Once again an urban planner, housing expert, urbanist, mobility advocate. Board Member
@safestreetsjc
. All opinions are my own and only my own. he/him.
Dollar vans are the desire paths of public transit, showing where demand is so massive and supply so scarce a route forces itself into existence without public support. We should be building subway expansions along these routes instead of widening highways.
I spent nine months mapping the grey-market public transit networks of NYC: dollar vans, jitneys, and ้ขๅ ่ฝฆใ
Revisiting my interactive story for the
@NewYorker
:
A reminder from a brave Amtrak commuter in Appalachia that we need simple, reliable and frequent intercity rail service, not glorified land cruises that can be 4+ hours late, if we want to use rail to connect people to economic opportunity.
We're
#OnTrackToOrlando
as we perform test runs along the 528 corridor with trains reaching speeds of 125 MPH between Cocoa and Orlando.
This 40-mile stretch features no grade crossings and will only be used for passenger rail once service begins.
The โghost tracksโ of the Cape May, Delaware Bay & Sewellโs Point Railroad have reappeared on Sunset Beach in Cape May, NJ! A Norโeaster last weekend unearthed them.
% of people living in apartments in Europe and the US . Many Europeans, even in โcheapโ 2nd tier cities, choose multifamily living - an underrated factor in why Europeans outside of the British Isles tend to spend a lower % of their income on housing than Americans.
Reminder that the US once had one of the most advanced and innovative rolling stock industries in the world before it got choked to death by outdated safety regulations and public disinvestment in passenger rail.
"There is not an off-the-shelf product, in most cases, that is available. We donโt have the [U.S.] domestic supply base," Amtrak CEO Gardner says on sourcing new train cars and engines.
Same issues apply to U.S. transit agencies, he adds.
@JakeAnbinder
This of course ignores the selection bias of poor kids being less likely to apply to college at all, let alone elite colleges.
The profile of a poor kid applying to Ivies is likely that of an incredibly high achiever.
In light of the hot discourse about urban access to the outdoors I thought I'd do a thread about transit-to-trail access in North America. Unsurprisingly, some regions are better at this than others.
Here it is! The busiest station in the US outside of NYC and one of only two train stations to have direct trains to both the East and West coasts. Chicago Union Station in all its glory.
@IAPonomarenko
Serious question from someone who is pro-Ukraine, why does Zelenskyy's government continue to fund the far-right Azov Battalion as part of the National Guard?
Two of the longest metro platforms in the world are in the State (Red Line) and Dearborn (Blue Line) subways in the Chicago Loop. Both of these midcentury subways were built with continuous platforms running the length downtown. Trains stop at 3* locations on each platform.
Garden City NY - median income $186,607 - is in the 15-minute walkshed of SEVEN different LIRR stations. Virtually the entire village will have to be upzoned to 50du/acre - roughly brownstone Brooklyn densities - if Kathy Hochulโs housing proposal passes.
IMO 10k/sq mi is the minimum population density needed for a place to be able to potentially function as urban so I thought I would post some maps of various cities showing where this density theshold is met.
The โjust move to Europeโ crowd seems to think all urbanists are single 22 year olds with remote software engineering jobs looking for a little adventure. Many of us just want walkable, sustainable places to call home, raise families and grow old in!
A tale if two mainline rail-subway hybrids:
@TfL
Elizabeth Line: runs 2.5-5 minute headways all day. Accomplishes all maintenance in small overnight windows.
@PATHTrain
: Runs 20-minute headways or worse outside of the morning and evening rush hours for โessential maintenanceโ.
A reminder to
@RepJoshG
that the bulk of commuters in his district to NYC take either the bus or the train and would not be negatively impacted by congestion pricing.
@sssmaldo
I have a cheaper idea for accommodating 250,000 more New Yorkers, upzone all those expensive single family neighborhoods right next to the F train in the rich part of Flatbush.
Sons of Israel (35 Cottage St) just submitted a site plan to redevelop their shul. The new building will include a synagogue, retail, a daycare, offices, apartments, and a pedestrianized street connecting to the PATH station.
Units: 576
FAR: 16.1
Density: 1200 du/acre
Parking: 0
NJT actually has a $2.9 billion project in its capital plan to raise Hoboken Terminal above base flood elevation, build high level platforms and move the light rail station closer to the PATH and street. Of course Murphy would rather widen highways instead.
