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

JNA said:
just sharing what they posted - nothing linked - maybe hate / blame / scapegoating urban planners ?
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Usually. Because the accuser doesn’t appear to know how and why this actually happened.
 
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(Dan) Deleted broken image link
 
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Planit said:
jalopnik.com

Why Do We Keep Widening Highways When We Know It Doesn't Improve Traffic?

The "New York Times" explores different states' approaches to dealing with congestion.
jalopnik.com jalopnik.com
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Older family members of mine believe that we need more lanes when we discuss traffic congestion. These people are 70+ and, since you asked, are frightened to drive through roundabouts. They scream at me that they are too old to learn. They complain about traffic and road issues all the time. They act like they know everything. Like, how can you scream at me that you can't learn anymore yet act like know-it-alls?! Effing narcissists, if you ask me.
 
I don't watch the "building off the grid" shows (I'm a thoroughly urban creature), but it occurs to me that those people are the worst sprawlers in the country. I would not at all be surprised if they see themselves as quite the opposite.
 
Gedunker said:
I don't watch the "building off the grid" shows (I'm a thoroughly urban creature), but it occurs to me that those people are the worst sprawlers in the country. I would not at all be surprised if they see themselves as quite the opposite.
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Truth.

Unless they are Am-ish. ;)
 
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We have a large lake about 30 minutes north of us that lots of people have 2nd homes on. I got into an argument with a local developer who wanted to talk about the great community that had been built on the lake. He was talking about the quality of planning that went into it. I argued that it was a bunch of sprawling mansions that people retreated to when they wanted to be alone. No sidewalks and no where to walk to. Half the lake is a county that doesn't do building inspections much less any type of planning. Except for the wine and cheese shop, liquor store and gas station the nearest food was a Dollar General 20 minutes away. His real argument was that all the homes were expensive and there were no poor people, thus good planning.
 
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Gedunker said:
I don't watch the "building off the grid" shows (I'm a thoroughly urban creature), but it occurs to me that those people are the worst sprawlers in the country. I would not at all be surprised if they see themselves as quite the opposite.
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"A Conservationist wants a house in the woods. A Preservationist already has a house in the woods."
 
From Paysages de France (Landscapes of France) -- imagine a group like Scenic America, if it was led by the staff of Charlie Hebdo -- a fun guide titled Monsieur Kivoitiou Traque les Panneaux Illegaux. The English translation: "Mr. Kivoitou Hunts Down Illegal Billboards". Some drawings from the guide:

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Sadly, this isn't an exaggeration. Googledrive around some French cities, and you'll see billboards in the front yards of some houses on major roads.

Here's a selection of the many examples of French visual pollution on the Paysages de France Web site. It's far removed from what many American planners and urbanists have in mind when they think of "superior European planning" and "quaint European towns". Maybe there's some younger planners that would defend Euroclutter as being "authentic" or whatever, but I hope they're few and far between.

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No No No GIF


In the US, we classify signs as either on-premises and off-premises (billboards). The "time, place, manner" litmus test in American common law justifies regulations for sign size, height, placement, form, and display time, along with limiting or prohibiting billboards. From what I've been able to learn, France has a national sign code, which classifies and regulates signs in three categories; basic on-premises signs ("any inscription, shape or image affixed to a building and relating to an activity carried out there"), off-premises "pre-signs" ("indicating the proximity of a building where a specific activity is carried out"), and general outdoor advertising. Municipalities can adopt a stricter local or intermunicipal sign code (règlement local de publicité, or local advertising policy).

The French national sign code is very lenient by North American standards. (Maybe with the exception of Missouri, Texas, Alabama, Georgia, Missouri Tennessee, Oklahoma, Missouri, and Missouri. :D ) From what it looks like, the French concept of pre-signs is one source of that country's struggle with visual pollution. Enforcement of national and local sign codes can also be spotty.

And again, I'll ask "why are three-sided pole signs so common in Europe?" The only three-sided signs you'll see in North America are at a few IKEA stores.
 
Doohickie said:
Tons of it here in Fort Worth.
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There are tons everywhere it seems. Logistic warehouses are nice to build, and create some jobs, but they are a monster on infrastructure needs. Electricity grids aren't built for them, roadways cannot carry the truck loads, and the impact of 28 acres per build is that you never will get any density near or around these large scale developments.

We are seeing a tremendous amount of impact by their development. Mostly negative. The Amazon facility near us has 800+ job openings in their facility. Not sure where those people are going to come from. We don't have 800 people that want those jobs, even though they start pay at $17.50 / hour.
 
