News, September 14, 2009
HSBC, one of the biggest banks on the planet, has taken to calling itself “the world’s local bank.” Starbucks is un-branding at least three of its Seattle outlets, the first of which just reopened as “15th Avenue Coffee and Tea.” Winn-Dixie, a 500-outlet supermarket chain, recently launched a new ad campaign under the tagline, “Local flavor since 1956.” The International Council of Shopping Centers, a global consortium of mall owners and developers, is pouring millions of dollars into television ads urging people to “Shop Local” — at their nearest mall. Even Wal-Mart is getting in on the act, hanging bright green banners over its produce aisles that simply say, “Local.”
Hoping to capitalize on growing public enthusiasm for all things local, some of the world’s biggest corporations are brashly laying claim to the word “local.”
What We Can REALLY Learn From Portland
Portland’s achievements are especially impressive given the fact that Portland is not an enormous city – at about a half-million people, it’s roughly the size of Oakland, Fresno or Long Beach. This doesn’t mean that every city in California should slavishly follow Portland’s example. It’s never a good idea to simply point to another city and say, We should just copy them. But it is worth thinking about why Portland does things – and does them successfully – that a lot of other cities can’t seem to do.
After a visit to Portland last week, I’d say there are six important lessons to learn from Portland. The important thing is to apply the lessons to your own town, and not try to recreate Portland.
57 Million Chances to Get Housing Right
Two new papers dig into the whys and hows of building higher-density communities, reaching useful and interesting conclusions.
An iPhone in the City
What’s better than Twitter in the city? An iPhone. With a connection to the Internet, built-in camera, location-awareness, 3-access accelerometer and colorful display, the Apple iPhone has become much more than a mobile phone: it’s a sophisticated mobile computing platform. Combine this technology with a library of thousands of programs and growing ecosystem of developers, the iPhone is powerful and versatile tool to transform how people interact with their surroundings.
A really great idea: Freecycle
Detroit vs. NOLA Their city may be bouncing back, ours still seems to be falling
..economic ground zero during our current recession: New Orleans because of the flooding and devastation from Katrina; Detroit because of our dependency on the struggling auto industry. Ground zero refers to the point of impact taking the most damage where a bomb detonated.
Teenager invents £23 solar panel that could be solution to developing world’s energy needs … made from human hair
What Should We Learn From Moses and Jacobs?
But this is dangerous territory. In rehabilitating Moses and reconsidering Jacobs, it’s important to be clear about where each was right, and where each went wrong.
There are many ways to interpret the clash between Moses and Jacobs: development versus preservation, city versus suburb, design for people versus design for automobiles, power versus powerlessness, and so on. To acknowledge that the balance has swung too far in one direction in one of these conflicts does not at all suggest that the balances are similarly out of whack on others.
When Parking Spaces Are More Important Than Homes
Parking. It takes up a lot of space in the discussion of transportation and planning. No surprise, since one of the main problems with cars is how much space they take up even when they’re not in use.
New Parks Across US Boom, Dazzle
Neal Peirce says this is a ‘bonanza decade’ for parks, thanks to the many benefits of parks to cities and a ‘wow’ factor found in some of the newest parks around the U.S., including St. Louis’ Citygarden and Manhattan’s High Line Park.
London Seeks to Reduce Congestion by Eliminating Traffic Lights
London is getting naked — well, getting naked streets. Naked streets are those without traffic lights and stop signs.
ut London would be the first major city to attempt order through apparent disorder, if an experiment proves successful. Boris Johnson, the city’s mayor, is behind an effort to switch off traffic lights in the city’s center, according to the Telegraph.
Urban Is Good
In “Green Metropolis,” David Owen sets out in similar vein to show how people can “permanently reduce energy use, water consumption, carbon output and many other environmental ills.” The answer, in short, is to live in densely populated cities. Would that it were so easy.
Owen, a staff writer for The New Yorker, makes a convincing case that Manhattan, Hong Kong and large, old European cities are inherently greener than less densely populated places because a higher percentage of their inhabitants walk, bike and use mass transit than drive; they share infrastructure and civic services more efficiently; they live in smaller spaces and use less energy to heat their homes (because those homes tend to share walls); and they’re less likely to accumulate a lot of large, energy-sucking appliances. People in cities use about half as much electricity as people who don’t, Owen reports, and the average New Yorker generates fewer greenhouse gases annually than “residents of any other American city, and less than 30 percent of the national average.”
