$350 in free food every month? To feed a household? Surely they must have a few weeks of Caspian Sea caviar stashed away somewhere.

I’m old enough to remember the good old days, when we had a handful of ultra-wealthy *corporations* controlling everything we watched and read - instead of a handful of ultra-wealthy men. Yikes.

Imagine 80,000 people all taking elevators down at the same time…to the same lobby, through the same exits, and mostly trying to drive out of the same area. Now imagine something goes wrong, and they all have to evacuate immediately. Even 1,000 people would be a stretch.

Yep. And largely vibes from decades ago, when we created rules that are now deeply ossified.

Just like SimCity was not based on actual US minimum parking standards, because it would have made the cities too boring to keep players’ interest.

36. Years. Ago. Wow, am I getting old.

And this is in Seattle, which I’d place in among the 10 least automobile dependent core cities in the US. If you’re not in a car—due to age, disability, income, personal preference, or any other reason—you’re considered a second-class citizen in this country.

Akin to faking a disability so you can use an accessible parking space. So, yeah, tacky is an understatement.

For those who don’t know, the standard building code in the US is published by the International Code Council (ICC), but the ICC’s codes are rarely used in full outside the US. The name gives them an unearned patina of global authority.

“Some people may be inadvertently adding to climate change by breathing.” Yeah, OK.

This engineer is basically telling everyone: Everyone exceeds the speed limit here, because the street is designed for them to do so. And instead of concluding Therefore we must redesign it, He tells the public that nothing can be done about it. Grotesque, infuriating incompetence.

Brilliant. 🎯

Imagine showing up at a public meeting and announcing that you think 54% of the people in your city are destructive scum.

I lived in an ADU in Chicago for 2 years. It’s basically the simplest increment of housing that exists—a small house on property you’re already living on—and they’ve made it onerous.

Even in cities with extensive transit systems, this is rare. In places like Akron? It's unheard of. And I predict it will work.

It’s mostly able bodied men in spandex on bikes! Where are all the normies? Um. Is your bike infrastructure safe enough that most people would feel comfortable riding in your city? Of course not! Only a daredevil would ride a bike here! 🤦

When it comes to housing, some people don’t understand the concept of “consent”

Ah, to be 20.

Yep. Don’t get me wrong: calculus is essential for people who in STEM fields, and we need to do better to train people for that. But if people don’t understand statistics, at least conceptually, their ability to process and understand information is deeply compromised.

For a large company with a budget for consultants and lawyers: simple For a small local business: onerous Just like so many of our micromanaging regulations. We do so much to squeeze the soul out of our towns and cities.

There are many, many people who should not be driving cars but would be fine in a golf cart. It could well be the difference between the alternatives of: 1. Move to a nursing home or 2. Stay at home, but rely on others any time you want or need to leave your house

There are about 1.15 billion adults in China, and if they attempt to set it up so 90% of those adults can drive (and park) everywhere, they’ll fail miserably. And they’ll destroy themselves in the process. In the US, we achieved near-universal automobility at great cost. China cannot do that.

Art history, then physics. Only took either because I had to.

Genocidal

If you’re not trained to see it, you’ll take it for granted.

If they think it’s only greed, they should be willing to host seniors in their spare bedrooms. Otherwise, they should get out of the way and allow housing to be built for them.

“If this project were about building 100% affordable housing on the Chelsea campuses, we would all stand down. What we object to is the idea that 70% of the campus is being turned into market-rate housing.” Right. 😂

Smaller household sizes.

The planners are not preparing for this, at all. Not even the smart ones, for the most part.

I saw this and had to repost it again. “Everyone drives in Dallas.” No, they don’t. “What about people with disabilities? Surely they benefit from automobile dependence.” Right. Instead of posting that online, go hang out at a major DART station and start saying that to people’s faces.

🎯

Here in the US, 40% of people with disabilities do not drive, often simply because they are less likely to be able to afford a car. And there are many kinds of disability. Contrary to whatever stereotypes one may have, many of these people *can* ride bikes - especially with good infrastructure.

Good Lord, I’m old.

40 years. 🤯

OK, but only if the Monkees get in.

About 17 years ago, I would have said without hesitation that Stevie Wonder was an icon and a genius, one of the greatest ever of his genre. I also believe, in retrospect, that I significantly underrated him at that time.

I watched it on TV. 27 years. Yikes.

Virtually everybody either: 1. Dies way too young or 2. Ends up with a disability. Disability protections are for everyone.

The logic of eugenics is first to assume disability is undesirable and should be eradicated. Once you’ve established this as stable ground (or at least part of legitimate debate), you work to code everything else you want to eliminate as disability. You can never, never grant the premise.

Yep

Perfect.

Well. That aged like milk in the Sun.

Something we should have learned during the era when the feds subsidized up to 90% of the cost of running highways through the cores of our cities. And cities took the money, for reasons that were mostly short-sighted and (at best) misguided.

Agreed—shipping pollution overseas and ignoring the harm to others was never virtuous. But yes, when we were an industrial giant, we lived with poisoned air and filthy water. Now, many won’t even tolerate a fourplex in their neighborhood. But a smokestack? This hasn’t been thought through. At all.

Hard to take cities seriously on housing when building a modest new structure on a lot you own requires multiple "public hearings" as if you're changing the law to allow public swordfighting, or driving while drunk.

Extra ridiculous because Ohio should have had passenger rail between its 3 largest cities in place 13 years ago, but their governor rejected the funding.

Interesting that my neighborhood (Bishop Arts in Dallas) is much more dependent on parking than most of NYC, yet allowed outdoor dining with little fuss or micromanagement. Parking’s gonna be tight here anyway. Better to lose a handful of spaces and offer a vastly better experience.

What type of infrastructure do these data centers require? How many “concessions” and giveaways do they get from municipalities? I wouldn’t be surprised if they end up being a net negative for some of these communities.