Tim Halbur is a former managing editor of Planetizen.
When Chris Steins approached me with his idea to write a kids book about urban planning, I was a little skeptical. We had gotten a hold of a book from 1952 called
Neighbor flap foot. The City Planning Frog, by Bill Ewald, Jr. and Merle Henrickson, and to be generous, it wasn’t fit for a modern audience. Here’s a sample:
“Did you know that there is a special rule from City Hall to make sure each house has plenty of light and air, Mickey?” the wise frog asked.
“No, I haven’t heard about that.”
“Well, there is. Blue Nose told me about it,” answered Flap Foot, hopping about to limber up his stiffened legs. “It’s is called zoning. It is a good rule, like brushing your teeth, only this rule is for people who build buildings.”
Monday, December 15, 2008 - 4:40pm PST
This weekend, I had the pleasure of taking a ride up the Pacific Coast
Highway in a hot-off-the-assembly-line Tesla sportscar. While I
normally fall in with the camp that thinks the focus on alternative
fuel cars is distracting from the need to move people out of cars and
into transit, walking and biking, I have to say, the Tesla Roadster is
a beautiful piece of machinery.
Monday, November 10, 2008 - 12:02pm PST
A couple months ago, we posted an announcement seeking student bloggers for the 2008-2009 school year. We received a pile of great applications, but two new students stood out. Each week, they will bring you reports from their master's programs at
the University of Pennsylvania and the Massachussetts Institute of
Technology.
Tamika Camille Gauvin Jeffrey Barg
Wednesday, August 27, 2008 - 11:35am PDT
It's a unique time to be joining the staff of Planetizen as managing editor. The world seems to be awakening for the first time to all of the issues we deal with everyday, whether we work in urban and regional planning, environmental preservation, architecture and placemaking, landscape architecture or transportation. Suddenly, everyone understands that these niches are, in fact, interconnected, and that "place" as a general concept affects everything we do. Unfortunately, it took $4.85 gasoline and a mortgage crisis that is sinking our economy, but at least people are thinking!
Thursday, July 17, 2008 - 4:02pm PDT
In August of 2006, an unknown Irish company called Steorn took out a full-page ad in The Economist to announce that they had created a magnetic technology that produced more energy than it used- essentially, a perpetual motion machine, the Holy Grail of energy.
Tuesday, June 24, 2008 - 10:00am PDT
My graduate school education left me with a lot of general ideas and a handful of specific ones. One that stuck with me is a concept from landscape architecture: the desire path. Technically, the term means a path where there isn't supposed to be one, a trail of wear and tear that wasn't planned.
Monday, June 2, 2008 - 5:19pm PDT
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