The Urbanist

Gentrification is fun again!

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 14:06:25 -0400

Gentrification is fun again!

"For my money, the “we were lied to” chorus only represents the obdurately self-righteous..."

Mon, 02 Jun 2008 14:03:00 -0400

“For my money, the “we were lied to” chorus only represents the obdurately self-righteous cluelessness in every band of the American political spectrum.”

- 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 ignorance. We fantasize about being “energy independent” and still being able to drive to the mall three times a day to eat caesar salads grown on the other side of North America. Get this: we deserve exactly what is happening to us. We might as well keep on lying to ourselves to pretend that we are not descending into a dark phase of our own history. After all, the true basis of American life these days is to feel good about yourself no matter what you do.

- Jim Kunstler (via azspot)

Great quote. I’m finishing up his classic book The Geography of Nowhere as I write this.

The New York Times has a number of interesting pieces on the...

Thu, 22 May 2008 13:46:28 -0400

The New York Times has a number of interesting pieces on the price of gas. To quote the times, an “Oracle” at Goldman Sachs predicts oil will reach $150 to $200 over the next 6 to 24 months. Ford is cutting production. Coal production is increasing. Oh, and Krugman is calling for the end of the American Dream, or of Suburbia at least.

I would imagine the newspapers looked similar during the oil embargo, but I’m hopeful that this time the price pressure from oil will lead to more meaningful long term changes.

"High gas prices are making more people than ever choose public transit"

Wed, 21 May 2008 16:44:45 -0400

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 to the problem of needing massive investment in infrastructure, which would require a few things:

1. a permanent shift in how Americans view transit.

2. a new dedicated funding stream for transit (say a substantially increased gas tax dedicated to transit similar to how Europe operates, or some other system more palatable to Americans, and this of course assumes point 1.)

3. More cities and urban cores would need to become much denser to make light and medium rail economically feasible.

During the turn of the 20th century when Boston, New York, and Chicago built their subway systems many other smaller, but still relatively dense, cities wanted to build their own as well but costs at the time were prohibitive, and now that cities are built up I would imagine getting the right of ways for streetcars alone would make most of these projects a non-starter.

So what will be the answer? What will the price of gas have to be before Americans choose to fund transit?

If you don’t tumbl and would like to respond/comment email me and I’ll post it. matt . dudek (a) gmail . com

This reminds me of Robin Rhode’s work as well, although he...

Sun, 18 May 2008 11:08:48 -0400

This reminds me of Robin Rhode’s work as well, although he tends to incorporate people interacting with his drawings.

Street art is one of those things I love about cities. For those in the Boston area, the ICA has a great exhibit called “Street Level” on loan from the Duke’s Nasher Museum that features the work of Robin Rhode, William Cordova, and Mark Bradford.

Blublu.org

theron:

very rad.

Well here’s a ridiculously bad idea. Chrysler is offering...

Sun, 18 May 2008 10:43:00 -0400

Well here’s a ridiculously bad idea. Chrysler is offering a deal that if you buy one of their vehicles, they will give you a gas card that locks in the price of gas at $2.99/gallon. (Chrysler will reimburse you the difference). This gives the buyer the perverse incentive of buying the least fuel efficient automobile so they can save the most money.

This will artificially inflate the price of gas by raising demand and, does nothing to address the problem of our dependence on oil and the preposterously bad average fuel efficiency. It would seem that the gas price situation must be pretty bleak if Chrysler is willing to offer an incentive like this.

Chrysler: via: the Boston Globe

UPDATE: Food in Mouth correctly reblogs me and says that the #4 American auto maker probably won’t have that large of an effect on changing demand for oil and therefore the price of oil. This is more than likely correct, Chrysler alone probably won’t be able to do this, but if other car companies begin to offer similar incentives, etc. etc. And either way, Chrysler is creating an artificially low price which as we all know from Econ 101 will have higher demand at that lower price.

And Food in Mouth also believes that potential car buyers will do the math and see that they don’t stand to save much money based on this deal. I hope he’s correct, but I am less optimistic. Kenneth Galbraith coined the term “conventional wisdom” and by it he meant that anyone could choose to believe what they want to believe within a reasonable range and have evidence or theorists that would back them up. (From his book The Affluent Society). I’ve found in my conversations with family living in the suburbs and those that are automobile dependent, they choose to believe that the high prices are due to a constrained supply. So if you choose to believe that, then buying a Chrysler now that get’s 12mpg makes sense with a locked in gas price and the likeliehood of gas prices falling sub $3/gallon in the near future.

Which brings me to my original point, this does nothing to address the oil dependency problem. (Food in Mouth, thanks for continuing the discussion)

Boston’s Old City Hall. I pass this everyday. I love this...

Fri, 16 May 2008 16:07:00 -0400

Boston’s Old City Hall. I pass this everyday. I love this building.

I’ve been thinking my tumblr has been a bit too text heavy...

Wed, 07 May 2008 14:46:00 -0400

I’ve been thinking my tumblr has been a bit too text heavy lately and my SO, Jessie Gladin-Kramer, is an amazing photographer, so I thought I could kill two birds with one stone (not that I’d ever actually kill a bird) by posting some of her urban photographs here.

umbrellalove.blogspot.com

JGK Photography

"The irony is with the gas prices what they are, we should be expanding rail service."

Mon, 05 May 2008 17:53:00 -0400

“The irony is with the gas prices what they are, we should be expanding rail service.”

- 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 productivity, amps morale,..."

Mon, 05 May 2008 16:54:53 -0400

“Companies are big on breaking the car addiction because doing so raises productivity, amps morale, and delivers much lusted-after green cred.”

