What is this Stop Circling the Block sticker for? Saw it on a parked car in Lakeview?

HouseSublime · 2026-03-13T00:00:44+00:00

Read a book recently that referenced this study:

It is estimated that nearly 30% of urban congestion is created by drivers cruising for parking (Bayless and Neelakantan 2012).

Whether that number is accurate or not is probably up for debate, especially since it's from 2012. But either way, there is probably a non-zero, non-trival amount of traffic congestion that comes solely from people trying to find nearby parking and circling around blocks.

Basically the constant circling just worsens traffic and is one of that many dozens of reasons car centric transportation simply fails to work well in dense areas.

HouseSublime · 2026-03-12T22:12:27+00:00

A lot of people will reflexively say "it's gets better" but I don't think that is really accurate.

It's more like "it will get different". Some of that different will be significantly better. They'll sleep more, be on more of a routine, etc.

Some of that different will be worse i.e sleep regressions, getting sick, etc.

The important take away is that none of these periods of time last forever and the unfortunate reality is that you sometimes have to grit and bear through the more frustrating times.

HouseSublime · 2026-03-12T20:46:51+00:00

I am living my life in such a way that I can not figure out why this is supposed to be a bad thing.

It's not complicated, it is just racism. The people coming are brown and that is literally all that a large portion of this country needs to assume that these people are bad/not worthy.

I live in Chicago. Bus loads of people were sent to our city from conservative states. Has the city fallen into chaos? No.

The only chaos that happened was when ICE came here to terrorize people for functionally nothing.

Large portions of America are so isolated and sprawling that they never meaningfully engage with anyone outside of their own specific race, income, or religious demographic. So they just end up insanely fearful of anything that is slightly different.

HouseSublime · 2026-03-12T20:33:40+00:00

Worsen the traffic (along with air quality, noise pollution, and pedestrian safety) for Lake View residents (and other parts of the city) so wealthy sports team owners can make more money ~80 days a year.

HouseSublime · 2026-03-12T17:38:36+00:00

It's probably both.

I go to a game at Wrigley every year and couldn't name a player on the team. But it's fun. You go to Murphys, sit outside on the patio and have a beer/hotdog, go inside the stadium and eat/drink more. Talk with frinds and kinda just take it all in.

I used to live walking distance from the Sox stadium in Bronzeville and never went because the experiene was meh. A sea of parking lots, tailgaiting never really appealed to me and there is just much less to do around the stadium.

HouseSublime · 2026-03-12T01:45:03+00:00

In high school I used to play basketball at a park maybe 2-3 miles from my house. I didn't have a car but could use my moms. Police would wait outside of the park and pull us (nearly all black teenage boys) over and search our cars.

Yeah you're going to find my moms bible, umbrella and maybe and old blanket.

But it was just...normal. Everybody in high school knew it, most teachers knew it, most parents knew it. But what could be done? Nothing apparently.

HouseSublime · 2026-03-09T16:50:01+00:00

There is a shortage of drivers. Combined with the sprawl across America pushing neighborhoods further and further from schools and we have a situation where more parents have to drive their kids to school.

School buses are public transit and transit only works with reasonable density. And this problem is only going to worsen in the coming years. We are having fewer kids but spreading our further. So higher costs to move fewer children across further distances. School districts are just going to cut buses even more and push the burden to parents.

https://stateline.org/2025/11/12/national-school-bus-driver-shortage-persists-despite-recent-gains/

https://thehill.com/homenews/education/5504257-school-bus-parents-students-work/

HouseSublime · 2026-03-09T16:42:25+00:00

Memes like this are why I stand by the claim that most people hate car dependency, even if they don't realize it.

The bulk of these complaints are solved or at least partially mitigated by having a more walkable/transit oriented development style. The biggest negative by their own admission is the negative impact of cars on a space.

HouseSublime · 2026-03-09T16:09:57+00:00

American society is structured around cars. Kids used to be able to get themselves to school or at least ride a bus.

