Yearly Archives: 2008

The Need for a Social Mapping

There’s a reason I told Planning magazine I’m excited about “more accessible and interactive approaches to the massive amounts of GIS data that planners have.” After all, it’s a type of data that has not yet been adapted to truly seamless social platform. I sketched out how such a system could be applied to vacant […]

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The Candidates on the Issues

All the major presidential candidate websites are generally similar in their structure. All three feature an “issues” tab, with pages on a variety of issues. These sometime link to other materials, such as lengthier plans in PDF format or other materials, but I thought the choice of issues and length might tell us something about […]

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Who Needs Taxes

The gas tax for example, that seems like a good one to get rid of. It’s not doing much for us as it is. What’s that about a Minnesota bridge and global warming? I can’t hear you over the roar of this SUV engine. Also, see the NY Times story “As Gas Costs Soar, Buyers […]

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Measuring Regional Transit Oriented Development

WMATA recently released the 2008 Metrorail Station Access & Capacity Study (PDF) which analyzes how the system can accommodate future growth in detail. David has a good summary of the report’s major recommendations for improvement and expansion. A table in the report caught my eye that showed the estimated number of jobs and households around […]

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Raise the Gas Tax to Cut Oil Company Profits

Record high crude oil prices has put the federal gas tax in center stage, as McCain and Clinton have proposed a summer holiday of the 18.4 cent federal gas tax. Thomas Friedman blasted the short-sighted proposal, as well as our leader’s failure to create a coherent energy policy. Calling it a meaningless “quick-fix” solution, Barack […]

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Bike Rental Program Starts Soon

Ever wanted to rent a bike in downtown D.C. to run a quick errand or see the town? Starting next month the city’s SmartBike rental program kicks off with 120 bikes at 10 locations, where the racks have already been installed. Membership will cost $40 annually and work something like Zipcar, with rentals limited to […]

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Climate Change: The Moral Imperative for Smart Growth

This Tuesday I attended the “Earth Day Rollout” of a new book detailing the relationship between urban development and climate change. Intuitively, it would seem logical to conclude that compact cities release less greenhouse gasses on a per capita basis than low density ones. We might hypothesize compact cities shorten distances between destinations, encourage walking […]

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