Urbanism, architecture, transit, strawmen, etc.

Come here to talk about topics that are not related to development, or even Kansas City.
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FangKC
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Re: Urbanism, architecture, transit, strawmen, etc.

Post by FangKC »

L.A.’s New Reflective Streets Bounce Heat Back Into Space

...
“Previously, our measurements were focused on measuring the surface temperature of the roadway itself, which showed a difference of 10 to 15 degrees Fahrenheit on hot days,” he adds. The satellite thermal camera is significant, however, because it shows that the special cooling pavement not only lowers the temperature on the road but “produces a cooler neighborhood” in general.
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For all the concern about worsening hurricanes, floods and tornadoes, severe heat kills more Americans than any other weather event. A recent UCLA study found that higher temperatures even increase the risk of injuries — the researchers estimate that high temperatures already cause about 15,000 injuries per year in California.
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He believes that urban cooling supports three principles at once: sustainability, equity and workforce development. “Because if you are transit-dependent, and it’s too hot to get to your bus stop and wait there, then you are not going to be well prepared for your workday.
...
https://nextcity.org/urbanist-news/entr ... into-space
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Re: Urbanism, architecture, transit, strawmen, etc.

Post by flyingember »

There could be 30 million unsold and 100 million unoccupied properties in China

https://www.cnn.com/2021/10/14/business ... index.html

That’s basically one home per ten people in the country.
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FangKC
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Re: Urbanism, architecture, transit, strawmen, etc.

Post by FangKC »

Boston Establishes New Limits on Parking in Large Developments
The City of Boston recently announced new planning guidelines for large developments that will limit the amount of parking that developers will be allowed to build, with stricter limits applying in the city’s most transit-accessible neighborhoods.
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In downtown, the South End, and Back Bay, where transit options are most abundant and city streets are the most congested, the new rules would limit developers to building, at most, 0.35 parking spaces per rental apartment, and 0.3 parking spaces per 1,000 square feet of office or lab space.
...
https://mass.streetsblog.org/2021/10/13 ... elopments/
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FangKC
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Re: Urbanism, architecture, transit, strawmen, etc.

Post by FangKC »

Why Prague Has One of the Best Tram Systems in the World

https://www.governing.com/community/why ... -the-world
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Re: Urbanism, architecture, transit, strawmen, etc.

Post by earthling »

^A key point is the lack of onboard fare process, which helps seamlessly integrate transit into the sidewalk, making it effortless to hop on. What I really like about KC's (and of course free fare).
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Re: Urbanism, architecture, transit, strawmen, etc.

Post by flyingember »

earthling wrote: Thu Oct 28, 2021 9:10 am ^A key point is the lack of onboard fare process, which helps seamlessly integrate transit into the sidewalk, making it effortless to hop on. What I really like about KC's (and of course free fare).
100% agree.

It would be interesting to see on-time data for the KC bus with and without taking fares. I seem to recall someone gave a statistic on how much time it would save and it was notable to the point the system would gain route frequency for no extra cost. And like any good transit system, the more riders the greater the time savings and time savings increase ridership and so on.

And riders vote yet for taxes to improve the system compared to non-riders.
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Re: Urbanism, architecture, transit, strawmen, etc.

Post by FlippantCitizen »

Prague is incredible. Studied there for a year and it was such a livable city. Between the trams, buses and metro, everything was connected easily. 70% or what I did was accomplished by tram though. Seamless boarding was nice but the decisive factor was the generally short headways even on secondary routes and the network itself which truly made going anywhere possible. The street design where the trains seamlessly went between dedicated lanes, other dedicated ROWs, mixed traffic, and large plazas closed to private cars. Budapest also has a notably extensive and well ridden surface tram system that I used while visiting. I think the fact that these countries were behind the iron curtain and therefore had an even less flirtation with car culture than even some of their Western European neighbors played a large role in the vitality of these systems. Prague, Budapest, and Vienna which have outsized reliance on trams, and excellent trams, at that share a lot of their urban characteristics. I love the aesthetics and functionality of Central European cities.
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Post by alejandro46 »

Note how the Prague trams easily transition between mixed traffic/on road alignment to center running on grass, pavers, or ties. Often people on this board get too tied up on semantics between "Light Rail," "Streetcar," "Tram," "Trolly." The Prague system also runs pretty far into the suburbs.

My understanding: A streetcar/tram is a form of light rail. Light Rail is also a urban rail transit including metro or tram but also things like Phoenix's system which is more like a metro.

