A poll by the National Association of Realtors earlier this spring showed that Americans’ attitudes about where to live may be changing. A few (cherry-picked) highlights: Americans are three times more likely to say that the quality of life in their communities has gotten worse (35%) rather than better (12%) in the last three years. [...]
OK, actually a reason that’s not talked about enough… So, what can bicycling do for us and our towns and cities? The usual reasons to ride a bicycle include: health, wealth, relieve traffic congestion, and (add two or three things you think of most). Kasey Klimes, wrting for This Big City, says the following is [...]
This article in USA Today set me to thinking. I could live in one of these communities. I would be especially interested if it were situated in Springfield’s urban core close to downtown. So, any Carbon Trace readers think this idea has possibilities? UPDATE: Join the local Pocket Neighborhood group on Facebook. Technorati Tags: bicycle [...]
Ecopalooza — the (mostly) solar-and bicycle-powered concert — will begin tomorrow on the Bear Paw (just north of the Plaster Student Union) at noon on the campus of MSU. Between bands, local eco-types will be giving short addresses. That includes me. I’m scheduled to talk about the 1-Mile Solution at 2:00 p.m. Free parking will [...]
Ask 18 urban volunteers to forgo using their cars for one week and what will you learn? Nothing very surprising. From The City Fix: The study found that autonomy was more important for commuters than the status or comfort associated with car ownership. “More than two-thirds of participants cited convenience, control, and flexibility—not comfort or status, [...]
Well, sort of. While not mentioned by name, the 1-Mile Solution is central to an article in USA Today today (hmmmm… or is it an article today in USA Today?). It concerns how the design of cities can ease the cost of travel. The nut graph re: the 1-MS: The way to cut back on [...]
Joel Kotkin, writing on the NewGeography site, says that America’s biggest brain magnets are not the big coastal cities: “Indeed, college graduates, for the most part, are heading not to the big cities on the coasts, but to smaller, less dense and quite often Sun Belt cities.” His conclusion might seem written with Springfield in [...]
Disclaimer: Having suffered being labeled a traitor lo these many years since 9/11 by bloviating right-wingers, I’m taking the liberty of pushing back a little this morning. Certain readers should resist a literal interpretation (I know that’s hard to do) of the following <– typical liberal crap. Being a traitorous, slandering, evil, godless, bleeding-heart, tax-and-spend, baby-killing [...]
NPR reports that the price of oil is going up. Of course it is. One big reason: China is using more energy, and it is the world’s third-largest net importer of oil. As we enter the era of peak oil, we can expect price jumps and crashes. But the day is coming when it will [...]
STAR Team member Rick Scarlet is an interesting dude. He’s “living off the grid” in the urban core of Springfield. Well, maybe that’s overstating it a bit. But his solar set up is putting electricity back on the grid so City Utilities is now paying him instead of him paying them. You may know Rick [...]
The Ozarks New Energy Conference continues today at Plaster Student Union at Missouri State University. I was a speaker on a panel yesterday about living car-lite in Springfield. The panel included Terry Whaley, executive director of Ozark Greenways; Mike MacPherson, principal planner with the City of Springfield; and Rick Scarlet, member of the STAR Team [...]
I’ve made no attempt to hide my admiration for the Dutch bicycle system as I have been able to understand it from afar (with special thanks to Amsterdamize and A View From the Cycle Path). I simply think it cannot be translated into an American context. Perhaps I should refine that last thought. It could be translated; [...]
… is a fool’s game (if the goal is “correctness”), but very entertaining and sometimes useful in orienting ourselves toward possibilities. Not long ago I did a quickie comparison between Richard Florida’s The Great Reset and James Howard Kunstler’s The Long Emergency. Turns out there’s a better comparison between “Emergency” and Christopher Steiner’s $20 Per [...]
STAR Team chairman Bruce Adib-Yazdi wrote an op-ed for the editorial page of the Springfield News-Leader today about alternative transportation. It’s also a promo for the Ozarks New Energy Conference that will be held October 7-8 at Plaster Student Union at Missouri State University. I’ll be part of a panel discussion on alternative transportation on 7 October at 2:15 [...]
On my way to the STAR Team meeting yesterday afternoon I noticed a distinctive car in my mirror as I was riding downtown — a Miles Electric Car owned by fellow team member Rick Scarlet. Unlike the hybrids, this is an electric-only vehicle. And it is quiet. He and I have discussed before the possibility [...]
