Old AmrapinVA

^^ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equals_sign When you use the equal sign you mean equality. Each symbol/article/number/phrase linking the equal sign are the same thing. There's no dancing around it, unless we want to rewrite all our math books. There are other symbols available for "almost equal". Sorry, nerdy math/science guy here. You can send this off-topic hell. :)

I believe you'd get your ass kicked all the way the Medina County if anyone caught you dipping when I was growing up. Parma had lots and lots of smokers (including myself) back in the free wheeling 80's and early 90's, but dipping was a one way ticket to being called Jethro and asked if you sleep with your sister/cousin/niece, etc.

City Island might be the coolest secret of NYC. The diversity of people that live and shop there is worth the trip alone. Mr. NYC, have you ever glimpsed the boats that go to Hart Island? I'm assuming it's still a big "keep off" zone over there but it's amazing and somber stuff. One of the more fascinating stories of New York.

I agree that British, along with Virgin Atlantic, are representative of the best European carriers. But even with Sir Rick at the helm of VA they're not quite in the elite category with such airlines as Asiana, Qatar, Cathay Pacific or Singapore Airlines. I'm not alone in this thinking, Skytrax/Zagat, etc. pretty much rate the Middle Eastern and Asian carriers as the overall best airlines for international service. Anyway, going back to the topic at hand, it's not surprising that most of the best recieved airlines by travelers are not having the financial issues facing many of their American/European carriers that are not rated highly. Another concern is that with oil at $130/bbl it may be too late for them to upgrade services and catch up to compete. So for many carriers it's either turn into an international version of Southwest without the hedging and streamling of aircraft, or languish somewhere in the middle and hope that fuel prices come down. Either way, it's bad news for carriers like Alitalia, United, Air France-KLM, etc.

Actually, if you have 8 full-fare seats purchased in first class, you could pay off that bill. So it's not as mindboggling as one would think. The trick is getting people to pay for premium services. American and European carriers are nickel-and-diming themselves straight into bankruptcy. They need to wake up, or the only carriers left will be in Asia and the Middle East

You can non-stop to Nashville on Southwest. I believe that NW will still keep their Cleveland flight(s) to Memphis. Although, I thought they were yanking theirs for the CAL service. I can't remember. Austin will definitely be a one-hopper now.

Good luck to you, there's still alot of govt. jobs out here for the taking! Peabody, Reston has changed quite a bit. They've built alot of mid-rises around Reston Town Center. And there's alot of low-to-mid rise office space that has popped up from the Tech boom. It's a strange place, because you have a very urban 6-10 block area surrounded by a strip mall and 10-lane highway in Reston Pkwy. Then you have alot of general suburban office buildup next to a very large freeway in VA 267. The Silver/Dulles line might shore up and urbanize that area a little better, but it's going to be difficult because the stop will be in the median of VA 267. You're right though, it's definitely the most urban of the outer burbs, by a mile.

In the grander scheme of things, this isn't really that bad. They just yanked the expansion for the most part. Hell I was surprised only seasonal San Diego was yanked from the west coast. EWR lost a TATL, and really Houston got the big screw, IMHO with a 7 percent reduction in capacity. Cleveland still keeps seasonal London and Paris, and a fighting chance to get those smaller flights back. Wait and see what gets chopped from Cincinnati and Memphis in 18 months with the DL/NWA merger in full swing (look at Pittsburgh, now)...trust me, Cleveland folks wont be too complaining much. The state should get whatever money they put into the expansion back, though.

You should see Annandale today. It still has the sprawled out housing stock, with the good-'ole boy neighborhoods but almost everything on Little River Turnpike is filled with Korean businesses. It's kinda surreal. You need to pay the personal property tax on the car, but it's been reduced to around 25% of orignial levels. You don't wanna drive if you work near Clarendon though. Buy something affordable near the Metro. The car will be a headache.

