Henry Grabar @henrygrabar Twitter profile

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Henry Grabar

1 month

My monthly newsletter is back with a new name, on a new platform, with a subject that I think you will like: Why Japan's streets are so narrow

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Henry Grabar

@henrygrabar

10 months

me and the boys coming to enforce the 15-minute city

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Henry Grabar

@henrygrabar

1 year

what a perfect little story

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Henry Grabar

@henrygrabar

2 years

It's crazy how much the last ten years of city life were shaped by tens of billions of dollars in subsidies for cheap cab rides

The Decade of Cheap Uber Rides Is Over

How American life was changed by a subsidy that ride-hail companies can no longer afford.

slate.com

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Henry Grabar

@henrygrabar

1 year

you're the richest man in the world, you're building a new city, and this is what you come up with?

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Henry Grabar

@henrygrabar

2 years

Bag restrictions at concerts, stadiums etc.—that’s car culture

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Henry Grabar

@henrygrabar

2 years

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Henry Grabar

@henrygrabar

1 year

Why can’t we build new mass transit at a reasonable price? Maybe because all public sector expertise has been outsourced to consultants

We Finally Know Why It Costs So Damn Much to Build New Subways in America

A new report makes it clear. Fixing it is another matter.

slate.com

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Henry Grabar

@henrygrabar

9 months

I like this loose approach to historical preservation

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Henry Grabar

@henrygrabar

1 year

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Henry Grabar

@henrygrabar

2 years

Many of our housing problems can be traced to the fall of the residential hotel, which was once a fixture of the American city's residential mix... and could be again. In defense of the hotel:

Bringing Back a Grand American Institution Could Transform Society. Why Don’t We?

A fixture of housing was deemed uncivilized—and erased. No more.

slate.com

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Henry Grabar

@henrygrabar

11 months

Zero people killed in traffic crashes in Paris this April

Emmanuel

@EmmanuelSPV

11 months

Le bilan des accidents de la route d'Avril pour l'Ile-de-France vient de paraître, avec aucun accident mortel recensé à Paris.

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Henry Grabar

@henrygrabar

6 months

pretty funny that Amtrak built a whole new Manhattan terminal, implemented the same absurd boarding process, BUT also re-created the Yglesias loophole, wherein you can just skip the huge line and access your track from the LIRR concourse below

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Henry Grabar

@henrygrabar

1 year

Crazy that this used to be for cars

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Henry Grabar

@henrygrabar

2 months

quite surreal to hear the GOP governor of North Dakota talking like your typical War on Cars guest

Jonathan Berk

@berkie1

2 months

“We built cities all over America that are designed for automobiles and not designed for people... Our housing costs are high, in part because of the way that we've designed our cities." - @GovDougBurgum North Dakota comments during the @NatlGovsAssoc winter meetings

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Henry Grabar

@henrygrabar

2 years

Two hundred-year-old towers were supposed to turn into 400+ apartments. Instead they're going to be dynamited in the name of counterterrorism. New me on a debacle in Chicago:

Why Are the Feds Trying to Blow Up a Block of Downtown Chicago?

Two historic towers are slated for demolition for no good reason.

slate.com

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Henry Grabar

@henrygrabar

1 year

You ever see those color-coded maps of how much downtown land is devoted to car storage? @Parking_Reform has put them all in one place, and ranked 50+ U.S. cities by their parking land use

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Henry Grabar

@henrygrabar

6 months

every american university must have one of these

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Henry Grabar

@henrygrabar

1 year

fascinating investigation into how truck bloat Is outgrowing our parking spaces

American Cars Are Getting Too Big For Parking Spaces

The changes to parking space standards have not kept up with the explosion in vehicle sizes.

www.vice.com

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Henry Grabar

@henrygrabar

2 years

I've been complaining about this for YEARS

General Motors recalls 740K SUVs; headlights are too bright

DETROIT (AP) — General Motors is recalling more than 740,000 small SUVs in the U.S. because the headlight beams can be too bright and cause glare for oncoming drivers.

apnews.com

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Henry Grabar

@henrygrabar

17 days

I worked on this story for a year and he just... tweeted it out

Mark R. Brown, AICP

@CompletedStreet

18 days

oof

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Henry Grabar

@henrygrabar

7 months

Five ideas, from 2021: 1. Turn pavement into green space 2. Pick up trash 3. Protect the subway 4. Legalize basement apts 5. Work fast

