about the Mets.
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Aaron W. Gordon @agordon.me · 26/09/2025
Great story. Many similar lessons for buying trains, too.
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Aaron W. Gordon @agordon.me · 24/09/2025
If you're on a Mac the best way to OCR a page of a PDF or image is take a screenshot of it then open it in preview. You can then highlight and copy/paste. This also works surprisingly well with images/PDFs of spreadsheets.
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Aaron W. Gordon @agordon.me · 18/09/2025
Huh. Hmm. Well. I...ah. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/18/u...
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Aaron W. Gordon @agordon.me · 29/08/2025
I have spent more time than I care to admit bashing columnists whom I don't hold in high regard. Gina was never one of them. It's a shame that there appears to no longer be room for knowledgeable local columnists who actually love the place they write about. We need more writing rooted in love.
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Daniel Cantwell @danielhcantwell.bsky.social · 28/08/2025
'Primus becomes the first member of the STB, or its predecessor, the Interstate Commerce Commission, to be dismissed. The ICC was created in 1887.' www.trains.com/pro/regulato...
trains.com
Trump fires Surface Transportation Board member Primus - Trains
WASHINGTON — President Donald J. Trump yesterday fired Surface Transportation Board member Robert E. Primus, breaking a 2-2 partisan split at the rail regulator while leaving it two members short of f...
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David Zipper @davidzipper.bsky.social · 28/08/2025
There’s a widespread myth that Americans hate traffic cameras. It’s simply not true. On the contrary, researchers have consistently found that Americans broadly support using automatic enforcement to curb crashes. And for good reason: It works. Me, in Bloomberg 🧵
bloomberg.com
Automated Traffic Enforcement Is More Popular Than You Think
Cameras that ticket drivers who run red lights and speed are effective and widely popular with city residents. So why are they banned in so many places?
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Aaron W. Gordon @agordon.me · 25/08/2025
Cars are getting more expensive. People take out longer loans to afford them. Longer loans means more total interest cost, adding thousands of dollars to the already expensive car. And when they go to trade it in, they find they still owe more than the car is worth. www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
bloomberg.com
Cars Are So Expensive That Buyers Need Seven-Year Loans
They make monthly payments manageable but add thousands to the car’s total cost.
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Aaron W. Gordon @agordon.me · 22/08/2025
It was only a year and a half ago that Hochul sent the National Guard to the subway because crime.
nbcnews.com
Gov. Kathy Hochul sending National Guard members to New York City subways to combat ongoing crime
“No one heading to their job or to visit family or go to a doctor appointment should worry that the person sitting next to them possesses a deadly weapon,” she said.
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Nolan Hicks @ndhapple.bsky.social · 20/08/2025
Update confirms McGuinness is in the coming indictments
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Aaron W. Gordon @agordon.me · 20/08/2025
I'm reading an oral history of the great depression and two things stand out: 1. Nearly every interviewee is amazed in retrospect there wasn't a violent revolution 2. The class solidarity, through small gestures of goodwill and aid, did so much to reinforce humanity's decency and ward off loneliness
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Hell Gate *subscribe today!* @hellgatenyc.com · 20/08/2025
If you see Hell Gate’s $20 Dinner Official Selection sticker in the window, then you know it’s for real. 👍 Keep your eyes peeled. 🧐
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Aaron W. Gordon @agordon.me · 20/08/2025
ICYMI: NYC has three commuter railroads. Two of them run (more or less) fine. One does not. Read our data investigation into NJ Transit, using live location data from more than 190,000 trains. www.bloomberg.com/graphics/202...
bloomberg.com
NJ Transit Is NYC’s Least Reliable Commuter Rail — By a Long Shot
An analysis of real-time train data shows its passengers face major service disruptions at six times the rate of riders on other NYC commuter railways.
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Bloomberg News @bloomberg.com · 19/08/2025
An analysis of real-time train data shows its passengers face major service disruptions at six times the rate of riders on other NYC commuter railways.
bloom.bg
NJ Transit Is NYC’s Least Reliable Commuter Rail — By a Long Shot
An analysis of real-time train data shows its passengers face major service disruptions at six times the rate of riders on other NYC commuter railways.
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Marie Patino @mariepastora.bsky.social · 19/08/2025
NJ Transit is much worse than all other commuter rails in the NYC area. @agordon.me and @suryamattu.com collected and analyzed many weeks of transit feeds to quantify how bad (and it includes angry emojis). www.bloomberg.com/graphics/202...
bloomberg.com
NJ Transit Is NYC’s Least Reliable Commuter Rail — By a Long Shot
An analysis of real-time train data shows its passengers face major service disruptions at six times the rate of riders on other NYC commuter railways.
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Aaron W. Gordon @agordon.me · 19/08/2025
brb updating my bio
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Aaron W. Gordon @agordon.me · 19/08/2025
What happens when government disinvests from public transit? Commutes get longer & more frustrating. A NJ Transit case study from me, @suryamattu.com and @mariepastora.bsky.social : www.bloomberg.com/graphics/202...
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Aaron W. Gordon @agordon.me · 19/08/2025
NJ Transit's official data makes it difficult to tell just how bad it is. So @suryamattu.com and I spent three months collecting the raw location data for more than 190,000 trains on NJT, Metro-North, and LIRR. Then @mariepastora.bsky.social made the graphics to show you. The answer: Very bad.
bloomberg.com
NJ Transit Is NYC’s Least Reliable Commuter Rail — By a Long Shot
An analysis of real-time train data shows its passengers face major service disruptions at six times the rate of riders on other NYC commuter railways.
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