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/* * Generated by class-dump 3.3.4 (64 bit). * * class-dump is Copyright (C) 1997-1998, 2000-2001, 2004-2011 by Steve Nygard. */ #import "NSObject.h" @class DVTDocumentLocation, DVTFileDataType, IDENavigableItemArchivableRepresentation, NSString, NSURL; @interface IDEEditorOpenSpecifier : NSObject { IDENavigableItemArchivableRepresentation *_archivableRepresentation; DVTDocumentLocation *_locationToSelect; NSURL *_documentURL; DVTFileDataType *_fileDataType; NSString *_documentExtensionIdentifier; id _annotationRepresentedObject; id _exploreAnnotationRepresentedObject; BOOL _annotationWantsIndicatorAnimation; } + (id)structureEditorOpenSpecifierForDocumentLocation:(id)arg1 inWorkspace:(id)arg2 error:(id *)arg3; + (id)structureEditorOpenSpecifierForDocumentURL:(id)arg1 inWorkspace:(id)arg2 annotationRepresentedObject:(id)arg3 wantsIndicatorAnimation:(BOOL)arg4 exploreAnnotationRepresentedObject:(id)arg5 error:(id *)arg6; + (id)structureEditorOpenSpecifiersForNavigableItems:(id)arg1 inWorkspace:(id)arg2 error:(id *)arg3; - (id)_initWithNavigableItem:(id)arg1 locationToSelect:(id)arg2 documentExtensionIdentifier:(id)arg3 error:(id *)arg4; - (id)_initWithNavigableItemArchivableRepresentation:(id)arg1 documentExtensionIdentifier:(id)arg2 locationToSelect:(id)arg3 annotationRepresentedObject:(id)arg4 wantsIndicatorAnimation:(BOOL)arg5 exploreAnnotationRepresentedObject:(id)arg6 error:(id *)arg7; @property(readonly) id annotationRepresentedObject; // @synthesize annotationRepresentedObject=_annotationRepresentedObject; @property(readonly) BOOL annotationWantsIndicatorAnimation; // @synthesize annotationWantsIndicatorAnimation=_annotationWantsIndicatorAnimation; @property(readonly) NSString *documentExtensionIdentifier; // @synthesize documentExtensionIdentifier=_documentExtensionIdentifier; @property(readonly) id exploreAnnotationRepresentedObject; // @synthesize exploreAnnotationRepresentedObject=_exploreAnnotationRepresentedObject; @property(readonly) DVTFileDataType *fileDataType; // @synthesize fileDataType=_fileDataType; - (id)init; - (id)initWithNavigableItem:(id)arg1 documentExtensionIdentifier:(id)arg2 error:(id *)arg3; - (id)initWithNavigableItem:(id)arg1 error:(id *)arg2; - (id)initWithNavigableItem:(id)arg1 locationToSelect:(id)arg2 documentExtensionIdentifier:(id)arg3 error:(id *)arg4; - (id)initWithNavigableItem:(id)arg1 locationToSelect:(id)arg2 error:(id *)arg3; - (id)initWithNavigableItemArchivableRepresentation:(id)arg1 documentExtensionIdentifier:(id)arg2 error:(id *)arg3; - (id)initWithNavigableItemArchivableRepresentation:(id)arg1 error:(id *)arg2; - (id)initWithNavigableItemArchivableRepresentation:(id)arg1 locationToSelect:(id)arg2 error:(id *)arg3; @property(readonly) DVTDocumentLocation *locationToSelect; // @synthesize locationToSelect=_locationToSelect; @property(readonly) IDENavigableItemArchivableRepresentation *navigableItemRepresentation; // @synthesize navigableItemRepresentation=_archivableRepresentation; @end

If You Watch One of These Cree Light Bulb Ads You Will Want to Watch All Eight Nothing could make us yawn wider then receiving a new campaign for a light bulb brand. But when the emails says "the campaign is a copywriter wet dream," our interest is peaked. And this campaign from Raleigh-based Baldwin& is, indeed, peak-worthy. Featuring the entrancing Lance Reddick, known for his roles in Fringe and The Wire, we are thrust into a world of choice which pits the Cree LED light bulb against other, less innovative bulbs. In one spot, Metaphorical, Reddick, holding a $100 bill, says, "Let's assume this is your money. And you'd like your money to stay your money. Then why do you continue to do this -- holds bill offscreen; it comes back with a chunk missing...eaten by a goat -- to your money? Save your hard-earned money... or feed it to metaphorical money goats." Another spot, Grey Market, begins, "In light of the recent incandescent bulb ban, analysts have predicted the rise of an illicit grey market for the outlawed bulbs. He urges viewers to buy Cree instead or "stay beholden to the old ways, and attempt to navigate the shady, banned bulb underworld, trading jugs of grandpa's porch juice for bulbs out of a rusty hatchback from a guy with a tattoo on his forehead who goes by the name of Rattlesnake." There are 8 spots in the campaign and they are all entrancingly awesome. We can't believe we just said that about a series of light bulb ads but, yes, it's true. Perhaps the best light bulb ads we have ever seen.

Q: unable to set existing text view from xml to textview array I have 2 TextView in my Xml file and I have set them in TextView Array. How Can I access them based on the index. Please Help me regarding this. A: Textview a,s,d,f,g,h; intialize all; TextView[] text_arrays; text_array = new TextView[]{a,s,d,f,g,h}; now do what you want like text_array[0].setText("Text View One); text_array[1].setText("Text View two); text_array[5].setText("Text View six);

Hey all. I’ve had Soylent a few versions ago and might have to go back to it due to time. Does this mixture sound like something that could be good? Also note, I’m big on consuming sugar. For some reason it helps me throughout the day. Normal daily serving of the powdered version of Soylent Three servings of instant tea Two servings of powdered peanut butter One cup sugar ~Mix it all together. If I get a second, overnight job I’ll try this out and tweak it in addition to having a multi-vitamin every day. The excess sugar is for more instant energy. Same with the caffeine. The added protein is to help heal things that will be damaged from up to sixteen hours of work some days. Does it sound like something that, throughout the day with little sleep, would help me to keep going? Seems fine. Extra protien and salt would be good if you’re physical all day. The extra sugar probably isn’t needed, but 1 cup spread out across the day would not be terrible. Though you may find you don’t need it. I would avoid putting boiling tea into the soylent, as vitamin C can degrade at hot temperatures. Warm (body temperature) is fine. If it’s just tea power, then go ahead. And remember to drink water.

Q: Why does subsection counter not reset in appendix? So when I put subsections in the appendix, the counter does not reset after starting new chapters. I'm about to change the subsections to unnamed sections, but still wondering why the counter does not reset. Maybe it is a bug? This is the code that will show the problem. When I change this into a pdf file, the last two subsections show up as A.0.3 and B.0.4 instead of A.0.1 and B.0.1 \documentclass{book} \begin{document} \tableofcontents \chapter{chap1} \section{sec1.1} \subsection{sub1.1.1} \subsection{sub1.1.2} \appendix \chapter{app1} \subsection{app1.0.1} \chapter{app2} \subsection{app2.0.1} \end{document} A: If the O.P. uses an older (pre 2015-release) of the LaTeX core, the section number isn't reset. Then fixltx2e should be used. (I've tested with a TeXLive 2014 version still on my computer) With the new kernel this isn't necessary any longer \documentclass{book} \usepackage{fixltx2e} % Does no harm, even in a 2015 release. \begin{document} \tableofcontents \chapter{chap1} \section{sec1.1} \subsection{sub1.1.1} \subsection{sub1.1.2} \appendix \chapter{app1} \subsection{app1.0.1} \chapter{app2} \subsection{app2.0.1} \end{document}

On Tuesday morning, former owner of the San Francisco 49ers Eddie DeBartolo Jr was granted clemency for his 1998 felony conviction by President Donald Trump, thanks to an executive order signed by Trump. If you’re unfamiliar with the story, back in the 90s, Eddie wanted to get a riverboat casino license. The then governor wanted a bribe, so Eddie gave it to him and was busted as part of a sting of some sort. DeBartolo Jr. entered a plea bargain and testified against the governor, which in turn was part of the reason that led DeBartolo to lose the 49ers. DeBartolo eventually pleaded guilty to a charge of failing to report a felony and receiving a $1 million fine and two years of probation in return for his testimony against Edwin Edwards, who was the governor of Louisana at the time. Not only did Bartolo never receive the license, but he was fined by the NFL and barred from active control of the 49ers for a year. Instead of returning to the team, DeBartolo ceded control of the organization to his sister, Denise York, in 2000. DeBartolo was voted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2016, with the 49ers winning all five of the franchise’s Super Bowls under DeBartolo. He has made attempts to rehabilitate his image, and I imagine today’s White House visit was another step in that direction. There was another former 49er at the White House on Tuesday. Hall of Fame wide receiver Jerry Rice, Charles Haley, and Ronnie Lott were all on hand. Jerry Rice and other ex-NFL players are at the White House today. Trump has pardoned Eddie DeBartolo Jr., the former owner of the 49ers who bribed a Louisiana governor. "I take my hat off to Donald Trump for what he did," Rice said. pic.twitter.com/PzEihlyCPy — Josh Wingrove (@josh_wingrove) February 18, 2020 All three players successfully lobbied Trump to pardon DeBartolo. Their dedication to DeBartolo is evident. I can understand how some might not like the fact that this is how you’d use your power, considering there are people out there who actually need pardons, so this may come off as an unnecessary action. Also, groups of people tend to stick together. In this case, that’s the rich.

Q: How to setup Application Insights for on-premise Service Fabric? Is it possible to add application insights for web api that's hosted on the on-premise version of service fabric? So far I have tried to add the application insights to my project and wondering where to send for monitoring. It was easy when app is also on cloud. I believe there is no on-premise application insights service, so even if the web api is hosted on-premise over service fabric; one must use cloud version application insights service, is that correct? In that case can anyone let me know how to setup? A: There is no "on premise" application insights, but as long as your on premise service has access to send outbound data, you can use application insights on your site. You won't be able to use some features, like webtests, because application insights wont be able to make calls into your site. Setup is the same as always, create an application insights resource in azure, and either configure it in visual studio, or manually set the instrumentation key in your applicationinsights.config (or via code) in your app. If you need to configure outbound firewall rules or anything to let AI send data, that information is all here: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/application-insights/app-insights-ip-addresses

Who We Are Mobtecnica Consultancy Pvt. Ltd. is a young and resonant organization focused on Mobile Technology and Development of Custom Mobile Applications. MOBTECNICA business structure is unique among other Mobile Application Development Companies. Although it is one of the largest and most well-established Mobile Application Development Company in Cochin, Kerala, with over 20 employees in three offices, Mobtecnica has been designed to retain the creative intensity that characterizes the smallest and best mobile application development companies. It is all of the above that works in consistently strong, smart, distinctive, memorable and impactful results that kept MOBTECNICA at the forefront in its field during these few competitive years.

Mat Hoffman's Pro BMX 2 12th Aug, 2002 Mat Hoffman's Pro BMX 2 is the newest game scheduled for release on Game Boy Advance under Activision's O2 brand. Based on the series that originally started on PlayStation years ago, the game lets players travel with Mat Hoffman, Mike Escamilla, Chad Kagy, Cory Nastazio, Joe Kowalski, Rick Thorne, Kevin Robinson, and Simon Tabron across eight cities in the United States. Expanding the extreme sports genre, Mat Hoffman's Pro B... Read More

1983 Atlantic Coast Conference Baseball Tournament The 1983 Atlantic Coast Conference Baseball Tournament was the 1983 postseason baseball championship of the NCAA Division I Atlantic Coast Conference, held at Boshamer Stadium in Chapel Hill, North Carolina from April 20-25. defeated in the championship game, earning the conference's automatic bid to the 1983 NCAA Division I Baseball Tournament. Format All eight ACC teams qualified for the eight-team double-elimination tournament. Seeding procedure From TheACC.com: On Saturday (The Semifinals) of the ACC Baseball Tournament, the match-up between the four remaining teams is determined by previous opponents. If teams have played previously in the tournament, every attempt will be made to avoid a repeat match-up between teams, regardless of seed. If it is impossible to avoid a match-up that already occurred, then the determination is based on avoiding the most recent, current tournament match-up, regardless of seed. If no match-ups have occurred, the team left in the winners bracket will play the lowest seeded team from the losers bracket. Regular season results Tournament See also College World Series NCAA Division I Baseball Championship Atlantic Coast Conference Baseball Tournament References Tournament Category:Atlantic Coast Conference Baseball Tournament

Here's a reason for Royal Enfield patrons to celebrate. Potential customers, who wish to buy new motorcycles this year, can avail an extended warranty of two years or 20,000km on their bike. Prior to this, there was no option to extend the warranty of a Royal Enfield bike. You could ony avail a standard one year limited warranty. The extended warranty will help boost demand, which the factory hopes will translate into more Royal Enfield owners. Apart from that, Royal Enfield, with a set of new and upgraded engines are now facing fewer problems than on the previous generation motorbikes, making the extended warranty program possible. This is a win-win situation for both, the company and clients. Royal Enfield now offers 11 different motorcycles in its existing motorcycle portfolio.

Magnetic nanoparticles-loaded Physarum polycephalum: Directed growth and particles distribution. Slime mold Physarum polycephalum is a single cell visible by an unaided eye. The slime mold optimizes its network of protoplasmic tubes to minimize expose to repellents and maximize expose to attractants and to make efficient transportation of nutrients. These properties of P. polycephalum, together with simplicity of its handling and culturing, make it a priceless substrate for designing novel sensing, computing and actuating architectures in living amorphous biological substrate. We demonstrate that, by loading Physarum with magnetic particles and positioning it in a magnetic field, we can, in principle, impose analog control procedures to precisely route active growing zones of slime mold and shape topology of its protoplasmic networks.

1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a process for producing polyurethane, and more particularly, to a process for producing polyurethane suitable for molding by reaction injection molding process (abbreviated as RIM process hereinafter). 2. Description of the Prior Art RIM process has been in practical use for the production of polyurethane moldings to be applied to automotive exterior and interior members such as bumpers, instrument panels, and steering wheels. It is known that the RIM process employs a polyol component which is a polyether polyol having a molecular weight of 1,500 to 12,000 and a chain extender which is a mixture composed of 5-45 wt % of aromatic diamine and 55-95 wt % of low-molecular weight diol. (See Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 74325/1982.) The conventional polyurethane production process employs a gas loading device to ensure the mold filling of the reaction mix. On the other hand, there is a demand in the polyurethane industry that polyurethane with good moldability be produced by using the existing metering pump of axial plunger type. Unfortunately, the metering pump of axial plunger type has such a small delivery that it cannot be run with a large amount of gas loading required for the complete mold filling. An aromatic diamine as the chain extender has a disadvantage that it, when used in excess of a certain amount, prevents the molding from electrostatic coating (which is a common finishing process). Thus there is a strong demand for a process for producing polyurethane which is superior in moldability and physical properties and receptive of electrostatic coating. It is an object of the present invention to provide a process for producing polyurethane moldings with good moldability by using a metering pump which has such a low delivery that it does not permit a large amount of gas loading. It is another object of the present invention to provide a process for producing polyurethane, said process permitting reducing the frequency of the application of external mold release agents. It is further another object of the present invention to provide a process for producing polyurethane which is receptive of efficient electrostatic coating. Other and further objects, features, and advantages of the present invention will appear more fully from the following description and claims.

News..Exclusives..Relationships..Everything You Need To Know & YES The Word of God Sunday, September 24, 2017 Stevie Wonder Joins The Group Of 'Trump Haters' Stevie Wonder joined the solidarity movement which now targets Donald Trump, by taking a knee at a NYC festival. Stevie performed at the 2017 Global Citizen Festival in Central Park Saturday night. Stevie was onstage with his son Kwame Morris when he made his move. Stevie doubled down and took 2 knees, clearly in response to Trump's tirade Friday night when he called for NFL owners to fire those "son's of bitches" who dare to take a knee during the National Anthem. Stevie wonder now in? The President has a 'long' way to go, lol.

Cat Country 107.3 » Electionhttp://catcountry1073.com South Jersey's Country Radio StationSat, 10 Dec 2016 01:00:00 +0000en-UShourly1http://catcountry1073.production.townsquareblogs.com/files/2011/10/logo.pngCat Country 107.3http://catcountry1073.com Five New Jersey Natives We'd Write in on the Presidential Ballothttp://catcountry1073.com/five-new-jersey-natives-wed-write-in-on-the-presidential-ballot/ http://catcountry1073.com/five-new-jersey-natives-wed-write-in-on-the-presidential-ballot/#commentsTue, 16 Aug 2016 19:00:01 +0000http://catcountry1073.com/?p=327166Continue reading…]]>I think we can all agree this election season has already been very intense. If you're having trouble figuring out who to choose on the ballot, you can always write your own choice in! ]]>http://catcountry1073.com/five-new-jersey-natives-wed-write-in-on-the-presidential-ballot/feed/0Miljan MladenovicCarrie Underwood on Upcoming Election: 'I Want People to Do Their Homework'http://catcountry1073.com/carrie-underwood-on-upcoming-election-i-want-people-to-do-their-homework/ http://catcountry1073.com/carrie-underwood-on-upcoming-election-i-want-people-to-do-their-homework/#commentsWed, 24 Feb 2016 13:00:29 +0000http://tasteofcountry.com/carrie-underwood-2016-election/Continue reading…]]>As the presidential election approaches, Carrie Underwood is making sure she's very aware as to what is going on in the world— and she urges others to do the same. ]]>http://catcountry1073.com/carrie-underwood-on-upcoming-election-i-want-people-to-do-their-homework/feed/0Slaven Vlasic, Getty ImagesVoting Location Changes Due to Sandyhttp://catcountry1073.com/voting-location-changes-due-to-sandy/ http://catcountry1073.com/voting-location-changes-due-to-sandy/#commentsMon, 05 Nov 2012 11:50:01 +0000http://catcountry1073.com/?p=118576Continue reading…]]>Atlantic County officials have announced some polling place changes, as a result of Hurricane Sandy. ]]>http://catcountry1073.com/voting-location-changes-due-to-sandy/feed/0joebelangerNew Jersey Decides: How You Can Register to Vote in NJ and Other 2012 Election Informationhttp://catcountry1073.com/new-jersey-decides-how-you-can-register-to-vote-in-nj-and-other-2012-election-information/ http://catcountry1073.com/new-jersey-decides-how-you-can-register-to-vote-in-nj-and-other-2012-election-information/#commentsFri, 05 Oct 2012 12:28:27 +0000http://nj1015.com/?p=173200Continue reading…]]>New Jersey and the nation go to the polls on Tuesday, November 6. Here's a preview of the election and how you make sure you get to cast a ballot and have your vote count.

/* run.config STDOPT: #"-eva-traces-domain -value-msg-key d-traces -slevel 10" +"-then-last -val -slevel 10 -print -no-eva-traces-domain" */ /* Check the fix for the creation of expression by dataflows2 for switch (conversion to list of if) */ int myswitch(i){ switch(i){ case 0: return 0; case 1: return 1; default: return 2; } } int main(c){ int tmp = 1; for(int i = 0; i < 10; i++){ for(int j = 0; j < 10; j++){ tmp = my_switch(tmp) + tmp; } } return tmp; }

It has been just over three weeks since college basketball's season ended. The biggest news in the sport, for the most part over the past 20 days, has been the litany of NBA Draft decisions. Whereas the NCAA and NBA used to have hasty, strict deadlines for players to definitively declare and/or remove themselves from the draft pool, prospects are (rightfully) afforded much more time to determine if they will stay or go. The NBA's deadline to withdraw from the draft, officially, is June 12 -- 10 days before selections will be made at Barclays Center, in Brooklyn. But that's really only for international prospects. The NCAA's deadline, which hits earlier, was voted into effect last year. American college players have until 10 days after the conclusion of the annual skills combine to settle on a decision, meaning college fellas this year have until May 24 (the combine ends May 14) to decide if they're going to return to school. It's an ideal window ... for everyone except college basketball coaches. But them's the breaks, and if you have players good enough to test the waters, you've done your job right. This is a necessary evil, and evil's not even the right word here. A necessary balance, if you will. With that in mind, and with a month to go before we have full knowledge on who's gone for good and who opts to return to college hoops, let's look at the decisions that are already final. We have teams on either side: Who has fallen behind and who has been boosted by draft decisions in the past month. One note before we get going, because you're not going to see every team listed here. Some schools were so bad or irregular (Washington, NC State, Syracuse, Cal) that losing players they expected to lose doesn't mean they're necessarily "hurt" by those decisions. On other side, teams like Maryland (Melo Trimble) and Nevada (Cameron Oliver) were set up to be pretty good next season despite the expected losses, so they weren't completely "hurt" by those choices either. For the complete, official list of who has put their names into the draft pool, check here. Hurt The Wildcats will reload, no doubt, but losing sophomores Isaiah Briscoe and Isaac Humphries, on top of Bam Adebayo, Malik Monk, De'Aaron Fox and potentially Hamidou Diallo? It means John Calipari will have more turnover than even he expected as of a month ago. Kentucky isn't always hurt by draft decisions, but I think next season's team won't be as good as this season's team because eight of UK's top nine players won't be back. The Bulldogs will be top-25 caliber again next season, but two players have left the program -- and it's two players who were not necessarily thought to be gone for sure as recently as early February: Zach Collins and Nigel Williams-Goss. NWG could have been the most important player in college basketball next season, and Collins could have turned into a top-15 guy. Plus, Johnathan Williams is going through the process, but should return. Gonzaga will be a notch below what it was in 2016-17. The Ducks without question will take a significant step back next season due to losing Jordan Bell, Tyler Dorsey and Dillon Brooks. Bell was the least valuable of those three, and he still would've been a top-40 player next season. Brooks could have been Pac-12 Player of the Year again. Oregon will still have enough talent to be a top-five Pac-12 team, but had all of these players opted to return, Oregon would have had a solid shot at three straight Elite Eight runs. Now Dana Altman starts anew. You lose Lonzo Ball ball, you're hurt by his departure in a big way. No getting around it. Even if he was the only one going, UCLA would be in this category. He's not the only one leaving, though. Fellow freshmen TJ Leaf and Ike Anigbogu (I know, you barely remember seeing him play, but he's going to get picked) are also gone. Elsewhere, Thomas Welsh and Aaron Holiday are in the evaluation process as well. The Bruins will go from having a top-three offense to being something of a mystery in 2017-18. P.J. Dozier is opting to leave, and when you pair that draft decision with the departure of senior Sindarius Thornwell, it means South Carolina could have trouble making the NCAA Tournament next season. I'm not trying to explicitly doubt Frank Martin, because we all know that can turn on you, but it's obvious that South Carolina is going to be very different next season. Dozier would have had a shot at being a top-three player in the SEC had he returned. Devin Robinson is gone and John Egbunu is testing the waters. Florida, in my estimation, would be a borderline top-20 team without both of these guys. You get Egbunu back (should happen, I think), then you're in the mix for the top 15. UF isn't hurt big-time by this, but losing Robinson does have impact. I was ready to proclaim Jarrett Allen a top-15 player next season, but we hardly knew him after all. With UT having a bad season and Allen playing in anonymity, his college career is gone in a whoosh. The Longhorns also sit and wait on point guard Andrew Jones, who is exploring his options but absolutely should head on back to Shaka Smart. The Seminoles will take a massive step back next season because they're losing their three best players, all underclassmen who have signed with agents: Jonathan Isaac, Dwayne Bacon and Xavier Rathan-Mayes. The Noles earned a No. 3 seed in the NCAAs but couldn't reach the Sweet 16. Was that Leonard Hamilton's last realistic chance at a Final Four? Not if he can land five-star 2017 forward Kevin Knox, who is forecast to land at Duke or North Carolina. The Demon Deacons got all they could out of John Collins, a low-ranked prospect who turned into a first-round talent in two seasons with Danny Manning. Wake Forest is something of a mystery team next season. Had Collins returned, most would have had the Deacs in the NCAAs. Instead, Wake Forest will try to recreate its success without the player who was the engine and the oil. You lose a point guard with the talent of Jawun Evans, you're by nature hurt by that decision. The Cowboys do get Jeffery Carroll back, but with new coach Mike Boynton taking over for Brad Underwood, this situation is going to be an interesting one to watch play out. Evans was a two-and-through type of prospect, so his decision isn't a shocker. Helped Miles Bridges making his decision to return amounted to the most important on-court call for any program in college basketball. The Spartans go from a top-15 team to a top-three team with his choice to stay for his sophomore season, and now Tom Izzo will enter next season with the strongest sophomore class in the sport. Bridges will have Cassius Winston, Josh Langford and Nick Ward back. There will be Final Four expectations, perhaps expectations as high as they've been in East Lansing in more than a decade. Allonzo Trier's decision to come back, combined with a top-five incoming recruiting class, overrides any confirmed or potential losses from the senior class and other underclassmen opting to go pro. Trier is the second-biggest decision to Bridges. Sean Miller's team will have Final Four expectations as well. If Arizona can get Chance Comanche and Rawle Alkins back (both currently testing waters, both better suited for another season in college), then the argument can be made that Arizona has the deepest roster of talent-plus-experience heading into 2017-18. Frank Jackson is in the process of figuring out if he'll leave Duke after one season (I think he comes back), but it's Grayson Allen's choice to return that helps Duke out in a big way. The Blue Devils will look very different next season, but Allen's return gives this team a former All-American on the roster. Any time you can get that, as opposed to losing that player to the NBA, you are by definition helped. Even if it's Allen and all that comes with him. If Allen wasn't coming back, I wouldn't slot Duke in my preseason top 10. Devonte' Graham could have gone to the NBA if he really wanted, but I think he's sensing a chance at having a Frank Mason-type of a monster season as a senior. If that happens, and if Kansas wins 30-plus games again, he'll have a good shot at being drafted between 25-35 a year from now. Kansas is tangibly boosted and steadied by Graham's call to come back. A win for Bill Self, who's doing things differently these days. Mikal Bridges and Jalen Brunson will both be drafted whenever they opt to leave. For Jay Wright, he'll have the best team in the Big East again because both these guys will be back for their junior seasons. Brunson is a sleeper choice for National Player of the Year, while Bridges should break out and become one of the 10 best players of statistical impact in the Big East. Villanova has a good chance at chasing a No. 1 seed again. Bruce Brown's choice to return to Miami not only makes the Hurricanes a sexy Final Four pick, it also gives Jim Larranaga his scariest roster ever. Miami is now fully loaded and will compete with North Carolina, Louisville and Duke for the ACC title. This will be the non-traditional chic top-10 team by the time we get to November. Brown is among the best candidates for a breakout season. Bonzie Colson was a player I thought would certainly come back, and so he did. He's a likely choice for first-team All-America status come November. Notre Dame has hopes of making a Final Four in 2018 because Colson -- who is Draymond Green-like at the college level in his all-around ability and value -- will play his senior season for Mike Brey. Get old and stay old. That's what Notre Dame does. Robert Williams, who had a shot at being a top-15 pick, is back. Tyler Davis, too. These decisions mean the Aggies will be ranked in the preseason polls and should be a top-three team in the SEC next season. You might not know Williams' game well, but that will change by Christmas, I think. Yes, the Bluejays lose freshman sensation Justin Patton, but getting Marcus Foster back is the bigger deal. Creighton has a realistic chance at getting to the 2018 NCAA Tournament thanks to Foster's decision. I think he'll average 23 or 24 points next season. My guess: Greg McDermott's team winds up as a No. 7 seed next March. E.C. Matthews stays for his senior season, and with this and all that URI returns, the Rams might be able to make consecutive NCAA Tournaments for only the third time in program history. Top-two team in the A-10 next season. One of the most important under-the-radar decisions here. Matthews could have a humongous senior season. Jalen Adams will be back, and UConn will need him to play at his absolute best. The Huskies get Alterique Gilbert and Terry Larrier returning after season-ending injuries. Connecticut has to be better. Adams is a joy to watch. If the team can stay healthy, Adams will be a top-15 point guard and Kevin Ollie will be back in the Big Dance. Twisting in the wind There are two players still in the process of figuring things out: Theo Pinson and Tony Bradley. The Tar Heels definitely lost Justin Jackson. Joel Berry II announced Tuesday he would be back. UNC without Pinson and Bradley is not a top-five team. With both, the Tar Heels are capable of repeating. I think both return, but if Bradley opted to go it would not be a shock. Deng Adel and Donovan Mitchell are testing. Jaylen Johnson is definitely gone. Louisville has an argument for preseason No. 1 if Adel and Mitchell come back. Without them, the Cards are probably outside the top 15 for me. Rick Pitino hasn't had to deal with many freshmen and sophomores leaving early in recent years. Few teams are riding on more than Louisville with Adel and Mitchell (who could be a STAR next season). Quite a list here for new coach Archie Miller. Thomas Bryant, Robert Johnson and James Blackmon Jr. are all testing. OG Anunoby is definitely gone. The Hoosiers could be anywhere from 20th to 50th next season depending on which of those three guys come back. No matter who does come back (Blackmon and Johnson absolutely should), it's going to be so intriguing to watch IU next season. Perspective and patience is key for Indiana fans in Year 1 of the Archie regime. Johnathan Motley is deciding, and if he comes back, Baylor has to be a top-10 team. If he does not, I can't argue if you want to keep the Bears outside of the top 20. Scott Drew's club had big-time victories last season, and Motley was a top-10 player of value, no doubt. He probably should go, if I'm being honest. But it would be so sweet to see him return. One of the toughest calls of any on the board. The Trojans might be the best team most people aren't giving enough credence to. Bennie Boatwright and Shaqquan Aaron are the ones who will determine if USC is a top-two Pac-12 team next season. Two other players who were flirting with NBA Draft prep -- Chimezie Metu and Elijah Stewart -- will be back. That should be enough to put USC in the NCAAs for the third straight season. Moritz Wagner and D.J. Wilson had breakout performances in March. The Wolverines can be a top-four Big Ten team if both opt to return, as I think both clearly should. But until those decisions are finalized, U of M is twisting in the wind a bit. In mid-February, the idea either, let alone both of these guys would be testing the waters wasn't based in reality. The Hogs' two most important players who could come back are Jaylen Barford and Daryl Macon. If both return, Arkansas will have a good shot at getting back to the NCAAs because I think these two could combine to average better than 30 points. Pivotal decisions here. I think both play in college in 2017-18. Vince Edwards and Isaac Haas are the wait-and-see guys here. Caleb Swanigan, I have to believe, has played his last game in college. He has yet to sign with an agent, but Swanigan's stock is quite high right now. Haas almost certainly should be back. Edwards might end up testing well. Purdue could really, really use Edwards next season. If Swanigan does opt to return, then he's the inarguable preseason National Player of the Year. Trevon Bluiett is deciding while Edmond Sumner is definitely gone. Blueitt was so good in the NCAA Tournament he's parlaying those performances to getting real looks from NBA teams. Xavier absolutely needs him in order to be a top-30 team next season, though. Semi Ojeleye is the key guy here. Shake Milton returning is only half the battle. The Ponies lose Ben Moore and Sterling Brown to graduation, so getting Ojeleye back means SMU could again qualify as a top-25 team and perhaps have the AAC Player of the Year come March. Khadeen Carrington, who was thought to be testing the waters, is not. But Angel Delgado is, and no player in college basketball -- other than Swanigan -- was a bigger double-double force last season than Delgado. Seton Hall's entire dynamic is altered in a huge way if he doesn't return. The Pirates need their big guy in order to go dancing for a third straight season. Now, we wait. Over the next three weeks, we'll have names confirmed almost daily. Guys gone for good, others returning. From there, the picture of the 2017-18 season starts to take shape.

Update 9 May, 2016: The founders of Squad have released a statement denying the comments made by their ex-employees on 4chan and elsewhere and say there will be news about Kerbal Space Program soon. After the attention gotten by PDtv and others in their statements, detailed below, about the poor treatment of staff at Kerbal Space Program developers Squad, the founders of the studio have responded with an official statement on the site. In it, they deny the allegations, but promise to always be mindful of feedback from the community about the game and company, and promise that news is coming about KSP that will “make the team proud of their efforts.” KSP is a great creative game. In fact, it made it into our list of the best sandbox games on PC. “In Squad we are very proud of having a very united team, committed to creating a high quality product, improving themselves as professionals, promoting and respecting the opinion of every member of the KSP community” reads the statement. “The comments made by those former team members does not reflect the reality of our company,” it continues “but in Squad we will keep moving along with our commitment of respecting and listening to all of those who want to make constructive criticism about the company or KSP.” It finishes with the promise of more news coming soon, and is signed by the founders. Exactly what that news is remains anyone’s guess, but development on the game continues as its sales do. Patch 1.1 was released just a few weeks ago, and 1.2 is presumably in the works. Original Story, 6 May 2016:An ex Squad employee who worked on Kerbal Space Program has publicly slammed the studio for low pay, long hours and firing him once they’d squeezed everything out of him. PDtv, Squad’s former media director, took to 4chan (via Develop) to speak out against what he saw as a mistreatment of staff from the Mexican studio. The reason he’s waited until now due to the expiration of an NDA that previously prevented him from going public with his frustrations. In the tirade, PDtv claims that, after “building the foundations” of the space sim, Anthony Keeton, ‘Captain Skunky’, Rob Nelson and himself were all let go from the company. “After running out of usefulness and competing the brunt of the work we were all fired,” he explained. Another criticism was aimed at low pay, in which PDtv claims to have earned $2,400 per year, for 40 hours a week. “Welcome to Squad; we pay you like shit, then fire you when your work is finished so we can just take it over and maintain it,” he said. Another area of concern was the long working hours related to game studio crunch culture. According to PDtv, another developer “was sometimes forced to work 16-plus hours a day EVERY day during crunch time while the other developers would get days off and only have to work eight hours a day”. A handful of current and former Squad workers have since added their own perspectives via social media, many of them collated by Develop.

Why to use a static site generator instead of Wordpress - oneplusone http://www.guestlistapp.com/blog/2009/10/21/5-reasons-to-use-a-static-site-generator-instead-of-wordpress.html ====== mseebach Why NOT to use a static site generator instead of Wordpress: \- You can't update your blog unless you have a computer with the right toolchain available. That includes uploading a cute photo from your smartphone. \- You can't do delayed posts. \- You can't have local comments (you can have disqus or similar, but then comments aren't part of your page, and won't show up in searches). Pingbacks won't work. \- You probably don't need fast. Wordpress + WPcache is really fast. If your static site does any of this, it's not static, it's a dynamic site that uses the filesystem rather than a DB for storage -- which might very well be clever, but that's not what's being argued. ~~~ sophacles Um.. Why cant the blog be static and have a dynamic webapp hanging off /admin/ which operates as a static site generator? The only difference would be that a program on the web server creates the static files and copies them to the correct directories, instead of a local program creating the static files and copying them to the correct directories. Edit: I should clarify that I am refering to programs that create static html files. I read the story as dynamic == generates html from some other stored format, be it database or flat files in rst. ~~~ mseebach One of the reasons listed was better security by having _no_ code executed on the server. That argument falls apart if you're willing to have some code running. ~~~ jrockway The webserver and OS are not code? Oh, you mean world-accessible PHP scripts. That's easy to fix by letting your webserver handle authentication to /admin. ~~~ mseebach Code that has write-permission to anything fancy. I'm in pedantic territory here, I don't particularly mind the idea of generating static files. My personal opinion is that having a dynamic frontend with fast caching for the most popular views is a better solution for that vast majority of CMS/blog (ie: dynamic) sites out there. What I do mind, are "I use semi-obscure technology X, here's why X is better than established, proven and hugely popular technology Y in every conceivable way" style ego-boosting articles. I'd rather read a show and tell about how this technology solved a real-life problem for you. I also enjoy the honesty of acknowledging the shortcomings. ------ phsr Jeff Atwood uses Movable Type for the same reason: it can pump out static HTML. This makes a lot of sense, get rid of the moving parts, and your site will be faster. It's also nice to have be able use your own text editor. Its great to have it under source control also! Here's an idea: You could use this in conjunction with Dropbox and a custom workflow to automatically update your blog from the road without access to your home machine (I'm think OS X folder actions would work well here) Related Coding Horror post:<http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/001291.html> ~~~ brlewis You will see more things like this happening in the future. My site, <http://ourdoings.com/> already lets you use dropbox to upload photos. It automatically makes a skeleton blog backdated by the date the photos were taken, so you can just throw all your photos into a dropbox folder, and when you have connectivity they get uploaded and organized. A guy just told me the other day he wished he'd had this during his 5.5+-year sailing trip. <http://ourdoings.com/sailingtripphotos/> ------ swombat This is exactly what I use for <http://danieltenner.com> (well, almost - I use Webby, not Jekyll). In fact, I've made the source code for that available here, if anyone's interested: <http://github.com/swombat/danieltenner.com> Deploying like this has another advantage: you can deploy to a subdirectory of an existing app. The benefit of that is simple: pagerank transfers better from mysite.com/blog to mysite.com (since they are considered to be the same site) than from blog.mysite.com to mysite.com (since they are considered to be two different sites). Edit: I should add that there is one disadvantage to this approach. If you have non-technical members on your team, and you want to encourage them to blog as well, making them learn to use Textile formatting and command line tools is not a great encouragement. ~~~ DanielStraight Kudos on having the best interface for reading I have ever seen on a blog. Yours is the only website I've ever seen that Readability makes less readable. ~~~ swombat Hehe, thanks :-) That was one of my tests actually, to know when the design was right - if Readability makes it better, then it still needs improvement! Of course, that hasn't stopped some people complaining about the font size... you can't please everybody I guess :-P ------ mcav I also do this, with a custom python script. Yeah, there are disadvantages, but right now I love its simplicity. I don't have to worry about keeping Wordpress updated; I just make a new static file and run the update script. If my needs ever change (needing more than static files provide), I'll probably put in a simple Python web server, but still use the static files to edit my content. Eh, we'll see. What I have now works, and I like it -- and that's all that's important. EDIT: In other words, the best part about a static site isn't that you don't need a web server to grab the content. It's that you have all of your blog posts, right there, in plaintext format. They're tangible and easily migratable into any future format. When the time comes to have dynamic comments, timed posts, and other features like that, you can write a tiny Python/Ruby web server that generates HTML for you to handle some of the simpler tasks. BUT: If you have Wordpress-like requirements, use Wordpress. If you don't, a static blog can be a real joy to work with. If you want a couple small niceties that a static blog can't have (delayed posts, etc), shove a quick homemade webserver in front. And in either of those cases, if you are doing more work than you wanted, switch to an easier option. Making a static blog can sometimes be an easy, low-mental-energy hobby project to work on, even if you reinvent the wheel just a little. ~~~ uggedal I'm also using a custom Python script to generate my blog (<http://journal.uggedal.com>). It can be found here: <http://github.com/uggedal/reprise> Delayed posts: at now + 1day yourstaticgenerator.py ------ btilly Isn't this obvious? We have a really good toolchain for dealing with filesystems. The toolchain for dealing with content in databases is not nearly as good. As a result static content should be kept in the filesystem, even if you have to play tricks to do it. The use case for web pages created dynamically out of the database is user generated content. There our existing toolchain doesn't matter because users don't get access to your filesystem so you have to create new tools anyways. And a database makes it easier to keep data structured, takes care of transactional mechanics, and has good tools for things like failing over in event of a machine crash. Seriously we had a build/compilation step as part of deployment back in the first website I ever worked on. We didn't use a CMS to do it though, we used a homegrown templating system (later changed to Template Toolkit) and a Makefile. ------ spudlyo There is a Firefox plugin called "It's all Text!" that puts a little edit button at the bottom of every multiline text widget. This button fires up your favorite text editor, and when you save it writes the text back into that text widget. ~~~ Periodic I replied to another post with this before finding yours. One thing we programmers ought to recognize is that it really is all text. From the moment we type on our keyboard to the time it's viewed in the reader's browser. If we separate our presentation layer (like HTML rendering) from our content layer (the actual text with some annotations for things like headers), we are free to edit the content as we see fit and then we can port it into any presentation layer, from a text editor to a blog. Also, you could always just edit in your favorite editor and then copy and paste, no? Or write a script to take a bunch of flat files and inject them into your database. ~~~ spudlyo Copy and paste isn't that reliable, I've had lots of little annoyances with line breaks and other formatting issues. ------ prakash Tom's post on Jekyll - [http://tom.preston-werner.com/2008/11/17/blogging- like-a-hac...](http://tom.preston-werner.com/2008/11/17/blogging-like-a- hacker.html) Maciej wrote about this recently - [http://idlewords.com/2009/09/using_wordpress_to_generate_fla...](http://idlewords.com/2009/09/using_wordpress_to_generate_flat_files.htm) ------ vital101 With the addition of a plugin or two and a sane Apache configuration, Wordpress can handle some pretty extreme loads. This is not to say that it's perfect, but rather that performance doesn't have to be a concern if you know what you're doing. To me the biggest selling point for Wordpress is it's flexibility. I'm willing to take a performance hit for that. ------ buugs I was hoping that this would direct to a could not connect to database page. ------ AndrewDucker It's a neat way of working - but it does leave you with limited functionality. I've gone entirely the other way - my blog is <http://andrewducker.livejournal.com> \- everything is database driven and there's no static content at all. Which, I'm sure, is slower - but it also makes updates to the layout (for instance) faster, as you're not having to regenerate the entire site. Plus, of course, you get huge wodges of functionality, like the commenting system (which is the best I've seen anywwhere). ~~~ paulsmith LiveJournal's hardly a fair counterpoint -- it's a massive site with a complex, highly-tuned architecture, designed to be as fast as a dynamic, database-backed site can be: [http://www.slideshare.net/vishnu/livejournals-backend-a- hist...](http://www.slideshare.net/vishnu/livejournals-backend-a-history-of- scaling) Most people who install Wordpress are doing it on a modest shared server or VPS. The point of the article is the benefits of baking and serving static files for these folks are greater than the potential risks of having a single Apache + mod_php + MySQL instance keel over under heavy load. ~~~ AndrewDucker That was kinda my point. The middle ground doesn't hold much benefit (as far as I can see) - you have to manage the complexity yourself and it's risky. I'd either want a simple system that's not goint to blow up on me (i.e. static files) or I want a fully functional system that's run by someone else (i.e. livejournal). ~~~ pqs I recently migrated my WP.org blog to WP.com because of this. Now I feel safe. Nevertheless, I publish my personal site using Emacs' Org-mode and if I were to start a blog from scratch I would use something like org-mode or jekyll. Probably because I need the feeling of being in control of my data. ------ jseliger I hate to tell you, but you can have some of the best of both worlds, as other commenters have pointed out: WP SuperCache (see <http://ocaoimh.ie/wp-super- cache/> ) serves static pages. Unless you update 20+ times per day, it probably doesn't matter that the site takes a minute to rebuild after posting. ------ pqs Does anybody know how to export WP posts to plain text files? Maybe a script that reads the export.xml file. ~~~ ionfish IIRC Jekyll has a WordPres importer, which I presume does something similar. ------ wglb This is an excellent idea--no program other than basic web server talks to the internet--just static files. ~~~ dabent I've thought an idea like this could be used for more than just a blog (and maybe it is in certain cases). Rather than pulling up the pages every time, have a build process merge content and a template to form HTML pages. It could be used on sites that are potentially huge, but render an ultra-fast site with thousands of pages. The only trick is to integrate that with comment forms and the like. But even that isn't too hard to code around. ~~~ andrewvc I'm currently making a dynamic rewrite of a legacy CMS written to generate static files. The static CMS is a huge PITA. Yeah you can slip dynamic features in there 'just' where you need them. What you wind up with is a mess, and once your site gets a lot of content you start generating a LOT of files. Our rebuild process can take a couple hours, and while it does that it's pegging the disk. There's nothing wrong with static sites, for something like a blog it's OK. The feature set is fairly limited. But once you do want to add dynamic stuff, it can get tricky. I'd say for most projects starting with a static generator is a mistake because unless you know for sure the requirements won't change you can easily paint yourself into a corner. ------ danw Also see tools like R3 - <http://developer.yahoo.com/r3/> ------ brianobush I'll throw in my two cents: 99% of the blogs change no more than once a day. What is the point of needless complexity, databases, settings, etc. I like simple, single script that rewrites my content for the web since I still have my content on disk. I can easily grep for content. Disclaimer: I have a static generated blog. ------ lzell I would be interested to see a follow up post after the honeymoon phase ends. I switched from WP to webby, loved it at first, but will be reverting soon. Static is faster, but php is fast enough for most blogs, and WP is full featured. ~~~ oneplusone We have been using it for about 3ish months now and have not run into any issues. It is conceivable that the blog would eventually move over to a real CMS (not wordpress) once we have a need for dynamic content, but the website will stay static for the foreseeable future. ------ qeorge I used to use Blogger this way - you would give them your FTP info and it would publish static files. Worked fine, I just didn't really like using Blogger. ------ jay_kyburz Anybody remember City Desk? I loved it <http://www.fogcreek.com/CityDesk/> ------ tjpick pyblosxom can run dynamically or be used as a static renderer. The same input files are used for both so you can start with static rendered content uploaded to your web server, and then easily migrate to running dynamically. I use it both ways, works good. ------ mariana ikiwiki (<http://ikiwiki.info/>) as static site generator looks cool to me. ------ Maro bytepawn.com and blog.scalien.com are also generated by bash scripts. ------ ilyak The real problem here is PHP/MySQL, not the dynamicism per se. A blogging platform based on Rhino (EcmaScript) on JVM hosted on virtualized server (or in cloud) would easily resist slashdot effect. And using file-based storage it would be storage-friendly, too. And nobody prevents you from using external editor for WordPress, even. ~~~ jrockway File-based storage may be "storage-friendly", but it isn't retrieval-friendly. For example, finding the list of all tags your blog uses requires a linear scan over every document in the system. Not fast. (Visit <http://blog.jrock.us/>. It does this. It takes a long time to load.) ~~~ ilyak You can cache cache that in-memory! Because you've got a persistent app server. ~~~ jrockway How do you know when to invalidate the cache without doing a scan over all the files? (Answer: hope your filesystem updates the directory change time when a file inside changes, or that your app server is inotify-ed of the change. Both are more complicated than querying a database. If I used KiokuDB for Angerwhale, it would only take me one key lookup for things that currently involve traversing the directory tree. Caching is nice, but it is not the solution to all problems.) ~~~ ilyak You know when you update your data. Therefore, you invalidate your cache when you update your data. Timestamps help alot if you're paranoid, also.

Here’s how these previews work: I look at all the books. I pick 10 that jump out to me. I share them with you. Here we go – this batch will all arrive in September, October, and November. Picture Books A Well-Mannered Young Wolf by Jean Leroy, illustrated by Matthieu Maudet October 3, 2016 | Eerdmans […] #20-16 | #15-11 | #10-6 | #5-1 15. Shh! We Have a Plan by Chris Haughton [Candlewick Press | Grades PreK-1] Click here for additional resources from Watch. Connect. Read. With its combination of suspense and broad humor, Shh! We Have a Plan plays like the best Chuck Jones Merrie Melodies cartoon that never happened. You can practically […] Baby Bear By Kadir Nelson Balzer + Bray (HarperCollins) ISBN: 9780062241726 $17.99 Grades PreK-1 In Stores Find it at: Schuler Books | Your Library Man, are there a lot of bedtime books out there. With reading to children being such a pre-sleep ritual, however, this proliferation of books dedicated to sawing logs makes sense. In […] It’s time to once again to look at the season before us and say “that looks good”. What follows are books coming out in March, April, and May that appear to have promise. Picture Book Giant Dance Party by Betsy Bird; illustrated by Brandon Dorman April 23 | Greenwillow | Grades K-2 Ever heard of […] Sometimes you see a book and go… What follows are the books coming out in December, January, and February that made me do that. Picture Books Doug Unplugged by Dan Yaccarino February 12 | Knopf | Grades K-3 Is ditching technology for real life an emerging children’s lit trend? 2012 standout hello! hello! nicely builds […] The One and Only Ivan By Katherine Applegate HarperCollins ISBN: 9780061992254 $16.99 Grades 4-6 In Stores *Best New Book* Find it at: Schuler Books | Your Library For a children’s book, inhabiting the world of animals can be a dicey proposition. While the appeal is broad, it seems like the rate of true success is […] The Easter Bunny’s Assistant By Jan Thomas Harper (HarperCollins) ISBN: 9780061692864 $12.99 Grades PreK-2 In Stores *Best New Book* Find it at: Schuler Books | Your Library In terms of consistency, few picture book creators in the world are operating at the level of Jan Thomas right now. Since her debut in 2007, What Will […] Fellow school librarian John Schumacher and I are counting down our top 20 books of 2011. Head on over to Watch. Connect. Read. for additional resources for each book. #20-16 | #15-11 | #10-6 | #5-1 10. Marty McGuire by Kate Messner [Scholastic | Grades 3-5] Click here for additional resources from Watch. Connect. Read. […] Let the singing of praises commence. Over four days, fellow school librarian John Schumacher and I will count down our top 20 books of the past year. It’s a K-6, anything goes sort of list, with picture books, chapter books, nonfiction, and graphic novels all tossed into one big pot. This year Watch. Connect. Read. […] Catalogs pored over, eyes sufficiently sapped of all moisture – it must be time to look at the 10 books that come out in September, October, and November that have me going around saying “aww, yeah!” to strangers. Or maybe just thinking it. While I search for the Visene®, take a look at the list. […] A Pet for Petunia By Paul Schmid Harper (HarperCollins) ISBN: 9780061963315 $12.99 Grades K-2 In Stores *Best New Books* Playing opposites is a common occurrence in children’s literature. Little Pea, Bedtime for Mommy, and Children Make Terrible Pets are but a few recent examples of a concept with a long history. The act of reversing […] About 100 Scope Notes Children's literature news, reviews and assorted school librarian oddities. Combine one part kid's books, one part school librarianship, a splash of absurdity and you get 100 Scope Notes. Travis Jonker is an elementary school librarian in Michigan. He writes reviews (and the occasional article or two) for School Library Journal and is a member of the 2014 Caldecott committee. You can email Travis at [email protected]. He's also on...

Sinkhole repairs start CVR Sinkhole DT 7-18-12 Dominique Taylor/[email protected] Work crews pour flow fill, a mixture of cement, soil and water, into a sink hole estimated at 35 by 35 feet across and 80 feet deep to fill it up Wednesday on Highway 24 near Tennessee Pass. CDOT officials estimated the highway would be be closed to through traffic until early August. Related Media Highway-sucking sinkholes are a lesson in perspective.Concrete trucks look huge when you're following them on your Vespa, but put them beside the gash in the earth along U.S. 24 and they look petite.Concrete trucks on Wednesday started pouring thousands of cubic yards of material into the so-called sinkhole that closed U.S. Highway 24 between Red Cliff and Leadville. The hole is not technically a sinkhole because it caved in over an old railroad tunnel."People wonder if we were being too conservative closing the road," said Stacey Stegman, one CDOT's public relations crew.They'renot.The hole has expanded and is now 35 feet by 35 feet and 100 feet deep. There is less than a foot of earth under part of the road, and that bit of earth is barely hanging on - a ballroom dance couple could knock it down.A bunch of rock and dirt apparently lost the will to live and fell from the bottom of the road surface into the hole during Wednesday's media tour.No one's exactly sure when the sinkhole sank. All CDOT knows for sure is that a maintenance crew rolled by there on Saturday afternoon and everything was fine. Another crew rolled by at sunrise Monday, July 9, and noticed that a large chunk of terra firm wasn't all that firm, and wasn't visible to the naked eye.They had themselves a sinkhole.It fell into a Denver & Rio Grande Railroad tunnel built in 1890 to haul silver ore out of the mines. The railroad company used it until the 1940s when a new reinforced concrete tunnel was built nearby. Trains stopped using the tracks in 1998.That abandoned loops under Highway 24 in two other places.When the tunnel was abandoned, the timbers began to deteriorate and bits of the roof began to fall, said Joseph Elsen, CDOT program engineer. Over the years, it created what looks like a chimney and the hole finally made its way to the surface, right under Highway 24.Elsen is one of CDOT's more experienced hands. This is his ninth emergency of this type."You walk up to something like this and wonder, 'What on earth do we do?'" Elsen said, adding that they don't wonder that for long.They put the repair specifications together in about two days. Because it's an emergency, they bid it out to four firms that handle this sort of thing. Those bids went out around 5 p.m. Friday. By Monday night CDOT had selected Hayward Baker and the firm was rolling to the sinkhole site by Tuesday morning.CDOT dropped an incentive clause into the contract: Hayward Baker gets $5,000 a day for every day they beat their Aug. 6 deadline. They would pay $5,000 CDOT a day for every day they miss it.CDOT expects to pay; Hayward Baker expects to collect, and crews are working from 6 a.m. to midnight to see to it. Cleaning up these kinds of messes is all Hayward Baker does. The Highway 24 hole is massive, but the crew has plugged worse, said Joe Harris with Hayward Baker.When rockslides closed Dowd Junction in 2008, CDOT called them. When that huge boulder crashed through the I-70 bridge in Glenwood Canyon, they were called again.They're in Rock Springs, Wyo., right now cleaning up a collapsed mine. They're a regular presence around Colorado Springs when this sort of thing occurs, too.Harris' first job with the company was shoring up the foundations under the Chambertin condos in Avon. The buildings were sliding down the hill toward Interstate 70."Our company's motto is that you may not be able to see our work, but you can have confidence when we were there," Harris said. For this job, crews are drilling underground from the north and south sides of the highway to construct containment barriers made of grout that dries hard. The walls are about 40 feet from each side of the highway.Concrete trucks are pouring a thinner grout material into the void, followed by a pressurized grout to fill any gaps. That will compress the material under the highway and strengthen the roadway platform, explained Matt Figgs, CDOT's project manager.Once everything is stabilized, crews will mill and pave the road. Those trucks are dumping about seven cubic yards of material every time they back up to that sink hole.They'll drop more than 300 truckloads into the sinkhole, calculated Elsen, who pointed out that the trucks can hold nine yards of concrete. They don't though, because fully-loaded trucks are heavy and they're backing up to a sinkhole that might, well ... sink.Staff Writer Randy Wyrick can be reached at 970-748-2935 or [email protected].

“The Gift Part Two: The Air Force Years: 1965 – 1970” covers my Air Force years from October 1966 to April 1970. It begins where my first book “The Gift” left off. I have just left home for U.S. Air Force Undergraduate Pilot Training and am on my way to my assignment in C-141 Jet Transport Aircraft. Would you begin at the beginning — where you grew up, school, going into the military, etc? I grew up in a small East Texas town, and after graduating West Orange High School, I attended college at Ole Miss and The University of Texas. I graduated from Texas. I participated in the USAF ROTC Program in college, and got my Commission as a Second Lieutenant in the Air Force after graduation. Where were you trained? I actually started my flight training while I was still in high school. I was driving by the local airport one day and saw a small airplane near the parking lot. I stopped in asked the pilots standing by the airplane if they offered rides in it. They did, so I took one. About ten seconds after we left the ground, I knew I wanted to do this for the rest of my life. I was fifteen years old at the time. With my parent’s permission, I started taking flying lessons one week later, and continued to fly through high school and college. After I got my Air Force Commission, I went to USAF Undergraduate Pilot Training. I was a member of Class 67-C, and was based at Webb AFB in Big Spring, Texas. UPT was a one-year course. Can you tell me about your experience with flight school? In my civilian training, where I worked my way up to Commercial Pilot with Single and Multi-Engine Ratings, I was taught by the Feuge Brothers, Clarence and Edward. Both men were fine pilots and I learned a lot from them. I started flying in July 1957, soloed on my 16th birthday in January 1958. Had my Private Pilot Certificate when I was 17, and was achieved my Commercial Pilot Rating at the age of twenty-one. I got my Multi-Engine Rating the same year I got my Commercial. My year at Webb, in UPT, was without a doubt the best year of my life. I had 650 hours of flight time before I even reported for Air Force training, so I had a good jump on the program. Consequently, it was just a very exciting and fun school for me. I graduated high enough in my class to qualify for fighters, but I elected to fly C-141 jet transports instead. What’s the best piece of advice you ever received about flying? An old Captain once told me, “If your mind is not always five minutes ahead of the airplane, you are in trouble.” Can you tell me about your Vietnam experience? I had been flying the C-141, around the world, for two years. During that time I made two or three trips into Vietnam every month, supporting the war effort by bringing supplies in, and the wounded, and unfortunately, dead, personnel out. We got shot at a lot during our approaches and departures in Vietnam, and we were hit a time or two. In December 1968, I was reassigned to Vietnam, flying the AC-47 “Spooky” Gunship. I was happy to be flying something that had the capability of shooting back. I flew “Spooky” from April 69 to December 69, when we turned that mission over to the South Vietnam Air Force. I was reassigned to the 362nd Electronics Warfare Squadron, where I flew the EC-47 aircraft until the end of my tour in April 70. It would be impossible to tell about my entire Vietnam experience in one answer to your questionnaire, but I will say that the highlight of that tour was being assigned as a Flight Commander in the 4th Air Commando Squadron. I had the privilege of leading a great group of Officers and Enlisted Men in a mission that was vital to the safety of our ground troops. We provided night close air support, and were called in when those troops were under attack. We never lost an outpost! As a Vietnam veteran, and because of the anti-war sentiment that prevailed when I got home, I never heard any praise for my work in Vietnam. BUT, I have heard from a lot of ground troops who said they lived to come home because of us. Most of them started off by saying, “Spooky” saved my ass one night… and then they would tell me their story. That was all the thanks I needed. Which plane did you want to fly—but never got the chance to try out? The F-100 Super Sabre was the airplane I could have, and should have flown, but for some reason I decided to fly transports and see the world instead. It’s a shame though, because I flew transports (airliners) most of my career, and the ONLY opportunity I would have had to fly the F-100 was while I was still in the Air Force. Big regret! What did you think of the planes you flew during the war? Well, the C-141 was not very glamorous as a war bird, but it performed a vital mission, and it was a fantastic airplane to fly. When I was flying it, it was the most modern jet transport in the Air Force inventory. Conversely, the C-47 was the oldest transport aircraft in the Air Force, and in the gunship version it was a magnificent airplane. We carried three 7.62mm Minigun Machine Guns and were capable of firing at a rate of 6000 rounds per minute, per gun. The AC-47 was the “Proof of Concept” for side firing gunnery, and it led to the development of the AC-130 Gunships which are used to this day. As a little homage to the AC-47, the modern AC-130 uses our old call sign – “Spooky!” What was your most hair-raising experience? I flew for forty-five years before I retired, in Civilian, Air Force, and Airline flying, and there were quite a few “hair-raising” experiences. But, the one that immediately comes to mind was the day that I got caught above an overcast and had to fly around for four hours to find a hole to go down through to get below the clouds. I was a relatively new pilot at the time, and not instrument rated at the time, and penetrating those clouds could have been fatal. Do you believe it was safer in the air than on the ground? Statistically it is safer in the air. I was blessed to have a career that included over twenty thousand hours in flight, and I came away from it never hurting a passenger, bending an airplane, or violating a Federal Air Regulation. What was your initial experience with the Viet-cong? I went to war against them. They shot at me and I shot back at them. Returning to America how do you feel when you look back on the war? Well, when I returned there was a lot of Anti-War sentiment in America, so I decided to just forget about it and get on with my life. I honestly naver gave it much thought. Now that nearly fifty years has gone by, I look back on my job as a “Spooky” Gunship pilot with pride, and that is validated when I meet veterans who say, “The only reason I am home today, is because of Spooky!” Review I read THE GIFT. It was spellbinding. I was so sure that I would not like the THE GIFT PART TWO THE AIR FORCE YEARS, however, I bought the book. Was I ever wrong! THE GIFT-PART TWO-THE AIR FORCE YEARS was as spellbinding as the first book, THE GIFT. Some friends and I were at the beach for a few days. I was reading THE GIFT PART TWO and telling my friends about the first book. One of my friends bought the book on Amazon and enjoyed it so much. She knew several people who were mentioned. I left the part two book with her when I came home. The other friend was reading the first book and waiting for part two. They both found the books spellbinding. We never turned the television on for three days. Mike, I am waiting for THE GIFT PART THREE. Thanks for sharing your life experiences with us! Get Your Copy Today!

Richard Childress Racing Recent News NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Richmond International Raceway April 27, 2013 Race Highlights * Richard Childress Racing teammates finished first (Kevin Harvick), fifth (Jeff Burton) and 13th (Paul Menard). * Harvick and Menard are tied for ninth in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver championship point standings, trailing leader Jimmie Johnson by 72 markers, while Burton sits 19th. * The No. 29 Chevrolet SS team ranks ninth in the Sprint Cup Series owner championship point standings, with the No. 27 team 10th and the No. 31 team 22nd. * According to NASCAR's Post-Race Loop Data Statistics Harvick led the field in Speed in Traffic (118.676 mph), ranked fourth in Laps in Top 15 (400 laps), was the fifth-Fastest on Restarts (120.973 mph), earned a fifth-place ranking in Fastest Laps Run (23) and had the fifth-best Driver Rating (111.2). * Harvick completed 47 passes while running in the top 15, positioning him second in Quality Passes. * After gaining five positions during the final 40 laps (10 percent) of the Sprint Cup Series event, Harvick earned a ranking of third in the Closers loop data category. * Menard is the only driver to have completed 100 percent of laps attempted (2,990) in 2013 Sprint Cup Series competition. * Menard made 58 passes under green-flag conditions ranking him ninth in overall in Green Flag Passes. * Harvick earned his first victory of the 2013 Sprint Cup Series season and was followed to the finish line by Clint Bowyer, Joey Logano, Jaun Pablo Montoya and Burton. * Burton gained six positions over the final 40 laps, ranking him second in the NASCAR Loop Data statistic category of Closers. * Burton made more Quality Passes (57) than any other driver entered in the event and spent 369 Laps (91 percent) of the 406-lap event in the Top 15 * The next Sprint Cup Series race is the Aaron's 499 at Talladega Superspeedway on Sunday, May 5. The 10th race of the 2013 season is scheduled to be televised live on FOX beginning at noon Eastern Time. and broadcast live on the Motor Racing Network and Sirius XM NASCAR Satellite Radio. Starting from the 29th position, Paul Menard and the No. 27 CertainTeed/Menards team faced handling issues as track conditions changed throughout the evening, ultimately finishing 13th at Richmond International Raceway. The early laps of the race looked promising as Menard made a steady march toward the front of the field and was scored in 19th by lap 50. Clicking off lap times as fast as the leader, coupled with lightning-fast stops by the pit crew, the 32-year-old driver worked his way inside the top 15 at lap 140. As the sun began to set, the track conditions changed and Menard struggled with a tight- handling racecar. The No. 27 pit crew made a variety of chassis adjustments to the Chevrolet SS during the middle and later portions of the originally scheduled 400-lap event, in hopes of remedying the issue. With just three laps remaining, the yellow flag flew and crew chief "Slugger" Labbe called his driver into the pits one final time for four fresh tires and fuel. Menard lined up 17th for the green-white-checkered restart and gained four spots in just two laps to finish 13th under the lights. Menard's top-15 finish ties him for ninth in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver championship point standings heading into Talladega Superspeedway. Start - 29 Finish - 13 Laps Led - 0 Points - 9th PAUL MENARD QUOTE: "Once the sun went down we struggled throughout the race to find the right setup for the CertainTeed/Menards Chevrolet. "Slugger" (Labbe, crew chief) and the team never gave up working really hard to make adjustments all night in an attempt to get the handling issues resolved. I have to thank my pit crew, they did an awesome job in the pits tonight and gained us several positions on pit road throughout the evening. There at the end, the car was handling better and we were able to gain several positions to come home with a solid finish. All-in-all it was a decent points day, so we'll take it and head to Talladega Superspeedway next weekend." Harvick Goes to Victory Lane at Richmond International Raceway Kevin Harvick and the No. 29 Bell Helicopter team earned their first point-paying event victory of the 2013 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season under the lights of Richmond International Raceway on Saturday night. The California native started the scheduled 400-lap event from the 17th position and maintained a spot in the top 15 during the early laps, while battling a tight-handling Chevrolet SS. The No. 29 pit crew made an array of adjustments throughout the course of the originally planned 300-mile event during multiple scheduled four-tire pit stops. As the race progressed, Harvick worked his way toward the front of the field finding a home in the top five. Still battling handling issues during the final laps, Harvick drove down pit road on lap 397 for four tires, fuel and an air pressure adjustment under caution. The RCR veteran driver was scored in the seventh position as the field was set for a green-white-checkered finish. During a dramatic restart, Harvick gained five positions with two laps remaining and captured the lead as the field came to the white flag. The 37-year-old driver remained out front during the final lap, and was able to collect his 20th Sprint Cup Series-career victory. Following the first-place finish, Harvick is now tied for the ninth in the Sprint Cup Series driver championship point standings. Start - 17 Finish - 1 Laps Led - 3 Points - 9th KEVIN HARVICK QUOTE: "I just want to thank everybody for this great finish. It's been a tough start to the season, but it all worked out for us tonight. We've gotten beat a couple times this year on pit road, but pitting was the right thing for us to do at the end tonight. When tires fall off by almost two seconds, you've got to come in and get fresh tires for the restarts. Gil (Martin, crew chief) made the right call and it worked out. I've got to thank Bell Helicopter, Budweiser, Jimmy John's, Rheem, Chevrolet and everybody who participates in our team's program." Jeff Burton Caps Off Solid Run with Top-Five Finish at Richmond Jeff Burton and the No. 31 Airgas/Bulwark Chevrolet team ran in the top 15 for 369 laps of the 406-lap night race at Richmond International Raceway, and finished off the solid effort with a fifth-place finish. After starting the event from the 16th position, the South Boston, Va., native climbed into the top 15 early and reported to crew chief Luke Lambert that the No. 31 Chevrolet developed a tight-handling condition in the middle of the corners, especially on long green-flag runs. Lambert and the No. 31 pit crew worked hard throughout the evening by making tire pressure and chassis adjustments on multiple pit stops, while Burton maintained a top-15 running position. After narrowly avoiding a multi-car accident on lap 328, the Richard Childress Racing driver brought the white and black machine to pit road for fresh Goodyear tires and Sunoco Green E15 fuel. The adjustments made on the pit stop improved the handling of the car and Burton worked his way into the top 10 with 28 laps to go, and eventually moved to seventh-place on lap 385. The final caution flag of the night was displayed with four laps to go, setting up a green-white-checkered finish. While the top-six competitors came to pit road for service, Lambert made the call for his driver to stay out putting Burton at the top of the leaderboard. On the final restart, Burton raced hard before the drivers with fresh tires were able to get around the veteran driver on the final lap. In the end, Burton crossed the finish line in fifth for his first top-five result of the 2013 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season. With the strong finish, Burton gained four positions in Sprint Cup Series driver championship point standings, moving up to 19th. Start-16 Finish-5 Laps Led-7 Points-19th JEFF BURTON QUOTE: "We were seventh there and I thought I had the No. 22 (Joey Logano) beat before the caution flag came out. The caution came out and what the heck, we might as well try something. Luke (Lambert) made a good call there and obviously new tires were a lot better. But it was worth a shot. We were going to maybe finish sixth without the caution so to pick up a spot from it was worth a shot. I thought it changed a lot. I thought Kevin (Harvick) and I both got better at the end of the race and some other cars got worse as the race went on. However, Kevin got good at the end of the race. He was his best at the end; we were our best at the end. I think all of that was the track changing and kind of going to our setups a little bit."

The bulls are getting more bullish. The major indexes soared to record highs Monday, and the market rally is showing no signs of quitting anytime soon, according to one portfolio manager who sees the soaring another 11 percent next year. Steve Chiavarone, portfolio manager at Federated Investors, expects the S&P 500 to hit 3,000 by the end of next year, making him one of the most optimistic market watchers on Wall Street. This target, too, is more bullish than he was just weeks ago. Last month he told CNBC's "Trading Nation" that his 2018 price target was 2,750. Chiavarone expects earnings growth to be one of the key underpinnings of the next leg higher. "Unlike most years, we think that the actual earnings numbers are going to come in above analysts' expectations. Analyst expectations have been rising all year; that doesn't happen often, but it does happen. And when it does, we're usually above 3 to 4 percent below the final number, at this point," he said Friday on "Trading Nation." "When you throw in tax reform, which looks like it's going to hit in 2018 rather than be delayed to 2019, we think we're in for an earnings number that is $150 or maybe even slightly north of that," he added Friday. Specifically, the portfolio manager looks to a measure that he refers to as the "consensus decay rate," or how far the final earnings figure falls from where analysts' earnings growth consensus is today. "We know that earnings grew this year north of 10 percent without a dime of stimulus. The underlying trends in the economy are good; we expect that to continue to be the case. And there are some add-ons here; tax reform is one of them, deregulation is another," he said. Despite historically high market multiples when measuring the S&P's forward price-earnings ratio, Chiavarone isn't all that concerned, as he does not see a recession hitting the U.S. until the 2020 to 2021 time frame. "At 20 times multiple on a $150 in earnings, that appears to be completely reasonable to us," he said. As for the Federal Reserve's actions next year as it continues on its tightening path, Chiavarone foresees two rate hikes as opposed to the widely forecast three. This is due to historically muted inflation across the board, he said: "Inflation's going to hold them at two [hikes]." "Technology is a big driver of that, quite frankly. There are disruptions that are occurring in the economy, and most of those are deflationary. Companies are becoming more efficient; they're becoming less labor-intensive. And while wage inflation is occurring, and we expect it to continue to build, we just think it will be slower than the Fed expects," he said. Markets hit intraday all-time highs Monday.

More images are coming out of Winson Green prison showing the extent of the riots which have raged all day. The Mail reported earlier prisoners at HMP Birmingham were posting selfies of themselves in riot gear and images of the jail left in ruin. Now, new pictures have emerged appearing to show a man wearing a helmet and a baton knocking down a door, two others wearing helmets and a shield and a third thought to be of the keys stolen from guards at the beginning of the chaos. The pictures were posted on Twitter. It has emerged today that many prisoners have mobile phones - at least eight have contacted the Birmingham Mail.

2. We have so much to be thankful for, we should shout and sing joyfully! "Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving; let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms" (Psalm 95:2). 3. If people didn't praise God, even the stones would cry out! "Then, as He was now drawing near the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works they had seen, saying: '"Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord!" Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!' And some of the Pharisees called to Him from the crowd, 'Teacher, rebuke Your disciples.' But He answered and said to them, 'I tell you that if these should keep silent, the stones would immediately cry out'" (Luke 19:37-40).

/* * Copyright (C) 2018-2020 Lightbend Inc. <https://www.lightbend.com> */ package akka.remote.artery import akka.actor.Actor import akka.remote.RARP import akka.serialization.jackson.CborSerializable import akka.testkit.SocketUtil object UdpPortActor { case object GetUdpPort extends CborSerializable } /** * Used for exchanging free udp port between multi-jvm nodes */ class UdpPortActor extends Actor { import UdpPortActor._ val port = SocketUtil.temporaryServerAddress(RARP(context.system).provider.getDefaultAddress.host.get, udp = true).getPort def receive = { case GetUdpPort => sender() ! port } }

+− Contents 1 Purpose E04YAF checks that a user-supplied subroutine for evaluating a vector of functions and the matrix of their first derivatives produces derivative values which are consistent with the function values calculated. 2 Specification 3 Description Routines for minimizing a sum of squares of m nonlinear functions (or ‘residuals’), fix1,x2,…,xn, for i=1,2,…,m and m≥n, may require you to supply a subroutine to evaluate the fi and their first derivatives. E04YAF checks the derivatives calculated by such user-supplied subroutines, e.g., routines of the form required for E04GBF, E04GDF and E04HEF. As well as the routine to be checked (LSQFUN), you must supply a point x=x1,x2,…,xnT at which the check will be made. E04YAF is essentially identical to CHKLSJ in the NPL Algorithms Library. E04YAF first calls LSQFUN to evaluate the fix and their first derivatives, and uses these to calculate the sum of squares Fx=∑i=1mfix2, and its first derivatives gj=∂F∂xjx, for j=1,2,…,n. The components of g along two orthogonal directions (defined by unit vectors p1 and p2, say) are then calculated; these will be gTp1 and gTp2 respectively. The same components are also estimated by finite differences, giving quantities vk=Fx+hpk-Fxh, k=1,2 where h is a small positive scalar. If the relative difference between v1 and gTp1 or between v2 and gTp2 is judged too large, an error indicator is set. 4 References None. 5 Parameters 1: M – INTEGERInput 2: N – INTEGERInput On entry: the number m of residuals, fix, and the number n of variables, xj. Constraint: 1≤N≤M. 3: LSQFUN – SUBROUTINE, supplied by the user.External Procedure LSQFUN must calculate the vector of values fix and their first derivatives ∂fi∂xj at any point x. (The minimization routines mentioned in Section 3 give you the option of resetting a parameter to terminate immediately. E04YAF will also terminate immediately, without finishing the checking process, if the parameter in question is reset.) These parameters are present so that LSQFUN will be of the form required by the minimization routines mentioned in Section 3. LSQFUN is called with the same parameters IW, LIW, W, LW as in the call to E04YAF. If the recommendation in the minimization routine document is followed, you will have no reason to examine or change the elements of IW or W. In any case, LSQFUNmust not change the first 3×N+M+M×N elements of W. LSQFUN must either be a module subprogram USEd by, or declared as EXTERNAL in, the (sub)program from which E04YAF is called. Parameters denoted as Input must not be changed by this procedure. On entry: Xj, for j=1,2,…,n, must be set to the coordinates of a suitable point at which to check the derivatives calculated by LSQFUN. ‘Obvious’ settings, such as 0 or 1, should not be used since, at such particular points, incorrect terms may take correct values (particularly zero), so that errors can go undetected. For a similar reason, it is preferable that no two elements of X should have the same value. On exit: unless you set IFLAG negative in the first call of LSQFUN, FJACij contains the value of the first derivative ∂fi∂xj at the point given in X, as calculated by LSQFUN, for i=1,2,…,m and j=1,2,…,n. 7: LDFJAC – INTEGERInput On entry: the first dimension of the array FJAC as declared in the (sub)program from which E04YAF is called. This array appears in the parameter list purely so that, if E04YAF is called by another library routine, the library routine can pass quantities to LSQFUN via IW. IW is not examined or changed by E04YAF. In general you must provide an array IW, but are advised not to use it. 9: LIW – INTEGERInput On entry: the dimension of the array IW as declared in the (sub)program from which E04YAF is called. On entry: the dimension of the array W as declared in the (sub)program from which E04YAF is called. Constraint: LW≥3×N+M+M×N. 12: IFAIL – INTEGERInput/Output On entry: IFAIL must be set to 0, -1​ or ​1. If you are unfamiliar with this parameter you should refer to Section 3.3 in the Essential Introduction for details. For environments where it might be inappropriate to halt program execution when an error is detected, the value -1​ or ​1 is recommended. If the output of error messages is undesirable, then the value 1 is recommended. Otherwise, because for this routine the values of the output parameters may be useful even if IFAIL≠0 on exit, the recommended value is -1. When the value -1​ or ​1 is used it is essential to test the value of IFAIL on exit. On exit: IFAIL=0 unless the routine detects an error or a warning has been flagged (see Section 6). 6 Error Indicators and Warnings If on entry IFAIL=0 or -1, explanatory error messages are output on the current error message unit (as defined by X04AAF). Note: E04YAF may return useful information for one or more of the following detected errors or warnings. Errors or warnings detected by the routine: IFAIL<0 A negative value of IFAIL indicates an exit from E04YAF because you have set IFLAG negative in LSQFUN. The setting of IFAIL will be the same as your setting of IFLAG. The check on LSQFUN will not have been completed. IFAIL=1 On entry, M<N, or N<1, or LDFJAC<M, or LIW<1, or LW<3×N+M+M×N. IFAIL=2 You should check carefully the derivation and programming of expressions for the ∂fi∂xj, because it is very unlikely that LSQFUN is calculating them correctly. 8 Further Comments Before using E04YAF to check the calculation of the first derivatives, you should be confident that LSQFUN is calculating the residuals correctly. E04YAF only checks the derivatives calculated by a user-supplied routine when IFLAG=2. So, if LSQFUN is intended for use in conjunction with a minimization routine which may set IFLAG to 1, you must check that, for given settings of the XCj, LSQFUN produces the same values for the ∂fi∂xj when IFLAG is set to 1 as when IFLAG is set to 2. 9 Example Suppose that it is intended to use E04GBF or E04GDF to find least squares estimates of x1,x2 and x3 in the model The following program could be used to check the first derivatives calculated by LSQFUN. (The tests of whether IFLAG=0 or 1 in LSQFUN are present ready for when LSQFUN is called by E04GBF or E04GDF. E04YAF will always call LSQFUN with IFLAG set to 2.)

Hallway Fight Edit Locked Fights can take place in many strange locations such as a bar, a diner, or even on top of a train. Each location creates its own atmosphere and limitations which dictate the movements of the fighters. Advertisement: A Hallway Fight, as the name implies, takes place in a corridor. The fighters are more or less forced to go in one direction while the narrow and cramped quarters force them into a more claustrophobic battle. Because of these restraints, the fights can be very close and quite brutal. If the director so chooses, it can also be the perfect opportunity for The Oner. It can also be a way to Hand Wave the Mook Chivalry trope as multiple opponents often have to come one-by-one. Advertisement: Examples: open/close all folders Comic Books An issue of the Warren Ellis run on Moon Knight has Mr. Knight fighting his way through an entire brownstone house to rescue a kidnapped girl, including several hallways. Films — Live-Action In Oldboy, Oh Dae-Su fights his way through a long hallway of mooks, armed with a hammer. It is perhaps the most well known action sequence in the movie due to it's intense level of violence and for being The Oner. In Kill Bill Vol 2, the Bride and Elle briefly get into a sword fight in the hallway of Budd's trailer, which leads to the Bride ripping the eye from her socket and considering she only had one eye to begin with, it gives her the win. In The Raid, the main characters have to take down an entire apartment building full of gangsters, which leads to plenty hallway fights. One of the main fights involves them slashing their way through bad guys with machetes. The climax in Rogue One involves Darth Vader himself killing his way through a corridor of a Rebel spaceship in order to obtain plans for the Death Star. Calling it a "fight" is perhaps being generous. Inception features a hallway fight between Arthur and a nameless mook. Because they are inside the dreaming mind of a person in a rolling vehicle, the two men end up grappling as the hallway rotates and they flop this way and that. In The Matrix, the Final Battle between Neo and Agent Smith takes place in a building hallway inside the Matrix. In Terminator 2: Judgment Day, young John Connor is trapped in the narrow gallery of a corridor in a shopping mall when the T-1000 comes around the corner and starts shooting at him. Luckily for John, T-800 is around and shields the boy from the bullets, although an unlucky janitor is killed in the crossfire. Then T-800 pushes John into an adjacent room and a shoot-out between the two terminators unfolds in the corridor. The action thriller Snowpiercer takes place on a train, so all unfolding fight scenes resemble hallway fights. In "New York's Finest", after freeing himself from Frank Castle, Matt fights off Dogs of Hell bikers in the hallway of an apartment building, which eventually leads to a stairwell fight. This is an homage to The Raid. In "Seven Minutes in Heaven", Wilson Fisk needs to get rid of Dutton, the guy who runs the prison's underground economy. So he tricks Frank Castle into entering Dutton's cellblock. After Frank kills Dutton, Fisk locks him in, and releases all the prisoners who are quick to get revenge on him for killing their boss. He ends up having to go down a corridor, stabbing his way out with a shiv. Season 3 sees Matt have a continuous one-take fight that one-ups the season 1 fight. In this one, Matt visits Rikers to try to get information on Fisk's time there. Fisk directs a bunch of inmates to start a riot and attempt to kill Matt, forcing Matt to fight his way out down several corridors. This one is a true ten minute longone-take fight, which not only sees Matt fight inmates and guards in Fisk's pocket, but also get information on Fisk out of the Albanians in the prison, and convince them to get the guards they own to help smuggle Matt out of the prison. When Will Simpson turns into a psychotic super soldier, he attacks Jessica in her apartment. The two of them fall through a wall and start smashing each other against sides of a small passageway. The season 1 finale sees Jessica have to fight her way through a hospital corridor filled with doctors and patients that Kilgrave has ordered to stop her. She tries to sneak down the hall to get out but she is soon spotted and forces her way through, getting a nasty cut with a scalpel for her troubles. Luke Cage (2016): In "Who's Gonna Take the Weight", Luke Cage attacks Crispus Attucks, the location of Cottonmouth's main stash, using his Super Strength to bulldoze his way through Cottonmouth's henchmen in three different hallways before finding the vault where all of the money is stashed. A group of Triads armed with hatchets show up at Danny Rand's hotel suite and try to kidnap Joy Meachum in retaliation for a pier deal she and Ward reversed on Harold's orders. Danny fights his way down a corridor full of their men until he gets to the elevator, where he dispatches the last two, before fleeing with Joy to Colleen Wing's dojo. Harold later kills the guy who hit Joy by splitting his head open with a sword. Danny and Davos later fight a group of Hand members in a narrow passage while escaping Bakuto's compound, and almost get overwhelmed due to the cramped quarters. A few episodes later, Colleen Wing and Davos rescue Danny from Bakuto and his men as they try to capture him from Harold's penthouse. The three of them dispatch Bakuto's men in the lobby of the General Electric Building, then chase down and fight off Bakuto in Central Park. The Defenders (2017): This one is how the heroes all end up coming to meet. It starts in the boardroom of Midland Circle Financial as Danny confronts Alexandra. After taking out a dozen fighters armed with tranquilizer guns, he is eventually overpowered by a second wave. He is about to be captured when Luke suddenly breaks down the doors and they fight their way out. They burst out through the wall into the nearby hallway just as Matt and Jessica arrive. After an awkward exchange as Luke and Jessica recognize each other, they find themselves pinned down, with Elektra approaching on one side and a bunch of goons coming from the elevator and stairwells. Luke, Jessica and Danny handle the henchmen while Matt fights Elektra one-on-one. When Frank infiltrates the enemy compound during a flashback to his service in Kandahar, he begins shooting his way through a few corridors before running put of ammo and using a knife, then a rock. A hallway fight/stairwell chase happens in a hotel as Frank overpowers several cops and Anvil security operatives as he's chasing after Lewis Wilson, a PTSD-afflicted soldier-turned-Mad Bomber who has taken Karen hostage. Of all places, season 5 of Arrested Development features a brief yet very gymnastics-heavy fight between George-Michael and Micheal. Season 4 of The Flash (2014) has the villain DeVoe breaking into ARGUS Facility and butchering the guards with his psychic powers in a corridor. In the third season of Lucifer (2016), there's a scene where the title character enters a korean drug dealer's hideout and then beats all the thugs in the hallway while K-pop music plays. Wonder Woman: In "Judgment from Outer Space", Major Steve Trevor and friends are trapped in a hallway by two groups of Nazi soldiers. Wonder Woman rescues them by overpowering both groups. Advertisement: Video Games Twilight Princess: The ice dungeon's miniboss room appears on the map as a circle, as with all the other. Once inside, however, it's actually a long corridor (the extra space is used for storing, of all things, cannons)., with the miniboss being a giant armored lizard swinging an Epic Flail. To get past him without getting smashed to bits, Link has to hookshot the ceiling behind the lizard and drop down. Off-screen example in Evil Genius, in which the greatest triumph of Super Agent Jet Chan was defeating an evil genius who built a long, narrow lair which ran the length of the Great Wall of China. Chan reportedly used the lair's layout to his advantage, forcing the genius' mooks to fight him one-on-one rather than let them gang up on him. Web Original Anime Crimes Division: Season 2 has Joe get in a hallway fight when he visits Prestige TV City, a city dedicated to beloved western shows like Breaking Bad and Game of Thrones instead of anime. It's even lampshaded with an original song playing in the background all about how you have to have a hallway fight scene now. Community Tropes HQ TVTropes is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. 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As Bernie Sanders sees it, Wall Street got a big boost when U.S. taxpayers bailed out some of the largest financial institutions in 2008. Now it's time for Wall Street to return the favor. Sanders has proposed something he calls a speculation tax, a small levy on every stock, bond or derivative sold in the United States. The revenue would go toward free tuition at public colleges and universities and would also be used to pare down student debt and pay for work-study programs, as well as other programs, Sanders says. While Hillary Clinton has proposed a similar tax on high-speed trading, Sanders' plan would go much further. Both candidates say their tax would cut back on computer-generated, high-speed trading, which is often accused of destabilizing the markets and giving an unfair advantage to large firms. "These high-frequency traders ... make enormous amounts of money, billions and billions of dollars, and do nothing of any social value for the economy," said Len Burman, co-director of the Tax Policy Center, a joint project of the Urban Institute and the Brookings Institution. "They're just kind of the modern-day equivalent of skimming pennies out of the till." The idea of a tax on financial transactions is anything but new. Over the years, versions of it have been proposed by economists John Maynard Keynes and James Tobin. The United States actually had such a tax until 1966, as do numerous countries today. The European Union is expected to impose one as soon as next year. Under the Sanders proposal, trades would be taxed at a rate of 0.5 percent for stocks and 0.1 percent for bonds. A stock trade of $1,000 would thus incur a cost of $5. Burman believes the tax "would have mixed effects." "On the one hand, it will raise the cost of investment," he said. "It's going to be a little bit more costly to get capital to businesses and others who have got useful things they want to do with it, and that's a cost to the economy. "On the other hand, to the extent that it discourages unproductive trading ... that's a good thing for the economy." Given the huge size of the financial markets and the enormous volumes of trading that take place today, such a tax could also raise a lot of revenue, although estimates of exactly how much vary widely. Robert Pollin, co-director of the Political Economy Research Institute at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, who has studied the issue for years, said the Sanders proposal mirrors a tax proposed by Democratic U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison of Minnesota in a bill called the "Inclusive Prosperity Act." Pollin believes such a tax could raise as much as $340 billion a year over the next decade. But the Tax Policy Center said the potential revenue would be less than one-tenth of that. One reason for the big disparity between the estimates is that no one really knows how Wall Street firms would respond if such a tax was imposed. John Cochrane, senior fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, said many firms would find ways to get around the tax, by routing transactions through overseas markets, or trading options instead of stocks, for instance. "It'll induce some very clever financial innovation of how to get around it," Cochrane said, "because there's ways to trade without incurring the tax, and, as a result, I don't think it'll gain much revenue." "The cleverness of our financial engineers shouldn't be underestimated," he added. Although the tax would be imposed on big banks and other large financial institutions, at least some of the pain would end up getting passed on to small investors, through higher costs to pension and insurance funds that invest in Wall Street, Burman said. But Warren Gunnels, policy director for the Sanders campaign, argued that if Wall Street firms pass on the cost to investors, tax credits would be available to help low- and moderate-income people defray the cost. Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Strengthened Fenton degradation of phenol catalyzed by core/shell Fe-Pd@C nanocomposites derived from mechanochemically synthesized Fe-Metal organic frameworks. We have prepared core/shell structured hollow Fe-Pd@C nanomaterials derived from Fe-metal organic frameworks which were synthesized via cheap, fast and simple mechanochemical technique. The obtained Fe-Pd@C can steadily and continuously release Fe2+ from the galvanic corrosion of Fe0 anode to trigger H2O2 decomposition into hydroxyl radicals and cause fast (10 min) and efficient (mineralization rate 95%) degradation of phenol. The presence of low level of Pd NPs in Fe-Pd@C (mass ratio of the raw material: Fe/Pd = 100:1) facilitated fast Fe3+/Fe2+ redox cycle and thus improved the catalytic performance and pH endurance of the Fe-Pd@C. After recycled four times, Fe-Pd@C remained high catalytic performance and released low level of iron ions (2.5 mg L-1), which reduced the production of iron sludge after usage. In contrast to zero-valent iron (ZVI) and commercial physically mixed Fe/C materials, the core/shell structure of Fe-Pd@C ensured efficient electron transferring from Fe0 to carbon cathode and targets, and prevented the precipitation of iron ions on Fe0 surface, avoiding the deactivation of Fe0 and termination of Fe-C internal micro-electrolysis (IME) and extending their service life. The reactive species quenching experiments and ESR characterization proved the synergistic effect of electrons and hydroxyl free radicals on degradation of phenol. The carbon-centered DMPO radical detected in reaction solution can be regarded as a proof for the strengthened oxidation ability of the combined IME and Fenton reaction.

Headgear Accessories Cap Skulls Panzer EM/NCO M43 Cap Insignia Panzer SS EM/NCO M43 Trapezoid BeVo Style Cap Insignia (Mützen Abzeichen). It is a BeVo machine embroidered black and grey cotton stitching to a black rayon base. The trapezoid shaped obverse depicts a grey SS eagle with outstretched wings clutching a wreathed mobile swastika in its talons above a grey Totenkopf skull and crossbones with a single row ... Read and See More Item Number: CB-21337 Rating: Exc++ Price: $399.95 USD Allgemeine SS Kepi/Visor Cap Skull Here we have a beautiful 1st pattern Danziger style, jawless skull on crossbones. It is made of die stamped tombak that has been silver washed. Both prongs remain intact! Beautiful silver wash, patina and detail! ... See More Item Number: CB-21050 Rating: Exc+ Price: $499.95 USD Cap Eagles Luftwaffe EM/NCO Cap Eagle A beautiful example! On a blue wool and black cloth backing is a white machine embroidered Luftwaffe open winged eagle, clutching a swastika in one of its talons. Overall good, clean condition. ... See More Item Number: CB-21670 Rating: Exc++ Price: $89.95 USD Sea Customs Officials Visor Cap Insignia A Wasserzollbeamte Schirmmütze Abzeichen. The eagle and wreath are constructed out of a die stamped zinc-alloy base that have been gold washed. The tri-piece cockade is constructed out of a die stamped aluminum alloy base that has been black painted/silver washed and has a red felt plug. The obverse features a sea customs eagle with outstretched wings clutching ... Read and See More Item Number: CB-21401 Rating: NM Price: $499.95 USD Panzer EM/NCO M43 Cap Insignia Panzer SS EM/NCO M43 Trapezoid BeVo Style Cap Insignia (Mützen Abzeichen). It is a BeVo machine embroidered black and grey cotton stitching to a black rayon base. The trapezoid shaped obverse depicts a grey SS eagle with outstretched wings clutching a wreathed mobile swastika in its talons above a grey Totenkopf skull and crossbones with a single row ... Read and See More Item Number: CB-21337 Rating: Exc++ Price: $399.95 USD Police M43/Overseas Cap Eagle and Cockade A Polizei Mützenadler. The police eagle is constructed out of grey machined embroidered cotton thread, while the cockade is constructed out of red, white and black machine embroidered cotton, all on a green cotton border and rayon backing. The observe depicts a 2nd pattern police eagle, clutching a wreathed swastika in its talons, surrounded by another oak leaf and ... Read and See More Item Number: CB-20889 Rating: NM Price: $44.95 USD Police M43/Overseas Cap Badge A Polizei Mützenadler. It is constructed out of machine embroidered black/white cotton thread, on a black rayon base. The obverse depicts a 2nd pattern police eagle, with outstretched wings clutching a wreathed mobile swastika in its talons which is surrounded by another oak leaf and acorn wreath. It measure approximately 2 1/4 inches wide by 2 1/16 inches tall. ... See More Item Number: CB-20888 Rating: NM Price: $54.95 USD Rural “Landwacht” Police Visor Cap Eagle A Rural “Landwacht” (Land Watch/Guards) Auxiliary Police Visor Cap Eagle (Gendarmerie Polizei “Landwacht” Mützenadler). It is constructed of a die stamped, alloy base that has been silver washed. The obverse depicts a police eagle, clutching a wreathed swastika within its talons, surrounded by an oak leaf wreath and is above a bannered: “Landwacht”. The hollow back reverse has ... Read and See More Item Number: CB-20635 Rating: NM Price: $67.95 USD Rural “Landwacht” Police Visor Cap Eagle A Rural “Landwacht” (Land Watch/Guards) Auxiliary Police Visor Cap Eagle 1937 (Gendarmerie Polizei “Landwacht” Mützenadler). It is constructed of a die stamped, alluminum base that has been silver washed. The obverse depicts a police eagle, clutching a wreathed swastika within its talons, surrounded by an oak leaf wreath and is above a bannered: “Landwacht”. The hollow back reverse is ... Read and See More Item Number: CB-20630 Rating: NM/Mint- Price: $69.95 USD Police Visor Cap Badge A Polizei Mützenadler. It is constructed out of a die stamped, zinc-alloy base that has been silver washed. The obverse depicts a 2nd pattern police eagle, clutching a wreathed swastika within its talons, surrounded by an oak leaf wreath that is tied together at the bottom. The hollow back reverse retains both of its crimped tombak prongs. It measures ... Read and See More Item Number: CB-20627 Rating: Exc++/NM Price: $44.95 USD Army M43 EM/NCO Eagle/Cockade Cap Insignia Here we have an Army M43 EM/NCO Eagle/Cockade Cap Insignia (Heer Mützen Abzeichen). Introduced May 1943, this insignia is intended for wear on the M42 overseas and M43 field caps. It is constructed out of bevo machine embroidered cotton thread to a green rayon backing. The obverse depicts a grey Heer open winged eagle, clutching a wreathed swastika ... Read and See More Item Number: CB-19820 Rating: Exc++/NM Price: $39.95 USD Army M43 EM/NCO Eagle/Cockade Cap Insignia Here we have an Army M43 EM/NCO Eagle/Cockade Cap Insignia (Heer Mützen Abzeichen). Introduced May 1943, this insignia is intended for wear on the M42 overseas and M43 field caps. It is constructed out of bevo machine embroidered cotton thread to a green rayon backing. The obverse depicts a grey Heer open winged eagle, clutching a wreathed swastika ... Read and See More Item Number: CB-19819 Rating: Exc++/NM Price: $44.95 USD Army M43 EM/NCO Eagle/Cockade Cap Insignia Here we have an Army M43 EM/NCO Eagle/Cockade Cap Insignia (Heer Mützen Abzeichen). Introduced May 1943, this insignia is intended for wear on the M42 overseas and M43 field caps. It is constructed out of bevo machine embroidered cotton thread to a green rayon backing. The obverse depicts a grey Heer open winged eagle, clutching a wreathed swastika ... Read and See More Item Number: CB-19817 Rating: NM Price: $44.95 USD Police Visor Cap Badge Here we have a 2nd Pattern Police Visor Cap Badge (Polizei Mützenadler)! It is constructed out of a die stamped, zinc base that has been silver washed. The obverse depicts a police eagle, clutching a wreathed swastika within its talons, surrounded by an oak leaf wreath that is tied together at the bottom. The hollow back reverse retains both ... Read and See More Item Number: CB-19689 Rating: Exc+/Exc++ Price: $44.95 USD Navy EM/NCO Cap Eagle Here we have a Kreigsmarine EM/NCO "Donald Duck" Cap eagle! It is made of die struck, alloy that has been gold gilded. The obverse features a Kreigsmarine open winged eagle clutching a wreathed swastika within its talons. The reverse shows a hollow back and has a soldered pin attached to it. A beautiful example with nice gilding! ... See More Item Number: CB-19618 Rating: Exc++ Price: $69.95 USD Luftwaffe EM/NCO Cap Eagle A beautiful example! On a blue wool and black cloth backing is a white machine embroidered Luftwaffe open winged eagle, clutching a swastika in one of its talons. Overall good, clean condition with traces of glue and material from where this badge was removed from the Vet's scrapbook. ... See More Item Number: CB-19573 Rating: Exc++/NM Price: $79.95 USD SS Visor Cap Eagle by RZM M1/17 Here we have a SS Visor Cap Eagle (SchutzStaffel Schirmmütze Adler) by F. W. Assmann & Sohne of Lüdenscheid. It is constructed out of an injection molded aluminum-alloy/cupal base that has been silver washed and lacquered. The obverse features a left facing SS eagle with outstretched wings clutching a wreathed mobile swastika in its talons. The hollow back ... Read and See More Item Number: CB-19079 Rating: Exc+ Price: $849.95 USD Luftwaffe EM/NCO M43 Overseas Cap Badge Here we have a Luftwaffe (Airforce) EM/NCO 2nd Pattern M43 Overseas Cap Eagle (Mützen Adler)! On blue wool backing is a white cotton machine embroidered 2nd pattern Luftwaffe open winged eagle, clutching a mobile swastika in one of its talons. It shows age toning/soilage. It measures approximately 2 3/8 inches wide by 1 3/8 inches tall. There are threads remaining where ... Read and See More Item Number: CB-18945 Rating: Exc+ Price: $59.95 USD Tropical Navy/Coastal Artillery EM/NCO Cap Eagle Here we have a M43 Tropical (DAK) Navy/Coastal Artillery (Kriegsmarine Küstenartillerie) EM/NCO Cap Eagle (Mützen Adler). It is constructed out of yellow and brown machine embroidered cotton to a brown rayon base. The obverse features a Navy eagle with outstretched wings clutching a wreathed mobile swastika in its talons. The reverse shows folded over edges with ... Read and See More Item Number: CB-18839 Rating: Exc++/NM Price: $119.95 USD Army EM/NCO Visor Cap Eagle Here we have a 2nd pattern Army EM/NCO Visor Cap Eagle! It is constructed out of a die stamped zinc-alloy base that has been silver washed. The obverse depicts a Heer eagle, clutching a wreathed swastika within its talons. The hollow back reverse shows two crimped tombak prongs. The silver wash has been absorbed by the zinc and it ... Read and See More Item Number: CB-18569 Rating: Exc+/Exc++ Price: $59.95 USD Navy M43 Overseas Cap Eagle A good Kriegsmarine (Navy) M43 Overseas Cap Eagle (Mützen Adler)! It is constructed out of machine embroidered yellow and blue cotton thread to a navy-blue rayon backing. The obverse features a yellow Kriegsmarine eagle with out-streached wings clutching a wreathed mobile swastika in its talons on a blue backing. The reverse has three pieces of black paper/glue remnants ... Read and See More Item Number: CB-18534 Rating: Exc++/NM Price: $59.95 USD Navy M43 Overseas Cap Eagle A good cap eagle! It is constructed out of machine embroidered yellow and blue cotton thread to a navy-blue rayon backing. The obverse features a yellow Kriegsmarine eagle with out-streached wings clutching a wreathed mobile swastika in its talons on a blue backing. The reverse has three pieces of black paper/glue remnants and a piece of tape. It measures 2 1/2 ... Read and See More Item Number: CB-18533 Rating: Exc++/NM Price: $59.95 USD Navy M43 Overseas Cap Eagle A good cap eagle! It is constructed out of machine embroidered yellow and blue cotton thread to a navy-blue rayon backing. The obverse features a yellow Kriegsmarine eagle with out-streached wings clutching a wreathed mobile swastika in its talons on a blue backing. It measures 3 ¾ inches wide by 1 ½ inches tall. A nice one! ... See More Item Number: CB-18532 Rating: Exc++/NM Price: $59.95 USD 1927 Pattern Political Cap Eagle Here we have a 1927 pattern SS/NSDAP/HJ/SA Political Cap Eagle! It is constructed out of a die stamped nickel-silver base that has been silver washed and black painted. The obverse shows the 1927 pattern eagle with outstretched wings clutching a wreathed black swastika within its talons. The reverse shows a hollow back. All three of the brennlack finished prongs ... Read and See More Item Number: CB-18045 Rating: NM Price: $89.95 USD Police Cap Eagle and Cockade On green rayon backing, we have here a grey machined embroidered police open winged eagle, clutching a wreathed swastika in its talons, above another wreath and below a cockade. It is a near mint unissued piece here for the taking! ... See More Item Number: CB-17146 Rating: NM Price: $69.95 USD Army M44 Eagle/Cockade Cap Insignia Here we have an Army M44 Eagle/Cockade Cap Insignia. On a field grey cotton backing, is a grey machined embroidered Heer open winged eagle, clutching a wreathed swastika in its talons, above a tri color cockade all on a green trapezoid backing with a thin white cotton border to the exterior. It measures 2 5/8 inches wide by 2 inches high. It ... Read and See More Item Number: CB-16616 Rating: NM Price: $69.95 USD Luftwaffe EM/NCO Cap Eagle Here’s a nice one! On blue wool backing is a white cotton machine embroidered 2nd pattern Luftwaffe open winged eagle, clutching a mobile swastika in one of its talons. It is in super condition! There are some loose threads to the exterior where it was stitched to a cap. It measures approximately 3 inches wide by 1 5/8 inches tall. An excellent ... Read and See More Item Number: CB-15569 Rating: NM Price: $89.95 USD Early 1st Pattern Navy EM/NCO Cap Eagle and Cockade Not too often do you see these 1st pattern ones! Here we have a Navy EM/NCO ”Donald Duck’ Cap Eagle and Cockade. This cap badge is constructed out of multi-pieces. The eagle is a die stamped tombak base that has been gold gilded. The cockade has a red felt center piece, a die stamped silvered tombak middle section and ... Read and See More Item Number: CB-15495 Rating: NM Price: $169.95 USD Army M43 Eagle/Cockade Cap Insignia Here we have an Army M43 Eagle/Cockade Cap Insignia. On a green rayon backing, is a grey machined embroidered Heer open winged eagle, clutching a wreathed swastika in its talons, above a tri color cockade all on a green trapezoid and rectangular backing. It measures 2 1/2 inches wide by1 15/16 inches high. It is a nice unissued piece! ... See More Item Number: CB-15125 Rating: Exc++ Price: $49.95 USD Navy Officers Cap Eagle Wreath and Cockade Insignia Gorgeous craftsmanship displayed here! The eagle is constructed out of hand embroidered twisted gold bullion thread which has been stitched to a navy blue wool and blue buckram base that has a glued on black paper backing. The obverse depicts a Kriegsmarine open winged eagle, clutching a wreathed swastika in its talons. The reverse shows the hand stitched on threads, ... Read and See More Item Number: CB-15073 Rating: Exc++ Price: $379.95 USD Army Cap Eagle/Collar Tab Pin / Stickpin Well here is a unique piece! It is made of a die stamped, aluminum base that has been silver washed. The obverse features a Heer national eagle with outstreached wings clutching a wreathed swastika in its talons. The reverse shows a crimped tombak pin. A neat piece! ... See More Item Number: CB-12162 Rating: Exc++ Price: $69.95 USD Navy EM/NCO Cap Eagle Here we have a Navy EM/NCO "Donald Duck" Cap Eagle. It is steel based, die stamped and gold gilded. The obverse shows a Kreigsmarine eagle with out-stretched wings clutching a wreathed swastika within its talons. The reverse shows a hollow back and has a soldered and knurled pin. A nice piece you?re your collection! ... See More Item Number: CB-11511 Rating: Exc+/Exc++ Price: $69.95 USD Rural Landwacht Police Cap Badge Here we have a rare piece! This is a Rural Landwacht Police Cap Badge! It is aluminum based, silver washed and die stamped. The obverse depicts a police eagle, clutching a wreathed swastika within its talons, surrounded by an oak leaf wreath and above a bannered: ?Landwacht?. The reverse has both of its prongs intact. Nice piece with good silver ... Read and See More Item Number: CB-10784 Rating: NM Price: $69.95 USD Veterans NSKOV Visor Cap Eagle Here we have a Veterans NSKOV Visor Cap Eagle. It goes on the NSKOV National Sozialistische Kriegsopferversorgung (National Socialist Association for Disabled War Veterans) Visor. It is made of die stamped alloy and has been silver washed and red and black painted. The obverse depicts a larger closed winged eagle clutching a bannered "NSKOV" in its talons and has the ... Read and See More Item Number: CB-10636 Rating: Exc+/Exc++ Price: $69.95 USD NSKK Cap Eagle Here we have a nickel-silver, die stamped and black burnished NSKK Cap eagle. The obverse features an NSKK eagle with outstretched wings, clutching a wreathed swastika within its talons below a bannered ?N.S.K.K.?. The reverse retains both prongs that are gold gilded and RZM 24 marked. A great example! ... See More Item Number: CB-10586 Rating: Exc+/Exc++ Price: $129.95 USD NSKK Service Visor Cap Eagle Here a rare bird! A second pattern NSKK Service Kepi/Visor Cap Eagle! It is made of die stamped aluminum that has been silver washed. The obverse depicts an NSKK eagle, clutching a wreathed swastika within its talons all below a bannered ?NSKK?. The prongs are lost to time. The reverse is marker marked: “RZM M1/52?. A beauty example! ... See More Item Number: CB-10460 Rating: Exc+/Exc++ Price: $239.95 USD Veterans NSKOV Visor Cap Eagle Here we have a Veterans NSKOV Visor Cap Eagle. It goes on the NSKOV National Sozialistische Kriegsopferversorgung (National Socialist Association for Disabled War Veterans) Visor. It is made of die stamped alloy and has been silver washed and red and black painted. The obverse depicts a larger closed winged eagle clutching a bannered "NSKOV" in its talons and has the ... Read and See More Item Number: CB-10459 Rating: Exc++ Price: $79.95 USD Luftwaffe Herman Goring Division Cap Badge A great example of a Herman Goring Division Cap Badge! It is the second pattern eagle in silver/grey rayon on a black wool backing. It measures approximately 3 inches wide by 1 1/2 inches high. Nice! ... See More Item Number: BE-10135 Rating: Exc+/Exc++ Price: $129.95 USD Luftwaffe Herman Goring Division Cap Eagle Beautiful example of a Herman Goring Division Cap Eagle! It is the second pattern, machine embroidered, eagle in white/grey rayon on a black wool backing. This one appears to be unissued. It measures approximately 3 inches wide by 1 1/2 inches high. It retains beautiful color and detail! Just wonderful! ... See More Item Number: CB-9713 Rating: Mint- Price: $149.95 USD Police 2nd Pattern Visor Cap Eagle Here we have a 2nd Pattern Police Cap Eagle! It is zinc based and die stamped. The obverse depicts a police eagle, clutching a wreathed swastika within its talons, surrounded by an oak leaf wreath. The reverse has no prongs. An inexpensive way to add to your collection! ... See More Item Number: CB-9464 Rating: Exc++ Price: $49.95 USD Police 2nd Pattern Visor Cap Eagle Here we have several 2nd Pattern Police Cap Eagles! They are aluminum based and die stamped. The obverse depicts a police eagle, clutching a wreathed swastika within its talons, surrounded by an oak leaf wreath. The reverse continues to retain both of its tombak prongs. Nice and bright with beautiful detail and in excellent condition! ... See More Item Number: CB-9456 Rating: Exc++ Price: $49.95 USD Luftwaffe EM/NCO Cap Eagle Here we have a quality machine embroidered Luftwaffe EM/NCO Luftwaffe EM/NCO Breast Eagle eagle. On a blue wool backing, the obverse depicts a white Luftwaffe open winged eagle, clutching a swastika in its talon. It is lightly toned with age. It measure 3 inches wide by 1 1/2 inches high. Nice detail! Overall a good piece here just for you! ... See More Item Number: CB-8837 Rating: Exc+ Price: $79.95 USD Luftwaffe EM/NCO Cap Eagle Here we have a quality machine embroidered Luftwaffe EM/NCO cap eagle. On a blue wool cotton backing, the obverse depicts a white Luftwaffe open winged eagle, clutching a swastika in its talon. It is toned with age. It measure 3 inches wide by 1 1/2 inches high. Nice detail! Overall a good piece here just for you! ... See More Item Number: CB-8836 Rating: Exc+ Price: $69.95 USD Cap Removed Luftwaffe EM/NCO Cap Eagle Here we have a quality machine embroidered Luftwaffe EM/NCO cap eagle. On a blue wool and black cotton backing, the obverse depicts a white Luftwaffe open winged eagle, clutching a swastika in its talon. It still has some threads where it had been removed. It is lightly toned. It measure 3 inches wide by 1 1/2 inches high. Nice detail! Overall a ... Read and See More Item Number: CB-8835 Rating: Exc++ Price: $89.95 USD 2nd Pattern Police eagle and wreath Army EM/NCO Cap Eagle and Cockade On a green/grey backing, we have here a grey machined embroidered Heer open winged eagle, clutching a wreathed swastika in its talons, above a cockade. It measures 2 1/2 inches wide by 1 1/2 inches high. It is a beautiful piece! ... See More M43 Eagle/Cockade Cap Insignia Cockades Sea Customs Officials Visor Cap Insignia A Wasserzollbeamte Schirmmütze Abzeichen. The eagle and wreath are constructed out of a die stamped zinc-alloy base that have been gold washed. The tri-piece cockade is constructed out of a die stamped aluminum alloy base that has been black painted/silver washed and has a red felt plug. The obverse features a sea customs eagle with outstretched wings clutching ... Read and See More Item Number: CB-21401 Rating: NM Price: $499.95 USD Visor Cap Wreath Visor Cap Wreath. Die stamped, silver washed aluminum alloy. Three of the four prongs remain intact. ... See More Item Number: CB-18990 Rating: Exc Price: $14.95 USD Visor Cap Cockade Here we have an Early Visor Cap Cockade! It is a multi-piece construction consisting of a black printed press cardboard piece, die stamped nickel-silver adjoining piece and a red felt plug. The round shaped obverse of the national tri-color cockade features a red felt centerpiece, surrounded by a swirl piece and is above a black zig-zagged backing. The reverse shows ... Read and See More Item Number: CB-18989 Rating: Exc++ Price: $39.95 USD Army Cockade and wreath Army M44 Eagle/Cockade Cap Insignia Here we have an Army M44 Eagle/Cockade Cap Insignia. On a field grey cotton backing, is a grey machined embroidered Heer open winged eagle, clutching a wreathed swastika in its talons, above a tri color cockade all on a green trapezoid backing with a thin white cotton border to the exterior. It measures 2 5/8 inches wide by 2 inches high. It ... Read and See More Item Number: CB-16616 Rating: NM Price: $69.95 USD Luftwaffe EM/NCO Visor Wreath and Cockade Here we have a Luftwaffe EM/NCO Visor Wreath and Cockade! It is aluminum based, die stamped and silver washed with black and red paint work. The obverse depicts a centrally placed black, white and red cockade that is surrounded by an oak leaf and acorn wreath, with wings to the sides. The reverse shows a hollow back. Both prongs ... Read and See More Item Number: CB-16563 Rating: Exc++/NM Price: $49.95 USD Early Visor Cap Cockade Here we have an Early Visor Cap Cockade! This a multi-piece cockade. The round shaped obverse depicts an off-red cotton centerpiece, surrounded by a silvered tombak based swirled piece and above a black painted zig-zagged backing. All of the tombak prongs remain intact. It measures approximately 7/8 of an inch in diameter. A nice bright example looking for the right visor! ... See More Item Number: CB-15290 Rating: Exc++ Price: $39.95 USD Navy Officers Cap Eagle Wreath and Cockade Insignia Gorgeous craftsmanship displayed here! The eagle is constructed out of hand embroidered twisted gold bullion thread which has been stitched to a navy blue wool and blue buckram base that has a glued on black paper backing. The obverse depicts a Kriegsmarine open winged eagle, clutching a wreathed swastika in its talons. The reverse shows the hand stitched on threads, ... Read and See More Item Number: CB-15073 Rating: Exc++ Price: $379.95 USD Panzer Beret Wreath and Cockade Here we have a Panzer Beret Wreath and Cockade! It is made of a black rayon base with black white and red machine embroidered stitching. The obverse features a centrally placed cockade that is surrounded by an oak leaf and acorn wreath. It measures 3 1/2 inches wide by 2 inches high. It retains nice clear colors and detail! ... See More Item Number: CB-11000 Rating: NM Price: $169.95 USD Cap Wreath for a Cockade This is a die stamped, aluminum, decorative wreath for a cockade. It depicts oak leaves and acorns. The back retains all 2 tombak prongs. ... See More Item Number: CB-10578 Rating: Exc++ Price: $39.95 USD Cap Wreath for a Cockade This is a die stamped, aluminum, decorative wreath for a cockade. It depicts oak leaves and acorns. The back retains all 4 aluminum prongs. ... See More Item Number: CB-10577 Rating: NM Price: $39.95 USD Panzer EM/NCO Overseas/M43 Cockade Here we have a machine embroidered red, white and black cotton cockade on a black rayon backing. It is in unissued condition! Extremely hard to find! ... See More Early Tombac Cockade Wreath Cap Wreath for Cockade This is a die struck aluminum decorative wreath for a cockade. It depicts oak leaves and acorns. All four prongs remain intact. It is marked: ?C.T.O.? and ?38?. Nice piece. ... See More Item Number: CB-8359 Rating: Mint Price: $49.95 USD Army EM/NCO Cap Eagle and Cockade On a green/grey backing, we have here a grey machined embroidered Heer open winged eagle, clutching a wreathed swastika in its talons, above a cockade. It measures 2 1/2 inches wide by 1 1/2 inches high. It is a beautiful piece! ... See More Item Number: CB-8355 Rating: NM Price: $59.95 USD Cap Wreath for a Cockade This is a die struck aluminum decorative wreath for a cockade. It depicts oak leaves and acorns. The bottom prong remains intact. The obverse looks great! ... See More Item Number: CB-7507 Rating: Exc+ Price: $39.95 USD Army EM Bullion Wreath and Cockade On green cloth backing this army officer bullion wreath and cockade depicts a hand embroidered oak leaf wreath in bright, silver/aluminum wire threads. And to the center of the wreath a hand embroidered national tri-color (white, black and red) cockade. It measures 2.5 inches wide and 1.75 inches high. ... See More Army EM/NCO Visor Cap Wreath and Cockade Luftwaffe EM/NCO Visor Wreath and Cockade Here we have a Luftwaffe EM/NCO Visor Wreath and Cockade! It is constructed out of a die stamped aluminium base that has been silver washed and black and red painted. The obverse shows a centrally placed tri-color cockade surrounded by an oak leaf and acorn wreath that has two wings coming out of it. The reverse shows a hollow ... Read and See More Item Number: CB-5526 Rating: Exc+ Price: $29.95 USD Luftwaffe EM/NCO Visor Wreath and Cockade One piece silver washed die struck alloy with a painted cockade. Measures approx 5 1/2" and nicely vaulted insignia is in NM condition. We have several with all mounting prongs intact. ... See More M43 Eagle/Cockade Cap Insignia Cap Badges & Insignia Unissued - Water Customs Cap Wreath In its original cellophane and paper envelope sold by “Thiele & Steinert Aktiengesellschaft Berlin SW 19 Alexandrinenstraße 89 Fernruf: A 7 3026-27”. House of History found a horde of these a while back. ... See More Item Number: CB-21756 Rating: Mint-/Mint Price: $99.95 USD Hitler Youth Cap Badge Hitlerjungend Mützenabzeichen by RZM M1/128 - Eugen Schmidhäussler of Pforzheim. It is constructed out of a die stamped bronze base that has been silver washed and contains red, white and black enamel work. The rhomboid diamond shaped obverse depicts the Hitler Youth emblem, which consists of; a black mobile swastika above a silvered square diamond which is surrounded ... Read and See More DRKB Visor Cap Cockade and Wreath Here we have a DRKB (Deutscher Reichs Krieger Bund - German National Veterans Association) Veterans 1st Pattern Visor Cap Cockade and Wreath. It is constructed out of a multi-piece die stamped tombak base that has been gold gilded and contains a cockade that has red, white and black machine embroidered silk cloth work. The obverse cockade depicts a centrally placed ... Read and See More Item Number: CB-19672 Rating: NM Price: $54.95 USD RAD EM/NCO Cap Badge by FW 1937 Here we have a RAD (Reichsarbeitsdiens) EM/NCO Cap Badge by FW 1937. This would be appropriate insignia for the RAD M43 Field Cap. It is constructed out of a die struck aluminum alloy base that has been silver washed and contains black and red paint work. The obverse features the RAD emblem, which consists of: a black mobile swastika in ... Read and See More Item Number: CB-18674 Rating: Exc+ Price: $39.95 USD Police Cap Eagle and Cockade On green rayon backing, we have here a grey machined embroidered police open winged eagle, clutching a wreathed swastika in its talons, above another wreath and below a cockade. It is a near mint unissued piece here for the taking! ... See More Item Number: CB-17146 Rating: NM Price: $69.95 USD Auxiliary & Security Police (Schuma) Officers Cap Badge For the members of the Schutzmannschaften (local auxiliary security forces in the occupied east). It is constructed out of a silver rayon and black threads on a black rayon base. The obverse depicts a vertically elongated mobile swastika surrounded by a laurel leaf wreath that is tied together at the bottom and all lies on a black base. It measures ... Read and See More Item Number: CB-17000 Rating: Exc++/NM Price: $59.95 USD Prussian Pickelhaube Front Plate WWI Prussian Pickelhaube Front Plate - In die stamped bronze gilt, One of the loops is missing. ... See More Item Number: CB-16564 Rating: Exc Price: $109.95 USD Early Pith Helmet Tri-Color Shield Not too often do you see these early ones! It is constructed out of a die stamped tombak base that has been silver washed and black and red painted. The shield shaped obverse shows black, white and red colors on a 45 degree angle. The reverse shows a hollow back and retains all three soldered on tombak prongs. It measures approximately 1 3/8 ... Read and See More Item Number: CB-15292 Rating: Exc+ Price: $69.95 USD FAD Cap Badge Predecessor of the RAD movement this is an early piece of silver washed tomac insignia. One prong is lost. ... See More Item Number: CB-12407 Rating: Exc Price: $49.95 USD Auxiliary & Security Police (Schuma) Officers Cap Badge For the members of the Schutzmannschaften (local auxiliary security forces in the occupied east). It is machine made of silver flatwire and black threads on a black rayon base. The obverse depicts a flatwire vertically elongated mobile swastika within in a laurel leaf wreath that is tied together at the bottom and all lies on a black base. It measures ... Read and See More Item Number: CB-11943 Rating: Mint- Price: $69.95 USD Luftschutz Cap Badge Here we have a blue and white, machine embroidered Luftschutz Cap Badge for a "SHD/LSW" Field Cap, on a green rayon backing. Nice piece! ... See More Item Number: CB-10277 Rating: NM Price: $89.95 USD Cap Talleys DAF/KdF “E.S. Robert Len” Cap Tally Deutsche Arbeitsfront / Kraft durch Freude “E.S. Robert Len” Mützenband. It is constructed out of machine embroidered multi-color celleon thread stitched to a black rayon base. The obverse reads, in Gothic style script “E.S. Robert Len” and is flanked by the NSDAP flag and the KdF flag. It measures approximately 37 inches long by 1 5/16 inches wide. Very nice! ... See More Item Number: CB-21710 Rating: NM Price: $179.95 USD Not Available Navy Kreuzer Emden Cap Tally One of many cap tallies that we just got in! It is constructed out of a black rayon base with machine stitched gold gilt thread. The obverse reads, in gold colored gothic type script: “Kreuzer Emden” on a black base. It has two cut off edges. It measures approximately 46 ¾ inches long by 1 ¼ inches wide. It shows nice bright color and ... Read and See More Item Number: CB-13589 Rating: NM Price: $79.95 USD Chin Cords Customs Visor Chinstrap Here we have a German Customs Visor Chinstrap! It is made of grey and green, interwoven and twisted flatwire/bullion/cloth. It is in superb condition. Measures just under 1 foot. ... See More Item Number: Lan-10528 Rating: Exc++ Price: $109.95 USD Railway Service Visor Chinstrap Well if you have been looking for one of these now’s your chance! We have here a Railway Service Visor Chinstrap! It is made of a twisted blue and yellow interwoven cloth material. It is in superb condition. Measures approximately 1 foot. ... See More

Surgical treatment of paraventricular cavernous angioma: fibre tracking for visualizing the corticospinal tract and determining surgical approach. Surgical treatment of deep-seated lesions involving the corticospinal tract is one of the most challenging areas of contemporary neurosurgery, even given the recent development of radiological methods including three-dimensional anisotropy contrast magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) axonography. Fibre tracking using diffusion tensor imaging is another MRI technique that can be used to visualize anisotropy and the orientation of white matter tracts in the brain. We report herein a patient with a paraventricular cavernous angioma manifesting as hemiparesis caused by haemorrhage. Preoperative conventional MRI failed to determine the anatomical relationship between the paraventricular lesion and the corticospinal tract, whereas fibre tracking using free software (dTV for MR-DTI analysis) indicated that the corticospinal tract was displaced anterolaterally from the medial side. The paraventricular lesion was completely removed without damaging the corticospinal tract using a transcortical transventricular approach. Preoperative fibre tracking is useful in surgical planning for procedures involving deep-seated lesions adjacent to the corticospinal tract, and may avoid postoperative morbidity due to corticospinal tract injury.

