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RESULTS		Results 76 – 100 of 150
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Headline	Author	Published	Section
The blame game Who is at fault for the fires in SoCal?	Kit Stolz	02 Nov 2007	Gristmill
After burning nearly half a million acres, the devastating wildfires of this past week in southern California have been put down. Controversy raged with the flames; now that the air is beginning to clear, it's time to comb through the wreckage for some insight worth remembering. And there's a lot to examine, as experts of all types came forward with reactions -- some to lead, some to offer insight, and some to smear. The San Francisco Chronicle had uncharacteristically ...
Topics: sprawl, urban planning, California, climate, climate change impacts (all these topics)

Growing cooler Can urban planners save the earth?	Eric de Place	31 Oct 2007	Gristmill
A couple of weeks ago I was in Vancouver, B.C., at a conference where it seemed like everyone was talking about a new book called Growing Cooler: The Evidence on Urban Development and Climate Change. Reviewing dozens of empirical studies, the book's central argument is that urban form is inextricably linked to climate. Low-density sprawl has been a principal contributor to North American climate emissions. And by the same token, smart compact development -- the k ...
Topics: climate, climate change mitigation, placemaking, sprawl, urban planning (all these topics)

Even more of what 'bike friendly' looks like Danish picturebook, Portland video show how to respect bicyclists	Alan Durning	24 Oct 2007	Gristmill
What bicycle-respecting streets, intersections, and neighborhoods look like is largely a mystery to most people, even those who cycle regularly. I've offered descriptions twice before. Since then, two wonderful new tools have been completed. StreetFilms.org, the awesome, New York-based outfit that makes movies about cycling, has posted a 30-minute ode to Portland's bikability (linked above). It makes Bicycle Respect visible. (Other, shorter StreetFilms works on P ...
Topics: bikes, Denmark, placemaking, Portland, urban planning (all these topics)

This urban life Even the greenest suburbs can't touch low urban emission rates	Ryan Avent	21 Oct 2007	Gristmill
Last Sunday, the Washington Post published a piece by Joel Kotkin and Ali Modarres which sought to debunk the ideas that dense urban areas are greener than their suburban counterparts and that encouraging dense growth might play a significant role in reducing America's carbon output. The piece was wrong or misleading on practically every point, to the extent that any complete response would take up far more time and space than I have available. Some of the authors' most e ...
Topics: climate, greenhouse-gas emissions, placemaking, sprawl, urban planning (all these topics)

Suburban legend Widening roads does not, in fact, reduce emissions	Clark Williams-Derry	13 Oct 2007	Gristmill
Why is it that stupid ideas get all the air time?For months, fellow climate geeks have been telling me that road-builders -- and the politicians who love them -- have started to make a startling claim: namely, that widening a congested highway will help curb global warming. By reducing stop-and-go traffic, the argument goes, cars will operate more efficiently and waste less fuel. So if you want to save the climate, you'd better widen that road! To me, t ...
Topics: climate, greenhouse-gas emissions, placemaking, urban planning (all these topics)

Oh, Deer L.A. considers freeway overpass for wildlife		10 Oct 2007	News
Posted at 10:32 AM on 10 Oct 2007 Los Angeles is considering adding another commuter lane -- for wildlife. But a proposal for a $455,000 animal path over the 405 Freeway is unpopular with residents who argue that transportation dollars should go to easing human-caused congestion, not making the commute more enjoyable for bobcats, coyotes, deer, and opossums. source:� Los Angeles Times From the Archives Through Hell a ...
Topics: Los Angeles, news, placemaking, urban planning, wildlife (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)

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)

Roads with transit? No, thanks The RTID package doesn't give Seattle voters a fair choice	Erica Barnett	30 Sep 2007	Gristmill
Those of us who live in and around Seattle will vote this November on a huge package that's being sold as "roads and transit." Stay with me -- it's complicated but important, and it could have implications for transit projects around the US. Of the $18 billion in the package, about $10 billion will pay for 50 miles of new light rail; the rest will pay for roads projects, including 152 new miles of general-purpose highways (and 74 miles of HOV). Because ou ...
Topics: politics, public transportation, Seattle, urban planning (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)

