Sharath from Building Beautifully has put up a video about arguably Australia's biggest urban planning success story of the past 40 years.

That's the emergence of Parramatta as one of Australia's great cities: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifGwIJo7OWo

And with good reason. There's a lot that Parra has done right.

Instead of just building apartments or office towers, it's built both.

It's built enough new apartments close to public transport to keep house prices level, even as demand has grown.

It has multiple train lines, ferries, and dedicated busways, has added light rail, and is adding a metro.

It has the best public square in the whole Greater Sydney metro area in Parramatta Square.

It has a pedestrianised main street with many restaurants.

And it's cemented itself as the second CBD (central business district) for the Sydney metro area, and the main CBD for Western Sydney.

If you have any interest in urbanism and cities, it's worth visiting on a weekday just to see what it looks like when urban planning works.

#Urbanism #UrbanPlanning #city #cities #Parramatta #NSW #Australia #planning #walking #walkability #transitorienteddevelopment #train #trains #transport #building #architecture #design #government #sydney #policy #politics #auspol #nswpol

It’s opening day for the #stlink #crosslakeconnection in #Seattle and I am so stoked to see the view from the bridge! I am, of course, riding the link to the festivities! Starting my day at #FederalWay downtown station where I’m boarding for the first time. It’s nice to see some good #transitorienteddevelopment around the station, with the garage set back a bit.

Senators Introduce Bill to Spur Housing Construction Near Transportation Hubs #TransitOrientedDevelopment #UrbanPlanning

NEWS: Senators Blunt Rochester...

The fact is that #TransitOrientedDevelopment allows for less km of infrastructure to serve more people and enterprises. This would save a lot of money, labour and resources on their maintenance, allowing for them to be invested into the common good, improved quality of life for all, #EnergySecurity, #EconomicResilience and #StrategicSovereinty. Under the context of an unreliable USA and a hostile Russia, this is a matter of survival for #Europe and its modern democratic values.