More Views From the Road

This afternoon my dog Dante and I went to the vet and acquired some antibiotics for a condition of his. I read the label and realized that one of his meds need to be taken with food. And what kind of delicacy does Mr. Dante favor? Peanut butter! What we were out of? Peanut butter! This necessitated a trip to the "local" grocery store, which may not be around the corner, as Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk and Andres Duany hope in all cities with an implementation of a new urbanist design scheme, but it was within (relative) walking distance.

Walking back from the store I came to an intersection where two perhaps eleven (-?) year old boys were waiting for the light to change.

I could tell that they had just returned from an afternoon excursion to Roller Town, the local skating rink and arcade, where I spent many a middle school afternoon, as they both clutched small treasures.

We were apparently heading in the same direction, so I had a chance to observe them from a discrete distance.

They were about the same size and height, but appearance-wise they embodied the polar extremes of that caterpillar-like stage of a young man's life when he is no longer truly a child, but he is not quite a teenager. One had long, tousled blonde hair and the other was dark haired, which was cut in something a quarter of an inch from a buzz cut.

Both were wearing those ill-fitting, but totally age-appropriate clothes for their age- you know what I mean- those slightly over-sized t-shirts and average fitting pants. Pants not nearly as baggy as those favored by gangsta rappers and their suburban fans that were sported a decade (yikes) ago nor the gonad-crushing skintight almost leggings i.e. "skinny jeans" that the teenagers of today are sporting. Yes, I am old when I cast a critical eye on the fashions and trends of today with a jaundiced eye. Yet somehow I still can't comprehend how pants that double as a tourniquet to the lower extremities are "cool," but this clearly my age talking.

I remember when my brother favored t-shirts that looked like he'd raided my dad's closet and shorts that looked more like baggy pants cut to calf-length. Then he suddenly discovered American Eagle and Hot Topic and started sporting more body-conscious outfits. The sudden enlightening of the concept of girls and the desire for proximity to them was also a contributing factor to this revolution of the wardrobe. I am not immune to fashion faux pases. In fact, I think everything up to yesterday has been a mistake I'd prefer to forget and not to captured for posterity on film.

To remain unobtrusive I kept my earbuds in and my ipod on to Chester French's "Love the Future" album. Therefore, I'm not exactly sure what they were talking about, but I know that one was quite elated by his prize, a sort of plastic stick with a grabbing mechanism on the end, which he took great delight in using to hit his friend with, when said friend was not looking.

There are several intersections from the point where we first came upon one another to my final destination and rather than wait for the light to change they sprinted across the street after judging oncoming traffic to be at a safe enough distance. They also lept to swat at low hanging tree branches and broke into a sort of inspired sprint several times too, oblivious to how odd this may look.

It is moments like these that I savor, moments that remind me of my own (what feels like distant) past and what it really means to be young and alive. There is much that lies ahead of these two boys, but for these embodiments of the future, the present is all that matters. And honestly, it is all that should matter to us too.

I would have missed out on this quiet observation if I had been driving. If anything, I probably would have regarded the boys as a minor irritation- two more additional factors that I would have to calculate in my defensive driving formula. Would one of them suddenly run into the road, would one of them suddenly trip and fall into my path, etc.,? Instead of what they are, two boys enjoying a warm spring day, free of their parents' watchful eye, and exploring the world on their own terms, something every child deserves.

As graduation draws near for schools near and far I also become quite philosophical about life, especially my own, and the direction that it is taking, should be taking, or veered off course. It is an annual thing, though when it started exactly I am not sure.

So, some future postings may be waxing philosophic about what it means to inhabit this mortal coil. But I am also compiling some thoughts about new urbanism, sustainability, and reviews of the excellent spring 2009 issue of Good magazine (http://www.good.is/) and Scientific American 3.0

Wishing you a safe and satisfying summer.

Yep, it looks like it'll be a good year for. . .wind farmin?!

In other updates, Good magazine also published an article entitled, "Air Supply: If You Believe the Future of Energy is Offshore Drilling, Think Again" by Brentin Mock.* [issue 14 January/February 2009, page 41]

*not to be confused with Air Supply, the band and their sappy hit, "The Power of Love (You Are My Lady)," which is so cheesy it makes me burst into convulsive giggles every time I am subjected to it. Their other single,"Making Love Out of Nothing At All" provokes the same kind of reaction.

All kidding aside, Mr (?) Mock produced an excellent piece on five states who are utilizing alternate energy sources, specifically wind turbines, to fill their needs. These states included:
Rhode Island, who is using Deepwater Wind,
Delaware, who is in cahoots with Bluewater Wind,
New Jersey, who hired Garden State Offshore Energy and PSEG Renewable Generation,
Oregon and Principle Power are seeking alternate solutions,
and Texas and a Mr. T. Boone Pickens, an environmentally-conscious billionaire.

