Planetizen - Urban Planning, Design and Development Network

• — The Visions of Paolo Soleri: Dimmed, But Still Hanging in There

     (Tuesday, 07 September 2010 17:00)

  In 1970, visionary architect Paolo Solieri began envisioned a utopian city in Arizona. The resulting development, Arcosanti, and its architect have struggled for relevancy ever since.

  

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• — Humongous Tree Irks Neighbors

     (Tuesday, 07 September 2010 16:00)

  The front yard of a home in suburban Plymouth, England is completely enveloped by a leylandii tree. Neighbors say it's an eyesore, the owner says he's being unfairly targeted.

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• — Shifting Federal Transportation Dollars to Create More Jobs

     (Tuesday, 07 September 2010 15:00)

  Shifting federal transportation dollars to transit projects could help create up to 180,000 jobs and not raise the federal deficit, according to a new report.

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• — Legalizing and Protecting Jaywalkers Through Design

     (Tuesday, 07 September 2010 14:00)

  Most crosswalks are straight lines, but many people walk across streets in an arc. One designer has proposed changing the way crosswalks are painted to improve pedestrian safety.

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• — The Beauty of Public Spaces

     (Tuesday, 07 September 2010 13:00)

  A new book by Robert Gatje gives public squares and piazzas the coffee-table treatment, meticulously detailing what makes these historic spaces work.

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• — HSR Opponents Vow To Continue Litigation

     (Tuesday, 07 September 2010 12:00)

  Contention over how California's high speed rail train from Los Angeles should access the Bay Area appears to be the dispute that won't go away. Having just lost their case in court only 2 weeks ago, approval of the Pacheco Pass may continue.

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• — Building Ramps Up at World Trade Center Site

     (Tuesday, 07 September 2010 11:00)

  The New York Times reports that yes, construction is beginning to move more rapidly at Ground Zero.

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• — Exporting Suburbanism

     (Tuesday, 07 September 2010 10:00)

  Developing countries have begun importing Western-style pro-sprawl urban planning policies, often to their detriment. Kuala Lumpur and cities across the communist world are examined.

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• — Paris, City of Bees

     (Tuesday, 07 September 2010 09:00)

  The BBC reports that there is a surge in urban beekeeping in Paris, with 400 hives and growing within the city limits.

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• — 'Greening the Ghetto'

     (Tuesday, 07 September 2010 08:00)

  Low income housing can also be green housing. A new trend in home design and community activism is giving even inexpensive housing a green sheen.

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BLDGBLOG

architectural conjecture :: urban speculation :: landscape futures

• — Urban Greenscreen

     (Tuesday, 07 September 2010 15:34)

  [Image: An outdoor greenscreen for Sony Studios].
  
  Right around the corner from our new apartment here in Los Angeles is an outdoor greenscreen owned by Sony Studios. Something was being shot there the other night, for instance, complete with what amounted to an artificial moon held by crane at least sixty feet above the rooftops, glowing amidst evening fog like a new installation by Leonid Tishkov.
  
  There's something oddly Holodeck-like about having a greenscreen literally just two buildings away from us—as if at...

• — Hydromania

     (Monday, 06 September 2010 16:18)

  Israeli novelist Assaf Gavron's recent book Hydromania has yet to appear in English, as far as I can tell, but I'd love to read it when it does.
  
  [Image: The German cover of Hydromania by Assaf Gavron].
  
  Set in a drought-stricken world "several decades into the future," run by "water corporations from China, Japan and the Ukraine," it follows the science fictionalized path of a "maverick water engineer" who has developed an illegal black-market technology for purifying rain water. As the website Qantara explains:...

• — House in a Can

     (Monday, 06 September 2010 15:46)

  [Image: A future site for Austin + Mergold's House-In-A-Can].
  
  Architects Austin + Mergold have a proposal for how to reuse agricultural silos and other circular structures of the U.S. farm belt: it's what they call A-House-In-A-Can.
  
  Pitched for a farm in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, the project comes complete with a faux-Craiglist hard sell: "36-foot in diameter American grain dryer with 2000 SF single family starter home inside. Instantly assembled off-the-shelf 14 GA galvanized corrugated steel exterior a 2000 SF developer house inside. Optional greenhouse. Buy 5...

• — Semicircular and built at the base of a large rock

     (Monday, 06 September 2010 15:07)

  [Image: Jack Whitten prepping octopi on the rocky coast; photo via Art Lies: A Contemporary Art Quarterly].
  
  Jack Whitten is an octopus-hunter—or octopus fisherman, we might say, both more and less accurately. This activity, which he performs without the use of air tanks, requires a surprisingly niche architectural knowledge: "Millions of years ago," Whitten writes, "the octopus had a shell, but slowly they lost it through the evolutionary process. Since then, the octopus is always looking for a home. They occupy the abandoned shells of other...

• — Arctic Technology

     (Sunday, 05 September 2010 17:17)

  [Image: "Seeing-Outlook" (2001) from Arctic Technology by Christian Houge].
  
  Photographer Christian Houge's Arctic Technology series offers a look at large-scale scientific installations on the Norwegian island of Svalbard.
  
  [Image: From Arctic Technology by Christian Houge].
  
  As the Hosfelt Gallery in San Francisco describes the series, several examples of which you see here:

  There is an island located between Greenland and the North Pole called Spitsbergen or Svalbard (“the...

  • — Writer In Residence

       (Saturday, 04 September 2010 17:10)

    [Images: Casa Kike by Gianni Botsford Architects, photographed by Christian Richters].
    
    Reestablishing myself here on a desktop computer that had been sitting inside a storage unit for the past 15 months, I've been having a good time going through old bookmarks: rediscovering what I saved way back in 2008 and 2009, and seeing whether or not I'm still interested in the stories. Articles about mining the ocean floor, about the state of California selling landmarks to raise cash, and about design competitions that came and went...

