The issue with each homeowner choosing their own level of wildfire protection is that a lot of the benefit of noncombustibility accrues not to you, but to your neighbor, since the structure of your home doesn’t contribute fuel load that threatens theirs

The FDNY's response to a five alarm fire in the Bronx was delayed by drivers who parked their cars in front of three fire hydrants closest to the blaze. Two firefighters and one civilian were injured.

The problem for transit advocates is that the system is genuinely very bad. The proposed solution is to effectively destroy transit, but mode share in the Metroplex is so low that voters aren’t going to really care.

First time I’ve seen talk in Romania of installing elevators in old buildings – they cite a cost of up to €60,000 per elevator, to be covered by EU funds. A politician says Romania has fewer elevators than any EU state (no way that is true in absolute terms…), with just 55,000

Despite the transit focus of Mayor Mamdani's first post-inauguration appearance with Gov. Hochul today, one issue noticably went unmentioned at the event: His plan to make NYC's public buses free (a proposal Hochul opposes). www.nydailynews.com/2026/01/05/a...

2Stair Hallways allow a burning unit with an open door to infect a massive number of units with smoke, and then force people to travel long distances through that smoke. The idea that this status quo is good / better than single stair is just crazy.

Minnesota has released it's #SingleStair report www.dli.mn.gov/sites/defaul... 129 pages of fire safety modelling, but my takeaway: 1. Well maintained sprinklers are important 2. Number of stairs isn't important 3. Hallways are the problem (and current code allows for crazy long hallways)

Bluesky’s seen a slight but noticeable uptick in users since Christmas Eve, I’m not sure why (the CSAM Elon Musk Event maybe?) bsky.jazco.dev/stats

Progress on elevator reform: a work group in Maine initiated by the state legislature and governor to find housing cost savings recommended cutting the state's elevator hoistway opening protection rules, and also the two-way visual communications requirement. Details on my website:

3D floor “plans” are an abomination and they bring shame upon our proto-Indo-European ancestors. A plan is flat.

as if on cue, Delgado comes out in support of a nonsensical two-person train operation mandate that would increase operational costs and reduce service. what a joke. also this tweet syntax screams chatGPT

Interesting video showing semi-trad Japanese framing. Project is 5 months but tbf this would be a decent timeline for a US project that encompasses framing, insulation, int & ext finishes. Seems to be a lot of overlapping modern materials with traditional techniques youtu.be/vRn8Ck2xiqo?...

Reading Stacked Decks: Building Inspectors and the Reproduction of Urban Inequality, by Robin Bertram, who embedded herself in the Chicago Department of Buildings. Code development is sort of the “elite” stratum of this world, so it’s interesting for me to learn about.

WH sources say Venezuela's opposition leader committed the "ultimate sin": She accepted the Nobel Peace prize. “If she had turned it down and said, ‘I can’t accept it because it’s Donald Trump’s,’ she’d be the president of Venezuela today,” one said. www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...

“Cuba looks like it is ready to fall.” After U.S. forces captured Venezuela’s leader, President Trump said that Cuba’s days were numbered and that his administration may turn its sights on the island nation next.

This Massachusetts law requiring sprinklers in short-term rentals that "are let to six or more persons" looks like a mess. How is it determined how many people a unit can accommodate? But also, it makes no sense – long-term residential occupancies are at way more fire risk than short-term

The unit on the bottom of the plan is a three-story maisonette where every floor is accessible by elevator. And not an excruciatingly slow LULA, but a proper commercial elevator that you can actually rely on with dignity.

On top of that the STM still goes with the now very outdated design of extra-wide lateral encased escalators rather than the more modern and thinner glass balaustrade used by the REM. Not only in this 1980s stations, but even in newer ones.

Many agencies have some "confort" guidelines requiring upward-only or both upward and downward escalators above a certain height difference. For example, Translink requires 2 escalators >6m, Metrolinx > 7.5 m (iirc).

The vertical circulation between the platforms and the mezzanine at REM's Édouard-Montpetit and at de Castelneau métro. Despite a higher height difference (10-11 m vs 7-ish), the REM has just an upward escalator (and a narrower one), resulting in an overall way smaller footprint.

NBS still exists today as NIST but the housing division and plumbing work has been severely impacted by austerity, which was taken to another level under this administration.

8 years before the Great Depression, the Department of Commerce created a building and housing division within the National Bureau of Standards to solve issues with high labor and material costs, obstructive building codes and zoning regulations. Affordability solutions are right there waiting.

@jessetayriver.bsky.social has been posting here way more over the past few days, give him a follow if you’re a freak like that

Also, people seldom click on the only recently booked tab.

Slightly more than 1% of Madrid’s dwelling units are listed as whole-unit rentals. If the city were letting supply keep pace with demand, that’s not even one single year of new production. Yet more of the housing shortage discourse is about Airbnb than low production.

