“In Finland, the number of homeless people has fallen sharply. Those affected receive a small apartment & counselling with no preconditions. 4 out of 5 people affected make their way back to a stable life. And all this is CHEAPER than accepting homelessness.” IT SAVES PUBLIC MONEY to house people.

The Better News

Finland ends homelessness and provides shelter for all in need - scoop.me

In Finland, the number of homeless people has fallen sharply. Why? The country applies the "Housing First" concept agains homelessness.

25 simple but POWERFUL New Years resolutions you can make to improve your life AND YOUR CITY! Revisit my most read @npub17eyh...f2eu article—the resolutions feel even MORE relevant now! Which ones resonate with you? What would you add? #HappyNewYear #Resolutions #NewYearsEve https://www.fastcompany.com/90287193/25-simple-resolutions-you-can-make-to-improve-your-city-in-2019

“Elon Musk admitted to his biographer that the reason the Hyperloop was announced—even though he had no intention of pursuing it—was to try to disrupt the California high-speed rail project to get in the way of that actually succeeding.” — @parismarx.com in @gizmodo.com He’s always been this way.

Gizmodo

Silicon Valley's Push Into Transportation Has Been a Miserable Failure

The titans of tech brought plenty of disruption to our broken transportation system but delivered little in the way of innovation.

This article by @npub1hyku...3p33 is very good and I agree with most of it. I ran across it after just buying his book ENSHITTIFICATION, and while looking into why he isn’t on Bluesky, where I’m active and have helped build what I think is the biggest and best community of urbanist and city-builders of social media. I like Mastodon a lot for the reasons he stresses, but I’ve been at 17k followers here for several years. My efforts to grow here have failed. 1/2

Pluralistic: Bluesky and enshittification (02 Nov 2024) – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow

“Pope Leo said in a Christmas Eve sermon on Wednesday that the story of Jesus being born in a stable because there was no room at an inn should remind Christians that refusing to help the poor & strangers today is tantamount to rejecting God himself.” Understood well by any REAL Christian. #MerryChristmas https://www.reuters.com/world/pope-leo-christmas-eve-says-denying-help-poor-is-rejecting-god-2025-12-24/

“Pope Leo said in a Christmas Eve sermon on Wednesday that the story of Jesus being born in a stable because there was no room at an inn should remind Christians that refusing to help the poor & strangers today is tantamount to rejecting God himself.” Obvious to any REAL Christian. #MerryChristmas https://www.reuters.com/world/pope-leo-christmas-eve-says-denying-help-poor-is-rejecting-god-2025-12-24/

ICYMI: This one’s been getting a LOT of attention/discussion — my interview with @npub1jtry...eyqs on many podcast platforms & YouTube! We cover a LOT of really important ground that’s resonating with city-lovers and professionals alike on how to ACTUALLY ACHIEVE BETTER CITIES IN REAL PRACTICE! How to see urban challenges and change differently, change the public conversation, be more persuasive with decision-makers, engage media differently, and much more!

Being able to identify hoaxes, avoid scams & debunk propaganda is a civic skill required in today's information society. That's why curriculum for students in Finland includes media literacy lessons, aimed at safeguarding a precious resource: the truth.

As I discussed in my interview with @npub1jtry...eyqs (below), these are the 5 STEPS TO MAKING BETTER CITIES I’ve been using for many years, and eventually wrote about in @npub17eyh...f2eu. Too many cities are stuck in Step 2 (doing the wrong things better), and have to really be careful in Step 4 (doing the right things badly). https://www.fastcompany.com/90278237/5-steps-to-making-better-cities

As I discussed in my interview with @npub1jtry...eyqs (below), these are the 5 STEPS TO MAKING BETTER CITIES I’ve been using for many years, and eventually wrote about in @npub17eyh...f2eu. Too many cities are stuck in Step 2 (doing the wrong things better), and have to really be careful in Step 4 (doing the right things badly). https://www.fastcompany.com/90278237/5-steps-to-making-better-cities

As I discussed in my interview with @npub1jtry...eyqs, these are the 5 STEPS TO MAKING BETTER CITIES I’ve been using for many years, and eventually wrote about in @npub17eyh...f2eu. Too many cities are stuck in Step 2 (doing the wrong things better), and have to really be careful in Step 4 (doing the right things badly). https://www.fastcompany.com/90278237/5-steps-to-making-better-cities

I’m learning more about the podcast universe through being interviewed by #NotJustBikes. If podcasts are easier for you, it’s on many, with Apple and Spotify having almost 10K listens already. Or you can do YouTube below, which is around 3.5K. Let me know what topics were most interesting for you.

I’m learning more about the podcast universe through being interviewed by #NotJustBikes. If podcasts are easier for you, it’s on many, with Apple and Spotify having almost 10K listens already. Or you can do YouTube below, which is around 3.5K. Let me know what topics were most interesting for you.

“Electric cars are no more dangerous for pedestrians than petrol and diesel models, researchers find.” They’re also no safer. Which reminds us that “better cars” aren’t the main answer to the consequences of cars. The main answer is fewer (and smaller) cars driven less frequently in better cities.

EVs 'just as safe for pedestrians' | University of Leeds

Electric vehicles (EVs) are no more dangerous to pedestrians than traditional petrol or diesel cars, according to a new study.

NEW/LISTEN! Been really looking forward to this one — my interview with Jason from @npub1jtry...eyqs is LIVE on many podcast platforms plus YouTube! We cover a LOT of really important ground on how to ACTUALLY ACHIEVE BETTER CITIES IN REAL PRACTICE; how city planners can and should be a lot better, a lot less boring, and much more effective (and NOT Neutral!); and how to actually transform the public and media conversation out there about better city-making!

Never forget, if you design a city for cars, it fails for everyone, including drivers. If you design a multi-modal city that makes walking, biking & public transit attractive options, it works better for everyone, including drivers. INCLUDING DRIVERS. The “war on cars” has always been a lie.

ICYMI: "Paris started with periodic, strategic closures of key streets, then day-long closures of the entire city center, always in the context of the conversation about air quality, livability & noise…It's a very smart way of doing it." — @npub1js0e...76y2 in BlogTO. #Paris

blogTO

People on board with new solution to Toronto traffic that would limit cars on city streets

Fixing Toronto

ICYMI: "Paris started with periodic, strategic closures of key streets, then day-long closures of the entire city center, always in the context of the conversation about air quality, livability & noise…It's a very smart way of doing it." — @brenttoderian.bsky.social in BlogTO. #Paris

blogTO

People on board with new solution to Toronto traffic that would limit cars on city streets

Fixing Toronto

WATCH: If you REALLY want to understand a BIG reason why cycling [aka riding a bicycle] is so dangerous in North America, and one of the biggest villains in the origin story of our unsafe status quo, invest some time watching this one, by NOT JUST BIKES (@npub1jtry...eyqs). Then share it.

This breaks some people’s brains. In most cities, Costco stores fuel sprawl & car dependency. In Vancouver, our full-sized downtown Costco has residential towers above & a skytrain station next door. LOTS of customers don’t drive to it. We live a block from it. We call it “the convenience store.”