LA by bicycle?

In the seven long years I lived in Los Angeles, I have to admit I never had a bike. It wasn't until I moved to NYC full-time that I discovered the joy and freedom of cycling in the city. This ARTICLE is optimistic about the future of cycling in LA . . . and it almost makes me want to move back to test the theory. Almost.

"Despite its reputation, L.A. is home to a large, diverse, and ever-growing population of cyclists. With pleasant weather year-round, mostly flat terrain, and an easily navigable street grid, L.A. is in many ways suited to cycling."

The canyons, on the other hand, would be a living hell.

It's time for Borough Quiz!! [gong]

Sights, Blights, and Hi-lights from NYC's fantastic five.

Every Monday (or so) I'm posting an off-the-beaten-path image of one of NYC's five fantastic boroughs and you get to guess WHICH IT IS!! This one is from a bike-ride I took yesterday . . . one that took me to FOUR of the FIVE!!

So, without further ado . . .

What's that borough?

Bronx
Brooklyn
Manhattan
Queens
Staten Island

Answer later in the week!

a little High Priestess of Soul in our hour of need.

Brilliance, thanks for the reminder Kevin . . . visionary, mad woman, deeply missed. I remember her live at the Hollywood Bowl. Enjoy.

Dallas' future looks green (?)

Way to go Dallas! Check out the renderings HERE.

This day in history. . .

More HERE on H.M.

"If a bullet should enter my brain, let that bullet destroy every closet door."

1978. . . SEVENTY-EIGHT!

RE-BURBIA WINNERS. Yes! [fist pump]

The winners of RE-BURBIA have been announced. I honestly don't know when it happened, but HERE they are and they are awesome!

"After a dizzying week of heated debate and lively discussion, Reburbia is very pleased to announce the winners of our month-long competition to redesign the suburbs! The competition called for design solutions that would address the problems that plague present-day suburbia by envisioning different scenarios for the future. Proposals tackled McMansions, big box stores, strip malls, parking lots and more with design fixes ranging from community agriculture and algae-based biofuels to transplanted tract developments and zeppelin-based transit."

I can see why the people's choice winner was so popular, and I love the one that's really just a zoning change.

CitiChix or UrbHen, I suppose.

Taking "buy local" to it's limit, some urban locavores are keeping coops in their city co-ops. HERE are the proud chickens from good.is

Who's got the wheel, here?

A worrisome article from Jon Walker via bluedoglake.

Here we go again. You listening, choir?

HERE's yet another attempt to explain the bigotry and ignorance that is passing for religious freedom . . . I don't know if it's the best article ever written on the topic, but it's clear and bears repeating.

"Here's what's going on here: Religious opponents of gay marriage don't have a good understanding of why a modern state should recognize civil marriage in the first place; they view marriage primarily as a religious tradition that has made their lives satisfying and secure and so they are most comfortable justifying it in terms of what's been -- this is one of the roles of a religious narrative. If they thought honestly and rigorously about the civil, rather than just religious, reasons why the state recognizes marriage today, they'd see that gay unions fit into those reasons in the modern world."

How many times must we lay this out? We can't wait for the lowest common denominator thinkers to catch up. That's why we have elected leaders. Or was.

Over my dead body. Literally.

The Catholic Church has issued an "Ethical and Religious Doctrine" banning the removal of feeding tubes under any condition in every Catholic Hospital, Nursing Home and Hospice. From firedoglake:

"The Bishops’ directive even notes that patient suffering is redemptive and brings the individual closer to Christ."

The kicker is that nothing -- not a signed will, not family, not government can intervene. In many communities, Catholic health services are the ONLY health services. So their religion is determining my rights. Time to stop government funding, if you ask me. Read the whole insane inhumane medieval story HERE.

It's the Community, stupid!

Saturday afternoon in Dublin when I was there this May
Saturday afternoon in an American suburb
Click HERE for a brilliant article Andy found. It lays out our American problem more succinctly and personally than any I've recently read.

"What's the cost for living our American way? It's not just the thousands of dollars for the second car, insurance and gas. We also have to support a lake of concrete around us - and gas, electric and sewer lines to stretch out past the near-vacant belts beyond the older suburbs. Property taxes in Almería on our condo are one-twelfth our taxes in Milwaukee, even though the value of the two homes is roughly the same.

One-twelfth. Oh, and they throw in free health insurance."

Really, read the whole thing HERE. I, of course, feel proud of the section about New York, but the thing is, it wouldn't be THAT hard to turn the beat around . . . look, Europe was destroyed after WWII, and it's really not about infrastructure -- it's about mindset. Buy local, go out, buy often, repair (don't replace), and demand service for loyalty. The infrastructure is crumbling anyway, and it's up to us to replace it with improvements.

