I'm a sucker for after-season savings and I was leafing through the calendars for 2009, at, where else Barnes and Noble? and found a calendar that depicted famous city skylines- Los Angeles, Dubai, Stockholm etc.,
As I was admiring the glittering towers I thought of another passage from the World is Flat by Friedman that was truly, pardon the pun, illuminating.
Friedman was speaking with a hedge fund manager named Dinakar Singh. Mr. Singh used to live in India and had returned for a business trip.
"I was on the sixth floor of a hotel in New Delhi," Mr. Singh recalled, "and when I looked out the window I could see for miles. How come? Because you do not have assured power in Delhi for elevators, so there are not many tall buildings." No sensible investor would want to build a tall building in a city where the power could go out at any moment and you might have to walk up twenty flights of stairs. The result is more urban sprawl and an inefficient use of space." (the World is Flat, 2005 edition, 329)
Expounding upon this, Friedman mentioned a trip he took to Dalian, [northeastern] China, which had been so completely transformed by all of the new modern glass-and-steel skyscrapers that had sprung up since the last time he visited, which was only one year ago, that he barely recognized the place.
Friedman had also been to Cairo in the summer of 1974 when "the three most prominent buildings in the city were the Nile Hilton, the Cairo Tower, and the Egyptian TV building. Thirty years later, in 2004, they are still the most prominent buildings there; the Cairo skyline has barely changed. . . So in Delhi, you can see forever. In Cairo, the skyline seems forever the same. In China, if you miss visiting a city for a year, it's like you haven't been there in forever." (329-330)
Three disparate cities, all of which have a sizable stake in the world playing field, but each which takes an individual approach to urban planning based on their resources. Fascinating.
Thursday, January 1, 2009
A sense of place, a sense of place, a loss of sensation in one's extremities: a review of Michael Perry's Truck: a Love Story
Usually I reserve my postings for subjects that are "strictly" urban planning in nature. But I have recently returned from the Midwest, where I spent the majority of my childhood and it has given me cause for reflection for what it means to live there.
The majority of the Midwest is not really known for monumental urban planning projects. With the exception of the major cities, Chicago, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Madison, and Milwaukee, not a lot of earth-shattering and uprooting change goes on in the sleepy towns of the heartland. My grandparents' town of Marshfield, WI put in a new bridge/overpass a few years ago and it still confuses people, especially those of us who don't visit as often as we'd like.
This does not mean that I consider big cities superior to their smaller counterparts in any way. Not at all. I will say that there is more that appeals to me in a big city that a small town cannot offer. But when the hub-bub of big city living grinds me down it's nice to know that there's a quiet place that I can go where I won't be judged on my musical knowledge, or lack thereof,
worry about getting mugged, missing the last train home, etc.,
As we were driving from St. Paul, Minnesota to Marshfield, Wisconsin- very over the hills and through the woods- (the Jeep knows the way to carry the sleigh?) I thought of a rather touching memoir that I had read. It is called Truck: a Love Story by a Mr. Michael Perry, who also wrote Population: 485. My dad had given Truck to me for Christmas last year and at first I had to feign enthusiasm. If he thought that I was going to read a self-indulgent memoir about a redneck and his joyous adventures overhauling his beloved Chevy while telling jokes of dubious taste he had another thing coming.
However, my dad has rather good, though eccentric, taste and this work was nothing like what the cover implied. I love memoirs and this book did not break my faith in the genre.
Mr. Perry lives in the tiny town of New Auburn, Wisconsin, population 485, like Mr. Perry's work implies, not exactly a happenin' metropolis and is just as cold as Minneapolis, hence my title alluding to the loss of feeling in one's fingers and toes :-) But Mr. Perry gives his real-life characters a tangible sense of grace and dignity as they go about their modest lives. Based on the inside cover flap author pix Brad Pitt does not have to worry about anyone stealing his position of first place for best lookin'. But Mr. Perry what may lack in conventional good looks, he makes up for in talent, capturing small town living with a certain eloquence.
