ben fryback, EIT

will have to drive to go up and meet my sister on a Sunday afternoon, because the other option is me being in Portland from 10am to 5pm while I've got other stuff i actually need to do that day

bus at 5, train at 609

train at 1108, bus 1155, bus at noon

really frustrating that these 5 options for going south of Portland on transit are effectively two given the times of departure

like why do we have nothing until 11am, 3 southbound trips from 11am-noon, and then another few clustered around 6pm?

nothing between 2 and 5, and 6-930.

We’re continuing #WeekWithoutDriving with more Transit Talks! 🚌

On this episode, join @wilsonxcassie.bsky.social and @christinelewis2.bsky.social as they ride buses and the orange MAX line through Clackamas County.

Watch the full version on our YouTube channel: youtu.be/h49Tt5tLNmI?...

diagram: Share of occupied apartments in buildings with 20+ units as of 2023, by decade of unit construction

interesting report from IFS with @bobbyfijan.bsky.social on the lack of family sized homes in US apartments due in part to financing regiments leading to market failures and overproduction of studios and 1BR homes.

also note the plug for single stair buildings.

ifstudies.org/report-brief...

screenshot of a rental listing's price reductions over 9 months

this might be news to some, but vacancies drive rents down

The fact the governor of Illinois is beging for citizen coverage because media as a whole is intentionally not covering the governments terror campaign should be absolutely a five alarm fire if you are not already figuring out the federal government is at war against us.

any idea why? am very nervous... feels like the hb2025 vote all over again

hey aaron any idea whats goin on right now

An Open Letter to @npr.org: Our Streets Are No Accident
medium.com/@lanrickbenn...

h/t @howdoyou.guide @jessiesinger.bsky.social @poolontheruf.gg @tomflood.bsky.social #BikeTO #WalkTO

that we have built an alternate media ecosystem in which every American city is an apocalyptic hellhole - completely unmoored from reality - and the political system has collapsed to the point that the president can use this fabrication to send troops against his own citizens is a staggering failure

Whenever people talk about "luxury housing," I remember there are literal mansions in Hartford, CT that are now selling for less than it costs to buy a starter home in Silicon Valley. If we judge luxury by market value, there is no housing that is intrinsically, permanently "luxury housing."

on my way now to a planning commission meeting (salem)

aspiring to be this

bikes with funky lights, people in the background posing

out riding bikes

imagine how much more value the builder could get out of their investment if all that parking could be commercial space.

we have a work session on the 23rd. right now a 6000 sf lot in our multifamily zone can only have 4 units of housing. thats the same as single family thanks to statewide middle housing law

planning commission in salem lol

floated the idea of "no density cap on multifamily lots less than a 1/4 acre" and city staff put it on a vision board

and those that do, make the other choice.

A four-panel comic. Panel 1: A guy looks in on a lady who's crying and says, "Hey, is everything okay?" She replies, "It's just... the Bone Farmer... he died." Panel 2: He: "He was that thing that would break into people's homes and steal their skeletons while they slept, right?" She: "So sad." Panel 3: They are looking at a picture of what I would describe as an interdimensional monster with way too many eyes and teeth. And a bowtie. She: "I mean obviously: IDEOLOGICALLY I didn't agree with him. With regards to skeleton ownership. But his smart li'l bowtie!" He: "You have to admire his tenacity for a cause he BELIEVED IN!" Panel 4: A man in a gigantic glass jar whose body appears to be pretty much just a shapeless lump resting on the bottom of it, obviously missing a skeleton: "Gonna have to disagree with you folks here." The first guy: "Too SOON, Geoff!"

This Mattie Lubchansky comic seems topical again.

Faster permitting, zoning changes needed to speed new home building in Salem, speaker says - Salem Reporter Salem does well compared to many Oregon cities in making housing easier to build, according to Michael Andersen of the Sightline Institute in a Monday presentation to the Salem Area Chamber of Commerc...

POV: it is 2021, your city hasn't kept up with demand, & median rent went up $200/year

“Can you imagine if the median property owner’s property taxes went up by $2,400 a year? Can you imagine the scale of freakout that would be involved?” Andersen said.

www.salemreporter.com/2025/09/09/f...

This sentence is from a @taylorgriggs.bsky.social story on Oregon's transportation bill, but I bet people in every US state will think it's about them.

"I think it's worth to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the Second Amendment to protect our other God-given rights" - Charlie Kirk, 2023

www.mediamatters.org/charlie-kirk...

....wow

is that red line representing Salem, OR?

many such cases

purple lines represent the streetcar network at what is presumed to be its height. most of these lines continue to operate today as bus service.

a map of portland with streetcar lines and dots on it. Dots represent an existing building's age, while the purple lines represent the extent of the city's former streetcar network.

"this city was built for cars", people say.

Portland's development patterns centered around the streetcar network up until its removal in the 1920s. each dot represents an existing building, with oranges and reds showing buildings constructed after 1925.

the cherriots ones are even better

You can dip into the archives and go all the way back to 1988 and, still, average daily traffic on the Ballard Bridge was higher than it is now: 53,600. The idea that it will see compound growth until the heat death of the universe is preposterous.