Rob Pitingolo (@robpitingolo.bsky.social)
Apparently everyone has forgotten that this happened only 2 years ago. Just remembering today for no particular reasons. www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2023/...
Weekday researcher. Nights and weekend tour guide. Sometimes "that guy from the internet" on the National Mall.
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view profile on Bluesky Rob Pitingolo (@robpitingolo.bsky.social)
Apparently everyone has forgotten that this happened only 2 years ago. Just remembering today for no particular reasons. www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2023/...
Rob Pitingolo (@robpitingolo.bsky.social) reply parent
As an added benefit you eliminate the problem of starting night matches at 7:00 PM such that the second match often has to be played in the middle of the night - a situation neither players nor fans appreciates.
Rob Pitingolo (@robpitingolo.bsky.social) reply parent
If five sets is critical then make most rounds out of 3, with the finals (and maybe semis) out of 5, for both men and women.
Rob Pitingolo (@robpitingolo.bsky.social)
Sports take havers never seem to understand that sports are a means of entertainment and most sports are already too long. Which is why MLB's game tightening strategies have been a huge success. www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...
Rob Pitingolo (@robpitingolo.bsky.social) reply parent
Based on your overindulgence, do you believe this "board" is a collaborative effort or one anonymous crank?
Rob Pitingolo (@robpitingolo.bsky.social) reply parent
I still maintain that this is all that matters to her and all decisions being made can be traced back to it.
Rob Pitingolo (@robpitingolo.bsky.social) reply parent
The alleged pro business paper has nothing to say about the fact that the local economy is getting wrecked on purpose. Ok.
Rob Pitingolo (@robpitingolo.bsky.social)
Does anyone ever think about the fact that the plot to 2 entire National Treasure movies could have been foiled if the archivist had just used any non-obvious password for access the Declaration of Independence? A special character. Couple of numbers. Strategic capitalization. Anything!
Rob Pitingolo (@robpitingolo.bsky.social)
Everyone who works in tourism anywhere in the USA needs to brace for impact because they've made clear their intent to copy this strategy everywhere. www.washingtonpost.com/travel/2025/...
Rob Pitingolo (@robpitingolo.bsky.social) reply parent
Stock market has become a wealth inequality index, in which case this is entirely consistent.
Rob Pitingolo (@robpitingolo.bsky.social) reply parent
It all makes sense when you filter every decision through the lens of: will today's actions make it more/less likely that my NFL stadium will get built.
Rob Pitingolo (@robpitingolo.bsky.social) reply parent
Simple litmus test: if my intern turned in this quality of work would I have to fire them?
Rob Pitingolo (@robpitingolo.bsky.social) reply parent
I am so confused about what the current talking point is. Is the city so dangerous we need thousands of them here or is crime "solved" so now they can do this?
Rob Pitingolo (@robpitingolo.bsky.social) reply parent
I am truly trying to understand who this is for? 20+ million people visit DC every year and surely know this is utter nonsense?
Rob Pitingolo (@robpitingolo.bsky.social) reply parent
Yeah the theme park analogy is especially galling since theme parks are places where people want to go spend their money having fun. Pretty much the opposite of what we've got going now.
Rob Pitingolo (@robpitingolo.bsky.social) reply parent
I unsubscribed to that trash newsletter six months ago when I thought they hit rock bottom. Turns it they weren't even close.
Rob Pitingolo (@robpitingolo.bsky.social) reply parent
Gave a tour the first weekend in June and it still haunts me that one of the guests said: "sorry if this is a dumb question but where the heck is everybody? I thought this was supposed to be your peak tourist season?"
Rob Pitingolo (@robpitingolo.bsky.social) reply parent
Took these photos on July 3rd. Typically one of the busiest dates of the year. This year: empty.
Rob Pitingolo (@robpitingolo.bsky.social)
Not sure how many locals like Fallows realize this but DC tourism has been in bad shape all summer. Lots of peak season dates have looked and felt dead.
Rob Pitingolo (@robpitingolo.bsky.social) reply parent
Seems pretty obvious at this point that they think calling something a distraction absolves them of any responsibility to deal with it.
Rob Pitingolo (@robpitingolo.bsky.social)
The fact that the owner of a certain Capitol Hill restaurant is hedging rather than gloating about how great this is gives it all away.
Rob Pitingolo (@robpitingolo.bsky.social) reply parent
Potentially going to get ever more goofy in 2-3 weeks when field trip season ramps back up.
Rob Pitingolo (@robpitingolo.bsky.social) reply parent
I keep thinking about how the image of a bunch of 22-year olds playing kickball under the watchful eye of 20 soldiers and 2 war vehicles would be pretty funny if it wasn't actually extremely serious.