Scientists Draw Electricity from Trees
AMERICAN HOBBIT HOUSES
This “Livable Communities Program” is intended to save land and clean up the environment. It is seen as encouraging denser housing arrangements to deter automobile use and accommodate the transit industry, according to goals set by the Secretaries of HUD, EPA and Transportation.
Farmer Gene Logsdon on the promise of a home ‘pancake patch’
Describe your concept of the garden “pancake patch.”
The pancake patch is just a sort of cute way to refer to plots of grain grown for homebaked goods. The concept is what the whole book is about.
What are the main differences between the commercial grain grower and the small-scale grain grower?
The commercial grower raises large acreages of grain, using large equipment and methods that encourage soil erosion, usually uses chemical fertilizers and pesticides, and genetically modified seed. The small-scale grower raises small plots not as prone to soil erosion or compaction, and often grows the grains organically or with minimal chemical applications or genetically modified seed.
Neighborhood stores: An overlooked strategy for fighting global warming
What I find most striking about my mother-in-law’s memories of the neighborhood where I live, and where she spent her childhood in the 1940s, is how many businesses our little residential section of town once boasted. Back then, there was a grocery store, hardware store, barber shop, two drugstores, a tailor, and several corner stores.
Those businesses all disappeared in the following decades, as the streetcar lines were dismantled, families acquired cars, and shopping migrated out to supermarkets and, later, malls and big-box stores. At the low point, my neighborhood hosted little more than a lone convenience store, great for snacks and beer, but not much else.
Recently that began to change: first a restaurant opened and then a tea shop. And then, in what many of my neighbors greeted as nothing short of a gift from heaven, a small fresh food market opened. Stop by at 6 in the evening and you’ll find a row of bicycles out front and the store’s narrow aisles packed with people pondering their dinner options.
Home power plants project unveiled in Germany
BERLIN - An ambitious project was unveiled in Germany on Wednesday to install mini gas-fired power plants in people’s basements and produce as much electricity as two nuclear reactors within a year.
The Hamburg-based renewable energy group Lichtblick and its automaker partner Volkswagen say the plants would produce not only heating and hot water but also electricity, with any excess power fed into the local grid
Walkable libraries enhance our lives and our neighborhoods
One theme we’re hearing from respondents is we love to walk there. ”I love being so close to a neighborhood library branch — we walk there 1-2 evenings/week and read stories with the kids and pick up our hold items,” replied Fremont patron Robyn Reed.
“One of the criteria for where we choose to live is if we can walk (or short drive) to a library,” replied Sarah Hurt, a Douglass Truth patron. Douglass Truth has a walkscore of 88. Its “very walkable” according to Walkscore.com. More than 81% of our newly expanded library system is at least “very walkable.” 30% gets the highest rating of ”walker’s paradise” and all of the buildings are at least “somewhat walkable.”
“Libraries drive the walkability scores of a neighborhood,” said real estate agent Adrian Willinger. “People are returning to traditional values and want their resources within walking distance. They want to walk to their neighborhood services, i.e., dry cleaner, grocery store, library. More and more people are looking at walkability.” Incoming Lake City Chamber of Commerce President and Realtor, Peter Lukevich concurs, “At the present time the existence of a library is generally believed to be a good thing for real estate values. The library and easy access to other government services is valuable and enhances the value of real property.” [Lake City library walkscore 94]
“Having Greenwood branch library in walking distance creates a sense of community for everyone,” Sara, a student at the University of Washington, told us. ”Three blocks one way — the grocery store. The other way — the library. Both are essential to a community’s well-being — food and knowledge. It’s a hub and a place to meet and a comforting addition to the neighborhood.” [Greenwood library walkscore 88]
In a July 2009 study, “Economic Value of Walkability,” from the Victoria Transport Policy Institute, some of the economic advantages of a walkable neighborhood are: reduced transportation costs, special support for some businesses- such as walking tourism, and increased neighborhood interaction and community cohesion. “When you have a gem like the Ballard branch library near the business core it draws people and keeps people in the area of commerce, ” said Christy McDanold of Secret Garden Bookshop. [Ballard library walkscore 97]
C. Atalex tells us, “I work from home, so biking to the library and grocery store is a nice way for me to get out of the house and spend a couple hours around people. If we did not have a local library that I could walk/bike to, I would probably go very seldom, so I am very grateful for the refurbished Cap Hill branch.” [Capitol Hill library walkscore 100]
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Wanted to add this link to the news day
Recovery, or not?
