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Just learned about this site the other day. Given women’s historical role in civic leadership (at the municipal level, via committees and clubs), and how that role was been maligned as small and “boob-ish” when metropolitanism grew in strength and favor, initiatives like “Shetroit”‘s are important in getting women back in the game. This is especially the case now that new urbanism (also male-dominated) is trumpeting certain traditional values, which women pioneered and should own.
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Shetroit’s mission is to help create an enriching space in which the women of Detroit can weave community. Shetroit’s vision is that by bringing women together to support each other in realizing their self-worth and recognizing their strengths, new heights of feminine leadership can emerge.As Shetroit grows, the site intends to encourage “using the Internet to get off the Internet” by nurturing connections that help build and encourage all facets of our individual life journeys that focus on self-esteem and the power of learning to love ourselves.
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Magazine – The Perfected Self – The Atlantic
Fascinating article in many respects, including in how Skinner’s work has been perceived.
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In 1965, when Julie Vargas was a student in a graduate psychology class, her professor introduced the topic of B. F. Skinner, the Harvard psychologist who, in the late 1930s, had developed a theory of “operant conditioning.” After the professor explained the evidently distasteful, outmoded process that became more popularly known as behavior modification, Vargas’s classmates began discussing the common knowledge that Skinner had used the harsh techniques on his daughter, leaving her mentally disturbed and institutionalized. Vargas raised her hand and stated that Skinner in fact had had two daughters, and that both were living perfectly normal lives. “I didn’t see any need to embarrass them by mentioning that I was one of those daughters,” she says.
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Can Trees Actually Deter Crime? – Neighborhoods – The Atlantic Cities
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While low dense brush seems to increase it, tall broad canopies seem to decrease it. That nuanced conclusion harmonizes with another study published earlier this year, in which U.S.D.A. Forest Service researcher Geoffrey Donovan (who has also linked urban tree coverage to home prices) reports the same mixed tree-crime associations in Portland, Oregon.
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It’s Not Just Porn: Why Ultra-Orthodox Jews Fear the Internet – The Atlantic
Another examination of whether/ how the internet is scattering our focus. And then there’s Eytan Kobre’s response to this question, “It’s also that you’re dressing the same way your 18th century ancestors did, which implies that you’re rejecting the modern world”:
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There may be elements of truth to that. But the irony is that hipsters all dress a certain way, and the whole point is to dress entirely different from everyone else. Orthodox Jews actually have the courage to dress the same way as 500,000 of their brethren. They’re the ones who challenge people by asking, “Are you deep enough to look beyond my garb and relate to me as a thinking individual?” In contrast, the hipster buys into the most external of indicators: that which is immediately apparent to the eye.
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Longer Commute, Bigger Waistline – Commute – The Atlantic Cities
D’oh. Big surprise – not.
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The activity of driving to work should be better thought of as inactivity, and all that time sitting on your butt is slowly eating away at your cardiovascular health – and probably adding to your waistline.
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Could planting trees be the next crime control strategy? | SmartPlanet
Well, hear, hear.
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“Ugliness is so grim,” urban beautification advocate Lady Bird Johnson once said. “A little beauty, something that is lovely, I think, can help create harmony which will lessen tensions.”
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Flavorwire » 25 Awesome and Unusual Bike Racks
Some inspiring bike rack designs here – my favorite is the bike hanger from Seoul, Korea, and the giant comb in Roanoke, VA.
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Why Successful Branding Still Happens Offline – Speakeasy – WSJ
Fascinating, also in terms of what it means with regard to print advertising (and TV). Print could (would?) often be local – for example, Boulevard Magazine in Victoria).
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Today’s consumer marketplace is highly social, but not because of particular platforms or technologies. The businesses that will be the most successful in the future are the ones that embrace a model that puts people– rather than technology – at the center of products, campaigns and market strategies. Those who achieve the greatest success will recognize that there are many ways to tap the power of today’s social consumer.
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Rust Belt chic: Declining Midwest cities make a comeback – Salon.com
Great article about smaller cities of the industrial era.
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What struggling cities need are jobs, and not just jobs at coffee roasteries in abandoned railroad terminals that make for great style-section articles. “The only way [a turnaround] will really happen is by reintroducing meaningful, equitably compensated work into these cities,” says Catherine Tumber, author of “Small, Gritty and Green: The Promise of America’s Smaller Industrial Cities in a Low-Carbon World.” “This longing can be expressed aesthetically, but it can only be satisfied by restoring the workforce.”
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