  • — Predisposed

       (Saturday, 04 September 2010 15:50)

    [Image: Sellafield; photo courtesy of Wikimedia/Visit Cumbria].
    
    For some reason I woke up this morning thinking of a story from nearly two years ago: that LLWR, new owners of the English nuclear facility at Sellafield, had arrived at their new property to find so little paperwork about where nuclear waste had been stored—and by whom, and how—that they had to put an ad in the local newspaper asking if anyone else remembered where the nuclear waste was dumped.
    
    "We need your help," the...

  • — Theater of Immersion

       (Thursday, 02 September 2010 16:43)

    [Image: Photo by Jim Stephenson].
    
    Architectural photographer Jim Stephenson got in touch the other week with some photos he recently took of an elaborate stage set, constructed by the group dreamthinkspeak, for a new play based on Anton Chekhov's "The Cherry Orchard."
    
    The play was performed in Brighton, England, inside an old department store, the entirety of which had been transformed into a labyrinthine performance space, complete with a Russian supermarket, a simulated department store (within the very frame of the abandoned one),...

  • — Windy City

       (Wednesday, 01 September 2010 13:13)

    [Image: "Storm Clouds Over Central Park" by Joseph Bergantine].
    
    Do urban landscapes act as attractors for storms and hurricanes? "New research shows that rough areas of land, including city buildings and naturally jagged land cover like trees and forests, can actually attract passing hurricanes," a study claimed last week.
    
    It works because the whole landscape acts as a kind of vortex or chimney: "Rough cityscapes and forests trap air. This compresses the air and forces it up into the atmosphere, adding energy to...

  • — Relocative Media

       (Monday, 30 August 2010 13:36)

    Just a quick note to say that I haven't fallen off a bridge, I've simply moved back to Los Angeles after a cross-country drive (the second this summer), we've hauled everything out of a storage unit where it'd been gathering dust for 15 months, and, on top of the ins and outs of any major relocation, we've only just got home internet worked out—so I'm unbelievably behind in posting. But hello once again from Los Angeles—and expect to see more here shortly!

    

  • — Augmented Metropolis

       (Monday, 23 August 2010 13:00)

    
    
    Keiichi Matsuda, a recent graduate—with distinction—from the Bartlett School of Architecture, whose film Domestic Robocop was featured on BLDGBLOG several months ago, has a new project out: Augmented City. And it's in 3D.
    
    The film "focuses on the deprogramming of architecture and the spontaneous creation of customised, aggregated spaces," Matsuda writes. We see its central protagonist surrounded by pop-up menus and projected touchscreens, able to switch urban backgrounds—graffiti to gardens—in an instant. From the project description:

    The architecture of the contemporary city is no longer simply about the physical space of buildings and...

    • — Pallet House

         (Sunday, 22 August 2010 15:29)

      [Image: The Palettenpavillon by Matthias Loebermann, photographed/copyright by Mila Hacke, Berlin].
      
      The Palettenpavillon by Matthias Loebermann is a structure made entirely from shipping pallets, ground anchors, and tie rods. Designed to be easily assembled and dismantled, and then entirely recycled at a later date, the resulting building is intended as a temporary meeting place.
      
      [Image: The Palettenpavillon by Matthias Loebermann, photographed/copyright by Mila Hacke, Berlin].
      
      As the architect writes,...

    • — Hives and valves, filters and membranes

         (Sunday, 22 August 2010 00:09)

      [Image: Detailed view of Hylozoic Ground's "Protocell" assembly; courtesy of Philip Beesley Architect].
      
      Philip Beesley's Hylozoic Ground installation opens this coming Friday at the Venice Biennale, where it is installed inside the Canadian pavilion. It is a "suspended geotextile that gradually accumulates hybrid soil from ingredients drawn from its surroundings."
      
      As Beesley explains, "Hylozoic Ground is an immersive, interactive environment that moves and breathes around its viewers... Next-generation artificial intelligence, synthetic biology, and interactive technology create an environment that is nearly alive." Indeed,...

    • — Car Jack Planet

         (Saturday, 21 August 2010 02:06)

      An article published today in the Los Angeles Times contains several fascinating details, including scenes of researchers from the Southern California Earthquake Center digging trenches into land surrounding the San Andreas fault.
      
      [Image: Photo by Ricardo DeAratanha, courtesy of the Los Angeles Times].
      
      There, they use "carbon dating and sophisticated imaging technology known as lidar to find signs of earth movements," and, in the process, are "able to detect earthquakes dating back to the 15th century." Seismic historiography meets the earth-archive.
      

    • — Soundlog

         (Tuesday, 17 August 2010 12:27)

      [Image: Woodworms by Zimoun].
      
      While we're on the subject of acoustic botany, it's worth recalling Swiss artist Zimoun's Woodworms installation, whose minimalist set-up simply reads: "25 woodworms, wood, microphone, sound system." You can watch—and listen to—a video of the piece here.
      
      Don't miss Zimoun's other work, however: a machinic delirium of motors mounted on walls and tabletops, all oscillating in and out of phase with one another and ebbing with the off-kilter sound of endless drones.
      
      (Huge thanks to

    • — Acoustic Forestry

         (Tuesday, 17 August 2010 11:22)

      [Image: From Acoustic Botany by David Benqué].
      
      We saw David Benqué's Fabulous Fabbers project here on BLDGBLOG a few months ago, but his more recent work, Acoustic Botany, deserves similar attention.
      
      Acoustic Botany uses genetically modified plants to produce a "fantastical acoustic garden," where sounds literally grow on trees. "Desired traits such as volume, timbre and harmony are acquired through selective breeding techniques," the artist explains.
      
