Subject: Sustainability
-
Another major daily faces major cutbacks. This time it’s the Atlanta Journal-Constitution cutting its full-time news staff by about 90 people, or roughly 30 percent. Most of the cuts, according to the AJC article, will be in production and management.…
-
This is awesome. Here is an excerpt from yesterday’s joint press release from HUD and DOT: “WASHINGTON — U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Shaun Donovan and U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) Secretary Ray LaHood today announced…
-
It’s now a regular exercise where we report the demise of another respected, long-standing, print media outfit and while news that the Hearst Corporation-owned The Seattle Post-Intelligencer will likely to turn into a Web-only enterprise does not fall into that…
A new report from the US Environmental Protection Agency documents a dramatic shift in the pattern of new development in the nation over the past two decades: Central cities and counties are now claiming a much larger share of overall…
-
Rooflines has been watching a disturbing decline in the newspaper industry as print media is falling victim to fewer subscribers, falling numbers in advertising, and increased competition from the Internet with the concern that as standard media outlets begin to…
-
Compelling ideas are all you need to start a revolution. That could be one lesson to take from the experience of Van Jones, the green jobs activist from Oakland. Jones is one of the best-known faces in the green jobs…
The Urban Land Institute has produced a remarkable report that examines in depth how where we live affects how much we drive, and consequently how much we must spend on transportation and housing. The illustration is the Washington, DC area,…
One of the most popular tags on the blogging site of my organization, NRDC, is “market transformation.” I’m a believer. Not everything we need for sustainable development can be accomplished through policy initiatives (the current feeding frenzy at the trough…
President-elect Obama will take office next week vowing to fight climate change, tackle oil dependency and revive the U.S. economy. NRDC believes that smart growth and transit are a big part of the solution. As New York Times columnist David…
-
With all this talk of sustainable communities, how come we tend to exclude, at least in conversation, the very thing that can educate community members: the media? Would it be fair to say that in addition to a media outlet’s…
With the scramble for Pennsylvania’s natural gas reserves growing in its news coverage, we are reminded that one reason the Rust Belt was industrialized to begin with was for its abundance of natural resources. Over a century ago, industrial proto-magnates…
When the Environmental Law and Policy Center was founded in Chicago 15 years ago, cell phones that could get clear reception or send images halfway across the globe were a novelty. Now, this and even more advanced communications technology are…
-
It’s interesting how language shifts slightly over time to reflect new ways of thinking. I recall a few years ago reading that some people interpreted “smart growth” to mean government telling people what they could and could not do with…
In Amsterdam, at a Super de Boer, imagine my surprise when I had to pay for a grocery bag because I didn’t bring my own. In the U.S., I buy those biodegradable poop bags for my dog, so I don’t need the plastic grocery bags. I bring canvas to the store, etc. Yeah, I try to be “green” when I can. I think more and more people these days do.
But when I left the Super de Boer, I was amazed. I don’t live in an area, or a state, for that matter, that would employ such a progressive-minded initiative. I do know that New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg has been on a lengthy campaign to get people to recycle their plastic grocery bags, or bring their own from home, but like Europe, in an ever-shrewd way to use taxes (or fees, in this case) for the public good, Bloomberg is now proposing a bag fee. Joe Biden, eat your heart out — now here’s a tax that we can feel patriotic about.
According to The New York Times:
City officials estimate that the fee could generate $16 million a year, a figure that Mr. Bloomberg would no doubt appreciate, given the lingering and concussive effects of the global economic crisis on the city’s economy.
more
Last night, on Halloween, I saw a hundred bicyclists take command of the street. Wearing all manner of clever costume, they rode confidently in a pack, and drivers waited patiently behind them. It was a rare moment when the road…
-
Though questions about how we’re going to buy stuff in post-credit America may dominate the news, some interesting stories about what we’re going to do with that stuff once we’re done with it have percolated up, too: Fight the power?…
Whatever Wall Street does next, we’re going to have to find more efficiencies in our economy. Consumers are going to have less to spend on things like housing, utilities, and transportation; developers are going to have less to invest; local…
Portland, Oregon has become such a recognized model of progressive planning and development that people like me are actually discouraged from talking about the region in professional circles. “Everybody already knows about Portland,” the line goes. I don’t think that…
In a fascinating post over at Next American City, Dave Steele observes a big divide among bike commuters: the affluent, geared-up, environmentalist, health-conscious cyclists by choice, and those who are commuting by bike because they can’t afford other means:
“For a lot of people, biking is a neccessity. Rather than a source of pride, riding is often a source of shame, a visible symbol of poverty.
“I encounter many of these Unseen Bicyclists in my daily travels. Usually riding without a helmet or other safety gear, these cyclists keep their heads down and go about their business, riding to work and other places where the bus routes don’t go. I often see them engaging in dangerous practices, such as riding on the sidewalk or against traffic. Their bikes are often in poor condition, with squeaky wheels and gears. With major cutbacks in transit service in recent years, and a huge increase in bus fares (and the price of gasoline), I’ve been seeing more and more of my fellow citizens biking out of neccessity.
more
Hunting walrus is an age-old tradition, part of the rhythm of life, for the native people of King Island, a tiny rugged island in the Bering Sea off Alaska. The walrus provides meat for the long, dark, frigid winters, and…
« Previous Next »
National Housing Institute
