Never underestimate what one person can do by looking at a complex problem clearly and making the case, patiently and logically, for better. @stephenjacobsmith.com So excited to see this registering.

Building all kinds of things in cities should be easy. The planning profession does not believe this and they need to be stopped.

Toronto planning pushing in precisely the wrong direction.

"Imagine if every city had 12 different parts of town that defined what kind of Apple computer you can buy, and if your Neighbours could complain and make you buy a PC instead." * Trying to explain zoning to tech investor guys who want to be the Steve Jobs of housing disruptors.

From @uytaelee.bsky.social who did one of the best videos on urban apts and circulation- here’s his new work on elevators. 🙏🏅

I'm mostly focused on building code issues these days but my background attention is on the design of streets. How well mapped are Toronto's underground utilities?

Maybe more like read @conradspeckert.bsky.social's page on stairs, then went deeper via @stephenjacobsmith.com 's whole institute including the thing with the plans drawn with @holz-bau.bsky.social and then that report on elevators... but basically...

Still thinking about this article. It’s always been a sore spot in YIMBY circles that so many progressive foundations pour money into NIMBYism, and I’m glad it’s finally being aired in public. Keep talking about it. www.insidephilanthropy.com/home/philant...

Real take on Toronto planning, tbh…

If you walk into the plumbing section of a Canadian Tire, you’d think you were in the US. The allowable materials, products, and methods in the National Plumbing Code of Canada are nearly identical to what you’ll find in the IPC/UPC.

Imagine a city of great apartments where everyone knows their neighbours. The Neptis Foundation has a vision: www.theglobeandmail.com/culture/art-...

you know how i keep saying single stair buildings are workhorse of walkable urbanism the world over? here are 174 homes on a 2.2 acre block in seattle. (16) 4-5 story single stair buildings. what do you think FAR is? what about lot coverage? unit distribution?

Please actually teach this class though. Fascinating.

Zoning history. youtu.be/tIu9yPzC3o8?...

This three day single stair conference is really interesting for those with niche interests—

Current vibe w/ @stephenjacobsmith.com

Current vibe w/ @stephenjacobsmith.com

This guy… @stephenjacobsmith.com 🙏

Planning is detached from architecture in North America in ways that make it insensitive to the interior experience rather than the politics of construction and the street is maybe how I’d put it.

I'm still upset. The next time that someone asks you why Toronto can't "be like Paris, 6-8 storeys everywhere," remind them that we had a proposal for mid-rises on a pretty small amount of land and councillors lost their heads and started ranting about 50-storey towers. That's why.

I don’t like the “people are voting with their feet” line about California and NYC’s population loss/decline. People aren’t voting with their feet, they’re losing the game of musical chairs. To the extent population is falling, it’s due to shrinking household sizes, not vacancy. Demand remains high.

Cities like to brag about how many kilometres (or miles) of bike paths they have, but the number doesn’t tell you anything about quality, connectivity, or usefulness. They should instead be judged on actual bike volumes (like from bike counters) or overall cycling mode share.

Jesus Christ. Contemporary Toronto’s psycho/social molten core, right here:

“Punkthus”. Haha, perfect.🤘

The only applications that should be *rejected* are those that fit the context of another era. We need more and better in 2024. If you are stuck in 1910 typology you should be building in Owen Sound, or suburbia not in a city.

We’ve focused on massively subsidizing EV battery manufacturing while suppressing the obvious- unleashing construction of homes that are not supertowers at some suburban transit node, where the HVAC maintenance team needs a PhD in humidity. Revive the low tech physical world, for starters Ontario.

I keep hearing people say that America is ‘deglobalizing’ in the era of AI- but I dunno, google translate and computationally enabled investigations of obscure codes seem to be emerging- and it seems to me to be a good thing.

“…floor plan efficiency (habitable space – stuff near windows – relative to gross area) has fallen a lot.” Isn’t it more accurate to say- “floor plan *quality* in 2 and 3 bedroom apartments in north America is, really bad? Efficiency? Or Quality?

Such a good way to have this conversation. Great question.This is exactly how people experience life choices:

Interesting to learn how much Bergen, home to one of the world’s largest Envac systems (underground vacuum tubes for waste collection), was motivated to install the system by the threat of fires in waste bins that could burn its wood buildings www.envacgroup.com/project/berg...

had a last minute interview yesterday with a journalist about US multifamily housing, how our codes induce apartments that are far less family-friendly or livable than other countries, and we ended up down the building code rabbit hole. that's where it got interesting.

Is there a corner of Bluesky dedicated to containerization / urban garbage yimbyism? Is a starter pack even buildable?

It’s funny that as a young person who wanted to design buildings I thought- “I should become an Architect!” Reality👇

Posting this, because weirdly, this corner of the Internet has a lot of hvac nerds like @stephenjacobsmith.bsky.social electrek.co/2024/10/24/s...

Ditto with shitty building code 👇

The only way for Canada to deal with this humiliation and somewhat catchup is quick global elevator code harmonization…

Canada stuck at 2, America moves closer to 4!

Oh lord- are Toronto’s above ground electrical poles and wires a barrier to single stair, point access blocks? Would this prevent Juliet balconies being a legitimate life safety strategy for fireman rescue? I suppose this is an @stephenjacobsmith.bsky.social and @conradspeckert.bsky.social question.

Site planning is really just figuring out what space is left for buildings after taking space for large fire truck convenience, mandated parking spaces, and storm water.

Is zoning / the building code always written defensively? Does anyone ever write this stuff creatively, with a new vision /typology in mind?

🎯

“this stuff is economic and driven by code, not cultural.” is such an interesting statement because no one even imagines reasons other than ‘culture’.

Exactly.

If you’re interested in point access buildings and fire code, how do you read all arguments? Join a zillion associations? Example this- www.firehouse.com/operations-t...