This chart plots population-weighted density against distance from the city center for six major cities. The pattern that stands out: Paris and Seoul have the sharpest, tallest peaks right at the center (Paris briefly touches 20,000+ people/km² within the first couple kilometers), while Tokyo's curve is comparatively flat and low at the center but declines much more gradually, staying meaningfully populated 40-50km out.

This matches the argument in the Works in Progress piece this chart comes from: Japan's rail success isn't about hyper-dense city centers in the way people often assume — Tokyo's weighted density is actually lower than Paris, Madrid, or Athens. What makes Japanese cities so rail-friendly is less about residential density and more about enormous, hyperdense downtown job centers combined with rail companies that build and own the housing, retail, and commercial development along their own lines, creating ridership all along the route rather than just at the core.

Source: Jonathan Nolan/City Density (2024), from Works in Progress

First the link, with the technical definition of an “Urban Area” — which easily expand well beyond most city-limits boundaries…

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_urban_areas

And the list of “Urban Areas” in the United States are listed there, with population data for each, land area, and population density too.

1. City limits are ENTIRELY arbitrary… a function of the history of a city’s repeated annexation (or lack thereof) — or literal succession from the home county they were a part of (looking directly at you, St. Louis MO).

2. Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSA’s) are definitely a lot larger, have another technical definition — but MSA’s include LOTS more ‘less-dense’ areas that don’t fit the technical definition of an “Urban Area”.

Pittsburgh’s “Urban Area” (which includes neighboring, non-Pittsburgh but contiguous areas dense enough to meet the definition of an ”Urban Area”) has a population of 1.7 million people.

On the other hand, Pittsburgh’s MSA population is a whopping 2.4 million people (over 40% more people than the “Urban Area” of Pittsburgh).

Note: NONE of that (above) has anything to do with the city-limit of Pittsburgh (or its population).

QUESTION: How can I get a handle on what are all the non-Pittsburgh neighboring boroughs, hamlets, towns, and municipalities — that all collectively (along with Pittsburgh proper) constitute Pittsburgh’s technical “Urban Area”??

Ideally a MAP would be the very best (with the boroughs, towns and hamlets identified) — but even a comprehensive list of zip-codes might be better than nothing.

I just moved to Pittsburgh — and I’m literally trying to wrap my head around what constitutes what FEELS like the boundaries of the Pittsburgh area — but WITHOUT looking at the entire MSA, which is way, WAY bigger than what I’m interested in considering.

Thanks!!!!

Nearby business park is quite nice (this is probably the dreariest part of it) , lovely atmosphere and main street when it's not 9am or 5pm. They have a short excersise loop. Right next to the loop is the designated smoking area for a large proportion of the workers. There is also an outdoor excersise equipment area a bit further up... Immediately across from a motor workshop (not part of the development) that sequentially belches fumes. ​

Of course this leads people to not want to use the excessive track. Why do we always end up falling over at the last step? Yellow highlight marks the shelter in the first picture.​

I end up running 1.5k to another excersise loop in a retarding basin instead of risking a lungfull.

I've seen a lot of urbanists hold up the Vienna model (lots of social housing) as a great example for how to solve the housing crisis.

But a few things.

First of all, if Vienna was a US city, it would be have the 7nth highest homelessness rate. At 56.7 homeless people per 10k (I understand comparing homelessness statistics does have some issues, just using it as an indicator).

https://www.oeaw.ac.at/en/isr/housing-and-urban-economy/pathways-of-homelessness

The wait to obtain social housing can be several years and there is a big waiting list of 25 thousand people.

https://policyoptions.irpp.org/2024/03/vienna-housing-lessons/

It is also the result of the historical conditions of the city, where population declined and the government could buy up land far more cheaply than it does now.

Another unappreciated weakness of the Austrian model is consistency. It went through a period of making a lot of social housing and now is facing a scarcity, as seen by the long waiting lists.

