Eric Herot - Density and Bicycles

@sam_d_1995 I feel like this is perhaps less a problem of "tech companies like office parks" than it is "tech companies are mostly located in CA, which hates skyscrapers." Salesforce being (weirdly) a notable exception...

major companies in low rise office parks surrounded by parking are the sign of society in decay. real businesses should have iconic, transit accessible HQs like Amex or JP Morgan

@Conservwarrior2 @DougOrleans @maxberger @chrislhayes @eb4everyone I lived pretty close to downtown Chicago (the East Uke Village) and found that having so many great restaurants and cultural institutions within walking distance to be very good for my soul. I would have lived even closer to downtown if I could have afforded it.

@DougOrleans @eherot @maxberger @chrislhayes @eb4everyone It is something for you to think about. I have found that people who have never lived in the country do not know how great life can be. I have lived in both. Believe me, living in downtown Chicago kills your soul.

This is one place where right-wing critiques and leftist critiques of a certain kind of relatively affluent liberalism converge and are also pretty on the money!

@GoatedCardinals @Shawn7494370665 @TonyHinderman @ve_deal @solocook @dbetters77 @LegendOfWinning Genuinely curious where you think the labor is going to come from to do that. It’s not like we have high unemployment right now.

@Shawn7494370665 @TonyHinderman @ve_deal @solocook @dbetters77 @LegendOfWinning never said it would be immediate

I'll leave this here

We (Democrats) have to fix housing in the places we run or else none of these other things even matter.

@aus_hater @MegaUltraMoon @ryan_gunther @OsitaNwanevu @IHateNYT How would you measure that? Show me the stat that shows it’s getting worse.

I vaguely recall that there used to be a bike lane here…

@thebostonlol @jfh Famously it snows only in Boston

@sam_d_1995 Plus, and many non-transit-riders may not know this, but once you manage to board the train you get home just as fast as you would on any other day.

@ericspillman no it’s not, there’s another train coming in a couple minutes and it’s only $2.90

People complain about traffic at Dodger stadium. This is way worse.

@sam_d_1995 @Boenau Right and in particular why does it not seem to affect Canada, which has mostly the same market for large trucks as the United States.

@Boenau why is the US the only country with this trend?

Smartphone market penetration and pedestrian fatalities.

@poiThePoi @steviemoraa Boston has one of the lowest crime rates in the country so that isn’t really a problem here (but also the house with the three unlicensed dogs on my street still hands out candy).

@steviemoraa @eherot We had 2 drug dealers and 3 illegal dogs in our 8 unit building and nada going on.

thinking about “trunk or treat,” where kids dress up and go car-to-car in a parking lot vs going house-to-house. why? safety and convenience. most US neighborhoods are not friendly to kids walking around due to car-centric infrastructure, so we solve this with… cars.

@poiThePoi @steviemoraa Mostly we have 3 family homes and apartment buildings.

@eherot @steviemoraa You have single family homes and parking for cars? Suburbs.

@poiThePoi @steviemoraa I live in Jamaica Plain which is very much an urban neighborhood of Boston and trick or treating is extremely popular here to the point where people drive in from further out.

@steviemoraa Trick or treat only works in suburbs. I've never seen a trick or treater in NYC and I can do math on farms. Trunk or treat isn't anti suburbs, it's reality for anyone who lives in apartments.

@DearLeftyFriend @anijabu @DiRico_Rants @mattyglesias That story ran quite a long time ago. The numbers have actually stopped going up since then. ssa.gov/policy/docs/st…

@anijabu @DiRico_Rants @mattyglesias Here you go. Enjoy. I think what may be happening is your friend doesn't have access to people experienced at gaming the system to coach them on how to apply. npr.org/sections/money…

I've been following politics for years, yet I've still not seen any young man articulate what exactly they wanted from either party that either wasn't some insane and impossible incel fantasy or fear of something that doesn't exist (being drafted). So what are we doing here?

@kyle_ferriter @GaryWinslett @mnolangray The Seaport is great in terms of level of density achieved, but the transportation plan was very car oriented, and very little of what was built is housing.

@GaryWinslett @mnolangray Unfortunately they did not build a tram line from South Station through Seaport and through South Boston, before building out the Seaport housing, offices, retail. So it's a car oriented hellscape that gets totally overrun with cars during busy times. But other than that not bad.

Endlessly wild to me that San Francisco had a vacant 300-acre site less than a mile from the CBD and they only let it build out to densities approximating an up-and-coming Dallas suburb.

@MBTA Was it really necessary to close *both* sidewalks over the Cedar Street bridge in Roxbury? The pedestrian detour is...quite long!

@PaulTompkinsRE @ArmandDoma No private sector builders in California are building housing for $300k a pop.

The incentives are misaligned, and this is a universal, fundamental issue that cannot be resolved. NASA spends $420 million rehabilitating an engine, while SpaceX builds a more efficient, more powerful one for $1 million. The California government spends $700,000 to $1 million per new housing unit, while the private sector achieves the same for around $300,000. Cities often spend $70,000 to $100,000 per parking stall to construct new parking garages, whereas private developers can do it for $35,000 to $40,000 per stall. This pattern repeats across many sectors. It’s an inherent part of how government operates and must be acknowledged. This is why the government must act only as a referee, not a participant in the game.

my most simultaneously left and right wing belief is that government agencies like NASA can and should be able to operate at the level of private entities like SpaceX. one of the most underrated and important causes of the left is figuring out how to make that happen

@_imey @thejeffbyrnes @ansellundberg My child rarely sees the inside of a car, even when it is 95°F. He does like riding in the stroller and bucket bike though. Mind you temperatures like that would be a lot more pleasant if we could take back some parking spaces to plant shade trees…

@thejeffbyrnes @ansellundberg Do you cycle to the store in 35c weather at 80% humidity to buy your groceries? To take your young children places? Your elderly parents?

@roadrunnerbos There are very few bike friendly bags smaller than 14 inches in every dimension!

@eherot if the bag is smaller than 14"x14"x14", it will be allowed. Feel free to email us if you have other questions at info@roadrunnerboston.com

@roadrunnerbos My wife and I would love to bike to your venue tomorrow night but getting around on a bike without a bag is pretty challenging (nowhere to put lock/work stuff). Any pointers for checking a bag while attending a show (since you don't accept them at the coat check)?

@realroborthman @BostonBTD @jfh It was cool that we cared about this briefly. Pilot for what exactly?