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RESULTS		Results 301 – 325 of 1244
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Headline	Author	Published	Section
Safe streets Not pedaling can kill you	Alan Durning	09 Oct 2007	Gristmill
My youngest son had a bike wreck this summer: a driver cut him off on a steep downhill. Peter managed to avoid the car by tumbling over the curb, but the fall inflicted some nasty road rash. It also inspired me to dig into the question of bicycle safety more rigorously than before: Is it safe for Peter to be biking so much? Here's what I learned: Biking is safer than it used to be. It's safer than you might think. It does incur the risk of collision, but its other he ...
Topics: bikes, placemaking (all these topics)

Slow your city Like they do it in Italy	Tom Philpott	08 Oct 2007	Gristmill
From Der Spiegel:It's not easy to be punctual for a meeting with Stefano Cimicchi. Parking places are hard to come by in Orvieto, even if cars are still legal. Cars in the city center stick out like a sore thumb among strolling pedestrians, who move to the sides of the streets with studied slowness. After a couple of twisty laps though the narrow medieval alleyways of the old town center, you might find a parking place on the edge of the small Umbrian town -- and pay ha ...
Topics: cars, green living, placemaking, urban planning (all these topics)

Velib' liberates Paris A Parisian tries out the city's new rent-a-bike program	Jon Rynn	05 Oct 2007	Gristmill
The following is a guest essay from my sister, Margie Rynn, who has lived in Paris for seven years. ----- It took me awhile to be willing to try Velib', the new rent-a-bike program now available all over the streets of Paris.I love the idea: anyone can pick up a bike at any metro station or anywhere there's a 'borne' (stand) of bikes, ride around for half an hour, and then leave it at any Velib' stand. That first half hour is free, and not only that, the bikes themsel ...
Topics: bikes, France, placemaking, public transportation (all these topics)

I had a dream Seattle in 2020	biodiversivist	05 Oct 2007	Gristmill
The year was 2020 and Seattle had become the bicycle capital of the world. Visitors lined the streets to learn how we did it. Thanks to global warming, clothing had gone out of style, but thanks to genetic engineering we could alter our skin pigmentation to be any color we wanted. Racism had become a thing of the past and mustaches were popular again.
Topics: bikes, placemaking, Seattle (all these topics)

Moving Stricture Corps may buy out coastal Miss. towns, encourage residents to move inland		02 Oct 2007	News
Posted at 3:13 PM on 02 Oct 2007 The Army Corps of Engineers is seeking support from three coastal Mississippi counties for a proposal to buy out 17,000 homes and encourage residents to move inland. The Corps generally reserves buyouts for areas prone to river flooding; the new proposal is an indication that the U.S. may be seriously considering the risk of sea-level rise, coastal erosion, and stronger hu ...
Topics: Army Corps of Engineers, climate, climate change impacts, Mississippi, news, placemaking, politics, urban planning (all these topics)

A greener economy from the grassroots New book details successes; join a chat with Paul Hawken	Erik Hoffner	02 Oct 2007	Gristmill
At work today I received a review copy of Building the Green Economy: Success Stories From the Grassroots, which just hit the presses and looks interesting. It's a diverse roundup of grassroots efforts aimed at stewardship and urban renewal toward a cleaner economy and greener, more just communities. Green economy superstar Van Jones is interviewed, of course, but I didn't notice a nod to Paul Hawken right off the bat, whose pioneering books on the topic of greening the ...
Topics: books, business, grassroots activism, placemaking (all these topics)

Putting your inner political superego on hold A utopian realist agenda	Jon Rynn	01 Oct 2007	Gristmill
Recently Nordhaus and Shellenberger (N&S) posted on Gristmill, wrote in The New Republic, and published a book, all with the aim of offering a better alternative to the mainstream environmental agenda. In my estimation, they made three important points: Americans would respond to a positive vision of the future; global warming can only be solved if, in addition to regulatory policies, we embark on a program of public investment; and the public is quite open to the idea ...
Topics: business, climate, climate change mitigation, energy, placemaking, politics (all these topics)

Russian roulette Expect bicycle deaths in Seattle to climb	biodiversivist	30 Sep 2007	Gristmill
Not good. I happened upon this accident scene a few days ago. Apparently, a right turning truck hit a young bicyclist, killing him instantly. He had been in Seattle for only a few weeks and was the same age as my daughter, who rides a bike on a distant college campus. The sight truly unsettled me and made my bike trip through the heart of downtown more nerve racking than usual. I want to use this tragedy to send a message to our amiable yet bumbling local ...
Topics: Seattle, placemaking, bikes (all these topics)

