As am I! My time living and being involved on the East Side has humbled me greatly.

The invitation is genuine! 10-noon Saturdays at Em Tea. Lately, it's been a pretty packed agenda (using that term VERY loosely), but I'd love to talk to you about this project or anything else you're into.

You should come to my office hours and give me a chance to correct some of the incorrect assumptions you are making here 🙂

I have done many projects on DOT facilities over the years. The idea that they would approach a community organization (already, lol) to come up with a unique, never been done PARK PROJECT (lol, lmao) is patently ridiculous.

This is a misconception: ROCC did not come up with the plan WITH DOT. They FORCED the DOT to look at the cap alternative.

The DOT would NEVER voluntarily just do a project this complicated. They build roads. They wanted to just abate and fix the retaining walls and leave.

Both groups are mixed between east side residents and at-large city residents. ESPC is A LOT louder, younger, and better funded.

ESPC is the group that filed the lawsuits and stopped the project that ROCC fought for for 50 years. The groups do not talk, and I don't see that changing anytime soon.

ROCC (Restore Our Communities Coalition) was formed to advocate for a project that improved the condition. They felt the cap was the best chance to get funded (✅), avoid suburban opposition (✅), and get community support (mixed?).

The East Side Parkways Coalition is much, much newer.

I don't blame you for the confusion. There is A LOT of noise on this issue. It would be a mistake to say that any group of people is fully aligned on what to do. It depends on who you ask, when you ask them, and how you frame the question.

I would like to see the Kensington infrastructure from downtown to the airport repurposed for public transit. Many transit projects fail because they aren't built where people already live.

So many neighborhoods are already organized around it. It is a Golden opportunity.

The project to "cap" the 33 was conceived of and advocated for over nearly 50 years by black residents of the East Side. I care deeply about honoring their efforts. I don't care for thruways, but I care deeply about making sure the amazing people who got this project on the table are not forgotten.

I am not against the full removal of the 33, but it will not happen. And investment in social infrastructure on the East Side should not depend on "preservation" at all. It should be about "repairation", and its form should take whatever the community wants, not a perfect vision of the past.

I doubt the signing was McD, but the lack of effective usage may have been. Poona Ford was a great Beane signing that didn't mesh with McD's vision and was a health scratch much of the time.

It's signings like those where I buy into the "alignment" talk.

I always prefer to think of player salaries as % of cap- it gets too easy to sensationalize "millions of dollars" otherwise. When teams make BILLIONS, even bad players deserve a slice, IMO.

Having said that, nearly 2% of the salary cap is too much for that level of production. Terrible signing.

At least of those names gotta be completely made up.