r/cityplanning

▲ 39 r/cityplanning+21 crossposts

New app to help the homeless

I've been developing a free community resource platform called Gather, and I'd love to get honest feedback before continuing to expand it.
Gather is designed to make it easier for people to find help when they need it most. Using your current location, it displays nearby food pantries, soup kitchens, shelters, emergency housing, healthcare and urgent care, addiction recovery services, crisis support, clothing assistance, and other nonprofit or public assistance organizations in one place.

But Gather is intended to be much more than a resource directory. One of its core features is helping reduce food waste while getting more food to people who need it. Grocery stores can subscribe to the platform and quickly post surplus food that would otherwise be discarded. Nearby food pantries, shelters, soup kitchens, and other aid organizations receive alerts so they can claim and coordinate pickup of available donations before they go to waste. All Subscription proceeds are intended to benefit Partnership to End Addiction.

Gather also includes a community support system that allows aid organizations to create public wish lists of the supplies they need most—everything from hygiene products and diapers to blankets, cleaning supplies, and other essentials. Individuals experiencing hardship can submit requests for needed items through participating organizations. When a donor purchases those items, they are shipped directly to a participating aid organization for local pickup, providing a simple and organized way to connect donors with people in need.
For people who simply want to help their community, Gather also provides an easy way to purchase essential supplies for individuals experiencing homelessness or financial hardship through participating organizations, allowing donors to contribute tangible items where they're needed most.

My goal is to build a platform that not only helps people locate assistance, but also strengthens connections between donors, nonprofits, grocery stores, volunteers, and the communities they serve.
The project is still actively being developed, and I'd really appreciate constructive feedback.

If you work with a nonprofit, grocery store, healthcare organization, or community program, would something like this be useful?

Whether you're a developer, someone who works in the nonprofit sector, or simply someone who wants to help others, I'd genuinely appreciate your perspective.

You can check it out here:
https://live-gather.org

Thanks for taking the time to look it over. Every piece of feedback helps move the project closer to becoming a genuinely useful tool for communities.

reddit.com
u/Temporary-Use-8637 — 3 days ago
▲ 128 r/cityplanning+26 crossposts

Says in India, Art Deco is architecture of the common man (as compared to displays of power in America) vs. neo-Gothic/neo-Classical structures

Also says that the rise of gated communities, the lack of integration with Navi Mumbai is hurting Mumbai's growth. Explains why it's impossible for India to create it's own national architectural style

Thoughts?

u/Odd_Wolverine_4037 — 8 days ago
▲ 638 r/cityplanning+3 crossposts

Budapest City Planning Fail: WHY??

Budapest is easily one of my favourite cities in the world! Beautiful architecture, amazing nightlife and above all: Great public transport and a walkable inner city.

I currently live in Munich, where I often like to jog along the river Isar. This time I decided to try jogging along the Danube river in Budapest. What a mess!

Trying to enjoy a prolonged journey along the Danube is impossible, due to all the cars! After 10km my ears were ringing from the traffic, my spit turned to tar from the pollution, and I had to return several times because the sidewalk just 'ended'. The worst part was the heat the concrete had absorbed by 8:30am.

Who thinks that having up to FOUR LANES + CAR PARKS on both sides of the river is a good idea?? At least one side could be turned into a beautiful park for exercise, or a pier to enjoy the Országház. There are already public transport lines running along either side, so driving by car is really not necessary. It must cost the city so much to maintain all these roads on the river banks.

I am writing this rant from Margaret Island, which provides me with live saving shade and tranquility after this exhausting run. Obviously Budapest appreciates how nice a car free zone along the river can be. I was considering moving to Budapest soon, but this experience left a bad taste (literally).

Are there any plans to remove these roads in the future, or is the Danube doomed to be car infested forever?

u/JJ-12409 — 10 days ago

What is the purpose of this?

Apologies if this is the wrong sub for this, and would appreciate a nudge in the correct direction to ask this if that is the case.

I have a question about a newly renovated intersection in a high traffic area in my city. I am asking because I cannot figure out what the logic was behind this:

There is a street that connects my city’s Uptown area to the highway. The street, even further in is what I’d consider a high volume road because of the residential areas it borders, and the amount of commercial buildings that line the street. Before the recent completion of this project, the street was two lanes in either direction. They have added a super wide bikeway on one side and reduced almost the entirety of this road to a single lane, also adding raised dividers in what was historically turn lanes. Towards the end of the street it splits into two lanes but single solid white lines that designate the right lane as “buses and right turns only” on weekdays, and another drivable lane on weekends.

At the busier end of the street or “Uptown” is a four way intersection. This is the road I take to work. Normally I would drive in right lane because my exit that turns onto the highway is on the right, almost immediately after crossing the intersection. So people in this lane either turned right into another part of uptown, or went straight and immediately turned right to get onto the highway.

The issue now is that the because this right lane is restricted on weekdays, you basically have to cut over into the intersection to get onto the exit since you are technically not allowed in the lane you need to get over. This has proven to be unsafe. I’ve seen people get cut off, swerve to dodge a person who has about a car-lengths grace of turn time, and have had to dodge these people myself. I also find myself having to make less-than-confident maneuvers to make sure I can get off at this exit.

My question is why? What is the logic behind doing something like this? This is a construction project I’ve waited 3 years for, which was horrible in its own way with people using nearby residential streets as main roads for the last couple years, and now after waiting and waiting my drive is infinitely worse and slower and probably more dangerous. The only positive imo is that the roads are smooth and they installed some piping that was long overdue, but why did they rearrange the road? For the pipe? Because of community feedback? Like why? It’s one of the worst practical designs in the city.

Oh, and they allow parking on the right hand side when it’s technically “usable” and people sit behind parked cars thinking it’s traffic…

u/fishpolygon — 8 days ago