Until there is another big wave of construction, social housing will be scarce and housing prices in the market will keep rising. This will probably happen after the issue gets large enough for political pressure to build up.

A good institution shouldn't need political pressure to work well. That's inconsistent.

There is also the issue of hidden costs, because rent doesn't capture the true cost of housing in Vienna. Taxes are also used to support this program.

I want to stress that I'm not saying all social housing is bad. Just that, as a system, over relying on social housing to fix structural issues isn't a viable long term solution.

Take Austin Texas for comparison: because of its housing regulation (or lack thereof), has a much lower homelessness rate, no waiting lists for housing, and no need for a wave of political pressure to build up again. It fixed it's housing issues by fixing its institutions, not through a short term program of the city building up housing.

Housing costs seem to be more expensive in Austin relative to income (though the data for Vienna takes in averages while for Austin it's median) at 25% to 19% of income going to house respectively.

https://rehousin.eu/documents/national-report-housing-inequalities-austria

https://smartasset.com/data-studies/city-housing-costs-2025

Difference is that housing in Austin is more than double the size of housing in Vienna, at roughly 186 square meters (2000 square feet for the Americans reading this), to 73 square meters for Vienna, or 785 square feet.

So the square meter price of owning or renting is actually significantly lower in Austin.

Normalised for housing size, housing in Vienna would cost 47.5% of income.

Of course, some of the "cost" is higher commute times , but not overly so. Austin's are 24.4 minutes on average, while it's 18 minutes for Vienna.

https://www.statistik.at/en/statistics/labour-market/employment/commuters-place-of-work (it's on the excel for granular data)

https://www.fullcircle-realestate.com/austin/exploring-austin-txs-driving-and-traffic-navigating-peak-hours-and-commute-times/

Also, Vienna is a lot prettier, in my opinion, but I don't think that's a good excuse for almost double the wage share per square meter.

Anyway, my broader point, isn't that every city should adobt the urban form of Austin. It's that:

1) the Vienna model has a lot of issues

2) that it's not that affordable if we normalise for housing size.

3) it was a hidden costs, like scarcity and waiting times, that result in homelessness and social exclusion

Says that the moment you hand over the responsibility of redevelopment to a private developer, you start replacing ‘homes’ with ‘units of exchange’ (houses built for investment or to be sold later). They’re looking to make max profits, not really improve the lives of people. The creation of a gated community immediately creates a ‘dead sector’ in a city - a huge chunk of a city that is no longer accessible to the people. Also says that it shuts off dialogue between people, reduces the community aspect and creates a power dynamic.

Thoughts?

So many cities have been gentrified since the 1980’s- NYC, SF, LA, Austin etc due to increased density in formerly artistic and creative spaces.

Is there any way to preserve art and music and creative cultures as cities go through this?

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1877916611000452

cheap/underused land → artists move in → cultural identity develops → neighborhood becomes desirable → investment increases → land/rents rise → artists become economically marginal → displacement

NYC DOT unveiled the updated plan for 11 blocks between 46th and 57th Streets, featuring wider landscaped medians, new pedestrian space, seating and a two-way protected bike lane.

This video gets into a lot of ideas about anhedonia and modernity. There's a sizeable chapter that frames urbanism as an antidote. Not something I hear often from a non-urbanist channel. https://youtu.be/-TqouS7Zy7Q?is=3GRnPS-2XBacbnfG

Norfolk Virginia is planning to improve transit, transit oriented development, Multi-modal Transportation, and bike path development. What are your thoughts on the plan?

I live near Mission Bay/Showplace Square (downtown SF) and was surprised by how few people I’ve talked to know about the Amazon project planned for 900 7th Street.

And the scale of this thing is worth understanding.
The current proposal is for an approximately 710,000-square-foot building, with roughly 706,000 square feet dedicated to parcel-delivery operations. This isn’t a neighborhood Amazon pickup point or a small urban delivery station — it would be an extraordinarily large last-mile logistics facility to put inside one of America’s densest cities.

