On Discrimination & Power Relations

Insightful quote and I don't want to dilute it with too much commentary, it speaks for itself & Discrimination. I came across the quote while doing research for a project on LGBT issues and planning.

"Discrimination against a class of people is never justified; the real issue is not science or scripture, but a culture war involving those in power and those who are stigmatized." Chuck Stewart, 2003 

LA Transit Culture, Will it ever stick?

Mass Transit and LA in the same sentence always seems to garner up a sense of: "Are you serious? Nope, never going to happen." The thing is, that it is happening. Los Angelenos do ride public transit, but not enough to make positive headlines. So the question is, "If they build it, will they come?." I think the problem is that everyone is trying to solve is the basic home to work commute problem, but for travel needs go beyond the simple work and home point A to point B commute.

For some, even if the new infrastructure is in place (as it is) and makes it easy for them to get from home to work and vice versa they won't choose mass transit over their car for two reasons. One,people are obviously obsessed with their cars and the other is that life is just not that simple. People need more than just mobility options to and from work. For instance, if you have a work meeting in the middle of the day and mass transit is not an option, how will you get there? Taxis? Unlike in New York, London and Paris, in LA it is only legal to hail a cab in downtown LA (meaning the City of LA, not the County of LA which is comprised of 66 cities)...exactly, it makes you think twice about leaving the MINI at home.

I'm optimistic, once there are better options, and better interconnectivity between mass transit agencies I think mass transit will become more popular in LA and better yet a real option to go from many point As to a multitude of points Bs and Cs. Need evidence? Just look at the way Angelenos embraced the Prius (Sorry Toyota, it wasn't aesthetics). Even Beverly Hills residents traded in their European luxury toys and SUVs for the Prius. Thus my advice for Toyota: watch out, Angelenos will eventually move to greener solutions, the Prius must go greener!

BTW check out an interesting NY Times article on the state of mass transit in LA: "In Los Angeles, Big Step Ahead for Mass Transit."

"Smart from the Start," Salazar Promotes Offshore Wind Energy

This past spring I worked on a project, project managing a delegation of Spanish renewable and transportation companies with the Madrid Chamber of Commerce. The delegation got the brief tour of the renewable energy and transportation world in California visiting my hometown San Diego, my other home base Los Angeles and of course San Francisco and Sacramento. It was an action packed week meeting with commissions, agencies and potential private sector partners. More importantly everyone left very happy and with a better sense of how things work in California and made some good connections.

From this project I learned that the renewable energy sector is a lot more dynamic than I had originally thought and it spurred an interest in the renewable energy sector. This was the first time I learned about offshore wind energy, which is basically wind turbines out in the ocean, one of our delegates specialized in ocean platforms for wind turbines. Thus, I was very excited to see the NY Times article: Salazar Aims to Streamline Offshore Wind. On Tuesday, November 23, 2010 Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar announced a new program, "Smart from the Start," that will accelerate the adoption wind energy. This is great news for most in the wind energy business and a very big win for the renewable energy sector. Go Green!

The Sense of Place: New York

This is a great article on New York: My Endless New York by Tony Judy who moved on to better worlds this pass August.


My favorite part:
"New York — a city more at home in the world than in its home country ... we all have our complaints. And while there is no other city where I could imagine living, there are many places that, for different purposes, I would rather be. But this too is a very New York sentiment. Chance made me an American, but I chose to be a New Yorker. I probably always was."

Planning Wisdom

"A map of the world that does not include Utopia is not even worth glancing at." Oscar Wilde

President Obama Oct. 4th Weekly Solar Power & a Clean Energy Economy Address

Greening the White House

Walking the Green Walk: Today, U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu, announced that in the very near future the White House residence will be installing solar panels and a solar hot water heater.

