The story of I-Neighbors.org is important to anyone hoping to use technology to complement traditional forms of urban community. The website was created by Keith Hampton, a scholar interested in “the relationship between new information and communication technologies, social networks, and the urban environment.” A trained sociologist, as a newly minted PhD Hampton taught at […]
Tolls More Equitable Than Sales Tax For Funding Freeways
You’ve heard the buzz about “Lexus Lanes,” a new trend where tolls are adjusted in order to keep some freeway lanes flowing smoothly. They’re related to the idea of charging higher prices for parking, or even a congestion charge such as the one considered for New York City. It’s widely thought the lanes are unfair, […]
Planner, Scholar Inprisoned in Iran
This from a friend: FREE KIAN TAJBAKHSH On May 11th 2007, Dr. Kian Tajbakhsh, 45, an urban planning expert and senior research fellow at the New School in New York, was arrested at his home in Tehran by the Iranian security services. He has since been detained in the notorious Evin prison and has not […]
Analyzing D.C.’s Inclusionary Zoning
After years of wrangling between affordable housing advocates, policy wonks, and real estate interests, D.C. has finally adopted a commonly-used approach to creating affordable housing. Known as “inclusionary zoning,” the policy requires developers include units reserved for low and moderate-income families when developing large residential projects. In exchange, developers are allowed to increase the density […]
‘It’s Fun To Be In the O-R-D-E-R’
For those accustom to my usual topics about urbanism and D.C., permit me a brief digression about a University of Michigan “leadership” society with a controversial history, that recently re-named themselves from Michigamua to The Order of Angell. The Ann Arbor blog Left Behind in the Fishbowl has posted what appears to be a copy […]
Races I Was Watching
With so many candidates and initiatives on the ballots across the country yesterday I thought it would be worthwhile to point out a few items I was watching. Although it was exciting to watch the Democrats take back the House for the first time since 1994, the evening wasn’t without its disappointments. At the top […]
‘Legitimate Attachment to Mutually Exclusive Reasons’
I found this Malcolm Gladwell article in the New Yorker on a book about reasons quite interesting. Is your reason a story, a convention, or a code? This part reminded me of some of the talk about Michigamua: When we say that two parties in a conflict are “talking past each other,” this is what […]