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Want to be really, truly green? Live in the city.

Feb 22nd, 2010
by evan.
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A couple of years ago, the This Old House Guy did a commercial for Energy Star appliances, but in the background behind him was a very large house on a very large lot, with the three garage bays clearly visible. What’s wrong with  this picture?

I’ve recently read, with fascination and appreciation, several articles and essays that powerfully extol city living as the highest and best green living. This reality is probably counter intuitive, and these readings likely uncomfortable, to suburban and rural dwellers. But their cases are compelling, and I would say are must-reads for those sincerely wishing to be green.

The authors of these pieces pull no punches. They criticize the popular green energy and other technology “accessorizing” as something  that suburbanites and ruralites do to try to lower their impact, but that in reality doesn’t do much to offset their fundamentally, seriously inefficient  living locations. They say assertively that an ‘ungreen’ apartment building in the city is greener than a far-flung single-family house with Energy Star appliances and even solar panels. One even hammers Thoreau–the “patron saint of American environmentalism”–for living irresponsibly high-impact out in the woods.

Check out the short pieces below–I’d say they are required reading for those really wishing to be green.

Glaeser, Edward: Green Cities, Brown Suburbs. City Journal, Winter 2009.

http://www.city-journal.org/2009/19_1_green-cities.html


Rybczynski, Witold. The Green Case for Cities. The Atlantic, October 2009.

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200910/solar-panels


Owen, David. Green Manhattan: Everywhere should be more like New York. The New Yorker, 18 October 2004.

http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2004/10/18/041018fa_fact_owen


Vaughan, Adam. City dwellers have smaller carbon footprints, study finds. Guardian.co.uk, 23 March 2009.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/mar/23/city-dwellers-smaller-carbon-footprints

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Thanks, Coalition to Prevent Lead Poisoning! You’ve made this Rochesterian very proud, impressed, grateful, and hopeful for society…

Jan 5th, 2010
by evan.
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While cities too often bypass forward thinking–or any thinking– in their quest to improve their economies and communities, there are some refreshing exceptions. In Rochester, where for many decades there existed (like in most of the rest of the country) near total disconnect about the correlation between old housing stock, sprawl, poverty, students unready or unable to learn, and crime, there emerged several years ago an amazing coalition of government, non-profits, agencies, and individuals that went directly at the deep roots of the community’s ills.

In 2002, the Coalition to Prevent Lead Poisoning brought together a diverse group that set a very ambitious goal for their collaborative work: eliminating childhood lead poisoning in Monroe County by 2010.  Each member of the Coalition understood clearly all the tragic consequences childhood lead poisoning was causing in children and the community (including permanent brain damage and learning disabilities, impulse control problems and subsequent violent behavior, titanically expensive problems in the economic, education, health, safety systems, etc.). They also understood that such a pervasive scourge could be solved by getting the community to prioritize and activate the technological fixes for the problem, which are so simple, despite the overall problem being so huge.

Now it’s 2010, and the Coalition to Prevent Lead Poisoning and the responsive community have reduced childhood lead poisoning in Monroe County by an astonishing 80%. This accomplishment earned the Coalition a prestigious EPA Environmental Justice  Achievement Award for 2009. There’s still a ways to go, but not only has the Coalition to Prevent Lead Poisoning showed that a community can quickly and effectively vanquish an “impossible” problem; it has saved thousands of lives and possibly a whole community as well.

You should definitely read more about this. Click the links!

www.leadsafeby2010.org

http://www.urmc.rochester.edu/news/story/index.cfm?id=2710

http://www.epa.gov/compliance/resources/publications/ej/awards/2009/cplp.pdf

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Drinking Up Hemlock Lake

Nov 15th, 2009
by evan.
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About forty miles south of Rochester is Hemlock Lake, a seven-mile-long Finger Lake.

Hemlock is a very special body of water.  Its shorelines are totally undeveloped, except for the City of Rochester’s water infrastructure on the lake’s north shore. You see, for over a century, Rochester has not only drawn the lake’s pristine water for its citizens–it has also protected the land around the lake, meaning water and landscape largely unchanged from over a century ago.