His story centers around a year in his life as he does indeed try to restore his beloved rust bucket of a truck despite limited mechanical knowledge. But it is much more than that. He tries to grow his own vegetables- no small feat in a state that is not sympathetic to amateur gardeners, overcome the visual discrimination he receives outside of small town living where everyone tends to be a little scruffy around the edges, and even falls in love.
We drove through many small towns like New Auburn, and I'm sure I've driven through New Auburn itself on numerous occasions without a thought as to what it is like living there. I grew up in towns of modest size, about 35-38,000 people and I plan to live in a suburb of L.A., hopefully Santa Monica, in the future. And while the prospect of living in a town that has a population smaller than my high school secretly horrifies me, Truck shows me that home is really where the heart is even if they don't have a Barnes and Noble within reasonable driving distance ;-) Size a home does not make. It is where you love and are loved.
On that note, if you need me I'll be rereading Truck and the simple joys and frustrations of small town living it revels in. Best to you dear reader in this new year.
The majority of the Midwest is not really known for monumental urban planning projects. With the exception of the major cities, Chicago, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Madison, and Milwaukee, not a lot of earth-shattering and uprooting change goes on in the sleepy towns of the heartland. My grandparents' town of Marshfield, WI put in a new bridge/overpass a few years ago and it still confuses people, especially those of us who don't visit as often as we'd like.
This does not mean that I consider big cities superior to their smaller counterparts in any way. Not at all. I will say that there is more that appeals to me in a big city that a small town cannot offer. But when the hub-bub of big city living grinds me down it's nice to know that there's a quiet place that I can go where I won't be judged on my musical knowledge, or lack thereof,
worry about getting mugged, missing the last train home, etc.,
As we were driving from St. Paul, Minnesota to Marshfield, Wisconsin- very over the hills and through the woods- (the Jeep knows the way to carry the sleigh?) I thought of a rather touching memoir that I had read. It is called Truck: a Love Story by a Mr. Michael Perry, who also wrote Population: 485. My dad had given Truck to me for Christmas last year and at first I had to feign enthusiasm. If he thought that I was going to read a self-indulgent memoir about a redneck and his joyous adventures overhauling his beloved Chevy while telling jokes of dubious taste he had another thing coming.
However, my dad has rather good, though eccentric, taste and this work was nothing like what the cover implied. I love memoirs and this book did not break my faith in the genre.
Mr. Perry lives in the tiny town of New Auburn, Wisconsin, population 485, like Mr. Perry's work implies, not exactly a happenin' metropolis and is just as cold as Minneapolis, hence my title alluding to the loss of feeling in one's fingers and toes :-) But Mr. Perry gives his real-life characters a tangible sense of grace and dignity as they go about their modest lives. Based on the inside cover flap author pix Brad Pitt does not have to worry about anyone stealing his position of first place for best lookin'. But Mr. Perry what may lack in conventional good looks, he makes up for in talent, capturing small town living with a certain eloquence.
His story centers around a year in his life as he does indeed try to restore his beloved rust bucket of a truck despite limited mechanical knowledge. But it is much more than that. He tries to grow his own vegetables- no small feat in a state that is not sympathetic to amateur gardeners, overcome the visual discrimination he receives outside of small town living where everyone tends to be a little scruffy around the edges, and even falls in love.
We drove through many small towns like New Auburn, and I'm sure I've driven through New Auburn itself on numerous occasions without a thought as to what it is like living there. I grew up in towns of modest size, about 35-38,000 people and I plan to live in a suburb of L.A., hopefully Santa Monica, in the future. And while the prospect of living in a town that has a population smaller than my high school secretly horrifies me, Truck shows me that home is really where the heart is even if they don't have a Barnes and Noble within reasonable driving distance ;-) Size a home does not make. It is where you love and are loved.
On that note, if you need me I'll be rereading Truck and the simple joys and frustrations of small town living it revels in. Best to you dear reader in this new year.
Won't You Take Me to. . .Dinkytown?!
I hope that this first posting in the year 2009 finds you safe and well.
I myself have recently thawed out after visiting my parents in the great frozen state of Minnesota. And yes, it was as cold as it sounds.
