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Jake Berman

@lostsubways.com
5.8K followers 825 following 2.3K posts

Lawyer, historian, mapmaker. Transport + housing nerd. Californian living in New York. Adjunct Professor of Urban Planning @ Columbia. Wrote "The Lost Subways of North America". Get the book at lostsubways.com. Personal account.

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Jake Berman @lostsubways.com · 22/09/2026
BEST NYC SUBWAY LINES TO NAP ON, A RANKING 🧵 1. NQRW. Trains are roomy and usually pretty uncrowded, and the old trains with the orange seats have more seats than average, so you're more likely to get a place to have a nap. Also, the local is slow, so you're less likely to miss your stop
image of the nqrw bullets from the nyc subway
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Jake Berman @lostsubways.com · 19/09/2026
Okay, yes, the @mta.info Caardvark plushies are really cute.
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Jake Berman @lostsubways.com · 09/09/2026
This honestly sounds like a good case for the courts establishing a product liability doctrine for LLMs. (For the non-lawyers: if you make an unsafe thing, whether it's a car or a chainsaw, the maker is on the hook for damages caused by defective design and manufacturing.)
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Karlee @karlee.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
To quote @lostsubways.com, “this kind of ‘I AM THE WORLD EXPERT IN THIS’” stuff on Bluesky is great
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George Takei @georgetakei.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Sixty years ago today, the starship Enterprise launched and with it, a vision of the future where humanity had moved beyond its divisions. I was there at the beginning, and I can tell you...
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Elle Cordova @ellecordova.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
I am the very model of a modern day typographer A font take on the tune “Modern Major General” by Gilbert & Sullivan #typography #fonts #graphicdesign
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Jake Berman @lostsubways.com · 08/09/2026
In a lot of ways, the environmentalism of my parents' generation didn't ask anyone to sacrifice anything. People still drove (but it was a Prius), lived in the burbs (but with a beautiful garden), bought supermarket food (but bought organic). It was an aesthetic choice as much as anything. 🧵
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Jake Berman @lostsubways.com · 07/09/2026
@sickosfc.bsky.social is getting me into watching the English third division (Wimbledon vs. Bromley)
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Jake Berman @lostsubways.com · 07/09/2026
There's a few things going on here. 1) The very poorest renters just can't afford anything at all because there's no way for the market to provide it given existing cost structures. (30% of area median income is ~$35k a year, i.e., a single person making minimum wage.)
screenshot: the economics don't work for providing housing for minimum wage workers
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Jake Berman @lostsubways.com · 07/09/2026
Or, in other words, "bring back Jean Drapeau."
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Jake Berman @lostsubways.com · 06/09/2026
As I wrote in my own book, CEQA is used mostly as a weapon against environmentally friendly things like new transit, housing and bike lanes. Most CEQA litigation is meant to drive up the cost of construction, in the hope that legal delays will make things too expensive to build. It often works.
The centerpiece of the post– Freeway Revolt re-
forms was a state law called the California Envi-
ronmental Quality Act (CEQA, pronounced seek-
wha). Signed by future president Ronald Reagan in
1970, CEQA requires state and local governments
to study and mitigate potential environmental im-
pacts of government decisions. In theory, CEQA
is a look- before- you- leap law. In practice, it allows
anybody with enough free time to bring billion-
dollar public works projects and multimillion-
dollar apartment buildings to a halt, by claiming
that the government hasn’t studied a particular
issue enough. Anyone can bring a CEQA law-
suit and there are no consequences for bringing
frivolous CEQA suits. Unsurprisingly, abuse of
the process is rife. In 2020, nearly half of all new
housing in the state of California was the target of
CEQA litigation. As my old professor Troy McK-
enzie used to say, “procedure is the last refuge of
the scoundrel.”
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Jake Berman @lostsubways.com · 06/09/2026
go bears
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Jake Berman @lostsubways.com · 06/09/2026
downgrade a movie: star schlep: the voyage home
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Jake Berman @lostsubways.com · 05/09/2026
a+ thread.
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Jake Berman @lostsubways.com · 05/09/2026
this is what historians mean when they say "the past is a foreign country."
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Jake Berman @lostsubways.com · 04/09/2026
A lot of California's housing and transit crises could be fixed by forcing plaintiffs to post a bond when suing. If the plaintiff is on the hook for the cost of delay, that calculus changes. Most of these lawsuits are in bad faith anyway.
