OK, well, back to our regularly scheduled programming...
Brookings predicts death of suburbs: I'm not sure whether I should be happy about this or sad, or maybe some of both? My first reaction was happiness, because I pretty much hate the 'burbs. Their wastefulness and homogenization creeps me out. But then I realized: wait, what will happen to all those homes? What the Brookings study fails to predict is what happens AFTER all these aging baby boomers die. Will the suburbs really die too? Or will people flock back to them as a cheap source of housing, because the descendents who are left these houses just want to get rid of them as quickly as possible? Is it more wasteful to inhabit the suburbs, with their dependence on cars and giant lush backyards, or is it more wasteful to abandon the millions of homes already built? I know I'm taking the extreme situations, and it's likely that something in between would happen (suburbs becoming the refuge of the poor, becoming more decrepit as they can't keep them up, ultimately becoming slums), but am still curious about the question nevertheless.
have you LA-ers been following the fight over enlarging the 405 freeway (adding a carpool lane)? People and businesses will loose their homes, but we may shave about a minute a mile off our commutes. Maybe the traffic needs to get so bad that you can’t get anywhere before we start to do something about public transit…
Is widening freeways the solution? Isn't it a little short sighted? This is a treatment, not the cure. $950 million will be spent on this...what could $950 million do if put towards increasing the metro system?
believe me, I loath traffic as much as anyone. I avoid it at all costs and am incredibly impatient. But, people act in fear of consequences not "just because"...
If traffic caused my commute time to double, I'd probably find another way to get to work. Or, I'd move to a city with better public transit- PHILLY HERE I COME!
Is widening freeways the solution? Isn't it a little short sighted? This is a treatment, not the cure. $950 million will be spent on this...what could $950 million do if put towards increasing the metro system?
This is exactly how I feel about it. My bf and I were just discussing this last night while watching the news. Look at the cities light rail system- 100% through downtown. But how many people live and/or work on the westside and beach cities? If there were a light rail line that connected to the blue line in Long Beach, then travelled up the southbay along the beaches (with a connector to the green line in Redondo), eventually jogging inland to follow roughly the path of the 405 over the Sepulveda pass into the valley, and somehow connecting with the Orange Line (may need extension to do this), how many millions of people per day would use that line? To me that would be an ideal solution to a lot of the traffic in LA. Where the line followed the 405, it could go under or over (similar to carpool lane @ 110). I expect that commuters coming over the pass or up from the beach cities would find their commute time vastly shorter than by car and would think it'd become an extremely popular mode of transport. But of course the city probably isn't even considering a long term solution like that.
Anyway, ABSOLUTLY RATIONALIST!!! I honestly think this city is screwed if a drastic commitment isn't made to doing EACTLY what you suggest. The pathetic promise of extending the redline near USC, culver city, to Santa Monica is hardly a dent. We have to have something that connects the valley and the Westside without going downtown. Right now, downtown and parts of Hollywood are the only [somewhat] convenient place for me to get to via metro. I would do anything to be able to get to the Westside in a REASONABLE AMOUNT OF TIME- not the hours and several bus transfers it would require now.
What is wrong with this place? How did we get in such a state? LA's reaction to growth is despicable. Is there any hope?
I think the Expo line could be great. I would definitely use it (being a Culver City resident). Since I'm getting pretty addicted to biking, I'd have no problem using it as a multi-modal transportation option. Ride my bike to the station, hop on, go to downtown or Santa Monica, then hop off and be able to ride to nearby destinations (like WonderK's place)... it would be great! What I don't understand is why they can't get community approval for the Culver City to Santa Monica leg of it, though I agree with the theory they're working on now (just start the first leg, it'll take so long that we'll get approval for the second by the time we need it).
But yes, it's not enough. We need something that connects the western edges of the Blue, Green, and eventually Expo lines, and also something to ease up the Sepulveda Pass. My experience with the Blue Line when I lived in Long Beach leads me to LOVE the light rail we have- clean, timely, well organized, spacious and accessible, what more can you ask for? So I tend to favor light rail solutions over bus solutions.
agreed on the light rail over buses. I've taken exactly two buses in LA and both experiences were pathetic. I use to work downtown and took the redline every day. I loved it! I had to drive to the station, but then I got a half hour to read and get ready (mentally) for my day. It was awesome but it only works for very specific situations. When I worked in Santa Monica, I drove and hated every minute of it. I don't mind using multi-methods, but taking my car or bus to the subway to downtown to bus transfer to bus transfer to bus transfer and arriving 3 hours later when it's only 15 miles from my house is ridiculous. I just can't do it...