Most of the people I have met who were born and raised in the area live in the outer sprawl. It's not an ideological postion, it's a financial one. Until the region can come to grips with placing safe affordable housing near mass transit it will never be a truly urban center like Chicago, Tokyo or New York. As for Arlington, it has sprawl too. The land north of the Orange Line should be far more dense than it is (North Arlington). You shouldn't live 2 miles from downtown DC and 5 minutes from Rosslyn and yet have a McLean suburban style neighborhood. It's ridiculous. I will say this, most Washingtonians are far more like Southerners than East Coasters (including Baltimore). Locals even called it a quiet Southern city into the 70's. When the Beltway was built in the 1960's a vast majority of the land that was cleared was farms.

That US data was certainly positive. There plenty of other factors that have been used to increase price during this period too: The formation Tropical Storm Arthur in the Bay of Campeche. Data indicating Chinese short-term economic growth isn't going to stall but is likely to increase at current rates. Continued violence and threats to production in Nigeria. Somehow, three weeks ago, all three of these factors would have jacked oil prices higher. Now, it dosen't matter anymore because the US matters more than China. I'm not saying there is any collusion, but it's very convienient. We'll see what shakes out from the investigation.

Two thoughts... Since CFTC announcement that it would investigate the rise in oil prices, oil prices have dropped 10% in a matter of around 10 biz days. So to say speculators aren't affecting the market may be a bit premature. Odd time for a market correction, IMHO. Airlines can post a profits at $100+/barrel. I bet Emirates could operate at $250/barrel. RyanAir CEO said his company could break even at $135/barrel. Allegiant primarilly buys spot market fuel and posted a profit when fuel was between $85-110/barrel. Ironically, alot of the first airlines to fall are those catered to business travel. Silverjet being the latest. The worldwide airline industry is too dynamic right now to say there is a magic number for all carriers.

Just a few thoughts.... $1500 seems very reasonable for Northern VA. The collapse of the housing market here has added thousands of new renters, so while rental supply is up, demand is even higher. I personally know that rental properties prices around Tysons Corner are up 20-40% over the last 2 years. Not the best time to rent in and around DC and I suspect that we have at least another year of signifcant rent increases. If you want to live on the cheap, and live in an urban neighboorhood with quality rental properties, I'd suggest the Brookland/Catholic University area. It's not nearly as exciting as Mt. Pleasant or Adams Morgan but the properties in there are close to the metro and offer lots of different choices. You'll have to switch out at Metro Center to get to Clarendon though. I can't lie, crime is an issue in general in DC and a larger problem west of Rock Creek Park in NW/NE. You need to use caution and common sense to live in that area. It's improving but it has some fits and starts with trouble, expecially in the summer. That being said, I think it's a great diversified area that's got some awesome townhomes on the cheap. If you want to live on the cheap in Virginia. Good luck. Alexandria might have a few properties. Falls Church is very expensive, due to the schools. You could commute from BFE to the Orange Line in Vienna, but then you'd be living large in the super large bland 'burbs that surround the Beltway communities. Annandale has resonable rents, but you'll need either a car...or do the Metrobus/Metrorail thing. My advice, you should stay in Ohio. Seriously. I moved out here for personal, not financial reasons 15 years ago. It's getting worse here, not better. The traffic, the air quality, the lack of truly affordable housing, the miles of sprawl are a few of the many factors of why population growth is slowing down rather dramatically over the past 3 years. I think the silly "recession proof" idea of the DC area will be dead before the decade is out the way things are headed here. If you have a very solid job though, go for it. Good luck to you though!

And they also have a history of going down and staying down. The Cavs winning 4 straight after dropping the first two to the Pistons last year in the ECF comes to mind. How is it that it's hell freezing over for the Pistons? They have a long and proud history of blowing home games. Actually, I'm pretty p!ssed now, 'cause if someone, anyone, outside of LBJ and Delonte West shows up in Game 7 against the Celtics, I think the Cavs make it to the Finals again. Detroit looks as lethargic as ever. Anyway, aren't the Pistons in Michigan? UrbanMichigan.com needs all the help it can get. :-D

There's no way to get off I-74 and reconnect with I-275 somewhere else and vice versa? Or is that even worse?