Rob Pitingolo (@robpitingolo.bsky.social)
The two things DC tourists care about are WH tours and the National Mall Circulator bus. I'm not kidding when I say eliminating both in the same year might actually move some public opinion.
Rob Pitingolo (@robpitingolo.bsky.social)
There are a million school children who come to the Union Station food court every year on field trips to "enjoy a meal" and somehow make it out unscathed. What are we doing here.
Rob Pitingolo (@robpitingolo.bsky.social) reply parent
I'll give wonder a shot but am afraid this space will be the next Foxtrot (RIP).
Rob Pitingolo (@robpitingolo.bsky.social) reply parent
People think they are making clever commentary about how this is going to kill tourism but what they don't realize is that tourism was already cooked even before the militarization started.
Rob Pitingolo (@robpitingolo.bsky.social)
There is some deeply dark twisted irony that this could well be the scene next 4th of July on the day we are supposed to celebrate the 250th of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
Rob Pitingolo (@robpitingolo.bsky.social) reply parent
Exactly. And embarrassing themselves in the process TBH.
Rob Pitingolo (@robpitingolo.bsky.social)
What I want to know is. When a constituent contacts this guy's office for assistance with a Capitol tour or White House tour or whatever else, does he help? Or does he refuse service on the grounds that it's far too dangerous to be a tourist in DC?
Rob Pitingolo (@robpitingolo.bsky.social)
I still maintain that the biggest missed opportunity in that movie Don't Look Up was that they should have had the S&P 500 hitting record highs at the exact moment the comet struck. www.reuters.com/world/us/sp-...
Rob Pitingolo (@robpitingolo.bsky.social)
One thing that puzzles DC tourists right now is why we had to cancel the National Mall Circulator bus that they all loved because "we can't afford it" but can easily afford lots of other things.
Rob Pitingolo (@robpitingolo.bsky.social) reply parent
International inbound tourism is a trade surplus so to the extent you believe at face value the trade deficit/surplus is something to care about then we should trying to get as many international tourists here as possible.
Rob Pitingolo (@robpitingolo.bsky.social)
I don't know if the US Travel Association statement is missing context or what but the problem here isn't the "scope" of this program it's the implied messaging that if you're from another country the U.S. doesn't want your business or tourism dollars. www.reuters.com/world/us/us-...
Rob Pitingolo (@robpitingolo.bsky.social)
The thing that riles me about the BLS firing aside from the obvious thing is that last year Very Smart Political Thinkers insisted that normies actually hate it when you present them with good economic data if their vibes are bad.
Rob Pitingolo (@robpitingolo.bsky.social) reply parent
Devastating news. So sorry for your loss.
Rob Pitingolo (@robpitingolo.bsky.social) reply parent
Spring was much stronger than summer (possible recession indicator?). Student travel doesn't seem down at all so lots of tourist sites will still feel crowded during peak field trip seasons.
Rob Pitingolo (@robpitingolo.bsky.social) reply parent
Not DC specific but plenty of data that international tourism to the U.S. has collapsed. Not to zero but significantly. I am having the worst tour bookings since 2021.
Rob Pitingolo (@robpitingolo.bsky.social)
Frankly, this would explain exactly why the tourism industry has been in the tank all summer despite official numbers suggesting an otherwise fine economy. www.businessinsider.com/july-jobs-re...
Rob Pitingolo (@robpitingolo.bsky.social)
Just got my Pepco bill for June/July. Up 51% compared to the same period last year.
Rob Pitingolo (@robpitingolo.bsky.social)
Traffic is such a funny concept because people will be like "we sure do love our cars here in [city] but we despise every second we have to be in them." www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/202...
Rob Pitingolo (@robpitingolo.bsky.social) reply parent
If you believe a huge amount of damage is done by a tiny minority of drivers then maybe those AG lawsuits are working?
Rob Pitingolo (@robpitingolo.bsky.social) reply parent
As is the case with cars and drivers, rules without enforcement are basically not rules.
Rob Pitingolo (@robpitingolo.bsky.social) reply parent
Yes this is a subtweet about the DC stadium deal.
Rob Pitingolo (@robpitingolo.bsky.social)
I very much enjoy pro sports and attend them often. But pro sports fans as a group are the biggest suckers. Constantly getting scammed by billionaire owners who make promises and don't deliver.
Rob Pitingolo (@robpitingolo.bsky.social)
I keep screaming into the void that when you say "I'm going to bring prices down" that is deflation. Giving people lower rates of inflation is not meeting that promise.
Rob Pitingolo (@robpitingolo.bsky.social) reply parent
If the answer is number 2 then I am confident in saying that AI has done nothing to increase the quality of these messages. They still look and feel like spammy junk. All it's done is increase the volume of them.
Rob Pitingolo (@robpitingolo.bsky.social)
The amount of spam and unsolicited sales emails to my business account has increased dramatically over the past six months. Makes me wonder: 1. Did I get added to some new list recently? 2. Are companies using AI to blast out these messages?