New York City Doesn’t Have to Flood Like This

Here are five things it can do right now.

slate.com

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Henry Grabar

@henrygrabar

1 year

When it comes to recreational uses at the curb, Philadelphia has set an example for the nation

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Henry Grabar

@henrygrabar

2 years

Illegal 53 taking an illegal route to the Holland Tunnel, about to block a dozen intersections for minutes at a time, hate to see it

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Henry Grabar

@henrygrabar

2 years

still can't believe California's going with "$400 checks based on how many cars you own"

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Henry Grabar

@henrygrabar

1 year

nice new maps in the NYT today remind us that one of the easiest, greenest things we can do as a society is allow more people to live in walkable neighborhoods close to jobs

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Henry Grabar

@henrygrabar

1 year

I had a very interesting conversation with @brianschatz about being a YIMBY in the Senate:

The Democratic Senator Who Says Liberals Have Lost Their Way on Housing

How Sen. Brian Schatz became a YIMBY—and how he thinks his party can see the light.

slate.com

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Henry Grabar

@henrygrabar

2 years

truth is, living in a big city can be a lot of fun if you don't have to be in the office all day

Justin Fox

@foxjust

2 years

The freedom afforded by remote work has allowed WFHers to congregate in such scenic and low-cost locations as ... central DC and the Inner Mission in San Francisco (column and 🧵)

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Henry Grabar

@henrygrabar

1 year

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Henry Grabar

@henrygrabar

2 years

some of this was really good! fewer parking garages, lower rates of drunk driving. some was not so good: disinvestment in mass transit, traffic congestion. some was ??? (restaurants opening ghost kitchens) what happens to all of that when Dara turns the screws?

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Henry Grabar

@henrygrabar

2 years

Cardi B on the housing shortage: "There’s no motherfucking inventory when it comes to homes."

Cardi B outraged over inflation, housing costs: 'How are people...

“There's no motherf--king inventory when it comes to homes," Cardi B said. “Nobody’s gonna try to sell their f—king homes.”

nypost.com

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Henry Grabar

@henrygrabar

2 years

Huge sales tax jumps on NYC Open Streets relative to neighboring streets and the boroughs at large

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Henry Grabar

@henrygrabar

2 years

A city that frees children also frees their parents. Me on the world's most adorable city planning show:

How Japan Built Cities Where You Could Send Your Toddler on an Errand

The Netflix show Old Enough! offers a glimpse of an alternate reality.

slate.com

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Henry Grabar

@henrygrabar

1 year

News: My book about parking is coming out on May 9th! It's the story of how our demand for free and easy parking screwed up our cities—and how we can undo the damage. Pre-order it now and earn valuable parking karma:

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Henry Grabar

@henrygrabar

9 months

“What is tourism?” asks Walentas. “It’s people who work 50 weeks a year, then put all their money in a bag, come here, and throw it in the air. Then they go home without consuming health care or education or anything. It’s the greatest return on investment you could ask for.”

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Henry Grabar

@henrygrabar

2 years

So is Amtrak ever going to bring back service between NYC and Montreal or is that going to be one of those things that disappeared forever during the pandemic?

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Henry Grabar

@henrygrabar

1 year

great charts from @jburnmurdoch showing the how English became the language of housing problems

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Henry Grabar

@henrygrabar

1 year

I went long on how Paris kicked out the cars:

How Paris Pulled Off What New York and London Can Only Dream About

One parking structure pivoted to growing mushrooms and endives.

slate.com

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Henry Grabar

@henrygrabar

1 year

I wrote about what it means for cities to focus as much on attracting residents as attracting jobs

Cities Are for People Who Want to Be There

Now they need to act like it.

slate.com

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Henry Grabar

@henrygrabar

2 years

A take so hot you could cook an egg on it

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Henry Grabar

@henrygrabar

1 year

I know Dems have lost the gun control fight but I think they should go all-in on stigmatizing this gun-freak behavior as deeply weird and uncool

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Henry Grabar

@henrygrabar

2 years

Santa Monica didn't allow enough housing; now its housing stock will jump 7 percent overnight as developers take advantage of an old state law's "Builder's Remedy"

Santa Monica’s Failed Housing Plan Sparks Building Bonanza

The failure last year to produce a housing plan acceptable to state authorities has set up the City of Santa Monica for an unprecedented development frenzy. WS Communities, a firm founded by promin...

therealdeal.com

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Henry Grabar

@henrygrabar

2 months

this is embarrassing. a thousand guys with long guns in the subway but New York can't afford this?