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Peach Fuzz is made up of yellow and peach colored matte bar glitters. I've layered it over China Glaze Mimosas Before Manis. Fuzz Sea is made up of teal and yellow matte bar glitters. I've layered it over Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Ivory Skull. Wool Knot is made up of light blue and white matte bar glitters. I've layered it over OPI Pamplona Purple. Wool Lite is made up of all light pink matte bar glitters. I've layered it over Butter London Snog. *all products featured in this post were purchased by me Hold on to your knickers kids, because today, I have the most picture heavy post ever. Today, I'm going to show you swatches of six of the new Sally Hansen Fuzzy Coat polishes. Apparently there are 2 others floating around out there in polish world, but the displays I've seen didn't have spots for them.(EDIT: I found them, see them here! The six I have for you today are Peach Fuzz, Fuzz Sea, Tweedy, Wool Knot, Wool Lite, and Fuzzy Fantasy. Just a note, on my thumb, ring, and pinkie fingers I've applied one coat over polish undies, and on my pointer/middle finger you'll see three coats on their own. Ready? Lets do this.Tweedy is made up of black and white matte bar glitters. I've layered it over China Glaze For Audrey.Fuzzy Fantasy is made up of lime green and white matte bar glitter. I've layered it over Essie Butler Please.Application wise these go on fairly easy, you don't have to fish for the glitters and you get plenty of coverage in one coat. Personally I like these better as layering polishes. I love the effect the matte bar glitters give against the contrasting backgrounds.Which look is your favorite? I can't decide between Peach Fuzz and Tweedy.Enjoy & until tomorrow, Amy Lee

Moussaoui Curses U.S., Is Barred From Trial ALEXANDRIA, Va. – Telling him he was his own worst enemy, a federal judges ruled Tuesday that terror suspect Zacarias Moussaoui would be physically barred from a trial in which he faces the death penalty for his alleged role in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema said her main reason for holding Tuesday's hearing was to determine "how Mr. Moussaoui plans to behave ... whether you plan to remain quiet ... or whether you plan to make speeches." Moussaoui, who has clashed with Brinkema frequently over his courtroom tirades and outbursts, did not depart from form. The 37-year-old Frenchman of Moroccan descent accused Brinkema of conspiring to kill him, and then disavowed his home country and his attorneys. "You have been trying to organize my death for four years," Moussaoui said at the lectern after pulling out what appeared to be a handwritten speech. Moussaoui, who has pledged his allegiance to Al Qaeda before the court on numerous occasions, is the only person in the United States to be charged in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. He pled guilty last April to conspiring with Al Qaeda to use aircraft to hit U.S. buildings, but claims the plot was for a second wave of attacks and that he had no role in Sept. 11. As Brinkema repeatedly tried to quiet him, Moussaoui complained that for four years, she had denied him an opportunity to explain his objections to the defense lawyers. "Today is my day," he plunged on. "If I can't make sure that those people are not going to represent me I know that I am dead." At various points in a rambling speech, he called President Bush "a crusader" who was "launching a new campaign of revenge against terrorists." Despite his French citizenship, he said in heavily French-accented English: "I'm not French .... I stand here as a Muslim only. I do not stand here with a nation of homosexual crusaders." He then referred to his three attorneys as a "federal lawyer," a "KKK" (Ku Klux Klan) and a "geisha." Brinkema sternly broke in: "I'm not going to permit you to use a federal courtroom to malign your lawyers." Without raising his voice, Moussaoui responded, "You own everything — the defense, the judge, the attack [prosecutors]. I am Al Qaeda. I am your sworn enemy." To which Brinkema responded: "Mr. Moussaoui, you are the biggest enemy of yourself." She asked again if he would remain quiet or leave. "I'm going to leave," he responded. He gathered his papers, leaving his text behind. "This is for you." "God curse you and America," Moussaoui said as he left the courtroom. He was wearing a white knit cap and a green prison jumpsuit with "prisoner" in white block letters on the back. Brinkema ruled that Moussaoui had forfeited his right to be present and will have to watch jury selection on closed-circuit television from his cell at the courthouse. Moussaoui was tossed out of court four times when jury selection began on Feb. 6 for outbursts in which he disavowed his court-appointed lawyers, proclaimed loyalty to Al Qaeda, derided the trial as a circus and promised to testify truthfully about his role. Lawyers will begin individual questioning of jurors on Wednesday; opening statements are scheduled for March 6. The trial, expected to last one to three months, will determine what sentence Moussaoui receives: death or life in prison. Moussaoui claims he was training to fly a 747 jetliner into the White House after the Sept. 11 attacks if the United States did not release an imprisoned radical Egyptian cleric. But he concealed that from federal agents who arrested him in Minnesota less than four weeks before Sept. 11. Prosecutors will argue that federal agents could have prevented the attacks if Moussaoui had been truthful about his Al Qaeda connections after his Aug. 16, 2001, arrest. To obtain the death penalty, the judge has said, the prosecutors must show that Moussaoui's lies were directly responsible for deaths in Sept. 11 attacks. Defense lawyers argue that Moussaoui knew less about Sept. 11 beforehand than the government, and therefore had no knowledge that would have helped the FBI or any other government agency prevent the attacks.

Titanic Museum Titanic Museum may refer to: RMS Titanic Inc runs traveling museum called Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition The Titanic Museum, a home of Titanic Historical Society in Indian Orchard, Massachusetts The Titanic Exhibits at Maritime Museum of the Atlantic in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada Titanic Museum (Branson, Missouri), attraction museum in Branson, Missouri Titanic museum (Pigeon Forge, Tennessee), attraction museum in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee Titanic Belfast, a visitor attraction on the site where the ship was built in Belfast, Northern Ireland

Comparison of the direct electrochemistry of glucose oxidase immobilized on the surface of Au, CdS and ZnS nanostructures. A comparison of the electrochemical and photoelectrochemical behaviors of three biosensors, based on the use of Au, CdS, and ZnS nanoparticles-glucose oxidase (GOD) system, is discussed. All the nanoparticles were electrodeposited onto the indium tin oxide (ITO) thin film coated glass surface. GOD was then immobilized on the nanoparticles-modified electrodes surface with the sol-gel technique. The deposited nanoparticles on ITO electrodes were characterized by scanning electron microscopy, UV-vis spectroscopy and electrochemical impedance spectra. The direct electrochemistry of GOD, analytical performance of glucose calibration curves and the kinetic parameters of the enzyme reaction were compared for all the electrochemical biosensors. Furthermore, the current response of the quantum dots-GOD system biosensor can be increased after illumination. The electrochemical and photoelectrochemical biosensors based on ZnS nanostructures exhibited higher sensitivity than that of Au or CdS nanostructures. Considering ZnS is nontoxic to human and environment, the results suggest that ZnS nanoparticles-GOD system seems to be a promising platform for fabrication of novel electrochemical and photoelectrochemical biosensors.

The speech was really two separate ones slammed together. In the first he repeated in different ways, over and over again, that “we are transferring power from Washington, D.C. and giving it back to you, the people” because, well, because anyone and everyone in government has turned America into a hellhole. “The establishment protected itself, but not the citizens of our country. Their victories have not been your victories. Their triumphs have not been your triumphs.” In other words, the “establishment” that he now sits atop has betrayed the country. He did not say they were shortsighted or mistaken. He did not say they made progress but left work to do. He attributes unvarnished malice to the entire establishment, dividing it from the “people.” He perfectly channels the resentment of the white working class. And in case you didn’t know how rotten a country this is, he described, as he did on the campaign trail, a dystopia bearing little resemblance to the real United States. (“Mothers and children trapped in poverty in our inner cities, rusted-out factories, scattered like tombstones across the landscape of our nation, an education system flush with cash but which leaves our young and beautiful students deprived of all knowledge. And the crime and the gangs and the drugs that have stolen too many lives and robbed our country of so much unrealized potential.”) You would not know that unemployment stands at 4.7 percent, crime is down and productivity up. He sees only blight. “This American carnage stops right here and stops right now,” he declared. Carnage. Take that in for a moment. Does he see America as a decimated, destroyed and weak country? Apparently yes — or he would like us to believe so in order to, in a year or so, declare how everything has improved. AD AD The second part of the speech was a dark, ugly tribute to “America First,” the language of nationalism, nativism and protectionism. One cringes to hear the president use the phrase of the Charles Lindbergh, fascist-sympathizing set of the 1930s. He puts forth a demonstrably false narrative that we benefited other countries at the expense of our own. He sees no benefit from markets we have developed, from collective security, from the spread of democratic governments, from the prevention of violence on the scale of the two 20th-century world wars. Just as we are supposed to resent the “establishment,” he is telling America to resent the world. One would never know that we have continued to be the world’s only true superpower, that a couple billion people have been lifted from poverty and age expectancy has soared. He does not care to know. They’re robbing us blind, got it? His language was the crude boasting of his campaign. (“America will start winning again, winning like never before. We will bring back our jobs. We will bring back our borders. We will bring back our wealth. And we will bring back our dreams.”) The overwhelming number of Americans are employed; the smokestack jobs are not coming back; wages are up; and Americans dream every day. You’d never know it listening to him. What was missing was virtually any vision of what he wants America to be. The most we got was a promise to “build new roads and highways and bridges and airports and tunnels and railways all across our wonderful nation” and to get “people off of welfare and back to work, rebuilding our country with American hands and American labor.” Beyond that he cannot describe a renewed America. More opportunities? More productive? More understanding between segments of America? There was one brief positive moment in the speech when he offered an olive branch to our allies. “We will reinforce old alliances and form new ones and reform the world against radical Islamic terrorism which we will eradicate from the face of the earth.” He unfortunately followed it with a creepy statism in which we define our personal relationships through nationalistic loyalty. “At the bedrock of our politics will be a total allegiance to the United States of America and through our loyalty to our country, we will rediscover our loyalty to each other.” We actually have relationships, loyalties and bonds with one another that are the fabric of society and do not need to be redefined as an outgrowth of a new sort of nationalism. Conservatives who value civil society free from government should be horrified — if they have intellectual integrity.

Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer on Thursday said the $1.3 trillion spending bill moving through Congress this week should close the chapter on what he called the “era of austerity.” “This spending agreement brings the era of austerity to an unceremonious end and represents one of the most significant investments in the middle class in recent history,” the New York Democrat told reporters. “It’s really a turning around.” Republicans and Democrats alike have decried across-the-board cuts, known as sequesters, that resulted from a 2011 debt deal agreed to by President Obama and Congress. The spending caps resulting from the 2011 Budget Control Act helped produce two straight years of actual reductions in government spending for the first time since the 1950s. But both parties have tried to get around or lift the caps since then. The latest example was a budget deal last month that allowed for $143 billion in additional discretionary spending in 2018. Mandatory spending on entitlement programs like Medicare, which budget analysts agree are the chief drivers of an ever-increasing national debt, are largely exempt from the caps and left on autopilot. “We Democrats are really happy with what we were able to accomplish on a number of priorities that Democrats have fought for all along - infrastructure, education, opioid relief, and more,” Mr. Schumer said of the spending bill. “At the end of the day, as the minority party, we feel good about being able to succeed in so many ways,” he said. “We don’t have the House. We don’t have the Senate. We don’t have the presidency. But we produced a darn good bill for the priorities that we have believed in.” Sign up for Daily Newsletters Manage Newsletters Copyright © 2020 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission.

479 F.2d 922 156 U.S.App.D.C. 201 U. S.v.Shuler 72-2227 UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS District of Columbia Circuit 6/6/73 1 D.C.D.C. AFFIRMED

paleo air 2 Compelling Reasons Why We Know Paleo Air Is Real Every human has basic needs. Without these needs in the proper supply, we typically find that we get sick, and if we are without them for too long, we will die. When most of us think about our health, we think about the food we…

How to win a FUTI Award What are selection criteria of the FUTI Award? [FUTI Summer Scholarship] FUTI’s Summer Scholarship Award (a.k.a. the “FUTI Global Leadership Award”) Program has been established to encourage students of the University of Tokyo (abbreviated as UTokyo) and U.S. universities to acquire experiences that will help them grow into global leaders in their chosen fields. In making an award decision, we evaluate an applicant’s intellectual capacity, his/her communication skills, and extracurricular achievements. FUTI regards strong leadership in the curricular or extracurricular activities as important as the academic performance. An essay written in English is your opportunity to demonstrate your ability to express ideas in your own words. State clearly your career objectives and contributions you aspire to make. Explain how the proposed summer program would help you achieve your goals. From a recommendation letter, we wish to assess your academic standing among your peers and infer your personality and character. It is hoped that our awardees will contribute to the exchange of new ideas and the development of genuine understanding between Japan and the rest of the world. We seek to identify students who demonstrate leadership potential. [Ito Foundation U.S.A.-FUTI Scholarship] What are described above regarding the FUTI Summer Scholarship also apply for the Ito Foundation U.S.A.-FUTI Scholarship. But also refer to [Selection Criteria for the Scholarship] on the Ito Foundation U.S.A.-FUTI page. Deadline Date How flexible is the deadline date? The deadline date is not flexible because we have the FUTI Scholarship Committee meeting shortly after the deadline. If you are in a circumstance which you believe deserves special consideration, send an inquiry through this form. Multiple Applications I plan to apply for more than one summer program. How can I apply for a FUTI scholarship? [FUTI Summer Scholarship] We are aware that UTokyo’s Exchange Program now allows a UTokyo student to apply for as many as three summer programs. FUTI will respond to such applications accordingly, but our application system is a web-based online system, so the procedure is different from UTokyo’s. An applicant must submit an application to each category and each program even within the same category. For instance, you may wish to apply for an IARU-GSP at Yale (Category A), an English Language Course at UC Berkeley (Category B), and another summer program in the U.S. that you have found by yourself (Category C). Indicate which program is your first choice, second choice, and third choice, by completing the relevant field in FUTI’s online application system. Needless to say, you must be selected by the summer program in order to receive a FUTI award. [Ito Foundation U.S.A.-FUTI Scholarship] In case you apply for this scholarship before a decision is made on the host university and its department/course, you can indicate your top three candidates and select their priorities on the FUTI online application form. A typical response from FUTI may be: “The scholarship will be granted if you are admitted to any one of the three candidates” or “The scholarship will be granted only if you are admitted to the first choice candidate.” Applications to Awards for Programs Other Than Summer Programs UTokyo introduced the four-term system beginning 2015. I am interested in a short-term studying/internship abroad after summer, where can I find an application guideline? The FUTI Summer Scholarship supports only summer programs, while the Ito Foundation U.S.A.-FUTI Scholarship supports study abroad programs longer than one semester. FUTI does not support short winter programs at this time. If you have a program worth consideration by FUTI, send an inquiry through this form. Financial Support from Other Source(s) Am I qualified to apply for other financial aid(s) as well as to FUTI’s scholarship program? Yes, you may apply to other financial aid program(s) at your school and/or the host institution and other scholarship programs. At the time of your application to FUTI, you may not know whether you will win such a scholarship or support, but you should state your intention in the application. FUTI communicates with your school and the host institution, and we may adjust the award amount. Under no circumstance should the total support be greater than the total financial need for you to attend your chosen program or internship. Recommendation letter Who can write a recommendation letter? The recommender ought to be a person who can assess objectively your academic standing, other activities and your character. Your academic advisor with teaching appointment is the most suitable. If you do not have an advisor, any professor who knows you well will be fine. Your family member, personal friend or a senior student (e.g., a graduate student) will not be appropriate since they would not typically be in a position to evaluate you vis-à-vis other students in your school. Can I send FUTI a second recommendation letter in addition to the primary one written by my professor? A secondary or even tertiary recommendation letter (for example, from another professor, the supervisor or coach of your extracurricular activity) is welcome. You should let FUTI know if such an arrangement is made. Most applicants submit one recommendation letter because quality matters more over quantity. However, please feel free to submit more than one recommendation letter. The online application form accepts only one reference and one recommendation letter, but please submit additional recommendation letter(s) as follows: Notify FUTI by sending a message through this form that you have additional recommendation letter(s) with the information of your reference(s) equivalent to what is required in the online application form. Request your reference(s) to send the additional recommendation letter(s) directly to FUTI through recommendfriendsofutokyo.org by the deadline. I am a sophomore of UTokyo and have only limited contact with professors because of the unique scheme of UTokyo where students do not belong to any departments for the first year and a half. May I ask my high school teacher to write a recommendation letter? Being UTokyo alumni, FUTI members understand the situation and the difficulty of a freshman or sophomore at UTokyo to have a professor with enough intimate knowledge to write a recommendation letter. However, please try earnestly to get one. If you would still like to get a recommendation letter from a high school teacher, it is also acceptable to submit two letters, one from a UTokyo professor and the other from a high school teacher. FUTI will probably appreciate your academic capability mentioned in the letter from the UTokyo professor, and your characteristics in the letter from your high school teacher. The consideration stated above may be extended to a US student who is in a similar situation, but please explain the situation in the essay portion of the application. What format should the recommendation letter be in? Please have your reference send the recommendation letter as an email attachment to recommendfriendsofutokyo.org in either DOCX, DOC, or PDF format. PDF/Word files My multi-page application/transcript/etc. is separated into several PDF’s. What should I do? We do not accept ZIP files on our online application system, thus it would be best to combine the pages into one PDF file. If you do not have the capability to do this on your computer, visit a site like www.pdfmerge.com where you can combine multiple PDF’s into one PDF file for free. Computations of the GPA What do you mean by the maximum GPA? In some schools the maximum possible GPA score is 4.00 whereas in other schools it may be 3.00. We would like to know this value, since GPA of 2.95 out of 3.00 maximum is quite different from 2.95 out of 4.00 maximum. In some schools, the highest grade is A with 4.00 points but sometimes A+ with 4.30 or A- with 3.70 is marked. In this case, report the maximum GPA of 4.00 rather than 4.30. The transcript of UTokyo doesn’t show GPA and, therefore, an applicant from UTokyo must calculate GPA according to the calculation table, which must be included in the application material. (A calculation table will be made available soon.) Over what period should the GPA be calculated? Usually the transcript of your school shows the GPA and its period. If it is not clearly stated, please supply this information. If you are a first year graduate student, please submit the transcript of the undergraduate period as well as the one at the graduate school. If you have a TOEIC or IELTS score already, you may submit it in lieu of a TOEFL, but Yale or UC Berkeley may not accept TOEIC for their IARU-GSP programs. Is it OK to submit the score of a TOEFL test which I took more than a year ago? If you cannot obtain a more recent test result before the deadline, submitting an old TOEFL score is fine. It will help us to infer your current English proficiency level. Is there a minimum score level acceptable to FUTI? No. FUTI does not require any specific score level for TOEFL or other English language proficiency tests. However, it requires the applicant’s score to meet the requirement imposed by the program he or she is applying to. Please note that certain English language programs (e.g., Yale’s English Language Institute) do not have a minimum requirement for the English proficiency test score. Applications to FUTI and the host university Is it necessary to submit an application to FUTI in addition to an application to the host university? Yes, you should submit a separate application to FUTI, because FUTI and your host university apply different data processing on your applications. Please don’t forget to ask your reference to send a recommendation letter separately to FUTI. Host or Coordinator What do you mean by “Study Abroad Program Coordinator”? In many schools, including UTokyo, there is an individual or office which coordinates the application of their students to overseas-study programs. We would like to have this information, because we may sometimes need to find out about your university’s policy concerning study abroad or when our attempt to reach you somehow fails. If you know such a person at your university, please provide the name, email and phone of that person. If you do not have such an individual or office and are handling the application matters all by yourself, write “N/A (not applicable)” in that field or box. What do you mean by “Your Prospective Host Professor or Lab’s Name(s)”? Please provide information of your contact person at the institution or lab who will be hosting you at the summer program of your choice. In the case of an internship program, you may also know a prospective professor who will be hosting you. If you do not know such individuals, please provide the email address (and the phone number, if known) of the office which is hosting the summer program. Instructions for Report Writing Recipients of FUTI Summer Scholarships and Ito Foundation U.S.A.-FUTI Scholarship are (1) required to submit official reports, and (2) encouraged to post on FUTI’s Facebook page by sending text and pictures to fbfriendsofutokyo.org as materials for posts. Be prepared during your study abroad Please make sure to take photos in and out of the classroom/lab. Classroom settings, presentations, scenic photos, photos of social outings are all welcome. Stay in touch with FUTI during your study abroad by visiting our Facebook page and posting about your experience. Information about the official report For SUMMER study abroad: Please submit one official report–this is in addition to your postings on the FUTI Facebook page. However, material from your Facebook posts may be used in the report. Length/file format One or more pages single-spaced as a docx/doc file Report format There is no set format and the reports can be written in English or Japanese. It can be written as a diary, a narrative, report, however you like. To read examples please visit the recipient reports page. Photos Several photos embedded in the doc file, as an email attachment, or shared via cloud (resolution of more than 1000px would be appreciated) *Please be advised that reports and photos will be published on the FUTI website and may be used on FUTI publications. If you have any specific privacy requests, please let us know in advance. For Ito Foundation U.S.A.-FUTI: Number of reports/due dates In general, you are required to write interim reports once in approximately three months, and the final report at the end of your study or at the end of the school year, whichever comes first. The final report should cover the entire study period including what might have already been covered by interim reports. FUTI will give a courtesy reminder about the interim reports with the check mailing notifications which are generally once every three months, but please make an effort of reminding yourself to write the reports. These reports are in addition to your postings on the FUTI Facebook page. However, material from your Facebook posts may be used in the report. Acknowledgement Should you decide to add acknowledgements in your reports and would like to express thanks for the scholarship, please take this opportunity to show gratitude to the Ito Foundation U.S.A. (the fund provider) and Friends of UTokyo, Inc. (the fund operator). Since the report will be read by both parties, acknowledgement of both organizations would be appreciated. Length/file format Each report should be about one or more pages single-spaced as a docx/doc file Report format There is no set format and the reports can be written in English or Japanese. It can be written as a diary, a narrative, report, however you like. To read examples please visit the recipient reports page. Photos Several photos embedded in the doc file, as an email attachment, or shared via cloud (resolution of more than 1000px would be appreciated) *Please be advised that reports, especially the final one, and photos will be published on the FUTI website and may be used on FUTI publications. If you have any specific privacy requests, please let us know in advance.

504 F.2d 759 dU. S.v.Bright 74-2329 UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS Fifth Circuit 11/20/74 1 S.D.Tex. AFFIRMED 2 --------------- ** Dismissed under Local Rule 20 as frivolous and entirely without merit.

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The drought that's hitting much of the Midwest this summer will hit consumers in the pocketbook by next year, Purdue agricultural experts said Thursday. The persistent hot, dry weather has hit farm production in Indiana, the nation's fifth-largest producer of corn, harder than any other major corn and soybean producing state, economist Chris Hurt said at a news conference in Indianapolis. The conditions have shrunk corn and soybean production and dried up pastures where cattle feed in summertime, Hurt said. U.S. food prices tend to rise when production decreases in major farm states and the drought is likely to affect production in other breadbasket states too, he said. The U.S. Agriculture Department projects that food prices will rise by as much as 3.5 percent starting late this year and into 2013. Everything from meat, margarine and milk to baked goods, cereal and salad dressing will likely cost more, Hurt said. And food prices were already high in 2011, agricultural economist Corinne Alexander said. Beef prices could rise by as much as 10 percent through next year if ranchers lose many cattle to heat stress or sell off portions of their herds to avoid the high cost of feed, according to data produced by agricultural researchers at the Purdue Cooperative Extension Service. Richard Volpe, a USDA research economist in Washington, D.C., said if herds shrink and overseas demand grows, beef prices are bound to go up. "We're looking at much higher meat prices until at least 2014," Alexander said. Hurt said the impact on consumers will be even greater because incomes aren't rising in line with food prices. "The difficulty is that (food) is one of the necessities of life," Hurt said. The Purdue research cooperative forecasts that if the drought continues through August - and it shows no sign of letting up - crop losses could be as great as they were during the 1988 drought, when corn and soybean production plummeted by about 30 percent. Food prices jumped by more than 5 percent after the drought and by nearly 6 percent in 1989, according to figures provided by Volpe. Another factor will be the ethanol industry, which is promised the first five billion bushels of corn produced every year under federal law, Hurt said. If production drops as much as expected, he said, "The issue we haven't heard since 2008 is going to come back - food versus fuel." That could lead to a political battle in Washington, he added. The thunderstorms that crossed Indiana in the last week didn't do much to relieve the thirsty soil, and a sweltering heat wave has engulfed much of the state with temperatures climbing to 100 degrees or more. The new U.S. Drought Monitor report released Thursday showed nearly a quarter of Indiana is in extreme drought, mostly in the southwestern part of the state Thursday's report listed 89 percent of the state as in at least moderate drought after Indiana's driest June on record.. Less than half of the normal amount of rain has fallen across much of the state since May 1. The parched conditions have been aggravated by a dry, mild winter and above-normal temperatures. Much of the west, especially Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona and Utah, also was in extreme drought, according to the map. Every day without rain causes crop conditions to deteriorate, Purdue corn specialist Bob Nielsen said, and some damage is already irreversible. Four to six inches of precipitation over several weeks would be required to provide much relief, he said.

"Dying.... A lot of people, they see you run and they say, 'It looks so easy! It really looks effortless.' But before it gets to that point, it's hard. It's hard work. It's day in day out sacrifice. Just dying." -the best

"The project was designed to allow Soldiers to not only do something good for the community, but to also help bring the team together after the recent deployment to Afghanistan," said Chief Warrant Officer 2 Balwinder P. Singh, the electronic warfare technician for 1st BCT. Singh said the project took place over two weekends: Nov. 9-10 and Nov. 16-17. "Starting on Nov. 9, Soldiers helped to install doors and molding and paint the entire house," he said. "On the 10th, we installed all cabinets for the kitchen and finished the final coat of paint on the interior of the house. "Nov. 16, the Soldiers worked diligently to finish all the landscaping by laying sod and planting trees and flowers," continued Singh. "On the 17th, 1st STB Soldiers helped to finalize the house by installing appliances, and preparing the house to have the carpet installed." Singh stated that, with the support of 1st BCT Soldiers, the Habitat for Humanity was able to complete their houses in those two weekends. Singh said the hardest part of the project was not knowing who has experience with construction, but they were given guidance from Habitat for Humanity that helped mitigate the lack of expertise. "It was great to see Soldiers working side by side to better the community right here at home," he said. "Some of the Soldiers from the first weekend of the build even took time out to come back again the last weekend to help finish and see the final product of their hard work."

Join us and find out details for this new alternative to the traditional method of teaching of ICAEW courses. You will be able to hear from our experts, how this new way of delivering the ICAEW courses differs from the traditional method and the benefits it can offer to you. 6:30pm – 7:30pm ICAEW induction presentation Get introduced to the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW). Our ACA experts will take you through the ACA program of study, the benefits of choosing this qualification, how the School of Professional Studies (SPS) of Cyprus College will be your key partner in successfully completing the course and many more. This is will be a unique opportunity to learn about the 2017/2018 timetable of the course and to get an answer for all your questions.

I find myself thinking the same thing sometimes! I guess the best thing to do is just keep practicing, have fun, and try not to compare yourself to others because you'll just drive yourself crazy if you do that!

Ash-colored tapaculo The ash-colored tapaculo (Myornis senilis) is a tapaculo species. Placed in the monotypic genus Myornis, its affiliations are not well-determined; provisionally it is placed with the other tapaculos in the family Formicariidae. It is found in Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical moist montane forests. References ash-colored tapaculo Category:Birds of the Colombian Andes Category:Birds of the Ecuadorian Andes Category:Birds of the Peruvian Andes ash-colored tapaculo Category:Taxonomy articles created by Polbot

Travis Newberry of Atlanta, GA has been honored with a recognition by Atlanta Magazine in its selection of "Top Mortgage Professionals In Atlanta." ATLANTA, Aug. 2, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Announcing a special recognition appearing in the August, 2013 issue of Atlanta Magazine published by Emmis Publishing Corporation. Travis Newberry was selected for the following honor: Travis Newberry commented on the recognition: "This is quite an honor for me. The fact that Atlanta Magazine included me in its selection of "Top Mortgage Professionals In Atlanta," signals that my constant effort to deliver excellent work has paid off. It is gratifying to be recognized in this way." About Travis Newberry:a short profile by and about the honoree: I'm a retired U.S. Marine who served for 23 years and during that time, my family and I lived in ten different locations. Believe me, I know how it feels when you have to try to find a new home and finance it. My team and I will make this process as stress-free as we can. With more than 13 years of experience in home financing, I know how to create an ideal mortgage solution for borrowers in all types of situations. My thorough knowledge of home financing, especially with FHA/VA lending, makes the process easier and more enjoyable for everyone involve. Following the publication of Travis Newberry's selection for Atlanta Magazine'sTop Mortgage Professionals In Atlanta list, American Registry seconded the honor and added Travis Newberry to the "Registry of Business Excellence™". An exclusive recognition plaque, shown here, has been designed to commemorate this honor. For more information on Travis Newberry, located in Atlanta, GA please call 678-762-4770, or visit www.travisloans.net. This press release was written by American Registry, LLC with contributions from Travis Newberry on behalf of Travis Newberry and was distributed by PR Newswire, a subsidiary of UBM plc. American Registry, LLC is an independent company that serves businesses and professionals such as Travis Newberry who have been recognized for excellence. American Registry offers news releases, plaques and The Registry™, an online listing of over 2 million significant business and professional recognitions. Search The Registry™ at http://www.americanregistry.com.

Symbol: TSX-V: LG MONTREAL, March 5, 2018 /CNW Telbec/ - LGC Capital Ltd. (TSXV: LG) ("LGC") is pleased to announce that it will hold a live conference call on Wednesday, March 7, 2018 at 11 a.m. EST (9 a.m. MST, 8 a.m. PST). The conference call will feature a presentation from LGC's President & CEO John McMullen, to be followed by a question and answer period with LGC's management and members of the LGC Board of Directors. Topics to be covered will include: Little Green Pharma – Australia AAA Trichomes – Canada Southern African initiative House of Hemp – South Africa Other Global Canna Labs – Jamaica Creso Pharma/Baltic Beer Initiative Etea Sicurezza Other countries of interest to LGC in the legalised Cannabis sector LGC's views with respect to U.S. investments in the Cannabis sector A power point presentation outlining key points of the call will be posted to the Investors section of LGC's website at the time of the call. http://www.lgc-capital.com/investors/. Conference Call Access and Questions To access the conference call within Canada and the U.S.A., the toll-free number is 1-888-231-8192. Outside Canada and the U.S.A., dial 1-647-427-7451. Please dial in five to ten minutes prior to the scheduled start time. LGC management will accept questions by telephone and e-mail. Participants wishing to ask a question during the call can do so by pressing *1. Questions can also be emailed to [email protected]. An archive of the conference call will be posted to LGC's website as soon as it is available from the conference call provider. http://www.lgc-capital.com. About LGC (www.lgc-capital.com) LGC Capital Ltd. is a Canadian incorporated public company listed on the TSX Venture Exchange (TSXV: LG). LGC's objective is to become a diversified business group with core business divisions that provide shareholders with exposure to a diverse range of businesses, products and services. Caution Regarding Press Releases Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Service Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. SOURCE LGC Capital Ltd For further information: John McMullen, Chief Executive Officer, Tel.: (416) 803-0698, Email: [email protected]; London contact: Anthony Samaha, Chief Financial Officer, Tel.: +44 (0) 20 7440 0640; Investor Relations: Dave Burwell, The Howard Group Inc., Tel.: (403) 221-9015, Toll Free: 1-888-221-0915, Email: [email protected]

Getahn Ward USA TODAY NETWORK – Tennessee The 10 percent median price jump from May 2015 came amid a continuing decline in home inventory. At the end of May, there was just more than a three and a half month supply of residential properties. 3,698 residential closings occurred in the Nashville area in May, up 3.9 percent from 2015. The highest number of sales are recorded over the May, June and July period. The median price of a single-family home in the Nashville area continued its upward climb in May, rising to a record $258,900 in tracking by the Greater Nashville Association of Realtors. That 10 percent jump from May 2015 came amid a continuing decline in inventory year-over-year and month-over-month. At the end of last month, there was a just more than three and a half month supply of residential properties in the Nashville area, which reflects a seller's market. "Historically when inventory is down, prices tend to rise," said Richard Exton, an appraiser with Manier and Exton in Nashville. Typically, the highest number of home sales are recorded over the May, June and July period when schools are out and families are most likely to move. They often then begin to slow in August. Roughly 3,930 sales were pending at the end of May, a 5 percent increase from a year ago in GNAR's tracking that suggests closings for June should be better than that same month last year. GNAR President Denise Creswell said the Nashville area's median home price and inventory trends mirror the nation's, citing a 6.3 percent increase in the national median price and 3.6 percent decline in inventory year-over-year for April. “The successes and challenges we face locally are in line with the rest of the country," she added. Creswell said proposed changes to the Federal Housing Administration's condominium loan program could make it easier for first-time homebuyers to purchase condos. "That might help those first-time homebuyers that might not be able to qualify for purchasing a home, but they might be able to qualify to purchase a condo," she said. "We're hoping that legislation passes." In its separate tracking, the Williamson County Association of Realtors reported a 5.6 percent increase from a year ago in that county's median home sale price to $433,000 in May. That was the highest median sales price on record for May, with the all-time record of $433,850 reached in March. For May, Williamson County's homes sales remained steady with 532 closings, which was a decline of 1.6 percent from a year earlier. In the fall, real estate data analytics firm CoreLogic ranked Nashville 10th among the nation's most overvalued housing markets, adding that the average price of a home in the city was 12.3 percent higher than the long-run sustainable level. Knoxville ranked sixth as the only other Tennessee city in the top 10, with Austin, Texas, and Houston ranked No 1 and No. 2 overall as the most overvalued. Cities with home prices at least 10 percent higher than the long-run sustainable level were considered overvalued in CoreLogic's analysis. Reach Getahn Ward at 615-726-5968 and on Twitter @getahn.

Immigration Court Processing Time by Outcome by Removals, Voluntary Departures, Terminations, Relief, Administrative Closures About the Data through August 2020 What to tabulate: Outcome Type: Completed Cases Average Days All Removals Voluntary Departures No Grounds For Removal (Terminations) Relief Granted Administrative/Other Closure Starting with: States Nationalities Graph As: Time series Top 10 Copyright , TRAC Reports, Inc.

Photographing wildlife is all about timing. Send us your best moments in the field and we’ll showcase your postcards from the wild here. select mp.image_thumb_path as image_thumb_path, mp.image_path as image_path, mp.id as id, mp.user_id as user_id, mp.photo_title as photo_title, mp.photo_description as photo_description from members_photos as mp, members as m where mp.gallery=1 and mp.status=1 and m.id=mp.user_id order by RAND() LIMIT 240, 20

Don’t expect deep discounts on preflown SpaceX boosters The Feb. 6 inaugural flight of the SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket included two previously flown boosters. After the launch, SpaceX recovered two of its three Falcon Heavy's boosters on landing pads at Cape Canaveral. Credit: SpaceX MOUNTAIN VIEW, California – SpaceX customers should not expect deep discounts when they opt to launch satellites on previously flown boosters instead of new ones, at least not initially, said Hans Koenigsmann, vice president of build and flight reliability for Hawthorne, California-based SpaceX. Although SpaceX intends to decrease launch costs over time, it will not immediately offer significant discounts on preflown boosters while it recovers its investment in the technology it is developing to make rockets reusable, including its “navy” of drone ships and telemetry boats, Koenigsmann said Feb. 6 at the Small Satellite Symposium here. Plus, there may be no reason to offer steep discounts on rockets with previously flown boosters because “I’m not sure that booster has any wear and tear on it that makes it worse,” Koenigsmann said. Previously flown boosters may prove to be more reliable than new ones, Koenigsmann said. SpaceX designs each rocket for multiple flights and the company has established a comprehensive process for inspecting the boosters it recovers. In addition, if a rocket has flown successfully once that means it was built correctly in the first place, Koenigsmann said. SpaceX has recovered 24 boosters including twelve on ships, eleven on land and one in the water. On Jan. 31, SpaceX recovered the booster used to launch the Luxembourg government’s GovSat-1 even though the booster landed in the water instead of on a drone ship. SpaceX engineers are learning how to make Falcon 9 boosters more reliable by inspecting the ones they recover. SpaceX also is using that knowledge to improve Falcon 9’s second stage where it shares hardware with the booster.

Kaleidoscope: HRVHS brings Shakespeare to stage in Hamlet Ghosts, sword fights, spies, poisoned cups, madness and an evil king will bring intrigue and drama to audiences in the Hood River Valley High School production of William Shakespeare’s “Hamlet,” running weekends March 1 through March 16. And here begins the intrigue. Hamlet, the young prince of Denmark, is distraught at the recent death of his father, king Hamlet. Claudius, old king Hamlet’s brother, has taken the throne and has married his wife Gertrude, prince Hamlet’s mother. “There is, of course, the personal struggle of Hamlet, who must choose his destiny despite the heavy-handed control of the adults in his life,” said Rachel Harry, director and HRV drama teacher, when summarizing the message in the play. “There are also the struggles for power and autonomy of all the characters, and the chess game played by the elders using the youths as pawns.” The play also has much to say about evil and the varied ways in which we humans confront it — or, more often, fail to. Document During an eerie encounter with the ghost of his dead father, Hamlet learns that his father was poisoned by his uncle Claudius. The ghost commands prince Hamlet to avenge his death. Hamlet agrees, but spends much of the play uncertain of whether to trust the ghost’s words and seeks to obtain proof of his uncle Claudius’ guilt. To test Claudius’ conscience, prince Hamlet stages a play about a man who poisons the king to steal the throne and the king’s wife for himself. Hamlet sees that Claudius is suddenly stricken with guilt upon seeing the play, realizes the ghost was right and vows to have revenge. But that vow takes its toll and the contemplative Hamlet begins to lose his mind. “I feel Shakespeare is pointing out that we know what is going on. We can recognize deception. We know when we are being lied to, yet we pretend we don’t,” said Harry. “Horrible things are taking place, but we tell ourselves, ‘No, this isn’t really happening.’ Hamlet goes mad knowing that evil is taking place, yet others look the other way, so he feels perhaps he is mistaken.” The play also accurately portrays how evil spreads like a disease beyond the original source. In Hamlet’s torment, he breaks the heart of young Ophelia, is challenged to a sword fight by her vengeful sibling Laertes and is stalked by spies of Claudius. Hamlet’s mother Gertrude becomes an unknowing victim of Claudius’ plots against Hamlet and virtually every lead character must confront death. In the play’s tragic ending Shakespeare challenges the audience to face and contemplate the similarities of justice and revenge, and the source of those impulses in our shared human nature. “The biggest hurdle for the students is the physicality of the time period,” said Harry. “These people were larger than life; they stood erect and commanded their space. Men wore swords and faced life-and-death issues on a daily basis. We are pretty domesticated now, and to comprehend and portray this is a challenge. “The type of acting required for this type of play is different from the modern style,” she said. “The movement, affect and vocal style; are all very specific. Students in the program explore classical acting style in second year and it is a great opportunity for them to actually use these methods in a play.” Seniors in lead roles include Duncan Krummel as Hamlet, Murphy Jackson as Claudius, Sofia Marbach as Gertrude, Maddy McLean as Laertes and Tanis Gonzaga as Polonius. Ophelia is played by sophomore Delaney Barbour. “We’re trying to pull off a monumental undertaking with just a handful of amazing parents and adults,” said Harry. “Without Jeff Lorenzen (sets), Dan Baxter (throne), Kathy Peldyak, Sarah Delano, Lynn Schuepbach, and Elise Tickner (costumes), I really could not have done this. “There are a number of other wonderful parents sewing and contributing to the production in a great way, but those lead people have gone above and beyond,” Harry added. “The interesting thing to note is that none of them have a child in the production.” While audiences will have this unique opportunity to see Shakespeare’s work performed, it won’t be an all-afternoon event. “Traditionally the plays of Shakespeare are often cut down to accommodate the modern time frame, and this is the case with our Hamlet,” added Harry. “The play, normally a five-act, four-hour play, will run around two hours.”

Does It Hold Up is a chance to re-experience childhood favorites of books, movies, TV shows, video games, and other cultural phenomenon decades later. Have they gotten better like a fine wine, or are we drinking cork? Did you know that Batman & Robin is one of the worst movies ever made? That it killed Batman until Christopher Nolan resurrected it? Well, I have a confession to make: I love it. Sincerely. I recognize that I’m rare here — it took Netflix just one month to realize it made a grave error in adding the film to its streaming movies stable. But almost 20 years after it very nearly killed all love for superhero movies at the box office, I enjoy (almost) every minute of it. Not because it’s a good movie. It isn’t. I’m not a crazy person. It’s because it’s fun in a way that some of the best, most memorable comic book movies are, and it’s a reminder of how truly silly this entire genre can be. Let's be clear: Batman & Robin is an awful movie Let me be clear, lest you decide to cast me into the pit of fire made for woefully misplaced fandom. Batman & Robin is terrible. It’s the Titanic of superhero films (the actual ship, guys, not the James Cameron movie); the movie was born of pure Hollywood hubris for the sake of selling toys, and watching it is watching a major franchise sunk by bad design and even worse puns. The casting, writing, costuming, and even set design were all so bad as to be utterly incoherent. It demonstrates a piss poor understanding of what makes Batman, well, Batman, and it wrecks what little of the source material it actually gets right. Not to mention, yes, the bat nipples. Sure, most of the film’s stars managed to escape what might have been a career-ending vacuum created by the film, but poor Alicia Silverstone’s star fell the furthest from her Clueless heyday. (Meanwhile, the world may never know what happened to Coolio after his decision to marshall Gotham City’s neon motorcycle races.) It takes a singular piece of dogshit cinema for a director to publicly apologize for it — Sam Raimi recently did so for another classic mess of a modern superhero film, Spider-Man 3 — and director Joel Schumacher is still apologizing to this day. It’s that bad. All this being said, there’s a kind of sick thrill in watching a movie this bad. For me, Batman & Robin rests comfortably in the space where legendary bad films can be adored for how irretrievably awful they are, alongside the likes of Plan 9 from Outer Space and The Room. This is a special class of bad movie — the kind that, with time, lets you laugh at its mistakes like a drunk old friend. (Hence, the drinking games.) It lets you look back and appreciate how far you’ve come, and even wish you could go back and see it all for the first time again. And after awhile, even the egregious has its charms. Nothing like a good drinking game There’s some actual, honest-to-god good to this movie, trapped under all that flash and bad acting. For one, Uma Thurman is perfect as Poison Ivy. Not because she does justice to the comics character, because that’s a mixed bag. Rather, in a movie that’s so committed to Schumacher’s over-the-top campy style, she vamps it up flawlessly. She commits, and she even looks like she’s having some real fun in the role, which is a far cry from George Clooney’s bored-and-boring take on Batman. For another — and you have to dig a bit here, so bear with me — there are kernels of a good, well-paced story here. There are heartfelt and genuinely affecting meditations on the nature of family, partnership, and life and death in this film, hinting that, had things not been so mucked up by Warner Bros' need to make this a family picture, Batman & Robin might have been something else entirely. Screenwriter Akiva Goldsman (who wrote A Beautiful Mind, by the way, so he’s not a total hack despite this god-awful script) even had the good sense to lift Mr. Freeze’s backstory from Batman: The Animated Series, which comes close to Greek tragedy in its pathos. But most importantly, it took this movie for studios to start thinking about what could make a superhero movie actually work. Batman & Robin is a watershed moment because, while it did decently at the box office, it was a failure of legendary proportions among critics and fans. All the industry at large had to do after this cautionary outing was do better — and it did. The evidence is obvious enough in how Marvel and DC now hold the box office in the palm of their hands, but today's directors, who probably wouldn't touch his style with a 10-foot pole, are actually just much better at what Schumacher already did. This is a big reason why we can have nice things, like good comics movies I'm not talking about what makes a superhero story work regardless of medium. I'm talking about how the movies themselves are presented on the screen. Little by little, comic book movie directors were forced into becoming better filmmakers, and we've seen the fruits of that over the past decade, all tinged with lessons learned from Joel Schumacher's colossal failure. The Dark Knight trilogy is the most obvious because it ran from the previous franchise as fast as it could for the sake of gritty realism, but the Spider-Man franchise reveled in its own camp sensibilities and it worked. Man of Steel didn’t shy away from overwrought action cheesiness and anatomically-correct costumes, and it mostly worked. And while DC and Warner Bros. have allegedly enacted a "No Jokes" policy for their movies going forward (which means no puns in Batman v. Superman), Marvel has been having fun for years, most evident in the recent Guardians of the Galaxy, which was every bit a comedy as an action movie. Why does Batman & Robin hold up? Because at this point you could (and should) watch the movie as an unwitting parody of the good superhero movies that came after it. It’s much easier to laugh at what’s wrong when you think about what’s right buried beneath the surface. As comics continue to dominate pop culture, so much of what we love owes this movie for helping studios think of superhero movies as films instead of just toy commercials. And you know what? Sometimes bad jokes are still funny. With all this in mind, it’s a shame that its run on Netflix was so brief. Oh well. We can only hope it's not gone forever. (I was going to suggest renting it online, but... I'm not a monster. Wait for it to play on TNT or something.)

Q: Vanilla SQL that selects multiple values in single column If I have a table with customer IDs in one column and time zones in another, is there a plain SQL statement that can select all customer IDs that have different time zone values? In other words, I want to find those customers with offices in New York, Chicago, and San Francisco but not those who ONLY have an office in one or the other time zones. A: SELECT Customer FROM MyTable GROUP BY Customer HAVING COUNT(DISTINCT TimeZone) > 1 The use of DISTINCT is important. COUNT(TimeZone) counts all non-null values, not just distinct values. So it's equivalent to COUNT(*) except where TimeZone is null. In other words, if a given customer has three offices, but all are in the Eastern timezone, COUNT(TimeZone) will be 3, whereas COUNT(DISTINCT TimeZone) will be 1.

Photo : Mark Zaleski ( AP Photo I’ve got a treat today: a rare story in which a college program isn’t trying to totally dick over a player who wants to transfer. Alex Lomax is a point guard currently wrapping up his senior year at Memphis East High School, where he’s won three consecutive state titles and will graduate this spring. Lomax is rated as a four-star guard; as such, he committed to the Wichita State last November, rounding out a class of six recruits known locally as the “Sensational Six.” Then, last week, Penny Hardaway was announced as the head coach of Memphis, complicating matters quite a bit for Lomax. Before he was a star alongside Shaq for the Orlando Magic, Hardaway, born and raised in Memphis, played for Memphis during the 1992 and 1993 seasons, back when it was Memphis State University. Since his retirement from the NBA in 2008, Hardaway’s spent a good chunk of the past 10 years working in his hometown coaching youth basketball teams. This began with his old middle school, Lester Middle School, as he had a buddy who needed to step away from the team—a simple favor. Then, according to the Commercial Appeal, Hardaway took in and helped raise Lomax starting in the sixth grade; this led Hardaway to pursue coaching, as he coached Lomax as both his AAU coach and then as the head coach at East High. Turns out, Hardaway’s pretty good at this coaching game—unlike Sidney Lowe at N.C. State or Clyde Drexler at Houston, he’s not jumping straight into Division I coaching with no experience at the lower levels. At East High, he can claim three state titles. As coach of Team Penny, he can claim a slew of 2019 college commits, including Lomax, the MVP of the latest championship game and two-time Mr. Basketball in Tennessee. That’s to say, the man’s got the X’s and O’s down, and more importantly, he’s got a life’s worth of connections in the Volunteer State that should at least get some butts in seats and, if he’s got some luck, lead to a healthy revitalization of a once-mighty program. It’s no surprise then that Lomax would be eager to play for his childhood mentor. Lomax initially committed to Wichita State over Memphis because, well, the young man’s not a fool. He told the Wichita Eagle shortly after his commitment the reason was simple: “I love to win and they have a winning program.” Memphis was a damn wreck in Tubby Smith’s final years—the Tigers missed the NCAA tournament for the fourth straight season this year because, in 2017, they hemorrhaged nearly every speck of remaining talent they had. This led Smith to say some extremely dumb shit about players that choose transfer; whatever, he’s gone now. For Gregg Marshall, the head coach of the Shockers, merely landing Lomax this offseason was a win, given that during the same time, he lost a pair of assistant coaches—the staff members that typically handle the bulk of recruiting for major programs. But once Hardaway entered the picture at Memphis, Marshall knew his days with Lomax were limited. On Tuesday, Marshall and the Shockers sent out a press release containing the following statement, confirming the Wichita State athletic department would not fight his intended transfer: “I have a lot of respect for Alex Lomax and his family. When they chose Wichita State in the fall, over several other very nice offers, my staff and I were honored. Obviously, we take commitments to the Shocker program very seriously, but this is a very unique situation where a young man’s mentor and coach since the fifth grade has become a Division I head coach. Allowing him out of his NLOI without any kind of penalty is the right thing to do at this time.” Marshall isn’t exactly the calmest head in the game, but in a moment that required only common sense and a couple signatures, he did what coach upon coach upon coach has failed to do—“the right thing.” (It helps that he might get NBA prospect Landry Shamet back at point guard next year and has senior Samajae Haynes-Jones lined up just in case.) This shouldn’t be news, let alone an aberration from the norm in college athletics. Stories like this should be a dime-a-dozen in a league that restricts the monetary actions of its athletes with a vengeance but simply shrugs when the latest shitty coach walks away with a multi-million dollar buyout, like Tubby Smith’s $10 million get-lost payment. Of course, they’re not, and athletes trying to transfer have recently turned to social media and local and national news outlets to help them with their appeals. Thank God this transfer didn’t require the revolution of the same cycle that’s becoming accepted—the school denies the transfer, the NCAA points at the school and closes its eyes, and then everyone shouts so goddamn hard at the college and the NCAA-enforced system that they finally cave. And that’s only if you’re a player at a big-name school that would demand media attention. Alex Lomax did not deserve to go through the same flailing buearacracy that nearly got the best of Braxton Beverly and Cam Johnson. Thanks to Gregg Marshall being the rare coach to rule with common sense, Lomax can play where he wants. It’s a shame that he’s the exception, and it’s an even bigger shame that the system steals that much power from the hands of its workforce, but, for now (and until the NCAA falls to the inevitable player uprising), the small victories like this will have to do.

This event is operated cashless: Connect your bank account or credit card to use your ticket as mean of payment at the venue. Click here for more info Tickets for Alice Phoebe Lou Berlin Information Funkhaus presents: Alice Phoebe Lou Doors: 18:30Showtime: 20:30 Alice Phoebe Lou and her extended band will be performing and celebrating the release of her new album Paper Castles at her favourite Berlin stage on the 7th of December. With new songs, new arrangements and new band members, this will be a special concert that celebrates a wonderful year, a new body of work and sets the tone for 2020.

Professors at Georgetown University are set to face an expedited application process for tenure following a Georgetown board of directors meeting Feb. 14. The board approved a series of measures reforming the tenure process for professors and reorganizing academic programs within the university, granting a final seal of approval on these changes, some of which had been under development for years. Under the new rules, a professor would receive tenure based on the approval of their executive vice president and 75 percent of the university’s Committee on Rank and Tenure. Previously, applications that received at least 75 percent of the vote would still require the university president’s approval. JULIA ALVEY/THE HOYA | The theology department changed its name to better reflect its scholarship and include non-Christian perspectives. The board’s decision expedites the previous appeal system under which tenure candidates vetoed by the university president would have to appeal for a formal overruling of the veto with 75 percent approval from the committee. The tenure changes come from recommendations made by the Presidential Task Force to Examine Tenure and Promotion Policies and Processes, according to Lisa Krim, the senior advisor for faculty relations to University President John J. DeGioia. “These changes are part of a broader effort to improve the rank and tenure processes at Georgetown,” Krim wrote in an email to The Hoya. “The Task Force’s hope is that the implementation of these recommendations will enhance confidence in the system at all levels.” The task force was assigned in May 2016 with finding ways to reform the university’s promotion practices to better support and attract professors. The final report, which was completed in September 2018, included recommendations that the tenure process should be more transparent and conform to the practices of other universities. The other recommendations made by the presidential task force are being handled through other channels, according to Krim. The reforms to the application process follow actions the university has taken to address inequalities between tenure and non-tenure-line professors, including granting full parental leave to non-tenure-line professors in November after student petitions. In addition to restructuring the tenure application process, the board approved measures to reorganize multiple academic departments throughout the university. The theology department is set to change its name to the department of theology and religious studies. The proposal was the result of a self-study by the department. Self-studies are conducted by every academic department at Georgetown about every 10 years. The change was part of an effort to recognize the role of non-Christian religions in the department’s scholarship, according to current department chair William Werpehowski and Francisca Cho, who led the department at the time of the self-study. “We recognized that a unique feature of our department–compared to many other Catholic universities–is that our faculty represents the field of religious studies as strongly as that of theology,” Cho wrote in an email to The Hoya. “Theology is primarily a Christian discipline that employs reason, constructive thinking, as well as criticism to hone Christian faith and community,” Cho wrote. “Religious studies is a much younger discipline that arose in the 19th century as a part of the general rise in modern scientific disciplines, as well as the European discovery of different religions around the world.” The motion to change the name was first voted on by the department in 2017 before being approved by the Board of Directors this year. The department’s vote was 14 in favor, four against and two abstaining. Georgetown now joins 12 out of 27 other Jesuit colleges and universities in recognizing both theology and religious studies as academic disciplines, according to the department’s proposal. Werpehowski and Cho said the name change does not signal a drastic shift in the department’s academic philosophy, but is merely a reaffirmation of its longstanding practices. “The name change doesn’t signal any major initiatives or changes in programming. Rather, it simply catches up with the reality that has long been in place,” Cho wrote. “Aside from being an accurate title, the inclusiveness of the new department name–which mirrors the inclusiveness of the department itself–embodies the particular capaciousness of the Jesuit heritage.”

There has also been a CBS radio news report that I heard that this spreadsheet contained counts of media coverage. CBS News notes how Lanza was in competition with the Norway killer for the amount of attention that he received: Sources say Lanza saw himself as being in direct competition with Anders Breivik, a Norwegian man who killed 77 people in July 2011. . . . Two officials who have been briefed on the Newtown, Conn., investigation say Lanza wanted to top Breivik's death toll and targeted nearby Sandy Hook Elementary School because it was the "easiest target" with the "largest cluster of people." . . . Also, I suspect that Lanza chose an elementary school so he could - in his mind - "score the most points" by claiming the most victims and also get victims who would generate the most sympathy. Other killers have also compared themselves to those in past attacks and hoped to beat their numbers. From the WSJ: Never publish a shooter's propaganda. Aside from the act itself, there is no greater aim for the mass killer than to see his own grievances broadcast far and wide. Many shooters directly cite the words of prior killers as inspiration. In 2007, the forensic psychiatrist Michael Welner told "Good Morning America" that the Virginia Tech shooter's self-photos and videotaped ramblings were a "PR tape" that was a "social catastrophe" for NBC News to have aired. Hide their names and faces. With the possible exception of an at-large shooter, concealing their identities will remove much of the motivation for infamy. Don't report on biography or speculate on motive. While most shooters have had difficult life events, they were rarely severe, and perpetrators are adept at grossly magnifying injustices they have suffered. Even talking about motive may encourage the perception that these acts can be justified. Police and the media also can contain the contagion of mass shootings by withholding or embargoing details: Minimize specifics and gory details. Shooters are motivated by infamy for their actions as much as by infamy for themselves. Details of the event also help other troubled minds turn abstract frustrations into concrete fantasies. There should be no play-by-play and no descriptions of the shooter's clothes, words, mannerisms or weaponry. No photos or videos of the event. Images, like the security camera photos of the armed Columbine shooters, can become iconic and even go viral. Just this year, the FBI foolishly released images of the Navy Yard shooter in action. Finally, journalists and public figures must remove the dark aura of mystery shrouding mass killings and create a new script about them. Talk about the victims but minimize images of grieving families. Reports should shift attention away from the shooters without magnifying the horrified reactions that perpetrators hope to achieve. Decrease the saturation. Return the smaller shootings to the realm of local coverage and decrease the amount of reporting on the rest. Unsettling as it sounds, treating these acts as more ordinary crimes could actually make them less ordinary. Tell a different story. There is a damping effect on suicide from reports about people who considered it but found help instead. Some enterprising reporters might find similar stories to tell about would-be mass shooters who reconsidered. Rampage shootings are fed by many other sources that also must be addressed, of course. Many shooters have suffered bullying, which inflicts a sense of powerlessness that their actions aim to overcome. Some (though not most) shooters have had prior contact with mental health services, and many give recognizable warnings beforehand to friends, family or teachers. Institutionally and individually, we must learn to take these signs seriously and report them to authorities. Massacres also would not be nearly so lethal without the widespread availability of guns and high-capacity magazines designed more for offense than for defense. But, guns aside, these factors are more or less perennial problems of human life and cannot, alone, bear the blame for rampage shootings. In coverage of these events, the focus on insanity particularly risks playing into the need of potential future shooters to convince themselves that the world rejects them, rather than the other way around. The minority who really are psychotic, or just act impulsively, are even more likely to draw their ideas from the cultural ether. . . .

Trace Red Sox history, from Cy Young to Ted Williams to Jim Rice to Trot Nixon.

Q: Activation function for multilayer perceptron I have tried to train simple backpropagation neural network with the xor function. When I use tanh(x) as activation function, with the derivative 1-tanh(x)^2, I get the right result after about 1000 iterations. However, when I use g(x) = 1/(1+e^(-x)) as an activation function, with the derivative g(x)*(1-g(x)), I need about 50000 iterations to get the right result. What can be the reason? Thank you. A: Yes, what you observe is true. I have similar observations when training neural networks using back propagations. For XOR problem, I used to set up a 2x20x2 network, logistic function takes 3000+ episodes to get below result: [0, 0] -> [0.049170633762142486] [0, 1] -> [0.947292007836417] [1, 0] -> [0.9451808598939389] [1, 1] -> [0.060643862846171494] While using tanh as activation function, here is the result after 800 episodes. tanh converges consistently faster than logistic. [0, 0] -> [-0.0862215901296476] [0, 1] -> [0.9777578145233919] [1, 0] -> [0.9777632805205176] [1, 1] -> [0.12637838259658932] The two functions' shape look like below (credit: efficient backprop): The left is the standard logistic function: 1/(1+e^(-x)). The right is the tanh function, also known as hyperbolic tangent. It's easy to see that tanh is antisymmetric about the origin. According to efficient Backprop, Symmetric sigmoids such as tanh often converge faster than standard logistic function. Also from wiki Logistic regression: Practitioners caution that sigmoidal functions which are antisymmetric about the origin (e.g. the hyperbolic tangent) lead to faster convergence when training networks with backpropagation. See efficient Backprop for more details explaining the intuition here. See elliott for an alternative of tanh with easier computations. It's shown below as the black curve (the blue one is the original tanh). Two things should stand out from the above chart. First, TANH usually needed fewer iterations to train than Elliott. So the training accuracy is not as good with Elliott, for an Encoder. However, notice the training times. Elliott completed its entire task, even with the extra iterations it had to do, in half the time of TANH. This is a huge improvement and literally means that in this case, Elliott will cut your training time in half, and deliver the same final training error. While it does take more training iterations to get there, the speed per iteration is so much faster it still results in the training time being cut in half.

It is a great honour and privileged pleasure for me to present the 155 th Annual report of this illustrious institution. The School is conducted by the Hindu Educational Organisation, Triplicane, a company registered under the Indian Companies Act, in spacious buildings owned by it availing Government aid and meeting extra expenditure from its own funds. The School Committee is functioning from 01.06.1976 as per provisions of the TamilNadu Recognised Private Schools Regulating Act. We have great pleasure in extending a hearty welcome to Dr. M.A.Venkatakrishnan, a distinguished Vaishnavite Scholar and an old student o this institution, who has now become a member of the Hindu Educational Organisatiion. This year Sri.Sa. Vaidyanathan and Sri.R.Parthasarathy were inducted as Teacher representatives in the School Committee. Staff: There are 46 Teachers and 18 non-teaching staff STAFF WHO HAVE RETIRED FROM SERVICE Sri T.N.C.Seshacharyulu, Asst.Headmaster, (BT Cadre) Sri K.Lakshminarayanan, Asst.Headmaster (Sec.Gr.Cadre) Sri P.Guruswamy, BT Asst Sri S.Seshan, Sec. Gr. Asst. Sri S.Venkatachalam, Sec.Gr.Asst. Sri G.Ausaithambi, P.E.T Sri R.Vasudevan, PG Asst. We wish them all a happy and healthy retired life STAFF WHO HAVE BEEN PROMOTED Sri R.Mohandoss as Asst.Heamaster, BT Cadre Sri V.Varadachari as Asst.Headmaster, Sec.Gr.Cadre. Sri S.Mathialagan as PG Asst. in Tamil Sri P.K.Shankar as PG Asst. in Economics Sri C.Shanmugam as BT Asst. Sri S.Selvabharathi as P.E.T We wish the promoted teachers, a happy and smooth tenure. This year also with the permission of the management, PTA has funded the appointment of 9 teachers. In addition to that H.E.O has funded for the appointment of 5 persons from its own funds for the smooth functioning of the school. ACHIEVEMENT BY THE STUDENTS: Academic : Higher Secondary No. of Students Appeared : 220 No. of Students Passed : 153 Percentage of Pass : 70 Top Ranker : K.Rajesh, XII-A, 1150/1200 We are very proud to announce that K.rajesh of XII ‘A’ scored centum in Maths, Physics and Chemistry and scored 198/200 in Biology. He has secured admission for both Medicine and Engineering but opted for Engineering and joined the prestigious institution “College of Engineering, Guindy”. X STANDARD No. of Students Appeared : 254 No. of Students Passed : 165 Percentage of Pass : 65 Top Ranker : N.Balaji, X-A, 455/500 School Academic Council under the head of School Committee President Sri.S.Parthasarathy was formed. Dr.K.Ganesan, Former Principal, Vivekananda College and member of HEO gave valuable guidance and suggestions. These meetings were held on 9-08.2007, 10-09-2007 and 1-11-07 to improve quality of teaching processes and concept skills. We hope to achieve good results this academic year. 150th YEAR CELEBRATION – PROJECTS CREATED The following projects were initiated by His Excellency the Governor of Tamil Nadu at the inaugural function held at the school premises on August 3, 2005 Website was also launched. (Website: www.hinduhighschool.com) 1.Dewan Bahadur M.O.Parthasarathy Iyengar center for Value Education Education is being imparted with values. HM has taken enough pains to display placards at vantage points consisting of ethical sayings of verses and sages. He has also distributed many encouraging literature among the students for their betterment. 2. Kasthuri Srinivasan Centre for Knowledge Management We are in process of establishing a separate hall for holding academic conferences and audio-visual room equipped with latest technology. We have also connected all the rooms in the school building with intercom facility for better monitoring and communication. 3. Nobel Laureate Dr.S.Chandrasekhar Centre for Human Capital Our school Sports department and Literary Associatiion takes care of this project and shape the talents of the students. Messrs.R.Parthasarathy, R.Padmanabhan and S.rajagopalan toiled hard in shaping the museum in the Centenary Building at Room No.46 The Museum is divided into three sections viz. History, Civics and Geography. Collections from various departments like Tourism, Geology and Archeology are displayed. This is really a rate phenomenon in school level. In impact more knowledge about our culture and heritage to the students. We are very thankful to the HEO for the generous help in the establishment of the museum. CURRICULAR AND CO-CURRICULAR ACTIVITIES: Our school students took part in various competitions and won many prizes. In the Oratorical Competition organized by Jeeyar Educational Trust on “Alwar Vaibhavam”, our school students S.Kesava Nambi, XII ‘E’ and S.A.Mohammed Suhail, VIII ‘B’ won second prize and consolation prize respextively. In the “Thiruppavai” competition conducted by Sri.Parthasarathy Swamy Devasthanam our School student R.Pavithrakrishnan X ‘B’ won II prize, Sri G.Jagannatha was the coordinator for both competitions. The following have won many prizes in Inter-school Competitions. S.A.Bilal Malick, XII ‘E’ G.Sathiskumar, XII ‘E’ Shaik Syed Ali IX ‘B M.Gnanael, IX ‘B’ ’R.Pavithrakrishnan, X ‘B’ Our school teachers are enhancing and enriching their knowledge by attending seminars, workshops and in-service training. Our school teachers played the role of Subject Experts in the Guidance Programme for X and XII standards “Jaithuk Kattuvom” organized by “Dinamalar” in Chennai, Tambaram, Tiruvallur, Kancheepuram, Thiruthani and Chengleput. The same programme was done exclusively for our school students also. We are thankful to the Editor of Dinamalar for it. International Coastal Clean-up Day was celebrated on 16-09-2007 and our school boys under the leadership of Sri S.Selvabharathi, PET took part in the cleaning campaign at Marina Beach. For their excellent work, they were awarded II prize and received it from his Excellency the Governor of Tamil Nadu. A seminar on “Astrophysics” was held on 19.10.2007 in remembrance of Nobel Laureate and a distinguished old students Dr.S.Chandrasekhar. Dr.Padmini, Professor, M.O.P aishnav College was the Chief Guest for the morning session wherein student representatives presented their papers. They are as follows: In the afternoon session, many teachers presented their papers. They are as follows. Dr. P.Balasubramanian, HHSS, Che-5 ‘Biography of Dr.S.Chandrasekhar’ Mrs. Thilothama Ravi, HSSS, Adyar ‘Astrophysics and Astronomy’ Mrs. Latha, HSSS, Che-5 ‘New Explosion in Space Science’ Sri R.Ramesh, HHSS, Che-5 ‘Super Nova’ Sri S.T.Padmanabhan, HHSS, Che-5 ‘Chandra’s Limit & Black Hole’ Sri V.C.Gopi Anandan, HHSS, Che-5 ‘Dr.S.Chandrasekhar’s contribution – Stars’ Dr.Lakshmi of Meenakshi College presided over the valedictory function. Sri R.Natraj, I.P.S and an old student was the Chief Guest. Science exhibition was conducted on 26.10.07 in a grand manner. In that exhibition exhibits for Maths, Social Science and Languages were also displayed. Sri Y.V.Reddy, Governor of Reserve Bank and a distinguished old student visited our school and commended our service to the society. He has also presented a memento to our school. Independence Day and Republic Day were celebrated with usual verve. LITERARY ASSOCIATION This Association has conducted several competitions for the students of all standards to exhibit their innate talents. It also conducted competitions to test their histrionic abilities. This year, it was inaugurated on 29.06.2007. Pulavar A.Arumugam, General Secretary, Tamizhaga Tamizhasiriyar Kazhagam inaugurated Tamil Section. Dr.K.Murali, President and Secretary, Hindi Vidyalaya, Perambur Inaugurated Hindi Section. Dr. O.R.Devanathan, Professor of Sanskrit, Presidency College, inaugurated Sanckrit Section. Birthday of Bharath rathna K.Kamaraj was celebrated ib 15,7,2007 as Educational Awakening Day and Competitions were conducted to mark the occasion. Prizes were distributed to the prize winners on 16.7.2007 by Sri K.Jayakumar, M.L.A., Secretary, All India Congress Committee. On 23.11.07, “Ayyan Tiruvalluvar Day” & “Valedictory Function” were celebrated. Thiru Raj Mohan, President, Tamil Manila Desiya Asiriyar Sangam and Professor Ganapathy were the Chief Guests. Thiru S.Vaidyanathan, PG Asst., spoke about the greatness of Tiruvalluvar. Prizes were distributed to the winners of various competitions on that day. Pulavar S.Vaidyanathan, S.Rajagopalan, S.Mathialagan and G.Jagannathan were the organizers and co-ordinators of this association. LIBRARY Our School Library is accommodated in spacious hall and has more than 12500 books. Higher Secondary boys are permitted to take books home. Story books and reference books are made available to other students in their class rooms. Students are extensively availilng the opportunity of utilizing the library to enrich their curricular and co-curricular activities. PARENT TEACHER ASSOCIATION This association is headed by Sri K.Valluvan, a social activist. It is functioning well catering to the needs of the students. It conducted meetings for the parents to get suggestions for improvement of the school. Dr.Porko, Former Vice-Chancellor, University of Madras, was the Chief Guest of the function held on 5.1.2008. Dr.K.Ganesan, Former Principal, Vivekananda College and Member of H.E.O was another special guest. On that occasion, cash prizes were distributed to the top rankers in each subject of X & XII standards and to the teachers who produced the top rankers. Retired teachers and those who have put in 25 years of service were also honoured. Free uniforms and scholarships to the deserving students were also distributed. Dress materials to the non-teaching staff were also distributed. It funded for laboratories and also for other programmes conducted in the school. With the permission of the management, it gives salary to 9 teachers. SPORTS Our school boys participated in many sports and games and won many medals. Our school boys created some new records in Chennai East District, District Level, State Level, and National Level, tournaments. Our schools boys participated in Kabbadi and Athletics meet also. The following boys participated in the National Swimming competitions held at Surat, Gujarat and won medals. S. Premnath XII E S.Sarathkumar IX E Gnanavelu X B A.Yageskumar VII A S.A.Shaik Dawood Imran, XI E and P.Vignesh, X C have participated in High Jump ad Triple Jump Events in the District Level Track & Field events. This year 10 boys from our school participated in various disciplines at National Level competitions. Annual Sports Day was Celebrated on 12.10.2007. Sri M.O.Parthasarathy, an old student and Former Ranji and Duleep Trophy Cricketer, was the Chief Guest. “Be proud of your school and make the school feel proud of you”. This is our motto. Sri M.S.Subbiah, Physical Director, Sri R.Muthupandian and Sri S.Selvabharathi, PETs are striving hard to make this as reality. We are grateful to our management for their unstinted support and financial assistance in this endeavor. NATIONAL CADET CORPS 55 Cadets were enrolled raising the strength to 100. 38 cadets appeared for ‘A’ Certificate Exam and all came out successful. 45 cadets under the command of Chief Officer T.M.Kesavan attended the Annual Training Camp at Kancheepuram in June 07. Our troop won the Best Troop Shield (II Place) in the Inter Troop Competition. CSM.Md.Aashiq, X D, won II Place in the Best Cadet competition. Anti Tobacco Awareness Programme was conducted on 6.10.2007. Our Cadets participated in the “Traffic Control Day Road Safety Rally” on 25.11.07. Our Cadets have participated in NCC Day celebration held on 27.11.2007 at Kalaivanar Arangam. Range firing for our cadets was conducted on 13.1.2008 at Tambaram. As usual Independence Day and republic Day were organized in our wschool by our NCC Troop. Our cadets have also helped in the Polio Immunization Programme organized on 6.1.2008. The Services rendered by our cadets in various functions organized at the school were appreciated by one and all. SRI RAMA SCOUT GROUP Sri K.Sankar Giri, Drawing Master is in charge of scour activities. 50 students have been enrolled. Scourts partook in regulation of crowds in festivals and cleaning campuses. Classes for scouts are held in the school every Sunday. Our scouts attended Training Camp at Tambaram and Avadi. They have also attended Olympic Camp at Camp Tonakala, Avadi. JUNIOR RED CROSS Sri C.N.Gunasekhar, Drawing Master, is in charge of this group. 75 students have been enrolled. They participated in the regulation of crowds in festivals and cleaning campaigns in the school. R Lokesh, XII E, R.Manikandan, X A and P.S.Dineshkumar, IX C, were given Certificate of Appreciation by the District Educational Officer, Chennai East. Classes for JRC are held in the school every Tuesday. ROAD SAFETY PATROL PROGRAMME This year we have enrolled about 50 students under the ledership of Sri C.N.Gunasekar, who is the officer in-charge for this programme. Boys regulate traffic both in the morning and in the evening hours under the guidance of Traffic Wing of D1 police. VOLUNTEER CORPS Sri K.Sankar Giri, Drawing Master is in-charge of the Volunteer Corps. About 50 volunteers from VII std to X std. help out in maintaining discipline among students at the beginning and during the lunch intervals and the closure of the school. They also help in tracing lost/misplaced items of the students from classrooms. NSS 60 Boys from XI and XII standards have been enrolled under the leadership of Sri P.K.Shankar, Programme Officer. Boys did their services in the Royapettah Hospital and Government General Hospital. They also participated in national Youth Day and Aids Awareness Programme held at Ldy Wellington College Grounds. They have attended Annual Special Camp at Vallam Village near Chengalpet, under the leadership of Sri P.K.Shankar and ably assisted by Thiru S.Selvabharathi, P.E.T Master, during the half-yearly exam holidays Boys did cleaning work in the “Vedantheeswarar Cave Temple”, “Yesu Temple” and also nearby streets. Their works were appreciated by the village president and locals. We are very grateful to our management for their unstinted support and financial assistance. NATIONAL GREEN CORPS Its aim is to inculcate knowledge about the environment in the young minds. 50 students of our school studying in VI and VIII stds are the members of the club. These students created awareness among the public in Triplicane area for smokeless Bhogi on 11.1.2008 by giving pamphlets and logans various competitions were conducted and prizes were distributed to the students. Sri B.Anandan, BT Asst. and Sri M.S.Kesawan, SGT are incharge of the club. RED RIBBON CLUB It was formed to create awareness among students about AIDS. Sri B.Anandan, BT Asst. is the teacher in charge of the club. TEACHERS ASSOCIATION The association conducted its activities as usual. Various competitions were conducted for the staff to enhance and exhibit their innate skills. Sri R.Mohandoss is the Secretary of the Association. With god’s grace and all round help from the Management and authorities, we hope to strive for the betterment of the staff and the school in general. CO-OPERATIVE STORES Sri A.Lawrence, Sec.Gr.Asst. is the Secretary of the stores. It is guided by the duly elected Board of Directors. It is supervised by the HM who is its Ex-officio President. Boys get notebooks at concessional rates and are benefited. SPIRITUAL WING Religious teaching is sine-quo non for building up one’s character. Sri Vishnu Sahasranama Parayanam is being conducted regularly on every Friday between after school hours by our students under the guidance of Sri T.M.Kesavan and Sri A.Gunaseelan. Sri sathya Sai Seva Samithi of Triplicane is conducting Bhajans and Spiritual Study Circle on every Saturday between 6.30 p.m. and 8 p.m. Lectures on Moral and Ethical values were given by R.Vasudevan, P.R.Ramanujam N.Karpaga Radha, E.Meenakshi Sundaram & R.Mythili, members of Sri Sathya Sai Seva Samithi of Triplicane and Ice House from 4.12.07 to 8.12.07. Irai Arul Perum Vizha was celebrated on 5.11.07 at our school Pooja Room. Dr.M.A.Venkata Krishnan, HEO members has given a speech on “Power of GOD”. Shri L.K.Shankaran, HEO member was also present at that occasion. Sri Rama Pattabhishekham is being conducted during the month of April in a grand manner. GOVERNMENT WELFARE SCHEMES On 14.1.2008 at the function organized by the Government of Tamil Nadu for distribution of free cycles to students at the Secretariat, our school participated and received the cycles from the hands of Hon’ble Chief Minister Dr.Kalaignar M.Karunanidhi. On 18.1.2008, a function was organized for the free distribution of cycles to Higher Secondary Classes. Thiru S.Sureshkumar, M.C.Chepauk & Chairman, Standing Committee was the Chief Guest and Thiru P.Nagaraj, M.C., Triplicane, participated. Free Textbooks for all the students were distributed. Free notebooks for SC/ST students were also distributed. Scholarships received from the Government for SC/ST & MBC were also distributed. For TSUNAMI affected students, bank accounts were opened in their names as per the directions of the Department and amounts were deposited. Noon Meal Scheme is functioning well. About 250 boys from VI std. to X Std are benefited by this scheme. OLD BOYS ASSOCIATION It has been active. The old boys meet was held on 30.12.2007 at the school premises. This being the Centenary year of the Old Boys’ Association, many luminaries were invited. Retired teachers were honoured. Mr.Madan, Cartoonist and an old student was the Chief Guest. Dr.M.A.Venkatakrishnan, HOD, Department of Vaishnavism, University of Madras, Mr.W.V.Raman, Ex.Test Cricketer, Mr.Visu, Director & Dramatist, Mr.Neelu, Mr.Madan Bob, Cine & Stage Artistes, Dr.Karthik, Ghatam Exponent, Mr.ramachandran, MD, Speed-a-way, Mr. R.P.Sarathy, Vide-President, Essar Group, Mr.Rama Karthikeyan, Retired Maths Professor, Vivekananda College, Mr.V.Janakiraman, Former MD, State Bank of India and Mr.R.Natraj, I.P.S attended the meeting. Many projects are on the anvil for the benefit of the school. As usual, Dr.S.Chandrasekhar’s birthday was celebrated on 19.10.2007 with a daylong function. To give scholarship to one or more deserving students in classes VI to XII Sri P.A.Suryanarayanan Endowment: Capital Rs.5,000/- To the best student who excels in communication (verbal, non-verbal, written communication) or to purchase tools and techniques required improve communication among students. We thank the above donors for their munificence. We are also very thankful to “Sreyas” M.O.P.Charities & Sri Venkateswara Students Hostel for the award of scholarships to our school students. MEDICAL CAMP An Eye Camp was conducted for the benefit of students and staff of our school by Ararwal Eye Hospital Opthalmologists during the first week of August. We are thankful for their Voluntary Service. Diabetes check up camp for the benefits of our school staff and students were conducted under the aegis of “SREYAS”. CONCLUSION Lastly we are indeed fortunate to have members in the management and School Committee who are generous, kind hearted, truly dedicated and devoted to the cause of the students. Our gratitude is due to them. On behalf of the Staff and on my own behalf I would like to assure the public, the parents and Government that we would do our best to train the boys on proper lines. It is our earnest prayer that the presiding deity of our school Sri Rama will bless us with physical strength, moral courage and intellectual caliber to carry on our work with confidence and faith in the Almighty who guides our destinies so that the school may continue its useful work with greater achievements in the years to come.

Q: How can I change the background color of only the second cell in listview android How can I change the background color of only the second visible cell in listview ?I only want to change the background color of the second visible cell in the listview. Is there any way to do this. My adapter class: public class HourAdapter extends BaseAdapter { private LayoutInflater lInflater; private String[] hoursValueList; public HourAdapter(Context context, String[] hoursValueList{ lInflater = LayoutInflater.from(context); this.hoursValueList = hoursValueList; } @Override public View getView(int position, View convertView,ViewGroup parent) { View view = convertView; if (view == null) { view = lInflater.inflate(R.layout.row, parent, false); } TextView textHours = view.findViewById(R.id.textRow); textHours.setText(hoursValueList[position]); if (position == CustomView.middlePosition) { view.setBackgroundResource(R.drawable.selected_color); } return view; } } and customView class: public class CustomView extends View { private String[] hoursList = getResources().getStringArray(R.array.hours); private ListView listView; private HourAdapter hourAdapter; public static int middlePosition; public CustomView(Context context) { super(context); } public CustomView(Context context, ViewGroup viewGroup) { super(context); inflate(context, R.layout.custom_test, viewGroup); listView = viewGroup.findViewById(R.id.hours_list); hourAdapter = new HourAdapter(context, hoursList); listView.setAdapter(hourAdapter); listView.setOnScrollListener(new AbsListView.OnScrollListener() { @Override public void onScrollStateChanged(AbsListView view, int scrollState) { } @Override public void onScroll(AbsListView view, int firstVisibleItem, int visibleItemCount, int totalItemCount) { middlePosition = firstVisibleItem+1; } } ); When i scroll down on ListView some other row of ListView also changed background color. I want only only change the second row of ListView. A: I guess you mean that you want to color the second visible item from top and not the second item in the list. If that is the case, you can simply add an else statement to your getView method of your adapter class to remove the background from the textviews that are not at the second visible item position. Your code would then looks like this: @Override public View getView(int position, View convertView,ViewGroup parent) { View view = convertView; if (view == null) { view = lInflater.inflate(R.layout.row, parent, false); } TextView textHours = view.findViewById(R.id.textRow); textHours.setText(hoursValueList[position]); if (position == 1) { view.setBackgroundResource(R.drawable.selected_color); } return view; }

Palestine Pals The Palestine Pals were a minor league baseball team that played on-and-off from 1925 to 1940. The team played in the Texas Association (1925–1926), Lone Star League (1927–1929), West Dixie League (1934–1935) and East Texas League (1936–1940). It was affiliated with the St. Louis Browns from 1935 to 1938 and in 1940. The team won two league championships, in 1926 under the tutelage of Jack Stansbury and Bob Countryman and in 1928 under Walt Alexander. Notable players include major league All-Star Bob Muncrief and veterans Boom-Boom Beck, Jack Knott, Carl Reynolds and Sarge Connally. It was the last professional team to be based in Palestine, Texas, United States. References Category:Sports clubs established in 1925 Category:Defunct minor league baseball teams Category:Sports clubs disestablished in 1940 Category:1925 establishments in Texas Category:1940 disestablishments in Texas Category:Defunct baseball teams in Texas Category:Palestine, Texas

This was the first glimpse, the first sniff, the first window into the Aztecs’ big, lanky, well-traveled basketball future. What about Aguek Arop, the forward born in Sudan with the 7-foot wingspan and 36-inch vertical leap? What about Nathan Mensah, the 6-10 forward from Ghana with an even bigger wingspan and reputation as a rebound-inhaling shot eraser? When the Aztecs opened the season Tuesday with a 76-60 victory over Arkansas-Pine Bluff, the questions easily outpaced the answers. For Arop and Mensah, the debut was careful. Limited. Measured. “It’s different when the lights are on,” Aztecs coach Brian Dutcher said of Arop, who’s nursing a hip, and Mensah, who missed four weeks with an injury to a finger on his shooting hand. “The task now is, this is the time they have to get to work. Now that they’re healthy, we need to get them up to speed.” Arkansas-Pine Bluff represented the curtain-pulling on the first grand experiment under second-year coach Brian Dutcher. For a program that has suited up just one player outside of North America — Mehdi Cheriet of France, a bit player from 2009-11 — along comes Sudan and Ghana … and Ghana and Sudan. In addition to Arop and Mensah, another tall and talented freshman from Ghana named Joel Mensah, no relation to Nathan, awaits. So does Ed Chang, who emigrated from Sudan as a toddler and grew up in Omaha, Neb., as did Arop. Got it? No worries. We understand. This is going to take time. Start here: All forwards. All freshmen. All with interesting passports and equally interesting ceilings. “Just how hard they play,” said senior guard Devin Watson, who scored a game-high 20 points, when asked about the duo. “You saw it tonight. They get after it.” The first minutes for Arop and Nathan Mensah, the two expected to make the biggest impact soonest, hardly constituted a highlight reel. They split nine minutes between them in the first half. Arop pulled down a couple of rebounds. Mensah missed a short baseline jumper from an odd angle behind the basket. What mattered more: Their uniforms hung off Division I-ready bodies, not those fragile first-year frames apt to bend in the big-game wind. They ran the floor well. They didn’t look out of place. At most turns, they looked like they belonged — especially for guys dipping toes in next-level waters for the first time. When 6-11 Pine Bluff junior Isaac Bassey tried to push and shove Mensah as they jostled for position on an inbounds play, the newcomer held his ground. He pushed back. Mensah swatted a shot with a little more than 10 minutes left, sparking the biggest set of oohs and aahs of the night from the Viejas Arena crowd. The Aztecs are hunting for a wide, capable body to fill the kind of role Skylar Spencer and Valentine Izundu did in the past. There’s a job opening for a lane clogger, a shot-changer, a nuisance with an attitude. “I think he’ll catch up right away,” Dutcher said of Mensah, compared to those big bodies from the Aztecs’ past. “He’s going to be a big-time shot blocker.” Arop finished with two rebounds in nine minutes. Mensah grabbed three rebounds, hit two of his four free throws and missed a pair of shots from the field. When Joel Mensah hit the court, he appeared a little less polished and a half a step slow compared to the others, while firing long on a pair of jumpers. Again, though, it’s early … for all of them. A win against Pine Bluff, a team they’ve beaten by an average of 34 points in the past hardly constitutes final exams for anyone. Dutcher, though, stressed that blending in and finding a way to be a cog among the veterans will be the truest test. “The task is, the freshmen can’t slow that (core) group down,” Dutcher said. “I’ve got to get all the freshmen up to that speed. … I need that eight days to get them ready for that next game.” That’s Nov. 14, against Texas Southern. Who will turn into immediate contributors, with Duke waiting at the Maui Invitational Nov. 19? Who knows? This picture, big and tall and fresh, is only starting to take shape. Fitting, really, that all those debuts came on election night. For this group, the results remain far from in. CAPTION Already looking forward to the NFL Draft? Let Eddie Brown tell you what will happen. Already looking forward to the NFL Draft? Let Eddie Brown tell you what will happen. CAPTION Already looking forward to the NFL Draft? Let Eddie Brown tell you what will happen. Already looking forward to the NFL Draft? Let Eddie Brown tell you what will happen. CAPTION Opened in 2017 and designed by the same architects, Colorado State's Canvas Stadium is a real-life rendering for what San Diego State hopes to achieve with a new football venue. Opened in 2017 and designed by the same architects, Colorado State's Canvas Stadium is a real-life rendering for what San Diego State hopes to achieve with a new football venue. CAPTION At Navy, which is preparing for its annual game against Notre Dame, which this year will be played in San Diego, college football requires an unforgiving grind that forges unique athletes and people. At Navy, which is preparing for its annual game against Notre Dame, which this year will be played in San Diego, college football requires an unforgiving grind that forges unique athletes and people. CAPTION Quarterback, who began career with Chargers in San Diego, throws for more than 300 yards in win over Washington to surpass Peyton Manning's career mark. Quarterback, who began career with Chargers in San Diego, throws for more than 300 yards in win over Washington to surpass Peyton Manning's career mark. CAPTION The Chiefs face a steep learning curve in their secondary, but Kansac City isn't the only AFC West team that saw a flashing yellow light in the summer's first exhibition. The Chiefs face a steep learning curve in their secondary, but Kansac City isn't the only AFC West team that saw a flashing yellow light in the summer's first exhibition.

