GGWash Holiday Gift Guide: Pop-up “Somewhere Else” bike lane kit, and Abstract Density

That special person who loves dense, walkable, transit-oriented urban places deserves a gift that fits their passions, so GGWash took a few ideas from last year’s gift guide and added some fresh inspiration. Stay on the “nice” list with practical gifts, make-it-yourself gifts, and aspirational gifts for the urban-dwellers in your life. If some of these things don’t exist, maybe they should.

Inspired by GGWash friend @SharrowsDC. For the frustrated cyclist who just needs a safe route, yet can’t get support from their neighbors who say they support bike lanes but think they should be “somewhere else”: try a portable “Somewhere Else” flag that they can stick on the back of their bike. They won’t be any safer, but neighbors will be able to park their cars wherever they please and still say they support bike lanes. (“Somewhere Else” mixed-income housing sold separately.)

“We are not against bike lanes,” he said. “There are a lot of places where they can be put and make sense. But Connecticut Avenue is just too busy a street for bike lanes." https://t.co/lNvEBXkb9B

— sharrowsDC (@sharrowsDC) November 4, 2022

Manifest Density

Can’t get enough housing in your neighborhood to support the walkable, vibrant city life you crave? Neighbors saying they support density, “just not here”? Console yourself with an abstract version of density in the form of a tungsten cube that won’t offend anyone, till you reach the promised land.

Previous suggestions include a soft, huggable Nimbee (this is real), Neighborhood Preserves (this isn’t real), transit-oriented scarves (this is real), and gingerbread housing (this isn’t real).