Costa Mesa Jaywalker

San Jose, CA and Hamburg, Germany at the same scale. Which of the two urban environments do you think most people would prefer to live in?

California Celebrates Installation Of Single L.A. Trash Can That Cost $400 Billion And Took 18 Years To Build buff.ly/Hcz1aHw

Traffic engineering allowed the biggest and boldest public land grab in the history of our cities. (🖼️ by Karl Jilg)

It's a good time to remember that the Empire State Building was built in 390 days using machinery and technological processes from nearly a 100 years ago.

Don’t buy a cow, or a car, and expect your city to give you someplace to park it. #UrbanTruth Via the Urban Truth Collective. urbantruthcollective.com

This bridge tells a story of a bad idea (an urban freeway) that we now know was a bad idea and are embarrassingly trying to undo some of the consequences of…but can’t even do that.

I remember the median being used by a nursery to store potted trees and shrubs. The 55 FWY was completed in the 80s. This basically moved the end-of-freeway traffic jam from here - Fairview/22nd/Victoria - to 19th, where the tall building on the right is.

The triumph of architectural Modernism, has, I think, had a direct influence on the worldview of the people raised in its wake, more specifically on their readiness to collectively invest in the future — in something beautiful to pass down to succeeding generations. Recently I saw something that struck me: exquisite proto-Art Nouveau details on the capitals of the supports for a bridge across the Thames, built in the 1860s. The instinct to put something beautiful where barely anyone would see it, is reflective of the spirit we’ve lost. It’s not a coincidence that the early German Modernists were funded by German industry to flog products (glass, steel), nor that General Motors embraced Corbusier’s dystopian musings because it promised them great profit. Why should you want to collectively invest in the future, when the great paradigm around you — filling your field of vision from cradle to grave — is cheap, ephemeral mayfly architecture meant to spite you for the short period it exists, then be torn down and replaced by something equally foul? Meanwhile the leading ‘authorities’ harp on about ‘building for our time’ (so our time is soulless?). Maybe I’m overstating the case but I do think there is something going on here. A little extra spent on beauty is a small gift to the future. And it reflects a deeper spirit.

Costa Mesa, CA

We are doing it wrong. before < 1962 > after

@MattWalshBlog Imagine what else you might change your mind on as you get older and wiser.

I used to be entirely in the camp that said you should kick your kids out at 18 and force them to live independently and make their own way in the world. I don’t feel that way at all anymore. I want all my kids to live with us until they get married. Even after they’re married, if they want to live on our property, or close by, my wife and I would love that. The important thing is to teach your kids responsibility, which we’re doing. They need to contribute and help around the house, which all of our kids do from a very young age. Provided you aren’t raising ungrateful useless moochers, why kick them out? Why drive them away from your family home? I don’t see the point in it anymore. I actually like my kids and like being around them. Maybe they’ll all end up scattered to the wind. But I’d prefer to keep the family together. Why wouldn’t I?

This is a photo! 🤯

@NovanglianP @the_transit_guy 🥴

@JaywalkerCM @the_transit_guy I just looked it up, it's in Long Beach

The zoning codes of nearly every US municipality are indeed blocking this.

@NovanglianP @the_transit_guy Or Anywhere, U.S.A

@JaywalkerCM @the_transit_guy Looks like something they'd build in Fishers, Indiana

This is how traffic streets feel when you’re walking anywhere with a 3 year old Americans tolerate private vehicle traffic on every public street, and the consequence is that we have made our public realm absolutely HARROWING to negotiate with young children

@CjgbVictoria @the_transit_guy 💯

@JaywalkerCM @the_transit_guy Contra YIMBYism, I believe we need style guidelines—simple guidelines for the locality, NOT endless reviews, but GOOD guidelines—until a new architectural culture is established.

The dual egress requirement favors double-loaded corridor buildings where units "live like a hotel not like a house." The apartment buildings with dual-aspect units (have a front and a back window wall) are typically single stair units. All of the beloved dense, fine-grained, mid-rise neighborhoods from pre-war U.S. and Euro cities are made up of single stair buildings.

This project in Oakland is a pretty good model of the future of homeownership in urban California. In 10 years time, you're going to see condo buildings like these all over Los Angeles.

You could probably do the same exercise with neighborhoods.

Removing cars is so cheap. Building highways is insanely expensive.