June 2011
1 post
February 2011
1 post
January 2011
1 post
http://on.wsj.com/e4FP2u →
88% of millennials want to live in cities. The next 50 years of American history could be very interesting.
November 2010
3 posts
“The richest 1 percent of Americans possess over 1/3 of the country’s...”
– The State of Working America 2006/2007: An Economic Policy Institute Book
“The dependence on personal transportation in this country, outside of major...”
– Dave Cole, chairman emeritus of the Center for Automotive Research. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39970363/ns/business-autos/
2 tags
October 2010
2 posts
September 2010
1 post
WatchThis is Part 1 of an excellent 4 part web documentary looking at the revitalization of Detroit, and looking past the negative news stories to point out the amazing things happening. And it’s a tour led by Johnny Knoxville.
This makes me seriously homesick for Buffalo, NY. Go check out the other 3 parts on the Palladium Boots website. And Palladium Boots, if you’re listening, you...
August 2010
7 posts
WatchLeaving for London and Copenhagen so soon. I can’t wait to upload photos, videos, and impressions of Copenhagen. I’m also looking forward to comparing Copenhagen to London and Oxford.
Here’s another video on the pedestrian friendly planning of Copenhagen from the always wonderful Streets Blog.
I think it’s interesting that in this video they talk about how Copenhagen...
“Durham Farmer’s Market Ranked America’s 15th Favorite Farmers Market”
– Ranked 15th for “large markets” with more than 56 vendors. This of course is very unscientific and is based on votes through the American Farmland Trust website. Still though, congrats to the Durham Famer’s Market!
via American Farmland Trust
UPDATE: Voting is still open till...
2 tags
WatchSuper excited about my trip to Copenhagen. I’m hoping to put on some serious bike miles in Copenhagen.
[via Street Films NYC via dadarobotnik]
“Fossil Fuel Subsidies Are 12 Times Support for Renewables”
– Governments last year gave $43 billion to $46 billion in support of renewable energy compared to $557 billion spent to subsidize fossil fuels in 2008. In many cases I believe the public’s perception of subsidies is skewed like this. Though I had no idea subsidies skewed so far towards fossil...
WatchVideo of Bloomberg’s Speech from the Huffington Post site.
Copenhagen?
I will be splitting two weeks between London and Copenhagen, any recommendations for things to see and do there? I’ll be posting photos/videos/and thoughts on my trip here.
Thanks in advance.
Mayor Bloomberg's Speech on Freedom
“We have come here to Governors Island to stand where the earliest settlers first set foot in New Amsterdam, and where the seeds of religious tolerance were first planted. We’ve come here to see the inspiring symbol of liberty that, more than 250 years later, would greet millions of immigrants in the harbor, and we come here to state as strongly as ever – this is the freest City in the world....
July 2010
1 post
“while Americas still drive to work alone in far greater numbers than any other...”
– http://webfeeds.brookings.edu/~r/BrookingsRSS/programs/metro/~3/tH3H-E_N6-M/0701_commuting_puentes.aspx
November 2009
1 post
June 2009
1 post
October 2008
1 post
Re-Birth of the Urbanist
Re-Birth of the Urbanist Unfortunately this site has lain dormant for the past three months once I moved down to Durham, NC, started gutting my house, started graduate school for Urban Planning, and got a dog. During that time I’ve thought about deleting my Tumblr, and I’ve thought about how I would restart it. Although I’ve spent most of my time doing homework. The problem has...
June 2008
2 posts
WatchGentrification is fun again!
via the Burg
“For my money, the “we were lied to” chorus only represents the obdurately...”
– We lied to ourselves. We continue to lie to ourselves every day. The US public barely understands the first thing about the energy predicament we’re in, and what it means for how we live in this country — or how we get along with the rest of the world — and the news media tragically reflects that...
May 2008
14 posts
"High gas prices are making more people than ever...
has been a common headline these past few weeks and months, although it isn’t really true. It’s only more people than have ridden in recent memory, and even then it’s only around a 5-10% increase in ridership, and even then only about 5% of Americans use public transit. I would assume that more people would choose to take transit if there were better transit options. This leads...
“The irony is with the gas prices what they are, we should be expanding rail...”
– Barack Obama During an informal lunch. Read more of the conversation at Gristmill
“Companies are big on breaking the car addiction because doing so raises...”
