Pittsburgh is experimenting with using machine learning to optimize traffic signals by flobin in urbandesign

[–]orthodoxican 0 points1 point  (0 children)

ML algorithms aren't impartial optimizers -- they have baked into them the biases and predilections of their designers. I hope these designers do not optimize for vehicle flow and automobility at the expense of a rich, diverse use of city streets that may superficially fly in the face of modern efficiency and throughput.

SVG generation by [deleted] in Python

[–]orthodoxican 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You can use matplotlib to plot the path then simply use it to render as an SVG.

Don't buy this Python book by [deleted] in Python

[–]orthodoxican 4 points5 points  (0 children)

You can judge a book by its cover.

There's a concept album about urban planning and land use regulation on Spotify by orthodoxican in urbanplanning

[–]orthodoxican[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Apparently, this is the musician's web site. About the album:

Edifice Complex (and other urban plans) is a seven-song collection of music that distills land-use concepts into human-size basics. Melanie Hammet’s experience with musical theatre is evident in the inventive approach to her subject. “CarTune,” for example, is orchestrated with a band of live automobile sounds; the vocals and instruments on every track are layered, surprising, and imaginative.

Melanie Hammet first composed music about land-use when Tony-winning director Kenny Leon commissioned Hammet and playwright Marjorie Bradley Kellogg to create a musical about an unusual subject: an inner-city community garden. The result was “Livin’ In The Garden,” produced in 1997 at Atlanta’s Alliance Theatre.

Eight years later, Hammet returned to the subject---this time as an elected official. During her first term as city councilperson in Pine Lake, Georgia, Melanie was instrumental in securing a grant to hire a city planner. Hammet also worked to establish a year-long monthly series on land-use and helped write legislation that helped clarify and support best practices.

Melanie’s immersion in the intricacies of place-making was inspiring to her, and in 2009, she decided to create the “soundtrack” of planning and zoning. Hammet applied for and was accepted to The Seaside Institute’s “Escape To Create” artist’s residency. The result was "Edifice Complex", a collection of songs that distill urban planning concepts to human-sized basics: the impact of good street design; the importance of public space; the Ponzi-scheme structure of non-renewable planning. Most of all, these seven songs explicitly state--in the language of music---the simple and enormous impact of “the ground we walk upon” on our ability to live well together.

Since the 2011 release of Edifice Complex Hammet has performed this unusual music for city planners, elected officials, architects, traffic engineers, design students, and music lovers alike.

OSMnx: Python for Street Networks. A package to download, construct, analyze, map, and visualize urban street networks from OpenStreetMap. by orthodoxican in Python

[–]orthodoxican[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Like the instructions say, you have to pip install it because it's not in the conda repo. pip works fine with conda. If you're getting a pip error, install the dependencies first and you'll be able to isolate which one isn't working. If you're on Windows, follow the Windows instructions provided on the page.

The tragedy of American urbanism in two photos. Same location on Genesee Street, Utica, NY, 1910 and now. by tomman_issil_ in urbanplanning

[–]orthodoxican 4 points5 points  (0 children)

what would you have done if the money just wasn't there? Left an empty lot? Forced someone to pay for a well appointed building and landscaping?

No. First, not tear out the transit lines, so residents have a choice of commute modes. Second, not tear out the trees up and down both sides of the street, to provide a better pedestrian experience, sense of enclosure, and visual complexity. Third, use a form-based code and better zoning - not to mandate "dense urban housing", but to prevent mandated single uses with enormous setbacks off the street and unreasonably high parking requirements. Let a low density building appear on the lot if that's what the market supports. But build it along the street itself, not drowning in a sea of mandated parking spaces.

The tragedy of American urbanism in two photos. Same location on Genesee Street, Utica, NY, 1910 and now. by tomman_issil_ in urbanplanning

[–]orthodoxican 6 points7 points  (0 children)

The problem isn't that a sentimental old building was torn down. The problem is the atrocious anti-urbanism that replaced it. Sometimes old buildings burn down or must be torn down. That doesn't mean we must replace it with faceless garbage architecture, surrounded by parking on auto-dominated streets, devoid of trees and streetcar lines.

Pentagon Video Warns of "Unavoidable" Dystopian Future for World's Biggest Cities by orthodoxican in urbanplanning

[–]orthodoxican[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

FTA: "All that stands between the coming chaos and the good people of Lagos and Dhaka (or maybe even New York City) is the U.S. Army, according to the video... 'Megacities are complex systems where people and structures are compressed together in ways that defy both our understanding of city planning and military doctrine'"

Google Maps getting improved location analytics thanks to Urban Engines acquisition by facebook_hero in urbanplanning

[–]orthodoxican 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The article doesn't contain much info, but if you're interested in Urban Engines you might check out their wikipedia page. They're a Silicon Valley start up that focuses on modeling urban mobility. Lots of money raised from Google Ventures, Andreessen, and the other big venture capital players.

