Hecker and Decker are on the move – to Rochester, NY. Here’s a look at our new neighborhood.
Rochester at 20,000 feet.
Stay tuned for further developments as we settle in to a new home place.
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Posted in The next city, The next city: energy, The next city: food, The next city: mobility, The next city: urbanism, The next city: water, tagged GDP, Growth, The next city, urbanism on June 26, 2009 | 4 Comments »
I’ll make this short. I am very cranky this afternoon, and I admit it. The lead from the AP wire, a few minutes ago: “Consumers are saving more than they’re spending, and that has investors worried.” What?!?!
Okay, so what, really, is the point of our economy? A rising GDP is the whole game? After a long [...]
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Posted in The next city, The next city: energy, The next city: food, The next city: mobility, The next city: urbanism, The next city: water, tagged cities, energy, food, mobility, scale, urbanism, water on June 9, 2009 | 4 Comments »
The largest city on earth – Tokyo. Image by Altus.
I have often found myself reflecting here on matters of scale – of blocks and streets, of cities and neighborhoods. Recently I have found myself thinking about the relationship between the really, really big, and the fairly tiny. Let me explain.
We lead our daily lives in familiar, [...]
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In April (April 12th, to be exact) I wrote a piece that explored how to find a way to disconnect from all the infrastructure grids in a context of existing urban (and historic) rowhouses. I concluded that it would be very difficult, if not impossible, for a single rowhouse to wiggle free of all the connections: sewer, water, [...]
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Image from MoMA.
We’re off to Philly for a few days of snooping around. Feel free to have a look around here while we’re gone. Back next week.
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Photo by Toby Melville, REUTERS.
Heard on the streets of the city this afternoon, a gaggle of folks walking in the opposite direction, very much engaged in their conversation. One of the guys says, “Once we get through this….” He meant this economic recession or meltdown or whatever you call it. Which got me to thinking.
I have [...]
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Posted in The next city, The next city: food, The next city: urbanism, Urban design, tagged Dutch cities, Ruisdael, The next city, Urban design, urbanism, van der Hayden on May 5, 2009 | 11 Comments »
Amsterdam, painted by Jan Micker in 1652, 350 years before Google Earth.
Lately I have been provoked to reflect on the shapes and forms of urbanism past and future, about the nature of compact and dense urban places, and about what makes the next city, or any city, literally sustainable. Let me explain.
This last weekend we had a chance to [...]
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Posted in The next city, The next city: energy, The next city: mobility, The next city: urbanism, tagged Edison, Ford, lighting, Menlo Park, mobility, Sprague, urbanism, Westinghouse, White City on April 20, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Edison’s first lamp, by Robert Farrow.
I am not a luddite, but I do have a very healthy skepticism about technology representing our salvation. In the past 10 generations, we have succeeded in making an enormous mess, thanks to technology, a mess of such proportions that we are only now beginning to understand what we have done, and [...]
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Posted in The next city, The next city: energy, The next city: infrastructure, The next city: urbanism, The next city: water, tagged district CHP, infrastructure, Off the grid, The next city, urbanism on April 12, 2009 | 4 Comments »
I want to talk about scale and size in our urban infrastructure, but it will take me a few minutes. Stick with me.
I started off last week continuing to think about the grid, or grids, that make cities work. Kind of.
Actually, our cities don’t really work very well at all, and their grids are pretty [...]
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Posted in The next city, The next city: energy, The next city: food, The next city: infrastructure, The next city: mobility, The next city: urbanism, The next city: water, tagged billions, high speed rail, scale, urbanism on April 3, 2009 | 3 Comments »
We hear every day now about the staggering sums of money being thrown at this and that sinking sector of our nation’s economy. It’s hard to understand the scale of all of this. I am just now starting to figure out what a toxic asset is, and I am struggling to grasp what $700 billion dollars means. Or $50 [...]
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