M. Nolan Gray @mnolangray Twitter profile

Last Seen Profiles

@RowdyRedRaider0

@SCFBaseball

@RaidingTheGlobe

@Scott_Oatley_

@tundemoore_xx

@Richard65245959

@lol_gowther

@bukiiland

@C7a17oQc3hOCQWC

@StirileProTV

@OvationEsports

@BidvestLife

@stockimgAI

@e15news

@Joe__Hume

@ayakashi_stage

@SantiagoMoraRe1

@prospecthospice

@Elle_ChaiChai

@InternatsAmiens

@jakereevesart

@TheFarmSoftball

@LBBW_Research

@TheShadeRoom

@TerryVandrovec

@PacerAthletics

@UlrikaMHedman

@StellarBlade

@RyanMurph2024

@PeterMooreLFC

@OldFacesOficial

@Samaritans_Thai

@bongbrobong

@Neubi

@Top_ShelfSports

@Real_n3xt

M. Nolan Gray

@mnolangray

5 months

Gmail search is amazing. You can search something like "flight sacramento receipt 2023" and it will somehow manage to serve up literally every email in your inbox that isn't the receipt for the flight you just took to Sacramento.

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M. Nolan Gray

@mnolangray

6 months

I've literally never clicked copied and pasted text and thought, "I'm so glad it kept the formatting and font from the other document."

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M. Nolan Gray

@mnolangray

8 months

I'm forever thinking of this Reddit thread: "What did a Roman parking lot look like?"

Peter Norton

@PeterNorton12

8 months

Without history we tend to consider the status quo normal, and other possibilities anomalous. But the original proponents of today's status quo on US streets called their own position "radical," and the status quo we live with every day was their far-fetched, radical aspiration.

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M. Nolan Gray

@mnolangray

3 years

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M. Nolan Gray

@mnolangray

16 days

For the price of Santa Monica bungalow, you can own the largest building in St. Louis.

unusual_whales

@unusual_whales

16 days

Oh, no. The largest office building in St. Louis has sold for $3.5 million, per WSJ. In 2006, it sold for $205 million.

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M. Nolan Gray

@mnolangray

26 days

For 40 years, the Los Angeles mandated that every new high-rise install a helicopter pad on the roof on the basis of fire safety. The theory? A helicopter might land on a burning building and evacuate occupants.

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M. Nolan Gray

@mnolangray

11 months

Parts and labor, I'm confident we can install a bus shelter for $500.

Kounkuey [KDI]

@Kounkuey

11 months

Typical bus shelters often cost $50k or more and require coordination among 8 departments. La Sombrita (in its most expensive, prototype form) costs approximately 15% of the price of a typical bus shelter and can be installed in 30 minutes or less.

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M. Nolan Gray

@mnolangray

2 years

To whoever is doing this to scifi book covers: I just want to talk.

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M. Nolan Gray

@mnolangray

3 years

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M. Nolan Gray

@mnolangray

2 years

How do blind people figure what kind of dollar they're being handling? After all, aren't $1 and a $20 bills all the same size? You may be surprised to know that every major currency issuer in the developed world has found a way to solve this problem—except the US. (1/5)

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M. Nolan Gray

@mnolangray

3 years

It was a laudable attempt, but I think we can all agree that these things suck.

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M. Nolan Gray

@mnolangray

2 years

A car dealership turns into 491 homes in Arlington, VA. (2012➡️2019)

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M. Nolan Gray

@mnolangray

10 months

On December 21 1962, officials opened the 405, forever ending traffic in Los Angeles.

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M. Nolan Gray

@mnolangray

9 days

Is Calgary the only major city in North America where the jurisdiction boundaries actually cover all of what a normal person might think of as the city?

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M. Nolan Gray

@mnolangray

3 years

Someone got paid to do this

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M. Nolan Gray

@mnolangray

10 months

So why did your generation make them illegal to build?

Stan Collins

@stan_sdcollins

10 months

Most of us grew up in houses this size. It amazes me that young couples all feel they need a house ten times this size to start out in. No wonder there is a housing crisis in this country. Drive by any new developments and you never see economical houses this size being built.

