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Addison Del Mastro
@ad_mastro
Writer/Editor, with a focus on urbanism, culture, popular history. a.delmastro2@gmail.com
Northern Virginiathedeletedscenes.substack.comJoined May 2017
1,204 Following
4,840 Followers

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Addison Del Mastro
@ad_mastro
"If you strip away the culture-war overlay, you will find no evidence that there is actually any such thing as a 'small town,' as we currently conceive of it." I'm in
@Discourse_Mag
sharpening my idea that urban settlements are a single species:
discoursemagazine.com
The Essence of a City
Tiny Boyce, Virginia, has more in common with Manhattan than you might think: In fact, they're really the same species. We seem to have lost a true understanding of what a city is: a settlement of...
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Addison Del Mastro Retweeted
Dr. John 🧡
@CaptainBookmark
Amen and amen to this.
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Addison Del Mastro
@ad_mastro
The near occasion of sin, and the idea of temptation, generally comes up when we talk about vices: drinking, gambling and, of course, sex. I propose that driving is a potential source of temptation and sin. americamagazine.org/politics-socie
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Addison Del Mastro
@ad_mastro
The near occasion of sin, and the idea of temptation, generally comes up when we talk about vices: drinking, gambling and, of course, sex. I propose that driving is a potential source of temptation and sin.
americamagazine.org
When your car causes you to sin: Driving does not encourage us to be our best selves
When we get behind the wheel, it is easy to see other human beings as mere obstacles. We need to acknowledge that driving can distort the moral sense of Catholics and all good people.
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Addison Del Mastro Retweeted
Paul MacKenzie
@Bingwahode
Great thoughts from one of my fav social writers these days (and fellow Jersey Boy)
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Addison Del Mastro
@ad_mastro
When we reflexively associate temptation with sex and vice, we can forget the ways in which temptation and even sin can come up in more mundane situations. Like driving. My Catholic case for driving less and being wary of the car: americamagazine.org/politics-socie
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G Carpet Pernman
@GCarpetPernman
“In what other setting would we be angry at a person we almost just killed? In what other setting would we find that sentiment entirely rational and appropriate?”
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Addison Del Mastro
@ad_mastro
When we reflexively associate temptation with sex and vice, we can forget the ways in which temptation and even sin can come up in more mundane situations. Like driving. My Catholic case for driving less and being wary of the car: americamagazine.org/politics-socie
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Addison Del Mastro
@ad_mastro
The grave responsibility of getting behind the wheel can be done with patience, attention and virtue. We should strive for that. But we should keep in mind that if anything should cause us to sin, Jesus told us what to do with it.
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Addison Del Mastro
@ad_mastro
The point is not that motorists are bad people; rather, it is that something about driving itself, or at least as it is done in the United States, can distort the moral sense of good people. It can do that to you and me.
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Addison Del Mastro
@ad_mastro
I think of the guy I saw who almost hit a woman in a parking lot. She angrily hit his car. He got angry at her. In what other setting would we be angry at a person we almost just killed? In what other setting would we find that sentiment entirely rational and appropriate?
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Addison Del Mastro
@ad_mastro
This is not good for us. It can be an occasion of sin. We should try to tame that feeling - that desire to speed, to dehumanize other road users, etc. But frankly, we should also realize that something about the car does that to us, and be cautious of that.
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Addison Del Mastro
@ad_mastro
Sitting behind the wheel in most of the United States produces a constant, gnawing frustration due to the car’s capacity—speed—being limited by the reality of driving surrounded by so many fellow human beings.
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Addison Del Mastro
@ad_mastro
When we reflexively associate temptation with sex and vice, we can forget the ways in which temptation and even sin can come up in more mundane situations. Like driving. My Catholic case for driving less and being wary of the car:
americamagazine.org
When your car causes you to sin: Driving does not encourage us to be our best selves
When we get behind the wheel, it is easy to see other human beings as mere obstacles. We need to acknowledge that driving can distort the moral sense of Catholics and all good people.
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Addison Del Mastro Retweeted
Addison Del Mastro
@ad_mastro
It's striking that suburbia arose during the baby boom, and is widely considered the "right" place to start families/raise kids, and yet...there is a real misanthropic/Malthusian streak that is the negation of being pro-family
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dan reed 🦀🏳️‍🌈👋🏾
@justupthepike
Aspen Hill neighbors want sidewalks so their kids can safely walk to school; one resident who doesn’t want a sidewalk in front of her house replies “little kids like this shouldn’t be walking to school by themselves anyway” 🤮 buff.ly/3peiyBK
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Addison Del Mastro
@ad_mastro
As I sometimes say when I'm among conservative NIMBYs, if you're pro-life you must be pro-housing, because babies become neighbors. At the heart of NIMBYism and the physical form of modern suburbia itself is the idea that people are a nuisance.
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Addison Del Mastro
@ad_mastro
The idea of low-density suburbs is (maybe) kid-friendly, but it is (definitely) hostile to the idea of the next generation. It is zero-sum. I do not think you can be pro-family and be pro-suburbia.
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Addison Del Mastro
@ad_mastro
There's something deep here, though. I think about this conflict between "family friendly" in the micro sense of "a nice environment for a kid to grow up in," vs. "family friendly in the macro sense of "a land-use regime and housing market that welcomes growing populations."
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Addison Del Mastro
@ad_mastro
There are so many ways our thinking is screwed up on these matters. This reminds me of the real-estate listings that say "quiet cul-de-sac location without traffic." They *almost* get it, I think.
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Addison Del Mastro
@ad_mastro
It's striking that suburbia arose during the baby boom, and is widely considered the "right" place to start families/raise kids, and yet...there is a real misanthropic/Malthusian streak that is the negation of being pro-family
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dan reed 🦀🏳️‍🌈👋🏾
@justupthepike
Aspen Hill neighbors want sidewalks so their kids can safely walk to school; one resident who doesn’t want a sidewalk in front of her house replies “little kids like this shouldn’t be walking to school by themselves anyway” 🤮 buff.ly/3peiyBK
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Addison Del Mastro
@ad_mastro
The insight here is that human behavior is dynamic. (Something conservatives understand except regarding anything to do with cars)
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Warren J. Wells, AICP 🚴🏙️🦀
@WarrenJWells
Replying to @WarrenJWells and @Kenmcld
But adding tolerance to *streets* (i.e. higher design speed than posted speed) just tricks people into driving too fast. By encouraging faster speeds, you lose whatever safety benefit more "tolerance" would have gotten you.
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