What’s Happening to Open Streets?

From Park Slope to Prospect Heights, even the city’s crunchiest (and wealthiest) neighborhoods are struggling to fund the program.

www.curbed.com

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Henry Grabar

@henrygrabar

1 year

it's 2023, why is New York City still requiring every new apartment come with a parking space? from a new @OpenPlans report:

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Henry Grabar

@henrygrabar

1 year

"12-20% of your rent isn’t paying for the apartment, it’s paying for hallways." the great @alfred_twu weighs in on single stairs:

How new fire codes can fix California’s housing crisis and its architecture

Through single stair codes for mid-rise apartment buildings, we can have housing that is...

www.sfchronicle.com

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Henry Grabar

@henrygrabar

1 month

well this just makes my day!

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Henry Grabar

@henrygrabar

1 year

“Between 1923 and ‘28 commercial builders erected more than 20,000 apartment houses with more than a third of a million units—or enough to house over 1.5 million people. But as [Abraham] Kazan also knew, virtually all of the new housing was much too expensive for working people.”

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Henry Grabar

@henrygrabar

2 years

We need a flexible, variable-term accommodation that can: -keep prosperous vacationers out of the longterm housing stock -footloose young people out of family-sized apartments -the elderly out of far-away nursing homes -the destitute off the street

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Henry Grabar

@henrygrabar

2 years

A gas tax holiday would give $3 to the richest US households for every $1 to the poorest. It's bad for the environment, guts infrastructure funding, and probably wouldn't help Democrats that much anyway. So why are so many of them trying to make it happen?

A Gas Tax Holiday Is a Terrible Idea

For so many reasons.

slate.com

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Henry Grabar

@henrygrabar

2 years

this is a no-brainer

What to Do About Halloween’s Real Threat to Kids

There's nothing to fear from automobile-free streets.

slate.com

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Henry Grabar

@henrygrabar

2 years

but extended-stay hotels are desperately needed at higher price points too. boarding houses were how young people found independence in the big city, without having to invest in furniture or deal with roommates.

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Henry Grabar

@henrygrabar

1 year

Re-reading the original 1982 "Broken Windows" article and I'm struck by the authors' focus on fear and *perception* of safety—which may not overlap with actual incidence of crime at all.

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Henry Grabar

@henrygrabar

1 year

Nassau County permitted 984 new homes in 2018. If I understood that Kathy Hochul speech right, they will soon have to allow 4,000 new units a year.

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Henry Grabar

@henrygrabar

6 months

new opening on urbanist twitter for the Narrow Lanes Person. potentially a very powerful policy change but needs someone to tweet about it constantly for a few years

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Henry Grabar

@henrygrabar

2 years

Boomers, man

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Henry Grabar

@henrygrabar

1 year

A serendipitous twist: Congressman @robertgarcia has announced a federal bill to pre-empt local parking mandates on the same day my book comes out

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Henry Grabar

@henrygrabar

11 months

Used to be a parking space (20th arrondissement, Paris)

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Henry Grabar

@henrygrabar

2 years

what this article suggests is: perhaps Airbnb users do not actually want to sleep beneath a stranger's family photos -- they just want an affordable mid-term lodging in a nice residential neighborhood

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Henry Grabar

@henrygrabar

5 months

one of the best reader emails I ever got

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Henry Grabar

@henrygrabar

2 years

many people are now aware that today's urban homelessness crisis has its roots in the elimination of SRO rooms, the lowest rung on the housing ladder:

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Henry Grabar

@henrygrabar

1 year

I cannot get over the fact that the entire city of San Francisco voted on whether to let cars back onto the park road—and there were TWO ballot initiatives about it!

What Happens When an Entire City Votes on Closing a Street to Cars

Testy hearings. Angry drivers. Dueling ballot measures. And finally: Election Day.

slate.com

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Henry Grabar

@henrygrabar

1 year

Worried about heavier EVs causing old parking garages to collapse? OK now worry about "horizontal" risk, too. via @awalkerinLA

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Henry Grabar

@henrygrabar

2 years

the answer is sitting right in front of us! hotels used to provide shelter for all of those people, and we made a big mistake when we stopped thinking of hotels as housing

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Henry Grabar

@henrygrabar

2 months

crazy stat in here: There are 12,000 people living in Downtown Boston and 2,200 families, but only 36 high schoolers!

