Search Results
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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.)Read more » -
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...Read more » -
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 The idea is to eliminate outdated red tape in order to revive the local economy—kick-starting building projects, creating jobs, and boosting sustainability in the city’s neighborhoods.Read more » -
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.”
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...Read more » -
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...Read more » -
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...Read more » -
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 tubs filled with what look like giant mason jars. Overhead, a rainbow of colored tubes bubble gases into tanks, changing the water chemistry to reflect different points in time—past, present and future—as increasing amounts of fossil fuel pollution make the...Read more » -
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 (pdf link) that used 2.1 million odometer readings in California to explore the relationship between fuel prices and driving. From the abstract: The primary empirical result is a medium-term estimate of the utilization elasticity of driving—the elasticity of vehicle-miles-traveled...Read more » -
Carsharing 2.0
Editor’s Note: David Brook is a long-time innovator and leader in the car-sharing industry. He contributed this guest post from Portland, where he consults and blogs on personal mobility. Many city dwellers are familiar with Zipcar and other carsharing companies cropping up in major cities and college campuses across America. The business model is based on a company leasing vehicles, placing them throughout an urban area, providing insurance, and requiring...Read more » -
Stormwater Legislative Wrap Up
New rules approved by Washington’s lawmakers will cut the amount of salmon-harming copper, toxic coal pollutants, and algae-stoking fertilizers that foul local waterways. Oregon legislators are halfway to approving a ban on copper brake pads—a ban that Washington approved last year. It’s exciting news for Puget Sound, the Columbia and Willamette rivers, and countless other waterways threatened by the region’s fire hose of stormwater filth. But in truth, the...Read more »
