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Walt Haim

@walthaim.bsky.social

160 followers 130 following 170 posts

PGH Architect

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Walt Haim @walthaim.bsky.social · Nov 22

A Map of Pittsburgh area urbanization over time, qualitatively separated into three eras.

It feels like the start of a thesis.
Our region has grown with characteristics unique to us, and I could only have made a map like this experiencing different zones through my own experiences living in them🏡🖤💛

Map of early industrial early modern Pittsburgh.
The map shows development centered on river and creek valleys and plateaus.
Transportation is by walking, horse, trolleys, and motor cars.
Housing is rowhouses.
Population shows strong growth.

Map of late industrial modernist Pittsburgh.
The map shows development expanding into the nearby hillsides adjacent to existing towns and new road arteries.
Transportation is by cars and by bus.
Housing is small houses on steep hillsides.
Population maintains at high numbers.

Map of post industrial post modern Pittsburgh.
The map shows development on disconnected parcels on the far periphery in the countryside.
Transportation is by large SUV's.
Housing is McMansions.
Population is in steady decline.

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Walt Haim @walthaim.bsky.social · 20h

Every time I bicycle up Joncaire St I try to imagine what that outfield grand stand would have been like where the woods and Mervis Hall are right now.

I'd imagine anything new would also use Joncaire and S Bouquet site boundaries.

Contextual aerial of Forbes Field in Oakland.

Walt Haim @walthaim.bsky.social · 22h

If Posvar Hall is ever deemed obsolete: Forbes Field Football Stadium

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Walt Haim @walthaim.bsky.social · 2d

meme'ing AI-slop; Strip District edition

Pittsburgh History Landmarks Foundation (PHLF) put an AI-Slop poster up all over the Strip District of a sad merchant looking down at unsold produce in response to the city wanting to right-size a dangerous speedy two-lane road down to one-lane. I turned it in to a meme, where the sad merchant is "ME". The produce is photos of the poster and "my power bill going up as PHLF throws away organizational credibility making sad reactionary generative AI-slop tape-up posters"

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Walt Haim @walthaim.bsky.social · 6d

Here come the Gestapo / Imperial Storm Troopers.

Ryan Deto @ryandeto.bsky.social · 7d

NEW - The feds are seeking Pittsburgh office space for an unspecified law enforcement agency expansion in the region. Reporting from WaPo and NPR indicate that ICE is behind the request as part of a 10,000 officer nationwide expansion www.axios.com/local/pittsb...

Feds quietly plan Pittsburgh office for unspecified law enforcement

NPR and the Washington Post both reported last month that the office space request is being made on behalf of ICE.

www.axios.com

Walt Haim @walthaim.bsky.social · 14d

wonderful article.
love the concluding line:
"We can preserve the Strip District without remaining stuck in the past."

The™ Colin Williams @colinbwilliams.com · 14d

The Penn Ave. bike lane lawsuit is based on change aversion and bad faith, so say I:

Transit Talk: YOMPA (Yes On My Penn Avenue) - Pittsburgh City Paper | News, Dining, Music, Best Of, Arts, Film

The lawsuit halting work on the Penn Ave. bike lane extension seems based on misconceptions.

www.pghcitypaper.com

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Walt Haim @walthaim.bsky.social · 20d

yeah. this checks out.

Robert Evans (the Only Robert Evans) @iwriteok.bsky.social · 21d

one thing that is true for everyone reading this: unless something changes dramatically the number of people who agree with you on what basic facts constitute "reality" will shrink every year for the rest of your life

Walt Haim @walthaim.bsky.social · 27d

Love that my 'discover' page on here actually integrates a lot of art and city nature photography. Great cleanse from how doom-dialed my X feed is.

Walt Haim @walthaim.bsky.social · 27d

we should definitely take this W

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Walt Haim @walthaim.bsky.social · 27d

Thanks for posting! You can fit like six drive-thru banks on that site!

Walt Haim @walthaim.bsky.social · Sep 9

Did the audiobook of Abundance and generally enjoyed the big-picture thinking they were trying to do.
And I get the concept that to make progress, we do have to deal with existing systems to an extent. But this extent of Thiel & Co.?!?
Big meh.