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)

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)

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)

Something good grows around Ground Zero Rebuilding the NYC financial district has resulted in a walkable residential community	Jon Rynn	11 Sep 2007	Gristmill
On this anniversary of that horrible morning six years ago, perhaps we are starting to see some good rising from the ashes. The southern part of the island of Manhattan, which used to turn into a ghost town after work, is starting to take on some of the characteristics of many of the other neighborhoods in New York City -- what University of Michigan architecture and urban design professor Christopher B. Leinberger calls 'walkable urbanism': From an urban planning point ...
Topics: New York City, placemaking, urban planning (all these topics)

No Looking Back Los Angeles Times series looks at NOLA's rebuilding effort two years later		30 Aug 2007	Daily Grist
No Looking Back Los Angeles Times series looks at NOLA's rebuilding effort two years later The two-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina is a largely grim occasion, but a Los Angeles Times series has found cause for inspiration. In a 10-story installment, the paper appraises the rebuilding effort in New Orleans and the innovation it has sparked -- particularly in ...
Topics: green building, innovation, Louisiana, news, placemaking, severe weather, urban planning (all these topics)

The Best Defense Is a Good ... Marsh Two years after Katrina, New Orleans is still succumbing to water	Wayne Curtis	29 Aug 2007	Dispatches
is a freelance writer who's written for The New York Times, Atlantic Monthly, American Scholar, Preservation, and American Heritage, and is the author of And a Bottle of Rum: A History of the New World in Ten Cocktails. He recently traded Maine winters for New Orleans summers. Dispatch: 1 \| 2 \| 3 \| 4 Wednesday, 29 Aug 2007 NEW ORLEANS, La. Katrina left these boats high and dry -- b ...
Topics: agriculture, Big Oil, Dispatches, Louisiana, Mississippi River, placemaking, severe weather, urban planning, water pollution, wetlands (all these topics)

'Eco cities' easier said than done in today's China	David Roberts	28 Aug 2007	Gristmill
Remember architect Bill McDonough's much-ballyhooed "eco-cities" in China? Mara Hvistendahl points to troubling signs that the projects are falling apart.
Topics: Bill McDonough, China, placemaking, urban planning (all these topics)

Green goes the Lower Ninth The Nation reports on sustainable revitalization of the New Orleans neighborhood	Grist	23 Aug 2007	Gristmill
This article by Rebecca Solnit is reprinted from the Sept. 10, 2007 issue of The Nation, released today, which focuses on the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, two years later. Solnit is the author of a dozen books, including, most recently, Storming the Gates of Paradise: Landscapes for Politics. ----- The word 'will' comes up constantly in the Lower Ninth Ward now; 'We Will Rebuild' is spray-painted onto empty houses; 'it will happen,' one organizer told me. Will itself ...
Topics: energy, green building, Louisiana, placemaking, solar voltaic power, urban planning, wetlands (all these topics)

Galbraith says what he really thinks Economist goes over to the dark side	biodiversivist	15 Aug 2007	Gristmill
Some facts to hang your hat on: Good governance might save the day. Bad governance could just make things worse. I generally agree with Galbraith's opinions. However, there is always a reasonable probability that some of his opinions are wrong (as is true of anybody's opinions, including my own). He's quoted in David's post: 'Planning' is a word that too many in this debate are trying to avoid, fearful, perhaps, of its Soviet overtones. But the reality of cl ...
Topics: climate, energy, placemaking, politics, urban planning (all these topics)

15 Green Buildings		10 Aug 2007	Main Dish
Green building has grown up, from a tiny movement of hands-on idealists to an increasingly mainstream business sector that erects office towers and research centers. Sure, the structures on this list aren't as low-impact as yurts or straw-bale homes, but they represent green building on a broader, more public scale -- where energy efficiency and sustainably sourced materials come together to touch the lives of the many rather than the few. Read through the list, t ...
Topics: green building, lists, placemaking, urban planning (all these topics)

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