The Urbanist Cult

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have absolutely no idea what you are talking about. Can you proviso some examples of what you are referring to?

https://twitter.com/alexbaca

She does good work. If you don't like her style on Twitter, feel free to unfollow her or even block her.

[Anonymous]

I agree with OP. There are many others besides the one they listed. All the attention goes to more housing, more affordable housing, and more housing. Destroying suburbs, turning them into urban areas, because we need more housing. Some of us moved to the suburbs because we like the suburbs. And, we are labeled bigots and racists for saying so.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have absolutely no idea what you are talking about. Can you proviso some examples of what you are referring to?

https://twitter.com/alexbaca

LOL, she is pretty funny and clearly pretty smart. I still don't see the issue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I agree with OP. There are many others besides the one they listed. All the attention goes to more housing, more affordable housing, and more housing. Destroying suburbs, turning them into urban areas, because we need more housing. Some of us moved to the suburbs because we like the suburbs. And, we are labeled bigots and racists for saying so.

I think the broader point, and this is clearly generational, is that the model created in the 1920-1960 era that has evolved to today is unsustainable. So rather than continuing to transform green fields into cul-de-sac single family housing, let's do something different, and hey, we can look to parts of Europe and Asia for models that we could be trying more of here in the US of A.

I am not sure what is wrong with it. Do you thinking a never ending band of single family homes on a quarter acre lot, using single occupancy vehicles as the primary transportation mode in perpetuity is a good idea?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I agree with OP. There are many others besides the one they listed. All the attention goes to more housing, more affordable housing, and more housing. Destroying suburbs, turning them into urban areas, because we need more housing. Some of us moved to the suburbs because we like the suburbs. And, we are labeled bigots and racists for saying so.

I think the broader point, and this is clearly generational, is that the model created in the 1920-1960 era that has evolved to today is unsustainable. So rather than continuing to transform green fields into cul-de-sac single family housing, let's do something different, and hey, we can look to parts of Europe and Asia for models that we could be trying more of here in the US of A.

I am not sure what is wrong with it. Do you thinking a never ending band of single family homes on a quarter acre lot, using single occupancy vehicles as the primary transportation mode in perpetuity is a good idea?

I don't understand it either. Is the OP opposed to a demonstrably more sustainable way of living that provides for a demonstrably higher quality of life because some strangers on the Internet hurt their fee-fees?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I agree with OP. There are many others besides the one they listed. All the attention goes to more housing, more affordable housing, and more housing. Destroying suburbs, turning them into urban areas, because we need more housing. Some of us moved to the suburbs because we like the suburbs. And, we are labeled bigots and racists for saying so.

Okay then. So what about your kid’s teachers? Police officers? Firefighters? Nurses? Should they all live an hour commute away from where they are needed?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I agree with OP. There are many others besides the one they listed. All the attention goes to more housing, more affordable housing, and more housing. Destroying suburbs, turning them into urban areas, because we need more housing. Some of us moved to the suburbs because we like the suburbs. And, we are labeled bigots and racists for saying so.

As long as we're tone-policing, I'm going to say that I find it hard to take people seriously when they say stuff like "You're destroying the suburbs!" Duplexes won't destroy the suburbs, bike lanes won't destroy the suburbs, nearby tall buildings won't destroy the suburbs, and in any case there is just an unbelievably large land area of suburbs, way too much to destroy even if a person actually wanted to do it.

If the government stopped maintaining suburban roads, though, that might destroy the suburbs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Generally speaking, I have little issues with most "urbanist" concepts or policy suggestions, but I have noticed that over the past couple of years that many self proclaimed urbanists have swarmed upon every single bit of social media, both nationally and locally, in the most obsessive, vile troll behavior that I have not seen since the 2016 election. It's like 4 chan gamers got bored and transformed into urbanists.

What amazes me is that most of them are grown ups with master degrees and professional jobs. Some are even professors and government employees. Which also makes me wonder how they do their jobs since they seemingly are the internet 24/7.

It is awful how they will descend upon certain posts, even by the most random person, then berate them for having an opinion that differs from their own. While all the while, creating a cringing circle jerk of how wonderful they are and how horrible that everyone else is.

The internet being the internet is one thing, but many of these people have managed to weed their way into political circles. I have no idea how deep their influence is with our local politicians, but we should all be concerned that people as ravenous as this have any influence on public policy. It's as if greater greater washington has become Filippo Tommaso Marinetti's Futurist Manifesto and anyone who gets in their way are to be eliminated.

Do these people even look at the way they behave for one second? Especially since they deem themselves to paragons of virtue?

I ostracize bigots. Sorry.

OP here. ^ exhibit A. The forgone conclusion is that anyone who is a NIMBY is the grand wizard of the KKK.

Sorry that it took me a while to check in on my created thread, but I just don't have much free time to devote myself to post rants about my ideological perspective. That is another point. I don't spend that much time on the internet, but urbasnist trolls pop up everywhere I go, be it on social media or old school media. They are almost as bad as the Kardashians. At some point there will be a magazine full of them in the aisle of the grocery store check out line.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have absolutely no idea what you are talking about. Can you proviso some examples of what you are referring to?

