U.S. Senate
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(D) J. Hickenlooper*
(R) Somebody
80%
20%
Governor
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(D) Joe Neguse
(D) Phil Weiser
(D) Jena Griswold
60%
60%
40%↓
Att. General
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(D) M. Dougherty
(D) Alexis King
(D) Brian Mason
40%
40%
30%
Sec. of State
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(D) George Stern
(D) A. Gonzalez
(R) Sheri Davis
40%
40%
30%
State Treasurer
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(D) Brianna Titone
(R) Kevin Grantham
(D) Jerry DiTullio
60%
30%
20%
CO-01 (Denver)
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(D) Diana DeGette*
(R) Somebody
90%
2%
CO-02 (Boulder-ish)
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(D) Joe Neguse*
(R) Somebody
90%
2%
CO-03 (West & Southern CO)
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(R) Jeff Hurd*
(D) Somebody
80%
40%
CO-04 (Northeast-ish Colorado)
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(R) Lauren Boebert*
(D) Somebody
90%
10%
CO-05 (Colorado Springs)
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(R) Jeff Crank*
(D) Somebody
80%
20%
CO-06 (Aurora)
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(D) Jason Crow*
(R) Somebody
90%
10%
CO-07 (Jefferson County)
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(D) B. Pettersen*
(R) Somebody
90%
10%
CO-08 (Northern Colo.)
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(R) Gabe Evans*
(D) Yadira Caraveo
(D) Joe Salazar
50%
40%
40%
State Senate Majority
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DEMOCRATS
REPUBLICANS
80%
20%
State House Majority
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DEMOCRATS
REPUBLICANS
95%
5%
May 16, 2009 04:04 PM UTC
73 Comments
The 2nd guy in this sure looks like him…
The CIO at the treasury department has asked us to come out and present Windward to a group of people in their department!!!
And a number of other departments (Interior and USDA are furthest along) are looking at it. Selling to the government isn’t hard – it’s selling to governments other than the feds that is difficult. (Try getting the State of Colorado to even look at something – ha ha ha ha.)
more here…
…women are so universally unreasonable!
It’s just that they’re always right 🙂
thanks for reminding me.
from the Boulder Daily Camera
These guys are phenominal teachers who have inspired a lot of students. And of course, the BVSD administration can’t have that…
But hey, it’s not like forcing out quality teachers matters…
FDR appointed Joe Kennedy as the first head of the SEC. Many said that was setting the fox to guard the henhouse but FDR saw that Kennedy knew all the tricks and so could be incredibly effective – and he was.
from Think Progress
We’ve often pointed this out on Pols, here is the video:
(My first attempt at embedding a Youtube; hold on…..)
Howard HillGlenn Beck says it’s gonna be worse than Watergate if we help Americans stay in their homes, promote healthcare for children……like our police and fire departments, roads,public schools, Medicare, and THE most socialized of all, the military.
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The International Community just had a donor conference to help stabilize Somalia, and collected almost $300 Million.
That money is mostly going to pay to keep a hated military force sent under the auspices of the African Union, troops from Burundi and Uganda, to prop up the imaginary government of Somalia.
None of it, $0, will go to the marginally functioning regional governments in Somaliland or Puntland.
Because of US deference to Egypt on the matter, the US will not recognize the governments of either of these regions.
The US lets Somalis starve because they are pawns in a water war between Egypt and Ethiopia. Egypt wants a unified Somalia to serve as a counterweight to Addis Ababa. So, for 19 years, and to punish all Somali people for the actions of a few back in 1993, we let them rot in anarchy.
The current wave of Piracy is simply payback for willful neglect. Just wait until Osama moves there and they get some real money to fund their efforts to pay us back.
For about $500 Million a year, we could turn the two autonomous regions into functioning countries, able to feed themselves. Or, for $2 Billion a year, we could patrol their coast with aircraft carriers. Tough choice.
Guess which one we chose, and we continue to pursue ?
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Barron, your intriguing post caused me to do a little research, and I found the American Chronicle and http://www.buzzle.com articles that expand on your information. Seems to be quite a debate between Dr. Muhammad Shamsaddin Megalommatis and Mr. Ahmed Ali Ibrahim Sabeyse over the matter.