--- abstract: 'There has been a recent flurry of interest in the possibility of condensates of $\alpha$-particles in nuclei. In this letter we discuss occurrence conditions for such states. Using the quantality condition of Mottelson we show that condensates are only marginally expected in $\alpha$-particle states. We proceed to demonstrate that few-body nuclear condensates are ill-defined, and emphasize the conflict between $\alpha$-localization and $\alpha$-condensate formation. We also explore the connection between Ikeda diagrams, linear chains, and Tonks-Girardeau gases. Our findings show that no new information is contained in the approximations of nuclear states as $\alpha$-cluster condensates. Furthermore, condensates of more than three $\alpha$-particles are very unlikely to exist due to couplings to other degrees of freedom.' author: - 'N.T. Zinner and A.S. Jensen' date: 'Received 23 November 2007; revised manuscript received 8 January 2008; published 29 October 2008' title: 'Nuclear $\alpha$-particle condensates: Definitions, occurrence conditions, and consequences' --- #### Introduction. {#introduction. .unnumbered} The idea of $\alpha$-particles as essential constituents in the structure of nuclei arises from the small radius, the relatively large binding and the spin saturation of both neutrons and protons. Attempts were made in the early days of nuclear physics to construct nuclear structure from $\alpha$-particles and valence nucleons [@wig37; @whe37; @wef37]. In general these attempts were largely unsuccessful because the nucleon distances within and between different $\alpha$-particles are comparable. Thus there are no compelling reasons for clusterization of nucleons into $\alpha$-particles. On the other hand, $\alpha$-cluster models were able to explain many properties of specific light nuclei [@bri66]. This was high-lighted by the prediction of a $3\alpha$-structure near threshold [@hoy58] which is crucial for the nuclear synthesis of the heavy elements in stars. This Hoyle state was soon found experimentally [@cook57] and its properties established in a microscopic cluster model [@ueg77] where it was first characterized as a “gas-like” structure. This structure is confirmed in details in numerous theoretical works [@kan98; @des02; @nef04]. A radius about 30% larger than that of the ground state of $^{12}$C is also reproduced by use of an approximate wave function consisting of an antisymmetrized product of three gaussians each containing an $\alpha$-particle [@toh01]. Also the ground state of $^8$Be was in the same approximation described as a gas-like structure of two $\alpha$-particles [@fun02], and the established structure [@hor70; @har72] was again essentially recovered. The fundamental continuum resonance properties were suppressed by use of box-like boundary conditions effectively supplying a confining external field. These approximations were presented as novel discoveries of condensates consisting of two and three $\alpha$-particles. The last five years have witnessed surprisingly large efforts invested in both investigations of the accuracy of the approximation in [@toh01] and extensions to similar simple models for other nuclei [@fun03; @yam04]. The aim seems to be a search for $\alpha$-cluster condensates in nuclei. The inspiration is from atomic physics where Bose-Einstein condensates (BEC) of cold atoms are routinely made and manipulated by external fields [@ing99]. Related theoretical investigations are also abundant, see e.g. the review [@dal99]. The concept of BEC is well-defined for macroscopic systems of cold atoms and molecules. Extensions to self-bound quantum systems with a small number of particles are not straightforward. The purpose of this letter is to discuss the concept of few-body nuclear condensates, give definitions, compare to cold atomic gases, show the conflict between localized $\alpha$-cluster models and $\alpha$-condensation, derive occurrence conditions and investigate consequences. #### Concepts. {#concepts. .unnumbered} To find $\alpha$-cluster condensates in nuclei two conditions must be met, i.e. (i) the nucleons must be confined in $\alpha$-clusters, and (ii) these $\alpha$-particles must form a condensate. Although $\alpha$-cluster models in general are unsuccessful we shall assume that (i) holds. Then to ensure nucleon antisymmetry the $\alpha - \alpha$ distance must on average be larger than the diameter of the $\alpha$-particle. The classical definition of an ideal Bose-Einstein condensate is a collection of identical particles in the same quantum state. This implies that the independent particle model gives an accurate description which obviously is true for non-interacting particles in an external field. For interacting particles the mean-field description is valid when Mottelsons quantality condition is met [@mot99], i.e. $$\label{e20} \Lambda_{Mot} = \frac{\hbar^2}{m c^2_{min}|V_{min}|} > 0.1 -0.2\; ,$$ where $m$ is the mass of the particles and $c_{min}$ is the distance between two particles when the total two-body potential has its minimum value $V_{min}$. When $\Lambda_{Mot}$ is small the attractive potential dominates over the kinetic energy and the particles are confined to the attractive pockets, i.e. localization or solid structure. When $\Lambda_{Mot}$ is large the particles can not be confined by the attraction and the mean-field model is appropriate. The condition for Bose-Einstein condensates is that the deBroglie wavelength $\lambda_{dB}$ of the motion must be larger than the distance $c_{min}$ to the nearest neighbor, i.e. $$\label{e30} 1< \Lambda_{bec} \equiv \frac{\lambda_{dB}}{c_{min}} = \frac{2 \pi \hbar}{c_{min} \sqrt{2 m |V_{min}|} } = \pi \sqrt{2 \Lambda_{Mot}} \; .$$ Thus $\Lambda^2_{bec} = 2 \pi^2 \Lambda_{Mot}$ implying that the quantality inequality in eq.(\[e20\]) separating solid and mean-field structures is equivalent to the condition for breakdown of the classical gas regime in statistical mechanics. We can evaluate these conditions for the $\alpha-\alpha$ potential $V$ without any bound states parametrized in [@ali66] as an attractive and a repulsive gaussian of different ranges $(r_a,r_r)$ and strengths $(V_a,V_r)$, i.e. $$\begin{aligned} \label{e87} V(r) = V_r \exp(-r^2/r_r^2) - V_a \exp(-r^2/r_a^2) \; ,\end{aligned}$$ where the minimum $V_{min}\approx 5-8$ MeV (including the Coulomb energy of $\approx 2~ $MeV) for $c_{min}\approx 2.5-3.0$ fm and $\Lambda_{Mot} \approx 0.1-0.2$. Thus $\alpha$-particles would be in the mean-field range but with a strong tendency to localize. #### Symmetry requirements. {#symmetry-requirements. .unnumbered} Wave functions describing self-bound few-body structures must be invariant under translations and rotations. The connection to conditions for condensate formation is most easily illustrated by use of an $N$-body wave function $\Psi$ expressed as products of identical gaussian single-particle wave functions, i.e. $$\label{e33} \Psi(\{{ \mbox{\boldmath $r$} }_i\}) = (b\sqrt{\pi})^{-3N/2}\exp(- \sum_{i=1}^N r_i^2/(2b^2))\;,$$ where ${ \mbox{\boldmath $r_{i}$} }$ is the $i'th$ coordinate. This as well as all other mean-field wave functions violate translation invariance, or equivalently momentum conservation, which is restored by integrating $\Psi(\{{ \mbox{\boldmath $r$} }_i-{ \mbox{\boldmath $R$} }'\}) \exp(i{ \mbox{\boldmath $P$} }\cdot { \mbox{\boldmath $R$} }')$ over all ${ \mbox{\boldmath $R$} }'$. The solution $\Psi_{int}$ of lowest energy has ${ \mbox{\boldmath $P$} }=0$ which for eq.(\[e33\]) results in $$\begin{aligned} \label{e35} \Psi_{int}(\{{ \mbox{\boldmath $r$} }_i\}) = (b\sqrt{\pi})^{-3(N-1)/2} \exp(-\rho^2/(2b^2)) \;,\\ \rho^2 \equiv \sum_{i=1}^N q_{i}^2 = \frac{1}{N} \sum_ {i<j} r_{ij}^2 = \sum_{i=1}^N r_i^2 - N { \mbox{\boldmath $R$} }^2 , \label{e36} \\ { \mbox{\boldmath $q_{i}$} } \equiv { \mbox{\boldmath $r_{i}$} } - { \mbox{\boldmath $R$} } \;\;,\;\; { \mbox{\boldmath $r_{ij}$} } \equiv { \mbox{\boldmath $r_{i}$} }-{ \mbox{\boldmath $r_{j}$} } \;\;,\;\; { \mbox{\boldmath $R$} } \equiv \frac{1}{N} \sum_{i=1}^N { \mbox{\boldmath $r_{i}$} } \; , \label{e37}\end{aligned}$$ where the coordinates now are measured from the common center-of-mass (cm) ${ \mbox{\boldmath $R$} }$. This wave function is invariant under rotations around the cm. In contrast to the mean-field solution the particles can be correlated and the wave function $\Psi_{loc}$ in a body-fixed coordinate system localized in distributions around preferred points ${ \mbox{\boldmath $R$} }_k$, i.e. $$\begin{aligned} \label{e43} \Psi_{loc}(\{{ \mbox{\boldmath $r$} }_i\}) \propto \sum_{p} \exp(- \sum_{i=1}^N ({ \mbox{\boldmath $r_{i}$} } - { \mbox{\boldmath $R$} }_{p(i)})^2 /(2B^2)) \;,\end{aligned}$$ where the normalization is omitted and full symmetry is achieved by the summation over all permutations $p$ of the set of numbers $\{1,2,....,N\}$. The translational invariance is restored precisely as for eq.(\[e33\]), i.e. the wave function is obtained from eq.(\[e43\]) by the substitution ${ \mbox{\boldmath $r_{i}$} } \rightarrow { \mbox{\boldmath $q_{i}$} }$ in eq.(\[e36\]) and a corresponding change of normalization constant. The rotational invariance is broken for $\Psi_{loc}$ in eq.(\[e43\]) but recovered for states of zero angular momentum by linear combinations of all spatial rotations of $\Psi_{loc}$. #### Condensate assessment. {#condensate-assessment. .unnumbered} To decide if a given wave function describes a condensate we apply different available definitions. We illustrate again with gaussian wave functions which overestimates the degree of factorization of the $N$-body wave function. One necessary criterion for a condensate is that the one-body density matrix must have an eigenvalue $\lambda$ comparable in size to $N$ [@yang62]. For a mean-field product solution the condensate fraction is $c_f=\lambda/N = 1$. However, the one-body density matrix is ill-defined for self-bound systems of a finite number of particles. This is due to the cm-motion which decouples completely for correct translationally invariant solutions. An appropriate cm wave-function could be chosen to allow the usual definition of the one-body density matrix. The choice could be such that the condensate fraction $c_f$ is optimized which would be equivalent to adding an external field as in atomic physics. For eq.(\[e35\]) this recovers the product wave function of all coordinates in eq.(\[e33\]) where the cm-motion is completely ignored. Instead of using all particle coordinates relative coordinates could be used and an internal one-body density matrix, $n({ \mbox{\boldmath $q$} },{ \mbox{\boldmath $q$} }')$, defined [@pet00; @mat04; @suz02; @fun03]. Following [@pet00], i.e. inserting ${ \mbox{\boldmath $q_{N}$} } = - \sum_{i=1}^{N-1} { \mbox{\boldmath $q_{i}$} }$ in eq.(\[e35\]), we get $$\begin{aligned} && n({ \mbox{\boldmath $q$} },{ \mbox{\boldmath $q$} }') \propto \int d^3{ \mbox{\boldmath $q$} }_2 d^3{ \mbox{\boldmath $q$} }_3...d^3{ \mbox{\boldmath $q$} }_{N-1} |\Psi_{int}|^2 \nonumber \\ &\propto& \exp\bigg(-\frac{{ \mbox{\boldmath $q$} }^2 + { \mbox{\boldmath $q'$} }^2}{b^2} + \frac{(N-2)({ \mbox{\boldmath $q'$} }+{ \mbox{\boldmath $q$} })^2}{(N-1) 4 b^2}\bigg) \ \label{e53}\;,\end{aligned}$$ where ${ \mbox{\boldmath $q$} }$ and ${ \mbox{\boldmath $q'$} }$ refer to ${ \mbox{\boldmath $q_{1}$} }$. The condensate fraction obtained through the largest eigenvalue is then [@gaj06] $c_f = 8/(1+\sqrt{2-2/N})^3$ which decreases with $N$ from $1$ for $N=2$ towards about $0.57$ for large $N$. However, the choice of internal coordinates is arbitrary [@gaj06] and we could as well choose ${ \mbox{\boldmath $q_{1}$} }$ supplemented by a set of $N-1$ [*independent*]{} Jacobi coordinates. Then the density matrix corresponding to eq.(\[e35\]) would factorize and give $c_f=1$. For $\alpha$-clusters these options can by appropriate choices lead to large condensate fractions for rather accurate cluster wave functions. This is because approximate factorization easily arises at smaller distances where the potential minimum resembles a harmonic oscillator and the related $s$-wave solutions resemble gaussians. Instead of using the eigenvalues of the density matrix a condensate criterion could be that the one-body (internal) density matrix should factorize at large distances [@yang62]. This criterion is extremely difficult to fulfill because the correct nuclear wave functions never factorize [*at large distances*]{} as shown in [@mer84]. Thus, at best only properties at intermediate distances could possess condensate properties with this criterion. Yet another condensate criterion is that all particles occupy the same quantum state [@gaj06]. This implies that removal of one particle should leave the single-particle wave functions completely unchanged. However, for a finite number of particles the remaining interacting particles would reorganize into a different structure. This criterion would be extremely difficult to test directly. #### Localization. {#localization. .unnumbered} The $\alpha$-cluster models and the quantality parameter in eqs.(\[e20\]) and (\[e30\]) suggest that localization, or crystal features of the wave function, may be important. The resulting condensate fraction depends strongly on the degree of localization as we can see explicitly by computing the one-body density matrix for eq.(\[e43\]). We assume very narrow non-overlapping gaussians and an appropriate cm-motion, and obtain $$\begin{aligned} \label{e45} &&n({ \mbox{\boldmath $r$} },{ \mbox{\boldmath $r$} }') = (B\sqrt{\pi})^{-3/2} \\ \nonumber &&\times \sum_{k=1}^N \exp(- (({ \mbox{\boldmath $r$} } - { \mbox{\boldmath $R$} }_k)^2 + ({ \mbox{\boldmath $r'$} } - { \mbox{\boldmath $R$} }_k)^2) /(2B^2))\;,\end{aligned}$$ which has $N$ equally large eigenvalues while all others are zero. This is a condensate fraction of $1/N$ corresponding to one single-particle state for each of the $N$ particles. However, after restoration of rotational symmetry only eigenvalues zero remain. If the widths, $B$, of the gaussians increase and they begin to overlap with each other one eigenvalue separates out and becomes finite. Increasing the width leads to increasing overlap with a product wave function like eq.(\[e33\]). We can quantify by computing the overlap between the factorized and localized wave functions in eqs.(\[e33\]) and (\[e43\]), i.e. $$\begin{aligned} \label{e47} \langle \Psi | \Psi_{loc} \rangle = \bigg(\frac{2b B}{b^2+B^2}\bigg)^{3N/2} \exp( - \frac{\sum_{k=1}^N {R}_k^2}{2b^2+2B^2}) \;,\end{aligned}$$ which only is close to unity when $b\sim B$ and either ${R}_i/B \ll 1$ or ${R}_i/b\ll 1$. Eq.(\[e47\]) is also obtained by replacing $\Psi_{loc}$ with the rotationally invariant wave function. Thus a substantial condensate fraction requires that the overlap with eq.(\[e33\]) is large. However, the spatial extension must be large to ensure definition (i) of non-overlapping $\alpha$-particles. #### Condensates from cluster models. {#condensates-from-cluster-models. .unnumbered} The well-known structure of the Hoyle state in $^{12}$C has about 90% overlap with $\alpha$-particles in relative $s$-waves around the center-of-mass [@mat04; @suz02; @fun03; @che07]. This corresponds to an eigenvalue of about $0.7$ [@mat04; @suz02] in agreement with our upper bound of $c_f=0.80$ derived from eq.(\[e35\]). At the same time $\alpha$-cluster models show $\alpha$-particle density distributions localized around specific points in space [@che07]. Reconciling these results, where apparently both localization and large condensate fraction are present in the same wave function, is only possible with large widths of the localized wave in eq.(8). This effectively recovers the independent particle wave function in eq.(4) where the $\alpha$-particles are sufficiently separated to remove the need for nucleon antisymmetrization. These arguments show that the $\alpha$-condensate states proposed should be regarded as merely an approximation to existing nuclear $\alpha$-cluster states. A crucial question is whether a condensate structure can be experimentally distinguished from other structures. To address this question computed and measured electron scattering on $^{12}$C was compared in [@che07]. The conclusions are that $\alpha$-cluster models of the Brink-type [@bri66] and the $\alpha$-condensate states of [@toh01] predict virtually indistinguishable cross sections and charge distributions. In addition, these models and results from more elaborate microscopic calculations [@che07] give precisely the same charge density at large distances. Thus the classical cluster parametrization supplemented by nucleon antisymmetry [@toh01] is apparently accurate to about 90% for the Hoyle state. However, it is important to realize that fulfilling an ambiguous definition has very little to do with true condensates which only can be diagnosed through properties of the wave functions and not by density distributions. In particular, observable coherence properties of the many-body states are necessary to separate cluster states from condensates. Both this and the localization discussion above strongly indicate that no new consequences arise from approximating cluster states with “condensates”. #### Condensate identity. {#condensate-identity. .unnumbered} The approximation as a condensate wavefunction of a quantum state rapidly gets invalid with increasing nuclear mass. This is seen from a sequence of four arguments. First the approximation as a condensate wavefunction is related to a restricted part of the full Hilbert space. Variational computations of condensates assume a class of wave functions with parameters determined by minimizing the energy. When the Hilbert space is extended to include other degrees of freedom the solution must remain essentially unchanged. An analogy is found in the $s$-wave neutron strength function which is broad and distributed over a large number of many-body states. This is reflected in the lack of neutron halo states at excitations around the neutron binding energy $B_n$ [@jen04; @jen00]. To maintain the condensate character, the residual coupling $V_{c,n}$ of an $\alpha$-condensate state $|c\rangle$ to the true many-body continuum nuclear states $|n\rangle$ must all be smaller than their energy difference [@jen00]. The second argument in the sequence is that this approximation gets increasingly worse with increasing excitation energy because the density of states increases. A “clean” condensate wavefunction must be more and more “smeared out” over the true many-body states and at some excitation energy the condensate wavefunction no longer describes a state of the nucleus. Third, alpha-condensates are postulated at the threshold for disintegration into alpha-particles. Fourth, this is at an excitation energy $E^*$ of about $7$ MeV for $^{12}$C and increasing by about $7$ MeV for each additional $\alpha$-particle, i.e. $E^* \approx 7 (A/4-2)$ MeV. We first estimate an average $V_{av}$ of $V_{c,n}$ by using a nucleon-nucleon potential of range $b$ and strength $V_0$ between the two states with similar radii $R=bA^{1/3}$. Both residual kinetic and potential energy contributions are then proportional to the number of nucleons $A$, i.e. $|V_{av}| \approx A S_0$. The radii in $|c\rangle$ and $|n\rangle$ must be comparable if the attraction of short range has to keep the condensate spatially confined in competition with the repulsive Coulomb interaction. The condition for maintaining the condensate character is then $|V_{av}| < D$, where $D$ is the average level spacing. We also estimate $V_{av}$ by replacing $|c\rangle$ by the state $|\alpha,(A-4)\rangle$, consisting of an $\alpha$-particle and the ground state, $|(A-4)\rangle$, of the $(A-4)$-system. These wavefunctions are similar, because the condensate consists of alpha-particles, but they are clearly not identical, since the ground state of A-4 cannot be accurately described by an alpha-cluster model. However, they are similar in the approximations of harmonic oscillator potentials or gaussian wavefunctions. The differences in the coupling matrix elements from using $|c\rangle$ and $|\alpha,(A-4)\rangle$ can then on average be expected to deviate much less than an order of magnitude. With many states $|n\rangle$ in the average this leads as in [@sat83; @jen00] to the estimate of $V_{av} \approx W_{\alpha}$ where $W_{\alpha}$ is the strength of the imaginary part of the $\alpha$-nucleus optical potential. As in [@jen00] we conclude that the condensate resembles one of the many-body states when $W_{\alpha} < D$. From the imaginary $\alpha$-nucleus potential we can estimate the spreading width $\Gamma_{\alpha}$ of an $\alpha$-particle state on the true many-nucleon states. For nucleons the spreading width of a single-particle state of energy $\epsilon$, $\Gamma_{sp}$, is in Fermi-liquid transport theory [@bay76; @sie83; @hof92] found to be $\Gamma_{sp} = ((\epsilon-\mu)^2 + \pi^2T^2)/\Gamma_0$ where $\mu$ is the Fermi level and $T$ the temperature. The constant $\Gamma_0$ is related to the imaginary potential and the estimate $\approx 33$ MeV results in $\Gamma_{sp} \approx 1.5$ MeV for $T=0$ and an energy equal to the nucleon separation energy [@sie83; @hof92]. Analogously we estimate $\Gamma_{\alpha}$ for $\alpha$-particles moving in the medium of nucleons. The $\alpha$-nucleus separation energy is about $7$ MeV, which with $\Gamma_0 \approx 33$ MeV again results in $\Gamma_{\alpha} = 1.5 $ MeV for $T=0$. The finite temperature is obtained from the average excitation energy, $E^* = a T_c^2$, at the threshold for fragmentation into free $\alpha$-particles. With the level density parameter $a=A/10$MeV we get $T_c \approx 4$ MeV $\sqrt{1-8/A}$ where $A$ is the nucleon number. In total we get the estimate $\Gamma_{\alpha} \approx 6$ MeV almost independent of nucleon number. This correponds to a strength $W_{\alpha} \approx3$ MeV for the appropriate increasing excitation energy. We estimate $D$ in the Fermi gas model adjusted phenomenologically to excitation energies $E^* \approx B_n$, i.e. $D \approx D_0 \exp(-2\sqrt{a(E^*- 2\Delta)})$, where $\Delta \approx 12~$MeV$/\sqrt{A}$ is the pairing gap $\Delta$. The level spacing, $D_0 \approx 20~{\rm MeV}/A$, for $E^* = 2\Delta$ is essentially equal to the single-particle level spacing which is the correct limit. The extremely simple expression for $D$ can only be an average over many nuclei at energies where many excited states are present. The conditions $|V_{av}| < D$ and $W_{\alpha} < D$ are then $$\label{e80} S_{0} A \,{\rm or}\, W_{\alpha} < D_0 \exp\big(-2\sqrt{a(E^*- 2\Delta)}\big) \; .$$ A very low limit of both $S_0$ and $W_{\alpha}$ is $1$ MeV [@dem02]. With a very small value of $E^* = 2\Delta$ we get the conservative estimate of preservation of condensate identity $A < \sqrt{20} < 5$ or $A < 20$, respectively. The spreading width estimate, even reduced by a factor of $2$, is also larger than the level distance for $A < 14$. These estimates are valid when a sufficient number of excited states contributes in the average around the threshold energy. This is fulfilled for all nuclei heavier than $^{12}$C, including $^{16}$O. These conditions for survival of the condensate structures are almost always violated, and the violation increases exponentially with excitation energy. #### Tonks-Giradeau structures. {#tonks-giradeau-structures. .unnumbered} The linear chain structures of $\alpha$-particles at the break-up threshold, Ikeda diagrams [@ike68], are conceptually similar to the one-dimensional atomic condensates called Tonks-Giradeau structures [@par04; @kin04]. The latter have been realized with bosonic Rubidium atoms in optical traps that have strong repulsive interactions in the 1D geometry. This near impenetrability makes the system behave like a 1D Fermi gas in many aspects. This is analoguous to impenetrable $\alpha$-particles in 1D cluster structures. The corresponding states have been searched for and for many years the Hoyle state in $^{12}$C was the favorite candidate. This state is now claimed as a condensate with a completely different structure. No observable has been found to distinguish between these structures which in any case both are approximated as three-body cluster states. To assess whether such linear structures could exist in nuclei we turn to the two conditions in eqs.(\[e20\]) and (\[e30\]). The $\alpha-\alpha$ Coulomb energy is unimportant compared to $V$ in eq.(\[e87\]). It does not change the condition but it also cannot provide the confining external field allowing a mean-field condensate-like solution. Hence a linear chain structure is only possible with localized $\alpha$-particles. The linear chain structure may also be destroyed by couplings to other degrees of freedom. As for three-dimensional condensates we estimate the survival probability to be very small for any excitation energy above $2\Delta$. #### Conclusions. {#conclusions. .unnumbered} The existence of Bose-Einstein condensates of $\alpha$-particles assumes first that nucleons clusterize into $\alpha$-particles, and second that a condensate is formed. The quantality condition of Mottelson indicates that $\alpha$-particles marginally prefer independent particle motion over correlation. We show that definitions of condensates of very few particles are ambiguous and lead to disparate condensate fractions. The origin is conflicts between mean-field solutions, correlations and translational or rotational symmetries, and between definitions related to short and long-range behavior. The differences between nuclear and atomic condensates are few versus macroscopic number of particles, dilute versus high density, self-bound system versus external confining field, and ambiguous versus rigorous definitions. In conclusion, we have found that the concept of a nuclear condensate is of little use. The recent theoretical claims of nuclear $\alpha$-condensates refer to well-known cluster states and can be regarded as merely an approximation to such states. No observable differences can be constructed to distinguish these alleged novel structures from ordinary cluster states. Occurrence of one and three-dimensional nuclear condensates of more than 3 particles at higher excitation energies are very unlikely. They would either be completely unstable and vanished into the continuum, or the $\alpha$-condensate structure would cease to exist due to spreading over many-nucleon states. 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How Eddy Grant gave hope to South Africa (After years out of the limelight, the man behind a song that became an anti-apartheid anthem returned as one of the stars of Nelson Mandela’s concert. ) (Telegraph) – When Nelson Mandela broke his long silence to denounce Robert Mugabe’s regime in Zimbabwe on Wednesday, it only heightened the expectation and intrigue surrounding yesterday’s 90th birthday concert for him in Hyde Park. The show itself promised to bring together a good number of the pop musicians whose protest against Mandela’s incarceration at a similar concert in 1988 was ultimately rewarded with his release two years later. One performer, who was not present that day, but has been included this time around, is the author of a song, which many saw as the very anthem of apartheid’s demise. Eddy Grant’s “Gimme Hope Jo’anna” hit the UK top 10 in January 1988. More importantly, it was banned by South Africa’s government, and thus, with its gambolling African beat and incisive lyrical idealism, it achieved a huge popular resonance there, in the drive to end the regime. His performance of it at yesterday’s bonanza doubtlessly prompted many people to ask: “Eddy Grant – whatever happened to him, eh?” The singer last toured in this country 22 years ago. His big moment came in the early eighties, with massive hits such as “I Don’t Wanna Dance” and “Electric Avenue”, but some time after “Gimme Hope Jo’anna”, he slipped off the pop radar. By coincidence, Eddy had long been planning a world tour this summer, to follow on from his 60th birthday in March. The Mandela concert came at a fortuitous time. By an even greater coincidence, he has been rehearsing for it in Johannesburg – the Jo’anna of the tune’s title. He explained to the Telegraph how his search for a backing band led him here – to a group of newly unemployed musicians, who had served many years behind Lucky Dube, the South African reggae titan who was shot dead by carjackers in Johannesburg last October. The unrest in Alexandra township, where black South Africans have been beating and killing immigrants and refugees from neighbouring countries such as Zimbabwe, means that their nearby rehearsal studio is off limits. The irony of discussing an anti-apartheid protest song, whose mission to “make Jo’anna see how everybody could a-live as one” could now be levelled at black-on-black aggressors in the city, clearly weighs heavily on Eddy‘s mind. “Xenophobia is a big issue here,” he says, “but it’s not exclusive to South Africa. I’m not making excuses for South Africa, but I have come to understand the way the world works. I’ve been telling people here, ‘This thing will pass, just like apartheid passed.’“ Some might be surprised to hear Eddy speaking with such sage-like authority. In critical circles at least, he is dismissively remembered as an opportunist British answer to Bob Marley, a purveyor of “reggae-lite”. That assessment is wide of the mark: his biggest hits had an electro-pop dimension, which was astonishingly forward-thinking for its time. It’s also a little-known fact that he wrote, performed, produced and released all of them himself, on his own label. In the mid-eighties, he shrewdly acquired the publishing rights to his back catalogue, with the result that, unlike the vast majority of artists, all the royalties for his work go to him. In Guyana, where he was born, and lived until he was 12, Eddy is a national hero, a role model for self-advancement. His face has adorned four different postage stamps. He left there when his father, a jazz trumpeter, moved the family to a cramped basement in Kentish Town, north London. As a black immigrant in sixties Britain, Eddy was inspired by British pop, as well as James Brown, whose self-determination he later sought to emulate. He made his first sortie into music-making in the late sixties as lead guitarist with arguably Britain’s first inter-racial beat group, the Equals. He wrote their number one hit, “Baby Come Back”. After three years of intensive touring, he suffered a heart attack and retreated from the limelight. In his newly-bought pile in Stamford Hill, he built Europe’s first black-owned recording studio, then, equally ground-breakingly, set up his own label, Ice Records, and even his own record-pressing plant. “I wanted to own a black bank, too,” he adds, “because I couldn’t get the money to support my ideas.” When he came back as a solo artist in 1979 with “Living on the Front Line”, his empire was in place. He duly moved back to the Caribbean, not to Guyana, but to a historic plantation house in Barbados. There, he built another studio, and recorded his big album, 1981’s ‘Killer on the Rampage’, much of it charged with subtle political messages. “‘I Don’t Wanna Dance’ can mean that you don’t want to go out on the dance floor,” he says, “or it could mean that you don’t want to go along with an idea. That’s how I try to write: you take it how you want, but I am basically a writer of protest.” In that light, the song was his farewell to Britain as a land of class and colour divisions. His run of UK hits was broken when “War Party” was denied airplay during the Falklands conflict. Thereafter, Eddy focused his efforts on his native region. Ice Records began a programme of calypso re-issues, a beneficent gesture, which may have been funded by more businesslike ventures such as the bastardised version of “Gimme Hope Jo’anna” used on an advert for a yogurt drink. Eddy continued to release his own music locally, and mentored a raft of young Caribbean artists, whom he has provided with a generic identity, Ringbang, and a strong capitalistic and cultural ethos. “If we’re going to sell ourselves to America,” he reasons, “our value to them is being who we are, not trying to be them. That’s why preserving the old music is important. The world is made up of many different people. If you were to put all their strengths together, then you might get a better world.” At 60, Eddy is in fabulous shape (being teetotal has surely helped). He’s a tough cookie, certainly not shy of bigging himself up, and only rarely given to moments of expansive idealism. It transpires that he has spent a fair amount of time in Africa, having set up a distribution deal there in the eighties. So, “Gimme Hope Jo’anna” was written out of experience, not airy-fairy political correctness. Eddy also plays at Glastonbury Festival tomorrow. On Monday, his 10-date UK tour opens in Brighton, and ‘The Road to Reparation: The Very Best of Eddy Grant’ is released, through a one-off deal with Universal. Canada-based Guyanese and humanitarian Sangeeta Bahadur finished as second runner-up in the Miss India Worldwide Pageant at the Royal Albert’s Palace in Edison, New Jersey last Sunday night, October 8. Guyanese will this evening be treated to a display of fashion and live entertainment at Tower Suites poolside as in honour of Miss World Guyana 2017 Vena Mookram as organisers also attempt to raise some much-needed funds to cover her wardrobe for the Miss World competition being held in China which kicks off October 20. See also Your browser is out-of-date! Update your browser to view this website correctly. We built stabroeknews.com using new technology. This makes our website faster, more feature rich and easier to use for 95% of our readers. Unfortunately, your browser does not support some of these technologies. 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If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above. You may have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below. * By Brian X. Chen Email Author * March 24, 2011 | * 12:59 pm | * Categories: Tablets and E-Readers * Apple’s iPad is just one year old, and more than 15 million customers have voted with their wallets. The tablet is officially mainstream. But just what is a tablet good for? It’s not a complete replacement of a PC and it’s not a necessity for anyone who carries around a notebook or a smartphone. At best, it’s a “tweener” device. For a product category that didn’t exist (except in niche form) a year ago, it’s surprising how well the tablet is doing. It’s as if a mainstream product appeared out of nowhere. Indeed, most tech experts underestimated how many iPads would sell in year one. If it’s not a necessity, doesn’t do many things as well as a notebook and lacks the portability of a smartphone, what’s the key to its success? Perhaps the best gadget to compare with the iPad is the microwave oven, says tech writer Matthew Guay. Succeeding the conventional oven, the microwave oven could heat food faster and use less energy. Even though it wasn’t as good at cooking as an oven, and it wasn’t obvious why anyone would want a microwave, the microwave became a staple in practically every home, because people kept finding new ways to use this technological wonder. It seems like the same thing is happening with tablets. “Everyone thought the iPad needed traditional computer programs to be successful. After all, if you can’t use Office, what’s it good for?” Guay wrote. And then customers bought them, took them home, and something special happened. They realized that reading eBooks or browsing the internet from their couch was nice on a tablet. They found things they would have never thought to do on a computer were fun and simple. Apps that never made sense on computers with keyboards and mice, like GarageBand and finger paint apps and eReaders, suddenly found life on a 9.7-inch slate of glass and metal. Indeed, it turns out that a tablet needn’t do everything that a more powerful PC can, according to multiple research studies on iPad usage. Rather, the tablet’s main appeal lies in the approachable touchscreen interface that just about anybody at any age can pick up and figure out. As you might expect, the top three things consumers have been doing with iPads are surfing the web, writing and checking e-mail and playing games, according to a study published last year by NPD Group. iPad owners are also watching video and reading e-books, and the device’s light weight and portability make it a real crowd-pleaser, NPD found. “While lots of choices and compromises go into the development of any product, especially something as different as the iPad, these results indicate that most consumers are satisfied with their purchase and are increasingly finding ways to interact with their iPad,” NPD wrote. Additionally, a casual poll conducted by Gadget Lab on Twitter asked the question “What do you do with your iPad?” and the majority of respondents said they used the tablet for browsing the web, reading (books and/or news articles) and social networking. The minority of respondents to Gadget Lab’s poll said they used the iPad for special purposes such as recording music, writing poetry and teaching in class from book notes. “Read, use it to teach from (presentation notes in iBooks) and email,” said iPad owner Josh Smith, in a Twitter reply to Gadget Lab. “Occasionally write up posts in bed w/ silent keyboard.” As for apps, the most frequently downloaded apps are in the Games, Entertainment and Utilities categories. However, TruVoipBuzz looked closely at the numbers and found that those top three categories only account for 46 percent of apps that attracted the most downloads. The minute I saw the first iPad I instinctively understood how cool this thing could be. I think tech writers are kind of like literary critics. They're attracted to the weirdly novel or the needlessly complex and they tend to dismiss fluff-tech that just amuses the heck out of everybody else.

Good Night (Morning?)! Photo by Carli Jean I imagine many of you are reading this while sipping your morning coffee, hopefully enjoying some bright sunshine, and mentally preparing to face your Monday not to mention the rest of the coming week. Meanwhile, right now I’m sitting here at a bar at 8AM sipping on Angry Orchard cider, hopefully about to be eating some greasy cheese curds, and mentally preparing for how I’m about to entirely switch my sleep cycle…again. Before we get too carried away, this is only my second post here on Society Letters, so let me take a moment to introduce myself. Hi, I’m Kate…. and I’m not an alcoholic. I am, however; a rotating shift nurse at the local Veteran’s Hospital and as a result I’m always functioning on a slightly different wavelength than the rest of the world. My fellow healthcare workers, police officers, firefighters, military service members, bartenders, college students the week before finals, Black-Friday-working retail employees, and all the new mama’s out there can probably relate to feeling like you are going through your day like a zombie hoping that nobody is noticing that you are nodding off mid-conversation. To the rest of you, this is my attempt at explaining this foreign world to you and apologizing for behaviors that may seem rude if you don’t know where we are coming from. So here are a few facts you should know about life for those of us who work the third shift: 1)Blackout curtains are your best friend. As a nurse, I know that the body’s natural sleep-wake cycle is designed to keep us awake during the day. As a third-shift nurse, I KNOW that my natural inclination is to stay up during the day. It actually takes intentionality to get yourself to bed once the sun is up in the morning so forgive me if I have my sunglasses on and don’t engage in lively chatter when I run into you on my way home. I’m just trying to reduce outside stimuli and convince my body to start to wind down and get ready to sleep. Sleeping during the day is hard so often I will only get a few hours at a time. Eight hours straight is a total rarity. PS: lawnmowers are the enemy! 2)We will do everything we can to participate in life in the real world as if it is totally normal but sometimes it just can’t happen because having a few at beer league softball before coming into work is generally frowned upon. 3)Being home sleeping during the day does not equal available. Do you like taking phone calls, answering the doorbell, entertaining the cable guy, and running errands at three in the morning?!? Shockingly, neither do we! Our three in the morning just so happens to fall right around noon, so I apologize to my hairdresser for definitely falling asleep as you were shampooing and coloring my hair last week! 4)You never know what meal we are eating. Ever. Is it still called “breakfast” when it’s the first meal you eat of the day, but you are at your neighbor’s grilling out? Or do you call cheese curds, burgers, and alcohol after your shift “breakfast”. And lunch? Lunch seems to just get lost in the shuffle and morphs into “continuously snacking on whatever junk is available in the vending machine between the hours of midnight and 3AM”. This is then typically followed by numerous excuses about how you need to grocery shop and “your diet starts tomorrow”. So please don’t get offended when you invite us for dinner and we aren’t feeling up to eating pot roast 30 minutes after waking up or look at us strange when we order an entire meal and drinks at a restaurant at 7AM. God works in mysterious ways. As I was typing the draft of this post at 4am during some down-time at work, I had to leave abruptly for a Code Blue. I’m happy to say that tonight we literally saved a life, and nights like these are why I love my job so much! Some days it is nice to have a tangible reminder that what I do truly makes a difference and makes all of this more than worth it! After I had just spend time writing about all the struggles of my job, I needed that profound moment to recognize just how trivial my complaints are in comparison to what others are facing. So cheers to all my coffee mug friends out there who are just starting off their days and their week! And I raise my 8AM beer to all my fellow night-shifters and/or night-owls out there who can relate in any way to all of this! Here’s to everyone cutting everyone else just a little bit of extra slack this week because you never know what they are dealing with or going through. When it comes down to it, everyone could use a little extra love, and a lot more sleep!

# Copyright (c) 2011 OpenStack Foundation # All Rights Reserved. # # Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may # not use this file except in compliance with the License. You may obtain # a copy of the License at # # http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0 # # Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software # distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT # WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the # License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations # under the License. """Manage backends in the current zone.""" from collections import abc import random from oslo_config import cfg from oslo_log import log as logging from oslo_utils import importutils from oslo_utils import strutils from oslo_utils import timeutils from cinder.common import constants from cinder import context as cinder_context from cinder import exception from cinder import objects from cinder.scheduler import filters from cinder import utils from cinder.volume import volume_types from cinder.volume import volume_utils # FIXME: This file should be renamed to backend_manager, we should also rename # HostManager class, and scheduler_host_manager option, and also the weight # classes, and add code to maintain backward compatibility. host_manager_opts = [ cfg.ListOpt('scheduler_default_filters', default=[ 'AvailabilityZoneFilter', 'CapacityFilter', 'CapabilitiesFilter' ], help='Which filter class names to use for filtering hosts ' 'when not specified in the request.'), cfg.ListOpt('scheduler_default_weighers', default=[ 'CapacityWeigher' ], help='Which weigher class names to use for weighing hosts.'), cfg.StrOpt('scheduler_weight_handler', default='cinder.scheduler.weights.OrderedHostWeightHandler', help='Which handler to use for selecting the host/pool ' 'after weighing'), ] CONF = cfg.CONF CONF.register_opts(host_manager_opts) CONF.import_opt('scheduler_driver', 'cinder.scheduler.manager') CONF.import_opt('max_over_subscription_ratio', 'cinder.volume.driver') LOG = logging.getLogger(__name__) class ReadOnlyDict(abc.Mapping): """A read-only dict.""" def __init__(self, source=None): if source is not None: self.data = dict(source) else: self.data = {} def __getitem__(self, key): return self.data[key] def __iter__(self): return iter(self.data) def __len__(self): return len(self.data) def __repr__(self): return '%s(%r)' % (self.__class__.__name__, self.data) class BackendState(object): """Mutable and immutable information tracked for a volume backend.""" def __init__(self, host, cluster_name, capabilities=None, service=None): # NOTE(geguileo): We have a circular dependency between BackendState # and PoolState and we resolve it with an instance attribute instead # of a class attribute that we would assign after the PoolState # declaration because this way we avoid splitting the code. self.pool_state_cls = PoolState self.capabilities = None self.service = None self.host = host self.cluster_name = cluster_name self.update_capabilities(capabilities, service) self.volume_backend_name = None self.vendor_name = None self.driver_version = 0 self.storage_protocol = None self.QoS_support = False # Mutable available resources. # These will change as resources are virtually "consumed". self.total_capacity_gb = 0 # capacity has been allocated in cinder POV, which should be # sum(vol['size'] for vol in vols_on_hosts) self.allocated_capacity_gb = 0 self.free_capacity_gb = None self.reserved_percentage = 0 # The apparent allocated space indicating how much capacity # has been provisioned. This could be the sum of sizes of # all volumes on a backend, which could be greater than or # equal to the allocated_capacity_gb. self.provisioned_capacity_gb = 0 self.max_over_subscription_ratio = 1.0 self.thin_provisioning_support = False self.thick_provisioning_support = False # Does this backend support attaching a volume to more than # one host/instance? self.multiattach = False self.filter_function = None self.goodness_function = 0 # PoolState for all pools self.pools = {} self.updated = None @property def backend_id(self): return self.cluster_name or self.host def update_capabilities(self, capabilities=None, service=None): # Read-only capability dicts if capabilities is None: capabilities = {} self.capabilities = ReadOnlyDict(capabilities) if service is None: service = {} self.service = ReadOnlyDict(service) def update_from_volume_capability(self, capability, service=None): """Update information about a host from its volume_node info. 'capability' is the status info reported by volume backend, a typical capability looks like this: .. code-block:: python { capability = { 'volume_backend_name': 'Local iSCSI', # 'vendor_name': 'OpenStack', # backend level 'driver_version': '1.0', # mandatory/fixed 'storage_protocol': 'iSCSI', # stats&capabilities 'active_volumes': 10, # 'IOPS_provisioned': 30000, # optional custom 'fancy_capability_1': 'eat', # stats & capabilities 'fancy_capability_2': 'drink', # 'pools': [ {'pool_name': '1st pool', # 'total_capacity_gb': 500, # mandatory stats for 'free_capacity_gb': 230, # pools 'allocated_capacity_gb': 270, # 'QoS_support': 'False', # 'reserved_percentage': 0, # 'dying_disks': 100, # 'super_hero_1': 'spider-man', # optional custom 'super_hero_2': 'flash', # stats & capabilities 'super_hero_3': 'neoncat' # }, {'pool_name': '2nd pool', 'total_capacity_gb': 1024, 'free_capacity_gb': 1024, 'allocated_capacity_gb': 0, 'QoS_support': 'False', 'reserved_percentage': 0, 'dying_disks': 200, 'super_hero_1': 'superman', 'super_hero_2': ' ', 'super_hero_2': 'Hulk' } ] } } """ self.update_capabilities(capability, service) if capability: if self.updated and self.updated > capability['timestamp']: return # Update backend level info self.update_backend(capability) # Update pool level info self.update_pools(capability, service) def update_pools(self, capability, service): """Update storage pools information from backend reported info.""" if not capability: return pools = capability.get('pools', None) active_pools = set() if pools and isinstance(pools, list): # Update all pools stats according to information from list # of pools in volume capacity for pool_cap in pools: pool_name = pool_cap['pool_name'] self._append_backend_info(pool_cap) cur_pool = self.pools.get(pool_name, None) if not cur_pool: # Add new pool cur_pool = self.pool_state_cls(self.host, self.cluster_name, pool_cap, pool_name) self.pools[pool_name] = cur_pool cur_pool.update_from_volume_capability(pool_cap, service) active_pools.add(pool_name) elif pools is None: # To handle legacy driver that doesn't report pool # information in the capability, we have to prepare # a pool from backend level info, or to update the one # we created in self.pools. pool_name = self.volume_backend_name if pool_name is None: # To get DEFAULT_POOL_NAME pool_name = volume_utils.extract_host(self.host, 'pool', True) if len(self.pools) == 0: # No pool was there single_pool = self.pool_state_cls(self.host, self.cluster_name, capability, pool_name) self._append_backend_info(capability) self.pools[pool_name] = single_pool else: # this is an update from legacy driver try: single_pool = self.pools[pool_name] except KeyError: single_pool = self.pool_state_cls(self.host, self.cluster_name, capability, pool_name) self._append_backend_info(capability) self.pools[pool_name] = single_pool single_pool.update_from_volume_capability(capability, service) active_pools.add(pool_name) # remove non-active pools from self.pools nonactive_pools = set(self.pools.keys()) - active_pools for pool in nonactive_pools: LOG.debug("Removing non-active pool %(pool)s @ %(host)s " "from scheduler cache.", {'pool': pool, 'host': self.host}) del self.pools[pool] def _append_backend_info(self, pool_cap): # Fill backend level info to pool if needed. if not pool_cap.get('volume_backend_name', None): pool_cap['volume_backend_name'] = self.volume_backend_name if not pool_cap.get('storage_protocol', None): pool_cap['storage_protocol'] = self.storage_protocol if not pool_cap.get('vendor_name', None): pool_cap['vendor_name'] = self.vendor_name if not pool_cap.get('driver_version', None): pool_cap['driver_version'] = self.driver_version if not pool_cap.get('timestamp', None): pool_cap['timestamp'] = self.updated if('filter_function' not in pool_cap and 'filter_function' in self.capabilities): pool_cap['filter_function'] = self.capabilities['filter_function'] if('goodness_function' not in pool_cap and 'goodness_function' in self.capabilities): pool_cap['goodness_function'] = ( self.capabilities['goodness_function']) def update_backend(self, capability): self.volume_backend_name = capability.get('volume_backend_name', None) self.vendor_name = capability.get('vendor_name', None) self.driver_version = capability.get('driver_version', None) self.storage_protocol = capability.get('storage_protocol', None) self.updated = capability['timestamp'] def consume_from_volume(self, volume, update_time=True): """Incrementally update host state from a volume.""" volume_gb = volume['size'] self.allocated_capacity_gb += volume_gb self.provisioned_capacity_gb += volume_gb if self.free_capacity_gb == 'infinite': # There's virtually infinite space on back-end pass elif self.free_capacity_gb == 'unknown': # Unable to determine the actual free space on back-end pass else: self.free_capacity_gb -= volume_gb if update_time: self.updated = timeutils.utcnow() LOG.debug("Consumed %s GB from backend: %s", volume['size'], self) def __repr__(self): # FIXME(zhiteng) backend level free_capacity_gb isn't as # meaningful as it used to be before pool is introduced, we'd # come up with better representation of HostState. grouping = 'cluster' if self.cluster_name else 'host' grouping_name = self.backend_id return ("%(grouping)s '%(grouping_name)s':" "free_capacity_gb: %(free_capacity_gb)s, " "total_capacity_gb: %(total_capacity_gb)s," "allocated_capacity_gb: %(allocated_capacity_gb)s, " "max_over_subscription_ratio: %(mosr)s," "reserved_percentage: %(reserved_percentage)s, " "provisioned_capacity_gb: %(provisioned_capacity_gb)s," "thin_provisioning_support: %(thin_provisioning_support)s, " "thick_provisioning_support: %(thick)s," "pools: %(pools)s," "updated at: %(updated)s" % {'grouping': grouping, 'grouping_name': grouping_name, 'free_capacity_gb': self.free_capacity_gb, 'total_capacity_gb': self.total_capacity_gb, 'allocated_capacity_gb': self.allocated_capacity_gb, 'mosr': self.max_over_subscription_ratio, 'reserved_percentage': self.reserved_percentage, 'provisioned_capacity_gb': self.provisioned_capacity_gb, 'thin_provisioning_support': self.thin_provisioning_support, 'thick': self.thick_provisioning_support, 'pools': self.pools, 'updated': self.updated}) class PoolState(BackendState): def __init__(self, host, cluster_name, capabilities, pool_name): new_host = volume_utils.append_host(host, pool_name) new_cluster = volume_utils.append_host(cluster_name, pool_name) super(PoolState, self).__init__(new_host, new_cluster, capabilities) self.pool_name = pool_name # No pools in pool self.pools = None def update_from_volume_capability(self, capability, service=None): """Update information about a pool from its volume_node info.""" LOG.debug("Updating capabilities for %s: %s", self.host, capability) self.update_capabilities(capability, service) if capability: if self.updated and self.updated > capability['timestamp']: return self.update_backend(capability) self.total_capacity_gb = capability.get('total_capacity_gb', 0) self.free_capacity_gb = capability.get('free_capacity_gb', 0) self.allocated_capacity_gb = capability.get( 'allocated_capacity_gb', 0) self.QoS_support = capability.get('QoS_support', False) self.reserved_percentage = capability.get('reserved_percentage', 0) # provisioned_capacity_gb is the apparent total capacity of # all the volumes created on a backend, which is greater than # or equal to allocated_capacity_gb, which is the apparent # total capacity of all the volumes created on a backend # in Cinder. Using allocated_capacity_gb as the default of # provisioned_capacity_gb if it is not set. self.provisioned_capacity_gb = capability.get( 'provisioned_capacity_gb', self.allocated_capacity_gb) self.thin_provisioning_support = capability.get( 'thin_provisioning_support', False) self.thick_provisioning_support = capability.get( 'thick_provisioning_support', False) self.max_over_subscription_ratio = ( utils.calculate_max_over_subscription_ratio( capability, CONF.max_over_subscription_ratio)) self.multiattach = capability.get('multiattach', False) self.filter_function = capability.get('filter_function', None) self.goodness_function = capability.get('goodness_function', 0) def update_pools(self, capability): # Do nothing, since we don't have pools within pool, yet pass class HostManager(object): """Base HostManager class.""" backend_state_cls = BackendState ALLOWED_SERVICE_NAMES = ('volume', 'backup') REQUIRED_KEYS = frozenset([ 'pool_name', 'total_capacity_gb', 'free_capacity_gb', 'allocated_capacity_gb', 'provisioned_capacity_gb', 'thin_provisioning_support', 'thick_provisioning_support', 'max_over_subscription_ratio', 'reserved_percentage']) def __init__(self): self.service_states = {} # { <host|cluster>: {<service>: {cap k : v}}} self.backend_state_map = {} self.backup_service_states = {} self.filter_handler = filters.BackendFilterHandler('cinder.scheduler.' 'filters') self.filter_classes = self.filter_handler.get_all_classes() self.enabled_filters = self._choose_backend_filters( CONF.scheduler_default_filters) self.weight_handler = importutils.import_object( CONF.scheduler_weight_handler, 'cinder.scheduler.weights') self.weight_classes = self.weight_handler.get_all_classes() self._no_capabilities_backends = set() # Services without capabilities self._update_backend_state_map(cinder_context.get_admin_context()) self.service_states_last_update = {} def _choose_backend_filters(self, filter_cls_names): """Return a list of available filter names. This function checks input filter names against a predefined set of acceptable filters (all loaded filters). If input is None, it uses CONF.scheduler_default_filters instead. """ if not isinstance(filter_cls_names, (list, tuple)): filter_cls_names = [filter_cls_names] good_filters = [] bad_filters = [] for filter_name in filter_cls_names: found_class = False for cls in self.filter_classes: if cls.__name__ == filter_name: found_class = True good_filters.append(cls) break if not found_class: bad_filters.append(filter_name) if bad_filters: raise exception.SchedulerHostFilterNotFound( filter_name=", ".join(bad_filters)) return good_filters def _choose_backend_weighers(self, weight_cls_names): """Return a list of available weigher names. This function checks input weigher names against a predefined set of acceptable weighers (all loaded weighers). If input is None, it uses CONF.scheduler_default_weighers instead. """ if weight_cls_names is None: weight_cls_names = CONF.scheduler_default_weighers if not isinstance(weight_cls_names, (list, tuple)): weight_cls_names = [weight_cls_names] good_weighers = [] bad_weighers = [] for weigher_name in weight_cls_names: found_class = False for cls in self.weight_classes: if cls.__name__ == weigher_name: good_weighers.append(cls) found_class = True break if not found_class: bad_weighers.append(weigher_name) if bad_weighers: raise exception.SchedulerHostWeigherNotFound( weigher_name=", ".join(bad_weighers)) return good_weighers def get_filtered_backends(self, backends, filter_properties, filter_class_names=None): """Filter backends and return only ones passing all filters.""" if filter_class_names is not None: filter_classes = self._choose_backend_filters(filter_class_names) else: filter_classes = self.enabled_filters return self.filter_handler.get_filtered_objects(filter_classes, backends, filter_properties) def get_weighed_backends(self, backends, weight_properties, weigher_class_names=None): """Weigh the backends.""" weigher_classes = self._choose_backend_weighers(weigher_class_names) weighed_backends = self.weight_handler.get_weighed_objects( weigher_classes, backends, weight_properties) LOG.debug("Weighed %s", weighed_backends) return weighed_backends def update_service_capabilities(self, service_name, host, capabilities, cluster_name, timestamp): """Update the per-service capabilities based on this notification.""" if service_name not in HostManager.ALLOWED_SERVICE_NAMES: LOG.debug('Ignoring %(service_name)s service update ' 'from %(host)s', {'service_name': service_name, 'host': host}) return # Determine whether HostManager has just completed initialization, and # has not received the rpc message returned by volume. just_init = self._is_just_initialized() # TODO(geguileo): In P - Remove the next line since we receive the # timestamp timestamp = timestamp or timeutils.utcnow() # Copy the capabilities, so we don't modify the original dict capab_copy = dict(capabilities) capab_copy["timestamp"] = timestamp # Set the default capabilities in case None is set. backend = cluster_name or host if service_name == 'backup': self.backup_service_states[backend] = capabilities LOG.debug("Received %(service_name)s service update from " "%(host)s: %(cap)s", {'service_name': service_name, 'host': host, 'cap': capabilities}) return capab_old = self.service_states.get(backend, {"timestamp": 0}) capab_last_update = self.service_states_last_update.get( backend, {"timestamp": 0}) # Ignore older updates if capab_old['timestamp'] and timestamp < capab_old['timestamp']: LOG.info('Ignoring old capability report from %s.', backend) return # If the capabilities are not changed and the timestamp is older, # record the capabilities. # There are cases: capab_old has the capabilities set, # but the timestamp may be None in it. So does capab_last_update. if (not self._get_updated_pools(capab_old, capab_copy)) and ( (not capab_old.get("timestamp")) or (not capab_last_update.get("timestamp")) or (capab_last_update["timestamp"] < capab_old["timestamp"])): self.service_states_last_update[backend] = capab_old self.service_states[backend] = capab_copy cluster_msg = (('Cluster: %s - Host: ' % cluster_name) if cluster_name else '') LOG.debug("Received %(service_name)s service update from %(cluster)s " "%(host)s: %(cap)s%(cluster)s", {'service_name': service_name, 'host': host, 'cap': capabilities, 'cluster': cluster_msg}) self._no_capabilities_backends.discard(backend) if just_init: self._update_backend_state_map(cinder_context.get_admin_context()) def notify_service_capabilities(self, service_name, backend, capabilities, timestamp): """Notify the ceilometer with updated volume stats""" if service_name != 'volume': return updated = [] capa_new = self.service_states.get(backend, {}) timestamp = timestamp or timeutils.utcnow() # Compare the capabilities and timestamps to decide notifying if not capa_new: updated = self._get_updated_pools(capa_new, capabilities) else: if timestamp > self.service_states[backend]["timestamp"]: updated = self._get_updated_pools( self.service_states[backend], capabilities) if not updated: updated = self._get_updated_pools( self.service_states_last_update.get(backend, {}), self.service_states.get(backend, {})) if updated: capab_copy = dict(capabilities) capab_copy["timestamp"] = timestamp # If capabilities changes, notify and record the capabilities. self.service_states_last_update[backend] = capab_copy self.get_usage_and_notify(capabilities, updated, backend, timestamp) def has_all_capabilities(self): return len(self._no_capabilities_backends) == 0 def _is_just_initialized(self): return not self.service_states_last_update def first_receive_capabilities(self): return (not self._is_just_initialized() and len(set(self.backend_state_map)) > 0 and len(self._no_capabilities_backends) == 0) def _update_backend_state_map(self, context): # Get resource usage across the available volume nodes: topic = constants.VOLUME_TOPIC volume_services = objects.ServiceList.get_all(context, {'topic': topic, 'disabled': False, 'frozen': False}) active_backends = set() active_hosts = set() no_capabilities_backends = set() for service in volume_services.objects: host = service.host if not service.is_up: LOG.warning("volume service is down. (host: %s)", host) continue backend_key = service.service_topic_queue # We only pay attention to the first up service of a cluster since # they all refer to the same capabilities entry in service_states if backend_key in active_backends: active_hosts.add(host) continue # Capabilities may come from the cluster or the host if the service # has just been converted to a cluster service. capabilities = (self.service_states.get(service.cluster_name, None) or self.service_states.get(service.host, None)) if capabilities is None: no_capabilities_backends.add(backend_key) continue # Since the service could have been added or remove from a cluster backend_state = self.backend_state_map.get(backend_key, None) if not backend_state: backend_state = self.backend_state_cls( host, service.cluster_name, capabilities=capabilities, service=dict(service)) self.backend_state_map[backend_key] = backend_state # update capabilities and attributes in backend_state backend_state.update_from_volume_capability(capabilities, service=dict(service)) active_backends.add(backend_key) self._no_capabilities_backends = no_capabilities_backends # remove non-active keys from backend_state_map inactive_backend_keys = set(self.backend_state_map) - active_backends for backend_key in inactive_backend_keys: # NOTE(geguileo): We don't want to log the removal of a host from # the map when we are removing it because it has been added to a # cluster. if backend_key not in active_hosts: LOG.info("Removing non-active backend: %(backend)s from " "scheduler cache.", {'backend': backend_key}) del self.backend_state_map[backend_key] def revert_volume_consumed_capacity(self, pool_name, size): for backend_key, state in self.backend_state_map.items(): for key in state.pools: pool_state = state.pools[key] if pool_name == '#'.join([backend_key, pool_state.pool_name]): pool_state.consume_from_volume({'size': -size}, update_time=False) def get_all_backend_states(self, context): """Returns a dict of all the backends the HostManager knows about. Each of the consumable resources in BackendState are populated with capabilities scheduler received from RPC. For example: {'192.168.1.100': BackendState(), ...} """ self._update_backend_state_map(context) # build a pool_state map and return that map instead of # backend_state_map all_pools = {} for backend_key, state in self.backend_state_map.items(): for key in state.pools: pool = state.pools[key] # use backend_key.pool_name to make sure key is unique pool_key = '.'.join([backend_key, pool.pool_name]) all_pools[pool_key] = pool return all_pools.values() def _filter_pools_by_volume_type(self, context, volume_type, pools): """Return the pools filtered by volume type specs""" # wrap filter properties only with volume_type filter_properties = { 'context': context, 'volume_type': volume_type, 'resource_type': volume_type, 'qos_specs': volume_type.get('qos_specs'), } filtered = self.get_filtered_backends(pools.values(), filter_properties) # filter the pools by value return {k: v for k, v in pools.items() if v in filtered} def get_pools(self, context, filters=None): """Returns a dict of all pools on all hosts HostManager knows about.""" self._update_backend_state_map(context) all_pools = {} name = volume_type = None if filters: name = filters.pop('name', None) volume_type = filters.pop('volume_type', None) for backend_key, state in self.backend_state_map.items(): for key in state.pools: filtered = False pool = state.pools[key] # use backend_key.pool_name to make sure key is unique pool_key = volume_utils.append_host(backend_key, pool.pool_name) new_pool = dict(name=pool_key) new_pool.update(dict(capabilities=pool.capabilities)) if name and new_pool.get('name') != name: continue if filters: # filter all other items in capabilities for (attr, value) in filters.items(): cap = new_pool.get('capabilities').get(attr) if not self._equal_after_convert(cap, value): filtered = True break if not filtered: all_pools[pool_key] = pool # filter pools by volume type if volume_type: volume_type = volume_types.get_by_name_or_id( context, volume_type) all_pools = ( self._filter_pools_by_volume_type(context, volume_type, all_pools)) # encapsulate pools in format:{name: XXX, capabilities: XXX} return [dict(name=key, capabilities=value.capabilities) for key, value in all_pools.items()] def get_usage_and_notify(self, capa_new, updated_pools, host, timestamp): context = cinder_context.get_admin_context() usage = self._get_usage(capa_new, updated_pools, host, timestamp) self._notify_capacity_usage(context, usage) def _get_usage(self, capa_new, updated_pools, host, timestamp): pools = capa_new.get('pools') usage = [] if pools and isinstance(pools, list): backend_usage = dict(type='backend', name_to_id=host, total=0, free=0, allocated=0, provisioned=0, virtual_free=0, reported_at=timestamp) # Process the usage. for pool in pools: pool_usage = self._get_pool_usage(pool, host, timestamp) if pool_usage: backend_usage["total"] += pool_usage["total"] backend_usage["free"] += pool_usage["free"] backend_usage["allocated"] += pool_usage["allocated"] backend_usage["provisioned"] += pool_usage["provisioned"] backend_usage["virtual_free"] += pool_usage["virtual_free"] # Only the updated pool is reported. if pool in updated_pools: usage.append(pool_usage) usage.append(backend_usage) return usage def _get_pool_usage(self, pool, host, timestamp): total = pool["total_capacity_gb"] free = pool["free_capacity_gb"] unknowns = ["unknown", "infinite", None] if (total in unknowns) or (free in unknowns): return {} allocated = pool["allocated_capacity_gb"] provisioned = pool["provisioned_capacity_gb"] reserved = pool["reserved_percentage"] ratio = utils.calculate_max_over_subscription_ratio( pool, CONF.max_over_subscription_ratio) support = pool["thin_provisioning_support"] virtual_free = utils.calculate_virtual_free_capacity( total, free, provisioned, support, ratio, reserved, support) pool_usage = dict( type='pool', name_to_id='#'.join([host, pool['pool_name']]), total=float(total), free=float(free), allocated=float(allocated), provisioned=float(provisioned), virtual_free=float(virtual_free), reported_at=timestamp) return pool_usage def _get_updated_pools(self, old_capa, new_capa): # Judge if the capabilities should be reported. new_pools = new_capa.get('pools', []) if not new_pools: return [] if isinstance(new_pools, list): # If the volume_stats is not well prepared, don't notify. if not all( self.REQUIRED_KEYS.issubset(pool) for pool in new_pools): return [] else: LOG.debug("The reported capabilities are not well structured...") return [] old_pools = old_capa.get('pools', []) if not old_pools: return new_pools updated_pools = [] newpools = {} oldpools = {} for new_pool in new_pools: newpools[new_pool['pool_name']] = new_pool for old_pool in old_pools: oldpools[old_pool['pool_name']] = old_pool for key in newpools: if key in oldpools.keys(): for k in self.REQUIRED_KEYS: if newpools[key][k] != oldpools[key][k]: updated_pools.append(newpools[key]) break else: updated_pools.append(newpools[key]) return updated_pools def _notify_capacity_usage(self, context, usage): if usage: for u in usage: volume_utils.notify_about_capacity_usage( context, u, u['type'], None, None) LOG.debug("Publish storage capacity: %s.", usage) def _equal_after_convert(self, capability, value): if isinstance(value, type(capability)) or capability is None: return value == capability if isinstance(capability, bool): return capability == strutils.bool_from_string(value) # We can not check or convert value parameter's type in # anywhere else. # If the capability and value are not in the same type, # we just convert them into string to compare them. return str(value) == str(capability) def get_backup_host(self, volume, driver=None): if volume: volume_host = volume_utils.extract_host(volume.host, 'host') else: volume_host = None az = volume.availability_zone if volume else None return self._get_available_backup_service_host(volume_host, az, driver) def _get_any_available_backup_service(self, availability_zone, driver=None): """Get an available backup service host. Get an available backup service host in the specified availability zone. """ services = [srv for srv in self._list_backup_services( availability_zone, driver)] random.shuffle(services) return services[0] if services else None def _get_available_backup_service_host(self, host, az, driver=None): """Return an appropriate backup service host.""" backup_host = None if not host or not CONF.backup_use_same_host: backup_host = self._get_any_available_backup_service(az, driver) elif self._is_backup_service_enabled(az, host): backup_host = host if not backup_host: raise exception.ServiceNotFound(service_id='cinder-backup') return backup_host def _list_backup_services(self, availability_zone, driver=None): """List all enabled backup services. :returns: list -- hosts for services that are enabled for backup. """ services = [] def _is_good_service(cap, driver, az): if driver is None and az is None: return True match_driver = cap['driver_name'] == driver if driver else True if match_driver: if not az: return True return cap['availability_zone'] == az return False for backend, capabilities in self.backup_service_states.items(): if capabilities['backend_state']: if _is_good_service(capabilities, driver, availability_zone): services.append(backend) return services def _az_matched(self, service, availability_zone): return ((not availability_zone) or service.availability_zone == availability_zone) def _is_backup_service_enabled(self, availability_zone, host): """Check if there is a backup service available.""" topic = constants.BACKUP_TOPIC ctxt = cinder_context.get_admin_context() services = objects.ServiceList.get_all_by_topic( ctxt, topic, disabled=False) for srv in services: if (self._az_matched(srv, availability_zone) and srv.host == host and srv.is_up): return True return False

OXO Tot Sprout High Chair - Gray + Birch Price Availability: The OXO Tot Sprout Chair balances babys comfort and grown-ups design sensibility. Sprout is an extended use Chair that grows with your child and her developmental stages, from six months to five years. For a perfect, comfy fit during all stages, the seat adjusts in height and depth and the footrest is height-adjustable. A depth-adjustable tray accommodates baby as she grows and can be removed so the Chair can be pulled up to the table. The seat, back and cushions are contoured for comfort and promote sitting up straight, and a 5-point harness secures baby firmly in the seat. We know eating time can be messy, so the chair and cushion are easily wipeable for quick cleanup of crumbs and other sticky messes. For children over age three, the crotch post, tray and harness can be removed to convert the high chair to a youth chair so kids can sit comfortably at the family table. For grown-ups' added convenience, Sprout requires no tools to adjust the seat, tray or footrest. Sleek wood construction and a space-saving design complement any home dcor. 3 levels of seat height and depth adjustment that grow with the child For children from 6 months to 36 months, Sprout is a high chair with two seat height settings plus crotch post, 5-point harness and tray Converts to a youth chair for children from 3 to 5 years when the seat is adjusted to the lowest setting and crotch post, tray and straps are removed

No use in crying over spilt milk, right? Make it into an eco-friendly fiber, instead! The folks at Qmilk have done just that. Using milk that is no longer available for food sale, the innovative company is using the casein protein found in milk to create biopolymers that can be used in a myriad of applications, from medical technology to fashion and cosmetics. The team, comprised of a microbiologist, industrial engineer and bio-product technician, wanted to find a purpose for the massive amounts of milk that are not available for sale every year due to being infected with germs, containing too many somatic cells, or colostrum. In Germany alone (where Qmilk was founded) approximately 2 million tons of milk are thrown away each year. Estimates are that 30% of India’s milk goes bad because of lack of refrigeration, and in North America, more than 2.2 million tons cannot be sold each year. Qmilk can use every part of the milk that would have been thrown away, including the protein, fat and whey, to create eco-friendly materials and products. The process involves pressing the casein by a special spinnert. In just 5 minutes, and with two liters of water, one kilogram of Qmilk’s biopolymer can be formed, creating something useful from a material that would have been destined for disposal. What can be made from milk? Traditional fibers used for clothes can be enhanced with a 20% addition of Qmilk, providing softness, heat and moisture wicking, and reduced bacterial growth. German biologist and fashion designer Anke Domaske started making clothing out of Qmilk fibers when her stepdad reacted to fabrics while suffering from blood cancer. Domaske can create a dress or shirt spun from fibers made from six liters of sour milk. The Qmilk fibers can be added to home furnishings and textiles, such as pillows, mattresses, duvets, couches and other products with plush fibers. The addition of Qmilk means that moisture is wicked away more quickly, making it ideal for comfortable sleep. Automobile’s interiors can also utilize the Qmilk fibers, as can antibacterial medical technology equipment. Even cosmetics can be created from the Qmilk fibers, addressing aging concerns such as wrinkles, large pores, dark circles and sagging skin. Milk – it does the body good. Feature image courtesy of Noemi Ventosa

