Jeffrey Barg

I don’t know what it is about New Orleans that makes me wax rhapsodic. But something about the city makes everyday life look poetic. I returned to the Crescent City last week after having last visited just seven months ago, when a tree planting

<p> This morning I embarked with three dozen volunteers to plant 10 trees in Pigeon Town, a neighborhood in western New Orleans. The group was completing an eight-hour training on urban greening initiatives, learning everything from pruning methods to how to work with municipalities to find funding for beautification projects—which have been proven to improve everything from <a href="http://www.pennsylvaniahorticulturalsociety.org/phlgreen/seeinggreen.htm">real estate values</a> to <a href="http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/11/more-green-crime/">crime statistics</a>. </p> <p> The training did not, however, cover what we were supposed to do when we heard gunshots ring out. That we had to improvise. </p>

<span style="border-collapse: separate; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; font-size: medium; font-family: Times; color: #000000" class="Apple-style-span"> <div style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10px; background-color: #ffffff"> <p> To hear my mother tell it, I gave Joe Biden the idea for high-speed rail. Charitable and glowing, yes, but isn’t that what mothers are for?  </p> <p> All the same, I can’t help but glow a bit anyway when I think about how far we’ve come as a country in embracing high-speed rail.  </p>

<p> Tomorrow morning, I&#39;ll don a long black robe, a funny-looking hat and an atrocious brown hood to cap off an adventuresome journey through planning school. Almost two years ago, <a href="/node/34730">I decided to leave a healthy career</a> in journalism to enter a field that, by contrast, might still <em>have</em> careers a decade from now. It&#39;s been 21 months of angst, overwork, undersleep, and hours-long battles with American FactFinder. And it&#39;s been completely, totally worth it. </p> <p> Here are a few of the best lessons learned from two hard-fought years of planning education. </p>

<p> These days, I have more in common with my nephew Sam than just about anyone else. He just turned 3. </p> <p> Sam is a train fanatic. Sure, he loves the children’s classics—Thomas the Tank Engine, the Polar Express—but he can also tell you about the Eurostar and the Shinkansen. His recent first ride on Amtrak was like his locomotive bar mitzvah: <em>Today, I am a passenger.</em> </p> <p> I’ve spent all semester working on a studio project making the case for true high-speed rail in the Northeast megaregion. I picked the studio because, like Sam, I’m thrilled by trains, but an added perk is that every time I come with some new picture or factoid about the big, fast choo-choos, I move up a notch in the running for Uncle of the Year. </p>