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2009/09/is-economic-boom-around-the-corner.html
Me and economics do not mix very well. Economics is a good part science another social science.
But here are my thoughts regarding recovery or not.
Energy prices are a huge factor on future economic expansion/contraction. That’s a given. That will drive inflationary pressures - and unless real incomes match this; I don’t believe we will see an economic expansion to the benefit of consumers.
I forget where I saw it, but a comparison was made of the economic recovery(ies) experienced during the Great Depression.
Economic performance in the graphs on the website showed a declining see-saw - upticks followed by steep declines. Heck even unemployment during the Great Depression decreased - only to increase again and still took a good number of years to fully recover.
David Rosenberg writes in his blog:
We have never before witnessed a stock market rally of this magnitude over such a short time frame; and absent anything more than tentative signs of economic improvement. The only rally of this magnitude was the wild bear market rally ride in 1930, which was followed by a resumption of the decline that finally bottomed 82% lower in 1932.
My economic’s prof described our current economic performance as “the dead cat bounce.”
Foreclosures on homes continue to rise; disposable incomes are falling and savings are zip. Factor in rising oil prices and falling production I think any economic growth will be realised in corporate bottom lines and not necessarily for consumers.
A point reiterated on this website:
http://www.dailymarkets.com/stocks/2009/07/27/the-us-economy-may-recover-but-it-sure-won%E2%80%99t-feel-like-it/
But economics as a social science tells us that IF consumers believe the recession to be over, then it WILL BE over.
The problem is this time around; consumers are tapped out after having a significant chunk of their retirement savings wiped out.
As for the Gen X’ers; we’re too fricken over-extended to do much of anything. Paying off student loans; getting rid of credit debt; and starting (far too late in my opinion) saving for a meagre retirement.
Yes - this recession will end at some point - but the recovery will be none like the recoveries of past.
Nothing to back that up - just a gut feeling.
Top rating will help city handle hard 2010
http://tiny.cc/Mv4X3
A great credit rating means London city hall can invest and plan growth for the future during what is expected to be one of the most challenging years ever, municipal politicians say.
Moody’s gave London city hall an AAA rating again for 2008 — the highest possible rank, which gives London the best available terms for borrowing and lending.
“We can make some significant investments to get the economy going again” in the face of the economic downturn, Deputy Mayor Tom Gosnell said yesterday.
“One of the reasons why we have low operating costs is that our police, our other services are so efficient,” he said.
“This demonstrates that we are managing well.”
Just picked up via Twitter. Philly is planning on closing all of its public libraries if it can’t find the budget dollars for them. Lies you say? Check out this link.
http://libwww.freelibrary.org/blog/index.cfm
How’s that work into the walkable library equation?
Thanks Josh, I read that yesterday! A lot more public libraries in the US are reducing staff, hours or closing small branch libraries, they are in real bad shape economically and it is something that is not being reported.
Mark, the scares the hell out of me. Libraries are become our last bastions for free-thinkers. Universities and colleges, once the unified front for free thought, have long sold out to corporate interests. The internet is the wild wild west (and you thought www was world wide web) of information where any yahoo with a keyboard can proclaim expert status.
I fear that, if libraries close, so will the minds of many Americans.
Here is the link to the press release and the why the Philly libraries are closing:
http://tiny.cc/ocTI5
It may already be too late…
Spotted the book “The Dumbest Generation” the other day, put it on my “to read” list.
http://toddand.com/2008/11/22/the-dumbest-generation-dont-trust-anyone-under-30/
Oops,
Here’s a better link to the book.
http://www.amazon.com/Dumbest-Generation-Stupefies-Americans-Jeopardizes/dp/1585426393#reader
Here is a workshop from the U of W that is open to the public that might be of interest to some scaledowners.
Workshop to offer instruction in arts promotion
Studio A, Lambton Tower, on Thursday, September 17, at 7:30 p.m.
http://web4.uwindsor.ca/units/pac/nvdailynews/nvdn.nsf/forAlumni/D0470DACA236A1758525763200575C4F/?openDocument
Big corporations can sure fool lots of people with their false labelling.
Why are jobs leaving? http://thecomingdepression.info had this little bit of info:
To bring about the end to all industrialization and the production of nuclear generated electric power in what they call “the post-industrial zero-growth society”. Excepted are the computer- and service industries. US industries that remain will be exported to countries such as Mexico where abundant slave labor is available.