Embarrassing Confessions of Urbanists

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mister.shoes
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Re: Embarrassing Confessions of Urbanists

Postby mister.shoes » April 27th, 2020, 10:48 pm

As a parent of a 5yo and a 2yo I can assure you most of us spent an inordinate amount of time begging our children to keep it down while simultaneously shrinking in embarrassment at some of the things said at high volume.
The problem with being an introvert online is that no one knows you're just hanging out and listening.

schwinnletour
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Re: Embarrassing Confessions of Urbanists

Postby schwinnletour » April 28th, 2020, 8:06 am

A 6' privacy fence on the property line would do wonders in this situation. I highly recommend it (spoken from experience while sitting in a house on a 40' city lot).

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sdho
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Re: Embarrassing Confessions of Urbanists

Postby sdho » April 28th, 2020, 3:54 pm

A 6' privacy fence on the property line would do wonders in this situation. I highly recommend it (spoken from experience while sitting in a house on a 40' city lot).
Do they make much of a difference in deflecting noise? Don't have noisy people near me, but my neighbor does have an AC condenser right by my property line.

schwinnletour
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Re: Embarrassing Confessions of Urbanists

Postby schwinnletour » April 29th, 2020, 9:02 am

Interesting article on hwy sound barriers from 99percentinvisible.org:

"According to metrics by the Department of Transportation, in order to achieve a 5 decibel reduction of noise, a barrier must be built at the line of sight (and hearing) of the average individual. Every additional meter above the line of sight reduces the sound by an additional 1.5 decibels. This works through reducing the amount of sound energy able to pass over the wall via diffraction."

5 decibel reduction is a perceived 50% reduction in noise.

https://99percentinvisible.org/article/ ... ion-noise/

The fence would take care of one being annoyed about seeing the clutter in your neighbors backyard. They say fences make good neighbors.

It seems more calm in my backyard not overlooking the neighbors trampoline and their dog that barks at me no longer bothers me as much as when there was chain link there (self described introvert). Still friendly with the neighbors when I see them out front so there's no love lost.

A duel approach of planting some big shrubs or a ornamental tree would also go a long way at sound dampening.

Mdcastle
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Re: Embarrassing Confessions of Urbanists

Postby Mdcastle » April 29th, 2020, 11:35 am

That's a reason single family detached homes are so great. If you're a young family with kids you can have a place for them to play. If you're an old grump like me you can put up a fence between yourself and your neighbor's kids. Or the Millennials that have bonfires until midnight and apparently invite everyone but us, like that owned the house next door before a family with screaming kids moved in. We used to have neighbors that were more quiet, but anticipated that wouldn't last forever so we planted a row of blue spruce and balsam fir trees.

The lady across the street has lived in a three bedroom house alone for probably 10 years after her kid moved out. She's evidently planning to go nowhere because she converted one of the upstairs bedrooms into a laundry room.

Korh
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Re: Embarrassing Confessions of Urbanists

Postby Korh » February 22nd, 2021, 1:28 pm

I've driven an almost uncomfortable distance just to get some food from kwik trip once or twice.
Thankfully there's one less than a mile from my work so I usually swing by for lunch (sometimes even by bike) or on my way home. But sometimes when I'm not working or am at home, I have to get creative in reasons why I just happen to be near one.

uptownbro
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Re: Embarrassing Confessions of Urbanists

Postby uptownbro » February 24th, 2021, 1:47 pm

Kwik trip has very good food for a gas station. I wish the speedway they are rebuilding by me was bought by them.

Didier
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Re: Embarrassing Confessions of Urbanists

Postby Didier » February 24th, 2021, 2:43 pm

They also have bagged milk.

Trademark
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Re: Embarrassing Confessions of Urbanists

Postby Trademark » March 3rd, 2021, 11:38 am

I'm a instacart driver and love it even though I know that I'm driving so many miles and adding to the congestion in the area and that instacart should be a union. I've worked a lot of terrible jobs and the ability to work when I want to is so freeing plus since my car is a beater I usually make about twice what I used to.

