The more you study #parking, the more interesting … and counterintuitive … it is. Example: If you wanted to maximize parking along a residential street, would you: 1. mandate that houses provide off-street parking, or 2. just let everyone park on the street? Right answer: Have no driveways, only street parking. Here’s why. https://vtpi.org/opto.pdf

“House-rich but relationship-poor”: Many families believe more living space will make them happier; it’s why they seek bigger and bigger houses. But happiness isn’t about space, it’s about other people. What does this tell us? If you have a big house and the kids are gone, consider a boarder. Or move to a smaller place where you can have an active social life. https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2026/01/06/smaller-houses-happier-lives/

There's the habits of highly effective people, and then there's the habits I have.

it’s so humiliating having to push a button to cross the street. why do I have to do that. oh thank you for allowing me to briefly occupy this swath of asphalt with my human body

We need #transit … and we need it to be faster, better and cheaper. But that last part, “cheaper,” is difficult in the U.S. because of a 1964 law that limits how agencies can reduce labor costs, which are a big part of transit budgets. Much of the current crisis in transit funding, a writer argues, can be traced to this one misguided law. https://www.governing.com/management-and-administration/the-1964-federal-law-that-keeps-transit-costs-too-high

The upside of downsizing: Could the #housing crisis be easier to solve than we think? If so, it’ll be because we have focused on the wrong things. Example: We are intent on building housing for families. Maybe the right answer is … build more housing for seniors. If retirees move from family-size houses to apartments … voila, a lot of family housing becomes available. https://commonwealthbeacon.org/by-the-numbers/kerry-healey-was-right-we-should-discuss-senior-overhousing/

Political movements succeed when interests that usually oppose one another find common purpose in the movement’s aims … often for completely different reasons. Could we be seeing this in state legislative efforts to reform #zoning? This has usually been a Democratic cause, but now Republicans are turning against what they call “snob zoning.” https://www.governing.com/urban/new-hampshire-republicans-crusade-against-snob-zoning

A parking lot where homeless people live in their cars, but only let in if they work in town. Story reflects so many thiings wrong in US:
* Housing shortage so bad that workers with decent jobs can't afford rent.
* Land use & transport systems that make a car more necessary than a home.
* Working class needs a pass from an employer to live in town, an echo of Soviet & Chinese totalitarianism.
* In 2 of 3 towns where tried, nimbys shut down this form of affordable housing.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/11/realestate/colorado-homeless-parking-lot-affordable-housing.html?unlocked_article_code=1._E4.b8on.qeAnwZxngK39&smid=url-share