Folds-mobile Business travel, Bike Friday, and the Spokane airport	Alan Durning	26 Sep 2007	Gristmill
Confession: I have long coveted a Bike Friday. What cyclist wouldn't? A folding bike that fits in a suitcase -- and the suitcase becomes a bike trailer! Pedal to the airport or train station, take your luggage out of your trailer, fold your bike into the trailer, check your luggage (including your bike), and at trip's end, reverse the process. Ingenious! So I danced a jig when a founder of the Eugene, Ore.-based company offered to let me try the new Tikit model this ...
Topics: bikes, innovation, placemaking, travel (all these topics)

Not just a pretty face Brad Pitt pledges millions for sustainable rebuilding of New Orleans	Joseph Romm	26 Sep 2007	Gristmill
Brad turns out to be as serious (on climate) as he is good looking. He came to the first CGI as an observer, not a speaker. But today he announced a major commitment: Brad Pitt expanded his commitment to New Orleans' Lower Ninth Ward today by announcing plans for a new community of homes in the area hardest-hit by the worst natural disaster in American history. He is partnering with Steve Bing in creating the 150 affordable and sustainable homes, which are t ...
Topics: celebrity, green building, Louisiana, placemaking, urban planning (all these topics)

Brown Towns British prime minister aims to build even more eco-towns		25 Sep 2007	News
Posted at 4:08 PM on 25 Sep 2007 British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has pledged to build 10 "eco-towns," doubling his original vision of five. We like a man with ambition! source:� BBC News see also, in Gristmill:� A glimpse of environmental policies to come from Gordon Brown From the Archives Mo' Mobile. New National Park Service rules allow 540 snowmobiles a day into Yellowstone. Paying t ...
Topics: Gordon Brown, news, placemaking, United Kingdom, urban planning (all these topics)

Health Class L.A. building schools close to freeways		24 Sep 2007	News
Posted at 11:40 AM on 24 Sep 2007 More than 60,000 students in Los Angeles attend school within 500 feet of a highway, and seven more traffic-spooning campuses are in the works, despite health experts' warnings that such pollution-proximate students are at increased risk of asthma and other illnesses. All of the schools will be built with air-filtration systems, but such systems do not reliably remove the smallest, most dangerous particulate p ...
Topics: air pollution, education, health, Los Angeles, news, placemaking, urban planning (all these topics)

Portland: Cool after all New report debunks libertarian attack on Portland city planning	David Roberts	24 Sep 2007	Gristmill
A while back, a guy named Randal O'Toole at the libertarian Cato Institute put out a report "debunking" Portland, Ore.'s efforts to encourage dense, transit-oriented development. As Portland is at the forefront of such efforts, the report was taken as a debunking of New Urbanism in general and got lots and lots of press. The Congress for the New Urbanism asked urbanist expert Michael Lewyn to take a look at the report. Not surprisingly, it doesn't hold up ...
Topics: Oregon, placemaking, Portland, urban planning (all these topics)

Traffic report How much does congestion affect society?	Clark Williams-Derry	22 Sep 2007	Gristmill
The big story this week was congestion: the Texas Transportation Institute released its annual Urban Mobility Study to the typical fanfare. See, e.g., stories here, here, here, here, here, and here. The headlines, as always, are gloomy: congestion's on the rise just about everywhere, and is wasting our time, gas, and money. The word from the researchers isn't particularly hopeful either. Sure, there are things that can be done to slow the increase in con ...
Topics: cars, placemaking (all these topics)

Sprawl and global warming Land-use and development decisions are crucial in the fight against climate change, says new report	David Roberts	22 Sep 2007	Gristmill
Living closer to where you work will do more to fight climate change than buying a Prius and living in the 'burbs. We'll never beat climate change until we change the way we structure our communities. That is the conclusion of a new report out from the Urban Land Institute: The report, "Growing Cooler: Evidence on Urban Development and Climate Change," analyzed scores of academic studies and concluded that compact development -- mixing housing and busin ...
Topics: climate, climate change mitigation, placemaking, sprawl, urban planning (all these topics)

PARK(ing) Day Parking lots transform into parks for one day	Adam Browning	21 Sep 2007	Gristmill
There are two kinds of public demonstrations. Those that attract people to the cause and demonstrate new possibilities, and those that just piss people off and make enemies out of potential friends. Here's a beautiful example of the former. 'Parking' can either mean leaving an expensive hunk of climate-changing steel to cool on greasy asphalt, or it can mean sitting on the grass with friends, drinking wine in the fresh, clean air. These guys have an elegant way of g ...
Topics: grassroots activism, placemaking, politics, urban planning (all these topics)

