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Chris Arnade 🐢🐱🚌 Profile picture
@Chris_arnade
Mar 13, 2023 • 3 tweets • 1 min read • Read on X
Look. I love NYC. Lived there 20 yrs, but anyone who tells you it hasn't changed in last three years, largely for the worse, is crazy.

My morning going from Rockaways to Port authority was filled with navigating filth and broken, dysfunctional, & disruptive people.
It's sad for the obvious moral and human issues. But it's also frustrating to see hard working people, just trying to commute to their jobs, have to deal with or navigate around, people who are angry, mentally ill, tweeking, or being confrontational just because
The contrast between what you see in NYC, a very wealthy town in a very wealthy country, versus what you see in Taipei, or Hanoi, or Istanbul, is damning to the US.

We are doing something very wrong.

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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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