I think Alpert is being disingenuous; the interest in streetcar projects in DC is primarily for their real-estate development potential. He's fallen into a suite of ill-considered policy objectives on that front.

Given that WalkScore weights a tiny corner bodega with erratic hours as equivalent to a 24-hour supermarket, I am usually fairly skeptical of their metrics. While it does tell me whether or not any kind of amenities exist in a neighborhood within walking distance, it also tells me remarkably little about the quality of amenities in a neighborhood I haven't actually visited.

Oh God! I grew up in Norfolk and that is even more idiotic than I'm accustomed to with Hampton Roads Transit. ...Sorry for the strong language. Familiarity breeds contempt. This said, I presume "Wad" is probably right: in my experience, they have very extensive and very infrequent coverage.

All's well that ends well, I s'pose. And, um, forgive me for getting hung up on the most passing and least relevant detail, but what's this about the All Blacks? Are you a rugby fan? Do you play the sport, or have you?

I think there are other reasons for the utility of trolley buses, not least for fossil fuel or emissions reduction, but also, pointedly, traction. Wellington, Seattle and San Francisco all have very difficult terrain as far as cities go, and dense grids that disregard that terrain at least somewhat.

Did I draw maps of fictional cities when I was eight? Man, I still do that. (And, yes, of course this makes me even weirder.) I'll see what I can do with Newport. I'm having the same problems as others with getting the map to resolve in OpenOffice. Have you considered using GIMP to create a vector-based GIS?

Also, @Business: you have to spend six hundred million dollars on a stadium roof? You absolutely have to? What happened to those kids you were talking about?

I understand and sympathize with their desire for propriety in pronouncing Spanish place names, particularly in California where this is very messed-up, but so many news anchors that take great pains to pronounce, say, Nicaragua the right way will simply not concern themselves with the proper tonality of Mandarin names for people or places. Even pronouncing Japanese, which is much easier, is beyond many people. I don't want to be pretentious and say Tokyo as exactly like a native as possible, but I understand that a two-syllable pronunciation is both correct and not particularly difficult, while everyone insists on "Tokio" with three syllables. Same with Kyoto vs. "Kiyodo". I can sort of understand what makes the pronunciation of some languages a greater priority than others, but on the other hand, I really don't.