James S. RussellThe Agile CityBuilding Well-being and Wealth in an Era of Climate Change10.5822/978-1-61091-027-9(C) James S. Russell 2012 James S. Russell The Agile CityBuilding Well-being and Wealth in an Era of Climate Change James S. Russell ISBN e-ISBN 978-1-61091-027-9 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data: 2011005024 (C) James S. Russell 2012 Russell, James S. The agile city : building well-being and wealth in an era of climate change / By James S. Russell. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN-13: 978-1-59726-724-3 (cloth : alk. paper) ISBN-10: 1-59726-724-4 (cloth : alk. paper) ISBN-13: 978-1-59726-725-0 (pbk. : alk. paper) ISBN-10: 1-59726-725-2 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Climatic changes. 2. Climatic changes--Government policy. 3. Economic development. 4. Sustainable development. 5.Financial crises--History--21st century. I. Title. QC903.R87 2011 363.738'74561--dc22 Manufactured in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Keywords: Carbon neutrality, climate change adaptation, climate change mitigation, community planning, energy efficiency, environmental design and planning, green architecture, green building, green infrastructure, grey infrastructure, megaburbs, neoburbs, New Orleans rebuilding, sustainable communities, sustainable transportation, water resources All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without permission in writing from the publisher: Island Press, Suite 300, 1718 Connecticut Ave., NW, Washington, DC 20009 ISLAND PRESS is a trademark of the Center for Resource Economics. Printed on recycled, acid-free paper To Mary and Ralph Prologue ## Carbon-neutral Now The blond stone walls and handsome vaulted roof of Kroon Hall have an unassuming barnlike presence amid neo-Gothic neighbors at Yale University. An intimate plaza, a pleasing meeting place for the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, welcomes you. Hefty wooden louvers on the tall, narrow entrance side cut afternoon sun (figure P.1). Inside, sun filters down the woodpaneled main stair, inviting you to climb to the top-floor reading room, with its gracefully vaulting ceiling. There, photovoltaic panels over skylights shower celestial light, perfectly balanced by stripes of sunlight seeping through the louvered end wall. You might notice the little green and red lights next to the windows that signal when natural breezes can be used instead of heating and cooling, but you probably do not know that five very-low-energy systems heat and cool the building. It's not obvious that Kroon's long narrow shape minimizes absorption of summer heat while gathering the low winter sun and grabbing passing breezes for ventilation. Though the building fits as comfortably as an old pair of jeans, Hopkins Architects, of London, working with the locally based Centerbrook Architects and Planners, have calibrated every detail of this new office and seminar-room building to produce, husband, or harvest energy (figure P.2). Figure P.1 Kroon Hall, Yale University. The louvers on the east-facing side of this building are one of many tactics designed by Hopkins Architects with Centerbrook Architects to achieve near zero-carbon emissions. Credit: (C) Robert Benson Figure P.2 The daylighted top-floor reading room and cafe at Kroon Hall, Yale University. Photovoltaic panels over skylights generate energy and filter the sun, which balances sidelight seeping through the building's protective exterior louvers. Credit: (C) Robert Benson A few years ago, a building could garner headlines because it cut energy use 20 or 30 percent from today's norms. Kroon aimed much higher, at "carbon neutrality": reducing to zero the heat-trapping gases that warm the planet.1 Zero. A few years ago, experts would have said you can't get there. But improvements in building design, technology, and construction now make carbon-neutral buildings an increasingly reachable goal. Electric cars can be considered zero emission only if the power that charges them comes from relatively rare renewable sources. Workable zero-emission coal-fired power plants and zero-emission gas-driven ones look far away in time. As global warming effects become more evident, and the debate over what to do about it becomes more difficult, it's important to know that buildings can get to zero. After all, they are responsible for almost 40 percent of US greenhouse gas emissions. A geothermal well system draws heat from the earth in winter and cools in the summer. A displacement-ventilation system relies on the buoyancy of warm air to ventilate the building with only minimal fan use. These devices cost more, and are unusual but not exotic. "The only way to make really efficient buildings is to employ as many different strategies as possible," Hopkins's director, Michael Taylor, says. "We reduced energy demand by 50 percent, and then met 25 percent of the energy needs with a 100-kilowatt photovoltaic array, so we have a resulting 62.5 percent reduction in our carbon footprint." This isn't zero but comprises the state of the carbon-reduction art at this writing. Pull the focus out to the scale of communities, though, and you can see how much more can be accomplished. At the western edge of North America, on the southern tip of the mountainous and densely forested Vancouver Island, Dockside Green has already become carbon positive. The mix of town houses, mid-rise apartments, and commercial buildings is rising in phases on a narrow, fifteen-acre former industrial site just above the famous Inner Harbor of Victoria, British Columbia (figure P.3). Figure P.3 Overview of the early phases of Dockside Green, in Victoria, British Columbia. Its location near downtown allows residents to get to destinations along a bike path that runs along the Inner Harbor and on a passenger ferry that crosses it. Credit: Courtesy Dockside Green Dockside Green harnesses economies of scale to affordably build in carbon-reduction measures that are impractical for single buildings. From an apartment rooftop, where owners tend rows of lettuce, you can look down on a stream, planted with native wetland grasses, that burbles in front of the outdoor terraces of town houses (figure P.4). The stream is clean enough that crayfish thrive and ducks nest even though it mixes runoff from rain-harvesting gardens and water treated in an on-site sewage plant. Vancouver architecture firm Busby Perkins + Will (master planner of the site) designed the first eight buildings to cross ventilate and to capture warmth from the low winter sun, as Kroon does. Awnings automatically unfurl to cut unwanted heat. These tactics, with 100 percent fresh-air mechanical ventilation, make the elimination of air-conditioning possible in Victoria's emperate climate. Meters in each apartment provide real-time information on water use, heating bills, and elec-trical use. The flickering data mesmerize owners, who scamper about, snuffing phantom kilowatts. With familiar devices, such as compact-fluorescent lighting and Energy Star appliances, Dockside Green cuts its energy use by more than 50 percent below Canada's building-code standards. Figure P.4 At Dockside Green, storm runoff and water treated in an on-site sewage plant combine in a naturalized stream that creates an amenity for residents as it keeps polluted water out of Victoria's sparkling Inner Harbor. Credit: Courtesy Dockside Green As the project got under way, Joe Van Belleghem, a partner at Windmill West (Dockside Green's codeveloper, with Vancity, a credit union), got plenty of local attention when he promised to write the city a $1 million check if any of the buildings fell below Platinum-level certification (the highest tier) of the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) green-building rating system. So far, he has not had to pay up. Dockside Green will eventually include twenty-six buildings and be home to about twenty-five hundred people in three neighborhoods. At that scale, the developers were able to afford to build a biomass gasification plant, which accelerates the decomposition of construction-waste wood into a clean-burning biogas that supplies hot water and hydronic heating to the entire development. Van Belleghem collects fees from residents for the heat and hot water he provides, which will largely pay for the plant's construction. By producing its own heating fuel and supplying the excess output to an adjacent hotel, according to architect Peter Busby as a toy--that chugs to various locations around the bay, and the Galloping Goose bike path, which has become a commuting artery. The developer also subsidizes membership in a local car cooperative. "We encourage you to become a member and get in the habit of not using your own car," Van Belleghem says. The developer will pay $25,000 to buy back the parking space built for each unit.2 Kroon and Dockside are both pioneering and quotidian. They use advanced but proven technologies. Neither is noticeably an "eco building," ostentatiously showing off solar panels, nor do they demand lifestyle changes (through Dockside makes biking to work easy). Both the building and the community are more appealing and functional than conventional versions. In the total absence of a coherent American approach to climate change, both Kroon and Dockside Green go deeply green, showing how quickly such strategies are progressing. If you want to achieve carbon neutrality today, even the most efficient designs must augment with solar, wind, biofuel, or hydropower, and these sources demand special conditions (a breeze, a dammed stream nearby) or a considerable amount of space (solar), and usually cost much more per square foot than conservation measures do (as was the case at Kroon). Indeed, Yale balked at the cost and land area needed to fully meet Kroon's energy needs on-site. (It purchased carbon credits to get to zero.) Had the university chosen to build a district power plant that used renewable fuel, as Dockside Green does, Yale would not have needed to purchase the credits, and it would have reduced the carbon footprint of any building hooked onto the system. Most buildings and settings cannot yet cost-effectively lower their energy and carbon impact to such a great degree. You begin to see that the barriers are not overwhelming, however. The Agile City is about how buildings and communities help the United States rapidly close its yawning green performance gap while making places that work better and realize our dreams. Acknowledgements Elements of this book gestated over a long time, and many people have been of inestimable help. The late Astra Zarina, who founded the Architecture in Rome program at the University of Washington, introduced me to the ways a great city works. I was able to document the lay of the American urban landscape thanks to insightful editors at Architectural Record: Mildred Schmertz, Stephen Kliment, and Robert Ivy. Manuela Hoelterhoff has been a staunch champion of architecture at Bloomberg. Jeff Weinstein has focused my written vagaries at three different publications. The New York State Council on the Arts, Bermard Tschumi at Columbia University's Graduate School of Architecture Planning and Preservation, and Sal LaRosa and Ron Bentley have offered welcome financial (and at times moral) support. It has been a privilege to work with Michael Gallis and benefit from his astounding insights. I have cited many people in the book whose research or experience has enriched the argument, but some I've relied on again and again: Michael Gallis, Christopher Leinberger, Clark Stevens in Montana, Jeanne Nathan and Robert Tannen in New Orleans, Robert Bruegmann in Chicago, and the Lincoln Institute for Land Policy in Cambridge. Thanks also go to Tracy Metz in Amsterdam, David Cohn in Madrid, Peter Slatin, Cathleen McGuigan, Nancy Levinson, Roberta Brandes Gratz, Kenneth Frampton, Amanda Burden, Barry Bergdoll, and Ada Louise Huxtable. At Island Press, heartfelt thanks to editor Heather Boyer and to Courtney Lix and Rebecca Bright. I could not have gotten this book done without Robert Hughes, Hillary Brown, S. J. Rozan, Monty Freeman, Amy Schatz, and Max Rudin. I am the lucky beneficiary of unflagging love, support, and inspiration from Steven Blier. James S. RussellThe Agile CityBuilding Well-being and Wealth in an Era of Climate Change10.5822/978-1-61091-027-9_0(C) James S. Russell 2011 # Introduction The Concrete Metropolis in a Dynamic Era James S. Russell1 (1) Bloomberg News, Lexington Ave 731, 10022 New York, USA Abstract In a very short time the United States has realized that global warming poses real challenges to the nation's future. The Agile City engages the fundamental question of what to do about it. In a very short time the United States has realized that global warming poses real challenges to the nation's future. The Agile City engages the fundamental question of what to do about it. The big talk is of "alternative energy": hydrogen-powered cars and biofuels; clean coal, reinvented nuclear, and elaborate, yet-to-be-perfected means to store huge amounts of carbon while we figure out what to do with it. Advocates hope to plug one or more of these clean technologies into the grid and declare the problem solved. Though appealing, these are speculative technologies that demand enormous investment and that can work only with very large subsidies. They have large environmental effects we ignore at our peril, and they may not even prove viable. As Kroon Hall and Dockside Green show, we can achieve carbon neutrality today in buildings and communities with efficiency measures that are already proven and with a dollop of renewable energy. We can retrofit our communities to drastically reduce the amount of driving we need to do, and therefore reduce transportation carbon emissions, one of the two largest sources of greenhouse gases in our economy (the other is buildings). Rethinking construction and our communities has additional benefits. The word agile appears in this book's title because we must adapt our lives to a world that climate change is altering before our eyes. Clean energy alone is not enough. We face disruptions of weather patterns and agriculture, acidifying seas, storms, floods, and droughts. Given the irreversible warming already set in motion, we'll have to keep changing. In other words, we'll need to develop an urban culture of agility. Unlike high-tech alternative energy technologies, The Agile City focuses on reducing emissions and coping with climate-change effects. In much of the global warming debate, energy efficiency is treated almost condescendingly, as something nice to do but of marginal usefulness. The Agile City shows that change undertaken at the building and community levels can reach carbon-reduction goals rapidly, perhaps much quicker and at lower cost than shoving the economy into carbon submission with a disruptive range of carbon taxes (then waiting for markets to sort out the problem) or praying that a big-technology silver bullet will save us and avoid our personal inconvenience. It may be that we must ultimately resort to high-tech alternative energy, nuclear, biofuels, and every conservation measure, as many experts argue. Others say it hardly matters what Americans do if the big and growing emitters-- such as China--don't take steps to drastically cut the carbon they pour into the atmosphere. But why shouldn't we exploit the rich potential of conservation as fast as possible? Why should other countries take action in the absence of a serious US commitment? At this writing, the United States is the world laggard, unable to move ahead on commonsense conservation strategies that don't cost much. Comparatively speaking, conservation and adaptation are the low-hanging fruit. Adapting buildings and communities not only promises rapid progress in reducing America's carbon footprint but also offers numerous other benefits that tax gimmicks and massive alternative-energy investments can't match. Adapting to the future is as much about changing hidebound attitudes and examining underlying assumptions as it is about technology and policy. The Agile City helps the reader identify changes that make large impacts at low costs. We'll be wise to think about habitual development patterns, brain-dead regulatory regimes, and obsolete incentives built in by tax policy. Fixing them can be frustrating: we have to fight political battles about them, steer rigid bureaucracies in new directions, collaborate with those who are used to guarding turf. But the real costs of these kinds of changes are actually small--and the benefits large--not just in terms of the environment but because we'll be tuning communities to realize broader aspirations: to build wealth more responsively and to make places that are pleasing to live in. Many strategies are low-tech and low cost (such as making bicycles a bigger part of our lives), and others offer handsome paybacks on investment--but only if we confront ingrained habit about what we build and how we pay for it. ## ### Why Buildings? The structures that we live and work in generate almost 40 percent of greenhouse gas emissions--and buildings tend to use the dirtiest energy: electricity generated from coal.1 About 35 percent of the nation's assets are invested in real estate and infrastructure, and we're adding up to 2 percent a year to that base. Every square foot built by conventional means is already obsolete--and may have to be remodeled or abandoned in just a few years. Waiting to take action will prove costly.2 A wide variety of tested tactics exist today to dramatically reduce the impacts of buildings on the environment, from old-fashioned awnings to new ways to light buildings with the sun and ventilate them with breezes. We're just leaving them on the table. ### Why Communities? Rather than devote enormous amounts of time and treasure to build SUVs that get fifty miles per gallon on the way to the discount superstore thirty miles away, The Agile City argues that intelligently designing our towns could reduce that trip to a few miles or eliminate it entirely. That's just one way that building (and upgrading) communities can dramatically reduce the land we plow under, the energy we consume, and the aggravation we endure in the course of daily tasks. ### Why Buildings and Communities? Environment-enhancing investments pay back more quickly when building strategies are coordinated with neighborhood layouts and urban networks. For example, a group of buildings can amortize the up-front costs of a shared geothermal well much more quickly than sinking wells for each structure. Thinking about the design of an entire city block at once, rather than one building at a time, means that every room in each building can be flooded with daylight so that few rooms need to rely on electric lights. Or, one structure can shade another from the heat of the afternoon sun. Cities can be remade to cope with the greater frequency of flooding, drought, forest fires, and wildfires, rather than await the enormous costs of catastrophe. Coping with climate change cannot be compartmentalized when the urban places we share face so many other challenges. Good jobs have involved steadily longer and more congested commutes to affordable neighborhoods. Housing costs rise while communities decline and schools struggle. Fast-growing places deliver more traffic than opportunity. Broadly speaking, The Agile City shows how communities can develop the capacity to adapt to circumstance--whatever those circumstances may be. Real progress can be made only if tactics that engage global warming offer collateral benefits, as many do. If we focus on arranging related urban functions close together, we multiply benefits. Think about locating a hospital not on just any old empty piece of land but close to doctors and labs and aligned to key transit routes. Then many staffers can get to work, patients can get care, and service businesses can access customers without driving. In this way, we reduce traffic, pollution, energy, time wasted, and the need for huge parking lots all at once. ### Is Undertaking Large-scale Change Worth It? We'll shiver under layers of organic-wool sweaters living colorless lives confined to our dimly lit homes, say the skeptics, as we sabotage our economy by struggling to get to jobs in speed-limited biofueled buses. The skeptics have rarely done their homework. On the other hand, advocates often seem to turn every purchasing decision and lifestyle choice into a moral dilemma--for example, paper or plastic, which is worse? If we layer on rules and taxes and command lifestyle choices in a single-minded drive toward carbon neutrality, we could well damage our economy and fuel a backlash instead of an evolution toward sustainability. We won't recognize the true potential of sustainability by analyzing it in today's narrow economic terms, by describing economic paybacks for energy conservation, for example, solely in terms of electricity costs avoided at current prices. Saving energy does save money, while also reducing greenhouse gases and other kinds of air pollution. It also reduces the strain on electricity-delivery infrastructure. It cuts the amount of energy we must import, thereby reducing the nation's payment imbalance. It presses energy prices downward by freeing supply, and it reduces the power of global-energy oligopolies. Those benefits can be more difficult to calculate but are no less real. It is clear that alternatives--including business as usual--offer far less useful paybacks. The Agile City reveals tactics that create such multiplier effects, which means that ecologically driven change can shore up economic opportunity, make more productive workplaces, and help revive neglected communities. These are not Pollyanna blandishments. Being able to look at multiple effects and multiple benefits of political choices and private investments is essential to ensuring wealth and well-being in the future. ## A Roadmap In part 1, The Agile City considers land, our attitudes toward it, and our methods of dividing it up and building on it for human use. Coming to terms with climate change means that people must proactively make choices about what is built where. That's a culture change for Americans, who have long seen land, and what's done with it, as equating freedom. And that has meant that America has passively left the making of cities in the hands of owners and speculators. Communities have already become deeply unhappy about the simplistic choices they seem to face: Accept the increasingly destructive consequences of growth through the heedless accumulation of individual investments? Or, try to recognize community values by entwining development with an increasingly complex, costly, and often ineffective regulatory apparatus? The Agile City shows how to get beyond those simplistic, lose-lose dualities by engaging America's conflicting but deeply held values relating to the role of private property in society. New ideas about ownership help us come to terms with environmental issues without losing the freedom of action that old ideas were supposed to preserve. Ignoring what the future portends will only make land conflicts wrenchingly difficult to resolve--as they proved to be after the tragedy of Hurricane Katrina, when disaster relief too often meant rebuilding in unsafe places. Concepts of ownership evolved in the past as the United States transformed itself from a small-town agrarian nation to a big-city, industrial powerhouse. We can learn from that history as we renegotiate our relationship to land. As chapter 2 will show, the needed conversation has already begun. In precious landscapes all over the United States, people are uniting once-warring constituencies as they sensitively integrate human activities into more resilient environments, from played-out ranches in the Rocky Mountain West to eroding coastal beaches everywhere. Barriers aplenty obstruct a future that must value innovation, adaptability, and diverse scales of economic endeavor. But many are cultural and political, not financial or technical. Communities cannot dynamically adapt to the future if the drivers of wealth and growth are at cross purposes--as they are in America. We may work in a factory or keyboard on a computer, but it is the city itself that is the field of growth and wealth creation. Cities thrive or stagnate by the way real estate is financed, by the way housing subsidies are distributed, by the way transportation is provided, and by the way water is obtained, distributed, and disposed of. Part 2 shows how these "growth machine" forces powerfully and dysfunctionally shape communities, and how this fragmented, unintegrated assortment of stimuli fails. Growth machine distortions caused suburbia to go viral, creating the megaburb, a new kind of city that only looks suburban but integrates cities, suburbs, and semirural exurbs. (Since all these places are now urban, even if low density, The Agile City refers to them as cities.) Megaburbs metastasized on a model of supposedly affordable urban growth that demanded families move to newer communities ever farther out, locking in a land-hungry, energy-intensive lifestyle of vast driving distances between Oz-like suburban downtowns. Though our suburban conurbations may create great wealth and contain many communities that seek to preserve closeness to nature, these politically fragmented landscapes have few tools to act in concert to further their interests. Growth machine forces tend to suburbanize country idylls while sapping denser, otherwise desirable older towns and cities of vitality. Megaburbs, however, may prove more adaptable than we yet know, since they encompass so much space that's wasted or ignored. After all, global warming is only one reason we need to understand better how our communities get created--why some grow and others stagnate. Many of us find ourselves increasingly ready to move out of cities that seem always headed in the wrong direction: more congested, more expensive, farther from the fields and forests promised by the suburban dream, with too many hours stuck in a car and taxes always rising. American cities today grow and change reactively--and they take mystifying new forms because we haven't taken the future in hand. Part 3 considers the kinds of places an agile growth machine could create. Homes, workplaces, and public places not only can reduce their impact on the planet but can do so by updating traditional technologies, such as the lowly yet versatile window shutter. Buildings and neighborhoods can evocatively express the uniqueness of their places and climates: harvesting natural sources of sun, daylight, shade, fresh air, and cooling to do what we've spent a couple of generations engineering expensive and complex mechanical systems to do. As building design and construction rapidly evolves (no man-to-the-moon effort necessary), the United States can transcend its habit of making cities almost entirely as an assemblage of ventures that leave no room for any value other than profit. The Agile City is not a call for faith-based greening. Rather than pile on too many do-gooder agendas, it shows how to build well-being and wealth at the same time. Along the way, this generation can pass on its best values, as past generations whose buildings we venerate have, and enrich the places we share rather than simply aggrandize who each of us thinks we are. Adaptation is an urgent cause in some communities: climate-change effects like flooding and coastal erosion already threaten their survival. Such communities face wrenching choices, but even less vulnerable cities and towns are recognizing that today's diffuse, low-density, one-size-fits-all development model no longer works. Diversifying development patterns--creating a range of densities--is becoming necessary for economic success in a more closely integrated world, and it can go hand in hand with reducing environmental impact. Linking communities at a variety of densities with suitable transportation, for example, diversifies economic potential while reducing dependency on driving. Economic engines, such as universities, medical research centers, and suburban downtowns, already find they need to cluster more, thriving near high-density residential neighborhoods. High-intensity business and residential cores work better when they're walkable, bikable, and well served by transit. Intensifying transportation modes (roads, commuter rail, high-speed rail, and enhanced freight rail) along natural movement corridors will reduce congestion and carbon emissions while linking more people, more businesses, and more customers. In this way, cities will also create the scale and diversity needed to compete in a global economy of megacities. We'll create incentives to rebuild overlooked swaths of cities and suburbs that have been ignored, rather than mortgage our future on energy-intense communities, built to last only one generation, that are flung into new landscapes that we can no longer afford to maintain. Cities as diverse as Portland (Oregon), Vancouver (British Columbia), and Berlin show how to harvest public consensus and individual leadership to comprehensively nurture adaptive development and urban revitalization--forging a contemporary identity that merges business and citizen commitment. We'll find more efficiencies by planning our communities at the metropolitan and metro-region scale--matching the scale of economic exchange and environmental potential today. We'll need to rapidly foster innovation and to mainstream winning ideas; for example, the US Green Building Council's LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) rating system has already become a widely emulated model for crowd-sourcing innovation at the building and community scale. It's just one way to create agility in the seemingly immutable "permanent" communities we make. While many states have been creating green-technology incentives, the national political debate has long been locked into false choices. The presumption too often goes unchallenged that carbon taxes or mobility taxes will simply deprive people of income. Properly designed, of course, they will shift incentives and disincentives to encourage investments that are more productive environmentally and economically. That's how we begin to create both an environmental and an economic ethos of dynamism that's entrepreneurial, receptive to the new, and perpetually adaptable. That's what America's supposedly loosely regulated and individualist land ethos is supposed to provide but doesn't, except in landscapes beyond the urban edge that are affordable only because of distortions introduced by the growth machine. But "loose-fit" urban conditions-- ample developable property, easy access, and the most minimal regulations necessary--can be, and need to be, created in mature places as well as on empty land. The Agile City shows how to create the urban-planning equivalent of open-source computer code. An agile, loose-fit city will deploy regulations straightforwardly, balancing them with incentives. Rules will reward performance (energy, water, and emissions saved) rather than prescribing what light-bulbs we'll use and what cars we'll drive. The mortgage meltdown that began in 2007 should have brought an end to bubble economics--desperate means to jump-start sluggish economies by bribing consumers (through subsidies and tax gimmicks) to buy more stuff made from artificially cheap resources that are becoming scarcer and more costly as they get exploited beyond recovery, from forests to fisheries, from oil to copper. The Great Recession, the collapse of global natural systems, and the rapidly increasing development of huge nations such as India and China require us to ask where genuinely sustainable wealth and well-being will come from. To a surprising extent,chapter 10 argues, wealth may well flow from green investments. Many green measures offer unique economic values that conventional accounting tends to miss. Few anticipated that cleaning the nation's air and water in the 1970s would restore enormous real estate value to cities, rural places, and coastlines. Skillfully designed green investments often boost well-being while repairing natural systems, which gross domestic product (GDP) fails to measure. Capturing these advantages can make restoring the natural workings of nature vital to the bottom line. ## Nature Bites us Back Climate change is the focus of The Agile City, but the world's web of natural systems is so tightly interlocked--and the human impact on it now so great--that we can no longer afford to look at any problem as the environmental issue of the day. Climate change nests within several major, interrelated environmental challenges, all of which are amenable to a variety of solutions at the level of the urban systems with which we've laced the world. In this book, responding to climate change means responding to these interrelated issues to the extent possible. An era of hypergrowth that has had profound environmental consequences began when the capitalist world began to draw in the vast territories of Russia, its satellites, and China after the fall of the Iron Curtain of Communism around 1990, later joined by India, Brazil, and others.3 Every country in the world became more economically entwined with the global economic juggernaut.4 The developing world will continue to fuel most of the world's growth, as hundreds of millions of Brazilians, Indians, Russians, and Chinese vault from abject poverty into the global middle class, probably joined by such populous nations as Mexico and Indonesia. One estimate predicts that US gross domestic product will triple by 2050, but India will catch up with America and China will generate more than twice America's output.5 Is such massive growth even possible? Many environmental advocates, and an increasing number of economists, think not. After all, a better life for billions has more than doubled demands on nature in the past forty-five years.6 Already this unprecedented consumption burdens global ecologies to a degree unimaginable just a decade or so ago. The environmental triumphs of the past, such as slashing tailpipe emissions and transforming rivers from sewers to swimmable sanctuaries, look small compared to the cleanup tasks in many parts of the world. Ecosystems over time have often proved resilient to human use, capable of healing. But human actions no longer harm a forest here and there or pollute the air only around big cities. We're altering vast landscapes at a regional and continental scale. In too many places, people have gone too far; we've overstretched the resilience of too many of the biological systems on which we rely. The world is draining aquifers and pouring mining and industrial waste, pesticides, and fertilizers into rivers, streams, lakes, and bays, which become unsafe to drink, unusable for irrigation, and inhospitable to fish. Rains scour soil from deforested landscapes and played-out farms, degrading water quality and amplifying floods. As the process continues, it becomes much more difficult to restore either soils or waterways to productive use. Global warming may only exacerbate these processes. Low-lying parts of the world, for example, fear the loss of freshwater sources to saltwater infiltration as sea levels rise.7 Around the globe, people breathe killer air, wallow in their own waste, and can't obtain clean water. Food crops won't grow because the land is ruined and there is no water. And yet we rarely admit to these costs. Economists call them "externalities," aptly underlining the fact that we don't figure them into what we pay for goods and services. This overview does not engage the enormous demands that global growth will place on nonrenewable resources, from oil and natural gas to the huge assortment of minerals that high-tech industry demands. It is difficult to estimate whether the world has indeed entered the claimed "peak oil" era because both private companies and energy-exporting nations tend to keep such data secret. And for most commodities, the size of the resource is elastic, dependent on how much is recycled, how fast technology comes on line, and how much consumers are willing to pay for extraction and refinement.8 In the past few years, for example, America's claimed natural gas reserves have risen enormously not because of new discoveries but because new technologies and higher prices make exploitation of existing reserves financially viable. As the Deepwater Horizon disaster of 2010 reminded us, these new techniques come at greater risk to the environment--risks we plan for and account for too infrequently. Ecologists have begun to see feedback loops: human actions that hasten environmental decline, which hastens the decline of natural resources we can't live without.9 Discrete effects, such as air or water pollution, now interact with other environmental effects to feed a self-reinforcing cycle of environmental destruction that threatens us, as global warming does, with its diverse effects: from killing coral in the tropics to unleashing the devastating spruce budworm in northern forests.10 I am indebted to Michael Gallis, an urban strategist and city planner based in Charlotte, North Carolina, for connecting globalization, intensifying resource use, and its environmental consequences, which he dubs "Co-devolution."11 Americans--and most of those who live in the developed world--are for now isolated from the most severe of these effects. By reducing pollution, preserving valued landscapes, and saving endangered species, the United States blunts the rapid environmental decline that does so much harm around the globe.12 That does not mean that wealthy nations escape the consequences, however. Habitat losses and strained agriculture worldwide affect what wood we can buy, what foods we can import, and what we pay for these items. If we don't address ecosystem decline, the consequences will only restrict our options more as time goes on. We're also competing for nature's ability to support our needs, called biocapacity, along with everyone else.13 Are these vast challenges a recipe for fatalism or inaction? After all, how can we respond when so many threats come at us from all sides? We can no longer afford to consider our collective actions, which Gallis calls the human network, apart from their effect on natural systems. Growth and well-being will increasingly depend on restoring and creating resilience in nature rather than heedlessly exploiting it. This is not ecological altruism but a recognition that Co-devolutionary effects will only loom larger, cutting into economic growth, spurring resource-scarcity battles, exacting an ever higher price in ways we can't anticipate. "We have long pretended that natural resources are cheap," explains Gallis. That has led to what he calls "low efficiency" use of those once abundant resources, with corresponding "high impact" on the natural environment. Scarcity economies have quickly developed for water, fish, many kinds of woods, and some agricultural products, Gallis argues, "because we've failed to recognize that we must reverse the equation. Our economy must build on the high-efficiency use of limited, increasingly expensive resources. Our actions must rebuild natural systems, if for no other reason than that we need those systems to keep producing resources for us."14 Gallis was asked, how do you expect people, even those most devoted to doing good, to forgo their own interests in favor of the environment? The degree to which Co-devolution is damaging our economy and constricting our choices, Gallis responded, is forcing us to do good for the environment as we do well for ourselves. Although The Agile City focuses overwhelmingly on climate change, I consider the issues it raises in these terms of what Gallis calls Co-Evolution: human-network actions that can systematically restore natural systems to health and resiliency. The Agile City approaches these extraordinary challenges through an appeal to the heart and the head. Even though too many Americans struggle just to make ends meet, we rely on our hearts to set the nation's course to the future based on what kind of people we choose to be and what kind of legacy we want to leave behind for our children. So you'll find a deep look into our values and our culture; the book is not arguing on the basis of statistics alone. Still, we need to know how much we spend, how serious problems are, and whether solutions are scaled to solve the problems at hand, and I provide the most accurate figures I can find. Another reason the book does not barrage you with statistics is that too many are inaccurate either because the data is lacking (the United States does a poor job of collecting information on urban performance) or because a great number of assumptions that underlie the numbers add too much uncertainty, and partisans of one position or another often don't disclose key assumptions. (In speaking of urban performance, for example, it makes a difference whether people talk about New York as politically defined-- population some eight million--or the New York City metropolitan area-- population perhaps fifteen million, depending on how you count.) Lastly, the best news: green techniques and technologies are moving forward very quickly, in spite of a hostile economic and policy environment. So I've avoided setting out technologies we must adopt or goals (in terms of kilowatt hours or any other measures) that we should deem essential, because all of it is changing very rapidly.15 The challenges may be global, but The Agile City focuses primarily on the United States, where our cities can and must adapt at a scale and speed that is unprecedented. It is not the overwhelming task it might seem. The book helps readers take charge of their community's future by understanding the processes that make communities dynamic and adaptable. The future seems so challenging only because we've allowed our adaptive skills to atrophy. We've accepted the idea that communities grow, mature, stagnate, and decline by economic forces as immutable as the tides. In fact, most of the mechanisms that drive development and building design are artificial inventions of government and finance--unique to America, if not particularly well suited to what America has become. To the extent that they have a purpose (and are not simply habitual), they continue a simplistic, obsolete, one-size-fits-all method of city-making that is neither agile nor very adaptable. Our collective job is not to assume a defensive crouch but to open our minds to possibilities, the many that are out there already and the multitude we need to encourage people to think up. # Part 2 The Land James S. RussellThe Agile CityBuilding Well-being and Wealth in an Era of Climate Change10.5822/978-1-61091-027-9_1(C) James S. Russell 2011 # 1. Climate Change in the Landscapes of Speculation James S. Russell1 (1) Bloomberg News, Lexington Ave 731, 10022 New York, USA Abstract On a visit to a traditional stepped-gable North Sea town in Holland's Delftlands called Scheveningen, I climbed with a group over a broad grassy dune that looked like the back of a four-story-high humped sea creature. A beach, among the widest I had ever seen, stretched out before us. We were being shown not works of nature but works of civil engineering. This massive dune and beach were created to shield the village from North Sea storms of growing violence. The Dutch are good at this sort of thing, having been forced to keep the sea out of their low-lying landscape for hundreds of years.1 On a visit to a traditional stepped-gable North Sea town in Holland's Delftlands called Scheveningen, I climbed with a group over a broad grassy dune that looked like the back of a four-story-high humped sea creature. A beach, among the widest I had ever seen, stretched out before us. We were being shown not works of nature but works of civil engineering. This massive dune and beach were created to shield the village from North Sea storms of growing violence. The Dutch are good at this sort of thing, having been forced to keep the sea out of their low-lying landscape for hundreds of years.1 The super dune and beach were an example of how seriously the Dutch take global warming effects, which they are already feeling, not just on the coast but in rainwater that fills drainage systems and in larger and more prolonged river flooding. (The Rhine River and many of its tributaries drain much of Europe through Holland.) The issue is especially urgent as much of the country is below sea level and weather changes threaten to overwhelm already elaborate protections. I tried to imagine such beach fortification along low-lying American coasts. Would residents agree to hunker behind such a massive ridge of sand, one that would deprive them of their view and easy access? Who would pay the tens of millions of dollars per mile? (Similar protections were considered by America's dam and levee builders, the US Army Corps of Engineers, for the Katrina-battered coast of Mississippi, but they never gained favor.) The Netherlands does what America can't yet do because its cultural and legal approach to land is profoundly different from America's. This is why a book about communities becomes a book about land. Cities do not happen without citizens making choices about how to divide and parcel land, and about what can get built where. US senator Mary Landrieu is determined to bring the Dutch approach to flood protection, and its technical prowess, to America. She led the delegation that scaled the Scheveningen dune so that Lisa Jackson, head of the US Environmental Protection Agency and representatives of the Army Corps could see what was possible. Landrieu had become a convert to the Dutch approach as she looked for means to protect and restore the coastline of nineteen fasteroding Louisiana parishes--about one-third of the state she represents. Coastal marshes that nurture fisheries and protect low-lying towns and cities have been shrinking alarmingly since well before Katrina (1,900 square miles lost since the 1930s2), but the storm dramatically weakened coastal defenses. She had a plan, but it could cost $50 billion and was going nowhere in Congress. The Netherlands, with a population the size of Florida's, commits between 5 billion and 7 billion euros annually to water management (which equals up to $9 billion). By contrast, "I can't even find a couple of hundred million," said Landrieu on the tour. "I'm pushing to the point where I'm aggravating people in Congress. But they need to understand how much we need to do." With hurricane season approaching as we spoke, she added, "people are living in abject fear." No hurricane pummeled Louisiana that summer, but the fate of two flat, grassy lots on the ocean near Charleston, South Carolina, show what Senator Landrieu's campaign was up against--and it wasn't just the money. ## Whose Property Rights? David Lucas, a developer, expected to build and sell oceanfront homes on two lots, homes much like those all up and down the beach in the Wild Dunes development on the idyllic-sounding Isle of Palms. Lucas had not reckoned with South Carolina's Beachfront Management Act, which prohibited building on the lots because the shoreline was unstable.3 Houses so close to the ocean were also at risk for destruction by the high winds and storm-surge waves of hurricanes. Lucas took the state to court, arguing that the act created what in legal terms is called a "taking" by the government, because it deprived his land of its value. The Constitution's Fifth Amendment requires the government to pay compensation to landowners if it takes private property for public use. Though the clause is intended to assure owners compensation in the case of outright appropriation of land (condemnation for use as a highway, for example), Lucas's attorneys argued that the Beachfront Management Act constituted a regulatory taking, in which the government needed to compensate Lucas because the law caused his property to lose value. When you consider that his lots were surrounded by lots already developed, it is easy to sympathize. The law seemed to single him out. The state's law, however, was designed to prevent well-documented perils of heedless coastal development. Up and down the East Coast, the federal government had been throwing billions of dollars into projects that dumped dredged sand on beaches to protect properties, most of them owned by affluent people. At times, millions of dollars have been spent rebuilding a beach that washed away in a single season. Lucas's case went to the US Supreme Court, which stopped short of ruling that he had suffered a taking but ordered the state to take another look at his claim. South Carolina got the message and eventually allowed Lucas to build. It and other states have either loosened shoreline regulations or quietly stopped enforcing them. The Lucas case did not prove to be the landmark that property rights activists had hoped it would be; subsequent decisions by the Supreme Court, if anything, have further muddled the question of just what the government "owes" landowners when a regulation limits their development options. In the meantime, hurricanes validated the regulations. In 1992, Hurricane Andrew, in Florida, wrought more than four times as much damage as Hugo, just a few years earlier. In 2004, Hurricanes Ivan and Frances slammed both the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts of Florida, killing 108 and leaving $50 billion in wreckage.4 The year 2005 brought Wilma and Rita, but they have been all but forgotten because Hurricane Katrina, moving slowly and deliberately, flattened most of the Mississippi coast and relentlessly probed New Orleans's levees until it found vulnerabilities. It was the first hurricane to bring a major American city to its knees. The rush to build in harm's way may seem senseless, but it goes on even as the effects of climate change--higher floodwaters, more severe storms--raise well-known risks higher. In the Lucas decision, Justice Antonin Scalia was skeptical of South Carolina's reasons for protecting the shoreline (and, of course, the property abutting it) and proposed that the state may have deprived Lucas of the entire value of his land in pursuit of mainly esthetic objectives. The Lucas decision meant a great deal to many people because it struck a blow for individualism, freedom from intrusion by government, and the entrepreneurial spirit. Yet those sentiments neither restore storm-ravaged communities nor make whole those who have lost houses to ubiquitously relentless beach erosion. Agility, in urban terms, will mean that we can't mount the property owners' desires on a pedestal untouchable by wider community concerns. We will have to act in concert in all kinds of ways. We can't be mindlessly coercive; nor must everyone cede power over their lives to a central authority. But slowing climate change and dealing with its effects will challenge us to rethink our values and ask ourselves how we meet the challenges of the future in a way that retains what's truly fundamental to each of us. Senator Landrieu has bought into a level of spending on flood control America has not attempted, but she has also embraced a Dutch culture of land use in which, comparatively, the desires of the individual landowner count for little. Over hundreds of years, Holland could never have kept the sea out, nor diked and drained vast tracts to build new land, if they had to do it one farmer and land parcel at a time. They needed to do it on a bigger scale and cooperatively. The result has been to create a culture of consensus, where the overarching need to keep everyone dry, through the power of government, takes precedence over the desires of the individual. This small nation can afford to so elaborately protect Scheveningen because it is a town that government has shaped into compact form to efficiently use the land so laboriously reclaimed. The town does not string along the beach for miles, in the pattern of American shorefront development. The super dune wraps the oceanfront and sides of the village, yet it is in total less than about a mile in length. It is unlikely that Louisiana and the United States will adopt the Dutch model wholesale. But we will have to learn from the Dutch and others, simply because the future will require us to renegotiate not only our rules and spending priorities but also our values and culture of land use--and these run deep. ## Urban Reality Trumps Agrarian Vision The United States became a nation of individual landowners as an alternative to hierarchical organizations of church and aristocracy in Europe that restricted political participation to the powerful few owners of land and kept the vast majority of people in some form of indentured servitude. In an overwhelmingly agricultural America, founding fathers James Madison and Thomas Jefferson could plausibly regard land itself as wealth, and therefore the key to each American's independence. As Joseph Ellis, a historian of the era, puts it, the Revolution's "core principal" of individual liberty, which "views any subordination of personal freedom to governmental discipline as dangerous," came into conflict with what developed in the Constitution's ratification debate "as the sensible surrender of personal, state, and sectional interests to the larger purposes of nationhood."5 The agrarian-centered vision conflicted with Alexander Hamilton's view that a powerful, centralized state was necessary to survive in a world that even then featured growing cities, global powers, emerging large-scale industry, and an international banking system that could exert great power from across oceans over an economically weak and fragmented young nation. His Federalist vision didn't resonate, writes Ellis: "At the nub of the argument the colonist had used to discredit the authority of Parliament and the British monarchy was a profound distrust of any central authority that issued directives from a great distance." The Hamiltonian views and the Jeffersonian views were left unresolved by the founding fathers, argues Ellis: "Both sides speak for the deepest impulses of the American revolution." Yet Jefferson's bucolic vision of the landowning agricultural America won people's hearts (figure 1.1). Hamilton's more pragmatic outlook anticipated the enormous growth and concentration of financial power that occurred over ensuing decades and the parallel rise of cities of unimagined size as centers of wealth creation. The city sophisticate fleecing the honest yeoman has long been a staple of American literature--cementing in people's minds a perpetual suspicion of cities and city "slickers." Figure 1.1 Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson, in Charlottesville, Virginia. Jefferson lived away from America's early cities and built his house to face the seemingly endless wildness of nature, reflecting his belief that a nation of landowning farmers would truly be free. Credit: James S. Russell Madison--and to an even greater extent, Jefferson--famously thought economic success lay in getting government out of the way to allow natural economic laws of growth to proceed. This sentiment has largely governed the American attitude toward land use ever since. The idea that government should not actively organize, promote, and control land use and development, however, is almost unique in the world.6 The Jeffersonian reluctance to constrict owners in their use of land remains deep-seated in the American consciousness even as our society and economy have transformed themselves well beyond any state imaginable by the founding generation. As the nation grew and moved from its agrarian roots to become a "Hamiltonian" industrialized powerhouse with an increasingly urban and finance-dependent economy, an individualist ethos alone would guide the way land was turned to urban use. It's a model of growth that got established early. William Penn laid out Philadelphia in 1681 with the idealistic vision that the chaotic, disease-ridden city of the Old World could be supplanted by a rationally organized, spacious, and green city carved out of the New World's wilderness. He drew tree-lined, generously scaled blocks, lined with large houses entwined by gardens. Green public squares interrupted the grid of streets. It was beautiful--and doomed. Speculators quickly drove narrow alleys through the spacious blocks and filled the back gardens with fetid tenements. The making of cities through speculation has been the story of American growth ever since. The approach is taken for granted to such an extent that it's hard to imagine any other way of doing things, though, in fact, growth through privatized land development is a relatively recent phenomenon in the history of cities. (Historically, religions and empires, both political and mercantile, had largely guided city growth.) Funded by ever more sophisticated private finance and energized by the great wealth generated by the Industrial Revolution, colonial villages became fast-growing privatized cities, such as New York and Philadelphia. They made good on the promise of opportunity that was at the root of the American idea, and they rewarded hard work, even though they were also degrading, criminal, immoral, and exploitative. While the dream of America drew millions from the crushing serfdoms of Europe, the vast majority ended up not on the character-building farms or installed amid pure wilderness but in the cities, with their opportunities, exploitations, and temptations. A primacy of landowners' rights governed even as villages became metropolises and a farm might suddenly find a smoke-belching, mile-long steel plant as its neighbor. With the growth of industry and the gathering of people in cities, land became less a source of personal sustenance and more a potential source of monetary wealth. Privatism remains the reigning American city-making model: we try to accommodate any entrepreneur anywhere.7 Our Jeffersonian reluctance to tell landowners what they can do works well--until we hear of plans to run a new beltway past our backyard. Then we take to the streets and airwaves. Speculators act; the rest of us react. It's a clumsy and often growth-strangling way to reconcile the diverse values we hold as both citizens and owners. In an era that must respond to unprecedented environmental challenges, it's not good enough. In January 2006, I visited New Orleans, ravaged four months earlier by Hurricane Katrina. In small sections of the city, contractors clogged the streets with pickups and piles of new siding and roofing, but it was hard to see the old city springing to life. At that time, I toured the worst areas with local architect Allen Eskew, who was in favor of what was then called a "shrinking footprint" to rebuild New Orleans. That was post-Katrina lingo for consolidating rebuilding effort in areas that are the highest above sea level.8 At the time of my visit, about eighty thousand residents had come back to the city, about one-sixth of the prehurricane population. A Rand Corporation study thought that only about half the population would return.9 "We can't maintain our old infrastructure with such a diminished population and such limited resources," Eskew observed as we drove around the city. The "shrinking footprint" idea was first proposed by the Urban Land Institute think tank. When planners published maps suggesting that immediate reinvestment be funneled to high-ground areas, people noticed that the left-behind tracts, whether in poor Central City and the Lower Ninth Ward or in affluent eastern New Orleans, were predominantly black.10 Rebuilding in risk-prone areas may defy rationality, but returning to the same house on the same lot, in the same street and neighborhood, was almost a primordial desire for many New Orleans residents. Rebuilding on high ground seemed a rational position when the Army Corps could not guarantee flood resistance if a Category 5 storm hit the city (Katrina was a slow-moving Category 3). As residents of the very lowest swaths of the city stared at the muddy waterlines left behind by the flood, they asked themselves who would buy their property. How would they move? What kind of place would the city be without the old streets, and the seemingly unchanging neighborhoods lined with modest houses of curlicue carpentry and colorful paint? What if people didn't want to move? Would the government force them out of their homes and into some neighborhood they might not want to be in? Must they accept whatever money the government offered and see their houses and streets bulldozed for parks or drainage canals? The planners had not even begun to engage those questions before the idea of "shrinking the city's footprint" was abandoned, made poisonous by the city's long history of decision making by and for whites and the powerful. Desperate to get back into their own homes and rebuild their lives, New Orleanians were not ready for a drastically different way of thinking about land, about ownership, about a dramatically reconfigured city, and about a wholly different role for government in the city's restoration. If the city did not find a way to rebuild in a more compact form, some experts warned, New Orleans would be pocked with "jack 'o lantern" blocks, where only one or two fixed-up houses would sit lonely in the midst of weed-strangled blocks. By Katrina's fifth anniversary, many more people had returned than Rand had predicted, about 355,000. That's still 100,000 fewer than pre-Katrina numbers, and many of those jack 'o lantern streets can now be found.11 With the city's budget stretched beyond the breaking point, New Orleanians, in numerous conversations with me in 2010, talked of the need to physically consolidate more neighborhoods to kindle greater revitalization. But no one yet knew how to make that happen. ## Consequences of A Transactional Landscape Though Katrina placed disaster-rebuilding dilemmas in huge and frightening light, it is comforting to think that such a disaster could happen in the United States only once every two or three generations. But climate change and other environmental challenges may raise the same questions more often, perhaps in slower motion, and over even larger vulnerable landscapes. Land development and construction are usually thought of as little more than economic transactions, but they have unique consequences for a community. If a business fails, its assets can be transferred to creditors and its employees can find new jobs. Although a wrenching process, the damage rarely lasts. The consequences of a building, far more often than not, are permanent: the rusting hulks of abandoned factories that blight vast tracts of midwestern cities and ooze pollutants into rivers for decades after they have been shuttered; the big-box discounter that floods local streets with traffic then later lies abandoned behind a vast empty parking lot. Citymaking through speculative development offers an important efficiency: developers succeed when they give people what they want. On the other hand, consigning the urban future entirely to the vagaries of the real estate market has its limitations. Communities rise up when the rules of the market fail to encourage forms of development that residents find compatible. The market is not driven to help cities create long-term value. The failures, excesses, and insults on the landscape of wrong-headed or simply outdated speculative development are visible everywhere and have long been decried: the unsanitary tenements of the nineteenth century that crammed families into buildings deprived of sunlight and fresh air; the jury-rigged, opportunistic industrial districts of the early twentieth century that belched lung-scorching smoke into the air and poured offal into once-pristine rivers; the fast-food polyps that metasta-size then die along the eight-lane arterials of modern suburbia. A building, even if shoddily made for short-term gain, almost invariably alters the landscape forever. Americans have long tolerated the notion that corporate goals or common accounting practice may generate a useful life of only a few years. But should we continue to accept the making of throwaway places, when these private decisions have such profound public consequences? ## How Attitudes Toward Land Evolve The way Americans think about land and property rights can seem immutable, but attitudes have changed with the times. Just as America has made a tenuous peace between Jeffersonian and Hamiltonian visions of the nation, conflicts between the rights of individual landowners and the larger public welfare have frequently landed in court. Old questions are becoming new again in a climate-change era that calls on us not only to do less harm to the environment but to restore natural functions on local, regional, and ecosystem scales. An owner's cash-gushing strip shopping center is her neighbor's value-depriving eyesore. This truism is a simplistic way of illustrating the conflicts endemic to land use, which are as old as jurisprudence. Does ownership of the quarter acre my tract house sits on extend "upward, even to heaven," as Sir Edward Coke put it more than 350 years ago?12 Or can your high-rise hotel block light to the pool deck of my low-rise one? Can a coal company drill a mine underneath my house even if it causes my house to subside? Am I to be denied the proceeds of the tannery I want to erect even if the smell stings my neighbors' eyes and the offal pollutes the river we share?13 A nation that at its founding equated landownership with freedom would predictably be vexed in sorting out whose interests should prevail. An enormous percentage of American land-use disputes center on a debate that was first philosophically engaged in England in the decades preceding the founding of the United States. Jeremy Bentham argued that the welfare of the community must take precedence over individual concerns. Adam Smith felt that the social interest was best served through individual enterprise. It was Smith's view that prevailed when the nation was young.14 It is most powerfully embodied in the clause of the Fifth Amendment cited by Lucas when he made his "taking" claim. But the special status that was accorded to private ownership of land evolved as technological advances and the ever-larger scale of economic systems conferred on landowners and developers enormous power to change the landscape--and to create conflicts with neighbors. As early as 1851, Chief Justice Lemuel Shaw articulated the notion that the free use of land by owners did not include the unlimited right to create nuisances for others.15 When the Constitution was written, however, it was not conceivable that an oil refinery might pop up next to your nice subdivision. Not surprisingly, in balancing public and private interests, courts saw the stakes rising as pristine rivers became sewers, thanks to urbanization, and the air over vast areas was befouled, thanks to industrial processes. Over decades, the courts increasingly sided with the government's use of its "police power" (the power to regulate). It seemed obvious that landowners' activities that physically or literally injured neighbors (creating a "nuisance") could be regulated. But judges also began to permit regulation of activity that injured or impaired only the economic use or value of others' land. It was not always an easy call to make: does a junkyard so reduce a neighbor's land value as to constitute a nuisance, calling for interference by government? As land's transactional value in a capitalist economy trumped its colonial role as a bulwark against serfdom, courts increasingly said yes. In the twentieth century, courts legitimized an increasing array of regulations as long as they furthered "public welfare"--which gave the government yet more power over landowners. Yet this narrowing of landowner rights has been essential to economic growth and to resolving knotty issues presented by the vast scale and power of modern economic endeavor. On the one hand, the idea that government could regulate in the welfare interests of all the public allowed officials to prohibit houses of prostitution and other uses that were thought to imperil the public's morals. On the other, it gave a legal basis to zoning, which represented a vast expansion of the government's power to restrict what landowners could do, to the point of telling them how large a building could be erected on a site and what kinds of uses it could house. America's earliest zoning ordinance, the one enacted in New York City in 1916, even dictated the shape of buildings to ensure daylight for all, giving the city's high-rise core a wedding-cake profile--a zigzag skyline that still says "New York" to people the world over. One reason that a wide swath of the public welcomed an ever more complex range of regulations was that many rules (such as separating noxious industry from genteel residential neighborhoods) had the effect of maintaining or improving the property values of many while aggrieving only a few. Tensions remained between those who benefited from the Benthamesque "public welfare" regulators, while others wished to return to a purer Adam Smith/ Jeffersonian idea that government should get out of the way. Neither view has definitively prevailed. We're taught to think that one's house is one's castle--not to be violated by neighbors or unwarranted government intrusion. But the border between our homes and the outside world is far more pervious today than the image of moat and high walls suggests. You can't pull up the drawbridge when you rely on utilities and roads, school systems, and shopping for the vital needs of everyday life. We live in a nation that commonly regards ownership as a pure and essential state, with a substantial bundle of rights that goes along with it. Because those rights are so powerful, the only way a community can control its destiny is to push back with an equally powerful and intrusive pile of regulations. One environmental rule may demand that you maintain natural shrubs and trees because they shelter a threatened species of bird. Another may require you to remove the beautiful specimen trees that shade your house because they provide fuel for wildfires. Some people voluntarily agree to even more constraints by signing deed restrictions in planned communities. These demand that residents hew to preselected architectural styles should they choose to remodel. Today, in other words, your home is your castle as long as its tower does not extend above the thirty-foot height limit, the color and form of its crenellations are consistent with community-design standards, and you do not intend to park an RV on the drawbridge. Property-rights activists, who are motivated by passion, emotion, and righteousness as much as by sober legal analysis, want to hack back that thicket of land-use regulations to restore the owner's exercise of free will in the use and development of land. But such absolutism, while perhaps delivering a win here or there, is ultimately doomed when our urban lives are so intimately entangled--as Oregonians learned in a pair of ballot battles over the state's strict division between urban and rural. ## Oregon Draws A Line in the Sand On a characteristically misty Pacific Northwest day, I cruised some streets in Hillsboro, a suburb west of Portland, where new town houses huddled cheek by jowl on one side while farm fields stretched into the tree-studded, gently rolling distance on the other. In the normal American scheme of things, the next subdivision might have plowed up the peaceful fields. But that has not been possible at the edge of Hillsboro. In Oregon, you'll rarely find the isolated rural subdivisions, golf communities, farmettes, and highway-hugging outlet malls that pock the exurban outskirts of metropolitan areas. That's because Oregon has had a land-use regime since 1973 that strictly bounds cities, preserving close-in farmlands and forests by drawing urban growth boundaries around every city, town, and forest hamlet, which forces developers to look for opportunity in leftover urban and suburban tracts inside the line rather than bulldozing a rural farm field and hoping a beltway comes along to connect it to everything else (figure 1.2).16 Figure 1.2 Oregon's urban growth boundary draws a clear line between urban, suburban, and town growth zones and agricultural and forestry zones, which permit very little urban-style development. Credit: (C) Alex Maclean/Landslides In a global warming era, Oregon's strict division between urban and natural realms is attracting attention. In environmental terms, the contained urban borders mean less disruption of natural systems by development, fewer roads, more efficient use of infrastructure investments, and urban areas dense enough to efficiently support transit. In spite of the ubiquitous misty rains, Portland has become the capital of cycling obsession. In the future, a more compact form for cities would mean fewer linear feet of riverfront and beachfront that require protection from flooding and erosion, and more flexibility to address those that need protection. More forest acres would store carbon, and fewer forest developments would require government protection from fires. More acres of intact natural environment are innately more resilient to the forces of change than are areas fragmented by diffused urban development. Earlier than in most places, Portland investors figured out that not everyone likes to live in subdivisions, and so its downtown is famously lively while its older neighborhoods and suburbs don't suffer as much of the creeping stagnation that afflicts older neighborhoods in cities such as Phoenix or Houston-- places where it's easier to move on than to reinvest, and where you see patches of worn housing or strip development alternating with swaths of weed-grown land unlikely to attract investors. The urban growth boundary is a tool that works at a scale big enough to make a real difference. A recent Brookings Institute report put Portland's carbon footprint at the third lowest in the nation, smaller than Seattle's and San Francisco's, which share such local carbon-saving qualities as a mild climate and reliance on hydropower.17 The division between urban and rural enjoys wide support and has created palpable benefits. But it has also attracted vociferous opposition precisely because Oregonians did something almost unique in America: they took their land-use future into their own hands. The abrupt edge between urban and rural drives some people crazy. After all, land values on the urban side of the growth boundary, where you might be able to build upward of a half dozen houses every acre, may be many times those on the rural side, where sometimes only one house is permitted per eighty acres. Such disparities in value, determined by government fiat, seem unfair and arbitrary to some, especially to property-rights activists, who have fought unsuccessfully to overturn Oregon's urban/rural divide since it was enacted. In 2004, this simmering anger found its voice in Dorothy English, a ninety-two-year-old woman who hoped to subdivide some property northwest of Portland so that her grandchildren could live next door. She was tantalizingly near the edge of the growth boundary, but because she fell outside it, her application was denied. In TV ads, she urged support of Ballot Measure 37, which would require the state to waive property regulations that caused a loss in value--or else to compensate her for that loss. Few could resist the hardworking grandmother who was not, after all, seeking to build a retirement city in precious wilderness. Measure 37 passed overwhelmingly. The goal of Measure 37, and other property-rights legislation that has found its way onto ballots in dozens of states, was to broaden the reach of the "takings" clause of the Fifth Amendment. The argument, as in the Lucas oceanfront lots case, was that regulations could be considered a government seizure of private land as surely as condemnation and forced purchase would be. Measure 37, sold to the electorate as releasing owners from regulatory inflexibility, substituted a different kind of arbitrariness. Owners were able to make claims for compensation according to whether their land had been zoned for urban development when they bought it. "A lot of land, some of which I'm farming, could be developed into two-acre or five-acre housing tracts--anything allowed prior to 1973," explained David Vanasche, a farmer I visited whose neatly trimmed grass-seed fields, just a short distance from Hillsboro's high-tech office parks, are part of a farming zone that seems to stretch on infinitely. "That will make it very difficult to farm here." He pointed out a barely visible furrow that marked the line between his property and the otherwise identical parcel his neighbor farmed (figure 1.3). Vanasche's neighbor filed a claim asking for compensation or a waiver. He had owned the property long enough that rules permitting a house per acre had once applied.18 The ultimate result of Measure 37 would have been to pock one of America's most productive agricultural landscapes with blobs and striplets of houses, dictated solely by the rules that had applied when the land was purchased. Figure 1.3 Had Oregon ballot measure 37 gone forward, the land to the right of the street sign, long protected farmland, could have been rezoned for homes, while the land to the left would have remained protected. Credit: James S. Russell More than seventy-five hundred claims were eventually filed statewide, many for tracts covering tens of thousands of acres.19 Nor did everyone understand what undoing regulations freed property owners to do: one claim demanded a waiver to dig a pumice mine that would deface the Newberry Crater National Monument.20 The contradictions built into Measure 37 went little discussed in Oregon prior to passage. With the "remedies" for aggrieved property owners of either compensation for their "losses" or waiving the regulatory restrictions that applied, officials universally opted for waivers. Claims climbed to an estimated $20 billion, but the cost to localities of assessing, litigating, and making the payments was also prohibitive.21 Of course, the loss of value, which in many cases would have to be calculated across decades, was purely guesswork. Faced with the law's fiscal consequences and vast impact on forests and farmland, the legislature crafted Measure 49, which made the 1973 development restrictions slightly less strict. Measure 49 passed as overwhelmingly as Measure 37 had. Measure 37 should have been seen as nonsensical, but reconciling private interests and public welfare in terms of land has vexed the nation since its founding. Understanding what's at stake in this long-running debate is key to dynamically adapting to an unpredictable urban future. Property-rights expert Harvey M. Jacobs, a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor, succinctly explained the roots of this conflict in a presentation at the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, in Cambridge, Massachusetts.22 He cited James Madison as an early advocate for a unique status for private property in American laws and culture: "Government is instituted no less for the protection of property than of the persons of individuals." Jacobs set that view against Benjamin Franklin's demurral: "Private property is a creature of society, and is subject to the calls of the society whenever its necessities require it, even to the last farthing." The founders tilted toward Franklin by omission: the Constitution promises "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness," not "life, liberty and property," as Thomas Jefferson preferred. Elevating the status of property as akin to life and liberty wasn't unreasonable when land was about the only way to create and preserve wealth. But as cities grew, land values increasingly depended on such external factors as access to infrastructure and proximity to customers, and that meant that the needs of all would inevitably come into more frequent conflict with the desires of individual owners. A piece of farmland may increase ten times or one hundred times in value when it fronts a brand-new freeway interchange. If some landowners are entitled to such a benefit, aren't all landowners? Litigation erupts when government decides not to extend water and sewer services to rural tracts. (You need water and sewer to achieve urban densities and, hence, land values.) The owner feels entitled to the services others enjoy. By contrast, the larger public interest may be served by controlling urban growth and by reducing the cost to taxpayers of forcing the expansion of roads and sewers at the whim of speculators. In some cases, developers have persuaded courts to require towns to extend urban services, in effect coercing taxpayers to subsidize urban growth that may harm their interests, to put money in an owner's pocket.23 In such a confusing melange of public and private interests, the idea of landownership as the individual's bulwark against the incursion of government seems quaint indeed. We blur the line between private and public ownership rights all the time, making legal agreements that place owners in partnership with government, and giving up some rights to gain a government-approved advantage, such as taking payment for granting an easement that allows a utility company to string power lines across our tract. We accept a payment to transfer the right to build subdivisions from our valued farm onto another piece of property that offers a more conducive setting for development. We accept zoning restrictions that do not allow us to cover all of our lot with a revenue-generating building. A community may want to protect historic structures or maintain key wild habitat, so it permits an owner to develop another portion of a site to a higher intensity in compensation for permitting protection of the resource the community values. Though the property-rights absolutists would like to return to what they view as the Constitution's first principals, there's nothing wrong with all the ways we've altered notions of ownership. We realize ourselves, pursue our interests, and create wealth in this way. Dozens of court cases have failed to draw a clear line between public and private interests in landownership; nor has Oregon's civics lesson in property rights, waged over years through costly election campaigns and lawsuits, done so. Said Jacobs in a later interview about the state's ballot issues: "The property-rights movement was quite successful at getting out its message, which was to focus on the point at which the government asks too much of the individual in terms of regulations." As for rules aimed at cutting carbon emissions: "There is tremendous potential for fundamental conflict between what appears to be necessary for the greater good of neighborhoods, cities, and regions and what individuals think of as their property rights and the protections the constitution affords them."24 Oregon's aggressive goals for carbon emissions were not prominent in the debates on Measures 37 or 49, but the same battles may be rejoined. "Land-use planning plays an important role in reaching the greenhouse-gas-reduction goals the state has set," Eric Stachon, communication director of the environmental group 1,000 Friends of Oregon, told me at the time.25 Property-rights activists promise to push back.26 These deeply held views cannot be idly dismissed as we seek solutions to problems that must transcend property lines. On the other hand, neither history nor the courts supports an uncritical deference to the primacy of ownership rights. The demonizing of regulation has created widespread sympathy for property rights. But communities react--slapping a regulation on something they don't like--because they do not take the making of communities into their own hands. We let speculators do it, then try and contain their worst excesses, which makes rule making rampant. The trouble with trying to control our urban destiny almost entirely through regulation is that this is not effective in reducing the most egregious sins of urban growth. Alone, regulations cannot tame traffic. Environmental rules have barely stemmed the loss of key wild lands. Many of the most onerous, costly, and difficult-to-enforce regulations attempt to preserve land that has cultural, ecological, or historic value to the public. The community can preserve such values by buying land outright or by condemning it, but the costs of either method are so prohibitive that these tools can only be successfully used in a limited way. We must learn to be proactive. ## Toward Agile Ownership The hard, straight lines we draw to mark off the parcels we own have little to do with the ecosystems they are drawn over: watersheds that may stretch for dozens of miles in either direction; wildlife-movement corridors, slopes, streams and bay edges that aren't static but, unlike property lines, move. A climate-change era demands we pay closer attention to those natural systems that flow within and beyond our tidy land divisions. Can we find a similarly fluid idea of ownership that helps us realize our aspirations yet is mindful of the natural world we all share? That means yet again rearranging the owner's relationship with the public's welfare--a task that makes many Americans uncomfortable. In most of the world, it is taken for granted that government will hold significant power over land use and will wield these powers to advance the greater public good. Armando Carbonell, chair of the Department of Planning and Urban Form at the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, describes "a spectrum of approaches" worldwide to private-property rights. Clear ownership rights are essential in capitalist countries, but in much of the world, he said in a telephone conversation, "there is no sacredness of private development rights." In the United Kingdom, for example, any development must seek planning permission: "There is no 'right' to develop," Carbonell explained. "The northern European model is that government largely decides where you do what with your land."27 Holland's elaborate flood defenses come from centralized decision making because without government intervention to keep out the North Sea in this low-lying country, no development at all is possible. This has translated into a culture of intensively planned and organized development that is neat, orderly, convenient, and relatively low cost. Dutch people also appreciate, as one acquaintance put it, "knowing exactly what will be next door." In most other countries, some kind of local planning authority is supposed to defuse land-use disputes by laying out master plans for growth. The plans put housing to the west, along the commuter-rail line, and shopping and offices near the central station. Such agencies typically control infrastructure-construction purse strings as well. You can't put your office park on any piece of land outside town, because the authority will not build a road to it and can refuse to issue building permission in any event. You'll have to put it on land near the train line, so workers can commute without driving. This is not to say that we need to adopt a Dutch or Nordic model. These models illustrate that people happily live and realize their dreams in places with very different approaches to ownership and government involvement in land development--and where costly land disputes do not endlessly tie up courts. The concept of such strong planning powers is unassailable: the planner will synthesize expert opinion and the people's will, giving the community a proactive voice in the way it grows and revitalizes. The United States, with its historic distrust of government, has never had much faith in city planning or in master plans assembled by experts, and it has tended to abandon planning with teeth in the face of failure--as in the massive "slum clearances" of the 1950s and 1960s--rather than trying to plan more fairly and effectively. Critics have long said that planning agencies lacked the expertise, the acumen, and the private sector's profit motive and therefore should not be betting the public's money on a speculative future. So most US cities react, throwing money at an industry that promises to move in and create jobs, or building the latest urban bauble (aquarium, sports stadium, museum) that is thought to confer (inevitably) a "world-class" edge. The one-offs rarely pay. Regulations, not to mention subsidies, targeted tax benefits, and other government actions, are also bets on the future, entailing exactly the same risks as planning. As in business, some succeed and some fail. Communities really have no choice but to bet on the future in some way. The excesses of the past are not a reason to fear planning but a reason to do it better. Planners today are brought in to do little more than fix things, or to veneer the product of crude political horse trading with a gloss of "community input." Most of the regulations that protect us and annoy us are drafted by planners, because they have few other tools to keep the last development outrage everyone's mad about from being repeated. America need not adopt Oregon's growth boundaries or any existing city-planning model--indeed, many well-established planning regimes, in and outside America, are not yet tuned to the challenges of the future. Planning, for the purposes of this book, simply means leaving behind our overreliance on reactive regulation in favor of a proactive approach that anticipates what the future is bringing us and prepares for it. It's becoming evident that planning must go on at different scales than we are used to--at the scale of a watershed, forest, or other ecosystem, in ways that recognize large-scale economic relationships and regional mobility and infrastructures. These scales do not comfortably fit within the political categories we use today--local, state, federal--which are already dysfunctional in both urban and natural system terms (as part 2 of this book illustrates). Indeed, political boundaries and natural system boundaries usually match only by coincidence. In truth, America has barely engaged the idea of robust planning and certainly has no systematic approach to revitalization; think tanks and university urban centers are artisans of ideas they hope others will pick up. Rather than spell out a prescription for planning, chapter 2 sketches a new land ethos that can inform it. The epilogue describes techniques that involve both citizens and leaders in planning proactively together. When a Katrina or a World Trade Center disaster hits, we realize that we're not prepared. Yet even a messy emergency response is comparatively easy. It's when you rebuild that the really tough questions intrude. What and how do you rebuild? In American cities, we not only don't know, but we don't know how to find out. James S. RussellThe Agile CityBuilding Well-being and Wealth in an Era of Climate Change10.5822/978-1-61091-027-9_2(C) James S. Russell 2011 # 2. A New Land Ethos James S. Russell1 (1) Bloomberg News, Lexington Ave 731, 10022 New York, USA Abstract From the head of the Snoqualmie Valley, the Snoqualmie River plunges over a spectacular 270-foot-high falls, then wends peacefully forty-three miles north through flat farmland between fir-covered ridges. The valley appears at first to be one of those unspoiled, "have it all" rural locales. As the crow flies, it's only about twenty miles east of downtown Seattle, but long lakes and high ridges form a topographic barrier. A lack of direct access by modern highways puts most of the valley an hour or more from urban destinations. Nurseries serving the outer suburbs alternate with dairies and pastures. Some truck farms flourish, planted with boutique vegetables selected for their ability to tingle urban palates. From the head of the Snoqualmie Valley, the Snoqualmie River plunges over a spectacular 270-foot-high falls, then wends peacefully forty-three miles north through flat farmland between fir-covered ridges. The valley appears at first to be one of those unspoiled, "have it all" rural locales. As the crow flies, it's only about twenty miles east of downtown Seattle, but long lakes and high ridges form a topographic barrier. A lack of direct access by modern highways puts most of the valley an hour or more from urban destinations. Nurseries serving the outer suburbs alternate with dairies and pastures. Some truck farms flourish, planted with boutique vegetables selected for their ability to tingle urban palates. Residents, farmers, foresters, and officials are working out a new land ethos here, forging a new relationship to nature as we live within it--not just cordoning it off in preserves. Officials have asked farmers to erect fences and maintain forested buffers as deep as three hundred feet along rivers and streams. It's part of a very ambitious effort by King County and Washington State to restore rapidly declining wild salmon stocks. The effort was spurred by the listing of nine salmon species as endangered by the federal government. The elaborate procedures for protecting streams and spawning beds have become a huge public-works effort that may cost more than $3 billion, with some elements of recovery taking as long as fifty years.1 The presence of wild salmon, which still can be hooked occasionally only a few hundred yards from the skyscraper-lined shoreline of Seattle's Elliott Bay, has remained deeply embedded in the identity of the Pacific Northwest. Salmon have remained iconic long after the dwindling of a Native American culture that lionized them. The salmon have not had an easy time with urban growth, however. The difficulty of the state's task has to do with the fish's life cycle: though they spend most of their life in the ocean, they require quite specific spawning conditions in freshwater streams, rivers, and lakes. To make more streams salmon friendly, crews in urban neighborhoods "daylight" waterways long ago confined to pipes. Specialists plant stream-shading shrubbery and silt-filtering grasses. Where once storm water roared in a muddy torrent down concrete culverts, contractors dig meandering watercourses braided by ridges of gravel, and tip downed trees into streams to create quiet eddies friendly to persnickety eggladen females. In urbanized areas, salmon-habitat restoration has stymied a mall developer hoping to expand over a buried stream. It stopped a golf course owner who sought irrigation water from a salmon-critical source. But a great deal of the effort--and the controversy--is focused on the rural Snoqualmie Valley, because its environment is less degraded and more readily restorable. Some years ago, I asked Tim Trohimovich, the planning director of 1000 Friends of Washington (an environmental advocacy group now renamed FutureWise) to explain the extraordinary measures that King County has undertaken in the valley. A stream's quality has to do with conditions far beyond its banks, he explained, and it is compromised when "more than 10 percent of a river basin is covered in impervious surface [roads, parking lots, buildings] and more than 65 percent of the forest cover is gone." The cities and suburbs can't be restored to these conditions, but the valley can be. Although the state and county are spending to naturalize river edges and remove levees so that seasonal floodwaters will flow safely into low-lying bottomland, the burdens of salmon preservation have fallen hard on farmers. The stream buffer strips can significantly reduce usable pastureland and must be managed to avoid manure pollution and erosion. Those measures cost money and reduce revenue. As you drive the valley, you see fast-growing cottonwoods sprouting from fields that once supported herds of dairy cows. While dairy farming nationwide has been declining, the last straw for many farmers in the valley has been the struggle to accommodate the preservation of salmon runs. Farmers feel whipsawed because the scientific consensus is in flux on just how much forest must be kept and how deep the buffers must be. Do you want farmers, goes the refrain, or salmon? The county is trying to have both. A separate effort has aggressively attempted to help farmers prosper. The Farmlink program draws young urbanites to farming, boosted by rapidly growing demand for locally produced food. Hmong farmers, originally from Cambodia, sell Snoqualmie Valley flowers in Seattle's famed Pike Place Market. Thanks to "Puget Sound Fresh," a marketing campaign, valley farmers can sell direct to consumers in an expanding network of almost forty public markets countywide.2 The Snoqualmie Valley is the kind of place where the subdivisions would move in as the farmers sold out, but the county uses an Oregon-style growth boundary to funnel limited urban growth and development into the valley's rural towns. Another growth boundary keeps suburbia, now just a ridgeline or two away, from invading the valley. Drive into Duvall, a small farm town that had languished largely forgotten for decades, and you see its once desultory main street, Highway 203, lined with substantial new houses, apartment complexes, sidewalks, and a strip center sporting an applique of bungalow-style crisscrossing beams (figure 2.1). Figure 2.1 The urban growth boundary in King County encourages higher-density development in established Snoqualmie Valley towns, such as Duvall (shown here), to preserve valuable farmland (seen beyond). Credit: James S. Russell By focusing development into compact form and paying close attention to how much land is forested (and therefore permeable to water), King County does much more than save salmon. It reduces demand for storm water and domestic sewage infrastructure and for road miles. Farming need not compete with subdivision-development pressures (where it would lose). Fewer roads crisscross the forests and valley, and fewer development blobs interrupt wildlife movement and dump runoff from acres of asphalt into streams. Compact development reduces the number of miles people have to drive and reduces costs to provide auto alternatives, such as transit. More kids can walk or bike to school. The salmon-saving regime was not undertaken in response to climate change (it's unclear how much global warming is implicated in collapsing salmon runs), but it is analogous to an agile city approach because of its comprehensiveness. The state and county have organized salmon recovery at the scale of watersheds--the drainage systems of streams and rivers--because salmon may swim into the mouth of a wide river with their goal the quiet headwaters of a tiny tributary tens or hundreds of miles inland.3 (Indeed, the largest efforts, and the greatest controversy, have to do with tributaries of the Columbia River in eastern Washington, and whether taking down dams that aid irrigation and shipping is necessary to restore once-enormous runs.) Improving watershed quality doesn't make sense only in salmon streams. Restoring streams to a natural state can aid flood control (the threat has been increasing), improve air quality (with more tree cover), and improve water quality (by reducing sources of both pollution and eroded soil). Stream systems act as corridors for wildlife migration, and they offer a variety of habitats as they merge with upland meadows or forests--a diversity that offers greater natural resilience in the face of climate change. Salmon recovery, compact development, and farmland preservation looked some years ago as if they were undertaken as discrete efforts to solve singular problems. Especially as global warming has asserted its prominence, however, officials have integrated these programs. Agricultural flood-control measures promoted by King County in the Snoqualmie Valley, for example, include measures to protect salmon streams. A review of urban growth boundaries in four Puget Sound counties has been integrated into an action plan to meet climate-change goals.4 King County has done much in the Snoqualmie Valley that advocates of rural values and lifestyle would like to see. Like so many other precious places, the valley retains a look of tradition, wildness, and authenticity. But it is a look that can be sustained only through a complex regulatory structure and a governmental engineering of the rural economy that may not prove sustainable. The ambitious goal to preserve 65 percent of the forest cover doesn't mesh with golf course development or supermarket-style parking lots. Even a homeowner's addition of a barn and driveway can involve hairsplitting by biologists and ichthyologists over whether a stopped-up ditch must be deemed a wetland of potential interest to a browsing maternal salmon. After years of effort, salmon recovery is slow.5 The invasiveness of the regulations has led to strife, with rural residents accusing urban elected officials of dumping the greatest burdens on them. (A court case overturned the 65 percent tree-cover requirement in 2009.6) For the foreseeable future, the delicate balance among fish, farming, residents' aspirations, and the pressures of urban growth can be maintained only by perpetual negotiation. King County's policies have been tough on those who expected to farm the way they used to, or to sell their underused forest or pastureland to sub-dividers. But these expectations have begun to give way to new ones in which the benefits become more evident. If the county government does not keep its promise to help built-up parts of the county gracefully absorb development, voters may lose faith in the growth boundary. King County's imperfect efforts show that we can adapt landscapes and live within them in a more agile way. Moving ahead, we'll have to find ways to do more in a less onerous way: with better science on what's truly necessary to preserve salmon, leading to a simpler, less micromanaging approach; with greater participation in salmon preservation by wealthier, developed parts of the county; and with a fair balancing of burdens and benefits. ## Conserving While Developing So often, land-use debates turn on a simplistic duality. We insist on pure preservation, in which the hand of man is all but eliminated (represented by the federal wilderness system). Or we defer to, accommodate, or encourage whatever private owners choose to do. America too infrequently considers the vast spectrum of possibilities between these two extremes. That spectrum is rich with opportunities for many more of us to live and create wealth in a graceful relationship with the natural world. Clark Stevens, whose New West Land Company is based in Los Angeles, is among a new breed of environmentalists, planners, developers, and investors who cross the divide between traditional environmentalism and one-size-fits-all development to create profit-making projects that conserve and restore damaged landscapes. If one of Stevens's clients, the Pace family, longtime owners of an eleven-thousand-acre tract on the big island of Hawaii, had sought the greatest and quickest economic return, they could have sold off their land in twenty-acre "ranchettes."7 Instead, Stevens devised an ambitious plan, called Hokukano Preserve, that would subdivide only a thousand acres. Sandalwood and ohia forests that stretch from the edge of the town of Kealakekua up the island's western slopes toward the peak of Mauna Loa would be protected and extended through reforestation of the parcel's ranchlands. An adjacent nine-thousand-acre tract would become part of the Federal Forest Legacy Program (which grants cash while legally obliterating any right to develop the land), so the outcome was to be a very large chunk of land restored to nature with a relatively small investment by both government and private owners. Stevens marked out building sites on the lowest elevations, nearest Kealakekua, by pacing the land and finding spots that offered breathtaking views of the ocean and the peak without extending existing ranch roads. "We have devised incentives for residents to reforest their land," explained Stevens at an early stage, which means that the forest would actually expand most rapidly on the portions of the site developed for homes. At least three-quarters of each twenty-acre parcel would remain in agricultural use or conservation. At Hoku-kano, fences would not mark property lines. Rather, they would define wildlife corridors and defend native forest and understory from the depredations of nonnative wild pigs. Parts of the vast site would continue to support coffee growing (tucked into remnant forests) and the ranching of bison and cattle (rotated to inspire forest growth yet keep too much fire-inducing deadwood from accumulating). The agricultural uses may seem surprising in a development devoted to conservation, but mixing conservation, development, and ranching or forestry represents an evolution in the way humans can be present in precious landscapes. Human activities, clustered or otherwise limited, offer income to offset the profits owners forgo when they give up the right to cut forests or build vacation homes. But the reasons run deeper: "Retiring land from human use is more complex than it appears," says Stevens. Natural systems, he explains, adapt themselves to long-term human use, creating a different kind of environmental diversity than would occur otherwise. Stevens is also concerned that "removing people from the land disengages them from it." The people who work a forest or farm know it most deeply. When they leave it behind, they take their understanding and emotional connection with them. Like-minded conservationists, he finds, seek "to move beyond a conventional environmentalism that separates humans from the land." As of this writing, the plan had fallen victim to the collapse of the resort-home market and tight credit, though the Paces did put the planned acreage into the Forest Legacy Program. Stevens expects a new plan to be viable, perhaps tying forest conservation to carbon credits. Hokukano shows what enormous promise conservation-sensitive development holds as well as underlines the considerable--but hardly insurmountable--challenges of this unfamiliar way of investing for conservation. An increasing number of public-spirited institutional and private investors seek to marry enterprise and environmentalism. These pioneers are trying out new ways to sensitively nurture a vibrant economy in some of the nation's most naturally gorgeous places. They are redefining land-use regulations and real estate finance. They're broadening the conservation ethos, rethinking the human presence in the natural landscape. On a small scale, cluster developments and conservation subdivisions have existed for years. A dozen houses occupying a fraction of a tract that is otherwise preserved is laudable if the ponds, forests, or farms they seek to save are not isolated from contiguous natural or farmed areas. Too many of these subdivisions fail to aid ecological resilience because they further fragment natural systems with roads and parking. By scaling up efforts, or uniting small projects into large parcels, conservation development can bring back entire watersheds, valleys, forests, and species habitats--a scale that's become increasingly important. Such investments have drawn attention from the largest financial institutions as these large firms seek to hedge conventional investments with a variety of forays into the emerging "green" economy. Large-scale conservation development got its impetus in the Rocky Mountain West, where investors snapped up ranchland. Much of it was cheap because it had been severely overgrazed in a desperate attempt by small American ranches to compete with the rise of globalized meat production. (Steaks on American dinner plates can come from cattle raised on huge tracts in South America.) Conservation-oriented buyers brought in specialists to restore grasslands for hunting and sustainable grazing. The new owners stopped erosion and returned streams to their clear natural state, and they now support fishing, horseback riding, and recreational wildlife-watching. The assembled tracts can be vast: cable-television entrepreneur Ted Turner, who owns two million acres in seven states and Argentina, has bought entire mountain valleys. He has put wild-roaming bison on American menus. Many of the wealthiest owners hold lands for family use or for what might be deemed gentleman ranching. But they sketch a future for non-elite ranching that may help it survive by diversifying income streams while restoring resiliency to the environment. "Coming out of the downturn, developers are saying that green has got to be part of the equation," says Kendra Briechle, who manages the Center for Conservation and Development at the Conservation Fund, in Arlington, Virginia. "Green building is part of it, but there is increasing interest in the landscape and the benefits that can come from improving the ecological function of landscape." The Fund, partnering with the US Army, among others, is helping assemble a 532-acre community-owned forest in Hoke County, South Carolina, near Fort Bragg. The forest will be managed to retain homes for red-cockaded woodpeckers, to continue timber and pine-straw harvests, to create new recreational opportunities, and to host a minimal-footprint affordable-housing development. "More urbanized areas have held their value," continues Breichle, "which means that compact urban form in exurban locations has the potential for meeting the conservative financing approach developers are now interested in."8 Carl Palmer, a cofounder with Robert Keith of Beartooth Capital, one of the few conservation-oriented real estate investment funds, agrees. "Between traditional conservation and traditional development there is great potential in blending conservation and development."9 He's proudest of the work Beartooth has done with a 1,200-acre ranch tract in the Pahsimeroi Valley of Idaho, where big game again roam grasslands and where salmon and steelhead have moved rapidly into spawning areas created by stream restoration. If conservation development is to grow larger in scale, and move beyond dedicated nonprofits and a few boutique investors, making the financial risk understandable will be essential, pioneers in the field say. As lenders stick to known investment types, "We're still struggling to document results for these new kinds of developments," says Briechle. Adds Palmer: "For the most part, conservationists don't understand private investment tools, and traditional developers don't have environmental credibility; they don't understand how to work with environmental goals. We're going to see a lot of growth in startups that blend those skill-sets to fill that gap." Beartooth, operating in four western states out of Bozeman, Montana, uses its expertise to analyze ecological values that can be nurtured along with sustainable agriculture and forestry. Chapter 3 offers more detail about some of the financial tools Beartooth and others use. Many environmentalists fear conservation development, seeing it as a smoke screen for bringing overdevelopment to pristine landscapes. But it has its greatest potential as a means to repair damaged landscapes, which, like overgrazed ranches, are abundant. As more such developments prove their value (and tax, regulatory, and land-use policies shift to enable them), conservation development could soon draw substantial mainstream investment. It has the potential to restore natural environments that are enriched by the hand of man. ## Rescuing The Riskiest Places American communities already struggle with wildfires, atrophied bays, beach erosion, and cliffs that slump into rivers. Climate-change effects, such as gyrating weather, more severe droughts and floods, and rising seas, are almost certainly a factor in these problems, and these places will become more vulnerable quickly. Shorelines, where the clash between private owners' interests and public welfare has vexed generations of policymakers and jurists-- witness the Lucas case (in Chapter 1)--are a good place to look for a new kind of reconciliation. The nation has known for decades that building too close to shoreline bluffs or at the edge of beaches was a recipe for disaster.10 On undisturbed natural beaches, winter storms rip away the sand and gentle summer currents quietly restore it. Most natural shorelines move both inland and shoreward in cycles over years or decades, fed or eroded by changing streams of sand. Many local governments that should have known better chose to let opportunistic developers erect fixed structures over shifting shorelines in zones of known danger. They now find owners clamoring for protection as storm waves slop into the swimming pool or as the sundeck tips into the sea. Owners on eroding shores want to build high bulkheads, which save their homes (at least temporarily) at the price of the beach. Bulkheads, jetties, and other "armoring" gambits cut off the natural flow of replenishing sand, which guarantees that the beaches will only recede (figure 2.2). Long-bulkheaded communities lose their value as beaches shrink and bulkheads rise to prison-wall heights. Worse, beach "hardening" spurs a kind of arms race against the sea as owners build bulkheads higher and the shore recedes further, leaving their properties even more stranded and infuriating adjacent property owners as their beach disappears too. (A group of wealthy homeowners on a 2.7-acre, high-risk spit of land worth some $1.2 billion sought to secede from Southampton, New York, to avoid a local prohibition on bulkhead building. They did not succeed.11) Figure 2.2 High walls have long protected the beach town of Sea Bright, New Jersey, because development too close to the shore prevented the beach from replenishing itself. Repeated replenishment with offshore-dredged sand prevents the beach from narrowing. Credit: James S. Russell Local governments may fight the bulkheads because they preserve individual owners' investments at the cost of the beach resource shared by all. On the other hand, it's very difficult for any of us to watch waves gnaw at someone's home. So government funds assist rebuilding and fix storm-shattered roads and utilities--and the bulkhead builders often ultimately get their way, while the community loses the war of rising seas. This is a classic case in which America's deference to the individual landowner has proven very costly indeed. Regulators step gingerly along the beachfront, thanks to the Lucas case, and yet the problems are too big for landowners to fix themselves. For a couple of generations, the federal government has papered over these disputes by sending money. Billions have been spent pumping sand onto eroded beaches. These beach nourishments are not as damaging as bulkheads, but they require new doses of sand as often as every two or three years, at millions of dollars per mile. The federal government also underwrites flood insurance for vulnerable communities, since the private market deems the insurance risks too high. This in turn has encouraged owners to upgrade old beach shacks to full-fledged luxury homes, since the flood insurance backs their investment. Premiums are supposed to pay for the program, but it has repeatedly had to borrow billions from taxpayers in bad flood years. Premiums have risen, the number of properties (and thus premiums paid) have expanded rapidly, and the program strictly limits losses it will cover (limitations hundreds of thousands of homeowners discover too late), but the program still had to borrow $17 billion for the annus horribilis of 2005, which it is unlikely ever to pay back.12 The costs of protecting communities built in river floodplains, on landslide-prone bluffs, and in fire-vulnerable forests are also growing rapidly. Federal generosity cannot continue in this way as needs explode over time. Consider that one hundred thousand people in California's San Mateo and Orange Counties alone may need to be protected from the effects of sea-level rise, according to a report by the Pacific Institute.13 Along America's thousands of miles of coastline, major airports, roads, schools, hospitals, and sewage and power plants may all require relocation. Many environmental advocates demand an end to beach-nourishment and flood-insurance programs, correctly pointing out that they are a costly subsidy to those building precisely where they shouldn't. Because urban development lines almost all the Atlantic Coast, much of the Gulf Coast, and major stretches of the West Coast, that tactic alone may cause chaos along the beaches. Making up the insurance program's losses will create prohibitive insurance premiums for perhaps millions of owners. That would reduce the value of many vulnerable properties, making many of them unsellable, especially if the federal government cuts beach-restoration programs. Still, no one is entitled to have the government protect their investment, and it is time to wean owners from these programs as we prudently assess future risks and take cooperative action to avoid them, rather than passively awaiting the worst, which is pretty much what communities do now. The costly status quo neither fully protects property owners from natural events of growing intensity nor preserves natural and community values. ## Rethinking Property Rights Let's try on a few solutions that rely less on engineering but require legal and political innovation. (Yes, "political innovation" sounds like an oxymoron, but it's almost certainly less expensive.) Experts speak of "managed retreat," for example. The idea here is to leave an eroding beach alone and move the structures it threatens. The advantages are manifold: the beach resource (both its economic and ecological value) is maintained without constant infusions of cash and construction. The disadvantages are knotty: How do you get people to give up their homes and their memories? And who will pay the cost? It's no surprise that few communities have even considered the possibility. In a California case, it took $2.2 million to purchase two homes and some surrounding land. The city hauled off the homes, as well as concrete, rubble, asphalt-reinforcing steel, and old tires. However, the retreat was less expensive than armoring a creek front and a beach.14 Clearly, buying out every owner along vulnerable shorelines will never be affordable. If managed retreat can ever be scaled up to help entire towns or beach regions cope with rising seas, everyone along the beach must agree to move to keep the place from looking like a gap-toothed grin. It can be done. After a devastating Mississippi River flood in 1993, the nine hundred-person town of Valmeyer, Illinois, decided to move in its entirety out of the vulnerable floodplain and up onto a cliff overlooking the river.15 It may not be entirely possible to both save built-up beaches that are disappearing (thereby protecting inland landowners) and make oceanfront owners whole, but tools we use for other purposes suggest some possibilities. ### Land Trusts A community or group of owners could set up a land trust to take collective ownership of a threatened community's land. The trust would exercise its control of the land when eroding beaches make the home unsafe or unusable. In the meantime, owners would have the right to use the house as long as the beachfront is intact. The trust would remove endangered buildings to save the beach and let it rebuild itself as storm cycles and currents permit. The trust could then resell or redevelop the property for a more adaptive and compatible kind of development, with the trust owners sharing in the proceeds. Though no threatened beachfront community has created such a trust as far as I know, there are parallels in the common use of conservation land trusts to save precious landscapes. In these cases, a group like The Nature Conservancy purchases development rights from an owner (say, the difference in the land's value as a farm and its sale value to a developer for a residential subdivision). The trust arrangement reduces the taxes so the farmer can afford to keep farming, and the larger community benefits from the natural value of the preserved land. Land trusts also buy development rights--the right to build the square footage on a given lot permitted by zoning--to preserve wild lands. The trust owns the development rights in perpetuity, which it prevents from ever being used, thus preserving the land's natural function. The owner retains compatible rights of use, such as farming. Some states and counties use dedicated taxes or a bond issue to raise money to purchase development rights at large scale. Similarly, governments can encourage people to move from vulnerable locations by allowing transfer of the development rights from the beachfront land to a nearby location that is less vulnerable. In this way, owners can retain some or all of the value of the land they are giving up, and coasts will retain their resiliency.16 ### Mitigation Banks A community can consider buying land for the future out of harm's way. If there is space behind a line of threatened beachfront houses, for example, a town or homeowner's association might purchase land in case it's needed, so that houses could move out of danger in tandem, preserving a coherent, appealing form for the town and preserving property values and natural values at once. The precedent is what the wonks call "mitigation banks." These banks don't have loan officers or ATMs. They were developed as a tool to preserve wetlands (which are the "deposits" in the bank), but the currency of a mitigation bank can be any environmentally valuable commodity. Here is how they are used now. Your highway department needs to run a road through a marsh, but regulations require the department to make up that wetland loss, so the department pays to renovate sick but valuable wetlands nearby (usually on the order of three times the area damaged) or pays to construct new wetlands. (There is an industry now that knows how to build natural-acting wetlands.) Through a combination of regulations and tax advantages, government could make coastal land banks appealing. It would be a less adversarial and less costly means to manage retreat than to have government buy beach land outright by condemnation and less costly for individual owners who otherwise end up spending endless amounts in a vain effort to permanently protect their investment. ### Land Readjustment A community threatened by rising waters or crumbling bluffs might want to manage retreat by heading to an urban-planning chiropractor for some land readjustment.17 Everyone throws their property into a pool, dissolving all the property lines. Then the land is reallocated, with the zone that is vulnerable to landslides or flooding held by the community as a safety buffer. Everyone gets a new lot configuration that is proportionally the same value as before. The street layout can be redesigned to create more value, reconfiguring land that had little value to make it more appealing, fixing access problems, and so on. The idea is that the rearranged community would be safer and more valuable, with greater development opportunity. Land readjustment is used in many crowded countries--Japan, Korea, Germany, Spain, the Netherlands, among others. In Japan, it has been a way to unite many tiny properties at the urban edge to make urban growth possible. A private corporation, Solidere, rebuilt the war-torn center of Beirut with the contribution of some 1,650 lots. The substantial proceeds were distributed to the owners. In Holland, two-thirds of the land area has been readjusted since the 1950s. It has been used to amalgamate tiny farms to create much larger, more efficient ones. But it has also been used to create large enough parcels to efficiently make "polders"--drained or filled areas that can be farmed or can accommodate new neighborhoods. If a consensus-driven process like land readjustment did not exist in Holland--a nation where almost every square inch is protected from the sea by dikes and drainage systems--it could not exist as a developed-world state. Readjustment tends to work best when the land values after the process is completed are much higher than those before. Land reallocation is not systematically used in the United States, though consensual deals are often made by owners to cooperatively amalgamate properties to attract a developer. It can be a government-led process, as it is in Israel, to convert agricultural land into room for urban growth. Or it can be initiated by the owners themselves who become the equivalent of voting stockholders in a company dedicated to redevelopment. After the new master plan has been made and property lines reestablished, the readjustment entity dissolves. A less scary approach may be to leave property lines in place but to use an adjustment process to reallocate development rights such as zoning density, uses, and building form. To avoid lining an eroding beachfront with condos, a community could cooperatively choose to transfer high-density development rights from the beachfront to a commercial boulevard that's at a safe distance. The new value created along the boulevard could subsidize the loss of development rights along the beach. A land readjustment scheme is clearly not an effort for the faint of heart. Every place that uses land readjustment offers some kind of track for those who disagree with the plan or hold out, usually involving eminent domain. Disputes tend to arise when owners are not persuaded that new plots are as valuable as old ones. The process may not be simple or fast, but by building trust and consensus, it can run smoother than a redevelopment scheme that relies substantially on condemnation. Readjustment has fallen out of favor when government abuses its land-taking prerogatives, as it has in Japan and China. ### Borrowing Rather than Buying A low-cost, low-impact way of living in a precious landscape is to consider yourself a visitor, even if a long-term one, rather than a resident. You build only structures that are adaptable, removable, temporary. The time-honored beach shack comes to mind. Its low cost reflected the vulnerability of its ocean-front location. If a storm or flood sweeps away a shack, no one is much the worse because no one had invested much or expected the structure to last forever. Using modular-home construction, you can make a "shack" that's readily movable. A further step is to consider leasing a special parcel of land rather than owning it. This is already a fact of life for weekend-cabin developments within national forests. You lease the cabin and land for a long term, which makes investments in maintenance and modest upgrades prudent. The terms of the lease are the mechanism by which the government owner can maintain the natural resource of which it is a part, and can convert the property to another use should that be necessary. You are secure knowing that the beauty that attracted you to the place will remain forever and that the cost may well be modest because you have given up ownership rights. This idea of private parties leasing use of public land is widespread. It's how we arrange extraction of oil and gas from under the public oceans and minerals from under public land. We have not been creative about the division of public and private rights in precious landscapes, but it could be a key to cooperatively maintaining what all of us value while permitting continued private use. The advantage of temporary structures, land trusts, or some other cooperative arrangement is that they are voluntary and proactive. They create an opportunity to plan an orderly transition as the future demands, the kind of transition New Orleans could not make because it did not imagine a world in which swaths of the city might become uninhabitable. ## An Ethos of Stewardship There's not much of this thinking going on in threatened communities these days because we've gotten locked into a mind-set symbolized by the Lucas decision: we can only see land as either publicly owned or privately held. We don't need to, however. Cooperatively rearranging selected ownership rights between private owners and the larger community is a less strife-prone means to benefit all. If we don't adapt our attitudes to property, we're left with today's all-or-nothing choices. When each owner can only act alone, as they must today, the only option is to armor one's own property in what may be a vain attempt to hold back nature. Along Katrina-bashed coastal Mississippi, some homeowners have created storm-resistant fortresses along streets otherwise abandoned by owners. In New Orleans, you see houses rebuilt on stilts at levels varying substantially even from next-door neighbors. It's because no one knows what the real risk is. The sight is amusing until you think of them as the shot-in-the-dark bets against disaster that they are. King County, in Washington State, is not the only place that encourages urban families to farm or forest. All over the country, people have come to see living in precious landscape not just as a view from a picture window but as a privilege that involves an obligation to nurture the place. It can be a more rewarding way to live, anyway. Water costs may force you to rip out your water-sucking lawn in the desert, but that hassle creates an opportunity to nurture plants that offer pleasures unique to the locale: delicate flowers that open amid the spiky branches, a breeze suddenly tinged by mesquite. You begin to realize that that scrap of New England, nurtured at great cost amid the plump cacti, was never much like the real thing. All over the United States, local volunteer groups plant trees and remove invasive nonnative weeds and vines so that forests grow stronger and lake edges provide food for fish and nesting places for migratory waterfowl. They clean up beaches, seed oysters in shallow bays, and put up nesting boxes to attract songbirds. The pleasure derives from nurturing a place, bringing out its specificity. It develops its own genius loci and is no longer engineered to reproduce, for example, France in Massachusetts. Localness, discussed in greater detail in chapter 10, has become an ethos, too. ## Crossing Boundaries Witnessing the struggle in New Orleans to figure out how to consolidate a block or a neighborhood on high ground, it may seem too daunting to cooperatively attack problems that don't recognize property lines and political boundaries. Unfortunately, litigation in the West over the Colorado River is not producing one more drop of water. A long-term pact among six states, Washington, DC, and the federal government that began in the 1970s has not been able to restore the heavily urbanized Chesapeake Bay to health, in large part because the main sources of pollution come largely from diverse, hard-to-control sources: agricultural fertilizers and manure from factory farms as well as runoff from roads and parking lots.18 Yet large, shallow estuaries like the Chesapeake are among the world's most treasured, productive, and most threatened natural systems. In casting about for metaphors for reweaving the human-made and the natural at that scale, I sought out Frank and Deborah Popper. He is an urban planner and she a geographer who in 1987 proposed the Buffalo Commons, an environmental-restoration vision that they hoped would lead to a brighter future for the depopulating Great Plains.19 Though the plains are rarely central to the American conversation these days, they cover an enormous chunk of the continent, stretching across parts of three Canadian provinces, ten American states (from North Dakota south into Texas and running west roughly from Interstate 35 to Interstate 25), and into Mexico. This vast area is a bioregion sharing many characteristics: it is essentially flat, semiarid prairie with few or no trees. "As urban people, we were struck by the population losses in the plains," explained Deborah Popper. "We wandered through small towns with empty storefronts and we could not figure out how counties that had seven thousand people a few years ago could get by when they're down to seven hundred." Their idea was to unfence vast territories, replant native prairies, and reintroduce herds of wild buffalo and athletic pronghorns. They felt that a healthier landscape might be more appealing, which would inspire people to live and create businesses in proximity to the beauty, romance, and vastness of the now-vanished primordial Great Plains. They had proposed that the federal government take on the task of braiding parklike swaths through the farms and ranchlands. "The reaction was, 'over our dead bodies,'" said Frank Popper. The region is conservative, suspicious of governments that send directives from capitals located outside the plains, and of business interests that control their destinies from distant cities. More than two decades after it was proposed, the Buffalo Commons seemed a romantic notion going nowhere. Not so, said the couple in a telephone interview from their home in New Jersey. They no longer advocate a federal role, or any kind of overarching governmental role, but instead see the Buffalo Commons as an idea that emerges as individuals make choices and see that, as Deborah put it, "trying the same old things doesn't work." Herds of wild buffalo don't thunder across the plains yet, but ranchers have discovered a market for buffalo meat. Others are turning to raising grass-fed cattle and protecting stream quality by allowing native species to regrow. Grassroots conservation advocacy organizations have sprung up, including the Grassland Foundation, the American Prairie Foundation, and the Great Plains Restoration Foundation. The Buffalo Commons exists primarily as "a metaphor," says Frank Popper. There's no plan or set of principals, no recommended step forward, no label certifying Buffalo Commons places or products. "People in the plains are entrepreneurial and anti-planning," says Deborah, adding that if people see advantages in restoring habitats, "they will make changes on their own." In so strongly individualistic a region, few look to make common cause. "Native tribes, individual farmers, megaranchers like Ted Turner [who owns more than a dozen buffalo ranges on the plains], and conservation-oriented nonprofits all pursue different paths," observed Frank, "and no one can know yet what will work and what will fail." The plains may pay a high price for failing to come together to forge a common future. Widening federal deficits may require a paring back of agricultural subsidies heavily used in the plains. Subsidized corn for ethanol fuel, which some in the plains see as a boost, may prove a bust, as the full environmental impact of biofuels sinks in. Aquifers, such as the Ogallala in Kansas, are drying up.20 People still leave. An ambitious prairie restoration in northeastern Montana is sketching a future of large-scale conservation coexisting with agriculture. The American Prairie Foundation hopes to assemble a 3.5-million-acre reserve near Malta, Montana, linking private purchases of land to the 1.1-million-acre Charles M. Russell Wildlife Refuge. It has purchased 100,000 acres to date, on which it runs one hundred bison. The effort, which has tapped a nationwide funding base through such partners as the World Wildlife Fund, the Conservation Fund, and National Geographic, has inspired local ranchers to adopt wildlife-friendly practices that in effect extend the "reserve" without taking land out of ranching. They have mixed grasses differently, changed grazing practices, and replaced the lowest fence tier with barbless wire to permit safe passage of wildlife.21 "Pure" reserves that restore the plains to wilderness status in key locations linked by wildlife corridors may be essential. (The even larger, 2,000-mile Yellowstone to Yukon corridor is another bioregion-scale effort that has moved slowly as advocates and skeptics sort out how people live with its ambitious ecosystem conservation goals.) But if innovative farm practices can achieve almost the same goals, then the value of restoration (both in environmental and economic-diversification terms) can be almost infinitely extended in tandem with agriculture. That would take the Buffalo Commons from metaphor to very compelling reality. "I wish to speak a word for Nature," Henry David Thoreau wrote, "for absolute freedom and wildness." This sentiment goes to the heart of what Americans identify with in land, even as most of us settle for what Thoreau would, at best, call "the merely civil." There is no clear road map here, nor is there a necessity to accept a duality of overregulation versus anything-goes libertarianism. If we focus on why it seems so hard to knit together the natural and the human landscapes, the path ahead becomes clear. Yes, we need the urban economy that for many people equals "making it," but we can link it to a natural world that is useful for more than providing a pleasant backdrop to our lives or for the "ecosystem services" we can document. However driven our lives, we can bring into them the country's "unbroken horizon, the monotony of an endless road, of vast uniform plains, of distant mountains," as Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote, "the eye invited ever to the horizon and the clouds." # Part 3 Repairing the Dysfunctional Growth Machine James S. RussellThe Agile CityBuilding Well-being and Wealth in an Era of Climate Change10.5822/978-1-61091-027-9_3(C) James S. Russell 2011 # 3. Real Estate Financing Agile Growth James S. Russell1 (1) Bloomberg News, Lexington Ave 731, 10022 New York, USA Abstract Looking like two small cottages stitched together, the Nguyen house in Biloxi, Mississippi, doesn't look futuristic. The house was built over several months in 2007 in a neighborhood scoured by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. It was intended to use new wind-and flood-resistant standards in innovative and affordable ways, and to employ green design and construction techniques that could easily be replicated. Looking like two small cottages stitched together, the Nguyen house in Biloxi, Mississippi, doesn't look futuristic. The house was built over several months in 2007 in a neighborhood scoured by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. It was intended to use new wind-and flood-resistant standards in innovative and affordable ways, and to employ green design and construction techniques that could easily be replicated. "It's hard to reconcile making a housing model for the future with what a family needs that's still living in a FEMA trailer," reflected Michael Grote, in a slightly apologetic tone. He was the young, beefy program manager with Architecture for Humanity, a disaster-relief organization, and we stood on the shady porch of the handsome, nearly completed house for shrimp-boat mechanic Cong Nguyen, his wife, Oanh Luong, and their four children. Grote had nothing to be apologetic about. The house is elevated ten feet above the ground to rise above the kind of flooding that smashed through the neighborhood, and it includes an upgraded anchoring system to resist hurricane-force winds. The young Houston architects of MC2A Architects, who worked with the Nguyens, Chuong and Chung Nguyen (no relation), offset the two cottage wings to make room for the generous decks the family wanted and to aid cross ventilation, which would reduce the need for air-conditioning. Painted teal blue, trimmed in white, the house looks better than many spec houses, even perched on stilts (figure 3.1).1 Figure 3.1 Architecture for Humanity project manager Michael Grote at the Nguyen house when it was under construction in Biloxi, Mississippi. Volunteers built homes high above potential future floodwaters using new wind-resisting tactics. Credit: James S. Russell But its green aspirations largely fell by the wayside, and it is only affordable to the Nguyens because it was largely built by volunteer labor, supplemented by donations and public grants. Though the house was highly suitable for the Nguyens, it failed as a prototype that could set a new standard for housing after Hurricane Katrina. It became difficult to balance the architect's innovative design ideas with the engineering the coast now requires--and impossible to do on what the Nguyens could afford to pay. "No one had tried this before and there were growing pains," Grote explained. Without intending to, Grote had made a damning statement. No one but his tiny nonprofit and a few other similarly idealistic organizations builds houses that are hurricane resistant, flood-safe, and low energy for low-income homeowners. America's huge home-building industry doesn't serve this market. Government tax benefits, incentives, and housing programs rarely go beyond lowest-common-denominator construction standards. Was it naive of Architecture for Humanity to innovate in so many ways? Regrettably, given the hidebound way America builds, the answer is yes. The nation's vast but fragmented building industry is little focused on afford-ability and resists innovation. American private and public building research is miniscule--even on energy, where great strides can be made without investing in pie-in-the-sky technology. In New Orleans, I found the story much the same when I visited a small house with stylishly sloped shed roofs that was built as a prototype in the Holy Cross neighborhood by Global Green, an environmental education and advocacy group based in Santa Monica, California. The architect, Manhattan-based Workshop/apd, had packed the compact volume of the house with tactics that advance environmental sustainability, storm resistance, and flood safety. Challenges? Just a few, said Beth Galante, Global Green's director. No one locally knew how to install solar panels or geothermal wells. Building officials wouldn't approve the dual-flush toilet or a filtration system that recycles water from sinks because they had never seen these devices before. The Army Corps of Engineers feared the geothermal-well cooling system might undermine the nearby levee. These concerns slowed planning and added costs. As the project continued, four more homes were built (figure 3.2), and an eighteen-unit apartment complex and a community center were planned that can become a place of refuge in the event of future floods. The project has begun to change the construction economy of New Orleans. "You don't have to special-order green products as you did before," Galante told me on a return visit in 2010. "They are in Home Depot or the local hardware store, because 12,000 people toured our first Global Green house and saw what was possible. With technical assistance from the Department of Energy, the city now knows how to deal with solar panels."2 Figure 3.2 By August 2010, Global Green had built five homes at its site in the Holy Cross neighborhood of New Orleans. The environmental group was able to introduce many energy-saving and other environmental features for the first time in New Orleans. Credit: James S. Russell After I caught up with Galante, I drove just a few minutes to the Lower Ninth Ward, where actor Brad Pitt had founded Make It Right to build houses for people displaced by Katrina. (Pitt was also instrumental in getting Global Green's beachhead in New Orleans established.) If you had seen Tennessee Street after Katrina hit, the ordinary scene of people chatting with one another from porch to porch seemed unbelievable. A wall of water burst through the Industrial Canal levee, just west of Tennessee Street, and blasted four thousand homes into kindling. A barge tumbled through the breach and lay at a crazy tilt just yards away from where I walked. By the fifth anniversary of the storm, close to 50 colorful houses with batwing roofs and louver-trellised porches had been built or were in construction. (The goal is to replace 150 destroyed homes.) Like Architecture for Humanity and Global Green, all of the architects have rethought traditional architectural elements to fit the city's post-Katrina reality: informal living accommodated at modest cost in houses that stand above possible floods yet are tied down tightly against hurricane winds. Make It Right has trained local subcontractors in green-building techniques and has planned to build a factory to make strong, low-cost, highly insulated prefabricated wall panels called SIPs (structural insulated panels). Though it has been able to apply some economies of scale, Make It Right has faced the same barriers to affordable innovation that Architecture for Humanity and Global Green did. Where was the vast collective intelligence of the design, construction, real estate, and financial industries in the Gulf Coast's rebuilding process? Where was government, which might have seen this disaster as a critical opportunity to build smarter in a world likely to be afflicted more often by such events? Nowhere. Sure, much conventional rebuilding has gone on, but almost none of it is truly responsive to the new realities of the hurricane belt. Conventional construction at best addresses minimum standards demanded by building codes and FEMA flood maps. But the new realities include not only flood and wind risk but affordability, storm drainage that's still inadequate, and punishing utility and insurance costs. Even if insured, many owners' homes were not worth what they would cost to replace. Tiny, underfunded nonprofits like Architecture for Humanity didn't worry about whether they could afford to be involved or whether they were taking on too much. They just leaped into the breach. They probably didn't know they were entangling themselves in America's most hidebound industry: real estate development. Real estate is so important because it builds most of the United States. Many of the rules it follows profoundly affect the way cities grow, but many of them are not only destructive to the quality and longevity of communities but make it very difficult to adapt to a future that demands quick-turnaround innovation. America's real estate industry will finance little that falls outside a very limited menu of largely obsolete residential and commercial building types. How can this be? The answer requires a look first at how our current real estate finance system came about, and then at why lenders love highway strips yet can't find a way to finance, say, the rebuilding of a once-vital neighborhood or an old industrial site with stunning potential. ## Underwriting The Biggest Box For The Buck An American home-buying revolution began in 1933 that helped millions of people afford quality housing. That year, at the depth of the Great Depression, the government began to underwrite and insure self-amortizing mortgages, the kind that pay down interest and principal together.3 Before that time, few people could afford to pay off mortgages in monthly payments, which meant they paid only interest all their lives or could buy only if they could save enough to pay cash. Government lending standards and insurance made offering such mortgages much less risky and cheaper for banks. Mortgage-interest and property-tax payments are also deductible from federal taxes. After 1933, something extraordinary happened. Homeownership soared and America's middle class burgeoned. (Many housing experts credit the one with creating the other.) In the years after World War II, Veterans Administration (VA) and Federal Housing Administration (FHA) loans smoothed the way with low down payments. Most of the new homes in fast-growing suburbia tucked families of five or six in one-thousand-square-foot Cape Cods because low-cost mortgages came with strict income caps. You slid the Ford Fairlane into a one-car carport. For decades, the value embodied in the owned home has been a much more important means to build wealth for most families than has been savings, ownership of stock, or pensions.4 Much was wrong with this system, which in its early years shut out blacks and redlined city neighborhoods. It was for single-family houses only. Those restrictions were long ago lifted, but lending standards for the most desirable loans, along with developer preference, still favor new construction of single-family houses on undeveloped land at the suburban edge. It's easy to calculate the value added by turning a farm or forest into a housing tract. Plopping a house on the center of a lot is a relatively easy way to build. By contrast, redeveloping an inner-city neighborhood or a stagnating downtown is more complicated: land costs can be higher, and the advantage conferred by an infill project or redevelopment requires calculating more variables. A finance system built on the most simplistic home-building method triumphed over all others, meaning that change would be hard and innovation would be hard. The revival of cities over the last few decades happened almost entirely outside the conventional real estate finance system, which meant urban lending came at higher cost than that which served subdivision builders clearing land at the outer suburban edge. Congress, in recent years, has fattened homeowner benefits considerably. It made interest on home-equity loans deductible, but owners need not use loan proceeds to remodel the kitchen or replace the roof. In the recent price run-up, people used those loans to turn paper equity into a cash machine--to pay bills, to go on a cruise, to buy a nicer car. Owners can deduct interest expenses and property taxes from vacation homes, so the old beach shack was bulked up with extra bedrooms, marble bathrooms, and big TVs. Capital gains realized from a home sale were freed from taxation for all but a fraction of owners. A couple could shelter up to $500,000 of a gain from taxes--easily costing the government $150,000 per sale. Enter the flipper who got a very generous tax incentive to ride (and pump up) the inflationary wave. Lower-and middle-class owners often can't benefit from the tax breaks because they don't earn enough to itemize taxes, so those benefits have skewed steadily to the more affluent. The expanding menu of homeowner benefits--especially the forgiveness of capital gains--skewed the benefits of homeownership even more to the wealthy and to speculators. The higher your income, and the bigger your mortgage, the more you get to deduct. (Nowadays, Uncle Sam can be paying one-third or more of your mortgage and property tax thanks to the deductibility of these items. Owners can deduct all interest on mortgages as big as $1 million; there is no limitation to the property-tax deduction and only minor exceptions to the capital-gains benefit. Interest on up to $100,000 in home equity loans may be deducted.5) No other form of consumer debt (not for student loans, say, nor emergency loans to cover a catastrophic illness) offers such generous tax advantages. Though climate-change concerns and a greater focus on environmental sustainability grew, these little-discussed tax-subsidy policies aided speculator fever, pushing the dramatic increase in house size, even as family size generally shrunk. (It hit 2,500 square feet on average at the peak--which does not capture the mammoths at 5,000 and 10,000 square feet that sprang up in highnet-worth communities from Los Angeles and Aspen to Sugarland in Texas and the leafy "wealth belt" of northern New Jersey.) Buyers went for what one builder I met called the "biggest box for the buck" in outer-outer suburbs. Mom and pop builders morphed into nationwide giants, such as Toll Brothers and KB Home, by selling families of three or four on tile-roofed behemoths with whirlpool-tubbed master-bedroom suites as big as 1950s starter homes. Torrid price rises in hot markets let those owners move up to even bigger houses as complicit mortgage makers collected new fees on loans that tapped paper equity. "Funny money," a prescient architect called it a few years ago. No one's laughing now. Many builders would like nothing more than to return to that "normal." But the McMansion era was an aberration. It can come back only if the toxic policies that created it are not fixed. The justification for all the tax goodies has been that homeownership is a social good that stabilizes communities. Tell that to the mayors who have had to shell out scarce cash to mow weedy lawns and nail broken doors shut so that squatters would not take over abandoned foreclosed homes in Riverside County, California, or along Florida's Gulf Coast. Ownership does have a genuine wealth-building effect, even when prices rise only modestly. When 1950s buyers in suburban subdivisions retired, the paid-off home, with its growth in value over time, became the basis for a comfortable retirement. In recent years, though, ownership became ideology, shamelessly advertised as the investment that never lost value (oops) and the surefire way first-time buyers could scramble into the middle class. VA and FHA loans--with understandable terms and modest down payments--lifted the wartime generation. Boom brokers, by contrast, pushed buyers struggling to clamber into the middle class into easy-to-get subprime loans at punishing rates. Those terms meant that few such buyers could ever realize ownership's economic benefits--even if the good times hadn't stopped rolling. By contrast, Canadians, the British, and Australians cannot deduct property taxes or interest, or be forgiven taxes on capital gains. But they enjoy the wealth effect of owning, and the percentage of people who own is comparable to that of the United States.6 To review: America has a hidebound housing finance and tax system that rewards risk-averse developers, affluent buyers, and the lowest form of speculators (figure 3.3). This system was costing the federal treasury $127 billion in 2008, vastly more than any other deductible item or tax credit. That cost has been rising steadily and is predicted to hit $185 billion in 2013. As the housing bubble burst in late 2008, a desperate federal government had to throw $780 billion into a bank bailout, another $6 billion to stabilize foreclosure-devastated neighborhoods, and $17 billion into a tax credit to encourage people to buy houses.7 Think of the things the country could have done for it self with this river of cash. As of this writing, the system isn't fixed. Have we lost our minds? Figure 3.3 An emblem of the hypergrowth era, this condominium tower, built away from established neighborhoods, was one of many victims of overbuilding in Las Vegas. Credit: James S. Russell ## How Strip Malls Became Pork Bellies In business, there are so-called commodity suppliers. They seek to sell at the lowest possible cost the most generic thing: flour, sand, plastic bags. Then there are people who seek an edge by delivering something special, new, innovative, intriguing--an iPhone. A vibrant economy makes room for both kinds of supplier. Real estate development, however, has become solely a commodity business, one in which a numbing rigor is applied to making each "product" as close as possible to whatever everyone else has been making for years. The model seemed low risk until toxic mortgages tipped real estate into a readily predictable death spiral in the late 2000s. Some fraction of the square miles of empty houses in the outer reaches of Phoenix, for example, should be preserved as monuments to the lazy hubris of conventional real estate development and finance. Instead, they will be gotten off the books as soon as possible so that the same players can dust themselves off and start doing the same thing over again. This benumbed real estate development economy prevented prototype builders in Biloxi and New Orleans from benefiting from the free-flowing house-building cash. Advocates of modular housing, who know that making houses in factories increases quality at lower cost and with greater energy efficiency, couldn't figure out why financing was so elusive either, and why America's manufactured home industry is so innovation resistant. "Smart growth" advocates have struggled for two decades to create denser conservation-oriented and transit-centered development in an urban-growth economy set up to do neither. What is the real-estate industry good at? Have a look at a recently built commercial strip center. There is a national-chain supermarket at one end. Attached to the market, you'll find a string of smaller national-chain retailers-- druggist, shoe store, "casual" restaurant, dress discounter. A fast-food cube will sit amid the parking in front. (The parking will always be in front.) The strip will be, as developers put it, on the "going-home" side of a big, suburban arterial. Drive around town and check out other similar strips. You will find they differ in no important detail. In fact, they will differ in no important detail whether they are in Miami or in Maine. It's why you can confuse an office park in Rochester, Minnesota, with one in Rochester, New York. It's why that brick-faced arch over the entrance of a tract house in Parsippany, New Jersey, is indistinguishable from the one in Plano, Texas. What you will not find in growing communities today is uniqueness (or any recognition of the special qualities of a place), innovation (the means by which we find new ways to adapt places to evolving realities), or longevity (materials and construction methods that add lasting value in ways that keep communities beloved). These are all qualities that a competitive and diverse real estate development industry could offer, but they are qualities that have pretty much been driven out of the development calculation. It wasn't always this way. Banks used to convey their fiscal substance through the heft of their dour columns and pediments. A downtown office building would once aspire to soar in carved limestone. A house would be made of substantial materials with details lathed and fitted by carpenters out of lumber stock destined to last. Some years ago, I began a series of conversations with Christopher Leinberger, a real estate analyst turned developer who has probably dug deeper into the mysteries of real estate finance than anyone.8 Leinberger is convinced that innovation and higher quality belong in the real estate development process and that they can be valued--but not under the real estate finance assumptions that apply today. The real difference between the era that built soaring limestone towers and now, he contends, is that investors then expected to reap their rewards over a very long time--and did. He offers a unique perspective. From 1981 until he sold his stake in real estate consultant Robert Charles Lessor & Company at the end of the 1990s, Leinberger frequently advised clients to get out of declining downtowns and into shiny-windowed office parks on the outer beltways. ("The market was saying move out, and I was often quoted on that," he confessed ruefully.) Over the years, he found himself appalled at what he saw his clients build, and how his business-relocation services seemed to feed the most exploitative land-use patterns. At the same time, he saw that such pioneering New Urbanist developments as Seaside, in Florida, became wildly successful by replacing the cookie-cutter cul-de-sac with the walkability, appealing architectural details, and higher density of early 1900s neighborhoods. Seaside "turned the Redneck Riviera into the Hamptons of the Southeast," as Leinberger put it. Moved by such examples, Leinberger decided to involve himself deeper into development. But he discovered, as builders of places like Seaside had, that lenders didn't like higher densities, even though they were pedestrian friendly. They couldn't value the mix of housing-unit types, even though the idea was to make the community affordable to a wider range of people. (Seaside has been so successful, however, that even modest units have sold at premium prices.) And they could not reconcile the mixing of retail and residential uses that is key to these projects' character and their aspiration to reduce traffic and parking. Determined to find out why what seemed to make good sense for communities seemed to make no sense to lenders, he set about categorizing the kinds of projects that could qualify for conventional financing. He found that they fell into only nineteen highly simplistic, rigidly proscribed real estate "products." These kinds of projects are easy to finance because real estate lenders have long thought they understood their risks and have been little inclined to look at how they affect the communities they are in.9 Banks would lend for a strip mall plopped in the middle of a parking lot or a condo complex separated from everything else by a roaring torrent of traffic down an eight-lane arterial. But you could not conventionally finance a row of stores on a tree-lined sidewalk along a pleasingly intimate two-lane street and erect on top of it apartments with terraces and bay windows so that people could share in the street action and walk to shop. The kinds of developments Leinberger wanted to do--oriented to transit, environmentally sustainable--didn't fit the formulas. "All but two of the nineteen products that lenders recognize create sprawl," Leinberger told me. "They are car oriented, rely on surface parking, are unrelated to surrounding environments, and they consume land wastefully." The hardening of development standards into rigid formulas happened after the now-forgotten real estate scandals of the 1980s. That bubble and bust, a smaller-scale version of the meltdown of the late 2000s, wiped out most local savings and loans (the banks that then did most local real estate lending) in favor of commercial banks and mortgage brokers, all of which steadily consolidated into such national behemoths as the now-vanished Washington Mutual bank, which, fattened on mortgages tapping paper wealth, imploded in 2008 as the nation's second-largest financial failure ever, exceeded only by Lehman Brothers.10 The nationalized system of real estate lending increasingly focused on short-term returns, which meant that what was on paper a forty-year asset class had to generate its greatest returns in one or two seven-year cycles.11 It has naturally followed that the primary way to ensure high short-term returns is to reduce both "hard" construction costs (by using cheaper materials that wear out quicker and lower-quality craftsmanship) and "soft" development costs, which means fees paid to architects and other consultants. The result is that no one who works on a project can afford to innovate or design something unique or long-lasting even if it doesn't cost more to build. Projects were not underwritten on their individual merits, says Leinberger. "They became graded and commodified--just like pork bellies." That's why real estate development has differed in no important way anywhere in the country. It is the reason that stores are made of cinder blocks plopped on vast acreages of asphalt, condo developments must rely on a few tack-on gables for "curb appeal"--and why tuning the design of a store to fit an existing neighborhood is a costly, boutique operation, and building on the site of a torn-down factory is a rarity. As Leinberger points out, when you are building a commodity, the only way to make money is to reduce the quality of the commodity and sell it for the same or more. ## The Urban Market Goes Missing Developers working in older cities have long chafed at the rigidity of conventional underwriting because all the recognized types are suburban. You could put a new supermarket along a narrow street lined with pleasing small-scale established stores, but only if you are willing to blow up quite a few of them to make room for the standard box surrounded by parking. "If you want something different," Leinberger explained, "it will take a whole lot longer and the price of money will be much higher, so the developer faces a much higher hurdle before it gets its money back." Real estate had become so rigid that it almost missed the market that seeks urban living in walkable neighborhoods.12 Since the 1970s, artists have built studios in abandoned industrial lofts, gay couples have fixed up old houses in old neighborhoods, students have started colonizing neighborhoods left for dead, and the historic preservation movement has began to pump life into abandoned Main Streets. The rush of residents to downtowns and central-city neighborhoods is one of the big stories of the past few years. Developers with big-city savvy started following artists and historic preservation aficionados from SoHo in Manhattan to the Lower East Side, and from Brooklyn Heights to Park Slope Clinton and the once-feared, neglected beauty of Bedford-Stuyvesant. Chicago has transformed itself to an even greater extent, with gentrification moving rapidly west from the lakefront and south from the Loop into neighborhoods many in the 1990s would have deemed irredeemable. People have not moved only into the traditionally appealing old cities such as San Francisco or Boston. Central neighborhoods in Miami, Dallas, Houston, and Atlanta--distinctly unquaint high-rise and parking-lot landscapes home to few residents historically--have become new residential magnets. Even in Detroit's downtown, where trees grew from the cornices of long-abandoned skyscrapers, lights blinked on in thousands of new downtown apartments brought to market before SUV obsession took the American auto industry down. Estimates now are that the "walkability" market is about one-third of the total market. Leinberger says that singles will form about two-thirds of households over the next twenty years, and about 80 percent of households will be singles and childless couples (which includes retirees with grown children, who are living longer)--a profound change from the 1950s and 1960s, when households were about half singles and half couples. Households without children "tend to want more walkable urban locations where restaurants and other day-to-day services are nearby," Leinberger told me recently.13 Even families sicken of endless commutes and seek lively, diverse neighborhoods, where strollers are more of a necessity than SUVs. Old real estate habits die hard, though. The same risk-averse attitudes have strangled New Urbanist developments.14 Too often, the loft look is cobbled together out of the same synthetic-stucco and vinyl-window ingredients as suburban condos. And if the parking lot brutalizes the scale of the old street, so be it. Because it's been financed the same old way, new lofts tend to be faux lofts. ## Why Beach Follies Pay Leinberger didn't see a way to change such a juggernaut, so he went around it. In this way, he followed on the heels of his mentor Robert Davis, the developer of Seaside, Florida. Seaside, of course, is the storybook holiday village that was the first conspicuous success of the New Urbanism. Diminutive but assertive beach pavilions that bridge the ocean dunes are one of Seaside's most memorable features, and their distinctiveness helped the development succeed in its early years, in the 1980s. Even now, lenders and the many developers that have copied the look of Seaside fail to appreciate the value of "frills" such as the pavilions. After all, they don't generate revenue. Davis is mystified; for him, their value is obvious: "They paid off by creating a strong sense of place," he said in an interview.15 Davis told me he didn't talk to lenders about the pavilions and other grace notes he planned, because he feared they would compromise the financing. And he intentionally built Seaside slowly, even after its success was assured, so that he would not have to compromise his vision to get loans. "By being patient, I was able to capture the value we had created," he said. Davis is a rich man. Placeness is not just about cashing in on what less insightful developers overlook. It's about looking for opportunities in problems. As we enter an era when we need to capture everything that's unique about a place in a way that reduces energy and carbon impact, Davis's kind of patience is a virtue. We can upgrade a fossil fuel-using appliance by buying a "green" one. Or we can take the time to find the tactic that avoids the use of that appliance altogether, like cutting the size of a home study or rec room in favor of a shady porch that captures breezes, beats the heat, and allows us to hail passing neighbors. We can't do any of these things if lenders won't or can't determine their value. Leinberger formed Arcadia Land Company and made an Albuquerque development of housing, offices, restaurants, and a multiplex cinema a laboratory for a new finance methodology that could admit innovation, quality, and the creation of a unique sense of place by rewarding the patient investor. Two years after I first met him, he could point to $26 million of new commercial construction put in place. You could see how Leinberger's modest beginnings were seeding new residential and mixed-use projects by others--this in a downtown that had seen no new commercial construction in the previous fifteen years. At that time, he claimed $100 million of further development was in the pipeline. He did it by a technique he calls "time tranching." What it does is return the long-term focus to real estate investment by involving investors willing to forgo short-term returns for better, but delayed, results. So the locally based McCune Foundation and the City of Albuquerque, which lent up-front money, committed to waiting twelve years for their returns to begin, but then should do much better than the short-term investors. The time-tranching idea made low-cost capital available to cover higher-than-average initial construction costs. With a higher building budget, the design of the three-hundred-foot-long block fronts could be broken up to reflect the typical scale of historic downtown development. "We were able to change materials and window types along the block front," explained Bill Dennis, the architect with the local office of Moule & Polyzoides. "In conventional development, all the materials and all the windows would have been the same." It doesn't sound like much. And in truth, it doesn't look like much-- especially compared to the quality built into a merely average 1920s commercial structure. But by the diminished standards of recent years, Leinberger's approach was radical. One of his early partners actually bowed out because he could not understand how a project could make money that cost more than twice as much as the cinder-block box on asphalt he was used to. Once complete, the theater block leased at rents far higher than average for the area. Time tranching may have even greater benefit for the kinds of conservation development described in chapter 2 because the investment benefits accrue once ruined forests have regrown and damaged streams have been restored-- time horizons that are longer than conventional investment cycles. It has not caught on because the short-term investment mind-set is so deeply embedded in business-as-usual real estate finance. Short investment cycles and the rigid resistance to financing any but commodified developments mean many investments that make sense for agile communities won't pencil out. ## Rewarding Patience There's nothing preordained about America's dumbed-down real estate development process. Other countries do things differently--very differently. At the edge of the Elbe River in Hamburg, Germany, I approached a seven-story building that looked like it was covered in bubble wrap stretched tight by cables and turnbuckles. All that yacht hardware is deployed in this building's race to the bottom--of energy use. It was one of several ways architect Stefan Behnisch, of Stuttgart-based Behnisch Architekten, replaced mechanical heating and cooling with natural ventilation for the headquarters for the German, Swiss, and Austrian operations of consumer-products company Unilever. Then he replaced electric lights with daylight. Doing that while maintaining modern business norms for comfort isn't easy, but it unleashes architectural creativity and technical innovation. The transparent wrapping is called ETFE, and the yacht hardware holds it in place about a meter outside the building's glass exterior. It cuts the chill North Sea winds so that occupants can open their windows for ventilation, rather than rely on air conditioning. It also protects external blinds that moderate warm-weather heat and glare. Inside, the office spaces wrap a lively atrium crisscrossed by bridges and stairways. It is lined with balconies where marketers and product managers sip coffee as they plot world domination by Wisk. Big hula-hoop light fixtures are hardly needed in daytime because the whole thing is bathed in light from skylights overhead (figure 3.4). The atrium makes a big impression, but it is part of the low-energy scheme. As air warms from the heat of people and machines, it flows naturally from offices into the atrium and up through heat-recovery devices that harvest the warmth for parts of the building that need it. Almost everyone sits near a window, so I saw hardly an electric light on when I visited. People work at desks open to the river and atrium views--a far cry from the rows of airless cubicles found in conventional American buildings, most far from the dim, deeply tinted windows. Figure 3.4 Daylight floods the atrium of the Unilever headquarters for Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, in Hamburg, Germany. Stuttgart firm Behnisch Architekten designed the atrium as a meeting place for the company. The atrium also insulates the offices that line it while providing them with daylight so that electric lights can be turned off. Credit: (C) Adam Mørk, courtesy Behnisch Architekten Unilever requires almost no conventional heating and cooling, which lowers what's called the primary energy use to one hundred kilowatt hours per square meter per year. Remember this mouthful, because it is fast becoming the new lingo of low-energy buildings. By comparison, an average American commercial building requires more than twice that amount.16 Unilever goes beyond Germany's stringent existing energy codes but was not expensive. At about four hundred thousand square feet, it cost less than $100 million. It achieved miserly energy use not by wholesale reinvention but by refinement of techniques used in Europe for years. The double-layer curtain walls, external shading devices, and widespread use of daylight are long established in Germany and much of northern Europe but almost unknown in the United States because they don't pencil out in a real estate development culture of short-term investment horizons, fear of innovation, and the presumption that energy will always be cheap. How could Germans afford what seems too expensive to Americans? Part of it is culture. Germans believe buildings should be sturdy and last a long time. "Buildings are expected to last sixty to one hundred years," Alex Hinterthan, head of project management at KfW, a German development bank, told me. That long time horizon justifies investments that can't pay back in the seven-to-fifteen-year investment cycles Americans are used to. "Historically, building codes and industry standards strongly encourage the use of rather solid equipment and fittings," added Tajo Friedemann, a consultant at the Frankfurt offices of the international real-estate services firm Jones Lang Lasalle. Which is why extremely sturdy windows, even triple-glazed ones (seen very rarely even in extreme US climates), are found in everyday construction. "These are standard product qualities and are taken for granted," Friedemann explained.17 Friedemann explained why Germany has so consistently built to standards that in the United States are thought to be too costly. Political unrest in the Middle East and elsewhere over decades has meant that Germany lost key gas and oil supplies, or was threatened with their loss. (The nation has almost no fossil fuels of its own to exploit.) Forests dying from acid rain and the fallout from the Chernobyl nuclear reactor meltdown drove Germans to embrace a green national agenda, he added. So the country has steadily tightened energy regulations, and early recognized the real threat global warming poses. Berlin, almost a decade before An Inconvenient Truth, defined its future as green, most prominently in the rebuilding of the Reichstag, in which its clear glass cupola daylights the parliamentary chamber below and recycles its waste heat.18 In Germany, owners and landlords are now required to get an audit of their energy use (an idea floated in the United States as "cash for caulkers") and provide a certificate to buyers or renters that compares actual consumption to averages for conventional construction and for new construction compliant with stricter codes. (It's much like the energy guides Americans use to compare appliances.) Germany has pledged to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent by 2020 (from 1990 levels)--a much more aggressive standard than America has contemplated.19 Germans do not look at energy tactics in isolation (as Americans so often do). A variety of forces unite to create the much higher performance of buildings, Friedemann said, from building codes to workplace design. This last is key because professionals tend to have far greater say about the quality of the workplace environment than do Americans. So Germans generally expect to work near a window, for daylight and a view. And that window needs to open, so that people have individual control over temperature and ventilation. Those expectations, and the ability to integrate them into a low-energy regime, are what drive much about the design of commercial buildings, including Unilever. Friedemann applauds these techniques to the extent that they improve productivity (as many do), because a modest improvement in productivity delivers a great deal more cash to the bottom line than even advanced energy-saving tactics, simply because salaries are by far the largest expense for almost every company. They dwarf energy costs even in Germany, where energy is relatively expensive. ## Dumbing Real Estate Down Germany is not the only place you can find a quality and inventiveness of design and construction almost unknown in the United States. You find it in much of Europe, frequently in Asia (even now in China), and increasingly in Canada. You can see garden-suburb housing in Holland that experiments with new living arrangements that better fit shrinking households. In vast docklands abandoned by industry in Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Malmo, and Dusseldorf, new neighborhoods rise that compete to be greener than the last. (Unilever was built as part of Hamburg's green HafenCity redevelopment, discussed in more detail in chapter 8.) These structures were not more expensive than comparable-quality buildings in the United States (when such can be found). They commonly require the kind of up-front pollution cleanups and infrastructure investments that are enormously difficult to finance in the product-driven real estate culture of America. Since a high level of construction quality is standard in much of Europe, contractors have learned to build in high performance for far less than it would cost in the United States. By contrast, the urgency of sustainability and the advantages of innovation and adaptation barely registered in American real estate development during the go-go years. I would come back from places where change is ingrained in the growth and development systems and tour American corporate campuses or spec office towers that were identically lumpy and anonymous, clad in shiny thin curtain walling that had the sense of durability and the visual appeal of Mylar wrapping paper. American companies constantly tout their agility in adapting to business conditions and their embrace of emerging technology, but that commitment generally does not extend to the office parks they lease or build, where you find new buildings that differ in no essential way from those built when fax machines were technology's cutting edge. I wasn't the only one who noticed that the United States was supposedly getting richer while building poorer. I hear from all kinds of people who visit foreign places and come back dispirited by the yawning difference in quality. ## Growing Older Ungracefully When you wrap up the unintended consequences of America's rigid lending system, what you get is a very big penalty for aging. I'm talking about communities, not people. When tax, regulatory, and development finance line up to achieve the quickest profits by plowing up farmland at the urban edge for houses and shopping centers that value low first cost over the preservation of long-term value, you've got a system that offers little to mature communities. Think about it this way. Your neighbor recently bought her house and pays $2,400 in monthly interest, principal, and taxes. You rent but pay the same amount. After she takes tax deductions available to owners, your neighbor (depending on her circumstances) will actually be out of pocket probably $ 1,600. As a renter, you don't receive any of those tax advantages; you pay full price. She has $800 in monthly spending power that you don't.20 Now multiply your neighbor's advantage by many thousands of households, and you understand why new communities at the urban edge see the shopping malls and discount centers rising as quickly as the new tract houses are roofed. Growth, fueled by government benefits, drives more growth, and this pumps up highway demand (since urban-edge communities can almost never be efficiently served by transit), and local officials are only too happy to tap state and federal coffers for those roads--if some new beltway has not already made the development possible. (There's no federal or state aid for communities forward-looking enough to build transit--or the potential for transit--ahead of growth.) Since the private, for-sale market for new houses reaches very few people who earn less than median income, that tax benefit-fueled growth advances the fortunes mainly of high-end subdivisions.21 (Median income is useful because in most places it is an income level that should place you comfortably in the middle class. Half the earners are below and half are above median.) In the most expensive metropolitan areas, market-rate housing fails to serve families with incomes well above the median. You rarely find the urban-edge building frenzy even in solid mature suburbs or in older cities. The homeowner's government benefits are worth less as people pay down their mortgages. There are more renters, receiving no benefits at all. This is why a great number of older suburbs, older towns, and older cities don't look as if they are attracting new investment even when they are stable and well maintained. Lower-income earners, shut out of the high-growth belt, settle in older communities that tend to have poorer access to jobs, substandard schools, and lower-quality housing. The housing finance system has few tools to spur reinvestment in such communities. Investment actually tends to flow out of mature neighborhoods, because there are few owners with excess cash to plow back into their communities in the form of spending. Instead, people who can afford to leave are going to those newer precincts where government benefits lower costs while spurring jobs and growth. And there's no penalty for affluent communities that zone out lower-earning families by prohibiting apartment houses and small houses on small lots. Worse, government support programs for people who are burdened by housing costs have declined steadily and precipitously for more than twenty years, leaving lower-income communities at greater disadvantage.22 As a result, the percentage of people who are "distressed" (in governmentese) because they must pay too much for housing rose at the same time that the percentage of households that own (qualifying for generous government tax benefits) moved up. At the peak of the housing bubble, more than a third of households were either "cost burdened," as the government defines it, or "severely cost burdened": those who pay more than 50 percent of their income for housing. This is a trend that has been growing for more than twenty years, too, even as home values, homeownership, and poverty levels have fluctuated up and down.23 Families struggling with housing costs must often sacrifice other necessities--health care, car repairs, job training, school supplies for children. These are the people whose lives could be transformed by ready government housing assistance or a private sector focused on affordability. Massive foreclosures on subprime mortgages in low-income communities added legions to the underhoused. I was once called a Nazi by a letter writer for daring to propose a reduction in bloated homeowner tax benefits. The ideology of home owning--and the tax goodies that go with it--are so deeply embedded in America's psyche that tampering with it is like tearing out the heart of the American dream. It isn't. The supposed moral goodness of home owning blinded buyers, mortgage makers, officials, and bankers to the abuses that led to the collapse of the housing market. That might be forgivable if we hadn't been blinded to similar savings and loan shenanigans in the 1980s, which cost a million people their homes in Texas alone, or the dot-com boom and bust of the late 1990s.24 ## Reimagining Real Estate We cannot adapt to the future if we continue to throw away so many wasteful billions exactly the same way we always have. We need to redesign the way real estate finance works so that it builds (and reinvigorates) environmentally responsible and economically vibrant communities, not just strip malls. Tax advantages and other forms of subsidy for housing must focus on communities and families that need them, rather than just piling on subsidy gimmicks for subdividers. The enormous pain of the housing crash demands that we rein in the most abused of the tax goodies for homeowners. In general, the United States should not forgive capital gains taxes on the sale of a home. Eliminating that subsidy will dampen harmful price inflation and encourage people to think of their houses as homes rather than investment vehicles. Deducting interest on home-equity loans should be permitted only when the loan proceeds go to fixing up a house--especially to make it more energy efficient or otherwise adapt it to meet environmental challenges. That will put a stop to the habit of using paper equity for ready cash. Tax benefits and direct subsidies to homeowners should encourage builder and designer innovation and should reward homes that are smaller, more efficient, and sited to shore up existing communities and repair environmental damage. Put financing of multifamily projects on the same playing field as single-family housing, for example. There's a traditional bias against condos in a downturn, a prophecy often self-fulfilled by corner-cutting multifamily builders. High fuel prices and changing demographics (more childless adults of all ages with interests broader than lawn care) should at last trump habit, rewarding well-designed apartment buildings close to jobs and transit. Apartments are by nature more efficient because of shared walls and floors, and encouraging them is a painless way to cut housing costs and carbon emissions significantly. Agility, though, means confronting some God-and-country stuff: phase out deductions for mortgage interest on vacation homes. When America is not adequately housing people with severe needs, it cannot afford to underwrite luxe digs on beaches and in mountains. Such a move would reward modest getaways--which is what a low-impact/high-efficiency lifestyle and economy demand. Finally, we need to curtail the mortgage-interest and property-tax deductions, even for primary homes. This is the most incendiary change, of course. A cap would recognize that taxpayers should not be underwriting home-building profligacy, and it would dampen price inflation. (The years of double-digit price rises felt good to those who already owned, but they erected real barriers for those trying to own for the first time, which would have kept millions out of the housing market but for subprime and other mortgage exotica delaying the inevitable.) Agile communities and an agile economy demand that we do a better job supporting the rental housing economy. Renting makes sense in a volatile economy, especially for young people starting out. And renting makes sense for older people, who are living longer and who want to live on the wealth created by owning and scale down their lives. Not all renters need subsidy. Strategically targeted aid could bring great benefit at low cost. Subsidizing low-cost housing close to workplace hubs is a high-efficiency tactic that offers a career boost to people starting out and delivers an economical workforce to business. Both municipalities and business groups have long been concerned that lengthening commutes between low-cost communities and job-dense business centers lowers the quality of the workforce. You can't hire janitors, security guards, and secretaries for jobs that require driving forty-five minutes each way in a wheezing econobox. Punishing commutes drive away well-educated and experienced talent, too. Today's vast distances between affordable communities and job-rich ones is, of course, environmentally wasteful.25 The scandalous "system" of financing affordable housing also needs to become less complex. If you want to build fifty apartment units targeting people earning 40 percent of median income, for example, you must assemble a phalanx of lenders and tap into a tax credit that relies on wealthy businesses needing tax shelters. Why shouldn't organizations seeking to house the under-housed go to the head of the financing line instead of the end of it? Projects that attempt to restore streams or forests and house lower-income people and create neighborhood amenity deserve white-glove treatment by financiers. I'd like the industry to have a look at the work of the prototype builders in New Orleans and Biloxi. Developers need to ask, what would it take to make that kind of innovation safe for investors? These are the kinds of projects that could benefit from lower-cost loans offered by a development bank like Kf W in Germany. KfW was established by the United States to reconstruct Germany after World War II. Now it lends to fund green projects in Germany and worldwide. The bank evaluates the viability of proposed projects forwarded by local banks. If they meet its criteria, KfW can lower borrowing costs because of its government backing. (The private mortgage-purchasing agencies known as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac took on the same task in the United States, but in a far less direct and transparent way, and ended up abetting the mortgage meltdown.) KfW makes green projects affordable and stimulates green innovation. In lending 7.5 billion euros for German projects, some as small as single-family homes, KfW has generated 54 billion euros of new construction and redevelopment.26 That's one place innovation would come from. "Green accounting," as Leinberger calls it, can unite investors with tattered natural systems so that we can move quickly toward a high-efficiency/ low-impact future by making it profitable. Financial acumen could "look at externalities--the impacts on the environment--and monetize them," Leinberger adds, "which may change the decisions that are made." "A lot of investors are saying we've got to invest in LEED-certified buildings," Leinberger added, because their performance is measurable and comparable."That could become a prerequisite, just as back in the 1960s investors collectively decided not to buy buildings that were not air conditioned. If LEED becomes such a prerequisite, buildings that are not certified become the equivalent of a buggy whip, an obsolete investment."27 Such an attitude adjustment would put us in the class of Germany and other cultures that build with long time horizons in mind. Real estate professionals could offer specialized expertise to analyze the new kinds of development opportunities in the emerging green economy. According to Carl Palmer, Beartooth Capital (introduced in chapter 2) "works at a small scale but we imagine it up. When we buy and restore and protect a property, it creates tangible benefits for adjacent lands, whether public or private." Continues Palmer: "The land downstream has more fish, higher quality water, and less sediment that must be cleaned out of ditches. Traditionally these have been thought of as externalities. What we do is try to capture those benefits for our investors, not that we don't want others to benefit too. Buying a whole watershed and managing it ecologically appropriately--putting in financial capital to get the natural capital--should yield much larger benefits. If you do it at a landscape scale, you should be able to harvest that value in a wide variety of ways: improved agricultural production, fishing and hunting, better water quality, lower operating costs for property--a litany of improvements."28 Markets like that, he is quick to note, are neither workable yet nor free of risk, but there are ways to make his kind of innovation safer, so that he and others can try them out, learn from them, and make them work better. Others are looking at forests not just as a timber source but as instruments that can be tuned-- according to the timing of planting and harvesting--to sequester carbon now and release it when it would be less harmful. Global Green's Beth Galante told me that some experts are looking at a payment scheme that would finance the restoration of Louisiana's receding coastal marshes because they have the potential to absorb vast amounts of carbon. Can short-term subsidies or R&D investment bring down the cost of solar panels or geothermal heating and cooling? Would some carefully tailored tax benefits quickly bring to market energy-efficient and sustainably sourced modular, factory-built housing, which has the potential to hugely reduce the costs of mass-producing housing adapted to storms, floods, and minimized energy use? Can conventional financing be tweaked to shorten the payback time of energy-conservation tactics or to make high-performance construction techniques affordable to people of modest means? We don't know the answers to these questions because they have yet to be asked in any systematic way. ## Leaving The Checklists Behind Checklist lending won't do for an agile development era, though it's not clear that the severely damaged real estate finance industry has gotten the message. It should be possible to analyze the financial performance of projects that engage with difference, localness, and innovation. It's what innovation-driven segments of any business do. It's time to reduce the age penalty. The simplicity of the investment should not triumph over all other values. Rejiggering the tax code and regulations can bring externalities (like the cost of new infrastructure) into the greenfield-development formula so developers and buyers pay the true costs. We can also include the benefits of revitalizing mature communities: increasing the supply of appealing housing, for example, so that people don't have to migrate to the urban edge to find an affordable place to live. People fear that shifting direct subsidies, rewriting regulations, and changing tax policies to nurture more environmentally responsible development may be expensive, but that is not necessarily the case. After all, building in existing communities takes advantage of investments that have already been made--in roads, sewers, and so on. New family housing helps fill schools long built and paid for. And as builders and developers learn to work in such communities, they find unexpected opportunities and new kinds of niches--like Gary Reddick, an architect I met in Portland, Oregon, who convinced a developer that he could make money building apartments over a supermarket parking lot. You can see how opportunities grow rather than shrink when we start filling in existing communities. When Denver built a new airport, the site of its old Stapleton airport, close to the center of town, went from a single use that induced enormous traffic and noise to a ten-thousand-resident mixed-use community that's bikable and walkable and that added 30 percent to the city's park space.29 Aside from the energy and global warming advantages, of course, rebuilding stagnant or declining communities offers enormous other benefits: reducing poverty and crime and shoring up communities to contribute human energy and economic wealth instead of leaving communities to decline, sapping human and economic capital. The biggest enemy of real estate agility is inertia--many are happy just as things are, or they fear change. We cannot forget what the mortgage meltdown revealed: that the old rules weren't actually prudent, simply formulaic, encouraging lazy lending practices. Even if climate change and large-scale environmental degradation were not issues, housing finance is broken, and regarding a mini-storage mall as among the most worthy real estate investments properly should be seen as ridiculous. The challenge for real estate is to find ways to expand the menu of what can be financed. Enough nonsuburban, non-single-family markets have developed in established urban places that lenders should be figuring out why they work and should expand such opportunity. From there, developing the means to fund adaptive, innovative, do-no-harm kinds of development isn't much of a challenge. James S. RussellThe Agile CityBuilding Well-being and Wealth in an Era of Climate Change10.5822/978-1-61091-027-9_4(C) James S. Russell 2011 # 4. Re-engineering Transportation James S. Russell1 (1) Bloomberg News, Lexington Ave 731, 10022 New York, USA Abstract In what sounds like a throwback to the epic freeway boondoggles of the 1960s, Seattle will brutalize one of America's great urban lakes with a $4.65 billion plan to replace the earthquake-vulnerable Evergreen Point Bridge. The existing bridge never won beauty contests, but its planned replacement is more than twice as wide, running well above the mountain-ringed Lake Washington on much larger, obtrusive pontoons (figure 4.1). It then broadens to the width of an airport runway as it hacks through the arboretum, a crown-jewel park, and paves over a hunk of Portage Bay, a beloved inlet that provides a watery setting for the University of Washington. As it dumps more cars on the overburdened city streets that serve the forty-one-thousand-student university, the plan bowdlerizes a gracefully arching street bridge with a second replica span. The Evergreen bridge, a key link between Seattle and Eastside suburbs, will pour more traffic onto Seattle's gridlocked I-5 backbone and the Eastside's jammed I-405 beltway. In what sounds like a throwback to the epic freeway boondoggles of the 1960s, Seattle will brutalize one of America's great urban lakes with a $4.65 billion plan to replace the earthquake-vulnerable Evergreen Point Bridge. The existing bridge never won beauty contests, but its planned replacement is more than twice as wide, running well above the mountain-ringed Lake Washington on much larger, obtrusive pontoons (figure 4.1). It then broadens to the width of an airport runway as it hacks through the arboretum, a crown-jewel park, and paves over a hunk of Portage Bay, a beloved inlet that provides a watery setting for the University of Washington. As it dumps more cars on the overburdened city streets that serve the forty-one-thousand-student university, the plan bowdlerizes a gracefully arching street bridge with a second replica span. The Evergreen bridge, a key link between Seattle and Eastside suburbs, will pour more traffic onto Seattle's gridlocked I-5 backbone and the Eastside's jammed I-405 beltway. Figure 4.1 Seattle plans to double the width of the Evergreen Point Bridge, even though it is simultaneously building light rail in lower-demand corridors. Credit: Washington State Department of Transportation There's more. State coffers also are opening to replace an elevated highway along the downtown waterfront that's another seismic accident waiting to happen. A two-mile, $3.4 billion tunnel has been deemed the answer, even though it provides less access to downtown--which is what the elevated highway has chiefly served. (More ramps would have cost more millions.) An ongoing expansion to the perennially congested I-405 suburban beltway could ultimately come in at $10 billion--if funds can be raised.1 The total price tag for this mess cannot actually be calculated because billions worth of work will have to be done to deal with the traffic that the Evergreen bridge will add to I-405 and I-5, which has not been admitted to, let alone priced.2 Though Washington State voters upped the gas tax a whopping 14.5 cents per gallon, the Evergreen bridge project is still short almost $2 billion. The downtown waterfront road tunnel may need tolls as high as $5 per trip. By comparison, America's most extravagant highway project--the Big Dig, in Boston-- doesn't seem quite so eye-popping even though it cost $14 billion. And what will all Seattle's dollars do? Rearrange the traffic jams. This boondoggle is a colossal embarrassment to a city that touts its eco-friendliness. Like much of the United States, Seattle has started building light rail, but it does not seem to trust transit as an auto alternative. I took a ride on Sound Transit's first light-rail line, completed in 2009. Because it was sited to suit neighborhood politics rather than transportation needs, it does not beeline from downtown along a heavily congested corridor to the airport, as it ought to. It departs every eight to fifteen minutes, wanders fourteen miles in a great U, runs leisurely through several neighborhoods, and finally arrives at the airport almost forty minutes after departure, about twice as long as it ought to take. After spending $2.7 billion, the line attracts fewer than twenty thousand riders a day.3 At about the same time, Vancouver, British Columbia, finished a $2 billion (Canadian dollars) twelve-mile light-rail line from the airport to downtown. The Canada Line is separated from surface streets for its entire length and runs in a more or less straight line, so the trip takes twenty-six minutes and trains arrive every four to six minutes. Within weeks of its opening, ridership had risen to more than one hundred thousand daily, far ahead of projections.4 As Seattle's light-rail line neared completion, area voters passed an $18 billion, fifteen-year bond issue that patches together a larger bus and light-rail system. The stage would seem to have been set for an integrated solution to the area's worst congestion, one in which transit and roads would share the burden along high-traffic corridors. Unfortunately, light rail remains relegated to second-class status. It follows slow, wayward routes. That keeps costs low (less than one-sixth the per-mile cost of the highway projects) and pleases noisy local constituencies as the route wobbles to take in each neighborhood. What Seattle needs, as most cities do, is high-speed, high-capacity lines because they can take people out of cars on the busiest, most car-clogged freeway corridors. The Canada Line, for example, serves a very busy corridor even though a freeway had never been built along it. Similarly, Route 520, the Evergreen bridge freeway, is the perfect candidate for fast, high-capacity rail because it links four of the metropolitan area's most activity-intense centers (two large suburbs, the university, and downtown Seattle). A Vancouver-style transit line could double Route 520's current 115,000 daily vehicle capacity with just one track going each way. (The current road plan adds a bus lane and so achieves much lower and slower capacity. The state claims rail could be added later.) A less-blighting Evergreen bridge design is then possible, and the light rail could affordably tunnel its way from the Evergreen bridge to a conveniently located stop at the university, intersecting an already planned rail line from downtown Seattle. It would avoid the need to wreck the lake and clog the university with more cars. Seattle's kind of muddle produces America's national land transportation system--if one dares call such a jury-rigged contrivance a system. Remaking transportation is perhaps the biggest untapped opportunity that is least discussed in the global warming debate. After all, transportation is responsible for 28 percent of US greenhouse gas emissions.5 Fixing our haphazard way of moving people around offers such profound economic and livability benefits that the great potential it has for reducing carbon emissions can seem incidental--though, of course, it's not. Transportation priorities have a profound and long-documented effect on urban settlement patterns. Building the Erie Canal ensured New York's preeminence over Philadelphia in the early nineteenth century. Great cities arose at rail crossings--St. Louis, Kansas City, Chicago--while capitals of the age of sail shriveled. In the era after World War II, freeway cities and jet-airplane hubs, such as Los Angeles, Atlanta, and Dallas, blossomed, while rail cities foundered. No such transformational movement technology is in the offing. Instead, we need to deploy transportation modes to suit the settlement patterns we need. This sounds reasonable, but the United States has never attempted to grow in this way before. ## Why You Can't Get There To get a sense of how we've limited our options, start with a street in a conventional cul-de-sac. The least polluting and most fuel-efficient mode of transportation is by foot. Many subdivisions don't even have sidewalks, and walking in the street can be uninviting even when there's little traffic. Walk ten minutes, about a third of a mile, and you may meet neighbors but chances are you won't get as far as a school, church, supermarket, or drugstore. Or, if you do, you are likely to confront a massive, dark, noisy, unsafe freeway overpass along the way. Or you'll have to cross a busy arterial, one unlikely to have crosswalks or pedestrian signals. You wouldn't want small children to tackle it alone. A bicycle, maybe? After all, you can cover three miles in that same ten minutes. You can run a lot of errands in three miles--get to school, maybe even to a job. But you will have to cross the same arterial, or ride along it, with drivers passing inches away at 45 miles per hour. Wherever you go, you'll be competing with cars--in parking lots, at intersections. And you'll feel vulnerable: Does he see me? Where did that pothole come from? Can't let the kids ride to school--too much traffic. Jump on the bus that stops a half mile from home, runs every forty-five minutes, and takes twenty minutes to get to a destination five minutes away? Please. Ride a streetcar? Take a train? Such systems serve a tiny fraction of urban America today. So whether you are commuting across town or running everyday errands locally, chances are you are climbing into a car. In the great scheme of things, chauffering kids around, meeting buddies at a basketball court, and picking up a couple of things at the drugstore does not sound like much. It adds up, though, not just in miles but in the forms our communities take. Those arterials lacing the subdivisions have been made four and six lanes wide to accommodate the daily errand running, not just the rush-hour commutes. Parking lots are twice the size of stores because retailers must make space for the shopper picking up two items as well as the customer filling a shopping cart. The freeways jammed much of the day are sized for people hopping on one exit and off two exits later to pick up the kids at ballet lessons. There's not enough space to accommodate that kind of driving along with the hordes of trucks hauling everything we make and everything we buy. The same story applies as we widen our view to the scale of cities. A modest-size suburban commercial center containing five million square feet of office space must be served by two four-lane freeways in order to avoid major backups. But since those freeways need to serve a variety of other destinations and needs at the same time, they probably need to be twice the size. Transit is not just a nicety that avoids pumping a few tons of carbon dioxide into the air; it's a mobility solution that has very powerful economic consequences as well. But Seattle is not the only place that doesn't match the transportation mode to the problem. It's how the United States wastefully spends transportation dollars. ## Tying Growth To Transportation To make any substantive change to the way we move involves overhauling the nation's habitual--and increasingly senseless--means of supplying transportation. Though the nation spends a lot of money on buses and rails, we really have a one-size-fits-all transportation priority: the auto. Road supply is why Merrill Lynch was able some years ago to bulldoze a farm field at the rural fringe of Mercer County, New Jersey, and build on it an office park that they hoped would one day reach 5.5 million square feet--about the size of five downtown skyscrapers.6 Many people who work at the complex drive a great distance to it, and they might not have been able to make this choice if federal policy was not so generous to drivers. That's because federal subsidies (copycatted by states) for driving long meant that Merrill Lynch (which was absorbed by Bank of America in 2008) didn't really have to consider whether it made sense to build a huge facility far from population centers and existing highways. It didn't have to worry about the costs to staff of the long commutes to bedroom communities. It didn't have to consider the costs vendors might assume in traveling the enormous distance from established centers to service the company. For a long time, it could depend on the state to step in and improve roads that became jammed due to the traffic generated by its development. After all, the state had plenty of money to spend on widening once-sleepy byways, thanks to federal largesse. Of course, the same policy also assists the transformation of what for neighbors might have been a rural idyll into yet another arterial strip lined with discounters and fast-food stores as well as office parks. History may not be kind to the bet Merrill made. Steadily rising gas prices have made the cost of those long commutes a real consideration. New Jersey can no longer afford to keep widening the highways. (It has fought over any number of schemes for raising cash, including huge toll hikes.7) The planet cannot afford the business-location calculus Merrill Lynch used. Is it realistic to significantly reduce America's car dependence? The answer is yes, but that answer comes not from inventing some supercar (though that would help), or creating a vast science-fiction system of personal transit (a panacea that pops up with regularity), but from methodically and systematically putting in place some prosaic auto alternatives that a great number of people can use. Bike lanes and rationalized local bus routes can replace some of the endless suburban errand running (figure 4.2). Rail lines and frequent express buses (called bus rapid transit, or BRT) can link high-activity destinations. Upgraded freight rail can remove hordes of trucks from highways. Bullet-train service replaces short-haul flights from overcrowded big-city airports, while high-speed rail links smaller cities to global hubs. Figure 4.2 So many people travel by rail and bike in Holland that a multilevel, five-thousand-bike garage was built at Amsterdam's central railroad station. Credit: James S. Russell We can't efficiently diversify the way we get around except by tying land use and development more closely to transportation strategy. Instead of applying a Band-Aid of new highway lanes to any place that's congested, the idea is to build the kind of transportation that will most efficiently serve people's activities. Such an idea sounds perfectly sensible, but it is not what we do. A warehouse that employs few and moves a lot of freight needs to be near highways and freight railways. This is the kind of activity well served by the asphalt pouring we use to supply mobility today. A hospital, however, should be close to where its patients live yet draw from a wide area for its staff. If doctors' offices were clustered within walking distance of hospitals, rather than scattered in all directions over a five-mile radius, a nexus of activity would develop that transit as well as roads could conveniently and efficiently serve. Such a nesting of transportation and high-density business and institutional centers almost never happens now. That's because a developer or government agency chooses a plot of cheap land; plops an office park, subdivision, or college on it; and then expects local government to put in new roads and widen existing ones to accommodate their decision. You understand why this gets expensive. Modes other than the automobile can efficiently serve colleges, courthouses, city halls, shopping malls, airports, sports stadiums, convention centers, and business centers--in short, almost every key economic and civic urban institution--only if the constituent parts cluster in close proximity to one another in hubs along natural movement corridors. (Instead, extravagant boulevards and vast parking lots widely separate buildings in too many college campuses, business districts, and government centers. These layouts demand driving because they are unwalkable and too diffuse to collect people at a transit station.) It would take forty-five freeway lanes to deliver the same number of people at the rush-hour peak as New York's nearly one-hundred-year-old Pennsylvania Station handles. Since government rarely insists that land use be coordinated with the way roads and rails are supplied, there is almost no opportunity to create bus or rail transportation capacity in any conventionally efficient way. It's why those rare suburban buses trundle so few passengers. It's why anywhere from one-third to two-thirds of urbanized space is paved for roads or parking, and much of that is empty much of the time. Not even the freeway web in most big metropolitan areas reflects an efficient idea about moving people. You find a tight and tangled web of highways in some places, a loose to nonexistent one in others--a diagram of the ad hoc, reactive, Band-Aid means in which we build these roads, etched in thousands of miles of concrete. Some parts of the network are always congested; others are clear, choked off by the clogged parts. It's not just that auto-scaled, low-density urbanism puts too many people too distant from bus and rail lines. Most development today is flung down without any notion of connecting to related (possibly competing) activities. Strip malls, gas stations, and fast-food outlets dribble along endless miles of arterial. One subdivision curves east while the one across the arterial winds west so that they can't meet or connect together. It's why most suburban bus routes wander drunkenly rather than directly connect one point to another. ## Banish The Beltways Beltways, though, are enemy number one. Those highway rings that wrap cities look tidy on engineers' drawings, but they are a costly and extraordinarily inefficient growth device posing as a traffic solution. The billions spent on beltways, outer beltways, and outer-outer beltways wrapping major cities would not be justified by local demand. There is little highway demand to be found when these behemoths ram their way through farms and forests. They're supposed to permit long-distance traffic to bypass the congested center, but that is not the kind of traffic that fills beltways. Instead, they induce huge amounts of new local traffic by shifting growth outward to cheap open land. (Since the interstate highway system was completed almost forty years ago, most new freeway construction has not linked cities to one another--which was the original reason for the federally funded highway system--but has cut outer-ring highways to open land for new urban growth.) The beltway is an idea fixed in the road engineer's head rather than a solution that solves real problems on the ground. Cities and suburbs tend to grow outward in uneven wedges from the oldest centers along major transportation corridors, but beltways disregard this natural growth pattern by shooting a highway through a donut of mostly undeveloped land around the existing urbanized area.8 Beltways open vast amounts of space, often many times the size of the built-up metro--all of it poorly connected to existing communities. Local-road tendrils gradually grow out from the new intersections, feeding new office parks and subdivisions, all of which are miles from one another. (A fifty-mile highway ring will accommodate roughly twenty-five zones of new development opportunity--excuse me, exits.) A lot of open space remains but is fragmented, much of it of little value. New projects rise on the most accessible tracts, generating traffic that must use the beltway to get to any place useful. In this way, beltways rapidly fill, and jams quickly rival or exceed older through highways (figure 4.3). Figure 4.3 Beltways, promoted as bypass highways for long-haul traffic, instead inefficiently open land for development at the urban edge, as in Las Vegas (shown here). Credit: James S. Russell Beltway settlement varies enormously in scale, density, and affluence, with corresponding variations in ability to affordably supply good schools and government services, as well as major infrastructure like power plants and water supply. Most important, urban growth organized by beltways is all but impossible to serve efficiently by any alternative to the automobile. Since beltways shape growth in most metropolitan areas, it is not surprising that transit patronage overall has stagnated or declined metrowide, even though urban systems and some suburban ones have seen substantial increases in ridership. We would end up with much more compact and efficient communities just by allowing growth to extend around naturally occurring movement corridors and directly linking key activity centers with trunkline corridors of roads, buses, and rails. ## Fitting Buses, Rails, And Streets Together Transit, deemed in many cities suitable only for domestics and day laborers, becomes a useful part of anyone's daily life--even a pleasurable one--when woven gracefully into the metropolitan fabric. On a local level, several cities are already building "green streets" (sometimes dubbed "complete streets," as if standard arterials are psychologically unbalanced, as perhaps they are). Green streets divide an arterial into separate carriageways for bikes, buses or light rail, and cars (figure 4.4). Widened, tree-lined sidewalks make walking more appealing. Corner sidewalk bump-outs make pedestrian crossings less intimidating. Trees and rain gardens replace the bleakness of arterial commercial strips with the shady scale of old-style boulevards (absorbing carbon in the process). In contrast to the signage cacophony of strips, they civilize their surroundings (raising property values) and attractively reduce the amount of rain dumped into sewers. Figure 4.4 American cities are planning "green streets" like this one in Bilbao, Spain, which handsomely accommodates (from left to right) a separated bike lane, a sidewalk, two lanes for cars, and two streetcar tracks in a landscaped median. Credit: James S. Russell These streets can't move as many cars, but they move more people (this is the goal too often forgotten by transport engineers) by putting alternatives to the auto on a more even footing. Those buses and trams, with much higher capacity per lane, move faster, becoming more attractive. Then it becomes affordable to offer service at convenient speeds and intervals. The United States has tended to lurch from one transit panacea to another, when creating a truly useful system means layering several transportation modes. Light rail is the hot ticket these days, but a rail line that trundles along at thirty-five miles per hour and hits top speed of around fifty miles per hour is providing 1920s service, not twenty-first-century service. Bus rapid transit enjoyed a vogue, and is successful in Los Angeles, but is slow to catch on elsewhere, even though it offers many benefits--reasonable speeds at a cost closer to conventional buses. BRT is an express service that speeds the ride by dedicating a special lane to buses. Riders prepay at waiting pavilions so they can step on the bus with no delay. Traffic signals may be tuned to favor buses. BRT works in spread-out suburbia, where destinations are so diffuse that the passenger potential does not justify rail investment. In such places, a well-planned BRT network sketches out a future high-speed rail network that can be put in place later as growth coalesces around well-served transit hubs. Streetcars are hot, but they rarely offer advantages over either well-designed bus routes or light rail. A recent line in downtown Portland, Oregon, though jammed, moves even more slowly than a bus.9 Vancouver's Skytrain system deserves emulation in US cities because it offers high-capacity, high-speed service competitive with drive times yet its cost is not budget busting. Frequent, fast, and cost-efficient should be the holy grail of transit design but is not. Getting across today's large metro expanses requires design speeds on key lines competitive with free-flowing freeways--on the order of eighty miles per hour--which today you find only on rare stretches of commuter rail built in the early 1900s. Metro, which ties Maryland and Virginia to the District of Columbia, is the best-designed modern rail system in America. It is heavily used because it is fast, with five lines fanning out from the center of Washington in all directions. It is the most comprehensive modern rail system in America, even though it does not connect suburb to suburb and can't accommodate express trains (like New York City's ancient system does) until costly investment in additional tracks and tunnels are approved. Yet it has had real impact on the form of greater Washington. The greatest growth in office space in the Washington, DC, suburbs is in proximity to the Metro stations, according to Robert Lang, an expert in suburban growth at the Metropolitan Institute at Virginia Tech. Only New York and Chicago have more transit-oriented office space, he said in an interview.10 Truly integrated transportation planning is a dead art in America, so we'll have to rebuild our expertise. We have to layer services--local and express, buses and trains--just as systems one hundred years old do. Linking airports to downtowns and to hinterlands is desperately needed but involves making turfguarding government agencies work together. Good rail service can avoid investments in new terminals (more than $1 billion each in crowded airports) and new runways (ditto the cost). A major new airport will run you $10 to $15 billion. Blistering-fast rail, like France's TGV and Japan's bullet trains, will pencil out in the United States when it lowers its cost by sharing its corridors with upgraded freight rail and speedy passenger service that accesses smaller hubs along the same corridor. Freight rail is utterly unsexy, but it is many times less costly per mile (in both fuel and drivers) than trucks and emits only one-third the carbon emissions.11 Rail fell by the wayside because the nation started subsidizing roads at the expense of rail, so railroads were consigned to moving commodities like gravel, timber, and chemicals--especially commodities that were low in value, heavy, dangerous, or otherwise unsuited to trucks. However, congested high-ways and spiking fuel costs have made even wobbly tracks and antique bridges a better bet for shipping goods that once went only by truck. Many rail corridors are busier than they have been for decades (with Amtrak trains and added commuter trains seeking growing access to tracks, too). Ultimately a deal must be made to integrate the private rail system into a multimodal whole. Bringing rail more thoroughly into the transportation mix, tentatively begun under the Obama administration, offers such enormous benefits that it's worth renegotiating the public and private roles in rail-- normally a political nonstarter. States, for example, may take on track ownership and maintenance (just as they do with roads) and collect rents from rail companies to operate on them, spurring competition. ## Retrofitting Gridlocked Suburbia Aren't today's cities too diffused and spread out to make transit work? Not necessarily. Las Vegas may not have an extravagant bus system but--as Steve van Gorp, deputy business development director at the City of Las Vegas, told me in 2005--it makes a profit, even at California-style density. That would make sense because the vast majority of the city's jobs are concentrated along the Las Vegas Boulevard strip rather than spread out all over the place. At a casual glance, Vancouver, British Columbia, has the same neighborhood scale as many American cities and suburbs, but the city has focused high-density development not just in its high-rise downtown but around stops on its three Skytrain rail lines (figure 4.5). That's part of the equation that makes the rail system run surpluses.12 Note, also, that Vancouver is laced with very few freeway miles, and yet traffic moves in much of the metro area better than in the United States. There are road bottlenecks (on those few miles of freeway mainly), but not the epic beltway jams Americans have come to live with. Figure 4.5 Surrey, British Columbia, a suburb of Vancouver, combined a renovated shopping center with university facilities and office space for an insurance company (Bing Thom Architects). The density and mix were possible thanks to its adjacency to a station of greater Vancouver's Skytrain rail transit. Credit: Nic Lehoux, courtesy Bing Thom Architects Can suburbia be retrofitted to reduce reliance on cars? A few areas have already done it. Traveling east from Seattle, the cluster of skyscrapers in Bellevue, once just a bedroom suburb, makes an impressive silhouette against the Cascade Mountains. The towers did not rise by accident but according to a concerted effort to focus development around a regional shopping center and bus-transit hub. Only a few years ago, Bellevue was like most so-called edge cities, blocks of parking lots dotted with mostly one-story buildings served by massive arterials. Today, with its parks, sidewalks, bikeways, museum, and library, it's a walk-to-work, walk-to-shop destination. Its downtown has grown enormously on a footprint little larger than it had in 1960, with the metro area's second-biggest transit hub. By contrast, car-centric Tysons Corner, outside Washington, DC, struggles to grow, because it can't fit more cars into its tangled web of super arterials. It hopes to benefit from an extension of the Metro. Coordinating development to transportation is not rocket science to anyone in the business. It's conventional wisdom. Politically, though, tethering development to a planned approach to infrastructure is explosive because it's thought to mean ceding to government the landowners' opportunity to develop their land in just about any way they want. Of course, many landowners also expect taxpayers to bring roads and utilities to their land and to serve new subdivisions with schools, no matter how costly it is. Services can take the form of a rural-highway turnoff or that $100 million freeway interchange that transforms your weed-choked farm field into valises of cash borne by auto-mall developers. A closer coordination of growth and transportation capacity is not the leap into command-and-control, Soviet-style central planning that it is depicted to be by land-use libertarians. We voluntarily subject ourselves and our communities to a wide variety of regulations that attempt to control tax expenditures, slow growth, or encourage desirable kinds of growth. The kinds of taxes we collect affect growth. The question is simply the degree to which people will support an infrastructure growth and renewal process that explicitly furthers community goals--anticipating the future rather than reacting to the latest mall proposal after it has been made. Citizens have an interest in the provision of infrastructure not just because it encourages some kinds of growth and discourages others but because we largely pay for it through taxes. Will rearranging the layout of communities and diversifying travel modes make enough of a difference in carbon-reduction terms? New and retrofitted communities that link dense development tightly to multiple transportation modes can cut per-person driving miles every year close to 30 percent, according to a research team led by Reid Ewing and Keith Bartholomew. The Vision California plan, which proposes an aggressive response to climate change by tying development and transportation together, could dramatically cut infrastructure costs, water use, building energy use, miles people must drive every year, fuel consumption, and greenhouse gas emissions.13 If auto alternatives are convenient enough to allow a family to sell off one car, that family could save (conservatively) $10,000 a year. Limping along with some semblance of old-style leapfrog development will actually induce so much growth in the miles we drive yearly that it will wipe out the advantage of the high-mileage auto fleet of smaller, thirty-five-mile-pergallon cars and costly hybrids that's already mandated.14 That's the key lesson: we can decrease fuel use by improving auto technology, but we can't really cut the miles we drive without rethinking the way we build communities. Economic efficiency and a global warming future (as well as a future of oscillating oil supplies) will demand we do both. There are those who think a new generation of plug-in electric cars will save us. That's unlikely, though they'll make their contribution. Their cost, in the short term, will keep them a small percentage of the nation's auto fleet. Until battery technology improves, they'll be better for short-distance travel, which makes them a useful fit primarily in urban areas that become tighter and denser through more integrated planning of growth and transportation. In the longer term, their value will rely on the fuel source of the electricity they use. If they require a big boost in power-plant generating capacity and their electricity comes from dirty coal, we'll have gone in the wrong direction.15 ### Can We Afford To Keep Subsidizing Cars? Freeways and multilane arterials may be the lifeblood of suburbia today, but they have long represented a heavily subsidized prop to the kind of leapfrog, sprawling development that the Merrill Lynch project represents. Most people probably don't stop to think of the roads they rely on as subsidized. (Subsidy is, in the United States today, an evil social-welfare word.) After all, people pay 18 cents to the federal government on every gallon of gas they buy, with a wide range of local fees tacked onto that. The highway lobby portrays the federal highway-finance system as user supported, by which they mean that the tax you pay is really a fee that underwrites road building. It's not just a difference of semantics. Unlike all but a few federal programs, highway funding largely rises and falls on those dedicated receipts and does not have to compete with other needs in annual budget battles. Not only do the fuel-pump taxes generate tens of billions annually, but they're available consistently, which hugely reduces the cost of road building because officials can borrow cheaply against future receipts. Over the years, combined federal, state, and local user fees consistently covered only about 60 percent of highway building and renovation expenses, according to the Federal Highway Administration--but that percentage dropped to 50 percent in the late 2000s thanks to resistance to raising road taxes.16 The rest of the cost comes out of an assortment of budgets paid by regular taxes (or, in the case of the federal contribution, the subsidy has been added to the deficit). What this means is that a significant percent of local taxes, the same taxes that pay for schools, fire protection, and other services, get diverted to subsidize drivers. The less you drive, the more you subsidize those who drive a lot. This is the kind of argument that would belong in a policy paper on the fairness of various taxing methodologies (the main venues, unfortunately, for such debates) except that the subsidy powerfully influences important decisions people make about how and where they'll live, work, and play. It has had the power to make and break cities. If it's cheap to drive, you don't really have to worry about choosing a work or home location that demands a great deal of driving. In the United States, gas has traditionally been cheap and people have been choosing to live farther away from daily destinations and choosing larger, less fuel-efficient vehicles. For decades, the miles we drive increased at about three times the pace of population growth. So we not only got office parks in the middle of nowhere, but we got the 100-mile chauffer-mom marathon and the 150-mile daily commute. By contrast, bus and rail systems have not had a dedicated funding stream or consistent support from Congress and local government. So neighborhoods that are walkable in transit-dependent cities suffer diminishing service. Congestion and gyrating prices are slowing the growth in miles America drives; driving actually declined (almost for the first time) when fuel prices spiked while the economy was rapidly contracting.17 We've let alternatives to the auto atrophy for so long, though, that leaving the car in the driveway is an option for few people. The most perverse effect of subsidizing auto dependency is that it makes traffic jams inescapable. There are still advocates who think we can build our way out of traffic jams, but they are fewer now. The trend in data is against them. From the 1920s to the 1990s, Los Angeles thought it could build enough lanes. Its huge expenditure has made it possible to find yourself stalled anywhere in the three-hundred-mile stretch between Santa Barbara and San Diego, or anywhere in the one hundred miles that the Los Angeles metropolitan area stretches east from the ocean to San Bernardino. Atlanta thought it could beat LA at the same game but has fallen victim to some of the nation's worst gridlock in spite of having more highway miles per capita than just about anywhere else. No one knows how much money it would actually take to significantly reduce urban road congestion by adding capacity. It may not be an attainable goal, certainly as long as driving is subsidized. You can always find a parking place in central St. Louis, though, because there are few residents and little commercial activity to attract anyone. It's eerily convenient, but perhaps not the way we want to achieve easy mobility. As road advocates note, the actual number of road miles built has not come anywhere near the growth in miles driven, even as some places have engaged in Herculean efforts to add road capacity, and even as record sums are now being spent. The nation has both thousands of miles of largely empty rural highways and enormous congestion problems because the most crowded roads, and the most expensive to expand, are the 20 percent of highways that serve 80 percent of traffic--the urban and suburban networks in the largest, fastest-growing, and most economically productive urban areas. It is precisely in such areas that expanding road capacity meets the highest barriers: astronomical land costs, construction-logistics nightmares, and battles with highly motivated communities over loss of open space, valuable environmental areas, or the severing of communities by roaring rivers of vehicles. Few leaders, especially those seeking election, want to break the news that Americans, whether they want to remain as car dependent as they are or not, must ante up more in taxes, tolls, whatever--a great deal more. If we're serious about addressing climate change, we'll have to start spending big on transit, freight rail, and inter-city passenger rail as we discourage auto use. Fear not transportation sticker shock. We would just reverse the decades-long trend of spending a declining proportion of America's economic output on infrastructure as we stitch what the future demands largely into the streets, buildings, and systems we already possess. So where do we start? How about a 25-cent rise in the gas tax, appropriately renamed a "mobility fee" because it would be sequestered for use only for moving us faster and more efficiently by whatever means. (In some states, this would mean removing a prohibition from using gas-tax proceeds for anything but highways. The shortsightedness of that limitation removes the most powerful anti-congestion weapon that exists.) By the standards of today's political debate, where adding a nickel to the current rate is deemed incendiary, this counts as a radical proposal. It is actually only a down payment on the problem, but a powerful one. Faced with higher costs and more traffic jams, drivers are already starting to take auto alternatives into their decision-making processes. That's why transit-served housing and business locations have seen the largest price rises in recent years.18 After all, gas prices have bounced down--but mainly up--in increments of a dollar or more. Another 25 cents is almost meaningless. (For fifteen thousand miles driven in a car that gets twenty miles per gallon, you would pay less than $200 in a year.) More to the point, it would raise a great deal of money--$305 billion over ten years by one conservative estimate.19 That kind of cash would quickly buy a great deal of the multimodal infrastructure we need and let us put it in place rapidly. We've done that before. After a wrenching debate, President Eisenhower reluctantly signed into law the gas tax that underwrote construction of the interstate highway system. Though the system got built at the expense of all other travel modes, and in ignorance of the needs of dense cities, the result was an enormous leap in mobility for the nation, which directly translated into (at least initially) low-cost economic growth and vastly improved mobility. The system was largely completed in just fifteen years.20 We cannot get people out of cars, or reduce their need to drive substantially, until we put in place the alternative infrastructure that does not now exist. Combined with higher mileage standards for each vehicle, the benefits for the planet are extraordinary and quickly realized. Dedicating increased fuel-tax revenues to alternative mobility is both sensible and helps make such change politically palatable. Which causes me to underline a contention made at the beginning of this book, and amplified in examples throughout: an agile city doesn't simply impose new burdens but shifts incentives and disincentives (especially growth machine ones) that are more productive environmentally and economically. A California campaign to stop action on achieving carbonemission goals, for example, contended that government "would tell you what to drive" and "where to live," but it is the incentives and disincentives built into today's growth machine that all but command people to live in single-family homes far from job centers and drive vehicles that get poor gas mileage long distances to do ordinary tasks.21 Since the United States uses more than one-fourth of the world's oil while totaling only 5 percent of its population, the potential of conservation is enormous and largely untapped. New infrastructure, as it comes on line, will permit us to further cut consumption, which not only reduces carbon emissions but puts downward pressure on prices, cleans the air, lets us build smaller roads and parking lots, and reduces congestion. Anti-taxers have plenty of ways of avoiding the fees by making choices about where to live, what to drive, and how much to drive. Such gas-fee avoidance is indeed patriotic, since it creates the very same benefits, lowering everyone's costs. I call the 25 cents a mobility fee because a significant proportion of the cash raised needs to go to the bus, rail, and bike infrastructure that will get people out of cars. Many drivers, watching the steady rise of their gas bills, resist underwriting buses they don't use, but moving a lot of people off the roads is much more likely to reduce congestion than trying to build our way out of jams. And we can only sort travel to the most efficient modes if we create a unified pot of money for urban transportation that flows predictably, not subject to legislator whim, and is allocated according to need and efficiency. It's another idea that makes sense even if you believe that carbon emissions will somehow balance themselves out naturally. Right now, local officials often make capital investments not according to need but according to how much of the cost will be covered by the federal government. If the subsidy for a transit project is half that of a less-useful road project, which do you think gets the local matching cash? This is why the fastest trains in America rattle over one-hundred-year-old bridges. If you want to get out of traffic by taking a train from downtown Los Angeles to Orange County, you'll find service frequency and track speeds little different from 1915 norms because that's how we allocate transportation funds. Of course, roads are now becoming so jammed that the antiquated train is often faster. ## Paying As We Go Ultimately, we'll need to make driving truly "pay as you go." That would involve raising pump fees, adding tolls, or charging congestion fees to cover the direct costs that you incur by driving. If drivers paid for the environmental damage driving costs (which they now don't), the cost of driving would go much higher. The impact includes air pollution and the vast quantities of polluted water that run off of roads and parking lots, which is the largest source of wastewater that must be drained, piped, controlled, and dumped (much of it untreated) into rivers and streams. Estimates of how much driving should cost in taxes or tolls vary widely, ranging from less than $1 to as much as $4 or more per gallon. In other words, we'd pay what most of the developed world pays for gas--which, by the way, does not make them poor. If auto transportation was truly pay-as-you-go, would a company like Merrill Lynch dare to locate a gigantic facility ten miles from the nearest freeway, fifteen miles from the nearest small city, twenty-five miles from the nearest business center, and an hour from the nearest major city? Would people live in places that demand a sixty-mile commute or the shuttling of children by car to every activity? Gas priced at the developed world norm (around $8 per gallon at this writing) needn't eliminate these kinds of choices, but people would have to think far more deeply about how important it is to live or work in a wooded enclave far from jobs. A doubling of the price of gas is, to put it politely, politically incendiary. In almost every way--from our balance of payments to our individual health-- we're likely to be better off. President Bush once described America as "addicted to oil." But what America is addicted to is the automobile. Dare we try and break the habit? James S. RussellThe Agile CityBuilding Well-being and Wealth in an Era of Climate Change10.5822/978-1-61091-027-9_5(C) James S. Russell 2011 # 5. Ending the Water Wars James S. Russell1 (1) Bloomberg News, Lexington Ave 731, 10022 New York, USA Abstract Toward the end of 2007, houseboats began to settle onto the dry, cracked mud at the bottom of Lake Sidney Lanier in north Georgia. As tree stumps emerged that had not been seen since the reservoir was built, it seemed as if the lake's supply of freshwater neared depletion. But Lake Lanier is not just any reservoir. It supplies drinking water for five million people in and around Atlanta. Toward the end of 2007, houseboats began to settle onto the dry, cracked mud at the bottom of Lake Sidney Lanier in north Georgia. As tree stumps emerged that had not been seen since the reservoir was built, it seemed as if the lake's supply of freshwater neared depletion. But Lake Lanier is not just any reservoir. It supplies drinking water for five million people in and around Atlanta. Winter rains barely averted a disaster. (A small town in nearby Tennessee actually did run out of water.) The city was lucky; it had not prepared for such an extended period without rain, even though lesser droughts had sent warnings. As the potential for dry faucets loomed, leaders dawdled, belatedly putting in place only basic water-use restrictions. After all, even in that extreme drought year, more than thirty inches of rain fell, three times the amount most of California receives.1 Atlanta has not had to work hard to develop water sources because freshwater had always seemed unlimited. "It's been develop first and ask questions later," Gil Rogers, a lawyer with the Southern Environmental Law Center, told the New York Times. 2 But now the region does not know where water for continued growth will come from. ## How Water Promotes Growth Developers may have profited handsomely from Atlanta's hands-off approach to development, but they (like their counterparts nationwide) do not take water for granted. Raw land cannot be converted to any but low-profit, low-density uses without extending the water-supply and sewer systems. You can't build a one-million-square-foot office park on a timber lot you've bought for peanuts, nor can you construct the subdivisions, malls, office parks--the building blocks of modern city development--on wells and septic systems alone. For utilities, it is not cheap to keep adding new customers. The trunklines prove too small; the reservoirs and filtration plants need to be expanded. A big, new sewage-treatment plant can cost $1 billion or more. The "system" we have in place today, however, doesn't encourage careful stewardship of water. Water is a tool the growth machine uses to pave over undeveloped land at the urban edge. In most of the United States, even in the arid West, where supply has long been a concern (and has rapidly grown more costly), water has been considered endlessly abundant and all but free. Obtaining clean water is rapidly becoming more expensive as more of us compete for this essentially fixed resource--and those costs may quickly escalate as global warming effects bring likely oscillations between flood and drought. Costs to dispose of sewage and storm water are running much higher, too. As water becomes a more precious commodity, we will not be able to passively permit speculators to determine where sewers will go and how much freshwater we'll have to provide to accommodate urban growth. Everyone pays for water and sewer through usage fees and assessments, so you would think that a prudent local government would look at the costs and benefits of each proposed extension and approve only those that are cost-effective, recognize future limits, and follow the broad growth goals of the community. Government's power over where and how such systems will grow is--theoretically, anyway--a powerful tool. It could be used to guide development away from flood-prone agricultural bottomland to areas within existing built-up areas or along corridors that are easy to serve with other urban services. It could reward users who are good stewards of water. It usually doesn't work out that way. Most communities see the power to extend water and sewer services as a growth-promotion tool. It's also politically easy because the costs are hidden, even if substantial. According to one estimate, it costs $50,000 to $60,000 to supply a new house on the outer fringes of Chicago with water, sewer, and other services, compared to $5,000 to $10,000 for a new house in an established suburb.3 Developers of exurban subdivisions commonly build in "package" well-water and sewage-treatment systems, but these often fail within a decade or two. You can't leave neighborhoods with impure water or seeping septic systems, so the nearest water and sewer utility must take them in, like the rural water project that was supposed to replace failed wells at the astronomical cost to taxpayers of $146,000 per home.4 In most jurisdictions, everyone pays the same for water and sewer, so there has been little incentive historically to use the resource efficiently. As more water systems face more expensive supply and disposal problems, people have had to make buying decisions based on "real" costs, with punishing effects on rates--as in Atlanta, which is tripling water rates to pay for an overhaul of its antique water system.5 Even communities that want to do right by themselves--focusing growth efficiently, prudently conserving resources--face a built-in conflict of interest. They may need the jobs and tax receipts that a new water-guzzling laboratory complex brings. Should a community propose a moratorium on hookups or try to limit the area served by sewers and municipal water, the lawsuits (or threats of lawsuits) start flying. How dare the government act in such an "arbitrary and capricious" way by denying new service, the attorneys have argued. It's "discriminatory zoning."6 Taxpayers correctly object that developers are coercing them to supply government services, often below cost. Underwriting value created largely for the developer's benefit exacts a price that includes not only the rising cost to develop new water supplies and sewage treatment but now also the higher costs of more elaborate floodwater control and new measures that anticipate drought. The developer, on the other hand, argues that the community serves existing residents, so why should it not be required to serve all residents, even those who haven't moved in yet? And who will also pay taxes. Or, they'll argue, the community has granted developers hookups in the past, shouldn't they be able to develop their land similarly? These beefs can be legitimate--and expose genuine property-rights quandaries: limiting the growth of water and sewer services is the way some communities enforce growth control without admitting it. Cities can deflect legal problems when they make the reasons for restrictions on water-guzzling development explicit and spread costs fairly. Prudently expanding water and sewer capacity need not slow growth; jurisdictions can use rate structures and land-use regulations to steer growth to flood-safe areas, to underinvested areas, to areas with underutilized services, and to areas where transportation supply already exists. Then, strategic government infrastructure investments allow growth to happen safely, efficiently, and at lowest cost. With water costs rising, taxpayers have already become much more involved in debating the wisdom of permitting water and sewer extensions wherever developers think they should go. Many communities have defined "urban-service" boundaries, which is plannerspeak for geographical limits on the extension of water supplies and sewers. It means that communities are no longer exposed to unlimited costs for new utility growth somewhere miles beyond existing built-up areas. More local governments now ask developers to assume more of the costs of providing these services. Builders complain loudly that hookup costs make the projects they build unaffordable. But if those costs are indeed too high, the economic message is clear: don't build this way in this location. As the wonks say, the builders can no longer "externalize" these costs--that is, place them on the shoulders of all taxpayers. And that will enforce needed prudence. ## Water Wars For a long time, most people gave little thought to the water or sewer systems that serve their communities, because they rarely failed. But urban growth is already putting water on front pages across America. Georgia has fought a two-decade war with Alabama and Florida over water rights. The three states depend on Lake Lanier and six rivers that flow along the Alabama border into Mobile Bay in the Gulf of Mexico, and into Florida, where they feed oyster beds and precious estuarine environments in the Appalachicola Bay. The federal government has tried unsuccessfully to broker this dispute.7 Even southern Florida, wetter even than most of the rest of the Southeast, has suffered both persistent drought and a lack of drinkable water. Lacking new water sources, growing communities in the dry West have routed water to domestic systems that had been dedicated to agricultural use, but this "supply" is rapidly dwindling. Desert Nevada is considering tapping aquifers under much of the center of the state, supplies essential to agriculture and wildlife, now that it's using every drop to which it is entitled from the Colorado River. From the 1960s through the 1970s, the nation spent big to develop sophisticated treatment systems and to separate storm-water systems from sewage systems. As a result, many rivers that once looked and smelled like open sewers are now sparkling, and the cities that line them are revitalizing. Nowadays, most growing cities are having trouble sourcing new water and keeping clean the sources they have. Mining wastes pollute streams and infiltrate aquifers in Appalachia. Elsewhere, industrial waste and farm pesticides that seeped into the ground decades ago ruin water supplies today. Most established cities are looking for new ways to cope with severe storms that cause neighborhoods to flood and sewage systems to back up and overflow.8 Many of these problems have been quietly building as politicians avoid expenditures that could raise taxes. At the same time, adding to reservoir systems has become extremely expensive because even distant water sources lie in sites ripe for urban development--or are spoken for by agriculture, mining, and competing thirsty cities. Even though many communities are spending lots to bring water from increasingly long distances, then spending more to treat it, climate change threatens to worsen water problems fast. Though the Army Corps of Engineers has beefed up levee-construction standards in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, cash for upgrades is scarce, and no American river city can say it is truly prepared for a more flood-prone future. By contrast, a recent report warned that the last few years of drought in the Southwest may signal a long cycle of water deprivation.9 In river-laced lowlands, like those around Sacramento, California, old levees aren't up to the task of more frequent drenching torrents. Rising ocean-water levels threaten coastal communities nationwide but especially in large, low-lying swaths of Louisiana, Florida, and Alaska. Even where these communities don't actually flood, salt water infiltrates water supplies that were once safely upland. Fast-growing cities of the west--Denver, Salt Lake City, Seattle, Reno, and Los Angeles--may not be able to depend on winter snowpacks in the mountains. Those frozen reservoirs are not only shrinking but also tending to melt much more quickly in spring, sending unplanned-for flood waves into valley cities. Indeed, few communities can yet weather the ups and downs climate change will likely bring. They'll lack freshwater or the ability to process storm water, or they will bump up against sewage-treatment capacity. ## Starting Small A yoga retreat would seem an unlikely place to find next-generation sewage treatment. But at the Omega Center for Sustainable Living, a handsome, distressed-wood, shed-roofed structure wraps a classroom and workshop filtration system called an Eco Machine. It serves the 128 buildings of the Omega Institute for Holistic Studies, in Rhinebeck, New York, about a hundred miles north of New York City. It's a small project with big implications. Skip Backus, Omega's CEO, describes the project in pragmatic terms: "Our septic system was living on borrowed time, and we decided to replace it in a way that was consistent with our values and educational mission." Instead of digesting tanks, chemicals, and pipe-tangled aeration basins, the heart of the treatment system is a long basin in a sunlit room planted with water-loving tropical plants that burbles reassuringly. Its plants, fungi, algae, bacteria, snails, and a variety of other organisms scrub sewage of sludge that's already been broken down by microorganisms in oxygen-free settling tanks and filtered by several natural-style wetlands planted in four basins outside the building, each about the size of a basketball court. After this processing, the nearly clean effluent is run through a "polishing stage" in a sand filter assisted by more microorganisms (figure 5.1). Since the system is mainly gravity fed, little power is required to do the job, and what is needed is supplied by a photovoltaic-panel array.10 Figure 5.1 At the Center for Sustainable Living at the Omega Institute for Holistic Studies, natural wetlands "polish" sewage that has already been treated by an "Eco Machine" using plants and naturally occurring organisms. Credit: James S. Russell These processes result in water clean enough to release into the Hudson River watershed. When I visited, Omega was in the process of raising money to use the scrubbed sewage to irrigate its landscape and flush its toilets. Ultimately, Omega plans to eliminate its "water footprint" entirely by handling its water supply and disposal needs entirely within its 195-acre site. The Eco Machine approach is rare because it is neither compact nor cheap to build (at $3.5 million for Omega), but Backus explained that it's consistent with Omega's mission to connect personal issues with global issues-- including water. As keeping water clean becomes more challenging, credits of the kind governments offer to energy-saving retrofits might well help more Omegas build more facilities that take sewage "off the grid" of massive treatment plants. Omega is a pioneer in the natural treatment of sewage, but the idea's potential grows with each drought event and flood-induced sewage treatment overflow. John Todd Ecological Design, of Woods Hole, Massachusetts, which makes the Eco Machine, has designed ponds in Hawaii that clean themselves and support fish and shrimp by recirculating water through native plant roots and a gravel bed. A walkway, lined with twelve thousand flowering native plants, scours a heavily polluted canal in Fuzhou, China. It's one of several systems that imitate the function of wetlands in their ability to clean water.11 At a much larger scale, wetlands have been constructed specifically to capture pollutants, say from mining or agricultural feedlot operations, and more often as a secondary or finishing treatment for conventionally treated sewage. They can be especially cost-effective, according to Wetlands Solutions, a company that builds them, when the outflow can fill parched waterways or restore wildlife habitat that development or agriculture has destroyed.12 ## From Parking To Prairie The office parks of Troy, a Detroit suburb, look much like office parks everywhere: low-slung buildings wrapped by parking lots about twice the size of each building. Amid the asphalt acres, songbirds twitter from a tiny fragment of prairie. This two acres of grassland, with a tiny duck-dotted pond, wraps the headquarters of the Kresge Foundation--and largely replaces an oversized parking lot. The plantings slow and largely absorb runoff. A bioswale--a shallow ditch planted with water-loving grasses--filters the water before it runs into the pond. The site delivers almost no storm water into Troy's drainage system, which saves enough money to largely pay back the up-front costs of the low-maintenance mini-prairie. Most companies and most developers would not bother to do what Kresge did, because the savings don't add up to much in Troy. Kresge built its prairie as a demonstration of environmental stewardship. It's consistent with its mission to help nonprofits build needed facilities. But the value of Kresge's swaying grasses is rapidly rising as more extreme weather events place new, unanticipated burdens on storm-water and flood-control systems. I had never seen or heard of a bioswale before visiting Kresge in 2006. Within three years, they were popping up coast to coast. If the thousands of acres of parking all around Kresge could go green in a similar way, the savings could become invaluable in the next few years.13 Can Eco Machines cleanse the sewage of whole cities? Can fields of waving grasses replace square miles of asphalt parking? Right now, no. That's because we haven't asked what it would take to scale up these worthy ideas to match the scope of the challenges we face. As it becomes less possible to take clean water for granted, communities are starting to consider such questions and beginning to look at water systems in their entirety--from drinking sources to waste disposal. Many are keeping an eye on New York City, which has aggressively reduced water use while trying to preserve the high quality of its water sources tucked amid rocky ridges north of the city and west of the Hudson River. New York City had the vision in the early twentieth century to create reservoirs and aqueducts as far as 125 miles from the city. The rocky topography of the Catskill Mountains and its gravelly soil do such a good job of scrubbing the 1.3 billion gallons the city uses daily for drinking water that New York is one of very few cities that is not required to filter its water. Keeping that water clean has gotten harder in recent years, and the city has undertaken an elaborate plan to avoid building water-filtration plants. It made a deal with the Environmental Protection Agency in 1997 to buy up land near the water sources, restore streams and wetlands, and enlist farmers in the creation of buffer zones and other measures that keep agricultural pollutants out of key streams. It has upgraded all the treatment plants that affect the water sources and has encouraged planning that minimizes roads and parking lots. All this has cost plenty and from time to time has raised ire in the communities that share the far-flung watersheds. It has also made inroads in water use through conservation. The city has relentlessly tracked leaking mains and fixed them, and installed automated meter readers (where previously no metering at all was done). Residents and businesses have replaced millions of toilets and showerheads with low-flow versions. These and other tactics cut water use by two hundred million gallons per day, more than the entire city of Boston uses.14 (It's hardly alone; with municipalities and the Environmental Protection Agency promoting the use of water-efficient appliances, conservation has turned out to be the easy way to save money and valuable freshwater.) New York's effort to keep its water clean has largely succeeded, staving off the requirement to filter so far--except for the 10 percent of the system east of the Hudson, in heavily suburbanized Westchester County, and exurban Putnam County. The hilly, rocky topography that does such a good job of scrubbing and clarifying water makes an unholy mess when the subdivision and strip mall developers start sending streams of sand and gravel into waterways while carving out driveways, parking lots, and building platforms. Because Westchester and Putnam Counties build the way suburban and exurban places everywhere build, water quality in reservoir systems more than 150 years old has steadily declined, and has presented New York City ratepayers with a big bill: the requirement to build a $3 billion treatment plant constructed ten stories underground at the edge of the Bronx. The landscaped roof attractively demonstrates the city's commitment by collecting and filtering all the rainwater that falls on it. Had a more sensitive development regime been put in place a decade or two ago, the filtration-plant cost (and its $100 million yearly operating cost) may well have been avoided. If the city fails in its efforts to preserve the water quality in its Catskills system, the price will be much higher--$10 billion or more.15 And the threats don't stop coming. In 2009, gas drillers sought to extract natural gas from shale deposits within the watershed. Many of the tactics that New York uses could apply even in watersheds with far lower water quality. We're just not used to thinking that way. We default to simplistic formulas: take quantity of sewage, cost out treatment plant to handle it, build, and forget. (Or don't build because the cost is politically prohibitive until some regulator makes you build it, at which time it is even more unaffordable--see the discussion of Atlanta earlier.) As storms become more frequent and floods a regular event, that equation doesn't work anymore. You have to make that sewage plant much, much larger. Or you have to go much farther or spend much more money to obtain clean drinking water. ## Foresting Philadelphia The idea of an urban forest may seem unlikely as you stroll the streets of Philadelphia, where square miles of brick row-house blocks rise straight up from the sidewalk line, and even street trees can be few, bedraggled, and far between. Very large parks slice across the city, however, most notably the magnificent 4,100-acre core of Fairmount Park, which wraps the Schuylkill River and sends tendrils of greenery up the tributary creeks. It is from these large parks that the city plans to extend a carpet of trees all over the concrete desert, stitching its forest together from parking lots, playgrounds, schoolyards, vacant land, abandoned waterfronts, and underused utility rights-of-way (figure 5.2). Figure 5.2 Many cities have begun to turn underused sites into water-retaining landscapes that also add value to neighborhoods, like this water-treatment plant in Hamden, Connecticut, where the planted roof blends seamlessly into the landscape (Steven Holl, architect, and Michael Van Valkenburgh, landscape architect). Credit: James S. Russell The agenda goes beyond Arbor Day esthetics. A canopy of trees linking streets and backyards will shade and cool people in the summer and make a city plagued by declining population and housing abandonment more appealing. The city also hopes to take the rain that drips from its new tree branches and runs off the roofs, streets, and parking lots, and let it percolate into the ground. So people are planting "green" roofs and hitching downspouts to rain barrels. The city is replacing paved areas and storm drains with rain gardens-- shallow basins tucked into sidewalks, plazas, and parking lots that are planted with water-loving grasses and shrubs. It jackhammers concrete culverts and replants the sides of streams to slow their flow so wetland plants can filter the water. These efforts, led by the city's Water Department, sound like ecological altruism but save money. Like many older cities, much of Philadelphia is served by a drainage system that combines storm-water runoff with regular sewage. Autos drip pollutants, and people pour chemicals, into street drains, and all of that pours into the same treatment plants that must sanitize household sewage--a more elaborate and expensive process than necessary. The real problem arises during heavy rains, when many times the normal quantity of water deluges treatment plants, overwhelming them. The plants overflow, dumping raw sewage into the Delaware and Schuylkill Rivers. Philadelphia could have built very large, very expensive new treatment plants because these pollution events violate federal clean water standards. It has decided that a more beneficial solution is to take every opportunity to divert the rainwater from the system: by slowing it down, reusing it, or allowing it to percolate into the ground.16 Hired for a consulting project in Philadelphia, I spoke with Glen Abrams, the Sustainable Stormwater Program Manager in the Water Department's Office of Watersheds. I asked him to explain how this is done. "Our goal is to manage the first inch of water that falls during a storm," he said. That can be done with a planted retainage basin that absorbs some runoff and lets the rest trickle out. Instead of pipes and culverts that shoot water downhill at high speed, stream-side plantings and streambeds that twist and turn slow water down, allowing the sewage-treatment plants to catch up.17 Let's start counting up the advantages of this way of handling water. The city saves money by not building the treatment plant. The city pays less to supply, filter, and sanitize water as people irrigate gardens and wash cars with water collected from rain barrels or cisterns. The tree cover can knock several degrees off a hot day, which means air conditioners don't work so hard, which means those units are rejecting less heat into the atmosphere, which means the streets feel cooler, and so on. It sets up a virtuous cooling cycle that reduces the "heat island effect." That effect occurs when building and street surfaces absorb solar heat, then radiate it back, especially on summer evenings when people hope for relief. The heat island effect can boost air-conditioning loads from 5 to 10 percent.18 Reversing the effect in turn helps the city reduce its emissions of greenhouse gases. On a house-by-house level, these differences can be meaningful, but cumulatively the impact can't be ignored, because the entire electric-power infrastructure must be sized for the hottest days. Street trees and rain-catching swales are attractive, and they stabilize property values. Naturalized streams are better neighbors, adding value to adjacent sites. Reestablishing riparian habitats (the streamside ecological zone) helps clean water and air, nurtures ecosystem resilience, and holds stream banks in place (figure 5.3). Some advantages are intangible but real. Philadelphia children historically have had few encounters with nature. How does it affect city kids when suddenly a great blue heron wings majestically overhead or frogs from a nearby stream hop through their backyards? Figure 5.3 This new quarter in Amsterdam, called Ijberg, created a wildlife-rich water edge of vegetation, a model that can be used along streams to slow water flow and reduce flooding. Credit: James S. Russell Urged by the Water Department, residents themselves have begun planting trees and taking care of the streams that flow behind their homes, building a stake in the city's future. Schoolyards are now scheduled for Campus Parks projects, in which plantings for play and teaching replace bleak expanses of asphalt. Managing the first inch of storm water turns out to be considerably less expensive than standard treatment. The many small actions the city is taking can be achieved incrementally, costing $1.6 billion over twenty years, often in combination with other necessary utility work.19 By contrast, building the infrastructure to completely separate sewers to avoid overflows during storms would cost a staggering $16 billion.20 Other cities, including Portland, Seattle, and New York, have already begun to harvest similar benefits with a similar diversity of tactics to handle storm water. After all, Philadelphia's problems are not all that severe compared to places like Atlanta or Sacramento. The need to conserve water is acute in most of the arid West, where water-hogging lawns are fast disappearing. That's why rain gardens and tall grasses growing from sidewalk swales are quickly becoming common. But few cities yet comprehensively analyze the pluses and minuses of building a new sewage-treatment plant versus achieving the same goals by less heavily engineered means. They do not attempt to measure the multiple benefits of treatment-plant alternatives the way Philadelphia did. Looking beyond compartmentalized ways of making decisions is essential for cities to be truly agile. The old question was, how large a plant do we build to process the quantity of water entering the sewage system? Philadelphia asked the question in a way that yielded richer, more efficient possibilities: how does the city manage the water that causes the overflows--that first inch of rain? ## "Future Proofing" Holland The Netherlands would love to think only in terms of that first inch. Instead, more than half the population live below sea level, and almost 65 percent of its gross domestic product is at risk from climate change. The super dune in Scheveningen (discussed in chapter 1) is but one tactic in an arsenal of measures the country is taking to adapt to climate-change threats, from storms to droughts, from Rhine River floods to rising sea levels, from fluctuating water levels in this canal-laced country to saltwater infiltrating from rising seas. The country, with the same population as Florida and about the size of Maryland, has fought a seemingly quixotic battle to stay dry for centuries. After a catastrophic flood that killed some two thousand people in 1953, Holland undertook the world's most elaborate engineered defense against the sea. The commitment of resources over twenty years added two thousand miles of river and ocean levees as well as an intricate network of canals and pumps. The most impressive of this massive public works program was the Maslant barrier, a pair of gates hundreds of feet long that sweep into place to stop massive storm surges. In the face of global warming effects, Holland has concluded that all the pumping technology and engineering expertise is no longer enough. "Sea levels continue to rise, the winters are wetter, extreme summer squalls are more frequent," explained Renske Peters, Holland's minister of water management and transport, in a presentation I witnessed on the nation's new approach.21 "There's more water in the Rhine and Maas Rivers in the winter and a decrease in flow in the summer," she added. Much of central Europe drains to the sea through Holland. Rather than simply pour more money into bigger dikes, the Dutch government united bureaucracies into what it calls a "triumvirate" of water management, climate-change adaptation, and urban stewardship. The idea, explained Han Vrijling, chairman of the Department of Hydraulic Engineering at the Technical University at Delft, was to "create benefits beyond protection." Coastal development is quite literally integrated into flood defense, with resort structures actually built into the land side of coastal dune projects, bracing them while they serve recreational use. Vrijling called it "making dikes habitable."22 Holland's adaptations to climate change have been under way for years, but you might not notice. Sunken canals, such as the historic Westersingel Canal in Rotterdam, are landscaped like parks, which disguises their water-retaining function (figure 5.4). When discreetly reconfigured, streets, squares, and even playgrounds become temporary water-storage areas in the event of heavy storms and floods.23 Figure 5.4 The Westersingel Canal, in Rotterdam, is configured to retain excess water during storms and to release it when the water system is no longer overloaded. Credit: James S. Russell Dutch engineers have concluded that constantly raising levees along the Rhine and Maas Rivers won't work. Instead, they are making, as they call it, "Room for the River." Ideally, levee systems move away from the water to accommodate more volume. But in densely built Holland, that's a process both controversial and costly. So water-management officials have commissioned a wide variety of projects that permit farms to live with controlled inundation. One of the projects creates a natural water-storage landscape out of the Noordwaard Polder, a two-hundred-hectare parcel of reclaimed land. Streams and wetlands will be braided among farm parcels to create islands, marshes, and eddies to slow storm-water flows and store water until the river returns to a safe level. The plan also augments agricultural income with recreational opportunities. Another project by the Hague landscape architecture firm Bosch Slabbers moves a levee line back from the main stem of the Maas River, leaving some farmland exposed to periodic floods. Barns, houses, and other structures would be raised on platforms, called terps, attached to the new levee. The levee keeps essential structures safe, and the terp helps strengthen the levee.24 The Dutch have also updated their famous windmills so that, now, rows of wind turbines share space with rows of lettuce. They generate electricity and--inevitably-- pump water. The Netherlands does not depend only on this "soft path" approach to water. There is plenty of costly civil engineering in this effort, including more dams, levees, and floodgates. In Rotterdam, officials showed off a giant underground structure that parks cars and stores floodwaters--which struck me as an enormously costly way to accommodate both. Nevertheless, the contrast with Louisiana, and therefore the rest of the United States, is startling, and it was pointed out again and again by Senator Mary Landrieu on the Dutch congressional tour I joined. In New Orleans, drainage canals are huge concrete eyesores or fetid ditches (figure 5.5). Massive earthen levees are capped by graffiti-attracting concrete walls. Entering New Orleans from its airport, the first sight you see is of a tangle of pipes, a pumping station, and an oozing drainage canal. Landrieu commented: "People don't want to live with these concrete walls and open ditches, and they shouldn't have to." Figure 5.5 This drainage canal in the Broadmoor neighborhood of New Orleans is so insensitively designed that it repels local investment rather than attracts it. Credit: James S. Russell ## Learning To Be A "Water City" New Orleans architect David Waggonner, of Waggonner & Ball Architects, agrees. He has spearheaded a series of conferences and sketch-design sessions called Dutch Dialogues, which have brought Gulf Coast and Dutch expertise together. That's how I found myself staring into a fifteen-foot-deep drainage culvert where bourbon-tinted water gurgled darkly below. Architect Ramiro Diaz, who works for Waggonner, was trying to show me how that boxy drain could lead to a better future for New Orleans, at the disheveled edge of the Mid-City neighborhood. Diaz had taken me along the Bayou St John, from its mouth at Lake Ponchartrain on the northern edge of the city, along the vast City Park. Graceful bridges arch their way across the serene waterway, which is overhung with bosques of trees (figure 5.6). The bayou wends its way gracefully through several neighborhoods until it ends abruptly near that dim culvert. Figure 5.6 Bayou St. John, running along City Park in New Orleans, is a model of how to retain floodwaters and enhance values of the surrounding neighborhoods at the same time. Credit: James S. Russell Waggonner, Diaz, and their Dutch collaborators would like to thread lushly landscaped waterways like Bayou St. John throughout the city--not just as a canoe-dotted amenity for battered neighborhoods but to retain water during the city's frequent deluges, in which you can take a wrong turn during a downpour and find your car stalled in several feet of water. "It's time for New Orleans to act like a delta city," Waggonner told me, "with water-sensitive design." That humble box culvert is part of the plan. For more than a century, sailing ships skirted the laborious trip up the Mississippi by wafting into the city on Bayou St. John. They sailed along a wide 1.5-mile canal to unload at Basin Street, at the edge of the French Quarter. That canal was long ago filled in and the culvert, running in an overgrown, abandoned right-of-way, is all that remains. Waggoner wants to restore the canal as a first link in the water storage system. The idea makes sense economically as well as environmentally. People want to live in neighborhoods that line Bayou St. John. Investors ignore the Lafitte Corridor, as the space once occupied by the canal is now known. The city still can't handle everyday floods, even though the Army Corps has been spending $14 billion to rampart the city against the next Hurricane Katrina with upgraded levees, floodwalls, pumping stations, and massive gates. Though augmented since Hurricane Katrina, the drainage canals and pumps can't work fast enough. The Army Corps wants to fix the problem by throwing more billions at higher floodwalls and deeper drainage canals. Waggonner's Dutch-American team offered a different approach: use the city's abundant empty land for landscaped water storage connected in a circulating system of canals and human-made bayous edged with greenery. These would be sized to fill up with storm water and hold it while the drainage canals and pumping stations catch up. More water-retaining basins could be built in the medians of the city's many tree-shaded boulevards (called "neutral ground" in New Orleans). Sidewalks and backyards could host rain gardens. The city has long hoped to turn the Lafitte Corridor into a parklike bike trail, and the restoration of the canal would add more value, if it can be funded as an alternative to more pumps and concrete. Corralling storm water for good use is immensely appealing in a city that's still dubious about leaving its destiny in the hands of the levee builders. Drainage structures designed to fit into neighborhoods could make the city infinitely more attractive, spurring investment. It's a system New Orleanians could take into their own hands, building it in manageable chunks. "I don't see this as a five-year plan," said Waggonner, "but a fifty-year one." Though principles of the water-management idea are incorporated into the city's master plan, and Senator Landrieu supports it, Waggoner's vision could vaporize as so many post-Katrina plans have. Its unique power is the promise that New Orleanians need no longer cower in the shadows of the endless dispiriting levee walls. They could begin gracefully living with their age-old aquatic enemy.25 ## Redesigning The Mississippi Seen from the air, the lowest stretches of the Mississippi extend well beyond the coast of Louisiana and divide into several thin distributaries that form a "Bird's Foot" at the edge of the continental shelf. The lines of barges and ships that run down the river can only enter the Gulf of Mexico through the South Pass, which is maintained by the US Army Corps of Engineers. Paul Harrison says the Bird's Foot is falling apart. He's the senior director for the Mississippi River at the Environmental Defense Fund. He arranged a boat trip for me down the river's lowest stretches with Paul Kemp, a vice president at the National Audubon Society in charge of Gulf Coast initiatives, and Ben Weber, a local representative of the National Wildlife Federation. The river's fate and that of Louisiana's coastal marshes are intertwined. Both are threatened (the marshes have long been receding alarmingly), but the staggering cost and complexity of fixing the river and the marshes have stymied progress. Coastal marshes miles from New Orleans might have formed the first line of defense against the massive surge of water that gathered in the Gulf when Hurricane Katrina barreled toward Louisiana. Natural flooding for millennia had deposited silt across the flat, low river delta--rich organic soils on which the marshes built and rebuilt themselves. The vast levee systems built to armor the length of the Mississippi River put an end to those deposits. Thousands of square miles of the marshes have disappeared and are no longer available to absorb storm-surge energy. Instead, the river sluices that valuable soil, collected over thousands of miles, into the river outlet deep in the Gulf. Also over decades, engineers had hacked canals through the marshes for navigation and to serve the oil and gas industry, further weakening coastal defenses as the canal banks collapsed, widening modest passages into marine superhighways. Plans were made, both before and after Katrina, to stop the loss of the protective marshes. They were astonishingly ambitious: levee systems were to be entirely reengineered, with massive diversion works being created to spread silt over huge tracts. In many cases, getting sediment where it was needed meant somehow transporting it through settled communities, where people lived, farmed, and fished. Thousands of private-property claims would have to be adjudicated. Rip-rap erosion barriers would have to be erected along hundreds of coastal miles to prevent further erosion of beaches and bays. All of this would have to be carefully engineered to enhance fisheries rather than ruin them, to keep essential navigation channels functioning, and to keep salt water from seeping into freshwater sources.26 The catastrophic breaching of Louisiana's storm defenses by the hurricane spurred further studies. Researchers found that conditions were even more dire. From Lafayette and Lake Charles, at the western end of the state, to smashed St. Bernard Parish and Breton Sound to the east, hundreds of miles of erosion barriers, levees, and shoreline reinforcements would stretch like medieval ramparts across the marshes. The cost? "Tens of billions of dollars," one report said.27 There was one more complication, Harrison told me. The Army Corps of Engineers worried about diverting too much soil from the river to rebuild those marshes, because it would alter the configuration of the river bottom and its flow, both of which encourage an automatic scouring of the river bottom, thereby avoiding perpetual dredging. And yet, those marshes were what kept the Bird's Foot from melting away. Much of it is now barely protected. "We're thinking now about the delta as a design, architecture and infrastructure issue," Harrison explained. "Now you have the highly controlled river contrasting with the loss of land and the collapsing wetlands, but when you can build land, you can build vitality. We need to find a way that the delta can sustain itself, even with sea-level rise."28 Our trip began in Venice, which in no way resembles the Queen of the Adriatic. It seemed more a floating collection of oil-service equipment yards than a dryland town, and no roads penetrated the last miles of the delta. Our boat left shrimp-boat fleets and oil-service tugs and transporters behind as we pulled into the main channel of the Mississippi. We slowed so Kemp and Weber could point out one artificial diversion that the Corps had cut in 2003. It had built little land but scoured the bottom deeply, as the river began to seek new ways to the Gulf. The Corps wanted to close it. I was struck by how little land separated river and gulf, a hundred yards in places, and how low-lying it was. The Corps could not let the South Pass navigation channel fall apart, though, because it would be impossible to maintain a deep enough pathway into the Gulf. As it is, the massive dredging barges we saw, anchored by high steel columns with pipe arms suspended like wings to either side, had to work constantly to maintain the pass. The mouth of the river is utterly unmagnificent, just two thick inky lines of rock bulkheads with a fringe of marsh grasses, all looking ready to sink into the sea. Magnificent frigate birds, aptly named, roosted in the timber remains of bulkheads past. A windowless, heavily braced dormitory for river pilots posed bleakly atop massive, twenty-foot-high columns. The message: wind and water own this place. It would seem that sea-level rise of just inches would trump the bulkheads, the endless dredging, and the constant rebuilding of the channel banks. Harrison finds the Corps losing its battle to keep the river flowing where it does not want to go. (If not for enormous dam and diversion structures, the river probably would have switched by now to the path of the Atchafalaya River, far to the west, possibly leaving New Orleans riverless. Unlike the Mississippi, the Atchafalaya still builds marshes.) The environmental groups, working with the Van Alen Institute in New York City (which promotes improved public architecture), were planning a design competition to find an entirely new way, using entirely new expertise, to keep the river navigable yet use the soils it carries to rebuild the coastal marshes and avoid dumping all that valuable soil off the edge of the continental shelf, where it forms a huge dead zone. The competing teams would have substantial sums to underwrite detailed engineering studies. The competition was announced as this book went to press, but whatever its outcome, it could show how new kinds of collaborations, taken deep enough, have the potential to remake enormous damaged landscapes. Managing water rather than trying to confine it with massive engineering structures is a gigantic cultural change, one that communities worldwide face. Great Britain spent a billion pounds over decades to build the Thames gateway--an elaborate defense for London against storm-driven floods. Rising seawaters have made it obsolete. Because the Elbe River now regularly floods Hamburg, Europe's second-biggest port, massive flood-resistant doors now armor low-lying waterfront stores and restaurants. Pedestrian bridges lace streets in Hamburg's new HafenCity development to allow people to escape when waters rise (more about HafenCity in chapter 7). In much of low-lying America, building ever-higher levees with ever more elaborate pumps and gates may buy only a few years of protection at rapidly increasing cost. We'll need to make "room" in new ways for our rivers and coastlines. From a cost perspective alone, the United States can no longer passively await the bill sent by rising seas, dwindling reservoirs, and water-sucking development that proceeds at the will of speculators. "We've got to replace our patch-and-pray approach," Senator Landrieu declared. "The Dutch told me that the problem in America is that you treat water like a drowning man. They know they have to live with it, that they're running a marathon." James S. RussellThe Agile CityBuilding Well-being and Wealth in an Era of Climate Change10.5822/978-1-61091-027-9_6(C) James S. Russell 2011 # 6. Megaburbs The Unacknowledged Metropolis James S. Russell1 (1) Bloomberg News, Lexington Ave 731, 10022 New York, USA Abstract Demographic data tell us that most of America lives in suburbs. But suburbia has quietly transformed itself into something the suburbanites of the 1920s or even the 1950s might find almost unrecognizable. The ingredients are the same, such as the leafy cul-de-sacs. The place names and political boundaries that once defined the small-scale, older bedroom suburbs may remain. Places like Petaluma and Cupertino, in California, may be dozens of miles apart, but growth or decline depends much more on the fate of the entire Bay Area than on actions each takes individually. In metro areas around the country, similarly once-separate communities have become mere components in an economically integrated, wealth-producing and wealth-consuming machine. I call it a megaburb. Demographic data tell us that most of America lives in suburbs. But suburbia has quietly transformed itself into something the suburbanites of the 1920s or even the 1950s might find almost unrecognizable. The ingredients are the same, such as the leafy cul-de-sacs. The place names and political boundaries that once defined the small-scale, older bedroom suburbs may remain. Places like Petaluma and Cupertino, in California, may be dozens of miles apart, but growth or decline depends much more on the fate of the entire Bay Area than on actions each takes individually. In metro areas around the country, similarly once-separate communities have become mere components in an economically integrated, wealth-producing and wealth-consuming machine. I call it a megaburb. Megaburbia is the altered reality that has emerged when three-quarters of a three-hundred-million-person nation lives in what we are used to calling suburbs. Suburbs--even the outlying satellite exurbs--are entwined with one another and with older central cities more than ever, homogenized by growth machine forces and united in a metropolitan economy (figure 6.1). Figure 6.1 Large, mixed-use commercial landscapes, like this one outside Chicago, increasingly struggle to compete because their reliance on autos-only access limits their potential for growth. Credit: (C) Alex Maclean/Landslides Populations within these far-flung urban landscapes have grown a hundred- or a thousand-fold over the past thirty years. The low-slung office-park zones have nurtured high technology, research, and advanced manufacturing, putting the mega in megaburbia. Overshadowing the central cities in terms of population and economic activity, places like California's Silicon Valley, the pharmaceutical belt in northern New Jersey, Chicago's western and northwestern suburbs, and the crescent of Maryland and Virginia suburbs that wraps Washington, DC, have built economies comparable to entire nations. For their residents, however, the suburbs have seemed to succeed as a patchwork of smallish towns and cities, many defining an identity in the pecking order of housing cost or schools' reputation. They may be surrounded by uncounted square miles of similar suburbia, but they have zealously guarded local control of zoning, taxes, and schools. Coming to terms with climate change means coming to terms with megaburbia--the landscape that the growth machine has created. With big houses, megamalls, and long commutes, these are the communities that have locked in high energy and resource use. They've changed cities from entities that stretch across a few dozen square miles to ones a hundred miles across that flow across county and state lines, wrap estuarine bays, and leap across wooded ridges. As we watch these places unspool outside the car window over mile after mile--like one of those looped backgrounds of a children's cartoon--their endlessness conveys the "mega" character of modern suburbia, but it also seems hopelessly unadaptable. After all, isn't this kind of landscape essential to creating American wealth? Megaburbia is more adaptable and potentially more agile than it looks, because the original suburban ideal of closeness to nature remains embedded in its DNA. For all the highways and parking lots, there are patches of farms, many miles of tree-buffered streams, and a great deal of leftover space--the raw material for reknitting natural systems within a prospering urban environment. I lay out the "mega" qualities of suburbia in this chapter because that's essential to reversing growth machine excesses and seizing the adaptive opportunities latent in these vast landscapes. Megaburbia also faces many challenges that aren't strictly environmental, and those have only become more urgent. Improving the environmental performance of megaburbia can address much else that's gone wrong with American dream suburbia. ## Suburbia Goes Viral Suburbia becomes megaburbia incrementally, as the subdivisions, the shopping centers, the office parks, and the local schools accumulate. You can overlook the way this opportunistic assembly of identical units of development can become under our noses something we hadn't expected: an urban entity that seems immeasurably large and inchoate rather than stable, predictable, and orderly. More than two decades ago, Robert Fishman, a prominent historian of suburbia, wrote in his well-regarded 1987 book, Bourgeois Utopias, that the historic idea of the suburb had quietly morphed into something quite different from what it had promised to be over the preceding two hundred years: a residential refuge from the city.1 The city was the place where business was done, but it was also capitalism's cauldron. It created wealth but in the process perpetually tore itself apart and rebuilt as it responded to the market's incessant demand and ever-changing whim. Living in the city meant contending with the chaos that was the inevitable by-product of a dynamic economy: congestion, pollution, crime, immorality. The city's promise of wealth and opportunity attracted every kind of person--especially the worst. Suburbs, it was hoped, would banish both pickpockets and prostitutes. It was a place of shared values, of social rules enforced through an unspoken code understood by everyone. It was a way to live with people with whom one was comfortable and to avoid those who looked different, spoke differently, and adhered to different values. The commuter-filled bedroom communities in the 1950s succeeded as clean, safe, stable refuges from the city for a massive new middle class. The railroad and streetcar suburbs that preceded them as far back as the 1880s worked similarly for an affluent elite. During the 1970s, however, American suburbia began to transform itself into a diverse and economically independent urban entity in its own right--a new kind of city that only looked suburban. Just pull out of the average subdivision driveway. Today, eight-lane arterials ring your residential neighborhood. Your commute may consume dozens of miles with lots of houses, lots of highway strips, and lots of warehouses or retail centers that look like warehouses slipping by. Your five-lane side of the freeway, broad as a jet-plane runway, may drop you into a suburban downtown of twenty-story mirror-glass towers. Somehow the idea of the suburban home as a cozy refuge where one tends the garden on weekends morphed into the home as hub, where each occupant sleeps and briefly touches base for processed-food grazing between after-school activities, long workdays, night classes, the gym, the mall, and so on. The debt-fueled growth in housing "wealth" in the 2000s simply delayed an inevitable reckoning with the contradictions of trying to live a suburban ideal in megaburbia. In the simplest terms, the "city"--at least in its identity as a dynamic, competitive, congested, factory-of-capitalism--had moved its disorder-inducing, opportunistic self unasked to the suburbs. You might think it sneakily took on sprawling, low-density, residential-looking form so as to disguise the full implications of this shift. You don't see too many smoke-belching factories in the megaburbs; more likely, it's the quiet hum of the office/warehouse. As you cruise the big arterials at forty-five miles per hour, you may not notice the tired, cracked-stucco, highway-strip apartment complex where kids play on the broken asphalt between sagging cars. This is the suburban equivalent of the industrial city's tenement slum. Poverty, like every other city ill, is growing in suburbs and manifests itself in the disheveled house on the chainlinked lot, where the lawn has largely succumbed to car parking because every family member must haul to work in paint-faded clunkers.2 What's becoming clear is that "the megaburban project," as academic jargon might put it--meaning the entire process by which it is created--must sprawl or the whole machine seizes up. First, you build the highways (or promise to build them) as far out as possible, opening as much land to development as possible. This ensures a surplus of buildable area (and buyer choice, such as it is), which keeps real estate costs from skyrocketing. Young families would traditionally "drive to qualify," hauling out to the urban edge to find a starter house that's affordable. Opening huge territories to development also involves lots of jurisdictions, and they tend to compete for growth--especially commercial growth, because business picks up much of the tab for government services, especially schools, which are typically local government's biggest ticket item by far. Businesses benefit from inducements offered by officials: we'll reduce your taxes; we'll build the road you want; we'll offer job training--the list of goodies is lengthy. This is the high-growth model of wealth creation that got assembled atop the Depression-era foundations of government-backed mortgages and ample federal highway money, amplified by fast-payback real estate development. The mortgage meltdown, which hit outermost suburbs hardest, would seem to have put an end to the cycle of driving farther and farther for that affordable new starter home--the foundation of megaburban growth. Without a new growth model, though, growth can only resume in the old mode at the outer-outer edge, however robotically futile it seems. Meanwhile, the landscapes of disinvestment left behind in the inner suburbs (the price communities pay simply for aging; see chapter 3) grow larger, but the maturing trees idealistically planted by young families thirty, forty, or fifty years ago draw a veil over them. They're forgotten. ## Engines Of Megaburban Wealth Suburbs, the antidote to congested downtowns, had to invent their own places of commerce and work, and that growth coalesced around a strategic crossing of freeways, a new shortcut carved to the international airport, or the location of a major regional mall. The construction of I-90, for example, put Schaumberg, Illinois--incorporated as a 130-person village in 1956--thirty high-speed miles from Chicago's Loop. The development of O'Hare Airport--ten freeway miles east--as the metropolitan area's major global link made it even more strategic. When I-290, the north-south beltway connector, was extended to I-90, Schaumberg's status as a high-density node in the splotchy sprawl of the western suburbs was assured, certified by the opening of a 2.3-million-square-foot mall. By 1990, Schaumberg had grown to a sixty-nine-thousand-person accumulation of retail centers, office parks, and executive housing that employed fifty-five thousand.3 Places like Schaumberg can employ tens of thousands, and contain as much office space as a decent-sized downtown, but spread themselves over six times as much land. When such large-scale developments appear in an area still shot through with farm fields, budding suburbia morphs into what's called, in planner jargon, a suburban employment center (SEC). Actually SEC, coined by urban analyst Robert Cervero, is just one name. Historian Robert Fishman called these places "Technoburbs," and Joel Garreau most famously deemed them "Edge Cities."4 Like so many other aspects of megaburbia, these commercial centers are a bit hard to pin down. They don't look like centers or cities, for one thing, but stretch along a freeway frontage road or cluster along a wide arterial loop that shortcuts from one freeway to the next. Don't attempt to cross the largely sidewalk-free expanses of Tysons Corner, Virginia, the edge city that grew where the Dulles Airport tollway crosses Washington's Beltway. It strings office parks, massive malls, enormous planned residential developments, and the asphaltentwined big and little boxes of generic suburbia along a tangle of intimidating arterials and freeways. Consistent with the transformation of suburbia to megaburbia, these wealth-creating enclaves take on such amorphous form because they coalesce incrementally over time as each developer jockeys construction on each parcel. They don't do it to create a coherent business center or a pleasing composition, or to attract passersby, but to position their development in the most advantageous way along the arterials that feed the freeway network. Whatever you call these commercial zones, they have become the mirror-glass economic engines of megaburbia, giving suburbanites a range of urban employment, housing, and recreational opportunities once available only in cities. Megaburbia has assumed the city's mercantile functions, too, and has reaped the benefits. It's able to offer diverse economic opportunity and generous government services. Many are so successful that they have become jobs magnets, employing far more people than they house. A classic edge-city scenario: you send your kids to great schools, but swarms of commuters from forty miles away hurtle by your condo. The edge cities, with their tower clusters and megamalls, grew explosively in the 1980s. The phenomenon seemed so successful that Garreau could plausibly contend that "Americans today are once again inventing a brand-new future--the biggest change in a 100 years in how we build cities."5 Edge cities have turned out to be less a brand-new future than a fate to which suburbia has subjected itself. The small-scale ideal of village-centered and family-centered life that underpinned the American dream suburb does not take into account the steadily growing presence of American business in the suburbs. A modest-sized edge city ejects one hundred thousand autos onto the feeder highway system, requiring no less than a ten-lane freeway--more often two or three freeways. A megaburban commercial zone as big as Silicon Valley demands a web of freeways and expressway connectors on a two- to five-mile grid over an area twenty miles wide by thirty miles long, forming a multicounty landscape of start-and-stop driving. Whether a commercial zone created with so little concern for its future will actually have one is now an open question. With the automobile as essentially the sole means of transportation, megaburban employment centers can adapt to changing business realities in only limited ways, because the density and proximity of uses is strictly limited by the need to accommodate vehicles. They are vulnerable to spiking fuel prices and lock in high carbon emissions. A decade or so ago, the edge cities seemed a plausible alternative to downtown, but edge cities aren't sprouting like they used to.6 Robert Lang, an urban analyst at Virginia Tech who has extensively studied megaburban transformation, posits a three-stage life cycle for edge cities. After an initiation and maturation phase, the third phase leads to possible stagnation as auto congestion steadily worsens. Neighboring communities begin to resist the continued commercial expansion, with its impacts on roads and its unstoppable appetite for land. The edge city can become denser, but then development costs and congestion rise. Lang writes that some of these commercial zones are now declining and haven't yet found ways to adapt to ever-changing business needs.7 In the past two decades, for example, Schaumberg has actually lost population. The megaburban metropolitan areas that grew rapidly from small cities to major population centers in the past forty years, such as Phoenix, Houston, Dallas/Fort Worth, Atlanta, Miami, and Orlando, have largely dispensed with the downtown-weighted model of older metro areas. Instead, they grew up as assemblages of subdivisions, office parks, malls, and highway strips into an almost undifferentiated carpet of urban development--a "Polynuclear Field," as architectural theorist Albert Pope calls it. This kind of megaburb may start out as a smallish regional trading center, as did Atlanta or Houston. But the smalltown downtown loses its power once population leaps into the millions, downtown skyscrapers built atop twenty-story parking structures lose their allure, and the developed square miles multiply. "Phoenix" now encompasses Mesa, Scottsdale, Tempe, and innumerable small, once-separate towns that aspire to maintain a separate identity but which are indistinguishable to the casual observer and inextricably intertwined economically. Most of us overlook the dissonance that has developed as the urban economy settled itself in suburbia's heart. Or we've accepted it as long as the place offered at least some of the amenities promised by the postwar American dream suburb. We've collectively willed a part of the landscape to fit that dream (primarily, the single-family house on a gardened lot), but we haven't wanted to give up the choices and opportunities that we can only secure within a dynamic, commercial urban landscape. In short, we try to live a culture of suburbia when what we've made is a city--that place that tears itself down and builds itself up, and that is noisy and chaotic in a manic chase to stay on the bucking bronco that is capitalism. In failing to come to grips with the urban aspects of modern suburbia--its enormity and complexity, its impersonal nature and constant flux--many of us find ourselves resigned to an ever-shrinking part of it addressing our deepest aspirations. Even absent the urgency of climate change, it's clear that the megaburbia we've been making is too expensive (with ever-rising tax and infrastructure demands), too simplistic (its jobs are too far from its residential areas; it can't accommodate any but auto-born densities), too dependent on low fuel prices. It can only intermittently deliver quiet, safe communities close to nature. Its predominance of single-family houses and its wasteful consumption of land are America's primary sources of both transportation- and building-related greenhouse gas emissions. Its settlement patterns fragment vast territories, obliterate valuable natural landscapes, sterilize waterways, and pour pollutants from square miles of paving into streams. Many Americans wonder what happened to the barbeques and the kids wheeling their bikes around the quiet curving streets, the uncomplicated life promised by the American dream suburb. Now they have to wonder if coping with global warming means losing that dream forever. The overwhelming consensus among planners and other students of cities is that the only way to fix megaburbia is for people to concentrate in older, denser, more walkable cities. There's an unwritten implication that conventional megaburbia will therefore vanish into a resurgent nature where Eden will return and engulf the strip malls and subdivisions. If only. After all, there are reasons that many, if not most, Americans still pursue a suburban American dream. Still, it's worth a look at what big-city density and diversity have to offer. Do those qualities--so long anathema in suburbs--make sense for megaburbia? Can the best of suburbia survive, even thrive, in a future that recognizes global urbanism's large scale and dynamism? ## The New Economy Of The City In the months after the terror attacks of 9/11, major employers in Manhattan faced a tough decision: was it no longer prudent to house large groups of their people in skyscrapers vulnerable to attack? Were the risks too high when the concentration of talent and technology could be destroyed instantly by a bomb or a deadly gas detonation in the subway? Urban experts predicted a greater dispersal of business deep into already-growing suburbs as executives concluded that both the risks and the costs were too high. The soul-searching was particularly intense in the financial business--the high-profit, high-profile mainstay of New York City's economy. In targeting the Twin Towers, after all, the terrorists had hoped to cripple the nerve center of American economic power. That dispersal, however, did not occur. By 2006, Manhattan had more office skyscrapers in construction or nearing completion than any other city. Residential towers rose at rates unheard of for decades. The chief deterrent to more construction was high rents, rather than fear. (Ground Zero itself was an exception, where a bungled reconstruction dampened office-tenant interest, though not residential demand.) Franz Fuerst researched business-location decisions for the Russell Sage Foundation a few years after the terror attacks and found that "financial firms have by and large decided to stay in Manhattan." Even Cantor Fitzgerald, the trading firm that lost two-thirds of its employees during the terror attacks, remained in the city. In an e-mail exchange, Fuerst wrote that financial firms stayed because they recognize--more than almost any other business seems to--"the tremendous importance of access to sensitive knowledge through face-to-face interaction and a tightly woven network of personal relationships between industry professionals, clients, suppliers and other decision-makers." For these reasons, companies like to remain close together, within walking distance, just as they did in the early years of Wall Street's ascendance, when rents adjacent to the New York Stock Exchange could be forty times the rents of buildings just a few blocks distant. "The type of information needed to assemble highly complex financial deals and new products simply cannot be obtained via email or phone," Fuerst added.8 The big-city venues where such intelligence is shared do not confine themselves to formal meetings in wood-paneled conference rooms. Collaborating and deal making take place in restaurants, at health clubs, at charity functions, and even on street corners (where executive schmoozers tend to yak on the busiest sidewalks, as William H. Whyte documented some two decades ago-- a sight you never encounter even in the most gorgeously landscaped beltway office parks).9 Interaction is the reason skyscraper downtowns exist. They put a lot of people in proximity to one another. After all, Wall Street is not just big rooms full of traders screaming into telephones; it is an ecosystem of deal makers, attorneys, accountants, and a constellation of analysts that value propositions and create new products. Urban experts use the regrettable term agglomeration economies to describe the efficiencies that develop in large markets: companies can access more customers and suppliers from fewer locations, and draw from vast pools of labor and expertise to bring in the most suitable people. Walkable downtowns at the nexus of a transportation network that includes buses and trains as well as cars can access talent from the city and most of its megaburban hinterlands. Because of growing auto congestion, no single suburban location can readily access more than a fraction of that talent. American business is becoming more reliant on interaction, not less, as bringing products and services to market becomes more complex, as supply chains globalize, and as companies must rapidly respond to online shopping trends that tend to reduce transaction values solely to price. In short, downtown is an agile environment, one in which business imperatives and reducing carbon emissions can be in synch. Fuerst also examined the post-9/11 location choices of architects, who were highly concentrated in lower Manhattan--and who tend to be found downtown in most cities and rarely in freeway office parks. Even though few are large businesses and none have the deep pockets of banks, they, too, largely returned to their existing locations. From my firsthand knowledge, this is easy to explain and speaks to why technology encourages business concentration as well as diffusion (just as railroads, early in the twentieth century, begat both skyscraper downtowns and early suburbs). A few decades ago, architects could design a school working with just a structural engineer and a plumbing expert. Now, such projects entail a dozen or more consulting firms: experts in landscape architecture, engineering, lighting, acoustics, information technology, labs, sports facilities, and so on. A great deal of collaboration can occur with the aid of e-mail and special intranet sites where the design team can work on documents simultaneously. But the intensity of teamwork today means that people meet more often to work out problems that no one even thought about a few years ago. The condominium architect does not simply sketch out luscious renderings but must have his or her work vetted by interior designers, apartment-layout specialists, real estate analysts, financial partners, marketing specialists, and attorneys who make deals for the land. The architect may need to meet with community groups and negotiate special zoning variances with city officials. Clients often want to interview several architects before choosing one, and they often want to visit the firm's offices as a way to take its measure. In Manhattan or Chicago (where you can traverse America's second-biggest downtown on foot in twenty minutes), a client can visit half a dozen international-class firms in two days, which is why even architects headquartered in suburbs or smaller metro areas often maintain a presence in global-hub cities. In real estate, all you hear about are the major companies that build million-square-foot office campuses or rent twenty floors of a skyscraper. But, the companies you've never heard of--many, many thousands of them--intertwine to make downtown's urban economic ecosystem. According to a New York brokerage firm, tenants using less than six thousand square feet (about one-fourth of a standard skyscraper floor) occupy 90 percent of all space in Manhattan--a percentage that hasn't shrunk much since the early twentieth century.10 The common thread among businesses that locate downtown is how highly each kind of business values interaction and collaboration, hallmarks of what economic-development expert Richard Florida has famously described as the "creative economy." He, too, recognizes the dispersing power of technology but also writes that "the tremendous productivity and creativity gains that spring from high density give shape to a powerful counterforce: geographic clustering and concentration." In the searingly competitive globalized marketplace, ideas can't be identified and turned to profitable products and services without deep talent pools of people who have both diverse and specialized experience.11 That is the reason the oil business has concentrated in Houston, when it used to be headquartered in Ohio, Pennsylvania, California, and New York as well as Texas. It has had to shed its wildcat past because it is now one of the most risky, complex, and technologically demanding industries. A concentrating of talent is necessary to design, develop, and operate the extremely expensive technology as well as to analyze huge risks that are affected by many variables. Modern oil wells, for example, are drilled fifteen thousand feet deep undersea, compared to one-tenth that depth just a few years ago.12 Other places like Houston--such as Hollywood, Wall Street, Boston, and Silicon Valley--are "talent aggregators" for their dominant businesses, as Richard Florida puts it. That's why they succeed in spite of some of the highest costs, greatest congestion, and lots of regulations. They possess the depth and variety of expertise that wannabe regions can't assemble. In so many businesses, making the most of skilled people is the key competitive advantage. The mythology of Silicon Valley, for example, may be based on college kids wiring together the next big idea out of a few microchips in an old garage. But no longer. Today, the valley still generates ideas and companies (most famously these days, Google) even though those garages have been replaced by McMansions, living costs are stratospheric, and traffic is impossible. The key advantage is the critical mass of talent ranged along that US 101 backbone. Bio-pharm "startups" require great dollops of cash, specialized R&D facilities, and access to research universities operating at the outer edges of scientific inquiry. Cities all over the country came for years to David Clem's Boston-area office because his company, Lyme Properties, speculatively develops high-tech lab buildings. Officials offer him incentives to build biotech capacity in their towns, but he usually demurs. He told me that only half a dozen cities in the country possess the technical infrastructure and research depth to support even one speculative biotech lab.13 While outsourcing increasingly sophisticated business endeavors to far-flung shores has become controversial, a great number of companies outsource locally--for payroll or health care, and to undertake complex projects they are not good at, such as managing the construction of a once-a-generation building project or because they need specialized expertise to bring a new product to market. So many of these activities require such high levels of interaction and collaboration that it is impossible to send them to faraway places. Companies also insource expertise for the same reasons, bringing specialized talent inhouse (like a management consultant or accountant) for a defined period. Being able to draw on specialized skills locally is a powerful advantage for both insourcing and outsourcing. Downtowns can successfully access and mix up all this talent when they are at the nexus of the metropolitan transportation systems, and they can accommodate lots of people moving around by some means other than the auto. America has so starved transit that only a handful of downtowns can build the collaborative overlapping business, living, and recreational cultures that urban success increasingly demands--mainly, the older cities that still have functioning high-capacity rail transit. Elsewhere, people won't go downtown because traffic is terrible and they can't park. But if downtown is remade, as many have been, to accommodate all the cars, it is no longer a downtown but a plane of surface parking dotted with some tall buildings. ## Megaburbia Seizes Up For decades, business-location analysts assumed that downtown was for finance and banking and that the suburbs, with their easy mobility, were for most every other kind of business. But highly interactive and highly collaborative ways of working have grown in tandem with the "distributive," supposedly suburb-friendly technologies that have matured in recent years, such as e-mail and the Internet. This has begun to change the game for megaburban business centers, which have depended on the ability to move quickly across very large landscapes by auto. Have a look at what's happened to Hollywood--the industry, not the place. The movie and television (and, nowadays, computer game and animation) businesses grew within the greater Los Angeles basin everywhere but downtown, even though these are quintessentially creative and collaborative endeavors. You find studios north, in Burbank, or dozens of miles south, in Orange County, and scattered everywhere in between. For decades, it didn't matter that Burbank and Culver City were not close to each other, because freeways knitted them together. Today, traffic conditions require chauffeured producers to motor an hour from the coast to see bankers and attorneys downtown. Low-paid production assistants haul perhaps forty-five minutes from somewhere near USC to the San Fernando Valley. The stakes are too high in Hollywood, and the business too competitive, to afford to have so many people stuck in so much traffic. For now, though, that's the only possibility. The realm that Hollywood occupies in metropolitan Los Angeles represents a tiny slice of its geographical extent--a reach that up to a few years ago was entirely accessible by car in under an hour. As the metropolitan area grows beyond a hundred miles in every direction, and "close-in" housing has gotten more expensive, the roads have congealed and greater Los Angeles has begun to divide itself into separate spheres determined by drive times. Orange County and the San Fernando Valley are severing themselves from Los Angeles, creating independent economies that are less integrated because it is too difficult to get from place to place. These developments undermine the ability to access talent that is the key business advantage of large urban areas. As each person's drive-time radius shrinks, Los Angeles loses the advantages of bigness and the disadvantages begin to loom larger. You can say the same about both Atlanta and Silicon Valley, though these are among the most heavily freewayed landscapes in America. For similar reasons, the economy of Long Island is becoming steadily more isolated from that of metropolitan New York, because sclerotic freeways and a lack of train service make Westchester County, southern Connecticut, and New Jersey suburbs all but inaccessible. The changed way businesses interact with one another has become noticeable in the way companies build facilities in the megaburban hinterlands. Up until the 1990s, prestigious corporations erected self-contained campuses on vast acreages in tony suburbs, wrapping these emblems of success with private lakes, running trails, and impeccably groomed landscaping. The insightful urban observer William H. Whyte noticed that no one wanted to visit these intimidating redoubts, and the self-satisfied grandeur tended to focus business culture inward, while businesses that co-located with customers in downtowns or multiple locations thrived at the old-line companies' expense.14 In the past couple of decades, those blue chip names vanished or shrank (AT&T, General Foods, Union Carbide), and many of the corporate showplaces have been torn down and sold off. According to Fuerst, who did the research on firms that stayed in Manhattan after 9/11, there is ample, though anecdotal, evidence that too few businesses consider the potential for interaction and collaboration when they choose business locations distant from the center--and then pay the price. "The company moves back to the city after a while when it turns out that its business operations have become less efficient in the suburban location. The problem becomes apparent when employees report that they actually spend more time traveling to and from the new location, not less. For example, many clients are unwilling to travel to a remote suburban office park for a meeting and prefer to meet in a downtown location instead. Consequently, employees of the suburban company spend precious time traveling to and from inner cities for these meetings."15 Many megaburban realms are becoming denser--though rarely in a planned way, struggling to make interaction and collaboration easier, leading to what sounds like the oxymoronic notion of "dense sprawl," evident in Los Angeles, which has grown denser as people seek shorter daily travel times. Metrowide, Los Angeles is now the densest urban area in America. But the interactivity essential to urban health needs both density and mobility, and there's a limit to how dense such places can become without better access to auto alternatives. With a sclerotic growth machine and an opportunistic, short-term, fragmented view of the future, we should not be surprised that the urban places we make are not adaptable--not really agile--in business terms, in quality-of-life terms, and in climate-adapting terms. The ecological notion of high-efficiency/low-impact aligns with the business case for urban density because urban places designed to allow lots of interaction are inherently agile and adaptive, just as reducing the land footprint and the ecological impact of cities is. You can reject climate-change science and still make a case for places that are compact and that enable the use of auto alternatives. Auto-alternative cityscapes permit many scales of interaction but exact no penalties if you hole up in your office and never see anyone. Megaburban settlement patterns are responsible for the fact that transportation costs for doing business (even with generally far cheaper energy costs) are much higher in America than in similar developed-world countries, and that energy use of all kinds is much higher than in peer nations--but without the payoff in greater wealth that cheap energy and unlimited auto mobility are supposed to confer. Edge cities are beginning to recognize that they must transform themselves to continue to capture the advantages of proximity once conferred by the networks of open freeways, according to Virginia Tech's Robert Lang. He described a big computer-company enclave in Atlanta's beltway-hugging Perimeter Center. Staff resisted an expansion proposal because it already took twenty minutes to get down the freeway off-ramp.16 The transcendent megaburban issue is mobility. Experts and the traffic-weary commuter alike know that localities cannot build traffic lanes fast enough. Fewer understand that it is especially difficult to improve mobility if there is no means to address it systematically--at the metropolitan scale at which highways supposedly knit communities together. What we do, however wasteful and senseless we know it to be, is upgrade an intersection here or add a highway lane there. It should come as no surprise that an accumulation of such $100 million projects adds up quickly to billions yet only rearranges the traffic jams temporarily rather than actually alleviating them. If mobility seems an obsession in these pages, it is because mobility is the centerpiece of urban success. Cities exist to collect people for a wide variety of exchanges. If you can't get to those cities, and if you can't get around within them, those exchanges simply move somewhere else. Older cities paid the price when auto mobility released people from dependence on train routes and schedules. Now the auto dependence of megaburbia has become a liability. Wealth building, mobility, and climate change are becoming increasingly inextricable. The urban places we make will largely determine our economic and ecologic future. ## Suburban Values Versus Megaburban Reality Can small-town governance structures and suburban cultural ideals ("bathed in sunlight and fresh air," as suburban historian Kenneth T. Jackson put it) hope to deal with the form of suburbanism that has emerged? It has not been easy. The growth machine that makes megaburbia happen is on a collision course with the quality of life that has for so long animated the suburban dream. As people have moved from inner suburb to outer suburb, with the beltway loops, like tree rings, marking growth eras twenty, thirty, even fifty miles from the center, they settled down at what seemed to them a safe distance from stagnation and congestion, only to find the tsunami of traffic, growth, and urban anxiety rearing up right behind. The land-use controversies that fill the pages of suburban local newspapers can be parodied as the selfless tree-huggers versus the evil developers or the heroic businesses bearing jobs versus selfish anti-everything activists. Instead, these are fundamental struggles over suburban values and identity. They are efforts to maintain stability and a sense of place--one might also say, a sense of civility--in the face of economic forces that only incidentally recognize these values. Business groups gripe that not-in-my-backyard (NIMBY) activists protest the roads, the office parks, the malls, and the airport expansions necessary for modern commerce to function economically--everything that makes their good life possible. Suburbanites become activists to "preserve our quality of life"--by which some mean housing values, by which some mean a place where people like them will continue to feel comfortable, by which some mean a place where houses still open to views of farm fields or forests, and by which some mean a place that's as affordable to the next generation as it was to the last. The ad hoc nature of NIMBY-style activism--moving relentlessly from the proposed subdivision to the proposed road widening--infuriates businesses that have already "jumped through all the hoops." It provokes heartburn at government agencies that find themselves endlessly mediating squabbles that have morphed into epic, to-the-death battles. These kinds of protests are classically suburban in character, however. The individualistic values embodied by such activism are ingrained in its DNA. They are no match for the vast economic forces roiling megaburbia, however. Broadly speaking, the environmental activists and property-tax protesters are fighting the growth machine forces that have created megaburbia, but the culture of small-town home rule provides "weapons" capable only of winning battles here and there, not of winning the war for suburban quality of life. Climate change, along with taxes, traffic, and school funding, are all megaburban concerns that can't successfully be dealt with until suburbs come together to create a high-performance, low-impact future at metropolitan scale. Suburbia's enclave culture plays out in various ways. It is difficult not only to efficiently consolidate government functions but also to unite so many entities to accomplish anything. Mamaroneck, a suburb of New York City, wanted to stop the construction of an Ikea superstore because the enormous traffic generated would clog its narrow, quiet streets. Unfortunately, the store was located a stone's throw away in neighboring New Rochelle, which wanted the tax receipts the store would generate. New Rochelle, not Mamaroneck, had the power to approve or nix the store. Mamaroneck tried to pass an ordinance to restrict the actions of New Rochelle, which New Rochelle rejected as a power grab.17 This kind of land-use roundelay happens all over America all the time. ## Looking For Orlando Leaders in even relatively young metropolitan areas have recognized how hard it is to prepare for the future when you can act only as an assemblage of enclaves. Orlando is such a place. There's not much of a center, though I-4 takes you by a smattering of downtown towers. Most of "Orlando" lies beyond the city limits and is made up of small communities huddled along the I-4 backbone far to the north and south, or tucked around the dozens of sparkling lakes to the west and northwest, well beyond the freeways' reach. In the tightly packed subdivisions scattered across the square miles, middle-class retirees seek low-cost solace amid orange groves abandoned after freezes in the 1980s. To the east, the St. John's River, rimmed by wildlife-rich marshes, forms a watery, green barrier. On paper, many places recognize that economically related cities and suburbs must work together on issues of common importance, but regional government is a concept beloved by planning wonks and few others. Federal transportation rules require metropolitan planning organizations to hammer out transportation priorities, but few operate transparently nor get beyond conventional political horse-trading. Many places form councils of local governments. Because each of their members answers only to their own voters, these aptly named COGs often accomplish little. Orlando has taken a different path, attempting to forge a metropolitan identity, which could lead in turn to the formation (or rearrangement) of government institutions to make that identity a reality. According to Shelly Lauten, "Orlando" is actually eighty-six municipalities and seven counties. "We were a bunch of small cities," she explained when I visited some years ago. She is president of a group called MyRegion that tries to build a more cooperative attitude in such satellite Orlandos as Ocoee, Kissimmee, and Apopka.18 She and her colleagues don't think the region can successfully compete, or maintain the quality of life that attracts people, or deal with global warming challenges, if all these little places won't work together. She recognizes that her vision is a minority one. Lauten and her colleagues at MyRegion know that most of the communities that make up this "city" don't see much value in working together or defining themselves as the united urban entity they are--economically anyway. "People don't want to think of themselves in terms of 'Orlando,' " Lauten says, "but there's nothing else." The go-it-alone ethos is evident in the way metro Orlando flings itself outward with ever-greater centrifugal force. The freeway net stretches in an elongated thirty-mile-diameter loop, while the hottest growth zones are fifteen to thirty miles farther out. It's an ultra-low-density scatter, dissolving the edge of Orlando's megaburbia into what Virginia Tech urban analyst Robert Lang has called the "Edgeless City" (figure 6.2).19 Figure 6.2 Land development patterns in agricultural zones far beyond the urban edge often take suburban form, like this subdivided farmland in Southampton, New York. Credit: James S. Russell Orlando has struggled to maintain a balance of growth, friendliness, and quality of life. "We don't want to become L.A.," is the mantra that has united the MyRegion project with its skeptical constituents. However, a conservative politics; a pro-growth ethos; cheap, plentiful land, and minimal government-- little different from the ethos which prevails in Orlando today--did not keep the "L.A." people love to hate from happening. When I checked back in 2010, MyRegion had succeeded on the transportation front because it helped build a consensus to link metropolitan Orlando and Tampa with high-speed rail (which will turn a one-and-a-half hour trip into a thirty-seven-minute one), and that corridor was the first one selected for funding in the Obama administration's intercity-rail push. "Orlando mayor Buddy Dyer told me that if not for MyRegion's efforts to help us collectively change our mindsets, we would have never gotten high-speed rail," Lauten said.20 A local commuter-rail project has also been approved. "We were able to point out that our population may double by 2050 and serving that with new roads would require about $260 billion." MyRegion had not yet been able to resolve squabbles about water supplies when I spoke to Lauten. And global warming skepticism has prevented greater Orlando from developing a strategy on climate change, even though low-lying Florida could suffer gravely from rising seas. "Some people say all of south Florida is at risk, and we know it's hugely important, but a lot of people just want to ignore it," Lauten explained. MyRegion is incrementally readying those eighty-six cities for the day when climate change and other metrowide challenges must be faced. The federal government has begun to offer what could become game-changing grants that unite pots of money from the Departments of Housing and Urban Development and Transportation, along with the Environmental Protection Agency. Instead of throwing money at fixing a traffic problem here or underwriting an urban-revitalization scheme there, these grants support regional planning that integrates economic development, housing, transportation, and environmental protection. They actually can address systemic issues. Unlike most metropolitan areas in the United States: "We have learned collaborative behavior," explains Lauten. "So what better region in country to test this planning approach than central Florida?" ## The City As A Mutt Rather than obliterate suburbia, reshape it in the form of a traditional central city, or throw a lot of ideas around and see which stick, we can more comprehensively envision higher-efficiency and lower-impact urban forms. Then we figure out ways to enable them to happen--which means rebuilding the growth machine from scratch. Subsequent chapters spell out a number of possible futures, none of them utopian. America has tended to discard places when they get older, moving on to something newer, greener, and shinier and trying not to see the mess that's left behind. The cities we worship, though, the places we'll pay good money to go visit, are often old. They seem to have been built for the ages. Keep looking at those handsome streetscapes and you see that they are anything but pure. They are a melange of eras, styles, and adaptations. Along the streets of Rome, you can see a medieval window arch that survived a Baroque-era makeover. A grand ancient Roman arch may form the ceiling of a basement restaurant. Places that build for the ages don't obliterate the past or leave it behind; they repurpose it. America needs to wreak a transformation of its communities over the next decades, but it is unlikely to make cities and suburbs as we know them vanish. Instead, places will become more muttlike--less pure and more interesting-- and we know that mutts are often healthier and less high-strung. The single-family home may lose its dominance in the housing mix, and you'll live in it differently, performing daily errands with far fewer car trips because you'll park once and walk to destinations clustered in neighborhood centers. More people will choose to live in multifamily buildings of various kinds, where heating and cooling are far more economical and where maintenance chores are fewer, and in neighborhoods where most tasks can be accomplished without driving. Fast light-rail or bus rapid transit lines will link neighborhood centers to one another and to major destinations. Commuter rail and inter-city rail will link destinations of metrowide importance. Asphalt acres should shrink in a more agile megaburbia, as reliance on autos declines. We can jackhammer parking lots in favor of suburban forests, We can widen waterside buffers so that streams and lakes run cleaner, linking them together in "green lung" corridors that serve natural and human needs together. Rather than fill wetlands for warehouse shopping, we can let them handle flood control and water filtering for us. The apparent paradox of "denser," more diverse megaburbia is the potential to reclaim the closeness to nature that was always at the root of the suburban dream. # Part 4 Agile Urban Futures James S. RussellThe Agile CityBuilding Well-being and Wealth in an Era of Climate Change10.5822/978-1-61091-027-9_7(C) James S. Russell 2011 # 7. Building Adaptive Places James S. Russell1 (1) Bloomberg News, Lexington Ave 731, 10022 New York, USA Abstract A small house in Orient, a village on eastern Long Island, beckoned charmingly as a summer rental. It looked across the lawn of the village green to a sailboat-dotted harbor. A group of us moved in, and it grew on us throughout the summer in the way some deeply special buildings and places do. It wasn't a classic beauty. It had started out as a tiny, square 1840s saltbox built by a carpenter out of pattern books widely available at the time, and it had more than doubled in size through three idiosyncratic additions over a hundred years. A small house in Orient, a village on eastern Long Island, beckoned charmingly as a summer rental. It looked across the lawn of the village green to a sailboat-dotted harbor. A group of us moved in, and it grew on us throughout the summer in the way some deeply special buildings and places do. It wasn't a classic beauty. It had started out as a tiny, square 1840s saltbox built by a carpenter out of pattern books widely available at the time, and it had more than doubled in size through three idiosyncratic additions over a hundred years. The unobvious wisdom built into its strangely colliding parts began to reveal itself. It had been carefully oriented on the lot to capture cooling breezes that predictably spring up on the Peconic Bay on summer afternoons. (The whole house was cross ventilated, which meant that only on the half dozen hottest days did you even need fans.) A charmingly odd door opened outside from partway up the stairway, aligned to the floor below; you had to clamber a couple of feet to use it. As the days warmed, its usefulness became clear: it routed that prevailing breeze up the stairs and into the bedrooms, pushing accumulated hot air out. When the back porch grew too hot, we found ourselves moving to the street-side front porch, out of the sun. The watery quality of the afternoon light slanting in, filtered by street trees, invited a nap, a read, and quiet cocktail conversation. As the sun sank toward the horizon, it slipped between the trees, putting on a magical spectacle, it seemed, just for us (figure 7.1). Figure 7.1 Along the northeastern seaboard, climate-sensitive houses orient porches to capture summer breezes and funnel them through the cross-ventilated houses. Credit: James S. Russell The point of this is not to wax poetic about a summer idyll but to recognize that one of the most environmentally responsible things we can do is live pleasurably in closer cognizance to climate, weather, daylight, and breezes. In contrast to the ordinariness and sameness of most of our cities and suburbs, many communities and many natural environments seem to have an innate, soulful sense of place. Of course, a great deal of a city or town's uniqueness is formed out of culture, history, and habit, but its built form--like that of the Long Island village--can enhance its specialness or erase it. You would not mistake stretches of the northern Atlantic coast for anywhere else, because of the light, the color of the water, the shape of the dunes, the plants growing on them, the shingled houses hunkered down to survive storms. By contrast, you could never divine what is unique about much of Florida's developed coastline, since its unique flora and even the configuration of the beach itself have been so altered--if not obliterated--that the ingredients of "beach" have been degraded merely to water, sand, asphalt, concrete, and condos. This chapter shows the enormous untapped and underestimated potential of buildings and sites to reduce carbon emissions and adapt to climate-change effects. Buildings and their settings can harness nature to do much of what in the past few decades we have handed off to costly energy-hogging machinery. So I do not propose fifty ways to green your home through better lightbulbs and caulking your windows properly. These are valuable things to do, but plenty of guidance exists already. You will see in this chapter many references to heating, cooling, and lighting. These are the biggest energy users in buildings by far, and they offer the largest opportunities for reduction. In most nonresidential buildings, cooling is very important because the lighting and equipment--and even human exertion--add so much heat to conventional sealed buildings that air-conditioning commonly switches on when the outside building temperatures are as low as the fifties. (As global warming adds a degree or two to warm days, we'll be pushing that air-conditioning harder, drawing more power, ejecting more heat and carbon into the atmosphere--an ever more costly spiral.) In homes, the energy used for heating hot water, cooking, and drying clothes may be much greater than that used for lighting. The real opportunity to make deep cuts in carbon, and to live with much lower impact on the environment, begins not with technology but with place, with a holistic approach to understanding and making the most of every setting's unique qualities. ## Loving the Lowly Shutter Designers of agile buildings and ensembles can "read" what the natural environment is telling them--whether in the windblown plains, under the South's dense tree canopy, in the sharp light of high deserts, in the misty Pacific Northwest, or in the chill of the upper Midwest and New England. Let's start small, with a window protection that has existed for centuries: the shutter. Shutters are among the humble architectural devices that we discarded when we decided we could engineer our way out of anything (figure 7.2). Louvered ones keep the hot summer sun out while letting in cooling breezes. They can repel intruders. In Rome, shutter design for the enormous windows of the city's endless palaces has been honed to a fine art. You can open the top half to catch a breeze or rooftop view, and close the lower half for privacy. You can close the top and tilt out the bottom during the hottest part of the day to keep track of the doings on the street (an essential Roman pastime) while you remain shrouded in shadow. Figure 7.2 Louvered shutters cut the heat of the sun while admitting breezes and maintaining privacy. Sturdy ones can protect windows from hurricanes and intruders. Credit: James S. Russell Such historic architectural devices harness nature rather than defy it. By and large, they work because they were honed by time, experience--and tragedy. In the hurricane-prone South, shutters were a home's first line of defense. When hurricanes threaten the Atlantic or Gulf Coasts nowadays, homeowners desperately nail plywood over vulnerable windows--including over modern useless shutters. Those great colonnades of Deep South plantation houses were made tall and deep to shade grand windows from the sun. The high-ceilinged rooms stay cooler longer. Many southern homes featured upper-floor terraces. Giving relief from the heat, they facilitated nighttime trysts, fodder for endless southern novels. The great facades of the grand old homes were sometimes only one room deep so that the Gulf breezes would run refreshingly through. Other houses were stretched into a long T, so that every room could harvest the same precious cool. I am not one for returning to the past or embalming it. But as we think about an adaptive way to build for the future, there's no reason we can't learn from these great traditions. I wrote about a distinctly modern house built not far from Charleston, South Carolina, to replace one swept away by Hurricane Hugo in 1989. It has tall ceilings and high windows, but a contemporary informality. A handsome wood latticework protects those windows from storm-driven debris while providing dappled shade to a wraparound porch. Unlike its neighboring McMansions on stilts, it's carefully proportioned to look good even though it is raised nine feet above the ground so that the kind of surging waves that regularly level Atlantic coast communities could pass beneath. The house drew a great deal of attention at the time, and its architect, Ray Huff, of Charleston, was instantly deemed a hurricane expert by the press. He was not, and did not pretend to be; he just followed the traditional rules and applied them in an especially inventive way.1 As mechanical air-conditioning has become universal, the South has replicated the look of history endlessly but stopped installing working shutters and rarely builds deep porches or breeze-harvesting floor plans. That damaged the great social traditions honed by hot climates: the art of deep-into-the-night conversation and music making. But it's understandable. The most sensitive architecture can't duplicate the comfort provided by a humming compressor. Air-conditioning is great, but it's cheaper to run if we protect windows with shutters. It's even cheaper if we turn it off in the evening and hunt for the breeze on a capacious front porch. For all the variety in the New Orleans designs for Global Green, the Make It Right prototypes, and the model home projects in Biloxi, they shared climate-sensitive design themes. Many attempted in various ways to update the long "shotgun" types, a modest form of housing historically built in the Gulf south. Shotgun builders simply strung one room in back of the other in a long, skinny line from porched, street-facing parlor to back garden. They're called shotgun because you can shoot a bullet from one end to the other unimpeded as each room opens into the next in a straight line. They have long served as a cheap means to funnel fresh air. Among many permutations, some alternated rooms and tiny gardened courtyards. The modern prototypes adapted the advantages of older shotguns to fit modern lifestyles, creating houses that have more privacy yet are airier, energy efficient, and more wind resistant, and that place neighborly porches close to passersby on the street even as they hike themselves above potential flood levels (or, in the case of one Make It Right house, float). However many tactics and technologies they use, all the post-Katrina prototypes also used what is always provided free: sun, daylight, and fresh air. Writ just a bit larger, that means making the most of the location: orientation, topography, soils, vegetation, cultural traditions, and so on. Shaping a house and correctly orienting it to minimize both winter heat loss and summer heat gain can deliver double-digit energy savings no matter where it is. The savings are all free, but too often we just don't bother. If you take the same house and make it a town house, so that it shares two of its four main exposures with neighboring dwellings, you can save from 40 to more than 50 percent of the heating and cooling energy needed by a single-family house designed heedless of its place. If you add high-performance mechanical systems and upgraded windows to the well-oriented house, they perform better with quicker paybacks.2 The result does more than put dollars in your pocket. You inhabit a building, a site, and a community that isn't in a place--it makes a place. Why would we build the same home-builder's box everywhere when we could be building homes that, like our little Orient house, clock the seasons and reveal the uniqueness of their location by how they catch breezes, harvest winter sun, and husband shade in summer? As a bonus, we will have made lower-carbon communities with a far richer range of experiences and social amenities. ## Trade Wind Techniques Cool California Let's have a look beyond the South at the diversity of adaptations you can find among America's vast range of climates. It should be simple to all but eliminate heating and cooling in most of coastal California. The boxy, stucco-sided houses roofed in red tiles that dot the endless hills have learned nothing from the traditional Mediterranean architecture from which their look is cribbed, and so demand expanses of tinted glass and hefty air-conditioning machinery only because they are not oriented to use sun, shade, and breezes. The San Francisco federal office building, designed by the Los Angeles firm Morphosis, shows what's possible. It uses south-facing metal screens to repel unwanted heat, and glass fins to the north to bring in daylight. Inside, the undulating concrete ceilings encourage cross ventilation through windows that open. The concrete itself absorbs heat from people and machines and radiates it during the cool nights. (In warm, dry places with cool nights, there are many tactics that can be used to "store" the evening coolness in massive masonry or rammed-earth walls for use in the daytime.) The narrowest sides of the building face east and west so that the least possible wall area faces the heat of the morning and afternoon sun. The thin form of the building means that people work in daylight rather than electric lights (figure 7.3). Almost everyone has a view. The main elevators stop every third floor, which not only saves energy but encourages people to get a bit of exercise as they encounter coworkers on wide, handsome stairways that open to bay panoramas. Figure 7.3 In the San Francisco Federal Building, north-facing windows permit work by daylight with only minimal use of electric lights (Morphosis, architect). Windows at top and bottom open to naturally ventilate the building. Credit: James S. Russell Almost every technique I just described is ancient, though this eye-catching building's form and use are utterly contemporary. (While walking around it, I overhead a passerby comment "very military-industrial complex.") The building could effectively harvest breezes and daylight because it applied rapidly advancing computer-aided analytical software to make the old techniques work with today's expectations of comfort.3 Much of inland California, where the coastal cooling of the ocean is less pronounced, can still forgo mechanical air-conditioning if well designed or sensitively remodeled. Minimizing broad expanses that directly face the sun is a much more powerful tactic than rule-of-thumb cooling-machinery calculations credit. If the view or the prime frontage can't avoid facing into the sun, protecting walls with external awnings and shutters (the old-fashioned solution) or suspended louvers (the 1950s solution) or adjustable external blinds (today's solution) not only saves energy but means you can get rid of the dreary internal environment created by tinted glass. With shaded clear glass, you can use daylight and switch off lights near the windows, ramping up savings. (Lights use power and add heat that must be removed). You can dare to open the window because the sun on an 80-degree day has not heated the glass to 120 degrees. Ensembles of buildings can be arranged to shade one another during the hottest periods of the day yet grab light during the short days of winter. They can connect to one another through appealing, shadowy courtyards or trellis-covered passages. (Plopping buildings willy-nilly and wrapping them in surface parking takes no thought at all but is wasteful by every measure: isolating people, throwing away useful land, and building in wasteful energy use.) ## Seeking Shade in the Desert The windshield-exploding heat of the desert in places like Phoenix and Las Vegas would seem to defeat any energy-conserving regime. But people have lived for centuries in the world's hottest places and have honed numerous architectural means to beat the heat. High buildings shade narrow streets. Thick walls absorb daytime heat, then release it in cool evenings. Shutters, veils of curtains, and decorative perforated screens orchestrate layered thresholds from hot, bright streets to cool, shadowy private realms in Spain, Africa, and the Middle East. Overlapping expanses of fabric dapple traditional souks with light and waft in fresh air. Tall chimneys capture rooftop breezes to draw out heat rising from lower floors. People who have lived for centuries without cheap fossil-fuel energy have not plopped the same boxy buildings you'd find in damp, dim climates in the middle of sun-seared, heat-capturing parking lots. That's what we do in the United States. Of course, massive air-conditioning units must roar atop such climate-ignorant buildings. Cruising by the headquarters of the Endesa power company on Madrid's M-40 beltway, you would not naturally think of the traditional Spanish patio. Horizontal blades of translucent glass project from its long, six-story bulk to cut the western sun. Behind the facade, the building wraps a city-block-long courtyard, covered by a high-tech roof framed in massive steel trusses. The courtyard was built as a gathering space that would remain comfortable even in Madrid's dry, searing summers. Instead of the traditional patio's trellis of wood or roof of canvas, the Endesa courtyard has a system of louvers and translucent glass that shade the courtyard and diffuse daylight, which offices around the courtyard borrow to largely replace electric lights (figure 7.4). Air cooled by the earth seeps into the courtyard through the paving. Solar chimneys draw hot air out of the top of the atrium. Figure 7.4 The glass roof of the Endesa headquarters outside Madrid both shades an internal courtyard and supplies daylight to offices that wrap its perimeter. Solar chimneys temper the space by exhausting warm air (KPF and Rafael de La-Hoz, architects). Credit: (C) H. G. Esch courtesy KPF The design does not avoid the use of mechanical air-conditioning but minimizes the amount of space that must be cooled. The extensive use of shading devices all around reduces external heat buildup. I've long admired this building because of the inventive way architects Kohn Pedersen Fox (the London office of the New York firm), the local architect Rafael de La-Hoz, and the London natural-ventilation consultants Battle McCarthy combine so many tactics of traditional hot-climate architecture in a building of utterly contemporary use.4 It's extraordinary that in hot-weather America such techniques have been adopted only rarely to make buildings and streetscapes more comfortable, even in the absence of an urgency to reduce energy use. Yes, residents of Tucson or El Paso can live their lives almost entirely within air-conditioned cars and air-conditioned buildings, but traipsing across the acres of arid parking lots to do everyday errands eradicates much of the comfort advantage. For many months of the year, a stroll down the street, through a public square, or into a park is not a pleasure but an ordeal. It is not surprising that people flock to pedestrianized shopping malls shaded by porches and cooled by fountains or trellises networked with misters. ## The East: Heat from the Earth and Passive Power It's not easy to harvest climate forces for energy conservation in much of the eastern United States--St. Louis, Philadelphia, New York, Boston--where you have low winter temperatures and humid, high summer heat. As you move north, traditional houses become tighter and boxier to minimize building exposure to the cold. That's why additions to farmhouses in Vermont or New Hampshire seem to huddle together for warmth. Windows grow larger on the south and north sides to draw in elusive sun on short winter days. It's easy to cut heat energy simply by insulating well, using an efficient furnace, and switching it off where and when you don't need it. In old houses of the East, only a few cozy, well-insulated rooms might be heated. Summer breezes are nice but can only minimize the discomfort of high-humidity days. That's why many engineers in the humidity belt regard natural ventilation as suitable only for the all-too-brief "shoulder seasons," when summer humidity diminishes but the winter heating season has yet to begin. As elsewhere, traditional architecture offers cues to "broaden" the shoulders: porches offer summer respite though they are shallower than their southern counterparts. If you are willing to open and close windows and shutters, as the seasons dictate, and use ceiling fans and whole-house fans, you can counteract the discomfort of all but the hottest humid days in much of the East, minimizing the need for air-conditioning in buildings carefully oriented and shaded from summer heat. The East has climate advantages, too. Much of it is lush, so carefully placed trees can shade the hottest building exposures. The push to "forest" Philadelphia, Chicago, New York, and other cities can knock a few degrees off of sultry days while making people feel psychologically cooler. Conveniently, eastern tree leaves fall off in winter, replacing shade with useful daylight and welcome solar heat. While solar and wind energy offer great localized potential, geothermal heating and cooling is fast becoming the renewable-energy source of choice in the humidity belt. A system entails many tiny wells drilled into the earth under a garden or parking lot. In winter, pumps withdraw warmth from the earth, usually an unvarying fifty-five degrees, adding it to the heating system, which then must do much less to bring the rooms up to a comfortable temperature. In summer, the system essentially pumps heat back into the earth, replacing the high energy demand of conventional cooling machinery. It's more powerful and consistent than either solar energy or wind. These days, geothermal systems are complex, and costly up front. However, they cost next to nothing to run. If there is space for the wells and the geologic conditions are right, they can be installed to serve a single home or a complex of large buildings. They deserve a major research effort aimed at bringing costs down because they have the potential to replace a great deal of the dirtiest energy the nation now uses: heating from high-sulfur fuel oil and electricity generated from coal. Geothermal energy at large scale applied to cut cooling energy loads could allow cities all over the East to shut down the dirtiest power plants--ancient, high-polluting relics fired up only to supply electricity for the summer peak, which in many places lasts only a few days or weeks, though the plants must run much longer to accommodate sudden temperature spikes and extended heat waves. That's a lot of wasted load. Passive House techniques, which dramatically lower heat-energy requirements, promise the next significant steps to lower energy use in cold climates. The idea, pioneered decades ago in Scandinavia, is to build super-insulated, nearly airtight buildings that therefore demand very little heat energy. (Hence the term passive; it doesn't rely on solar panels or other renewables.) Though the techniques are usually used for homes, I visited the Riedburg primary school, outside Frankfurt, Germany. Grey and low slung but brightened by orange panels, it was built around a broad, landscaped courtyard. Daylight lit the hallways. Broad, tall windows lit a typical classroom. Alex Bretzke, a Passive House design expert at the Biberach University of Applied Sciences (though not the designer of this particular school), demonstrated some of its features. The wood-window construction is massive, with two layers of glass widely spaced (a level of insulation essentially unknown in even the coldest corners of the United States, let alone mild Frankfurt). I could not see the heavy layers of insulation applied to the walls and roof, but it is almost double the thickness typically found in Germany. Bretzke drew our attention to small air returns that draw used air out of a classroom and run it across heat exchangers that extract the heat generated by children, teachers, lights, and equipment. That heat warms an incoming stream of 100 percent fresh air that enters the classroom through a long slot. (That means that this super-tight building actually ventilates more fresh air than conventional ones.) Most of the time, that's all the heat the building needs. There is a small radiator that can augment the heat on the coldest days, fed by a boiler that cleanly burns renewable wood pellets.5 The Passive House measures reduce heat-energy needs to negligible levels. (It is as yet unclear how well they will work in warm climates.) With its relatively simple techniques, it can come close to more elaborate low-energy office buildings, such as Unilever, described in chapter 3--around 120 kilowatt hours per square meter per year. The Frankfurt school's energy use is low enough that the addition of some solar panels would make it a net-zero-energy-use building. Passive House buildings cost slightly more than conventional buildings, with the additional money put into insulation, airtight construction, the high-performance windows, and the heat exchangers. They also eliminate the cost of large, conventional boilers, as well as a great deal of ductwork and heating infrastructure. Passive House design bursts certain myths about how energy savings work. In conventional construction, those hefty windows would probably take so long to pay back that you wouldn't buy them. But when several techniques are combined so that the value of each builds on the others, you can achieve much higher performance at the same or lower overall cost. That's why common presumptions that only at best 20 or 30 percent of energy can be saved by conservation alone, or conservation combined with the use of renewables, will likely prove seriously low. ## Civilizing A Severe Climate Building designers increasingly use biological metaphors, such as skin or lungs, to describe the techniques they develop to harness natural systems to heat, cool, ventilate, and light buildings. Winnipeg, in the eastern prairies of Manitoba, offers an almost literal interpretation, designed for one of North America's most extreme climates, where temperatures dip to around minus thirty-one degrees Fahrenheit, accompanied by icy winds. Spring and fall are volatile. Summers can be both searing (ninety-five degrees) and humid. On frigid days, no one hunkers behind windowless super-insulated walls. Instead, sun pours into the office space from all sides through floor-to-ceiling untinted glass. (Winnipeg is quite a sunny place for all its weather gyrations.) Dependable winds from the south push fresh air into sunny, multifloor winter gardens that act as a combination of sunny porch and giant air-mixing box. Heat from the low winter sun angle augmented by warmth captured from the ventilating system's exhaust tempers the air (figure 7.5). It moves horizontally northward through the office spaces, which are protected on their east and west sides by three layers of glass separated by a three-foot-wide insulating blanket of space. The used air is drawn up and out through a solar chimney on the northern edge of the building. Figure 7.5 The tall winter gardens in the Manitoba Hydro building act as a thermal blanket in winter, "preheating" the building with a combination of strong winter sun, heat recycled from air exchangers, and heat generated from a geothermal well system. Credit: (C) Eduard Hueber, courtesy KPMB Architects When the warmth of spring comes, flaps open in the long glass walls of the building's east and west elevations--just as the pores of our own skin open up--and staffers can operate windows in the inner wall to bring in as much natural ventilation as they like. Shades inside the insulating space drop to reduce solar glare and heat. In summer, the atriums become the cooling lungs of the building. Chilled water drops down suspended Mylar ribbons, precooling and dehumidifying the intake air. Water from the geothermal wells runs through the concrete ceilings of the office space, absorbing heat. The air flaps in the window walls close to keep heat out. Geothermal wells add heat in the winter and take it away in summer. Heat exchangers grab excess heat before it's exhausted. Manitoba Hydro Place can afford to supply continuous 100 percent fresh air (in most buildings, 80 percent of the air you breathe is recycled), because most of the energy used to heat and cool it is free. Manitoba Hydro, as the name implies, is a power company that sources almost all of its electricity from hydroelectricity, a renewable resource that could already be deemed essentially carbon neutral. But there are only so many streams that can be dammed, so the company ensures its "supply" by reducing power demand. Clearly, a building so versatile in its approach to climate doesn't come cheap, especially because the calibration of its many conservation measures is anything but simple. The building design came out of a closely integrated team effort. Design architect KPMP, of Toronto, worked with climate criteria and concepts developed by the New York City office of Transsolar, a "climate engineering" firm based in Germany. Additional architects and engineers worked together with the building contractor to construct the eighteen-story building at a reasonable cost to Manitoba Hydro. Much of what was done in the project is not new but is a pioneering adaptation to a severe climate of techniques more commonly used where milder weather prevails. The building, completed in 2008, achieves that now-familiar goal of requiring no more than one hundred kilowatt hours per square meter of energy per year. A few years ago, not many experts would have predicted that the forces of Mother Nature could be harnessed so successfully to the creation of the consistent lighting and comfort conditions we've come to expect in our mechanically serviced age. It should be an easier task to hone these techniques to deliver them widely at lower up-front cost.6 ## Seeking the Elusive Sun in Seattle The climate of the Pacific Northwest (as well as some parts of New England) is much like that of Northern Europe. Measures that are now widely used in the United Kingdom, Germany, and the Netherlands will be widely adopted in the United States once we recognize that buildings can pay back investments over more than two investment cycles. Multilayered, naturally ventilating insulating window walls, the use of daylight instead of electric lights, and strategically placed external shading (like those found in Unilever; see chapter 3) will quickly become common. Some buildings have pioneered environmental tactics even under today's low-upfront-cost, cheap-energy expectations. The broad, planted roof of the Ballard neighborhood library in Seattle curves gently up on its northern edge, opening clerestories underneath to sweep northern daylight inside (figure 7.6). This building, completed in 2005, does not depend on innovative technologies or complex building assemblies. The roof profile, developed by architecture firm Bohlin Cywinski Jackson, expresses the environmental agenda, but most people will simply see it as a welcoming gesture. Figure 7.6 The planted roof of the Ballard Library in Seattle absorbs rain runoff and curves up to admit daylight to the reading room. Its wide roofs shelter patrons from the city's perpetual drizzle. Credit: Nic Lehoux Courtesy Bohlin Cywinski Jackson architects Seeded with drought-resistant local plants, the roof absorbs 86 percent of the site's storm runoff and insulates the interior. The high, sheltered glass walls underneath grab whatever daylight the generally thick cloud cover delivers, augmented by carefully placed clerestory windows and skylights. Sensor-driven dimmers turn off electric lights when they're not needed, creating a pleasingly balanced light inside. The architects pushed the building to the western edge of the site and extended the roof to form a sheltered entrance porch that cuts both the local drizzle and the setting sun. People naturally gather underneath. The porch unites entrances for the library, a neighborhood service center (shared by several city agencies), and a metal-shingled meeting room that can be used even when the library itself is closed. Showing off the building's green tactics became an educational aspect of the library that increased patronage. "If you interest kids, they bring their parents," explained Robert Miller, Bohlin Cywinski Jackson's project manager. These educational possibilities encouraged Seattle City Light to help amortize the additional cost of some conservation elements, such as the photovoltaic panels mounted on the roof.7 The building cuts energy use substantially using high-efficiency but conventional systems, since the city did not waive strict construction-cost criteria for the building's green features. ## Designing Density Place-sensitive design especially applies to that essential element of agile design: density. You cannot fault people for abhorring higher-intensity development when it comes in the form of blank-walled, ill-proportioned buildings pushed to the edge of the property lines that offer neighbors views of garbage dumpsters and parked cars. And yet, far too many communities offered as green award winners deliver precisely such urban insult. To the street, they present the now-stock elements of the neotraditional catalog: a cute massing of gable ends, and a porch. Houses may surround a tidy little public lawn with the inevitable Disneyland gazebo. In side yards or backyards, though, you find expanses of asphalt, the noisy air-conditioning units, and rows of repellent garage doors. Density can be done gracefully without sacrificing the amenity that people reasonably expect, but only if developers are sensitive (even if that sensitivity is mandated by government) and local residents are open-minded enough to value community-spirited, larger-scale development when they see it. From time immemorial, building designers have struggled to make dense places amenable, so there is much wisdom to draw upon. Until the advent of modern plumbing and sanitary sewers, density was a killer, because packing people tightly together made them ready victims of waterborne and airborne disease. With modern sanitation a given, the job these days is much easier. There are just two keys to building density with dignity: light and air. These, not coincidentally, were among the earliest concerns of civil jurisprudence as urban crowding spawned disputes between property owners. Countless disgruntled owners have petitioned countless courts with the question, how high can my neighbor build? The answer: never so high as to block your access to essential daylight and fresh air. Yet that left plenty of room for controversy as well as ingenuity. The need for daylight and fresh air led designers of Roman palaces to wrap rooms around quiet, beautifully proportioned courtyards. It's why everywhere the bay window is among the most richly varied architectural element: it captures both light and breezes, and broadens the view. Depending on where you are, shutters or glass doors can move aside to create a summer terrace. With those doors closed, the opening becomes a winter greenhouse. A window stretched to the floor and provided with a railing becomes a Juliet balcony, a romantic aperture to the world that usefully snatches passing breezes. Factories and artist garrets were long designed with sawtooth roofs angled north, to capture the best light for sculpting, painting, and assembling Fords. (Albert Kahn, America's greatest industrial architect, created long, light-filled sheds shaped not just to light the auto assembly process but to vent the heat and fumes of manufacturing.) It's why domes, appropriately called "lanterns," crown churches. They are daylight distribution devices, not merely symbols. It is only a slight exaggeration to say that the history of architecture is the history of lighting and ventilating buildings in cities. Density needs to take form that is responsive to climate and latitude. You need more light in cloudy northern cities where winter days are short. Shadow is more welcome in hot, southern locations. Architect Lorcan O'Herlihy has built a contemporary, low-rise take on the courtyard apartment houses of 1920s Los Angeles in a project called Gardner 1050. It wraps apartments around a lush courtyard crisscrossed by external corridors and bridges. Vines have crept up to the third floor on stainless steel wires. Each unit is bright yet protected from too much direct sun. Each apartment has a private terrace and two or more exposures, so they cross ventilate. The courtyard is shaped as a welcoming enclosure, a leafy, calming threshold between the public street and the private home.8 Dense developments too often fail to gracefully accommodate vehicles. Californians have become adept at tucking them away. Some sink cars a half level below the first floor, disguising the presence of vehicles with attractive landscaping and architectural grilles and louvers. On steep slopes, architects can wedge them into hillsides. Even when surface parking is unavoidable, the space they occupy can be elegantly landscaped so that they become part of the view, rather than a dispiriting outlook of metal and asphalt. Better, agile city techniques, in the long haul, will make parking fewer vehicles a necessity. ## Preserving the Power of The Old Perhaps the best argument for sensitive, future-focused, low-impact design lies, ironically, in our deep and increasing regard for the past. Both historic preservationists and environmental activists correctly make the point that preserving old buildings, by reusing the valuable materials and tremendous energy embodied in their construction, is an act of environmental stewardship. Much of the building stock we'll be living with for the next generation or two is not only environmentally (if not otherwise) obsolete but also not readily adapted. Ranch houses don't cross ventilate, and many admit little daylight. Offices have deep floors, with sealed exteriors so windows don't open, and tinted glass so daylight is more an idea than a reality. As we shift our growth machine incentives, we'll find the agile buildings lurking under the ranch's hip roof and behind the flimsy office curtainwalls. Though real estate wisdom deems old buildings poor candidates for energy-conservation retrofits, Anthony Malkin, president of Malkin Holdings, set out to find whether such a project could save real money in his trophy property, the 1931 Empire State Building. I met him one day, and he took me not to the famous observatory (which Malkin had recently refurbished) but to a window factory on the fifth floor. A "green-collar" workforce of forty stripped old windows out of their frames, hung a new heat-reflecting film between two panes of glass, puttied sealant along the edges, and installed them back in the cleaned old frames. They were wringing affordable energy savings out of the eighty rentable floors of New York's most beloved 102-story-high landmark. The little--and temporary--window factory was one of the unexpected outcomes of a months-long analysis. Malkin partnered with the Clinton Climate Initiative, founded by former president Bill Clinton, which puts together teams to tackle global warming challenges. The Initiative brought in the Rocky Mountain Institute (an environmental think tank based in Aspen, Colorado) and real estate advisors Jones Lang LaSalle. Over several months, the team considered dozens of ideas, and Malkin has gone ahead with those that best balanced cash flow, energy savings, and greenhouse gas reduction. Another partner, Johnson Controls, which makes thermostats and building-management systems, guarantees the energy performance.9 The windows, though they had been replaced in 1992, glowed brightly in infrared scans of the outer walls, which meant they leaked heat. After looking at a variety of possibilities, the Rocky Mountain Institute proposed retrofitting the frames, which remained in good condition, while replacing the glass units with highly insulating ones. In the end, Malkin found it less expensive to hire a company called Serious Materials to redo all 6,500 windows in-house. He was abetted by the building's original design. The tower famously rises in elegant slablike setbacks that seem carved from some primordial geological formation, but original architects Shreve Lamb and Harmon had calibrated the setbacks and recesses to capture daylight and breezes before air-conditioning had become common. I saw tenant spaces that gloriously restore the light-filled interiors--and take advantage of their energy-conserving potential. Daylight alone was ample enough to light workspace most of the time. (Regrettably, too many commercial buildings built after air-conditioning became standard can't take advantage of this retrofit advantage.) In the prebuilt space, desktop "task" lights use less energy than the few ceiling lights, since a sensor can turn them off (along with computers and other equipment) when the occupant is out. The ceiling lights dim when not needed. People can open windows when weather permits. Johnson Controls monitors heating and cooling consumption and shares the information with tenants, who compare consumption with one another, helping to develop an ethos of conservation, according to Paul Rode, a Johnson Controls business development director in energy efficiency. Combining this and several other energy-saving measures, Malkin's $20 million retrofit delivers an impressive 38 percent energy savings, putting building usage at about 174 kilowatt hours per square meter per year. Malkin found he could entirely forgo a planned expansion of the building's cooling capacity, saving $7 million. He'll lop $4.4 million annually off his utility bill, he said, and avoid generating a minimum of 105,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide over the next fifteen years. He'll amortize his investment in just a few years, demonstrating that hefty savings can pay even when energy is relatively cheap and incentives to conserve are few. Malkin says he could have done even more, especially in carbon-emission reduction, if investment incentives and disincentives had shifted to encourage investments that are more productive environmentally and economically. The team considered LED lighting, even more advanced controls and windows, and innovative ways to retrofit the exterior walls, among others. The Rocky Mountain Institute calculated that "technically we could have reduced energy use 65 percent," according to Carol Fluhrer, the institute's consultant on the project, if costs and paybacks had not been such a concern. Malkin's energy investment was small, however, compared to the $500 million he spent refurbishing the Empire State in total. While conventional analysts deem the floors of the Empire State too small for modern business needs, Malkin felt he could sell the building's iconic status as probably the world's most beloved skyscraper. Malkin simply validates what's long been proven but easily forgotten: the power of historic preservation. The historic-preservation movement has done more to extend the longevity of cities, to enrich their existence, and to attract reinvestment and growth than the billions allocated to urban renewal, not to mention the endless tax goodies and zoning gimmicks officials regularly offer to spur investment.10 In New York, for example, a pair of activists launched a campaign to save a rusting, long-abandoned 1.5-mile stretch of elevated railway. That has been turned into the wildly popular High Line Park. The City of New York estimated that it will ultimately spur as much as $4 billion in new development.11 Preservation became an ethos about the public value of architecture that united people. So not only have we saved great churches and civic ornaments, we've preserved beefy, red-stone warehouses squatting on great brooding arches and decorated with whimsical floral terra cotta. We've designated entire neighborhoods of houses both humble and grand as worthy of preservation, backing up our national commitment with tax breaks and grant programs to help people restore and maintain their community's patrimony. Once-abandoned smalltown downtowns all over America have found new life thanks to the National Trust for Historic Preservation's Main Street program. Our passion for old buildings, even ones many would deem ordinary, unfortunately draws from a widespread belief that what we build today is simply not as good as what came before, so we better save whatever we can. If we created buildings today that deserve a future, they may actually have one. ## Learning From Lofts A building seems fixed, immutable, or at least not readily changed. New techniques and technologies will come along, but over history, certain kinds of buildings have adapted again and again to changing needs and technologies. An environmental and economic era that may demand constant adaptation will prize buildings that gracefully accommodate to changing circumstances. In America, that means considering the humble, multistory industrial loft. The earliest lofts came of age in the nineteenth century as industrialization demanded big spaces with high ceilings unencumbered by interior walls and columns. As the industrial city grew, massive masonry structures with timber columns and beams gave way to thin, cast-iron columns supporting fire-resistant, brick-vaulted floors. In such spaces, almost anything could be--and was--made and sold. The street facade was the chief means of advertising the quality of the owner's goods or the importance of the location to tenants. A walk through SoHo, Manhattan's district of cast-iron lofts, gives an idea of the endless possibilities. Lofts needed skylights and high windows to provide good room light and ventilation in the decades before electric lighting and mechanical fans. As manufacturing environments, lofts gradually became obsolete after Henry Ford's pioneering horizontal assembly lines became widespread. But the multistory urban loft has proved resilient: as a warehouse, as a retail store, as a clothing factory. Today, the high ceilings, good ventilation, flexible open spaces, and ample daylight have attracted artists and designers, who started the live-work loft trend that has sent the value of old lofts steadily skyward. What once was a sweatshop is today a multimillion-dollar residence big and open enough for children to skateboard in. Lofts can be continually adapted to new needs because they provide daylight, good natural ventilation, long-lasting construction, and flexible, adaptable space. These are the very few essentials for agile buildings. James S. RussellThe Agile CityBuilding Well-being and Wealth in an Era of Climate Change10.5822/978-1-61091-027-9_8(C) James S. Russell 2011 # 8. Creating Twenty-first-century Community James S. Russell1 (1) Bloomberg News, Lexington Ave 731, 10022 New York, USA Abstract The world was riveted to the horror and heroism that followed the destruction of the World Trade Center towers in New York on September 11, 2001. It applauded as officials at every government level determined to rebuild the site. But the world averted its eyes as the rebuilding effort foundered. Too many entities were in charge. Officials did not know how to convene people with a stake in the site, especially when some deemed it a sacred graveyard and others regarded it an essential element of the downtown economy. For all the expertise assembled, plans kept stalling, costs ran ever upward, and management of the enormously complex building site bogged down in political and money disputes. The world was riveted to the horror and heroism that followed the destruction of the World Trade Center towers in New York on September 11, 2001. It applauded as officials at every government level determined to rebuild the site. But the world averted its eyes as the rebuilding effort foundered. Too many entities were in charge. Officials did not know how to convene people with a stake in the site, especially when some deemed it a sacred graveyard and others regarded it an essential element of the downtown economy. For all the expertise assembled, plans kept stalling, costs ran ever upward, and management of the enormously complex building site bogged down in political and money disputes. When completed, perhaps by 2015, the rebuilding of the World Trade Center site won't be a shining example of what New York could be, nor will it galvanize the world's aspiration to end an era of global terror. It will be an appallingly expensive, overscaled real estate development little different from mediocre real estate developments found anywhere, with a memorial museum secreted beneath a large, useless plaza.1 In that span of time, the massive job of reuniting West and East Berlin--the equivalent of dozens of Ground Zeros-- was largely completed. Once floodwaters at last drained from New Orleans weeks after the passage of Hurricane Katrina in August 2005, the city, state, and federal governments that had negligently permitted underdesigned levees to breach found themselves lacking the planning acumen and the political and civic infrastructure to rebuild the city. The state's Road Home, a program of bridge loans intended to help homeowners rapidly rebuild, was instead extraordinarily slow to get moving and delivered too little too late to thousands of homeowners.2 As weeds grew around abandoned homes, seven separate and competing official planning processes grappled with the city's future, along with dozens of "visioning" processes undertaken by foundations, universities, and some three dozen architecture schools around the country. Five years after the disaster, the city still struggled to regain its footing and almost one hundred thousand of its prestorm residents had decided not to return. Then came the Deepwater Horizon oil-spill disaster that began in April 2010. Lax rig procedures at the well being drilled on behalf of British Petroleum (BP) were the proximate cause of the disaster, abetted by a lack of oversight by the federal Minerals and Management Service. But the nation found yet again that it was ill prepared to cope with a disaster much larger in scope than the sanguine emergency plans of BP, its competitors, and regulators. The nation, and especially Gulf residents, breathed a sigh of relief that the worst fears about the spill were not realized, but the rapid vaporization of the spill was largely a product of nature, not human foresight. The lack of preparedness and poorly coordinated response to these iconic urban disasters of the first decade of the twenty-first century should teach Americans that they lack the capacity to take on challenges--those made both by nature and by man--at the scale and complexity that the world now demands. Most communities will never face the dire events that befell New York and the Gulf Coast. Or will they? Global warming and other kinds of environmental change may well damage agriculture, deprive communities of clean water, or subject them to alternating floods and drought. Preparing for such catastrophic events means more than boosting emergency response. Communities must figure out how to systematically prevent them or minimize damage. Long term, that means incubating new ideas that build urban and environmental resilience at the scale of transportation systems, metropolitan regions, coasts and rivers, and the quilt of ecosystems that thread through our developed landscapes. ## Dallas: Twenty Miles of Green Hunting for a project big enough to meaningfully influence a metropolitan landscape took me to a place that thinks big: Dallas. The Trinity River project is a highway project. Or it's a flood-protection project. Or it's the transformation of a twenty-mile stretch of largely sterilized river bottom into a ten-thousand-acre necklace of wetlands, parks, recreation spaces, forests, and wildlife preserves--a green lung that arcs through the center of one of America's largest cities. Its global warming benefits are not advertised in a state where noisy climate-change deniers are prominent, but they could be substantial. However, it is unclear at this writing which of its identities the project will ultimately assume. The three branches of the Trinity River that meet in Dallas meander in a flat, treeless, grassy plain along the southwestern edge of downtown. The river is all but invisible, though, walled off by high, wide levees. Dallas wants to add highway lanes and needs to upgrade its system of flood-control structures, and the city hopes to piggyback neighborhood connections to the river and develop its recreational and ecosystem-resilience potential. Near downtown, the project plans to add a meandering, braided watercourse between an "urban" lake and a more naturalistic one for canoeists and kayakers. The renderings by the landscape architecture and planning firm WRT show rowers skulling along a new course, with spectators ranged along a grassy amphitheater that offers skyline views. Reunion Plaza, at the edge of downtown, will extend across the highway and the levee to a terraced, sheltered esplanade opening to an expanse of river backdropped by the four interlocking arches of a span designed by the celebrated architect and bridge designer Santiago Calatrava (figure 8.1). Chains of constructed wetlands will "polish" the treated effluent from the city's gigantic central sewage-treatment facility. South of the city, six thousand acres of bottomland hardwood forest already have been preserved in what's called the Great Trinity Forest.3 Figure 8.1 A bridge designed by Santiago Calatrava is one feature of the Trinity River project, in Dallas, which mixes environmental restoration and new parklands with extravagant highways and upgraded levees. Credit: Courtesy Trinity River Project I fear this vision may fall victim to business as usual. An impetus of the project is a proposed six-lane, high-speed freeway that would run between the river and heavily populated neighborhoods. It would make accessing the river bottom intimidating. (It is supposed to relieve traffic on overburdened I-35E, which parallels the river a short distance away, pursuing the senseless notion that building more urban freeway lanes will "relieve" anything long term.) Though the river's thirty-foot-high levees already divide Dallas as effectively as the Berlin Wall, the US Army Corps of Engineers wants enlarged and lengthened levees, cutting off even more of the city from the river. The levee could be gracefully sculpted to weave in the graceful curves of a sensitively scaled parkway, using the earthen mass to screen the road from view and reduce noise. The design could attractively integrate appealing ways for citizens to cross both road and levee on foot and bike to get to the park. The Army Corps of Engineers apparently does not see things that way and has insisted that the levee and road be built separately. So the usual overbearing, clumsily engineered road structure will run inside the ridge of the levee, itself a looming intrusion. If access points turn out to be just a bunch of chain-link-fenced concrete bridges accessed by long concrete ramps running high over the highway, the city will still feel walled off, and the great potential of this multibillion-dollar project to pull the riches of the river environment into the very fabric of urban life will have been squandered. Other metro areas are taking on projects that have a similarly large-scale potential to transform their urban identities in the way Boston's necklace of Olmsted parks and parkways did. The Atlanta BeltLine intends to take a twenty-two-mile ring of obsolete railroad rights-of-way and use it as a way of tying the city together with new transit lines, biking and walking paths, parks, and development sites. Even its tentative early phases have spurred growth in a dozen neighborhoods. In California, the Orange County Great Park will repurpose 1,300 acres of the El Toro military base with such park amenities as a botanical garden, sports fields, and a great lawn for gatherings. But it will also restore native landscapes and set off parts of the park as a migration-corridor preserve, reweaving long-severed links between inland mountains and sea by connecting the Cleveland National Forest to Crystal Cove State Park. A variety of natural-treatment landscapes will leave water flowing out of the park cleaner than it came in. Like the Trinity River project, both efforts have proven difficult to finance.4 Great Park, which may cost as much as $1.5 billion, was set up to rely on the spinoff from the added value of commercial development elsewhere on the base, which collapsed along with the real estate market. Lacking a dependable flow of dollars and the coordinated participation and commitment of transportation and economic development agencies of the kind one finds in international large-scale development, the once-in-a-generation undertakings in Dallas, Orange County, and Atlanta have proceeded slowly and uncertainly.5 None of these projects was hatched with the primary notion of addressing climate change, but all developed with a potentially transformative environmental component. They are the kinds of metro-scale opportunities that challenge cities and suburbs to work together to recognize the value projects like this can create and to address the barriers they face. ## Building the Future with Paint and Lawn Chairs In the United States, a wide variety of small local efforts are trying to make citizens more comfortable with large-scale transformation. A guerrilla action by, of all things, New York City's Department of Transportation struck a blow for people over cars. Over just a few days, crews pedestrianized much of Times Square with green paint, orange traffic cones, some shrubs in planters, and dozens of inexpensive lawn chairs (figure 8.2). Shopkeepers and cab drivers reacted with horror to this violation of the auto's sacred ground. Pedestrians, who had long overflowed into the streets from mobbed sidewalks, were thrilled. The department's director, Janette Sadik-Khan, was not shoving a carbon-reduction strategy down citizens' throats, but was cutting through a bureaucratically encrusted process that had made a task as minor as relocating a curb as complex as negotiating a major international treaty. The Times Square strategy, inspiredby a street-design innovator from Copenhagen, Jan Gehl, was driven by the need to smooth traffic flow, which was done by reducing the number of intersections that were too close together and making pedestrian movement smoother and safer--both, incidentally, carbon-reduction tactics. Figure 8.2 Though sidewalks had been overcrowded for years in New York's Times Square, little was done until paint and lawn chairs pedestrianized Times Square virtually overnight. After a trial period was deemed successful, design began to create a permanent streetscape. Credit: James S. Russell Skeptics were determined to find Sadik-Khan's tactics a failure. "There are 8.4 million New Yorkers, and some days I think there are 8.4 million traffic engineers," Sadik-Khan told me in an interview. "But that's not surprising. Streets are our front yards." After looking at street-flow data, the city made the Times Square changes permanent, with adjustments. In similar fashion, Sadik-Khan's department painted two hundred miles of bike lanes in three years, paved fifteen miles of protected bike lanes, and expanded dedicated bus lanes. Some of these moves have been controversial: for example, orthodox Jews in Brooklyn's Williamsburg neighborhood depicted the lanes as privileging under-clad hipsters. (One of the lanes was subsequently removed.) By and large, the effort has been welcomed, however, and has wrought a subtle but important change in attitude: upending at long last the long-embedded notion that streets are only for cars.6 Diversifying street layouts is one of the signature accomplishments of PlaNYC, the city's ambitious blueprint to cut carbon emissions by 30 percent by 2030. While many of the plan's tactics directly address energy and climate change by targeting building-energy use and polluting vehicles, it is moving ahead because most of the measures it envisions address issues that many New Yorkers find more pressing. Efforts to increase affordable housing, for example, will pay off in climate terms by putting more people closer to jobs. More than a fifth of the city has been rezoned in the past few years not just to achieve lower carbon emissions but because the code had been outdated for years. Some neighborhoods have been zoned for greater density (even though communities tend to strenuously resist bigger, bulkier buildings), but the highest densities have been located adjacent to primary, transit-served streets--reducing people and traffic impacts on quieter secondary streets--with thought given to how large buildings can be accommodated while minimizing the shadows they cast and the views they block.7 PlaNYC also seems to be working because like-minded department managers cross disciplinary boundaries to magnify the benefits of a given idea. City Planning has devised guidelines for storm water-retaining parking lots, in the process uniting agendas that serve a variety of environmental and livability goals that concern at least three city departments. None of this should be news, but the cooperative attitude of city departments remains a rarity in America. Shaun Donovan, among New York's pioneers of cross-disciplinary coordination, moved from the city's housing agency to become secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). There he worked with other cabinet secretaries to create the Interagency Partnership for Sustainable Communities, which coordinates the work of the Environmental Protection Agency with the diversification of transportation options promoted by the Department of Transportation, and transit-sensitive HUD housing policies. The initiatives were small in scale as this book went to press (like the grant MyRegion's Lauten sought; see chapter 6) but are promising.8 ## What Low-Carbon Life is Like It's tempting for many of us to want a magic clean-energy bullet because curbing climate emissions may require such major lifestyle changes. How major, really? Consider Dockside Green, the carbon-neutral Victoria community that was introduced in this book's prologue. You may give up a house set in a big plot of land to live in Dockside Green, but you get easy proximity to both the city's attractions and the rugged scenery of Vancouver Island. Your heating bill will be a fraction of what a typical single-family homeowner pays. Climate as well as climate-sensitive design means you'll never switch on air-conditioning. (It's not needed and not provided.) Dockside Green achieves carbon neutrality--a standard thought unattainable within a spec community only a few years ago--not with a lot of high-tech bells and whistles but through its community design. Only a large-scale development could support the biomass heating plant and the on-site sewage treatment that sends the stream of almost-drinkable water burbling amid reeds in front of terraces. Once you move in, you may sell one of your cars because you've set up your business in the small office building across the street. (It has special shading devices and windows that open so you'll run few lights and avoid most air-conditioning costs.) Or you'll take a passenger ferry a few minutes to downtown. You'll run errands by using the waterfront bike path. Dockside Green involves changes in lifestyle without the "sacrifices" that energy conservation doomsayers say North Americans will never make. Dockside Green is not a futuristic project; it is being built with today's technologies under today's development rules but has begun to pioneer tomorrow's kind of environmental sustainability. Dockside Green is one of a few dozen pioneering projects tentatively certified under a new community-design rating system called LEED ND. (ND is for "neighborhood development.") A program of the US Green Building Council, it takes the best-known environmental rating system for single-building designs and scales it up. (LEED's virtue as an engine for innovation is discussed in chapter 9.) LEED ND, since it is a voluntary rating system built by consensus, identifies dozens of ways that many experts think communities will change in a low-carbon future. Some are obvious, such as connecting communities to transit and building neighborhoods that are compact and walkable so that people take priority over cars. Developments also score points when they preserve valued landscapes, such as wetlands, water edges, and migration routes. Many LEED measures subtly undermine wasteful standard-development practice. You can't get certified under the rating program with wandering, dead-end cul-de-sacs; developments must knit themselves into the surrounding neighborhoods with a great number of street connections, so that you can get to local destinations by bike, by bus, or on foot. It strongly encourages developments that fill in abandoned sites in already built-up areas, both discouraging the leapfrog pattern of "drive to qualify" development at the urban edge and making efficient use of infrastructure (like water and roads) and services (like schools and libraries) that have already been paid for in existing communities. Instead of strip highway stores separated from one another by seas of surface parking, commercial development hugs the street to invite the pedestrian and encourage neighborly hanging out. The program demands a mix of uses within developments so that there is at least the opportunity to run errands, get children to school, and work within walking distance of home. The minimum residential density is seven dwellings per acre, almost double the density of the once-standard suburban lot. That density wastes less land and can turn an empty-feeling subdivision into a lively neighborhood. It accommodates a diversity of dwellings (single houses, town houses, apartments, and hybrid types like homes with "mother-in-law" units in the rear yard) serving a range of incomes. (Standard developments usually target one market.) LEED ND won't certify developments of houses on one, five, or ten acres, even ones designed to work off the grid, because the extensive roads and acres of mown lawn fragment exurban landscapes and require long auto trips even to run simple errands. LEED ND, when you take its requirements together, rejects the kind of podlike subdivisions of single-family houses that are plowed out of forests or farms heedless of nearby, essentially identical subdivisions. It rejects the standard builder product of more than four decades, which has been premised on a kind of exclusivity that comes with the subdivision that consciously separates itself from everything else.9 Will the United States ultimately be coerced to abandon its love affair with the suburban house and yard? The couple with children that suburbia has built itself around is already a minority of homeowners, and demographic trends already favor a much higher percentage of multifamily dwellers. Further, the romance of the house on a landscaped lot is already over in most places. Where land is costly, road dollars are short, and water scarce, builders shove boxy, beige-stucco houses close enough together that the eves almost touch. Bulging garages dominate the street and the SUV-depth front yards. In dry places like Las Vegas, gravel replaces lush plantings. The lots have shrunk to the degree that outdoor space consists of a walled yard big enough for a not-too-smoky barbeque. This knee-jerk version of suburbia is so degraded that its advantages have all but disappeared. Some LEED ND communities handle density awkwardly. Few of the program's early participating communities preserve important landscape features and intact natural systems, such as wetlands. But the beauty of LEED is that it is not fixed. It is an agile model of growth because it is capable of course corrections. In general, that cannot be said of government regulatory processes or the rigid underwriting rules of the real estate development industry. The LEED model has proven so compelling that it has gone global, with programs founded even in countries like Germany that have well-developed low-energy and climate-change regimes.10 Though LEED is a powerful agent of change for the reluctant real estate industry and for often-antiquated local systems of land planning, it is far from a panacea. It is comforting to think, as many of the New Urbanist planners and developers behind LEED do, that a neighborhood is the building block of urban development. After all, a neighborhood feels bounded, understandable. The disasters along the Gulf and in New Orleans and New York remind us that climate change--and other urban challenges, for that matter--requires us to think about urban and natural systems on the scale of a watershed, say, or a metropolitan region, comprising city, suburbs, and exurbs. A community designed around transit derives no benefit if no bus line is put in place. A green city can feel smug about its accomplishments, but that will mean little if the much-larger suburban ring doesn't buy in. You can't fix the Gulf Coast without effort on a wide range of levels. That takes Americans well out of their comfort zone. You can say that action at the community and the regional and the state and federal level is too complicated, too inefficient. There's not enough political will or money. There are too many special interests lined up against the little guy. The inevitable conflicts between needed action and private property rights are too difficult to untangle. And all these things are true, if we remain passive about them. All can become excuses for inaction. Increasingly, cities worldwide are undertaking transformation at a scale that makes Americans' heads spin. Not all of the examples below target climate-change transformation per se, but it's worth considering both what they are doing at such large scale and how they go about doing it. ## Berlin: A Tragic City'S New Green Identity When the Berlin Wall came down in 1989, history forced a reconsideration of the city's identity. Facing a different future was not a choice but a necessity as a vast program was undertaken to reunite a city that had been divided for almost half a century. The job could not stop at linking up streets, utilities, the subway, and the railways--vast as those undertakings were. Berlin had been the nerve center for the deadly world-conquering aspirations of not one but two twentieth-century autocracies, and the city had to find a way to transcend those tragic aspirations, even though they were coded into the city's layout and architecture. The streets weren't merely wide, for example; they were suited to military parades and the rapid deployment of troops.11 The world would not let Berlin forget its history, but Berliners, too, felt that the effort of reuniting what had been the communist East with the democratic West was an opportunity to define a future-oriented city, one that could reconcile the wounds of the past. As neighborhoods were redesigned and mega-projects were proposed for public review (for an inter-city rail station, a new government quarter, and so forth), people turned out in droves to consider what each one would mean. As the effort to reunite got under way, questions of how to rebuild got framed in cultural terms: Should it define a twenty-first-century glamour tuned to a globe where culture and entertainment were powering urban economies? Was Berlin to be the gateway to an Eastern Europe transformed by capitalism and democracy? Debating the means by which the city's physical form should reflect a brighter future consumed Berliners in the late 1990s. The confidence to engage in such debates, and to trust government to get it right, came about because public and civic involvement in reinvigorating Berlin was pretty much a constant theme, even during the divided-city era. Virtually the entire Western side of the city had been reconstructed in the decade after World War II ended. Some of it was significantly reimagined with slim towers and row houses shot through with trees and gardens--a rejection of the old city, notorious for its densely packed tenement buildings facing warrens of dim, fetid courtyards. Not all this worked; the progressive enthusiasms of architects and planners often created impersonal, amorphous neighborhoods. But neither Berliners nor Germans ever gave up on Berlin, even when its position as an island of Western values surrounded by the Communist East demanded ongoing subsidies. Reweaving East and West in the 1990s was not nearly so large a physical enterprise as the 1950s rebuilding--even though it involved every form of infrastructure, the resolution of hundreds of thousands of decades-old property claims, and thousands of individual building projects--but it was a difficult emotional one. Virtually every point of view about the future was realized at least in part. Daniel Libeskind's Jewish Museum confronted Germany's genocidal history directly: it is both spectacular and menacing, powerfully evoking both the glories and the tragic fate of Berlin's Jews. A railway hub bombed in the war was at last reestablished and connected to a lost north-south trunk line by a tunnel under the Spree River and the Tiergarten. Architect Norman Foster reinvented the burnt hulk of the Reichstag, giving the city an idealistic new icon--using glass literally to symbolize political transparency in the united government. The dour pile's modern dome transformed its old bombast, making it a symbol of environmental sustainability by simultaneously ventilating the legislative chamber below by natural means and using a giant sunscreen and mirror system to light the chamber with daylight rather than electric lights. Indeed, a greener, less energy-intense city became the essence of a new self--an ideal that would carry the city forward, so that it would not wallow in the past. Not everything went perfectly. In the short term, official assumptions about the city's economic growth proved far too optimistic. (It has not become the gateway to the former Soviet East, as it had hoped.) Critics took issue with a redevelopment process that was very top-down. Out of this gigantic endeavor came a city that is fundamentally new and different yet respects the layers and complexities of history, one that offers bigcity bustle and quiet neighborhoods of tree-lined streets (figure 8.3). It has no dominant downtown district, but several centers, each with a distinctive personality, and all of which are well connected by bike paths, streetcars, elevated trains, subway trains, and regional commuter trains. You can get to most of Germany's largest cities in less than four hours by fast inter-city trains. Figure 8.3 Berlin's Potsdamer Platz was for decades a no-man's-land tangled with barbed wire and gun emplacements. Since reunification, the city has built a lively mixed-use community that links what had been West and East Berlin. Credit: James S. Russell There was plenty of debate about style and how much money was being spent, but creating the basic ingredients that would permit Berlin to thrive were never in question, even if Germans could never be certain that ideas about the city's economic future would work. Design competitions for whole blocks and individual buildings perpetually injected new ideas into the debate. Extensive public involvement checked architects' and developers' worst excesses, and a constant rebalancing of taste and scale and approach to history also enriched what was built. How did Berlin do so much? It wasn't just money, though plenty was spent. Libeskind described to me an attitude to the city that made such a brilliant and pluralistic rebuilding possible. "Berlin, like many European cities, has a civic dimension that American cities don't have. When I use words like 'public space' in America, clients are appalled. They are afraid pubic places will attract homeless people and others who will do things they are not supposed to do. Every building in Berlin, even an office building, has some visibility, and people ask if it is the right building. Does it belong? They see these buildings as expressing the force of history." "In Europe, in Berlin, public space and civic space are of concern to everyone," Libeskind added. "You, the architect, have to address that--whether you do it badly or well. In America, the private world of power and money is seen as the inevitable force that dictates the form of the city. So architecture becomes no more than advertising." In contrast to Berlin, Americans could not find a means to truly rebuild New Orleans--a city one-fourth Berlin's size--after Hurricane Katrina. The city has not found its economic footing in spite of having one of America's largest ports, among its most appealing neighborhoods, and a rich culture of food, music, and architecture. The civic infrastructure of police, courts, libraries, and schools still functions poorly years after the flood. Its defenses against future floods may be insufficient. Historian of modern art Karl Scheffler in 1910 famously wrote that Berlin is "forever to become and never to be." In terms of that particular city, especially in the twentieth century, this turned out to be a serious understatement. But it could be seen as a good description of any vital urban region now. The cities that attract the best and brightest, and that produce the ideas and products we want, will continue to dance as fast as they can with growth and change. The agile city will unleash this dynamism in facing global-warming challenges. ## Vancouver goes Skyward Vancouver, British Columbia, has created a widely admired model of government partnership, colluding benignly with private interests to nurture a civil form of high-density center-city growth. Wedged between downtown and the gorgeous near-wilderness of Stanley Park, a high-rise residential core has risen as dense as anywhere outside Manhattan, but it is density driven by amenity. Developers must follow urban-design guidelines that allow them to build tall buildings as long as they respect "view corridors" established by the city. Those tubes of space within which no one can build ensure that both new and existing buildings continue to have largely unobstructed vistas to the stunning surroundings of mountains and bays. It's not a simple approach; a given development can entail some serious negotiation with the city to determine whether the complex criteria are met. Projects often involve some architectural acrobatics: squeezing the building's bulk this way and that to stay clear of the view corridors. But developers and buyers sign on quickly because this is one of the few high-rise districts where everyone's interest in the view (a key to each unit's value) is protected. It's a win for city and residents alike. The lesson is not profound, though understood surprisingly rarely. Everyone cooperates and everyone harvests the value of a well-understood amenity (figure 8.4).12 Figure 8.4 High-density towers in downtown Vancouver were designed to respect the amenity everyone seeks to share: the extraordinary views to bays and mountains. Credit: James S. Russell Vancouver's appealing form of high-rise living did not happen primarily in pursuit of environmental goals, though the city was well aware that such high density adjacent to the commercial core put thousands at walking distance to jobs, shopping, restaurants, the city's transit nexus, one of the world's great city parks, and an extensive public waterfront: in other words, a rich and appealing lifestyle that was "green" primarily by the lower energy use innate to apartments over houses, and to walking and biking over driving. For Americans who fear that their quiet suburban streets will be turned into roaring hordes of vehicles, and that lumpy twelve-story condos will loom over their once-private backyards, Vancouver should offer solace. From a distance, Vancouver's downtown towers look crammed together. Close up, you find that most are fairly slim and have a lot of space around them, so that neighbors are not cast in perpetual shadow. Trevor Boddy, a local architecture critic, says that the view-corridor regime led to the creation of a unique high-rise type he calls "Vancouverist," which has now migrated around the world. It is a slim tower mounted at one end of a row of town houses and stores. The townhouses form a low wall that shapes the street and enlivens it with small-scale activity, which has the effect of humanizing the big scale of the towers. Since 2008, Vancouver has extended the design capacity and acumen developed downtown to encourage density with amenity in its predominant neighborhood pattern of modest single-family houses. The city has tied the agendas of its EcoDensity initiative explicitly to carbon-reduction goals and increasing the supply of affordable housing. So the plan encourages building modest rental units along alleys (called "laneways" in Vancouver) and townhouse construction on infill sites. Owners can add rental units to existing homes as long as they don't overwhelm neighboring properties. Higher-density developments can be built along main arterials and near transit stations. And the city promises to supply the public facilities required as neighborhoods grow denser.13 Greater urban density is essential to a greener, more adaptive future, and Vancouver's lesson is that higher density need not come at the price of local qualities that are desirable, such as views. ## Bilbao: From Gritty to Gleaming Dream for a bit. Imagine half a dozen blocks in an industrial waterfront of abandoned shipyards and crumbling blast furnaces transformed into a thriving district of museums, theaters, hotels, and shopping. Such transformation, especially over just a few years, is almost unknown in the United States. When you look at the sheer scale, quality, and ambition of what was undertaken in the steel city of Bilbao, Spain, you have to ask yourself why America is unable to take on endeavors of comparable scope and complexity. The narrow valleys and tumbled hills of Bilbao, in the Basque country of northeastern Spain, strikingly resemble those of the Monongahela Valley around Pittsburgh--as does the town's historic reliance on steel. Unglamorous Bilbao became a household name in late 1997 when Frank Gehry's sculpturally spectacular branch of the Guggenheim Museum put the city on the international culture map. American cities have tried to jump on the Bilbao bandwagon since by frantically fundraising for glitzy culture projects to jump-start moribund local economies. But Americans smitten by the so-called Bilbao effect too often fail to recognize that the transformation of this once down-at-the-heels center of steel and shipbuilding counted (and still counts) on much more than the presence of an eye-popping museum (figure 8.5). The city was already building a new subway system, an airport terminal, and many other infrastructure improvements by the time the Guggenheim opened. The heavily used Metro, for example, has helped pull together a string of communities stretching along the Nervion River. Isolated by steep ridges, these enclaves had declined rapidly with the departure of their traditional industries. Figure 8.5 The Guggenheim Bilbao museum has galvanized interest and investment in a once-declining steel city. But it is only one element of a comprehensive redevelopment that includes building a transit system and a new airport. Credit: James S. Russell The city completed a massive river cleanup while the local port authority undertook the gigantic job of moving the shipping facilities out of the space-squeezed center and into a vast new container port on the Bay of Biscay. "We've been lucky," Carlos Gorostiza said on a tour of Bilbao. "The Guggenheim was a much bigger success than we anticipated." He's a spokesperson for Bilbao Ria 2000, a private redevelopment agency responsible for coordinating public redevelopment efforts. In its first two years, Guggenheim visitors added 433 million euros (about $570 million) to the local economy, paying back the project's 132 million euro investment ($172 million) more than threefold, according to an analysis by KPMG Peat Marwick. As important, it changed the city's picture of itself, from high-employment hopelessness to a "faith in the future," according to Ibon Areso Mendiguren, an architect and director of urbanism for the city of Bilbao.14 The stiff resistance that had first greeted the idea of a splashy branch of the Guggenheim melted once visitors began flooding in. With broad public support, the pace of urban revitalization has increased since the museum opened. The Guggenheim, large as it is, occupies only a fraction of what had been the derelict Euskalduna shipyard. Since the museum's opening, a new tramline extends a handsome riverside esplanade from the Guggenheim past a new shopping mall and a new hotel to a new theater and congress-hall complex. Twin commercial towers by one of Japan's most respected architects, Arata Isozaki, have gone up, taking advantage of a view created by the arresting presence of a pedestrian bridge designed by Santiago Calatrava. On the other side of downtown, a railway trench has been reconfigured to accommodate commuter-rail lines that once blocked the waterfront where the Guggenheim now stands. A new street lined with new housing and dotted with new train stops lids the old trench. It's hard to imagine any city of three hundred thousand in the United States attempting rebirth on this scale. The process in Bilbao is as significant as the product. The scale of urban regeneration has been made possible because Ria 2000 has been able to sell redevelopment sites, most of them controlled by the city's port commission, at a profit, according to Angel Nieva, the general director of the agency. But it is also uniquely well coordinated. Key agencies participate, according to Nieva: the port, the railroads, the housing ministry, and local government. The Basque regional government and the Spanish national government cooperate, even as the Basques continue to insist on greater political independence from Madrid. "Participation is at the highest level--the heads or seconds-in-command of each stakeholder," Nieva added emphatically. The European Union sweetened the pot with a grant. By comparison, it is almost inconceivable in the United States for a transit agency to be party to a major urban redevelopment or that an American port commission would cede power over its properties to a separate redevelopment authority. (The political turf battles at New York's Ground Zero are perhaps the most publicly depressing face of this dysfunctional state.) The cooperative nature of redevelopment in Bilbao is even a bit unique in Spain, observers say, driven in part by the Basques' desire to show a "can-do" attitude in the face of widespread resistance to their separatist ambitions. Bilbao has not yet transformed itself into Silicon Valley or a biotech haven, as it hoped, but it has succeeded in retaining sophisticated industrial technology and increasing some white-collar jobs. Although the metro area is not growing, which is common in Europe, Bilbao is not losing population, as many obsolete industrial centers in Eastern Europe are--and as most heavy-industry cities in the United States continue to do. Its residential center has been shored up, and residents are rediscovering overlooked neighborhoods in the old city and outlying districts. None of America's industrial cities has found a comparable engine of rebirth; there are lessons to be learned along the Nervion. ## Hamburg: The Greenest Downtown At the edge of the Elbe River, I stood on a handsome, terraced esplanade that swirled with pipe sculptures that played off the endless expanse of harbor cranes you could see in all directions. Hamburg, Europe's second-largest port, has built a thrilling infrastructure of transaction. The view was new. The city is recapturing obsolete inlets and narrow strips of land once devoted to shipping for public and commercial gain. I stood at the edge of HafenCity, a $10 billion, twenty-year, 390-acre redevelopment of old docklands a short walk from the city center. This is redevelopment with an ambition inconceivable in America, and its green aspirations are impressive. It will make downtown Hamburg 40 percent larger, adding up to two million square meters of buildings (twenty million square feet in round numbers), forty thousand jobs, and 5,500 residents when it is built out. HafenCity is a pleasant walk from downtown through the Speicherstadt, the mile-long complex of high, turreted brick warehouses ranged along Elbe canals that were the nineteenth-century answer to moving goods from ships to warehouses to city. (They are still used by importers.) It reminds you that this city has perpetually adapted to new circumstances since its strategic role in the Hanseatic League, a trading confederation founded in the thirteenth century that lasted until the nineteenth. You may notice as you cross through the Speicherstadt that the handsome trusses of the pedestrian bridges hold up pathways at two levels. The upper layer of circulation has been built to create an escape route in case of flooding that occurs when storm surges magnify the North Sea's dramatically high tides and collide with rain-swollen volumes of water headed downriver. Both the swollen river and the higher tides are deemed climate-change effects, and HafenCity is designed with the assumption that these effects will magnify over time. The first floors of a well-ordered mix of midrise residential and commercial buildings face streets and walkways that run above flood levels, at about twenty-five feet above sea level. Hamburg did not want to extend its levee system--at huge cost--to wrap the new development, so its lower elevations have been made handsomely flood tolerant instead. Set among courtyarded apartment buildings, small squares open to river views and cascade down about twelve feet toward the waterside, via broad stairways that invite people-watching. (The impish squares and esplanades were designed by the Barcelona architect EMBT.) The esplanades get people close to the water and the views and so are immensely popular (figure 8.6). Rippling benches, warped into potato-chip form, and tubular steel light fixtures that recall shipping cranes can survive floods. You'll find cafes with heavily armored doors that move into place when waters rise. Figure 8.6 While buildings at HafenCity, in Hamburg, are raised above flood levels, a lower-level esplanade is resilient to floods. Heavy doors slide into place in the event of high water to protect cafes that line the walkway. Credit: James S. Russell Turning flood-safety tactics into a delightful waterside sequence of public paths, plazas, and parks is but one of HafenCity's impressive accomplishments. Hydrogen-powered buses will soon loop through the development. A subway-line extension is being scooped out of the perpetually wet soil to augment stops on existing lines nearby. In other words, a car will be largely superfluous.15 HafenCity is turning to cogeneration to dramatically reduce energy and carbon emissions. Such plants, which produce power, heating, and cooling centrally and distribute them to a complex of buildings (for example, a college campus, office-building development, or medical center), can be much more efficient than the best technology available to individual buildings. (Powered by advanced biomass combustion technology, they have helped well-known eco villages like Vaxjo, in Sweden, get off the grid.) To serve a large community with a wide mix of uses, HafenCity's plant creates heat, which generates electricity through a turbine, augmented by local geothermal-well systems and solar and fuel-cell technology. HafenCity's management says its plant is 27 percent more efficient than conventional models. A second system will burn bio-mass fuel and use biomethane fuel-cell technology and a heat pump to derive almost all of its heat and power from renewables. Guidelines encourage developers to exceed Germany's already strict energy codes. A variety of shading devices, from external venetian blinds to sliding panels of metal and reflective glass, cut the summer sun's heat enough to make air-conditioning almost superfluous. It is in HafenCity that you'll find the regional headquarters for Unilever, the low-energy building wrapped in rippling sheets of the transparent "foil" described in chapter 3. Over time, HafenCity will tighten its energy standards by embedding stricter criteria into its developer-selection process. Already, the city uses a two-track procedure, one of which establishes a land price. Then developers compete on the basis of quality, amenity, the way they have mixed uses, and the environmental sustainability of the design. HafenCity is one way metropolitan planners are shifting city growth inward, reusing obsolete land rather than plowing under more farmland. To be sure, it doesn't look much like an American city or suburb. The density is quite high, yet this is no skyscraper downtown. Only a couple of buildings exceed seven or eight stories. Americans would find the level of amenity appealing. With ample courtyards and public green space, a high percentage of both apartments and commercial spaces looks out to harbor views. European and Asian nations have developed the engineering and management capability as well as government structures, financing models, and community-consultation techniques to make large environmental and public works possible, and they have continued to redevelop cities at large scale as economic change has created huge obsolete industrial landscapes. Nowadays, declining air and water quality spurs remedial action even in a country as historically heedless of pollution as China. Dallas, Atlanta, Orange County, Vancouver, and New York have chosen to participate in the invention of their future. Now America needs to adapt the best tools out there to broaden these efforts and pave the way for their success. James S. RussellThe Agile CityBuilding Well-being and Wealth in an Era of Climate Change10.5822/978-1-61091-027-9_9(C) James S. Russell 2011 # 9. Loose-fit Urbanism James S. Russell1 (1) Bloomberg News, Lexington Ave 731, 10022 New York, USA Abstract The 1950s bestowed the American dream of homeownership on millions of I families living in crowded city tenement apartments across the United States. That seems very distant now. Only in television shows and movies does the new wood grain-sided station wagon, stacked with kids and boxes, pull out through the crowded streets to the new highway or parkway and then to the Cape Cod-style subdivision outside Chicago, the shingled ranch on Long Island, or the low-slung picture-windowed modern house in California. The 1950s bestowed the American dream of homeownership on millions of I families living in crowded city tenement apartments across the United States. That seems very distant now. Only in television shows and movies does the new wood grain-sided station wagon, stacked with kids and boxes, pull out through the crowded streets to the new highway or parkway and then to the Cape Cod-style subdivision outside Chicago, the shingled ranch on Long Island, or the low-slung picture-windowed modern house in California. Those postwar suburbs were more spacious and greener, with ample roads and affordable houses. That vision still constitutes the American dream for many, but these days it's mostly just a dream. America will have to devise an alternative to "drive to qualify" growth--a pattern that long seemed as inevitable as the ossified real estate growth machine on which it was based. Disguised by all the financial shenanigans that created the mortgage meltdown was the fact that throwing up new subdivisions at the distant urban edge wasn't working anymore. Builders kept building bigger big boxes, often on bigger lots, even as demand had begun to taper off. Massive efforts to bail out the 2000s-imploded housing economy couldn't restore the dream. Urban growth analyst Arthur C. Nelson, who had documented McMansion overbuilding before the mortgage meltdown, predicted in 2009 that the rate of homeownership would continue to drift downward over time, which means little new supply may need to be created until 2020.1 Aside from the dampening effect on an economy so dependent on housing-related spending, planners and economists are going to have to start considering what will replace the exhausted growth machine real estate model yet achieve the economic advantages it was supposed to confer: affordability, mobility, simplicity. For decades, we've made the urban edge inexpensive to develop by providing ample, easily accessible land and low barriers to business entry as the communities on all that land compete for growth by limiting regulations and taxes. I call these "loose-fit" engines of urban growth. Must we open ample land for development only with beltways? Can we make housing affordable only by building it on former farms and forests? Must growth always go only to the undeveloped edge? No. In most of the world, you'll find the most dynamic, fast-growing communities not in far-flung exurbs or boomburgs but in cities. Cities throughout history have succeeded by perpetually adapting themselves to new economic realities, which is one of the reasons some cities in the United States are resurgent in spite of the hostility of growth machine forces. There's no preordained place, scale of development, or kind of density necessary for the loose-fit city to thrive. Rather, it is a set of conditions. ## Portland: Inventive Infill Should you have to go to the hospital, there are worse ways to get there than the aerial tram that accesses the Oregon Health and Science University. It departs from the Willamette River waterfront in Portland and rises five hundred feet above the city, opening panoramas of downtown, the river, and the Cascade Mountains. About three minutes and two-thirds of a mile later, the tram arrives at a silver and red station perched on high angular legs (figure 9.1). From it, you stroll to your destination on the Marquam Hill campus. Figure 9.1 A stylish aerial tram links the hilltop Oregon Health and Science University and expanded facilities in the South Waterfront mixed-use development, in Portland. Credit: James S. Russell The tram is a novel way to enable growth of the Health University, which had become landlocked atop its hill. The tram links the hospital to a redeveloped riverfront brownfield parcel called the South Waterfront, where expanded medical and teaching facilities mix with high-rise residences and parks. A new streetcar connects the development with downtown, which conveniently links the hospital to all the city's light-rail lines.2 The tram, streetcar, and South Waterfront development, taken together, are a creative way to bring denser development gracefully into already-built parts of the city, and they are a riposte to those that claim the United States can only build at the urban edge because there's no space left in existing communities. Few communities are truly built out; in most, vast tracts go wanting but look valueless so they tend to be forgotten. They are worth so little because the growth machine focuses investment on the urban edge. When a healthy city puts the vast forested and farmed tracts beyond the urban edge off limits, as Portland does (chapter 1), wasted land becomes valuable land. On paper, confining the geographical extent of metropolitan growth by any means looks like a tight fit. There's always been concern, and much debate, about the potential of Portland's urban growth boundary to drive land prices up.3 For years, Portland grew at densities and with the same kind of development as other cities because the urban growth boundary took in a lot of territory. In recent years, the city has grown faster and the boundary has expanded more slowly, which at first spurred infill development on sites that would be overlooked in most places. One-story commercial strips along transit lines sprouted four-story apartment buildings atop stores. But the need to accommodate still more growth has spurred amenable innovation, like the South Waterfront and tram. Portland was the first place I ever heard a development-savvy architect, Gary Reddick, promoting the idea of building housing over a supermarket parking lot. Local developers didn't get it. They were used to building either housing or supermarkets, not combining the two. Once he convinced one of his clients to do it, the idea took off.4 Lately, the Pearl District, a neighborhood of derelict warehouses that attracted artists, has fledged into a popular mixed residential and commercial neighborhood. The growth boundary has the effect of shifting growth machine priorities, making it safe to invest in mature communities and to innovate. Portland could not succeed if it was promoting infill growth that people didn't want. Instead, it unleashed the market conventional developers have ignored. It was hard for pioneering developers trying to build differently, but lenders have been chasing Portland projects not just because they can't plow up exurban forests but because people like the new Portland, and the fact that land supply is limited gives developers, lenders, buyers, and tenants faith that values will grow over time. By shifting growth machine incentives (by growth boundaries or other means), many other cities can develop Portland-style success. For contrast, cruise central neighborhoods within Houston's I-610 inner beltway and you will find vast empty tracts with "for sale" signs so old the paint has peeled and the wood is split. Since metropolitan Houston perpetually opens lightly regulated new land to development with an ever-growing freeway network, land is indistinguishable and utterly commoditized. There's far too much generic land, so little of it can be made to pay, and innovative approaches are too risky. The growth boundary has generally worked for Portland, but because it is a political construction, there have always been tensions about just how big the boundary must be. Draw it too tight, and it will only enable high-end growth. Draw too loosely, and the standard inefficient patterns of American growth reassert themselves. It's a balance that must be struck, then struck again. Just as an ample supply of open land spurs outer-suburban development, an ample supply of land can be created through creative redevelopment and infill opportunities in mature communities. Vancouver has created enormous growth downtown through its inventive urban-design guidelines, and the new EcoDensity initiative aims to increase affordability in town by increasing the supply of developable area through selective increases in density. New York has rezoned about a fifth of the city to create opportunities for desirable development to proceed, "as of right," which means that projects that follow the zoning rules can move swiftly to approval, while developments that want to be taller and bulkier than rules permit must go through a long planning and community-consultation process called ULURP (Uniform Land Use Review Procedure). ## Growing Mature Communities: Retrofit, Repurpose, Reinvent As we shift the growth machine's incentives and disincentives (in the tax code, in how we value investment, in how we provide transportation and infrastructure), we'll hasten a realignment of development opportunity that is already under way. The space for denser, less car-centric development in the "built-up" cites and suburbs is everywhere. In places like Bellevue (chapter 3), belatedly acknowledged market forces have already caused suburban downtowns to trade in their vast parking lots and oversized arterials as they consolidate into denser downtowns. Made more systematic, with trunk transit lines linking them to other centers of activity, remodeled suburban business districts can flourish while reducing auto emissions and congestion. If you knew the old Villa Italia, in Lakewood, a close-in western suburb of Denver, you might not guess at the redevelopment potential of a once chic but long obsolete shopping center from the tailfin era. Villa Italia is now history, though familiar upscale big-box stores such as Whole Foods have risen out of the blacktopped acres. But you'll also find narrow streets with wide sidewalks lined with shops and artists' studios, surmounted by apartments and lofts (ultimately 1,500 units in a variety of styles; figure 9.2). Residents can hang out on a public square and walk to shopping, dining, movie theaters, and a bowling alley. The developer, Continuum Partners, underwrites a small branch of the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver. Belmar's hipness is soft-edged and carefully cultivated, but the $850 million development has made a big impact on an older suburb that was on a slow trajectory of decline. Most important of all, Belmar has created a residential and commercial node with the critical mass to deserve high-frequency transit. The opportunity to make more Belmars is endless.5 Drive along any mature commercial arterial, and you will see just how much space is wasted, and how much aging highway-strip development is ripe for redevelopment. Figure 9.2 The Belmar development, outside Denver, replaced an obsolete shopping center surrounded by parking with a mixed-use community that includes lofts, artists studios, and an art museum ranged along a network of streets and squares. Credit: James S. Russell The housing market has so obsessively supplied single-family houses that many sites will merit conversion to environmentally efficient apartments.6 The market has been slow to realize that single-family houses make less sense for active young people who nowadays marry less often, have fewer children, and have them later in life. Nor are houses necessarily the right choice for couples after children are raised, who may not want to spend decades painting siding and clearing gutters. As in Portland, cities will discover that wasteful acres of parking are actually land banks that can generate cash when redeveloped. ### Increase Development Opportunity by Mixing Uses For decades, zoning ordinances tried to eliminate the kinds of industrial neighborhoods found in nineteenth-century cities, where factories, half a block in size and four stories or more in height, interrupt rows of houses. That factory might once have belched lung-searing smoke, and so segregating it into a separate industrial area made sense. Today, we need not worry about stirring workplaces into the residential mix because most commercial and many industrial uses today are clean enough to share streets with homes, and such mixed neighborhoods can cut traffic and commute times and permit walking to jobs. You can find cast-iron loft buildings in New York, Boston, Philadelphia, and elsewhere that layer a garment-sewing operation, studios for artists and designers, and wide-open residential lofts above street-level stores. Mixing living and working within neighborhoods suits the way small businesses incubate today, but officials may have to adjust fire codes, parking requirements, even bus schedules as eight-hour neighborhoods become twenty-four-hour ones. ### Make Brownfields Desirable Many cities possess square miles of once-industrial waterfront--sites that should offer the highly desirable combination of environmental restoration, high-value development potential, and public access to the water. Some leftover industrial space can get redeveloped in what have become high-value locations under today's accounting methods--such as Stapleton, in Denver, which was an obsolete airport close to downtown and now is a huge new neighborhood. Most brownfield plans founder, though, because the sites are too expensive to clean up. Cities should be able to reinvent the water's edge--as they did in the early twentieth century--by threading parks, promenades, bikeways, and boat access through rebuilt natural wetlands and waterside plantings. The result would be a natural-system restoration project that creates a major public amenity but also happens to create high value for developers inland, helping to defray site-cleanup costs. New York is gradually sculpting a vast mountain of garbage on Staten Island into Freshkills Park, restoring wetlands and inlets along a saltwater channel that is recovering from a past as a fetid industrial sewer. But progress is slow because the city has only the most limited means to capture the value it is creating for the surroundings. Philadelphia has even greater potential, with miles of fallow Delaware riverfront that could host stunning redevelopment. Every community should be looking at how to junk outmoded growth machine incentives in favor of tax and subsidy techniques that reward redevelopments--like brownfields--that can offer extraordinary value for the subsidy buck because they are not just an eco-fix but nurture stronger neighborhoods and can host very large-scale development where urban services and infrastructure already exist. ## Easing Access High growth could never happen at the urban edge without a steady supply of new freeway lanes and beltways. Older cities struggle as the nation continues to underinvest in auto alternatives. The private sector can build (and, to some extent, has built) higher-density housing and closer-in businesses, but if the public sector fails to supply more buses, tracks, and trains, communities reap problems, not benefits. San Francisco, New York, and Seattle have seen rapid growth, but traffic has simply worsened and parking has become impossible because needed transportation investments have not been made. Offering more transportation options to more people may prove to be the most important loose-fit strategy of all. An auto-only transportation system forces a singular, very low-density kind of development. Think of denser cities and suburbs served by several transportation modes as "bus to qualify," "rail to qualify," or even "bike to qualify." Making more of our metropolitan areas accessible in more ways in effect increases housing supply (and therefore restrains prices) because more people can get to more destinations from more neighborhoods. These days, neighborhoods well served by transit tend to be expensive because the supply of good transit is so limited.7 The answer is to supply transit to more areas. ## Going with the Grid In the interests of making suburbs more walkable, bikable, and transit friendly, urbanists have declared war on the cul-de-sac, those streets that dead-end like so many loose threads after looping around a subdivision enclave that's disconnected from everything around it. These layouts are suited to one thing: minimizing traffic within subdivisions. Many cheer quiet streets, but they come at a cost. The streets that wind aimlessly through the woods eventually collect and dump into a big noisy arterial--the opposite of quiet. Streets in a grid or web form a loose-fit pattern because they replace the dysfunctional duality of single-use residential streets and single-use commercial arterials with neighborhoods that can host a wide variety of uses and a wide scale of residential and commercial development. Coffee shops, dry cleaners, and book shops survive in strip malls, but they tend to thrive in intimate, side-walked neighborhoods with lots of houses and apartments nearby (figure 9.3). If the blocks aren't too big, and the streets not too wide, a pleasantly walkable scale can develop. You can zigzag through the blocks on foot to a nearby school or transit stop, rather than be nowhere after traversing a mile of looping subdivision street. Walkable cities develop economic ecosystems based on proximity: for example, districts that sell designer furniture and high-end clothing. Bars and clubs tend to cluster, too. You park once and find what you want at the price you want by visiting many competing businesses. These zones rarely develop in far-flung, auto-oriented metros.8 Street grids use land far more efficiently, even when overall densities are not higher. Curvy subdivision streets tend to leave unusable chunks of land behind. Figure 9.3 By narrowing streets and building over parking lots, Mercer Island, a suburb of Seattle with good transit access, has become pleasingly walkable and less auto dependent. Credit: James S. Russell Spreading traffic across a grid of streets means main arterials need not be wide and intimidating culverts of traffic that moat communities, but can be developed as green streets (as described in chapter 4): inviting, tree-lined boulevards shared by cars, buses, bikes, and people. Traffic-calming design details, such as landscaped medians and sidewalk bump-outs, can keep largely residential streets from becoming drag strips. Does the layout of communities really make that much difference? Consider two places built about the same time: Santa Monica, in Los Angeles, and Seattle. Both were laid out after the turn of the twentieth century on a grid with mainly single-family houses on small lots. The streets in Seattle are fairly narrow, many with only one traffic lane with parked cars on either side. Arterials wider than four lanes are a rarity. In Seattle, people walk, bike, and take buses, especially to run local errands, because streets are pleasant and mainly quiet (the narrowness and a variety of traffic-slowing devices keep speeds down). Most neighborhoods are served by village-scaled, one-story commercial centers, where it is a pleasure to walk. In spite of their narrowness, Seattle's arterials rarely clog, though parking can be frustrating. (Seattle's ghastly traffic is confined mainly to freeways, which is where mobility breaks down.) Such streets were not good enough for California street engineers. Decades ago, they cut Santa Monica streets much wider, so traffic moves much faster, even on residential streets. These streets are intimidating, not intimate. In Santa Monica, people mostly speed through residential neighborhoods by car to commercial destinations located behind parking lots on huge, traffic-clogged avenues that repel walkers, bicyclists, and transit users. Though there's much more "throughput" in terms of lane miles, the overall driving experience is far more frustrating than in Seattle. Both the arterials and the freeways gridlock. We need not make the grid rigid (you can even have a cul-de-sac or two!). They can warp into webs of streets to follow slopes and orient to views. The blocks can be proportioned to catch prevailing breezes or to shade buildings from summer sun. We need not wipe the slate clean, but, like the most dynamic cities in history, we need to learn to overlay what works atop what doesn't. ## Agile Regulation In times of high growth, local leaders pat themselves on the back for creating a "business-friendly" atmosphere and a pro-growth community consensus for the shiny new malls next to the still-black asphalt of the just-completed off-ramps leading to the bright rooftops stretching toward the horizon. But as communities mature, especially communities that have created a great deal of wealth, people tire of the eternal disruptions of growth. They watch in dismay as the forests, rolling fields, or majestic desert recedes. Citizens' natural reaction is to demand tighter regulations to preserve the peace they feel they've paid for, and to demand that developers preserve more and build less. Some businesses, especially well-heeled ones, will jump through more hoops, especially in the communities that have historically attracted the affluent. Others will throw up their hands and head to more-distant, less-restrictive pastures. The number of hoops, the uncertainty of the outcome, and the time it takes can be what's costly--and what makes a city that once welcomed entrepreneurship seem a tough, tight-fit place. The degree and arbitrariness of restrictions demanded by localities becomes a deal breaker for all but those who can coin cash in high-cost, highly regulated, high-wealth communities. In a global warming age, many see tighter regulations--on megahouses, gas-guzzling autos, all-glass buildings, and power lawnmowers, to name a few--as the key to lower energy use and a carbon-neutral future. Regulations must play a role, but they must operate strategically in a dynamic, adaptive economy and support a sustainable community-investment strategy. Regulation is a dirty word in a traditional loose-fit context. But an agile era (in truth, any era) demands carrots (incentives) and sticks (regulations) to shift behaviors toward results that nurture all communities rather than the urban edge at the expense of everything else. How regulating is done is important. ### Keep Rules Simple Regulations that are straightforward, understandable, and focused on the truly relevant are loose-fit tactics that lubricate development while preserving key values. Cities often have to learn this lesson the hard way. In the 1970s, New York City developed a very sophisticated and well-meaning program to reward developers for including desirable public amenities, such as atriums and small pocket parks, in crowded Midtown Manhattan. Developers could even reap rewards for building new Broadway theaters into the bottom of an office tower. Planners devised elaborate formulas to allow builders to exceed the allowable building size by X square feet if they included Y square feet of plaza or a Z-sized glass-covered walkway through the middle of a long block. The requirements were so detailed--spelling out how many trees, planters, and linear feet of cafe frontage was needed--that a great deal of negotiation had to go on to determine whether the city was getting the value it expected for the incentives. It turned out to be a tight-fit strategy that developers resisted because it was so complex. They skillfully managed the negotiation process, offering little at the start and settling for not much. The stillborn parklets and grim public spaces mostly turned out to be more meager in fact than they had seemed on paper. After a few years, the city largely abandoned the idea and stopped negotiating. Instead, it wrote into the zoning some much simpler requirements, asking developers to provide some straightforward amenities to compensate for the very large size of some projects. If developers followed the rules, they'd receive permits quickly, "as of right," with no haggling and little official fuss.9 The revised approach wasn't as subtle, but it worked better. Developers liked it because it laid down understandable ground rules to which they and their competitors would have to adhere, and it was quicker and cheaper. Keeping it simple, however, calls for the community to decide what is really important to regulate rather than what it would like to regulate. You don't want development by Lake Wilderness? You don't want high-rises blocking a beach view? Then zone the lake and the beachfront off-limits. Then write into codes where builders can build (in a less-sensitive place that gives views and easy access to either lake or beach, for example). To places long armed with complex regulatory regimes, a place like Las Vegas seems anathema. Certainly, many in the environmental community would be pleased to see its neon-sign extravaganzas and synthetic stucco pretensions bleach abandoned in the unforgiving desert. Too often, urban experts fail to learn from such freewheeling, high-growth places. I visited local officials in Las Vegas in 2005, when the city was convulsed by the latest in a regular series of transformations--from dusty crossroads in the 1950s to a global casino capital. Planners were not only trying to deal with tremendous, never-ending (it seemed) growth, but they were watching the nature of that growth change almost before their eyes. Along the Strip, developers had started adding high-rise condos catering to retirees and frequent visitors. The proximity to shopping, restaurants, and casinos made the punishing traffic not such an endurance test. In a city where loose slots and loose regulations go hand in hand, regulators permitted the transformation to happen virtually overnight with little hand-wringing. Here was a city that didn't care how developers handled the kinds of issues that in California could induce swarms of homeowners to take to the streets. It didn't matter how small lots were or how tall a building you might erect on it. What citizens--and therefore regulators--cared about was the view to the Red Rock Mountains (figure 9.4). They regulated buildings that might block views because that's what locals held sacred. And they began to understand that the urge to go high-rise could help create neighborhoods with real urban life-- a quality the youthful city of gated subdivisions had never had.10 Figure 9.4 Planners recognized that protecting views to the Red Rock Mountains outside Las Vegas was one of their most important duties, since locals value them as an antidote to slot-machine bustle. Credit: James S. Russell As they looked ahead, they asked developers to break open the privatized high-rise enclaves, fortified by walls and parking garages, and provide an appealing pedestrian connection to the street, so that all this new development could someday have the potential to be walkable and served by expanded transit. To say this style of development was enlightened is going too far. The city had not diversified its economy beyond the casino-shopping nexus and had never learned to create the amenity and city services that encouraged people to stay after they'd made their packet, so it has always been among America's most transient cities. Over decades, though, Las Vegas has proved adept at turning on a dime, as the casino economy convulsively evolved, and locals credit the hands-off regulatory ethos for making that possible. "You can get things done here at a speed that you can't do in other places," explained James Murren, the head of MGM Mirage, when I visited again in 2009, with the city in a deep slump. He and his wife, Heather, were instrumental in the financing and building of a local cancer center, for example. It took three years from start to finish--shorter than the permitting process alone might have taken in many other places. Murren is ready to help move the city to a lower-impact future, and people listen because his company is the largest landowner in Las Vegas and the state's biggest taxpayer. Profligate water use was no longer center stage in his CityCenter megadevelopment, as it was at the Bellagio casino complex next door, an MGM Mirage property built just a few years earlier. He described an expansive civic vision for relentlessly privatized Las Vegas. A metro region of 1.8 million people could not pretend to be a small town anymore, he said. "We've got so many needs here, we've got to catch up on basic services." He advocates rail transit to link the city with the Strip, an idea vehemently opposed by his competitors. Murren's approach is radical only within the hothouse culture of Las Vegas, where a natural gas-powered limo is considered green. With its willingness to make big-scale change, though, you can't count Las Vegas out. Keeping it simple also means rewarding performance rather than mandating specific actions. Setting household energy-efficiency goals, for example, rewards performance while permitting any number of ways of achieving those goals. It is better than mandating the use of compact-fluorescent lightbulbs, because regulatory mandates never update as quickly as technology advances. (As I write this, LED light sources are quickly closing the cost and performance gap with the fluorescents and will probably supersede them.) Rewarding performance also spurs innovation, and that innovation could come from sources that even the most enlightened regulator could not anticipate. ### Regulating at the Right Scale Too many well-meaning tools operate on the wrong scale, such as environmental impact statements, which assess environmental effects of development on a project-by-project basis. The incomprehensible technocratic language of these massive documents can be massaged to make just about any development a candidate for sainthood, and the process too often gives a pass to developments that are harmful in the aggregate rather than individually. (One strip mall matters little; miles of them matter a lot.) On the other hand, projects like the long-stalled redevelopment of Penn Station in New York develop environmental benefits that are best captured by a regional-scale lens. The Moynihan Station project, as the rebuilding is now known, could move hundreds of thousands of daily passengers faster at less cost and with lower carbon emissions over a good portion of three states. Environmental-impact tunnel vision frustrates Vishaan Chakrabarti, who tried to move the project along before he became director of the Real Estate Development program at Columbia University. "Moynihan has by my count gone through three and a half environmental impact statements, probably $12 million worth of reports. It makes no sense that both the public sector and the private sector have had to put so much money into that kind of reporting for what is ultimately a green, transit-oriented project."11 We would know so much more about what kinds of development communities should encourage if we looked at the big picture with good baseline information. What areas are most precious? What ones most need redevelopment? What kinds of projects will reach our goals? What kinds should some carefully tailored regulation discourage? In this way, communities signal what kinds of development will be approved as of right, eligible for incentives, or publicly financed. That's a loose-fit approach. Then we can subject lazy, business-as-usual projects that build in high reliance on energy and chip away at valuable resources to a process that makes transparent the damage they do. Localities can then either reject them or subject them to very substantial requirements to mitigate that damage (think highways that fail to improve mobility or cul-de-sac subdivisions located where they require extraordinary public investments). ### Regulating Affordably One reason farms beyond the urban edge are so appealing to developers is that a field of asparagus will never show up to protest development at a public hearing. Human neighbors--especially neighbors who can afford top-drawer lawyers--are a pain in the neck most developers would prefer didn't exist. Where you have affluent neighbors sensitive to the environment, to recreational advantages, and to burnished historic neighborhoods, you tend to have restrictions, regulations, and prohibitions, along with high costs and a tangled development process: the opposite of the lightly regulated, development-friendly ethos that prevails at the exurban edge. Yet, such tight-fit cities--most of them on the coasts--are often wealthy, successful (at least by some measures), and appealing to live in. To create cities that are loose fit, that are entrepreneurial in the environmental and economic sense, requires unpacking these sets of apparent contradictions. Over the years, both the state of California and many of its cities passed a panoply of strict environmental and growth-control regulations, accompanied by elaborate citizen-review processes. Localities became adept at slowing residential growth (which was perceived as adding traffic and costing tax revenues whatever their environmental impact), unpredictably rationing building permits, and making developers jump through more plan-review hoops. It got to the point in San Francisco that neighbors were given veto power over the style and even the color of an addition you might want to build. The rallying cry for such invasive regulation was always "preserving quality of life," but slowing growth also had the unspoken purpose of propping up property values--a foundational value of suburbia, especially in California, which got used to putting rising property values in the bank, even as costs to first-time buyers moved inexorably out of reach. Many experts think lots of regulations, especially environmentalpreservation ones, drive up costs.12 In California that would appear to be the case, but the equation is more complicated. People aren't unhappy watching their homes appreciate. They willingly pay more to live in the Victorian hills of San Francisco or near the stunning bays of Marin County, and nature is not making any more of those places. Cities have also created a lot of wealth, which makes it possible for more people to pay more for amenity, and to pay more to defend it from the next wave of growth. That combination powerfully reinforces the regulating urge. Rising values, though, come with rising taxes, stirring anger. In 1978, voters passed Proposition 13, which cut property taxes by a stunning 60 percent, curtailed their future growth, and rearranged who paid them. It protected longtime residents from dramatic property-tax spikes. It has long been regarded as the opening salvo in a nationwide tax revolt that has since intermittently swept the nation. William Fulton, a longtime observer of the urban-planning and development scene in California, described Proposition 13's most profound consequence as depriving the suburban growth machine of the cash it needed to keep on running.13 Fulton shows how Proposition 13 inspired all-out fiscal war in the suburbs, as municipalities encouraged developers to plow under valuable farmland for sales tax-generating auto malls and shopping centers to pay for the American suburban dream without appearing to resort to the evils of greater taxation. Such development obliterated fragrant orange groves and blighted the misty slopes above the ocean beaches, and Californians wanted to stop it. Each development's come-on promised closeness to nature, but inevitably the bulldozers came and carved the view of chaparral-covered hillside into dirt platforms for the next rows of houses. The result is a tight-fit development environment: roller-coaster (but generally high-priced) housing costs and an oversupply of tax receipt-generating auto malls that jockey to steal business from one another. This contradictory, capricious development economy constrains growth, experimentation, and en-trepreneurialism as it pushes moderate-income people to drive dozens of miles from job centers to find an affordable home (if they don't simply move to a state where life is simpler and cheaper). The farthest-out communities, where cash-strapped home buyers stretched themselves farthest, foreclosed fastest in the mortgage meltdown. For all the rampant NIMBYism, California's environmental and quality-of-life victories tend to be pyrrhic, coming one isolated tract at a time. Then communities rise to fight the next battle. The blatantly unfair property tax structure has induced regularly scheduled fiscal crises and ruined once-great schools and universities. Phoenix, Las Vegas, and Denver have all grown on California outmigration. California's contradictions are made more lurid by its tradition of government by citizen ballot initiative, but clashes among fiscal, land-use, environmental, and regulatory cultures plague many metropolitan areas--and the price is often paid in affordability, especially in the high-achieving cities on both coasts. In New Jersey--the most suburbanized state and, by some measures, the nation's wealthiest--the state's thousand-plus localities wield antidevelopment regulations to preserve disappearing farms and woodlands, and to keep out families with children of modest means as a way to reduce public-schools costs. The state's property taxes remain punishing. "Driving-to-qualify" in New Jersey can mean going as far as eastern Pennsylvania, more than sixty miles from jobs in New York City and its suburbs. To reduce congestion and encourage conservation, the state wants more people to use its statewide railand bus-transit system, but it regularly starves NJ Transit of operating cash while encouraging driving on its jammed, underengineered roads with among the nation's lowest road taxes. The innovations in Vancouver, Portland, and New York suggest ways to preserve and enhance what communities value and to do it better than relying almost entirely on regulations. Letting developers know how they can build quickly and easily is a looser-fit strategy than rules that are complex, micromanaging, and ambiguously worded. Communities that prescribe a long list of required building attributes and mandates, followed by a long series of reviews by community groups and an assortment of boards with wide discretion and no time limits, may preserve only what they know, in a very limited way, usually at high cost. ## LEED: HOW to Wiki Innovation If you are a man, you may have recently encountered your first waterless urinal. No flushing necessary. Or, as a woman, you may have been offered, via coy graphics on the toilet-flush apparatus, the choice of a little flush (when liquids alone are concerned) or a normal flush (for "solids"). I briefly invade your personal privacy to illustrate the power of LEED, the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design program of the US Green Building Council (USGBC). The waterless urinal and the dual-flush toilet save water, and they have made their appearance not due to plumbing-fixture obsession or top-down regulation but voluntarily, one building at a time. By the time you read this, such fixtures may have become mandatory in water-challenged jurisdictions because they have proved their worth when introduced through LEED's standard-setting process. Or that process may have found something better.14 In a loose-fit context, the beauty of LEED is that it amalgamates the wisdom of many experts to quickly mainstream useful innovation. For cities, it offers an analogy that can address a wide variety of questions and test good ideas. LEED is a checklist created by volunteer architects, engineers, and building experts to represent their collective assessment of best practices in environmental sustainability. It is intended to widely address environmental issues, not simply focus on climate change. Volunteers on USGBC's numerous LEED committees propose, debate, and adopt measures by consensus. When a building or remodeling project's designers and owners seek LEED certification, they choose the measures that best fit the building--functionally, economically, and environmentally. The more measures they undertake, the higher the rating: from certification, the lowest standard, to silver, gold, and platinum. Water-efficient toilets made their appearance as an approved LEED measure and rapidly moved into the mainstream because they proved cost-effective, easy to install, and reliable. Other measures have fallen by the wayside because they have not proved out or are too onerous. LEED standards have moved such products as advanced air filtration and solvent-free paints from outre to mainstream and have made construction-site recycling common, even on noncertified projects. Local requirements or tax incentives for green design can move this process faster, demanding (as many municipalities now do) that a higher LEED standard like gold or even platinum be met. The USGBC's vision of environmental sustainability is exceedingly broad, encompassing site development, water efficiency, building materials, and fresh air, among other issues, so it was slow to reflect the importance of climate change. Until 2007, buildings could get certified without receiving any of the energy points aimed at reducing carbon emissions. I was initially a LEED skeptic. Its checklist approach seemed mechanistic, and it seemed to reward what critics derisively call "point mongering": cherry picking low-effort strategies--a bit of bamboo flooring, some never-used bike racks--that figure heavily in project marketing campaigns but raise the score without having much environmental impact. However, LEED has proven to be flexible and dynamic--in other words, loose fit--as it has responded to criticism, with, for example, a mandatory focus on energy efficiency. Douglas Farr, an architect and community designer in Chicago, sums up how LEED moves innovation forward: "You need to make it legal, make it easy, then require it." As a useful sustainability measure is identified, such as the waterless urinal, the first step (to many advocates' surprise) is to make it legal. Newish products often fall outside hidebound local building or local zoning codes. Negotiating approval can take time, but then what was once new and mysterious becomes mainstream and less expensive. Farr and architect Joe Valerio (of Chicago's Valerio Dewalt Train) had to convince city officials in Troy, Michigan, that reducing paved parking in favor of native grasses and wildlife-attracting ponds in the 2006 LEED Platinum headquarters for the Kresge Foundation (chapter 5) was a good thing. They were just ahead of their time. It's largely because of LEED that many cities and communities have rewritten regulations and incentives to encourage designs that retain or divert storm water from overburdened sewer systems (figure 9.5). LEED has an invisible multiplier effect. Innovation gets built, and is therefore testable. If successful in one project, it migrates to others (whether subsequent users bother to certify or not) as owners and communities look for solutions, whether in flood control, energy conservation, or air quality. Figure 9.5 Although storm water-absorbing rain gardens, like this one in the High Point redevelopment in Seattle (Mithun, architects), are rapidly becoming popular, they must still be made legal in many localities. Credit: James S. Russell This leads to Farr's second step, making adoption of new products easy. LEED has encouraged the geothermal well system industry, which didn't even exist in the United States a few years ago. Now, local suppliers and contractors all over the country have developed the capacity to produce and install them. More research and development--which LEED cannot fund--could make them less expensive and more efficient. LEED, however, helped identify their transformational potential. Many jurisdictions have taken Farr's third step by making mandatory measures that have high value and are inexpensive. Construction recycling is now required in many places, since an infrastructure has developed for it (thanks to LEED) and contractors and local officials alike have recognized the high value and low cost of separating valuable metals, woods and so on. (In some cases, recycling makes money for the contractor.) You can earn LEED points for engineering in better indoor-air quality than today's building codes now require. If these measures prove to truly advance health (reducing asthma, say, or increasing alertness), officials might well make them mandatory. LEED has had its growing pains. At this writing, only a few thousand buildings have been certified (though the number is growing exponentially) because it is neither an easy nor an inexpensive process. Architects not only have to design a better building but have to copiously document it and then await the USGBC's judgment on whether they've actually achieved the rating they sought. Its impact, however, has proven to be much larger than the number of certified buildings suggests. It has spurred broader acceptance of many green techniques even by owners who have no intention of doing the paperwork, because the scoring system creates benchmarks that corporate decision makers can understand and compare. It reduces greenwashing--the marketing of faux green tactics--because a disinterested third party is certifying performance. For companies who want to show their commitment to broad well-being rather than just profits, LEED is a brand with credibility. Though it can identify the potential in emerging technologies, LEED cannot replace government research investments or a useful regulatory role. Should Congress pass a program that allows polluters to buy carbon credits (called "cap and trade"), and some of that cash is used to underwrite green innovation, LEED could become a means to funnel that cash to products and concepts with high potential but that require R&D. LEED's success suggests that there are numerous other ways to similarly wiki environmental innovation. As described in chapter 8, the USGBC has scaled up LEED in its Neighborhood Development program to capture large environmental efficiencies--such as cogeneration plants, mobility enhancements, and on-site green sewage treatment--that can happen only at the scale of a neighborhood, college campus, or office park. The organization ICLEI-Local Governments for Sustainability is using LEED as a model for its new STAR Community Index, intended to rate the environmental performance of entire communities in such areas as natural systems, planning and design, economic development, health, and social equity.15 That's a tall order, but if the rating system catches on, there is no limit to the agile creativity that could be unleashed. James S. RussellThe Agile CityBuilding Well-being and Wealth in an Era of Climate Change10.5822/978-1-61091-027-9_10(C) James S. Russell 2011 # 10. Green Grows the Future James S. Russell1 (1) Bloomberg News, Lexington Ave 731, 10022 New York, USA Abstract In 1990s Berlin, tower cranes silhouetted the sky in every direction as the city remade itself, presaging square miles of instant tower skylines in Dubai, Singapore, Seoul, and dozens of cities in China as the globe bound its economies tightly together. In 1990s Berlin, tower cranes silhouetted the sky in every direction as the city remade itself, presaging square miles of instant tower skylines in Dubai, Singapore, Seoul, and dozens of cities in China as the globe bound its economies tightly together. It was a strange time for a Berlin real estate developer to tell me, "Europe's closets are full." By this he meant that most western Europeans owned what they needed, and that those mature economies would not grow on a diet of new and bigger cars, televisions, houses, and so on. Being a developer, though, he was optimistic about the prospects for growth--at least in the short term. He thought united Germany would supply the consumer economy's bounty to former East Germans, lifting them and the nation's economy together. Though Berlin grew, it still struggles to find a firm economic footing. But he was right about the closets. He expressed a quiet consensus that has developed in much of Europe that mature developed economies cannot thrive just by getting their citizens to buy more stuff. It's not just Europe's closets that are full. So are Japan's, Canada's, Australia's, and America's. The idea that growth in domestic consumer spending will power economic growth forever is about as widely rejected in Europe as it is received wisdom in America.1 It's one reason many European governments resisted the buying binge urged upon them by American economists after the finance bubble burst. Europeans have long had their stimulus plan in place: an extensive social safety net and hefty spending on public works. They don't need more highways, because they've built them everywhere. They also have built the future-focused infrastructures that America has chosen not to invest in: buses, trams, bike lanes, high-speed rail, up-to-the-minute rail and air hubs. While many American communities don't even have sidewalks, nations with a third of America's personal income cobble them. Though some countries used ample global capital to finance a housing bubble as America did, Europeans generally save more and are becoming more anti-consumption, which is why governments did not urge greater purchases of cars and televisions to end the recession. This kind of stimulus would add to debt without generating sustainable growth, they felt. In general, the deal Europeans have made with their governments is to accept low basic wages in return for government-paid health care, subsidized housing, child daycare, schools, job-security measures, extensive unemployment insurance, long vacations, and a secure old age. These aspects of life have become much more important than more and bigger gadgets.2 There's also a cultural dimension. Consumption of goods and services does not drive most developed-world economies to the degree it does in the United States both because of the graying of populations and because of a deeper concern about global warming. The advanced European economies are at least a decade ahead of America in energy-conservation technology and carbon-emission policy. There's an ethos--in wealthier, better-educated Northern Europe especially--of living lighter on the earth. (There's also an economic dimension in the commitment to carbon reduction: ramping up green technology reduces energy imports and boosts exports, especially in Germany, which became a solar-panel leader in spite of having a cloudy, solar-unfriendly climate.) The United States has not seriously questioned its prevailing consumption ethos: that people buying bigger houses and furnishing them with more gadgetry will somehow power economic growth, and thereby lift general well-being. It was precisely that ethos that fed the real estate bubble. The bust shattered Americans' faith in ever-spiraling real estate values as a magic growth serum, but we still avoid the key question: where will growth come from?3 One does not need to be an economist to recognize that the developed world will have to find a postconsumption growth model. That model must entail reweaving natural systems and human endeavor at a very large scale, because resuming business-as-usual consumption-based growth, assuming it can be induced over more than a brief period, will hit a wall of global warming effects and diminishing resources. This chapter shows how the many tactics and policies described earlier in the book can put off that day of reckoning. Transforming our buildings, communities, and infrastructures to nurture natural systems and use precious resources efficiently can become an economic-development strategy as well as a sustainability strategy. More important, it can be a strategy that grows by improving well-being. It's a tall order, but not an insurmountable one. First, we--especially in the United States--must wean ourselves from reliance on bubble economics. ## The Reign of Bubblenomics The case for a postconsumption economy will strike many as faddish or apocalyptic. But the lurid excess of the most recent American bubble, and the heavy price Americans are paying for it, undercuts the idea that America can build economic strength by a return to "normalcy." At this writing, more than two years after the United States entered the worst slump since the Great Depression, economists and politicians largely argue over what kinds of growth nostrums will get businesses and consumers to spend. America has been able to sustain the fiction of a successful consumption-driven economy only by inducing three bubbles to form over three decades, all of which popped with varying levels of damage. There's no "normalcy" to return to. Overconsumption, besides ignoring the environmental damage it caused, got America into its current mess. ### The 1980s Reagan Bubble I have vivid memories of being toured around the edges of Phoenix about 1991. Nothing looked amiss until my guide, a long-term resident, pointed out the brand-new strip malls with no cars sullying the parking lots' clean white stripes, and empty new office buildings you could see through. The savings and loan scandals that rocked the late 1980s left a residue of vacant stores and offices all over the country. Tax shelters and regulatory relief unleashed in the early years of Ronald Reagan's administration lushly benefited commercial real estate, and developers threw up office buildings, subdivisions, and shopping centers with abandon. They did not sign up tenants in advance, because they could afford to build and wait a year or two for them to come along. Savings and loan associations, the chief sources of local finance at that time, and historically among the most conservative of lenders, joined the party with a vengeance. The denouement bears a remarkable resemblance to the much larger housing bubble that would burst twenty years later. An overheated market and gagged regulators made life easy for S&L crooks. Congress reined in the costly tax breaks in the late 1980s, but the damage had been done. Construction volume, which hit records in 1986, crashed, shrinking by two-thirds in five years. The collapse took the savings and loan industry and its shoddy lending practices with it, costing the taxpayers some $160 billion. Commercial construction did not recover until the mid-1990s.4 ### The 1990s Dot-com Bubble It's San Francisco, year 2000. I had visited a stylish loft building renovated in a matter of months to accommodate Internet startups that were growing so fast they were snatching up every square foot of space they could find to house people they hadn't hired yet to do tasks not yet defined. The rise of the personal computer and the Internet seemed to change the rules of investing, not only having created enormous wealth for Microsoft's Bill Gates, Apple's Steve Jobs, and AOLs Steve Case but also enriching software engineers and secretaries lucky enough to be in on the hatching of Windows or Netscape. It was a much-touted New Economy, an entirely unprecedented era of wealth creation, according to industry shills. The growth and innovation were real, but by the late 1990s, investors bid up companies like AOL to values rivaling longtime blue chips like Exxon or General Electric, which were deemed part of an antiquated "legacy" economy. Stock prices need not reflect dull "old economy" profits, the New Economy advocates said, as the stock market bounded to record after record.5 When I visited that loft building, only about a third of the building's space was occupied, because tenants would sign leases then realize they needed even more space and would sublet to another startup. In one space, several transactions had taken place with not a soul actually having moved in.6 Out on the bustling street, early mobile-phone adopters were frantically deal making. The air was so infused with instant-millionaire dreams that I looked up, half expecting the sky to rain money. A boom has never felt so palpable to me before or since--nor so fragile. The bubble burst later that year, with the tech-heavy NASDAQ exchange plunging from a peak of over five thousand points, wiping out billions in paper value.7 ### The 2000s Housing Bubble Given the lives and fortunes ruined in the previous two bubbles, we should have known better in the 2000s. The twenty-first century's first bubble was a product of the twentieth century's last one. House prices in many markets had risen with the dot-com ebullience and began a precipitous fall as the tech bubble burst, especially in overheated markets in California and New York. With the 9/11 attacks further shaking faith in the American economy, the Federal Reserve goosed the housing economy with big interest-rate cuts. The rest is still fresh history: The subprime lending sector, in spite of critics who said terms were abusive, grew rapidly, with mortgage makers reaping huge profit on buyers shut out of the housing market by the 1990s price runups. The Federal Reserve interest cuts propped up those prices, and regulators looked the other way as buyers, hoping to scramble into the middle class, signed onto mortgages with rates that pretty much guaranteed they'd never cash in. Wall Street packaged loans in new exotic investment products that brought in huge amounts of new cash to lend. House prices, especially in desirable markets, rose rapidly. People could keep up only by taking out high-risk loans. Again, pundits claimed the rules had changed, that America had this time for sure found a new road to wealth. Regulators sat back, accepting the specious notion that markets were transparent (which they were not) and self-regulating (which, as in previous bubbles, they weren't).8 To keep the new mortgages rolling in, lenders pushed new loan "products" that could remain viable only if home prices rose forever. People tapped the growing paper equity in their homes to pay college and medical bills, to buy yet larger homes, or to take Vegas flings. It was all, of course, a colossal house of cards, built on greed and dishonesty. The cracks in the edifice started to appear in 2006, and the damage spread wider in 2007, leading to the precipitous economic crash that began in fall 2008. During these three growth spurts, the US economy seemed to outperform those of most of the developed world, leading to the belief (still widely held) that growing consumption would lead to economic expansion, which would feed yet more consumption, and so on. Evening out the bubbles and declines, US economic performance would not look impressive. The bubbles simply disguised the fact that consumption would otherwise have risen little, not enough to raise standards of living or keep the economy vibrant. This was especially the case in the 2000s, when the bubble expanded and the economy seemed to grow even as wages stagnated.9 The United States has had to keep bribing citizens to spend by cutting taxes and pushing new deregulatory gimmicks. ## Limits to Growth In the early months of the housing-bubble bust, a paradoxical debate played out. Reacting to job losses and the crashing value of their homes and investments, Americans rapidly cut spending and started saving to cushion the bad times. Economists cried, wait! wait! People needed to keep on with their bad old habits just a bit longer to keep the economy from spinning into the abyss. The experts were admitting that the consumption basis of the economy had failed (propped up only by a bubble), but they needed people to keep it going while they thought of something new. Americans, it turned out, could not afford to keep spending, and the government's ability to spend for them was severely limited by accumulated deficits. The recovery got off to a slow and rocky start. The barriers to long-term sustained growth through consumption have become formidable, however, and we'll see below how that takes us back to the environmental challenges I spelled out in the introduction. ### Developing Giants In today's tightly integrated global economy, Brazil, China, India, and perhaps Indonesia and Mexico are among several populous nations that will grow at least partly at the expense of mature developed economies. On a per-person level, incomes are not large, but cumulatively, these economies are already huge and have--or are gaining--a productive capacity that is able to undercut Europe, Japan, and America on price.10 In a few years, they may well compete in the high-tech sectors and service sectors that the developed countries have traditionally dominated. (Solar-panel manufacturing dominance, to name just one example, shifted from Europe to China in just a few years.)11 ### Resource Shortages As these large economies shoulder their way into the world economy, the globe demands correspondingly enormous amounts of mineral and natural commodities. As growth rates increase, expect rapid rises in the price of oil, copper, steel, and numerous other commodities essential to our economy as it is now structured. Even in the absence of literal shortages, a combination of speculation and higher extraction and processing costs will create periodic commodity price spikes, much like those the world witnessed at the peak of the 2000s economic boom.12 ### Nature Bites Us Back Until economic activity accurately prices the value of natural resources, the forests, fisheries, and agricultural land will continue a spiraling decline, exploited beyond the point of no return by unprecedented levels of world demand. We're watching entire water systems, fisheries, agricultural regions, and forests die before our eyes, which means they can no longer support productive human endeavor, which impoverishes us and leads to even heavier exploitation of the natural systems that remain, hastening the appalling specter of large-scale environmental collapse. Taken together, these factors will make it much harder for developed economies, especially America's, to grow their way out of recession, particularly through the purchase of consumer goods. Climate change may remain a hazy abstraction to many people, but building an economy that is resource efficient as well as energy efficient may be the only way to address economic well-being. The issues of resource shortage, pollution, and pricing will become more evident as large swaths of the world's population achieve a lifestyle beyond privation. There is a real risk that business-as-usual, GDP-focused, high-impact/ low-efficiency growth cannot long sustain itself.13 ## A Natural Reckoning? The scale of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil-spill disaster may at last force an accounting of these risks. BP's catastrophic mistakes in the incident cannot be ignored, but neither should America's larger failure to appropriately balance the subsidizing of cheap oil with the risks of drilling for it a mile beneath the sea. At this writing, the ultimate cost of the Deepwater failure is not yet known. But the cost goes beyond sullying some of the world's most beautiful beaches and undercutting the economies of three states. It could include the disruption of one of the world's most essential ecosystems. We could have been up front with ourselves about the risks of drilling versus the costs of making that drilling unnecessary through energy conservation and alternative energy sources. The United States still chooses not to make that calculation. Had we done so, the course of action would have become much clearer. We may have come to terms with the real risks and the real costs of resource extraction in an era that demands ever more risky procedures. (Drilling in Arctic seas? Blowing up West Virginia mountaintops for coal? Shattering underground northeastern geological formations to extract natural gas at the risk of essential water supplies?) In its ignorance of the scope of such risks, America enables Deepwater disasters to happen. ## Green Econ: Costs Avoided; Multiple, Synergistic Benefits To an extent rare just a few years ago, economists have begun to embrace green investments as essential to advance conventional growth as the benefits of including the cost to the environment in pricing has become more obvious.14 They are also recognizing that conventional analysis often fails to capture the unique benefit of green investments. ### Costs Avoided Many environmental-repair efforts produce positive economic outcomes because we stop having to pay for the secondary effects of consuming resources destructively. In other words, if we don't have to drill, we don't risk the Gulf's ecosystem and economy. If we save water, we don't have to pay the punishing costs of finding more fresh water. We could price coal to reflect not just the cost of the GHGs it emits but the cost of cleaning up the pollution caused by its extraction, processing, and burning. After all, if a company blows up a mountaintop to extract coal, and clogs streams with the debris, just what kind of economic future can that place have once the miners leave? I thought of this when I visited the listless copper-mining town of Anaconda, Montana, where my mother grew up. It would be a thriving place, since its setting is one of the most eye-popping natural landscapes in the world, but for the mile-long pile of mine tailings that defaces it. The green economy avoids costs by preserving resources or not using them up, primarily in energy and in reducing the percentage of GDP devoted to transportation (which, in the United States, is larger than most other nations). The dollars we don't spend are available to us for other essential or more desirable purposes. Consider the comparison made in chapter 4: the gas-guzzling SUV costs the owner a lot of money to fill up, pollutes the air, worsens global warming, contributes to traffic congestion, and puts more pressure on a finite resource (oil), helping to push the price up. In America, much of the cost of every oil gallon doesn't circulate in the economy but heads offshore to oligarchic nations whose interests are often opposed to America's and who use American cash to achieve them. By contrast, Americans in large numbers could halve the negatives by buying cars with double the mileage. If one member of an American family switches to the bus and sells the car, he not only reduces the negative effects to a fraction of what the SUV owner creates but gains the ability to save $10,000 or more annually or spend it on things that may have more beneficial economic and environmental effects. If a significant percentage of Americans made such a choice (readily doable within a decade), you get the idea that transformative results, especially in global warming terms, are not far from reach. ### Benefits Multiplied When the United States and other developed nations committed to cleaning their water and air in the early 1970s, few people were optimistic enough to imagine benefits beyond better health, modestly prettier lakes, and fewer brown skies. But the results went beyond almost everyone's wildest dreams, a lesson worth revisiting as we confront environmental challenges that feel less personally urgent than choking on smog. We're used to accounting for actions in simplistic monetary terms: if I invest X, will I get back a 20 percent profit on it? By that measure, many green tactics at best pay back. Instead, green investments tend to offer broad benefits that we rarely measure (like selling the SUV does). To set effective priorities for ourselves, we need to account for these real, if sometimes indirect, benefits because they can be so substantial. As small children, my brothers, sisters, and I splashed the summers away in the murky waters of Lake Washington, next to which we lived, not far from Seattle. Each year, the beaches were closed for more days, since raw sewage from the growing city and its suburbs poured into the lake untreated. That began to change in the early 1960s as a local effort to build sewers led to the treatment of almost all industrial and domestic sewage in just a few years. Our family welcomed the cleanup, obviously, but we expected little beyond safe swimming. Over the years, though, we witnessed an extraordinary transformation. The murky green water turned to blue, and that blue kept deepening. Where before, at best, we could see a few inches into the water, visible depths grew to more than ten feet--the kind of clarity you expect to see in a remote mountain lake.15 Wildlife multiplied. We were stunned to find salmon spawning in a shallow, sandy cove in front of our house. Bald eagles, which had all but vanished, now roost in the high firs above the house and even scour densely built-up neighborhoods in Seattle for unsuspecting prey. The lake is a playground, hosting all manner of boats. Bass have returned to the lake in such numbers that the high-tech skiffs of sport fisherman clog the shoreline. Real estate values near the lake zoomed, as what had been an unofficial open sewer became a desirable and finite amenity. At this writing, my childhood home is worth almost ten times its 1953 value (inflation adjusted!), a rate of appreciation that dwarfs properties lacking waterfront. Would the likes of Bill Gates and his Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen have built multimillion-dollar residences along the lake if it had been allowed to putrefy? Multiply the seventy-five miles of shoreline by these kinds of numbers and you have an amount of value creation no one expected that alone dwarfs the cost of building the treatment infrastructure.16 Then multiply this story all across the country, where rivers no longer reek, industrial cities have emerged from soot and grime, and yellowish smog no longer shrouds suburbs. To my knowledge, the real estate value preserved and created by clean air and water has never been estimated.17 Imagine how enormous it is. What if those sewers had never been installed and the tailpipe exhaust from hundreds of millions of autos had never been scoured? Lake Washington would be dead, and that waterfront we grew up on would be worthless. Countless cities would have been abandoned because the air was unbreathable. We'd have very little clean water for drinking. When clean water and clean air legislation was being debated, it seemed hard to believe that the Cuyahoga River in Cleveland--where a melange of toxic chemicals actually caught fire--could be saved.18 Now, with the river significantly restored, Cleveland has built stadiums, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, the Great Lakes Science Center, and other attractions along the river. Who then could have imagined that the Towpath Trail would make the Cuyahoga Valley National Park one of the most visited in the nation? Who would have dreamed back then that the hills of Pittsburgh, for decades seared of vegetation by pollution, would now be lush with trees, and that many of the neighborhoods above the old factory sites would be more desirable than ever? Experts have estimated the cancers that have been avoided, the many lives not cut short, the health care and hospitalizations we didn't need. Who has ever looked at these numbers? Most of us take for granted the notion that the good outweighs the bad; we can see it with our own eyes. The statistical tally does not capture the well-being created from millions of children swimming in heedless pleasure in clean lakes, streams, and coastal beaches on a hot summer day. California's experience shows that similar benefits can develop from aggressive energy conservation. It has been a leader in curbing energy use, with per capita consumption rising not at all since 1974 while the nation's use has risen 50 percent. Think of the power plants not built, the pollution not generated, the cash Californians have been able to commit to other goods and services that in other states goes to building power plants and buying fuel. (Indeed, the state redoubled its conservation efforts after Enron and other energy-service companies conspired to fake a power-supply crisis, leading to huge, artificially induced utility-rate spikes that were later rolled back.) If the harm to the state's economy was as large as naysayers have claimed, the state would never have set aggressive targets for greenhouse gas emissions and set out ways to meet these goals through a planning framework called Vision California.19 ### Benefits That Build on One Another Both the economic and environmental benefits of incremental conservation measures and technologies may be much greater than we can reliably estimate now because of the way one technique can add value to another. Improvements in overall building or vehicle efficiency are not linear or geometric but can be exponential. Let me stitch together the synergistic (if not obvious) relationship of a smart electrical grid, better building controls, and electric cars. Owners have for some time used automatic controls for lights, heating, and cooling in houses and office buildings. From a touch screen or mobile phone, you can set your house to minimum-heating "vacation" mode, or preheat the place when you are about to return. In large structures, computerized building-management systems regulate lighting, heating, cooling, and many other functions. Control systems in homes and businesses become far more useful when connected to a smart grid hooked to renewable sources. That's because a smart-grid electric utility doesn't just send power to customers from large generating stations; it also receives power from customers selling the excess from large wind farms and small home-solar arrays. Smart controls can make energy-consumption choices for you that take advantage of the smart grid's dynamic fluctuations in supply, demand, and pricing. Large companies already get big power-price breaks if they agree to reduce energy use during demand peaks. With a recent retrofit, the Empire State Building's (chapter 7) advanced controls permit both the building and its tenants to cut peak power use as much as 1.5 megawatts, a much larger savings than would have been possible just a few years ago, and to share a hefty check written by Con Ed, the electric utility. The smart grid can extend the idea to small users and homeowners, instructing your appliances (unless you override them) to heat water, wash dishes, and dry laundry when wind farms are whirring and pricing is most advantageous. In this way, smart grids working with smart controls considerably reduce the disadvantages of wind and solar, which are not consistently available. Solar and wind energy fed into the smart grid can enable a proliferation of such load-shifting techniques. Solon, a German solar-power maker, demonstrated a prototype of what they called the "solar shuttle," a portable power source you could charge when demand and prices are low, then roll out to your workplace to power desktop computers and lighting.20 Using many such techniques, buildings can sip energy during heat waves (when electricity use--and prices--usually peak). Reducing peak-period usage across the board is especially valuable (and cost saving) because a considerable amount of generating capacity must be built and maintained (much of it burning the dirtiest fuels) just to serve that peak, which is usually 5 percent of the time or less. Now to the electric-car connection. The smart grid and electric cars will need each other, because we'll have to add a great deal of generating capacity if an electric-car power-distribution system isn't priced to encourage charging at low-demand hours. Once electric vehicles become a significant percentage of the market, all those batteries connected to the grid also become a useful source of reserve power. That's because about 1 percent of capacity being generated at any given moment is power that's essentially thrown away because it is produced only to stabilize the grid as demand changes. That reserve could readily come from idled electric cars.21 That means, in the worst-case scenario, the grid would borrow only a small percentage of the battery's capacity.22 In sum, the consumer able to shift loads and the car able to contribute idle battery power both help the grid work more efficiently and make solar and wind energy more valuable. Indeed, it's a "sum" that considerably exceeds the value of its parts. The economic implications, however, are as significant as the environmental ones: smart grids, electric cars, and building-control systems are each markets that will thrive with the right incentives, each innovating, each creating jobs and technologies. And this is but a tiny part of the carbon-reduction pie. Motivated entrepreneurs can create and refine many green measures with relatively small up-front investments if we align growth machine incentives to help them find a market. The United States can create these markets and these technologies, or it can wait for circumstances to force them on us, when we will have to import them from nations that had the foresight to invent them. (Indeed, America is such an energy-innovation laggard that it already imports dozens of technologies for advanced rail and green building.)23 ## How Good is Growth? We assume that fast-growing urban regions in America are becoming wealthier, drawing people because of the opportunities they offer. In reality, the first does not automatically lead to the second. Some slow-growing metropolitan economies (in terms of population) have created a lot of wealth (like the big cities of the Northeast), while some fast-growing areas (in terms of population) create wealth at a much slower rate than population grows (the case for Phoenix and Las Vegas, even before their precipitous crash).24 Europe may have grown GDP only modestly, but its performance looks better considered in the face of population decline. The lesson: countries can grow in wealth without growing in population and, by implication, without increasing consumption. Regrettably, the fastest way to grow in both wealth and well-being has been to rise from subsistence agriculture by amalgamating in cities workers willing to perform labor-intensive tasks at low wages and to industrialize by taking on the world economy's dirty work. The Kuznets Curve, named after Nobel Prize-winning economist Simon Kuznets, posits that economic inequality increases as countries industrialize. People demand a bigger piece of the economic pie once education levels increase, the economy diversifies into services and knowledge work, and people achieve comfortable lives. The Environmental Kuznets Curve proposes that pollution increases with industrialization and then declines as people can afford to become more concerned about human welfare and the environment. Both propositions appear to reflect imperfectly what actually happens as a nation's GDP grows, but they both start from the assumption that moving a society from rags to riches via rapid growth in energy-intensive and polluting industry is a given--which has dire implications for the planet.25 It's unclear, however, whether sufficient environmental resilience exists for the wealth-via-industry route to remain viable. Just a few years ago, Chinese efforts toward reducing its stunning levels of pollution seemed largely window dressing. But the sheer scale and ubiquity of pollution and the economic potential of green technology seem to have pushed a rapid change of heart. Now China is rapidly closing its most polluting steel and power plants and trying to leave its basic-industry engine of growth behind. This effort could prove to be one of the most significant steps in reducing global greenhouse gas emissions.26 Further, a different wealth-building route suggests itself in the case of some countries as diverse as Norway, Botswana, and Malaysia. Botswana and Malaysia have used income from mineral riches to fund broad economic-development efforts, rather than funnel them to elites or corrupt government officials as has happened too often in Africa and the Middle East. As cash rolled in from oil discoveries in the North Sea, Norway chose to invest a considerable percentage of the proceeds on energy conservation and other greening tactics. The result will be to maximize export earnings from the natural gas while creating a low-energy infrastructure that will carry the country forward once those sources are exhausted.27 Careful stewardship of resources may pay off big as global demand grows and viable mines, forests, and fields decline. Of course, preserving and enhancing key natural resources realizes multiplier effects, like reducing greenhouse gases, keeping water cleaner, and making possible a greater diversity of agricultural production. Many people recognize these opportunities, but the global, liberal-economic growth machine can't value resource stewardship that prepares for a future of more people putting more strain on finite resources. Liberal economics, a predominant ethos among developed nations, presumes that free markets will distribute production to the most efficient producers. Maybe an iPhone could have been invented only in Cupertino, a Camry only in Toyota City, and movies only in Hollywood (and now Mumbai). The liberal economic model rewards places that can amalgamate intelligence to produce unique products, but for the most part, its "efficiency" operates purely in terms of production costs and has no means to account for environmental costs or human costs. The result has been to reward the lowest-cost producer no matter where they are or what methods they use. ## Slow Cities and Local Food Economies Some cities and regions are trying to step away from the GDP-at-any-cost, global-economy treadmill. The "slow food" and local food movements in America and elsewhere started the trend. The focus is on high-quality, organic, locally produced food that thrives in the uniqueness of a given locale's climate and soils: terroir, in the new parlance.28 To some extent, it works. The organic-food movement was the first to reverse the widespread "race to the bottom," in which food was produced at lowest cost, with high reliance on chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and growth hormones. Organic and local products found a market in those leery of the tastelessness and questionable healthfulness of globalized, industrialized agriculture. Huge food producers belatedly recognized that the USDA Organic label distinguishes a healthier, often better-tasting product and sells for up to double the price of the "commodity" item, whatever the actual difference in production costs. Big Food has rushed to embrace organic production. Slow food goes beyond the product to include a more personal transaction. Customers can buy directly from producers in farmers' markets and learn how a pig was raised or why a given cultivar thrives in upstate New York and not in the irrigated expanses of California's central valley or some unknown place in Peru. With such close interaction, people cook in new ways and producers add more "heirloom" products that expand possibilities: for example, not just organically raised pork but sausages made from that pork. Local wine production begets local cheese production, and so entire micro-economies of locally produced products develop. Food becomes a way of life, not simply a package opened and popped into the microwave. Slow food begat Slow Cities, a movement that got its start in Italy.29 Italy had built a widely admired "economic miracle" in the postwar era largely on the basis of clusters of industries (fashion, designer furniture, lighting, household objects, autos, and stylish ceramics, to name a few) that were based on merging industrial techniques with passed-down craft cultures in certain cities or clusters of cities, mainly in the nation's heavily industrialized north. By the end of the twentieth century, the globalized economy, with its unrelenting focus on production cost, punished Italy's high-skill design industries as factories moved inexorably to developing countries with labor costs a fraction of those found in Italy. At the same time, the world seemed to fall in love with the Tuscan lifestyle, with its slow pace and its artisanal approach to food and everyday life. This combination of events has caused many in Italy to conclude that competing directly with low-cost producers elsewhere is senseless. They have decided to try to create a high-amenity economy based on localness.30 The Slow Cities idea may never get beyond a lifestyle choice, but its ecological ethos taps into powerful economic forces (as the runup in Tuscan property values attests) because buying food, clothing, and furniture made locally feels like an authentic kind of life that yearly becomes more difficult to find. A "slower" life means depending less heavily on imported goods and energy. You walk, bike, and respect history. The Slow Cities idea links to the green-architecture thrust of sourcing materials and products locally as a way to reduce transportation energy and avoid products that are extracted or manufactured unsustainably.31 Like the environmental movement, the basis of local food and slow cities has been moral rather than economic, but the economic case only gets stronger. Portland, Oregon, with its mild climate and outdoor enthusiasts, has developed a high-end bicycle culture and nurtured a local bicycle-building industry. (It's "slow" because it is local, low-tech, and green.) The industry is as yet tiny and will not ever compete with low-cost mass producers in Asia. It is, importantly, a local industry that previously did not exist. It is not alone. Nike, the sports apparel giant, was founded and bases itself in Portland, and specialized outdoor-equipment makers thrive all over California and the Pacific Northwest. The synergistic local effects are clear: the ample national parks, wildernesses, and national forests attract outdoor-focused people, which in turn generates an economic cluster based on serving their desires.32 Local economies could develop to serve the climate-specific building practices (shutters and other shading devices, windows, and so on) described in chapter 7. They would count as "slower" products than high-tech windmills made in China.33 Localized industries cannot be seen as an ecological or economic panacea, but the success of such a wide variety of endeavors shows that it may be time for the liberal-economic pendulum to swing back. After all, such economies may be a source of economic resilience given the fragility of a supply chain spanning oceans and continents. Globalized sourcing has relied on low transportation energy prices, which are unlikely to last. Climate effects, like rising seas, shifting ice flows, or intensified storms, may have a variety of unforeseen consequences for ports and shipping.34 Growing crops that are local, unique, and redolent of the region may be the economic salvation of rural places that have not been able to compete in a hemispheric, commodity-agriculture economy--especially if Congress aligns agricultural subsidies to help health-focused producers reach consumers of modest means. Localized agriculture, whether you call it slow food or not, has long been integral to agricultural policy in much of Europe, where regulations against towns sprawling into farm fields and an infrastructure of farmer's markets in town squares have aided artisanal production of cheeses, meats, fruits, and vegetables.35 From a global perspective, short-circuiting the Environmental Kuznets Curve by helping people achieve well-being through environmental conservation and restoration may prove the most economically viable course. Rejig-gering global economic norms (through trade agreements, treaties, and other policies) to encourage sustainable practices in poor countries can help them earn nonexploitative export earnings.36 That may not develop "consumers" of soft drinks, television shows, and SUVs but could create a much larger class of people who grow in wealth by "consuming" many more green "soft" goods and services of a global economy dedicated to creating a world we can all live in. ## Connecting Wealth to Well-Being Environmentalists lock horns with economists and advocates of business-as-usual by proposing that cities and nations look for ways to increase wealth and well-being by different economic measures that have lower impacts. We would focus not just on production and consumption of goods and services but on what it takes to raise people's well-being: adequate incomes, shelter, health care, personal safety, and so on. This is often portrayed as a "triple bottom line" that holds a company or organization to a measurable commitment to enhance economic, environmental, and social value. As in localized economies, policies focused on improving well-being are looking better as an economic strategy, even if based on a social-justice idea. GDP is supposed to approximately measure well-being by accounting for wealth created in the economy, but too many expenditures that look like growth erode well-being rather than enhance it. The world spends more for fish, but that reflects a shortage economy created by destruction of the resource, not value or wealth created. The explosion of American health-care costs in the first decade of the twenty-first century goosed GDP while eroding the good life growing GDP is supposed to nurture.37 Certainly, rebuilding natural systems cannot be morally or politically justified if the developed world continues to shunt dirty duties to the world's poorest and most politically helpless. Nor can just some communities (especially the least well-off) be stuck with new burdens when fixing forests or diversifying transportation causes economic shifts. Improving human well-being and the environment at the same time is a lot to ask of any of us; juggling the good with the dollar isn't easy, as organizations who have signed on to triple-bottom-line efforts have found. But the effort to balance investments in people and nature may well prove economically essential, if for no other reason than that such efforts create new consumers for developed-world goods and services when people rise from the status of the desperately poor. ## How much does Urban Agility Cost? The Agile City has constructed a big solution out of many incremental measures. The sheer quantity and diversity of strategies can be hard to price; it's complicated to neatly total benefits. That can tempt the hard-nosed accountant to default to the relative economic (though not technological) simplicity of sweeping alternative-energy concepts--whether clean coal, hydrogen power, or nukes. None of these technology-intensive approaches is likely to create enough jobs to significantly power the economy, especially because high costs must be paid up front and may not result in much job creation. The benefits begin to accrue only after the technologies are fully tested, operational, and main-streamed. Gathering the enormous up-front investments needed is a heavy lift for a United States that spends a pittance on energy research and can't come to consensus on more than the lowest-cost conservation efforts. There's no low-hanging fruit here. By contrast, conservation tactics, many small and diverse in scale, can be developed in the same way as many of the wildly successful innovations of the personal computer and Internet age: by geeks tinkering in some garage (solar-powered, of course). Consider the economic potential that could have been unleashed by the green and storm-resistant prototype houses created in Biloxi and New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. Besides housing displaced people, just these few houses brought innovative products, building techniques, and expertise to a city that had not seen any influx of innovation in decades: geothermal well systems, dual-flush toilets, solar panels, rainwater harvesting systems, storm-resistant building techniques, traditional climate-appropriate building forms, new kinds of rot-resistant woods, and factory-built, low-cost, high-quality modular construction--among others. In New Orleans, city officials realized that innovative housing tuned to the subtropical climate, the high winds, and the propensity to flood could become a catalytic group of industries, building on research expertise that already resided in local universities. The city put environmentally sustainable design and building into its economic-development plan.38 No growth machine infrastructure or significant government rebuilding dollars supported the green-economy aspirations, and so the city was unable to capitalize on the job-creating benefit of green technology, even though the house prototypes have inspiring stories to tell the visitor--among the few such stories the city has to offer. ## Is Change too Tall An Order? I've made an economic case for inventing and refining hundreds or thousands of small tactics and technologies rather than placing our bets largely on a few speculative big technologies. Since making large-scale investments in slowing climate change and dealing with its effects is essential, they should pay off in as many ways as they can. Global warming skeptics who argue that greater investments in a cleaner environment today are misallocated make essentially the same arguments that were used against clean-air and clean-water investments. As this book demonstrates, leaving the mechanics of the growth machine untouched is certainly not an economic-growth strategy. One of the reasons we have needed three bubbles over the last three decades is because we've been unwilling to look at the wasteful investments promoted by today's regulations and incentives. If we managed to come up with some perfect clean-tech energy solution and plugged it into the grid, we would still leave many of these problems unaddressed. Is creating a greener future simply too tall an order for an America facing challenges in every direction, where too many families barely cling to a middle-income lifestyle and so many others seem destined never to achieve it? Here's where we call on Americans' deep-seated inventiveness. It's not too much to ask ourselves how to manage decision making and how to invent and reinvent government. It has been at times a mantra of both conservatives and liberals, so there is a common ground to be found. (Politicians need outside stimulus since they tend to be acutely aware of the degree to which they can be reinvented out of a job.) The same kinds of design acumen and analytical prowess that the nation regularly invests in biotechnical breakthroughs or in building a better portable music player can be applied to cities and the environment. We simply have not chosen to focus our talents in this way. If we can make athletic shoes for every sport, for every taste, and for every conceivable training environment, we can make cities and nurture diverse natural systems, too. We can develop citymaking models that take into account evolving business needs, residential diversity, and environmental appropriateness. We just have to decide that this is a task deserving of our attention and resources. I do not intend to trivialize the complexity and potential cost of thinking anew about growth, entrepreneurialism, and public investment. But business-as-usual is simply failing to deliver. Can we really know the net employment or wealth-creating effect of re-focusing our human endeavors to rebuild natural systems? No matter what anyone says, it's too soon to say. In fact, we'll likely have to make many important decisions on the basis of incomplete information. The data will never be good enough. The big decisions will ultimately be ours as a society to make: What kind of people do we want to be? What kind of place do we want to have in the world? What resources are we conserving? What natural environments are we leaving less sullied for our children? After all, in an economically close-knit world, America's choices have powerful consequences. Reference we want to have in the world? What resources are we conserving? What natural environments are we leaving less sullied for our James S. RussellThe Agile CityBuilding Well-being and Wealth in an Era of Climate Change10.5822/978-1-61091-027-9(C) James S. Russell 2012 ## Epilogue ### Tools to Build Civic Engagement In taking action, especially large-scale action, few communities know how to reconcile change with the understandable fear of neighborhoods and individuals that they will bear the brunt of the burdens. Since climate change and other environmental challenges will force large and complex actions upon us, it is essential to improve the way citizens and leaders work with each other. Many cities inspire take-no-prisoners, stop-everything activism because they rely too much on public hearings, a classic top-down, "we know best" technique that asks citizens only to respond to proposals. Hearings are supposed to inform officials, but there is no real dialogue and almost no way that citizens can be involved from the beginning of the development process or in weighing alternatives. At best, hearings become a forum for citizens to put pressure on officials, usually to say no. Other cities have built so many overlapping layers of citizen consultation that it seems process is the only product and citizens' entire power lies in gumming up the works. To no one's surprise, people involved in planning that is only consultative and "bottom-up" usually endorse the way things are because they fear the new. In citizen-driven processes, no one is empowered to lead, it's not easy to vet ideas, and different ways of thinking have a tough time penetrating the defensive carapace. "Yes" too often entails a Solomonic division of interest-group spoils, which can be disastrous in urban-design terms: a commercial project too compromised to succeed economically, a precious piece of land "saved" but with no financial resources for its upkeep or to let it serve its intended public function. Neither top-down nor citizen-driven ways of operating are up to the challenge of the future by themselves. Here are a few ways to inject innovative and dispute-resolving ideas of entrepreneurs, experts, and leaders into debates that fully and honestly engage citizens in taking the future of their communities in hand. ### Charettes Contentious project? Get everyone who has a stake in a project in a room (whether disposed to be pro- or anti-), and get them to work intensively together. Though it sounds like a recipe for a riot, it's a charette, a workshop with the power to end fulminations and find common ground. Citizens want to know how big? How dense? How much traffic? What happens to the view? When well led through the issues ("facilitated," in the wonky parlance), the workshop answers everyone's questions and engages concerns in concrete terms that everyone can understand. That's because sketches, models, and maps are the tools of the discussion. People are much more likely to understand their opponents' point of view when they work together and see the implications of actions (in those models and drawings) and when they can explore what-ifs by playing with blocks standing in for buildings and by sketching over maps. Citizens find out that developers are not ogres, and politicians find out that constituents can utter words other than no. At the least, charettes discover areas of common agreement among many parties, which allows the workshop to hone in on the difficult issues. The group will often find an answer to a difficult question that no one would have come up with alone. The outcome inevitably entails compromise but typically identifies a more direct and compelling course of action than would have come out of the usual adversarial political process. Charettes are especially useful as a visioning tool, or to address key questions when a development, say, or a rezoning is first considered: What do we want this place to be? How do we address this problem? A charette can come up with a set of recommendations or a broad vision; it can express a consensus. Charettes do not replace conventional planning processes. They are a way to get stakeholders involved and to clarify the nature of the problem or the issue. Charettes run by self-organized planning teams after 9/11 dug up many meaningful ideas that would ultimately inform official plans for Ground Zero-- but only after official plans, conceived without significant public consultation, foundered. In late 2006, twelve planning teams fanned out all over New Orleans and successfully used charettes to create visions for rebuilding after Hurricane Ka- trina. The neighborhood plans helped bring to the fore all kinds of unique local qualities that, if nurtured, could attract residents and investment. These plans were amalgamated into what would become the Unified New Orleans Plan. The charettes could have engaged the really difficult political question of how to rebuild in low-lying, flood-vulnerable areas, where many people might never return. It would have been a very difficult and wrenching process, but one that could well define a viable, consensus-driven future for low-ground areas and dispel people's enormous distrust of officials' intentions by getting clear commitments Officials feared engaging this question, and it was set aside. Avoiding that issue stunted the city's rebuilding. ### Convening Leadership Cities need not recruit a new Robert Moses (the New York City building czar who built parks, rammed through highways, and mowed down slums, displacing hundreds of thousands in often futile urban "renewal") to bulldoze our way to gleaming new eco-cities. We don't need messianic certainty about what must be done. Cities need to convene leaders, foster innovation, and seek consensus to cope with diverse problems at diverse scales. There are surprisingly few ways to do this systematically now. After seeing the Mayors' Institute on City Design in action, I became a convert. A partnership of the US Conference of Mayors, the American Architectural Foundation, and the National Endowment of the Arts, the Mayors' Institute does one simple thing: it puts a mayor with a carefully honed project or problem in a room for a couple of hours with a dozen experts in the fields of architecture, planning, landscape architecture, art, and urban development. There's no political entourage permitted, no audience, no press. The participants toss the issue around in a freewheeling, no- holds-barred session. The mayors discard stump-speech rhetoric because none of their voters are in the room. Few political figures know the power of design to unite constituencies, to create energy, and to resolve sticky problems. So the mayors usually leave their sessions surprised and energized, not with a fully formed answer to the problem but with some smart ways to get to the answer. I was particularly impressed by what happened to one mayor. He had arrived with considerable skepticism, fearing that the Institute was a hot-air, big-government waste of time. He emerged from his session with wonderment, having understood a completely new way to engage a problem that had vexed his city for some time. Another mayor asked: "Can I bring my whole city council?" That was not a bad idea, though no one's figured out how to replicate the experience with a group rather than a single political leader. The program has grown to include a governors' institute.1 A short session with experts can't solve a problem, but it opens many possible solutions. That's a starting point. The most brilliant idea cannot come to fruition until it gets funded and survives the political process. That is an ongoing effort, not a one shot. Urban expert Michael Gallis has devised a compelling means to amalgamate the wisdom of citizens, experts, and leaders in an ongoing way. In the process of creating vision or framework plans that place the issues of cities, regions, and even states in a global context, he solicits wideranging viewpoints, as many planners do, but in a unique manner. For a project in New Jersey, I observed a workshop on education. He had gathered people concerned about all levels of education from public institutions, private firms, foundations, advocacy groups, and government agencies. Before he asked the participants to contribute, he took them through a presentation of what he had already learned from data gathering and previous workshops. He talked about education, but also about the state's economy, its cultural and recreational resources--some dozen categories of issues in all. I was mystified. What do educators care about convention centers or economic development? The participants were riveted, however, and the conversation became more animated, insightful, and candid because they had learned a great deal and they had realized that they could participate outside their areas of expertise. They were thrilled to put their aspirations and concerns into broader, more integrated contexts--ones that offered alternatives to tired, unending debates. Gallis presents his information graphically, primarily in maps, which helps people instantly understand the scale of large, otherwise abstract issues. He could show that the state's costly and much-touted farmland preservation plan had failed to reach its potential because the program had purchased discrete plots rather than parcels that could be chained together into an economically viable agricultural zone. No one had ever mapped the farm program holdings before. In another state, Gallis mapped the road projects of three counties. It showed that the new roads would collide in an unholy mess. None of the counties had realized this because they had never looked at what their neighbors were doing. More to the point, people who participate in workshops on a single concern could see the larger patterns that Gallis was able to reveal. They could see the common roots in what had always looked like separate problems. Certain issues were amenable to resolution in ways no one had thought of. There is no reason communities and regions cannot convene themselves in a similar but ongoing way. The metropolitan planning organizations that decide how billions of urban transportation dollars get spent operate in a vacuum, usually out of public view. That's how wasteful decisions get made. Cities and regions can build collaborative, systematic planning infrastructures that involve citizens, civic leaders, business, and government and that cross disciplines and political boundaries to consider issues at the scale at which they present themselves. Such a way of focusing on the future can lead us away from the tunnelvision, problem-focused, reactive ways communities operate today. ### Design Competitions A public design competition can be a useful yet economical way to bring new ideas into the development mix. Instead of hiring an architect through qualifications, referrals, and interviews alone, an owner of a building site, whether public or private, can invite landscape architects, planners, urban designers, architects, and any other design professionals to submit a design that responds to the owner's program. When competitions work well, the winning design will come up with an utterly new synthesis that responds to the owner's needs in some unanticipated way. It took a design competition, won by Daniel Libe- skind, to move the rebuilding process at Ground Zero from a fast descent into stalemate to one that united people's diverse aspirations. (It didn't work out as well as planned, but that's another story.) Arguably, the best park built in the last decade or so is Olympic Sculpture Park, in Seattle, which repurposed a long-derelict oil-storage site near downtown into a richly varied landscape where art resonates with the restless activity of downtown and bracing panoramas of Elliott Bay and the distant Olympic Mountains. It was the kind of design, by New York City architect Weiss/Man- fredi, that probably would not have emerged from a conventional architect- selection process. It was the winner of a competition sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts. As we try to find new ways to repair nature while accommodating human needs, competitions could be tools of inestimable value. Competitions can be invited: the sponsor asks only a small number of firms or teams to compete, ones that can assemble unique talents and skills. Or they can be wide open, soliciting designs from any firm anywhere. The design of the Sydney Opera House, among the most famous buildings of the twentieth century, was selected in an open competition, won by a young, at the time little- known Dane, Jørn Utzon. Competitions for the design of public buildings and new neighborhoods are common in Europe. The prevalence of competitions tends to favor striking designs, innovative approaches, and designers with new ideas--and in this way helps young designers succeed, which overall helps to create a more competitive design culture. Design competitions have become a way to move green innovation rapidly into the mainstream. Design by competition has its perils. What seems on the surface a brilliant approach may not address all the requirements in detail. Or the requirements and budget are poorly spelled out, which almost sunk the Sydney project. Americans use competitions sparingly, concerned that competitors miss opportunities that would reveal themselves in a more intimate architect-client collaboration. Certainly, this can be true, but technical committees can evaluate detailed performance criteria, while a design jury evaluates the way the project meets the sponsors' articulated needs and how it fits into the city. Of course, no winning proposal need be built exactly as presented. Working closely with the people who will use the building, the architect can refine the design. The General Services Administration has invigorated public-building design by using invited design competitions. Competitions are one element of its Design Excellence program, which makes use of peer-review panels to vet the designs. Courthouses, for example, need to be publicly appealing and dignified buildings, but experts must also make sure they sequester juries properly, keep judges safe, and hold prisoners securely. The greatest advantage of competitions is simply to bring in new thinking. Many organizations run "ideas" competitions, especially in the realm of environmentally sustainable buildings, and they are useful to expose a broad public to emerging and innovative possibilities. Since the winning schemes of such competitions are almost never built, the ideas are not subject to trial by cost or ultimate performance, and so ideas competitions too often have limited value. ### Building Exhibitions The United States does little research on buildings, even in the area of energy conservation. You can prototype technologies in a lab--and America should be doing much more of that--but a great building idea can't live until its construction techniques and costs are tested by erecting it in a real place, with real people using it and living in it. A building exhibition is a neighborhood or series of projects that are built precisely to test new ideas. People can see, feel, and touch what new ideas look like. You can find out what they are like to live in. You can try out technologies, tweak them, and replace them. In other words, you can learn from what works and doesn't work. Building exhibitions are a means to build and test innovations at a larger scale than a prototype. Those innovations can be technical, like new energy- saving concepts, or the project can try to answer difficult questions in new ways: What could a hurricane-resistant neighborhood built on high ground in New Orleans be? How could it fit within the existing pattern of streets and blocks? There actually was such a competition, but it regrettably languishes in the realm of "ideas."2 Such projects have a history in Europe, where neighborhoods have been built to test new technologies and ways of living, especially as Modern architecture emerged in the 1920s. In an era of fetid, disease-ridden, overcrowded cities, the Wiessenhof Siedlung in Stuttgart famously showed off well-lit, well- ventilated homes affordable to families of modest means. It introduced functional, modern kitchens and a less-formal, outdoors-oriented lifestyle. In the 1980s, Berlin launched the International Building Exhibition (IBA), in which dozens of architects worldwide competed to build some three hundred housing projects to inspire new investment in forgotten corners of the city. The housing became influential worldwide because it demonstrated the diverse ways new architecture that served new needs could gracefully energize older, declining neighborhoods. Many knit together blocks that had been fragmented by wartime bombing decades earlier. The IBA would prove to have unexpected importance. It was conceived well before the city had any hope of reunification, but its lessons were ready- made for application to the much-larger project of knitting the divided city back together once the Berlin Wall came down. In recent years, the Swedish city of Malmo hosted Bo01, a housing exhibition specifically to showcase environmental sustainability. And a truly vast, nine billion euro "building exhibition" focuses on a moonscape of craters-- twenty-two by fifty miles--left by closed surface coal mines in the Lusatia district of former East Germany. Rerouted rivers fill the old mines with water to create a new lake district. It seeks to draw visitors and holiday home builders to a region that's steadily lost population.3 About as close as we get in the United States are those "street of dreams" developments that builders erect primarily to test the acceptance of new interior design looks and lifestyle accoutrements. Housing exhibitions could do much more. You could argue that the prototype houses in New Orleans, including the Global Green and Make It Right developments (part 2 opener), constituted a kind of housing exhibition, and to a significant degree, they have had a similarly inspiring effect. Had they been backed by deep research and scaled up with adequate funding, their influence could have run much wider and deeper, and they could have created markets for many of their green tactics. There are many variants on the concepts I have described. None are perfect, especially in the absence of public trust, of real commitment by government officials, of involvement by civic leaders and local business. Involving everyone with passion, commitment, and ideas in an honest, ongoing give-and-take will engage new ideas and find consensus. Then, do it again and again. In the final analysis, that's how our concrete metropolises will become agile cities. ## Notes ### Prologue 1. Kroon Hall information from visit, April 2009; interview with Mike Taylor, Hopkins Architects; Yale University press information; and Mark Simon, Centerbrook Architects. See also James S. Russell, "Yale's Rustic Kroon Hall Fits Carbon Neutral Technology," Bloomberg, July 20, 2009; Russell, "Carbon Neutral Now," Metropolis, October 2009, 72-79. There are several climatechanging greenhouse gases, but carbon dioxide (CO2), which results in large part from the burning of fossil fuels, is the most prevalent and damaging and thus is the focus of this book. 2. Information on Dockside Green from author visit July 2008 and interviews with architect Peter Busby and developer Joe Van Belleghem pursuant to Russell, "Green Project in B.C. Burns Sawdust, Treats Sewage in Backyard," Bloomberg, August 15, 2008; and Russell, "Carbon Neutral Now." ### Introduction 1. Commercial and residential buildings were responsible for 39 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in 2008 according to the Energy Information Administration's annual report (December 3, 2009). All transportation emissions added up to 33 percent. Coal's contribution to emissions is more than 36 percent, and most of that is used to generate electricity, almost all of which powers buildings. 2. Christopher Leinberger, The Option of Urbanism: Investing in a New American Dream (Washington, DC: Island Press, 2009), 35. 3. The World Bank predicted that the annual world gross domestic product in the first decade of this century would grow by one-third. Instead, it almost doubled by 2008, to $61.3 trillion. World Bank, World Development indicators, January 2010, http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.MKTP.CD/. 4. The World Wildlife Fund's Living Planet Index expresses the rapid growth in nations' sourcing natural resources outside their borders. In 1961, the global footprint was 8 percent of goods and services traded. It had risen to 40 percent by 2005. World Wildlife Fund, "Living Planet Report," 28, http://www.panda.org. 5. "The N-11: More than an Acronym," Goldman Sachs Global Economics Paper no. 153 (March 28, 2007), accessed via Wikipedia, topic "BRICs." 6. World Wildlife Fund, "Living Planet Index," 2. 7. Steven Solomon, Water: The Epic Struggle for Wealth, Power, and Civilization (New York: Harper, 2010). Holland, for example, is deeply concerned about saltwater intrusion according to water management experts and documents presented on a congressional delegation tour attended by the author, May 2009. 8. A combination of climate-regulation uncertainty and rapidly rising demand, especially by China, points the world toward an oil-supply crunch, according to Antony Froggatt and Glada Lahn (lead authors), "Sustainable Energy Security: Strategic Risks and Opportunities for Business," July 2010, white paper published by Lloyd's, the global specialist insurer, available at http://www.chathamhouse.org.uk/publications/papers/view/-/id/891/. 9. Even in landscapes that appear to be healthy, human exploitation alters the ecological dynamic in ways that seem benign but that trigger irreversible harm. Ferocious and mysterious dust storms in the 1930s drove waves of people out of midwestern prairies. They were catastrophic because farmers had plowed under the native sod that held the soil in place. Populations have never returned to 1920s highs, and people continue to leave many Plains counties. Ian Frazier, Great Plains (New York: Picador, 1989). Frank Popper and Deborah Popper continue to document Plains depopulation in web pages devoted to their Buffalo Commons idea: http://policy.rutgers.edu/faculty/popper/. 10. Spruce budworm spread, presentation by Daniel Schrag, professor of earth and planetary sciences, Harvard University, at Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, April 2008. 11. Michael Gallis & associates, "Co-Evolution: Creating a New Framework for Shaping Our Future," American Forests Ecosystem Center, US Forest Service State and Private Forestry (2009), http://www.americanforest.org/Co-Evolution/. 12. Pollution alone costs China 10 percent of its gross domestic product, and air pollution alone shortens the lives of more than seven hundred thousand people every year. "Pollution Costs Equal 10% of China's GDP," Shanghai Daily, June 6, 2006; Mun S. Ho and Dale W. Jorgenson, "Green China: Market-based Policies for Air Pollution Control," Harvard Magazine, September-October 2008, http://harvardmagazine.com/2008/09/greening-china/. 13. The World Wildlife Fund's "Living Planet Report" shows the degree to which the world's productive capacity and its environmental challenges have intertwined: "In 1961 almost all the countries in the world had more than enough capacity to meet their own demand; by 2005 the situation had changed radically, with many countries able to meet their needs only by importing resources from other nations" (pp. 2-3). 14. Low-efficiency/high-impact discussions by the author with Michael Gallis in 2009. Humanity's tendency to exploit resources to extinction is widely known as "the failure of the commons." A growing literature exists on why such failures happen and on tactics that reverse the failures before the resource collapses. 15. A number of measures help us see the big picture, including the measures of biocapacity and our "ecological footprint." Because each American's footprint is about 22 acres (9 hectares), compared to 6.4 acres (2.6 hectares) for the total human population, America has a long way to go. (The consensus today is that it would take five more planet earths to provide the world's population with a footprint equivalent to America's.) Ecological footprint numbers 2009 from Global Footprint network, http://www.footprintnetwork.org. ### Chapter 1 1. Author observations and interviews as participant in the congressional delegation tour described, May 25-30, 2009. 2. Coastal marsh loss from Department of Natural Resources, Office of Coastal Management, "Louisiana Coastal Facts," http://dnr.louisiana.gov/index.cfm?d=pagebuilder%26tmp=home%26pid=99%26pnid=0%26nid=51. 3. Lucas v. South Carolina Coastal Council (91-453), 505 U.S. 1003 (1992), Cornell University Law School Supreme Court Collection, http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/91-453.ZO.html. 4. Roger Pielke Jr. et al., "Normalized Hurricane Damage in the United States: 1900-2005," http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/pdf/NormalizedHurricane2008.pdf. 5. Joseph Ellis, "The Big Man" (review of Library of America's edition of Alexander Hamilton's Writings), New Yorker, October 29, 2001. Ellis is a prominent historian of America's founding era and is the author of Founding Brothers (Knopf), among others. 6. This argument was focused for me by Jerold Kayden, a professor of urban planning and design at Harvard University's Graduate School of Design, in a presentation at the Perspectives on Property Rights, Growth and Regulation conference held at the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, April 26, 2007. 7. See Sam Bass Warner Jr., The Private City: Philadelphia in Three Periods of Its Growth (Philadelphia: University of Philadelphia Press, 1968). 8. Tour with Eskew, January 8, 2006; some material first appeared in James S. Russell, "Can Shrinking Footprint Save New Orleans?," Bloomberg, January 23, 2006. 9. Kevin McCarthy, D. J. Peterson, Narayan Sastry, and Michael Pollard, "The Repopulation of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina," Rand Gulf States Policy Institute, Rand Corporation (2006), http://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/technical_reports/2006/RAND_TR369.pdf. 10. Volunteer experts from the Urban Land Institute, Washington, DC, made the proposal in November 2005. In a less politically charged form, it resurfaced in Wallace Roberts & Todd, Master Planner, "Action Plan for New Orleans: The New American City," Bring New Orleans Back Commission, January 11, 2006. 11. AmyLiuandAllison Plyer, "TheNewOrleans Index at Five,"BrookingsInstitute, August 2010, http://www.brookings.edu/reports/2007/08neworleansindex.aspx. 12. The First Part of the Institutes of the Laws of England, or, a Commentary upon Littleton (1628). 13. Legendary Supreme Court cases that considered these issues included Pennsylvania Coal Co. v. Mahon and Fountainbleu v. Forty-Five Twenty Five, discussed in Richard Tseng-Yu Lai, Law in Urban Design and Planning: The Invisible Web (New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1988). Other cases developed the idea that pollution harms health and is therefore a "nuisance" that can be regulated without being deemed a "taking," as described in the Constitution's Fifth Amendment, which would require government compensation to parties aggrieved by the regulation. 14. Lai, Law in Urban Design and Planning, ch. 7. 15. Lai, Law in Urban Design and Planning, ch. 3. 16. The material in this section is derived and augmented from reporting for James S. Russell, "Whose Property Rights?" Metropolis, March 2008. 17. Andrea Sarzynski, Marilyn A. Brown, and Frank Southworth, "Shrinking the Carbon Footprint of Metropolitan America," Brookings Institute,May29, 2008, http://www.brookings.edu/reports/2008/05_carbon_footprint_sarzynski.aspx. 18. Meeting with Van Asche at his farm in Hillsboro, Oregon, January 7, 2007. 19. Interview with David Renhard, an editor at the (Portland) Oregonian who has extensively covered land use controversies, January 2007. 20. From interview with Robert Stacey, president of the environmental group 1,000 Friends of Oregon, January 4, 2007. 21. $20 billion figure from "Summaries of Claims" document on Measure 37: http://www.oregon.gov/LCD/MEASURE37/summaries_of_claims.shtml. 22. Jerold Kayden presentation at Perspectives on Property Rights, Growth and Regulation conference. 23. Joel Garreau, Edge City: Life on the New Frontier (New York: Doubleday, 1991), 382. 24. Phone interview with Jacobs, January 8, 2008. 25. Phone interview with Stachon, January 2007. 26. Phone interview with David Hunnicut, Oregonians in Action, January 3, 2007. 27. Phone interview with Carbonell, December 11, 2009. ### Chapter 2 1. Information from "Salmon Recovery Plan Implementation," 2008 data, on Washington State Salmon Recovery home page, http://www.rco.wa.gov/salmon_recovery/index.shtml. 2. Farmlink and Puget Sound Fresh are operated by a nonprofit, the Cascade Harvest Coalition, http://www.cascadeharvest.org. 3. "Salmon Recovery Plan Implementation." 4. On integrating farmland flood control and salmon recovery, see King County's "Snoqualmie Flood-Farm Task Force Report" ( January 2008), http://www.kingcounty.gov/environment/waterandland/agriculture/documents/farm-flood-task-force-report.aspx. On integrating salmon recovery and climate change: author interview with Tom Hauger, manager of comprehensive and regional planning, January 4, 2010. 5. The Salmon Recovery Program assessment by the White House, referred to in a May 29, 2009, letter by local members of Congress, is described as "slow." 6. Keith Ervin, "Court Decision Sparks Debate on Use of Rural Lands," Seattle Times, March 5, 2009, http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2008814562_rural05m.html. 7. This section was developed through a visit with Stevens in California in February 2008 and several telephone interviews for James S. Russell, "Blending Nature with Development," American Forests, Spring 2007, and follow-ups in fall 2009. 8. Author interview with Briechle by telephone, December 2009. 9. Author interview with Palmer, February 2007, pursuant to Russell, "Blending Nature with Development," and updated January 2010. 10. Ian L. McHarg, Design with Nature (Garden City, NY: Natural History Press, 1969), 7-17; numerous works by Orrin Pilkey, who formerly headed the Program for Developed Shorelines, jointly located at Duke University and Western Carolina University, have also sounded the alarm about beaches over decades. 11. Alexandra Wolfe and Blair Golson, "Dune, Where's My Hampton? It's Seceding!" New York Observer August 24, 2003. 12. Ernest B. Abbott, "Floods, Flood Insurance, Litigation, Politics--and Catastrophe: The National Flood Insurance Program," Sea Grant Law and Policy Journal 1 (2008): 130, http://nsglc.olemiss.edu/SGLPJ/Vol1No1/7Abbott.pdf. 13. Matthew Heberger et al., The Pacific Institute "The Impact of Sea-level Rise on the California Coast" (March 2009), http://www.pacinst.org/reports/sea_level_rise/. 14. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, "Managed Retreat Strategies" (2007), http://coastalmanagement.noaa.gov/initiatives/shoreline_ppr_retreat.html. 15. "Valmeyer, Illinois," case study on Operation Fresh Start website, dedicated to assisting communities postdisaster: http://www.freshstart.ncat.org/case/valmeyer.htm. 16. Land trusts and transfers of development rights are well-established and widely used tools, with a large literature that considers their use. 17. Yu-Hong and Barrie Needham, Land Readjustment: Analyzing Land Readjustment: Economics, Law, and Collective Action (Cambridge, MA: Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, 2007). 18. Natural Resources Defense Council, "Chesapeake Bay's Health Threats Need Federal Remedy," press release, October 8, 2009. 19. Author interview with Frank and Deborah Popper, February 12, 2010. 20. Challenges to farming from the Popper interview and from "New National Park Could Save High Plains in Kansas," an editorial in the Kansas City Star, November 14, 2009. 21. Prairie reserve: American Prairie Foundation website, http://www.americanprairie.org; Tom Lutey, "Ranchers Wary of Group's Effort to Create Wildlife Reserve Bigger than Yellowstone," Billings [Mont.] Gazette, December 20, 2009. ### PART 2 1. Harvey L. Molotch, "The City as a Growth Machine," in John R. Logan and Harvey L. Molotch, Urban Fortunes: The Political Economy of Place (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1987), ch. 3. ### Chapter 3 1. James S. Russell, "Along Ravaged Gulf, Young Architects, Nonprofits Lead Renewal," Bloomberg, December 26, 2007. 2. Russell, "Along Ravaged Gulf," Author revisited the Global Green houses in August 2010. 3. The Federal Housing Administration, a New Deal program, began making insured loans in 1934. Kenneth T. Jackson, Crabgrass Frontier: The Suburbanization of the United States (New York: Oxford University Press, 1985), 203. 4. Joint Center for Housing Studies, Harvard University, State of the Nation's Housing 2009, 14-15, http://www.jchs.harvard.edu/publications/markets/son2009/son2009.pdf. SONH is one of many resources that show the importance of home equity to personal wealth, especially for middle-income earners. 5. Deductible items are enumerated in many places, including "JCS 1-10: Estimates of Federal Tax Expenditures for Fiscal Years 2009-2013," prepared by the Joint Committee on Taxation, Congress of the United States, January 11, 2010, http://www.jct.gov/publications.html?func=startdown%26id=3642/. 6. Deductions for homeowners: Canada Revenue Agency, "Topics for Home owners," http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/tx/ndvdls/sgmnts/hmwnr/menu-eng.html. Canadian homeownership rates: 68 percent in 2008, Statistics Canada, "2006 Census: Changing Patterns in Canadian Homeownership and Shelter Costs," June 4, 2008, http://www.statcan.gc.ca/daily-quotidien/080604/dq080604a-eng.htm. US homeownership rate peaked in 2004 at just over 69 percent but had dropped to 67.3 percent by the last quarter of 2009, according to the New York Times Economix blog sourcing Census data, February 2, 2010. 7. Cost of homeowner tax benefits from "JCS 1-10." Congress allocated $6 billion to a Neighborhood Stabilization Program in 2008 and 2009 economicstimulus packages. The $8,000 home-buyer tax credit was later sweetened with a $6,500 credit for existing owners who wanted to buy. The figure for the cost of the tax credit is the author's estimate based on $12.6 billion of expenditures four months before the program expired in June 2010. In that month, experts estimated that the federal government may have bad mortgage obligations on the books of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac that will ultimately exceed the value of the $780 billion TARP bank bailout program. 8. More information on Leinberger and real-estate finance in James S. Russell, "Follow the Money," Architectural Record June 2003, 98-104, as well as Leinberger's own writings. 9. The nineteen lender-friendly building types are described in Christopher Leinberger, The Option of Urbanism: Investing in a New American Dream (Washington, DC: Island Press, 2008), ch. 3. 10. "Second Largest Failure," Bloomberg data. 11. According to Leinberger, an accounting methodology called Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) also undercuts the idea of buildings as long-term investments. Christopher Leinberger, "Financing Progressive Development and Affordable Housing," white paper for Brookings Institution, May 2001. 12. Urban analyst Larry Frank had completed a housing survey in Atlanta in 2000, finding that some 37 percent of respondents wanted to live in mixeduse, walkable, transit-served neighborhoods--places that barely existed in the city at that time. The failure of the real estate development industry to respond to this desire he called "clearly a market failure" in an interview on March 20, 2003. "Transportation and Land-Use Preferences and Atlanta Residents' Neighborhood Choices," SMARTRAQ (Strategies for Metropolitan Atlanta's Transportation and Air Quality), March 2004, http://www.act-trans.ubc.ca/research.htm. 13. Author phone interview with Leinberger, August 19, 2009. 14. According to the Congress for the New Urbanism, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, agencies that bought a high percentage of mortgages with implicit government backing, avoided loans originated for projects that mixed retail with residential that were in downtowns or mixed-use revitalizing neighborhoods. "CNU Joins Call for Action on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Loans," New Urban News January 28, 2010. Loans blessed by Fannie and Freddie usually had lower borrowing costs. The agencies had to be taken over by the government after the mortgage meltdown. 15. Author interview with Davis at Seaside, February 2003. 16. Author visit to Unilever, April 2010, and interview with Peter Schlaier, manager of the project for Behnisch Architekten. Comparison to American usage from "Sector Collaborative on Energy Efficiency Accomplishments and Next Steps: A Resource of the National Action Plan for Energy Efficiency," US Environmental Protection Agency, July 2008, B-1, http://www.epa.gov/cleanenergy/documents/suca/sector_collaborative.pdf. 17. Information from Friedemann came from a presentation he made during an April 2010 tour in Germany sponsored by the Ecologic Institute, a Berlinbased think tank. 18. Russell, "With His Sleek, Ecological Design, Lord Norman Foster Imbues the Reichstag with Germany's New Self-Image," Architectural Record, July 1999, 102-13. 19. Friedemann discussed energy codes in terms of German investment norms on April 12, 2010, as part of the Ecologic Institute tour. 20. Though renting can be significantly less than the cost of owning equivalent space, owning at fast-growing urban edges is often correctly advertised as less expensive than renting, after taking tax advantages into account. 21. HUD data shows median new-home prices (ranging from $220,000 to over $300,000) running at or below what a family earning the median income (roughly $50,000 or so over the 2000s) could afford with a 10 percent down payment and a thirty-year fixed mortgage. Average home prices were much higher in most large metro areas, which meant lower-income residents were crammed into older, low-income enclaves--and why those enclaves were devastated by subprime and exotic loan products that could be sustained only under boom conditions. 22. "Federal funding for direct rental assistance has been declining or unstable in recent years," according to Joint Center for Housing Studies, Harvard University, State of the Nation's Housing 2009, 30. "As of 2008, 4.7 million renters--roughly a quarter of those eligible--received such assistance. Moreover, spending on low-income housing as a share of the domestic discretionary budget has fallen more than 20 percent since 1995." The primary low-income housing program, called Section 8, has treaded water for years. The Low-Income Housing Tax Credit, which generated cash primarily from banks seeking to shelter income from taxes, collapsed along with the fortunes of banks, though it received an infusion of aid from the Obama administration as an economic stimulus. Its future is unknown at this writing, but there is no evident effort to dramatically increase aid for people who fall much below median income. 23. "By 2007, fully 30 percent of all homeowners were at least moderately burdened, and 12 percent were severely burdened. Even so, the share of renters with severe burdens remained nearly twice as high as that of owners, despite a modest 0.6 percentage point dip from 2005 to 2007." State of the Nation's Housing 2009, 26. 24. Joel Warren Barna, The See Through Years: Creation and Destruction in Texas Architecture and Real Estate 1981-1991 (Houston: Rice University Press, 1992), 31. 25. Groups as diverse as the Silicon Valley Manufacturers' Association and the "Chicago 2020" report of the area's Commercial Club advocate muchexpanded affordable housing initiatives as a means of diversifying their workforce choices. Similar complaints were loudly voiced as a major growth impediment for businesses in New Jersey during a planning project I was part of. There is also a large planning literature on metropolitan jobs/housing imbalances. 26. KfW lending from presentation by Christine Willembrook, of the German Ministry of Transport, Buildings and Urban Development, April 14, 2010, Ecologic Institute tour. 27. Author phone interview with Leinberger, August 19, 2009. 28. Interview with Palmer, February 12, 2007. 29. Stapleton community information from its website: http://discover.stapletondenver.com. ### Chapter 4 1. Tunnel project cost and SR 520 bridge project from Washington State De - partment of Transportation: http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/projects/viaduct/ and http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/projects/sr520bridge/. I-405 figure is from 2003 estimate of total project, which does not appear to have been updated. Transit plan from "Sound Transit Capital Projects" page of Sound Transit website: http://projects.soundtransit.org. 2. The state's prediction of few new vehicles on the enlarged 520 is predicated on a great number of passengers switching to buses because of high tolls, but the required level of bus service is not guaranteed and tolls have been neither specified nor agreed to. 3. Light-rail timing from published schedule. Rider costs from Larry Lange, "Light Rail's Million Dollar Launch," Seattle Post-Intelligencer, July 16, 2009, ridership from Sound Transit tally for April and May 2010 (highest since opening). 4. Frequency of Canada line ridership from published schedule. Airport line ridership: "Canada Line Delivers a Smooth Ride," Toronto Globe and Mail, De - cember 28, 2009. 5. Reid Ewing et al., "Growing Cooler: The Evidence on Urban Development and Climate Change," Urban Land Institute (2008), 17, http://dnr.wi.gov/environmentprotect/gtfgw/documents/GrowingCoolerEs.pdf. 6. Iver Peterson, "In New Jersey, Sprawl Keeps Outflanking Its Foes," New York Times, March 17, 2000. Author later visited the campus and its surroundings. 7. The proposal by then New Jersey governor Jon Corzine to raise transportation funds through increases on the state's toll roads was heavily debated in 2008 and 2009. 8. The implication of elegantly circular beltways is that cities grow outward evenly, like tree rings. Instead, as famously documented in 1939 by Homer Hoyt, cities tend to grow in uneven wedges, along transportation trunklines. The most rapid and affluent growth extends the "favored sector" of the city (where high-income neighborhoods, universities, and cultural centers tend to cluster) outward into the suburbs. 9. Author experienced this firsthand in January 2007. 10. Washington, DC, growth in proximity to Metro: author interview with Lang, August 2004. 11. Rail emissions from Association of American Railroads citing the US Environmental Protection Agency. 12. First brought to my attention by Vancouver architect Peter Busby in 2002, who designed two stations on the city's Millennium Line. TransLink, the op - erating company for the line, continued to run surpluses in later years, according to the Wikipedia entry on the Skytrain, referencing the company's operating reports. 13. Ewing et al., "Growing Cooler," 33, 35. Visioning California: Calthorpe Associates, "Vision California/Charting Our Future: Statewide Scenarios Report," revision of May 12, 2010, http://www.visioncalifornia.org and http://www.calthorpe.com/vision-california. 14. Ewing et al., "Growing Cooler," 44. 15. Zeke Hausfather, "Hybrid Car? Or All Electric Vehicle? They All Take Energy? How Should You Decide?" Yale Forum on Climate Change and the Media, September 28, 2009, http://www.yaleclimatemediaforum.org/2009/09/hybrid-all-electric-vehicles. 16. The federal fuel tax has not gone up since 1997, and few states have raised their tax rates either. Congress has spent more than the Federal Highway Trust Fund takes in fuel taxes since 1995. Decline in user-fee support: "Analysis Finds Shifting Trends in Highway Funding: User Fees Make Up Decreasing Share," accessed from SubsidyScope, an initiative of the Pew Charitable Trusts, http://subsidyscope.com/transportation/highways/funding. The analysis reflects data from the Federal Highway Administration statistics, 2008. 17. "Public Road Mileage, 1920-2008," Highway Statistics 2008, Federal Highway Administration. 18. Author noticed this trend some years ago following an upgrade on NJ Transit commuter lines. Cutting a half hour off the trip to Midtown Manhattan, realtors said, resulted in jumps in house sale prices of as much as 20 percent. Since then, numerous studies and news reports have documented this trend, even into the downturn: Antoinette Martin, "'Transit Cities Face Roadblocks," New York Times, June 19, 2009. 19. $305 billion from $0.25 gas tax rise: Congressional Budget Office accessed from a Washington Post editorial: "Tax Truth: We Need to Raise the Levy on Gasoline," July 8, 2010. 20. Tom Lewis, Divided Highways: Building the Interstate Highway System (New York: Viking, 1997, ch. 4. 21. Telling you where to drive and live: documents posted on "resources" page for the 2010 "Yes on Prop. 23" campaign that would tie implementation of carbon-reduction tactics to reduction in the State of California unemployment rate. The proposal failed at the polls. ### Chapter 5 1. Brenda Goodman, "Amid a Drought, a Georgian Consumes a Niagara," New York Times, November 15, 2007. 2. Shaila Dewan and Brenda Goodman, "New to Being Dry, the South Struggles to Adapt," New York Times, October 23, 2007. 3. Water costs: "Splitsville," National Journal, May 3, 1997. The raw numbers may have changed, but the cost difference likely remains the same. 4. An extreme example: extending a water main in rural Southold, New York, almost three miles to a twenty-six-home subdivision where the wells had become unacceptably polluted cost $3.8 million, according to Southold Town's application to the federal government for funding. 5. D. L. Bennett, "Atlanta Water, Sewer Rates among Nation's Highest," Atlanta Journal-Constitution October 5, 2009. 6. Joel Garreau, Edge City: Life on the New Frontier (New York: Doubleday, 1991), 382. 7. Brenda Goodman, "Georgia Loses Federal Case in a Dispute about Water," New York Times, February 6, 2008. 8. Charles Duhigg, "Clean Water Laws Are Neglected at a Cost in Suffering," New York Times, September 12, 2009, part of a series on declining water quality in America, "Toxic Waters." 9. Richard Seager et al., "Model Projections of an Imminent Transition to a More Arid Climate in Southwestern North America," Science, May 2007. 10. Visit to Omega Institute, August 2009, where author interviewed Backus; http://eomega.org. 11. John Todd Ecological Design, http://toddecological.com. 12. Treatment wetlands: Wetland Solutions Inc., http://wetlandsolutionsinc.com/wwd_treatment_wetlands.html. 13. Kresge visit June 2006 and follow-up interviews with Joe Valerio, architect, Valerio Dewalt Train; Douglas Farr, environmental sustainability consultant, Farr Associates; and Sandy Ambrozy of Kresge. 14. New York City water reductions: Water Conservation FAQ, from New York City Department of Environmental Protection, http://www.nyc.gov/html/dep/pdf/wsstat02c.pdf. 15. "Watershed Protection" page of New York City's Department of Environ mental Protection website: http://www.nyc.gov/html/dep/html/watershed_protection/index.shtml; "NewYorkCity" page on the Information Center for the Environment website hosted by the University of California, Davis, http://ice.ucdavis.edu/node/133; Anthony De Palma, "For Bronx Water Plant Being Built 10 Stories Down, a Towering Price Tag," New York Times, April 24, 2008; Elizabeth Royte, "On theWaterfront," New York Times, February 18, 2007. 16. For more information, see the website of the Philadelphia Water Department's Office of Watersheds: http://www.phillywatersheds.org. 17. Author interview with Glen Abrams, March 2009, pursuant to consulting work on GreenPlan Philadelphia, for the Fairmount Park Commission. 18. Heat island effect information from US Environmental Protection Agency, http://www.epa.gov/hiri/. 19. Charles Duhigg, "Sewers at Capacity, Waste Poisons Waterways," New York Times November 23, 2009. 20. "Philadelphia Combined Sewer Overflow Long Term Control Plan Update," Philadelphia Water Department (2007), http://www.phillywatersheds.org/ltcpu/LTCPU_Section09_Alternatives.pdf. 21. Journalists Forum on Climate Change and Cities, at the Lincoln Institute for Land Management, Cambridge, Massachusetts, April 12, 2008. 22. Congressional delegation trip to the Netherlands, presentation by Vrijling in May 2009. 23. The author saw the flood protections on a congressional delegation trip to the Netherlands. 24. Han Meyer, Dale Morris, and David Waggonner, eds., Dutch Dialogues New Orleans Netherlands: Common Challenges in Urbanized Deltas Sun Uitgeverij, Technical University, Delft, the Netherlands (2008) 36 (Noordwaard), 38 (terp project). 25. Author tour of New Orleans potential water management with Diaz and interview with Waggonner, August 2010. See also James S. Russell, "New Orleans Needs Scenic Canals, Not Billions in Levees," Bloomberg, September 3, 2010, and Meyer et al., Dutch Dialogues. 26. Louisiana Coastal Wetlands Conservation and Restoration Task Force and the Wetlands Conservation and Restoration Authority, "Coast 2050: Toward a Sus tainable Coastal Louisiana," http://www.coast2050.gov/2050reports.htm. 27. "Louisiana's Comprehensive Plan for a Sustainable Coast" (2007), 46, accessed from the website of the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority of Louisiana, http://www.lacpra.org. 28. Author interview with Paul Harrison, Environmental Defense Fund, and trip down the Mississippi River, August 2010. ### Chapter 6 1. Robert Fishman, Bourgeois Utopias: The Rise and Fall of Suburbia (New York: Basic Books, 1987), 182. 2. For suburbanization of poverty, see Steven Raphael and Michael Stoll, "Job Sprawl and the Suburbanization of Poverty," Brookings Institution, March 30, 2010, http://www.brookings.edu/reports/2010/0330_job_sprawl_stoll_raphael.aspx. 3. Schaumberg information from Brenda Case Scheer and Mintcho Petkow, "Edge City Morphology: A Comparison of Commercial Centers," Journal of the American Planning Association 64, no. 3 (1998): 298-311. 4. Robert Cervero, America's Suburban Centers: The Land Use-Transportation Link (Boston: Unwin Hyman, 1989). Robert Lang offers forty-four names proffered over the decades: Robert E. Lang, Edgeless Cities: Exploring the Elusive Metropo - lis (Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press, 2003), 31. 5. Joel Garreau, Edge City: Life on the New Frontier (New York: Doubleday, 1991), xii. 6. Edge cities were in part a product of generous tax breaks for real estate development enacted by Congress during the Reagan administration. A tax overhaul eliminated the special treatment, and commercial development peaked in 1986, then rapidly declined into a severe real estate recession that bottomed in 1990-91. Edge cities, and all commercial development, have grown more slowly since. 7. Lang, Edgeless Cities 88-95. 8. Fuerst's e-mail exchanges with author, September 2004. His research was published as chapter 3, "The Impact of 9/11 on the Manhattan Office Market," in Howard Chernick, ed., Resilient City: The Economic Impact of 9/11 (New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 2005). 9. Street corner schmoozing: William H. Whyte, City: Rediscovering the Center (New York: Doubleday, 1988). 10. Percent of small space users: Lisa Chamberlain, "Smaller Offices Being Pushed Out of Midtown," New York Times, July 19, 2006. Small space users historically: Carol Willis, Form Follows Finance: Skyscrapers and Skylines in New York and Chicago (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 1995), 154. 11. Richard Florida, The Rise of the Creative Class and How It's Transforming Work, Leisure, Community and Everyday Life (New York: Basic Books, 2002. 12. "The Blob That Ate Texas," Economist June 21, 2001. The world learned of the risks and complexity of deep-sea drilling in the Deepwater Horizon disaster of spring 2010. 13. Conversation in 2005. Clem sold Lyme Properties in 2007. 14. Whyte, City: Rediscovering the Center, ch. 20. 15. Fuerst, "The Impact of 9/11 on the Manhattan Office Market." 16. Author interviewed Lang at the Metropolitan Institute in Arlington, Virginia, August 17. Lisa W. Foderaro, "Affluent Town Seeks to Curb Development outside its Borders," New York Times, March 11, 2000. 18. Author visit to Orlando and interview with Lauten, planner Bruce McLendon, and others, February 2003. 19. 19. Lang, Edgeless Cities. 20. Lauten interviewed by telephone, May 2010. ### PART 3 1. Author interview with Drey in Atlanta in November 2005. ### Chapter 7 1. James S. Russell, "Building a House to Withstand a Hurricane," New York Times August 19, 1993. 2. "The Impact of Planning on Building Energy Usage," in Douglas Farr, Sustainable Urbanism: Urban Design with Nature (Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 2008), 189-92. 3. James S. Russell, "Mayne's Flower Power Federal Building," Bloomberg, March 2, 2007. 4. David Cohn, "Endesa Headquarters," Architectural Record, March 2006. 5. Tour of Riedburg Primary School, Frankfurt, with Bretzke, April 2010, as part of Ecologic Institute tour. Figures provided by Bretzke. A US reference for Passive House standards: Alex Wilson, "The Passive House Arrives in North America: Could It Revolutionize the Way We Build?" BuildingGreen.com, April 1, 2010, http://www.buildinggreen.com/auth/article.cfm/2010/3/31/Passive-House-Arrives-in-North-America-Could-It-Revolutionize-the-Way-We-Build/. 6. On Manitoba Hydro Place: presentation to author by architect KPMB, as well as their website: http://www.kpmbarchitects.com/index.asp?navid=30%26fid1=0%26fid2=37#credits. See also Charles Linn, "Manitoba Hydro Place," Green- Source magazine, March 2010. Monitored energy performance was less than the design goal, running about eighty-eight kilowatt hours per square meter per year, according to correspondence from John Peterson, of KPMB. 7. James S. Russell, "Ballard Library," Architectural Record, May 2006, 158-62. 8. William Morrish, Susanne Schindler, and Katie Swenson, Growing Urban Habi - tats: Seeking a New Housing Development Model (San Francisco: William Stout Publishers, 2009) 76-79, and architects' website: http://www.loharchitects.com. 9. Empire State Building: author interview with owner Anthony Malkin and Paul Rode of Johnson Controls, July 2010. "A Landmark Sustainability Program for the Empire State Building," white paper prepared by the ESB retrofit team (2009), http://www.esbsustainability.com. James S. Russell, "King Kong's Perch Goes Green for $20M as Earth Roasts," Bloomberg, August 30, 2010. 10. To my knowledge, there is no nationwide tally of the economic contribution of historic preservation, but if you look at the forces that have brought life back to cities left for dead, the key ingredient has been people who fell in love with old neighborhoods and set about restoring them. Revivals in Wash - ington, Philadelphia, Boston, Miami, Chicago, San Francisco, and countless small cities from Savannah and Charleston, to Main Streets in every corner of the United States, did not depend solely on preservation, but preservationists got there first and sowed the seeds of broader economic growth simply by helping people see value that had too long gone unrecognized. 11. Russell, "Arts Stimulus Ban Is Stupid Economics," Bloomberg, February 13, 2009. ### Chapter 8 1. Author extensively covered rebuilding efforts since 9/11 for both Architectural Record and Bloomberg. 2. Jeffrey Meltrodt, "Understaffed and Overwhelmed," New Orleans Times- Picayune January 28, 2007. Author confirmed Road Home problems in interviews with officials, activists, and users in February 2007. 3. "Trinity River Masterplan" (2009), http://www.thetrinitytrust.org. Author visited the site of the project and interviewed Trinity River Trust president Gail Thomas in October 2009. 4. Great Park description: Orange County Great Park website, http://www.ocgp.org. Financing: Tony Barboza, "Irvine's Great Park Hasn't Exactly Earned Its Name," Los Angeles Times April 12, 2008. Cost figure from Ken Smith, the park's landscape designer, in Jeff Byles, "Great Expectations," Architects' Newspaper November 25, 2009. 5. BeltLine information from the project's website: http://www.beltline.org. Local news coverage has focused on the city's inability to raise its share of money for the project. 6. Author interviewed Sadik-Khan in June and July 2009 for "So Says... Janette Sadik-Khan," Oculus, published by AIA New York (Fall 2009). 7. Author conversation with Rachele Raynoff, press secretary, New York City Department of City Planning, June 2010. 8. Factsheet: "HUD-DOT-EPA Interagency Partnership for Sustainable Communities," http://www.epa.gov/dced/partnership/index.html. 9. LEED ND data comes from the "Neighborhood Resources" pages of the website of the US Green Building Council (http://www.usgbc.org) and author interviews with LEED ND principals Kaid Benfield and Sophie Lambert, May 2010. 10. The German equivalent of the US Green Building Council is called DGNB (http://www.dgnb.de). The rating system was established in 2007. 11. James S. Russell, "Berlin Struggles to Reinvent Itself," Architectural Record, October 1995, 29-31, 112; James S. Russell, "The New Berlin: What Happens When a City Transforms Itself through Architecture," Architectural Record March 2002, 76-80. 12. Trevor Boddy, "Vancouverism vs. Lower Manhattanism: Shaping the High Density City," presented at the Institute for Urban Design, New York, September 20, 2005, and reprinted on the website ArchNewsNow, http://www.archnewsnow.com. Author also interviewed Boddy in July 2008. 13. Vancouver's EcoDensity initiative: http://vancouver.ca/commsvcs/ecocity/index.htm. 14. James S. Russell, "Where Architecture Is Urban Design," Architectural Record, March 2005, 62-66. 15. Author visited HafenCity in April 2010, and the state of construction is depicted as it was at that time. A very large quarter was well into construction on that visit, which will complete close to half the planned buildout about 2012. Information about energy, transportation, and other aspects of HafenCity Planning was derived from "HafenCity Hamburg Projects: Insights into Current Developments," published by HafenCity Hamburg GmbH, March 2010, accessed from the website http://www.hafencity.com. ### Chapter 9 1. McMansion overbuilding: Arthur C. Nelson, "Leadership in a New Era," Journal of the American Planning Association 72, no.4 (2006): 393-406. Nelson was later cited in "Drop in Homeownership Likely to Continue," USA Today, August 5, 2009. 2. Author visit and briefing, January 2007, and South Waterfront website: http://www.southwaterfront.com/about/. 3. A skeptic's view of Portland's urban growth boundary: Robert Bruegmann, Sprawl: A Compact History (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005), ch. 13. 4. Sheri Olson, "Portland Grows Up--Not Out--with Sienna Architecture Company's Irvington Place," Architectural Record December 2000. 5. Resources for rethinking strip development: Ellen Dunham-Jones and June Williamson, Retrofitting Suburbia: Urban Design Solutions for Redesigning Suburbs (Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 2009); Galina Tachieva, The Sprawl Repair Manual (Washington, DC: Island Press, 2010). 6. For inventive multifamily housing, see William R. Morrish, Susanne Schindler, and Katie Swenson, Growing Urban Habitats: Seeking a New Housing Development Model (San Francisco: William Stout Publishers, 2009). 7. Author first noticed the house-price transit connection in news reports on New Jersey towns that saw substantial price appreciation after an NJ Transit bottleneck had been removed, speeding service. There is some evidence that walkable and transit-served neighborhoods have lost less value in the 2000s housing crash. Damon Darlin, "Street Corners vs. Cul de Sacs," New York Times January 9, 2010. 8. Despite punishing rents and demographic change, fur, jewelry, and flower sellers are among many wholesale and retail businesses that continue to cluster in defined districts in Manhattan. Brooklyn has developed boutique furniture design and fashion in recent years. 9. The "Incentive Zoning" in New York, before it was repealed, resulted in several Broadway theaters being inserted under office buildings in Times Square, a park no one knows about in Trump Tower, and several glass-roofed, midblock arcades in Midtown. 10. On changing planning priorities: author interviews with Steve van Gorp, Las Vegas redevelopment manager, and Rod Allison, planning manager in Clark County's Comprehensive Planning unit, January 2005. 11. Author interview of Chakrabarti, June 2010. 12. There's a large literature that claims regulations are a key driver of higher development costs, especially for housing. Prominent ones include "'Not in My Backyard': Removing Barriers to Affordable Housing," a report spearheaded by Jack Kemp, secretary of HUD (1991), http://www.huduser.org/publications/RBCPUBS/NotinMyBackyward.html; and much work by planning analyst Anthony Downs. It can be difficult to attribute higher costs to regulations alone, since several factors enter in, especially wealth. Affluent communities of all political stripes tend to welcome regulation that protects property values and "quality of life," costing anti-regulatory forces a powerful constituency. Arthur C. Nelson et al. make the case that regulations only marginally impact costs of housing in Environmental Regulations and Housing Costs (Washington, DC: Island Press, 2009). 13. William Fulton, The Reluctant Metropolis: The Politics of Urban Growth in Los Angeles (Point Arena, CA: Solano, 1997). 14. James S. Russell, "Can LEED Survive the Carbon Neutral Era?" Metropolis November 2007. 15. STAR Community Index: http://www.icleiusa.org/programs/sustainability/star-community-index. ### Chapter 10 1. Europe's rejection of American-style, debt-fueled economic stimulus, led by Germany's Angela Merkel, received wide media coverage in 2008 and 2009. 2. The sentiments on government programs expressed in a New York Times story sum up presumptions that seem deeply embedded in European outlooks and decision making: Suzanne Dailey, "Safety Net Frays in Spain, as Elsewhere in Europe," New York Times, June 27, 2010. 3. Since the real estate bubble collapsed, officials in government and finance constantly warned that recovery would be slow. They were essentially admitting that they saw no obvious basis for renewal. 4. S&L regulations and collapse: "The S&L Crisis: A Chrono-Bibliography," on website of Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation: http://www.fdic.gov/bank/historical/s%26l/index.html. Construction volume from Dodge Construction Index. 5. The go-go bubble (but not the eventual crash) was memorably chronicled by Michael Lewis in The New New Thing: A Silicon Valley Story (New York: Norton, 2000). 6. James S. Russell, "475 Brannan Street," Architectural Record June 2000, 162-64. 7. After ten years, the NASDAQ had recovered less than half its peak value: Sam Guston, "Ten Years after the Dot Com Bust, Tech Is Booming Again," AOL Daily Finance website, March 10, 2010, http://srph.it/byHhAE. 8. Joseph E. Stiglitz, Freefall: America, Free Markets, and the Sinking of the World Economy (New York: Norton, 2010), offers a cogent description of the housing bubble and its collapse. Alex Blumberg and Adam Davidson, "The Giant Pool of Money," a coproduction of the public radio program This American Life and National Public Radio (first aired May 9, 2008), summarizes the same events with extraordinary clarity. 9. Stiglitz, Freefall 19, makes this point, as do many other authorities. 10. Stiglitz, Freefall 182, on offshoring. By 2050, China's economy may be twice as large as America's, with India's equal to it: "The N-11: More than an Acronym," Goldman Sachs Global Economics Paper no. 153 (March 28, 2007), accessed via Wikipedia, topic "BRICs." 11. Ucilia Wang, "China Tops the World in Solar Panel Manufacturing," AOL Daily Finance website, June 3, 2010, http://srph.it/d4wO9u, confirming a comment made on visit to German manufacturer Solon in April 2010. Germany had previously been the solar-production leader as well as the world's largest solar market. 12. High commodity prices--most obviously in oil--helped tip the boom into bust, as owners slowed or halted construction projects in response to prices for steel, concrete, drywall, and copper that were bounding upward by double digits every few months. 13. Stiglitz, Freefall 357, and referencing William D. Nordhaus and James Tobin, "Is Growth Obsolete?" Economic Research: Retrospect and Prospect vol. 5, Economic Growth (New York: Columbia University Press, for the National Bureau of Economic Research, 1972). 14. Stiglitz, Freefall 181, 259, is one of many economists. Also, Paul Collier considers economic and political means to avoid exploitation of resources to exhaustion: The Plundered Planet: Why We Must--and How We Can--Manage Nature for Global Prosperity (New York: Oxford University Press, 2010). 15. The Lake Washington cleanup was so defining in Seattle that it played a part in Roger Sale's history of the city, Seattle, Past to Present (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1976), 197-200. 16. A conservative thumbnail estimate of the real estate value around Lake Washington is $4 billion. 17. Estimating even the direct costs of air and pollution control, considering primarily health effects for air, and health, fisheries, and recreation effects for water, is an extremely limited way of looking at those benefits, but one EPA used when the renewal of the Clean Air Act (1970) and Clean Water Act (1972) were considered by Congress in the 1990s. Even that analysis showed that air-quality investments were amply paid back, while water-quality investments offered modest paybacks. The water criteria did not assess the most important cost of failing to regulate water pollution: the cost to make water from polluted streams potable for drinking. (Many river cities must filter and sanitize water polluted by upstream cities. Clearly, Clean Water Act actions reduce such costs substantially.) J. Clarence Davies and Jan Mazurek, Pollution Control in the United States: Evaluating the System (Washington, DC: Resources for the Future, 1998), 126-35. 18. The lower Cuyahoga River, in Cleveland, caught fire in 1969--not for the first time--and the resulting publicity helped focus the public's attention on the need for clean-water legislation. US Environmental Protection Agency, "Cuyahoga River Area of Concern," undated web-based document: http://www.epa.gov/glnpo/aoc/cuyahoga.html. 19. On energy conservation: Steven Mufson, "In Energy Conservation California Sees the Light," Washington Post, February 17, 2007. California Assembly Bill 32 sets the goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020: http://www.arb.ca.gov/cc/ab32/ab32.htm. Vision California: Calthorpe Associates, "Vision California/Charting Our Future: Statewide Scenarios Report," revision of May 12, 2010, http://www.visioncalifornia.org and http://www.calthorpe.com/vision-california. 20. On Empire State Building: information from Anthony Malkin, building owner, on visit, July 2010. On solar shuttle: author visit to Solon headquarters and manufacturing facility, Berlin, Germany, April 2010. 21. John Timmer, "Testing the Vehicle-to-grid Connection," Ars Technica website, February 22, 2010, http://arstechnica.com/science/news/2010/02/testing-theelectric-vehicle-to-grid-connection.ars. In a presentation in April 2010, Andreas Kraemer, director of Ecologic, a German think tank, claimed that electric cars could one day provide twenty times the reserve grid power now available. 22. Smart grid, controls, electric cars: David J. Leeds, "The Networked EV: Smart Grids and Electric Vehicles; First Stop, California," in GreenTechGrid, in - dustry news website, February 23, 2010, http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/the-networked-ev-smart-grids-and-electric-vehicles-first-step-california/. Home control systems for load shifting: presentation on "E Haus," prototype demonstrating German KNX protocol as well as Gira controls, Germany- based consumer home controls, in Germany, April 2010. Both support Internet-based load shifting. These update the kinds of home-control systems in the United States that have been available and have steadily improved since the 1990s. 23. Much of the building technology described in this book was developed outside the United States (though as late as the early 1980s, America was a greentech leader). High-speed rail technology is imported, as is much transit technology. Hybrid-car power trains were mainstreamed in Japan. Several business leaders have called for large increases in US research: John M. Broder, "A Call to Triple U.S. Spending on Energy Research," New York Times June 9, 2010. 24. Paul D. Gottlieb, "Growing without Growth: An Alternative Economic Development Goal for Metropolitan Areas," discussion Paper for the Brookings Institution Center on Urban and Metropolitan Policy, 2002. There's also a new research focus on shrinking cities that seeks a stable economic basis for European communities that are aging and losing population, and for American industrial cities that have failed to find new engines for either economic or population growth. The work has identified means to shrink more gracefully but in my view has not yet made a persuasive case for nurturing wealth or well-being in the absence of at least some long-term population gain. 25. David I. Stern, "The Environmental Kuznets Curve," International Society for Ecological Economics Internet Encyclopedia of Ecological Economics June 2003, http://www.ecoeco.org/pdf/stern.pdf. 26. Keith Bradsher, "China Fears Warming Effects of Consumer Wants," New York Times July 4, 2010. 27. Collier, The Plundered Planet. Stiglitz, in Freefall 405, also endorses using energy- exploitation proceeds to build low-energy infrastructure and also mentions Chile. Norway has pledged a 40 percent reduction in carbon emissions by 2020, the most ambitious of any developed country, and will finance measures largely with revenues from oil extraction. Alex Morales and Marianne Stigset, "Norway Offers 40 Percent Emissions Cut, Biggest among Developed World," Bloomberg, October 8, 2009. 28. Alice Waters, of Chez Panisse restaurant, was an early champion of what has come to be known as slow food. Eric Schlosser's Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal focused on industrially processed food (New York: Harper Perennial, 2005). Michael Pollan contrasted the heavy use of oil and corn in food production with local and organic food in The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals (New York: Penguin, 2006). 29. The founding of the Slow Cities movement--Cittaslow, in Italian--is attributed to Paolo Saturnini, once mayor of Greve, in the Chianti region: http://www.cittaslow.org. 30. Frances Mayes, Under the Tuscan Sun (New York: Broadway Books, 1997), and numerous other titles by Mayes and others popularized the lifestyle, landscape, and food of Tuscany. Italian product design, with brand names from Olivetti to Alessi, triumphed from the 1960s but has been challenged in its dominance by other European countries and Asian makers. Its major fashion houses are international powerhouses, but personal friends in the business say the specialized textile crafts that supported Italian fashion dominance, from high-end textiles to shoes, neckware, and beadmaking, are rapidly being decimated by lower-cost producers, mainly outside Europe. 31. Bike culture in Portland, local-food cultures in California, and Brooklyn's nexus of designers and producers of specialized food, furniture, and clothing are "slow city" hubs in America, even if not explicitly so. Environmental writer Bill McKibben endorses local economies as a global warming solution in Deep Economy: The Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future (New York: Times Books, 2007). 32. Jane Jacobs, the brilliant urban analyst, coined the term import replacement to denote the process by which localities evolve by replacing imported goods with locally produced ones that can compete by capitalizing on unique local skills and resources: Jane Jacobs, Cities and the Wealth of Nations: Principles of Economic Life (New York: Random House, 1984). 33. The Living Building Challenge, a project of the Cascadia Green Building Council that demands net zero energy consumption, limits the radius from which materials can be obtained to a maximum of one thousand miles. 34. "Sustainable Energy Security: Strategic Risks and Opportunities for Business," July 2010, white paper published by Lloyd's, the global specialist insurer, available at http://www.chathamhouse.org.uk/publications/papers/view/-/id/891/. 35. European agricultural subsidies: Pietro Nivola, Laws of the Landscape: How Policies Shape Cities in Europe and America (Washington, DC: Brookings Institution, 1999). 36. A deep literature has developed on environmental economics, valuing "eco - system services" and integrating them into human endeavor. Driving down resource use forges "natural capital," for example, in Hunter Lovins, Amory Lovins, and Paul Hawken, Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution (Boston: Back Bay Books, 2008). 37. GDP measures "growth" that erodes rather than enhances well-being: Stiglitz, Freefall 259. The triple bottom line is often attributed to business consultant John Elkington. A significant literature has grown around the idea and its implementation. 38. Ed Blakely, New Orleans rebuilding czar in the late 2000s, told me that green construction techniques had been identified by studies as a powerful potential driver of the city's economy. ### EPILOGUE 1. James S. Russell, ed., The Mayors' Institute: Excellence in City Design (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2002). See also http://www.micd.org (Mayors' Institute) and http://www.govinstitute.org (Governors' Institute). 2. Architectural Record magazine and Tulane University hosted the "High Density on the High Ground" competition in New Orleans in spring 3. 2006. James S. Russell, "Designing the Future of New Orleans," Architectural Record, June 2006, 114-23. 4. Jess Smee, "The Watery Future of East Germany's Coal Mines," Spiegel Online September 28, 2010, http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,717855,00.html. Index A Abrams, Glen accounting, green activists, suburban adaptive building See also See also buildings; green buildings airtight buildings in California climate and in Deep South heat from earth and passive power Passive House shade "shotgun" houses shutters sun in ventilation, xv agglomeration economies agriculture conservation and land development pattern and localized air air-conditioning compared to fresh need for pollution of quality ventilation, xv air-conditioning fresh air compared to global warming and heat island effect and shading or Albuquerque alternative energy See also See also specific types American Architectural Foundation American Prairie Foundation Amsterdam AOL apartments Appalachicola Bay Apple aquifers Arcadia Land Company architecture See also See also buildings history of Mediterranean modern Architecture for Humanity Army, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. artists assembly line Atlanta Beltline project development highways individuality and government in atrium autos See See cars B Backus, Skip bailout Ballard Library banks Bartholomew, Keith battery technology Battle McCarthy Bayou St. John (New Orleans) Beachfront Management Act (S.C.) Beartooth Capital Behnisch, Stefan Behnisch Architekten Beirut Belleghem, Joe Van, xvi, xviii Bellevue (Wash.),95 Belmar development Beltline project (Atlanta) beltways Bentham, Jeremy Berlin community International Building Exhibitions (IBA) Jewish Museum in Potsdamer Platz rebuilding of streets of bicycles Big Dig (Boston),84 Bilbao (Spain) community Guggenheim Museum of transportation Biloxi (Miss.) biocapacity biofuel biomass gasification plant, xvi bioswale Bird's Foot (Mississippi River),121 bison blinds See also See also shutters Bo01 development (Sweden) Boddy, Trevor Bohlin Cywinski Jackson boilers Bosch Slabbers Bourgeois Utopias (Fishman) BP See See British Petroleum Brazil Breton Sound (La.),122 Bretzke, Alex Briechle, Kendra British Petroleum (BP) Broadmoor drainage canal (New Orleans) brownfields bubble economics 80s Reagan 90s Dot-com 2000s housing Buffalo Commons buildings See also See also adaptive building; architecture; green buildings airtight carbon emissions of carbon-neutral, xiii, xivf climate and design of community and design Empire State Building endangered exhibitions LEED certified longevity of low-energy old Passive House bulkheads bullet-train Busby Perkins + Will, xv buses gas tax to fund of Hamburg suburban routes Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) Bush, George W C Calatrava, Santiago California adaptive buildings in carbon emissions in Vision California plan The Canada Line (Vancouver, B. C.) carbon emissions, xv of buildings in California Empire State Building of freight rail life of low Oregons goals for policy Portland San Francisco Seattle transportation U.S. carbon neutrality, xiii, xivf carbon taxes Carbonell, Armando cars See also See also commutes; highways; traffic addiction to alternatives battery technology congestion from density and dependence on, xvii-xviii electric federal policy and subsidizing Case, Steve ceiling fans Center for Conservation and Development Centerbrook Architects and Planners, xiii, xivf Cervero, Robert Chakrabarti, Vishaan charettes Charles M. Russell Wildlife Refuge Chesapeake Bay Chicago I-90 I-290 suburbs Worlds Fair chimneys See also See also solar energy China cities See also See also community; urban design beltways citizen consultation in economy of leadership local food economies and slow making of old compared to new real estate and rent in suburbs compared to suburbs compared to water in water treatment plant City Beautiful civic engagement Clem, David climate, building design and climate change See See global warming Clinton, Bill co-devolution co-evolution COG See See council of local governments Coke, Edward collaboration Colorado River Columbia River community See also See also cities age of age penalty Berlin Bilbao brownfields buildings and civic engagement in construction and creating century Dallas easing access financing and global warming and grid compared to cul-de-sac growing vs. mature infrastructure and land ownership and land readjustment land trusts LEED ND low-carbon mixing uses and qualities of rebuilding STAR community index commutes compact development competitions, design Con Edison congestion See See traffic conservation agriculture and development and economic paybacks for land trusts real estate and in U.S. water Conservation Fund Constitution, U.S. Fifth Amendment of ratification debate construction See also See also architecture; buildings codes community and green compared to conventional recycling consumption culture and U.S. oil Continuum Partners cooling See also See also air; air-conditioning corn ethanol council of local governments (COG) crime cross-ventilation See See ventilation cul-de-sac, grids compared to culture consumption and Native American suburban U.S. Cuyahoga River D Dallas (Texas) community levees of Santiago Calatrava Trinity River project of Davis, Robert daylight de La-Hoz, Rafael deed restrictions Deepwater Horizon deforestation Dennis, Bill density Department of Planning and Urban Form design See also See also urban design building climate and building competitions density environment and green Passive House Design Excellence development See also See also buildings; growth; regulations Atlanta coastal compact conservation and diversity and forests and golf course grid compared to cul-de-sac innovation in land trusts LEED ND mixing uses and opportunities of green patterns, agriculture and rights standards in United Kingdom Diaz, Ramiro dimmers displacement-ventilation system, xv Dockside Green Donovan, Shaun Dot-com bubble economics double-layer curtain walls downtowns, transportation and Drey, Peter drought dual-flush toilet Dulles Airport (Va.) Dutch Dialogues Duvall (Wash.) Dyer, Buddy E Eco Machine EcoDensity economy See also See also bubble economics; green economy agglomeration city conservation and developing giants of expansion of Great Recession green inequality within local food, slow cities and nature and success of ecosystems edge cities Eisenhower, Dwight Elbe River floods (Germany) electric cars elevators Elliot Bay (Seattle) Ellis, Joseph Emerson, Ralph Waldo eminent domain emissions See See carbon emissions Empire State Building (New York) Endesa (Madrid) English, Dorothy Enron environment See also See also nature design according to efficiency and industry and living in tune with Environmental Defense Fund The Environmental Kuznets Curve Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Erie Canal erosion beach coastal soil Eskew, Allen ETFE,71-72 Europe income in infrastructure of land-ownership tradition of real estate in Evergreen Point Bridge (Seattle) Ewing, Reid external shading See also See also shutters F factories Fairmount Park Fannie Mae farms Farr, Douglas Federal Forest Legacy Program Federal Highway Administration Federal Housing Administration (FHA) fertilizers FHA See See Federal Housing Administration finance, real estate financing, community and fisheries Fishman, Robert Fitzgerald, Cantor flood control Elbe River insurance, taxation and Mississippi River Netherlands protection reducing retaining Florida global warming in water issues in Florida, Richard food, economies, slow cities and local Ford, Henry foreclosures forests development and urban (Philadelphia) Foster, Norman Franklin, Benjamin Freddie Mac freeways See See highways freight rail French Quarter (New Orleans) fresh air See See air Freshkills Park (New York) Friedemann, Tajo Fuerst, Franz G Galante, Beth Gallis, Michael Garreau, Joel Gas prices tax Gates, Bill GDP See See gross domestic product Gehl, Jan Gehry, Frank General Services Administration geothermal energy geothermal well, xv Germany See also See also Berlin Global Green (New Orleans) global warming air-conditioning and community and coping with effects of in Florida human impact on in Netherlands regulations and suburbs and transportation and globalization courses Gorp, Steve van government individuality and regulation of land-use support programs grassland Grassland Foundation Great Depression Great Plains Great Plains Restoration Foundation Great Recession green accounting Green Building Council, US (USGBC) green buildings in Germany rating system, xvi techniques green design green economy benefits of costs avoided through green roofs green streets green technology greenhouse gas emissions See See carbon emissions gross domestic product (GDP) Grote, Michael Ground Zero (New York) growth See also See also urban growth boundary coalitions controlling developing giants of economy and limits to nature and regulations resource shortage and suburban water and growth machine beltways government benefits and incentives income and repairing dysfunctional taxation and transportation and Guggenheim Museum H habitats, restoration of salmon HafenCity (Hamburg) Hamburg Hamilton, Alexander Harrison, Paul Hawaii heat island effect heating from earth and passive power vacation mode waste High Line Park (New York) High Point (Seattle) high-ceilinged rooms highways Atlanta beltways Federal Highway Administration funding of I-90 I-290 interstate Los Angeles Orlando rural suburbs and Hillsboro (Ore.) Hinterthan, Alex historic preservation Hokukano Preserve Holland See See Netherlands Hollywood home-equity loans homeownership benefits of dream of foreclosures morality of renting compared to taxation and wealth and Hopkins Architects, xiii, xivf hospitals housing See also See also adaptive building; buildings; real estate bubble economics climate-sensitive cost of Deep South density electric controls for FHA governmental support programs for hurricanes and lofts low-cost market Passive House techniques renting compared to owning shotgun shutters size vacation walkability and Houston (Tex.) Huff, Ray Hugo (Hurricane) hurricanes See also See also Katrina (Hurricane) hydroelectricity hydropower I IBA See See International Building Exhibition Ijberg (Amsterdam) income European growth machine and low median An Inconvenient Truth India individuality Indonesia industry environment and Industrial Revolution industrial waste industrialization inflation infrastructure community and of Europe planning U.S. innovation insurance International Building Exhibition (IBA) Internet Iron Curtain of Communism irrigation Isle of Palms (S. C.) Isozaki, Arata Italy J Jackson, Kenneth T. Jackson, Lisa Jacobs, Harvey M. Japan Jefferson, Thomas Jobs, Steve John Todd Ecological Design Jones Lang Lasalle K Kansas City Katrina (Hurricane) rebuilding efforts after KB Home Kealakekua (Hi.) Keith, Robert Kemp, Paul KfW (Frankfurt, Germany) King County (Wash.) policy of urban growth boundary in Kohn Pedersen Fox Korea KPMP Kresge Foundation (Troy, Mich.) Kroon Hall, xiii, xivf Kuznets, Simon The Kuznets Curve L Lafitte Corridor (New Orleans) Lake Charles (La.) Lake Sidney Lanier (Ga.) land ethos land readjustment land trusts landownership See also See also zoning agile borrowing compared to buying community and ecosystems and history of land trusts property rights and public compared to private public welfare and rights Landrieu, U.S. Senator Mary land-use See also See also zoning American concept of attitude toward borrowing compared to buying Edward Coke on conservation and development disputes humans and in Oregon regulation of suburbs and transportation and Lang, Robert Las Vegas beltway Red Rock Mountains transportation Lauten, Shelly lawns Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) buildings certified by dual-flush toilets of ND wiki innovation leasing, of public land LEED See See Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Lehman Brothers Leinberger, Christopher LEnfant, Pierre levees Dallas Netherlands New Orleans Libeskind, Daniel lighting compact-fluorescent, xvi daylight dimmers history of natural skylights Lincoln Institute of Land Policy lofts Long Island Los Angeles highway system of transportation in Louisiana, water management in Lucas, David Luong, Oanh Lyme Properties M Maas River (Netherlands) Madison, James Madrid Make It Right (New Orleans) Malkin, Anthony Mamaroneck (N.Y.) managed retreat Manitoba Hydro building (Winnipeg) marshes Maslant barrier (Netherlands) Mauna Loa (Hawaii) Mayors' Institute on City Design MC2A Architects McCune Foundation Measure median income megaburbs See also See also suburbs Mendiguren, Ibon Areso Merrill Lynch Mexico Microsoft Miller, Robert mining Mississippi River mitigation banks mobility, suburbs and modular homes Molotch, Harvey L. Monticello (Va.) morality Morphosis (architect) mortgages checklist lending deductibility of interest on rigidity of self-amortizing subprime suburbs and toxic Moule & Polyzoides Moynihan Station (New York) Murren, James Museum of Contemporary Art Denver MyRegion (Orlando) N NASDAQ National Audubon Society National Endowment of the Arts National Geographic National Park system National Wildlife Federation Native Americans natural disasters See also See also floods; hurricanes nature See also See also environment economy and growth and harnessing Nature Conservancy neighborhood development (ND) Nelson, Arthur C. Netherlands flooding in global warming in land readjustment in levees in Noordwaard Polder population of terps transportation in water management in Westersingel Canal (Rotterdam) windmills Nevada, water in New Economy New Orleans See also See also Katrina (Hurricane) Bayou St. John drainage canals French Quarter Holy Cross neighborhood of Lafitte Corridor levees population Unified New Orleans Plan water management of New Rochelle New Urbanist New West Land Company New York City Empire State Building rainwater street layouts of Times Square transportation water use in zoning ordinance in Nguyen house (Biloxi, Miss.) Nieva, Angel NIMBY See See not-in-my-backyard Noordwaard Polder (Netherlands) not-in-my-backyard (NIMBY) O Obama administration Ogallala Aquifer O'Hare Airport O'Herlihy, Lorcan (architect) oil drilling U.S. consumption of Olympic Sculpture Park (Seattle) Omega Center for Sustainable Living (N.Y.) Friends of Washington Orange County Oregon carbon emissions goals of land-use in Measure Measure urban growth boundary of zoning Oregon Health and Science University (Portland) Orlando (Fla.) ownership See also See also homeownership; landownership; property rights P Palmer, Carl parking lots Passive House techniques passive power patient equity Penn, William Penn Station (New York) pesticides Peters, Renske Philadelphia drainage system of foresting rainwater management in Phoenix (Ariz.) Pike Place Market (Seattle) Pitt, Brad planning infrastructure land readjustment transportation urban design PlaNYC pollution Pope, Albert Popper, Deborah, Frank population Netherlands New Orleans wealth and Portage Bay Portland (Oregon) carbon emissions carbon footprint of investors of subdivisions of transportation urban growth boundary of poverty prairie, parking lots and private property privatism property borrowing compared to buying ownership See See landownership value property rights attitudes toward land readjustment land trusts landownership and Measure 37 (Ore.) Measure 49 (Ore.) mitigation banks regulations and stewardship and United Kingdom property tax See also See also taxation deductions Proposition 13 (Calif.) Proposition 13 (Calif.) public hearings public land, leasing of public welfare R rain See also See also water gardens harvesting, xv managing New York City storm runoff, xvii utilities and ranching Reagan, Ronald real estate "checklist lending," cities and coastal conservation and curb appeal dumbing down Europe financing of investment patient equity reimagining rules of sense of place and strip malls suburbs underwriting urban market water and price of recycling, construction Red Rock Mountains Reddick, Gary regulations affordability of agile global warming and growth land-use scale of simple rules renewable energy renting city compared to suburbs home ownership compared to subsidies reservoir systems resources,11 Revolution (American) Rhine River (Netherlands) Road Home program (New Orleans) roads See also See also highways supply taxes for Robert Charles Lessor & Company Rocky Mountain Institute Rocky Mountain West Rogers, Gil Rome Rotterdam Russell Sage Foundation Russia S Sadik-Khan, Janette San Fernando Valley (Calif.) San Francisco carbon emissions of federal office building of San Mateo (Calif.) Santa Monica (Calif.) Santiago Calatrava Scalia, Antonin Scandinavia Schaumberg (Ill.) Scheffler, Karl Scheveningen (Netherlands) School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, Yale, xiii Schuylkill River (Philadelphia) Sea Bright (N.J.) Seaside (Fla.) Seattle Ballard Library carbon emissions of Elliot Bay High Point Olympic Sculpture Park streets of sun and transportation SEC See See suburban employment center sewage cost of Eco Machine wetlands and shading Shaw, Lemuel shotgun housing shutters sidewalks Silicon Valley (Calif.) silt-filtering grasses single-family houses SIB See See structural insulated panels Southern Environmental Law Center Southampton (N.Y.) Spain See also See also Bilbao (Spain) St. Bernard Parish (La.) St. John's River (Fla.) St. Louis Stachon, Eric Stapleton (Denver) STAR Community Index Stevens, Clark stewardship, property rights and storm water streams streets Berlin cul-de-sac compared to grid green New York City Seattle strip malls structural insulated panels (SIP) subsidies cars renting suburban employment center (SEC) suburbs See also See also megaburbs activists of BRT in bus routes to business in Chicago cities and cost of culture of Edge Cities in global warming in growth of highways and as ideal inaccessibility of land development patterns of land-use in mobility and mortgages and 1950s 1970s Orlando postwar poverty in real estate in rent in cities compared to retrofitting transportation 2000s values of Vancouver wealth in sun in adaptive building Seattle shading Sydney Opera House (Australia) T Tampa (Fla.) taxation See also See also property tax benefits carbon 80s Reagan bubble economics and flood insurance and gas growth and home-equity loans and homeownership and land trusts and policy property of roads Taylor, Michael Tennessee Street (New Orleans) terps Texas TGV Thames gateway (United Kingdom) Thoreau, Henry David time tranching Times Square toilets Toll Brothers traffic See also See also cars; highways beltways and grid compared to cul-de-sac transportation See also See also buses; cars beltways bicycles Bilbao BRT bullet-train carbon emissions of commutes downtowns and easing access through freight rail global warming and growth and Holland land-use and Las Vegas Los Angeles Metro New York City people and planning, integrated Portland rules, Federal Seattle Skytrain suburban TGV Vancouver Transsolar Trinity River (Dallas) Trohimovich, Tim Troy (Michigan) Turner, Ted Tysons Corner (Md.) U ULURP See See Uniform Land Use Review Procedure Unified New Orleans Plan Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP) Unilever United Kingdom United States See also See also Constitution, U.S. carbon footprint of collaboration in collective consciousness of conservation in culture government independence individuality in infrastructure national identity of oil consumption Revolution slum clearances in transportation tendency in urban design land readjustment of William Penn planning urban growth boundary King County (Wash.) Oregon Portland Urban Land Institute urban market, real estate urban-service boundaries urinals, waterless USGBC See See Green Building Council, US utilities See also See also air- conditioning; cooling; heating; lighting; sewage cost of rainwater and V VA See See Veterans Administration Valerio, Joe Valkenburgh, Michael Van values slow cities and local food economies suburban Vanasche, David Vancouver (British Columbia) community Skytrain of suburbs of transportation of vehicles See See specific types ventilation Veterans Administration (VA) Villa Italia (Denver) Vision California plan Vrijling, Han W Waggonner, David Waggonner & Ball Architects walkability grid compared to cul-de-sac Wall Street Washington Washington (state) Washington Mutual Bank waste water See also See also rain availability of bioswale in cities conservation costs Florida growth and Nevada New York City quality of real estate prices and reservoir systems rights treatment plant wars wetlands and water management See also See also floods Louisiana Netherlands New Orleans waterfowl watershed quality wealth home ownership and population and suburban well-being and weekend-cabins welfare well-being, wealth and Westersingel Canal (Rotterdam) wetlands sewage and water and Wetlands Solutions Whyte, William H. Wild Dunes (S.C.) wild land wild salmon wildfires wildlife migration wind energy wind resistance tactics Windmill West, xvi windmills windows Empire State Building Passive House wooden shutters Winnipeg World Trade Center See See World War II World Wildlife Fund Yale University, xiii, xivf Yukon to Yellowstone corridor Z zoning See also See also land-use discriminatory land readjustment legal basis of ordinance of New York City Oregon