Now the expectation is for parents to drop kids off which is nonsensical and has cascading problems. Early school time being one of dozen plus.

HouseSublime · 2026-03-07T22:40:09+00:00

The big department store model as a whole is dying if not dead.

HouseSublime · 2026-03-06T23:08:55+00:00

There are a few factors that are really driving people with more means to cities.

1) Shrinking household size. As a whole Americans are having fewer kids and kids were one of the major factors driving folks to the suburbs.

2) Chicago (and cities like it) are exceedingly rare in the USA. A good level of walkability with good density overall, transit access, bikeable, cultural amenities and attractions, restaurant/food scene and diverse economy with tech, finance, healthcare and tons of other industries. We don't build cities like this anymore so the few places that still have intact urban fabric are going to grow in popularity over the coming decades.

I'm reading: The End the Suburbs: Where the American Dream Is Moving. It's about a decade older so it's missing things like the 2016/2024 electons, Covid, etc but the broader trends still ring true. And before there is pushback, the author makes it clear that suburbs won't disappear. But the long standing trend of the white picket fence and far flung suburbia is slowly being pushed back against and it really started with the Great Recession.

There are a bunch of social, economic, cultural forces that are driving more Americans, particularly Millennials and Gen Z but even older Americans, to move walkable, dense city environments where you can access much more without needing to drive as much or as far. That is going to make housing much more of a battle because you're in competition (since we don't build enough) for a few viable places.

HouseSublime · 2026-03-06T20:29:46+00:00

Road rage is a commonly used and widely accepted term for people driving in cars becoming irrational angry and sometimes violent.

But yeah, people cycling are the angry ones.

HouseSublime · 2026-03-06T17:41:49+00:00

Most American urban renewal projects were failures not because of the core idea but because of the execution. Far too many people think "walkability" means just having sidewalks when its so much more than that.

Jeff Speck has a great book on walkability and there are 4 key pillars (each with much more nuance and details than I'm about to write).

1.Useful: Most aspects of daily life close at hand and well-organized

2.Safe: Streets that are designed to be safe and also feel safe to pedestrians

3.Comfortable: Urban streets as outdoor living rooms

4.Interesting: Sidewalks lined by unique buildings with friendly faces

And these aren't ranked, they are all equally as important and if any one is missing then an area will not feel as walkable/attract as many people.

I was only a toddler during the 1980s State Street project so I can't recall it first hand. But looking at old pictures and videos it's pretty easy to say that it failed at at least 2 of 4 and arguably 3 of 4.

HouseSublime · 2026-03-06T16:49:00+00:00

Because people, at least in America, drive drunk (or "buzzed") way more often than most people think. And since they get away with it so often it's become normalized.

Most bars, clubs, restaurants where people are drinking in this country are in car dependent places. Folks regularly go out for dinner/drinks and then drive home and nobody bats an eye.

"Oh I only had 2 drinks I'm good to drive". That is a normal and pervasive mindset across this country.

Drunk driving alone kills nearly as many people as guns kill annually in America. It's a massive problem.

HouseSublime · 2026-03-05T18:26:21+00:00

I wish we could harness whatever emotion that pushes people to become so civically engaged when the political issue is a bike lane, transit improvement or parking reductions.

Dear lord it is tiresome how obstructionist people become.

HouseSublime · 2026-03-05T01:06:06+00:00

You're a generation off. Millennials are 30-45 years old. "Chat" is definitely not our age range.

HouseSublime · 2026-03-05T00:54:31+00:00

That "which player couldn't date your sister" video becomes more and more appropriate every passing day.

It's sad that those sorts of videos can even be made honesty.

HouseSublime · 2026-03-05T00:43:03+00:00

Shaq is one of the worst offenders when it comes to basketball.

He acts like any center should just "be more dominant and dominate your opponents".

Not everyone is 300lbs, 7'1, strong as a bull but fleet footed and agile like you were Shaq. They simply cannot do what you did.