      [Image: From Acoustic...

    • — On the Road Again

         (Tuesday, 10 August 2010 21:33)

      [Image: Muscovites forced to masks against smoke from the burning forests and peat bogs of a drought-stricken Russia; photo by Alexander Demianchuk/Reuters].
      
      I'll be on the road for the next week or more, driving west, reading The Dead Hand on our long-delayed move back to Los Angeles, so things will be a bit quiet here. In the absence of regular posts, however, some links worth checking out include Pruned's proposal for a "conflict zoo," or a wildlife arena "that only exhibits animals affected by man-made disasters."

      Instead...

      • — Documents, Maps, and Files of a Fictional Architecture

           (Wednesday, 04 August 2010 13:19)

        [Image: The Nesin Map by Protocol Architecture].
        
        One of the more interesting student projects I've seen in a long time used a "document-based" approach to architecture to fabricate an entire fictional world—one in which top secret underground research labs, militarized bacteria, artificial earthquakes, and much more were all found conspiring beneath the streets of Berlin, Baghdad, and Istanbul.
        
        A group project by three students at Columbia's GSAPP—Yuval Borochov, Lisa Ekle, and Danil Nagy, under the guidance of professor Ed Keller—Protocol...

      • — Working the Line

           (Tuesday, 03 August 2010 12:32)

        Tomorrow night in Los Angeles, at the Center for Land Use Interpretation, David Taylor will be presenting his project "Working the Line."
        
        [Image: U.S./Mexico border marker #184; photograph by David Taylor].
        
        Taylor has been documenting "276 obelisks, installed between the years 1892 and 1895, that mark the U.S./Mexico boundary from El Paso/Juarez to San Diego/Tijuana. He will present this work, and describe his experiences along this often remote and dramatic linear and liminal space."
        
        As geographer Michael Dear—who spoke about border...

      • — The Encounter Circus

           (Tuesday, 03 August 2010 11:33)

        The following project by Lys Villalba Rubio—then a student at ETSAM's Departamento de Proyectos Arquitectónicos in Madrid—is pitched as a way of using architecture as "an active element" in the "regeneration of degraded places."
        
        [Image: From a project by Lys Villalba Rubio].
        
        Based on my own non-existent Spanish (and the help of Babelfish), it seems that the project specifically proposes a "hospital of cities." Villalba Rubio suggests that this is a new building type; acting like a social enzyme, it "activates in each place...

      • — Sussex Dew Mine

           (Monday, 02 August 2010 21:46)

        John Becker, a former student of mine from the Glacier/Island/Storm studio at Columbia's GSAPP, has had his final semester project published on Dezeen. John's intensely detailed images depict "the future headquarters of a fictional company that sells bottled water harvested from dew."
        
        [Image: From An Atmosphere Excavated by John Becker].
        
        He approached the whole thing as a false-historical narrative told through a variety of representational styles; these ranged from stippled and picturesque rural landscapes to yellowing 1960s photography, ending up with both 1990s-style...

      • — Transcendent City

           (Monday, 02 August 2010 11:47)

        
        
        Richard Hardy, a recent graduate from the Bartlett School of Architecture in London, produced this eye-popping video—exploring an all-encompassing machine-forest populated with mechanical flowers and fluttering urban biotechnologies, with architectural sponges perched high atop masts—for Nic Clear's Unit 15.
        
        Called The Transcendent City, the film documents what Hardy describes as "an autonomous artificial machine that extends across the earth adapting to the natural eco-systems it encounters while deriving its energy from the renewable resources available at each particular site. The systems desire is to maintain homeostasis within itself whilst maintaining homeostasis within the...

      • — Buried buildings, like icebergs in the ground

           (Saturday, 31 July 2010 08:55)

        [Image: Watership Down by Maier Yagod and Jon Reed at the Cleveland Public Library].
        
        In a project for the Cleveland Public Library, designed by Toronto-based architects Maier Yagod and Jon Reed, "domestic fragments" have been embedded in the pavement, forming a surreal new kind of public bench:

        Watership Down creates a scenario where five houses are frozen for a moment in a process of complete submersion into the ground of the Eastman Garden. Placed throughout the Garden, the gables of these houses project out of the earth at various...

        • — Quick Links 14

             (Wednesday, 28 July 2010 08:10)

          [Image: A film still from Wolfen].
          
          <1> Reduced to Rubble | Cartographies of the Absolute:

          There are a myriad of films that came out in the seventies and eighties that depicted, documented, exploited, and/or contributed to this dystopian image of a section of one of the world’s greatest cities reduced to rubble, not through aerial bombardment but so-called ‘benign neglect’ and ‘planned shrinkage’: Bonfire of the Vanities, Fort Apache, The Bronx, 80 Blocks from Tiffany’s, etc. Most of these, as well as a series of Hollywood...

          • — Live and direct

               (Monday, 26 July 2010 20:18)

            As some of you might know, I am @bldgblog on Twitter—but I've also started an account called @bldgbloglive so that I can live-tweet events, lectures, sites, interviews, panel discussions, and more without clogging up @bldgblog and driving readers insane with an avalanche of instant messages.
            
            So far, I've covered graduate research presentations here at the CCA given by Léa-Catherine Szacka, Zubin Singh, S. Faisal Hassan, and Molly Wright Steenson, but I hope to post at least a few live notes from Foodprint Toronto...

California Planning & Development Report blogs

• — Catalyst Projects Need More Than Gold Stars

     (Thursday, 02 September 2010 14:34)

  Maybe there is reason to hope we can get development right in the future.

  That’s the conclusion I draw after looking over the list of projects that the state Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) recently named “catalyst projects.” It's largely rhetoric, the state has put its seal of approval on -- and given valuable publicity to -- some promising, progressive projects. In general, projects are mixed-use, mixed-income infill projects that attempt – to varying degrees – to de-emphasize the automobile and improve the public realm. It’s nice to see the state recognize the planning behind such projects, even...