All Streetcars are light rail, all light rails are not streetcars.

Image
https://goo.gl/maps/T1r9BgmvbqsKeEm27
Image

Image

They recently retired the old Cold War era Tatra trams. https://kafkadesk.org/2021/06/17/iconic ... -saturday/
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Re: Urbanism, architecture, transit, strawmen, etc.

Post by FangKC »

What do we think of this project?

97-Year-Old Billionaire Doubles Down on Windowless Mega-Dorm Vanity Project
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The dorm, named Munger Hall, would house 4,500 students in a building with just two entrances, and 94 percent of the rooms would have no windows. Instead, students would be jammed into single-person rooms on pre-fabricated floors with “virtual windows that simulate daylight.”
...
https://www.thedailybeast.com/billiona ... ref=scroll
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Re: Urbanism, architecture, transit, strawmen, etc.

Post by phuqueue »

Dystopian
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FangKC
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Post by FangKC »

Seems like an oven for virus spread, as well as a possible fire tragedy.

I can't believe any city would allow it to be built based on building codes.
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grovester
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Post by grovester »

Yes, egress is usually a pretty big deal.
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Re: Urbanism, architecture, transit, strawmen, etc.

Post by flyingember »

The fire Marshall won’t give an occupancy permit if everyone else is stupid enough to build it.

A *tent* in California that can hold that many people needs 7 egress points.


Edit- found better plans

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1IgEAYC ... SA6LP/view

There’s 10 egress points.

Still looks horrible for rooms but look at the 11th floor plans
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Post by alejandro46 »

The UCSB dorm is generating such negative buzz nationally. I heard about this through Twitter and messaged my friends out in California. I have visited UCSB and Isla Vista many times in college. It's a student island slum basically, with some places nicer than others but the location is fantastic. The parties there are rediculous especially Deltopia.

I have also been involved in a lot of student housing projects by third party developers (aka not dorms). Obviously since I'm on this board I generally am more for density and less car dependence. However, I don't think anybody would want to live in this dorm. It looks like a prison. The massing is terrible and it doesn't fit into the rest of the beautiful campus. I don't know why there are so many individual rooms - many other dorms have 2-4 people per room. UCSB is mandated by the state to build more housing, but and land is expensive there so I understand their dilemma. This guy is offering $200M to build this megastructure. Long term though, I don't think students are going to want to live there at all. What kind of college experience is a mega prison dorm, why not just go to a state school in Missouri or somewhere else instead? Instead of spending $1.5B on this stupid proposal, UCSB needs to build a still tall dorm on that lot but actually designed by somebody who knows what the hell they're doing that is inviting and conneted to the campus and people want to live in and work to instead build more dorms elsewhere.
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Post by TheLastGentleman »

Of course Bloomberg loves the thing

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... re-missing
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Re: Urbanism, architecture, transit, strawmen, etc.

Post by FangKC »

Missouri poised to receive nearly $100M for EV charging network
Missouri is slated to draw at least $99 million to develop its electric vehicle (EV) charging network under the newly-passed colossal infrastructure package.

The White House estimated Missouri will receive $99 million over a five-year period to expand and support its EV charging network. About $2.5 billion in grant funding will also be up for grabs that the state could apply for, according to the White House.
...
https://themissouritimes.com/missouri-p ... g-network/
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Re: Urbanism, architecture, transit, strawmen, etc.

Post by FangKC »

Public Transit Use Must Double to Meet Climate Targets, City Leaders Warn
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Underscoring that warning is a new report by C40 Cities and the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) that states global public transit use must double by 2030 if nations are to meet the 1.5°C emissions targets necessary to avoid the worst effects of climate change. To meet that goal, the organizations are calling for $208 billion in annual investments for the nearly 100 cities in the C40 network, which together make up about 25% of global GDP.
...
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... nd=citylab
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FangKC
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Re: Urbanism, architecture, transit, strawmen, etc.

Post by FangKC »

Ford promotes street grids

A town in Texas is on the leading edge of a trend to bring back the practical, efficient street networks for new development.

https://www.cnu.org/publicsquare/2021/1 ... reet-grids
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Post by alejandro46 »

Suburban sprawl is weighing on the U.S. economy


https://www.cnbc.com/2022/02/01/how-sub ... upply.html

13 minute video about suburban issues. Good basic primer about issues associated with suburbs and modern trends. In KCMO, we need to do a better job about densifying the inner suburbs with good planning, mass transit and affordable apartments.
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