Daniel Trubman, Rootless Cosmopolitan
@dmtrubman
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Urban finance, governance, land-use, and transit. Relocating to NYC soon, so send along job leads and related book recommendations.
Philadelphia
Joined June 2009
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Pinned Tweet
The great thing about getting married in a city is everyone can walk from the wedding to the reception.
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my politics is whatever this is
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Doesn't bode well for as a civilization that a lot of people think environmentalism means "being able to see grass".
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Sports prove over and over again that upper middle class and even rich Americans will willingly ride transit when it's the most convenient way to get around.
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The way some young dudes destroy their lives to buy toy trucks is truly heartbreaking.
In an update we find out the dude is paying $1,966 for 72 months (at 14%) for this $95 THOUSAND truck.
Would have been better off getting hooked on sports betting!
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Next time someone laughs at the idea of environmental racism or classism, show them this picture.
So I was looking at maps of Florida because Irma and noticed Orlando put low-income housing INSIDE an interchange.
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I know a lot of fellow progressives don't want to hear this, but if we want more middle class families to ride transit we're going to have to address anti-social behavior on trains and buses.
The unholy trinity of the LA Metro:
-Dude smoking a cigarette
-Music from a headphoneless jackass
-Crackhead smoking meth
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@hfyi53ko
How this bro is going to feel in a few months when they repossess his truck *and* he's still deeply in debt:
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Call me a "carceral urbanist" all you want; this driver belongs in prison and should never be allowed to drive again for the rest of his life.
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You don't hate cities, you hate cars in cities.
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The American urban planner cannot grasp how cool it would be to walk down a narrow pedestrian street with a bunch of lit up signs
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I learned the phrase "tree tunnel" recently, and now I wish every street had one.
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Suburban homeowners when you propose a small apartment building near the commuter train station:
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I'm sure the loss of a single story commercial building was devastating for the community (don't worry, they're building a replacement Chase bank branch) but I think it's actually great that 6 very low income households will get to live in downtown Berkeley now.
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*Me on a first date*
My brain:
Don't say it
Don't say it
Don't say it
Don't say it
Don't say it
Don't say it
Don't say it
Don't say it
Don't say it
Don't say it
“Upzoning to allow denser development in our cities is crucial to addressing inequality & climate change.”
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You're not closing the street to cars, you're opening it up for people.
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Damn, opening up the street for pedestrians is really *killing* business.
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"Needs more big boulders for people to perch on" is an accurate description for nearly all American parks.
Folks just love hanging out on big rocks!
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Legalize medium sized apartment buildings like this one (78 units) throughout our cities and we'll be on our way to abundant housing.
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Mixed use buildings with a shop on the first floor and housing above is how we built our cities for centuries, and it should be broadly legalized today.
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It's weird how urban universities have these lovely pedestrian walkways that everyone enjoys strolling down...but then American cities refuse to consider building anything like this off campus?
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The best streets have trees, not cars
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A lot of folks are invested in not identifying actual first couple signs of gentrification because then they'd have to admit they're 1st or 2nd wave gentrifiers
They pretend stuff that comes at the end of the process (or even afterwards) is gentrification, and remain guilt-free
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Getting too focused on fareless transit seems like a real transportation midwit position:
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Not Amtrak subtly dunking on Philadelphia for wasting our prime riverfront property on a highway 😱
Best part of taking the train is saving the planet.
Second best part is judging people who drive. 🤭
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I highly suggest getting yourself a partner who will send you unsolicited photos of your city's cute narrow streets.
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You really can't overemphasize how much people enjoy linear river front parks.
An acre of parkland like this is worth a dozen random grass fields.
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Imagine spending $80,000 on a giant truck to let everyone know you're really masculine, and then it turns out Humphrey Bogart looks infinitely cooler on a bicycle.
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Doesn't your city deserve more carless streets filled with trees?!
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"Four Floors And A Deli Store" ought to be legalized on every corner in every American city.
Center City, Philadelphia
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The West Edmonton Mall, along with it's approximately 20 thousand parking spaces, vs the Italian walled city of Lucca, at the same scale.
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I don't think most people realize how "urban" and walkable smaller cities and towns were back in the day.
Johnstown PA is a small city (53k in 1960) 56 miles from Pittsburgh, but it's Main Street had more going on in 1959 than you see in many larger cities today.
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Why is transit ridership so much higher in NYC than the rest of the country?
The relative lack of parking is important, but "it's the fastest way to get around" shouldn't be under-appreciated!
