Alaina Pitt

@alainapitt

Bikes, housing, safe streets, people-friendly places “If we can build a successful city for children, we can build a successful city for all people.” #BanCars 📍Massachusetts ❤️ DC

520 Siguiendo838 Seguidores1097 Publicaciones

Bluesky

¿Es tu perfil?Reclámalo y alainapitt.dirty.social es tuyo.Reclamar perfil

Alaina Pitt@alainapitt· 25d

Or this? www.boston.gov/sites/defaul...

Screenshot of first two slides from the Tremont St Safety Improvements presentation.

Alaina Pitt@alainapitt· 29d

It’s because they program the cars to act according to local “social norms”. They aren’t programmed to run the exact same way in every city or even, it seems, with the ultimate goal of driving as safely as possible.

Road rules
I showed my videos to Waymo’s Anne Dorsey, a software engineer who helps lead a team that focuses on how the autonomous vehicles interact with non-cars — and hears a lot of pedestrian feedback. She described yielding to pedestrians as a matter of “politeness” and said it’s more nuanced and complex than it might appear.
“We’re gaining more and more insight and knowledge into what the social norms are in each area that we’re driving in,” she said. The expectations of pedestrians can vary from “cars should always completely stop” to “I’ll wait for a gap in traffic to cross.”

Alaina Pitt@alainapitt· Jul 19

Okay it actually kind of makes sense? www.straightdope.com/21343862/why...

By the late 1800s, a typical formal dinner in the UK ran to about six courses: soup, fish, entree, roast (or “joint” – no giggling), maybe another savory course (often a pudding), and dessert. As you’ll notice, the entree wasn’t the opening act. It was generally a “made” or highly prepared dish – possibly meat and vegetables, maybe sweetbreads or liver – as opposed to the more unadorned roast, but this distinction could be blurry; in the earliest use of entree cited by the Oxford English Dictionary, from 1759, the dish described is a roasted ham. So while one could argue that the entree was the last of the preliminaries, it seems equally defensible to see it as the entrance into a series of what we’d now call main courses. Under main course, in fact, the OED has “one of a number of substantial dishes in a large menu,” and in most cases the entree was clearly substantial enough to qualify.

Alaina Pitt@alainapitt· Jul 10

Okay who got to Yankee Magazine? I’m floored to see a pro-housing article in this magazine (which I love but doesn’t normally weigh in such topics).

Far from being outlawed, the example of sensible density these century-old survivors offer has inspired more and more zoning laws that encourage multifamily structures, which ought to make housing accessible to more people. Looks like the spirit of their builders lives on, too.

Alaina Pitt@alainapitt· Jul 10

Cambridge’s mayor in 1919 was the OG YIMBY. newengland.com/living/homes...

Cambridge’s mayor, Edward Quinn, could have been speaking about any New England city when he said in 1919, “While the tracts of vacant land for residential purposes are limited, there are sections of our city which were built up many years ago, largely with single houses that are fast declining in usefulness. These houses occupy for the most part large land areas, which could be utilized to a much greater taxable advantage for apartment house construction.” He called triple-deckers “one of the best means of solving our housing problems.”

Alaina Pitt@alainapitt· Jul 10

Yankee Magazine gets it. Build up not out. newengland.com/living/homes...

The triple-decker took New England by storm in the late 1800s. Instantly recognizable as a no-nonsense, efficient means to house more people by building up rather than out, they were built by the thousands in certain parts of Boston, Worcester, Cambridge, and Fall River, Massachusetts; Providence, Rhode Island; New Haven, Connecticut;

Alaina Pitt@alainapitt· Jun 3

Being able to move to a nicer, cheaper apartment is bad actually.

Alaina Pitt@alainapitt· May 26

First trip on the old gal since I moved to Beverly a year and a half ago. 🫣 I rode to the beach, of course. #cargobike

Alaina’s Tern ebike locked to a rack in front of a beach.

Alaina Pitt@alainapitt· May 18

Cost is such a lame excuse tbh. We’re the richest country in the world. Why does our infrastructure have to look like crap? This does not say “developed country” to me. ⬇️

Wires clutter a pole on Bleecker Street in Jersey City. (Robert Boudreau photo)

Alaina Pitt@alainapitt· May 18

It kind of looks like a silhouette of Elle Woods. 😂

Iconic Elle Woods in a hot pink dress leaning on a table in a court room.

Alaina Pitt@alainapitt· May 16

Oh and we also have to pay for the bus if we live within 2 miles of the elementary school & 1.5 from the middle or high school. Does not matter how walkable the route is. 🙃

Regular Bus Transportation

Application is required to register a student to ride a regular bus to and from their school daily. A form should be completed online for each child along with any required bus fee to the Transportation Department. The Beverly Public Schools require all students in grades 7-12 to provide their own transportation or to pay a transportation fee. The fee is $315 per student and capped at $630 per family. One way ridership is allowed at $157.50 per student. A $5 fee is assessed to replace a bus pass. In case of financial hardship, scholarship assistance for those families who are eligible may be provided.

State law requires transportation for students who live beyond a two-mile limit. K-6 students falling within this mandate are transported free of charge. All other students will be charged the fees listed above. For information on applying for a scholarship, please refer to our User Fees and Scholarships page.

Alaina Pitt@alainapitt· Apr 28

The majority of Americans thinks the US is the global leader in developing green energy technology.

