Supaluminal

Melbourne's planning reforms are nation-leading 💪

I think Contextualism in architecture or urban design can be beautiful, or terrible, depending on the political dynamic and/or climate impact you’re trying to either enshrine or disrupt.

Like its partner, Character, I don’t think it should be taken for granted as a universal good.

Picture of a social/supportive housing project in the Yaletown community in downtown Vancouver. Text says “if we don’t build housing to solve homelessness, we don’t really want to solve homelessness.” Logo of the urban truth collective in the corner.

If we don’t build housing to solve homelessness, we don’t really want to solve homelessness. #UrbanTruth

Makes me think of the people who oppose market-rate housing, saying "it has to be public housing".

Some people are so obsessed with the idea of public housing that they forget that the aim is to house people.

Build more housing, of all kinds. Big, small, public, private.

Last week, our lead organiser, Jonathan O'Brien, was on A Current Affair. He argued that we should not empower a loud minority to block new homes being built where people want to live.

The Most Efficient Traveler Isn’t a Bird or a Fish—It’s You on a Bike A famous graphic, now updated, compares locomotion in the animal kingdom

“They turn humans into this hyperefficient terrestrial locomotor because they make being on land more like swimming.”

The most efficient traveller is you on a bike. #UrbanTruth

Via Scientific American @sciam.bsky.social www.scientificamerican.com/article/a-hu...

⏲️ New episode out 🌆 @iandunt.bsky.social and @dorianlynskey.bsky.social are back with a bonus episode on 15-Minute Cities.

How did such a sensible and benign approach to urban planning give birth to a wild conspiracy theory about authoritarianism?

Listen / watch now ➡️ linktr.ee/originstoryp...

As relevant to driving as housing
bsky.app/profile/caro...

Incredible stuff happening on Housing Bluesky.

Austroads have produced some great research and information on active transport.
It's a pity that Austroads member agencies seem to struggle to find them in the Austroads publication library...

Keeping People Safe When Walking – Stream 2: Economic Assessment of Safer Speeds This report aims to build evidence to support Austroads’ members in assessing speed limit reductions in lower speed, typically in urban contexts.

Not only does reducing speed limits in urban environments make them more pleasant, it's economically beneficial too according to recent austroads research. austroads.gov.au/publications...

Image of a walkable, local coffee shop in a walkable neighbourhood, with the caption “Walkable Neighbourhoods aren’t scary, they’re convenient.” With the logo Urban Truth Collective” at the bottom. @urbantruth.bsky.social

Walkable neighbourhoods aren’t scary, they’re convenient.

#UrbanTruth

Inner city councils keep finding ways to block housing. Heritage is the main weapon, but they use others too. The state government really needs to step in and slap this kind of behaviour down.
Minns & Scully like to talk big on housing, time to show councils they mean it

Using detailed address-level microdata, we trace movement chains originating with the initial residents of The Central and document three main findings. First, we show the building generated a substantial number of local vacancies. We identify 180 specific addresses that became vacant because of moves into The Central. Scaling to account for data coverage suggests the new tower induced more than 500 local vacancies in the three years after construction, by setting off chains of moves. Second, while The Central units were expensive on a per-square-foot basis, the homes vacated by movers were significantly cheaper. Homes left behind by those moving into The Central were about 40% less expensive. Unlike much of the prior literature, which track the changing neighborhood characteristics of movers

Even more evidence that building new housing decreases rents: Researchers tracked the residents of a newly built luxury condo building and found that they freed up less expensive apartments nearby.
papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

How much you need to earn to buy a house now For the average sole wage earner, the dream of buying a median-priced house is “basically dead and buried”, experts warn.

Last night Willoughby council decided to lock up more housing under heritage protection within 800m of a train and metro station.
Decisions like that across Sydney and Australia lead directly to the reality outlined in the SMH this morning.

www.smh.com.au/property/new...

Willoughby agenda item 8.5

Last week Sydney YIMBY was at Willoughby council speaking against a proposed new heritage conservation area.

This week, Mayor Tanya Taylor has moved a motion to look at how we can make it easier to develop in heritage conservation areas.

This passed after 45 mins of debate. A positive step!

Spotted in a submission objecting to a 16 storey building in Haymarket, Sydney.
One of the densest places in Australia, and we're supposed to worry about "increased foot traffic and anonymous movement"?

Copy, then paste special > transpose data?

I truly love the cycling infrastructure in the @cityofsydney.bsky.social

If you're interested in urban development and you're not coming to one of these events, what are you even doing?

Order Without Design: How markets shape cities | Alain Bertaud & Lucy Turnbull | Sydney Join Alain Bertaud (Order without Design) & Lucy Turnbull for an evening exploring how to make Australian cities work better for everyone. Don’t miss it!

Just over a week til our biggest event yet: Order Without Design with Alain Bertaud and Lucy Turnbull.

Come see the former principal planner at the World Bank and former mayor of Sydney discuss how we can make our city better.

🎟️ just $20, bookings essential.

events.humanitix.com/order-withou...

Episode 2: The History of Cats on Ships by The Untitled History Podcast From as early as 7000 years before the common era, we have evidence suggesting cats served alongside humans on ships. This isn’t just in a civilian capacity. As long as there have been warships, cats ...

Important news!

I am delighted to announce the launch of my new podcast: The Untitled History Podcast.

It's me, and guests, falling down all the history rabbitholes you can imagine.

Please, please spread the word, subscribe and listen. Because... SHIPS CATS!! cms.megaphone.fm/channel/the-...

Every time. Every city it's tried in. Build bike infrastructure, and seemingly out of nowhere, loads of bikes and bike riders appear.

In a case of me having to update my priors, Streem's state of the sector report shows that Australian news outlets still overwhelmingly draw social media stories from Twitter over all over apps. A big of this will be the dominance of Twitter in contemporary US politics.

Headline: Darlington Conservatives launch free parking petition

Batman slapping Robin meme: Robin: "We've introduced free parking in order to..." Batman, slapping Robin: "The parking isn't free, it's subsidised by the tax payer"

*taps the sign*
www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news/2586718...

Wholesome interaction on the way home. I was wearing my Australian soccer jersey while cycling home because it's warm out. Some older men called out from their garden:"Go Socceroos!" (men's team).
I call back: "Go Matildas!" (women's team)
They passed me in a car 5 minutes later: "Go Matildas!" 😂

If anyone can find a way to arrest a train, the Thai doing it for lèse-majesté would have to be a strong contender

kid walking in an indoor jungle gym Local kids thrilled at the chance for a playdate at a set time and location for a predetermined length driven to and supervised by hovering parents in an indoor hazard free playground - “it’s the lack of spontaneity, risk and autonomy they love”

Local kids thrilled at the chance for a playdate at a set time and location for a predetermined length driven to and supervised by hovering parents in an indoor hazard free playground -

“it’s the lack of spontaneity, risk and autonomy they love”

24 hour time is a hill I will die on. People understand them, and I won't patronise them, or demean myself, by using the clearly inferior 12 hour time

So much of Bluesky can be explained by it having one population whose primary mode of interaction is jokes and another population who have taken a vow against ever getting a joke.