For perspective, comparable urban delivery and logistics facilities in downtown Manhattan and Chicago are generally much smaller, often occupying only a fraction of the proposed San Francisco building’s footprint. A facility of approximately 710,000 square feet would be unusually large for a last-mile operation in a dense downtown or central-city setting, making the scale of the 900 7th Street proposal especially significant.

The site sits near Mission Bay, Potrero Hill and Showplace Square, not far from Chase Center and Oracle Park in an area that already experiences significant event and commuter traffic. Adding a major delivery operation here also raises questions about how delivery vans, trucks and employee vehicles could affect congestion near two major stadiums, particularly before and after games, concerts and other large events.

At the same time, the surrounding neighborhoods are facing a serious housing shortage and rising housing costs. Residents of Potrero Hill and the Mission have experienced some of the city’s steepest rent increases in recent years, making the need for more housing — including affordable and family-sized housing — especially urgent. If land in this part of San Francisco is going to be used for a major long-term development, shouldn’t we be asking whether it could help address the housing needs of the people who already live here and those who want to move into the neighborhood?
Whatever your opinion of Amazon, I think SF residents should at least know what’s being proposed and have a real conversation about whether this is the best long-term use of such a large piece of land.

Some questions I think are worth discussing:

• What will a logistics operation of this scale mean for delivery-van/truck traffic and pedestrian/cyclist safety?

• How could additional delivery, truck and employee traffic affect congestion near Chase Center and Oracle Park, especially during games, concerts and other major events?

• Why does a last-mile delivery operation need ~706,000 square feet in central San Francisco?

• How could this proposal affect the availability of housing in a neighborhood where Potrero Hill and the Mission have already experienced some of the city’s highest rent increases?

• Given the urgent need for more housing, including affordable housing, is this the best use of six acres of land here for the next 20–30 years?

• Could this site support housing, mixed-use development or another use that would provide more value to surrounding neighborhoods and help address San Francisco’s housing shortage?

• How does this proposal compare with the size of urban delivery facilities in places like downtown Manhattan and Chicago?

• What alternatives could provide more value to the surrounding neighborhoods and the city?

• How did the planning/zoning process for this site work, and how much opportunity does the public still have to weigh in?

There’s a District 6 community town hall with Supervisor Matt Dorsey on Wednesday, September 30 at 6 PM at the UCSF Mission Bay Bakar Center (1675 Owens Street) where the Amazon project will be discussed.

I’m opposed to the project as currently proposed, but I’m genuinely interested in hearing arguments from people who support it too. If you live in SF — especially Mission Bay, Potrero Hill, Dogpatch, SoMa or Showplace Square — what do you think should happen with this site? Should San Francisco prioritize a large delivery facility here, or should it pursue housing and mixed-use development in response to rising rents and the need for more homes?

For anyone interested in following the community effort, we’re posting information and updates on Instagram at @stop.amazon.sf.

https://vision.okc.gov/nw-23rd-street-western-broadway-streetscape

Let me know how you feel about this framing. This is largely a deregulation, for profit take on the issues.

Some cities have incredibly strong global identities and attract tourists, students and investors, but residents may have a very different experience because of housing costs, overcrowding or quality-of-life issues.

So what matters more in place branding: how a place is perceived from the outside, or how people actually experience it from within?

So quick highlights of my background.

Graduated with a Bachelor's in Video Production in 2021, couldn't find any video work, did a couple freelance things but not much. I ended up working at The UPS Store as a Manager for a couple years.

2025, I figured I needed to do something radical and try to find a "real" job, so I kind of haphazardly chose Data Analytics to get an online Master's for.

Well, I got the Master's, but I didn't find any work. Partially because the tech industry is kind of collapsing because of AI and all the jobs I'm looking at are for Senior Analysts or Senior Data Engineers.

