Valuing natural landscapes

If John D'Agostino's guest lecture on Monday left you wanting more, you might check out this related report from NPR's Marketplace and this report on the value of NJ's Natural Capital posted on the DEP website.

Catching up

For our students:
Returning from my latest trip, I found my advising sheet (ENR 133) all filled up, so I have squeezed in a few more spots. Most questions shouldn't be too urgent since you can't add classes until the 12th. Still, if you procastinate signing up, the later slots will be filled as well.
I have also added a little suitability analysis piece to the EnvPlan class materials.

Sim City leads to new urban policy?

I am sorry that I didn't post this yesterday, when it was still a perfect April Fools joke, but here is PlaNetizen's explanation of how a late night game of Sim City reshaped America's urban landscapes. Their acronym poisoning story wasn't too bad either.

South Pointe Park

Miami Beach has a new Hargreaves waterfront project, South Pointe Park, which just opened a week or two ago. The $22 million project features the usual earth mounds and light towers and fountains. (Mapped)
In the photo above you can see that the white light directed in one direction, for pedestrian safety, while the LED colors were most visible in the other direction. This side view illustrates the footprint of the light.

The light towers kept changing colors, but it was primarily visible from the ocean side.

Photo note: The brightest of these photos were taken at dusk and most were taken later, all without a tripod. I apologize that they are not nearly as good as the ones that will surely appear in LAM and Metropolis, but at least I get in on the game early.

Quote of the Day

"Water is the driving force of all nature."

- Leonardo Da Vinci

Census jobs

Even if the economy is tough, the United States needs to get its decennial head count to figure out whether New Jersey gets to keep all of its congressional districts. And that means that the Bureau of the Census is going to need some extra help. And, while they'll be needing some folks to go into the field, they may also need some more spatial thinkers, since their results are fundamentally geographic. If you are interested in applying, you should check out their employment page.

Quote of the Day

“Only in the oasis of silence can we drink deeply from our inner cup of wisdom.”

—Sue Patton Thoele

Jersey Fresh

At a recent lecture one of our audience members, Nick Tufaro from the Middlesex County Planning Office, said that as recently as the early 1960s Middlesex County was the single largest broccoli producing county in the country. While I can't find documentation online, it makes sense that the Garden State was producing the truck farmed produce for New York City.

So it is interesting to see that despite evidence from our colleagues at SEBS, NJ is cutting it support from the profitable Jersey Fresh program.

Quote of the Day

"We shall never achieve harmony with land, any more than we shall achieve absolute justice or liberty for people. In these higher aspirations the important thing is not to achieve, but to strive."

- Aldo Leopold

Are surveyors the only ones who should map parcels?

Directions Magazine has a short article on a proposed law in Missouri that could make GIS mapping of parcels a job only for surveyors.

Another alum keeping busy

Jason Husveth is an alum of our program who has taken a somewhat less traditional path. He gave a great talk here a while back where he explained how with 2 degrees in landscape architecture he has moved into a more scientific arena. Now his ecological work has caught the attention of his local newspaper.

Geocaching as a gentle digital sport

The Medium in today's Sunday Times Magazine is a feature on the GPS-based sport of geocaching. While the author, Virginia Heffernan, seemed a bit puzzled at first she also clearly warmed to the activity, which involves using a handheld GPS unit to guide you to a hidden treasure. By the end she calls it "sweet" and likened it to an "earnest guidebook to life on Earth." But there is no mention of how new GPS tools, like GPS-enabled phones, are being used.

Planning vs. Politics

When planning blogs mention politics readers post comments about keeping it neutral, when political blogs post something about planning it creates a maelstrom of comments.

visualizing science

The NY Times looked at a study that produced a spatial representation of the relationships between different fields. You could say that it puts geography in its place.

Quote of the Day

For if one link in nature’s chain might be lost, another might be lost, until the whole of things might vanish by piecemeal.

