google maps showing a small rural german town called Rhodt unter Rietburg. it is very compact, surrounded by green fields

google maps showing mechanicsville maryland, a rural town that spills out in multiple directions with many offshoots into the fields and woods

open question: what policies would encourage rural america to form little downtowns, the way that europe does?

good and correct of you

We are speed running the 19th Century.

We regulated this stuff for a reason!

The first panel shows a crow with the title "How to live a good life". The second panel shows a crow cawing at itself in the mirror with the subheading "Make friends". The next panel says "Explore" and shows a crow looking into a commercial waste bin. The next says "Try new things" with a crow eating something vile. The next one says "Be curious" and shows the crow grabbing a hissing cat's tail". The final frame says "Get a hobby" and shows the crow looking closely at a book of matches.

How To Live A Good Life #oldknees

our streets should be like candyland. safe for ages 5 to 95

65-year-old woman crossing the street in Belmont Cragin killed in hit-and-run Photos and video form the scene showed yellow police tape surrounding the intersection at Central and Belmont, with multiple members of the CPD on scene.

Our seniors should be able to cross the street without fear of losing their life

Average gas prices in Chicago right now are $4.75/gal; the 6.25% state sales tax on that comes out to 28¢ a gallon, or about three bucks for a typical 10-gallon fill-up. Blowing a hole in transit operating budgets statewide for the price of a bottle of pop isn't how we should handle a fuel crisis.

Timeline cleanse for Chicagoans

CTA bus with a “sunroof”

Chicago, it’s a beautiful day to go for a spin with the sunroof open in your… *checks notes* public transit system. 🚍😎

New Housing Slows Rent Growth Most for Older, More Affordable Units The nationwide housing shortage has driven rents up more in low-income neighborhoods than in the U.S. overall, but in areas that have recently added large amounts of housing, rents have fallen the mos...

oy i had one job. heres the link: www.pew.org/en/research-...

screenshot from a sexy Pew research study on housing that says: “ On the other hand, cities such as Houston, Minneapolis, and New Rochelle, New York, that have added housing at a rapid clip have curbed both rent growth and displacement. Eleven large metropolitan areas increased their housing supply by at least 10% from 2017 to 2023. Collectively, they saw average rents decline from 2023 to 2024 for large apartment buildings tracked by RealPage Explore, a property management software company that provides rent and building characteristics data for properties with at least 50 units in metropolitan areas nationwide. In each metropolitan area, the steepest rent declines were for Class C apartments-those in older and less expensive buildings, as first observed by RealPage and Jay Parsons, an economist based in Dallas. (See Figure 2.) So even though most of the new apartments and condominiums built were not subsidized and may have had rents higher than low-income residents could afford, the new supply helped push rents down in older, less-expensive units by reducing the competition among those seeking homes that were no longer as scarce.”

here’s another nice one from Pew you might like:

i love all housing. affordable, extremely affordable, luxury, i’ll take anything to give people options. anything to lower the insane competition we’re seeing

screenshot of a snippet from the abstract of a sexy housing paper: “Constructing a new market-rate building that houses 100 people ultimately leads 45 to 70 people to move out of below-median income neighborhoods, with most of the effect occurring within three years. These results suggest that the migration ripple effects of new housing will affect a wide spectrum of neighborhoods and loosen the low-income housing market.”

i personally saw my rent stabilize when 3 “”luxury”” towers went up on my block, so that’s some evidence. theres also this study (www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...) that highlights this result in the abstract

even luxury housing helps! it takes off pressure from older buildings. folks that can afford a better place move in and free up spots in older buildings. it’s like musical chairs, fewer people get left out if there’s more seats

this might be counter intuitive, but making it easier to build small multifamily homes (2, 3, 4 flats) allows more people to become landlords and compete against bad landlords. it helps renters have more choices if their current landlord sucks.

even luxury housing helps! it takes off pressure from older buildings. folks that can afford a better place move in and free up spots in older buildings. it’s like musical chairs, fewer people get left out if there’s more seats

i now realize i should add that the BUILD plan allows 4 homes by right on the smallest lot size (2500 sq ft) and 8 homes by right on the largest size (7k sq iirc). no neighborhood enjoys massive change, but all neighborhoods need to grow and change to thrive

i’d be good with it. i might even think about getting another scoop in a new flavor

“what if the ice cream shop guy came to your neighbors eating vanilla ice cream with you at a party and he offered to buy them all. they agree and head home. you like yours, so you say no. then, some more new neighbors come, and they order other flavors of ice cream.”

beautiful and yet troubling

BUILD BUILD BUILD BUILD

this is real leadership. it’s a joke that 75% of residential land in chicago only allows single family. nothing else. like imagine going to an ice cream shop only to learn that the city council banned them from selling any flavor except vanilla.

ask your legislator to support the BUILD plan – actionnetwork.org/letters/pass...

i could do 4 and 6, maybe some for 3

this morning, mamdani’s team got in touch with me to float a new tax proposal: if your net worth exceeds $5 million and you dress badly, you’ll be hit with a 10% annual levy for “visual pollution.” i would be in charge of deciding if the outfits are bad.

Color photo of zillions of lovely two tone magnolias blooming on a branch that still looks half dead from winter. These are the ones that are magenta in the center, with the intense color fading to white along the petals.

Purplish-pink magnolias beginning to bloom on a tree.

Color photo of brilliant dark pink magnolias just starting to bloom. A brick bungalow and other blooms are visible in the hazy background.

Color photo of pink and white magnolias glowing in the golden hour.

Beverly's magnolias a few evenings ago, when I took such a sensory-filled walk I lost track of time. With the gentle heat of the setting sun on my skin, the soft rustle of leaves in the breeze & the fragrance of thousands of intensely colored blooms everywhere, I completely forgot I had a meeting.

this email finds you at peace among the magnolias

screenshot of a tumblr post with a picture of four people bent at the knees into a square, held up by each other’s legs. the text says: “ i went to navy pier as a child and clowns took my father away and built a table out of him with three other dads and i always thought this was some unpleasant and vivid dream and i mentioned it to my mom one day a couple years ago and she was like Yaa when we went to chicago they made him do chair tricks with other men”

come to chicago and get bent

one. BILLION. bollards!!!

cloud city ☁️ 🌆