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Taking away the driver's license (and vehicles) of someone who's proven to be an unsafe driver is often framed as an overly devastating punishment that will force big lifestyle changes, but that pales in comparison to the effects of injuries and deaths caused by these car crashes
Woman killed in Brooklyn crash last night by driver in a pickup truck with license plate "NDRTAKER" and 28 school zone speeding camera violations
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If we could put up buildings like this in our cities in the 1920s, there's no reason why we shouldn't be able to do it again in the 2020s.
Andersonville, Chicago
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I never really got this cover because it makes perfect sense to me that some folks would prefer to pedal in the comfort of a gym when cycling in an American city with little actual bike infrastructure is often uncomfortable and frankly scary.
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Something to think about the next time "urban agriculture" advocates argue vacant lots can produce a meaningful amount of food:
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It's soon going to be cheaper to take a train from Philadelphia to Manhattan than to drive into NYC's central business district, and I think that's cool as hell.
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I'm hoping "gentrification is when white people use their laptop on the train" is the point where we collectively accept it's time to move beyond gentrification discourse and pivot to focusing on what actually matters: displacement.
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People pretending they're fine with anti-social behavior on transit systems to earn city-living authenticity points is a take I hope we leave behind in 2022.
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Drivers are so rarely asked to pay the market-clearing price for parking that they absolutely lose their minds when they do.
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San Francisco is funny cause people will argue it's impossible to add any more housing, then you see a photo of the city and except for one little corner the buildings are all short as hell.
Tech capital of the world and they have a collective phobia of elevators...
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Rail transit is more comfortable than even the highest quality bus service
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@HeadBand42
Hey maybe we'll knock down your neighborhood for the new parking lot (to remain empty about 90% of the time).
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Urban canyons are actually great *if* you keep the cars away
From my early evening stroll in the old city center of Málaga, Spain
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What are we actually talking about when we talk about small towns?
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You don't hate urban canyons, you hate car trenches
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Baffling to me more folks can't see how much more visually charming our cities would be without all of the parked cars.
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Absolutely insane how NYC could instantly improve the visiting experience at this popular tourist spot at the expense of about a dozen parking spots...and just doesn't.
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Your city is silly for banning this building on almost all residential parcels
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We fucked up so badly.
East Sidewalk - Broad Street South from Poplar Street.
Philadelphia
1925 vs Today
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We need to bring back cheap residential hotels like this YMCA in Chicago where newcomers to a city can find an affordable housing option as they build a new life.
Even if that means allowing a building that towers over adjacent low-rises.
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Gas station➡️33 apartments
East Falls, Philadelphia
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Re-branding "food courts" as "food halls" has got to be one of the greatest marketing pivots of all time, no?
People who would never eat in a mall food court flock to every new food hall that pops up in trendy neighborhoods.
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Humans have been building stadiums well integrated in to the larger urban built environment FOR MILLENNIUMS and Americans really said, "Screw that, we're just going to build an entire neighborhood of parking lots".
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Legalizing large buildings near parks means tons of people have a de facto lawn to share.
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A fast bus that comes every few minutes is revolutionary.
A free bus that comes 2 or 3 times an hour is not.
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Too many American urban parks are just giant turf fields euphemistically referred to as "green space".
Parks should be visually interesting enough to compel walking through day after day, season after season, year after year.
In other words, American parks need more obelisks.
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When you look at photos of US cities from pre-automobile era it's easy to see why car companies had to invent crime of "jaywalking".
At the time of this photo, 1907, claiming pedestrians should only cross the street at intersections, at certain times, would've seemed absurd.
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The sidewalks in Manhattan used to be *SO* wide!
West Twenty-third Street, New York, N.Y.
[between 1900 and 1910]
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I think
@Joe_Cortright
does a good job in this
@CityObs
piece explaining how "much of what is labeled pedestrian infrastructure is in reality car infrastructure" but sometimes a picture really is worth a thousand words.
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When we go out I let the chauffeur do the driving:
Ladies: If a man is picking you up for a first date, what vehicle type do you most hope he pulls up in? (Will also accept “worst.”)
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Instead of perpetuating environmental racism by forcing apartment dwellers to live on large arterials roads with horrific air quality from car and truck traffic, cities should emulate Chicago, where many quiet streets include numerous small apartment buildings.
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YIMBYism seems extreme because most don't realize how radical last century of land-use planning has been.
We rejected millennia of knowledge about how our built environments should be laid to accommodate driving, and now slightly rolling back those changes seems revolutionary.
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As someone who has lived in DC, Boston, and Philadelphia (and will soon be moving to NYC) I appreciate the strengths of all those cities, but it's the ability to travel between those cities (for professional or amenity reasons) with ease that makes the Northeast the best region.