I am now at the point where developing applications for multi-million dollar federal grant requests is no big deal. Anyone else working to take advantage of all the federal infrastructure money available?
 
gtpeach said:
I am now at the point where developing applications for multi-million dollar federal grant requests is no big deal. Anyone else working to take advantage of all the federal infrastructure money available?
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I'm a dark sider focused on Fed-funded/permitted infrastructure projects, so HELLS YEAH.

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Hink said:
There are tons everywhere it seems. Logistic warehouses are nice to build, and create some jobs, but they are a monster on infrastructure needs. Electricity grids aren't built for them, roadways cannot carry the truck loads, and the impact of 28 acres per build is that you never will get any density near or around these large scale developments.

We are seeing a tremendous amount of impact by their development. Mostly negative. The Amazon facility near us has 800+ job openings in their facility. Not sure where those people are going to come from. We don't have 800 people that want those jobs, even though they start pay at $17.50 / hour.
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We a few that popped up over the last 15 years or so. One is a regional warehouse for a big box retailer. They can keep people despite the $17 to $20 / hour pay that they start at. I have a buddy that works middle management there and per-pandemic he stated that it took around 50 applications to get 1 person that would be there a year later. It's a tough environment to work in as it is fast past and corporate has high expectation of productivity. The work is feast or famine so from September to mid-January you work your 40 hours plus mandatory overtime and the rest of the year you are lucky to get a full week worth of work.
 
Big Owl said:
We a few that popped up over the last 15 years or so. One is a regional warehouse for a big box retailer. They can keep people despite the $17 to $20 / hour pay that they start at. I have a buddy that works middle management there and per-pandemic he stated that it took around 50 applications to get 1 person that would be there a year later. It's a tough environment to work in as it is fast past and corporate has high expectation of productivity. The work is feast or famine so from September to mid-January you work your 40 hours plus mandatory overtime and the rest of the year you are lucky to get a full week worth of work.
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We are a little different here due to the Port of Savannah which is the third busiest in the nation and is projected to pass New York/New Jersey within 5 years. The work is very steady and ever-growing.

Warehouses aren't the most attractive land use but they're also necessary. They help make the delivery of goods much more efficient and therefore cheaper for the consumer.
 
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How's this for handicap access?
Besides the obvious blocked storm drain in the marked walkway & the ponding water, does something else look abnormal or not right? Oh yea, the marked walkway runs directly into a planter and the "dimple ramp"* is off to the left.


*dimple ramp is the technological term Mrs. P uses
 
gtpeach said:
I am now at the point where developing applications for multi-million dollar federal grant requests is no big deal. Anyone else working to take advantage of all the federal infrastructure money available?
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Well.... yes and no. I develop proposals that bring government money (hundreds of millions) to my company. And actually it's not just US government money.
 
JNA said:
As posted on Twitter
If someone detonated a bomb that destroyed a building, they'd be in prison for life.
If an urban planner destroys an entire district of its buildings, people, businesses, and life,
they retire with a pension, despite causing more damage than the bomber.

Commercial Street in Cairo Illinois at dusk
FlmTw-5X0AAq3-x
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Spooky.
 
Hink said:
Logistic warehouses are nice to build, and create some jobs, but they are a monster on infrastructure needs. Electricity grids aren't built for them, roadways cannot carry the truck loads, and the impact of 28 acres per build is that you never will get any density near or around these large scale developments.
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They're definitely a necessity, but most of the problems with them are inflicted upon them by trucking -- rail-centric warehousing is simply more space-efficient for a given warehouse building footprint. Why? Because most trailers are designed to be end-loaded as its impractical to parallel park a bunch of 18 wheelers together tightly, while most railcars are loaded from the side as it's not very practical to get access to the ends of individual railcars.
 
UrbanUnPlanner said:
They're definitely a necessity, but most of the problems with them are inflicted upon them by trucking -- rail-centric warehousing is simply more space-efficient for a given warehouse building footprint. Why? Because most trailers are designed to be end-loaded as its impractical to parallel park a bunch of 18 wheelers together tightly, while most railcars are loaded from the side as it's not very practical to get access to the ends of individual railcars.
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Most of these new facilities though are the spoke of the hub and spoke system, so they require large amounts of trucking in, and lots of smaller trucks out. They aren't manufacturing facilities, so the lower cost of freight isn't as important as being located in the right place.

FedEx, Amazon, and many other large distribution warehouses have very specific requirements for their location near highways so they can utilize the trucking network in and out. I agree with you that there could be some efficiencies if a train network met their needs, but it seems very unlikely that any companies would support that at this point, as they are pushing for driverless trucks hard.
 
Got an email over the weekend from a realtor, I presume, looking for a public record - a set of house plans by a noted architect. It certainly seemed to me that he was trying to get around a copyright issue by way of a public record request. I curtly told him I wouldn't help him.

