Travel Blog: News and Briefs
A Century’s Worth of Change in our Favorite Public Spaces
by Eva Holland | 08.03.10 | 4:55 PM ET
The Traveler’s Notebook has put together a fascinating collection of then-and-now photo pairings, showing tourist classics like the Pyramids of Giza or London’s Tower Bridge both 100 years ago and today.
Naturally, the photo essay sent me straight to Google to see how some other favorite spots have changed. Here’s Dawson City’s Front Street, first in its 1898 Gold Rush heyday and then as it is today:
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Yahoo! BuzzWhat’s Going on With the U.S.‘s ‘Global Joke’ of a Rail System?
by Michael Yessis | 08.03.10 | 2:10 PM ET
In his State of the Union address, President Barack Obama announced $8 billion in grants for high-speed rail. So where’s that money going and what progress has the country made on its much needed rail upgrade? Michael Grunwald investigates:
But while $8 billion is more than four times the annual federal subsidy for Amtrak, it is just one-eighth of last year’s federal spending on highways. And at a time when our national credit card is already maxed out, this down payment is only a tiny fraction of what’s needed to establish a competitive new mode of travel. China plans to invest more than $300 billion in high-speed rail by 2020, and Spain expects to complete a more than $200 billion system the same year in a country the size of Texas.
Meanwhile, the distribution of the Obama money—$3.5 billion to start new lines for bullet trains in Florida and California, plus $4.5 billion for sundry bridge and tunnel repairs, track straightening and other upgrades to existing Amtrak lines nationwide—has sparked intense debates even among rail advocates. Why spread cash around the country like peanut butter instead of targeting a few showcase projects? Shouldn’t the seed money go to game-changing new bullet routes rather than help for old Amtrak lines that bleed cash, share track with slow-moving freight and can never exceed 110 m.p.h.? Why not focus on Amtrak’s popular and profitable service between Boston and Washington, where Acela trains—now with wi-fi!—already reach speeds of 150 m.p.h. but average only half that? And how exactly does Ohio’s proposed 3-C corridor linking Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati at an average speed of only 39 m.p.h. and a top speed of 79 m.p.h.—first achieved by American trains 180 years ago—qualify as “high speed”?
Photos: Adventures in Airport Contraband
by Eva Holland | 08.02.10 | 3:49 PM ET
The New York Times Magazine offers up a selection of photos from Taryn Simon’s forthcoming photography book, “Contraband,” shot over five days at JFK. The seized items range from the predictable—pharmaceuticals, bongs, “mixed fruits”—to the truly bizarre: Cow-hoof bottle, anyone? (Via Kottke)
Mexican Border ‘at its Ugliest Right Now’
by Jim Benning | 08.02.10 | 12:17 PM ET
That’s the assessment of Mark Lacey in the New York Times. He appears to have visited Tijuana and Ciudad Juarez for his report.
[A]s I cross back and forth at some of the border’s most troubled points, I find that even a journalist faces scrutiny going both ways. American authorities grilling those entering the United States wonder just what an American could possibly be doing south of the border in this climate. And entering Mexico elicits surprise as well from the American inspectors who now regularly stop southbound cars, looking for gun traffickers and money launderers.
“You sure you want to go down there?” one of them said to me recently.
As I noted a few months ago, Tijuana’s Revolution Avenue, once hopping with American visitors, looks more like a tourist ghost town these days.
What We Loved This Week: D.C. From the Air, the San Diego Zoo and ‘Newport State of Mind’
by World Hum | 07.30.10 | 5:21 PM ET
Michael Yessis
My view from seat 22A on American Airlines flight 1442 during the final approach into Reagan National Airport Tuesday evening. Stunning.
How Korean Tacos Became the Hot Cross-Cultural Meal
by Michael Yessis | 07.30.10 | 3:59 PM ET
The Kogi Korean BBQ truck is just part of the story. John T. Edge gets to the roots of the trend in the New York Times:
Cecilia Hae-Jin Lee, a native of Seoul, raised in Southern California by parents who ran a bodega that catered to a Mexican clientele, said the Mexican-Korean culinary connection was born of proximity.
“The idea of Korean tacos isn’t new,” said Ms. Lee, who wrote a guidebook to South Korea and recently finished writing a Mexican cookbook. “Koreans run stores. They hire Mexican workers. They eat together.”
“Before, when Koreans ran out of rice and grabbed a tortilla to go with our kalbi, we called it lunch,” she added. “Now we call it a Korean taco.”
The dish may have honest folk roots, but many Korean taco makers across the country recognize Roy Choi, a Kogi founder, as the pioneering force.
Here’s the accompanying slideshow to make you jones for tacos.
How Bad is the Traffic in Moscow?
by Jim Benning | 07.30.10 | 1:01 PM ET
It’s so bad, one traffic expert told The New Yorker, that the city is “on the brink of transportational collapse.”
