urbanism

“He has sentenced houseless people of Denver to more sickness, suffering, loss of limbs, and potential death,” Housekeys Action Network Denver (HAND), an advocacy organization composed of people who are currently or have previously been homeless, said in a statement.

. . .

“[Sweeps,] we predict, will contribute up to 25 percent of the deaths among this population over a 10-year period,” Dr. Joshua Barocas, the principal investigator of the study and infectious disease doctor and associate professor at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, told Denverite in April. “To put that a different way, it means our states and our cities are literally killing people with this.” Dr. Barocas is a supporter of the city ordinance and, in November, told Denver City Council’s Safety and Housing committee that cold weather begins to pose risks of bodily harm under 32 degrees.

City policies toward unhoused people, like homeless sweeps in freezing temperatures, result in a measurable loss of lives. In 2022, 226 unhoused people in Denver died, constituting 1 out of every 21 unhoused persons in the city. In addition to high mortality rates, homeless people in the Denver metro area also face risks to their health that can land them in the hospital. According to the Common Sense Institute, unsheltered individuals sought medical attention at Denver Health an average of four times annually, likely due in part to injuries resulting from freezing weather conditions.

Cities should be designed around this.

The inside of this limited express train is excellent. A little bit of plants goes a long way.

Caption: "Wooden churches in Kizhi and Vytegra have as many as twenty-five onion domes."

Onion dome

An onion dome is a dome whose shape resembles an onion. Such domes are often larger in diameter than the tholobate (drum) upon which they sit, and their height usually exceeds their width. They taper smoothly upwards to a point.

Nitter

Hierarchy of hazard controls

Hierarchy of hazard control is a system used in industry to prioritize possible interventions to minimize or eliminate exposure to hazards. It is a widely accepted system promoted by numerous safety organizations. This concept is taught to managers in industry, to be promoted as standard practice in the workplace. It has also been used to inform public policy, in fields such as road safety. Various illustrations are used to depict this system, most commonly a triangle.

Apparently this is all the rage in Germany (and China) where you can buy a kit at the supermarket for 500-600EUR and then you simply hang the solar panels over your balcony and plug them in to a wall outlet to reduce your net usage.

I was trying to do research on why we don't have this in the US and it doesn't seem like there are any particularly good reasons for it other than sclerotic response to "new" technology.

Seems like an incredibly cool idea to make apartment dwelling even more sustainable.

non-archive link: https://www.dw.com/en/mini-plug-in-solar-panels-are-they-worth-it/a-66240262

It's fascinating to see how many people have become anti-suburban due to COVID...

https://www.cnbc.com/2017/01/19/mark-zuckerberg-suing-hawaiians-to-force-property-sale.html

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/mark-zuckerberg-spent-187-million-191118946.html

This doesn't apply to everyone, not on such a deep emotional level (I liked cars but I was never naming and hugging and kissing them) but when a car is a necessity, and you spend large swaths of your life in one, you definitely form a certain attachment, if not to the specific car, then to the general vibe and lifestyle. For say, a trans person in the american south... a car could be a lifeline, frequently the only thing between you and homelessness, etc.

I'm thankful to not need a car anymore, and I've developed a similar but different attachment to/fondness for transit, but cars still hold a certain comfort as someone who grew up in the sticks originally, and whose first real dose of independence and refuge from the world was getting a drivers license and access to a car. And while that shouldn't be allowed to block reforms to the urban landscape that make cars less necessary and less viable, it's worth being more empathetic to those with a strong connection to the car as that process progresses.

Maybe this isn't even a good video to explain what I imply in the title but I hope it makes sense, and it did get me thinking about the topic

Okay, hear me out, I was just looking at pictures of beavers and thought to myself, what if someone used a beaver dam for hydropower? I mean my first thought is of course that wouldn't work...unless? I mean I know nothing about dam construction or hydropower, so I can't actually disprove this to myself. Why wouldn't this work? Or could it?

This comes from the experimental WIN350 Shinkansen.

From here

https://www.starnewsonline.com/story/news/local/2024/01/16/nc-insurers-want-to-nearly-double-rates-for-coastal-homeowners/72179676007/

But as things stand, cars are still really expensive for many Americans. Just 10 percent of new car listings are currently priced below $30,000, according to CoPilot. Things are not much better in the used car market, where only 28 percent of listings are currently priced below $20,000.

According to an October report by Market Watch, Americans needed an annual income of at least $100,000 to afford a car, at least if they're following standard budgeting advice, which says you shouldn't spend more than 10 percent of your monthly income on car-related expenses.

That means that more than 60 percent of American households currently cannot afford to buy a new car, based on Census data. For individuals, the numbers are even worse, with 82 percent of people below the $100,000 line.

$100k to afford a car! Wtf.

Get ready for an amazing time travel adventure, as we take a nostalgic walk around the Stroud Mall, in Stroudsburg PA comparing the past to the present! Join me, as I first transport you back to the year 2000 when I was just a kid, strolling around the bustling mall during its heyday. Then, fast forward to 2022, where I revisit the same locations, sharing the transformations and reminiscing about the memories.

In which some bozo was doing 65kph in a 50kph zone and plowed through a red light that was red for 23 seconds at the point of impact where he killed an 11 year old girl that was crossing it

He got off with 9 months prison suspended and a 6 months driving ban as he argued "the red light was green in his imagination"

motherfucker if that was the case you should be banned from riding a bicycle, too. The fact that this keeps happening and none of the aggrieved parents ever just fucking whack any of thse psychopaths should be considered an enduring miracle by the church