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Jake Berman @lostsubways.com · 04/09/2026
Solid session for California housing reform, but the white whale is still condo defect reform.
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Henry Grabar @henrygrabar.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
my takeaway: the northeast really needs some interurban-style mass transit investment. there's a non-zero number of people in the NEC who own cars just to go away for the weekend! www.nytimes.com/2026/09/02/t...
nytimes.com
An East Coast Summer Vacation, All by Public Transportation
A self-described transit romantic set out to visit prime summer destinations using only public transportation. Would getting there really be half the fun?
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Jake Berman @lostsubways.com · 03/09/2026
At the risk of wading into The Discourse, having a car is a necessity in most parts of America because we built our country that way. That said, it wasn't because of the GM streetcar conspiracy theory. It was about the unintended consequences of early-century progressive reforms. 1/🧵
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Jake Berman @lostsubways.com · 03/09/2026
Does anyone have a good history of how union stations in the US and Canada were managed, and whether the union station companies were actually good at coordinating multiple competing railways?
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Jake Berman @lostsubways.com · 02/09/2026
The politics of regional transit are brutal. The oldest, densest neighborhoods where transit would be most effective usually don't have the pull to get it. Ironically, the old private transit monopoly (the Denver Tramway) was great at this, because the Tramway just followed the money.
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Nolan Hicks @ndhapple.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
Not to turn this into a policy discussion (BUT LET'S): - The No. 1 driver of the cost of living crisis downstate is housing, and you'll never guess which part of downstate is building the least (*cough* Long Island *cough*)
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Jake Berman @lostsubways.com · 02/09/2026
The Transport Workers Union is trying to keep the subway system in the 19th century. In Chicago, DC, Toronto and SF, the same person who drives the train also opens the doors. Tokyo is in the process of converting its two-man lines to one-man operation as we speak.
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Jake Berman @lostsubways.com · 02/09/2026
There's a huge opportunity for Kroenke here to redevelop the parking lots around Angel Stadium, and it's already a public transit hub. He already did this once with the Hollywood Park redevelopment, and the demand is certainly there.
angel stadium from the air relative to the train stationhollywood park redevelopment
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Jake Berman @lostsubways.com · 02/09/2026
Nice try, UCF, but still not as cool as the Tokyo Giants' individual player bento box specials. (pic from longweekendwanderlust.com)
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Aden Y @adenyacobi.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
The people of Philadelphia yearn for more transit @lostsubways.com
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Jake Berman @lostsubways.com · 02/09/2026
They ended up opening up the balcony as standing room only. If I had to guess, we ended up with ~250 people. Thank you to @freelibrary.bsky.social for hosting!
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Jake Berman @lostsubways.com · 01/09/2026
My talk is tonight! Come and say hi!
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Jake Berman @lostsubways.com · 01/09/2026
woah. they finally solved the tupac murder?
abc7.com
Jury convicts Duane Davis of first-degree murder for 1996 killing of Tupac Shakur
A jury found Duane "Keffe D" Davis guilty of orchestrating the 1996 killing of Tupac, marking the first conviction in a case that has gripped fans for decades.
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Jake Berman @lostsubways.com · 31/08/2026
West Portal is a rich neighborhood 25 minutes from downtown SF, and it has three Muni Metro lines. This should be a no-brainer.
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Jake Berman @lostsubways.com · 31/08/2026
This is completely insane. 75% of Suffolk County and 10% of Nassau County have no sewers? These are two of the richest counties in America - Suffolk has 1.5 million people and Nassau has 1.3 million. What the hell are they doing on that slender, riotous island?
longislandpress.com
Long Island’s never-ending search for a better sewage system
Exactly where you live on Long Island may directly affect the impact you have on the environment.
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Stephen Jacob Smith @stephenjacobsmith.com · 31/08/2026
A02586 is a pretty aggressive density deregulation bill – it sets a minimum lot size of 1,200 sq. ft. for all cities and villages (which includes most of NYC’s inner suburbs), and 5,000 sq. ft. for towns with water/sewer nyassembly.gov/leg/?default...
nyassembly.gov
Bill Search and Legislative Information | New York State Assembly
News and Information from the New York State Assembly
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Jake Berman @lostsubways.com · 31/08/2026
I'm giving a free talk tomorrow in Philly at 6pm at the Parkway Central Library - see you there?
libwww.freelibrary.org
Events: SEPTA: For the People
SEPTA! Love it, hate it, learn more about it! Join cartographer, writer, artist, and lawyer Jake Berman to delve into the what, how, and why of SEPTAs subway and regional rail lines. Jake Berman is th...