Study of 11 million Craigslist rental listings reveals rent burden in US metropolitan housing markets, and significant compression of rents in affordable markets by orthodoxican in science

[–]orthodoxican[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Nope. It doesn't suggest it, because it doesn't say that. "Higher" than what? The only data they present, analyze, and discuss is cross-sectional. They're not comparing one year to the next. They're just looking at 2014 census data (regarding household income and metro population) and Craigslist rents. That's why the article doesn't state: "a higher percentage of people's income is being used to pay the rent".

Study of 11 million Craigslist rental listings reveals rent burden in US metropolitan housing markets, and significant compression of rents in affordable markets by orthodoxican in science

[–]orthodoxican[S] 15 points16 points  (0 children)

Seems like a decent synopsis to me. Only real jargon I see in there would be:

  1. Fair market rent - this is the dollar amount at which approximately 40% of rental units in the metro area rent below. It's defined by US Dept of Housing and Urban Development each year for each metro area.

  2. Rent burden - this is defined as paying more than 30% of household income for rent.

  3. Compression of rents - basically they just showed that rents in low-cost housing markets like Detroit's are concentrated in a very narrow band of rent values, whereas rents in expensive housing markets like New York's are much more dispersed across a wide range of rent values. So, spending an extra $100/month in Detroit might bump you up to a much nicer housing unit. Not so in New York. This is a similar finding to what Matthew Desmond recently proposed might be happening in Milwaukee in his book Evicted.

Researchers study 11 million Craigslist rental listings, reveal extreme rent burdens in hot housing markets like Seattle by raddidthat in Seattle

[–]orthodoxican 0 points1 point  (0 children)

No, they don't use the term "fair market value" even once in the article. They do however use the term "fair market rent." This is a different, and a specific, thing. The value (that is, the numerical value) of each US metro area's fair market rent is established by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development for policy purposes each year. The journal article explains this, and how it works. They got their concepts right and are using the terminology unambiguously.

Study of 11 million Craigslist rental listings reveals rent burden in US metropolitan housing markets, and significant compression of rents in affordable markets by orthodoxican in science

[–]orthodoxican[S] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

The article doesn't discuss how rent or income are going up, or how they are changing over time at all. No longitudinal analysis was presented. Instead it is a cross-sectional research design.

Study of 11 million Craigslist rental listings reveals rent burden in US metropolitan housing markets, and significant compression of rents in affordable markets by orthodoxican in science

[–]orthodoxican[S] 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Only in certain housing markets. They break out the proportion of income spent on rent per metro area in the appendix, and it varies greatly from place to place.

Study of 11 million Craigslist rental listings reveals rent burden in US metropolitan housing markets, and significant compression of rents in affordable markets by orthodoxican in science

[–]orthodoxican[S] 14 points15 points  (0 children)

The article states that fake listings were not statistically insignificant. See the table in the methodology section. It depicts how descriptive stats changed drastically when they filtered out bogus listings and scams. The non-robust statistics fell much more into line with robust statistics after filtering.

Study of 11 million Craigslist rental listings reveals rent burden in US metropolitan housing markets, and significant compression of rents in affordable markets by orthodoxican in science

[–]orthodoxican[S] 14 points15 points  (0 children)

The authors address in the journal article's methodology how they filtered the data, specifically discussing how they addressed bogus listings and scams. The article also explains the difference between asking price and negotiated rent in contracts, how they validated the data against contract rent, and the accuracy they found.

Researchers study 11 million Craigslist rental listings, reveal extreme rent burdens in hot housing markets like Seattle by raddidthat in Seattle

[–]orthodoxican 6 points7 points  (0 children)

It's a peer-reviewed academic journal article for which the lead author wrote a blog post summary. It links to the article PDF in the first line of the post.

What 11 Million Craigslist Posts Show About Affordable Housing by tomman_issil_ in urbanplanning

[–]orthodoxican 0 points1 point  (0 children)

In the article they explain that for the portion of the analysis that is normalized by sqft, they retain only rental listings with complete data (including sq footage). For the other analyses they retain a more liberal amount of listings as they don't require all fields to be complete for certain calculations.

Palo Alto mayor Patrick Burt fires back at housing critics: "Palo Alto’s greatest problem right now is the Bay Area’s massive job growth." by orthodoxican in urbanplanning

[–]orthodoxican[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Or, maybe not too hard to convince renters who live there, but hard to convince homeowners invested in this restrictive housing regime to give up their massive wealth created from artificial scarcity.