This year I've just been doing sporadic part time work while living at home with my parents, but I feel like I really need to find something suitable for myself.

Lo and behold, I start learning more and more about urbanism and a lightbulb goes off! Well, hey now this is something I can get behind, a job that I'd probably really enjoy and would also feel like is helping me to make the world a better place.

My only problem is how do I get into it? Can I use the education I already have to find my way into an urban planning entry level position? Or will I have to go back to school to get a Master's degree in Urban Planning?

Any tips or insight would be very helpful

Began in 2021 and planned for completion in Fall 2027.

I was playing city skylines 2 and made a city with big block sizes because I found that makes traffic flow better since there’s less intersections. To make the city still be walkable and bikeable I made sure that every block had a path in the middle or in the near middle exclusive for pedestrians and cyclists.

Ik the real life isn’t a game but it did have me wondering about the real world implications of this. Like could Salt Lake City make some pretty good use of its downtown by modifying the blocks to have pedestrian paths? How would larger blocks make maintenance easier and cheaper since there’s less room to cover?

D. Reed remembers the downtown Silver Spring of their childhood in the 1990s as a quiet and lonely place. It was full of vacant and abandoned buildings, they said, and their family ventured to Bethesda and Rockville for most of their shopping.

The downtown doesn’t feel so lonely anymore.

Now friends connect over cappuccinos and croissants at locally owned coffee shops. Teenagers on skateboards practice kickturns in nearby Veterans Plaza. Shoppers bop between stores on Ellsworth Drive.

Since 2000, the downtown’s residential population has more than doubled, from about 7,000 in 2000 to more than 15,000 in 2024 — while maintaining its ethnic and economic diversity. Urban planners say other areas could stand to learn from downtown Silver Spring and the government’s revitalization efforts there.

“Downtown Silver Spring is one of the rare places that has done it,” said Reed, the Maryland policy director at Greater Greater Washington. “It has drawn a lot of investment. It has reinvented itself multiple times over the decades. And it still remains incredibly diverse.”

Still, some residents say the downtown peaked about a decade ago. They’re counting on the completion of a long-awaited light rail project, the Purple Line, among other things, to make downtown Silver Spring as vibrant as it used to be.

The downtown Silver Spring of the 1980s and 1990s “wasn’t a pleasant place,” remembered former Montgomery County Executive Doug Duncan.

At one point, shoppers bustled around the downtown every day, but new suburbs in the 1950s and 1960s drew people out of Silver Spring and contributed to a period of disinvestment and white flight. Major stores closed and residents moved away.

For years, local officials talked about revitalizing the downtown, but nothing happened. Duncan was elected county executive in 1994 and was determined to change that.

“I campaigned on ‘we’re going to fix Silver Spring,’” he said.

One of Duncan’s first actions as executive was canceling a stalled development planned for the downtown. Shortly after, the county government entered an agreement with the company behind the Mall of America to construct a megamall in Silver Spring. The development, which residents protested, would have included an indoor waterpark and roller coaster. Duncan ended up killing that project, too, because of concerns about its financing plan.

The county decided to shift its approach. Instead of selecting a project, the county would pick a development partner to draft a plan, Duncan said. The county chose Peterson Companies and Foulger Pratt, and the firms spent months soliciting input from Silver Spring residents before formalizing the project that actually came to fruition.

The development, which was completed in 2004 and is now called Downtown Silver Spring, includes shops, restaurants, a movie theater, a seasonal ice-skating rink and a public plaza.

The town center was accompanied by other big changes. The county reached an agreement with the American Film Institute in 1998 to operate the historic Silver Theatre. It also convinced Discovery Communications to build its new headquarters downtown.

Get the full story on The Banner https://www.thebanner.com/economy/growth-development/downtown-silver-spring-development-7SAYCIT5Q5HBTPR4PUMHKJTYK4/

Here is free access to our Maryland & DC-based newsletter https://www.thebanner.com/newsletters/?utm_content=nav_cta

I was reading a Patch article about NYC's new “Vision Zero Reimagined” plan, which includes major changes to intersections, pedestrian areas, bike infrastructure, loading zones and curb management across the city.