GOP cements it's adherence to it's losing party line

From the NY Times, a memo is being circulated by top GOP leaders to clarify their conservative agenda.

"According to the resolution, any Republican candidate who broke with the party on three or more of these issues– in votes cast, public statements made or answering a questionnaire – would be penalized by being denied party funds or the party endorsement. The proposed resolution was signed by 10 Republican national committee members and was distributed on Monday morning. They are asking for the resolution to be debated when Republicans gather for their winter meeting."

Here is the resolution’s list, with my explanations in red for clarity:

(1) We support smaller government, smaller national debt, lower deficits and lower taxes by opposing bills like Obama’s “stimulus” bill;

[We hate socialist programs like street cleaning and education. We prefer wiretaps and wars.]

(2) We support market-based health care reform and oppose Obama-style government run health care;

[We are in the gauzy pockets of big pharma and big insurance. It's cozy.]

(3) We support market-based energy reforms by opposing cap and trade legislation;

[We are in the hot slick pockets of big energy. Smell those profits?]

(4) We support workers’ right to secret ballot by opposing card check;

[We support making it as hard as possible for workers to unionize, which is good for ... um ... EVERYBODY, right?]

(5) We support legal immigration and assimilation into American society by opposing amnesty for illegal immigrants;

[Despite Regan's signing of the largest amnesty bill in US history, the new Republican is now more terrified than ever of brown people. Even if they believe in Jesus.]

(6) We support victory in Iraq and Afghanistan by supporting military-recommended troop surges;

[How can anyone not love the ROMANCE of our boys and girls shipping out over and over again to maintain an ineffective "calm" in the middle east? It's SO AMERICAN!]

(7) We support containment of Iran and North Korea, particularly effective action to eliminate their nuclear weapons threat;

[Diplomacy is for sissies, creating generations of America-haters is much better for the future of the Military Industrial Complex.]

(8) We support retention of the Defense of Marriage Act;

[Gay people are immoral second-class citizens. Now where's my Grand Theft Auto? I want to simulate beating women and shooting cops.]

(9) We support protecting the lives of vulnerable persons by opposing health care rationing and denial of health care and government funding of abortion;

[We're scared of death, we're scared of choice, we're scared of change, and to protect ourselves from all this . . . ]

(10) We support the right to keep and bear arms by opposing government restrictions on gun ownership.

[You'll have to pry it from my cold dead hands. Or the hands of my cold dead child. Or the hands of a cold dead innocent bystander. Or the hands of a tax-paying terrified cold dead Iranian-American shopkeeper. Or the hands of a cold dead social worker. I could go on.]

Put your hands together for WHAT?

Holy crap, check it HERE.

"Leaders of the Church of Christ, Scientist, are pushing a proposal that would help patients pay someone like Lewis for prayer by having insurers reimburse the $20 to $40 cost.

The provision was stripped from the bill the House passed this month, and church leaders are trying to get it inserted into the Senate version. And the church has powerful allies there, including Sens. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.), who represents the state where the church is based, and Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah), who said the provision would "ensure that health-care reform law does not discriminate against any religion.""

Now I'm all for regrouping and looking inward every so often, and if it helps to still your hands from action by folding them together -- then be my guest, but if I can't get coverage for a massage, then you can't get reimbursed for your magic.

Ignorance Emporium

We need to take this very seriously. These people are only MOMENTARILY ashamed of their near complete ignorance, and they're motivated.

" ... to be honest, I don't really know what she knows and doesn't know ... I probably wouldn't know half the stuff somebody'd ask me."

Motivate. Call your representatives and voice your views, read news from diverse sources, and talk to your friends and relatives.

Nude Coke makes tons of eco-sense!

It's something I've always wondered about packaging: how much ink or paint is used and wasted and removed and sent to the groundwater for products we would recognize anyway? Well here are some answers and an elegant solution.

"So using only classic Coca-Cola's daily sales figures, that means 24,773,757,785 are sold every year. Twenty-four billion cans. That is indeed a lot of paint and paint removal products. Because this doesn't only affect the production. It also affects the recycling process, eliminating one step:"

I likey.

Five Monkeys Explain Public Policy

Yeah, except there are 538 of them in our cage.

Shrinking cities movement means farming Detroit?

THIS from newgeography is amazing. The basic idea: Farm the abandoned "urban prairie" that is the largely empty Detroit (see pic). Build a sustainable progressive web of urban villages surrounded by green belts, and be the first American city to be 100% self-sufficient in the food department!

"Detroit has achieved something unique. It has become the test case for all sorts of theories on urban decay and all sorts of promising ideas about reviving shrinking cities."