Calling Knitters ! What's on your needles? Member Interviews Calling Knitters ! What's on your needles?This is my current piece. I’m a newbie knitter, self taught. I really only know the cast on and the knit stitch. This scarf being made with Caron Cakes Cherry Chip is helping me practice not only knit but purl stitches. I am trying to do two rows... This is my current piece. I’m a newbie knitter, self taught. I really only know the cast on and the knit stitch. This scarf being made with Caron Cakes Cherry Chip is helping me practice not only knit but purl stitches. I am trying to do two rows of knit stitch followed by two rows of purl stitch. Sometimes though, I do deviate from the planned pattern and to be honest, I do not know why or how. I have been trying to keep rows accurate by writing down but I am still finding sections where it looks like four rows of purl or only one row of knit. I usually beat myself up way too much and would be ripping out and starting over constantly. However, ok … I admit I did restart twice … but won’t rip out anymore unless a true emergency happens. 5 Replies Thanks! Overall, my experience with cake has been very good. I will say, I noticed a slight odor coming from the yarn when I work with it. Not sure what it is exactly, I’m thinking maybe something in the dye or the 20% wool fiber. At first I thought I was just imagining it, but I did come across someone on a crochet board who also noted an odor. The yarn is very soft and pliable. Seems to be very easy to work with. For this project, I’m hoping the color change will come in at ’ acceptable ’ areas, such as the beginning or end of a row without my having to cut and reattach. I have been lucky when the color switched from red to brown and the change hasn’t been noticable. I did purchase several more cakes and hope to do a crochet project with the yarn next. Was encouraged to see this past week, that the yarn company is picking up production again in to 2017. Do wish the yarn line would be expanded and distributed to other store chains, but looks unlikely. I’d give the yarn a thumbs up! Thanks Pam and welcome to Crochet.Community! I’ve yet to use any blanket yarn but would love to one day. Am kind of in a no-spend season now due to a career change into NJ real estate. I’ll be taking my state test January 31, so hopefully after passing and getting set up with a firm, I can splurge and treat myself. Until then, I’m mainly using my stash. The finished scarf from the photo above went to my Mom for Christmas, and I am now using another Caron Cake on a loom to make a scarf for myself. It is the first time I’m using the loom and so far, everything’s been pretty good. I’m about finished with it and will post a photo when completed. DISCLAIMER: Any posts on CrochetCommunity (CC) are posted by individuals acting in their own right and do not necessarily reflect the views of CC. CC will not be held liable for the actions of any user.