While I’m not usually a Libertarian Non-Interventionist, I also ran across this seemingly informed piece from ReasonOnline. It mainly addresses the current piracy problem, but also provides interesting historical context dating back to Presidents Ford and Reagan’s failed attempts at RealPolitik in the region:
From the State Department’s backgrounder:
To be fair, neither Presidents Carter nor Clinton’s attempt at giving greater aid had any better results.
So from what I’ve read today, we appear to have an example of economically-rooted problems being vastly worsened by global political machinations, or if you will, The Butterfly Effect raised to the power of Murphy’s Law.
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the assumption that people of color are not human. We can exploit them, kill them, do whatever without any moral reservation.
When I was less interested in such things, I assumed it was mostly the “evil multinational corporations” that were so blase about the rights and dignity of Africans or Asians.
But this attitude is enshrined in our governmental institutions.
For all the distress I have over this “pro-Abortion” President (this truly does bother me,) I hold out great hope that this Administration will, over 4 years, change the part of our national paradigm that denies the humanity of anyone who gets in our way.
I hope that the initial concessions to a foreign policy of exploitation based on exceptionalism (staying the Bush course in Iraq, redoubling the Bush course in Afghanistan) are simply to coopt the GOP establishment,
and once he has his full team in place,
he will revert to the leader he campaigned as.
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… the less you have, the more you get abused. And yes, this typically happens to people (and nations) of color.
But chalk up one more “accomplishment” of the Bush/Cheney administration:
Barron, you give the perps – ahem, I’m sorry – the Bush Administration, too much credit in thinking they actually had a plan. But on the brighter side:
I have no doubt that Obama respects the humanity of the peoples of all nations. Righting our ship of state is a big job, and yes, Obama is currently making compromises that his pragmatic nature demand. With a little wind of success behind his back, I think his ability to affect even more change will increase.
I’m glad we Americans have finally made one breakthrough in electing our first non-white President. It’s a start.
http://www.boingboing.net/2009…
freedom from taxes that has us near the bottom in funding per pupil, free to spend more on in state university tuition than practically anywhere else, to have crumbling infrastructure, etc. etc. Just wondering.
Not “near the bottom.” We’ve increased per pupil funding nearly $1,200 in real, inflation adjusted dollars since 1996-97, from $6,873 to $8,035, according to the Dept. of Education. Besides, some of the best performing states also have the lowest funding per pupil. There just isn’t much correlation between funding and performance. Probably because states that spend the most (e.g., California, New Jersey, etc.) are captives of the teachers unions, who prevent any real reform.
That’s closer to the bottom than to the top.
Come back when you know how to count.
Its performance that is the measure of value here …. the data and facts you seek to move are just don’t deliver Ralphie. Your success in CA and NJ, fostered by NEA policies, have delivered DPS a raging graduation rate of nearly 70%.
http://www.denverpost.com/sear…
Some choice comments from the comments section of this article…
As if they have a pedigree of some kind?
By the way Libby–you never responded to my point. Is 36 closer to the bottom of 50 or the top?
If you are just counting numbers, the bottom. But if you are measuring funding differences, it’s possible (although very unlikely) for 49th to be closer to 1st than 50th.
And then do you measure based on cost of living (ie the same money in NYC does not buy what it does here), or productivity per dollar, or…
With all that said I’ll agree that money put towards education here is low. But until they can both show a relationship between funding and effectiveness, and they compensate based on results, I have a hard time getting upset over this.
Because doubling school funding won’t solve the big problems facing schools.
http://www.cta.org/NR/rdonlyre…
And it’s funny how you righties defend Colorado schools’ low ranking by claiming funding doesn’t matter while attacking them under all other circumstances. Kind of like how you insist we never tortured, just like honest GW said, that waterboarding isn’t torture and then turn around and argue torture is fine because it works and if we stop using it we’re all going to die.
Oh and in how many other states do you suppose you can pay less for out of state tuition at public University in Wyoming than what you’d have to pay for your kids to attend their own state’s public universities? Why don’t you look that one up while you’re at it.
