A city that costs too much?

A new report asks whether Berlin is costing more than it contributes. And, whether that is a problem. 

Jane Jacobs

Times changes how we see things. Common Edge has posted a reflection on 10 lessons learned from re-reading Jane Jacobs.

Great opportunity for students

Looking for a Few Good Men/Women to Serve as Ambassadors for NJ's Environment!

The Department of Environmental Protection has several openings remaining for the 2016-2017 class of AmeriCorps New Jersey Watershed Ambassadors.  Good candidates are needed to serve at the County of Passaic Planning Department (Totowa); the Passaic Valley Sewerage Commission (Newark); the Hackensack Riverkeeper (Hackensack); the Great Swamp Outdoor Education Center (Chatham); and Cape May County. 

Based out of 20 host agencies throughout NJ, Ambassadors work with all sectors of the public to improve the quality of NJ's waterways through education and by empowering residents to make responsible and informed decisions about their watersheds.  Ambassadors raise awareness about litter and nonpoint source pollution through their many community projects, field work and presentations. They also take a leadership role in collaborating with local partners to plan and complete projects that protect and restore local waterways, thus promoting environmental stewardship.

Ambassadors are required to complete 1,700 hours of service from September through mid- July. Compensation includes a pretax annual stipend of $12,530; eligibility for health insurance benefits while serving as an Ambassador; subsidized childcare, if qualified; deferment of qualified student loans during service; and extensive training throughout the program year. In addition, members are eligible to receive an education award of $5,730 upon successful completion of the program.

Applicants must be U.S. citizens, have a bachelor's degree, a valid driver's license, and must have reliable transportation to get to and from field sites.

The DEP began hosting the federal AmeriCorps program in 2000. AmeriCorps is a national service initiative that began in 1993. Since its inception, more than 980,000 men and women have taken the AmeriCorps pledge, serving more than 1.3 billion hours and improving the lives of countless Americans.

Those interested may apply online through the AmeriCorps website at:  https://my.americorps.gov/mp/listing/viewListing.do;jsessionid=letQFF_oq2gn5hWlqxsQfuGQOlULzKWqi1Jxjx4fc9xVSAEQltFU!399265864?id=68288&fromSearch=true.  Deadline for applications is August 31, 2016.

For more information, visit: http://www.nj.gov/dep/wms/bears/americorps.htm or call Kathy Giordano, Program Manager or Patricia Ingelido, Supervisor at (609) 633-1441. Written queries can be sent to:  NJWAP@dep.nj.gov. 

Farmers Market Week

Make sure you get out and celebrate Farmers Market Week. Who knows, maybe there'll be a Pokemon gym there.

Wish I could attend

For those interested in the intersection of health and place, this sounds like an outstanding conference. With the Baby Boomers reaching retirement age in the US and the UK, this is about to become a massive issue for designers to grapple with.

International conference on Habitats for Happy and Healthy Ageing |
Edinburgh | 11-14 October 2016 | Registration now OPEN

Mobility Mood and Place:
Habitats for Happy and Healthy Ageing Conference 
is delighted to announce that registration is
now open for the fourth Open Space: People Space Conference, ‘Mobility,
Mood and Place: Habitats for Happy and Healthy Ageing’.

The conference will take place in Edinburgh on 11th – 14th October 2016.

For further information and registration:
www.mobilitymoodplace.ac.uk/conference

Featuring keynote speakers including Professor Billie Giles-Corti
(Australia), Professor Gloria Gutman (Canada) and Professor Sarah
Wigglesworth (UK), the conference will showcase the best global research
on realising environments for healthy, happy and active ageing for all.

As well as plenary, parallel and poster sessions, delegates will hear
from the Mobility, Mood and Place (MMP) project team who will share
emerging findings from three years of research engaging over 750 older
participants in innovative studies, including co-design, mobile neural
imaging and lifecourse work.


The final day will include site-based activities and workshops and an
exhibition on MMP will run for the duration.


Follow us on twitter: #OSPS4

100 years of zoning

Today is the 100th anniversary of New York City's comprehensive zoning ordinance. Generally viewed as the first city-wide comprehensive zoning ordinance in the US, this was a real watershed moment for urban growth and land use controls. Appropriately, the NY Times provides some context and reflection in a Building Blocks column by David Dunlap.

