The New York Times featured an article about the sleepy town of Bolinas, California, where development has been managed through a unique process… Marc Dwaileebe would like to build a house for his family on land he owns in this bucolic town just 20 miles north of San Francisco. But he cannot hook up to the [...]
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The suspension of disbelief required to have continued faith in the status quo, is becoming more difficult to justify with every passing day. News headlines proclaiming strength in financial markets conveniently smooth over the possible wrinkles in the theories, inherent instabilities in growth projections, the shuffling of funny money assets to create an appearance of profit.
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The video on the front page of ShapeVancouver.com suggests that by increasing the City’s density there would be significant environmental benefits. However, a recent article on Planetizen from Dr. Tony Recsei suggests that these claimed facts may not have empirical support…
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We speak in very real terms about the state of infrastructure deficit we find ourselves in as a nation and as municipalities, and scratch our heads as we wonder how we are going to possibly find the money to complete all of the upgrades or renewal required. Charles Hughes Smith, the author of Survival+: Structuring Prosperity for [...]
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Sometimes the best solutions to urban problems are the simplest. Portland, Oregon is allowing unused parking space to be used for food vendors, increasing economic activity in otherwise dead spaces. “Outside of downtown, carts are forming neighborhood-oriented clusters” on vacant parking lots, McInelly points out. “At SERA we have promoted food carts as a low-cost urban design [...]
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The engineering profession is often challenged with ways to pass on the enthusiasm for the profession to younger generations. Part of this is based in the education system and the streamlining of subjects taught, but most of the blame for the seeming obscurity of the profession has to lie with the profession itself. For Civil [...]
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Infrastructure masterplans are at the backboneof a community’s capital spending plan. While not addressing every possible outcome or required project, the process of considering a masterplan identifies many of the “big-ticket” items that are on the spending horizon for the community. Often these masterplans are written by consultants, for many reasons, political, staff availability, expertise, [...]
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Image via Wikipedia The City of Winnipeg, Manitoba has decided to dissolve it’s water and waste water departments and form a stand alone utility. During the final council meeting before the summer break, Winnipeg’s elected officials voted 10-6 to create a new city-owned agency that will assume responsibility for water treatment, sewage treatment and garbage [...]
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