• — The New Suburban Dream

     (Tuesday, 31 August 2010 20:55)

  My nephew and his wife recently had their second child, and they are following a well-worn path from the city to the suburbs.

  Four years ago, childless and carless, they lived the urban life in the fashionable Washington, D.C., neighborhood of Cleveland Park. Child No. 1 pushed them four miles out, to the expensive inner Maryland suburb of Bethesda, where they bought a cozy two-bedroom condominium that had been converted from an apartment. Then, a couple of months ago, Child No. 2 pushed them another 12 miles farther out – beyond the Beltway – to Rockville, where they bought a four-bedroom,...

• — Walmart-Friendly CEQA Bill Advances

     (Monday, 30 August 2010 13:59)

  A California Environmental Quality Act amendment that could ease Walmart’s entry into new markets appears to be speeding toward approval in the state Legislature.

  Assembly Bill 1581 (Torres) would exempt from CEQA review the alteration of a vacant retail structure of up to 120,000 square feet so long as the use is consistent with the applicable general plan and meets certain energy and water efficiency thresholds. The exemption would sunset on January 1, 2014.

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• — A Substantive Design Man: John Leighton Chase, 1953 – 2010

     (Tuesday, 17 August 2010 13:00)

  By John Kaliski

  John Chase, best known to many as urban designer for the City of West Hollywood for the past 14 years – even as he was recorder of all things architectural throughout Los Angeles – passed away suddenly and unexpectedly on Friday, Aug. 13. Over the next few weeks and months I will be re-reading his many articles, essays, and books not only to keep alive his memory but to remind myself of his vivacious and educative voice, which was at once keen, enthusiastic, insightful, humorous, sardonic, always observant, attentive to his audience (whether it was a crowd or...

• — CEQA Alarm Bell Rang In Corrupt City Years Ago

     (Wednesday, 11 August 2010 17:41)

  In early 2009, I wrote a story about the City of Bell’s plan to lease 15 acres it had recently purchased to Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad for use as a truck yard. An environmental organization had successfully sued to block the project because Bell did not complete an environmental review.

  As you no doubt know, Bell has been in the news lately for gross levels of corruption at the elected and staff level. Now, the Los Angeles Times has revealed that Bell is unable to pay back a $35 million debt that was issued for the railroad truck...

• — ARB Staff Releases Proposed SB 375 Targets

     (Monday, 09 August 2010 15:50)

  The staff of the California resources board has released a staff report (pdf) and CEQA functional equivalent (pdf) document with its proposals for per capita greenhouse gas emissions targets for the state's four largest MPO's. The report comes roughly two months after ARB staff presented the board with a target range of 5-10 percent per capita reductions for 2020 for the four urban MPOs and "placeholder targets" for those of the Central Valley.

  Somewhat unexpectedly, ARB staff has recommended different targets for each of the "big four." 

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• — Have A Plan To Reuse That Bookstore?

     (Friday, 06 August 2010 18:34)

  The announcement earlier this week that bookstore giant Barnes & Noble is for sale is important to city planners for two reasons.

  First, however the deal comes together, the sale will almost certainly result in the closure of some of Barnes & Nobles' 720 U.S. stores. Closures could begin even before there is a sale, as the company tries to increase its appeal by shedding its weakest outlets.

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• — A Strategy Session for Los Angeles

     (Thursday, 05 August 2010 13:29)

  If you are at all involved with urban planning in Los Angeles you were probably either in the audience or on the panel at last night's "The Future of the Los Angeles City Planning Department (and the City of Los Angeles)" event, sponsored by AIA, APA-L.A., ULI, and Cal Poly Pomona's College of Environmental Design. I suppose a third option is that you were stuck in traffic and couldn't make it.   

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• — Race to Corner Cleantech Market Has Begun

     (Wednesday, 04 August 2010 00:23)

  Today marks the launch of the “Los Angeles Cleantech Corridor & Green District Competition,” an event sponsored by the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc) and The Architect’s Newspaper. This call-for-entries seeks submissions focusing on clean technology infrastructure improvements in the Cleantech Corridor, an industrial area just east of Downtown Los Angeles that straddles the Los Angeles River. This cluster-based strategy – spearheaded by Mayor Villaraigosa and the Community Redevelopment Agency – has experienced an impressive wave of attention over the summer, propelling it to the national stage and broadening support for LA’s case as the home of clean technologies.

• — Oakland Mulls Cannabis as Land Use and Then Forgot What It Was Thinking About

     (Wednesday, 04 August 2010 00:07)

  Whether or not Prop 19 passes, the Oakland City Council is already considering legalizing marijuana for fiscal reasons. 

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• — Bell: The Latest 'Suburb of Extraction'

     (Tuesday, 27 July 2010 18:22)

  More than a decade ago, when I was writing my book The Reluctant Metropolis, I became so fascinated by the political changes in the so-called Hub Cities of southeast Los Angeles County that I wrote a chapter about them. Over time I came to love these towns – Huntington Park, Bell Gardens, Bell, Cudahy, Maywood – because they had a proud working-class history and an all-American optimism that had been renewed when their population  shifted from mostly white to mostly Latino. There was both a modesty and a pride in these towns that seemed to me to represent all...

• — Modest Goals for New L.A. Planning Head

     (Monday, 26 July 2010 14:41)

  At a press conference at City Hall this morning Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa introduced Michael LoGrande, his nominee to success Gail Goldberg as the city's planning director. At some moments the rhetoric of the mayor and fellow speakers -- including LoGrande, City Council Member Ed Reyes, and Planning Commissioner Bill Roschen, and affordable housing activist Jackie DuPont Walker -- sounded as if they were building the world's next great city.