From an Aspen Daily News Staff Report, Saturday, May 16, 2009
http://www.aspendailynews.com/…
Well, the headline made me stop and read the story……
for Texas secession:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/…
Have fun, Texas.
If I had time I’d look up the classic number folks always want to know about their own localities – does Texas get back more federal money than it pays in to the US Treasury?
http://www.taxfoundation.org/r…
They’re one of the only red states to do so.
I’d happily pay extra in taxes to make up for it, though.
As the wordsmiths among you know, there are many, many English words that are orphans — perfectly good words that have never been adopted by Meanings.
Take snag, sneg, snig, snog, snug, for example. The middle words, perfectly good, have never been adopted. They are lonely and bereft. The heart bleeds.
Meantime, there are meanings equally in need of words. For example, take the gerund that means simultaneously bloviating and orally flatulating on a blog such as this one. Should we introduce this concept to the word bofing? Or should we try to arrange a meeting with bofbing (the second ‘b’ specifying on a blog, as opposed to bofing on a streetcorner on top of a soapbox, which would be bofsing.
I realize there are many word orphans and meaning-orphans out there. ColoradoPols participants could perform a public service by proposing some matches which Verbal Welfare Department authorities could consider and possibly arrange in Word Welfare Court.
http://www.urbandictionary.com…
How sad. Snogging is fun.
Didn’t realize our JO is such an innocent!
Boffing (from the same source)
45 minutes to make a flight & hotel reservation
but you save a lot of money. It’s really annoying to have a travel agent tell you about flights without actually knowing what’s available. You knew Frontier had the direct flight you wanted, for example; what if a travel agent hadn’t bothered to look? What’s the alternative to booking your tickets on the web, aside from trusting a travel agent and paying him/her extra fees?
I’ve noticed any time I do anything a little complicated (like a multicity itinerary), the different websites all have different results. My favorite is cheaptickets.com, though Orbitz often works well, and Priceline is great if you’re flexible. I usually use Expedia just for comparison purposes, but I’ve never been thrilled with it.
I just want a website that works. It’s nuts that Expedia fails, and fails toward the end after you’ve invested a bunch of time. Writing code like this is not that hard.
details here – BlackBerry sucks
Norway wins. This is a UK centric article on it – http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvs… but is I think the best summation with typical dry British humor.
Experience and jumping to conclusions:
Saturday evening. Enter King Soopers for a short list. One staffed checkout (never mind why I wasn’t using the self-checkout…I didn’t want to). Line, baskets to the brim.
BUT, lots of young ‘uns in blue jackets milling about the service desk. Being the way I am, I asked the senior person on the floor: how come just one lane staffed with so many people milling around? (Not my exact words, but this is a family Web site.)
Answer: “They are in training.”
Were these the infamous temporary “replacement” workers, aka SCABS?
Has anyone else had a similar experience, most likely at odd hours? Is it time to let Kroger management know that we are watching, waiting, ready to pounce on a boycott immediately, for as long as it takes and in a loud and obnoxious manner (comes naturally to some of us, lessons and examples may be required for others)? Must we wait until a bloody strike, or are there steps to be taken now to be of assistance in altering the outcome to the benefit of Local 7? Are there some on this site better informed about this than I? I imagine Local 7 is under various restraints in this matter at this time; perhaps well informed individuals would care to step forward with knowledable advice and information.
Hoping we can use this site as one, perhaps one of several, intelligence gathering arm on a labor issue right before our eyes.
From a letter to the editor in the Post-Independent this morning…
*but that doesn’t mean we will
– h/t to the Daily Show
Ok, newspapers are going away. They’ve been given clear notice that they have 3 – 5 years tops and aren’t making any real changes. So they’re history.
Book publishers clearly are tee-ed up to be next. The Kindle and Apple’s upcoming book reader will remove all value of a publisher except editing. Even the occasional large advance for a big name author can be done by anyone once the publishers lose their central spot.
But who’s next? My guess is the phone companies. We’ll still need the wire to the house for a data pipe. And the wireless connection for our mobile devices. But that’s a small part of Qwest’s, AT&T’s, etc. numbers. All the rest I think will start to go away. And that is going to cause major financial havoc in the telecom provider industry.
