Commerce Bank looking to land in Park Slope

...and with an entrance just for cars! Yup, on no longer up-and-coming, already arrived Fifth Avenue, Commerce Bank is hoping to build a branch that features a non-too-often seen in NYC service - DRIVE THRU! (This being America and all, I had to use the shortened version). Why the hell would Commerce Bank want to do that? Why not just build a branch without drive-through?

What's interesting to me is that the people who are opposed to it, Park Slope Neighbors, say that there is NO-one in Park Slope that is interested in this issue. So I ask...

What about the Fifth Avenue Committee, who I have found to be wonderful with community organizing? Or the Brooklyn Transportation Alternatives? Or just Trans Alt's "Reducing Automobile Dependence Campaign (maybe that should be renamed???)? There's also the Park Slope Civic Council, but I found their outlook to be a bit off-putting and exclusive. Not everyone lives in a floor-through brownstone!

On Gothamist!

I'm typically behind the scenes, so the interview for public viewing makes me feel slightly abashed. But it was great fun to answer the questions.

Many thanks to Lily and her interview partner Aaron!

Roads Gone Wild

This Wired article is old now, but it has a great take on how over-designed roads just create problems, and a bonus, it features one of my fave transportation people, Ian Lockwood.

Follow-up to arson in Maryland

Follow-up to yesterday's post about Maryland and the land-use conflicts.

Photos from fires from local station.

One person's dream is another's nightmare. "A dozen families were looking to move in this coming weekend."

...from local NBC affiliate...

...Sierra Club's official opinion...

I wrote about building around towns earlier, and am curious if anyone has looked into higher-density town development in this locality, rather than falling into get-rich-quick inappropriate density greenfield development.

A study to keep tabs on

Williams College professor and students study possible effects of community revitalization from a Mass MoCA, the Berkshire community's relatively newly formed arts and cultural base.

Ridiculous

As much as I might disagree with the output of some of Cambridge School of Architecture's alums, the fact that architecture, art and design schools are forced to meet the inappropriate expectations of yet another system seems ridiculous.

From the Observor, Deyan Sudjic comments.

The messiness and hominess of city life

A fabulous column in the New York Times about the messiness and comforts of great public spaces.

Starting in Maryland

The stand-off between developers who are building for transplants and the long-time communities who have deep roots in the community will only continue to creep down the Delmarva peninsula. Check out this New York Times article about eco-terrorism to sabotage new development.

A couple weeks ago, it was clear that something was afoot. Under the very pristine and quiet atmosphere that typifies the Eastern Shore, land-use conflicts were brewing in dirty ways.



What's interesting about this particular Maryland case is that the density of new housing being built is out of context. Tim Henley, a geologist who prepared an environmental impact study for Save Araby, Mattawoman and Mason Springs (SAMMS), said, "

If development must proceed, lots should cover several acres. Hunters Brooke has quarter-acre lots.

The rule-of-thumb of higher density to consolidate impact is only creating a greater strain in this place - it does little to alleviate it.

There is no straightforward formula to how best to use land. But one die-hard principle that is becoming evermore significant, is that context of the land must be paramount. This sounds so obvious, but it is so rarely carried out. The photos posted below are from Assateague, thankfully protected by the National Park Service. Most land on this stretch do not have that kind of protection. It's clear that unless people recognize that it is their desire to live in new developments that strain natural resources, there won't be any more hawks left to see.

Assateague

...

the northpoint of Greenpoint

GMDC

Yellow Arrows

Another example of collaborative technology that highlights the tiny elements that make our built and natural surroundings unique.

Yellow Arrow - I haven't seen any of them around, but I haven't been looking. Supposedly there have been 1,000 arrows distributed. And now Art Mob is in on the act.

Why do I have a funny feeling that I'm a latecomer to this party?

The master of news fodder

For this realm of information, nothing beats Planetizen. No way I can keep up.

Creating a Commons

I really like On the Commons's public slant. Public-oriented without being too overbearingly crunchy or academic.

It posted an update (which, due to my shoddy research, I missed!) on the Philly's Wi-Fi situation.

Rendell! How could you?? Makes his Economic Stimulus Package which contains his Main Street program in the New Pennsylvania Plan seem like just another marketing campaign with no substance. Come to think of it, ain't that the slickest government policy initiative web site you've ever seen?

Kunstler apologizes??

Kunstler always struck me as immune to obligation or apologies, so I really appreciated the thought.

"I feel that the young people of America deserve an apology from the past two generations, mine and my parents', for wrecking their everyday world."

When backed up with this photo



from Shreveport, Louisiana, it's easy to see why he was so moved.

Built Environment and Health

Not to get too deterministic about the built environment, but this collection of case studies show that solid community cooperation and innovation can really work. Is it too obvious?

Oregone...gone?

Cheesy, but I don't know what to say about this surprising news in Oregon. Maybe people are tired of public service and wants to make a little money for a change.

I can't help wondering what the underlying cultural story is.

Eden Lost and Found

Drat! Another TV show idea done and done.

sniff - i just found out that we could have worked with them! they contacted us, but the PPS dogma just didn't work its way in.

The wireless way to urban revitalization

The Philadelphia Wi-Fi issue is unfolding not a moment too late. In addition to the economic ramifications, this interesting article from Salon.com (PPS is mentioned towards the end) talks some about some of the interesting social implications of wireless technology in cities.

I disagree with Paul Goldberger cited in the article, who wrote in Metropolis

"the mobile phone renders a public place less public...it turns the boulevardier into a sequestered individual, the flâneur into a figure of privacy. And suddenly the meaning of the street as a public place has been hugely diminished,"

and tend to succumb to the allure of the projects from Glowlab, who use wireless technologies to explore the urban realm, allowing greater exploration of connections between increasingly specific localities (i.e. attention paid to a single block in the Lower East Side reaps enough material for an exhibit now ended). These innovations can give deeper and more local meaning to the sense of place than ever before.