February 2012
6 posts
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“If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it...”
– I came across this Rudyard Kipling quote from the poem ‘If’ (1909) in an old journal entry last night. Thought it worth sharing. Onward.
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“…the most important qualities in a city planner are “principled”,...”
– Brent Toderian, Former Vancouver Planning Director
January 2012
6 posts
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Higher Ed Moving Online and the Campus Environs? →
Reports about this Stanford artificial intelligence course getting 160K enrollees may offer an insight into the future of higher education — especially if universities can begin charging for this enrollment to bring in extra revenue, without paying for the physical space these additional students might occupy on a campus. This, however, brings up interesting questions about the role of the...
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Moon Colonization an Important Issue? Really? →
Great discourse on an important subjuct by robertreich that ends up loosely tied to city planning on the moon of all places:
Newt’s latest idea, for example – to colonize the moon – is typically whacky.
As Reich reminds us, American citizens should not be so flippant as to simply assume a Newt nomination equates to an Obama victory. Our social and economic future is not something to gamble...
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Walkability Report Generates Questions →
New walkability benchmarking report out with some provocative results. I’m curious how Alaska can be the highest ranking state with regard to walking levels, but not have a city that ranks in the top 50.
Also, not surprising, the places with the most walking look like they have the most bike-ped related fatalities, but such inferences generate their own set of questions. All are...
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November 2011
10 posts
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Sea Ranch a 'Beautiful Example of Environmental...
” the totality of The Sea Ranch offers an example of an environmentally sensitive development and place that is also sublimely beautiful…”
I find this quote by Sarah Williams Goldhagen in the New Republic to be very provocative and am wondering how she objectively supports such a strong claim. Her article mentions nothing about sustainability — For example, the...
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Complicated Housing at UC Merced →
The planners on the Merced campus had mentioned this phenomenon to me recently and I thought it was fascinating. Now it appears in the NY Times.
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Freeze Your Jeans to be Green
To save water, “Levi Strauss suggests washing jeans rarely, if at all — the theory being that putting them in the freezer will kill germs that cause them to smell.”
October 2011
11 posts
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How will the Suburbs Cope with Poverty? |... →
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Streets Alive! Project - Call for Artists →
ucberkeleyplanning:
The Chancellor’s Community Partnership Fund recently funded artistic treatments ‘on 7 of utility boxes on the campus edge that reflect UC Berkeley’s actions and visions of sustainability.’ The project is a partnership with the Earth Island Institute to make 60 utility boxes in downtown Berkeley works of art. UC Berkeley faculty, staff, students and alumni are invited to...
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Land Banking & Shrinking Cities →
Have been very intrigued by this concept recently and look forward to opportunities to research it further in the future — including opportunities created for urban green space and agriculture.
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Affordable Housing Examples
Thoughtful article by John King from the SF Chronicle today about how SF designers focus on architecture makes a dramatic difference in affordable housing projects. The projects incorporate many of the features discussed in the literature and my own research.
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September 2011
3 posts
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July 2011
6 posts
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Would You Trade Your Car for A Lifetime Transit... →
June 2011
2 posts
May 2011
1 post
April 2011
1 post
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March 2011
5 posts
100,000 denim insulation fund
berkeleytransportation:
Came across interesting fund to use blue jeans for building insulation.
“…An initiative designed to reuse unwanted denim while keeping it out of landfills. The company will provide grants to organizations currently undergoing construction projects to offset the cost difference between using conventional insulation and recycled denim insulation.”...