1. BIG exception.
2. First value: Choosing what’s worthwhile to publish (I know, editors do that too, but it’s a different sense of editing). Vanity publishing has been around for a long time; produce(s)(d) very few significant works that I know of.
3. In the case of books, at least, maybe what goes away is the printing industry, rather than the publishing industry at the same time as largely untrammeled copyright violations carried out through free copying also goes away, either through technology or through a few well-publicized free nights in federal prison.
4. “We’ll still need the wire to the house…” Will we? Do we now?
5. If the state of Colorado and [FILL IN BLANK] County think they are obligated to provide public libraries, schools without tuition and paved roads without tolls, why do they not think they are obligated to provide WiFi everywhere at the same user price, i.e. $0.00? The structure of the telephone infrastructure was deliberately designed in the first decade of the 20th century as a monopoly in private hands in exchange for close regulation. Now, for the most part, we have the replacement technology run as a monopoly in private hands (viz. Comcast) with no regulation. Rationale: Initially the wires were used to transport movies and television programs, they are “entertainment,” and therefore outside the jurisdiction of the FCC–and therefore free from regulation by local authorities either! Talk about your organic corporations–cow manure upon cow manure! Whew!
Vanity publishing used to be small because of distribution issues, not because it was all crap (granted, 95% was crap). But there are numerous cases now of people turned down by publishers who self-published and got enough interest that they then had publishers rushing to pick them up.
And at the same time, publishers get it wrong more often than not. They lose money on the majority of the books they publish and depend on the ones that go gangbusters to make up the difference.
I think with the barriers now so low we will see more people go direct. And if publishers lose 10% of the blockbusters to self publishing, they’re no longer profitable.
There are also whole other categories, such as “How-tos,” that aren’t blockbusters but are profitable year after year. Publishers can, and do, distribute these electronically–for money, as well as in print. Dictioneries come to mind. Cookbooks. Children’s literature. And all this completely ignores the importance of marketing in making a book a blockbuster or a dust-collector. In the “anyone can do it” world of posting (as opposed to publishing), (a) works that require a lot of work to put together dwindle, (b) casual browsers have no real way of knowing whether the Instructions on How to Install Your Personal Nuclear Generator are valid or not.
The fact that something can be done doesn’t mean it will be done on a mass scale, especially in areas where expertise makes a difference. Otherwise, build-your-own-house kits would be flying off the shelves at Home Depot, recorded music would have no role since electronic keyboards can be had at low cost (cf pianos), ditto artistry now that paint sets are equally cheap. The list is endless.
I know from earlier discussions on Wiki-journalism that you’re a big believer in Amateur Hour replacing existing newspapers and professional journalism. Why shouldn’t the same be true of “books.” And software publishing? (Ok, it is…Linux, Mozilla I guess are good examples. Surprised that Microsoft is still in business!) Point being, of course, that some consumers appreciate–and will pay for–the value of evaluation beforehand.
On the other hand, presumably you are now making your own ice-cream at home, now that refrigeration is available? That solves one future problem related to transportation! Whew!
PS: I presume you are having us on this weekend, David. Give the blowhards a chance to let off steam, relieve the pressure in their crania… It’s a public service; someone’s got to do it. You are kind to be the one.
Writing most books is 2 people, the author and the editor. In my case the main editing was my wife but for most others they will have to find someone for that.
But to market it, I think that will become much more a word of mouth effort than in the past and I don’t see publishers having a major hand in that. Because the author best knows how to reach potential readers.
I’m not saying publishers will go away like newspapers. But I think they will become very different creatures. And that change is going to kill a number of them because they will become more of a service organization rather than the gatekeeper.
ps – Happy to be blogging, I’m running lots of unit tests and have to keep killing 12 minutes.
Along with newspapers and book publishing, reporting software designed to use Microsoft Office as the design tool is headed for the graveyard — some say in three years, some say in five.
I know this because I’m an expert in fields I know nothing about except when I am bored and feel like pontificating about them on a blog.
But mark my words, reporting engines are toast.
And we’re working on what comes next. That is why companies like Microsoft and Google do well, instead of protecting their products they try to put themselves out of business.
