Weekend Reading 8/19/11
Clark: A 13-year old uses math (hooray for the Golden Ratio) to figure out a new and more efficient arrangement for solar panels. The trick: mimic trees! For extra credit, here's more on why so many plants have spiral patterns related to the Golden Ratio. An urbanist's paean to on-street parking. I'm not sure I agree with every piece of the argument, and I certainly don't think that we should presume that drivers have an inherent right to use public right of way to store their vehicles. But compared with many of the alternatives---especially surface parking lots or monolithic garages at street level---street parking seems like a pretty good option for pedestrian-friendly design. Anna:
Author: SwatchJunkies
Unchain Bike Sharing
Imagine for a moment that cities around the world are rolling out fleets of magic carpets and that those carpets are having truly wizardly effects: improved public health and safety, reduced traffic congestion and carbon emissions, and reduced dependence on foreign oil. City dwellers can check them out or drop them off at stations everywhere, and they are free to use for up to 30 minutes. After that, they cost something, but not much. Picture literally millions of citizens using these carpets for short, speedy trips all over town. Now imagine being in the Northwest and watching this opportunity fly by because fanatical carpet helmet laws discourage would-be riders. This is exactly what’s happening. The magic’s not in carpets, though: it’s in the humble bicycle.
Author: SwatchJunkies
Pavement to Parklets
Courtesy of Streetfilms, here's a video on the trend of converting pavement (parking spaces, awkward roadways, etc.) into little parks (h/t to Matt Lerner). It's a great idea---one that many cities are catching on to. The benefits are numerous: better street life, additional space for businesses, more green space to filter stormwater, and they're just plain fun. (Back in March, the New York Times catalogs some of the downsides.)
Author: SwatchJunkies
Sharing = Serious Cash
Here's a nifty infographic on all the online services that make it easier for people to share the stuff they rarely use, and in some cases, make some serious cash. It's a powerful visual reminder of all the things in your house that aren't being used most of the time---cars, spare beds, weed whackers, backcountry skis, DVDs, the dollhouse your kid never liked, the clothes in your closet that won't actually ever fit you again.
Author: SwatchJunkies
Seattle Starts Making Sustainability Legal
This morning, Seattle mayor Mike McGinn and council president Richard Conlin held a press conference responding to an unlikely-seeming coalition of workers, developers, greens, and others. The coalition---of which Sightline is a part---is calling for targeted “regulatory reform.” The idea is to eliminate outdated red tape in order to revive the local economy---kick-starting building projects, creating jobs, and boosting sustainability in the city’s neighborhoods.
Author: SwatchJunkies
Weekend Reading 6/24/11
Alan: This week, I read historian Jeff Madrick’s The Age of Greed: The Triumph of Finance and the Decline of America, 1970 to the Present. Age of Greed is a close and infuriating look at the men who, through their corruption, hypocrisy, and ever-widening power, led the financialization---and undermining---of the US economy. From Milton Friedman to Alan Greenspan to a score of others, the protagonists of every destructive phase of American financial capitalism walk across Madrick’s pages, from hostile takeovers to collateralized debt obligations.Madrick summed up his thesis neatly at a lunch I attended on Monday: “The financial community has been working against the interests of the real economy for four decades.”
Author: SwatchJunkies
Legalize Personal Car-Sharing
What if a stupendously enormous business opportunity were hiding in plain sight before our eyes? What if this same business opportunity would bring gigantic environmental and social dividends? And what if all that was required to unleash these benefits was a simple legal reform? Personal car sharing is such a business opportunity: a chance to trim emissions, crashes, and fuel costs, all while generating a profit for car owners and giving everyone a new way to save money. Only one legal barrier---an obscure change to insurance regulations---stands in the way.
Author: SwatchJunkies
Grow Rain Gardens in Your Community
Homeowners, business owners, nonprofit groups, and government officials are invited to attend the 2011 Seattle Watersheds Forum - Partnerships in Action tonight at REI. The event is free, and I'll be moderating the discussion panels.
The city of Seattle event will show interested folks how to make green stormwater projects happen in their own backyards and businesses. The first panel will focus on how to create successful partnerships and share resources to create projects that will improve water quality and protect Puget Sound. The second panel will hear from folks who have hands-on experience using rain gardens and cisterns on their own property.
Author: SwatchJunkies
The Puget Sound Shuffle
Inside a cramped Seattle laboratory, the researchers look like fishermen who got sent to a construction job. Wearing orange waders and yellow boots, they thread their way between shelves of ...
Author: SwatchJunkies
Gas Prices: Them's The Brakes
Via Todd Litman of the Victoria Transport Policy Institute, two interesting studies on how drivers have reacted to the rising cost of taking to the roads. First up, a study ...
