Little Island at Pier 55 is an iconic park built in the Hudson River in 2021. It was largely funded by a billionaire, and almost not built at all, thanks to another billionaire. The Little Island story is one of commerce, cruise ships, hurricanes, billionaires, and park acreage.

A really nice example of a 21st century park. Biocentric native planting, minimised liminal space, intuitive travel corridors, multiuse areas, and even the greyspace is somewhere between brutalism and art nouveau. There isn't much I'd change beyond expanding on what they already do and adding sponge gardens to the periphery so that it isn't so isolated. In my ideal garden city something like this would be built into every high-density housing bloc like the Barbican Centre's botanical garden.

What's the point of having like 30 patches in these boxes when the tiny 5 gram tube of vulcanising glue they come with will last you like three repairs tops or dry out in a month or two

I wish I could just buy the glue tubes in bulk, I already have more patches than I'll ever need

A video following a cargo ebike across the city: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARTLXxPI2X0

Through this grant, the City piloted using advanced technologies to test Zero-Emission Delivery Zones (ZEDZs) in a 16-block area of downtown Portland by allowing only zero-emission delivery vehicles to use the loading zones in the project area.

In today’s world, commerce moves at a rapid pace. Items can be ordered and delivered in a matter of days—if not hours. The freight and logistics industry enables our cities to thrive and move at an unprecedented speed, but there can be tradeoffs when it comes to the health of our communities and our planet. The emissions from urban logistics vehicles have an outsized impact on our climate compared to emissions from passenger vehicles. Freight accounts for only five percent of on-road vehicle miles traveled (VMT) but almost a quarter of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

Last-mile delivery is also a major source of pollution that negatively impacts air quality in our neighborhoods, accounting for almost half of the transportation sector’s nitrogen dioxide (NOx2) emissions and more than half of its PM2.5 emissions.

Long-term public health impacts can be especially significant in areas where freight vehicles frequently load and unload, wait in traffic, idle, or circle the block to look for parking. In addition, communities of color and communities living with low incomes face exponentially higher health impacts of diesel pollution.

Besides the effects on our climate and our bodies, the presence of large trucks can also contribute to noise pollution, traffic congestion, and safety hazards like double parking.

Despite these urgent problems, the United States lags behind other countries in planning for freight decarbonization. A study by the Urban Freight Lab at the University of Washington showed that fewer than half of the U.S. cities they studied had considered last-mile 5 freight in their sustainability planning, and of those, less than one third had expressed an intention to dedicate resources toward addressing the issue. Portland was one of only U.S. seven cities whose plans the researchers found to be substantial and comprehensive enough to reduce urban freight emissions.

Cowboy Achievement Unlocked

In my car that's always just scary because I can't tell if it's an animal in the half-second I have to decide who has to die on my commute. On my ebike it's just pleasant. 32kmh urbanism with electrodonkey micromobility is the future.

It's amazing that all dashcam compilations basically consist of people sending in clips of other people fucking it up and then still end up at at least 30% of being entirely avoidable situations if the driver with the camera just wasn't also hugely carbrained. Most common issue seems to be some sort of my right of way shall not be infringed, my steel steed shall make it so or figuring looking at the road and / or being able to stop your car within the distance you can see is for chumps.

I'll go through it clip by clip for Idiots in Cars Nr. 367, posted a day ago at time of writing. To be clear, I'm not saying it's the dashcam drivers fault primarily in the examples down below but isn't this supposed to showcase other people fucking it up entirely?

At 00:32 you can clearly see the red car, cutting across the lines, no indicator ain't exactly on a vector for the right lane, time to stay the course and not brake

At 01:36 you can quite clearly see, in broad daylight, the bump ahead that the person wrecks on and that's with the shitty dashcam quality

01:59 I don't even think I have to point out how fucking carbrained it is to swerve blindly into the opposing lane of traffic because you couldn't be bothered to just brake a bit and wait all of 3 seconds

At 04:13 you can clearly see the red car from the right moving with literally no possible place to go instead of right infront of the driver, time to acclerate straight at it (HOOOOOOOOONK)

At 08:14 like the person in the white SUV is an asshole but like what did you think would happen here when they overtook you on the blocked lane?

Who needs bike lanes or bicycling infrastructure? Just pretend to be a car! Also if you're not going 30mph/50kmh and riding an expensive road bike, you're not a Real Cyclist

In this video we dive into a tiny forest that was created in one of the hottest climates in the US (South Texas) using the Miyawaki tiny forest method.

This project emphasizes the importance of plants not as some candy-ass "pretty" bullshit, but as vital pieces of infrastructure that are essential to bettering the human quality of life and reducing the effects of excess heat, drought and flooding.

On land that was once totally barren and next to a large urban road, a tiny forest has been rated using native plants as infrastructure. Pioneer species as well as slower-growing secondary successional species were installed in 2023 to mitigate flooding, mitigate the effects of the urban heat island (created by the surrounding concrete and asphalt), and provide habitat for beneficial insects and birds.

Nowadays, Von-Stauffenberg-Street.

Happy Wednesday!

The area I circled is about 7.5 km² / 3 square miles. Located in New Carlisle, Indiana.

Nowadays, this place is called United Nations Square (Platz der Vereinten Nationen).

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/6626662

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/6626660

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/6626658

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/6626656

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/6626642

Comrades… I just wanted to share a small but really important update from us here in Juba.

When I made my last post, things felt impossible. I was so scared we’d lose the little space keeping me and my sisters safe. Then some incredibly kind comrades stepped in and because of that support, we were able to raise $531. I still can’t believe it sometimes. That money helped us finally eat properly again after days of just surviving on sugar water.

We managed to pay half of our rent and the caretaker reconnected electricity and WiFi, which already makes things a bit easier. We can at least communicate and charge our phones again. But we’re still struggling badly with water…we can’t access the toilets or bathroom and we have to fetch water in small jerrycans for everything. It’s exhausting but we’re doing our best to hold on.

Right now, we still owe $469 to finish paying the rent. The caretaker has been kind for now, but we don’t know how long that will last. Finishing the balance would mean we can finally have some peace, access water again and focus on getting food. Any extra help would also go toward food since what we have won’t last long.

I can’t say thank you enough to everyone who’s helped us get this far. You’ve kept us safe for another day and that’s everything. I hate asking again but we’re still not out of danger yet. If you can help or even just share our story, it really means the world.

Support link in my profile. With love and hope, always. Onandra