When a developer proposes a 4 story apartment building:

I'm never not shocked by how much surface parking we have right next to our SEPTA Regional Rail stations, even when they're in walkable downtowns like Bryn Mawr.

Our current park & ride model for commuter rail is an expensive way to generate an unimpressive amount of ridership.

I'm checking out Andor one thing that's striking is how walkable the Star Wars universe is.

I think that's true of most sci-fi shows and TV? I guess nobody wants to see characters stuck in traffic, even if the cars are hovering off the ground.

I think there's more than enough evidence that filtering doesn't take a long time to start lowering house costs, but even if that were true it would still be a spurious argument.

'The best time to plant a tree was 30 years ago, so no point planting one now.'

Unfortunately I think you have to add the caveat 'as long as parking isn't cheap'. Lots of people will drive crazy short trips if they're sure they can find cheap and convenient parking at their destination!

Going to set up a new account in about 10-15 years documenting how all the buildings constructed recently that NIMBYs were sure wouldn't last are still standing.

Look at how many cars are already on Boston's streets by 1916!

'Streetcars aren't going to be very viable when we turn our streets over to private vehicles' is a lesson we should have learned a century ago, but we keep making the same mistakes over and over again.

Didn't those idiots back then know you need tons of setback minimums to build a charming city?!

Stop trying to win over hardcore NIMBYs who use nominally progressive rhetoric, start building a bi-partisan coalition with the Republican elected officials who recognize the problems caused by apartment bans and other density restrictions.

A lot of NIMBYs are frankly pro-blight?

They weirdly seem to ignore the consequences of decades of disinvestment in many of our neighborhoods. Negative consequences current residents have to live with everyday.

The fact that this parcel is zoned for multifamily (RM-1) instead of only single family means this vacant building will be replaced with 3 apartments instead of a single luxury unit.

Density is how re-development can accommodate population growth, not displacement.

Next time you hear someone rant about the General Motors streetcar conspiracy, just remember cars had taken over our city streets *much* earlier than most people realize.

Fulton Road and Dennison Avenue
Cleveland, Ohio
March 25, 1939

Can you think of a reason why these charming attached houses should be prohibited on any residential street in Pennsylvania?

We can't! So let's get the politicians in PA to legalize these cute rowhomes in all of our communities.

When everything else is oriented around parking, why ought transit be an outlier?

There are a couple of reasons why American cities are more auto-dependent than peer metros around the world, but a big part of it is we had just so many cars so early on, and they soon dominated every street and road.

Kenmore Square in Boston, MA
Circa 1935

👏 one 👏 million 👏 Providencians