Luckily, despite being a (second time around) California transplant, I spent the majority of my formative years in Wisconsin and therefore did not curl up in a little ball on the sidewalk, where I would undoubtedly have gotten stuck (think that flagpole licking scene in A Christmas Story) and whimpered like a little girl.
And it's a good thing too because had I not been made of hardier stock I would have missed my friend Petey's gracious tour of her stomping grounds of the Twin Cities.
Though my parents live in a rather nice suburb of St. Paul, I am unfamiliar with the layout of St. Paul and Minneapolis as they moved there after I had graduated from college. As far as I can ascertain, the two cities are several miles apart and are interconnected with many, many highways, which will also route you to the various suburbs that surround the major metropolises.
Petey is an architect and she knows that I am going for a master's urban planning so she tailored a comprehensive, but concise tour of her towns. For example, in some perverse trek to a structural engineering's Mecca, we drove over the I-35W bridge that had collapsed on August 1, 2007 and which has since been reconstructed. We were driving too fast and it was too late at night to admire the new details, but it was a sober reminder that civic improvements should never be neglected.
We also went to Dinkytown, which, according to Wikipedia, is an area within the Marcy Holmes neighborhood in Minneapolis. Dinkytown can be found at 14th Avenue Southeast and 4th Street Southeast and is also part of the north side of UMinn's Twin Cities East Bank campus.
Full disclaimer: Dinkytown is not a slander against the hard-working Midwestern folk that live in that neighborhood, it is its official name and if you ever have a chance to go there, I strongly encourage it.
Not to sound like some pretentious new urbanist idiot but it is an "adorable" community- quiet streets lined with trees festooned with twinkle lights, cozy Mom and Pop shops and untouched, unscathed by Pottery Barn, Barnes and Noble, or Starbucks. More disclaimers are in order- if the IRS were to pull up my bank records they would see that the majority of my free money does go toward padding the coffers of Barnes and Noble and Starbucks. But even my favorite Saint Arbucks/Starshmucks and Noble Barn cannot compete with an old school used bookstore or coffee shop.
Tempting restaurants abound in Dinkytown and Petey and I caught up over perfectly chilled Strongbow ciders, the official drink of the Queen of Denmark (!), at the Kitty Club, or something like that, which is an awesome bar, not what you probably think the name implies.
Unfortunately, the Loring Pasta Bar (formerly Gray's Drug) was too crowded to eat at, which is a shame because Bob Dylan lived in that building. There is a mural dedicated to him around the corner from the visually spectacular Varsity Theater.
But I did indulge in my number one vice, used bookstores and purchased several works, including a work entitled, Cities & People by Mark Girouard, which will be reviewed in an upcoming blog. The fact that the publisher chose Gustave Caillebotte's Paris Street: Rainy Day, for the cover, wins them extra points.
(it's the huge mid-19th century rainy day street scene that Ferris Bueller and friends stand in front of in Ferris Bueller's Day Off when they visit the Art Institute in Chicago. Yeah, yeah, once an art historian, always an art historian) ;-)>
[Unfortunately, my literary indulgence almost meant that I had to check a bag at United at the airport and pay their baggage fee lest I inadvertently tear my shoulder from its socket. Grrr.]
Starving, we then headed to downtown Minneapolis, which I had visited as a child. Upon my initial visit I had been enamored by the everpresent skywalks- enclosed glass and steel bridges that jut out from buildings like tree branches, allowing people to traverse from building to building without being exposed to the frigid weather. Still a genius idea as until global warming kicks into high gear Minneapolis is going to continue to be a frozen tundra in the dead of winter and the less exposure to the elements the better.
Petey knew of an excellent Irish pub, Kieran's (330 2nd Ave., Minneapolis) whose offerings did not fail to delight. I had a fork tender pot roast and she enjoyed a chicken pot pie with puff pastry crust. The music, was sadly, not anything resembling Irish folk or punk, instead we tuned out Fastball and other musical oddities.
Alas, I had a plane to board the next day and our fun had to end. I promised Petey that I would visit her when the weather is warmer and we could explore more. And as you know dear reader, a review of those adventures will be in order. In the meantime, if you have a chance to visit the Twin Cties, there is much in store for you too! Happy 2009!