The aim is multi-purposed. On the one hand, this is clearly a step in the right green sustainable direction as the administration explicitly shows its commitment to renewable energy. Secondly, this also demonstrates that American solar technologies are "available, reliable, and ready for installation throughout the country." As a result, as Secretary Chu puts it, the nationwide deployment and implementation of clean energy technologies will help "America lead the global economy for years to come" and create more local clean energy jobs.

For more info on state, local, and utility rebates for renewable energy generation throughout the country visit the Database of State Incentives for Renewable and Efficiency website.

This is just another reason Obama still Rocks!

Pro-Life should also Mean Pro-Environment

For all of the global warming skeptics, keep the Precautionary Principle in mind the next time you decide to be anti-sustainability:

"When an activity raises threats of harm to the environment or human health, precautionary measures should be taken even if some cause and effect relationships are not fully established scientifically."

Isn't ironic that most of the global warming skeptics tend to be pro-life about abortion, but not pro-life when comes to the environment.

Hmmm....just something to ponder!

3 Main Factors Of Any City's Traffic Trends

Hmm...traffic, the word reminds me of the grueling sensation that fills me when I have been stuck in traffic on the parking lot to nowhere. 

How is it that traffic happens?  Just like saying that body odor comes from the mere act of sweat production (we smell because the bacteria produced by sweat passes gas), it would be silly to say that traffic occurs simply because there are too many cars on the road. 

In a recent New Yorker article (Aug. 2, 2010, Gessen) on Moscow traffic situation, Kiichiro Hatoyama, a traffic expert from Japan, says that there are 3 main factors for a city's traffic.

1. Driver behavior. Moscow observation: "Russian drivers lack foresight."
2. The traffic system itself, the organization of the roads. Moscow observation: There is a "lack of left-turn possibilities" in Moscow. 
3. The social system, which is always reflected in the roads. Moscow observation: "It's a feudal structure," Hatoyama  said referring to the privileges given to Russia's elite in the traffic system. Gessen asked if there was "any other place that has that?[...] different rules for different drivers?"...Hatoyama answered with a single word: China.

New York City Land Use News

The Charter Review Commission is looking at ways to improve New York City's Uniform Land Review Process (ULURP).

ULURP allows local communities and elected representatives/officials to have a voice in the City's major land use development decisions.

So Cal Participate - The Great Outdoors Initiative: Nationwide Public Hearings

We all love the great outdoors, and here is our opportunity to have the federal government agencies hear our ideas.

On July 8, 2010 from 3pm - 7pm there will be a Public Listening Session in SoCal at Occidental College's Thorne Hall on the America's Great Outdoors Initiative and give our opinions on how to build a 21st century conservation and recreation agenda for America's great outdoors public domain. Register by July 1st by sending an email to sun.nelly@epa.gov with your name, name of the organization, telephone and email address.

The Great Outdoors initiative was established by President Obama in April 2010. The departments of the Interior and Agriculture, Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency and Chair of the Council on Environmental Quality are leading the efforts of the initiative.

Columbia Expansion Plan Updates

Wow, it is so exciting to follow the development of this project...My work at Columbia's Facilities Department helped me to find my passion for urban planning.

I know this is a controversial project...but the controversy is what sparks my interest!

In news today, the New York Times reports that the New York State Supreme Court upholds Columbia's campus expansion plan.

Link to article: Court Upholds Columbia Campus Expansion Plan
Link to my Facebook: Comments

Professional Community Opposition Consultants

By any means necessary, private sector rivals secretly finance 'community-like' opposition to Walmart development plans/neighborhood expansion. See the Wallstreet Journal Article

Meet your friendly neighborhood 'community-like' opposition consultants, they even have an iPhone App: The Saint Consulting Group.

The Market Likes BP's New Fund & Dividend Suspension

...Or so it seems from the fact that BP's stock opened at $29.90 and closed at $31.85, up $1.95 and both the Dow Jones (10.409.46, up 4.69 points) and the NASDAQ (2,305.93, up 0.05 points) markets closed higher after BP execs met with President Obama and announced they would suspend dividends and set a fund for oil spill claims.