I didn't mean that the redline extension was lame....I meant that it's too little too late. Villaraigosa is so busy filling in pot holes in his suits...I just think it has to be the priority on agendas.
I didn't mean that the redline extention was lame....i meant that it's too little too late. Villaraigosa is so busy filling in pot holes in his suit...i just think it has to be the priority on agendas.
I think you are always going to have families that want to have yards and grass for themselves or kids. I also believe that those suburbs, and farm areas comprise the majority or Green Space we have left. You have to admit that suburbs are much cooler in temperature than the urban cities. Ideally, the suburbs would be incorporated into the city as the city grows and will no longer be the outer fringe, much like the Highland park area of Dallas, or what I imagine Steven's home to be like. If that happens, then there is no need for people to drive into downtown, their office building could be within walking distance; the shops and eateries could be as well.
But, I will agree that the homogenization of suburbs everywhere is disturbing. That is something that should be fought.
i though villaraigosa was busy filing divorce papers... the new yorker did a rather unflattering profile of him that probably quashed his presidential ambitions... he was described as a 'backstabber' and willing to step on his friends to get what he wants.
LA needs dedicated transitways ASAP, not carpool or congestion premium toll lanes, but dedicated busways, brt routes, light rail and heavy rail... take the redline to the sea dammit! wilshire is the densest corridor in the city and is crying for a subway through westwood and santamonica... next would be to run a line along sepulveda from the south bay to van nuys and beyond (just make sure their is a stop at the getty)....
I just arrived back from a nice little vacation in beautiful Vancouver. While there, my significant other and I were walking when we began to hear chanting from people on the block over. We decided to check it out and saw tons and tons of naked people riding on their bikes chanting:
Yeah, I knew that was going on, but frankly I don't know if I'd ever be comfy with that. I just don't feel like having a bike saddle up my crotch, thanks.
So I posted the GMap pedometer a while back and some of you commented on the improbable calorie counts. Well I've since found out that this is a result of the calorie counts being geared towards walking (durr, pedometer!). I did a little looking into it and found someone saying that a good estimate of calories burned on your bike is 0.28 calories/mile/pound of bicyclist. This seems pretty consistant with my weight loss results, so I'm going to go with it.
barry, will go try to digest that. It would have been great if they'd had even the tiniest of introductions before the downloads so that I'd know what the heck I was trying to wade through there.
I like jumping in the deep end... not sure what I'll comment, but I like that there is some level of democracy (isn't that part of the scientific process) in setting the climate change policy.
I guess I don't feel like any scientific process which involves democracy - and therefor opinion, and therefor bias, uninformed minds, and outright dumb assedness- can be all that scientific. Maybe as I get further through it I'll understand better.
I've been looking up what sorts of bicycle amenities I can expect from the great city of Seattle when I arrive, and found a big controversy over a Bicycle Master Plan currently under development to add bike lanes, sharrows, widened shoulders, signage, and what have you to the streets. But all the controversy happened at least a year ago, and then.... dead silence. No word on whether the whole thing had been dropped was going forward, was amended, was even anywhere close to being funded, or what. So I shot off an email to a transportation planner who has happily informed me that by my arrival in the fall there will be miles and miles of beautiful bike lanes to enjoy, already funded and about to start construction and striping. Hooray!
Working with a big corporation makes me a little gloomy when I realize how much infrastructure goes into making things work, and how easily people are prone to wastefulness. I did have a little, tiny bright moment today though, when I started reusing the back sides of paper for prints and my clients were delighted by it. It makes me think that all these people that work for big companies are certainly inclined towards environmentalism, it might just take some creative thinking to get it to work.
World Naked Bike Ride Day has got to be one of the coolest things I've ever seen. I couldn't do it though. n_, I can only imagine stumbling upon it without knowing about it!
