Exclusives
BLOG POST
ABC DOA ASAP
The <a href="http://www.seeing-stars.com/TVstudios/ABC.shtml#EntertaimentCenter">ABC Entertainment Center</a> in LA is being <a href="http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-mystery19jun19,1,7452818.story?coll=la-headlines-california">demolished</a>? Why does no one discuss these things with me? Well, okay, to be fair, <a href="http://blogging.la/">Blogging LA did</a>.<br /> <br /> Man, I loved that place when I was a kid. It wasn't just the futuristic-by-way-of-the-1960s architecture, or the ability to gape up through the tiers of shops and see the aluminum-framed Century City towers.
BLOG POST
Chicago's Millennium Park
It's behind schedule, over budget, and, thanks to celebrity architect Frank Gehry, looks more than a little <em>familiar,</em> if you know what I mean. It's soon to open, and thanks to reader (and my cousin) Vanessa Jones, you can see lots of good construction pictures <a href="http://www.landofwee.com/images/millpark/millennium_park.html">here</a>. Thanks, Vee.<br /> <br />
BLOG POST
Commercial Space Flight
Mojave, Calif. - This morning I watched a space ship take off. The SpaceShipOne, designed by Burt Rutan and funded by Microsoft gazillionaire Paul Allen, made it to just above 100 km (62 miles or, according to the rocket's own systems, 328,491 feet). That's space, baby: high enough so pilot Mike Melvill could see "white clouds above the LA basin [that] looked like snow on the ground."<br /> <br /> The craft, carried to 50,000 feet by a mother ship called the White Knight (it looks a lot like the White Star from <a href="http://www.infinicorp.com/VEX/starships/white-star-medium-cruiser.htm"><em>Babylon 5</em></a>
BLOG POST
CORE.GOV Sure Sounds Cool
David Flether's <a href="http://radio.weblogs.com/0110120/">Government and Technology Weblog</a> frequently makes for great reading. Today he discusses <a href="https://www.core.gov/">CORE.GOV - Component Organization and Registration Environment</a>.<br /> <br /> CORE.gov uses the <a href="http://www.collab.net/products/enterprise_edition/index.html">CollabNet SourceCast</a> tool for sharing and tracking business and technical components available as part of the Federal Enterprise Architecture.<br /> <br /> Now I'm not sure I entirely understand this, since it is heavily buzzworded: <br /> <br /> <blockquote><img src="https://www.
BLOG POST
PostGIS - Geographic Objects In PostgreSQL
Five years ago, in an article titled "<a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20011122182720/linuxpower.org/display.php?id=143">GRASS Is Now Greener</a>" [Linuxpower, Oct 1999] , I had written about the significance of the <a href="http://grass.itc.it/grass51/index.html">GRASS</a> GIS being released under the GPL and the potential of combining the newly "open-sourced" GIS with the open source MySQL database. A reader had commented that the open source <a href="http://www.postgresql.org/">PostgreSQL</a> database was more commonly used with GRASS.
BLOG POST
More on active surfaces
This from reader Matt Bai, who responds to my observation that all the buildings in Times Square are coated with animated, lighted advertising signage: "I noticed the same thing when I was staying in Times Square recently. It's like a sci fi movie--everything is live action distraction. (I just coined that term, <br /> by the way--live action distraction. I want to be credited in your blog.)"<br /> <br /> Okay, Matt. There you go.
BLOG POST
Invest in GoreTex
We knew about <a href="http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=5NMBENMBBXMO2CRBAELCFEY?type=scienceNews&storyID=5408235">this</a> already - Reuters is reporting yet another United Nations report that says global warming and population growth are increasing vulnerability to floods. This time they say there'll be 1 billion people exposed to the threat by 2050.<br /> <br /> I didn't go back and re-read before posting, but if I remember right that's much the same as what the Pew Oceans Commission said about <a href="http://www.pewoceans.org/reports/water_pollution_sprawl.pdf">coastal sprawl</a>
FEATURE
Hayek's View of New Urbanism
BLOG POST
Building for Quakes
San Francisco - The current issue of <em>Science</em> has an interesting Policy Forum laying out some of the challenges of building in earthquake country (fulltext <a href="http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/304/5677/1604">here</a>; pdf <a href="http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/reprint/304/5677/1604">here</a>). The salient point:<br /> <br /> <blockquote>...basic data and analysis are lacking for how buildings and structures perform under the extreme loads produced by earthquakes. Some experts think structural damage prediction models are based largely on opinion. Application of laboratory data is difficult because of soil- structure interactions and difficulties simulating excitations at high frequencies. These limitations are increasingly important as the postearthquake performance goal for critical buildings moves toward immediate occupancy and functionality.</blockquote>
BLOG POST
First Public Sector Planning Blog
Kevin Leeson, Special Projects Coordinator and Chris Alvarado, Associate Senior Planner, setup and run the <a href="http://planning.co.cuyahoga.oh.us/blog/">Cuyahoga County Planning Commission Weblog</a>. As far as I know, this is the first public-sector planning blog in existence.<br /> <br /> The purpose of the Cuyahoga County Planning Commission Weblog primarily is to act as a news gathering and dissemination resource for the Greater Cleveland and Cuyahoga County planning community, which includes 59 communities, cities, villages and townships.