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M. Nolan Gray

@mnolangray

1 year

American threads are way too big. We need more five-to-10 seat bars, like in Japan. A scale where one proprietor can run it and you have no choice but to chat.

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M. Nolan Gray

@mnolangray

1 year

This is such an amusing little Tesla design oversight.

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M. Nolan Gray

@mnolangray

1 year

Where would you rather live?

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M. Nolan Gray

@mnolangray

11 months

The defining feature of a civilized airport: a train to downtown.

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M. Nolan Gray

@mnolangray

11 months

The Los Angeles River has got to be one of the most underutilized public spaces in North America, right? This could be an incredible linear park with a multimodal greenway that connects the whole city.

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M. Nolan Gray

@mnolangray

1 year

This is why you drug test your city planners, folks.

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M. Nolan Gray

@mnolangray

11 months

I need to meet this Prius owner who got a totally illegal lift but felt compelled to strictly adhere to window tinting laws.

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M. Nolan Gray

@mnolangray

10 days

Would it really be so bad if this happened in the typical American suburb? I don't think so.

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M. Nolan Gray

@mnolangray

1 month

I don't think that we've fully reckoned with the aesthetic cost of telling an entire generation of young people that the only acceptable path in life is to go get an email job.

Luke at Aryze

@TalktoARYZE

1 month

Holy moly, Iran’s design scene has detailing on Expert Mode 🤯

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M. Nolan Gray

@mnolangray

10 months

The National Parks Service actually subsidizes turning the parks into a traffic sewer. If you, partner, and two kids want to walk in, bicycle, or take a bus into Yosemite, you pay $80. But if you drive your SUV in, you only pay $35. Completely backwards!

Cynthia Armour

@CynthiaArmour

10 months

Can we talk about #Yosemite 's car problem ? Setting aside the reservation system issue, what's the park's plan for improving public transportation access to the park, and multimodal access in the valley? Video: rows of cars parked on the shoulder in Yosemite Valley.

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M. Nolan Gray

@mnolangray

26 days

If this sounds profoundly stupid to you, well, you're not alone: no other major American city imposed such a requirement, and actual fire safety experts universally agreed that landing a helicopter on a *burning building* is incredibly unsafe.

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M. Nolan Gray

@mnolangray

30 days

what goes on here ?

Whitney (Shady Sands)

@whitn_tarnation

30 days

what goes on here ?

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M. Nolan Gray

@mnolangray

2 years

absolutely no one: mesa, arizona:

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M. Nolan Gray

@mnolangray

3 years

A Burger King turns into 318 homes in DC. (2011➡️2019)

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M. Nolan Gray

@mnolangray

3 months

An interesting feature of non-zoning in Houston is that they do a lot of TALL single-family homes.

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M. Nolan Gray

@mnolangray

2 years

becoming an urbanist

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M. Nolan Gray

@mnolangray

11 months

This overpass was completely rebuilt in 2015-2016, approximately seven years ago.

in charge of the girls

@AmeriKraut

11 months

american infrastructure is just hanging by a thread and hasn't been touched since the new deal. your representatives are fighting drag brunch.

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M. Nolan Gray

@mnolangray

2 years

Unironically, I think my next book is going to be about these types of marginal and totally ignored spaces that are just endemic in US suburbia.

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M. Nolan Gray

@mnolangray

12 days

These "Move to Ohio" billboards in LA are seriously getting weird.

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M. Nolan Gray

@mnolangray

2 years

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M. Nolan Gray

@mnolangray

2 years

Times Square, 2009 versus today.

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M. Nolan Gray

@mnolangray

26 days

There was only one documented use of a helipad for fire abatement in their 40 year history: the 1988 First Interstate Tower fire—a building that burned because, while it had a helipad, it didn't have sprinklers. Odd priorities!

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M. Nolan Gray

@mnolangray

26 days

And yet, for 40 years, the rule persisted. Besides the non-negligible added cost of adding a helicopter landing pad, the rule also meant that an entire generation of Los Angeles high-rises had to be flat topped. No spites, no ornamentation.

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M. Nolan Gray

@mnolangray

2 months

If only there were some kind of federal regulatory agency tasked with solving safety prisoner's dilemmas. Perhaps like something a "highway safety administration." Maybe they could control the relative sizes and weights of vehicles. Just daydreaming a parallel non-insane world.