It is probably true that the nation's embrace of zoning was inevitable, so if NYC hadn't jumped in first, someone else would have. But the symbolism of NYC's early adoption and continued rapid growth undercut many ridiculous arguments about how government control would set cities back or make them less competitive. As Dunlap reminds us, NYC also created a phenomenal zoning document that helped show other cities how to structure zoning as a defensible and logical system.

Pokemon Go

Pokemon Go is embracing the geospatial realm and encouraging more walking. But could Pokemon Go cost you your job? I assume that the next few issues of planning and GIS trade mags will be sprinkled with interesting celebrations and complaints about this new trend, but will be sorely lacking in cheat codes.

History maps

Mapping history has been around for a while. But I thought this series of maps from the Washington Post were very interesting. They asked where there were towns in the US named after towns in England. The maps, while simple, tell a story a bit different than I had expected.

Good news for Barcelona

The City of Barcelona is banning Segways from the central portions of the city. They are considered part of the class of transportation that could be called "novelty urban transit". Like duck rides in Boston or beerbikes in Amsterdam, they ensure that tourists have a visible impact on the city they visit. In a cultural setting they are the equivalent of poor ecotourism.

Writing on The Atlantic CityLab Feargus O'Sullivan says, " It would surely be going too far to damn Segways as Satan’s chariots, but they still need to go. Barcelona’s waterfront should be an open-air living room for the city, not a place where the experience of the city is simulated for motorized, walkway-clogging tourist groups."

Geohealth Lab website

We finally made some long overdue changes to the Geohealth Lab web site. Lots is happening this summer, so watch for more updates.

Environmental costs

In a small state like New Jersey, $1 billion of environmental damages sounds like a lot.

Friday Photos: Manhattan

FitCity 2016

Exciting to see more designers getting onto the bandwagon of making our communities healthy places. This week there is a great meeting at BAM in Brooklyn called FitCity 2016 that is exploring how design can improve health. Since it is sponsored by the AIA, it will probably be a little heavy on architecture, but the ideas should be edgy. And, if you can't attend in person, you can follow along at #FitCity2016

Social GPS versus local residents

That great cut through that helped shave several minutes off your commute is no longer a secret due to Waze. The residents of the cut through neighborhood may be more upset than you. And, as the Washington Post writes, some of them have started fighting back by posting false information.

Maker Park at Bushwick Inlet

It seems that each potential post-industrial park has to be debated again as if it were the first. Hence, the NYTimes coverage of the proposed Maker Park at Bushwick Inlet.

(Naturally, I don't mean that all of these parks should be slam dunks either. Each new park is its own park. It just seems like the coverage never recognizes that these are advancing a collective idea over time.)

For booklovers

Do you remember Andre Chiote's posters of Brazilian World Cup stadia? Now Chiote has developed some elegant posters of great libraries around the world. Awesome illustrations.

Geohealth Lab @ CRSSA

If you haven't seen what we are doing at the Geohealth Lab, this is a great time to check out our website. It has been updated and is getting more traffic.

Work at the intersection of health and GIS is growing quickly. UCSB hosted a meeting on the topic in December.  URISA has a GIS and Health meeting that starts in a week. And Esri hired a Chief Medical Officer last year. It is an exciting time to see what is happening in the field.Esri has also created a Zika story map worth exploring.

Sea level rise and property values

While the news story is several months old, I was struck when I read this story from Key Largo. It details how the streets of Key Largo are flooding with increasing frequency. The article includes a picture of a flooded street on what appears to be an otherwise nice day - just a high tide with a super moon will do it. But the interesting twist was this quote:

"So far we have not been seeing buyers being concerned with sea level rise, which I'm a little surprised given all the media attention it has garnered lately," said Lisa Ferringo, president of the Marathon/Lower Keys Board of Realtors.

When will shore towns see that change? How much flooding is a meaningful inconvenience? Is this a bubble about to burst or a new standard of social resilience. Seems like there should be some sociologists building predictive models on this.

Did you hear it?

NPR's Science Friday visited Duke Farms.

GIS and Health

URISA's 2016 GIS and Health Symposium

Mapping the Way to Healthy CommunitiesJune 1-3, 2016 - Washington, DC