Walk It Off Land-use decisions a key factor in emissions reduction, says analysis		21 Sep 2007	News
Posted at 12:36 PM on 21 Sep 2007 How to reduce U.S. greenhouse-gas emissions? Building compact, mixed-use neighborhoods would be just as effective as much-touted policies like boosting fuel economy, cleaning up power plants, and building green, says a new analysis from the Urban Land Institute. The U.S. population is expected to grow 23 percent by 2030; under the sprawl-encouraging status quo, driving is expected ...
Topics: climate, climate change mitigation, greenhouse-gas emissions, news, placemaking, sprawl, urban planning (all these topics)

Carfree to Be You and Me Sept. 22 is World Carfree Day		21 Sep 2007	News
Posted at 10:55 AM on 21 Sep 2007 Tomorrow is World Carfree Day. You know what to do. From the Archives Bat Out of Heaven. Red Sox partner with NRDC to green Fenway Park. The Anarchist Cookbook, Vegan Edition. Mistrial declared for eco-activist accused of inciting vegans to bomb. Shiny Happy People. Utility will pay for solar on Habitat for Humanity houses in California. News Archives
Topics: cars, grassroots activism, innovation, news, placemaking (all these topics)

Condos do not have agency Does anyone choose to live in a condo?	Eric de Place	21 Sep 2007	Gristmill
One of the curiosities of language is that our usage can sometimes inadvertently reveal our underlying beliefs. Consider how condos are often described as if they are conscious actors who perform actions, such as 'packing people together.' One example comes from the Seattle P-I: 'Now, condominiums are building upward, packing people into to what used to be inexpensive property.' According to this way of writing, it's the condos, not the owners, that have what we philo ...
Topics: placemaking, sprawl, urban planning (all these topics)

Shiny Happy People Utility will pay for solar on Habitat for Humanity houses in California		21 Sep 2007	News
Posted at 4:57 AM on 21 Sep 2007 Recognizing that solar electricity is a good investment in the long run but a bit spendy up front, utility Pacific Gas and Electric has agreed to pay for solar power on some 65 houses built by Habitat for Humanity in northern and central California next year. PG&E will donate about $1.2 million for panels and installation; low-income residents will see radically reduce ...
Topics: California, energy, environmental justice, news, placemaking, renewable energy, solar voltaic power (all these topics)

Seeking reader opinions Should USGBC certify a 15,000-sq.-ft. home as green?	Joseph Romm	20 Sep 2007	Gristmill
A 'speculative 15,000 square foot mansion in Manalapan, Fla., will be the first home of its size to be certified green by the U.S. Green Building Council and the Florida Green Building Council.' Is that a good idea for USGBC? That's my question to you. Obviously people are going to build big homes -- and it is better if they have green features. But should USGBC single out such 'eco-mansions' for positive recognition? On the big side, the mansion has: ... ei ...
Topics: Florida, green building, placemaking (all these topics)

Give me a sign Bike routes need names	Alan Durning	20 Sep 2007	Gristmill
I recently bicycled from Seattle to Bellevue, Washington, across Lake Washington on the I-90 floating bridge. This trip is not complicated. Once you're on the wide, well-shielded bike lane, you'd think that getting to Bellevue would be assured. You'd be wrong. First, you have to get across Mercer Island. On the island, the bike route leaves the freeway and vanishes into a labyrinth of branching paths. They're beautiful bikeways, no doubt: wide, separated from traffic, ...
Topics: bikes, placemaking (all these topics)

Tippecanoe and Tainted Too Indiana county has three times more parking spaces than residents		19 Sep 2007	News
Posted at 3:23 PM on 19 Sep 2007 Indiana's Tippecanoe County is home to 155,000 residents whom apparently are swamped with visitors, as the county has 355,000 public parking spaces. We'll just float this by them: Parking lots can contribute to water pollution, erosion, the urban heat island effect, and local flooding. Which could be extra dangerous for those in a Tippecanoe -- if you get our drift. They ...
Topics: Indiana, news, placemaking, sprawl, water pollution (all these topics)

China to hold no-car day Residents in over 100 Chinese cities urged to walk, bike, or use public transit this Saturday	Adam Browning	17 Sep 2007	Gristmill
China, once famed as a bicycling nation, tries to put the genie back in the bottle.
Topics: bikes, cars, China, placemaking, public transportation (all these topics)

Wheeling and Dealing U.S. Transportation Secretary blames bikes for decay of roads and bridges		14 Sep 2007	News
Posted at 2:15 PM on 14 Sep 2007 When one rides a bicycle, one is able to transport oneself from place to place -- thus, one might call a bicycle "transportation." But not if one is U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary Peters. Despite the fact that 10 percent of all U.S. trips to work, school, and store happen on bike or foot, Peters said in August that bike paths "are really not transpor ...
Topics: bikes, Department of Transportation, green living, news, placemaking, politics, urban planning (all these topics)

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