Hard to believe that a company who raises prices and cuts back on service can be expected to retain their current profit levels. The entire international airline industry is enduring a massive market correction. Unfortuantely, until the process is complete, it will the consumer who will continue to suffer. j3shafer, your statement is not true. The entire international airline industry is not enduring a massive market correction. ANA, Singapore, Emirates all posted very large profits while still being able to sell cheap seats in econony class on international and domestic routes. It might help if the US and EU carriers actually improved service along the lines of non-Western carriers to attract more business pax to offset fuel costs. Clearly the Western carriers are more concerned about acting like bigger versions of RyanAir and Southwest than coming to terms with their problems of losing business passengers who are still willing to pay more even in times of $130/barrel oil if the quality remains. Legacy carriers attempting to offer cheap flights and crappy overall operations clearly isn't working at this point.

Cle, how long was it? I did IAD-PEK, that was 14 going and 13 coming back. I can't imagine having to transfer after that flight.

The article itself has that small town or 'burb, cranky old person, "Only smart people shop at Dollar General" kinda feel. That's a shame for a paper with a fairly large circulation serving an area of 2+ million people. Well, the PD is gonna earn their Pulitzer this year with that crack staff! :lol:

$14K! That's laughable. Hell, I know people that have spent $14K just to fly one person to Tokyo-Narita. If that were ex-DC mayor-for-life Marion Barry....it'd been $114K. I don't believe than man or his entourage ever flew coach either. The PD folks are morons. The Mayor and his staff deserve kudos for making this flight possible when many said it wouldn't happen (including myself).

DL is pulling CAK-CVG service on July 1.

I agree, MTS. Cleveland is large enough market that it should have year-round London, Paris and Frankfurt and/or Amsterdam. This is even more true now that Pittsburgh has lost all its international service switching from a US Airways hub to a focus city. The only thing holding a real international expansion back is a lack of quality facilites to truly serve widebody aircraft at CLE. I'm hoping that when the 787 comes on line for CAL enough facilities upgrades will be in place to see some larger international expansion. As for the NW gate space, when the merger is complete, either NW's space in C or Delta's space in B is gonna go. There's going to be extra space for something. The whole point of this merger is to reduce service, I would think. That being said, SW may try to take the extra B space. Even still, one could build a corridor in the lower level from the A gates to the B gates for FIS flights I suppose. Kinda like the secure corridors of the B concourse at IAD. Again, we'll see.

Possible bidders for the ailing US and EU legacy carriers over the next few years? http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080430/earns_japan_ana.html?.v=1 http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080430/wl_mideast_afp/uaeemiratesaviationcompany_080430151835

While the facility improvement issue is a bummer, it still looks like CAL is going forward with its operational expansion of CLE irregardless. Although some new destinations have been shelved, like LAN and AZO, I'm assuming Hopkins will still see the increase in mainline flights in 2009 after the RJ expansion this year. Hopefully, PDX and a year-round SAN are on the horizion, maybe even a few Latin American/Carribean destinations on some 737-800's. Who knows? Maybe AMS is still a possiblity although the possibility of a CO/BA/AA alliance makes that less likely. All in all, compared to what's happening to PIT and CVG, I'd say this news isn't really that bad. Although, the customs facilites upgrade is needed when CAL eventually replaces 757's with 787's. That is more than a few years away at this point, though. CAL could start another European destination out of CLE even with the current facility, just make it holiday seasonal as opposed to summer. Or build a temporary FIS facility under wherever NW gives up their gates after the merger. We'll see.

Chicago, Tokyo, McConnelsville! Who knew? :D It's an Appalachia river town with a small old town district (you'd have to be blind to get lost in it) that is mostly surrounded by car dealerships and fast food joints. No disrespect to those folks, but again it is what it is. There are probably at least 500 "McConnelsvilles" spread throughout central Appalachia. Why this place is now fantastically urban is beyond me. Don't get testy. It's a nice town. :D

I haven't visited in a while but "fantastically urban" now includes places with Chevy dealerhsips 2 blocks from the center of town? :D I drove through there once 15 years ago and it is what it is, but it'd be monumentous stretch to call that town urban with the disproportionate amount of single family homes/strip malls and trailers surrounding the town center. I mean no disrespect to residents of McConnellsville at all, you've gotta be tough to live there and the fact they've still managed to keep the city center semi-functional in a county that has been in an economic recession for the last 30+ years says alot about the pride of the people in the area. Good for them, nice pics.