I myself have recently thawed out after visiting my parents in the great frozen state of Minnesota. And yes, it was as cold as it sounds.
Luckily, despite being a (second time around) California transplant, I spent the majority of my formative years in Wisconsin and therefore did not curl up in a little ball on the sidewalk, where I would undoubtedly have gotten stuck (think that flagpole licking scene in A Christmas Story) and whimpered like a little girl.
And it's a good thing too because had I not been made of hardier stock I would have missed my friend Petey's gracious tour of her stomping grounds of the Twin Cities.
Though my parents live in a rather nice suburb of St. Paul, I am unfamiliar with the layout of St. Paul and Minneapolis as they moved there after I had graduated from college. As far as I can ascertain, the two cities are several miles apart and are interconnected with many, many highways, which will also route you to the various suburbs that surround the major metropolises.
Petey is an architect and she knows that I am going for a master's urban planning so she tailored a comprehensive, but concise tour of her towns. For example, in some perverse trek to a structural engineering's Mecca, we drove over the I-35W bridge that had collapsed on August 1, 2007 and which has since been reconstructed. We were driving too fast and it was too late at night to admire the new details, but it was a sober reminder that civic improvements should never be neglected.
We also went to Dinkytown, which, according to Wikipedia, is an area within the Marcy Holmes neighborhood in Minneapolis. Dinkytown can be found at 14th Avenue Southeast and 4th Street Southeast and is also part of the north side of UMinn's Twin Cities East Bank campus.
Full disclaimer: Dinkytown is not a slander against the hard-working Midwestern folk that live in that neighborhood, it is its official name and if you ever have a chance to go there, I strongly encourage it.
Not to sound like some pretentious new urbanist idiot but it is an "adorable" community- quiet streets lined with trees festooned with twinkle lights, cozy Mom and Pop shops and untouched, unscathed by Pottery Barn, Barnes and Noble, or Starbucks. More disclaimers are in order- if the IRS were to pull up my bank records they would see that the majority of my free money does go toward padding the coffers of Barnes and Noble and Starbucks. But even my favorite Saint Arbucks/Starshmucks and Noble Barn cannot compete with an old school used bookstore or coffee shop.
Tempting restaurants abound in Dinkytown and Petey and I caught up over perfectly chilled Strongbow ciders, the official drink of the Queen of Denmark (!), at the Kitty Club, or something like that, which is an awesome bar, not what you probably think the name implies.
Unfortunately, the Loring Pasta Bar (formerly Gray's Drug) was too crowded to eat at, which is a shame because Bob Dylan lived in that building. There is a mural dedicated to him around the corner from the visually spectacular Varsity Theater.
But I did indulge in my number one vice, used bookstores and purchased several works, including a work entitled, Cities & People by Mark Girouard, which will be reviewed in an upcoming blog. The fact that the publisher chose Gustave Caillebotte's Paris Street: Rainy Day, for the cover, wins them extra points.
(it's the huge mid-19th century rainy day street scene that Ferris Bueller and friends stand in front of in Ferris Bueller's Day Off when they visit the Art Institute in Chicago. Yeah, yeah, once an art historian, always an art historian) ;-)>
[Unfortunately, my literary indulgence almost meant that I had to check a bag at United at the airport and pay their baggage fee lest I inadvertently tear my shoulder from its socket. Grrr.]
Starving, we then headed to downtown Minneapolis, which I had visited as a child. Upon my initial visit I had been enamored by the everpresent skywalks- enclosed glass and steel bridges that jut out from buildings like tree branches, allowing people to traverse from building to building without being exposed to the frigid weather. Still a genius idea as until global warming kicks into high gear Minneapolis is going to continue to be a frozen tundra in the dead of winter and the less exposure to the elements the better.
Petey knew of an excellent Irish pub, Kieran's (330 2nd Ave., Minneapolis) whose offerings did not fail to delight. I had a fork tender pot roast and she enjoyed a chicken pot pie with puff pastry crust. The music, was sadly, not anything resembling Irish folk or punk, instead we tuned out Fastball and other musical oddities.