Read the whole article, it's worth it, but one of the more interesting points is that Detroit's fairly ineffective and myopic government is actually beneficial to the situation!

Buffett buys BNSF, passenger trains soon?

Very rich man Warren Buffett has bought the second largest North American trans-continental railroad, and admits that it's a gamble on the future success of American business. Is it possible he plans to use some tracks for passenger trains? That would be awesome. Trains are very green. And fun. The Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad went for 44 BILLION.

"The deal, which including Berkshire's previous investment and the assumption of $10 billion in Burlington Northern debt brings the total value to $44 billion, represents what Mr. Buffett said was a big bet on the United States."

HERE is the story in the NY Times.

People's Design Award 2009

The 2009 People's Design Award goes tooooooo . . . this cool city bike for, well, anybody.

"A simple city bike with an upright riding posture, the Lime uses Shimano's Coasting automatic three-speed transmission (a pretty complex system with a very simple user interface) and a back-pedal brake rather than hand levers."

I'm kind of uncertain whether I could count on an automatic transmission and pedal brakes when I'm flying and weaving down Second Ave., but that's why we need those 100 plus new miles of bike lanes that Janette Sadik-Kahn has proposed (and it just might happen since Bloomberg's still here and if the City Council doesn't sit on her all year).

Fun with emissions.

Visit this keen map and roll over the keys for the different renderings of clustered emission data.

"Emissions Map from the Global Climate Change Lobby"

Of particular interest: Check out how small Canada's overall emissions are, and then switch to per capita! China's overall emissions are the highest – scary until you switch again to per capita and see how insanely much EACH AMERICAN must be using. Now check out BRAZIL under each scenario! Unplug! Well, share this post and then unplug and then go for a bike ride :)

Philly cycles the most!

I've spent the week in Philly, and from the first I noticed the bikers. Lots of bikers. Not so many helmets, but lots and lots of bikers, and guess what?

"The Philadelphia Bicycle Coalition reports, based on a US Census survey, that Philadelphia is ranked number one among the ten largest US cities for bicycle commuters per-capita."

They are crazy with it! And I've been told that it is the same even when SEPTA is not on strike . . . which it is currently, so that has made it even BETTER! Go PHILLY!

It's a CONUNDRUM?

In a spectacular failure of television "journalism", the ladies of the View manage to back themselves into the God or Gays corner with the help of shiny bigot Pastor Joel Osteen and his apologetic brand of bland helpless hate.

"Homosexuality is not God's best . . . look, I've made mistakes too!"

Thanks ladies, for your enthusiastic invigorating panel discussion, and thanks, Pastor Joel, for sympathizing with the poor confused gays! You simpleton charlatan, you greedy whore of Jesus. I hope his mega-church loses it's tax-exempt status and implodes when the corrupt hearts of its parishioners are allowed to glow. That's all.

Librarian not wanted

What started as a community lending library -- a bunch of beer crates and used books -- became a fully stocked and self-sufficient outdoor public library. The facade of an old warehouse, and plenty of greenspace carve out a block of quiet community in the former East Germany.

Full gallery HERE

I love these projects that serve the community in a still, calm, democratic way.

The Story of Stuff

So this is not new news, or a new video, but it remains one of the best reminders of the death-grip stranglehold consumerism has on us. Simple and clear.

"THE STORY OF STUFF"

It should be required viewing for every American. It should pop on the television every night as a public service announcement, brought to you by the Dept. of Homeland Security. Al Gore didn't win the Nobel for Peace because there is no Nobel for Film, he won it because dwindling resources are a global security issue, and addressing massive American consumption is the first step we can take to ease tensions.

Sweet Sunny Italian Train

Very cool people-mover/ped. walkway/solar field in Bologna.

" . . .designed to speedily move people from the main train station in Bologna out to the airport with only one intermediate stop at Lazzaretto. It crosses over one major highway, spanning the stretch of road in a graceful arc. At each station a metal screen covered in vegetation protects passengers from the elements, and also helps filter the air, provide natural insulation and shade the platform."

Or they could all just drive separately and park in huge asphalt lots.

White Night

This is the color of the majority of space . . . and were it not for the continued expansion of the universe shifting light away from the visible spectrum, the night sky would be this color.

short explanation here

Unless of course the universe is just 6,000 years old and Jesus just made the sky black at night when the sun goes to bed so we could get some sleep!

There's no service on the downtown side.

Okay, okay, so this isn't new news, but I just can't get her out of my head, and I love her so much, so here she is Ladies and Gentlemen . . . and she's from Queens!

"You have to either come over here . . . there's no service over there."

It just cracks me up. Full stop.