News, June 1, 2009
CITY & SUBURBAN TRENDS: SOMETIMES IT HELPS TO LOOK AT THE DATA
Jonathan Weber writes that “Most demographic and market indicators suggest that growth and development across the country are moving away from the suburban and exurban fringe and toward center-cities and close-in suburbs,” in an article for MSNBC entitled Demographic trends now favor downtown: Growth across the country moves away from suburban and exurban fringe.
One might wonder what country Weber is writing about. In the United States, growth and development continues to be concentrated in suburban and exurban areas. Moreover, strong domestic migration continues away from the center cities and close-in suburbs, as evidenced by the fact that between 2000 and 2008, 4.6 million domestic migrants left the core counties of the metropolitan areas over 1,000,000 population, while 2.0 million moved into the suburban counties.
The case is apparently furthered by the obligatory reference and photograph of The Model, Portland, Oregon. However, even in Portland, the suburbs are doing far better than the core. Since 2000, the suburbs have gained 106,000 domestic migrants, while the core county (Multnomah) has lost 4,000 domestic migrants. The IRS micro-data further indicates that the core continues to lose net domestic migration to the suburban counties.
It appears that the only trend indicating that the suburbs are losing out to central cities is the exponential increase in articles blindly parroting “death of the suburbs” dogma.
Car-Free Space Is an Instant Hit on Broadway
Here’s the view from 45th Street looking south at about 1 pm today, about 30 minutes after the city Dept. of Transportation closed Broadway to motor vehicle traffic in Midtown. It’s obviously way too soon to judge how this experiment is working but today, at least, car-free Broadway appears to be a huge hit.
Keeping creatives inspired after their ‘peak’ a Ted Talk video, 19 minutes
Elizabeth Gilbert, author of the literary phenomenon Eat, Pray, Love, provided some insight in her presentation at TED on “the pressure that’s been killing off our artists for the past 500 years” (and threatening her mental well being as well), summed up in the question… “My greatest work is behind me. How do I continue?
A pattern language for New York streets
The New York City Department of Transportation has published its street design manual, a collection of patterns that make absolutely no references to any traffic control devices of any kind. This is the result of the revolutionary transportation commissioner and, let’s admit it, traffic anti-planner Janette Sadik-Khan (NYMagazine article on her rise) who has launched a mini-revolution since being appointed to run the street bureaucracy of New York City two years ago. Traveling around the world to learn what was being done the best, and falling under the influence of Jan Gehl along the way, she is the living proof that visionary leadership can turn even the most entrenched bureaucracy around.
You will notice that the manual distinguishes between ribbon sidewalks (totally useless) and full sidewalks (the bare minimum). In fact they couldn’t even find a picture of a ribbon sidewalk with people walking on it.
The television antenna is making a comeback as an old-tech solution to a new-tech problem.
Driven to near extinction by the cable providers offering hundreds of channels, the antenna is finding new life as TV signals are converted to a digital format. The changeover is happening in the United States and will be completed in Canada by the end of August 2011.
While technophiles praise the better picture quality of digital TV, the change means couch potatoes with older televisions face the prospect of seeing nothing but static without buying a new receiver or a special tuner.
That’s where the antenna comes in. How to get free HDTV
“….The Creative Class, on the other hand, is expected to translate that same intelligence into economic activity. When civic leaders develop incentives to attract this demographic, their goal is generally not art for art’s sake—not that it should be. Municipal government should not be charged with giving a city an arts scene, but it’s reasonable to charge city leadership with creating economic activity. That, in short, is what the Creative Class program means for mayors and city councils.So far, so good. City leadership can take a laissez-faire approach to the arts and a hands-on approach to the local economy. The trick, though, is not to stifle the former by attending to the latter. A city can attract plenty of creative types who will start companies and go out to eat four times a week, but the incentives employed to attract those groups might inadvertently extinguish the scenes that don’t pay and don’t spend. If it becomes too difficult to live cheaply in a city, …”
…And now the Center for Labor Market Studies has compiled data showing that the recession’s effects have been “disastrous beyond belief” for some groups, including young men, men without college degrees and black men. These job losses among young workers have ominous long-term implications for American families and the economy as a whole…
What Will Happen When the Baobab Goes Global?
IT’s known as the baobab in English, sito in Mandinka, gwi in Wolof and Adansonia digitata in botanical circles. Sometimes it’s called the upside-down tree, because its weirdly shaped branches resemble roots. It was made famous in the West by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s fable “The Little Prince.”
In Africa, the baobab tree is steeped in mystique and surrounded by superstition. Many people believe that its spirit protects the community around it, and its tangible properties certainly nourish those who live near it. Parts of the tree are used to make rope and fishing line; to feed goats, sheep and cows; and to provide shelter, food and medicine.
While living in Gambia I saw parts of the baobab used to treat everything from malarial fever, infertility and asthma to headaches and toothaches. I have no idea if and how these local remedies worked, but all of a sudden the rest of the world — Western health food companies included — is catching on. There’s a growing belief that the baobab may be the world’s newest super food.