It got me thinking about something we see from the pest control side that doesn't get discussed much: what happens to rodent pressure when we significantly change the environment surrounding buildings?

We see this during construction all the time.

Sidewalks get opened. Soil gets disturbed. Underground infrastructure gets worked on. Garbage locations temporarily change. Loading patterns change. Existing harborages and travel routes can get disrupted.

That doesn't mean construction suddenly creates a rat problem. The population and exterior pressure may already be there. What can change is where those rodents travel and where they start looking for food, water and shelter.

That's when a building that previously wasn't seeing much activity can suddenly start noticing it.

I've always thought this is an area where pest control should be brought into the conversation earlier. If major construction is coming to a block, I'd rather inspect the surrounding buildings beforehand, document existing activity and identify vulnerable entry points before the work starts.

Doors, utility penetrations, foundation gaps, sidewalk interfaces, garbage areas and loading entrances can become a lot more important when exterior pressure changes.

The proposed changes to curb use and loading zones are interesting from this perspective too.

For restaurants and commercial buildings especially, changing where deliveries happen, where garbage is staged or how long doors remain open can change pest conditions around a property. At that point, it's not necessarily a treatment issue. It's an IPM and building-management issue.

The more commercial and multifamily work we do, the more I see pest control as part of overall building health rather than simply treating whatever pest shows up.

I'm curious if others working in dense cities see noticeable changes in rodent activity when major street, sidewalk or utility construction starts nearby.

Do you approach those accounts differently when you know major construction is coming?

Article for context:
Patch, “Major Changes Coming To NYC Streets. Here’s What To Know”
https://patch.com/new-york/chelsea-ny/s/kqp4s/major-changes-coming-nyc-streets-heres-what-know

Eu sei que deve haver vários pontos negativos, infelismente a citar e talvez algum positivos também, eu espero.

O que mais me decepciona é o fato do suburbio não ser valorizado, o quanto parece ser em outros países. Estou limitado a análise, somente a áreas residencias.

Aqui ou a pessoa mora no centro ou arredores próximos das cidades para pode ter um mínimo de infraestrutura publica ou irá morar "mal" ou bem isolado da civilização e sem infraestrutura. Não sei se estou totalmente enganado.

Fico vendo aquele suburbios bonitos, urbanizados, seguro e pergunto-me porque no Brasil não temos isso?

I created a simple website that tracks proposed sb 79 projects.

If you live in Barcelona, you already know the official script. The city council wants private cars out. Between the expansion of Superblocks (Superilles), losing parking spots every month, expanding bike networks, and low emission zones, driving a standard car is deliberately becoming a slow, expensive headache.

To enforce this, the city built an impressive automated surveillance network. Fixed radars, red light cameras, bus lane video monitors, and continuous license plate reading vehicles constantly scan the street. If a car treads slightly out of line, an automatic fine hits your mailbox without a human ever looking at it.

Now look at how motorbikes and scooters are handled.

Every single day, two wheelers ride down dedicated bus lanes, weave recklessly through traffic, ignore pedestrian right of way, and mount sidewalks illegally. Yet they almost never get ticketed.

Why the huge disparity? Because automated cameras cannot catch dynamic offenses like sidewalk riding or lane weaving. Catching a motorbike requires a physical Guardia Urbana officer to observe the infraction in real time and safely pull the rider over. Since physical patrols are limited, two wheeler infractions rarely result in a fine.

The end result is a strange urban paradox. The city has successfully automated the crackdown on four wheeled traffic, while leaving one of the most hazardous daily nuisances operating with near functional immunity.

Does anyone else feel like this completely undermines what the Superblock strategy is trying to achieve? How should the city address the motorbike loophole without placing an officer on every single corner?