The core problem newspapers have is that they only trust experts in their field. And that’s why they have no idea why they are going out of business.
We now hire 1 intern a year who has just graduated from High School and is starting C.U. in the fall – because someone 21 years old is unlikely to think of things a 19 year old will.
Age and experience are valuable, but youth an inexperience is equally valuable because they don’t know what is impossible and they don’t know the “right” way to do things.
This is why we send the 5-year-old to get the ice cream, because the 7-year-old “knows” it’s a long way and the ice cream is likely to melt (and besides, is awfully busy preparing for an internship with your company next year!).
I think you’ll find, when it comes to newspapers turning for business advice, they tend to trust 3-year-olds more often than they do 5-year-olds.
When business is static then experience and skill is about all that matters. And if that was how it worked in the high-tech industry I would be sitting real good.
But when the world is changing fast, that same skill and experience is a giant detriment in a lot of ways. It doesn’t mean it is of no use, but it has to be balanced with those that are new to the game.
This is why you see very young people starting successful companies like Facebook, Twitter, etc. Google was started by 2 guys still in College and they are old because they were grad students. (There’s one upcoming Silicon Valley startup where the founder dropped out of High School to start it.)
This is also why Microsoft hires senior executives out of very different industries, because it brings in someone who does have experience, but is new to the high tech industry and as such is not as locked in to the standard way of doing things.
Many people dislike the idea that those who have not paid their dues get to jump to the front of the line. Me, I’ll always go for whatever gives me the best advantage in business.
“Newspapers” are indeed rather like books in one respect: many people don’t spend time with them in light of alternatives. Old habits die hard, but they do die.
For papers, the much bigger issue is that their business model evolved to depend on large display ads for geographically based retailers, an endangered species, and for classifieds, whereas Web pages are not nearly as successful at (more or less) compelling readers to see the ad while looking for/at the story, PLUS, the entire category of classifieds was literally stolen away by Craig’s List. One-two punch, neither having to do with the role of reporters or of newspapers in organizing news coverage. Newapaper companies have yet to discover a business model to make the Web work, though not lack of trying. It’s not at all as if they aren’t aware of these issues but, like prehistoric beasties, can’t get their heads up from grazing on endangered plant species.
Newspapers still fulfill their traditional role as collectors and purveyors of “what’s new?” It’s only their technology–printing on paper and hiring people to throw a copy onto the driveway–in which the ‘net is a challenge; that and the ability of consumers to order a vast range of products (books for example) from a “retailer” located in Seattle. Put another way, it’s retail shopping on the Web that’s killing newspapers!
In that respect, the Kindle et al. could be a great blessing for book publishers, since they don’t need to invest money upfront in print runs. Book publishing is quite different than it’s younger and dying first cousin, music publishing, in this respect: in music, the old model was that in order to buy one song you had to pay $15 for which you got 14 others you didn’t really care about. That’s what went away with the iPod, which wasn’t so much a technology for listening as it was a model for buying and delivering songs to consumers one at a time–rather like a throwback to the old 45s.
The “expertise” discussion is nonsense, as I’m sure you know. BUT, the point needs to be made that what makes newspapers invaluable in a democratic society is that they hire people to spend all day, every day, “reporting” on a whole range of subjects, government in particular. Wiki-journos can have coffee with someone at their leisure, report back on what they said, and go off to their day jobs… but the whole adversarial model is missing, and (sadly) it shows. Moreover, more sophisticated readers have a sense when the reporter/writer is (or is not) on the payroll of the subject of the story; no way of knowing that about the author of the Wiki article on say, basement nuclear generators. I wouldn’t start buying nails for the coffins of “newspapers” quite yet–especially national papers like the WSJ and NYT–IF they can bridge the financial gap between dependence on display ads and collecting revenue from Web versions. For local rags like the Post, I’d expect to see national & international coverage go away entirely in short order with unque emphasis on state and local government.