Driving all around really gives me a lot of perspective as to how the city and the suburbs are tied together and how they function.

grant1simons2
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Re: Embarrassing Confessions of Urbanists

Postby grant1simons2 » May 11th, 2021, 9:07 am

I bought a car lol

MNdible
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Re: Embarrassing Confessions of Urbanists

Postby MNdible » May 11th, 2021, 9:57 am

Chevy Suburban, I assume.

uptownbro
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Re: Embarrassing Confessions of Urbanists

Postby uptownbro » May 11th, 2021, 11:47 am

Myself and one of my best friends whos also an urbanist love to just drive around a city and explore via car. We have done this not only in Minneapolis and St. Paul but in Madison, Milwaukee, Racine, La Crosse and many of the suburbs. Its fun to just see how a road changes and the story it can tell.

grant1simons2
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Re: Embarrassing Confessions of Urbanists

Postby grant1simons2 » May 11th, 2021, 12:41 pm

You can easily do that on a bike and feel more intact with the roads and neighborhoods you're in. Slow down, smell the smells, explore back alleys.

I got this so I can drive to like, the Badlands. And Maine and a bunch of other place that you can't get to easily by US transit. 09 Subaru Outback, of course.

uptownbro
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Re: Embarrassing Confessions of Urbanists

Postby uptownbro » May 11th, 2021, 2:11 pm

Didnt say I had not done it via bike as well but its just one of my preferred ways to explore especially in the winter months. Plus you can cover alot of ground in a car

alexschief
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Re: Embarrassing Confessions of Urbanists

Postby alexschief » May 11th, 2021, 4:07 pm

I hereby proclaim Grant to be Cancelled.

grant1simons2
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Re: Embarrassing Confessions of Urbanists

Postby grant1simons2 » May 12th, 2021, 9:32 am

I got cancelled by the economy too since we decided now would be a good time to have a gas crisis.

Korh
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Re: Embarrassing Confessions of Urbanists

Postby Korh » May 24th, 2021, 2:10 pm

I know when I bought my car I gave myself a limit to how many miles I can drive it a month (usually a little more than to work and back). Although I have been tempted to drive on some 2 lane highways and explore towns/areas that are too far to bike and don't have transit.

Korh
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Re: Embarrassing Confessions of Urbanists

Postby Korh » June 11th, 2022, 10:35 am

Please tell me I'm not the only one here guilty of driving somewhere just to go biking.

Granted I'm not as bad as some mountain bikers I know who will drive almost every weekend to hit a trail and I usually only do this if the trail head is at least 30 miles away, but there is one trail places that I could bike too but end up driving because getting there on bike is a massive pain.

thespeedmccool
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Re: Embarrassing Confessions of Urbanists

Postby thespeedmccool » June 11th, 2022, 10:55 am

As an urbanist suburbanite (which is a confession in itself, really) from the east metro, biking into St. Paul or Minneapolis to enjoy a day in the Cities is tough. I've loaded my bike into my car a fair number of times just to go park at a lot and bike around.

It's a big reason I'm excited for the Gold Line. Not only can I load up a bike onto the bus, but they're building a parallel trail into St. Paul alongside it.

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angrysuburbanite
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Re: Embarrassing Confessions of Urbanists

Postby angrysuburbanite » February 19th, 2024, 8:53 pm

Is this thread still alive? I'll dump some of mine in here, not all of them are *embarrassing*, but many are strange and maybe a little selfish:
1. I am *very* excited for the Southwest LRT to open. I think that the marshes it flies over will be fun to see from an LRT train, and it fills a huge gap in transit service in the Twin Cities.
2. Related to that one: Trying to figure out transit in suburbs is more interesting to me than in urban areas because it's more challenging
3. Aimless drives are really fun
4. I can't stand biking during the winter time (though I still try anyways)
5. If all of our current bus routes ran at 30 minute (or better) frequency all day, every day, we would have one of the best bus networks in the country. (Route 294 would be a really fun way to make a day trip to Stillwater!)
6. Highways are very important to cities, it's just that there are too many (i.e. the west metro only needs 35W and 494, get rid of 100 and 169)
7. I really want a freeway-median running LRT line just so I can fly past all of the cars and feel superior to the drivers.
just one more lane will fix it


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