I was so caught up with looking for a place to live yesterday that I forgot to post my weekly links. Here they are, on a Monday…
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Kids Who Get Driven Everywhere Don’t Know Where They’re Going – Commute – The Atlantic Cities
No surprise, imo:
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[Vehicular traffic] changes the way children see and experience the world by diminishing their connection to community and neighbors. A generation ago, urbanist researcher Donald Appleyard showed how heavy traffic in cities erodes human connections in neighborhoods, contributing to feelings of dissatisfaction and loneliness. Now his son, Bruce Appleyard, has been looking into how constantly being in and around cars affects children’s perception and understanding of their home territory.
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Could Electric Truck Lanes Reduce L.A.’s Horrific Pollution? – Technology – The Atlantic Cities
Totally makes sense:
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The eHighway might seem laughable at the moment to all but the most fervent environmentalist, but just wait. Air pollution in Long Beach and Riverside costs these communities an estimated $18 million annually in asthma bills, docking residents on average an incredible 8 percent of their household income. And the toxic stew isn’t expected to waft away anytime soon. Here’s Siemens infrastructure chief Daryl Dulaney laying out the grim prognosis for the future in a press release:“When most people think of vehicle emissions, they assume cars do most of the damage, but it’s actually commercial trucks that are largely to blame,” says Dulaney. Freight transportation on U.S. roadways is expected to double by 2050, and by 2030, carbon dioxide emissions are forecasted to jump 30 percent due to freight transport alone.
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William Gibson Worries Your City May Be ‘Cooked’ – Technology – The Atlantic Cities
Fascinating interview with William Gibson. At one point he says, “I think we invent ideologies to cope with technologies.”
And:
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Gibson also bemoans cities that no longer enable young, artistic, and often not rich people from being able to move in and spur change. He cites both London and New York as places that used to allow this but which have gotten too expensive to be approachable by young creatives and are on their way to being “cooked.”“Once a city is completely cooked, it’s more like Paris, where the city’s business is not to change,” says Gibson. “But it’s not a place that actually welcomes innovation.”
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The New Design Needs of the Information Economy – Housing – The Atlantic Cities
Interesting – inner city renewal, courtesy of big tech companies?
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Google’s decision to locate its Pittsburgh operations in the inner city is but one way America’s ever-expanding knowledge economy is changing the real estate sector, something it is expected to continue doing. Not only are high-tech companies looking for unusual spaces that are reflective of their corporate culture, but firms in the knowledge sector are also reviving inner-city neighborhoods, spearheading the drive for sustainability, and even changing the way some new buildings are designed.
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Is Traffic Making Us Lonely? – Commute – The Atlantic Cities
“Appleyard published his compelling research in 1981 in a book called Livable Streets. Sadly, he died the next year — struck by a speeding car in Athens, Greece — and perhaps that is why he is not better known, even among urbanists. But his findings, which have recently been replicated in the United Kingdom, should be part of any discussion about the erosion of social ties in modern society.
Appleyard did his research in San Francisco in 1969, looking at three categories of streets: light traffic (2,000 vehicles per day), medium traffic (8,000 vehicles), and heavy traffic (16,000). What he found was that residents of lightly trafficked streets had two more neighborhood friends and twice as many acquaintances as those on the heavily trafficked streets.
Residents who were interviewed by Appleyard also talked about what they saw as their home territory. On the heavily trafficked street, respondents indicated that their apartment, or perhaps their building, qualified as “home.” On the light-traffic streets, people often saw the whole block as home. They also included much more detail when asked to draw pictures of their streets.”
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Fables of Wealth – NYTimes.com
More like this, please (I say this as an ethical atheist, btw). William Deresiewicz nails it:
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There are ethical corporations, yes, and ethical businesspeople, but ethics in capitalism is purely optional, purely extrinsic. To expect morality in the market is to commit a category error. Capitalist values are antithetical to Christian ones. (How the loudest Christians in our public life can also be the most bellicose proponents of an unbridled free market is a matter for their own consciences.) Capitalist values are also antithetical to democratic ones. Like Christian ethics, the principles of republican government require us to consider the interests of others. Capitalism, which entails the single-minded pursuit of profit, would have us believe that it’s every man for himself.
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