OP here. Some national examples:

https://twitter.com/ArmandDoma/status/1424992365102583809

https://twitter.com/yhdistyminen?lang=en

Some local examples:

https://twitter.com/MoCoMikeE/status/1425193289343553536

https://twitter.com/graykimbrough/status/1424742263851192330

It's one thing to have a perspective. It's another thing to stalk a little blog about the history of Silver Spring. The poor guy just wanted to create a space to share local history, but apparently he is Goebbels, ergo he must be attacked and eliminated.

You would think that a college professor would have more important things to do with his time, but apparently not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have absolutely no idea what you are talking about. Can you proviso some examples of what you are referring to?

OP here. Some national examples:

https://twitter.com/ArmandDoma/status/1424992365102583809

https://twitter.com/yhdistyminen?lang=en

Some local examples:

https://twitter.com/MoCoMikeE/status/1425193289343553536

https://twitter.com/graykimbrough/status/1424742263851192330

It's one thing to have a perspective. It's another thing to stalk a little blog about the history of Silver Spring. The poor guy just wanted to create a space to share local history, but apparently he is Goebbels, ergo he must be attacked and eliminated.

You would think that a college professor would have more important things to do with his time, but apparently not.

I read all of your examples and I'm still not seeing where "urbanists" are "berating" people or deeming themselves the paragons of virtue and eliminating anyone who gets in their way.

As for the Silver Spring history twitters, who is accusing anyone of being Goebbels? All I see are two people rightfully pointing out the historical society's propensity to whitewash Silver Spring's explicitly racist past.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have absolutely no idea what you are talking about. Can you proviso some examples of what you are referring to?

OP here. Some national examples:

https://twitter.com/ArmandDoma/status/1424992365102583809

https://twitter.com/yhdistyminen?lang=en

Some local examples:

https://twitter.com/MoCoMikeE/status/1425193289343553536

https://twitter.com/graykimbrough/status/1424742263851192330

It's one thing to have a perspective. It's another thing to stalk a little blog about the history of Silver Spring. The poor guy just wanted to create a space to share local history, but apparently he is Goebbels, ergo he must be attacked and eliminated.

You would think that a college professor would have more important things to do with his time, but apparently not.

I'm active in a historical society, and we don't take positions on future population growth or fast food. We also make an effort to convey the complete history of our area. Also, our social media people know better than to go rogue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have absolutely no idea what you are talking about. Can you proviso some examples of what you are referring to?

OP here. Some national examples:

https://twitter.com/ArmandDoma/status/1424992365102583809

https://twitter.com/yhdistyminen?lang=en

Some local examples:

https://twitter.com/MoCoMikeE/status/1425193289343553536

https://twitter.com/graykimbrough/status/1424742263851192330

It's one thing to have a perspective. It's another thing to stalk a little blog about the history of Silver Spring. The poor guy just wanted to create a space to share local history, but apparently he is Goebbels, ergo he must be attacked and eliminated.

You would think that a college professor would have more important things to do with his time, but apparently not.

So your argument is, what, sometimes people are mean on Twitter? Is this supposed to be either surprising, unique to the so-called urbanist cult, indicative of how any of them behave offline, or somehow evidence that the ideas these people espouse are bad policy? Or are you literally just upset that some people are snarky online?

[Anonymous]

I find the folks on ggwash to be a bit smug, preachy, and arrogant.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I agree with OP. There are many others besides the one they listed. All the attention goes to more housing, more affordable housing, and more housing. Destroying suburbs, turning them into urban areas, because we need more housing. Some of us moved to the suburbs because we like the suburbs. And, we are labeled bigots and racists for saying so.

Okay then. So what about your kid’s teachers? Police officers? Firefighters? Nurses? Should they all live an hour commute away from where they are needed?

Don't most people live an hour commute from work? And don't most people pick a home to buy or rent that is an hour or less from work? Plus, affordable housing is just a pretty shiney bow to sell the idea of a huge development of 700k to 1million dollar townhomes. Just sprinkle a couple low income units in there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I agree with OP. There are many others besides the one they listed. All the attention goes to more housing, more affordable housing, and more housing. Destroying suburbs, turning them into urban areas, because we need more housing. Some of us moved to the suburbs because we like the suburbs. And, we are labeled bigots and racists for saying so.

Okay then. So what about your kid’s teachers? Police officers? Firefighters? Nurses? Should they all live an hour commute away from where they are needed?

Don't most people live an hour commute from work? And don't most people pick a home to buy or rent that is an hour or less from work? Plus, affordable housing is just a pretty shiney bow to sell the idea of a huge development of 700k to 1million dollar townhomes. Just sprinkle a couple low income units in there.

The average commute time in the U.S. is a little under 28 minutes, so no, most people don't live an hour commute from work.