If keyboard zoning allowed more FAR and had less height restrictions…
“Life is not a having and a getting, but a being and a becoming.”
“Other projects with cost overruns and/or benefit shortfalls are, in North America: the F/A-22 fighter aircraft; the FBI’s Trilogy information system; Ontario’s Pickering nuclear plant; subways in numerous cities, including Miami and Mexico City; convention centers in Houston, Los Angeles, and other cities; the Animas ^ La Plata water project; the Sacramento regional sewer-system renewal; the Quebec Olympic stadium; Toronto’s Sky Dome; the Washington Public Power Supply System; and the Iraq reconstruction effort. In Europe: the Eurofighter military jet, the new British Library, the Millennium Dome, the Nimrod maritime patrol plane, the UK West Coast rail upgrade and the related Railtrack fiscal collapse, the Astute attack submarine, the Humber Bridge, the Tyne metro system, the Scottish parliament building, the French Paris Nord TGV, the Berlin ^ Hamburg maglev train, Hanover’s Expo 2000, Athens’ 2004 Olympics, Russia’s Sakhalin-1 oil and gas project, Norway’s Gardermo airport train, the Òresund Bridge between Sweden and Denmark, and the Great Belt rail tunnel linking Scandinavia with continental Europe. In Australasia: Sydney’s Olympic stadiums, Japan’s Joetsu Shinkansen high-speed rail line, India’s Sardar Sarovar dams, the Surat ^Manor tollway project, Calcutta’s metro, and Malaysia’s Pergau dam.
I end the list here only for reasons of space.”
The Economist: Hope springs a trap
An absence of optimism plays a large role in keeping people trapped in poverty
This article highlights MIT economist Esther Duflo’s fascinating research on the effects of hope (or lack thereof) on poverty. Looking at this phenomenon from a planning perspective, I can’t help but try to think of ways to plan our cities for hope and optimism. Let’s see what we can come up with - I encourage anyone to add to the list:
- Cities can give special consideration to murals that highlight minority heroes
- In lieu of public art installations, allow developers the option to contribute to perpetual college scholarships for local, disadvantaged students
- Codify zoning that allows for day care businesses to open in residential zones, allowing working families or single parents the convenience of dropping kids off down the street instead of driving miles away to the nearest relative or commercial area
- …
“…multi-scale, and multi-faceted, yet integrative in its intent, stressing the physical, yet inescapably social.”
Jeff Immelt, CEO of GE on the need for a national energy policy
From a talk at the Standford Graduate School of Business. The entire thing is really fun to watch, but the energy part starts at 46:35.
“This country has to look in the mirror and be really ashamed at where we are today in energy.”
Electric Delivery Van Maker Plans L.A. Assembly Plant
“We chose Los Angeles because of its access to a skilled, educated work force, close proximity to the ports and a large population which is leading in adoption of electric vehicles”
““They met in a bar, where he offered her a ride home. He took her down unfamiliar streets. He said it was a shortcut. He got her home so fast she caught the ten o’clock news.”
Why is the ending so surprising? Don’t make assumptions based on your fears.
”
Something to think about as LA celebrates the start of baseball season:
Final eviction from Chavez Ravine on May 9, 1959. Courtesy of Los Angeles Times Photographic Archive, Department of Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, UCLA.
U.S. to impose tariffs on solar panels from China
Not sure how good the timing of this is. On one hand, utility-scale solar is starting to pick up, and increased tariffs can make California’s 33% renewable mandate more expensive to meet…although with rising energy costs, it might be a good catalyst for domestic manufacturing.