Rob Pitingolo (@robpitingolo.bsky.social)
I agree with the sentiment but you gotta be careful and specify who you want as the buyer otherwise you wind up with Ted Leonsis owning the team.
Rob Pitingolo (@robpitingolo.bsky.social) reply parent
Funny that after all these years the one thing that hasn't changed is the refusal to take away street parking from Half Street.
Rob Pitingolo (@robpitingolo.bsky.social) reply parent
The young generation will never know how many games we had to walk past the Half Street Hole (TM) to get to.
Rob Pitingolo (@robpitingolo.bsky.social) reply parent
Most likely we'll get Navy Yard circa 2012 when the only places to hang out near the stadium were in some shipping containers or Justin's Cafe (RIP).
Rob Pitingolo (@robpitingolo.bsky.social) reply parent
Funnily, "average commute time" does not distinguish by mode so all the people peacefully reading a book on the train for 45 minutes are lumped into to this bogus formula as contributing to the worst traffic.
Rob Pitingolo (@robpitingolo.bsky.social) reply parent
Took me less than 30 seconds to find multiple methodological flaws. So yes, complete nonsense.
Rob Pitingolo (@robpitingolo.bsky.social) reply parent
They really do expect people to pay for chatbot slop, don't they?
Rob Pitingolo (@robpitingolo.bsky.social) reply parent
Deflation is very bad but do non-economist types even know that? If regular people say they want deflation and you give them low inflation I don't think they will be satisfied.
Rob Pitingolo (@robpitingolo.bsky.social)
I think a big problem at the moment is that most people don't understand the difference between low inflation and deflation. There's a big difference.
Rob Pitingolo (@robpitingolo.bsky.social) reply parent
It's useful in the same way having an intern is useful. And companies seem to love it for the same reason they love interns. They think they can get labor for cheap or free.
Rob Pitingolo (@robpitingolo.bsky.social) reply parent
Dude is going to "win" with less than 30 percent of the vote. Voters understood the assignment. The broken system failed yet again.
Rob Pitingolo (@robpitingolo.bsky.social) reply parent
I mentally prepared myself for this exact outcome but it still hurts bad.
Rob Pitingolo (@robpitingolo.bsky.social)
3 quality candidates in Ward 8 combining to earn 70% of the vote and collectively lose the election is such a depressing outcome.
Rob Pitingolo (@robpitingolo.bsky.social) reply parent
Pretty clear she wants the NFL stadium to be her legacy, which is only possible in a universe where the federal government doesn't revoke your entire job.
Rob Pitingolo (@robpitingolo.bsky.social) reply parent
Six months ago the CEO of Delta was thrilled about the new admin getting rid of pesky regulations and now he's ripping apart planes to try to skirt tariffs. qz.com/delta-rips-e...
Rob Pitingolo (@robpitingolo.bsky.social) reply parent
We already took an up/down vote on this and it passed with a supermajority of the vote! This is not even a close call.
Rob Pitingolo (@robpitingolo.bsky.social)
It blows my mind that DC pols are still arguing against ranked choice voting on the grounds that voters are too stupid to figure it out. Anyone represented by someone making this case should be offended.
Rob Pitingolo (@robpitingolo.bsky.social)
Coffee drinkers don't seem too concerned that the world's largest coffee producer is about to get hit with a 50% tariff? Everyone just assumes 🌮 at this point or what?
Rob Pitingolo (@robpitingolo.bsky.social) reply parent
I always remember that when you attempt to cancel they let you extend your subscription another year for peanuts. The number of people paying the real price is probably even less than what they lead you to believe.
Rob Pitingolo (@robpitingolo.bsky.social)
I don't know why people talk about free buses in the abstract. We had free DC Circulator for a while and everybody loved it! Now we have no Circulator at all. Whether these options are mutually exclusive is the real question.
Rob Pitingolo (@robpitingolo.bsky.social) reply parent
I am kind of surprised more people aren't raging about energy costs, especially since I was told by Very Smart Political Thinkers that high prices are all anybody cares about anymore.
Rob Pitingolo (@robpitingolo.bsky.social) reply parent
Maybe 2019 was a fluke and management got lucky but the much more likely explanation for the team becoming terrible is lack of ownership investment.
Rob Pitingolo (@robpitingolo.bsky.social)
Ownership can't fire themselves so we get this instead.
Rob Pitingolo (@robpitingolo.bsky.social) reply parent
Nats fandom is hard lately.
Rob Pitingolo (@robpitingolo.bsky.social) reply parent
Frustrated tourists walking around with bikes they want to dock asked a park ranger why none of the stations work and she has no answer for them.