Make downtown a great place to raise a family - The Boston Globe

Having more kids around would transform the quiet post-COVID landscape.

www.bostonglobe.com

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Henry Grabar

@henrygrabar

7 months

A very interesting report from Rebuild by Design: "Toward a Rainproof NYC." One of the biggest changes we'd have to make, short of rebuilding the whole sewer system, requires re-thinking streets and parking lots to *hold water* in a big storm.

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Henry Grabar

@henrygrabar

1 year

Terrific piece of reporting that’s about way more than JD Vance, and shows an important political truth most journalists hide: A lot of the time you interview people, they simply do not know or care what you’re asking about

I Watched J.D. Vance Try to Charm Voters in Ohio. I Finally Get Why He’s So Angry.

I went to Ohio looking for super fans. Here’s what I discovered instead.

slate.com

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Henry Grabar

@henrygrabar

2 years

nowadays 20-somethings rent up the family-size housing stock, consume lots of throwaway Ikea furniture, and are expected to go a full decade before finding a place of their own—if they even manage to move out of their parents house at all!

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Henry Grabar

@henrygrabar

1 year

how did nobody tell me there's a Looney Tunes short (1954) where they try to destroy Bugs' house for a freeway

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Henry Grabar

@henrygrabar

2 years

reading Paul Groth's excellent book Living Downtown I also learned that SROS were: -not counted as housing during urban renewal, which led to undercounts of displaced persons and little help when they were evicted -not eligible for Section 8 for years

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Henry Grabar

@henrygrabar

1 year

Food for thought for NYC: What happened when Paris decided to limit curb-lane dining to the summer months, from April to October? The number of participating restaurants fell by 65 percent.

The Gut Punch New York Is About to Give Restaurants

All to get back a few parking spaces.

slate.com

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Henry Grabar

@henrygrabar

10 months

wrote about some new research from Brookings: if you put suburbanites near shops and amenities you can reduce their driving by 15,000 miles a year

Americans Spend Too Much Time in Cars. The Solution Is Simple.

Not all suburbs are created equal.

slate.com

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Henry Grabar

@henrygrabar

1 year

Some stats for ya: -Car trips starting and ending in Paris are down 60 percent since 2000 -Car trips between city and suburbs down 35 percent in that time -168+ schools with car-free blocks created since 2020 -one (1) cyclist killed in 2022

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Henry Grabar

@henrygrabar

5 months

A classic by Holly Whyte from a 1977 issue of New York. Can't imagine the data has changed much since.

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Henry Grabar

@henrygrabar

1 year

In other words, while we now pine for the housing boom of the 1920s, which has left the city with a huge stock of affordable apartments, contemporary housers saw it as unaffordable

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Henry Grabar

@henrygrabar

2 years

finally of course there is Airbnb: one-quarter of all Airbnb stays are now 30 days or longer. it's the company's fastest-growing type of business. it's eating up the housing stock and taking apartments and houses off the market.

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Henry Grabar

@henrygrabar

1 year

my personal contender for most parking-destroyed city is too small to qualify, but it's a doozy

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Henry Grabar

@henrygrabar

2 years

The sense of urban disorder driving big-city elections is about homelessness, not violent crime, and no amount of broken windows policing is going to help until we find a way to house the homeless.

What the Great Pushback Against Urban Progressives Is Really About

It's not crime.

slate.com

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Henry Grabar

@henrygrabar

2 years

Sempé was among other things the poet laureate of the bicycle. Nobody captured the simple joy of that little machine like he did. RIP.

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Henry Grabar

@henrygrabar

2 years

Westchester and Long Island may be the most exclusionary places in the entire country

Josh McCabe

@JoshuaTMcCabe

2 years

TIL Massachusetts suburbs are approving fewer new homes than the notoriously NIMBY suburbs around San Francisco.

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Henry Grabar

@henrygrabar

2 years

unfortunately, many of the places where Airbnb is devouring the housing stock are also the places where it's really hard to build new hotels. like New York City, where new hotels are effectively banned!