Has anyone heard of, or is anyone participating in, The Members Project that American Express is doing? It's the one commercial with Ellen Degeneres and Martin Scorsese. Basically it's for AmEx card holders, and you sign up for free and you can submit and vote on ideas or "projects". I submitted an idea last week and I was wondering if anyone else wanted to do so.....
Make sure you check it out soon, I think the deadline is today for submitting ideas....
Oh, my idea had to do with sustainable housing and design, that's why I brought it up here. Let me know if you sign up and I will tell you the name of it so you can vote on it :o)
hmmm, I feel an idea or three coming on. Can you submit multiple? Can you vote for multiple? I'm feeling a BikeStation-type idea, and also an urban farming (not skyscraper type, but interstitial space type) idea.
I spent about 15 mins educating myself on the new materials and building practices, and came across Sancor brochure on the envirolet. Envirolet a cheeky play on words (short for environmental toilet).
Anyhow having spent much of my morning determining septic loads, and sizes I was well prepped for this reading. The brochure detailed the environmental impact made by conventional systems and thus the favour of their new toilets. Initially I was quite encouraged.
However further reading regarding the process of disintegration through aerobic microbes by the use of peat moss and the addition of natural (synthetically created equivalents, upon further reading). My eyebrows began to raise. Moreover they added that the systems came equipped with 12v batteries, compost accelerator (also synthetic), wind turbines and solar panels.
I read further.
Turns out that most of them are self contained systems. To describe it crudely you are shitting in a box that is then vibrated (hence the power) to sift your poo for diamonds. Alternately it uses a similar system but with a long extension - call it a remote pipe. Ahhh but here's the fun part. They compare them to out houses...traditionally those awful things as well they discourage urinating in them due to the back draft of scents. Oh so now they are worried that it might smell. Hah. Turns out that they have a smell-less version that uses literally a pint of water to clean exposed surfaces and remove scents....so what happens in the other version.
Any I am left to wonder, that although it might be good for the environment that it might not be too sanitary in the process.
I believe you can submit multiple ideas for the projects, yes. It sucks though because you are only limited to 1000 characters in your initial proposal.
I'll vote for yours if you vote for mine! We've got until the end of the day Sunday I guess.....
architechno, the process of, ahem, shitting has a long way to go before it becomes both sustainable and acceptable for the general population.
humanure is a long subsistence tradition that the industrialized world is rediscovering. though municipal biosolids don't always escape some toxic chemicals poured down the sewer, the composting process tends to neutralize the nasty stuff fairly well (including heavy metals)... vented aerobic composting is the way to go for no smells - most of the nasty outhouse smell (other then piss/poo splash) is from the anaerobic production of methane and hydrogen sulfides (swamp gas).
aphilia- depending on you budget, check out equaris for their separated gray water recycling/composter system. they take your blackwater and turn it into black gold along with providing water that's more pure then most municipal supplies.
So here's a little overview. Incidentally, for every person that signs up on this web site, AmEx adds another dollar to the pot. So, you should sign up.
Introducing The Members ProjectSM, an exciting new initiative that brings American Express® Cardmembers together to do something good for our world. Join fellow Cardmembers to dream up, and ultimately unite behind, one incredible idea. On August 7, American Express will bring it to life with up to $5 million. Will you send vital vaccines to India? Sponsor schools in the inner city? Or fund a next generation hydrogen car? The possibilities are endless. The decision is yours. Visit membersproject.com.
rutger, 30 minutes cycling to Rotterdam from Delft? Man you must have killer calves. or have timed yourself on a lucky day with no wind. ;) Holland is great for getting around. Europeans do have a lot of good things going for them to make a sustainable lifestyle easy to do.
I don't know why everyone always mentions calves in relation to cycling... I don't think I've made my calves sore once. My quads, thighs, and butt will be killing me, but the calves just never do. Wierd.
This morning the Voice of San Diego opines on how the widening of freeways is a waste of damned money. I loved Paul Dorn's comment supporting the piece, stating that "Building freeways to fight traffic congestion is like building cemeteries to fight a pandemic disease."
Oh we were talking about this last week when I was in California, weren't we, rational? Specifically I think the project on the 405 was mentioned.....it's costing like $950 million dollars or something, right? Which frankly would be more than enough to cover a few street car lines, maybe even some light rail.....
