It’s a sports thing in general. Each league is on a different streaming service, and then you have to pay astronomical cable bills as well.

The difference between now and thirty years ago is that every game is televised. That wasn’t true back in the day. You’d get most of them on HTS, but there’d always be a dozen or so that weren’t.

Colts left in 1984. Construction on Camden Yards started construction in 1989, opened in 1991. Ravens came back in 1996, M&T Bank Stadium (then Ravens Stadium) opened in 1998. That’s all within 15 years.

Problem was, first Baltimore had to reverse the town charter, did that in the fall of 1984. They couldn’t even hire someone to start thinking about the new stadium. Then they haggled over the site, then the design, then paying for it. I would say 5 years from “it is illegal for this city to spend money towards a stadium” to shovels in the ground is pretty good.

Actually, in Cleveland, he asked for $175m or else he would move the team. The initiative was put on the ballot, and then 48 hours before the vote, he announced he was moving the team anyways, no matter what happened with the money.

The ballot passed, and the team left, so the city used the money from the ballot to build a new stadium.

It wasn’t just a threat. The day before the team moved, a new bill passed the State Senate that would amend eminent domain laws to allow the state seize the team. It was being debated in the House of Delegates the next day, and was signed by the Governor within 48 hours of the team moving.

Furthermore, the city of Baltimore literally amended the town charter to make it illegal for the city to spend a penny on a new stadium.

The state refused to spend $25m on upgrades to memorial stadium on things like adequate plumbing, and then after the colts left spent $110m on Camden Yards, $200m on Ravens stadium, and a further $50m on “moving expenses” to help the Browns come from Cleveland all within 15 years.

It’s not too hard from Innovation Station, but there isn’t the best/safest infrastructure for bikes. It’s about a mile from the station to the trail, which you catch about 1/4 of a mile West of the Fairfax/Loudoun border.

I did have to sit near Havre de Grace for about 20 minutes last time.

I'm someone doing the reverse of this.

My wife and I go to NYC every December, and leave out in Loudoun. But now, we're about 1 mile from a metro, and we were able to take the Silver Line to Union Station to take a train up to Manhattan. It was great.

The trail is probably closest at Reston Town Center. but the ease of access might be better at Wiehle.

Actually, East Falls Church might be the closest metro to W&OD.

This is why I always take Amtrak to NYC instead of driving.

It might take an extra 20 minutes (or might not), and my time is limited by the train, but the Amtrak fare is usually cheaper than tolls and parking, and I can just veg and listen to whatever on my phone.

Lost in all this is the historical significance, that the trees were gifts from Japan to welcome peace between our countries. The first tree was planted by President Taft’s wife. Most of the original 1,800 Yoshimi Cherry trees are still alive, but more were propagated from the original trees to fill in along the rest of the Tidal Basin.

In fact, the original grove in Japan that our Cherry trees were taken from was damaged in WWII, so Japanese Arborists took cuttings from the DC trees to rebuild the grove in the early 1950s.

The Japanese gave another gift of cherry trees in the 1960s, and after a flood in the 1980s, DC gave more cuttings back to Japan. Cuttings are consistently passed back and forth from the original lineage of trees in order to ensure their genetic purity.

Two things:

Pent up demand because people couldn't drive down for a few years, and although there were some crowds, plenty of people did stay home

Also, the weather was fucking perfect this afternoon. Just gorgeous outside.

My wife and I did DC to NYC for $124 round trip, two people. If we drove to NYC, that would be more than parking alone, let alone the $50 in tolls and then gas on top of that. And the train is cheaper and less stressful.

Amtrak is dirt cheap if you plan more than a month in advance. Once trains start to fill up, the prices skyrocket and it is really expensive.

The NHL can't legally kick all of the Russians out of the league, it would be a massive violation of US labor law.

Because if you serve hard liquor, you have to maintain a 45%-55% food to mixed drink ratio (beer and wine don't count). You can't have a hole in the wall establishment that focuses on selling alcohol.

If you have a beer/wine only license, you have to sell $4,000 in food a month, no matter what. $2,000 of that must be in entrees.

Exceptions have been carved out over the years for entertainment venues, vineyards and breweries where alcohol is brewed on-premise, but these laws date back to the end of prohibition, and have basically stopped all dive bars from existing in Virginia.

Yes it is. All establishments in Virginia have to sell a certain percentage of their total sales in food if they want to have a liquor license. You can't just sell alcohol. There are also extreme limitations over happy hour specials and even advertising them. Until just a few years ago, you couldn't put a sign outside telling what happy hour specials an establishment had.

I'm sure it was more than just one.

You have segregated subway systems? Wow.

When Baltimore has a better trash mascot than you, you fucked up.

Before you schedule anything, it now looks like everything is ok for tomorrow, there was just an update.

Edit: link

Sure, but limited night bus schedules are a far cry from “trains going all over the country every 10 minutes 24 hours a day”

You're just making this up, right?

London's underground closes from midnight to 5 am, except for a select few lines that are open all night on weekends link.

Paris' metro operates from 5:30 am to 1:15 am during the week and until 2:15 on weekends. link

Barcelona is 5 am to to midnight Monday - Thursday, 5 - 2 am on Friday, and 24 hours on Saturday and public holidays only. link

Madrid is 6 am to 1:30 am every day. link

Lisbon is 6:30 am to 1 am link

Rome is 5:30 to 11:30 during the week and 5:30 to 1:30 on weekends. link

Berlin is 4 am to 1 am link

Munich is 4:15 to 1 am. link

Amsterdam is 6 am to 12:30 link

Brussels is 5:30 to midnight during the week, and 6 to midnight on weekends and holidays link

Copenhagen is the only place I can find with a subway system open all night, but it is a smaller subway system, only 3 lines, 30 something stops, and still only every 20 minutes during the night, not every 10. It is a newer system (they only had 2 lines and maybe a dozen stops when I was there in 2004). link

Stockholm runs 5 am to 1 am during the week. It is occasionally open all night on weekends, but not regularly. link

Prague runs 5 am to midnight link

Vienna runs from 5 am to midnight. link

I'm sure there is a small city that runs a small metro all night, but I can't find it at any major city in Europe. The only place I can find that runs all night is Denmark, but not at your "every 10 minutes" that you claim is the norm everywhere in Europe.

Pfft. Dart Drug for life.

Since Alamo came to One Loudoun, the only time I ever go anywhere else is if I can't see it anywhere else, or I'm taking my kids. I'm sorry you had this experience.

Toronto fans are openly racist as well, and the team doesn't care.