ICE must be destroyed 🏳️‍⚧️🏴 @miawong.bsky.social · Sep 9

Over the last few months I've become fascinated with Abundance, the new nominally liberal ideology pushed by liberal stalwarts like Ezra Klein. But if you peak behind the curtain and look at the funding you discovering something horrifying: Peter Theil, the Koch

Moreover, ICE must b destroyed

Walt Haim @walthaim.bsky.social · Sep 9

Listened to a fantastic review of and deep dive into "Abundance", bringing receipts on how on the funding level, it functions as another front the technofeudalist-oligarchy is using to consolidate wealth and power.
Great work @miawong.bsky.social on 'It Can Happen Here' podcast.

Walt Haim @walthaim.bsky.social · Sep 5

What a delight to watch Paul Skenes pitch...🏴‍☠️ This futurist dynamic capture of motion and energy has been living in my head for awhile now. Love how this live-sketch rough-draft turned out. (👀 in other mediums, digital and other physical media 👀)

A ballpark doodle of Paul Skenes pitching. Style is futurism showing dynamism and energy and motion.

Walt Haim @walthaim.bsky.social · Aug 15

Hottake: Lilillydays does have a certain charm to it.

Bloomfield Pittsburgh Little Italy Days, a sun-drenched valley, an aerial view of Liberty Avenue in full-festival mode, with tents and a crowd of people.

Walt Haim @walthaim.bsky.social · Aug 11

Finish the Southern Beltway but get all the highways out of Downtown. 😈😈😈

Walt Haim @walthaim.bsky.social · Aug 10

This kneejerk reaction to the highway closure reducing traffic into & out of town is really getting me seriously taking an evidenced stand against cross-town highway access.
In and out via highway but not across.
Let the city be the city & not a speed bump between suburbs.

Walt Haim @walthaim.bsky.social · Aug 10

Make the Squirrel Hill Tunnel closure permanent.

Traffic Map showing no traffic in the approach to the Ft.Pitt Tunnel; in the area where there is ALWAYS traffic in the approach to the Ft.Pitt Tunnel; on a day where the Sq.Hill Tunnel is closed.

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Walt Haim @walthaim.bsky.social · Aug 10

Make the Squirrel Hill Tunnel closure permanent.

Walt Haim @walthaim.bsky.social · Jul 9

Hear me out:

("The Zone at Troy Hill")

The ugly AF apartment building that added a 4th story without zoning approval,,, with a Pokemon mural photoshopped on to it.

Walt Haim @walthaim.bsky.social · Jun 20

Help. I want to move to Torino. Questa città è maraviglio.

Walt Haim @walthaim.bsky.social · Jun 11

June 21-22, 28-29 have so much going on.!

Will also be aahtaahtahn for these.

Walt Haim @walthaim.bsky.social · Jun 6

Feels like the trickiest task right now is sus'ing out 🟠 advocates of change from the 🟡 advocates of change, where from a 🟢 center, their rhetoric can be difficult to distinguish. Latter must include the great work and immense progress and inclusion made in 🟢.

Walt Haim @walthaim.bsky.social · Jun 6

My understanding of the model is that transcendence happens when the previous stage doesn't work anymore. But that has to include integration of prior stages rather than a regression backwards...

Walt Haim @walthaim.bsky.social · Jun 6

Just finished the Abundance (audio)book... From a spiral dynamics lens, it feels like a 🟡 treatise.
But it's an easy mistake to read it from a 🟠 or 🟢 lens, both seeing it's critiques of 🟢 as an endorsement of 🟠, rather than an an invitation to integrate both to a 🟡 system.

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Walt Haim @walthaim.bsky.social · May 23

is COMcheck a ploy to manufacture consent to deregulate building sustainability regulations?!? Because if so, it's working.

Walt Haim @walthaim.bsky.social · May 23

The latest version of the COMcheck web app might be the most soul-sucking mind-frying piece of software I've ever used. Ever. It's soooo bad.

Walt Haim @walthaim.bsky.social · May 22

mainly in that it🟡's just a part of the model.

It's been fascinating to see the different reactions to the primary results. It really sorts who is still operating fundamentally/dualistically, and on what level.

Will be super curious how things play out through the lame-duck period and beyond.