The new issue has an in-depth look at Moscow’s traffic woes. The story is available only to subscribers, but here’s an accompanying video:
Time Makes ‘The Case Against Summer Vacation’
by Michael Yessis | 07.29.10 | 12:11 PM ET
David Von Drehle’s argument focuses on summer break for students, but touches on the educational value of travel:
Deprived of healthy stimulation, millions of low-income kids lose a significant amount of what they learn during the school year. Call it “summer learning loss,” as the academics do, or “the summer slide,” but by any name summer is among the most pernicious—if least acknowledged—causes of achievement gaps in America’s schools. Children with access to high-quality experiences can exercise their minds and bodies at sleep-away camp, on family vacations, in museums and libraries and enrichment classes. Meanwhile, children without resources languish on street corners or in front of glowing screens.
Where’s the Perfect Presidential Vacation Spot?
by Eva Holland | 07.28.10 | 4:35 PM ET
Over at McSweeney’s, Chris White looks back at the presidential vacations of yore, and wonders where—in a much-changed America—today’s presidents should go. Here’s White:
We need something isolated, like an island. But not just any island. Martha’s Vineyard is easier on the Secret Service, but it comes at a terrible price: you are known as the kind of person who vacations in Martha’s Vineyard. Public opinion takes no vacations, and you cannot be a man of the people while throwing champagne in the face of the insolent butler who smudged your boat shoes. Harry Truman had the right idea, chilling out in earthier Key West—but there was much less vomiting and public nudity in Key West those days, even when Hemingway was in town.
Last summer, our own Tom Swick had a few presidential vacation suggestions of his own. (Via @travelerlauren)
Travel Weekly Tackles ‘the Ralph Nader of the Skies’
by Eva Holland | 07.28.10 | 3:53 PM ET
Travelers who’ve been following the fight for a Passengers’ Bill of Rights will probably recognize the name Kate Hanni—she’s one of the leading voices lobbying for an end to tarmac strandings and other issues. Travel Weekly has just published a meaty look at the activist, in which “current and former members of the group’s inner circle have criticized Hanni’s leadership, questioned her motives and impugned her credibility.”
The story includes everything from allegedly hacked email accounts to accusations of influence peddling on Capitol Hill.
The Onion: Data-Recording Parrot Recovered From Plane Wreckage
by Eva Holland | 07.28.10 | 12:53 PM ET
The Onion News Network has the scoop:
Catalonia Votes to Ban Bullfights
by Jim Benning | 07.28.10 | 12:41 PM ET
Or as the Spanish newspaper El País proclaimed in its headline, Cataluña prohíbe los toros.
The historic vote marks the first time a Spanish region has moved to ban the pastime. Reports the New York Times:
In many ways, however, the ban reflected less on the animal rights than on a political debate over Catalan identity and a push by local parties for greater independence from the rest of Spain.
That hasn’t stopped animal rights groups from claiming a victory.
New York City Bans Short-Term Holiday Rentals
by Eva Holland | 07.27.10 | 2:05 PM ET
Is it too soon to call it a trend? Three weeks after Paris announced a ban on short-term apartment rentals, New York City has followed suit, citing the same reason: a city-wide housing shortage.
The New York ban takes effect in May 2011. Meantime, here’s hoping Rome and London aren’t planning to join in, too.
The Big Picture’s Summer of Storms
by Eva Holland | 07.27.10 | 1:04 PM ET
The photography blog rounds up dramatic storm shots from the past few weeks, taken everywhere from Anchorage to Bangkok. We decided to get into the act, too—here’s a shot of a lightning strike over Jiujiang, in China’s Jiangxi province.
‘The Agnostic Cartographer’: Google Maps and Geopolitics
by Eva Holland | 07.26.10 | 5:21 PM ET
Washington Monthly takes a look at the latest geopolitical kerfuffle touched off by the web giant. This time around, it’s a disputed area on the India-Tibet border that suddenly appeared on Google Maps “sprinkled with Mandarin characters, like a virtual annex of the People’s Republic.” The Indian blogosphere was not amused.
Here’s writer John Gravois on why the nature of Google Maps makes it particularly prone to these sorts of international incidents:
Rather than produce one definitive map of the world, Google offers multiple interpretations of the earth’s geography. Sometimes, this takes the form of customized maps that cater to the beliefs of one nation or another. More often, though, Google is simply an agnostic cartographer—a peddler of “place browsers” that contain a multitude of views instead of univocal, authoritative, traditional maps. “We work to provide as much discoverable information as possible so that users can make their own judgments about geopolitical disputes,” writes Robert Boorstin, the director of Google’s public policy team.
Ironically, it is that very approach to mapping, one that is indecisive rather than domineering, that has embroiled Google in some of the globe’s hottest geopolitical conflicts. Thanks to the logic of its software and business interests, Google has inadvertently waded into disputes from Israel to Cambodia to Iran. It is said that every map is a political statement. But Google, by trying to subvert that truth, may just be intensifying the politics even more.