Barrett O'Neill

@barrettjoneill

2 months

Ignore this at your own risk. Do not put your family in a small car. Yesterday, my wife was driving my son to school and an oncoming delivery truck crossed the center lane and hit her head on — the driver had a seizure was going 40 mph. I was on my way to work in a separate…

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M. Nolan Gray

@mnolangray

1 year

Me, derailing every conversation at Thanksgiving by bringing it all back to zoning

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M. Nolan Gray

@mnolangray

3 months

A Burger King turns into 103 homes over shops in Queens, New York. (2017➡️2023)

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M. Nolan Gray

@mnolangray

2 years

One home turns into four homes in Portland. (2011➡️2021)

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M. Nolan Gray

@mnolangray

3 years

@_SalmanAnwar GDP per capita

If Britain were a U.S. state, it would be the second-poorest, behind Alabama and before Mississippi

Britain's GDP divided by population ranks worse than all but one U.S. state.

www.washingtonpost.com

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M. Nolan Gray

@mnolangray

2 years

While they're all asleep, can we discuss how Europe is way drearier than the US.

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M. Nolan Gray

@mnolangray

11 months

Something that I didn't fully appreciate until I spent a month living in Japan is the sheer amount of noise pollution that Americans tolerate. Honking cars, often modified to be noisier; thumping, high-hat laden music that's 50% too loud in every restaurant or cafe, etc.

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M. Nolan Gray

@mnolangray

1 year

Paying my respects to the Oppenheimer-Barbie Houses in Santa Monica.

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M. Nolan Gray

@mnolangray

5 months

Every small city in North America has two tall buildings: 🏦 The first is a 1910s Main Street bank building that has not been fully leased since the day it opened. 👵The second is a 1970s brutalist tower that houses 40 percent of the senior population of the city.

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M. Nolan Gray

@mnolangray

5 months

I understand the arguments against remote work, but let's be real, nobody with options wants to spend half of their waking life in a space like this.

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M. Nolan Gray

@mnolangray

1 year

Ashland, Kentucky is so beautiful.

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M. Nolan Gray

@mnolangray

2 years

A car dealership turns into 783 homes in Washington, DC. (2011➡️2019)

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M. Nolan Gray

@mnolangray

2 years

For all the kvtching about how Americans don't travel: ~73% of Americans have traveled outside the US, but only ~44% of Europeans have traveled outside the EU.

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M. Nolan Gray

@mnolangray

5 months

Berlin is a remarkable case study in trying literally everything other than "just build more housing."

Aaron Green

@AaronGuhreen

5 months

Berlin banned luxury remodels, heavily restricted Airbnb, put strict caps on rent and yet rents are still rising. Who could have predicted??

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M. Nolan Gray

@mnolangray

6 months

Everyone's dunking on this as if "commutes should be shorter" and "I wish I could walk to work" aren't perfectly valid and solvable quality of life concerns.

cold 🥑

@coldhealing

6 months

#4HL

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M. Nolan Gray

@mnolangray

2 years

It's illegal to build normal apartment buildings in 94% of San Jose residential neighborhoods.

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M. Nolan Gray

@mnolangray

1 year

This is an incredibly misleading way to describe a driver hitting and killing a bicyclist.

CBS Philadelphia

@CBSPhiladelphia

1 year

UPDATE: Police say the bicyclist who collided with a car Friday evening was a woman and that she died this afternoon.

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M. Nolan Gray

@mnolangray

1 year

A Burger King turns into 229 homes on top of a new Burger King in San Diego. (2007➡️2011)

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M. Nolan Gray

@mnolangray

2 years

Every election in California 🤪 Presidential election: 🟦 65% 🟥 35% Prop 93: "Do you support the implementation of feudalism in California?" ✅ 82% ❌ 18%

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M. Nolan Gray

@mnolangray

4 months

This is one of the most centrally planned environments on Earth. Every one of those chain outlets is a standard copy handed down from corporate, designed to be minimally compliant with extensive regulations, e.g. parking mandates, setbacks, sign rules, height limits, etc.

Joshua Reed Eakle 🗽

@JoshEakle

4 months

Sorry Tucker, This photo is exponentially more beautiful than anything created by central planners. The chaos of markets will always be preferable to the human suffering caused by centralization. Cope and seeth.

