Roland Beinert

I thought we were already irrelevant before this. Can’t architects or engineers just shrub up a site plan by themselves? No need to hire an extra consultant.

“At the heart of the landscape urbanist agenda is the notion that the most important part of city planning is not the arrangement of buildings, but the natural landscape upon which those buildings stand.”
Actually, the arrangement of buildings in a city is extremely important, not only for people, but also for ecological processes. Obviously, o…[Read more]

Woonerfs. Why does every residential street need to be a mini-highway?
And green roofs.

Jason,
Like Noah, I don’t see how the approach you are advocating is any less faith based. Your preachers are economists, developers and planners like Rick Harrison. Your god is the Market. Your evil enitities are governments and new urbanist planners.
Rick Harrison never mentions anything he KNOWS, only things he believes, does not believe or is…[Read more]

I thought this clip was pretty funny: http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/10/stephen-colbert-goats-stealing-american-jobs-destroying-america-video.php

Andrew,
Have you heard of the economic term “externality” (We’re learning about economics in my bioregional planning class this week. That’s the only reason I’ve heard of it.)? An externality is when there are physical impacts from an activity on individuals not directly involved in an activity. Pollution (according to the article I read for…[Read more]

It kind of bothered me that he used the word biomimicry to describe this, too. I hope people don’t start to think that’s what it really means.

I’m currently living in the tiny town of Moscow, ID. To the south is Lewiston, ID near Hell’s Canyon and the Snake River. To the north is Lake Coeur d’Lene. I think it would be nice to hop on a train with my folding bike, get off in Coeur d’lene or Lewiston and ride around on the trails. Sure I can do this in my car, but then I have to pay for…[Read more]

At least you are making the effort to think about how you appear to others, Andrew.
I was reading the book Traffic recently, and at one point the author talks about how the anonymity of the car makes people act in ways they never would act when they are face to face with another person. I think the internet is the same way. People feel anonymous…[Read more]

I started a discussion on this topic several months ago. The answers I got would probably be helpful, although I don’t remember any mention of Shenzhen. http://land8lounge.com/forum/topics/working-in-china

There are plenty of resources out there on this subject. Of all the books I’ve read on the subject, my two favorites are The Permaculture Designers Manual (Bill Mollison) and Regenerative Design for Sustainable Development (John Lyle). I like them because they are about an overall approach to sustainable design rather than just a few methods. A…[Read more]

Reston, Virginia is another New Urbanist community in the area. I’m not sure how far away it is. I just know it’s on one of the tours (Vanguards of New Urbanism) for this year’s ASLA meeting.

It’s the FW series. I chose it because it fit all the requirements of the LA department and was $200 cheaper than the other computers the salesman showed me. I think I looked at the NW series, but the college requires a larger screen size. I’m sure you don’t face any weird restrictions like that, though.
Before that I had a Toshiba that lasted me…[Read more]

Students here at the University of Idaho are required to have a laptop and the department has a set of requirements, which might be helpful: http://www.caa.uidaho.edu/computerpolicy/htm/hardware.htm .
I just printed out that page and brought it with me to the store. There are also a few laptop magazines with lots of reviews that were helpful to…[Read more]

They actually did something like this with an old mall in Madison, WI. They started with condos around the edges. I think they built a new parking structure, as well. I moved before they finished it, though, so I have no idea how successful it was or whether there were parking problems.

Jason,
After listening to the podcast of the interview, I’m not sure Rybcynski is really arguing against new urbanism or smart growth. He doesn’t even mention those words. Even in the article, he seems to be objecting more to the scale of government involvement than the design ideas behind smart growth. Maybe he attacks those ideas in some other…[Read more]

Here’s a good summary of BP’s approach to the spill.
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/06/what-happens-when-bp-spills-coffee-video-funny-ucbcomedy.php

I don’t think anyone is arguing that dense urban development should go every where. I honestly think if some critics looked at the concepts of the new urbanist transect and form based codes they would realize they that they are mischaracterizing smart growth and new urbanism. I’d say it allows for a greater variety of lifestyles than our current…[Read more]

“The important lesson is not that city planning is unimportant but, rather, that urban development should not be implemented by the public sector alone and that in a democracy, a vision of the future city will best emerge from the marketplace.”
So, in a democracy, powerful businessmen should be the main people who shape our cities? I see his point…[Read more]

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/05/kevin-costner-oil-extracting-machine-demonstration-video-bp-oil-spill.php