From West: Rt. 2 to the end. At Alewife MBTA station go over the bridge to the first rotary and follow around to the left. At the second rotary, go around to the left and then take quick right. You will be on Concord Ave. Go straight for one mile at which Concord Avenue becomes Garden Street. Continue on Garden Street to the third set of lights. Cambridge Common will be on your left and you will be at the edge of Harvard Square. With the flow of traffic bear left, go through one set of lights and then take a right under the tunnel. The Cambridge Fire Department Headquarters will be in front of you. There is a fork as soon as you come out of the tunnel - stay to the left which is marked Cambridge Street. CRLS is two blocks down on the right. From Mass Pike: Get off at Allston/Cambridge Exit. Go straight over the bridge and cross over Memorial Drive. You will be on River Street. Continue on River Street. Continue on River Street until you reach the edge of Central Square. Go straight, cross over Massachusetts Ave. River Street now becomes Prospect Street. Go to the Fourth set of lights- a Car dealership is on the corner - and take a left on to Cambridge Street. CRLS is eight blocks down on your left. From Route 93: Get off at Storrow Drive Exit. Follow signs to Cambridge/Somerville. DO NOT TAKE STORROW DRIVE. Bear left and right with the flow of traffic You will come to a set of lights and the Science Museum will be in front of you. Take a right at the lights past the Science Museum you will be on Cambridge street. Lechmere Station will be on your right. CRLS is about two miles down Cambridge Street on the left side of the street just past Cambridge City Hospital. By MBTA: Take the red line to Harvard Square. Get off at Harvard Square. Walk down Massachusetts Ave towards Central Square to Quincy Street. Turn left on Quincy Street and walk to Broadway. Turn right on Broadway. CRLS is on your left a short distance from Quincy Street. If you are coming from Rte. 2 you can park at the Alewife MBTA station and take the MBTA. Parking around CRLS is limited so it may be easier to take the MBTA.