Rob Pitingolo (@robpitingolo.bsky.social) reply parent
The last month has been rough for tourism and it's starting to feel like there is a coordinated effort to damage the tourism industry as much as possible this summer.
Rob Pitingolo (@robpitingolo.bsky.social)
I guess Capital Bikeshare took all the National Mall stations offline for the 4th but it's Sunday morning now and I still can't ride down there. Ugh.
Rob Pitingolo (@robpitingolo.bsky.social) reply parent
If you ask someone with strong opinions about tax cuts what the number is on line 24 of their 1040 I would bet that that 99% have no clue.
Rob Pitingolo (@robpitingolo.bsky.social)
Lies about tax cuts are super effective because most people have no idea how taxation of income works so their opinions about it are all vibes based.
Rob Pitingolo (@robpitingolo.bsky.social) reply parent
My understanding is that the solution to food deserts to some extent is the government subsidizes private grocery stores. Is this better than just running one? Maybe? But that doesn't seem to be what's in the discourse.
Rob Pitingolo (@robpitingolo.bsky.social)
The whole "governments should never run the grocery store" argument would probably be more compelling if the status quo didn't already have massive urban food deserts because private corporations require certain amounts of profit.
Rob Pitingolo (@robpitingolo.bsky.social) reply parent
Bezos could have used the equivalent of couch cushion change by his standards to turn the Post into the undisputed leader of investigative journalism, local news, everything. Instead he just destroyed it because 🤷♂️
Rob Pitingolo (@robpitingolo.bsky.social) reply parent
Interestingly this is also a top reason people seem to oppose Ranked Choice Voting.
Rob Pitingolo (@robpitingolo.bsky.social)
I get there are legitimate reasons not to love the new DC bus system but "we can't change because people are too stupid to figure out something new" strikes me as a rather offensive reason.
Rob Pitingolo (@robpitingolo.bsky.social) reply parent
Worst part is fans didn't even get a victory lap season because 2020.
Rob Pitingolo (@robpitingolo.bsky.social)
Nothing says "I have no respect for my customers" more than forcing an AI chatbot on them for customer service. Meanwhile execs are salivating over how to incorporate this tech everywhere.
Rob Pitingolo (@robpitingolo.bsky.social)
Some dude calling into Kojo to complain at Charles Allen about annoying ads on a 3rd party transit app is just peak 2025 🤌
Rob Pitingolo (@robpitingolo.bsky.social) reply parent
We have to stop giving credit to billionaires for being "good at business" because there are so many counter examples like this.
Rob Pitingolo (@robpitingolo.bsky.social)
The Post sent me a survey the other day and I made sure to give plenty of feedback of all my displeasures. Is anyone going to read it? Based on the way they behave and results like this, probably not!
Rob Pitingolo (@robpitingolo.bsky.social)
My prediction is every company will just copy the Starbucks app and have people preload money but call it a "stablecoin" because that's the hot buzzword.
Rob Pitingolo (@robpitingolo.bsky.social) reply parent
Not that it matters in the scheme of things but tourism is hurting bad right now and small businesses are getting squeezed.
Rob Pitingolo (@robpitingolo.bsky.social)
Tonight's downtown hotel rates kind of give away the game about how many people traveled in from out of town this weekend.
Rob Pitingolo (@robpitingolo.bsky.social) reply parent
Don't forget about Vans Warped Tour!
Rob Pitingolo (@robpitingolo.bsky.social) reply parent
I might be the only person who like QR code / mobile tabs? Being able to just close out and leave without tracking somebody down is great. As long as it's not mandatory and you keep the old system available too I think it's a good compromise.
Rob Pitingolo (@robpitingolo.bsky.social) reply parent
My belief is that NYC has great bagels not because of any secret recipe or water but because they turn over so frequently that the batches are always fresh. Shipping in frozen bagels from Queens and reheating them in DC sounds extremely unappealing to me.
Rob Pitingolo (@robpitingolo.bsky.social)
Exhibit ten thousand that there are no good billionaire owners, just a spectrum that ranges from bad to unbearable. www.forbes.com/sites/asifbu...
Rob Pitingolo (@robpitingolo.bsky.social)
Funny. I was told congestion pricing would devastate Broadway theaters. www.theguardian.com/stage/2025/m...
Rob Pitingolo (@robpitingolo.bsky.social)
I am genuinely curious? Does anyone use Ground News? I've never once heard it referenced or recommended outside of YouTuber ads.
Rob Pitingolo (@robpitingolo.bsky.social)
Cool that as international tourism is crashing the Transportation Secretary wants to pile on and make sure everyone knows that the most touristed city in the USA is horrible.
Rob Pitingolo (@robpitingolo.bsky.social) reply parent
Do people actually think algorithms know what they like? Because I've been stuck in enough sad rescue dog loops to know there's a difference between what videos I like and which are emotionally manipulating me.