Andrew McCubbin

Some people respond to the desire to "build up" by citing graphics like these. They appear to suggest the counterintuitive idea that building mid-rise buildings actually achieves the same density (dph) as very tall buildings But the counterintuitive point is obviously false. These calculations involve applying arbitrary distances between buildings, artificially restricting densities. It is true that midrise may be preferable in a variety of settings. It may also be true that high densities can be achieved through midrise development (think of Paris!) But don't be fooled: the obvious point that tall buildings achieve higher densities is true.

I don’t know if I’m supposed to post this, because it has wholesale price information, but screw it: This is the reality of owning a business that competes directly with big box stores. I go to a buying show, find a product I like and want to carry in my store. My wholesale supplier tells me it will cost me $37.61 per bottle, but the MSRP $63.99. Ok, decent markup. It’s a good product, wait let me just check something real quick. Lowe’s sells this exact same product for $5 LESS than what my wholesale distributor wants to sell it to me for! That’s right, if I tried to price match Lowe’s I’d be LOSING $5 per every bottle sold. I can try to squeeze my distributor and get a few bucks taken off per bottle, but even still, I have to make a markup on the products I sell or else I go out of business. So if I do decide to carry this product and sell it for more than what Lowe’s does people will accuse me of price gouging customers. Lose lose situation. This is why we focus so much on carrying products that big box stores do not carry, but that gets harder every single year. I could keep going, but this is long enough already. I’ll cover more topics in the future. Rant over.

“Fishers, Indiana… last month capped rental homes at 10% of any neighborhood.” Explain to me how this is legal.

$53,932.59 per unit.

The “property tax on old people” debate has to include the fact that we don’t get any of the nice things our property taxes should pay for. My roads are a mess, schools are full of foreigners, violence and homosexuality. Our parks are full of homeless people and trash.

I’ll go ahead and note that this speed camera is located within a block of three schools, and a fourth school is about four blocks away. I don’t know that speeding here should be encouraged or joked about.

Another fantastic example of simple and effective Iranian apartment design! A mixture of red brick, and turquoise stone with shaded balconies. Should be inspirational to cities around the world. By Herreh Architects, in Tehran