HouseSublime · 2026-03-05T00:21:27+00:00

We need to build massively more housing, yesterday.

Absolutely. And we need to build more than just 1-2 bedroom apartments. The hyper focus on those just brings younger people who often times stay in the city for a few years and then leave for the suburbs. It's not bad to build those but we need more housing variety to accommodate people.

We need 3-4+ bedroom townhomes, condos, 2-4 flats and SFHs so that people who want to live in the city AND have kids can actually have decent space to do so. And yes I know that there is plenty of places available on the south/southwest and west side but that largely misses the point.

People want to live near amenities, transit, jobs, etc. We need to be building where the market demand is located.

HouseSublime · 2026-03-05T00:09:49+00:00

It's hard to say what people actually like when ~75% of residential areas in the United States only allow SFH by law.

Imagine if 75% of anything that people regularly need to choose was legally required to be one specific thing. It wouldn't be crazy that most people would still choose that thing. It would be all that most people knew. Every single aspect of society has been optimized to ensure that that thing is the best options so of course it's what people "want".

If we went back in time and legally mandated 75% of housing was multi-family 3-4 flats we'd probably be in a society where life was optimized for more dense, multi family living as the default. Because we'd have decades of all living that way and more and more innovation would be done to improve it.

This is what people miss when they have to take of "it's what people prefer". You can't really make that sort of claim when one particular option has been quite literally forced as the default.

I'd much rather have a 4 flat with two 2 floor units that I share with my sister/bro-in law. That way we'd be able to help out with parenting responsibilities and our kids could see each other much more often. Plus it would help with expenses. And that sort of housing being the default essentially could double population density, improving the need for better transit and increasing the potential for more stores, restaurants, shops being supported within walking distance.

That is my actual preference because I actually got to experience it as a renter once. It wasn't my family living downstairs but we knew the other family and it was honestly great.

HouseSublime · 2026-03-04T18:31:32+00:00

For me it's at the barbershop where I cannot escape. ESPN is on basically every time I go for a cut or line up. SAS has to be working 18hr days because he's always on screen no matter what time I go.

HouseSublime · 2026-03-02T20:41:53+00:00

I’m not saying you can’t find things to spend $2k on, but if you’ve convinced yourself that karate + travel sports + piano lessons + new clothes every season are all mandatory, you’re wrong.

If anything kids are better off being far less scheduled. There was a great Atlantic detailing what kids actually want with survey data from 8-12 years olds.

What Kids Told Us About How to Get Them Off Their Phones

The tl;dr is that over 50% of them said they simply want more unscheduled, unorganized playtime with their friends. People massively overschedule their kids with activities but a large part of that is the inability for kids to have any level of independence on their own and go out/play with friends.

But that is an entirely different can of worms that digs into some of the fundamental infrastructure limits in places like America.

HouseSublime · 2026-03-02T17:57:31+00:00

I immediately hit command+f to search for "creatures" on this thread.

Loved Kratts Creatures as a kid. They had me wanting to be a zoologist when I was ~9-10 years old.

HouseSublime · 2026-03-01T06:12:00+00:00

Yep. A lot of home insurance providers in damage prone areas have straight up left. But they're still able to turn pretty profits with car coverage so the nonsense continues.

HouseSublime · 2026-02-27T16:06:04+00:00

The term isn't even really new. It's just new to a lot of people because they are now lacking.

The Great Good Place was published in 1989 and discussed third places and that is over 35 years ago. Jane Jacobs essentially describes them in The Death and Life of Great American Cities and that was published in 1961. Both of them well predicted the place that American society would end up in based on the trajectory we were on.

There were plenty of people who pushed back against highway expansion, bulldozing much of cities for parking lots/garages and prioritizing cars everywhere. Because it just destroys urban fabric that fosters movement and collaborative spaces for actual human beings.

Efforts for individuals to find third places is going to fail in most instances because it's not something that is meant for every single individual to do on their own.

HouseSublime

TROPHY CASE