"Starring:" "Charles Berling" "Starring:" "Bruno Putzulu" "Starring:" "Pascal Elbe" "FATHER AND SONS" "Directed by Michel Boujenah" "Hi, brother, happy birthday!" "Smells good, looks great!" "Don't worry, it will be all-right" "Mr. Serrano, your gift!" "Appliance for shave" "You pick the right one" "Good evening" "Don't forget to re-boost the amanuensis tomorrow" "Do you see Simon?" "No.I'm looking for hime everywhere" "Good evening." "Have a nice evening" "David!" "I don't care of you ChampagneºÍSt Aimee Lyon wine!" "Give it to Joseph" "Door is ringing" "Simon's coming!" "Late for 30 minutes!" "In what a big day!" "It's David!" "Calm down, Max!" "he said­" "He won't come" "BUt he comes" "It's my birthday, try your best" "It will be all-right" "Sorry, I'm late, trouble in office" "Door is open, Simon" "I explain to you." "Nothing to explain" "Calm down, he said he won't come, but he comes" "It's my birthday, try your best, David" "It will be all-right!" "Are you ok?" "Yes" "Good evening, everyone" "Please sit down" "Where is Nicole?" "She won't come?" "She is not well" "She begs your pardon" "It's not funeral" "It's birthday, come on, Joseph" "Champagne!" "We want" "Happy birthday!" "Sorry, I'm late" "David, you should wait for me, I..." "Run all the way" "Are you ok?" "I'm coming, hum" "Am I dreaming or is it real?" "It's Max and David?" "Sh, be quiet..." "You know me." "Yes, come" "Are you ok?" "Sorry, er" "Thanks, uncle" "How are you?" "Ante" "What did you put... in carrot?" "Don't you like it?" "On the contrary" "It tastes... like cumin, right?" "Yes, and some garlic" "Right, it tastes good" "You are interested in... my carrot 30 years later?" "I'm interested, you criticize I'm not interested, you also criticize" "Here you are, pass the tableware to Simon" "Thanks" "Champagne, Francine?" "No, thanks, it makes me drowsy" "Yes" "I want some" "But it is just right before you!" "Ah, yes" "Ah, then..." "I suggest to cheer" "Good idea" "For father" "For Leo!" "Especially..." "For Max and David" "It's really good to see you together!" "Incredible" "Crabby people" "But you think of the family" "Simon, please" "In the story, Max is vicious" "David is vicious, too" "Simon, stop!" "Say..." "I'm very interested" "You are vicious, but you come" "It's good" "Sorry, I have to go, work..." "Happy birthday, father" "Goodbye" "Do you think it's useful?" "You, look!" "You have your responsibility on the thing" "We'd better go, too" "What I said, my god!" "Happy birthday, father, see you later" "Happy birthday." "Go" "Thanks, Simon" "Oh!" "Don't touch him, you are risking killing him" "I'm coming" "My brother is a doctor, I know what to do" "Don't worry, we send you to the hospital" "I'm all-right, but my small motorcycle is over" "You analysis..." "Is pretty good" "You have a heart of 20" "There is a small problem on..." "Your cycle, but better... do a small operation" "Why do the full body systematic examination?" "For your age, we won't risk" "Then how is my discomfort?" "All will be bad!" "Just tired" "I almost die in the street!" "Like a dog! "Just tired?"" "You are nothing bad, that's it" "You can leave hospital tomorrow Then there will be a empty bed" "Did you inform children?" "What to say?" "My discomfort!" "Why let them worry about you You are nothing bad!" "Yes, you are right" "Crookback whale in Quebec leads a family life" "They are apart till death" "They obviously have a concept of colony" "Whale lives in St. Lawrence River" "Sometimes, they disappear for 2 or 3 months" "How is he?" "Much better" "It will be ok after a good sleep" "Is it?" "Here is his room" "Come in" "David, what a surprise!" "Who inform you?" "Office" "I told Joseph don't let you worry" "You have so many jobs to do" "How are you feeling?" "Like 20, but always worse" "Nurse said it's all-right" "What does she know?" "I thought I will pass away" "Attention, my life is substantial" "I have a great wife, 3 good sons..." "I've tried to bring them up" "Apparently, I don't always boast" "Maybe it's not too late, David" "It would be better we four regather ... and go out for a trip?" "Far away from here, for several days" "You never be on a vacation" "Work there, I can't do that" "Because of Max?" "NO!" "I'm leaving, you should have a rest" "I call you" "Er?" "I can't see you regather before I die" "Don't say that, father" "Time will solve all these" "And your thoughts, later, maybe later maybe too late" "What did you say?" "Nothing" "But after 3 weeks, because of cycle problem" "I need to have a small operation..." "Nothing" "But they told me it will last 5 hours" "Nurse doesn't mention at all!" "Don't worry" "A small operation won't destroy me" "But if I have some days to live" "I want to live as much as I like" "Far away from here, David" "Go with my children" "Where do you want to go?" "Quebec, see whale" "Come in" "Oh, Max, what a surprise!" "If you want, I can come to see you next time" "No, no" "Don't go" "How are you feeling?" "Like 20, but always worse" "I thought I will pass away" "Attention, my life is substantial" "I have a great wife, 3 good sons..." "What did you say?" "What?" "What did you say to Max and David?" "What?" "They are consternated in thier messages for me" "What did you say?" "Talk about my health problme" "I overdraw a bit" ""an 80% deadly operation"" "You say it "overdraw a bit"?" "Joseph" "My two sons haven't talked to each other for 5 years" "And I've hardly seen them for 5 years" "I feel lonely" "And to let them regather in vacation, you said you will die after 15 days" "But the only way I can think" "You are totally ill!" "Go and look!" "I won't tell Simon anything He is frail" "If you don't tell David the truth, I do" "I will tell them in the hell, promise" "I know your promise" "Joseph" "You and me, we've been annoyed each other for 10 years" "Maybe it's father's death that let us retalk" "I need my sons" "Please, give me the chance" "Later, I will tell them what you want me to say" "When do you get interested in whale?" "When my children don't get interest in me" "I don't know what makes me more uneasy:" "Father's operation or the comeback to brothers" "In a word, no, I know" "It will be all-right" "I understand him, he won't go" "He will pay all the money to be contented..." "He will leave us" "It's not so lucky this time" "It's too deft" "You don't need him There is money in our deposit plan" "Come on" "Are you sure think so?" "It will relax me" "Black beetle, dung beetle, abundant in proteins..." "Mine salt, it's biology!" "Great sale in asia" "It will deliver to your door" "Just like Piza, but as for Black beetle:" "Etain Black beetle!" "It's good" "Good morning, Mr. Serrano" "Does Simon come?" "Do you think I will work for your brother for 15 years?" "I will do business with my wife" "Your wife, she is good" "What's this?" "A small bijou, I bought for myself" "What's this then?" "I gift from my ex-wife" "You know, Sandrine" "Father?" "Yes!" "What are you doing here?" "Hello." "Hello, Mr. Serrano" "See you later, Eric" "I..." "How are you?" "Fine, fine" "I'm coming to tell you a good news" "We all go to Quebec to see whale" "Er?" "We stay with Max and David..." "Go to Quebec to see whale, three days later" "What's the purpose?" "For go out with you happily" "Not enough?" "Enough, I like travelling" "Will Max and David go together?" "Will you go with us?" "Yes, if David gives me another vacation" "All are ready." "Great!" "Why see whale?" "Why not?" "Yes, er, no, are you sure it's the season?" "I saw in a material they migrate..." "They will come back anyway" "They said it in TV!" "And you believe the silly words they said in TV?" "Crookback whale is different from others..." ""Mr. Know Everything"!" "If whale go to other places" "Then it's silly to see whale in Canada" "They won't go to other places!" "I don't want you to be disappointed" "But they've tracked them..." "One year, gray Crookback whale!" "Gray whale, green whale­" "Red whale, Crookback no Crookback­" "I abandon such silly things, are you clear?" "Yes, yes, but why shall we go to Canada?" "Simon, homoerotism?" "To me, he can do everything!" "It's not a kind of illness, now, it's not serious" "It's really bad!" "Do you want to talk to them?" "It depends on Simon" "I mean..." "Your boasting operation!" "Tell them in there" "We maybe have some other things to consider" "Promise to me!" "Do you look me as Monster?" "Yes" "Let's go to north place!" "Let's see whale!" "not north place, Quebec, father" "Yes, Quebec" "David isn't here?" "NO" "Don't worry, Max makes us 3 hours in advance" "I tell you, he won't come" "I'm looking for Mr. Serrano, SVP, his father" "Yes" "How?" "Ah, thanks" "How?" "He went to Holland" "I said it!" "Where did you go?" "I'll be right back" "Your valve will be sent to you!" "Mr. Serrano­ I know He is in Amsterdam" "David, hurry up, were going to miss the flight" "I called a taxi to wait for us" "But I..." "Do you have suitcase?" "In the car" "Where is the tickets?" "In my home" "You go, I take the next flight" "No, you buy ticket right now" "Wait, I really can't" "I have meeting that can't be missed" "The only thing you can't miss is the trip with me" "Because it's the last time" "Set off, children" "How are you." "Go!" "your trip is so portable" "Shut up" "Let's go, go, Max" "We are missing the flight!" "They wave to you" "Do they?" "Then we should be so happy!" "David, don't you look the week as my vacatioin?" "otherwise, it will waste my vacation" "Your vacation?" "It's important" "Max, I should talk to you about Black beetle" "What such silly words?" "Vacation?" "DOn't you tell him?" "When your mother passed away, how bad his mood was­" "The last call for the passenger to Montreal" "He goes to first class, and we all are here" "No first class ticket!" "He can give the ticket to you!" "I'm really good to stay with you!" "I have nothing to do in first class!" "It's much better so!" "Air hostesses are really nice" "You should look at the important person... like you" "Tell me, are you ok?" "Is your job, Nicole, still ok?" "Fine" "Time to give birth to my grandchild" "Right, right" "Don't delay, I can be granpa at my age" "Is it Casime?" "I don't know, yes" "I take it from the riches, I give it to the poor, caviare!" "You wait for the dishes for yourself." "You serve yourself right!" "Simon, Champagne" "Let's cheer for our first vacation" "I've take you to vacation!" "Have you?" "I've bring you to the sea!" "It's a pond in Holland" "And you just date with a customer" "I try my best to bring you up" "For your success in lives" "I will be very glad to see you succeed in lives" "You and your silly brother..." "Go to the first class, and I dine quietly here" "You arose the alarm" "Er, no!" "Look, you arose the alarm!" "I said no!" "Look, let's take a photo" "Simon, come here" "David, close your holy telephone." "I call again" "Come on" "Max, closer" "Closer, in name of dog!" "Come on, we four laugh" "Ok, thanks very much" "Ok, you call me again" "Shall we go?" "Let's look at the ad." "About whale" "Shall we go?" "Let's go" "Did you see the car, David?" "Have you seen such a big one?" "Such a huge car?" "Pretty!" "Have you seen, Max?" "No, it's mine" "It's not good to you" "Let him eat, we are on a vacation" "Listen, listen" "Bill Flynt" "Monster, listen" "Isn't that good?" "Poor man, died in the concert" "Yes, I was there" "He put fire on the guitar" "Then Phut!" "He felt down, incredible way of death" "Do you know, David?" "You are quiet, then phut!" "Pass away" "Give the ketchup to me" "It's a problem... in anatomy" "Simon, can you eat quietly?" "Enjoy it" "Father!" "I was in the first row, I saw it" "Just like the place between you and me" "He felt down like a shit..." "You make us feel terrible!" "Shut up!" "You are so troublesome!" "What?" "You makes us weary!" "It's so oppressive at the begining of the holiday" "I go to pee" "I go to talk to him" "Talk about what?" "What do you think?" "You protect him too much" "He is not 2 years old any longer" "Simon, I should tell you something" "We gather not for the vacation" "It's because father is ill" "Need operation, riskful" "Enough" "Sorry, you should know this" "Come out, brother, leave it, take it easy" "Are you fine, Simon?" "He is too much We can talk about it calmly" "What did he tell you?" "You are here" "No, I don't move." "Just now" "Did David tell you?" "Tell what?" "Operation." "What operation?" "David, didn't you tell him?" "Where were you just now?" "Toilet" "Where did you pee?" "Toilet!" "Leave it!" "He is really mad, he was in female toilet!" "I'm not mad!" "Do you know how do you say to me?" "You want­?" "No, thanks" "We are all here because father will do an operation one month later" "A serious operation" "There is a agglomeration in the artery" "Hard to handle, but not serious" "I go to handle" "Simon!" "Do you think if I really have one month to live­" "I will tell you nothing?" "Simon, I don't have any problem!" "My discomfort let your brothers worried" "And I just add inflammatory details" "Why?" "Because if they are around me" "They will talk to each other" "Then I will have three of you around me" "Father, don't tell the story" "If you are nothing wrong, Max and David won't come" "It's real, I have problem!" "If it's true­" "If you are healthy..." "Then you are a rubbish" "Simon!" "Not this" "Wait for me, I will explain to you" "Enough, father, it's ok" "Sorry to bother you, can you give me a toothpaste?" "Did I take it?" "Room is really good" "No matter how, the trip will let your father happy" "Then­" "Thanks for your toothpaste" "Don't waste time taking it back" "You are scared that I will react like my mother when she died" "I was 12!" "I like the place, don't you like it?" "Time to go, they will worry" "Ain't you discomfort here?" "Comfort, but..." "But what?" "Enjoy it!" "It's not so many beautiful times" "Did you see the little girl?" "Er?" "Miss?" "What's up?" "Father, don't do that" "I introduce my little son to you, Simon" "You will see he is charming" "How do you do" "Don't do that, father" "Did you risk with french for a while?" "Miss, don't listen to him" "Let me say" "Thanks, sorry" "Don't you think she­ is pretty?" "Yes" "Then catch the chance!" "Not so, not this!" "Then tell me how I do there!" "That gentleman's" "It's my patrol" "We should go" "We still have 5 minutes, thanks, sir" "I don't want to drink by myself we should­ Don't move!" "Why could we drink here?" "My wife" "I bury her tomorrow" "You don't like her, your wife?" "I love her, crazily" "We lived a happy life" "I'm sure she is looking at me in the sky" "I promise to keep her laughing" "What do you represent?" "I've to go, I" "Lumme!" "Just joking!" "And, I bought you...a small...surprise a small gift to us" "I kiss you" "And I miss you" "Kiss you" "Simon?" "What are they doing?" "What are we doing here?" "I need you" "What are you doing?" "You will know" "She will like the surprise, follow me!" "Jacques, I can't see the hole" "Ah, he find it!" "father!" "Are you ok?" "ok, ok, don't ache" "Good evening, sir Is Mr. Serrano back yet?" "How, you don't know?" "Simon?" "Simon, are you here?" "Simon?" "I send you to Mado's, my cousin" "She is curer" "I saw her, you never believe she let a dead pig alive" "My father is not a pig" "Don't you see the girls staring at the bar!" "Why is your cousin not capable to your wife?" "We can't do anything to a driver... rushing here with full speed" "We won't lose anything" "If Mado is so great we'll never know" "Maybe" "What are we more than pig?" "I make a plan for you." "Great" "Not far away, 700km away" "Not bad!" "First of all, I need you to do something else" "Look, a laughing box" "When they put her on it she will feel good" "She will be glad" "Come on!" "You should have informed!" "I havn't slept it!" "I have the right to be happy!" "Let's drink delicious whiskey with gentler Miss Quebec" "Gentler, just this" "Are you worried?" "I sleep too deep and long" "Hotel is because of "greedy mouth"..." "Want me to pay 25 dollar, I havn't watched this movie" "How is he?" "He is fine" "It'shis idea, curer's story" "I, I don't insist somehow" "Where are we?" "I drive to Catumi" "It's not Catumi, it's Catuma!" "Return" "Tell me how could I make such a mistake?" "Stop, Max" "Ok, I stop" "Look at this, get off!" "We don't know where are we!" "Let's see the small filbert" "Isn't it unique?" "So fragile but stands there" "It deserve to get out to praise it!" "Have a look at the small filbert!" "It isn't filbert, it's Aceraceae" "What a beautiful landscape!" "Sorry, the earth is running" "Hello?" "How are you" "How are you, Joseph!" "Is your father ok?" "He is fine" "Did he tell you?" "About what?" "Gimme, gimme!" "Hello, Joseph!" "Really hope you can see the landscape!" "I don't care the landscapes, did you tell them?" "Yes, very good Stop your silly actions!" "No, somewhat cold, but great" "How is it in Paris?" "think yourself clever!" "Ask David to answer the phone" "No." "Ask David to answer the phone!" "You should be satisfied!" "I will tell him, I!" "Hug you, so do children" "Ask Max to answer the phone!" "See you later!" "What will he tell us?" "er?" "What will he tell us?" "No, nothing, nothing" "Joseph called to ask about it­" "About it." "Father­" "Oh, huge eagle!" "No, no" "It's golden eagle" "You are real no way, I told you it's golden eagle!" "My back is destroied We rent ratty car" "To see a local doctor of a kind 800km away!" "Then why shall we rent it?" "It's Max who is in charge of it!" "Father" "Father?" "What?" "Who?" "Are you ok?" "Fine" "I'm a little sleepy" "It's an obliged place" "We should go!" "Enjoy it!" "I have nothing to enjoy!" "I'm not the one who draws water to my mill!" "You enjoyed enough yesterday night!" "It's really beautiful, isn't it?" "Do you know what is beautiful?" "I know beautiful things are not like yours" "You can be beautiful, but..." "Shut up" "There is a big fish jumping out!" "A redfish!" "Do you want to drive?" "Ok" "Here you are" "How is it?" "The anchor drops!" "Should rent a damned car..." "From the damned car owner" "Have to enjoy it" "Look, the pretty tree!" "Father, did you take my phone?" "No, I returned it to you." "Are you sure?" "You said you are waiting an important phone call" "Ain't you?" "Yes" "Look" "What are we doing here?" "Don't be nervous, there is a village there" "It aroses me of "extrication"." "What extrication?" "A documentary about pig" "Hello, sir, can you help... us drag it to the town?" "Maybe" "Do you have the rope for the drag?" "Maybe" "Can you give us?" "We can take the rope?" "200 dollars." "Er?" "200 dollars, then I drag you" "Be reasonable, we are lost­" "I don't want to camp here" "Next time, we rent a true car" "Leave it" "150 dollars everyday!" "No one is expensive than him!" "Do you like it?" "It's not reasonable" "Reasonable 145?" "140?" "You french are tangly" "Ok!" "Ah!" "What's up?" "Go quickly!" "Go sodomy!" "Womanly, homoerotism, Abnormalism, go to hell" "Simon is right, "Sodomy" isn't an insult" ""Cad", right it maybe cad sodomy­" "But sodomy, isn't good To chicken...homoerotism" "These are normal people, er, Simon?" "I don't care." "Very good, don't speak" "If we can't say "sodomy"­" "Launch, father" "Let's experience your mien!" "What?" "I havn't touch the steering wheel for 10 years!" "Then how?" "Hold, children!" "Oh!" "Oh!" "I go for a walk" "He is scared somehow!" "Are you ok, father?" "Under the engine cover!" "It's real a wonderful car of a kind!" "hu!" "If there is feeling doing that­" "It's really bad, especially in his conditions!" "Yes, he can't hold any more!" "He should rest and wait for the operation!" "David doesn't care, he wants to throw us out in the field" "Say it in fornt of me, just once!" "I never hinder you to earn money!" "If you are in a fussy, it's your fault" "I didn't drive you away, it was you went by yourself" "You harry me too much, I almost lose all my things" "I have my reason." "When waiting..." "I, never, I should have loosened my brother!" "Martine succeeds" "Don't mention her into it" "Sometimes, I became active, tell you!" "Say in this way" "You don't want to know why I leave" "Not because you are not attending my wedding" "Or you ignore me when there is important person" "It's because you only think of money!" "Bettian helped you to start the career" "But you drove him away" "But he isn't a bad man" "If he is other worker, they will destroy you" "Which?" "Not important, they didn't do that" "I menaced them" "I drove a worker away" "Some dirty things I never thought I will do" "Even for brother!" "They are explaining!" "What can you do whithout me, Er?" "You have losen your job for 3 years!" "You can't afford to buy skirt to wife" "You have nothing!" "How about you?" "You advertised to abandon wife" "Now you give her pension let her daddle elsewhere" "Bastard!" "Let him go!" "Stop, you two!" "David, David!" "You will kill him!" "David!" "Everyone­" "Father, Max, Father is dead!" "Father!" "Father!" "Father!" "Are you satisfied?" "Are you satisfied?" "Father?" "It's all-right, Father" "David, kiss Max hug­David, kiss Max, understand each other" "What do you want, father?" "What does he want?" "I don't know!" "Father, what do you want?" "David, Kiss Max" "Understand each other" "Be quick" "Sorry." "Er, right, sorry" "No, just it!" "You don't kiss" "It will be all-right, father we find a hospital for you" "No, don't go to hospital!" "I feel much better" "Blood pressure lowered" "Be reasonable" "Don't dispute!" "No, no­" "We don't force him to go" "I decide." "In here, you don't command!" "I will be ok!" "Ok!" "Where is your medicine?" "Er?" "Your medicine, where is it?" "I forget them on the plane" "It's emergent­" "I promise to you, if we let him..." "Thanks" "It shouldn't be that" "In a word, thanks, bye, see you later" "You are really exaggerating: "Foam at the mouth"!" "A big deal will influence them" "You are right" "Now we have medicine" "I go to find others" "Father scares me" "Jean, don't start" "Don't stare at my girl friend" "What?" "Don't ask for something for my girl friend, ok?" "I didn't cajole your brownette" "Look on me as a fool, I'll beat you" "Ok, I did look at her" "But she looked at me, too, because she likes me" "I can't stop, she has firm breats" "Forgive him" "No, no, I put fire in her trousers" "Don't touch my brother, Don't touch my brother!" "Oh, hey, oh!" "3 to 1!" "Damned french!" "If you don't let my three sons go­" "You will be dead" "Let them out right now!" "Anything else?" "Yes, a small help" "What did you do?" "I tenderly request" "Soup again!" "What's wrong?" "Can't afford it, shut up and eat!" "He says right, Simon" "Put the spoon into mouth, not the contrary" "You eat like a dog" "He doesn't change, you recall for a while­" "Every morning before primary school" "In the meal: " hu, hu!"" "I've lowered my head to the pants for him" "Now it's even worse!" "Is it cabal?" "Give a demo how to eat" "Take your spoon, quickly, put it in the bowl!" "Right!" "Come on, put it in!" "Right!" "Welcome to the world of civilization!" "Tomorrow, we learn how to pee­ so that not pee everywhere." "What?" "You pee like ravening!" "Spray everywhere!" "If any effect, just relieve" "What a great day!" "Right, taste it" "Father, do you have medicine?" "Yes, yes" "Don't bother too much" "David." "Yes" "I don't know what happened between Nicole and you" "Now I know" "When you left, you really leave the ad?" "Talk about it later" "Don't be embarrassed!" "She set up with my partner" "Parry?" "Yes, Parry" "Oh, bitch!" "Leave one word It's enough" "I admit, I always can't bear with Nicole" "Such wife, you give her this, but she wants that" "Please!" "Hey!" "Look, he seems to sleep!" "Yes" "Did he give you birthday gift?" "I don't think so" "One time, I need ice skate" "Then I have anklet" "It didn't surprise me" "Do you remember madam Granbo?" "The barber?" "She said we owe her money" "I sent a letter: she cried" "I asked­" "Is he lack of money." "Then?" "Want to sketch?" "He asked his son of 10 years­ to send the diffidation letter" "Father never touch the barber's skirt!" "Which barber?" "Hunk woman policeman?" "Don't you still know?" "He gave me a spoon of cake!" "And the bitch he sent here for your high school exam!" "Which bitch?" "Le motard's cousin!" "A bitch?" "Luckily not my cousin!" "A bitch?" "Wait, I totally don't understand" "Then, you will be no exam!" "Shut up!" "What?" "He didn't take the exam, he." "Thanks, Max" "Swear she is a bitch" "He sent her here." "Swear!" "I swear!" "Don't laugh!" "Simon" "It's for your exam" "And this, this is for those comments!" "Get on the car, father!" "No way!" "Because I'm a bad father cheater, cribber" "I will leave you." "We are joking" "Are you really my children?" "Father, do you think you are a good father?" "No" "But not a unworthy father!" "Simon, beg pardon!" "I beg your pardon" "Do you hear?" "He beg your pardon, get on the car!" "No!" "I would rather die alone than be around badly" "Father!" "Get on the car!" "No!" "You are no longer my children!" "Forgive me­" "I don't know yesterday's words..." "Things about Nicole and Parry" "That's all-right, it's me­" "Do you still see her, Nicole?" "Martine called her" "Le motard's cousin, is a ruffian?" "Right!" "Incredible" "She is pretty and frail" "Really don't know!" "What did you do with her?" "Nothing!" "You smoked, you!" "No" "Your eyes are albinism!" "I don't smoke" "You are over!" "Don't care him" "I trouble you" "You have no feeling, pass the custom like that!" "Take father!" "Father!" "We forget father!" "Forgive us, Father" "More great!" "You go yourself, that's it!" "Who are you?" "Is it Mado's home?" "Yes" "Jacques ask us to come You are those french?" "Who is the patient?" "Me." "Follow me" "Sit there" "In introduce to you Rean" "He is earlier than you, because his pig is ill" "If you need, I'm right upstair" "I'm Hel¨¨ne" "Hello." "Rean!" "Bring Rose to my office" "Can the drunkard cure him?" "How could we know, it will be useful" "You say right!" "You believe in nothing!" "If she cures him I run nakedly around the field 3 times" "I 4 times" "Did you bet on it?" "Beautiful vision, er?" "She will see you tomorrow" "Go to find a place to sleep" "I take the coverlet, quilt" "And pillow" "Thank you very much" "It's village, but really charming" "If any help, my children will be glad to be there" "Ah, appreciate it" "Some lumber to move, thanks!" "Tomorrow morning!" "Good night." "Good night" "We can help..." "Can't we?" "You are really nice, you are a good daughter" "Sleep, mother" "You take care of me, you are so kind" "Those french, will they stay long?" "You should be in charge of them, It's Jacques who asks them to come" "Right" "Sh, you should go to sleep" "Er..." "You are really good" "Ok" "Get up, 5:15am" "It's good today, are you ok?" "Get up!" "Come here, here" "Ok, move the lumber­ to that corner, try your best!" "Good morning, madam" "I'm Leo Serrano" "I'm impressed seeing what... you have done to the pig" "I think maybe..." "You can help an old goad like me" "I hinder your work" "How is he, Jacques?" "Seems­Great!" "Follow me" "Ok" "Really appreciate your help" "Thanks" "No, it's funny Your mother may create the miracle" "Yes" "Create the miracle?" "Yes, yes, yes" "Don't you believe?" "Right, no, she cured my cold... when I was 5, so right" "What do you hope?" "Nothing" "Don't we give up the tasks?" "A little help!" "A "little" help?" "Should be belligerence between two" "Do you believe I can cure you?" "Yes, of couse, but be quick" "I'm sad to see my children like that" "What is your pain?" "My pain is extremely lonely­ and a agglomeration in the artery" "Do you know the power of tree?" "No!" "How about you?" "Go, paste it" "Hug it" "It will be helpful to you" "It's really funny" "Not funny at all!" "Don't move" "I said, don't move!" "Father." "Er?" "Are you ok?" "Yes" "It won't fly away" "Don't bother me" "Or help the young girl" "Help the young girl!" "Max, what's this?" "Don't touch it!" "What's this?" "Put down!" "What's this?" "None of your business" "For whom?" "For­" "Whip?" "Do you raise bear?" "For a friend" "Who?" "You don't know" "Then, not friend, why­ do you use whip?" "No!" "What?" "Not buy for yourself?" "Are you masochist?" "Cute" "Max!" "Max" "Max, do you sleep?" "Max!" "Max!" "Maxium!" "M M M Max!" "Er Max!" "Maxiums, have you slept?" "Maxiums?" "Maxms?" "Max fool?" "What are you doing?" "I'm thinking of Martine" "If I give her a fist, will she abort?" "Give her peace" "If he likes to burn her ass using cigar­ or bind each other­" "David?" "When you were with Nicole, did you always make love?" "Er, er­" "I don't know" "Once a week" "Leave it, once in 15 days" "Martine and I­ almost everyday" "I won't do that with any other­ people in the world" "I like all my small games" "I like to feel the lust in her eyes" "When she nibbled my... nipple" "We beat each other the asses­" "Gently, tenderly" "INdon't know how to explain" "Always likes to be ­ the first time" "The same happiness, the same lust" "The same excitement" "I can tell you I miss her" "Hello, Nicole, I'm David I stop to give you a message" "I want to tell you­" "In fact, I'm in Quebec" "It's important to my father I will explain to you" "But­after coming back, I really want­ we can have a cup of coffee together" "Ok, kiss you" "Kiss you hotly" "Silty taste is heavy" "Normal, it's not silt" "I'm joking" "It's good to blood" "Ah, Mado!" "Long time no­" "Put on my body with such a tender hand" "Don't natter!" "My hand is coarse" "Ah, you are here!" "Sit!" "You seems abnormal" "Worry about your wife?" "I know all!" "Don't forget I'm your father" "You sitll love her." "I don't want to say these" "Woman is complicated" "I, your mother­" "I odn't understand" "She scold me I don't care you" "I was agemt at that time!" "I, in a big fuss!" "I never scold you." "I know" "You won't be the first one to divorce" "It's you who give up her!" "Don't say!" "It seems that you needn't say to me" "I'm your father, I certainly­ have the right to stop you" "What do I say again?" "What's wrong with him?" "Your brother, we can't say anything to him" "Thanks god, it's fine between you and Francinewaz" "Martine!" "Who is Francinewaz?" "Hello, Nicole?" "I'm Leo I'm calling you in Quebec" "Ah, sorry, I wake you up" "No, no!" "I want to talk for David" "He is unlucky" "Give me two minutes, I will explain..." "Ne,too, it's relate to me!" "It's my son!" "David, come here" "Why?" "Father is calling Nicole" "Right, that's it!" "He is unhappy all the time!" "I always can't bear with you!" "That's it!" "Bye, vulgar woman!" "It's true!" "But after all she isn't your wife" "Luckily she isn't!" "You two?" "ANd it smells great" "Your elbow, Simon!" "It's wine onion beef" "No, no, I have special menu for you" "Don't be that!" "It's not­" "Xunma Soup­" "For your treatment" "Er!" "Seems good, you are so lucky" "Farm work­ isn't hard?" "Ah, village..." "Clean air!" "Look at my cheek!" "They sleeps like a baby" "Drink the soup, father" "Your mother­" "Will be proud of you" "Poor woman!" "Rest in peace" "Your wife Yes" "In a word, it's life" "Apparently, occasionally­ feel lonely" "Luckily, my children­ are docile" "One or two times a year­" "They come to take care of their father" "Soup is cold" "Yes, yes" "Why do you ­ play with your shoes?" "I can't find other things to do!" "Why do you play with your shoes?" "I don't know either" "What are you looking for­ in your shoes?" "Nothing" "I never take off them in the day time!" "Good night" "Did you search my shoes?" "What?" "My shoes!" "Why search your shoes?" "You smoke again!" "Shut up" "Leave it, tell him you smoke!" "You are an adult." "Shut up, you are really silly" "Suggest what!" "You look on me as fool?" "I know very clear that Simon smokes" "I know more things about you, too­" "You never thought of" "Necessary?" "We all should fight with diseases" "Come here, touch him, so that his illness is gone" "It's not wild animal, it's your father" "To catch the agglomeration into your hands" "Max, ankle" "David, massage on chest" "No, no, not gut, but chest!" "Use your two hands!" "Good" "David" "You can be more braver, er!" "Come on, press" "Harder, good!" "Max!" "My body isn't fragile, er?" "come, upward, till knees" "Simon, good, very good, shoulder" "Oh, my children It will be better if ­" "someone tell me earlier!" "Now, we hold hands tightly throw them far away from here" "What?" "Disease, bad agglomeration" "Father, we will be back after throwing them away" "I don't feel so good for a long time" "Real, children" "I feel much better" "I feel much better" "I feel much better" "I feel much better" "Incredible, er?" "Never believe­" "He But!" "You look on everything pessimistically!" "You are irksome, irksome, still irksome!" "I think Simon is right" "All the people think my uncle will die" "But he fight in the saint water like a ghost" "I think you are right" "Look!" "He is out" "NO, he is dead" "What?" "Are you ok, father?" "yes, fine" "We can go to have a drink" "I treat you for what?" "Just for a drink" "Keep your money, you need it" "I can also ask you to have a cup" "Isn't it ok?" "Why do you want to go out?" "Just for a talk, just it" "Good, say, I'm listening" "What do you want to say?" "No, nothing" "What do you think about Mado?" "You may feel it's funny" "But I really want to dance with you" "You are right" "But we don't care" "What's this?" "Can you explain?" "Say, we are listening" "Say what?" "Ok" "It's so:" "I think...you..." "I think you..." "How to say..." "We fidge, but you..." "You don't take medicine, you eat chocolate" "Do you think of us?" "Plant..." "Very good..." "But­" "Forget it, he has nothing to say" "Whether we are here or not, for him... it can change nothing." "Not at all!" "No, father" "Not at all!" "I tole him your success" "Just think of the 10000 dollars I gave her every month" "Max is right: you are really abhorrent" "You look on my wife Nicole as vulgar woman" "I want to help you to mediate" "I never want you to do that" "You should firstly." "ask the question, father" "Just like to mouse" "Nicole was just a "outsider"" "Just like to Max" "Normal, I don't succeed" "Not this, I just take care of you" "A jobless man, it arose bedlam, right?" "Just like to mouse" "You make me very sad" "I sacrificed so much for you" "What sacrifice?" "People won't­ tell children all those things." "What you did­" "Firstly for yourself!" "I'm going" "Me, too" "Bye" "I want to go to the village, will you take me?" "Get on" "Let's go!" "Does anyone want bhang cigar?" "Me" "I ask myself if I take good care of children" "Your sons are fools" "I disagree, they are right" "Then, you are the fool staying here" "Drive the truck to catck them" "We are cold just now, ain't we?" "Just like to mouse" "What on earth is mouse?" "My white rat died in his hand" "That's can't do anything" "He just think of himself" "Me, too, I will let it die, too" "I, I like mouse" "Your mother's car!" "It's Father!" "Father!" "Talk to me!" "It will be ok" "Father!" "Father!" "Great, my children" "But call an ambulance for me" "Er, good!" "He is very luck" "Scared too much" "Just shock, rest for a while­ will be ok." "Where is his agglomeration?" "What agglomeration?" "He has a gold made heart" "So lucky, othewise, he will be over" "Just cholesterin is a bit higher" "Mado" "Thanks" "Ah!" "Thanks" "No, no" "Ah, go!" "Max's ass is so pretty" "I've seen more pretty" "If my uncle know it, what will he look like" "Don't wait!" "Call him" "Hello?" "Please help me to find..." "Doctor Serrano, his nephew is looking for him" "Ah, no, sorry, don't distrub him simply tell him..." "Leo Serrano, his brother­ needn't operation, because he is cured" "Er, good, operation next week" "Are you sure?" "Ah!" "No, shall I talk to my uncle?" "Bye, thanks very much" "Bye" "Where are your brothers?" "There is something to do in the farm" "How?" "In the hospital, they call me the person cured by saint" "Imagine how will your uncle look like­ when he knows the thing" "He's had fancy expressions" "Why?" "You called him?" "Yes" "Then you know everything" "So others don't come" "Do they hate me?" "Shit!" "I saw you every six monthes before!" "And never at the same time!" "We regather, to whom it owes?" "Shit!" "Look, you will thank me later" "You will say: "Great Leo!" "Thank, Leo!" "I've taken the responsibility of father" "After all, they won't kill me because ..." "I won't die?" "Hope so" "Stop" "Stop, please" "Give me a cigar" "Go" "Discomfort?" "You hate us because we ­ don't receive you" "It's really joyful, father" "Are you ok?" "I'm too glad" "I will be right back, I­" "Will milk for cow" "Are you ok, father?" "How is it?" "Body?" "Really glad to meet you You see, working!" "Guy, you tell them nothing" "Mado!" "Hel¨¨ne!" "I'm coming to say goodbye to you" "We will miss you" "Ah, yes!" "Especially Simon" "One or two more days..." "You will help me to lead him to..." "The right way" "He is lovely like a child, you know" "Somewhat special, but­ he is much better after knowing him" "Are you ok, father?" "They are waiting for us" "Ah, thanks god!" "Thanks" "How to thank you?" "Forget it, look" "All-right, Er..." "I don't like to say goodbye Bye" "Bye, maybe" "I don't like shammer, either" "Won't you come to Paris to visit me?" "You want me to... drive there with tractor?" "Go, they are waiting for you" "Poor guy!" "She believes herslef cured you" "She is entitled to believe" "All-right" "Let's go, doesn't we?" "There is no whale tail inside" "Even no trout!" "What are you doing, David?" "I throw breads, then they will come here" "If you want to see, you must believe, my children" "You must be qualified with them, whales" "Not this season" "Ah, that!" "Do you want to have a drink?" "I go." "You stand up" "I go, I like to serve for my children" "Going" "Look at him" "He is healthy" "I can't believe Mado cured him!" "I should talk with you" "What?" "Father is cheating us" "That is to say?" "He knows it's not the season of whale all the time" "How then?" "I knew it, I understand him..." "Just like I weaved him out" "You are so smart" "Gentlemen, come and drink..." "What's wrong with you?" "What's wrong with you?" "Nothing" "Anyway, you won't believe" "Be careful, it's very hot" "The End"