Alas, I had a plane to board the next day and our fun had to end. I promised Petey that I would visit her when the weather is warmer and we could explore more. And as you know dear reader, a review of those adventures will be in order. In the meantime, if you have a chance to visit the Twin Cties, there is much in store for you too! Happy 2009!
Sunday, December 28, 2008
It's a Small World Afterall
I know I've already included a review on Thomas Friedman's 2005 edition of the World is Flat. But I was struck by the following interesting analogy he wrote comparing countries to types of neighborhoods in the global city. As the world gets a little smaller and flatter each day it's good to keep in mind what our place really is.
I hope that the publisher will forgive me while I write a letter of permission requesting to reprint this. As usual, anything that follows is strictly from Mr. Friedman not myself- enjoy!
"I Can Only Get It for You Retail"
"What if regions of the world were like the neighborhoods of a city? What would the world look like? I'd describe it like this: Western Europe would be an assisted-living facility, with an aging population lavishly attended by Turkish nurses.
The United States would be a gated community, with a metal detector at the front gate and a lot of people sitting in their front yards complaining about how lazy everyone else was, even though out back there was a small opening in the fence for Mexican labor and other energetic immigrants who helped make the gated community function.
Latin America would be the fun part of the town, the club district, where the workday doesn't begin until ten p.m. and everyone sleeps until midmorning. It's definitely the place to hang out, but in between the clubs, you don't see a lot of new businesses opening up, except on the streets where the Chileans live. The landlords in this neighborhood almost never reinvest their profits here, but keep them in a bank across town.
The Arab street would be a dark alley where outsiders fear to tread, except for a few side streets called Dubai, Jordan, Bahrain, Qatar, and Morocco. The only new businesses are gas stations, whose owners, like the elite in the Latin neighborhood, rarely invest their funds in the neighborhood. Many people on the Arab street have their curtains closed, their shutters drawn, and signs on their front lawn that say, "No Trepassing. Beware of Dog."
India, China, and East Asia would be "the other side of the tracks." Their neighborhood is a big teeming market, made up of small shops and one-room factories, interspersed with Stanley Kaplan SAT prep schools and engineering colleges. Nobody ever sleeps in this neighborhood, everyone lives in extended families, and everyone is working and saving to get to "the right side of the tracks."
On the Chinese streets, there's no rule of law, but the roads are well-paved; there are no potholes, and the streetlights all work.
On the Indian streets, by contrast, no one ever repairs the streetlights, the roads are full of ruts, but the police are sticklers for the rules. You need a license to operate a lemonade stand on the Indian streets. Luckily, the local cops can be bribed, and the successful entrepreneurs all have their own generators to run their factories and the latest cell phones to get around the fact that the local telephone poles are all down.
Africa, sadly, is that part of town where the businesses are boarded up, life expectancy is declining and the only new buildings are health-care clinics.
The point here is that every region of the world has its strengths and weaknesses, and all are in need of reform retail to some degree." (the World is Flat, by Thomas Friedman, 2005 edition, 316-317)
I hope that the publisher will forgive me while I write a letter of permission requesting to reprint this. As usual, anything that follows is strictly from Mr. Friedman not myself- enjoy!
"I Can Only Get It for You Retail"
"What if regions of the world were like the neighborhoods of a city? What would the world look like? I'd describe it like this: Western Europe would be an assisted-living facility, with an aging population lavishly attended by Turkish nurses.
The United States would be a gated community, with a metal detector at the front gate and a lot of people sitting in their front yards complaining about how lazy everyone else was, even though out back there was a small opening in the fence for Mexican labor and other energetic immigrants who helped make the gated community function.
Latin America would be the fun part of the town, the club district, where the workday doesn't begin until ten p.m. and everyone sleeps until midmorning. It's definitely the place to hang out, but in between the clubs, you don't see a lot of new businesses opening up, except on the streets where the Chileans live. The landlords in this neighborhood almost never reinvest their profits here, but keep them in a bank across town.
