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Planning: general 🌇 Random Planning Thoughts (and Photos) Deserving No Thread Of Their Own

Faust_Motel said:
Most working US urban planners are not elected decision-makers. Most also are not independently wealthy and if you're going to work in the average municipality in the US you're probably going to tangle with the suburbs. I know in my career I have maintained a balance of when I can bring some urbanist ideas into practice and when I have to go along with the more suburban bent of the electeds who sign my paycheck.
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I already knew these things. I'm more wondering why there are planners who are pro-sprawl or pro-car (idk what the proper term for it is) from the get-go, like who would plan their community that way if they did have decision making power.
 
busrider said:
like who would plan their community that way if they did have decision making power
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Elected officials that own extensive tracts of land adjacent to a new highway built near a metropolitan/industrial area and use “let’s find ways to increase our tax base” to get everyone on the Boards and Commissions on program?
 
Copied from a facebook posting

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I've once had to launch into the following:

Property owner: What gives you the right to tell me what I can do with my property?

Me (seasoned current planning professional): ...okay, so...in 1926 the US Supreme Court decided the City of Euclid OH v Ambler Realty case enshrining municipal zoning codes as a Constitutional police power under the 9th Amendment. Now...the 9th Amendment outlines...

the king and i GIF by dani
 
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mendelman said:
I've once had to launch into the following:

Property owner: What gives you the right to tell what I can do with my property?

Me (seasoned current planning professional): ...okay, so...in 1926 the US Supreme Court decided the City of Euclid OH v Ambler Realty case enshrining municipal zoning codes as a Constitutional police power under the 9th Amendment. Now...the 9th Amendment outlines...

the king and i GIF by dani
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Reminds me of the time when I was about 12 and my father asked me why the floor was wet.

I started to reply, "Water is a compound comprised of hydrogen and oxygen. When this compound comes into contact with a surface, it, through a process known as 'water tension,' bonds with . . ."

He stopped me there with the "stare." You'd think someone with a master's in physics would have known all that.

Jim
 
When my father was alive, it always annoyed him that we have a beltway loop in Reno--like most cities do--except ours is not a freeway. Just a road. (Two or three lanes wide each direction, but still a road, and technically a state highway, but not a freeway).

That's because when it was built in the 70's and 80's, it was cobbled together from existing roads, except for the southwest portion, which was built specifically to complete the loop.


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Fort Worth had one of those (State Hwy 183). The southern portion became I-20. Loop I-820 replaced it, but slightly further out The western part of the not-really-freeway loop is still there though. I don't think the 183 loop was ever quite closed though; the eastern ends just kind of wandered off eastward waves hand vaguely toward Dallas
 
Read this in the major national financial daily over the weekend. Posting the clunky link here because of the WSJ's #@%^$ paywall.

A Kansas City Neighborhood Is a Sea of Vacant Lots. Locals Blame One Company.

 
As posted on Twitter
your yimby neighbor@UtahYIMBYs · May 13
from an actual city council meeting in SL valley: "I don't want people on the canal trail behind my house. They'll be able to see into my yard!"
Andy Boenau@Boenau · May 13
American HOA president enjoying her European vacation.


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JNA said:
Signs Court Case

Bakery in New Hampshire wins in free speech case over a pastry shop painting
apnews.com

Bakery in New Hampshire wins in free speech case over a pastry shop painting

A federal judge says a New Hampshire town’s attempt to force a bakery to remove or alter its painting featuring pastries is unconstitutional.
apnews.com apnews.com
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I can see it as a sign as it advertises the product sold on the premise. However, if it was a ski scene as the local attraction, then art? Regulating content is a slippery slope and something Reed v. Town of Gilbert addressed.
 
Someone on local forum posted this TikTok of a news story from 40 years ago talking about efforts to revitalize a slumping part of the city.


Forty years on, I think we can say it worked.

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Fun stuff!

I have a historic photo of my great grandmother's house in the 600-block of Spear St in Carson City. The house I presume is still standing, but is blurred out on StreetView so I can't say for sure. Cute little cottage.
 
Gedunker said:
Fun stuff!

I have a historic photo of my great grandmother's house in the 600-block of Spear St in Carson City. The house I presume is still standing, but is blurred out on StreetView so I can't say for sure. Cute little cottage.
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Carson City is about 40 minutes from my office. I may be heading down to Carson City in the near future . . . if you shoot me the address I can snap a photo for you, and see what else I can find about the property.
 
Sent in my AICP assessment last Monday. When do I start obsessively checking my e-mail for something from APA? I'm guessing probably not this week, since everyone--including presumably APA-- is so thinly staffed.

Jim
 
Gedunker said:
Fun stuff!

I have a historic photo of my great grandmother's house in the 600-block of Spear St in Carson City. The house I presume is still standing, but is blurred out on StreetView so I can't say for sure. Cute little cottage.
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It's never made sense to me that people blur out their houses. There's nothing stopping any random person from simply going to the street, standing in a public spot, taking a photo, and posting it online.

Jim
 
Weird random question. I know none of you can answer, but:

If I were to go back to working for the state as an AA3 (my previous position, but different department), do I keep my steps (I was at step 6), or do I go back to step 1? Because that would make a difference as to whether I say yes or no.

I know that in any event, my 10 years of PERS from the state and then the city would stick around.

Jim
 
Just found out one of my fellow laid-off coworkers and I are interviewing for the same job in a nearby city next week.

We’ve wished each other the best of luck, and agreed no hard feelings if one of us beats out the other. We aren’t sure who would get it: he has more full-time planning experience in the public sector, but I have AICP, sit on the Planning Commission, and more overall government experience.

I figure planning experience beats out AICP, all else being equal, and joked that Vegas has him favored by 2 1/2.
 
I can hear my poor wife in the other room trying to get the person on the other end of whatever customer service line she is on to get the spelling of our street correct. "Rue de la Chartreuse." It can be tricky for those who aren't familiar with French.

(I would joke it's just "Green Street.")

Jim
 
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