Banded Brewing Coming to Bayside Biddeford-based Banded Brewing Company (website, instagram, twitter) has leased a 2,500 sq ft space at 82 Hanover Street in Bayside where they plan to open a tasting room and 5-barrel pilot brewing system.

about 1.5 second after power is applied, Omega 2's yellow LED starts to lit constantly about 8.5 second after power is applied, yellow LED starts to blink about 22 second after power is applied, if you see that yellow LED stops blinking and turns off --> you have a power issue If not, (continues blinking), your Omega 2 is okay-ish, from power supply point of view. That 22 seconds into the boot process is a critical point where the WiFi related electronics kicks in. It all in sudden created a high-demanding inrush current need, which in turn can drop the Omega 2's input supply voltage below the minimal required thus causing the "brown out" condition. I can't find any post about the situation I am facing, the led lights up after half a second but never blinks. I'm using an arduino dock 2 with an Omega 2+, no SD card, no other connection than micro USB (with the supplied cable, tried on several computers and other cables that work with my phone). I can see the wifi signal, I can log on IP 192.168.3.1 as root and pw onioneer but when I select my wifi and WPA code it fails to connect. That's about all I can say for now, please let me know if any other information would reveal useful. My Mac does not see any USB device so the terminal cannot be used to access command line mode (driver properly installed but as mentioned in the doc there is no USB to serial interface on the arduino dock ! ). Last note : everybody talks about the power switch but there is no power switch on the Arduino dock 2 , only a reset button and it has no effect at all... The firmware of your Omega2+ is very old. You should do a First Time Setup and a Firmware Upgrade. (If I were you, I would do this using SSH.) Warning! The latest well working firmware for Omega2+ (2017-03-26 20:30 CET)omega2p-v0.1.10-b160.bin After a successful FW upgrade the amber LED will blinking, the OMEGA_RESET button will working and hopefully the Wifi client too. To get a serial terminal you should connect a 3.3V logic level serial to USB adapter (eg CP2102) to the OMEGA_TX, OMEGA_RX, GND pins. @György-Farkas thx for your answer, SSH connect did work, my version is Version: 0.1.5 b130. Now the issue I have is that to make this connection I have to connect my wifi to the omega and not to my router. oupgrade tries to connect but of course it fails ;) I've dowloaded the .bin file, how can I tell omega to use this file instead of trying to get it on the web ? I can't actually find any explanation on this but I'm still not familiar with this community so I might be looking at the wrong place (please forgive ) I think this topic should be a sticky. With the next batch kickstarter/indiegogo users coming I forsee a lot of can't connect/wifi/power topics, this can be a (help) topic for user facing power problems. When I received my Omega2+ I had the problem that after 20 seconds the led went out. I used the recommended lm1117, breadboard and wires as power supply. After some advice on this forum, i shortened the wires from 20cm to about 5 cm each and I added a 470uF 16v Capacitor. I finally saw the Wifi Acces point in windows so i: Connected to Omega-xxxx (default password 12345678) Went to 192.168.3.1 and run the setup wizard. After setup, i did a browser refresh and immediately updated the firmware in the settings panel.

Hart, Samir Nasri, David Silva, Yaya Toure, Stevan Jovetic and Edin Dzeko are also included in the party. But Argentina's Sergio Aguero, Martin Demichelis, Pablo Zabaleta and Brazil's Fernandinho and Belgium's Vincent Kompany are all on extended breaks following their participation in the World Cup. Manuel Pellegrini's side will face AC Milan on July 27 in Pittsburgh, Liverpool in New York on July 30 and Olympiakos on Aug. 2 in Minneapolis in the Guinness International Cup. The tournament final will be played on Aug. 4 in Miami. City have made a mixed start to their preseason preparations in Scotland, losing 2-0 to Dundee and beating Hearts 2-1.

Six Growing Trends in Bahamas Tourism 1. Heritage Tourism – The Bahamas is really a place that’s been wealthy ever, and in the future you will find that increasingly more readers are yearning to understand much more about the places that they’re visiting and they would like to learn more concerning the people and just what simply causes us to be Bahamian. Regardless of the various museums and monuments that’s available to the general public daily. Our major challenges that people face may be the upkeep of these qualities all year round as well as throughout the off tourism season. Thankfully there are many solutions for this problem and one of these is as simple as maintaining your history alive with the people and it is various programs like “Individuals to People.” Through programs such as this visitors are in possession of a one-on-one interaction with persons who are able to provide them with a far more accurate knowledge of the existence within the Bahamas and overall increase the value of Bahamas tourism. 2. Sustainable Tourism – After a period of petitioning and protecting wild existence and also the natural sources from the Bahamas, the Bahamas National Trust with the Secretary of state for Tourism and also the Harvard School of Design became a member of forces to be able to design a sustainable tourism model for that island of Exuma’s Land and Ocean Park. Some the earliest fossils are available around the island in addition to a quantity of endangered types of plants and creatures on the landmass and lots of around the surrounding Cays. The model may be the first available ever to become adopted within the Bahamas and any place in someplace sunny and warm. My hope is the fact that you will see more sustainable models similar to this to soon follow alternatively islands from the Bahamas (meaning an advantage for Bahamas Tourism/eco tourism) and also the Caribbean. 3. Adventure Tourism – There’s always action surrounding you if you’re prepared to look and discover it. From power sailing, jet skiing, to game fishing, yachting, sailing, off roading, camping, hiking as well as cave diving. There’s an abundance of chance within the Bahamas and it is becoming a lot more well-liked by youthful travelers and adventure enthusiast. 4. Luxury Tourism – Whenever you consider luxury it appears to become just like a no brainier when resorts for example Atlantis and the best Sea Club spring to mind. However in today’s luxury I believe it’s reliable advice that it is 1000% dedicated to the requirements and amenities in our visitors and ensuring there every need and need is met. And today the very first time in Bahamas tourism we’ve the Baha Marly Resort and Albany developing stream showing an abundance in luxury tourism, but really a more powerful competition than in the past. Mainly many of these resorts will offer you usually the same factor. You are able to rent a holiday home or perhaps a suite on your stay, you are able to play golf have one’s own butler… the whole shebang. What would be the driving factor obviously would be the cost and cost from the service provided by each property. 5. Culinary Tourism – Obviously whenever visiting a very beautiful country like the Bahamas, one considers going to the best restaurant in the united states or inside the resort and having a good five star meal. However the most recent trend in Bahamas tourism at this time for a number of our guest and guest all over the world would be to fully immerse themselves within the taste from the culture. From taking cooking training concerning the country’s cuisine with “Tru Bahamian Food Tours” or attending a food festival like “Eat the shore” in Abaco. Where you will find that both occasions are located by top chefs around the island and provide you with an excellent introduction of Bahamian cuisine. 6. Sports Tourism – Because the opening in our new Thomas A Robinson stadium, the federal government from the Bahamas is raring to display it in public around the world that has now introduced a brand new kind of niche within Bahamas tourism referred to as Sports Tourism. Through the years we’ve been fortunate to coach and send our very best athletes to compete around the world stage, however because of the partnership between your Bahamas and Chinese government. The Bahamas are now able to host some the finest sporting occasions on the planet such as the IAAF Games which was held here captured. We had the privilege of hosting the Carifta Games earlier this past year and also the soccer tournament between Jamaica’s reggae boys and also the Bahamas. Despite the fact that we’re a newcomer for this degree of tourism it’s an execllent accessory for compliment our wealthy tourism package.

Tour: from the train station go southward for just a few meters until you reach Piazza Unità d’Italia (here stands an obelisk). Take via del Melarancio. From here you get to piazza San Lorenzo, with the Church of San Lorenzo (the façade is uncompleted) and the Medici Chapels. Take the street opposite the church to access via Martelli. On the left corner stands the Medici Riccardi Palace. The church on the right is San Giovannino degli Scolopi. Turn on the left and head north until you get to Piazza San Marco, with the homonymous church, the monastery (with paintings by Beato Angelico) and the ancient library. Cross the square keeping the church on your left, then take via Ricasoli, direction south. On the left you find the entrance of the Academy. Here is kept the original statue of David by Michelangelo as well as other sculptures by Michelangelo, the so called Prisons. Your visit proceeds onward in via Ricasoli, in north direction. Take the first street on the right into via Battistini until the square of the Santissima Anunziata. On the left you can admire the church of Santissima Annunziata. Opposite the church stands the arcade of the old orphanage Ospedale degli Innocenti, built upon a project by Brunelleschi and with decorations by Andrea della Robbia. Leave the hospital on your left and proceed onward into via dei Servi The backside of the Cathedral will appear in front of you. Circumnavigate the Cathedral anticlockwise until you meet the Battistero. Turn around the Battistero and take Via Roma which leads to Piazza della Repubblica. Cross the square (on the right coming from the Cathedral). Take Via Strozzi. In the second street on the left stands Palazzo Strozzi. Tour: from the train station go in south direction in Via dei Panzani first and then Via dei Cerretani until the Cathedral. With the Cathedral on your left and the Battistero on your right take the street in front of you. You are now in via Calzaiuoli. After two intersections you will see on the right the backside of the church Orsanmichele. The perimeter is composed by numerous statues, while the main entrance is on the opposite side of Via Calzaiuoli. As you can see from its aspect, the church was originally a market, then it was converted into a cult place after an epidemy. In fact, during the epidemy the population used to gather inside the covered market to celebrate ceremonies and minimize the risk of contagion. Proceeding along via dei Calzaiuoli you will get to Piazza della Signoria, where the view opens on the magnificent Palazzo Vecchio. Left of the Palace stands the beautiful Fontana del Nettuno, a fountain which the Florentines call the "Biancone". Right of the Palace lies the Loggia dei Lanzi (also called Loggia d'Orcagna). Between Palazzo Vecchio and the Loggia is the Uffizi Gallery. Walk through the Gallery until you reach the river Arno, crossed by Ponte Vecchio. On the opposite side of the river stands Palazzo Pitti. From here you must go back to the bridge and then straight down Via Por Santa Maria. Halfway of the street lies the Porcellino Market. Turn right and reach Piazza della Signoria. Take the street between Palazzo Vecchio and the Neptune Fountain. Go straight ahead onto Borgo dei Greci until Piazza Santa Croce. On this large square stands the church of Santa Croce , where monumental tombs and sepulchres of illustrious persons are kept. Day 3: Fiesole Recommended visits: churches and the Etruscan archaeological findings NB: it is necessary to take the bus Tour: from the train station take bus n.7 going to Fiesole. Here you can visit the church of San Francesco, San Domenico and some Etruscan archaeological findings. In correspondence of the bus stop in the main square stands the church of San Domenico. Leave the church façade behind and take the ascending road which leads to the church ofSan Francesco. It is also possible to pass through the gardens. From the square go down the road on the left until you get to the Archaeological Park. Day 4: on the other side of river Arno Main attractions: San Frediano Santo Spirito Santa Maria del Carmine Torrigiani Garden Tour: from the train station in Piazza Santa Maria Novella go ahead until Via delle Belle Donne, then turn right in Via del Moro until Piazza Goldoni. Cross the bridge in Porta alla Carraia and take Via dei Serragli. Turn on the first street on the right Borgo San Frediano. This area is full of artisan shops. Take the first street on the left which leads to the church of Santa Maria del Carmine. Leave the church behind you and take the road on the right, Via Santa Monica, then Via Sant' Agostino. Once you have reached Piazza Santo Spirito with the homonymous church take the road in front of you: Via delle Caldaie. Follow the road until the end and turn right into Via de' Serragli. Turn left to the Torrigiani Garden. Day 5 : relax and shopping Recommended visits Boboli Garden The streets of Shopping Tour: from the train station turn into Piazza Santa Maria Novella, then take Via delle Belle Donne. Turn on the first street on the right into Via del Moro until you get to Piazza Goldoni. Take Via della Vigna Nuova, one of Florence’s most famous and luxurious streets. Proceed until the end of this street into Via Tornabuoni, where the major international brands can be found At the end of the street toward north, turn right into via de’ Pecori. The third street on the right is Via Roma. After Piazza della Repubblica follow via Calmala, at the end of which stands the Porcellino Market, a good place to buy leather goods. Just behind the market stands a small bronze statue representing a wild pork. Tradition has it that caressing its forehead brings good luck. Now follow Via Por Santa Maria, a street full of embroideries and laces shops. From here you can reach Ponte Vecchio, famous for the goldsmiths shops. Go to Boboli Garden to have a break from shopping. If you still have money left to spend, go back to Piazza Signoria and follow one of these two itineraries: 1- take Via Calzaiuoli until the Cathedral. Take the left street behind the Battistero into Borgo San Lorenzo, where you can find a market and various shops selling leather goods, clothes, tapestries and souvenirs. 2- with Palazzo Vecchio in front of you, take the street on the left, Borgo dei Greci, with many leather shops. Go straight until Piazza Santa Croce then turn left into Via Verdi. At the bottom of this street turn right into Via Pietrapiana. In the middle of the street stands the old flea market, surrounded by some workshops specialised in the manufacture of rushes goods. Day 6: Chianti Recommended visits Piazzale Michelangelo Certosa Chianti NB: it is necessary to go by car Tour: from your hotel follow the directions to Piazzale Michelangelo. From the large square the view opens to the city and the river lying underneath. It is possible to reach the church of San Miniato al Monte with the annexed cemetery. The church is visible from the city, and can be reached following the avenue in south direction and maintaining the city on the right side, until you get to the steps which lead to the church. Take back the car and drive through Viale Galileo in westward direction to Galluzzo or Certosa. The Certosa convent is well worth a visit. Allow at least one hour. After the visit of the convent take the Superstrada toward Siena and exit in Poggibonsi, then follow the directions to San Gimignano, a lovely medieval town which boasts tens of towers. Proceed toward Siena, with a possible stop in Monteriggioni, a village surrounded by medieval walls, and Certaldo, the hometown of Boccaccio.

TOTAL Без сортировки Текст песни What The Dealio? What The Dealio? Intro by timbaland:I see somebody wrote me a letter today,Somebody likes me.I see that - that somebody likes me,But I don't believe it. Verse one:Baby you're my everything,Everything I've ever dreamed.You're like a nigga in a magazine,You almost make me cream.See I can't keep control of myself,I wanna feel myself.It's the heat running through my veins,I scream baby you're the best, you're the best. Chorus:Oh what the dealio, can I speak to you,You give me butterflies, oh I'm so scared of you.Of what you do to me, are you too true to be,You're just a fantasy, you're not reality.(repeat x2) Verse two:Baby you're my fantasy,You're the only one I love.I'll let you be my baby's dad,Let me come and get a hug.See here's a little kiss for you,I'll let you do what you want to.See look at what you do to me,Boy I can't get enough, get enough. Repeat chorus Break:Baby you're the one, the one, the one, the one,Baby you're the one.Look at what you done, you done, you done, you done,Look at what you done, look at what you done to me.You've made my world shine just like, like the sun,Baby you're the one, the one, the one, the one,Baby you're the one, baby you're the one.

Melt the chocolate and shortening. I highly recommend a tablespoon of shortening for any chocolate dipping projects because it keeps the chocolate smooth, viscous, and much less likely to get that hard-before-you-want-it-to and clumpy consistency. Add peppermint extract to the melted chocolate and get ready to dippity do. As with my last recipe and caveat about peppermint extract, make sure you read my disclaimer in the recipe box below. Place dipped crackers, which I now think of as cookies, on parchment paper. Food goes from cracker status to cookie status the minute chocolate is involved. Wait for the chocolate to solidify and firm up before digging in. Because of the shortening, it could take a half hour or more at room temperature for the chocolate to solidify, especially if you decide to do this project on an 80 degree day in the middle of summer without running your air. Pop the tray in the refrigerator or freezer to speed things up. I like them better chilled anyway and store them in the freezer. The minute I took these out of the freezer, the condensation on the chocolate began. It reminded me of Christmas Crack in Aruba. Nothing you can do when it starts. It was a hot day in San Diego the day I made these and as the 3pm sun was shining in on my photography table, both me and the cookies began to sweat. Homemade Thin Mints (no-bake, vegan) Just 3 ingredients in these Homemade Thin Mints that taste like the real thing, and no one ever guesses what the 'secret ingredient' is. Incredibly easy to make, always a hit at parties, and now you can make your own Thin Mints any time of year and don't have to wait for cookie season! Ingredients: Directions: Prepare a baking sheet by lining it with parchment paper or wax paper; set aside. Clear out a spot in your refrigerator or freezer to accommodate baking sheet. In a shallow microwave-safe bowl, combine chocolate chips and shortening (the shortening helps the chocolate stay smooth when using it for dipping; it prevents that thick and gloppy, chocolate getting hard before you want it to phenomenon) and heat for 1 minute on high power to melt. Stir and heat in 10 to 15 second bursts until chocolate can be stirred very smooth. To the melted chocolate add 1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract* and stir. If you prefer it mintier, add another 1/4 teaspoon. I used 3/4 teaspoon in total, but because all brands and taste preferences differ, taste your chocolate and add peppermint to taste. *Note: Mint extract is much, much more potent than vanilla extract; 1 teaspoon of mint extract has an extreme amount of potency compared with 1 teaspoon vanilla extract. You cannot un-do mint once added so be very, very careful to not over-do it and end up with a bottle of Listerine-tasting food. There are different kinds of mint extracts available and are labeled as “mint, “peppermint”, “spearmint” and more. For this recipe I used store-brand (Kroger/Ralph’s) “peppermint extract” sold in a small 1 ounce bottle. Select the version of “mint” you think sounds best as not all types are available in all areas. Add 1 cracker to the chocolate, coat it, and remove it by lightly scooping it up from the underside with a fork, allowing excess chocolate to drain off through fork tines. Place cracker on parchment and repeat with all remaining crackers. If necessary, re-heat the chocolate in 10 to 15 second bursts if it starts getting too firm for smooth dipping. After all crackers have been dipped, place baking sheet in refrigerator. Although these will solidify at room temperature, the shortening in the chocolate lengthens the amount of time that will take; the fridge or freezer helps speed it up. Store extra Thin Mints in an airtight container in the refrigerator for many weeks. In the freezer, I estimate that these could be kept for 3 to 6 months successfully. Recipe from Averie Cooks. All images and content are copyright protected. Please do not use my images without prior permission. If you want to republish this recipe, please re-write the recipe in your own words, or simply link back to this post for the recipe. Thank you. Related Recipes (and dusting off a few antiques I had forgotten about) I am a huge Thin Mints fan and I could eat a tube in a sitting if I let myself, and for that reason, I don’t buy them. Now I have homemade Thin Mints which are maybe a little too easy, if you know what I mean. Samoas are another weaknesses and I came up with a Samoas Bars recipe, which is reminiscent of those beloved cookies. Even though many people tend use mint in their holiday baking, I think cool mint is perfect for a hot summer day. Feel free to link up any mint recipes or recipes with some time-saving or clever shortcuts (like the Ritz cracker trick). I’m all about other recipe shortcuts.

“With a Spartan rigour which never ceased to amaze his landlord-grocer, Nietzsche would get up every morning when the faintly dawning sky was still grey, and, after washing himself with cold water from the pitcher and china basin in his bedroom and drinking some warm milk, he would, when not felled by headaches and vomiting, work uninterruptedly until eleven in the morning. He then went for a brisk, two-hour walk through the nearby forest or along the edge of Lake Silvaplana (to the north-east) or of Lake Sils (to the south-west), stopping every now and then to jot down his latest thoughts in the notebook he always carried with him. Returning for a late luncheon at the Hôtel Alpenrose, Nietzsche, who detested promiscuity, avoided the midday crush of the table d’hôte in the large dining-room and ate a more or less ‘private’ lunch, usually consisting of a beefsteak and an ‘unbelievable’ quantity of fruit, which was, the hotel manager was persuaded, the chief cause of his frequent stomach upsets. After luncheon, usually dressed in a long and somewhat threadbare brown jacket, and armed as usual with notebook, pencil, and a large grey-green parasol to shade his eyes, he would stride off again on an even longer walk, which sometimes took him up the Fextal as far as its majestic glacier. Returning ‘home’ between four and five o’clock, he would immediately get back to work, sustaining himself on biscuits, peasant bread, honey (sent from Naumburg), fruit and pots of tea he brewed for himself in the little upstairs ‘dining-room’ next to his bedroom, until, worn out, he snuffed out the candle and went to bed around 11 p.m.”

// // PLAudioEffectConfiguration.h // PLCameraStreamingKit // // Created by TaoZeyu on 16/6/21. // Copyright © 2016年 Pili Engineering, Qiniu Inc. All rights reserved. // #import <Foundation/Foundation.h> #import "PLTypeDefines.h" @interface PLAudioEffectConfiguration : NSObject /*! @abstract 音效配置类型 */ @property (nonatomic, readonly) PLAudioEffectConfigurationType type; @end @interface PLAudioEffectModeConfiguration : PLAudioEffectConfiguration /*! @abstract 预设的混响音效配置 - LowLevel */ + (instancetype)reverbLowLevelModeConfiguration; /*! @abstract 预设的混响音效配置 - MediumLevel */ + (instancetype)reverbMediumLevelModeConfiguration; /*! @abstract 预设的混响音效配置 - HeightLevel */ + (instancetype)reverbHeightLevelModeConfiguration; @end /*! @abstract 混响效果配置 */ @interface PLAudioEffectReverb2Configuration : PLAudioEffectConfiguration @property (nonatomic, assign) double decayTimeAt0Hz; @property (nonatomic, assign) double decayTimeAtNyquist; @property (nonatomic, assign) double cutoffFrequency; @property (nonatomic, assign) double dryWetMix; @property (nonatomic, assign) double gain; @property (nonatomic, assign) double minDelayTime; @property (nonatomic, assign) double maxDelayTime; @property (nonatomic, assign) double randomizeReflections; + (instancetype)defaultConfiguration; @end /*! @abstract 动态压缩/扩大效果配置 */ @interface PLAudioEffectDynamicsProcessorConfiguration : PLAudioEffectConfiguration @property (nonatomic, assign) double threshold; @property (nonatomic, assign) double headRoom; @property (nonatomic, assign) double expansionRatio; @property (nonatomic, assign) double attackTime; @property (nonatomic, assign) double releaseTime; @property (nonatomic, assign) double masterGain; @property (nonatomic, assign) double inputAmplitude; @property (nonatomic, assign) double outputAmplitude; + (instancetype)defaultConfiguration; @end /*! @abstract 带通效果配置 */ @interface PLAudioEffectBandpassConfiguration : PLAudioEffectConfiguration @property (nonatomic) double centerFrequency; @property (nonatomic) double bandwidth; + (instancetype)defaultConfiguration; @end /*! @abstract 延迟效果配置 */ @interface PLAudioEffectDelayConfiguration : PLAudioEffectConfiguration @property (nonatomic) double wetDryMix; @property (nonatomic) double delayTime; @property (nonatomic) double feedback; @property (nonatomic) double lopassCutoff; + (instancetype)defaultConfiguration; @end /*! @abstract 失真效果配置 */ @interface PLAudioEffectDistortionConfiguration : PLAudioEffectConfiguration @property (nonatomic) double delay; @property (nonatomic) double decay; @property (nonatomic) double delayMix; @property (nonatomic) double decimation; @property (nonatomic) double rounding; @property (nonatomic) double decimationMix; @property (nonatomic) double linearTerm; @property (nonatomic) double squaredTerm; @property (nonatomic) double cubicTerm; @property (nonatomic) double polynomialMix; @property (nonatomic) double ringModFreq1; @property (nonatomic) double ringModFreq2; @property (nonatomic) double ringModBalance; @property (nonatomic) double ringModMix; @property (nonatomic) double softClipGain; @property (nonatomic) double finalMix; + (instancetype)defaultConfiguration; @end /*! @abstract 变声效果配置 */ @interface PLAudioEffectNewTimePitchConfiguration : PLAudioEffectConfiguration @property (nonatomic) double rate; @property (nonatomic) double pitch; @property (nonatomic) double overlap; @property (nonatomic) double enablePeakLocking; + (instancetype)defaultConfiguration; @end /*! @abstract 参数 EQ 效果配置 */ @interface PLAudioEffectParametricEqConfiguration : PLAudioEffectConfiguration @property (nonatomic) double centerFrequency; @property (nonatomic) double qFactor; @property (nonatomic) double gain; + (instancetype)defaultConfiguration; @end /*! @abstract 峰值压限效果配置 */ @interface PLAudioEffectPeakLimiterConfiguration : PLAudioEffectConfiguration @property (nonatomic) double attackTime; @property (nonatomic) double decayTime; @property (nonatomic) double preGain; + (instancetype)defaultConfiguration; @end /*! @abstract 速率效果配置 */ @interface PLAudioEffectVarispeedConfiguration : PLAudioEffectConfiguration @property (nonatomic) double playbackRate; @property (nonatomic) double playbackCents; + (instancetype)defaultConfiguration; @end /*! @abstract 高通效果配置 */ @interface PLAudioEffectHighPassConfiguration : PLAudioEffectConfiguration @property (nonatomic) double cutoffFrequency; @property (nonatomic) double resonance; + (instancetype)defaultConfiguration; @end /*! @abstract 高频效果配置 */ @interface PLAudioEffectHighShelfConfiguration : PLAudioEffectConfiguration @property (nonatomic) double cutoffFrequency; @property (nonatomic) double gain; + (instancetype)defaultConfiguration; @end /*! @abstract 低通效果配置 */ @interface PLAudioEffecLowPassConfiguration : PLAudioEffectConfiguration @property (nonatomic) double cutoffFrequency; @property (nonatomic) double resonance; + (instancetype)defaultConfiguration; @end /*! @abstract 低频效果配置 */ @interface PLAudioEffectLowShelfConfiguration : PLAudioEffectConfiguration @property (nonatomic) double cutoffFrequency; @property (nonatomic) double gain; + (instancetype)defaultConfiguration; @end

SOME fortnight after this incident Madame Merle drove up in a hansom cab to the house in Winchester Square. As she descended from her vehicle she observed, suspended between the dining-room windows, a large, neat, wooden tablet, on whose fresh black ground were inscribed in white paint the words—“This noble freehold mansion to be sold;” with the name of the agent to whom application should be made. “They certainly lose no time,” said the visitor, as, after sounding the big brass knocker, she waited to be admitted; “it’s a practical country!” And within the house, as she ascended to the drawing room, she perceived numerous signs of abdication; pictures removed from the walls and placed upon sofas, windows undraped and floors laid bare. Mrs. Touchett presently received her, and intimated in a few words that condolences might be taken for granted. “I know what you are going to say—he was a very good man. But I know it better than any one, because I gave him more chance to show it. In that I think I was a good wife.” Mrs. Touchett added that at the end her husband apparently recognised this fact. “He has treated me liberally,” she said; “I won’t say more liberally than I expected, because I didn’t expect. You know that as a general thing I don’t expect. But he chose, I presume, to recognise the fact that though I lived much abroad, and mingled—you may say freely—in foreign life, I never exhibited the smallest preference for any one else.” There was a certain cynicism in these mute comments which demands an explanation; the more so as they are not in accord either with the view—somewhat superficial perhaps—that we have hitherto enjoyed of Madame Merle’s character, or with the literal facts of Mrs. Touchett’s history; the more so, too, as Madame Merle had a well-founded conviction that her friend’s last remark was not in the least to be construed as a side-thrust at herself. The truth is, that the moment she had crossed the threshold she received a subtle impression that Mr. Touchett’s death had had consequences, and that these consequences had been profitable to a little circle of persons among whom she was not numbered. Of course it was an event which would naturally have consequences; her imagination had more than once rested upon this fact during her stay at Gardencourt. But it had been one thing to foresee it mentally, and it was another to behold it actually. The idea of a distribution of property—she would almost have said of spoils—just now pressed upon her senses and irritated her with a sense of exclusion. I am far from wishing to say that Madame Merle was one of the hungry ones of the world; but we have already perceived that she had desires which had never been satisfied. If she had been questioned, she would of course have admitted—with a most becoming smile—that she had not the faintest claim to a share in Mr. Touchett’s relics. “There was never anything in the world between us,” she would have said. “There was never that, poor man!”—with a fillip of her thumb and her third finger. I hasten to add, moreover, that if her private attitude at the present moment was somewhat incongruously invidious, she was very careful not to betray herself. She had, after all, as much sympathy for Mrs. Touchett’s gains as for her losses. “He has left me this house,” the newly-made widow said; “but of course I shall not live in it; I have a much better house in Florence. The will was opened only three days since, but I have already offered the house for sale. I have also a share in the bank; but I don’t yet understand whether I am obliged to leave it there. If not; I shall certainly take it out. Ralph, of course, has Gardencourt; but I am not sure that he will have means to keep up the place. He is of course left very well off, but his father has given away an immense deal of money; there are bequests to a string of third cousins in Vermont. Ralph, however, is very fond of Gardencourt, and would be quite capable of living there—in summer—with a maid-of-all-work and a gardener’s boy. There is one remarkable clause in my husband’s will,” Mrs. Touchett added. “He has left my niece a fortune.” Madame Merle’s hands were clasped in her lap; at this she raised them, still clasped, and held them a moment against her bosom, while her eyes, a little dilated, fixed themselves on those of her friend. “Ah,” she cried, “the clever creature!” Madame Merle was rarely guilty of the awkwardness of retracting what she had said; her wisdom was shown rather in maintaining it and placing it in a favourable light. “My dear friend, Isabel would certainly not have had seventy thousand pounds left her if she had not been the most charming girl in the world. Her charm includes great cleverness.” “She never dreamed, I am sure, of my husband’s doing anything for her; and I never dreamed of it either, for he never spoke to me of his intention,” Mrs. Touchett said. “She had no claim upon him whatever; it was no great recommendation to him that she was my niece. Whatever she achieved she achieved unconsciously.” “That, I think she has hardly considered. She doesn’t know what to think about the matter at all. It has been as if a big gun were suddenly fired off behind her; she is feeling herself, to see if she be hurt. It is but three days since she received a visit from the principal executor who came in person, very gallantly, to notify her. He told me afterwards that when he had made his little speech she suddenly burst into tears. The money is to remain in the bank, and she is to draw the interest.” Madame Merle shook her head, with a wise, and now quite benignant smile. “After she has done that two or three times she will get used to it.” Then after a silence—“What does your son think of it?” she abruptly asked. “He left England just before it came out—used up by his fatigue and anxiety, and hurrying off to the south. He is on his way to the Riviera, and I have not yet heard from him. But it is not likely he will ever object to anything done by his father.” “It depends upon whom he regards as number one!” said Madame Merle. And she remained thoughtful a moment, with her eyes bent upon the floor. “Am I not to see your happy niece?” she asked at last, looking up. Isabel came in shortly after the footman had been sent to call her; and Madame Merle thought, as she appeared, that Mrs. Touchett’s comparison had its force. The girl was pale and grave—an effect not mitigated by her deeper mourning; but the smile of her brightest moments came into her face as she saw Madame Merle, who went forward, laid her hand on our heroine’s shoulder, and after looking at her a moment, kissed her as if she were returning the kiss that she had received from Isabel at Gardencourt. This was the only allusion that Madame Merle, in her great good taste, made for the present to her young friend’s inheritance. Mrs. Touchett did not remain in London until she had sold her house. After selecting from among its furniture those objects which she wished to transport to her Florentine residence, she left the rest of its contents to be disposed of by the auctioneer, and took her departure for the Continent. She was, of course, accompanied on this journey by her niece, who now had plenty of leisure to contemplate the windfall on which Madame Merle had covertly congratulated her. Isabel thought of it very often and looked at it in a dozen different lights; but we shall not at present attempt to enter into her meditations or to explain why it was that some of them were of a rather pessimistic cast. The pessimism of this young lady was transient; she ultimately made up her mind that to be rich was a virtue, because it was to be able to do, and to do was sweet. It was the contrary of weakness. To be weak was, for a young lady, rather graceful, but, after all, as Isabel said to herself, there was a larger grace than that. Just now, it is true, there was not much to do—once she had sent off a cheque to Lily and another to poor Edith; but she was thankful for the quiet months which her mourning robes and her aunt’s fresh widowhood compelled the two ladies to spend. The acquisition of power made her serious; she scrutinised her power with a kind of tender ferocity, but she was not eager to exercise it. She began to do so indeed during a stay of some weeks which she presently made with her aunt in Paris, but in ways that will probably be thought rather vulgar. They were the ways that most naturally presented themselves in a city in which the shops are the admiration of the world, especially under the guidance of Mrs. Touchett, who took a rigidly practical view of the transformation of her niece from a poor girl to a rich one. “Now that you are a young woman of fortune you must know how to play the part—I mean to play it well,” she said to Isabel, once for all; and she added that the girl’s first duty was to have everything handsome. “You don’t know how to take care of your things, but you must learn,” she went on; this was Isabel’s second duty. Isabel submitted, but for the present her imagination was not kindled; she longed for opportunities, but these were not the opportunities she meant. Mrs. Touchett rarely changed her plans, and having intended before her husband’s death to spend a part of the winter in Paris she saw no reason to deprive herself—still less to deprive her companion—of this advantage. Though they would live in great retirement, she might still present her niece, informally, to the little circle of her fellow-countrymen dwelling upon the skirts of the Champs Elysées. With many of these amiable colonists Mrs. Touchett was intimate; she shared their expatriation, their convictions, their pastimes, their ennui. Isabel saw them come with a good deal of assiduity to her aunt’s hotel, and judged them with a trenchancy which is doubtless to be accounted for by the temporary exaltation of her sense of human duty. She made up her mind that their manner of life was superficial, and incurred some disfavour by expressing this view on bright Sunday afternoons, when the American absentees were engaged in calling upon each other. Though her listeners were the most good-natured people in the world, two or three of them thought her cleverness, which was generally admitted, only a dangerous variation of impertinence. Mrs. Touchett thought the question worthy of Henrietta Stackpole. The two ladies had found Henrietta in Paris, and Isabel constantly saw her; so that Mrs. Touchett had some reason for saying to herself that if her niece were not clever enough to originate almost anything, she might be suspected of having borrowed that style of remark from her journalistic friend. The first occasion on which Isabel had spoken was that of a visit paid by the two ladies to Mrs. Luce, an old friend of Mrs. Touchett’s, and the only person in Paris she now went to see. Mrs. Luce had been living in Paris since the days of Louis Philippe; she used to say jocosely that she was one of the generation of 1830—a joke of which the point was not always taken. When it failed Mrs. Luce used always to explain—“Oh yes, I am one of the romantics;” her French had never become very perfect. She was always at home on Sunday afternoons, and surrounded by sympathetic compatriots, usually the same. In fact she was at home at all times, and led in her well-cushioned little corner of the brilliant city as quiet and domestic a life as she might have led in her native Baltimore. The existence of Mr. Luce, her worthy husband, was some-what more inscrutable. Superficially indeed, there was no mystery about it; the mystery lay deeper, and resided in the wonder of his supporting existence at all. He was the most unoccupied man in Europe, for he not only had no duties, but he had no pleasures. Habits certainly he had, but they were few in number, and had been worn threadbare by forty years of use. Mr. Luce was a tall, lean, grizzled, well-brushed gentleman, who wore a gold eyeglass and carried his hat a little too much on the back of his head. He went every day to the American banker’s, where there was a post-office which was almost as sociable and colloquial an institution as that of an American country town. He passed an hour (in fine weather) in a chair in the Champs Elysées, and he dined uncommonly well at his own table, seated above a waxed floor, which it was Mrs. Luce’s happiness to believe had a finer polish than any other in Paris. Occasionally he dined with a friend or two at the Café Anglais, where his talent for ordering a dinner was a source of felicity to his companions and an object of admiration even to the head-waiter of the establishment. These were his only known avocations, but they had beguiled his hours for upwards of half a century, and they doubtless justified his frequent declaration that there was no place like Paris. In no other place, on these terms, could Mr. Luce flatter himself that he was enjoying life. There was nothing like Paris, but it must be confessed that Mr. Luce thought less highly of the French capital than in earlier days. In the list of his occupations his political reveries should not be omitted, for they were doubtless the animating principle of many hours that superficially seemed vacant. Like many of his fellow colonists, Mr. Luce was a high—or rather a deep—conservative, and gave no countenance to the government recently established in France. He had no faith in its duration, and would assure you from year to year that its end was close at hand. “They want to be kept down, sir, to be kept down; nothing but the strong hand—the iron heel—will do for them,” he would frequently say of the French people; and his ideal of a fine government was that of the lately-abolished Empire. “Paris is much less attractive than in the days of the Emperor; he knew how to make a city pleasant,” Mr. Luce had often remarked to Mrs. Touchett, who was quite of his own way of thinking, and wished to know what one had crossed that odious Atlantic for but to get away from republics. “Why, madam, sitting in the Champs Elysées, opposite to the Palace of Industry, I have seen the court-carriages from the Tuileries pass up and down as many as seven times a day. I remember one occasion when they went as high as nine times. What do you see now? It’s no use talking, the style’s all gone. Napoleon knew what the French people want, and there’ll be a cloud over Paris till they get the Empire back again.” Among Mrs. Luce’s visitors on Sunday afternoons was a young man with whom Isabel had had a good deal of conversation, and whom she found full of valuable knowledge. Mr. Edward Rosier—Ned Rosier, as he was called—was a native of New York, and had been brought up in Paris, living there under the eye of his father, who, as it happened, had been an old and intimate friend of the late Mr. Archer. Edward Rosier remembered Isabel as a little girl; it had been his father who came to the rescue of the little Archers at the inn at Neufchâtel (he was travelling that way with the boy, and stopped at the hotel by chance), after their bonne had gone off with the Russian prince and when Mr. Archer’s whereabouts remained for some days a mystery. Isabel remembered perfectly the neat little male child, whose hair smelt of a delicious cosmetic, and who had a bonne of his own, warranted to lose sight of him under no provocation. Isabel took a walk with the pair beside the lake, and thought little Edward as pretty as an angel—a comparison by no means conventional in her mind, for she had a very definite conception of a type of features which she supposed to be angelic, and which her new friend perfectly illustrated. A small pink face, surmounted by a blue velvet bonnet and set off by a stiff embroidered collar, became the countenance of her childish dreams; and she firmly believed for some time afterwards that the heavenly hosts conversed among themselves in a queer little dialect of French-English, expressing the properest sentiments, as when Edward told her that he was “defended” by his bonne to go near the edge of the lake, and that one must always obey to one’s bonne. Ned Rosier’s English had improved; at least it exhibited in a less degree the French variation. His father was dead and his bonne was dismissed, but the young man still conformed to the spirit of their teaching—he never went to the edge of the lake. There was still something agreeable to the nostril about him, and something not offensive to nobler organs. He was a very gentle and gracious youth, with what are called cultivated tastes—an acquaintance with old china, with good wine, with the bindings of books, with the Almanach de Gotha, with the best shops, the best hotels, the hours of railway-trains. He could order a dinner almost as well as Mr. Luce, and it was probable that as his experience accumulated he would be a worthy successor to that gentleman, whose rather grim politics he also advocated, in a soft and innocent voice. He had some charming rooms in Paris, decorated with old Spanish altar-lace, the envy of his female friends, who declared that his chimney-piece was better draped than many a duchess. He usually, however, spent a part of every winter at Pau, and had once passed a couple of months in the United States. He took a great interest in Isabel, and remembered perfectly the walk at Neufchâtel, when she would persist in going so near the edge. He seemed to recognise this same tendency in the subversive inquiry that I quoted a moment ago, and set himself to answer our heroine’s question with greater urbanity than it perhaps deserved. “What does it lead to, Miss Archer? Why Paris leads everywhere. You can’t go anywhere unless you come here first. Every one that comes to Europe has got to pass through. You don’t mean it in that sense so much? You mean what good it does you? Well, how can you penetrate futurity? How can you tell what lies ahead? If it’s a pleasant road I don’t care where it leads. I like the road, Miss Archer; I like the dear old asphalte. You can’t get tired of it—you can’t if you try. You think you would, but you wouldn’t; there’s always something new and fresh. Take the Hôtel Drouot, now; they sometimes have three and four sales a week. Where can you get such things as you can here? In spite of all they say, I maintain they are cheaper too, if you know the right places. I know plenty of places, but I keep them to myself. I’ll tell you, if you like, as a particular favour; only you must not tell any one else. Don’t you go anywhere without asking me first; I want you to promise me that. As a general thing avoid the Boulevards; there is very little to be done on the Boulevards. Speaking conscientiously—sans blague—I don’t believe any one knows Paris better than I. You and Mrs. Touchett must come and breakfast with me some day, and I’ll show you my things; je ne vous dis que ca! There has been a great deal of talk about London of late; it’s the fashion to cry up London. But there is nothing in it—you can’t do anything in London. No Louis Quinze—nothing of the First Empire; nothing but their eternal Queen Anne. It’s good for one’s bed-room, Queen Anne—for one’s washing-room; but it isn’t proper for a salon. Do I spend my life at the auctioneer’s?” Mr. Rosier pursued, in answer to another question of Isabel’s. “Oh, no; I haven’t the means. I wish I had. You think I’m a mere trifler; I can tell by the expression of your face—you have got a wonderfully expressive face. I hope you don’t mind my saying that; I mean it as a kind of warning. You think I ought to do something, and so do I, so long as you leave it vague. But when you come to the point, you see you have to stop. I can’t go home and be a shopkeeper. You think I am very well fitted? Ah, Miss Archer, you overrate me. I can buy very well, but I can’t sell; you should see when I sometimes try to get rid of my things. It takes much more ability to make other people buy than to buy yourself. When I think how clever they must be, the people who make me buy! Ah, no; I couldn’t be a shopkeeper. I can’t be a doctor, it’s a repulsive business. I can’t be a clergyman, I haven’t got convictions. And then I can’t pronounce the names right in the Bible. They are very difficult, in the Old Testament particularly. I can’t be a lawyer; I don’t understand—how do you call it?—the American procédure. Is there anything else? There is nothing for a gentleman to do in America. I should like to be a diplomatist; but American diplomacy—that is not for gentlemen either. I am sure if you had seen the last min——” Henrietta Stackpole, who was often with her friend when Mr. Rosier, coming to pay his compliments, late in the afternoon, expressed himself after the fashion I have sketched, usually interrupted the young man at this point and read him a lecture on the duties of the American citizen. She thought him most unnatural; he was worse than Mr. Ralph Touchett. Henrietta, however, was at this time more than ever addicted to fine criticism, for her conscience had been freshly alarmed as regards Isabel. She had not congratulated this young lady on her accession of fortune, and begged to be excused from doing so. “No, no,” said Henrietta; “I mean your moral tendencies. I approve of luxury; I think we ought to be as elegant as possible. Look at the luxury of our western cities; I have seen nothing over here to compare with it. I hope you will never become sensual; but I am not afraid of that. The peril for you is that you live too much in the world of your own dreams—you are not enough in contact with reality—with the toiling, striving, suffering, I may even say sinning, world that surrounds you. You are too fastidious; you have too many graceful illusions. Your newly-acquired thousands will shut you up more and more to the society of a few selfish and heartless people, who will be interested in keeping up those illusions.” “Well,” said Henrietta, “you think that you can lead a romantic life, that you can live by pleasing yourself and pleasing others. You will find you are mistaken. Whatever life you lead, you must put your soul into it—to make any sort of success of it; and from the moment you do that it ceases to be romance, I assure you; it becomes reality! And you can’t always please yourself; you must sometimes please other people. That, I admit, you are very ready to do; but there is another thing that is still more important—you must often displease others. You must always be ready for that—you must never shrink from it. That doesn’t suit you at all—you are too fond of admiration, you like to be thought well of. You think we can escape disagreeable duties by taking romantic views—that is your great illusion, my dear. But we can’t. You must be prepared on many occasions in life to please no one at all—not even yourself.” It was certainly true that Miss Stackpole, during her visit to Paris, which had been professionally more remunerative than her English sojourn, had not been living in the world of dreams. Mr. Bantling, who had now returned to England, was her companion for the first four weeks of her stay; and about Mr. Bantling there was nothing dreamy. Isabel learned from her friend that the two had led a life of great intimacy, and that this had been a peculiar advantage to Henrietta, owing to the gentleman’s remarkable knowledge of Paris. He had explained everything, shown her everything, been her constant guide and interpreter. They had breakfasted together, dined together, gone to the theatre together, supped together, really in a manner quite lived together. He was a true friend, Henrietta more than once assured our heroine; and she had never supposed that she could like any Englishman so well. Isabel could not have told you why, but she found something that ministered to mirth in the alliance the correspondent of the Interviewer had struck with Lady Pensil’s brother; and her amusement subsisted in the face of the fact that she thought it a credit to each of them. Isabel could not rid herself of a suspicion that they were playing, somehow, at cross-purposes—that the simplicity of each of them had been entrapped. But this simplicity was none the less honourable on either side; it was as graceful on Henrietta’s part to believe that Mr. Bantling took an interest in the diffusion of lively journalism, and in consolidating the position of lady-correspondents, as it was on the part of her companion to suppose that the cause of the Interviewer—a periodical of which he never formed a very definite conception—was, if subtly analysed (a task to which Mr. Bantling felt himself quite equal), but the cause of Miss Stackpole’s coquetry. Each of these harmless confederates supplied at any rate a want of which the other was somewhat eagerly conscious. Mr. Bantling, who was of a rather slow and discursive habit, relished a prompt, keen, positive woman, who charmed him with the spectacle of a brilliant eye and a kind of bandbox neatness, and who kindled a perception of raciness in a mind to which the usual fare of life seemed unsalted. Henrietta, on the other hand, enjoyed the society of a fresh-looking, professionless gentleman, whose leisured state, though generally indefensible, was a decided advantage to Miss Stackpole, and who was furnished with an easy, traditional, though by no means exhaustive, answer to almost any social or practical question that could come up. She often found Mr. Bantling’s answers very convenient, and in the press of catching the American post would make use of them in her correspondence. It was to be feared that she was indeed drifting toward those mysterious shallows as to which Isabel, wishing for a good-humoured retort, had warned her. There might be danger in store for Isabel; but it was scarcely to be hoped that Miss Stackpole, on her side, would find permanent safety in the adoption of second-hand views. Isabel continued to warn her, good-humouredly; Lady Pensil’s obliging brother was sometimes, on our heroine’s lips, an object of irreverent and facetious allusion. Nothing, however, could exceed Henrietta’s amiability on this point; she used to abound in the sense of Isabel’s irony, and to enumerate with elation the hours she had spent with the good Mr. Bantling. Then, a few moments later, she would forget that they had been talking jocosely, and would mention with impulsive earnestness some expedition she had made in the company of the gallant ex-guardsman. She would say—“Oh, I know all about Versailles; I went there with Mr. Bantling. I was bound to see it thoroughly—I warned him when we went out there that I was thorough; so we spent three days at the hotel and wandered all over the place. It was lovely weather—a kind of Indian summer, only not so good. We just lived in that park. Oh yes; you can’t tell me anything about Versailles.” Henrietta appeared to have made arrangements to meet Mr. Bantling in the spring, in Italy.

In an unexpected twist, the Ridge High School Red Devils wear green. New Jersey is a backwards place. This one time in Montclair, I referred to NJ as “The Dirty,” and the kid had no clue what I was talking about. It all makes sense now. High schools that should wear red wear green. Is the sky green in Jerse? In other news, Ridge is 1-1. They lost their home opener 7-5 to Bridgewater-Raritan, but bounced back to make quick work of Moorestown. They play an iffy Montgomery squad today, so look for the Red(Green) Devils to push .500 by dinner. Get Some: Like this: Caught this over on The U. Whoa. You have to have some courage to make this video, and what’s better is that Vanderbilt’s Athletic Department posted this on YouTube. They must be adhering to the old motto: Any press is good press. But this is a poor showing for a nationally ranked baseball team.

1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for reproducing an original gray scale or half-tone image on a reproduction medium. Both alpha-numeric and pictorial images may be reproduced by this method and apparatus. Moreover, the image may be reproduced at the site of the original image or a site remote from the original image using known data transmission techniques. 2. Description of the Prior Art Various methods and apparatus have been proposed in the past for reproducing gray scale or half-tone images by either darkening or not darkening areas on a reproduction medium. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,604,846 (Behane et al.) discloses a system in which original images are divided into discrete picture elements or pels, each of which is scanned to determine its gray level. Each pel is reproduced as a matrix of, for example, nine locations, some or all of which are darkened by an ink jet printing mechanism that prints dots, each having maximum density within the capability of the printing mechanism. Variations in the gray level of the pel are approximated by printing greater or fewer dots in a given matrix area, the entire image being comprised of a large number of matrix areas, each corresponding to one pel. A given original pel gray level produces a reproduction matrix always having the same number of dots. Further, original pels of increasing gray levels are reproduced by printed matrices having increasing numbers of dots printed in regular patterns beginning in the upper left corner thereof and filling toward the lower right corner. Thus a pel having a gray level requiring six dots to be printed will always be reproduced as a matrix with six dots clustered toward the upper left corner. U.S. Pat. No. 3,373,437 (Sweet et al.) discloses a fluid droplet printing apparatus in which half-tones are reproduced by varying the number of drops deposited in a given dot area to vary the density thereof. U.S. Pat. No. 3,977,007 (Berry et al.) discloses a gray tone generation system which reproduces pels having differing shades of gray by depositing, at predetermined dot locations in a matrix, a number of dots of ink calculated to represent the shade being recorded. The Berry system is similar to that disclosed in the Behane et al. Patent. However, the matrix is not filled in a regular order to represent gradations of gray level. Instead, the matrix locations are filled in an ordered, though random, pattern to approximate the gray level. That is, if the gray level being reproduced requires printing of eight dots in a sixteen location matrix, the dots are always printed in the same locations. However, the printed locations are not clustered or otherwise arranged in a regular manner as they are in the Behane et al. matrix. Methods and apparatus for generating half-tone images such as those disclosed in the patents reviewed above have certain drawbacks. First, because original image pels are reproduced by matrices of ordered patterns of dots, the resolution of the image is necessarily limited. Second, because each pel is represented by a matrix of many dots, relatively large amounts of data are needed to reproduce a pel gray level that could otherwise be expressed with relatively little data. For example, if it is assumed that a pel has an arbitrary gray level of from (1) to (16), (1) representing the lightest level, (16) representing the darkest level, the pel gray level may be digitally represented by only four bits of data. However, if the pel is reproduced on a matrix of four-by-four dot locations, each of which may or may not be darkened in a random manner, 16 bits of data are necessary to digitally represent the matrix. Moreover, such systems are limited by the mechanical capability of the printing mechanism which they use and, in particular, by the minimum dot size that may be printed. For example, if the ratio of the area of the original image to the reproduced image is to be one-to-one, if the system's printer can print a maximum of 200 dots per inch, and if each pel is represented by a four-by-four dot matrix, then the maximum number of pels which may usefully be scanned per inch is 50. Yet, this limitation further reduces the resolving power of the system which may be optimized by dividing the original image into as many pels as possible within the system capability. These drawbacks may be traced to the fact that prior art systems such as those described only consider pel gray levels and do not consider gray level distribution. That is, these systems only consider the first moment of the pel function of both gray level and distribution. The method and apparatus of the present invention are intended to remedy these drawbacks.

Pages Thursday, January 24, 2013 New Story Excerpt from Alien Promise Aliens are taking over the presidential election, and only one human is immune to the mind control rays. The plate in Lily Madison’s head protects her from the criminal Girvan Lee’s mind control weapons, but she is stubbornly determined to find out what is going on. Not even the sexy hunks dressed as Roman gladiators will get in her way. Ryder and Saber Rhoma are intergalactic bounty hunters. They believe the human woman, Lily, is their life mate, but she is resistant to their charms and attempted seduction. The stubborn woman doesn’t believe she can have them both in her bed, but they must have the patience to claim their mate. If that doesn’t work, they aren’t above abducting her to their home planet and seducing her into their shared bed. New Excerpt from the Story:A wall of muscle-loaded men stopped her from progressing any further in the crowd, but she was only a few feet from her goal. She clutched the clipboard to her chest and tried to push her way through. Then she looked up and froze. If she wasn’t in a hurry, she may have taken more time to stare and drool. These weren’t just any men, but two of the hottest hunks she had laid eyes on.Ever.Hunk number one was built like a pro wrestler and his sea-green eyes sparkled like emeralds against his skin, which was the strangest shade of light blue. It had to be makeup, but it looked damn good on his skin. His dark, braided hair whipped around in a fluid motion as if it was an extension of his body. His hair was longer than hers and fell to his waist, even braided. His square jaw and chiseled features made her insides soften, but with the combined effect of his partner, she melted.Hunk number two was just as well built, but his hazel eyes seemed friendlier and less intense, but even when his attention wasn’t on Lily, her womanly parts were going all gaga over him and his friend. His brown locks fell to his shoulders and moved in silky waves with every motion of his body. It looked soft and smooth. Her stomach quivered and tightened, and arousal pooled in her panties. Ordinarily she would take time to stare and enjoy the view. He was worth watching. He had to spend hours at the gym to keep those large muscles, and they looked like they were pretending they were just part of the group.But they couldn’t have stuck out more if they tried. Both of them towered above the crowd at over seven feet tall. The muscled hunks were dressed as Roman gladiators. Complete with the metal helmets and leather-strapped sandals. Yet even if they weren’t dressed in costume, they would have stuck out in any crowd. They were giants among the men here and close to seven feet tall, at least a head taller than anyone else in the room.Lily frowned at them both.This was no time for a publicity stunt, and the twin warriors were in her way. She had to get past them. She didn’t see the advertisement for whatever product they were selling, but they were going to learn that nobody gets in Lily Madison’s way. She pushed her arms out in front of her attempting to maneuver between them, but the solid wall of muscle was impenetrable.“Get out of my way. I have to talk to Mitch!” Lily huffed, and stopped when neither man moved. They didn’t appear to be listening at all, but she was determined to get their attention. She fisted her hands and began to beat on the man’s chest closest to her. Damn! Nothing she did seemed to affect him. Why wouldn’t the big caveman move out of her way? “Someone has to stop this madness!”“You are not under Girvan’s power?” The man seemed unaffected by her blows. He looked down at her with the most curious expression on his face.“What are you talking about? That twerp had to have done something to Mitch.” She was concerned that her boss looked hypnotized. His glazed eyes were unemotional, and he may have been smiling, but his expression implied no one was home. Something was wrong, and she was determined to get to the bottom of this mystery.“You’re in my way! I need to stop him,” she yelled.Hunk number one, the taller of the two warriors by nearly an inch, grabbed her upper arm in a viselike grip, and she screamed. Loud as she could. Ear piercing. It was the kind of scream that would be in a horror movie right before someone got chopped up into little bitty pieces, and it had the desired effect. Muscle man let go.However, he wasn’t the only man looking at her. Everyone in the room stopped what they were doing and stared. At. Her.Mitch, her ex-boss stared blankly. Girvan looked concerned, and Girvan’s crown thing flashed again. She wiped her eyes and screamed one more time. He lifted his staff and pointed it at her. “Get those clowns out of here! They are disrupting everything.”The two gladiators shielded her and abruptly closed in on her, making the wall of muscle seem even harder to evade. Lily was getting pissed. “You can’t do this. I have to stop him.”“Look out! He’s got a weapon,” the big man on her right yelled and lifted his round shield to his shoulder protectively over her upper body.“That’s no weapon! That’s a stick.” Lily squealed when the other big giant picked her up and threw her over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. She kicked and screamed. “What do you think you are doing?”A beam of light came out of the top of the staff and hit the shield of the other man. Sparks flew, and she watched in alarm as chaos broke out in the crowd.“Protecting you,” hunk man huffed as he ran the other way. Her body jiggled and bounced as he ran. She beat his shoulder and back with fists that had no effect on him.“Put me down. You big, stupid oaf. I am not going to be part of your stage show.” But no matter how much she pled with him, bargained, or insulted him, he didn’t seem to care. It wasn’t until they were out of the room that she gave up. She gave an exasperated sigh as the doors shut behind them, and he finally set her down on unsteady feet in the hallway outside the doors of the community center.Lily pushed her thick, red locks of hair from her eyes to get a better look at her would-be rescuer. Although in reality she still didn’t understand what she needed rescuing from. He was dressed in classic Roman armor as a gladiator in leather and steel. He was all muscle, and if she wasn’t so pissed at him, she might have enjoyed the little caveman show he put on. He was an ass, a really cute one, but an ass all the same.Lily wished her gushing pussy would pay attention.***Thanks for reading. If you wish to read more about the upcoming book or to see a different excerpt please visit the book page on the publisher website below.NOW AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER FROM SIREN PUBLISHING15% off the cover price if you order your copy early.http://www.bookstrand.com/alien-promise

Former television star Catherine Oxenberg never believed in NXIVM, the Colonie-based organization she said tore a wedge between her and her daughter. Barbara Bouchey still contends some good existed in NXIVM. This, despite being an organization that was secretive, vindictive and the product of a leader — her ex-boyfriend Keith Raniere — whom she called a sexual predator. On Monday, both women expressed their beliefs on NXIVM to more than 140 guests in the Hearst Media Center at a forum called "NXIVM Exposed: A Pre-Trial Talk." Also speaking was Michael Grygiel, an Albany-based media lawyer who represented Suzanna Andrews of Vanity Fair after she authored an expose on NXIVM. "There are many people who aren't here today. It took a village to take NXIVM down," Bouchey, 59, said. The forum came as Raniere, known as "Vanguard," faces a federal racketeering case and recently filed child pornography charges in Brooklyn. A criminal trial is scheduled to begin April 29 in Brooklyn, but it's unclear if the plea negotiations and additional charges filed against Raniere last week will delay that date. Oxenberg, 57, who played the character of Amanda Carrington on the hit show "Dynasty" in the 1980s, said she and her daughter, India, went to a NXIVM seminar billed as a professional development seminar in 2011. It was "not that at all," Oxenberg said. She found NXIVM's platform full of hyperbole and platitudes and its people to be pushy. But her daughter, hooked, insisted they take the classes, which they did. India became a NXIVM coach. "It became her entire life," Oxenberg said. Over time, the California-based Oxenberg and her daughter became distant. India lost her sense of humor. She relocated to the Albany area. One day, Oxenberg received a call from a former NXIVM member who told her that India was in danger. Oxenberg learned India was interested in a secret club formed by Raniere known as "Dominus Obsequious Sororium," or DOS, which means "Master Over the Slave Women." Membership, it was later revealed, involved the practice of physical branding, among other things. Oxenberg arranged an intervention for her daughter on her birthday. It failed. "I couldn't get through to her at all. It was like there was nobody home. And I was in shock," Oxenberg said. "I did everything wrong. I said, 'You're in a cult and your brainwashed.' She said, 'No, I'm not.' It went nowhere. I said, 'Well, just tell me: Are you branded?' She actually told me the truth. She said she was. And my heart broke into a thousand pieces when she said it was 'character building.' I knew I'd lost her." Oxenberg did not see her daughter for nearly a year. When Raniere and codefendants were later indicted, India began to wonder if NXIVM was all a lie, Oxenberg said. Oxenberg said she and her daughter lived together again after Raniere's arrest but California fires have displaced them. India is recovering, she said. "We are in spirit back together and stronger and closer as a family," Oxenberg said. The room erupted in applause. Oxenberg signed copies at Monday's event of her book titled, "Captive: A Mother's Crusade To Save Her Daughter From a Terrifying Cult." Bouchey, 59, a Troy native, was a successful financial planner who attended a NXIVM workshop in the late 1990s and ended up dating Raniere for eight years. She said she grew up with a fear of intimacy. She said when she was 40 and met Raniere, he was "intimate, gentle, kind, loving, affectionate" and helped her get over her intimacy fears. "Yeah, what we now know was a sexual predator, a pedophile and someone who took advantage of women was not that way with me in the bedroom," she said. Bouchey said she has since spoken to other women who were sexually involved with Raniere. "Keith met you where you were at," she said. "He knew how to gauge you." After leaving NXIVM, Bouchey said, Raniere quickly turned on her, unleashing false accusations and lawsuits at her. Still Bouchey, more than once, defended what she believed were positive efforts within NXIVM. She said most people involved did not believe it was a cult. She compared NXIVM to the Catholic Church and its well-documented clergy-related child sexual abuse scandals. She became part of the NXIVM inner circle and served on an executive board she now says was a "faux board." Even though she was a financial planner and investment advisor to Clare and Sara Bronfman, the Seagrams' heiresses who have provided millions of dollars to NXIVM, Bouchey explained, she never saw any financial documents or tax returns for the group. Bouchey said she thought she and Raniere had a monogamous relationship but later learned of his interest in other women — and underage girls. She said a month before she left NXIVM, she saw a young girl — a child from Mexico — wrap her arms around Raniere and kiss him on the lips on a volleyball court. "The hair on the back of my neck stood up. I thought the room was moving around me," Bouchey said. Grygiel said NXIVM tried to implicate the Vanity Fair journalist and others by filing computer hacking claims, alleging reporters gained unauthorized access to NXIVM's website. The claims were dismissed, he said. "They couldn't sue for libel because everything was true," Grygiel said. "So they ran into court with this manufactured computer trespass claim to try to wreak havoc on a tremendously talented journalist ..." he said of reporter Suzanna Andrews.

Girl at the End of the Bar: Tracy Buchholz Meet the 34-year-old former party promoter who now works at the Support Center for Child Advocates. Get a compelling long read and must-have lifestyle tips in your inbox every Sunday morning — great with coffee! What are your interests? I love any sport: snowboarding, rock climbing, tennis, bike riding. I’m also a complete music freak. I love making mixes for friends, and getting introduced to new music. Anything good you’ve heard recently that you’d recommend? MS MR, Pacific Air, Miami Horror, Hudson and Wildcat! Wildcat!. I’ll send you a link to my Fall Playlist on Spotify. Cool. So what kind of woman are you attracted to? An intelligent, independent, confident woman who can still be a goofball. Or a lady friend who can be a foodie out and about in Philly with me. Turn-offs? Smokers, and girls who don’t know when to stop partying. Complete this phrase: Sex on the first date … Can happen when the attraction and chemistry is intense. That said, it has never led to a lasting relationship for me. Tell me about one of your best dates. There was this girl I really liked who I convinced to go away with me on a weekend trip to Rehoboth. We got to be silly, playing games on the boardwalk, eating great food and trying tasty drinks. We really got to know each other on a deeper and intimate level. By the end of the weekend , she was my girlfriend for the next four years. Celebrity crush? Kaya Scodelario from the U.K. version of Skins What would surprise people about you? I stutter when I get nervous. What makes you nervous? Being on a first date with a really cute, quick-witted girl who I already feel giddy about, and want to have second date. Which is most important: good listener, great kisser or big romantic? Kissing is something that you can teach, and if you’re a good listener, then you should already be romantic. Let’s say listener. Interested in being one of G Philly‘s Girl or Guys at the End of the Bar? Email [email protected] with a headshot.

Check out the other articles in this series: Blood, Blood/Wild, Diamond, Diamond/Ruby, Ruby, Blood/Ruby, Sapphire (Artifact), Sapphire (Flight) Okay, we are back from the weekend. On Friday we had new updates and a Twitch stream! Unbeknownst to most of us, the Twitch Stream introduced two other decks making a total of 8 decks you can play at GenCon. I had a nice timetable down, but now there’s two more decks I have to evaluate! So today and tomorrow I will be doing double articles. Today, in addition to the Ruby deck, I’ll be looking at the Blood/Ruby deck as well. The two new decks have been added on the original deck spoiler page on the Hex official site, so if you haven’t seen them check it out here: http://hextcg.com/gen-con-decklists/ So for the first of today’s decks I am going to discuss the Mono-Ruby deck that takes aggression to the next level. Let’s first look at the deck list, as always I’ve made a deck on Hex TCG Browser, which you can find here: http://hex.tcgbrowser.com/#!/deck=156 Ruby decks like this one are aggressive and designed to front load damage through high attack, low cost troops; then use direct damage actions to finish off the opposing champion’s health. As you can see in the card list there are seven 1-cost troops, ten 2-cost troops, and four 3-cost troops, with the majority being high attack and low health. This deck works best when you are sending in troops for attack without being blocked. You will want to make efficient use of your direct removal actions like Burn or Ragefire and the troop Bombsmith to deal with early blockers. Your 3 cost Veteran Gladiator can also neutralize the most troublesome blockers on your opponent’s side. The trick to being effective with this deck is keeping pressure up on the opposing champion’s life total. Ruby Pyromancer and Poca’s charge power in combination work well to do this, since the Blaze Elemental gets boosted attack to deal 4 health on turn 3. This is also where Emberspire Witch plays an integral role in your decks overall strategy. Certain Blood and Diamond decks rely on recovering health through life gain or life drain effects. The Witch’s ability allows her to nullify that strategy completely. Of particular note is that the mono-Diamond deck has no way to destroy her except by blocking or using Repel, so as long as you don’t attack or block when they have 4 open resources, you can stop them from healing indefinitely. Her Swiftstrike keyword also makes it difficult or awkward for your opponent to deal with, so you have better chance of dealing damage with her. As a final way to pour on the last necessary amounts of damage, you have direct damage actions that can put your opponent on a countdown, Inferno being one of the best tools at your disposal. It does deal damage to you as well, but if your deck has been doing its job correctly the card should be the final nail in your opponent’s coffin. Ragefire which has the ability to Escalate to double its effectiveness each time it is played means that you can also provide some unexpected burst damage if you draw multiple copies. The negatives of this deck are the same with any type of all-in aggressive front-loading strategy: if you lose gas or the upper hand too early, there is almost no way for you to recover from a disadvantageous state. To start, it has very few ways to deal with high health troops, and you are very unlikely to draw direct removal that can eliminate a 3 health or higher troop. You might have to do unfavorable trades using two of your cards to get one of theirs. There is absolutely no card draw in this deck. Finally, I feel that this deck is perhaps running too many resources than it needs, so you might have some risk of resource flood and not enough playable troops to curve out. So overall, the strengths: Plentiful and aggressive troops Good direct damage options Ability to shut down certain decks completely The weaknesses are: Card draw Removal Resource flood If you want to stick with me, feel free to click this link to jump to today’s other article.

Dependence of in vitro-in vivo correlation analysis acceptability on model selections. The objectives of this study were to assess the influence of pharmacokinetic and dissolution model selection on the success of in vitro-in vivo correlation (IVIVC) analysis of fast-, medium-, and slow-dissolving metoprolol tartrate immediate-release tablet formulations. Several different compartmental models were fit to the fast formulation plasma data. Three candidate models with the best fits were ranked 1, 2, and 3 and used to predict AUC and Cmax of the medium and slow formulations. Acceptability of each model to predict the medium and slow formulations was determined using +/- 20% as the limit for acceptable relative prediction error. When the best dissolution models were used, models 1 and 2 each failed to adequately predict Cmax for slow formulation (-26.8% error for model 1 and -20.4% error for model 2). However, the less appropriate model 3 adequately predicted Cmax for slow formulation (-15.1% error). The selection of the dissolution model also determined the outcome of IVIVC analysis, again with a less appropriate model resulting in successful prediction. When the Weibull function was used to characterize dissolution, model 2 failed to adequately predict Cmax for slow formulation (-20.4% error); however, model 2 adequately predicted Cmax for slow formulation when dissolution was characterized using the poorer fitting first-order model (-14.4% error). These results indicate that the success or failure of external validation of these metoprolol tartrate tablets was dependent on the pharmacokinetic and the dissolution models employed. Considering the role of subjectivity in identifying pharmacokinetic and dissolution models, these findings suggest a need to develop objective criteria to identify models a priori to IVIVC analysis.

Menu Introduction to Hyperapp.js Oh no, not another frontend library I hear you say? I thought we already established that JavaScript Fatigue is very much alive and kicking ? All these concerns are very valid, however, Hyperapp.js allows a developer to use all the popular functional programming based concepts from popular frameworks like React.js, using a simliar pattern to Redux while also including SVG support, inline CSS, JSX and fully implemented lifecycle events. If you wanted to know about more about functional programming in the context of React.js check out this learning resource here. It ticks all these boxes for what a developer really needs from a frontend library while also being the smallest frontend library available with next to no configuration or setup. An intriguing prospect no? Minimal Approach With no dependencies included and totalling the grand size of 1 KB it comes as quite a surprise that Hyperapp.js is able to pack in all the functionality that it does but thats the beauty of it really. Think about the amount of time you are potentially spending choosing a stack, setting up your environment, choosing what bundler you want to use, as well as planning your styling pre processors. The time taken to do this can really add up and can be especially overkill for small scale applications or personal projects. And this is where Hyperapp.js really starts to shine. Oh, and did I mention it even comes with its own built in Router system? So web apps can be created out of the box. Very impressive altogether. State Management As I mentioned, Hyperapp utilises state management based on the Elm architecture. Also included in this small package is its own virtual dom used to in a simliar way as React and Elm. Included in the Github page is a simple example demonstrating how state is tracked. In this particular example from the docs, we hold our state information in an object. Our state contains properties that describe what is likely to change for our component. Our actions object contains two different actions down and up that will manipulate our state to be increased or decremented depending on which button is pressed. If you are looking for a more ES6 compliant way to write JSX you can also use Hyperx with Hyperapp. Check it out here. And as with most JavaScript state management libraries we always want to keep our state immutable. In otherwords, when our state changes, we don’t want to edit the old version of the state but rather create a new object for the new one. Immutability is a very important concept for state management and can prevent bugs and errors in your application. This is very much the way you want to structure your state when using Hyperapp beyond simple demonstrative applications. In the next section I will mention some resources that display how immutability can be used with Hyperapp.js. Resources While I will do plan on writing a post with some various code snippets demonstrating some of the capabilities of Hyperapp.js, I wanted to share two very good and free learning resources that you can use to get yourself familiar with it. The first is a informative video series by Joe Santos Garcia from CodingPhase: This is a great step by step course that includes setting up your environment while also teaching about state, actions and immutability. Joe also makes this course quite accessible to a wide range of developers with clear and concise breakdowns and explanations. For a more advanced look at the Hyperapp.js paradigm, I discovered a very useful post by Dr. Gleb Bahmutov. He goes on to discuss more advanced concepts such as reactivity and debouncing using some very nice examples. Conclusion There is a lot to be said about simplicity but there can be even more said about simplicity that doesn’t compromise functionality. For me, this describes what Hyperapp.js does for a developer. I believe that substantial growth is inevitable for this tiny framework. It can be used for small to mid range projects and beyond. I am considering rewriting the frontend of JSdiaries with Hyperapp. This is due to the fact that it’s so lightweight and hassle free to setup. The simple approach has enticed me somewhat and I would like to use it in combination with the WordPress API to transform this site into a web app.

Officials are scrambling to deal with a roadside spill of seed contaminated with black grass between Ashburton and Methven. Tiny seeds of a feared weed were spilled on the roadside in Mid-South Canterbury. Black grass or meadow fox tail has established in winter crops in Britain and Europe. The weed is resistant to many herbicides and is difficult to control in several crops. It competes for nutrients, light, water and space, out-competing crops and reducing yields. Scientists from the Foundation for Arable Research, Primary Industries Ministry, Federated Farmers and E-Can staff intend to develop surveillance and eradication plans to deal with any areas of weed strike. The contaminated seed lot has been isolated and returned to its country of origin. According to FAR chief executive Nick Pyke only a small amount of seed was spilled and the percentage of black grass contamination was minimal.