Alright here we go: You Love America. I started writing this last year; it had this same title last year; depressingly little had to be changed for it to fit in to this moment. open.substack.com/pub/rottenan...

Being interested in housing and urban issues, I've found it useful intellectually and emotionally to follow Bluesky conversation from several other cities. Intellectually useful because I see different ideas in circulation. Emotionally useful for showing the universal tragicomedy of city politics

We need an environmental movement that builds things* *bollards, concrete barriers, vegetated buffers

Genuinely curious why Metro Transit security agents seem to operate in groups of 4 or more. 7 in this photo, and they all got on one train. Wouldn't spreading out groups of 2 be more efficient?

Is this Excelsior where they’re worried about restaurants surviving a quiet winter the same Excelsior where they asked a developer to scale back the number of people who would live in a building right near these same restaurants 🤔

Remember, the purpose of zoning is to ensure adequate sunlight, air, and privacy for the home (for some types of homes, but often not apartments)

'Sometimes, the most important infrastructure projects are the ones you never build.' archive.ph/7xe5J

Excited for the regular, but infrequent, years I get to vote in two local body elections.

Wrote about how California needs to get serious about the urban disorder our failure to build housing has created.

Only one of these things is perfect. Cats. All of them. #Caturday

Spending thousands of dollars to close down a public right of way that was recently built for millions, and improved access between a major bike route and a transit hub. What a failure.

Carson Wentz is officially the Adjunct Quarterback. Visiting Assistant Playcaller. Post-doctoral researcher in huddle studies.

Hey hey -- I'm looking for analyses of corridor- and transit area-based upzoning policies or proposals. The analyses can be looking at the change in estimated capacity or expected outcomes (e.g., how much might be built), or the actual outcomes post-reform. Doesn't have to be in CA! Thanks!

Is there a rational basis in public policy why in Minneapolis you have to license your first and any other cat, but in Saint Paul you only need a permit for 4 or more cats? Or is this the animal licensing equivalent of the arbitrary rule making seen more consequentially in zoning?

Today has been another edition of words I use in my professional life are sometimes the ones I take longest to see in the #SpellingBee

Planners really need to be reigning in their engineers. Look how these signals/lights are Sat SQUARELY in the middle of the sidewalk & shared use path on the unfinished section of Lowry

The Graduate Group in Demography at the University of Pennsylvania is now accepting applications for its PhD program in Demography. We look forward to recruiting a strong and diverse cohort for Fall 2026! ➡️ Applications are due December 15, 2025 ⬅️ Learn More:

the real mind virus is dragging out your recycling bin but you're not sure it's a recycling week and then the rest of your neighbors also drag out their recycling bins, unsure if it's recycling week

Another example of rigidly applying ADA guidelines for where the beg button should be for the visually impaired, without considering the impact on other people.

Would love to know what kind of property tax dispute or map drawing error led to this peninsula exclave of Shorewood here on the border with Excelsior.

Great new episode of UCLA Housing Voice podcast @shanedphillips.bsky.social, featuring @holz-bau.bsky.social on single-stairs & ecodistricts, and how they differ from TOD. Definitely worth the listen to learn more about these issues:

Didn't know the kai from Aotearoa was so popular with all these folks picking D. Won't disagree.

It would be interesting to have an update on this story from a couple of years ago.

Real Estate: As Good A Place To Become Embroiled In Conspiracy Theories As Any

Fascinating stuff here, including the basically western European/Australasian/Canadian levels of religion in northern New England

We have tallied all the data ... and now, for your pleasure, we present "HOW RELIGIOUS IS YOUR STATE?" www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/...

Almost perfect enough to think about switching to month/day/year ...

It's interesting that Helsinki, who conserved an extensive legacy tramway network, built its new orbital light rail without all the paraphernalia that you usually see in other systems, like barriers, fences or or flashing lights/signals at stop pedestrian crossings.

The city contributed 4.6 million dollars to this project, and now it's just fenced off ...

Now accepting applications for the PhD program in Health Policy and Administration at Penn State. We have specialty tracks in health economics, population health, and health care management and organization plus a dual title PhD program in HPA and Demography. #WeAre hhd.psu.edu/hpa/graduate....

We often forget that the UK is a big outlier: our welfare state is almost all redistribution (not social insurance). People in other countries know that high earners face real economic risks - it's why they support the welfare state!

art deco is short for arthur decoration. not many people know this

Ronan is dropping more facts about the U.S. housing market over time and space using the HHP dataset: ronanlyons.substack.com/p/101-things...

Some great stories in the women's marathon at the World Champs

No exaggeration to say there's a sentiment in urban planning that society should be limited to the living standards that were affordable in the 1920s. You don't see this implicit argument in many other areas of social and economic policy.

they’re removing the height limits on the beers

FYI: The City of Minneapolis has mailing lists for Bicycling and Walking news! If you're not signed up, you can add your email at the links below. Not a newsletter—emails come maybe 1-2 times a month. Bicycling: public.govdelivery.com/accounts/MPL... Walking: public.govdelivery.com/accounts/MPL...

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"Democracy, borders that are peaceful rather than armed and bloody … none of these things are natural states of being... "The belief that we can roll the dice with no consequences, that we can provoke and act out with no consequences is a dangerous illusion."

I’m guilty of running on the bike path on the creek paths, but I spent good energy and time working with other people from Run Minnesota in 2006 to help stop the Park Board from their bananas plan to replace pedestrian paths on the West River Road with concrete instead of asphalt.

The Grand Rounds trails are one of the best parts of the Minneapolis parks system. There is also room for significant improvement, and that’ll cost real money and political energy. So you gotta start somewhere. I would nominate the Lake Harriet and Minnehaha Creek (Lynnhurst to Portland) as priority

The lighting on the parkways has long been dangerously bad (and many parkway lights have also been out for years), but the Greenway was pre-2022ish an exception to that. But yeah, a very basic city service failure

Honestly the main bike thoroughfare in Minneapolis not having lights for years at night should probably be a much bigger scandal than it seems to be.

A curiosity of mid-20th century American zoning is the truly exclusive single-family zone as the predominant form takes a while to emerge. Even as cities established some exclusively single family zones there was often a second variant of "R1" like R-1B here allowing duplexes (Plymouth, MN 1982)

Literally Killing Me Softly With His Song

And this is one of the *better* parts of the Grand Rounds. It's still too narrow for two abreast biking on a busy day.

##Caturday announcement that Costco is selling these 😻 Only 102 shopping days until Christmas (and 78 to the start of the calendar)

Good to know that the Village of Plymouth council was striking down the scourges of ... lurking, public drunkenness, and wearing a hat in a movie theater

It's #Caturday morning!

The Kasota Ave trail is transitioning from one form (paved) of trail to another (unpaved, for runners). I'm OK with that personally, but this was good safe infrastructure for bike commuting to an industrial area with limited bus service. Hope city fixes it.