Perceptions of Sustainability Sustainability is the paradigm of our age.i Architects, urban planners, real estate developers, technology companies, college campuses, food distributors, nearly everyone is doing it. Regrettably, conversation surrounding sustainability is commonly directed at one, shallow resolve: proclaiming whether something is or is not sustainable. Use these biodegradable sponges, they’re sustainable! Don’t buy a […]
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On the Map by Simon Garfield (Book Review)
(This book was first reviewed here by Jeffrey Barke in April 15, 2013. This is a second review). To satisfy our curiosity and wanderlust humans need two things, new modes of transportation and maps. Our proclivity to chart and map the world around us can be traced back to Babylonians, who divided a circle into 360 degrees, which […]
(In)formality (In)justice
As many New Yorkers know, the rent is too damn high. The neighborhoods of New York have always been dynamic and ever-changing, and today, this continues to be true, but perhaps, on a level unforeseen in recent memory. Many are being priced out of our neighborhoods that they’ve lived in, sometimes for generations. So I asked Jimmy […]
Very Important Maps
I have been a terrible blogger of late. Consider this an apology. And a celebration of maps.
Downtown Brooklyn Chain Store Surge
DNA Info recently reported that there is a chain store “surge” going on in Downtown Brooklyn. Based on a 2013 report by Center for an Urban Future, national chain stores such as H&M, TJ Maxx, Nordstrom Rack, and Sephora are making beachheads in places such as the Fulton Mall. Overall, Brooklyn saw the […]
Brooklyn’s 1938 “Redline” Map
During the middle of the 20th-century, America’s urban cores were being gutted through fiscal attrition: tax dollars were being sent, for the first time, out and away from cities to subsidize suburban expansion. At the same time, private financial institutions were pulling their funding away from urban home-buyers, business owners and those wishing to refinance […]
STROLLS UPON OLD LINES: Crow Hill and Some of Its Suggestions.
The Bedford Hills - A Region Now Traced by the Eastern Parkway The Genesis of a Name - French’s Stopping Place. [editor note: this article was first published in thee 1888 Brooklyn Daily Eagle. Article was retrieved from http://eagle.brooklynpubliclibrary.org and transcribed by PlaNYourCity] There was a rhyme in one of the children’s magazines […]
Counting the Carbon Foot Prints and Changing Our Behavior!
In a recent discussion with a planner the question of over-consumption came up and how it impacts the health of our planet. It is understood that we consume more raw materials than a sustainable eco-system can provide for. In 2007 our (global) Ecological Foot Print was 1.5 planet earth, i.e. we consumed earth’s resources 1.5 times faster than the earth […]
EVENT: From Memory 9/13/13-10/19/13
From Memory is an exhibit of drawings (from memory) of the United States by famous artists. It is on view at Sean Kelly gallery (475 Tenth Avenue, Chelsea, Manhattan) from September 13 through October 19, with an opening reception on September 12 from 6–8pm. The drawings were done in the early 1970’s by a number […]
Wrapup Friday – May 31st
This one goes out to all my nerdz… Unless you have been living in mud shelter in southern California with George and Oscar Bluth (a Season 4 reference for non-Netflix users), then you must have heard about the latest Google Street View-related game GeoGuesser. GeoGuesser drops you into the middle of nowhere (or somewhere) and you […]