The Arab street would be a dark alley where outsiders fear to tread, except for a few side streets called Dubai, Jordan, Bahrain, Qatar, and Morocco. The only new businesses are gas stations, whose owners, like the elite in the Latin neighborhood, rarely invest their funds in the neighborhood. Many people on the Arab street have their curtains closed, their shutters drawn, and signs on their front lawn that say, "No Trepassing. Beware of Dog."
India, China, and East Asia would be "the other side of the tracks." Their neighborhood is a big teeming market, made up of small shops and one-room factories, interspersed with Stanley Kaplan SAT prep schools and engineering colleges. Nobody ever sleeps in this neighborhood, everyone lives in extended families, and everyone is working and saving to get to "the right side of the tracks."
On the Chinese streets, there's no rule of law, but the roads are well-paved; there are no potholes, and the streetlights all work.
On the Indian streets, by contrast, no one ever repairs the streetlights, the roads are full of ruts, but the police are sticklers for the rules. You need a license to operate a lemonade stand on the Indian streets. Luckily, the local cops can be bribed, and the successful entrepreneurs all have their own generators to run their factories and the latest cell phones to get around the fact that the local telephone poles are all down.
Africa, sadly, is that part of town where the businesses are boarded up, life expectancy is declining and the only new buildings are health-care clinics.
The point here is that every region of the world has its strengths and weaknesses, and all are in need of reform retail to some degree." (the World is Flat, by Thomas Friedman, 2005 edition, 316-317)
Monday, December 8, 2008
May the road rise up to greet you!
OK, we all know that, to use a less-than-academic term, the economy sucks right now. But help is on the way! Well, sort of.
According to CNN many of our roads are in disrepair. You don't have to tell me twice driving down Rte. 59 in Naperville, IL. But the good news is- roads need to be fixed, which equals jobs, which cannot equal outsourcing!
For more information please check out the hyperlinks-
http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/12/08/road.projects/index.html?eref=rss_topstories and
http://planetizen.com/node/36477
I have enclosed the link from Planetizen because although it takes you to the same story, it is a really interesting site. I hope to be able to comment on and share more from their site.
According to CNN many of our roads are in disrepair. You don't have to tell me twice driving down Rte. 59 in Naperville, IL. But the good news is- roads need to be fixed, which equals jobs, which cannot equal outsourcing!
For more information please check out the hyperlinks-
http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/12/08/road.projects/index.html?eref=rss_topstories and
http://planetizen.com/node/36477
I have enclosed the link from Planetizen because although it takes you to the same story, it is a really interesting site. I hope to be able to comment on and share more from their site.
Friday, November 21, 2008
A Revolution of the Mind
I have been toting the joys of the impending, slowly unfolding energy and green revolutions as of late. But I came across an interesting point, observed by one of my latest academic finds, a Professor Randall Crane, at UCLA, which stopped me dead in my tracks.
Many people go to specific grad schools to study under a certain academic, of whose work they admire. As I am currently self-taught and limited in my exposure to professionals in the planning field, I often find myself catch-as-catch-can. The majority of the people that I have come across, Peter Caliope, Kevin Lynch, Witold Rybczinski, Jane Jacobs, and Lewis Mumford are either dead, or too far removed for me with which to make much contact. I have been following Professor Crane's blog with great enthusiasm.
If I may compare his blog to mine, like me, Professor Crane utilizes his blog to expound on urban planning topics of interest to him and adds a hearty dose of levity to make it more palatable and accessible. And in his November 7th, 2008 entry entitled, "Is Admitting You Have a Problem the First Step Toward Recovery?"in his observation in Post #1 Professor Crane advised against "oversimplify[ing] how then to proceed in practice or theory- with respect to either mitigation or adaptation [concering big problems, such as an oil-dependent world]."
It is tempting to get ahead of ourselves and paint the world in big, utopian, swathes of hyperbole- of walkable communities, getting people out of their cars and into pedestrian friendly neighborhoods and cities, and/or said cars that will run on oil grown in a lab, or heck that run on happy thoughts!, having zero-emission transit, and a light bulb in every mud hut to the farthest reaches of Siberia, or even just Russia! Don't be late for the community circle of hand holding while singing "Kumbeya my Lord" Sorry, did I get a little cynical?
