M. Nolan Gray 🥑

Every time an innocent person is killed by traffic violence in the US, a second injustice is perpetuated against the friends and family of the victim by cops, prosecutors, and judges who refuse to investigate, prosecute, or correctly sentence killers. I speak from firsthand experience.

Plan for Palmanova, Italy: 1593. The Renaissance ushered in a wave if "utopian" thinking that remade city planning, and the rise of gunpowder made it a military necessary. Ringed by a moat and earthen fortifications, straight radial converge on a plaza.

A long-vacant lot turns into three homes in Oklahoma City. (2021➡️2024)

No judgement at all, just want to understand!

Paging @stephenjacobsmith.com who usually has a theory on such things.

Santiago

Why do so many South American cities take this form, i.e. high-rises among low-rise with little mid-rise and only very weak concentration?

SB1123 - Unlocking California’s Next Wave of Starter Homes · Luma Practical Applications of SB1123: Unlocking California’s Next Wave of Starter Homes Discover how the recently enacted SB1123 is changing the landscape for…

Discover how SB 1123 is changing the landscape for small-scale homeownership in California!

This live virtual event brings together @cayimby.bsky.social's legislative pioneers and BuildCasa, building some of the state’s earliest SB684 projects.

Register here: lu.ma/mqie6t7e

Have you noticed that nobody in the original Star Wars films is visibly jacked?

Plan for Monpazier, France: 1284 AD. The typical design of bastides, fortress towns built to secure frontiers in late Medieval Europe. A form of algorithmic city planning: a walled grid with a church and market square at the center. A standardized plan that could be stamped out repeatedly.

This one will make me yearn for Tokyo...

I need a new show, any recommendations?

Spot the difference

Haha yup, you got it! (We actually were watching a vote in anticipation.)

We just let them sit there and they multiply. Never ripen though

The first generation of Southside Park Cohousing residents endeared themselves to local residents by...joining NIMBY efforts.

I don't know if it's really limited in its capabilities, or if I just don't know how to use it, but around a quarter of the photos were pitch black!

KODAK FunSaver 35mm Single Use Camera Product Description Kodak FunSaver 35mm Single Use Camera Amazon.com The 27-exposure Kodak FunSaver 35mm camera offers exceptional value and convenience. With a built-in flash, the Kodak FunSaver 35mm one-time-use camera takes pictures indoors or outdoors, day or night. Kodak MAX film is built right into the camera, so the FunSaver requires no loading. You'll never accidentally expose your roll--just leave the whole camera at the photo lab. Also, for the environmentally conscious, Kodak and photo processing labs have initiated efforts to recycle the FunSaver camera. The recycling rate for these cameras is now more than 70 percent in the United States and about 60 percent worldwide.

www.amazon.com/Kodak-FunSav...

Scenes from the California YIMBY war room, in the heat of policy committee season. It was all-hands-on-deck with authors and co-sponsors, but we advanced—and will keep advancing—our largest and most ambitious package of bills ever.

Unexpected Nordic heatwave catches tourists off guard Nordic countries are emerging from an unprecedented July heatwave that disrupted tourism and shattered local climate records. Temperatures soared above 30°C for weeks, the Finnish Meteorological Insti...

I wish all the Scandinavians well through this heat wave, and politely ask they they consider refraining from making fun of American use of ACs, given that their 85 degree crisis is a typical, in some places temperate, summer day in most of the US. www.france24.com/en/live-news...

SB1123 - Unlocking California’s Next Wave of Starter Homes · Luma Practical Applications of SB1123: Unlocking California’s Next Wave of Starter Homes Discover how the recently enacted SB1123 is changing the landscape for…

lu.ma/mqie6t7e

Next week, I'll be joining BuildCasa to explain how small developers can use SB 1123 to build cottage courts, townhouses, and small-lot single-family homes across the state. Tune in!

Encouraging a mixture of units at various incomes in all neighborhoods is good. Trying to achieve it by imposing all the costs onto the person building housing (and future buyers/renters) is bad. Follow the lead of other developed countries and pay for the public good with public money!

Are cities that impose unfunded IZ mandates and/or affordability exactions achieve better integration outcomes? Seems pretty easy to test, and important to test, given the enormous costs imposed.

You're mixing up police power and takings.

Norodom Sihanouk - Wikipedia

To be clear, it wasn't Pol Pot rambling about the media, but the king-turn-dictator who preceded him. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norodom...

California affordable housing programs are on the chopping block after Supreme Court ruling Many California cities require developers to build affordable housing or pay fees to support construction of those units. A new lawsuit contends those fees are unconstitutional.

To the extent there's a nexus between "housing construction" and "housing costs," it's a negative. In addition to being facially absurd policy, there is no constitutional basis for charging new development hundreds of thousands of dollars in "affordability" exactions. calmatters.org/housing/2025...

Pol Pot: Anatomy of a Nightmare Amazon.com: Pol Pot: Anatomy of a Nightmare: 9780805080063: Short, Philip: Books

a.co/d/c2z9Zsg

There is still time to read the great selections on the summer reading list from @sightline.org including Arbitrary Lines by @mnolangray.bsky.social and Bet the Farm by Beth Hoffman @islandpress.bsky.social @emilyturner2000.bsky.social

"[The Cambodian dictator's] susceptibility [to criticism] became so outlandish that illiterate villagers at provincial rallies were treated to long, ranting accounts of articles in Le Monde or the New York Times supposedly denigrating their ruler."