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Observations from San Francisco

As a nice respite to DC’s heat, I was able to spend the last week in California – including several days in San Francisco. Some thoughts and observations from the trip:

Hills and Grids: Gridded streets have plenty of benefits, to be sure – but the downside is that they do not react to topography. San

Continue reading Observations from San Francisco

PATH/Fail: The Story of the World’s Most Expensive Train Station | Observer 2013/05/16
Infrastructure investment goes off the rails.
Check Out the View From the Top of the Washington Monument: DCist 2013/05/15
helmet cams for ironworkers...
Development above the new Fairfax Metro stations: Should preparation begin now? 2013/05/14
Air rights - not a bad idea. However, the depiction here just seems like another suburban pod, isolated from the rest of the land next to the toll road ROW.
Chupacabra Becomes Latest Taco Trucks to Open Restaurant - Young & Hungry 2013/05/13
A nice list of DC-area food trucks that have translated the concept into a brick-and-mortar restaurant. The truck allows for proof of concept, and lower barriers to entry than otherwise required to start a storefront business from scratch.
Red Transit Lanes on Church Have Made Muni Faster and More Reliable | Streetsblog San Francisco 2013/05/13
Lessons for any city planning a streetcar line...
Cluck Zoning Board Meeting Monday | Providence Daily Dose¬es 2013/05/11
Zoning - yikes. Parking - yikes. This is not the kind of outcome we want for cities.
2035 Predictions for Washington Avenue Offer Precision Without Accuracy | streets.mn 2013/05/10
The perils of projections.
War of Addition: In Defense of Residential Pop-Ups - Housing Complex 2013/05/09
A growing city needs space to grow.
Brooklyn's Burden: Fourth Avenue - WSJ.com 2013/05/07
Highlighting the tensions between market incentives and civic ones; where to unleash the market, and where to constrain it via regulation.
Why America’s population density is falling | Felix Salmon 2013/05/04

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@JGluckman great point - we can go (and grow) taller while still feeling horizontal. - 1 day ago
RT @JGluckman: Barcelona and Paris have densities 4 times DC's while still feeling horizontal. - 1 day ago
RT @JGluckman: @HTinWDC suggests Paris and London as models for national capitals that are as much/more known for business and culture. #He… - 1 day ago
RT @JacksonCarnes: Pierre L'Enfant, father of DC urban planning, provided no limit or suggested limit on height. L'Enfant Plan created in 1… - 1 day ago
RT @enf: Graphic illustrations of how much space required parking eats up graphingparking.wordpress.com via @tranlib @urbandata @svrdesign - 2 days ago
Wow. Score one for the common loon. #Birds slate.com/articles/healt… - 2 days ago
RT @BeschlossDC: This is the future Times Square NYC, 1878, altho it almost looks like an intersection in a frontier town: http://t.co/EAjI… - 2 days ago
@GeorgetownMet yeah, that's exactly how I read the initial statistic. Maybe I stare at census data too much. - 3 days ago
@EricFidler were they thinking of Sunday-only back-in angled parking? - 3 days ago
@MarketUrbanism @urbanophile agreed. 'designed to' implies intent; I think the impacts are unintended consequences. Or counterintuitive ones - 3 days ago

City Block

Observations from San Francisco

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