@TurnpikeTrap
NJ TRANSIT train service in and out Hoboken Terminal is subject to up to 30-minute delays due to high water conditions. Stay up to date on the latest service info!
๐ Latest service info:
๐ฑApp:
๐ Twitter:
Traffic on Kedzie briefly (but frequently) grinds to a halt as a Brown train crosses the street. The CTA has the only rapid transit grade crossings in North America.
Calatravaโs Oculus at the WTC PATH station might have been absurdly expensive and the station may be a pain to navigate, but as someone whose family was impacted 20 years ago, the once a year skylight angle effect is a legitimately cool memorial.
#NeverForget911
All Kathy Hochulโs bill is asking is for the railroad suburbs to look like railroad suburbs! Some of our regionโs most charming town centers have built environments that meet these standards, but itโs illegal to build new ones.
The proposed state budget would work with localities to allow for 50 homes per acre around train stations in NYC and within 15 miles.
But what does that average density look like? We worked with the great
@alfred_twu
to visualize what areas around train stations could look like.
This โEuropeans have a worse quality of life because they have less stuffโ idea pops up all the time. It ignores the reality that immense poverty of our public goods compared to Europe fuels our obsession with spending disposable income on private goods.
@RM_Transit
There isnโt a single place that is the best at everything.
NED has great cycling infrastructure but some poorly planned metros/trams and a terrible housing crisis.
Japan has a land use system most responsive to housing needs and amazing railways but few public parks.
Etc.
In countries that are serious about making passenger rail useful, there would be multiple trains a day between Washington and Pittsburgh that this guy could take.
I added all of Downtown Jersey City's Census tracts together and got a population of 73,350, showing 59.4% growth from the 2010 population of 45,992. Super impressive stuff!
@rustbeltenjoyer
As someone who has done IRL advocacy and not just internet posting, thereโs an axiom I want to share with you for organizing:
โNo permanent allies, no permanent enemies.โ
The coalition for each individual issue can be different and thatโs ok.
@Forever_Wario
A half acre garden requires (in addition to all the associated time and labor) a half acre of arable land to call oneโs own. Please tell me where I can find a half acre of urban land that doesnโt require you to be in the 1% to purchaseโฆ
US airport transit tier list:
A: ATL, ORD, SFO, DCA, MDW, SLC (the train is the most convenient way downtown)
B: CLE, PHL, SEA, IAD, DEN, PDX, MIA, DFW, MSP, PHX, STL (the train is a competitive option)
C: BOS, JFK, OAK (sucks but doable)
D: EWR, BWI, FLL, BUR (it exists...)
@LostMyHeadThere
@Alex__Ebert
@mattdpearce
@BLaw
I think this is Beshear's endgame. Make a proposal to cover black people, have the whatabouters say "what about poor white people?", and then Beshear can pivot to "ok we'll cover everybody." and shut them up.
The Squamish Nation might be doing the best urbanism in North America right now, and ensuring the financial and social future of their tribe in the process.
The Squamish Nation owns many parcels around Vancouver exempt from local zoning. With 87% of the nation voting in favor, they're going to build 6,000 homes at Hong Kong-density, 90% less parking than required by law and beside single-family neighborhoods who cannot stop Senakw.
Lastly, I leave you all with this great illustration by
@alfred_twu
illustrating why these working-class and middle-class apartment dwellers in Europe donโt necessarily have less space or a lower quality of life than Americans living in a single family detached home.
The most well-know train-to-trail is probably Metro-North's weekend-only hiking flag stops in the Hudson Valley: Breakneck Ridge & Manitou on the Hudson Line and Appalachian Trail on the Harlem Line. These stations all connect directly with trailheads.
@party_T_rex
@meptrsn
This also signals to me that people need more personal connections outside of work. This feels more like an epidemic of loneliness. I donโt get people whose primary social network is their coworkersโฆ
@MassJumbo
Unlike the others it wasnโt able to annex any of its emerging suburbs - St Louis was its own county and cities canโt cross county lines in Missouri.
I was in Teaneck to highlight new efforts to stop the
@MTA
'sย $23/day Christmas-Crushing Congestion Tax, and the disastrous effects it will have on North Jersey families visiting Manhattan for the holidays and commuting to work.
By a 7-2 vote, Jersey City has passed its Affordable Housing Overlay that removes density caps (while preserving building envelope) and allowing applicants to bypass zoning board jurisdiction when including 10-15% affordable housing.
