I take it back - we did not fly out of LGA for that flight.

I've been to Nassau, Bahamas from there. But like you said, pre-cleared customs in the Bahamas.

Even though leases make my skin literally* leap from my body in disgust, I have to admit that the numbers look very nice in your case. There is no disputing that getting a car for less than $1000/year is a good deal.

*Obviously, it would figuratively leap from my body, but I'm going for effect.

If you maintain things properly, then people won't see how obviously great your idea to spend a gazillion dollars to replace it is. It's like you've never done anything in government before... :)

Philly to NYC is a no-brainer: train. Amtrak in about an hour if you are feeling spendy, NJ Transit for a more leisurely ride at 1/5 the cost.

Depending on the time of day, the bus is actually the best option - almost as fast as Amtrak and cheaper than even NJ Transit.

It is primarily North American flights. When we lived on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, it was much easier to get to than JFK so we used it when possible. People get too hung up on things looking old. I'd rather have an old airport nearby than no airport or an airport that takes over an hour to get to on 3 trains. The approach is either fun or unnerving, depending on your personality. I found the approach into the old Hong Kong airport "fun", so you know where I'm at :)

I like city life, but I understand your point of view. I'm currently in the 'burbs on a whopping quarter acre. I occasionally appreciate the peace and quiet in a way that I occasionally missed in the city.

With that said, zoning law is sufficient to address this "problem". If the zoning allows 3 stories and no setbacks, then that's what you'll get. Zone for 15 ft setbacks and 2 stories, and you'll get smaller boxes. This isn't rocket science.

While NASA has been known to launch astronauts directly from Walmart, they tend to favor people in slightly better shape. That's the standard hatch size, and was used even on the shuttle. The US side of the ISS does in fact use a larger, 50 inch (note the nice round-number imperial measurement) square hatch - but that was to accommodate the equipment racks that are used in the US-designed modules.

Doesn't that rather depend on the application? I need a controller to tie together a bunch of stepper motors and a GPS module. Do I need a monitor and keyboard?

A used Versa is correspondingly cheaper.

I don't live in CA, but that $2,500 brings it down to almost sensible from an economics perspective. Certainly close enough that if you like it, you'll find a way to justify it.

Well, except for the "cheap" part :)

When a Leaf is $14,000 like the similar Versa, I'm in.

(In all fairness, the build quality is better and the performance is maybe closer to a $16,000 Sentra but with more low-end grunt. But you get my drift...)

It's still pretty outrageous to claim that they survive on the few percent they are saving by not collecting in the few states so small that they don't have a presence there.

OK, so then on to point 2 - unless you think they will be building coal plants in downtown LA.

I don't think a car needs to be all things to all people - we have hundreds of models and sub-models available to us. As it stands right now, no single manufacturer has even 20% of the market - individual models are in the single digit range.

In my family, a cheap electric car with perhaps 40 mile range would be ideal. My wife's commute is 5 miles, all congested local roads. The headroom on the battery would only be necessary for heat/AC while sitting in traffic and to account for decreased range with age. Such a car does not yet exist, but there seems to be progress. We would still have our minivan for my slightly longer commute and long trips.

A couple of things:
1. Coal power is a declining percentage. Stepping up the electric car infrastructure now as coal is declining seems to make sense. In any event, it is much easier to regulate a handful of power plants than thousands of individual cars.
2. Even "dirty" sources of electricity are beneficial in certain areas. Los Angeles is constantly suffering air quality due in large part to the number of ICE vehicles on the road. Even if a coal plant supplies the power, the coal plant can be located somewhere more suitable.