Better Block Project -- $1,000 and two days to a better block!

Looky here!  I'm proud of TEXAS?  Yes, yes I am.  Proof that anyone can get these concepts :)  I kid Texas, we love each other.  And the work done here was not expensive, horrifying, or impossible.  Ask Janet Sadik-Kahn in NYC.  We get it.  You can too.

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Gas(p)

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Earth Day Messages

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Amazing open letter to Tea Partiers:

The only thing I'd add is an explanation of the use of the word czar in contemporary American governance.  It enrages me when they get their cozies in a bunch over the simple appointments of czars.

Anyhoo, here it is from Mother Mary:

Dear “proud Tea Party protester”:

You say you love freedom, but you never protested in 2006 when George W. Bush repealed habeas corpus and posse comitatus, rights first guaranteed by the Magna Carta.

You say you’re in favor of smaller government, but you never protested when George W. Bush expanded it. Or when George H.W. Bush expanded it. Or when Ronald Reagan expanded it. Or when Richard Nixon expanded it. Or when Dwight Eisenhower expanded it.

You say you’re in favor of democracy, but when Dubya was selected by the five members of the Supreme Court installed by Republican presidents, one of them Dick Cheney’s close personal friend, you never protested.

Parking capped in Hudson Yards!! Happy Earth Day!!

In a bold and promising move, the Hells Kitchen Neighborhood Alliance has pushed through winning mandates for off-street parking in the up-and-coming Hudson Yards area (one relatively insane concept rendering shown at left).

"The amendments put a "hard cap" on the total number of off-street parking spaces that can be built in the Hudson Yards special district: 6,905. "If a new developer comes in and says normally he's entitled to have 300 parking spaces, if the cap has already been reached, he won't be able to build those spaces," said Christine Berthet, co-founder of HKNA. Before the lawsuit, the city was poised to allow as many as 17,500 new parking spaces in the area."

SEVENTEEN THOUSAND?  Insane.  Thank god this worked out, and let's hope the trend continues and spreads to effective and steep congestion pricing!

"In addition, the amendment eliminates parking minimums and lowers parking maximums in the area. Developers who want to build less parking will have that option, while those who want to overload their site with spaces will be prohibited from doing so."

Bravo. The numbers that have been allowed also help the city comply with the Clean Air Act.  Going over these limitations would have certainly violated it. 

Suck on that Sheldon Silver.

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Culture of Innovation at the heart of Bloomberg's PlaNYC

As Earth Day approaches, new numbers have been released for Bloomberg's forward-thinking PlaNYC.  The program was launched three years ago on Earth Day, and it's multiple initiatives are bearing some impressive fruit. 

• 100,000 affordable housing units created or preserved
• 319,054 trees planted and 113 schoolyards-to-playground sites opened
• 200 miles of bicycle lanes installed and a bike-access law enacted
• 86 energy-efficiency projects completed as part of plan to reduce City government energy use 30% by 2017
• 25 percent of the yellow taxi fleet converted to hybrid vehicles
• 9 percent decrease in citywide carbon emissions due to cleaner power generation and less sulfur hexafluoride release

At the heart of the plan is tireless planning, extensive data collection, and establishing a "culture of innovation" within city government that previously was not encouraged.

"But Mayor Bloomberg took care not to over-manage the process from the top down. Instead, he hired the most talented staff he could find and encouraged a culture of innovation, empowering city staff to experiment with new ideas—and giving them permission to be bold and take risks. This is a major distinction to the business-as-usual approach so common in jurisdictions around the country."

Other cities are following suit using the PlaNYC model HERE.

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Self-Propelled -- Unauthorized trolleys on Manila's rail lines makes a living for some

Watch this short documentary on an amazing and somewhat terrifying business that has sprouted up in the Philippines to combat congestion on city streets: 

DOCUMENTARY HERE

As it turns out, this isn't an industry without precedent . . . handcars or pumpcars, or jiggers . . . or KALAMAZOOS, have existed as long as rails themselves, and one human carrying another may just be the second oldest profession.

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Energy Star Falling

In the wake of an almost-unbelievably horrid review from the Government Accountability Office, the Energy Star program looks as if it's in for a complete overhaul.  Fifteen fake products were submitted for Energy Star certification, and all were accepted.  Here's the rub:  One was a gasoline-powered alarm clock, and one was

"an air cleaner that was actually a space heater with a feather duster and fly strips taped to it."

Hilarious.  And sad.  And another reason to fear big bureaucracy.

The reforms are being spearheaded by Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine.  Full story HERE from physorg.com
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Dirty Little War - Hard to think about

If you had ANY doubt about how dirty our current little war is, take a minute to plod through this. Two Reuters employees, two children, two Apache Helicopters.. Guess who won? Heartbreaking.

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Oldie but a goodie

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Just the clothes on my back

How cool is this Jacket/Sleeping Bag/Tent combo?  I want it, but I'm a little worried about the usefulness of the screening though. . . .and where do those support pole thingies get stored when you're a jacket?  Still.

Thru coolmaterial.com 

UPDATE:  also really really want!!  Also from COOLMATERIAL

 
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