@who_shot_jgr
@sodiumPen
This reminds me of Andy Byford's SPEED unit that used in-house staff to identify and fix locations where recalibrated signals would safely allow for faster operations on the NYC Subway. He kept it hush until the work was already well-underway. Cuomo was pissed.
The Bayonne Lidl is only a few hundred feet from the 34th Street HBLR station, but thanks to unsafe, inaccessible road design by
@NewJerseyDOT
on Rt. 440, this is what one needs to do to walk from the station to the supermarket.
Urban North Jersey is doing a great job of producing new housing, but it canโt shoulder the burden of our housing shortage on its own. NYC and the NY and CT suburbs gotta step it up big time.
In case you didnโt think the preservation movement in the US was completely captured by bad-faith NIMBYs, hereโs a prominent Chicago preservationist rallying the troops to protectโฆa 1990s Walgreens.
The Walgreens at 1601 W North Avenue, designed by Stanley Tigerman, is threatened by a new Moody Church/Fern Hill development.
Alderman Brian Hopkins called the site a โblank canvassโโbut Post-Modern architectural heritage is not blank! In 2022 weโll work to protect more of it!
@SidKhurana3607
New Orleans, Austin, Portland OR, and Nashville definitely have an outsize cultural presence.
On the flipside, Dallas, Houston, and Phoenix have an artificially small cultural presence.
@Indigenia
The magical โpeoplingโ of Oklahoma after the land runs of the 1880s is the most egregious offense of this graphic. Itโs all offensive, but given the history of Indian Territory thatโs definitely the worst.
@adcedere
@Eric_Erins
Most Americans donโt have an island counter for one. Nor do they have enough storage space to keep their counters uncluttered. Nor do they have high enough ceilings to have that crazy high second set of cabinets.
Seattle historically had a weak core like Atlanta, but it has seen considerable progress in maturing as a city. Much of central Seattle now meets the 10k density threshold and it is one of the only places in the US where transit ridership has grown over the past 10 years.
Our governor seems to forget two things:
1. 9 out of 10 NJ commuters to Manhattan already take public transit
2. While declining to fully fund NJ Transitโs operating and capital budgets due to โlack of fundsโ, he is pursuing a $26 billion highway widening agenda.
Todayโs decision by
@USDOT
ย to allow New Yorkโs congestion pricing plan to move forward is unfair and ill-advised.
I support congestion pricing conceptually, but it must be fair to all sides. Placing an unjustified financial burden on hardworking New Jersey commuters is wrong.
@dmtrubman
The fact that the enormous wealth generated by the 2000-2020 tech boom was squandered on office parks and exurban sprawl instead of landmark architecture and public infrastructure is going to haunt the Bay Area for generations to come.
Can well-intentioned YIMBYs stop blaming powerless civil servants for the housing crisis and start holding their local politicians instead? Most of us are advocating your case on the inside but are overruled by reactionary politicians.
@tommyfitz89
the planners are cowards. they never come and go. councils do. mayors do. we have had the same planners for 30 years and theyre afraid to change the city. because its comfortable to them and their friends
Pretty impressed with
@NJTRANSIT
's ability to jerry-rig an interurban-style wooden catenary pole on a moment's notice to get M&E more or less up and running again.
@AnonymousLeftie
Philly is a fantastic city to have money in, but a terrible city to try to make money in. The job opportunities just arenโt there. Careers move at half-speed in Philly. Thereโs a reason Phillyโs elite is mostly old money, there arenโt many current wealth generators.
@maxdubler
Boomer environmentalist: lifelong environmental activist who stopped the highway back in โ66 now concerned about the great environmental issues of our time such as the visual impact of rooftop solar panels and the proposed bus lane taking away parking spots.
@Noahpinion
The fields of urban planning and urban economics are UNITED on the necessity of properly pricing the externalities of driving in order to see mass shifts away from driving. Carrots without sticks only attracts the vegetarians. As an economist, shouldnโt you know this?
Many have asked, why the land use around Secaucus Junction station is so terrible. Well today's NJ planning thread will answer that with a lesson on the Hackensack Meadowlands District, and the sketchy body that controls its land use, the New Jersey Sports & Exposition Authority.
The whole premise of as-of-right development is that community outreach happened already - in the public meetings related to the zoning regulations that made this legal. The community had input on and approved the rules this development plays by.
