Shared Air

“Worth A Thousand Words” the picture notes.
Kudos to those “who care about our city” and their efforts to build better communities.  Inspired by a similar effort in Baltimore, Richmond Slumlord Watch aims to “transform notoriety into accountability” by highlighting
blighted properties, delinquent property owners, and issues relevant to blight, slumlords, and neighborhood revitalization in the City [...]

[Read more →]

Each fall since 9-11, the insanity of humanity witnessed by our regional community, and country, has forced a change, or shift, from our previous understanding of what’s “normal” and decent and right.
With the 2001 terrorist attacks and anthrax scares, the I-95 serial snipers in ‘02, Isabel ‘03, Gaston ‘04, Katrina ‘05 and repeat Rita ‘06 [...]

[Read more →]

“Paying the meter of a parking space enables one to lease precious urban real estate on a short-term basis. What is the range of possible activities for this short-term lease?”

PARK(ing) Day is Friday September 18, 2009.
Born out of Rebar’s creative exploration for how urban public space is allocated and used, PARK(ing) Day has become an [...]

[Read more →]

Of all the Conversations on City Centers and Economics, Transit Stops and Transfer Hubs, Flood Zones and Flex-space, Vacant “Big Box” and Heat Island Conversions, Need to Feed the Street, Labor Lags and Layoffs, or Connecting Communities to Schools and Education to Learning…this “beets” them all, green thumbs down!

[Read more →]

A very nice slide show with essay on Forest Hills Gardens via Slate. The finishing paragraph, snipped below, is so sensible, so self-evident and also deeply about long term value and community sustainability. After 100 years, despite fashion and whim, FHG works in so many layered ways that hit-and-run development does not that you wonder [...]

[Read more →]

Ryan Avent @ Atlantic Magazine points out an economic reality I think regional leaders are ill-equipped to see or seemingly lack the courage to respond to. And that’s either a shame, or poetic justice, because while only playing a land use game for 30 years (all the while resisting the idea of regionalism and its [...]

[Read more →]

Richmond VA:  Capital City, River City, and now the first city in Virginia, and likely the United States, to have a major urban park system preserved in perpetuity under a conservation easement.

Signed into law on 29 May 2009, the Conservation Easement places about 280 acres of parkland, including the James River Park System, Great Shiplock [...]

[Read more →]

Every morning I wake up to cars driving by on the highway less than a quarter mile away from my room. Recently, the Richmond Times Dispatch (our local White newspaper) published a news article (link below) about a repair project on Hwy 64. The article said “The $43.3 million I-64 project will repair and resurface [...]

[Read more →]

Majora Carter’s very cool Sustainable South Bronx has a website. This link is to the basics of green roofs and their effect on reducing city heat islands and storm-water runoff and, yes, energy costs. Here’s a look at their Bronx Environmental Stewardship Training (B.E.S.T.) program, charged with training for green jobs in building sectors and [...]

[Read more →]

Friday 15 May 2009 is National Bike to Work Day.  Join the Convoy!
Arrive in Monroe Park by 7:15 a.m. for a presentation by Governor Tim Kaine and a representative from the City of Richmond. At 7:30 a.m., Governor Kaine will lead the group down Franklin Street towards the Capitol and riders can head to [...]

[Read more →]