Contributor Blog

"The secret of Disney is doing things you don't need, and doing them well, and realizing that you needed them all along...Walt Disney was ahead of everyone, always."

-Isaac Asimov, interviewed by Leonard Maltin

Back in 2006, when I was working at Reconnecting America (A non-profit that promotes and studies transit-oriented development), I ended up crossing paths with a dedicated and intelligent woman named Ann Cheng. In her late-20s, she was working for an organization known as the Transportation and Land Use Coalition (they've since gone with the more attractive moniker TransForm). 

 

Burning rainforests. Smog alerts. Gridlocked cities. Seabirds caked with oil. That's how it was, ladies and gentlemen, as we entered the '90s.

This list of environmental peril is familiar still today, although we can cite some success fighting the smog. In this case, the quote is from a TV reporter in 1984, a character in a Ray Bradbury story called "The Toynbee Convector." 

I'm at the 18th Congress for the New Urbanism, always a stimulating affair and this year is no exception. We're in Atlanta, Georgia, although I've unfortunately not seen much of the city beyond a few leafy, upscale blocks past the anonymous section of downtown. Right now, I'm waiting for a session on "The Great American Grid" to begin, undoubtedly a topic of some interest to our readers considering the comments inspired by Fanis Grammenos' dismissal of America's grid worship.

I'm writing from Cambridge, where the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy and the Harvard Graduate School of Design are hosting their annual shindig for a small crew of journalists crazy enough to have urban issues as their beat.

A few weeks back, I had a meeting at the University of Southern California's campus. It was a moderately nice day by Los Angeles standards, which in other parts of the country would equate to the best day of the year weather-wise. As I walked among the brick buildings, I was impressed by the number of bicycles parked willy-nilly around the grounds.

As managing editor of Planetizen, I'd like to make a quick note on today's op-ed, Resisting Dickensian Gloom by Tony Recsei. Mr Recsei asked for a chance to respond to a recent criticism of his work by Planetizen regular Michael Dudley. It is our policy at Planetizen to allow points of view that are critical of the status quo in urban planning, so I agreed to run the piece. I did ask Mr. Recsei to tone down some of the more personal attacks on smart growthers so that his points could be presented more clearly to our audience, and I believe he has done that.

You may have noticed that over the past few years we've learned a lot more about how the brain works. This is mostly due to advances in functional neuroimaging (fMRI), which makes brain scanning much less onerous and dangerous (no radiation involved). Researchers are using this new access to the brain to send it through various puzzles and thoughts and seeing where and how the brain reacts. 

Josh Greene is an assistant professor at Harvard, and he has used his research to explore questions of moral judgement and decisionmaking. One puzzle he's looked at is called the "Trolley Problem." Here's the setup: 

This Saturday, Nate Berg and I will be taking part in LA 2.0: Refresh, Reinvent, Re-Imagine, an event hosted by GOOD Magazine, Sheridan/Hawkes Collaborative and The Public Studio.  The goal is to brainstorm innovative solutions to improve the physical environment of Los Angeles.

Planetizen readers, I have an idea I'd like your opinion on. As managing editor for the past year, I've become increasingly aware of how skilled and professional our readers are. Comments on articles are almost always civil, engaging and thoughtful, something that can't be said for the majority of websites. We have a community of experts here, which is why I bring my idea to you.

AZUL: 12PM-3PM@The Brig - Abbot Kinney and Palm in

Venice; 6PM-9PM@La Brea/Pico Billboard Eco Art - 4829

West Pico just east of La Brea

I am a bicycle commuter in Los Angeles, which on the face of it is a pretty tricky proposition. The major boulevards here are designed like freeways, and people use them as such. Pico, Highland, Sepulveda, Olympic- these streets were built for speed and make commuting not a little tricky for your serious bicycle commuter.

On my way to work this morning, I was listening to an interview with the band Blitzen Trapper on my iPod. They’ve got a beautiful song called ‘Furr’; the sound echoes 1970s folk rock- and roots influences like English folk, country and bluegrass.  Anyway, Eric Early, the main songwriter, got my attention with his answer to this question:

INTERVIEWER: Obviously ‘American music’ means different things to different people. What does it mean to you?

Reporting from CNU 17 in Denver, where the thundercracks shook the Sheraton at various points throughout the day. Somehow though I've managed to be outside only when the sun is out.

"Buyers value the dollar per square foot, and the builder responds by delivering as many square feet of conditioned space as possible for $X. If he can deliver 100 more square feet than the competition, most buyers think it's a better value."

-Ron Jones, Green Builder Magazine, in The Washington Post.

"Rules established in another era need to be rethought, " said Xavier de Sousa Briggs, associate director of the White House Office of Management and Budget this weekend in Cambridge. Briggs' job touches almost everything, from the postal service to the Department of Homeland Security, and it was admittedly exciting to see someone with an urban planning background in such a powerful position. Briggs spoke at lightning speed, and I could almost see the multitude of invisible connections going into his brain and back out to the White House. Much of what he's working on, he explained, is taking "old stovepipes" -- government agencies that have worked in silos for decades -- and making them talk to each other.

It’s always tempting returning from a vacation to a foreign country to come to conclusions about how that society works. This isn’t entirely a bad thing- after all, exposure to different ways of life are mind-expanding and suggest new possibilities. My first trip to Rome redefined the way I think of public space, and set me on a path  leading to a career in urban planning.

Along the Philosopher's Walk in Kyoto.

On this week's KunstlerCast (James Howard Kunstler's podcast, with host Duncan Crary), you can hear me leaving a comment. I just listened to the episode, and I sound like I took a shot of codeine cough syrup before recording it. I think the point is relevant enough to reiterate in the safety of print.

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.”

 

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.