Not because I came down one way or the other in a battle between intellectual property versus open records, but because his request involved a city with my city's name, but in a different state. He probably thinks I'm a jerk (I am), but I'm not the one trying to steal something.
 
UrbanUnPlanner said:
They're definitely a necessity, but most of the problems with them are inflicted upon them by trucking -- rail-centric warehousing is simply more space-efficient for a given warehouse building footprint. Why? Because most trailers are designed to be end-loaded as its impractical to parallel park a bunch of 18 wheelers together tightly, while most railcars are loaded from the side as it's not very practical to get access to the ends of individual railcars.
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You might be thinking of a pre-air cargo Railway Express Agency model. The infrastructure for that is long gone.

America's freight rail network is increasingly optimized for bulk cargo and trainload shipment -- long trains with nothing but coal or grain hopper cars, containers, vehicles, and the like. Railroads can still deliver carload and less-than-carload deliveries, but it's going to be a lot slower than a dedicated train with 100 hoppers of anthracite on the railroad equivalent of a non-stop run.

If I order something from Amazon, it usually takes a very circuitous route to reach me; a warehouse in Kentucky or Ohio, to another warehouse, to another warehouse, to another warehouse, to the USPS local post office. (Best case scenario for Amazon Prime delivery is four or five days if it's coming from the Lancaster, New York warehouse. Otherwise, it's usually 7-10 days, and sometimes two weeks. I've made orders for items in stock, outside the holiday season, that sit in the warehouse for a week before they leave. That doesn't happen with orders from customers in major metros.) For those of us living outside of NYC, LA, or another major metro, Amazon orders will be grouped in less-than-carload amounts.

Even for items that Amazon sells, I don't see rail being any faster than truck for movement from the Long Beach container port to a San Bernardino County warehouse, or from there to other warehouses throughout the US.
 
Faust_Motel said:
This pretty much happened in the space of a mile or 2 on I-93 north out of Boston. You could start in the far left lane, stay in that lane, and end up a mile later in the "exit only" lane for 101 that spurs off to the Seacoast Region of NH. I think with the added lanes now it isn't the case.
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Yeah, there's a section of road here that's like that. I'm sure there was a specific inspiration for this particular cartoon.
 
JNA said:
Is this any better in the back yard ?
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The carbon footprint of this decision/execution is much less than a new custom built deck or concrete patio.

As long as it's properly maintained.....
 
I asked ChatGPT to write ten headlines about urban planning in the style of The Onion.

"City Announces Plan to Replace All Sidewalks with Slip 'n' Slides"
"New Study Finds Majority of Urbanites Prefer Traffic Jams to Biking"
"Urban Planners Unveil Bold Initiative to Turn Every Street into a Dead End"
"City Council Approves Plan to Replace All Benches with Trampolines"
"Local Neighborhood Association Demands Streets Be Narrowed to Create More Traffic"
"City Announces Plan to Replace All Traffic Lights with Roulette Wheels"
"Urban Planning Commission Recommends Building Skyscrapers on Stilts for Better View of Smog"
"City Proposes Plan to Turn All Parks into Parking Lots"
"New Urban Development Project to Replace All Trees with Public Art Sculptures of Trees"
"City Council Considers Plan to Replace All Sidewalks with Roller Coasters".

Write a 1980s style rap song about urban planning.

"That model is currently overloaded with other requests. You can retry your request, or contact us through our help center at help.openai.com if the error persists. (Please include the request ID 798c8e5b55846a5fec855eddec9417bc in your message.)"
 
Dan said:
I asked ChatGPT to write ten headlines about urban planning in the style of The Onion.

"City Announces Plan to Replace All Sidewalks with Slip 'n' Slides"
"New Study Finds Majority of Urbanites Prefer Traffic Jams to Biking"
"Urban Planners Unveil Bold Initiative to Turn Every Street into a Dead End"
"City Council Approves Plan to Replace All Benches with Trampolines"
"Local Neighborhood Association Demands Streets Be Narrowed to Create More Traffic"
"City Announces Plan to Replace All Traffic Lights with Roulette Wheels"
"Urban Planning Commission Recommends Building Skyscrapers on Stilts for Better View of Smog"
"City Proposes Plan to Turn All Parks into Parking Lots"
"New Urban Development Project to Replace All Trees with Public Art Sculptures of Trees"
"City Council Considers Plan to Replace All Sidewalks with Roller Coasters".

Write a 1980s style rap song about urban planning.

"That model is currently overloaded with other requests. You can retry your request, or contact us through our help center at help.openai.com if the error persists. (Please include the request ID 798c8e5b55846a5fec855eddec9417bc in your message.)"
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You are truly our Dear Leader.

This actually might make comedy writing easier as a way to brainstorm premises and premise ideas.
 
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