scaledown » News for Monday: 02/23/09

News for Monday: 02/23/09

By Mark Bradley | February 22, 2009 |

Ken Lewenza: They didn’t take Windsor out of the boy: interview in the Globe and Mail, Monday 02/23/09

“I want to live in a city that revels in its urbanity. That’s a city that finds its identity and has fun with it.”

Editorial Comment: If you don’t read anything else on this page, read this! The authors could have written this for Scaledown!

My car is my friend, and your enemy:Want a safe neighbourhood? Practise traffic management.

Der Spiegel Exposes the Brazilian Ethanol Madness, Why the Promise of Biofuels is a Lie

Shades of Green: Hard times can make it easier to gut safeguards

The federal government seems set to gut environmental protection laws that were among the major victories of the “green” wave in the 1980s.

It’s sharpening three tools for the evisceration. They will remove assurances that all significant projects will face careful public scrutiny of their potential impact.

Ottawa wants to get those infrastructure shovels in the ground as quickly as possible: No pesky environmental challenges should delay its proposed array of highways, bridges, wharves and other projects.

The Flushing feeling in Victoria B.C. to the tune of $2 Billion

In Canada, the best cities to ride out the recession

New York columnist: Americans prefer sprawl

Recession: 25 tips for hard times And #25 should be use your public library.

Creating the art of economic adversity: When all else fails make art!

Urban Agriculture: In gardens, a design for the city

Some 160 years ago, residents of what was then Toronto’s east end grew cabbages in their tiny front yards. Recent immigrants from Ireland, they were so poor they had to grow vegetables on the only patches of available land.

The community became Cabbagetown.

Those long-ago gardeners cultivated their yards for survival. These days, front-yard food gardens are part of a growing effort to incorporate agriculture into the fabric of cities. That idea will be explored in “Carrot City,” an exhibition opening Wednesday at the Design Exchange.

“The focus is on how the production of food in the city will change the future design of cities and … their buildings,” says Mark Gorgolewski, an architecture professor at Ryerson University and one of three curators of the two-month-long exhibition.

The general idea is to demonstrate the potential for converting vacant or under-used urban land to food production, and incorporating some elements of “agriculture” into the design of new construction or renovations. (a good use of the growing vacant lots in Windsor)

Cityscape must reflex values of citizens in Saskatoon

Free photo app for you bloggers: Tilt Shift Maker: Free Tilt Shift Image Editing for Mini Cities

London, Ontario: Tax talk We’re back on track:

Five Myths About Affordable Housing:

The downturn in the housing market has led to a lot of misconceptions about housing. This piece from The Tyeeidentifies five myths about affordable housing.

“Think the falling real estate market is going to solve B.C.’s housing affordability problems? Think again: Home prices would have to plunge 55 per cent before ordinary families will be able to buy homes in this market. And if real estate sinks that low, so will family incomes.”

Myth #1: The market correction will restore affordability

Myth #2: As home prices fall, so will rents

Myth #3: Empty condos will loosen up the rental market

Myth #4: Build more homes and prices will drop

Myth #5: The government needs to subsidize more housing

Me (not me, me-others!) verses the Greens

TV: Public Library or Public Dump!

Not just a question of the Fairness Doctrine, but of television’s guiding purpose.

Public libraries and museums are not supposed to cater wholly and uncritically to public taste.

Much less are they supposed to aim at the “lowest common denominator,” as used to be the phrase used to characterize the wrong aim of TV programming, many decades ago.

They are supposed to provide access to what is of value, to what is worthwhile, to all who care to take advantage of the opportunity.

For the Locavores: Farm-Fresh Gastronomy

Renting Vs. Owning

Wiki Wednesday: Bike Boulevards

Can we grow Bamboo in Windsor and Essex County? Has anybody tried? Especially as a commercial venture! Why? Bamboos-zled” Eco Veneers Storm the Design World

American Bamboo Society:

Getting Green with Bamboo

Via Raise the Hammer blog and the Victoria (B.C.) Transport Policy Institute:

Smart Transportation Economic Stimulation: Infrastructure Investments That Support Strategic Planning Objectives Provide True Economic Development; This report discusses factors to consider when evaluating transportation economic stimulation strategies, taking into account long-term economic, social and environmental impacts. Increasing transport system efficiency tends to create far more jobs than those created directly by infrastructure investments.

From CEO For Cities: The City Dividends (report)

The City Dividends defined:

The Talent Dividend: Per capita income and college attainment rates are closely correlated. Using data from 2006, each additional percentage point improvement in aggregate adult four-year college attainment is associated with a $763 increase in annual per capita income. Raising the national median of the top 51 metro areas from 29.4 percent to 30.4 percent would be associated with an increase in income of $124 billion per year for the nation.

The Green Dividend: In the 51 largest U.S. metro areas, the average person drives about 24.9 miles per day. If we could reduce that by one mile per day (about 4 percent), 156 million Americans would collectively drive 156 million fewer miles per day, or about 57 billion fewer miles per year. At $3.50 per gallon for gasoline, the nation would save $10 billion per year on fuel. Add the expense of purchasing and maintenance of vehicles, and the total savings would be $28.6 billion per year.

The Opportunity Dividend: In the nation’s 51 largest metro areas, the median public expenditure on Medicaid, food stamps and assistance to families including the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) program and other state administered general assistance was $8,200 per person living in poverty in 2006. At this level, the national Opportunity Dividend, resulting from a one percentage point reduction in poverty, is calculated at $13.1 billion per year.