That all said, the quality of journalism in Denver and the Front Range is really appalling. Of course there are individual exceptions in the form of talented reporters, but most of those have long hankered to get a job at the Tribune, Post, Times, maybe Globe, the other Times–and the good ones have. Denver is some sort of second-stage newspaper town–better than the Town Crier, but far, far from Major League Dailies. Perhaps a good example of the five year olds putting out the product, as it were. BUT, even in the face of that, when was the last time a blog uncovered something new that really made a difference? To say nothing of local TV journalism, which in these parts is the worst I’ve ever seen by a country (or urban) mile.
Batteries — to power all our portable devices, from cell phones to automobiles.
Distributed power sources — small wind turbines for individual office buildings and homes, more efficient solar panels, perhaps even the small nuke generators by a company featured in today’s Denver Post. Or possibly the easiest, Residential Fuel Cells hooked up to your existing natural gas line.
We are in a period of creative economic havoc, and in 25 years, I doubt that most of the current Fortune 500 companies will even exist (which is healthy overall).
…at least big enough to power, say, the computer and LED lighting, if not the electric stove/oven, clothes dryer, dishwasher, and walk-in freezer (mine holds 3,000 gal. of ice cream with room for lots more!). I already have a personal nuclear generator in the basement…boy does that baby glow when we’re cookin’ and dryin’ the clothes and stockin the freezer with a week’s worth of ice cream, all at the same time! And I love my crank-and-glow camp light–wind ‘er up, read 1 page on the Kindle, wind ‘er up, read the next page, wind, read, wind, read, wind, etc. Only downside: had to buy special shirts to accommodate my jumbo right forearm (that’s the one that does the winding). Popeye on radioactive steroid-spinach, that’s me!
(I narrowly escaped arrest this weekend for hanging clothes outside to dry and washing the dishes by hand. Thank God my Certified- Nut-Case status got me off the hook!)
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Hyperion reactors are designed to be removed from the ground, returned to the factory and refueled every 7 to 10 years, not every 30 years.
Each reactor is supposed to produce about 70 MW Thermal, 25 MW electrical. I think that’s in the range of power produced by reactors on aircraft carriers and subs. But with a different fuel and very different technology.
And the entire planet depends on the US NRC to review and approve designs. Even China and Botswana. So there is little chance of another country starting to manufacture these before NRC approval.
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I heard Area 51 is scheduled to be open shortly as Las Vegas West, and thus locals were resisting plans for Yucca Mountain to be converted into Mt. Glowinthedark. What’s the status of that issue, and how (if at all) does it affect development of nuclear power as an alternative to coal, a la La France?
So finding alternative storage is still one of the biggest problems with expanding our nuke energy sources.
The small nukes like Hyperion’s recycle most of their fuel, so are not quite the waste generators that older technologies are.
But their stuff is still several years away, and the happy-talk in the article was mostly to help raise funds, both private and from the stimulus package, so skepticism is warranted.
…the wind generators. Most places the wind is too intermittent for that to make sense. But localized power generation from solar to nuclear to wave will be gigantic.
And the combination of all this local generation and electric powered cars where they also become a storage system for excess generation at off-peak hours means will we reduce a lot of the need for long distance power transfer.
So 25 years from now who will still be around? Easily General Electric, Disney, Microsoft, & Google.
Who will be gone? Qwest, most every newspaper company, GM/Ford (that’s easy), Sears, & Motorola.
… but when my wife and I were there at the ceremonies, the wind turbines were spinning silently all day long.
Of course HOA’s that freak out over solar panels would be apoplectic over propeller head homes. But we have lived with ugly powerlines for a century, so I don’t think it’s such a big deal.
http://www.nbc11news.com/home/…
a governor representing the Janet Rowland wing of the Mesa County Republican Party?
Vauban being a German suburb (!) where there are no cars on the street, no garages attached to the houses. Homeowners pay $40k for a parking space on the edge of town–and only about half do. City of the dead? No, but it is a town where they live without cars. (Whether they eat ice cream &/or play soccer, you’ll have to read the NYT feature on the place at http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05… )
A tornado destroyed about 95% of the city 2 years ago. Today, the city (about 400 miles east of Denver) is perhaps the greenest in the nation (talk about creative destruction!). They even have their own Discovery Channel show.
CU-Denver’s School of Architecture was there 2 weeks ago to present their designs for rebuilding the homes to LEED – Platinum level.