—Thomas Jefferson

Blogging for education

Here is something different for our current or former students...

I am working on a very short magazine inset on my use of Places and Spaces as an educational tool. But I would like to include a quote or two from students about how blogs do or don't contribute to their educational experience. What planning or design or environmental blogs do you read other than Places and Spaces? Are you spending a lot of time on them? Do you see the blogs as an integrated part of your learning experience, or an entirely separate optional experience? What have you learned from these blogs that you didn't in class? Is this one interesting just because it is one of the only school-related ones you have?

So, here's the thing. In order for me use the quote, or simply acknowledge your participation, I need your name. But even anonymous comments that help me understand what isn't working may be helpful.

Comment away.

A bacterium threatens Northern Red Oaks

Although our state tree is at risk, it may be helping our cities get greener.

College towns are special places

It used to be that a college town was a place where you could count on a good used record store and a cheap hamburger place. Now, the Wall Street Journal reports, it is a place where can expect a well educated work force and low unemployment.

Liveblog: Bob Melvin and Environmental Planning

SPRING 2009 ENVIRONMENTAL PLANNING LECTURE
Robert F. Melvin, AICP/PP
GROUPmelvinDESIGN

Looked at the dynamics that are changing the way we think about what makes a community sustainable and the way the field of landscape architecture, planning and urban design are adding to the discussion.

The last 50 years were an experiment in an old way of doing things. The results were sprawl and bad design, road widening and increased congestion, homogenous landuse and cookie-cutter neighborhoods. Bob Melvin says that experiment is over.

As an example he looked at retail space. In 1990, communities in the US had about 19 sq ft of retail space per person. In 2005 it was up to 38. THat is a 100% increase in 15 years. IN EUrope it is less than 10 sq. ft. and some studies say that communities cannot support more than 25 sq. ft. per person.

Other issues like quality of life and carbon footprints and public health issues are also in play. In NJ, 59% of adults are either overweight or obese.

New communities will be different. So many buildings were built for single uses, when mixed use contributes more to the community and is a more flexible feature. Eating locally is a key - but it requires a substantive change in the food supply chain and on the agricultural landscape. We need to ensure that out public spaces are well designed and vibrant, if they are going to be sustainable. It will take a full complement of tools from rain gardens to solar power to make these urban places successful.

As a case study he presented his form's recent work in a newsworthy project in Woolwich, NJ (mapped) and showed examples of TDR and sustainable design can be implemented in a neotraditional design environment. Another example, in Newark applied similar principles to the urban landscape.

Integration is the future of planning and design.


When one of the questions asked how we can make our least pleasant urban landscapes more livable, he suggested that Society Hill in Philly was just as bad in 1964. (He suggested that we watch the YouTube videos, but I can't din them. Anyone?) But what does it mean for Bucks County?

Pedestrian planning for Oklahoma City

Oklahoma City has really grown in recent years and (to the consternation of many) has even nabbed its own NBA team. And while it may surprise some of our friends here in the Northeast, OK City has gotten big enough (metro area of 1.2 million) to need some serious planning help. The Oklahoman reports that they have brought in Jeff Speck to help develop a new pedestrian plan for the city:

Jeff Speck, who first introduced himself to Oklahoma City by announcing "your codes are bad,” is back with a new message: the sidewalks and streets aren’t great, either.

Speck, who is a notable new urbanist, could be seen as pushing that agenda, but he makes a clear case for why pedestrian friendly landscape are valuable to a city:

Speck cites three reasons the city should be more concerned about being pedestrian friendly: less traffic translates into cleaner air, and more walking promotes health and reduces health care costs, and a pedestrian-friendly community is high on the list of amenities sought by 20- and 30-year-olds as they look at where they want to live and work.

"To be walkable, a street needs to be safe, comfortable and interesting,” Speck said. "You guys lose it at safe.”

The new troubled economy may also make a free walk seem like a nice alternative to paying to park so you can pay to drive.