Next American City ~ City Parks

Public-Private Partnerships to improve and sustain our Parks:

Next American City » Buzz » Issue 27 Preview: The High Cost of Free Parks


The New York City: Public-Private Partnership Snapshot:

• The Central Park Conservancy was founded in 1980, it raises 85% of the parks $27MM annual operating budget
• According to the NYC Parks Department, half of the city's 1,800 parks and playgrounds now depend on some type of private group for maintenance
• In 2008 the Madison Square Park Conservancy raised more than $3.1 MM from donations, corporate-sponsored events and Shake Shack proceeds & held cash and securities of almost $8MM; employed 28 maintenance staffers, guards, & administrators

I have mixed feelings about the benefits of the public-private partnerships in New York City Parks, on the one hand I have enjoyed many wonderful moments in the public-private partnership parks of NYC, and now after reading this article I can't help but wonder at the expense of whom.

Ascot Hills Park in Los Angeles, CA

Today construction of Phase II of Ascot Hills Park commenced and brings the residents of LA's Eastside, especially those of the El Sereno neighborhood, one step closer to having park space closer to home.

The City of Los Angeles District 14th's decision to purchase and protect land on Elephant Hill and the Northeast Hillside Ordinance, will protect and ensure the hillside from overdevelopment.

The $3.3 million Phase II will stretch over 53 acres and will include:

• Outdoor Amphitheatre
• New Hiking Trails
• Stream Restoration
• New Native Paintings (I'm assuming local artists will be involved)
• Irrigation
• Fire Safety Improvements
• Additional Parking

Information vs. News

Paulo Coelho's social commentary on news and information in his novel, The Winner Stands Alone: "The public prefers news to information."

Infrastructure Needed to Promote Green Car Markets

The deteriorating the state of our planet's ecosystem has made most of us evaluate our impact on the earth's rate of pollution. There is a general consensus that we MUST go green to reduce and maybe even one day counteract our negative effects on the earth's ecosystem.

The big question has always been related to cost, "how do we entice people to make the switch to green building, green cars, water rationing, and other green solutions?"

But what would happen if everyone does make an immediate change, can today's infrastructure really support these new eco-friendly ways? Unfortunately, the answer for many countries is NO.

When "Green" first started hitting mainstream channels, the resistance against Green always seemed to be the high costs associated to going green. But now that the private and public markets have found a good counter argument and solution to the cost allegations through a combination of full life-span analyses, and government rebate and/or financing incentives Green is no longer perceived as cost prohibitive.

As a result, we are starting to get a better idea of why we can't all just switch immediately to Green solutions: Infrastructure compatibility and availability.

Case and Point: The Electric Car

Raymond Tsang, from Bain & Co., "Price is not the only reason that keeps people from adopting [electric vehicles] today. The infrastructure and the drive range are some of the critical issues for people to think about."

The world or any country for that matter can not switch over to electric cars because there is simply not enough public recharge stations to support the demand, and countries, cities or states can not fully promote such a change until such infrastructure is in place to support a decent percentage of the expected demand.

For more: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE65124Y20100602

Architectural Digest Editor-in-Chief to Retire

Paige Rense Noland, Architectural Digest editor-in-chief for the past 40 years will retire, but will now be the editor emeritus. AD has yet to name a successor, but they will certainly have big shoes to fill.

Read more: http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/06/03/paige-rense-noland-to-retire-from-architectural-digest/?src=busln

Mobile Communication...Have We Regressed?

Remember when cell phones were affordable? And when we weren't all addicted to smartphones: iPhone and blackberries?

We are definitely regressing back to when cell phones first came out and were not affordable to most, but now we are all so use to them, that it doesn't matter that we spend at least +$100 on our cell phone bills each month...AT&T is the first to start doing this because they have a monopoly on the iPhone and know that we will continue to pay.

