Author: admin
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Burning Down My City
I tweeted earlier during coronavirus about how the “100-year pandemic” is something that long-term planning is indeed suppose to address. Like the 100-year flood in land use, the decisions we made yesterday are setting the stage as to how well we can cope today and tomorrow. All those zoning rules and planning commission decisions in…
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Micro-Units: What’s a Proper Living Space
Micro-units were all the rage in DC this year. About a dozen projects are in the works. There is nothing too new about this marketing label for what are essentially studios or efficiencies, but I was surprised at the unit floor configurations proposed. The typical rule of a micro unit is to be below 400…
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We Need a Second Transbay Tube
In the past year a renewed push to build a second Transbay Tube across the San Francisco Bay floor has heated up. BART has been plagued with it’s own maintenance problems and to some reports, is steadily worsening with a half-funded backlog through the next decade. But plenty of transit systems have backlogs, so…
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Will the U.S. Adopt Scooters
While Americans are still entrenched in this idea of make the car great again with autonomous systems, there’s another urban transport mode people have overlooked, the scooter. The scooter or motor bike is ubiquitous in Asia because of historically narrow and uneven roads. Match that with limited parking and hilly terrain and you have a good…
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On Ride-Sharing Becoming Permanent Transportation
It’s clear that ride-sharing’s reputation has been rather tarnished by public policy backlashes this year, but this hasn’t diminished its popularity. In my view, I see Uber and Lyft as technology companies in the same vein as freeways, railroads, steamships, and jumbo jets that heralded new eras of transportation. But hold on you say, it’s…
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Reflections of the Mission District in the Mid-2010s
In honor of Jane Jacob’s 100th birthday, I thought I’d share what I learned from San Francisco’s neighborhoods and what made them great places to be. Lost in the tech gentrification controversy is the fact that the City is indeed an extremely desirable place to live, so much that people sacrifice hard to have a…
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Trading Four Wheels For Two, A Follow-Up
In 2008, Minnesota Public Radio interviewed me about bicycling when the idea of being a full-time bicyclist was just starting to gain traction. At the time, bike lanes were only in the planning stage, and bicyclists comprised a hardcore group of locals who lurked in the angsty MPLSBikeLove forum. I was always curious about how…
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Why They Still Are “Willing to Relocate to San Francisco”
Why is it in 2016, we must be willing to relocate to San Francisco?
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Transit Tech Startups
Shaun Abrahamson of Urban.us detailed a list of “Pop-up Mass Transit” startups operating now. From a VC perspective, he’s concerned about how game theory will make or break their mobility promises. Can shuttle startup A beat out carshare startup B on price and retain users when the true cost of providing these services becomes reality. I couldn’t help…
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Geography of Nowhere Remains Relevant for the New Urban Age
James Howard Kunstler’s Geography of Nowhere was published in 1993 but it’s view of our current urban landscape remains just as relevant today. Kunstler is a journalist turned urbanist critic, much like Jane Jacob’s, and along with his damning treatise on our car addiction regards him as a popular pundit than expert in the urban planning community.…