the closer we are physically, the closer we are socially.
Seattle Washington
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What if we took a 160 acre golf course and repurposed it for housing and saved 95% of all the trees? Now you have 40,000 people living on two future light rail stops with a wonderful tree-lined dense walkable neighborhood
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new york city (population of 8.8 million) produces half the annual emissions the entire state of washington (population 7.8 million) produces
washington produces 100M tons CO2/year, nyc produces 52M tons CO2/year
75% of manhattans 1.6M residents dont own a car
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here is London’s tube map overlaid on Seattle (left) and Seattle’s light rail network overlaid on London (right)
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"stop trying to force a lifestyle change"
Public transit is never going to replace cars. Nor are cycles. Progressives in SD have a strange obsession with forcing people out of their cars and onto the trolley and bus. But it’s not feasible and it’s never going to happen. Stop trying to force lifestyle change
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san francisco is 46 square miles and has 398,000 homes. paris france is 40 square miles and has 1,390,0000 homes
its not only serious, its flat out possible
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have you ever wondered how much of Copenhagen could fit in your grocery store's parking lot? i have.
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weird this isn’t how cars are advertised in commercials
'Twas the traffic nightmare before Thanksgiving as commuters sat through bumper-to-bumper traffic on the 405 Freeway in LA foxla.com/traffic
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the space race vs the timeline for seattle to build a bike lane and bus lane. same scale.
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yes small regional travel. also nobody talks about how trains drop you downtown. planes drop you 30-45 min away
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this is how much of Seville, Spain would fit in the abandoned Qualcomm Stadium & parking lot in San Diego, California
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have you ever wondered how much of Rome would fit in this commuter parking lot at the University if Washington? i have.
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they do stadium urbanism differently (better) than the US over in England. here are the ratings of the premier league stadiums.
up first, Luton Town. A+
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pittsburgh could fit like 10,000 homes easily on those parking lots, displace nobody, and rebuild their urban tax base
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in search of a 3 bedroom home for under $500k
seattle: 6
new york: 336
chicago: 2,378
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dallas to houston in 1 hour and 12 minutes
houston to austin in 50 minutes
austin to dallas in 1 hour
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which one of these feels like tyranny?
The idea that neighborhoods should be walkable is lovely. The idea that idiot tyrannical bureaucrats can decide by fiat where you're "allowed" to drive is perhaps the worst imaginable perversion of that idea--and, make no mistake, it's part of a well-documented plan.
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this isnt a lecture, its a fact and observationally used to dispel the moronic stupidity that density is somehow bad for the environment. it isnt. the car is what has broken our pursuit of sustainable living, not having towers and density
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athens because their city figured out a smart way to densify with homeowners in the 1920s that avoided backlash and displacement
(📸 via @alfred_twu)
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Seattle’s city planners were tasked with undoing single family zoning and moving us away from detached homes to something denser, more sustainable and economical
this is seriously what they came up with. i am not joking:
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the world gets transit and healthcare. the US gets highways and aircraft carriers
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and no, its not outsourcing emissions for food production either. farming households have lower emissions too. its the suburban, city commuter lifestyle that broke our planet
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This kind of dumb, unwalkable, single use suburbanism is literally all that’s legal to build in most American cities
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golf is a waste of public land in seattle. this course has 2 train stops on it, loses money every year, and can be 15,000 homes. theres a cheaper public course 5 miles north
I listened to the whole 54 minutes.
The 9 hole isn’t applicable to the people that use it.
One more than one occasion your guests referred to the elitist nature of the sport and people that use it.
It was amazingly tone deaf. But, par for the course on this issue.
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not to sound crazy but suburban office parks acre actually the best candidate to “office to housing” because you can build an entire mixed use neighborhood on the parking lot whether you demo the building or not. and they are cheap to acquire
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jackson park public golf course in seattle. next to two train stops
could be 20k homes
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tailgating proves people crave bars, restaurants and shopping land uses next to stadiums, we just don’t meet the demand in planning
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athens, greece
a city of 3 million in 15 square miles
how did they do it? they let owners of single family homes swap their land with a developer in exchange for a new home in a denser project
most of athens is 6 stories
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college is sometimes the only 4 years Americans experience car free spaces, mass transit, density and bike friendly commuting.
no wonder they always have fond memories and miss it
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tired: indigenous land acknowledgements
wired: zoning exemption to build 24,000 homes on tribal land
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1 home replaced with 11.
all 1500 sq ft, 3 bed, family sized homes.
mitigates 170,000 gallons a year of rainwater runoff.
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i am begging for cities & elected leaders to actually look at data before committing $500 million dollars to things like reducing bus emissions.