Flexitarianism Tick tock, it’s steak o’clock
Top 10 Free Web Applications for Planning
How To Live On $0 A Day: Top Five Places To Be Broke in North America
Detroit is one of the ten
Evaporation of the Aral Sea, when water diversion and miss use, killed a mighty inland sea
Increasing the Social and Economic Sustainability of Green Roofs
Verlyn Klinkenborg, a noted non-fiction writer and member of The New York Timeseditorial board, wrote about green roofs for National Geographic. The typical roofscape for an urban building, says Klinkenborg, is “a little like hell—a lifeless place of bituminous surfaces, violent temperature contrasts, bitter winds, and an antipathy to water.”
Can America be America without sprawl?
Therefore, those in favor of a commodity currency who store tangible assets are the optimists. Commodity currency advocates are neither ‘doom and gloomers’ nor vampiric fatalistic fiat currency disciples who will be vaporized by a rising golden sun. Those in favor of a commodity currency who store tangible assets realize that the earth rotates, the sun rises and the ages turn. As the night shifts to day life will go on with breakfast being cooked and eaten. The issue is who will do the cooking and who will do the eating.
Old and Green: Detroit Innovators and Renovators Give Buildings Sustainable Overhauls
First Sustainable Business Encyclopedia -Free!
Montreal - After a year and half of research and development, “ethipedia”, the online encyclopedia of sustainable business practices, is now accessible on the Web.
This reference website hosts a database of documented practices adopted by organizations seeking to incorporate greater social and environmental responsibility into their operations. With an initial store of over 75 case studies from around the world, this is the largest free resource of its kind.“The goal of this portal is to offer a library of replicable strategies for applying sustainability principles to one’s organization. By making this information accessible, this site hopes to accelerate the market shift towards sustainable operations,” says the site’s Co-Founder, sustainability consultant Brenda Plant.
To ensure a high degree of credibility, ethipedia’s administrators monitor and vet submitted practices according to a set of concrete social and environmental criteria made available online at the following address: http://ethipedia.net/criteria
NEW PERFORMING ARTS COMPLEX IN CAMBRIDGE, ONTARIO
Drayton Entertainment Consolidates Production and Administration in New Facility
Cambridge — Residents of Cambridge will soon benefit from a new performing arts complex, thanks to a joint investment by the city of Cambridge and the governments of Canada and Ontario.
Ontario Supports Hamilton’s Creative Economy
Hamilton - Ontario is helping build its creative economy and enhance its quality of life by supporting a project led by Opera Hamilton. The province is investing $50,000 to develop a new Canadian opera based on the life of Chief Joseph Brant. The opera will help attract new audiences and generate more cultural tourism for the region. The opera will also provide special opportunities for youth to experience the arts by touring with a condensed version of the show for schools in southern Ontario.
Step away from the car – it’s bad for your health
The more you drive, the less you walk, and the greater chance you’ll have a sedentary lifestyle
4,000-year-old leprosy case is oldest ever found Signs of disease discovered in skeleton in India, where some believe leprosy first originated
It’s a small world after all
Newspapers around the world are dying—circulations have gone south and ad revenues are shrinking. Some think it’s time to put a 21st-century spin on an old tradition: the local news
Freedom 55? …a.. now freedom 70!
U.S. faces Zimbabwe-sized inflation rate, Faber warns
Everything old is new again! Ancient economics
Economists and historians have waged a long debate over which economic system was normal for humankind. Some, such as Austrian economist Friedrich von Hayek, who helped found Vancouver’s Fraser Institute, argued we were all capitalists in the beginning. Any attempt by government to meddle in buying and selling is doomed to fail. Bill Bennett, Ralph Klein and Mike Harris would largely agree.
Co-ops sound great if you hate big corporations. Not so great if you care about how they work in real life
Of cow burps, beef, and methane
My climate for a cow fart?Dear Checkout Line,
I read recently that meat is a huge emitter of greenhouse gas—more than even cars! It got me to wondering—does that mean all meat, or just from animals grown on factory farms? For example, I know that cow farts and burps contribute lots of methane. But don’t grass-fed cows burp and fart, too? I guess my bottom-line question is, is any beef really sustainable, in greenhouse gas terms?
Thanks,
Beef-loving Ed
Idea #1 - Families of the future valuing time more than spaceIdea #2 - Two bedroom apartments or condos can accommodate a family of four (although some modifications would help)Idea # 3 - Families will use creative strategies to avoid over-accumulation of stuff that won’t fit.#3B - the experience economy rises out of condos
The band Mr. Something Something will be performing at a fundraiser on Toronto Island, Saturday, May 30, 2009. The audience is invited to generate electricity for the band to perform using bicycles hooked up to small dynamos. Proceeds will go towards the purchase of a bicycle ambulance for a community in Malawi.
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The Water Wars have begun! Flood of anger
A punishing drought, which gave the State of Washington a grim warning about what the future might look like with global warming, has led to a U.S. dam proposal that threatens to drown a British Columbia valley.
The Shanker’s Bend project, proposed by the Okanogan County Public Utility District, would dam the Similkameen River just a few kilometres south of the B.C. border.
The project would provide increased water storage and hydro generation for the town of Oroville, in north central Washington, but it would also back up water deep into the Similkameen Valley – flooding the habitat of endangered species in an area that has been proposed as a national park.
The impoundment would provide more water in a dry B.C. valley where organic orchards and vineyards have flourished only because of irrigation, but water levels would fluctuate to suit demands south of the border, not to meet Canadian needs.
http://tinyurl.com/km2jba