As a rank and file American, the most patriotic thing you can do right now to stand with Ukraine is take steps to reduce your fossil fuel consumption. Sanctions will create oil and gas shortages across the west - tell Russia we don't need their dinosaur juice.
First up NYC - which thoroughly meets and exceeds this threshold not only in nearly all of the five boroughs, aside from bits of Staten Island and Queens, but parts of southern Westchester, South Shore Nassau, and in the ring of North Jersey cities that encircle the Meadowlands.
@NjPier
This building is a 3 minute walk from Journal Square PATH and itโs on a narrow residential street. All adding parking would do is add cars (and therefore traffic) to the neighborhood.
@3_under_scores_
@bikejc
The point of no return was the demolition of the Hoboken El. Streetcars survived in the US where they had dedicated ROW on substantial parts of their route.
A blanket limit on the height of buildings in the most transit-oriented part of New Jersey is a terrible idea for climate, housing affordability, and our state's economy. Call your state legislators and tell them to vote NO on S3274.
@perdricof
To be charitable towards this type of anarchist, at least this is consistent with their pastoral degrowtherism and skepticism of any enterprise more complex than subsistence farming.
Chicago is incredibly straightforward - dense city, not so dense suburbs, though the economically struggling South Side has partially emptied out. Chicago's stark urban-suburban divide was the inspiration for Burgess' concentric zone model of urban form.
Philadelphia, like Chicago, has a strong city-suburb divide, with the density map almost exactly tracing a map of Philadelphia city limits. Unlike DC or NYC, there are few dense suburban centers.
Houston and Dallas are thought of as indistinguishable sprawl, but each city has a "favored quarter" that is beginning to fill in - North for Dallas and West for Houston. There is little structure to the emerging density and prospects for moving away from auto dependence are low.
The Northeast Corridor through New Jersey now ties shorter stretches of rail line in Massachusetts and Rhode Island for the fastest passenger rail line in the Western Hemisphere...
The clean, well-defined density structure of San Francisco and the East Bay contrasts heavily with the unstructured patchiness of San Jose. No wonder one half of the bay has much better transit ridership than the other.
Most importantly, these countries legalize multifamily housing in many more places (and often at higher densities, meaning supply is ample and the choice to live in a dense walkable neighborhood is always available to those who want it.
Every now and then I do something about work Iโm really proud of. Iโm so excited to be part of bringing an 100% affordable development to the heart of downtown Newark!
Join us tomorrow, March 17, at 11am on Facebook for the announcement of Kawaida Towers, Newark's first 100% affordable development in the downtown district
Developers marketing all new construction as โluxury housingโ has backfired horribly for them; now policymakers interested in housing affordability are automatically skeptical of new construction - making it much harder to get development approvals.
Next up is LA and its two satellite regions of Orange County and the Inland Empire. LA actually has more land meeting the threshold than NYC - an example that more than just population density is needed for urbanity.
The Holland Tunnel is the single most underutilized asset for trans-Hudson transportation - operated to cater to single occupancy vehicles and not much else.
The least effective transit from NJ into NYC is via the Holland Tunnel. Cars & trucks carry only 3%!
Despite that
@GovMurphy
and
@NJTurnpike
want to widen I78 for $10.7 billion creating more congestion at an existing bottleneck.
Meanwhile NJT and PATH go ignored.
#turnpiketrap
Downtown Jersey City bar to the 80%+ of customers that access the place on foot - drop dead.
Extremely disappointed Barcade wants to allow cars on Barrow again.l instead of working with the city on delivery strategies.
#barrowforthepeople
Any country that calls a much-needed road diet along the deadliest road in Philly a โmegaprojectโ has a serious infrastructure cost crisis. A project like this should be a municipal quick-build done cheaply by in-house engineers.
Some infrastructure projects are so large in scope that they deserve a category of their own... Mega!
Today, we announce funding for 9 megaprojects across the nation that will generate jobs, expand our economy, and help Americans everywhere thrive.
West Dallas, East Austin, East Atlanta, Southeast Portland, East Nashvilleโฆthe same story over and over againโฆ
Retaining single family zoning in centrally located neighborhoods accelerates gentrification.
I recall during the city's West Dallas planning effort it was very important to "preserve single family zoning" to "prevent gentrification". Now, it's littered with these:
Both DC and Baltimore have strong dense cores, but DC's has been expanding along its metro lines into the MD and VA suburbs, while Baltimore's has been contracting as the city continues to hemorrhage population - the only Northeast city in this predicament.