I believe this invalidates every "pop sociology" essay and book David Brooks has ever written:

New York City, NASCAR Discuss Speedway

NASCAR is thinking about building a speedway in a city better known for traffic jams and taxicabs than for motorsports.

Racing promoters have held preliminary discussions with city economic officials about constructing a NASCAR track on Staten Island, the mayor's office said Friday....

--AP

Some might say this doesn't invalidate Brooks -- they'll note that Staten Island's always been far more Republican than the rest of New York City. Well, that's true. And guess what? We liberal thugs don't hijack a ferry at night and kill all those GOP-voting, traditional-values-valuing Staten Islanders in their beds. We live in the same city with them, and they live in the same city with us.

Hell, we all root for the Knicks and the Nets, the Rangers and the Islanders, the Jets and the Giants, the Mets and the Yankees. (Well, a few of us malcontents who grew up not far from Fenway Park have a little trouble rooting for the Yankees.) If we were all effete, latte-swilling aesthetes here in New York, why would sports thrive here at all -- or in Boston, home of Ted Kennedy, fer Pete's sake, and John Kerry, who has an even more liberal voting record? Sports! In Taxachusetts! Shouldn't pro sports have long since been banned by conflict-averse limousine-liberal gay-marriage supporters who live in Cambridge town houses with Corian countertops?