Alaina Pitt@alainapitt· Apr 8

*Taps the sign* @alt-text.bots.bacalhau.org

Alaina Pitt@alainapitt· Mar 23

???

Building more housing—both throughout a metropolitan area and in a particular neighborhood—keeps rent growth lower overall, but it takes the most pressure off of older, less-expensive housing, essentially mitigating the competitive process just described. Pew’s analysis of the 1,654 ZIP codes tracked by Zillow throughout U.S. metropolitan areas suggests that every 10% increase in a market’s housing supply (using American Community Survey data) from 2017 to 2023 correlated with rents growing 5% less from 2017 to 2024, controlling for a variety of factors. About one-fifth of ZIP codes covered by Zillow were in metropolitan areas with unit growth of at least 10% from 2017 to 2023.

Alaina Pitt@alainapitt· Mar 21

Pretty sure that list covers half my NIMBY bingo card.

NIMBY bingo card with your usual suspects as bingo squares.

Alaina Pitt@alainapitt· Mar 2

Just a constant reminder that my city prioritizes people in cars.

Bench at bus stop completely covered in snow whole area around it has been cleared.

Curb cut covered in ice on our main street.

Alaina Pitt@alainapitt· Feb 27

Wait Jason Schwartzman was one of the songwriters?!

Alaina Pitt@alainapitt· Feb 25

Here is the corner by my house. We walk to that Walgreens at least once a week.

Absolute farce of an intersection where the snow banks are 5’ high where the curb cuts are supposed to be.

Alaina Pitt@alainapitt· Feb 25

Beverly yesterday. Not even the worst examples. 😅 I’m going out today to clear some crosswalks in my neighborhood bc it’s been made pretty clear that the city isn’t going to prioritize it.

Alaina Pitt@alainapitt· Feb 10

Same thing up here in Beverly. The city plowed snow into intersection corners so most curb cuts are completely blocked and they haven’t deemed it necessary to reinstall a sidewalk accommodation on our main street. I’m finding MA cities to be especially bad about snow removal. What gives?

Photo showing a blocked sidewalk with the barriers for the temporary sidewalk pushed to the side.

Alaina Pitt@alainapitt· Feb 8

On what planet are small single-family homes less expensive than apartments? Maybe I’m just being extra cynical today. 😂

Newer, smaller,
and higher-cost rental units in large multifamily buildings remained
inaccessible to lower-income households from 2010 to 2023. It is essential that
states and local jurisdictions enable housing opportunities for families through
a range of different development types—from smaller single family homes to
larger units in multifamily buildings.

Alaina Pitt@alainapitt· Jan 31

For anyone interested this was the state of the sidewalks on Thursday.

Another sidewalk blocked by snow. Photo taken with a Dutch angle.

More sidewalk blocked next to a preschool.

Alaina Pitt@alainapitt· Jan 30

Forgot to add the photo!

Kristi Noem LARPing as an ICE agent while point a gun at an officer’s head because she doesn’t know how to properly hold a gun.

Alaina Pitt@alainapitt· Jan 22

Also here is Dernoga’s classist (dare I say racist? “Traditional zoning regulations”) development email about SB 36.

Alaina Pitt@alainapitt· Jan 21

Here’s more info. The bonds can be paid back over 40 years so it’s possible they won’t see any property tax revenue until ~2070. And this doesn’t mean the county won’t give them other tax incentives. planning.maryland.gov/documents/ou...

Chapter 2 - Basics of Tax Increment Financing Before delving into how to use tax increment financing to address your local economic
development/ redevelopment issues, let’s go over the fundamentals.
What is Tax Increment Financing?
Tax increment financing (TIF) is a public finance method that allows a local government to borrow against the future increased value of property to make public improvements. Local
governments often have to upgrade public infrastructure or make other public
improvements to encourage
redevelopment or support economic
development. Combined with private
investment, such improvements can
increase the assessed value of
private properties, thus leading to
increased property tax revenue. The
“increment” refers to the increase in
future property tax payments over
what the properties generate now.
This increase – the increment – can
be dedicated to paying off TIF borrowing, which usually occurs in the form of bonds. Once TIF bonds are paid off, property taxes will accrue directly to the locality’s general revenues.

Alaina Pitt@alainapitt· Jan 20

WHY do people in New England park on sidewalks? This is a city vehicle too!

Plow truck obstructing sidewalk that is covered in snow and ice.

Alaina Pitt@alainapitt· Jan 7

Here’s my Lego city! About to add a botanic garden and the latest modular set 😁

Alaina Pitt@alainapitt· Jan 4

Currently reading Susan Faludi’s Backlash from 1991, and boy, has not much changed in regards to women’s equality. She could re-release this book today and only need to update statistics.

Photo of a page from Susan Faludi’s “Backlash”.

Alaina Pitt@alainapitt· Dec 31

Also this is an important point! This advice does not apply to jeans. x.com/dieworkwear/...

For jeans, you don't want an actual high rise. You want just something a little higher than the low-rise stuff. So check:

Levis Vintage Clothing 1947 501s, Drake's, The Armoury, 3sixteen CS cut, Orslow 105 and 107, and Blackhorse Lane N3. I would also contact @selfedge for recs

Alaina Pitt@alainapitt· Dec 29

Ironically it is people of lesser means who donate the most as a percentage of their income. www.philanthropyroundtable.org/almanac/who-...