Santa Cruz de Tenerife, in the Canary Islands.
We depart this evening for a few weeks of exploration – another journey to see and learn. We will visit some places we know a bit, and some we know not at all. Portugal, Spain, Morocco, Madeira, the Canary archipelago, and then a few days to commune with [...]
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Today I try to understand our cities in another way, using a comparative juxtaposition of images. When I went looking for these images, I knew in my head what they would look like, but the actual facts are, nonetheless, a bit of a shock.
Take a look, thanks to Google Earth. All of these images are at the [...]
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A slum in Manila.
“All cities are mad: but the madness is gallant. All cities are beautiful: but the beauty is grim.” Christopher Morley, Where the Blue Begins.
I continue to search for a vernacular urbanism for the next city. After some reflection, I have concluded that what I am looking for is an urbanism that is local in character, conditional, [...]
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Posted in The next city, The next city: energy, The next city: infrastructure, The next city: mobility, The next city: urbanism, The next city: water, tagged American urbanism, food policy, oil, The next city, urbanism 101, water on October 18, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
I have been reading my usual array of favored websites, and have run into an interesting string of comments in the last couple of days. It seems that Michael Pollan’s piece in the NYT Magazine, which I recommended in the last post, has ignited a furor in some quarters. Pollan is being accused of ”eco-armageddonizing.”
Notwithstanding the [...]
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As I have noted here previously, I have been reading up on the history of food, and how we have arrived at the current state of industrial agriculture – endless fields of monocultures of corn or soybeans, giant factories filled with chickens or pigs or cows, a diet that featured 1/2 pound of high fructose corn [...]
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And so folks hunker down, keep driving to a minimum and use transit instead, spend less, pay off a credit card or two, and wait to see what happens next in the unfolding horror story of global economic implosion. Right? Maybe yes, maybe no. It has taken us centuries to perfect a comprehensive cultural habit [...]
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This graphic was in today’s Washington Post. It illustrates the time Americans waste sitting in traffic every year, and depicts the destinations they could have reached if gridlock unlocked. Hmm. I’ll take the train.
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“Sail on, O ship of state, sail on… our hearts, our hopes, are all with thee…”
Longfellow
Painting by Ron Rizk.
Here’s slightly different way to think of the next city.
Imagine that your city is suddenly an island, or a giant raft. Chicago is adrift in the middle of Lake Michigan, 30 miles off-shore of Illinois or Michigan. Washington has [...]
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GEM e2 electric car – under $10k.
One of our readers points out that cutting carbon footprint at home, getting rid of the car, and emphasizing walkability is all well and good if you’re mobile, but what if walking is a problem? Sit home and mope?
While talking about automated mobility may be a slippery slope in [...]
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In a recent post, we talked about Willits, California and an engineer named Brian Corzilius. He conducted an energy audit for his whole town, in an effort to assist the community in planning for localizing their economy. He discovered in the process that just under 25% of the town’s after-tax income was being spent on [...]
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