AT&T's move is just the beginning, I am willing to bet money on the fact that Verizon, T-Mobile and Sprint will not be far behind to make their own data-plan adjustments, it is basic economics.

Our only salvation may be that Apple fights for the consumer. In this scenario, AT&T seems like the only money hungry villain but I'm sure Apple was aware of these expected changes before the press release came out...which is to say that if this is happening in the US, other smartphone users will also soon face similar data-plan adjustments around the globe.

Read More http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/06/att-adds-iphone-tethering-kills-unlimited-data-for-ipad-smartphones/#ixzz0pibMaUNz

New Trends in Urban Land Uses

According to ULI creating new green spaces out of old gray concrete spaces is the New Black in old industrial cities like Cleveland, Cincinnati and Detroit; and metropolitan areas like Dallas and Los Angeles.

This new trend is transforming urban cityscapes from gray-to-green by reviving older city neighborhoods with green open spaces that create new destination points for locals and tourists frequent, congregate and experience.

A Note to Consider About Conservation

ULI Senior Resident Fellow Ed McMahon's take on conservation and preservation efforts: “Like any planning effort, conservation development is not a panacea. It requires trade-offs and it is not appropriate in every setting or every site.”

Stay tuned for his upcoming book: Conservation Communities: Creating Value with Nature, Open Space, and Agriculture.

Fashion For The People & By The People

What is Polyvore?

Polyvore = Poly + Vore

Poly = a fabric or garment made of polyester.

Vore = a combining form meaning "one that eats" what is specified by the initial element: carnivore.

Therefore, Polyvore = one that eats polyester, or in more poetic terms one that loves passion.

Polyvore has become the newest buzz in the fashion world and it has nothing to do with designers or fashion magazines, but it does have everything to do access and creativity.

So where did Polyvore come from? Just like it's another Yahoo and Google word creation, it is also a descendant of Yahoo and Google. However, it is more of an adored bastard child than a legitimate bloodline descendant as it was never a Yahoo or Google creation, nor did either ever have any financial interests in Polyvore; but its founders did in fact once work for Yahoo (Pasha Sadri, Guangwei Yuan, and Jianing Hu) and it's new CEO (Sukhinder Singh Cassidy) was previously the president of Google's Asia-Pacific and Latin-American operations.

I like the concept behind Polyvore and can't wait to start playing dress-up and creating "Sets"...and will of course share!

For a more details on Polyvore check out the Alexandra Jacobs', New Yorker Article: Fashion Democracy

Great Blog on Community Benefits Agreements

Check out this great blog by Amy Lavine staff attorney at the Government Law Center of Albany Law School: http://communitybenefits.blogspot.com

The old Bowery vs. new Bowery

Just an observation: I really like how Bowery has changed in the last year and half...it is a bit more chic than the rest of the east village...what I dont like is that it almost verges on waspy.

The Brooklyn...Hype

Brooklyn's image makeover goal...the cult-like movement behind the renaissance of Brooklyn has changed the borough from being" a place people come from to a place people come to." (The New Yorker, issue 3/8/10)

San Diego picking and choosing on Yes

Ten years in the making, the large-scale development proposal for the 2,327 acre property in Escondido's Merriam Mountains was rejected yesterday by San Diego's Board of Supervisors. The pivotal vote by supervisor Ron Roberts did not favor the development mainly because San Diego is still working on updating its general plan, determining how the county will meet recently passed state legislation that limits carbon emissions and because the project did not have enough public transit options.

Unlike the position that The San Diego Union Tribune seems to take in it's headline story that San Diego is anti-development I don't believe that the verdict of yesterday's Board Meeting is necessarily an indication that San Diego is anti-development, but rather that San Diego does not want it's North County to turn into another South Orange County.

Planning Options...for Me

The big decision maker: Eye Contact.