  Other times, their emphasis on customer service made the city sound more like a Nordstrom store than the writhing metropolis that it is. 

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• — Architects' Goal: Clean Water for the Least Fortunate

     (Sunday, 25 July 2010 11:52)

  The day after Spain won the World Cup in Johannesburg, I met Monday with architects David Turnbull and Jane Harrison, a husband-and-wife team who put together a demonstration project at the Port of Los Angeles in San Pedro called "Pitch: Africa."

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• — Villaraigosa Names Michael LoGrande as L.A.'s Next Planning Director

     (Saturday, 24 July 2010 01:10)

  Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is reportedly set to announce his selection of Michael LoGrande as the city's next planning director. A 13-year veteran of the department, LoGrande currently serves as its chief zoning administrator. He replaces Gail Goldberg, who had served as planning director for four years before announcing her retirement three weeks ago. 

  LoGrande's path to the directorship contrasts with that of Goldberg, who arrived in 2005 to a department far different from the one she is leaving.

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• — In Defense of RFK Learning Center

     (Friday, 23 July 2010 02:12)

   

  Some thoughts on the LA Times' Christopher Hawthorne’s rather brutal drubbing of the recently completed Robert F. Kennedy Education Center (three schools encompassing K-12) on the former site of the Ambassador Hotel near downtown Los Angeles.

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• — George Leaves Legacy As Centrist, Unifier

     (Tuesday, 20 July 2010 19:59)

  California Supreme Court Chief Justice Ronald George is probably most widely known for his 2008 majority opinion striking down the state’s prohibition on same-sex marriages, and for his 2009 opinion begrudgingly upholding voters’ ability to ban same-sex marriage and effectively reverse the court’s earlier ruling. But in land use planning and development circles, George’s legacy is one of centrism and consensus. Time and again, George has corralled all of his colleagues into unanimous decisions on sticky land use regulatory issues.

  In light of George’s announcement last week that he will not seek re-election this November, a quick review of the George...

• — Walt Whitman Takes a Drive Down Interstate 5

     (Wednesday, 14 July 2010 18:07)

  (Editor’s Note, in regard to the following blog post: The California Planning & Development Report disclaims any belief, credence or even any wish-it-were-true feelings in regard to spiritualims, ghosts, spooks, spectres, poltergeists and similar phenomena—even if one of our correspondents of longest standing, Morris Newman, seems to be crediting his most recent work products to the honored dead. If he’s just in a temporary funk, we can try to overlook it. If this line of supernatural thinking continues however, an exchange of memos may be in order, if you know what we mean.)

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• — Russia To The Rescue

     (Saturday, 10 July 2010 15:00)

  The Associated Press reports that a Russian billionaire is coming to the rescue of a state park in Sonoma County affected by budget cuts. Viktor Vekselberg, head of Russian-based Renova Group, signed an agreement last Tuesday with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to provide "substantial financial support" to keep Fort Ross open. Fort Ross was the site of a Russian settlement in the 19th century. The foregoing is all true. 

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• — Stillborn Water Bond Deserves Proper Burial

     (Friday, 09 July 2010 15:04)

  Before we pay our last respects to the latest statewide water bond, could we at least let the voters put the nail in its coffin?

  Gov. Schwarzenegger recently announced he would work with the Legislature to pull Proposition 18 – the $11.1 billion water bond – from the November ballot and instead place the measure on a 2012 ballot. State Senate President Pro Tempore Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento) said he would cooperate.

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• — Housing Element Bill Stakes Grow Higher

     (Friday, 02 July 2010 14:13)

  A bill that would permit a lawsuit challenging a housing element to be filed at almost any time advanced through a state Senate committee earlier this week and is headed to the Senate floor.

  Assembly Bill 602 passed the Senate Transportation and Housing Committee on a party-line vote of 6-3 vote, with Democrats in favor and Republicans opposed.

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• — Thank You, Gail Goldberg

     (Wednesday, 30 June 2010 23:55)

  Back in 2005, after Con Howe stepped down from his longtime role as Los Angeles’s planning director, my phone kept ringing off the hook with calls from people trying to help new Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa find a new planning director. Some wanted to know who I thought would be good; others wanted to bounce candidates off of me to see what I thought.

  After about the eighth call, I realized something important. There was only one person on everybody’s list. Astonishing, given the typical biography of a big-city planning director at the time, she was 62-year-old woman from San Diego who...

• — L.A. Planning Director Goldberg Announces Retirement

     (Wednesday, 30 June 2010 17:53)

  Read Bill Fulton's appreciation of Gail Goldberg's time in Los Angeles here.

  After four-and-a-half years at the helm of the Los Angeles Department of City Planning, Gail Goldberg has announced her retirement. In a letter [pdf] to Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa Goldberg, who arrived in Los Angeles after serving as planning director for the City of San Diego, cited major initiatives that she had championed at the department but wrote that ultimately she has "been long ready for retirement and new adventures." 

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• — CARB Releases Sketch of GHG Targets

     (Friday, 25 June 2010 15:32)

  The California Air Resources Board has released very cursory greenhouse gas emissions reductions targets for the state’s 18 metropolitan planning organizations.

  Although draft greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions targets under SB 375 are due June 30, detailed targets will not be proposed until August. The targets, scheduled for final adoption in September, are intended to guide sustainable communities strategies that the MPOs must adopt during coming years. 

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• — Housing Element Bill Sparks Local Government Concern

     (Thursday, 24 June 2010 16:40)

  Pitting affordable housing advocates against local government officials, planners, and builders, a housing element bill has seemingly risen from the dead to become one of the hottest land use bills in Sacramento.

