markedwardson.com - Profile | ThreadSky | a Reddit-style client for Bluesky

Excited to dig in and find out in which municipalities these designs are illegal 🙃

submitted 17 hours ago • 2 comments

"queue jumps with time of day restrictions" Siiiiigh

submitted 17 hours ago • 2 comments

this is a Theophite thesis I’m riffing on here but I think that the conflation of consumer choices with civic choices in both directions has been kind of a disaster. “supporting” a business by transacting with it is really very different from supporting a politician with your vote.

submitted 1 day ago • 27 comments

Sometimes folks treat 538 as synonymous with the forecast models, but a) the polling data they compiled was a huge undertaking that underpinned so much other work both inside and outside b) they did a phenomenal amount of nuanced, thoughtful writing about politics and public opinion

submitted 5 days ago • 3 comments

Just saw the news about 538 shuttering. One of the most devastating pieces of news for anyone interested in public opinion data of any kind (elections, sentiment, etc) — it's hard to overstate how valuable their poll aggregations and visuals were.

submitted 5 days ago • 8 comments

Listening in to a Central Saanich public hearing for the affordable housing project at 1934 Hovey for veterans and seniors, and once again, it's more of the same thing Supporters: this project will help me stay in my community. Opponents: I don't like tall buildings. We must 'respect' the OCP.

submitted 4 days ago • 2 comments

Really good write-up on the OCP. There's a lot of good ideas proposed that would unlock a lot of housing, but it's all moot if zoning codes only allow apartment buildings in theory, but not in practice

submitted 4 days ago • 1 comment

Victoria's OCP draft is coming to council this Thursday, and it isn't anywhere near as bold as residents asked for. Will council push back? bettercolumbia.ca/2025/03/04/v...

submitted 4 days ago • 1 comment

Just used the Canada Post Identity+ app to verify for the LPC voting and am... shocked that we created a really good identity app? That used the NFC thing in my passport to verify my ID? I know the bar is low but man this is unironically the best experience I've ever had with government tech

submitted 5 days ago • 0 comments

Good piece that gets at one of my core peeves with a number of second-tier bikeways I've seen implemented recently: spending >100k on speed bumps to mixed effect instead of simply re-directing cut-through traffic

submitted 6 days ago • 1 comment

"Speed bumps don’t solve the core problem... they just make the experience mildly more annoying, often leading to aggressive driving between bumps." - bike bus leader Sam Balto @coachbalto.bsky.social

submitted 6 days ago • 6 comments

Victoria is now in the process of lowering speed limits across the city. The work will start on the south end of the city this winter and spring. Lower speed limits reduce the likelihood of casualties from collisions, improve circulation, and make the streets safer for cyclists and pedestrians.

submitted 6 days ago • 9 comments

Good evening for a bike ride

submitted 7 days ago • 0 comments

the study on safety of single stair buildings by pew charitable trusts and the center for building in north america (@stephenjacobsmith.com) is now live www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-...

submitted 10 days ago • 5 comments

Single-Stair Vermont Edition: Burlington's Hood Plant condos are made possible by VT's unique building code that use NFPA egress requirements and allow taller single-stair housing than the IBC •4 stories + basement •9 condos •2 & 3 bed units (1200sf-1900sf) •1 stair cc: @stephenjacobsmith.com

submitted 11 days ago • 0 comments

Cities should not have the ability to block supportive housing at all. Residential land is exactly where housing belongs; it's not up to local politicians to decide who can & can't live in a neighbourhood. One aspect of this is we need broad & principled apartment zoning, city-wide & BC-wide.

submitted 11 days ago • 3 comments

what's so frustrating about these pilot programs is they give people a glimpse of what could be better in our cities, then withdraw it, and the whole charade squanders an enormous amount of money and achieves nothing

submitted 11 days ago • 1 comment

Easy for me to say this now that I like the results but I've always liked the relatively volatile nature of public opinion in Canada (and BC). Much better than fighting each election over the same 50,000 voters in Pennsylvania

submitted 11 days ago • 1 comment

Checked in on the housing section: Gould: build 1m homes, modular homes, co-op, increase homebuyers grant Freeland: low taxes on first time buyers, free trade school, PP hates co-op because they're soviet Baylis: home prices won't go down. raise wages Carney: 2X rate of homebuilding and cut fees

submitted 12 days ago • 1 comment

DEAR 49 OTHER STATES WHERE DUTCH-STYLE SHARED STREETS ARE ILLEGAL: The Washington State Senate just voted to legalize them. Democrats: 97% yes Republicans: 84% yes

submitted 12 days ago • 25 comments

:(

submitted 12 days ago • 1 comment

We're BACK baby! Not only is the Progress & Poverty substack back with a new WEEKLY posting schedule, but we're also announcing the launch of a new org, the Center for Land Economics! progressandpoverty.substack.com

submitted 13 days ago • 1 comment

Edmonton keeps hitting it out of the park: 'Record-setting' boom in development driven by new zoning rules & new LRT The city awarded 50% more residential dvlpmnts & building permits than it did in 2023, with the overall value of construction permits at $4.2 billion, a 31% growth from the year b4

submitted 13 days ago • 2 comments

Pretty fun to watch the townhouse project that radicalized me ~4 years ago finally going up

submitted 14 days ago • 0 comments

The Official Community Plan Update report is available. I wrote a post, probably the first of a few. davethompsonvictoria.ca/ocp-update-p... #yyj #VictoriaBC

submitted 16 days ago • 1 comment

Outsourcing planning and design might be the most penny-wise, pound-foolish decision ever.

submitted 16 days ago • 1 comment