Ryan Allen—Associate Professor, @SokaUniv. International ed, China, place & space. Read my long-form at College Towns.

So Cal
Joined September 2013
Politics & Education retweeted
Just watched a fire engine peel onto the block, sirens blazing. It screeched to a halt and 3 strapping young men hopped out the big ladder truck, ready for action. You know what they proceeded to do? Stand around while some old guy was lifted into a separate ambulance by EMTs.
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Oh no
Evanston alders voted last night to advance plans for the 26-story, 360-unit tower at 900 Clark, setting up a final vote on the proposal in two weeks. evanstonnow.com/900-clark-pl…
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“You are living in the ruins of a great civilization.” In one aspect this is true: America hit “peak kid” in the 1980s and, with it, peak Halloween. Ryan M. Allen wrote about this recently. Very good article. Decline is a choice, however. You can change the course.
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Politics & Education retweeted
Which is the spookiest adaptive reuse? Think about it as the place that would kind of freak you out if you had to sleep over. Happy Halloween!
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A perfect corner bar in Kaukauna, WI
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This is what the Boring Tunnels should become:
I knew the Glasgow subway was tiny, but it looks a lot smaller in person
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ApoStructura is on point here. I've seen it all: Someone walks in a parking lot and trips and falls over the curb. "It should have been more visible!" So, you paint the curb bright yellow and next someone slips on the paint. "It shouldnt have been painted!" Walking into the store, someone trips and falls over the corner of a floormat. "There shouldn't be a mat there!" But once the rug is removed people slip on floor because it gets too wet. "There should be a rug to wipe your feet!" So you permanently place a "Wet Floor" at the entrance instead, but then the argument because "that sign is always there, even when the floor is dry, it carries no meaning!" No matter what you do: lawsuit. And because layers cost $500/h, it's often cheaper to settle than it is to try and win. Which, in turn, drives more lawsuits. Americans are largely unaware of just how dysfunctional the tort system is and how it sucks the lifeblood out of everything.
In Japan they trust people to not injure themselves, and that allows them to do away with the expensive and often ugly safetelyism that took over the west. We need to do away with the injury claims and start treating people like grown ups.
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Politics & Education retweeted
California Supremacy.
Skies have cleared in SoCal and the first snow of the season is visible in the mountains, looking east from Huntington Beach this morning.
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🇺🇸 RENOVATION + INDIVIDUAL EXTENSION: The US is home to probably the best new traditional projects. What is lacking though is almost always a good urban context instead of a sea of surface parking. 🧵
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Politics & Education retweeted
Wow didn't realize being a K-pop idol is just like doing a PhD.
Idk whether to laugh or cry because this is genuinely funny and sad at the same time.
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Politics & Education retweeted
I visited Wurster Hall at UC Berkeley today. It was designed by, and currently houses, the architecture faculty. The UC Berkeley website notes that "Wurster is often voted Berkeley's ugliest building." I visited because I was curious about whether it would in person seem as unattractive as it does in photos. And, in short: it does. It's gaunt, austere, and filmed in grime. On an elysian campus, it stands out for its bleak hostility. It reminds me of the German submarine base in Bordeaux. The UC Berkeley page agrees that it was never designed to be attractive, quoting the curator of their design archives: “Wurster and his handpicked architects didn’t want anything romantic, or sentimental — they hated the idea of ‘making pretty buildings. They wanted a serious building.” I guess we have to concede success relative to their stated goals, but it does make one wonder what it all says about architecture as a discipline.
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Politics & Education retweeted
We’ve got to bulk up these puny poles.
traffic engineers is when you decide to replace this sign again
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Politics & Education retweeted
I live in what is often considered one of the top 10 most rural counties in America. There used to be a trolly that ran regularly into the nearest very small "city." The rails were more direct than the modern roads, I think it was about 65 miles each way.
Light rail already did cover the massive expanse of the United States. They were called interurbans. You're deeply uneducated and also rude.
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Politics & Education retweeted
We made a book! RURAL INDEXING: A COLLECTION OF AMERICAN BUILDINGS, SIGNS, AND SYMBOLS arrives from Rizzoli in March 2027. Our favorite themes & subjects from the 1000s of places we've visited since 2010—450+ pics, many never published before. Preorder: linktr.ee/ruralindexingproje…
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Politics & Education retweeted
Some lament Halloween becoming less of a child’s holiday and more for adults. But it's just part of a broader trend of our aging America. The rise of Disney Adults and insane toy/ card resale markets are part of this same age trend.
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Politics & Education retweeted
in the 1930s hollenbeck park was considered the “jewel of Los Angeles” so naturally we built a freeway over it.
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corner retail next to single family homes // Fountain Square, Indianapolis
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Looks exactly like this small cafe/ convenience store in the middle of my old neighborhood. Everyone loved it. Of course, zoning forbade doing anything else like this. It was grandfathered in.
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Politics & Education retweeted
Im loving all these examples people are sharing! Legalize walkability, charm, neighborhood character, and lower barrier to entry for small businesses!
Looks exactly like this small cafe/ convenience store in the middle of my old neighborhood. Everyone loved it. Of course, zoning forbade doing anything else like this. It was grandfathered in.
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Politics & Education retweeted
One of Carmel Indiana's most popular coffee shops is tucked into a SFH neighborhood, only a few blocks from downtown. Most of the business is by foot or bike.
In Austin, I visited a coffee shop tucked into a single-family neighborhood. It was a community hub where neighbors gathered over coffee and breakfast tacos. We need more third spaces spaces like this to bring our rapidly fracturing society back together, not fewer…
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