I took my kayak to Hemlock Lake–with the City of Rochester’s required permit in my pocket–and within a few strokes from the shoreline wondered why I don’t do this every other week instead of conventional psycho-therapy.  As I paddled up the mesmerizing, winding Springwater Creek that feeds the lake from its south end, I got to thinking about how this beautiful but small lake–and the modest Springwater Creek–have been supplying much of a mid-sized city with the highest of high-quality water for over a hundred years. I got to thinking about my long-hot-shower vice; the constant flushing of this water down toilets; the sending of this water down drains with soaps and shampoos, detergents and cleaners, and all the other myriad goops of life.

As I paddled back out Springwater Creek into Hemlock Lake, I went to the southwest shore to stand amidst the trees for a few minutes. Because it only took ten minutes to paddle back from there across the lake to the takeout on the southeast shore, I was reminded again of Hemlock’s profound finiteness.

The leaders of this community often extol the copious quantities of available fresh water as an asset that makes Greater Rochester more competitive and more secure than other regions. Given the fact that Hemlock Lake can be significantly and visibly drawn down in drier years by thirsty Rochester–and given that our other drinking water option, Lake Ontario, is seemingly as full of contamination concerns as it is full of water–we should not be seeing our fresh water as endless. We should, instead, see it as priceless.

See Hemlock Lake via these two links:

Aerial of Hemlock showing Springwater Creek at south end (photo courtesy City of Rochester)

On-the-water view (photo courtesy City of Rochester)

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The “Towne Centre” Scam

Nov 5th, 2009
by evan.
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Do an internet search for “Town Center,” “Towne Center”, “Towne Centre”, or any other spelling of this phrase that you can think of. Click a few of the links that come up– and they will come up, from all corners of the country.

See what patterns emerge as you browse the Towne Centre sites.

Do you get the sense that Towne Centres really aren’t?

We have one here, called the Webster Towne Center–marketed on its web site as a “unique combination brought together in a warm village atmosphere, reminiscent of small-town America.”   This “unique, village-like atmosphere ” is actually 800,000 square feet of big box chain stores, replete with a massive expanse of parking in the middle. Ironic and exasperating is the fact that these fake Towne Centers have laid successful siege to the real centers of our communities.   The same company that developed the Towne Center at Webster erected another  in my hometown of Erwin, New York, and several others in no- or negative-growth regions around Upstate New York (Batavia, Watertown, etc.).

The beginning of the solution to this irony is to ensure that a critical mass of people recognize the irony– that the fake Town Centers are destroying the real ones.

And what about those e’s on the end of Towne, anyway? How do these e’s make you feel?

While you’re here, check out some of the latest in Towne Centers, Town Centers, Towne Centres, Town Centres…

Towne Centre, Kenwood OH and another inspiring  Kenwood shot

Towne Center, Cary NC

Towne Center, Sanford FL

Town Center, Charleston WV

Town Centre, Fredericksburg VA

Towne Center at Webster, Webster NY

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Charles Mulford Robinson

Oct 22nd, 2009
by evan.
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Imagine my pleasant surprise–combined with some mortification for not knowing sooner–when I learned that one of the pioneers in urban planning and planning education was a Rochesterian. Charles Mulford Robinson was not only a pioneering urban planner who took the lead on plans for several American cities, but was also a leading planning theorist, journalist, and writer. He also was one of the first teachers of planning and community design– a Professor of Civic Design at the University of Illinois.

Certainly, some of Robinson’s ideas unfortunately reflect the prevailing discriminatory views of his time, but even though I would disagree with and discredit some of his planning ideas as a result, I think raising his name from obscurity can serve as a great conversation-starter about community planning, design, and development–topics that more people need to be talking about more often!

A Wikipedia page for Robinson gives a decent overview:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Mulford_Robinson

And this excellent, detailed post from my former hometown of Charlottesville, Virginia gives a solid overview and critique of Robinson’s ideas:

http://discoveringurbanism.blogspot.com/2009/08/charles-robinsons-planning-textbook.html

Robinson is buried in Rochester’s famous Mount Hope Cemetery.