Exactly. And what I think they're really doing is making the problem worse: by throwing money at the 405, they're ENDORSING the car culture. Plus, there's the 'build it and they will come' theory: if you build a new lane on the freeway, people will go, "hooray, I can finally take the 405 to work again!" and more people will jump on. If you mark out bike lanes people will go, "wow, that one would take me right to my office. Maybe I should try that sometime." And if you build light rail, guess what would happen? yep, people who previously did otherwise would see what a viable option it is for many of their destinations, if it is well planned. The fact that our government is tossing MORE MONEY at the sprawl just kills me.
The Census Bureau released the American Community Survey. Among the suprising and/or disturbing facts:
*More people work from home (3.6% nationally) than bike to work (0.4% nationally).
*More than 5 times as many people walk to work as bike to work.
*13% of Bostonians walk to work (compared to 2.5% nationally).
*The Arizona cities stood out in carpooling: 16.7% do so in Mesa, and 16.% do so in Phoenix (compared to 10.7% nationally).
*77% still commute alone in their car.
The only figures I think look good are the carpool figures, and maybe the walking figures since I know most people just don't live that close to work.
hmmm, since mine started out pretty beefy anyway, maybe I just already had calf muscle enough to accomodate my new hobby. Or maybe I'll figure out what you mean further into my two-wheeled adventures.
I've made my job choice to chase eco-cities around the world for an overcrowded-growing-like-mad-firm- hope to sign on the dotted line today or tomorrow! (let's see if I can start speaking korean by then...)
the alternate choice was planning community colleges and local projects with a very competent and well known local firm for slightly more $.
congrats tK on what is always a difficult decision. hope it works out, though i imagine your posting rate on the 'nect will take a hit! now that you're bonafide and all.
i probably would have made the same choice, given what i know about your sitch.
utopia's not coming to us, we've got to go out and get/make it.
mightylittle, that's awesome! And I like the pink paint idea. I love guerilla design. I wonder if any of my future LA-nector friends would be willing to do crazy stuff like that with me.
tk, congrats on the job! I can't wait to hear about it, my similar-minded green buddy....
It's good to be back home again, and I feel like it's been a while since I've contributed anything of any substance to this thread. I feel bad. But today on the way home I heard about this program that they have started in Barcelona called "Bicing" which is thousands of bicycles stationed all around the city for people to borrow and use. They are free for a little while and then after that you pay. It seems like a great idea and they say that the interest is huge so far....except as with anything, it is causing debate. Apparently pedestrians are complaining about people who are biking on the sidewalks instead of the very crowded Barcelona boulevards, which are too intimidating to the new bikers. I think the Catalonians should take a page from those industrious Canadians and start making some bike lanes!
I will cross post this on the bicycle thread in case they are interested....
just thought i'd pop in quick. first of all, i finally purchased a bike! it's a cheap one for right now - i might eventually upgrade to a better one, but for right now - it's great!
we took a test run last night and i love the freedom of not being in the car!
and if anyone's in the austin area - my friend was telling me about this. i love that they're reusing all of this stuff while providing people with more eco-friendly modes of transportation!
The 2007 edition of Environmental Design + Construction Magazine's Green Book has been released. The link includes a fully searchable database of green products and manufacturers. I know there was a thread started about this a while ago, but I can't remember what it was called. Anyway, this is a pretty good resource.
Green Thread Central
OK, well, back to our regularly scheduled programming...
Brookings predicts death of suburbs: I'm not sure whether I should be happy about this or sad, or maybe some of both? My first reaction was happiness, because I pretty much hate the 'burbs. Their wastefulness and homogenization creeps me out. But then I realized: wait, what will happen to all those homes? What the Brookings study fails to predict is what happens AFTER all these aging baby boomers die. Will the suburbs really die too? Or will people flock back to them as a cheap source of housing, because the descendents who are left these houses just want to get rid of them as quickly as possible? Is it more wasteful to inhabit the suburbs, with their dependence on cars and giant lush backyards, or is it more wasteful to abandon the millions of homes already built? I know I'm taking the extreme situations, and it's likely that something in between would happen (suburbs becoming the refuge of the poor, becoming more decrepit as they can't keep them up, ultimately becoming slums), but am still curious about the question nevertheless.
