"As church pews become increasingly empty, the United Methodist Church and denominations across Oregon are hoping to turn their underutilized properties into housing. Church leaders say they’re located in city centers, which are convenient locations for people who need services."

https://www.opb.org/article/2025/03/22/oregon-churches-land-housing-units-bill/

#ORpol #Oregon #Housing #Urbanism

"All of this raises a question that was unfathomable until recently: Is the nation’s capital, so long blessed by being the government’s company town, at risk of a fate resembling that of so many other company towns through the years? And if it is, why aren’t people beyond metro Washington more concerned about it? When Detroit was in free fall, Obama intervened to bail out the auto industry, deciding a great American city needed help. But now, the administration in power is itself delivering the fateful blow to a major city.

It is hard not to detect in this turnabout some resentment on the part of Trump allies and supporters from regions that have not been faring well in recent times. By 2012, when the country was finally emerging from the recession, seven of the 10 wealthiest counties were in metro Washington; the area’s number of high-net-worth households, with investable assets of more than $1 million, had risen by 30% since 2008. While Midwestern communities such as Vice President JD Vance’s hometown, Middletown, Ohio, were being crushed by the opioid epidemic, the Aston Martin dealership in Tysons Corner, Virginia, was selling hundreds of the bespoke James Bond car for about $280,000, and home prices in the District were approaching a 400% increase from the early 1990s."

https://www.propublica.org/article/washington-dc-trump-musk-federal-government-cutbacks-gloomy-future

#USA #Trump #WashingtonDC #Urbanism #Cities

Detail of the SPIRAL STAIRCASE inside of
the ART NOUVEAU report building at 12 Alberta iela, in the center of Riga (Latvia), designed by local architects:
Konstantīns Pekßēns and Eižeus Laube and built in 1903.
Currently houses the ART NOUVEAU Center in RIGA
By #StainedGlassArtCreations
#Architecture #Design #Style #Nature #Art #Artist #Photo #Photographer #Urbanism #City #Village #Staircases #History #Histoire #Abandoned #AbandonedPlaces

The first snow was over a week ago, the last snow was Friday. This is the most frequent and highest capacity route in the city. Every stop looks like this. This says "this city doesn't care about pedestrians".

#stl #stlouis #saintlouis #stlurbanism #urbanism #buses

"The loss of more than 90 per cent of #SouthernCalifornia’s agricultural buffer zone is the principal if seldom mentioned reason #wildfires increasingly incinerate such spectacular swathes of luxury real estate. [...] what makes us most vulnerable is the abruptness of what is called the ‘wildland-urban interface’, where real estate collides with #FireEcology." - #MikeDavis

#California Burns (2007)

https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v29/n22/mike-davis/california-burns
#CaliforniaFires #LAFires #ecocide #ecology #urbanism #UrbanTheory

"From the mixed pine and oak forest in the Klamath Mountains to the Mojave Desert, Sierra Foothills, there is not an inch of California that is not now part of this conflagration and it's true throughout the American West of course"

2 great interviews from 2018 & 2021 on KPFK with the late Angeleno essayist #MikeDavis about #urbanism, "#FireEcology," colonial capitalism & #ecocide in #California

https://player.fm/series/kpfk-beneath-the-surface-2605305/beneath-the-surface-sunday-january-12-2025
#CaliforniaFires #ForestFires #ecology #UrbanTheory #LosAngeles

hi #fedi i'm looking for the most #autistic #relay possible, whether that's #actuallyautistic creators or some #train and #urbanism content or something other stuff like that, let me know because i need more 'tism rep in my feed and @celestiallavendar said that was the best way to ask

"No front porches. My uncle says there used to be front porches. And people sat there sometimes at night, talking when they wanted to talk, rocking, and not talking when they didn't want to talk. Sometimes they just sat there and thought about things, turned things over. My uncle says the architects got rid of the front porches because they didn't look well. But my uncle says that was merely rationalizing it; the real reason, hidden underneath, might be they didn't want people sitting like that, doing nothing, rocking, talking; that was the wrong KIND of social life. People talked too much. And they had time to think. So they ran off with the porches."

--#RayBradbury, #Fahrenheit451, 1953

#urbanism, #permaculture, #solarpunk

6 years ago: went to a public consultation about changing the road layout to include a new cycle path. Suggested adding a pedestrian crossing too where I’d always felt one was missing.
Today: used the new pedestrian crossing for the first time 🎉
The new cycle path is great too 😊
#urbanism #walkableCities

Migrating back here from my previous, now-defunct, account @nix@social.stlouist.com. if you know me please boost so I can reconnect with followers.

This is a good time for an #introduction I suppose.

I'm an #educator from #stl that firmly believes in decentralized self organization, such as #anarchism, #socialecology, #solarpunk, or #librarysocialism.

Also I'm a big #urbanism and #foss nerd and #ebike commuter. I'm very involved in the local #freestore and trying to help organize larger #postcapitalist ventures.

I can't recommend this video highly enough. It gives an all too realistic assessment of what autonomous vehicles will do to our cities, and it's not good.

@breadandcircuses Hope it's ok to tag you on this; it seems like something you might be interested in.

#ev #av #autonomous #vehicle #urbanplanning #urbanism #climatechange

https://youtu.be/040ejWnFkj0?si=zN2mwpoZLtPP3dn0

“heavy vehicles, such as multi-axle trucks, have a much greater impact on a road’s performance than lighter vehicles such as cars or bicycles” #math #climate #urbanism #biketooter

“The city is poised to require owners of vehicles weighing over 6000 pounds to pay an annual $500 vehicle registration fee, almost 7X the cost to register a modest sedan. No other US jurisdiction has created such a forceful financial disincentive against the biggest, heaviest car models.” Via @davidzipper

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-05-26/a-new-way-to-curb-the-rise-of-oversized-pickups-and-suvs

#cities #urbanism #trucks #SUV #cars

“Someone with a 1-hr car commute needs to earn 40% more to be as happy as someone with a short walk to work. On the other hand, if someone shifts from a long commute to a walk, their happiness increases as much as if they’d fallen in love.” #CityMakingMath
50 reasons why everyone should want more walkable streets & cities, in Fast Company:
https://www.fastcompany.com/3062989/50-reasons-why-everyone-should-want-more-walkable-streets
#cities #walking #walkablecities #urbanism

“Fun fact: #SimCity was forced to pretend that all parking lots were underground because the game would be really boring if it was proportional in terms of parking lots.”

Boring like too many real places ruined by too much parking?

#parking #ThePowerOfParking #cities #urbandesign #transportation #mobility #urbanism #urbanplanning
https://devonzuegel.com/post/we-should-be-building-cities-for-people-not-cars