"Planning" my itinerary for my Northeast Grad School Open House Tour (Philly, The City, Ithaca)...plane, train, car, subway and maybe even a cab... & lot's of green tea

The thick line between Developed & Undeveloped countries

Philanthropic Infrastructure...it encourages giving through tax and fiscal benefits and ultimately leads to more continuous giving.

Las Vegas - What is an American City?

In the current book that I am reading, Poker Face, by Katy Lederer I found a very real everyday feeling about American cities, there is something so raw and un-PC about it that I felt compelled to share...

The book was given to me as a Christmas present in 2003 by one of my roommates at the time, and until recently I had been reluctant to read it or give it away... and a month ago while I was packing and getting ready to move out of my place in LA, it was finally time for me to start reading the book. It's a great bildungsroman novel, one of my favorite genre's. It has been a very pleasant surprise with some interesting observations on life and the road to self-discovery.

The commentary that I felt so compelled to share was one on American culture and a take on one of America's most famous cities that many countries try to imitate, ironic considering the roots of Las Vegas. Though Las Vegas is not as "cheap" as it might have been in the 1990s (the time that Katy first encountered Las Vegas), I couldn't help but nod in agreement with the raw truth behind Katy's take on Sin City...."Las Vegas: the most American of American cities - bright and cheap and all dolled up, like a drag queen - a city of hope!"

Community Planning Lit

My friend Armando, a political science guru who loves urban planning on the side recommended this book to me...I am searching the annals of Amazon.com for it...I think it will be a good guide for my current pilgrimage...New York for Sale, Community Planning Confronts Global Real Estate by Tom Angotti - MIT Press

Architecture & Urban Planning Pilgrimage

I'm planning my first architecture & urban planning pilgrimage for the spring and summer of 2010.

First stop, my hometown: San Diego, CA.

Next on the itinerary is the place where I fell in Love...with urban planning: New York

Other cities on the list: London, Paris, Granada, Hong Kong, Munich...more to come (even small cities will be explored)!

For Calatrava Architecture is...

Lots of fun facts in this New Yorker, Sep. 2008...I feel like a kid in a candy store, wanting to taste (read & share) everything...

Santiago Calatrava, one of the great Starchitects of our time on architecture: "You can penetrate architecture, you can enter into it...This room is part of ourselves in this moment. I think it is important to build for people, and to deliver this message of hope: through good construction and a certain sense of progression, a better understanding of each other can be achieved. All those things, in modesty, are what I have tried to convey."

Calatrava on building in marginal, industrial districts: "When you work in those places, you have to do very strong gestures. If you make a shy building, no one will go there."

Shoe History Facts

Still going through the New Yorker's and I came across an article on women's obsession with shoes by Patricia Marx. Never heard of such a thing...LOL...so I thought I would see what it had to say, the facts fascinated me the most.

1. "Freud believed that for many men, shoes represent female genitalia."

2. "High heels weren't always a girl thing. In the 1500s, the riding shoes of French noblemen [had] raised heels so that their feet stayed put in the stirrups."

3. "Short King Louis XiV wore shoes with 6-inch red-painted heels (often embellished with scenes of military victories) and decreed that only members of his court could wear similar ones."

Patricia Marx, "Sole Sisters," The New Yorker, September 2008

Must go: BMW Welt in Munich

Must add the BMW Welt in Munich designed by Wolf D. Prix to my Architecture and Urban Planning Pilgrimage itinerary. It's a cyclone- shape that looks a lot like a wave...I can't wait!

Diane von Furstenbrg & American Express Circa 2008

I'm going through my old New Yorker's that I know it hard to admit, I feel a bit guilty...it's bad, but that's a whole other story...point is that I loved the idea of the American Express card "follow your own style" advertising campaign.

