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Chris Arnade 🐢🐱🚌 Profile picture
@Chris_arnade
Oct 3, 2021 • 25 tweets • 10 min read • Read on X
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So begins my 15 mile + walk from Binghamton to Endicott: Amongst the brutally ugly renewal architecture of downtown. A little bit of Brasilia in Appalachian NY
Come on man. Do better!
This feels like a Gothic cathedral by comparison
Ok. This is rocks. More of this. Less of that cement brutal stuff
Imaging the architect thinking, “Just how can I suck the soul out of anyone entering this building”
Ok. No city smells so consistently of weed as Binghamton. Every corner. Like being in a factory town, but instead of smell of Cheerios or smelting iron, you smell dank weed
Anyone looking to buy one slight used Masonic Temple?
Juxtaposition
Wouldn’t be complete without a Kennedy Fried Chicken
Seen a lot of these around this area. Must be some Scottish immigrant legacy thing
Old blockbuster?
Stuck in abandoned strip mall because of rain, and like Tom hanks & that volleyball movie, turning this into my friend Cardboard-y
I wonder what they sell here.
Like to imagine the orphaned Kmart carts endured a long lonely journey to finally be welcomed into the Walmart flock as honorary members after displaying feats of strength, honor, & courage
Chock full Walmart on one side of bridge, abandoned factory on other

Come on Binghamton, can you make your symbolism a little less obvious
Lots of immigrants in the area (like a lot of upstate NY). Including Thai & Laotian
You have beautiful neighborhoods, then bang, a bunch of abandoned stuff. Overtime, living around all that decay wears at you. No matter how hard you try to fight it
Me and Pole 4823 just chillin in the rain
That was some pedestrian fierce brutal few miles. When google maps says pedestrians can’t walk it, probably best to listen. But I didn’t. Anyways. Hello new town
Just a reminder NY state is big into auto racing. Well, upstate that is
Ok. Phone is dying. Gonna finda bar to have a drink in. Enjoy rest of day. Leave you with this 50s throw back
Ps: Read about my last long walk, this one in Western Mass

intellectualinting.substack.com/p/walking-amer…
Pss: $3 draft. Every game on. Take that Urban elites!
Psss: salvation comes on a Nutty Buddy wrapper
The lamp post rant game is A+ in this part of town

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More from @Chris_arnade

Chris Arnade 🐢🐱🚌 Profile picture
May 30
My only strong view on city planning is extensive mixed use zoning is the magical key that unlocks a whole host of positives and what Americans think they want when visiting a place like Japan is actually that, and then of course they would like to have citizens that are respectful of each other but you can't city plan that into existence and US doesn't want that anyways.
I don't know if advocating for moving away from the exclusive Euclidean zoning we use in US (segregated regions for residential, commercial, industrial) makes me a NIMBY or YIMBY, but those camps are annoying anyways.
In my 8 factor walkablity model the largest variable is effectively "mixed use zoning", or what I label, "Localized distribution" -- meaning there is always what you need in walking distance because it isn't confined to exclusive zones

walkingtheworld.substack.com/p/so-what-make…
Read 4 tweets
Chris Arnade 🐢🐱🚌 Profile picture
May 19
US has about 140,000 miles dedicated to freight rail and 20,000 miles to passenger rail, for a total of about 160,000 miles

Europe has approximately 94,000 miles (151,000 kilometers) of railway track.
US uses rail, but for freight, because density differences means flying is easier
The US moves well over 5,000 ton-miles of freight per person per year

By comparison, the European Union moves about "500 ton-miles of freight per person per year" by rail.

Sounds like Europe needs to get its F-ing rail act together
Read 5 tweets
Chris Arnade 🐢🐱🚌 Profile picture
Jan 26
Since I walk about 3 hours a day, I try a lot of audiobooks & podcasts and so I stumbled onto this weird podcast about the history of rock music and after five minutes I was about to eject it because it sounded like it was made by a crazy guy in his basement, but his absolute dedication, encyclopedic knowledge, and understated enthusiasm for the history of the rock music won me over and now I think it might be the best podcast ever.Image
I’ve never seen a better example of amateur professionalism. No corporation would allow him to make the choices he has made, and that is a such great thing because his intense passion is on full display
Believe me. Give it thirty minutes. You are going to want to eject after two. Stick with it.
Read 4 tweets
Chris Arnade 🐢🐱🚌 Profile picture
Jan 27, 2024
Bishkek (Kyrgyzstan) is one of the most unique cities I've walked. Almost zero tourist, because very few people even know it exists.

I wouldn't recommend it for someone looking for a relaxing vacation, but if you want to really feel your in a different place, a bit detached from the rest of the world, it's safe, inexpensive, and interestingImage
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About ten miles outside of Bishkek is a 3 square mile market, built, lego like, from shipping containers.

Almost entirely self-regulated, it started after fall of USSR as a place to swap goods -- where they came from, and how, nobody asked, or cared

Slapped down in the middle of an otherwise bland neighborhood of mud roads and single homes it's now Central Asia’s largest marketplace.

A complex of stores inside freight containers selling anything and everything you want: Toys, TVs, Jeans, Bras, Bikes, Spices, Trinkets, X-mas decorations, Tools, Gas Masks, Hijabs, Watches, Wall clocks, Slippers, Shampoo, Stuffed Animals, and on and on.

All of it imported from China, Russia, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, South Korea, India, Iran, etc. Carrying on, in a very modern way, Kyrgyzstan’s Silk Road tradition.

It’s a microcosm of our very material global supply chain world. A visceral picture of how our world of stuff works. How the clothes we wear, the food we eat, the things that fill our homes, come from all over, shipped across the globe in rectangular metal boxes.Image
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It has it's own restaurants, a mosque, and keeps expanding.

Traveling to places like Bishkek has helped me understand history better. Not from going to museums, or historical sites, but from seeing how people physically live, especially those without a lot of money.

The marketplaces of Bishkek, or Istanbul, are not that removed from the marketplaces of ancient Rome, or Paris in the middle ages. They are crowded, loud, busy, colorful, communal, and self-organized. Or to put it simply, messy.

When you go to a historical monument, like the ruins of an ancient building, or a preserved cathedral or mosque, you get the entirely wrong image of the past. You see quiet, dignified, empty, sterile spaces. Places where you are scared to touch something. Places where people walk around in hushed voices.

That’s nothing like what the past was, and you can see that in the present in places like the shipping container market.Image
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Read 7 tweets
Chris Arnade 🐢🐱🚌 Profile picture
Dec 6, 2023
Update on this: I went to eye-doctor, & no I don't have cataracts. The doctor did mention, almost all her customers now complain about same thing, to extent some have completely stopped driving at night.

The primary offender is newer cars with very bright headlights -- Tesla's are particularly bad, & with them, it's not about the height, but only strength of beam.

There's also less awareness on when to use high beams, especially with younger drivers.

The combo of it all is, driving at night, especially in rural areas, has gotten dangerous. It's not some silly annoyance thing, but a real problem.
Limiting beam intensity, is an example of what competent Government regulation is supposed to be about -- curtailing selfish individual behavior, with limited benefit, that's directly dangerous and harmful, in a clear physical way, to the larger community.

Even hard core libertarians can get behind this one.
we'll be up against the Big-Beam-Industrial Complex. But think of bugs life. We can overcome!
Read 4 tweets
Chris Arnade 🐢🐱🚌 Profile picture
Nov 5, 2023
Living his best life #Mongolia
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Living his best life #Amman Image
Living his best life #Hanoi Image
Read 7 tweets

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