stevemouzon.bsky.social - Profile | ThreadSky | a Reddit-style client for Bluesky

I have long been an opponent of urbanism metrics of any kind because so many are blind to quality of place. But why not use metrics with clear vision? So I've done a 180 turnaround on those.

submitted 4 days ago • 0 comments

Tuscaloosa friends, a quick question: where in town might I find a school zone flashing light? Need a pic for a post I'm working on.

submitted 4 days ago • 0 comments

More lanes = more places to get injured or killed if you’re biking. All it takes is one motorist’s text.

submitted 6 days ago • 0 comments

Human bodies are more fragile than bikes; in this case the bike made of steel appears largely unharmed while the injured rider made of flesh and bone did not move at all while I was watching from across the street.

submitted 6 days ago • 1 comment

This is technically a protected bike lane, but in my years living nearby I’ve never seen a bike on it. Vehicles fast and large give the impression that with just one text message they might roll over the rail onto you.

submitted 6 days ago • 1 comment

What are the top ten architecture/construction errors that annoy you most?

submitted 7 days ago • 1 comment

Curb cuts for people are helpful to everyone. Curb cuts for cars, especially on Main Streets, are helpful only to cars and endanger everyone else. And they’re really bad for business. Put car curb cuts on side streets, not Main Streets or other front streets.

submitted 8 days ago • 2 comments

Interesting that people jump to asking "is it safe to fly?" but not "is it safe to drive?" A single plane crash burns into the collective psyche for weeks or months. Meanwhile, the 100+ daily traffic deaths in the US barely register. The brain chooses spectacle over routine.

submitted 8 days ago • 7 comments

That’s the same logic as deciding whether to fund a bridge according to the number of people swimming across the river.

submitted 9 days ago • 2 comments

Wanda and I designed Katrina Cottage VIII, which was the first Kernel Cottage which, like a seed, is designed to grow. There’s a Grow Zone in each corner so it’s a perfect starter home, able to expand in many ways according to the needs of family and site.

submitted 14 days ago • 1 comment

Close to a third of the buildings at Cottage Square were occupied in part or in full with home businesses, so this is a robust mixed-use neighborhood. And my most recent visit was well before 2020, since which more people are working from home.

submitted 14 days ago • 0 comments

This porch has a solid rail, which makes for the strongest feelings of privacy. Even if a place has been forever crime-free, humans are hardwired to look for places to sit that feel safe.

submitted 14 days ago • 0 comments

A small front porch is a great place for a few people to sit and watch the world go by, but a raised deck like the one to the right is spacious enough for grilling and eating a meal.

submitted 14 days ago • 0 comments

Picket fences are the most common private frontage border, but hedges are useful as well, and because they’re solid they create a stronger feeling of privacy from the sidewalk.

submitted 14 days ago • 0 comments

Benches either side of a small front porch allow more efficient seating, and with hinged tops, they allow for storage space below the seats.

submitted 14 days ago • 0 comments

Cottage porches can be arranged in a number of ways, including aligning directly with each other, like these two. But the third one steps back several feet giving it a bit more privacy from its neighbors.

submitted 14 days ago • 0 comments

These are some of the earliest Katrina Cottages installed at Cottage Square in Ocean Springs, Mississippi. Bruce Tolar is the developer.

submitted 14 days ago • 0 comments

This Katrina Cottage was built by several New Urbanists at the Arabi charrette in eastern New Orleans a few months after Hurricane Katrina. It was later moved to Bruce Tolar’s Cottage Square in Ocean Springs, Mississippi. Its verandah was not complete in this picture.

submitted 14 days ago • 0 comments

Katrina Cottages VII and VIII in Cottage Square, Ocean Springs, Mississippi, developed by Bruce Tolar. These two cottage designs are by Steve & Wanda Mouzon.

submitted 14 days ago • 0 comments

I ran across an old note saying "Americans will drive one light year per year by 2025." Anyone know how close the US is getting?

submitted 16 days ago • 1 comment

I have never seen such a magnificent celestial display as the planets & moon last night, thanks in part to Seaside’s long-running commitment not to light up the sky.

submitted 20 days ago • 1 comment

On-street parking is essential in the early stages of recovery from auto domination, but as more people can safely walk and bike to a place like Over-The-Rhine, priorities should change to recovering parking lanes for sitting spaces.

submitted 27 days ago • 0 comments

When the people walking outnumber the drivers driving it's a good day in the city. Humans have from the beginning been a walking species, and walking does many good things for body, mind, and spirit.

