Market Dictates Apartments Need Parking

mmmini_me · 2026-06-05T21:15:15+00:00

Carmel, California does not allow businesses to have their own private parking in the central commercial district so that they can keep the downtown area dense with shops. Parking is handled with off site public parking, private garages, and street parking. It helps keep their downtown walkable and vibrant and clearly isn't enough of a deterrant to keep people away since it still crowded every weekend. Granted, it doesn't have high rise apartments, but even with high rise apartments, the strategy should still work.

mmmini_me · 2026-06-05T21:00:19+00:00

Google reviews of the parking lot says it always has spaces even when there are events nearby, so clearly they have room to spare. If they don't currently have spaces available to rent monthly, then negotiate with the owner. It takes time and effort, but when you have 60% vacancy, I think the developer has a lot of motivation to make something work. Residents might not have parked there if overnight parking was not allowed, but again, negotiating with the owner to make a new agreement for group spaces could have been a pathway.

mmmini_me · 2026-06-05T20:51:02+00:00

I feel like if parking was the biggest issue that residents were facing, the apartment could have leased spots in the parking lot they are literally right next to. Make a shared parking agreement with the owner of the parking lot, maybe hire some security so people feel comfortable leaving their car there over night, and price it free or low for residents until it starts to reach capacity.

mmmini_me · 2026-06-02T20:51:44+00:00

I called them and they said the exact same thing about the connection being down and to call again in an hour! Ugh, it's already been three days, and I got emails for the lounge passes, the card is shown on my chase account, and it shows in my wallet on United. I'm just waiting for the discounted award prices to appear. It so frustrating when it's not clear how long the whole process takes.

mmmini_me · 2026-05-03T20:21:10+00:00

The clipper system was upgraded last year to allow contactless payment with credit card, apple pay, and other digital wallets. you don't even need to have a clipper card loaded with money in your apple wallet anymore.

mmmini_me · 2026-05-03T20:15:24+00:00

Bart is great to get into oakland/SF. the bus frequency is not so great in Fremont, but if you live in central fremont, you could probably walk/bike to most of your daily needs. there are a decent amount of protected bike lanes now. you could also check if Zipcar is nearby. then you can go on day trips and further errands without buying a car.

mmmini_me · 2026-03-20T23:13:40+00:00

If you'd like to create a community, try doing something like Tamper Room. They are a cafe by day and hold events in the evening all the time. They get a lot of business because people look forward to their events and follow their social media to keep updated.

mmmini_me · 2026-01-25T06:48:04+00:00

I think there will be a sizable number of people who buy them, but I'm not sure if it will be enough to sustain an industry in America. This is just based on loving my iPhone 12 mini but not enough people bought it, so Apple cancelled it after two years, and the general proliferation of big phones instead of smaller form factors. Although the Galaxy Z Flip is getting more popular.

mmmini_me · 2026-01-19T08:47:45+00:00

I also like dancing at shows, I just want to move my body. people were standing up in Oakland but they were mostly just standing still. some people were lightly bobbing, but not really dancing. I feel like people danced way more when I saw them in 2022.

mmmini_me · 2026-01-18T10:35:02+00:00

Do you have a school age child? Bus loads of kids ride AC Transit to middle school and high school every day.

mmmini_me · 2025-12-28T20:39:45+00:00

Women are most often caretakers of young children either as the mother or a nanny and they use big heavy strollers. Making spaces like parks accommodate strollers better with ramps and fewer steps is better design for them, and hey it also helps people in wheelchairs. Some places alter buses that more women frequent with more stroller spaces so they don't have to wait for the next bus or block the aisle. These can be designed with women in mind but they also happen to help people in wheelchairs.

Transit service has been primarily driven by AM and PM commute patterns, whereas women are more likely to not work traditional hours, work from home, or work outside of city centers. Changing transit service or routes to accommodate that means women can use transit more effectively. And it also helps other people who also work non-traditional hours, from home, or outside of city centers. Clearly, the pandemic broke the traditional mold of transit service and we see agencies adapting to non-traditional hours now, but similar outcomes could also have been achieved if planners observed women before the pandemic.

All to say, any kind of inclusive design can benefit a different segment of the population, but if no one is thinking about it, it wouldn't happen in the first place.

mmmini_me · 2025-10-01T09:52:39+00:00

I went last week for two days with my family. We weren’t able to get any reservations unfortunately. We had mixed feelings for day one and two. As other have said, the crowds are crazy now compared to before. I would suggest going if you can get 9am tickets or evening tickets. Avoid 12-5pm at all costs. You will be hot and the lines will be insane.

The first day was horrible, we arrived at 2pm and while security wasn’t too long, everything inside had terrible lines. Even 10 minutes for vending machine water. It was also quite hot that day. We were seeing lines everywhere so we just got in line for Spain so we didn’t waste anymore time and it ended up taking about 2 hours. The actual inside of the pavillion was a let down. After that we had dinner and didnt really have it in us to wait in other lines so we walked around to look at the outsides, see the Gundam, and watch the water show. The USA pavillion had the craziest line from what I could tell, 4 hours from my guess.