speakin' of the 'burbs....
have you LA-ers been following the fight over enlarging the 405 freeway (adding a carpool lane)? People and businesses will loose their homes, but we may shave about a minute a mile off our commutes. Maybe the traffic needs to get so bad that you can’t get anywhere before we start to do something about public transit…
Is widening freeways the solution? Isn't it a little short sighted? This is a treatment, not the cure. $950 million will be spent on this...what could $950 million do if put towards increasing the metro system?
believe me, I loath traffic as much as anyone. I avoid it at all costs and am incredibly impatient. But, people act in fear of consequences not "just because"...
If traffic caused my commute time to double, I'd probably find another way to get to work. Or, I'd move to a city with better public transit- PHILLY HERE I COME!
This is exactly how I feel about it. My bf and I were just discussing this last night while watching the news. Look at the cities light rail system- 100% through downtown. But how many people live and/or work on the westside and beach cities? If there were a light rail line that connected to the blue line in Long Beach, then travelled up the southbay along the beaches (with a connector to the green line in Redondo), eventually jogging inland to follow roughly the path of the 405 over the Sepulveda pass into the valley, and somehow connecting with the Orange Line (may need extension to do this), how many millions of people per day would use that line? To me that would be an ideal solution to a lot of the traffic in LA. Where the line followed the 405, it could go under or over (similar to carpool lane @ 110). I expect that commuters coming over the pass or up from the beach cities would find their commute time vastly shorter than by car and would think it'd become an extremely popular mode of transport. But of course the city probably isn't even considering a long term solution like that.
btw, I meant LOSE their homes, not "loose"...
Anyway, ABSOLUTLY RATIONALIST!!! I honestly think this city is screwed if a drastic commitment isn't made to doing EACTLY what you suggest. The pathetic promise of extending the redline near USC, culver city, to Santa Monica is hardly a dent. We have to have something that connects the valley and the Westside without going downtown. Right now, downtown and parts of Hollywood are the only [somewhat] convenient place for me to get to via metro. I would do anything to be able to get to the Westside in a REASONABLE AMOUNT OF TIME- not the hours and several bus transfers it would require now.
What is wrong with this place? How did we get in such a state? LA's reaction to growth is despicable. Is there any hope?
I think the Expo line could be great. I would definitely use it (being a Culver City resident). Since I'm getting pretty addicted to biking, I'd have no problem using it as a multi-modal transportation option. Ride my bike to the station, hop on, go to downtown or Santa Monica, then hop off and be able to ride to nearby destinations (like WonderK's place)... it would be great! What I don't understand is why they can't get community approval for the Culver City to Santa Monica leg of it, though I agree with the theory they're working on now (just start the first leg, it'll take so long that we'll get approval for the second by the time we need it).
But yes, it's not enough. We need something that connects the western edges of the Blue, Green, and eventually Expo lines, and also something to ease up the Sepulveda Pass. My experience with the Blue Line when I lived in Long Beach leads me to LOVE the light rail we have- clean, timely, well organized, spacious and accessible, what more can you ask for? So I tend to favor light rail solutions over bus solutions.
agreed on the light rail over buses. I've taken exactly two buses in LA and both experiences were pathetic. I use to work downtown and took the redline every day. I loved it! I had to drive to the station, but then I got a half hour to read and get ready (mentally) for my day. It was awesome but it only works for very specific situations. When I worked in Santa Monica, I drove and hated every minute of it. I don't mind using multi-methods, but taking my car or bus to the subway to downtown to bus transfer to bus transfer to bus transfer and arriving 3 hours later when it's only 15 miles from my house is ridiculous. I just can't do it...
I didn't mean that the redline extension was lame....I meant that it's too little too late. Villaraigosa is so busy filling in pot holes in his suits...I just think it has to be the priority on agendas.
I didn't mean that the redline extention was lame....i meant that it's too little too late. Villaraigosa is so busy filling in pot holes in his suit...i just think it has to be the priority on agendas.
oops...wonder how I did that? hmm...
*where's that damn edit button*
Back to the suburbs issue.