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M. Nolan Gray

@mnolangray

2 years

Is there a US city with a larger gap between expectations and reality than San Jose?

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M. Nolan Gray

@mnolangray

4 months

Blue America's refusal to build housing sure does seem likely a wild political gamble.

The American Redistricting Project

@MappingAmerica

4 months

🚨2030 Apportionment Forecast🚨 +4: TX +3: FL +1: AZ, GA, ID, NC, TN, UT -4: CA -3: NY -2: IL -1: MN, OR, PA, RI * Based on the 2023 Census Population Estimates released December 19, 2023.

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M. Nolan Gray

@mnolangray

2 years

Bodega-dependent New Yorkers visiting a completely normal American supermarket:

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M. Nolan Gray

@mnolangray

8 months

To whoever decided that international terminals were going to be weird luxury malls that close at 10pm and not like normal ass airport terminals with a late night fast food joint, cafe, bar, and newsstand: I just want to talk.

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M. Nolan Gray

@mnolangray

3 years

The year is 1921. You can order a fourplex in the mail from Sears for $65,000 in inflation-adjusted 2020 dollars and build it in virtually every residential neighborhood in America. Life is good.

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M. Nolan Gray

@mnolangray

11 months

Google Streetview driving down every single lane in the strip mall parking lot: 🥰 👍 Google Streetview passing up whole-ass Appalachian towns on the bypass: 🙅‍♂️💨

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M. Nolan Gray

@mnolangray

5 months

It's weird how the US basically reinvented the medieval walled city, but with freeways.

Jaco Major 🍗

@JacoMajor

5 months

Reminder that Charlotte, NC was hardly even a place until recently. *Change for the better is possible.*

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M. Nolan Gray

@mnolangray

1 year

Denver (2011➡️2021)

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M. Nolan Gray

@mnolangray

2 years

For people who sit on Google Maps all day, having a window seat on a plane is like attending a concert.

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M. Nolan Gray

@mnolangray

8 months

Not to sound like a NIMBY, but I'm forever aghast at the Clock Tower development—how could something so garish be allowed to overwhelm such an important spiritual site? It looks like it a tacky Vegas Strip hotel.

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M. Nolan Gray

@mnolangray

2 years

Los Angeles: 1. Take the city with the best year-round weather. 2. Completely give it over to cars, such that you can't safely open your window or breath the air or walk or bicycle anywhere

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M. Nolan Gray

@mnolangray

3 months

Yes, but imagine what could have been.

SMB Attorney

@SMB_Attorney

3 months

The San Francisco hate is overblown. This city is a modern miracle.

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M. Nolan Gray

@mnolangray

3 years

// the urbanism of hey arnold! //

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M. Nolan Gray

@mnolangray

1 year

The vexillology community really is going to turn every city and state flag in the US into a mid-2010s microbrewery bottle label, huh?

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M. Nolan Gray

@mnolangray

8 months

Two homes turn into 25 homes in Los Angeles. (2015➡️2021)

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M. Nolan Gray

@mnolangray

8 months

In the time it's going to take LA Metro to do "community engagement" for a single rail subway line, China built a nationwide high-speed rail network.

numble

@numble

8 months

LA Metro staff has released a report to its board, detailing the community engagement on Sepulveda line in early 2023. It says there was more support for heavy rail. It plans to have another round in Fall 2023 and then 3-4 more rounds in the future.

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M. Nolan Gray

@mnolangray

1 year

It's easy to get cynical if you're an American urbanist. But remember that the sprawl that surrounds you is a canvas for something so much better.

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M. Nolan Gray

@mnolangray

2 years

In the US, we've solved this problem by...well, we haven't really. The Bureau of Engraving simply mails the blind a little AAA battery-powered "iBill" device that they must used to scan bills. Despite decades of promises, we still don't have an accessible currency. (5/5)

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M. Nolan Gray

@mnolangray

1 year

The San Diego Padres have the best baseball-oriented development in California and it's not even close.

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M. Nolan Gray

@mnolangray

2 years

One house turns into 17 homes in Seattle, Washington. (2015➡️2017)

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M. Nolan Gray

@mnolangray

1 year

If this were legal to build in any residential neighborhood, the US would probably achieve housing abundance within two or three years.