The point is, making any progress, takes time, often planning, and usually resources and lots of them. This is not my anal-retentive, type A side coming out, this is life. As Professor Crane wryly observed, "It would be great if that wasn't so, but as H.L. Mencken said, "For every complex problem, there is a simple solution. And it's wrong."
I continue to believe in life-altering change, I just hope that I am not foolish enough to believe that it will only happen with positive thinking. I know it will involve time, money, and lots of effort- both physical and mental. But as someone once observed, "anything worth having, is worth fighting for."
Many people go to specific grad schools to study under a certain academic, of whose work they admire. As I am currently self-taught and limited in my exposure to professionals in the planning field, I often find myself catch-as-catch-can. The majority of the people that I have come across, Peter Caliope, Kevin Lynch, Witold Rybczinski, Jane Jacobs, and Lewis Mumford are either dead, or too far removed for me with which to make much contact. I have been following Professor Crane's blog with great enthusiasm.
If I may compare his blog to mine, like me, Professor Crane utilizes his blog to expound on urban planning topics of interest to him and adds a hearty dose of levity to make it more palatable and accessible. And in his November 7th, 2008 entry entitled, "Is Admitting You Have a Problem the First Step Toward Recovery?"in his observation in Post #1 Professor Crane advised against "oversimplify[ing] how then to proceed in practice or theory- with respect to either mitigation or adaptation [concering big problems, such as an oil-dependent world]."
It is tempting to get ahead of ourselves and paint the world in big, utopian, swathes of hyperbole- of walkable communities, getting people out of their cars and into pedestrian friendly neighborhoods and cities, and/or said cars that will run on oil grown in a lab, or heck that run on happy thoughts!, having zero-emission transit, and a light bulb in every mud hut to the farthest reaches of Siberia, or even just Russia! Don't be late for the community circle of hand holding while singing "Kumbeya my Lord" Sorry, did I get a little cynical?
The point is, making any progress, takes time, often planning, and usually resources and lots of them. This is not my anal-retentive, type A side coming out, this is life. As Professor Crane wryly observed, "It would be great if that wasn't so, but as H.L. Mencken said, "For every complex problem, there is a simple solution. And it's wrong."
I continue to believe in life-altering change, I just hope that I am not foolish enough to believe that it will only happen with positive thinking. I know it will involve time, money, and lots of effort- both physical and mental. But as someone once observed, "anything worth having, is worth fighting for."
Energy & an Ethical Life
I really like connecting disparate ideas. What it means is that I possess an over-developed sense of spatial relations, that which seems random, is actually connected, at least in my mind. I can't take credit for that idea, I'm actually paraphrasing it from a conversation on the TV show Criminal Minds, but this proves an example of the concept I attempt to illustrate- a popular mainstream television show provided the jumping off point for one of my blog ruminations, a blog that centers on urban planning, not pop culture's interpretations of forensics. Basically, it boils down to my love of six degrees of separation, I guess.
But I have been thinking a lot about energy and transportation, two big hot-button issues right now. And as it seems as though America may be succeeded by another formerly (only) developing nation, like China, or India, this also means that these countries will experience a higher quality of life. A higher quality of life involves such things in life, that we may take for granted that were originally seen as a luxury and soon will be commonplace for the rising nations, such as light bulbs, cable TV, the Internet, etc., All of these technology and electric-based items will consequently require energy to power them and may also result in pollution due to the power sources. The question is, can the Earth handle that?
This concept is developed more fully by Thomas Friedman, in his latest work, Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution and How It Can Renew America.
I have enjoyed reading Mr. Friedman's previous work, the World is Flat: a Brief History of the Twenty-First Century, which expounds on the idea of globalization, as set out by his prior work, the Lexus and the Olive Tree: Understanding Globalization. But I have not yet read the Lexus and the Olive Tree. Many of the pronouncements Mr. Friedman makes about America and its shifting position amid the world powers, in the World is Flat, are unfolding before our eyes, and while it is interesting to be educated on why this is happening, it doesn't lessen the economic blow. [a disclaimer: I read the 2005 edition of aforementioned work, not the revised 2006 edition nor the World is Flat 3.0, the 2007 edition. The fact that such a work warrants 3 new editions in so many years speaks volumes, no pun intended, of what an influential work this is and also how much can change in global politics and economics in a year.]