I think you are always going to have families that want to have yards and grass for themselves or kids. I also believe that those suburbs, and farm areas comprise the majority or Green Space we have left. You have to admit that suburbs are much cooler in temperature than the urban cities. Ideally, the suburbs would be incorporated into the city as the city grows and will no longer be the outer fringe, much like the Highland park area of Dallas, or what I imagine Steven's home to be like. If that happens, then there is no need for people to drive into downtown, their office building could be within walking distance; the shops and eateries could be as well.
But, I will agree that the homogenization of suburbs everywhere is disturbing. That is something that should be fought.
i though villaraigosa was busy filing divorce papers... the new yorker did a rather unflattering profile of him that probably quashed his presidential ambitions... he was described as a 'backstabber' and willing to step on his friends to get what he wants.
LA needs dedicated transitways ASAP, not carpool or congestion premium toll lanes, but dedicated busways, brt routes, light rail and heavy rail... take the redline to the sea dammit! wilshire is the densest corridor in the city and is crying for a subway through westwood and santamonica... next would be to run a line along sepulveda from the south bay to van nuys and beyond (just make sure their is a stop at the getty)....
no one reads the new yorker anyways.
aigosa is a sleeze. I guess he's not going to change his name back.
the bigger picture...
Climate Models: An Assessment of Strengths and Limitations for User Applications is accepting public comments till july 6th...
Share the archinect wisdom with the rest of the country!!!!
I just arrived back from a nice little vacation in beautiful Vancouver. While there, my significant other and I were walking when we began to hear chanting from people on the block over. We decided to check it out and saw tons and tons of naked people riding on their bikes chanting:
'Less gas. More ass.'
It appears that we had stumbles upon World Naked Bike Ride Day.
and we're back around to biking! Love it.
Yeah, I knew that was going on, but frankly I don't know if I'd ever be comfy with that. I just don't feel like having a bike saddle up my crotch, thanks.
So I posted the GMap pedometer a while back and some of you commented on the improbable calorie counts. Well I've since found out that this is a result of the calorie counts being geared towards walking (durr, pedometer!). I did a little looking into it and found someone saying that a good estimate of calories burned on your bike is 0.28 calories/mile/pound of bicyclist. This seems pretty consistant with my weight loss results, so I'm going to go with it.
barry, will go try to digest that. It would have been great if they'd had even the tiniest of introductions before the downloads so that I'd know what the heck I was trying to wade through there.
I like jumping in the deep end... not sure what I'll comment, but I like that there is some level of democracy (isn't that part of the scientific process) in setting the climate change policy.
I guess I don't feel like any scientific process which involves democracy - and therefor opinion, and therefor bias, uninformed minds, and outright dumb assedness- can be all that scientific. Maybe as I get further through it I'll understand better.
I've been looking up what sorts of bicycle amenities I can expect from the great city of Seattle when I arrive, and found a big controversy over a Bicycle Master Plan currently under development to add bike lanes, sharrows, widened shoulders, signage, and what have you to the streets. But all the controversy happened at least a year ago, and then.... dead silence. No word on whether the whole thing had been dropped was going forward, was amended, was even anywhere close to being funded, or what. So I shot off an email to a transportation planner who has happily informed me that by my arrival in the fall there will be miles and miles of beautiful bike lanes to enjoy, already funded and about to start construction and striping. Hooray!
go sharrows! go!!!!
Working with a big corporation makes me a little gloomy when I realize how much infrastructure goes into making things work, and how easily people are prone to wastefulness. I did have a little, tiny bright moment today though, when I started reusing the back sides of paper for prints and my clients were delighted by it. It makes me think that all these people that work for big companies are certainly inclined towards environmentalism, it might just take some creative thinking to get it to work.
World Naked Bike Ride Day has got to be one of the coolest things I've ever seen. I couldn't do it though. n_, I can only imagine stumbling upon it without knowing about it!
Less gas, more ass
....my new slogan, lol.
how about Less gas = Less ass ?
i'm really enjoying theurban farming thread... not that I'm an urban farmer, just like the idea of growing stuff in the city (or suburb).
anyone seen this?
I love those graphics, architechno.