BLOG POST
Urban Metaphors For Data Visualization
<a href="http://www.visitorville.com/">VisitorVille</a> is a website log analysis program that uses an <a href="http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,63767,00.html?tw=wn_tophead_1">graphical urban metaphor</a> to visualize website traffic flow.<br /> <img src="http://www.planetizen.com/tech/files//200406609-visitorville.jpg" alt="VisitorVille Screenshot" align="right" /><br /> <blockquote>"A company's entire Web presence is seen as an urban or suburban neighborhood, with each individual Web page presented as a building. The more visitors on a site, the taller the buildings, and the brighter the lights on each floor...each visitor is represented by a small avatar that, when clicked, presents a passport that offers several pieces of information about the user, such as her or his IP address, where that person came from and more. Avatars from dot-com domains wear a suit. Those from dot-edu domains dress as students."</blockquote>
BLOG POST
Today's UV Index
The US Environmetal Protection Agency has launched their daily <a href="http://www.epa.gov/sunwise/uvindex.html">Ultra Violet Index</a> website, where you can search for your zip code's daily UV Index rating.<br /> <br /> Tomorrow's Los Angeles UV Index rating is 9: "Try to avoid the sun between 11 a.m. and 4 p.m. Otherwise, seek shade, cover up, wear a hat and sunglasses, and use sunscreen. " <br /> <br /> The UV Index is computed using forecasted ozone levels, a computer model that relates ozone levels to UV incidence (incoming radiation level) on the ground, forecasted cloud amounts, and the elevation of the forecast cities.
BLOG POST
Measuring Effectiveness Of E-Government
The <a href="http://www.grants.gov/">Grants.gov</a> initiative is seen as a model e-government project but it has had <br /> <a href="http://www.gcn.com/23_13/news/26113-1.html">trouble attracting users</a> according to an article in Government Computer News. The website enables citizens to apply for grants online. <br /> <br /> <img src="http://www.planetizen.com/tech/files//20040608-grantsgov_01.gif" alt="Grants.gov Logo" align="right" width="200" height="75" /><br /> <blockquote>"[The Office of Management and Budget] officials are working to define utilization -- how e-government projects are used after they’ve been fully implemented -- and plan how the projects will reach the marks they set. Project managers must decide who their customers are and how they’ll measure use of the service...<br /> <br /> [Officials] have identified several obstacles to finding users: informing them about the portal, making it easy for them to use and getting other agencies to participate....<br /> </blockquote>
BLOG POST
Los Angeles Perino's goes bye-bye
New York - An interesting observation about the impending demolition of Hollywood landmark restaurant Perino's here courtesy of the "LA Cowboy" blog.<br /> <br /> So, why <em>don't</em> they just <a href="http://lacowboy.blogspot.com/2004/06/last-of-perinos.html">move it</a>?
BLOG POST
Active surfaces
New York - I'm in Manhattan, at a hotel in Times Square. It's been more than a year since I was here. And I'm struck by the increase in active signage, even here, the heart of inventive building-side ads. Just about every building here in Times Square is coated with multicolored, programmable screens. Some of them just do text; others are nearly as good as a television.<br /> <br /> So just an observation, but as flat-screen technology gets better, as LEDs get brighter, we're going to see a lot more TV-like screens replacing static billboards.
BLOG POST
Citistat
San Francisco - We've got a newish mayor here in SF, Gavin Newsom, who worried some of the town's liberal voting block when he beat a fellow county supervisor, Matt Gonzalez, to win the top spot. Gonzalez was a Green, way left; Newsom was perceived to be allied with the city's establishment, specifically the politically efficient machine built by former mayor Willie Brown (term-limited out) and a group always referred to in the press as "downtown developers." As far as I can tell, these are the people who want to build tall buildings.
FEATURE
A Thread from Past to Future Transportation
While growth is inevitable, the overcrowding and overuse of transportation is not. Using technology in conjunction with politics, private transportation will be more efficient using centralized computing to clear current roadways.
BLOG POST
Database Nation: What Does it Mean for Planners?
<p>Reason magazine did a very provocative this month – for each of their 40,000 subscribers they printed a customized cover including an aerial photo of their house. The magazine headline started with the homeowner's name in big orange letters followed by the subtitle "They Know Where Your Are!" Click <a href="http://www.placematters.us/Graphics/reason.jpg" target="_blank">here</a> to see the cover of the issue mailed to my neighbor – my house is 2 houses to the right. <br><br /> <br><br /> On the inside cover, the Editor's Note includes several local facts embedded into the text "…as a telecommuter I don't envy your area's average commute of 27.
Pagination
City of Madera
City of Santa Clarita
Borough of Carlisle
HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research
Chaddick Institute at DePaul University
HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research
Colorado Energy Office
Pima County Community College District
City of Piedmont, CA
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Planning for Universal Design
Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.