In one of the September 2008 issues I saw an ad that was highlighting fashion icon, Diane von Furstenberg, apparently she likes hiking and she didn't always feel comfortable with her curly hair (now she does...yay), but my favorite fun facts that she points out in the American Express fill-in-the-blank questionnaire are, and I quote: "Fashionably late is being on time" and "Sexy is liking who you are" (both Diane von Furstenberg).

Building Fun Fact

In the U.S. it is against the law to smoke in any public building.

Dose of Bobo LIt

Books to add to my leisurely reading list after I get through my New Yorkers and Wired magazines, and the other books in my book cases that I have yet to read: Tropic of Cancer, Tropic of Capricorn - both by Henry Miller, and My Life and Loves in Greenwich Village (complete and uncensored…the uninhibited diary of America’s greatest Bohemian) – Maxwell Bodenheim

Where is the Neighborhood Going?...From $800 to $3500 a month

Ahh, my old neighboorhood: the East Village. I remember walking through the familiar grunge of Ave A, Thompkin's Square Park to get to my place between Ave C and D. The Avenue A side of the park has always been the brightest. The lights would eliminate my fears of walking home after sunset. That's the beauty of the New York lights and constant activity, it makes you feel safer.

I was never a regular at Ray's Candy Store but did stop in a few times and hope that he doesn't have to close shop in the next few months. The irony is that the store's own success is essentially what raised Ray's rents from $800 a month to $3500 a month.

In recent years New York has lost some of its character to rising rent costs, landlords have perhaps gotten a bit greedy wanting to attract more national chains that pay higher premiums for locations that local businesses like Ray's Candy Store helped make into the cash-cow that they are today.

It's been 3.5 years since I lived in the East Village, but I still think of it as home...but is my sense of home slowly becoming a memory...is it still the village I love (and that loves me)?

Green building...hybrid solutions

Going green is the newest business fad, there are many long-term incentives to build green and cities and states are developing more real-time incentives everyday.

However, habits don't change overnight even with an abundance of incentives. With the emergence of the Prius and other hybrids the automobile industry has started to mass-produce green solutions. The market is responding and though it may seem that everyone is embracing hybrids especially when you consider places like LA and San Francisco, the actual market-share still has a long way to go.

This morning, CNN reported that if we assume that in 2020 (10 years from now) hybrids make-up 30% of the market-share of automobiles in the U.S. it would only put a minor 1% (or 202,000 barrels a day) dent into the overall U.S. oil demand. True we have to start somewhere, and we have, but we have to continue doing more than just good faith efforts or following a fad.

Of course it is also true that it is going to take more than just altering our car purchases to get our world to a less oil dependent place. Infrastructure is of course the next big ticket item that is under scrutiny to implement more sustainable solutions. However, we need to move at a faster pace, if 30% of the buildings and other infrastructure projects in 2020 were green projects the 1% dent could also be joined by a bigger dent.

Everyone has heard the green lingo, now we just need to build more green projects.

Learning about Development in Your City

Progressively informed citizens know about the development agencies shaping their cities…do you know yours?

Here are some of the development agencies overseeing diverse redevelopment efforts that have sparked my interests:

• Los Angeles, CRA/LA: www.crala.org
• New York, EDC: www.nycedc.com
• London, London Development Agency: www.lda.gov.uk
• San Diego, Redevelopment Agency: www.sandiego.gov/redevelopment-agency
• Mexico City, SEDUVI: www.seduvi.df.gob.mx/seduvi

These agencies tend to hold public meetings to discuss upcoming projects among “decision makers” and hear-out community residents. Unfortunately not all of the agencies do a great job of announcing public hearings. Check their websites regularly, most rely heavily on using their webpage as the their best PR tool and scapegoat for transparency.

The Planner's Triangle

Urban planning is a comprehensive approach to land use and its aim is to improve the built and social environments in cities. With each project urban planners, as Professor Scott Campbell from the University of Michigan appropriatly puts it, must alleviate the tension that is generated from environmental protection, economic development and social equity, or as he calls it "Planner's Triangle" before a project can move forward.