Has anyone heard of, or is anyone participating in, The Members Project that American Express is doing? It's the one commercial with Ellen Degeneres and Martin Scorsese. Basically it's for AmEx card holders, and you sign up for free and you can submit and vote on ideas or "projects". I submitted an idea last week and I was wondering if anyone else wanted to do so.....
Make sure you check it out soon, I think the deadline is today for submitting ideas....
Oh, my idea had to do with sustainable housing and design, that's why I brought it up here. Let me know if you sign up and I will tell you the name of it so you can vote on it :o)
AFH has got a project... i think it's the Minnie chapter... called "The Clean Hub"
hmmm, I feel an idea or three coming on. Can you submit multiple? Can you vote for multiple? I'm feeling a BikeStation-type idea, and also an urban farming (not skyscraper type, but interstitial space type) idea.
team archinect stylie? open source archinect portable bike station?
I spent about 15 mins educating myself on the new materials and building practices, and came across Sancor brochure on the envirolet. Envirolet a cheeky play on words (short for environmental toilet).
Anyhow having spent much of my morning determining septic loads, and sizes I was well prepped for this reading. The brochure detailed the environmental impact made by conventional systems and thus the favour of their new toilets. Initially I was quite encouraged.
However further reading regarding the process of disintegration through aerobic microbes by the use of peat moss and the addition of natural (synthetically created equivalents, upon further reading). My eyebrows began to raise. Moreover they added that the systems came equipped with 12v batteries, compost accelerator (also synthetic), wind turbines and solar panels.
I read further.
Turns out that most of them are self contained systems. To describe it crudely you are shitting in a box that is then vibrated (hence the power) to sift your poo for diamonds. Alternately it uses a similar system but with a long extension - call it a remote pipe. Ahhh but here's the fun part. They compare them to out houses...traditionally those awful things as well they discourage urinating in them due to the back draft of scents. Oh so now they are worried that it might smell. Hah. Turns out that they have a smell-less version that uses literally a pint of water to clean exposed surfaces and remove scents....so what happens in the other version.
Any I am left to wonder, that although it might be good for the environment that it might not be too sanitary in the process.
I believe you can submit multiple ideas for the projects, yes. It sucks though because you are only limited to 1000 characters in your initial proposal.
I'll vote for yours if you vote for mine! We've got until the end of the day Sunday I guess.....
architechno, the process of, ahem, shitting has a long way to go before it becomes both sustainable and acceptable for the general population.
humanure is a long subsistence tradition that the industrialized world is rediscovering. though municipal biosolids don't always escape some toxic chemicals poured down the sewer, the composting process tends to neutralize the nasty stuff fairly well (including heavy metals)... vented aerobic composting is the way to go for no smells - most of the nasty outhouse smell (other then piss/poo splash) is from the anaerobic production of methane and hydrogen sulfides (swamp gas).
aphilia- depending on you budget, check out equaris for their separated gray water recycling/composter system. they take your blackwater and turn it into black gold along with providing water that's more pure then most municipal supplies.
So here's a little overview. Incidentally, for every person that signs up on this web site, AmEx adds another dollar to the pot. So, you should sign up.
Introducing The Members ProjectSM, an exciting new initiative that brings American Express® Cardmembers together to do something good for our world. Join fellow Cardmembers to dream up, and ultimately unite behind, one incredible idea. On August 7, American Express will bring it to life with up to $5 million. Will you send vital vaccines to India? Sponsor schools in the inner city? Or fund a next generation hydrogen car? The possibilities are endless. The decision is yours. Visit membersproject.com.
PS. I don't work for them or anything, I'm just saying. It seems like a pretty cool initiative.
ok, so I didn't realize early that you've got to have an american express card for this. That's a no-go for me.
Oh whoops. I didn't know.
yea me either mastercard all the way.
rutger, 30 minutes cycling to Rotterdam from Delft? Man you must have killer calves. or have timed yourself on a lucky day with no wind. ;) Holland is great for getting around. Europeans do have a lot of good things going for them to make a sustainable lifestyle easy to do.
I don't know why everyone always mentions calves in relation to cycling... I don't think I've made my calves sore once. My quads, thighs, and butt will be killing me, but the calves just never do. Wierd.