I have only once heard Robinson included in a list of prominent and important Rochesterians.   Hence, I have a(nother) new crusade: to make sure Rochester and the planning profession know about Charles Mulford Robinson! Including him on oft-spoken lists of prominent Rochesterians would not only honor his  work, but again, get people thinking and talking about important community planning and design concepts and issues!

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Rite Aid display window update

Sep 23rd, 2009
by evan.
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Five weeks ago I reported that the display windows that the City of Rochester required on the Goodman Street side of the new Rite Aid were still vacant except for generic Rite Aid posters that had been glued to the back walls of the display windows (a couple of which had come unglued to sag against the glass). Yesterday I noticed that the store management has now glued new generic Rite Aid posters to the INSIDE OF THE GLASS, effectively turning the display windows into part of the exterior wall. (I’ll try to get a photo to post here.) And such a windowless wall is exactly what the city was trying to prevent when it required Rite Aid to put in the display windows. I also learned from a city zoning board member that the developer of the Rite Aid said he’d allow the windows to be used by community groups and such; I called the store to find out if this usage is in the works, and the assistant manager I reached said he thought the general manager was indeed planning to offer the windows to community and neighborhood organizations. When will plan become reality? Stay tuned!!!

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Land-value taxation: Rochester auspiciously dips toe

Aug 24th, 2009
by evan.
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Earlier this year, I wrote about the gigantically good sense of land-value taxation (LVT), and the madness of not doing LVT. (I also wrote a letter, published in City newsweekly, on the subject.) The only thing that frustrates me about the LVT is that I didn’t know about it sooner: the progressive property tax practice of taxing land more and buildings/ structures/improvements less.

In April, my fellow LVT-obsessed Rochesterian Paul Kramer and I arranged to have Josh Vincent, the nation’s leading LVT expert and advocate, visit Rochester to talk tax with the Mayor of Rochester and his senior staff, the Rochester City Council, and several other gatherings of community leaders and citizens. The result? Quite a few opened eyes and opened minds (and some nice media coverage). Auspiciously, the city agreed to commission an analysis of the feasibility of land-value tax for the City of Rochester. We are expecting the results of the study within weeks, and will be sure to share those results with you here (and in a zillion other places, assuming our confident prediction that the study will reveal that LVT would turn property tax from a terribly regressive force into a progressive one for our city).

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Two posters now sagging in Rite Aid display windows

Aug 19th, 2009
by evan.
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It’s two weeks since my last post, and now there are two posters in the Rite Aid display windows that have come unglued from the displays’ back walls and are sagging sadly and unattractively against the glass. I am going to suggest to the neighborhood association there that they approach Rite Aid about putting some neighborhood history information and photographs in the display windows, so  [a] the windows aren’t empty/barren/underutilized, and [b] that Rite Aid doesn’t respond to a request to fill the windows with a Pyramid of Pringles or Tower of Paper Towels…

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Probably not the last Rite Aid display window update

Aug 5th, 2009
by evan.
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It’s now August 5 and still nothing in the Goodman/Monroe Avenue Rite Aid display windows, except the Rite Aid posters taped to the back walls of the display areas. Actually, one of the posters came loose about 10 days ago and is sagging against the window. Obviously, the contents of the display windows that the city made the developer install is not a high priority of the developer/owner or manager.

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Yet another update on Rochester Rite Aid display windows

Jul 23rd, 2009
by evan.
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Well, the big grand opening for the new Rite-Aid at Goodman and Monroe in Rochester took place, with ribbon cuttings and back slappings galore among government officials and businessmen. The Rochester Chief of Police was also present, smiling, even though he can expect his department to have its hands full with the new store: the old Rite Aid across the street was the source of five times as many police calls in recent years as the bars across the street. Media reported copiously on the opening. The display windows, despite the fanfare of the opening, still are empty, except for Rite Aid posters pasted to their back walls.

Why are the required display windows still empty, even on the day of the big grand opening? Empty, with all the dignitaries and media present?

Could it be that the store’s management has already concluded that there’s nothing they can put in the display windows that would appeal to the pedestrian, the window shopper? That a pyramid of Pringles will not inspire the streetscape and passersby?

Check out print and footage of the ribbon snipping here and here.

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