– Suddenly it’s cool to take the bus, Business Week Looks like Business Week did an entire issue on how the price of oil may change and has changed the way we live. Check out the articles on how the price of gas might effect our car culture, and where we live. The above quote is from an article...
“those who put speed above all other values are often cheated even of speed by...”
– Lewis Mumford, bemoaning bridges replacing ferries and highways replacing street cars and other modes of mass transit. It is both amazing and so frustrating that Mumford writing 60 years ago could predict the type of stunted society we would be living in. Robert Moses built highways in New York to...
"Score one for the cyclist" →
The Surly Bikes has a great story up on its blog about how the writer was riding his bike on the road fully within his legal rights, but a driver nonetheless decided to lay on her horn and try to scare him off the road. He calmly memorized her license plate and then proceeded to use it to very effectively deal with the situation (I’ll leave you dear reader to read the story). Yesterday I was...
“It is great to see that we finally have some national unity on energy policy....”
– Thomas Friedman talking about the Gas Tax Holiday in yesterday’s column. I’m not usually a huge fan of Friedman, but he tell’s it straight in this one. And eh, sorry for all the gas articles. I am actually interested in other issues.
Gas to hit $7/gallon by 2012 . . . →
Wired has an excellent article that very succintly explains why gas prices are where they are and why they are probably only going up from here. In short: 1. Oil Companies are making windfall profits. 2. Entering the Middle Class = Car ownership. Millions of people in China and India are entering the Middle Class. 3. Credit crisis forcing the Fed to cut interest rates, which places inflationary...
April 2008
24 posts
“The end product [of Suburbia] is an encapsulated life, spent more and more...”
– Lewis Mumford, The City in History (1961) For those interested, Mumford has written both academic tomes on urban issues as well as many essays relating his love of the city. Well worth hunting down and reading.
New music experiment
marco: My music collection is in desperate need of an update, having stagnated since about 2002 with very little new discovery since then. This is the beginning of my effort to revitalize it. With the help of Tuneage and other music discovery methods, I’m trying a new experiment: Get at least one new album every week. Each must be from a new band. All music will be legally acquired — either...
High gas prices prompt call for 4-day work week →
(via azspot) The idea is a ten hour day, four days a week, and thereby reducing commuting one day a week. At first this idea kind of made me angry, because “if people didn’t live in the suburbs or exurbs and lived in a sustainable way this wouldn’t be an issue!” But after considering the idea for a little bit, it would be nice to always have three day weekends…...
“Suburb: a place that isn’t city, isn’t country, and isn’t tolerable.”
– Mignon McLaughlin (via simko) Simko, where are you finding all of these great quotes about place? I thought this was my niche.
“All cities are mad: but the madness is gallant. All cities are beautiful: but...”
– Christopher Morley (via simko) His wikipedia page (I know, I didn’t know him either).
Are biofuels bad?
squashed: I wouldn’t suggest that we keep our biofuel policy the way it is by using subsidized corn rather than cellulostic ethanol, but I do think it is way too early to call the whole biofuel experiment a failure. I full heartedly agree with this statement, (and the sections I didn’t copy as well). I think it is important that the criticisms of this current generation of biofuels is...
Private citizen issues parking tickets to Oregon... →
A “freshly minted” lawyer in Oregon used a relatively unknown provision in state law that alows private citizens to issue traffic tickets to assess $500 in fines to a police officer that parked in a no parking zone while he went and got dinner. The officer is scheduled to appear in court next month.
Hells yes.
dealbreaker rules: do they exist? And if so how...
I would say the one dealbreaker that has stuck with me is: I will not date anyone who likes Ayn Rand. I find that this simple rule ferrets out many different types of people that I would be incompatible with. biteofpythias: in several conversations of late people have been talking about relationship dealbreakers, characterisics or factors that would be enough to rule out dating someone… do you...
“You might say… that the city is a place for multiplying happy chances and...”
– Lewis Mumford
“A tax on gasoline is more like a tax on a sacrament than a sin.”
– Former Massachusetts Senate President Thomas Birmingham. These comments were made recently in discussions about the Massachusetts state budget and potential new revenue sources. This mindset is exactly why our transportation infrastructure is falling apart, and why states have to subsidize roads...