This morning the Voice of San Diego opines on how the widening of freeways is a waste of damned money. I loved Paul Dorn's comment supporting the piece, stating that "Building freeways to fight traffic congestion is like building cemeteries to fight a pandemic disease."
Oh we were talking about this last week when I was in California, weren't we, rational? Specifically I think the project on the 405 was mentioned.....it's costing like $950 million dollars or something, right? Which frankly would be more than enough to cover a few street car lines, maybe even some light rail.....
Exactly. And what I think they're really doing is making the problem worse: by throwing money at the 405, they're ENDORSING the car culture. Plus, there's the 'build it and they will come' theory: if you build a new lane on the freeway, people will go, "hooray, I can finally take the 405 to work again!" and more people will jump on. If you mark out bike lanes people will go, "wow, that one would take me right to my office. Maybe I should try that sometime." And if you build light rail, guess what would happen? yep, people who previously did otherwise would see what a viable option it is for many of their destinations, if it is well planned. The fact that our government is tossing MORE MONEY at the sprawl just kills me.
The Census Bureau released the American Community Survey. Among the suprising and/or disturbing facts:
*More people work from home (3.6% nationally) than bike to work (0.4% nationally).
*More than 5 times as many people walk to work as bike to work.
*13% of Bostonians walk to work (compared to 2.5% nationally).
*The Arizona cities stood out in carpooling: 16.7% do so in Mesa, and 16.% do so in Phoenix (compared to 10.7% nationally).
*77% still commute alone in their car.
The only figures I think look good are the carpool figures, and maybe the walking figures since I know most people just don't live that close to work.
WWGCD?
would you rather jump into a firm to be the leading light of greenness (but only for the concept design phase)?
-or-
join a practice were you can be mentored on the green path and follow projects all the way through?
calves are what you notice when you see a hardcore cyclist... they just get huge
hmmm, since mine started out pretty beefy anyway, maybe I just already had calf muscle enough to accomodate my new hobby. Or maybe I'll figure out what you mean further into my two-wheeled adventures.
I've made my job choice to chase eco-cities around the world for an overcrowded-growing-like-mad-firm- hope to sign on the dotted line today or tomorrow! (let's see if I can start speaking korean by then...)
the alternate choice was planning community colleges and local projects with a very competent and well known local firm for slightly more $.
congrats tK on what is always a difficult decision. hope it works out, though i imagine your posting rate on the 'nect will take a hit! now that you're bonafide and all.
i probably would have made the same choice, given what i know about your sitch.
utopia's not coming to us, we've got to go out and get/make it.
here's a great link a friend just sent me...
http://www.thestar.com/News/article/226454
toronto bike activists going guerilla and painting their own bikelanes because the city's plan is taking too long.
mightylittle, that's awesome! And I like the pink paint idea. I love guerilla design. I wonder if any of my future LA-nector friends would be willing to do crazy stuff like that with me.
tk, congrats on the job! I can't wait to hear about it, my similar-minded green buddy....
It's good to be back home again, and I feel like it's been a while since I've contributed anything of any substance to this thread. I feel bad. But today on the way home I heard about this program that they have started in Barcelona called "Bicing" which is thousands of bicycles stationed all around the city for people to borrow and use. They are free for a little while and then after that you pay. It seems like a great idea and they say that the interest is huge so far....except as with anything, it is causing debate. Apparently pedestrians are complaining about people who are biking on the sidewalks instead of the very crowded Barcelona boulevards, which are too intimidating to the new bikers. I think the Catalonians should take a page from those industrious Canadians and start making some bike lanes!
I will cross post this on the bicycle thread in case they are interested....
just thought i'd pop in quick. first of all, i finally purchased a bike! it's a cheap one for right now - i might eventually upgrade to a better one, but for right now - it's great!
we took a test run last night and i love the freedom of not being in the car!
and if anyone's in the austin area - my friend was telling me about this. i love that they're reusing all of this stuff while providing people with more eco-friendly modes of transportation!
http://www.austinyellowbike.org/
congrats tk, sounds like an exciting job
The 2007 edition of Environmental Design + Construction Magazine's Green Book has been released. The link includes a fully searchable database of green products and manufacturers. I know there was a thread started about this a while ago, but I can't remember what it was called. Anyway, this is a pretty good resource.
nice dubK, that's a great link.
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