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Eileen Grench, OLY @grenchpan.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
NEW🚨 Jose Chajón Raxón died less than 4 days after being arrested by ICE in Passaic, NJ. He was one of 75 people taken from his town in July — a 4,000%+ surge in arrests during the peak week. Fear has transformed the majority-Latino city, but also fueled resistance. documentedny.com/2026/08/28/p...
documentedny.com
Violent ICE Raid in New Jersey Sent Dozens to Detention and One Immigrant to His Death
Immigration sweeps have upended Passaic, NJ, with videos showing federal agents arresting dozens of people on the street and from their homes, including at least one U.S. citizen.
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Blair Lorenzo / The Fox and the City @thefoxandthecity.com · 28/08/2026
The Cuphandle: a scheme to make service planners cry and riders scratch their heads.
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Jake Berman @lostsubways.com · 26/08/2026
A lot of agencies face these types of staffing shortages and then don't use it politically as a reason to push for labor-saving operational procedures, and that really has to change.
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Nolan Hicks @ndhapple.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
Craziest thing about Silicon Valley is that it’s nothing but single family homes and yet so many people struggle to touch grass.
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Jason Rabinowitz @airlineflyer.net · 20/08/2026
Every time I travel outside of NYC, somebody inevitably asks me "so, how is NYC under Mamdani?" or similar. The guy is nothing more than what appears to be a competent mayor doing competent mayor things, but they just assume he's releasing prisoners from Rikers or doing batman villain shit.
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Jake Berman @lostsubways.com · 24/08/2026
Weak sauce from the Mayor. No sense of vision at all.
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Jake Berman @lostsubways.com · 23/08/2026
New public works are a common thread for autocrats that secure their power. Duterte in the Philippines invested huge sums in roads and transit. Chavez in Venezuela expanded transit, including the gondola systems to Caracas' hillside slums. Erdogan in Turkey built subways and high speed rail.
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Jake Berman @lostsubways.com · 23/08/2026
anyone going to Climate Week NYC have suggestions for panels I should sign up for?
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Dr. Jimbosaur, Esq. @jimbosaur.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
The "Don't Fire The Nazi" letter and its defenders are trying to make the case that Cofnas's suspension is the equivalent of "ban Marxists from the Econ dept." and not "ban Flat-Earthers from the Astronomy dept." Academic freedom doesn't req. treating already-debunked ideas as legit in perpetuity.
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Jake Berman @lostsubways.com · 20/08/2026
This is, of course, another example of "the usual Seattle process of seeking consensus through exhaustion." (this quote is from 43 years ago!)
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Jake Berman @lostsubways.com · 20/08/2026
There's a lot of American colleges, especially regional private schools, that rely on international students to remain solvent. Between this and the demographic cliff, it's going to be ugly.
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tweety fish @sifu.tweety.fish · 20/08/2026
I'm sorry but "a huge number of NYC cabs now are remaindered EVs running grey market software written by some dude in a garage" is the most cyberpunk thing I've ever heard
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Jake Berman @lostsubways.com · 20/08/2026
Mobile homes aren't fashionable, but they absolutely are cheap, adequate housing, in part because there's one national mobile home code.
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Jake Berman @lostsubways.com · 19/08/2026
I just can't understand why a man would advertise that he's spending tens of thousands of dollars on a matchmaker so he can strike out with women.
nytimes.com
Forty First Dates and Still Searching
As he looks for The One, Joseph Pascaretta is investing in pricey matchmaking services. Will it help him find love?
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Jake Berman @lostsubways.com · 18/08/2026
As both Stephen and the author point out, the one reform that has *unequivocally* worked is the ADU (granny flat) law, and the granny flat law has exactly zero strings attached. 1/🧵
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Jake Berman @lostsubways.com · 17/08/2026
static.klipy.com
Tina Fey: I Ain't Even Mad
ALT: Tina Fey: I Ain't Even Mad
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