A $7 Billion Mistake? New York Seeks to Curb New Hotels. (Published 2021)

A plan to require approval for every new hotel has sparked opposition inside city government, where budget officials say it could reduce future tax revenue from tourism.

www.nytimes.com

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Henry Grabar

@henrygrabar

2 years

New me, on some lessons from the last period of high gas prices that we totally ignored

Are Gas Prices Too High? Or Is Your Car Too Big?

A nation with the memory of a goldfish when it comes to high gas prices.

slate.com

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Henry Grabar

@henrygrabar

1 year

some delightful tidbits about NYC dysfunction from the Transit Costs Report -- such as the obsession with keeping Second Avenue open to traffic

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Henry Grabar

@henrygrabar

4 months

On the M1 bus crawling down 5th Avenue, thinking about how they punted on redesigning this street so a handful of billionaires could be dropped off in front of Cartier

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Henry Grabar

@henrygrabar

2 years

Just about every fast-food restaurant is trying out a design with no, well, restaurant. New from me:

Why Fast Food Is Racing to Ditch the Dining Room

America traded eating out for ordering ahead during the pandemic—and chains noticed.

slate.com

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Henry Grabar

@henrygrabar

2 years

Is Santa Monica about to get MANHATTANIZED? New from me on the eight months in which the city had no zoning code*:

Santa Monica NIMBYs Made a Hilarious Screwup, and Now They Have to Build More Housing

Foiled by their own paperwork.

slate.com

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Henry Grabar

@henrygrabar

1 year

This is an important distinction: Hiring more cops is not going to help voters feel safe if what's *actually* making them feel unsafe is people using hard drugs in public, people in visible mental distress, vacant storefronts, and so on. Those things are not policing problems!

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Henry Grabar

@henrygrabar

1 year

Excellent piece on parking in the WSJ, with some encouraging data about how we’re building now

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Henry Grabar

@henrygrabar

5 months

You too can read this book and become the life of the party!

Jeremy Ney 📧

@jeremybney

5 months

Just finished @henrygrabar ’s book Paved Paradise and I cannot recommend it highly enough. I now ruin every dinner party though by only talking about parking, but definitely worth it

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Henry Grabar

@henrygrabar

7 months

🚨🚨🚨about time!

City of Yes Yes Yes! Adams Calls for Elimination of Parking Mandates on ALL New Housing - Streets...

Mayor Adams today announced the historic end to one of the city’s most antiquated — and despised — zoning laws requiring the construction of parking with every new development.

nyc.streetsblog.org

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Henry Grabar

@henrygrabar

2 years

If architecture tours are prohibited then only criminals will give architecture tours

Walking NPR

@WalkingNPR

2 years

Dramaaaaaaaa….

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Henry Grabar

@henrygrabar

4 months

We must build the Highrise of Homes

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Henry Grabar

@henrygrabar

1 year

in short, I suspect that making fun of guys who go to Chipotle dressed for Fallujah is a winning bipartisan issue

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Henry Grabar

@henrygrabar

2 years

@NYPD5Pct this is your job

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Henry Grabar

@henrygrabar

2 years

Might as well call her Cardi YIMBY, amirite

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Henry Grabar

@henrygrabar

7 months

Incredible example of the posting-to-policy pipeline. Congrats to @holz_bau

California YIMBY

@cayimby

7 months

[VICTORY ALERT] @GavinNewsom has signed AB 835, the single-stair study bill! Thanks to @alex_lee for his leadership on moving California toward international best practices for fire suppression and livable apartments. More on single-stair here:

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Henry Grabar

@henrygrabar

1 year

if you measure rents against local minimum wage, the most expensive cities in America are, of course, Atlanta, Austin, Charlotte, Nashville, and Raleigh (from Zillow)

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Henry Grabar

@henrygrabar

30 days

Here's a new one: Insta account Car Free America using AI to, uh, "enhance" @alfred_twu 's drawing for my book, without credit

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Henry Grabar

@henrygrabar

2 years

Desperate times call for desperate measures, but I predict that after 30 years of absorbing the science on the harms of air pollution people will look at upzoning major corridors as environmental malfeasance

Benjamin Schneider

@urbenschneider

2 years

With AB 2011's passage, virtually all commercial zoned land in CA can now be redeveloped into housing. It's likely the biggest housing production bill in state history, and a sign that "the politics of this issue is changing dramatically.”

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Henry Grabar

@henrygrabar

2 years

American dad: Has a kid, buys a seven-seat SUV French dad: