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West Seattle Bike Blog @westseattlebikeblg.bsky.social · 11m

Tokyo is the ultimate

Opinion | The Big City Where Housing Is Still Affordable (Published 2023)

www.nytimes.com

West Seattle Bike Blog @westseattlebikeblg.bsky.social · 1h

"Is there a Bay Area example where rent has ever decreased due to building more luxury housing?"

Cities in a metro area don't exist on islands, if the entire Bay Area is facing a housing crisis then it won't matter what Colma (pop. 1500) is doing if other cities aren't doing the same.

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West Seattle Bike Blog @westseattlebikeblg.bsky.social · 1h

The comments on this post make it clear the YIMBY movement still has work to do

npr on Instagram: "What's the point of luxury apartments?From @planetmoneyProducer: @jackcorbe • Jack Corbett / NPR.Editor: @alexgoldmark • Alex Goldm…"

What's the point of luxury apartments?From @planetmoneyProducer: @jackcorbe • Jack Corbett / NPR.Editor: @alexgoldmark • Alex Goldmark/NPR.

www.instagram.com

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West Seattle Bike Blog @westseattlebikeblg.bsky.social · 1d

The 2nd image is a pretty good representation of what they aim for these days — non-interrupted plantings strips with what I imagine are Silva cells under the asphalt. Lots more water, lots more space to grow.

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West Seattle Bike Blog @westseattlebikeblg.bsky.social · 1d

Another fun evening read if you're interested

How Trees Were Urbanized - Arnold Arboretum

Sonja Dümpelmann. Seeing Trees: A History of Street Trees in New York City and Berlin. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2019. The Roman engineer Vitruvius, writing in the first century […]

arboretum.harvard.edu

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West Seattle Bike Blog @westseattlebikeblg.bsky.social · 1d

Then we've also come to find out that the cheap, easy tree varieties that many cities installed in the mid 20th century are causing significant allergy issues in some places, leading cities to rip them out and replace them for that reason alone.

It's definitely an ever-evolving field.

How urban planners' preference for male trees has made your hay fever worse

Horticulturist urges better gender mix of city trees to mitigate rising asthma and CO2 pollution levels

www.theguardian.com

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West Seattle Bike Blog @westseattlebikeblg.bsky.social · 1d

Yeah more or less they didn't know what they were doing + didn't plan for them originally. Later no arborists in public works so just got a streets crew to shove it into a leftover space of a previously built road, replant the trees when they'd die, didn't bother with the appropriate species, etc.

1920s 1st Ave in Seattle after with no trees.

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West Seattle Bike Blog @westseattlebikeblg.bsky.social · 1d

Sorry but the facts are urban trees in tight spaces last longer with them than without, small planters aren't great for longevity, for the tree or the sidewalk + sometimes, good things have to be mitigated for so other good things can happen.

FYI I did landscaping and forest restoration for years.

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West Seattle Bike Blog @westseattlebikeblg.bsky.social · 1d

Soil and Water in the Life of a Street Tree

This is the second post in the series Understanding the Urban Forest from the Ground Up. Part one can be read here. Unlike other forms of infrastructure, urban forests are also an ecosystem. As a…

streets.mn

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West Seattle Bike Blog @westseattlebikeblg.bsky.social · 1d

Tbh, these columnar maples probably only have 10 years left at best; the era in which they were planted didn't employ things like structural soils or
Silva cells, so in those tight planters they probably only have so much life left. Revised landscape design could ensure new trees would last longer.

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West Seattle Bike Blog @westseattlebikeblg.bsky.social · 1d

This could work

Discontented Bike Person @b1kes.bsky.social · 1d

Suggestion: Ride out with a small car floor jack on your bike, and use it to relocate the barrier into the car lane at like 3AM. Then you'll get to see how intensely fast it gets fixed when it impacts drivers.

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Reposted by West Seattle Bike Blog

Brandon der Blätter @intcreator.com · 1d

this bike lane has been blocked for two weeks. it has been reported many times by many people by the Find It Fix It app and by phone. I bet if it was a car lane @seattledot.bsky.social would have fixed it by now

the two way bike lane on Airport Way between S Edmunds St. and S Lucile St. with two 1673 lb concrete blocks blocking one of the lanes

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West Seattle Bike Blog @westseattlebikeblg.bsky.social · 1d

The onus really should be on the City to increase tree canopy and alleviate the heat islands created by their pavement, not the adjacent residents

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West Seattle Bike Blog @westseattlebikeblg.bsky.social · 1d

That place has got to be all bots at this point ya

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West Seattle Bike Blog @westseattlebikeblg.bsky.social · 1d

Harrell saw Bladerunner and was like "yes, that"

a woman with blue hair says you look lonely

ALT: a woman with blue hair says you look lonely

media.tenor.com

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West Seattle Bike Blog @westseattlebikeblg.bsky.social · 2d

This is Sara Nelson's dream of us "getting off our phones and interacting with the city"

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West Seattle Bike Blog @westseattlebikeblg.bsky.social · 2d

Anyone elected who runs on "how cool AI is" automatically loses my vote

Erica C. Barnett @ericacbarnett.bsky.social · 2d

Downtown could have "like, a 10-foot wall" where people could talk to AI versions of historical figures. "How cool would this be if we had like, a 10 foot wall. It's interactive and it's historical. And you could talk to Martin Luther King."...

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West Seattle Bike Blog @westseattlebikeblg.bsky.social · 2d

If you already have Ryobi 18v batteries you NEED this air compressor, my god is it luxury. Digital gauge with auto-off is unreal.

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West Seattle Bike Blog @westseattlebikeblg.bsky.social · 2d

For real:
Side streets
Safeway
Whole Foods
QFC

A sea of parking between those

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West Seattle Bike Blog @westseattlebikeblg.bsky.social · 2d

Meanwhile, just across the street is an empty parking lot

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West Seattle Bike Blog @westseattlebikeblg.bsky.social · 2d

The thing that sucks about living in the states is that you can't confront people like you can in say the UK. Makes it that much harder to enforce the societal contract.

West Seattle Bike Blog @westseattlebikeblg.bsky.social · 2d

To get to the gym? Preposterous!

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West Seattle Bike Blog @westseattlebikeblg.bsky.social · 2d

What pissed me off is I was walking with a kid on my shoulders to their dance class from a few blocks over, and *I* was somehow the one demanding too much by wanting a safe, clear sidewalk

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West Seattle Bike Blog @westseattlebikeblg.bsky.social · 2d

Also, this pic really makes you question if this is indeed the densest part of West Seattle or a strip mall area in a depressed small town

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Reposted by West Seattle Bike Blog

West Seattle Bike Blog @westseattlebikeblg.bsky.social · 2d

Here is this intersection of California and Edmunds highlighted to show the areas where cars have priority (red) and where pedestrians can (maybe) expect not to intersect with cars (yellow).

Yet somehow we're asking drivers to sacrifice too much.

California and SW Edmunds with driveways, roads, and parking lots highlighted in red, and sidewalks where there are no potential vehicle conflicts, in yellow. The red makes up well over 90% of the ground level space.

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