  Assembly Bill 602 would provide an unlimited time period during which someone could sue over a jurisdiction’s housing element, which is intended to demonstrate how a city or county will provide its fair share of housing at various cost levels. According to the affordable housing advocates supporting the legislation, a 2008 Court of Appeal decision placed a 90-day statute of limitations on legal challenges to housing elements. The...

• — A Too Perfect Home for Football

     (Monday, 21 June 2010 20:05)

  Some people are, lamentably, forced to live in substandard housing. They languish in stark Modernist buildings that are often segregated from the proverbial hustle and bustle of the city. They enjoy no amenities and they have a hard time making a living, even with public assistance, so they ask for more public assistance to give them the environment they need to prosper. 

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Future Now

• — Take This Anti-Depressant--Courtesy of Your Social Network

     (Tuesday, 07 September 2010 11:03)

  A great feature in The Economist highlights the variety of ways businesses and researchers are looking at analyzing the intricacies of our social networks and digital trails to understand who influences us, who we influence, and what that could mean for the world at large. This isn't a new field, per se, but the breadth and subtlety of the analysis, as well as the potential quality of their conclusion, is pretty mind-blowing. Take this example, which suggests that police officers can prevent crime by monitoring Facebook and Twitter.

  The police department of Richmond, Virginia, has pioneered the use of network-analysis software...

• — Come celebrate with us on October 8!

     (Friday, 03 September 2010 13:12)

  Yes, you are invited to a special celebration!

  Over the past 11 weeks we've been collecting ideas from around the world in the BodyShock The Future contest to improve the future of healthy bodies and lifestyles. 112 designs ranging from augmented reality running to behavior change games to sleep tracking apps poured in. The judges are now voting, and we will announce the winners later in September.

  If you'd like to hear presentations of the top ideas and meet some of the BodyShock judges, come on out! IFTF would like to invite you to join us at the BodyShock Winners...

• — On October 8, You Are Invited to Celebrate With Us!

     (Thursday, 02 September 2010 15:58)

  
  

  Yes, you are invited to a special celebration!

  Over the past 11 weeks we've been collecting ideas from around the world in the BodyShock The Future contest to improve the future of healthy bodies and lifestyles. 112 designs ranging from augmented reality running to behavior change games to sleep tracking apps poured in. The judges are now voting, and we will announce the winners later in September.

  If you'd like to hear presentations of the top ideas and meet some of the BodyShock judges, come on out!...

• — The Future of Video: Becoming People of the Screen

     (Thursday, 02 September 2010 10:20)

  The report provides a deep exploration into our research on the future of video as a new medium for entertainment, information, and communication. As video becomes increasingly ubiquitous, we will all soon become people of the screen. 

  Outside the mainstream TV and film industries, video has not yet delivered on its predicted revolutionary potential—a revolution forecast for at least half a century. However, with the meteoric rise of YouTube and user-generated video on the Web, as well as the wide availability of mobile devices, it’s easy to see the power of the medium. Against this backdrop, the Future of Video report...

• — Today is the FINAL day to submit your idea to BodyShock the Future!

     (Wednesday, 01 September 2010 18:40)

  The BodyShock the Future Contest is well underway, with over 20 videos posted on the website as of today and many more written submissions. Brian Dolan recently posted a blog onMobileHealthNews about the contest, including his own thoughts on previewing your future self—he even posted a preview of his possible future self—if he gains about 100 lbs—using the FatBooth iPhone app.

  Below is a submission from Rosa Pintado. Rosa reminds us of the ancient Roman saying "Mens Sana in Corpore Sano," or a sound mind in a sound body, and suggest that hugging those you love, or even people on the street, can...

• — Trust Me. We Need a Gullibility Index

     (Tuesday, 31 August 2010 11:02)

  In a recently posted article at the Social Science Research Network, University of Minnesota Mathematics Professor Andrew Odlyzko adds to the growing list of things we should measure by arguing that we need a means to quantify gullibility. Why quantify gullibility? Odlyzko argues that excessive levels of trust--which could be quantified and tracked through an "objective measure of gullibility"--would signal that we need to be cautious about things like the future performance of markets, as well as the future of systems in general. Of course, trust is an increasingly critical need for systems in the world to function,...

• — How Simplicity Can Improve Well-Being

     (Friday, 27 August 2010 18:10)

  My life has been shaped by stories of people who have transformed their lifestyles to embrace simplicity. They dare to do radically less and have radically less, and end up with more - happiness, well-being, peace, time, and meaning.

  In light of the Health Horizons’ current research on Resilient Bodies and Lifestyles, let’s meet Peter Lawrence and the SoulTravelers3.

   

  Less Stuff

  Peter Lawrence is The Happy Minimalist. Living in Santa Clara, California, Peter has retired well before the usual retirement age. He lives in a small condo, with his only furniture being a lawn chair, an ironing board, a laptop, a sleeping...

• — Ladies, get the mobile health app designed just for you! It's pink!

     (Wednesday, 25 August 2010 13:40)

  [img_assist|nid=3575|title=|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=200|height=288] [img_assist|nid=3576|title=|desc=|link=none|align=right|width=200|height=288]

   

  
  

  Okay, I admit it, I took the bait. I try not to write about every mobile health app I come across, but this one definitely caught my attention.

  It's called Pink Pad, and, as you can see, it looks like an old day planner on the outside, and inside . . . it's pink. I tend to have a bias against color/gender stereotyping, but I am willing to put that aside because this iPhone app actually looks kind of interesting.

  It is specifically designed to track health-related issues of importance to women—for example, menstrual cycle, mood, and weight. (Though I...

• — To your health (data)—may it someday be integrated!