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i am in an uber in LA about to scream so i am going to post this map of the Paris RER overlaid to scale. cities can be easier to get around if we want them to be
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wait till they hear about cars
E-BIKE BAN - After a fatal head-on collision between a 12-year-old boy on an e-bike and a 66-year-old bicyclist, Key Biscayne officials passed an emergency ban on e-bikes and scooters this morning. Here's how long it will last: local10.com/news/local/2024/…
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here is a thread of the worst urban planning ideas proposed by architects
first up, le corbusier’s plan. for central paris would’ve demolished the whole thing for this
yikes
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FIFA world champion Lionel Messi is from Rosario, Argentina, a place that is gridded, dense, and doesn't waste it's valuable waterfront real estate with stroads or highways
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"pedestrians have been killed by cyclists who ran stop signs and red lights"
Bicycles breaking the rules of the road are indeed very dangerous.
Pedestrians have been killed by cyclists who ran stop signs and red lights.
Cyclists running stop signs and red lights can cause cars to swerve or slam their brakes which can cause accidents.
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when i was in houston we were driving 65mph on the freeway and everyone else was going 80mph and honking/swerving around us. i saw cops too. they did nothing. speed limit was 65mph
Hey you, the one with the bike! 😍 Yes, cyclists have to observe traffic laws too. Use hand signals, stop at red lights and stop signs, and ride with traffic to keep everyone safe — including you. 🚴 #BeSafeBikeSmart #EndTheStreakTX
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cities with cars
cities with electric cars
cities with self driving cars
cities without them
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cities shouldnt give out 1 cent for pro sports stadiums
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“i am the result of 8 departments”
Typical bus shelters often cost $50k or more and require coordination among 8 departments. La Sombrita (in its most expensive, prototype form) costs approximately 15% of the price of a typical bus shelter and can be installed in 30 minutes or less.
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japan's high speed shinkansen map overlaid on the west coast to scale (mirrored and rotated). this train network carries 300 million passengers a year at speeds of 150MPH-200MPH.
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have you ever wondered how much of barcelona could fit in the footprint of your dying suburban mall getting a train stop? i have
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can't wait for global tourists to arrive and see what a horrifying waterfront we built
World Cup excitement is building in Seattle! With 6 matches, this historic moment will showcase the pride and enthusiasm of our soccer fans and be an unforgettable experience. #WeAre26
komonews.com/sports/seattle-…
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one house becomes 13 homes in seattle's queen anne neighborhood.
the single home sold for $3.7 million
the new homes are selling for $1 million to $1.6 million.
no, not affordable, but certainly cheaper than what was there before. density makes things cheaper.
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this building was built in 2018 and people protested "this isn't affordable". it just sold for $240k a unit
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why do city planners listen to these people?
This wasn’t an episode of Parks & Recreation; it was over 30 neighbors (condo owners) showing up to express their sincere outrage & anger that a developer would propose a 225-unit complex on an open field next to a Whole Foods in the midst of a housing crisis. #a2council
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Rosario, Argentina is 20% smaller than Seattle's landmass and has 1.2 million people with streets like these
i have no idea what the US planning is doing. really.
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these planners think they're so clever.
a standard lot in seattle is 50' wide x 100' long
so their sixplex options requires 52' minimum width and 112' minimum depth.
they known there are no lots in seattle like this
i'm pretty appalled.
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i will never understand destroying the communities in the city simply to bring in the ones who live outside of it
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what our engineers do to protect cars from being hit by cars versus what we use to protect people on bikes from cars says everything about who they want to protect
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this is so easy to dunk on because this guy hasn't even discussed what it costs to build and maintain roads in san diego which i guarantee you is not covered 25% by the people driving on them the way the transit budget is covered by their farebox.
It would be cheaper to give every transit rider a brand new Tesla and replace that Tesla every six years than continuing to operate our transit system in San Diego County. 🤯
Community note
This claim is not close to accurate. The annual subsidy for the SDTI is ~$286 million. The cheapest Tesla is ~$40k, so this would buy roughly 7,100 new Teslas a year.
SDTI carries, on average, almost 110,000 riders per day.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Diego…
sdmts.com/sites/default/
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the US has 2 billion parking spaces consuming 700 billion square feet
the US has 140 million homes making up 275 billion square feet
the space we give to cars…
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a houston developer went through the routine "neighbors fighting his apartments" process, got fed up with the 2 year delay and just started building it anyway. since they're Class C misdemeanors he's going to pay the fine & keep building abc7chicago.com/houston-texa…
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malls to housing is a conversion that makes the most sense
Sterling Heights, MI, joins a list of other Detroit suburbs that will convert dying malls into town centers. Lakeside Mall will be redeveloped into 2,800 new housing units and a town center. Converting dead malls is an easy way to create town centers in the suburbs.
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the environmental review process is what took the longest time. that and endless public debate over it. the state GOP also played a part in its delay. but nice dunk i guess. when it opens it will be so popular every state will want one
California High-Speed Rail Progress After 10 Years: Green Sections Are Open For Passengers
brilliantmaps.com/california…
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