-Iowa BiCycle Coalition: Economic Study Shows Bicycling Generates $364.8 million for Iowa
The study estimates that bicycling saves the State of Iowa $73.9 million in healthcare costs for those who cycle recreationally. Another $13,266,020 in health care costs is saved by those who commute to work.-NYT: Can’t Park? Blame a Condo
[free parking is socialism]
...just as horses made room for cars, he said, cars are making room for humans.
-TheAtlantic: The Hub: A Promising Experiment in Food Processing for Small Farms: A solution for farmers that can't afford the big state-of-the-art equipment required to process, store, and distribute their meat and produce.
-TheAtlantic: Why Do People Oppose Development?
most of us do not want to say "I want to live around people who consume the same stuff I consume", or "I don't want to live near poor people", or "I would rather not have more families in town because they're just going to be a financial burden on me", or "I think it would be better if you had fewer alternatives to shopping at my store", so we talk about . . . noise, congestion, and traffic.-PhysOrg: Roundabouts emerging as the ideal intersection between driver safety and efficiency [summary of traffic engineering research]
-TheAtlantic: New Playgrounds Are Safe—and That's Why Nobody Uses Them
-CoolTools: Raising Chickens for Dummies
-GOOD: Why Historic Buildings Are Greener Than LEED-Certified New Ones
-Burgh Diaspora: The Michigan Exodus Myth
-Strong Towns: No new streets
We need to start getting used to a world where there will be no new streets. What you see on Google Maps today is what is going to be there fifty years from now, if not fewer as many streets will be abandoned. The fact that we don't have the money to even maintain a fraction of what we have already built is a powerful constraint that we don't fully appreciate.-The Atlantic Cities: Parking Minimums Promote Driving, Even in Transit-Friendly New York
-FastCompany: DeepRoot: A New Solution For Saving Cities Money By Planting Trees
-The Mercury (Pottstown, PA): New business was drawn to Pottstown by arts center
If you are excited by the news that a high-tech firm with more than 30 good-paying jobs plans to move from a farm field in East Vincent to High Street, you can thank Ralphie and his Christmas wish for a Red Ryder BB Gun with a compass in the stock.-Grist: World’s worst elected official makes the case for sprawl [Oakland County]
“A Christmas Story,” the seasonal offering at Pottstown’s downtown TriCounty Performing Arts Center, was among the shows that first attracted VideoRay President Scott Bentley to Pottstown.
-Citizens in the D.C. neighborhood of Glover Park are fighting for MORE liquor licenses. See WashingtonCityPaper: YIMBY Uprising Over Glover Park Liquor Moratorium
-The Atlantic Cities: Chicago's Booming Beer Scene, Explained
So why is this happening in Chicago? Chalk at least some of it up to institutional memory. Across the street from Goose Island's original brewpub on Clybourn Avenue sits the Siebel Institute of Technology, founded in 1871 and the oldest brewing school in the United States...-The Atlantic Cities: How More Expensive Housing Can Actually Cost You Less
Chicago is also home to the Craft Beer Institute, which trains beer servers, distributors and restaurant and industry professionals in the history, production, handling, and consumption of beer. The program recently issued its 10,000 certified beer server certificate, just four years after Chicagoan Ray Daniels created the program.
[more expensive housing often has lower commuting costs]
-MM: Public Schools Good for People Without Kids, Too
[better schools = better communities to live in]
-Autoblog: America's parking spaces cover more area than Puerto Rico
-Next American City: The Psychology of Sprawl
After using atomic weapons in Japan and witnessing the beginning of the Cold War conflict with the Soviet Union, US experts became keenly aware of the vulnerability of its densely populated cities as targets of attack, and advised that strong measures be taken to disperse urban populations.-The Atlantic Cities: When it Comes to Parks, it's Not Just How Many, But Where
-Grist: Into the woods: Seattle plants a public food forest
[or, if a city is going to plant trees why not plant edible trees?]
-AtlanticCities: What Communities Should Do To Protect Against Climate Change
-NYT: When a Parking Lot Is So Much More
there are three nonresidential parking spaces for every car in the United States. That adds up to almost 800 million parking spaces, covering about 4,360 square miles — an area larger than Puerto Rico. In some cities, like Orlando and Los Angeles, parking lots are estimated to cover at least one-third of the land area, making them one of the most salient landscape features of the built world.-The Atlantic Cities: The True Cost of Unwalkable Streets
-Crain's Detroit: Northern Michigan's local-food movement needs infrastructure to turn an idea into an industry
Douglas Luciani, president and CEO of the Traverse City chamber, estimates that more than $1 billion is spent a year in the area on events ranging from weddings and family reunions to luncheons and fundraisers. If all event planners and venue owners agreed to buy 20 percent of their goods and services locally, that's $200 million that stays in the local economy.-ClimateProgress: Nine Low-Tech Steps For Community Resilience In A Warming Climate
-BloombergView: Why Does U.S. Build Roads If It Can’t Pay to Fix Them?
-Tactical Urbanism 2: Short-term action | Long-term change [e-book]
-Bridge MI: State attracts visitors of motor-less bent
[bicycle trails and tours have the capacity to replace Michigan's billion dollar snowmobile related economy as climate chaos melts our heritage away]
-National Association of Realtors: 2011 Community Preference Survey
Overall, Americans’ ideal communities have a mix of houses, places to walk, and amenities within an easy walk or close drive-GL Echo: Demand high, supplies tight for some Michigan-grown organic foods
-NPR: Guerrilla Grafters Bring Forbidden Fruit Back To City Trees
-FastCompany: Making More Livable Cities With Shade Stands, Rainwater Collection, And Closed Streets
-The Atlantic Cities: Traffic Explained in Less Than 4 Minutes
- A Data-Driven Case for Walkability
-What Cities Gain When Their Airports Are Close to Downtown
-SeattlePi: In an old Chicago meat plant, greens and fish grow
-MLive: 'A Day in the Life' of chef Mario Batali in New York is hectic, no wonder he loves Michigan
related NYT: For Mario Batali, It’s Molto Michigan [from 2007]
-Grist: How demolishing freeways is reviving American cities
-AtlanticCities: Green Infrastructure Could Save Cities Billions
[in other words, by letting natural systems handle stormwater runoff a city can save big money in waste water costs]
-SciAm: Grid Unlocked: How Street Networks Evolve as Cities Grow
the researchers found a tendency for older streets to be the more central ones in modern times