     (Monday, 23 August 2010 13:34)

  [img_assist|nid=3571|title=|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=375|height=329]You've got a family history of hypertension, so your doctor has routinely ordered a series of tests to monitor you.  She also has instructed you to measure you blood pressure daily, watch what you eat, and get more exercise.  You've also got to keep track of your medications and your health policy claims.  All of this adds up to a lot of health-related information, which you (and/or your doctor) might want to be to access, anytime, any place, and have it presented in a meaningful and relevant way.  

  The above Artifact from the Future represents this possibility.  It accompanies one...

• — 5 Links For A Longer, Healthier Life

     (Thursday, 19 August 2010 22:57)

  

  Daily supplements? Check. Walking 3 miles a day? Check. Aversion to physical risk? Definitely. Signing up for cryonics? In process.

  Yes, I think it's fair to say I think a lot about life extension. 

  Maybe it's because I think life is so interesting that I don't want to die. Maybe it's because it seems likely that in my lifetime people will have the option to live indefinitely. Or maybe I am captured by the words of Edward Young, British poet:

  "Still seems it strange, that thou shouldst live forever?

   Is it less strange,...

"urban analysis" - Google News

Google News

• — UW-Green Bay to dedicate new residence hall to alumnus - UWGB (blog)

     (Wednesday, 01 September 2010 12:13)

  UW-Green Bay to dedicate new residence hall to alumnus UWGB (blog) Pamperin, who was one of the first students to live on campus, graduated from UW-Green Bay in 1970 with a degree in Urban Analysis. ...

• — Alumni Rising - UWGB (blog)

     (Thursday, 26 August 2010 12:32)

  UWGB (blog)

  Alumni Rising UWGB (blog) He graduated from UW-Green Bay in 1970 with a degree in Urban Analysis. He spent 38 years as the housing administrator in Green Bay and Brown County, ...

• — Pitt data on oil and gas leases gauges local Marcellus Shale activity since 2003 - R & D Magazine

     (Monday, 16 August 2010 17:52)

  Pitt data on oil and gas leases gauges local Marcellus Shale activity since 2003 R & D Magazine Sabina Deitrick, codirector of UCSUR's urban analysis program, said the oil and gas leases reveal a rapidly expanding pursuit of drilling and exploration ... and more »

"urban governments" - Google News

Google News

• — Trenton Mayor Tony Mack sets pricey inaugural ball - The Trentonian

     (Tuesday, 07 September 2010 15:54)

  Trenton Mayor Tony Mack sets pricey inaugural ball The Trentonian Levenson, an Atlantic City lawyer known for representing New Jersey's tainted urban governments and casino industry, was up last week for a $50000 contract ... and more »

• — City Council to decide on Trenton Mayor Mack's plan to hire Atlantic City ... - The Trentonian

     (Wednesday, 01 September 2010 13:10)

  City Council to decide on Trenton Mayor Mack's plan to hire Atlantic City ... The Trentonian ... from the mayor's transition team, Lloyd Levenson, who has made a specialty of representing New Jersey's tainted urban governments and casino industry. ...

• — Issues With The UID Project (Aadhaar) - Desicritics.org

     (Thursday, 26 August 2010 21:39)

  Issues With The UID Project (Aadhaar) Desicritics.org This is especially crucial where many urban governments want to discourage inward migration, and may use UID numbers to deny benefits to those from out of ... and more »

• — Classroom gap for children of Chinese migrants - National

     (Thursday, 19 August 2010 16:09)

  Classroom gap for children of Chinese migrants National “It's perfectly within the scope of the urban governments to open the access to their schools to the children of migrant workers and provide some local ...

• — Almost 400 Trenton pink slips could go out next week if state aid doesn't help ... - The Trentonian

     (Saturday, 14 August 2010 01:24)

  Almost 400 Trenton pink slips could go out next week if state aid doesn't help ... The Trentonian That's when Mack named Andy Weber, an attorney formerly with an Altantic City law firm known for representing urban governments and the casino industry, ... and more »

"urban research" - Google News

Google News

• — Businesspeople a boost to Nice Ride - Minneapolis Star Tribune

     (Tuesday, 07 September 2010 22:29)

  Businesspeople a boost to Nice Ride Minneapolis Star Tribune Where: University of Minnesota Urban Research and Community Outreach/Engagement Center, 2001 Plymouth Av. N. Minneapolis' new bike-sharing program is ... Nice Ride bike share funds new North Side expansionMinneapolis City Pages (blog) all 2 news articles »

• — Pa. gov wants gas industry to help shale towns - BusinessWeek

     (Tuesday, 07 September 2010 17:24)

  Pa. gov wants gas industry to help shale towns BusinessWeek ... have been leased for drilling, mostly for Marcellus Shale exploration, according to the University of Pittsburgh Center for Social and Urban Research. ... and more »

• — YSU seeks strategic plan - Youngstown Vindicator

     (Tuesday, 07 September 2010 11:46)

  YSU seeks strategic plan Youngstown Vindicator Members are divided into four subcommittees, or cornerstones, of the plan: student success, accountability and sustainability, urban-research transition and ...

• — Older Australians Want To Remain In Home, Don't Want to Live With Kids - Senior Housing News (blog)

     (Monday, 06 September 2010 16:29)

  Older Australians Want To Remain In Home, Don't Want to Live With Kids Senior Housing News (blog) The Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute found 84 per cent of homes occupied by older Australians aged 55 and over would be considered too big by ...

• — Criticize the RCMP and lose your funding? - Macleans.ca

     (Sunday, 05 September 2010 15:45)

  Criticize the RCMP and lose your funding? Macleans.ca The RCMP is one of the primary donors to SFU's Institute for Canadian Urban Research Studies, which is a part of the criminology department. ... and more »

• — Yeakey studies role of cities in today's complex world - Washington University Record

     (Friday, 03 September 2010 15:51)

  Washington University Record

  Yeakey studies role of cities in today's complex world Washington University Record Carol Camp Yeakey, PhD (right), founding director of the interdisciplinary program in Urban Studies and of the Center on Urban Research ...

