John McLaren
@johnmclaren
Economist, classical music nerd, and family man.
This coyote wandered around on our block last night. It looks terribly thin to me.
To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Charlottesville Downtown Mall, here is some video I took on June 20, 2025.
Biggest losses are in (1) agriculture, probably because of loss of workers; (2) construction, arguably because of loss of team members with specialized skills (losses are far larger than the undocumented share of the labor force); and (3) Arts/Recreation, prob. because customers are scared. (2/3)
Passing through Storrs, CT, we had a look at the Benton Museum of Art at the University of Connecticut. Surprised to see a work inspired by Charlottesville! Specifically, our late and unlamented Robert E. Lee statue.
Anyone else get this hilariously disingenuous pro-data-center spam text?
My own pitiful attempt to respond to those folks. The animation does not always work.
My version: tower with Martin Luther and St. Mary’s Church, associated with a horrific 13th century antisemitic massacre.
I was inspired to grab the analogous graph for housing starts for Charlottesville. I am flummoxed. Can anyone tell me — is that giant spike for 2025 real, or some kind of data-entry error?
It’s a bold marketing strategy to associate your brand with an extinction-level cataclysmic event.
Folks, I think I have found peak Nextdoor.com. I posted information about public comment on the Swords Into Plowshares project (sipcville.com), and I got this amazing piece of gratuitous antisemitism. (By the way, I'm not even Jewish, not that it matters.)
Accidentally took a picture of the ceiling. Doesn’t this look like some scary dystopian sci-fi setting?
Not a lot of more joyous theater experiences one can have than the American Shakespeare Center in Staunton,VA.
It always amazes me the amazing glimpses of natural beauty I sometimes come across within our city. Found this stream while canvassing in Charlottesville today.
A Charlottesville friend sent me this screenshot today (Friday, February 6). Anyone hear anything like this going on?
Thanks for this. Actually informative and balanced. It created a spirited discussion on Reddit: www.reddit.com/r/Charlottes... And this gem is found in the comments.
This bias is a distortion caused by the electoral college. And note: People tell you that the EC protects small states. That is rejected by the data. The swing state bias is *much* stronger for *large* swing states. Small swing states show no systematic benefit at all. (6/6)