Also on that 2nd anniversary of the tornado, the biggest company in town – BTI, a John Deere regional distributor, dedicated their huge new LEED – Platinum building which utilizes wind turbine power.
John Deere and BTI have started that as a new line of business as well. It’s really encouraging to see that kind of vision for two very old companies.
Makes me wonder about planned communities like Stapleton and Lowry in Denver…about which I know absolutely nothing except the names. Were these planned as green developments, at least within their confines, where people could walk or bike to stores, and where telecommuters or home-office workers could, at least in theory, go for weeks without setting foot inside a car (except for the ambulance carting them off to a locked ward for observation…)?
If not, one wonders why not. And if so, one wonders whether other neighborhoods in other towns/cities/urban metropolises could be retrofitted (along with the houses) for car-free living (ice cream delivered by special vans every day at 5 p.m. sharp), and whether this shouldn’t be a priority project(s) for Loopdelooper et al. The knowledge is out there…what seems lacking is the Determination to Make It Happen.
were designed along New Urbanism principles, and can conceivably be navigated without a car for most of life’s necessities. There’s one thing you can’t get though: ice cream. And that’s why America will never live like communists.
You can actually meet and get to know your neighbors without driving over to their home.
We’ve enjoyed that about our little neighborhood for the last 15 years.
Pretty much anything is within a mile of our home, which ironically was considered the ‘burbs 80 years ago when it was built.
Back in the day growing up in Chicago, Dad had the one car most days and Mom did most of the shopping in the neighborhood on foot. We’d go from little store to store, butcher, bakery, grocery, deli, etc. Knew everyone in our immediate area. Even as very little kids we could walk down the alley to the park or to the corner store for candy without adult supervision. Everything old is new again except the letting kids have some independence part. That was sweet.
Here’s the Wikipedia entry for New Urbanism.
Until the late ’50’s my dad was a shopkeeper in Atlanta, and he took me on walks to the grocery store, the movie theater and to the park. My elementary school was only two blocks away, and we lived right on Bankhead Highway (which was a lot like Colorado Blvd is today) where the old trolley line used to run.
Probably why we wound up in the same type of neighborhood here in Denver.
is pretty much what I was talking about, too. Not that everything about the era was so great (segregation, gentlemen’s agreements, the state of dentistry, scarlet fever for instance) but it was still nice to grow up during the 50s and 60s when kids were allowed to have their own world, the neighborhood really WAS a village, so someone’s big brother or sister or older cousin was always around to keep an eye out for the littler ones and we got to direct our own play and social interactions. We learned a valuable thing or two about life and self reliance and I also don’t remember anywhere near as much asthma. What’s up with that?
Blv I’ve read (which makes it true, with or without editors) that the latest trend is for people to move back into cities and away from the ‘burbs, for just the reasons you list. [“Know from whence cometh thy food.” “Why, from Monella’s Meats, where else. I’ve known Sal the Butcher ever since 6th grade.”] Smaller groceries, for example, doesn’t mean you can’t grow obese and still enjoy doing so. I’ve been in quite a few Whole Foods, for example, built around old-timey smaller neighborhood grocers. By far superior to the GigaBoxes, except they don’t carry the 35-gal. containers of ice cream.
Doesn’t have to be Manhattan to be urban; could be Brooklyn! Or Cambridge/Boston. Even Boulder. Let’s concede a concept like Zip cars for those occasions when you want to lug home a new freezer from Loew’s as an Emergency Ice-Cream Storage Device–tough to load those onto the bus!
Actually, this will happen/is already happening as Americans fall out of love with their gasoline-powered PTS (personal transit systems). Politicos with foresight can encourage it, partly with zoning and moves like closing streets to all but bicycle & foot traffic (maybe SwizzleSticks and electric carts for those w/ special needs), and –the Big One–spend money on trolleys instead of widening the roads.
Note to self: Research whether they play soccer in Vauban, Germany.
from Keith Olbermann
More fragmentation. More of everyone getting all their info from their chosen echo chambers. Less public square where we share at least some of our news sources. More division between those with internet access and those without. More people getting no news, not even running into some on TV once in a while or picking up a paper in a waiting room or diner. Scary.