• — Legislation Seeks To Expand Ability of Urban Universities To Aid Neighboring ... - Diverse: Issues in Higher Educatio

     (Tuesday, 31 August 2010 21:54)

  Diverse: Issues in Higher Educatio

  Legislation Seeks To Expand Ability of Urban Universities To Aid Neighboring ... Diverse: Issues in Higher Educatio ... annually on wages and salaries in its communities, and urban research universities spend $6 billion each year on public service programs and projects. ...

• — The great housing dilemma - Sydney Morning Herald

     (Sunday, 29 August 2010 17:05)

  The great housing dilemma Sydney Morning Herald According to a recent Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute survey of 1604 older home owners, more than 90 per cent believe their house is the ... and more »

• — YSU's new doctoral program will boost research reputation - Youngstown Vindicator

     (Sunday, 22 August 2010 00:19)

  YSU's new doctoral program will boost research reputation Youngstown Vindicator ... Ohio's chancellor of higher education, Eric Fingerhut, let it be known that the college's urban research designation isn't just window dressing. ... and more »

• — Pittsburgh councilman proposes gas drilling ban - BusinessWeek

     (Tuesday, 17 August 2010 14:31)

  Pittsburgh councilman proposes gas drilling ban BusinessWeek ... have been leased for drilling, mostly for Marcellus Shale exploration, according to the University of Pittsburgh Center for Social and Urban Research. ... Gas Leases in Allegheny County SpikeWDUQNews (blog) Pitt researchers map gas and oil leases in Allegheny, PittsburghistockAnalyst.com (press release) Pitt: Land leased for oil, gas up 322%WFMJ R & D Magazine -Common Dreams (press release) all 396 news articles »

"urban society" - Google News

Google News

• — Why people spend more on fasting month - Jakarta Post

     (Tuesday, 07 September 2010 23:55)

  Why people spend more on fasting month Jakarta Post This occasion is considered a means to strengthen the relationship bonds between people during Ramadan and is becoming a tradition for urban society. ...

• — Deadly combo: A peg & reckless driving - Daily News & Analysis

     (Friday, 03 September 2010 14:38)

  Deadly combo: A peg & reckless driving Daily News & Analysis Alcoholism cannot be linked to urban society alone, even in rural sector there is large consumption of alcohol. Apart from other celebrations, ... and more »

• — Government of Canada Invests in Aboriginal Youth in Calgary - Marketwire (press release)

     (Wednesday, 01 September 2010 12:02)

  Government of Canada Invests in Aboriginal Youth in Calgary Marketwire (press release) "Canadian Heritage's support allows the Urban Society for Aboriginal Youth to continue to publish New Tribe magazine, which is a staple in our Aboriginal ... and more »

• — Art via the lens - San Antonio Express

     (Wednesday, 01 September 2010 08:28)

  Art via the lens San Antonio Express Trace Elements: photos documenting the interplay of nature and urban society by Jessica Mallios, Victor Pagona, Jason Reed, Libby Rowe, Kent Rush and Jason ...

• — Founding Document - Tablet Magazine

     (Tuesday, 31 August 2010 07:12)

  Tablet Magazine

  Founding Document Tablet Magazine A network of agricultural settlements has become an advanced urban society and a powerful state. In short, it should no longer matter, practically or ...

• — Jolley: Five Minutes With Sarah Hubbart, Communications Coordinator, Animal ... - CattleNetwork.com

     (Friday, 27 August 2010 10:03)

  Jolley: Five Minutes With Sarah Hubbart, Communications Coordinator, Animal ... CattleNetwork.com In our urban society, most people don't have much firsthand experience interacting with animals. Activists are attempting to blur the line between animal ... and more »

• — China risks an urbanization 'Great Leap Forward' - China.org.cn

     (Friday, 27 August 2010 02:57)

  China.org.cn

  China risks an urbanization 'Great Leap Forward' China.org.cn It is certain to pass 50 percent during the twelfth five year plan, marking China's transition from a rural to an urban society. As defined by development ...

• — Chance To Get Insight Into Minangkabau Traditions - Bernama

     (Friday, 20 August 2010 10:16)

  Chance To Get Insight Into Minangkabau Traditions Bernama The programme, which begins Friday and ends on Aug 31, includes the 'gotong-royong' activity to enable urban society, especially the young people, ...

• — Historic discovery at Borough President's office - YourNabe.com

     (Thursday, 19 August 2010 12:57)

  Historic discovery at Borough President's office YourNabe.com Lloyd Ultan, Bronx borough historian, said that the photos “document the time when the Bronx was rapidly changing from a rural society to an urban society. ...

• — Islamic contract law - The Borneo Post

     (Sunday, 15 August 2010 23:04)

  Islamic contract law The Borneo Post ... he cannot live in solitude like other animals, but is in need of cooperation with his fellow men in order to promote an urban society”. ...

"urban strategy" - Google News

Google News

• — Scott may need urban strategy - Sarasota Herald-Tribune

     (Friday, 27 August 2010 02:07)

  Scott may need urban strategy Sarasota Herald-Tribune PRIMARY RESULTS: He won rural areas and Tea Party strongholds. Other areas are works in progress. Despite spending a record $50 million of his own money, ... and more »

• — Gloves Come Off At Jerry Brown Campaign Appearance - KTVU San Francisco

     (Thursday, 26 August 2010 02:20)

  Gloves Come Off At Jerry Brown Campaign Appearance KTVU San Francisco Had urban strategy plan, plans aren't it," said Brown. "What is, is action and leadership and vision and making stuff happen." Whitman's campaign has been ... and more »