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As urbanists we have to do a better job explaining environmental benefits of replacing a single family house and some grass with 10 apartments in walkable neighborhoods served by transit, because apparently the improvement isn't intuitive for many people
Bed-Stuy, NYC
2017➡️2020
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Folks will tell you cars are liberating, then spend hours of their life *day after day* in waiting lines like this.
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Pennsylvania's smaller cities like Allentown are a good reminder that it's possible to achieve impressive density with pedestrian-scaled streets outside of large metros.
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When you compare these two neighboring blocks of rowhomes on the same street in Philadelphia, it really highlights how much driveways and garages doors degrade the pedestrian experience.
One's a block for people, and one's a block for cars.
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ADUs and duplexes get a lot of attention, but small apartment buildings like this 6 unit building in Boston is the Missing Middle housing typology we need if we're really going to address our housing shortage crisis.
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"Some people shouldn't be trusted with driver's licenses or cars" is one of those things that's just absolutely true, but people want to deny because the social implications are too big.
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The "grimy transit is actually cool" folks are the worst people on urbanism twitter
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Young folks who grew up in the suburbs moving into an existing home in a walkable city near transit is fine, regardless of the demographics of the neighborhood.
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Can you believe we used to have streetcars run down our Main Streets with their own right of way, surrounded by grass and trees?
We can have this again, if we have the political will.
Can you guess which American city this is, circa 1903?
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Here's a pretty good example of how a lot of pedestrian infrastructure is really auto infrastructure.
$33 million pedestrian bridge built to connect an Atlanta metro station to the NFL stadium across the street. Note the pre-existing crosswalk.
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You'll never see a highway rest stop as beautiful as a nice train station.
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I have a joke about American transit, but it's a Saturday, so you'll have to wait 60 minutes for it.
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What happened in Brooklyn was unquestionably a tragedy, but odd to see people use it to argue riding transit is dangerous:
~100 Americans will die in automobile crashes today. And tomorrow. And the day after that.
Getting in a car is probably most dangerous thing you did today.
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Listened to Chapo review of
@mattyglesias
's book, and folks, it isn't good. In order to go after Matt, they make anti-natalist, pro-sprawl, immigration-skeptical arguments that come off as pretty reactionary.
"Things can't get better!" isn't socialist message I'm interested in.
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Hard to argue adjacent skyscrapers ruin city parks when so many of the most popular urban parks in America are surrounded by skyscrapers 🤔
Beautiful day in Central Park 🌳
Sheep Meadow 🐑
New York City 🗽
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If we can't figure out how to build an elevated rail or a subway in the median of this absurdly wide boulevard we might as well admit we're done building new heavy rail transit infrastructure in American cities.
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It's amazing how "urban" small towns could be in the age before cars
Salem, Massachusetts
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Suburban drivers: "I would love to not have to drive in to the city, but the commuter trains don't run frequently enough."
Transit advocates: "Let's implement congestion pricing and use the revenue to run more trains."
Suburban drivers:
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Pretty perfect example of how government by public meetings actually disenfranchises folks with other responsibilities (like having kids).
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People freak out about the idea of having multifamily residential buildings next to single family houses, and then you see it in the real world and it's just absolutely fine.
3626 & 3622 West Mc Lean Avenue
Chicago
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People *really* don't like it when you point out we should discourage people from living 30 miles from their jobs, but it's true.
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My experience interacting with mainstream progressives:
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I'm going to keep making memes about why US transit agencies should give trolleybuses another look until the people in charge get the hint.
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"How do we get most households down to one car" is such a more interesting, useful, and productive question than "how do we get more households to go carless".
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Cracking down on Airbnb isn't a substitute for a real abundant housing agenda.
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Don't you wish you could take an evening stroll along Philadelphia's narrow streets?
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Chicago has *SO* many small and medium sized multi-family residential buildings on quiet residential streets, and the idea apartment buildings like this would degrade a neighborhood's charm is self-evidently absurd.
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Very amusing to me that Philadelphia, a city whose global importance peaked several lifetimes ago, has a taller skyscraper than the tallest building in the Bay Area, the nominal modern innovation capital of the world.
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I know I'm not exactly tall, but I don't see why a motor vehicle this towering should be street legal in a city.
At the very least driving it ought to require a commercial driver's license.
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Turning college towns into full fledged cities should be a top YIMBY priority.
A bank turns into 47 homes in Iowa City, Iowa. (2011➡️2017)
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Looking at Philadelphia traffic at 7AM it's clear the closure of I-95 is having highly localized effects, but hardly impacting congestion on regional level.
Is this a problem that actually requires immediately throwing unlimited amounts of money at without asking questions?
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I honestly don't understand why we don't have string lights across a bunch of our streets in cities.
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"I would support this housing proposal if it wasn't 'luxury' housing"
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