Roger Valdez of World Changing points to a study in JUPD on fundamental relationships: So while the study has its limits — it compares just two neighborhoods in a single city– it points, as other studies do, to the evidence that sprawl and car dependence are closely linked, and are responsible for a disproportionate share [...]
Yet another interesting concept, the floating ecopolis: There are very few urban design solutions that address housing the inevitable tide of displaced people that could arise as oceans swell under global warming. Certainly none are as spectacular as this one. The Lilypad, by Vincent Callebaut, is a concept for a completely self-sufficient floating city intended [...]
An interesting projection that might be fun to consider for cities like Hartford: The “Community Transit” system would also enable local shipping from business to business with cargo cells, which have the same size openings as a shipping container. As Owsen says, “Cargo cells create incentive for small business peer-to-peer shipping that stimulates local business [...]
How do large corporations impact the environment A study conducted by Trucost, a London-based consulting group, recently assessed the environmental use, damage, and loss by 3,000 of the world’s largest corporations. The study draws conclusions and information from eight years of study, and was commissioned by the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment and the [...]
December 21, 2009 – 10:59 am
Alan Atkisson on Copenhagen The world will never be the same. But it’s the way that the world will never be the same that interests me, for the events of the past two weeks in Copenhagen signal not just a change in global climate politics, but a change in global politics, period. The primary outcome [...]
Kenneth Gosselin writes in the Hartford Courant Even though debate continues over whether the $569 million busway should even be built, the state has spent millions taking properties through eminent domain and demolishing buildings along the proposed route. It’s even tossed out some well-established businesses. The New Britain-Hartford busway has been in the news a [...]
I’ve been thinking about “place design.” I hope my students are too. But I think colleges need to do more to provide experience for students. So, here’s the deal. Internships for artists, game designers, graphic designers (message artists), architects and coders, and ecologists on urban planning committees. Brownfields? Give them to the students, and I’m [...]
February 16, 2009 – 6:43 pm
My friend, Bryan Carroll, writing or The Daily Campus, UCONN’s news paper has covered a few stories that deal with education and health, his latest on the subject of John Dempsey Hospital, which has been bleeding in its own way for several years. Carroll writes An ad-hoc committee with appointed facility of the engineering, nursing [...]
January 11, 2009 – 10:29 am
Yet another article by Tom Condon on suburbia. Suburbs have been developing for more than 100 years. A main problem with the explosive suburban growth after World War II, driven by such things as GI mortgages and cheap cars and gas, was its form. Low-density, auto-dependent sprawl might have made sense in an era of [...]
December 2, 2008 – 6:22 am
Hartford’s Watkinson’s Center for Science and Global Citizenship will be moving into a modular Project Frog building. Should be interesting. Here’s the Courant piece. Then there’s weird reporting on a Mark Olfson study which went after the extent of disorders in young adults: Olfson said it took time to analzye the data, including weighting the [...]
November 29, 2008 – 8:22 pm
This NYT article on a test for athletic ability caught my interest: In health-conscious, sports-oriented Boulder, Atlas Sports Genetics is playing into the obsessions of parents by offering a $149 test that aims to predict a child’s natural athletic strengths. The process is simple. Swab inside the child’s cheek and along the gums to collect [...]
November 9, 2008 – 10:14 am
Mary Glassman comes to some interesting conclusions: Our town is not unique. Connecticut is more reliant on local property tax revenue to fund local education than any state in the nation. Our state contributes only 40 percent to our K-12 education, compared with other states such as Michigan, which contributes 78 percent. As a result, [...]
November 7, 2008 – 9:18 pm
Worldchanging has a letter to President-elect Barack Obama: With your help, we will show that the people of the United States are ready and willing to accept this challenge. And we will ask Obama to issue a call to action with an inaugural address that set specific goals to do the following: * Set a [...]
September 3, 2008 – 8:36 pm
This may prove to be an interesting semester. In World Lit we talked a little about how we establish relationships with the physical world around us. It was a question that just popped into my head but after asking it, I felt one of those holes open that needs lots of filling. We talked about [...]
Alright, I love Tara Hunt on TransitCamp and the complaints/solutions paradigm because I’ve been in the same mood about other projects. She says: This is a solutions playground. Please keep it that way. Yes!!
That Night I Wandered on my Homeward Way (DrunkenBoat 10)
100 Days: 100 Poems, Summer 2008
