the *entire* altstadt in landshut, where we lived in bayern, fits in this suburban parking hellscape in federal way
what in the f*ck are we even doing in this country
the town square of federal way v. car-free center of landshut
oh man. it gets better.
US urban planning (left) v. EU urban planning (right)
left is federal way town center, where light rail is going in
right is vienna's seestadt aspern
which one looks more livable?
which one has more open space?
the entire district of rieselfeld in freiburg (pop. 10,000 - on right), situated at the end of the tram line - is less than the *car parking* for federal way (pop. 0 - on left)
federal way town center (left) v. the future site of utrecht's stunning car-light ecodistrict of merwede which will house up to 12,000 people
i write a lot about housing options & various housing forms. it's something i've been meaning to do a thread on for a while.
we don't have many options when it comes to housing in the US - our stock is largely detached houses or small apartments, and almost no social housing
our land use here is really spiky. most of seattle outside of the downtown core looks like this: car-dependent neighborhoods with detached houses as far as the eye can see. many of these neighborhoods don't even have sidewalks.
and then we slam apartment buildings in poorly planned/designed urban villages - and on loud, dangerous, polluted arterials. there is very little unit diversity in these buildings - most of them are small 1 BRs or studios.
will note the basis for home prices in this table are the KC assessor - which runs well behind market rate. will also note how out of date these numbers already are in just two years
today, a single family home in seattle is over $1 million.
here's a 5 minute video (in german, sorry!) on construction of nagler's first project for the developer. also a mass timber passivhaus social housing project.
it is so unsafe on seattle's streets for people who get around by bike (thanks, @seattledot) that i know a number of folks who have given up riding for fear of being killed. i know people who have decided to move to live in cities w/ safe bike networks. broken down & bought cars
hell even my wife has stated she isn't opposed to moving back to europe because it's obvious that SDOT and mayor don't care about anyone but motorists.
there's no safe bike network
SDOT thinks plastic bollards save lives
and we're spending billions on car-only infrastructure
we're not building car-free neighborhoods near transit.
TOD is a complete joke in this city.
no streets are being redesigned to drastically drive down VMTs.
no consequences for motorists constantly breaking laws and endangering pedestrians and cyclists.
the proliferation of this detail on seattle townhouses is... 🤢
this is wrapping up right around corner from it. also - check out that sweet sweet vent stack
stepped townhomes - an opp to actually do something rather interesting in this city like this project in innsbruck: inspiration.detail.de/reihenhaus-in-…