There was no mention of Verdant Power, who are based out of Virginia and are seeking to tap into the tidal energy in the East River between Queens and Roosevelt Island.

For a refresher on what Verdant Power is up to, see my blog posting on September 5th, 2008 "Change is in the Air- Literally!"

And in the running it's algae in the lead with corn trailing far behind

My latest favorite publication is a magazine called Good [www.good.is] I was introduced to it by my dad over the holiday and I have nothing but, er, good things to say about it. It's not preachy, it's not self-indulgent, and it's not boring- unlike Adbusters, which is good, but a little self-righteous at times and often suffers from a coherent theme other than the fact that apparently Americans and capitalism suck. Good's format, however, is well-thought out and the articles enticing. Highly recommended.

While reading through Good's 14th issue (January/February 2009) I came across an interesting article by a Mr. Bryan Walsh entitled, "2009 List: Cleaning House," which noted as #7-

"End of Ethanol
Corn ethanol always had more to do with politics than the environment, and the sudden crash in corn prices and bad press for biofuels could finally wipe out ethanol. Thankfully, another fuel is ready to take its place: algae. The upshot? It doesn't compete with food for fuel, and can be raised just about anywhere." (Walsh, 59)

-including the pool I swam in as a child with my best friend as we were adamant to go swimming. And a few weird green floaty fuzzy things in her pool were not going to deter us. And yes, it probably was as gross as it sounds. Ah the folly of youth!

So hurray new advances on the energy frontier! It's sorry to see corn go, but you win some, you lose some.

Also, algae as an energy form may sound familiar to my loyal readers, or at least those with photographic memories. Remember my blog about algae? If so, don't feel bad. I had to search my own blog to find the posting in which I had originally mentioned it. For the inquisitive it was on November 8th, 2008 "Abandon All Hope Ye Who Enter Here"-

For more information on algae as a potential energy source and as cooking oil see Scientific American Earth 3.0's article, "Dark Horse: Oil from Algae" by David Biello http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=biofuel-of-the-future

I am also a proud subscriber of Scientific American, but I have yet to receive my first issue. Oh well, still waiting on GQ too. . .

A shout out to my peeps, or it's all in how you look at it

Having departed from the world of academia I know that if one is willing to dig deep enough one can find enough evidence to support any theory, no matter how crackpot it may be. I also know that if one does not do enough research on a subject one can walk away with too little information and come to an under-informed conclusion thinking it is grounded in fact.

The reason I bring this up is because one of my favorite planning magazines, Next American City [www.amerciancity.org] published an article in their 20th issue entitled, "Beijing's Olympic Problem: Too Much Seoul" written by a Mr. Josh Leon (pages 15-16), which included a misleading title. The article focused on the fact that in China's zeal to add all the bells and whistles to their hosting of the Olympic games they also undertook one of the biggest slum clearances since the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, South Korea.

Unfortunately, or is it fortunately?, Mr. Leon only wrote two sentences on Seoul's slum clearing,
"A notorious slum clearance took place in Seoul, Korea, in advance of the 1988 summer games. To accommodate the flood of international visitors, 720,000 people were relocated, one of the largest urban dislocations up to that time." (Leon, 16)
The rest of the article centered on China and other places that are or have displaced its low-income residents for various reasons.

I take issue with Mr. Leon's title because some people who may read this article may not undertake additional research to see what else Seoul has done since displacing over 700,000 of its residents in a misguided urban housekeeping effort.

[disclaimer: I am adopted from South Korea, as is my brother, so this isn't based entirely on objective journalism. But I don't automatically identify myself as Korean-American or even Asian. Some days I'm surprised to see almond-shaped eyes staring back at me.]

I admit that the title Mr. Leon concoted is amusing with its pun on the word "soul", but it is also distressing, because in the 14th issue January/February 2009 of Good magazine [http://www.good.is/] there were two separate articles which mentioned environmental advances in Seoul. In "Mayoral Fixation" by Benjamin Jervey it was cited that Seoul's mayor, Oh Se-Hoon "wants to turn his city into the world's first truly environmentally megacity. He also tirelessly vouches for- and drinks only- local tap water, urging residents to do the same." (Jervey, 21)

The article "Here to There" by Laura Kiniry cited the Cheonggyecheon Restoration Project, which "through an ambitious two-year plan completed in 2005, the Cheonggyecheon Restoration Project replaced the city's most heavily trafficked roadway- the remains of which were later recycled- with a five-mile-long, 1,000 acre park that attracts both wildlife and people." (Kiniry, 70)

So in the end things balance out. I'm not condoning slum clearances in any way, but I also don't think that a city should be permanently marked for its past mistakes. Here's to balanced journalism!