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M. Nolan Gray

@mnolangray

3 years

To celebrate the Twitter photo formatting change, please enjoy this cross section of Kowloon Walled City.

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M. Nolan Gray

@mnolangray

2 years

absolutely no one: blank VHS cover designers: ɘɿuƚuᎸ ɘʜƚ t̶̩̟̜͖̫̞͔̙̿̓͋̑̇́͊̒̉̕h̵͖̟͉̹̲͔̺̼̺̆́̔͜ȇ̶͎͗̏̓̋̓̔̄͂̚ͅ ̵̡̯̗̘̟̿̆̉͊͜͝f̸̧͉̠͓̈ṷ̴̜̮̺̞̓͝t̴͖̪̦̄u̷͍̖̗̻̍͌̽̽͝r̶͓͂̊́̂̎̒̚e̸̟̣͐́͌͒̽͋̓̓̄͘

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M. Nolan Gray

@mnolangray

1 year

There really should be a little a little compass at every subway exit. Such a invaluable wayfinding resource!

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M. Nolan Gray

@mnolangray

6 years

Whenever someone tells you more lanes will solve the traffic problem, show them this. (I-10 in Houston, now 26 lanes!)

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M. Nolan Gray

@mnolangray

8 months

A parking lot turns into 700 transit-adjacent homes in San Diego. (2017➡️2020)

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M. Nolan Gray

@mnolangray

2 years

There should really be two, maybe three million-plus cities on this stretch of coast. Instead, it's a NIMBY paradise anchored by a city whose tallest building is a parking garage.

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M. Nolan Gray

@mnolangray

3 years

Every US city: This cookie-cutter five-over-one apartment building will ruin our unique community. 😢 Also every US city:

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M. Nolan Gray

@mnolangray

4 months

So why is it legal to sell a car that can go that fast? This is the easiest problem in the world to solve. Many rental cars already have speed regulators installed.

Cheshire Police

@cheshirepolice

4 months

It doesn’t matter how good a driver you think you are, at these speeds you’re not even slightly in control. (5/11)

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M. Nolan Gray

@mnolangray

2 years

One house turns into seven houses in East Hollywood. (2019➡️2021)

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M. Nolan Gray

@mnolangray

4 years

This map of the US redrawn around major rivers is...shockingly coherent?

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M. Nolan Gray

@mnolangray

4 years

Los Angeles, November 2019: Blade Runner vs. Reality. 😥

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M. Nolan Gray

@mnolangray

2 years

A Papa John's turns into 216 homes in Ann Arbor, Michigan. (2011➡️2016)

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M. Nolan Gray

@mnolangray

2 years

2022

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M. Nolan Gray

@mnolangray

8 months

@DPearsonPHL I seriously think about it all the time. I don't think the average person realizes how profoundly weird US cities are.

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M. Nolan Gray

@mnolangray

4 years

This animation of historical US population density is fascinating. I didn't realize that Lexington was basically the first major city west of the Appalachians!

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M. Nolan Gray

@mnolangray

26 days

If this sounds unusual, it isn't—cities often impose dubious requirements on the basis of fire safety that have hidden costs. Mandates that residential streets be wide enough for a large fire truck to barrel down them more often than not just encourage deadly speeding.

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M. Nolan Gray

@mnolangray

2 years

US streets are cartoonishly wide relative to the rest of the developed world.

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M. Nolan Gray

@mnolangray

2 years

I swear I'm going to be able to tweet this every 10 years until the day I die.

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M. Nolan Gray

@mnolangray

2 months

Many neighborhoods would be enriched by little accessory commercial units like this. Beyond a mere amenity to neighbors, imagine how many entrepreneurial dreams could be realized in these modest, affordable commercial spaces.

Jonathan Berk

@berkie1

2 months

This popular little coffee shop in Austin, Texas serves up some of the best coffee and breakfast tacos in the heart of a low density residential neighborhood with no off-street parking. It would be prohibited in most American neighborhoods today. 🌮 ☕️

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M. Nolan Gray

@mnolangray

2 years

Every US city discovering that they spent the past 50 years making it basically impossible to build infill housing.

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