Most cities dealt with fire risk centuries ago by banning wood construction, then slowly reintroducing it with mass timber. The US went a different direction – wood almost everywhere but sprinklers required in even small houses and grass and flowers banned within 5 ft. of bldgs in downtown San Diego

NEW: NYC Mayor @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social is set to name Dina Levy as NYC’s new housing commissioner Levy will lead the Dept of Housing Preservation & Development She has worked as a top official at the NYS housing agency, the NYAG’s office and the nonprofit UHAB gothamist.com/news/mamdani...

The wonderful @johnczulowskiburns.bsky.social has joined Bluesky! Do give him a follow. He's the architect who produced the digital models of our buildings for #FormFollowsFuel, which enabled us to calculate #embodiedenergy for each of them. Also the stunning cover image. @florianurban.bsky.social

Este no es el golpe de Estado que yo apoyaba.

“Weeks earlier, U.S. officials had already settled on an acceptable candidate…Delcy Rodríguez, who had impressed Trump officials with her management of Venezuela’s crucial oil industry…intermediaries persuaded the admin that she would protect and champion future American energy investments…”

Fascinating 1. Admin may not have informed Congress but has been talking regime change w US oil industry 2. Oil at $60, US firms not excited about major capex to get VZ heavy sour crude 3. Sounds like WH wants to prod oil firms to make their vision happen, more than WH doing US oil's bidding

(Semafor) - The New York Times and Washington Post learned of a secret US raid on Venezuela soon before it was scheduled to begin Friday night — but held off publishing what they knew to avoid endangering US troops .. @semafor.com www.semafor.com/article/01/0...

So idk if you’ve been living under a rock, but the whole reason the post-pandy Venezuelan emigrant wave has destabilized politics from Chile to the US is that the people leaving (and now cheering Maduro’s demise alongside the rich people who fled years ago) are *not* the upper class

“Foot-long flames” – closer to birthday candles than to the “pyrotechnics” usually implicated in mass casualty club fires. There was a chain of failures obviously, but the narrow source of ignition failure was nowhere near as egregious as in other events. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/03/w...

BREAKING: Trump says "we're going to run" Venezuela until a future transition

The self-checkout has gotten *very* advanced, I wonder if this is related, like Amazon’s “Just Walk Out” store stuff. I’m at peace with it – it may just be the cost of much lower prices.

New minimum ceiling height of 3 meters (9.8 ft), elevators required for 4 floors or more, enhanced sound insulation, ect. I’ll have to dig into the details on the last one.

I somehow missed this update from last year.

I got a couple stitches on the bottom of my foot once and couldn’t walk for a month. I needed assistance *EVERY* time I wanted to leave my building since my knee scooter had to get carried down ~6 stairs. It was very isolating. Any of us can lose our physical ability at any time.

But the reason they grossly overestimated AC Transit's impact is that BART and ACT were supposed to collaborate and ended up never doing so. The traffic report discusses that although they don't know if it will be a unified fare system or a transfer penalty, feeder buses didn't pan out in Boston.

So BART planners predicted mostly accurately (but probably way too many years early) how many people could walk or bike to BART. But they grossly overestimated how many people would take AC Transit to the station, and probably over-estimated how many people would carpool vs single occupancy drive.

Ashby Av passenger access figures 2015 vs 1965 prediction: Parked: 981 | 3610 Kiss & Ride: 517 | 1970 Bus: 103 | 7380 Bike/Walk (Other): 3616 | 3440

A 1965 report predicting BART ridership at Berkeley's stations. The estimates are way high, primarily because they assumed population densification and a seamless transfer from AC Transit to BART. North Berkeley: 8,700 predicted (4100 actual) Ashby: 16,400 (5,165) Downtown Berk: 24,000 (11,000)

5.6% of Multnomah County residents have difficulty walking. Of Oregon's 36 counties, 32 have higher rates. (Sherman County: 13%.) But only Multnomah has a meaningful number of residential elevators. The U.S. locking itself out of the global elevator market means only huge buildings can afford them.

Why is it Le Constellation, masculine? Is there like an implied Bar/Club in the middle?

Looking at videos from Le Constellation and thinking about this. Relatively tame sparklers were able to set the insulation on fire because the ceilings were so low. The champagne bottle sparks look like they were at most a meter high, not as intense as what usually causes these nightclub tragedies.

Anyone can use my spreadsheet for sizing replacement HVAC systems using historic fuel billing data and it's way more accurate than having an HVAC contractor do a manual J docs.google.com/spreadsheets...

Ironically, the main critiques I hear/read of Cayala these days are from doctrinaire Krierites, who subscribe to miasma-style theory of high rises and mental health, and thus are irate that, in response to enormous demand, the developers are building high rises in the newer portions...

It takes time and effort to change fire codes, but if Team @wilsonkatieb.bsky.social pushes, Seattle could revert to the stock NFPA 130 requirements before final design is complete on West Seattle and Ballard Link, saving a bunch of money.

🚨 A bill has been pre-filed in #waleg that would require the state building code council to legalize scissor stairs for more residential buildings. 🚨 #HB2228 is sponsored by Reps. Zahn and Duerr. More info: app.leg.wa.gov/billsummary/...