submitted 27 days ago • 0 comments

Great variety in a narrow range is a characteristic of almost all great places. Look at both the similarities and also how these building subtly break stride in ways far more endearing than a highly regimented march of facades.

submitted 27 days ago • 0 comments

The ghost of a building is all that remains against its neighbor, almost certainly a casualty of off-street parking requirements, which are a cancer on vibrant urban fabric. Abolish off-street parking requirements and let the market decide!

submitted 27 days ago • 0 comments

Cincinnati's Findlay Market began as an open-air farmers market 170 years ago, but most of it is is a food hall now, illustrating how adaptable buildings can be sustained even when their original use changes.

submitted 27 days ago • 0 comments

Awning companies like to build full-frame awnings with plastic or canvas stretched tight around them, but those look positively dead next to awnings like these which are free to flutter in the breeze, and are therefore much more entertaining to people walking by.

submitted 27 days ago • 0 comments

Why would a sidewalk cafe ever NOT be dog-friendly (says the guy doing the facepalm)? Lots of their customers stop on impulse, but if they're out on a walk with their dogs, they wouldn't be welcome.

submitted 27 days ago • 0 comments

Awnings do several good things for a mixed-use streetscape: they’re shelter from the rain, they’re entertainment for the eyes, both with their color and their fringes fluttering in the breeze, and they lower glare on storefronts, making it easier to see what's for sale inside.

submitted 27 days ago • 1 comment

How's this for a super-lean table & chairs at a sidewalk cafe?

submitted 27 days ago • 0 comments

The best part of Cincinnati's Over-the-Rhine neighborhood when I was there in 2011 were the buildings around Findlay Market, which seemed to be fully recovered. The market hall, which is just out of view to the left, is 170 years old. Maybe markets are where to start a recovery?

submitted 27 days ago • 0 comments

Wall art in a recovering place is good. Wall art by a famous artist like Shepard Fairey is even better because it not only entertains those walking by, but also calls attention to the recovering place from people all over.

submitted 27 days ago • 0 comments

Retailers accustomed to sprawl need to be retrained how to merchandise their wares on a Main Street. Sprawl outparcels are typically blank boxes with merchandise turned inward. Storefronts are great opportunities to let everyone see what you sell. originalgreen.org/blog/great-s...

submitted 27 days ago • 0 comments

Can someone please give me a quick explanation of the FAIR Plan that has California all stirred up?

submitted 29 days ago • 2 comments

Here are the people responsible for all the trompe l'oeil windows & storefronts in Cincinnati's Over-the-Rhine: www.keepcincinnatibeautiful.org/programs/art... Great work, Future Bloom! As noted earlier, this is "telling the truth in advance." Every recovering place needs people like this.

submitted 29 days ago • 0 comments

A multi-story building in a place recovering from disinvestment may have little damage on the upper levels. Here, the storefront was bricked up when the business failed and the space was converted to residential, but because the cast iron frame remains it can be recovered.

submitted 29 days ago • 0 comments

A boarded-up storefront with a painted-on future condition is "telling the truth in advance," and is much better than just the raw boarding, which calls attention to the current state of long-running disinvestment. It's also much better for Walk Appeal.

submitted 29 days ago • 0 comments

Celebrate exuberance. If a previous generation went out of their way to lift the spirits of people of their time, consider it a gift to people of our time and embellish it in ways they likely would have loved. In other words, don't tone stuff down due to timidity.

submitted 29 days ago • 0 comments

A classic image of a place in recovery from disinvestment. On the one hand, check-cashing, likely predatory. On the other hand, fashion, an indicator of people looking to move up. And above, apparently occupied apartments in a mixed-use buildings. Varied signals abound.

submitted 29 days ago • 1 comment

I don't have a more sorrowful image of neighborhood decay than this one. On the nearest street, two cavities. In the right cavity, a building a block behind. In the central cavity, a lonely building two blocks behind. And the front street cavities are parking lots.

submitted 29 days ago • 0 comments

Some buildings are enduring because they're soft and sinuous; other because they're strong and steady. Such is life. This is one of the latter type; there are many types.

submitted 29 days ago • 0 comments

On any given Main Street or town square, the most-photographed building is likely to be the thinnest one. The Teddy Bear Principle described years ago why it's the baby/puppy/kitten proportions nature designed to endear them to us. originalgreen.org/blog/the-ted...

submitted 29 days ago • 1 comment