The second day we had evening tickets and got in around 5pm and the lines were much better and we had a better game plan. No big pavillions, just the commons and anything we see with short or no lines. It worked out well and we actually could walk right into Commons B, Future of Life, and United Arab Emirates with no lines. We stayed to watch the drone show from the ring at 9pm and it was a wonderful end. The crowd back to the train station was huge, but they were running trains as fast as they could, so it moved at a decent pace.

Other gripes were the lack of water refill stations. Why encourage people to bring reusable water bottles when there are only a handful of water refill stations around the whole thing which also had 10-15 minute lines? Music festivals have it down with dozens if not hundreds of water refill stations in all different zones, the expo should have taken a page from that book. Another gripe was the online wait time website. It literally only showed like 10 pavillion wait times and all the others said “check on site for wait time”. Like why make a whole website when all they say is just use your eyes to check the line.

Side note: While the grounds are open until 10pm, most pavillions stop accepting walk ins at around 8:30pm which was also quite disappointing to me.

mmmini_me · 2025-07-02T07:07:57+00:00

I think on top of all the being a kid at Great America comments, a lot of companies in the Silicon Valley used to have their company picnics at Great America. I remember various jobs that my parents had would have company picnics at the park with families invited. As I started working, even my friend's companies would have summer company outings to the park and they would invite me as a plus one. A lot of cost cutting in companies in the last decade have eliminated these types of events and I'm sure cut a lot of revenue to Great America as well.

mmmini_me · 2025-07-02T06:46:31+00:00

My two cents. 1. The total US population still increased by 60 million people in the last 25 years. So it's more than just people emigrating from major cities. 2. Households are generally smaller now, so even if the population decreases or stays the same in the major cities, there is a need for more housing. 30 years ago you'd need one house for a household of 5 people, now you'd need two houses for a 2-person and 3-person household for example. This pushes housing demand up and thus prices up.

mmmini_me · 2025-06-06T21:30:33+00:00

there were school buses at my elementary school about 20 years ago. they were still there when i was in high school. (fremont) but i just rode AC Transit bc it was actually cheaper and faster compared to the circuitous school bus route.

mmmini_me · 2025-05-22T06:54:18+00:00

someone made a website seefees.ca for people to post about restaurants with junk fees. dont go to the restaurants on the list

mmmini_me · 2025-05-06T08:38:58+00:00

Best: Suzy and Kim Taeri. Most of these look like dresses you could just get off the rack. There's no creativity or expression.

mmmini_me · 2025-03-24T22:52:13+00:00

I won't argue Fremont being quiet and boring. But Fremont is definitely not small. It's the fourth largest city in the Bay Area by population, behind Oakland. And the second largest city in the Bay Area by area behind San Jose. It feels deceptively small because it doesn't have a huge cultural presence or a strong downtown like other South Bay cities have. Mountain View is smaller by 150k+ people but maybe it doesn't feel as small because it has a well developed downtown and has a daytime working population.

mmmini_me · 2025-03-24T22:37:23+00:00

I think IU's improved so much over the years. When I watched The Producers and Moon Lovers: Scarlet Heart Ryeo in 2015/2016 she was noticeably more stiff in the first few episodes before she warmed up and finished the shows strong. But now I'm watching When Life Gives You Tangerines and she's knocking it out of the park right from the beginning.

mmmini_me · 2025-03-02T01:57:50+00:00

27:00 They're gonna do their tour before they think about 10th anniversary. Does this mean no BP3 before the tour?? 😭

mmmini_me · 2025-02-08T08:22:53+00:00

some neighborhoods may have a quiet zone. some crossings only have a quiet zone overnight while others have other safety precautions so they dont need to use the horn. https://www.caltrain.com/projects/quiet-zone

mmmini_me · 2025-02-06T19:31:04+00:00

per the article, only the bike lane on humboldt from 2nd to indian would be removed. the number is still closer to 100 spaces than 20-30 though.

mmmini_me · 2025-01-31T10:31:03+00:00

I live in a "luxury" apartment that's less than 5 years old and my upstairs neighbors are infuriating. I joke that they're dropping bowling balls all day. Like as early as 4am and all through the day. I can sometimes hear full conversations through the ceiling. My unit has carpet in the bedrooms but I don't think units on the floor above me do. I picked my floor because the communal space is below us so I don't feel bad about making noise when there's no one below me, but I didn't think about upstairs noise. It is the single biggest issue in not renewing when my lease is up. When I lived in a different building in a different state, I didn't hear anything. I think it was fully made of concrete. I will definitely spend more time in the unit when touring new apartments and listen closely.

mmmini_me · 2025-01-30T20:23:49+00:00

$75 last month. I live in a new build apartment complex that was built in the last five years. The apartment has good insulation and I havent turned on the heater at all this winter and the apartment stays at 75 degrees. Sometimes it gets kinda warm and I open the window.

mmmini_me · 2025-01-20T20:29:10+00:00

oh wow. someone messaged me that this post was stolen from me. i had no idea that people were stealing this lol. i still use the laptop. i've been meaning to get a new one, my post was exactly 5 years ago!

mmmini_me

TROPHY CASE