links for 2006-04-28

• ‘Aerotropolis’ participants hope ideas take flight

Fun With Buses at Maryland Day

As a newly accepted University of Maryland graduate student, was all set to attend their 8th annual “Maryland Day” event planned for tomorrow. Unfortunately, some last minute work travel popped up so I won’t be able to go. This year the annual end-of-year event is doubling as a 150th anniversary, and they have all kinds of wacky events lined up including the “World’s Largest” Strawberry Shortcake and unveiling of a bunch of decorated Testudos that will be displayed in the region. I think the university’s transportation department has some of the most entertaining stuff planned:

… A thrill of a different kind can be found at the bus-pulling contest, located next to the obstacle course. Here, teams of five to eight people will compete by tugging a shuttle bus towards the finish line, which would take one to two minutes to reach, depending on the strength of the team. Teams will pull the buses next to each other.

Watch these same teams compete in Bus-ketball. As team buses circles in a pre-determined route, the team will shoot playground balls toward the “basket” for points. There are just a couple rules, however. Players have to be seated and cannot lean out of the window.
Daihatsu Stuffing Contest

Finally, these teams will compete in a Daihatsu stuffing contest, featuring some of the smallest vehicles on campus. Teams will attempt to stuff as many people in the shortest period of time into a maintenance vehicle designed to fit only one to two people. …

links for 2006-04-26

• Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers
  Robert Greenwald’s latest film.
• EchoDitto: Moving From Online Activity to Real-World Action
  The web consulting firm where some of my friends work has issued a new report on online organizing.
• Back To The Woom: The Passion For Ayn Rand
  Nick has some thoughts on Ayn Rand.
• MuniWireless » Blog Archive » The problems with city and countywide Wi-Fi projects
  Implementing citywide Wi-Fi can be hard.

Jane Jacobs, 1917-2006

While I was distracted by my birthday I was sad to hear yesterday that author, activist, and thinker Jane Jacobs died yesterday in Toronto at the age of 89. Although her obituary in today’s Post is good, the New York Times piece is longer and does a better job explaining her life and ideas.

I think it’s difficult to exaggerate the impact of her 1961 book, The Death and Life of Great American Cities. Not only did her book have a profound impact on the professions of city planning and architecture, it also helped revolutionize the way Americans think about cities. Although many important critiques have been made of her books (which I’ll save for another time), I found her books highly stimulating and her ideas have found their way into my undergraduate honors thesis and on this blog.

> NY Times: “Jane Jacobs, Social Critic Who Redefined and Championed Cities, Is Dead at 89”
> My posts who mention her

Washington Post’s Express Launches Website

Since it’s been mentioned a few places elsewhere, I thought I should note the Washington Post company’s Express free commuter daily has launched a website centered around a blog authored mostly by my friend Mike Grass. If you recall, I founded DCist with Mike in July 2004 and edited it with him for nearly a year before he left to work for Express. I know Mike’s been working very hard on the blog and the new site, and it looks sharp. Of particular interest is the Metro Links section where users can search of bars, restaurants, or other activities by Metro station with the businesses plotted on a Google Map, a craigslist-like classifieds section

The blog’s comment policy will obviously have to be refined, this policy is too vague for me:

All comments on Express’ blogs will be screened for appropriateness, spam and topic relevance, so there is likely to be a delay before your comment is displayed. Thanks for your patience.

With the City Paper blogging and WashingtonPost.com running more than ever (although buried inside the site as pseudo-columns) in addition to DCist doing better than ever, the local blogosphere seems to have reached a new level of sophistication — and competition.

(Note to Mike: Where’s the RSS?)

Grad School

It’s official: I’m attending the Master of Community Planning program at the University of Maryland’s School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation in the fall. It’s a two year master’s program in urban planning that requires an internship and studio project in addition to the coursework. I will also be a TA for the freshman introductory course in the Landscape Architecture Program for the fall semester.

Needless to say I am quite excited!

Travel

After nearly four solid months of hardly leaving the District limits, I find myself on the verge of a flurry of travel:

4/28-4/30: Ann Arbor (fun)
4/30-5/5: Montgomery, Alabama (work)
5/27-5/29: Carmel, California (friend’s wedding)

Of course, if you are in these places you have my number. I’m hoping to make it up to New York sometime soon, but work considerations make it hard to get away. Also, looks like I’ll be on some sort of summer tour in August. I’m open to destination ideas … maybe Chicago?