Mr. Fareed Zakaria, a correspondent for Newsweek magazine, has also written an engaging book called, the Post-American World. I would like to mention that Mr. Zakaria's work for Newsweek has proven most informative, both insightful and incisive. Mr. Friedman is also a journalist by trade, but I have not read any of his work outside of those in book form.
I have not read either Mr. Zakaria's nor Mr. Friedman's books, but they both are absolutely fascinating in terms of their theses.
An interview was composed between Mr. Zakaria and Mr. Friedman, which is available through amazon.com and hopefully, the enclosed link. It is available in both video and transcript form.
Both authors expound on the fact that Americans have had a rarefied position for the past several hundred years, but that is quickly changing. For example, to paraphrase from Mr. Friedman and Mr. Zakaria's conversation, soon, almost everyone in China will be able to flip on a light with the flick of a switch, just like we do soon. But they will also need coal-powered factories to generate such energy. Coal contributes to pollution, which isn't good. But who's to say that the Chinese aren't deserving of indoor electricity like the majority of Americans experience? It's a slippery slope on which to base one's arguments, but consequences, be they good or bad, will occur.
Again, I would like to state that with challenge brings opportunity and a lot of exciting and good changes, for everybody on the planet, are in the works. This won't happen overnight, but it will happen.
But I have been thinking a lot about energy and transportation, two big hot-button issues right now. And as it seems as though America may be succeeded by another formerly (only) developing nation, like China, or India, this also means that these countries will experience a higher quality of life. A higher quality of life involves such things in life, that we may take for granted that were originally seen as a luxury and soon will be commonplace for the rising nations, such as light bulbs, cable TV, the Internet, etc., All of these technology and electric-based items will consequently require energy to power them and may also result in pollution due to the power sources. The question is, can the Earth handle that?
This concept is developed more fully by Thomas Friedman, in his latest work, Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution and How It Can Renew America.
I have enjoyed reading Mr. Friedman's previous work, the World is Flat: a Brief History of the Twenty-First Century, which expounds on the idea of globalization, as set out by his prior work, the Lexus and the Olive Tree: Understanding Globalization. But I have not yet read the Lexus and the Olive Tree. Many of the pronouncements Mr. Friedman makes about America and its shifting position amid the world powers, in the World is Flat, are unfolding before our eyes, and while it is interesting to be educated on why this is happening, it doesn't lessen the economic blow. [a disclaimer: I read the 2005 edition of aforementioned work, not the revised 2006 edition nor the World is Flat 3.0, the 2007 edition. The fact that such a work warrants 3 new editions in so many years speaks volumes, no pun intended, of what an influential work this is and also how much can change in global politics and economics in a year.]
Mr. Fareed Zakaria, a correspondent for Newsweek magazine, has also written an engaging book called, the Post-American World. I would like to mention that Mr. Zakaria's work for Newsweek has proven most informative, both insightful and incisive. Mr. Friedman is also a journalist by trade, but I have not read any of his work outside of those in book form.
I have not read either Mr. Zakaria's nor Mr. Friedman's books, but they both are absolutely fascinating in terms of their theses.
An interview was composed between Mr. Zakaria and Mr. Friedman, which is available through amazon.com and hopefully, the enclosed link. It is available in both video and transcript form.
Both authors expound on the fact that Americans have had a rarefied position for the past several hundred years, but that is quickly changing. For example, to paraphrase from Mr. Friedman and Mr. Zakaria's conversation, soon, almost everyone in China will be able to flip on a light with the flick of a switch, just like we do soon. But they will also need coal-powered factories to generate such energy. Coal contributes to pollution, which isn't good. But who's to say that the Chinese aren't deserving of indoor electricity like the majority of Americans experience? It's a slippery slope on which to base one's arguments, but consequences, be they good or bad, will occur.
Again, I would like to state that with challenge brings opportunity and a lot of exciting and good changes, for everybody on the planet, are in the works. This won't happen overnight, but it will happen.
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