- 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 on the increase use of employer sponsored transit systems with every increase in the cost of gas. For the short time that I dealt with an hour commute each way by car, I always felt completely drained by the time I got home. I quickly decided that the extra cost of rent in the city was well worth my time and sanity, but it’s interesting to see that some businesses went to the trouble of quantifying that happiness.

"those who put speed above all other values are often cheated even of speed by their single..."

Sun, 04 May 2008 16:42:00 -0400

“those who put speed above all other values are often cheated even of speed by their single dedication to a single mode of mass locomotion.”

- 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 relieve congestion, but instead the roads were filled to capacity years ahead of schedule, all the while he steadfastly refused to invest in transit. And again NYC missed the opportunity of using a congestion tax to fund transit. Now the cost of gas is reaching higher and higher every month, and people have no choice but to drive because most of America made “a singe dedication to a single mode of mass locomotion.” All the economists are telling us gas will not go down in price; cities must start to invest in alternative modes of transit now.

"Score one for the cyclist"

Fri, 02 May 2008 15:17:00 -0400

"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 nearly sent to the emergency room by a woman who tried to suddenly pull into a parking spot while I was riding along side her. In comparison I handled the situation very poorly. After barely squeezing by her front fender, I returned to the car yelling that she nearly killed me and the Massachusetts General Laws state that a bike lane is a lane of traffic, etc. etc. etc. Which as you can guess just made her yell at me that I should have been more defensive and have anticipated her swerving into my lane without warning (I think she phrased that a little differently).

Eh, it’s incidents like this that make me illogically giddy that gas might hit $7/gallon.

I’ve got 10 Beta invitations to give out for this great...

Thu, 01 May 2008 22:38:00 -0400

I’ve got 10 Beta invitations to give out for this great new web/note/photo information scrapbook-type application. It has both a web client and a desktop application and it is pretty fantastic. I’ve been finding it incredibly useful to use the “web clipper” book marklet to save news articles to the web client which then automatically syncs with my desktop application.

Oh, and the killer part about this, is that the OCR technology makes the text in photos searchable.

Check out the site, and if you’re interested send me an email.

matt.dudek (at) gmail.com

"It is great to see that we finally have some national unity on energy policy. Unfortunately, the..."

Thu, 01 May 2008 15:07:01 -0400

“It is great to see that we finally have some national unity on energy policy. Unfortunately, the unifying idea is so ridiculous, so unworthy of the people aspiring to lead our nation, it takes your breath away.”

- 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 . . .

Thu, 01 May 2008 12:52:51 -0400

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 pressure on the economy, lessens the value of the dollar, etc. (basic Econ. 101)

4. Speculators forcing oil up.

5. And the reason Oil is likely to stay up? OPEC generally tries to keep prices at an optimum level, when demand raises prices they like to keep production even and take advantage. OPEC only controls half the worlds oil production, and generally when prices are high the non-OPEC countries increase production to take advantage of the high price and by increasing supply it brings the prices back down. Problem is, those countries seem to be running out of oil and can’t increase production.

Read the article, it’s well worth it.

This is a great political ad. It is succinct, and it cuts at the...

Thu, 01 May 2008 11:49:00 -0400

This is a great political ad. It is succinct, and it cuts at the other two contenders without mentioning them or being mean. Obama has taken the high road and acted much more presidential than either of the other candidates. I wish I could take my primary vote back and give it to Obama.

marco:

Obama’s new campaign commercial: The Truth about Gas Prices

"The end product [of Suburbia] is an encapsulated life, spent more and more either in a motor car or..."

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 22:39:19 -0400

“The end product [of Suburbia] is an encapsulated life, spent more and more either in a motor car or within the cabin of darkness before a television set…”

- 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

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 14:02:15 -0400

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 purchased or legally free.

Digital downloads will be used as often as possible, but with absolutely no DRM. CDs beat DRM if there’s no alternative.

Last week’s albums:

The OaKs: Songs for Waiting

Koufax: Hard Times Are in Fashion

What’s next?

I would recommend a subscription to eMusic. It’s all DRM free, and for $90/year I get 30 downloads a month, so that’s $.08/track. A hell of a lot less than a CD or iTunes. Last week I got the new Raveonettes album and Thao (two awesome bands if you don’t know ‘em). Their selection is mostly indpendent and smaller bands. And to sign up you get 35 free tracks.

35 free emusic downloads.

For those in the Boston Metropolitan Area, May 12th - 18th is...

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 12:07:00 -0400

For those in the Boston Metropolitan Area, May 12th - 18th is Bay State Bike Week. The city is aiming to get get people to pledge to bike a cumulative 50,000 miles during the week.

There will be special bike centric events every day, and breakfast and snack stations set up in different areas throughout the city. This is a great week to give biking a try if you’re normally a bit intimidated by traffic. The city is organizing Bike Convoys and encouraging bicyclists to encourage their friends to bike as well.

Every since the Mayor got the bicycling bug some great things have been happening in Boston. Although that’s not to take away from the great work groups like Mass Bike, Livable Streets, and Walk Boston have been doing.

http://baystatebikeweek.org/

High gas prices prompt call for 4-day work week

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 10:06:20 -0400

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…

Honestly though, the commuting problem is that we live so far from where we have to work, shop, and play. Regardless of a four day work week, on that extra day off when someone needs to go to the supermarket they’re going to get in the car. And when there’s soccer practice the next town over they’re going to get in the car. Etc. Etc. Etc.

This isn’t going to solve the problem of people having to drive hundreds of miles a week. People have to change where and how they live, or they can pay increasingly high gas prices and spend more and more of their waking hours behind the wheel. That is not what I want out of life.