Is this what the Gowanus Expressway could look like someday?

instructions for pruning and care of blackberry bushes

times article about a beautiful home/garden....

Musing on how the most beautiful gardens are models of an ideal universe whose source of beauty is "that chain of connectedness, whose linkages bind together history, land, animals, plants, people and home"

Interesting article: How the meaning of wealth varies by region, from the WSJ

Interesting story

Article: Green market and youth employment for Lafayette Gardens

Cool image (thanks to Mike for the find)



(double-click for full image)

seasoning and caring for cast iron cookware

"Jail-themed playset at public complex is repainted" March 25, 2010, NYT

I decided to write up a list of the plants I'm tending

forsythia
dogwood
rose of sharon (hibiscus)
red bud tree
english ivy
hostas, multiple varieties
sedum, regular and autumn glory
toadlilies
echinacea (coneflower)
japanese anenome flower
ferns
oakleaf hydrangea
bleeding heart
sweet woodruff
lady's mantle
creeping jenny
wild mustard (?)
sedum makinoi
the clover-like ground cover
the succulent-like ground cover
honeysuckle
tulips
daffodils
hyacinths
variegated rush grass (juncus effusus, "Goldstrike")
dwarf spruce
dwarf juniper
another dwarf conifer (?)
a holly bush (Ilex meserveae 'Blue Princess')
the perennial with little white flowers and minty leaves
fine fescue
creeping red fescue
several varieties of perennial ryegrass
jade plant
aloe
succulent unknown identification
asparagus plant
pothos
blackberry bush ("Thornless Chester")
astilbe (false spirea)
lettuce ("simpson elite")
bamboo
a sapling pear or cherry tree (non-fruiting)

Annuals:

Petunias (white, red, purple)
Lobelia
New Guinea Impatiens (red)
Begonia
Ageratum
Alyssum
Geranium
French Marigold ('Antigua' yellow and orange)
Dusty Miller 'Silver Dust'

And here are some of the fauna who live in or visit the yard (so far this spring):
starlings
sparrows
robins hunting for worms in the grass
a pair of bluejays gathering twigs (May 13)
one cardinal
a bumblebee
a lady bug
two cats (they're black with white on their paws and their neck, almost identical)
the next door neighbor's dog "Stella"
the downstairs neighbor's dog "Rosie"
spiders
centipedes
lots of ants (boo...)
slugs (boo...)

so cool

The Sandpit from Sam O'Hare on Vimeo.

Cool website

Lawnreform.org

Psst... Spring has sprung

I shouldn't be surprised if we have one more blast of wintery weather (knock on wood). But there's a hint of spring in the air. I did a little bit of cleaning up in the yard this morning, and some of the green things are starting to grow again.... :)

the shape of the net

Here's a fun article from the Times: "Scientists strive to map the shape of the shifting net"

and....

this comment posted on Talking Points Memo is interesting:

"I live in Juhsey (NOT "Joisey"): specifically Newark. I went to school in Rhode Island and Connecticut, and live in New York. Does that make me an expert?

The word "corrupt" is a funny one. Each state has its own political culture. I remember when calling yourself a "Republican" in Rhode Island only meant that you weren't a love child of Raymond Patriarca. There were some liberal Republicans; some conservative Republicans. There were even some Republicans on the take. But at least a Rhode Island Republican wasn't a certified made Mafioso. Or at least some weren't. The pond scum of Narragansett Bay were insulted when compared to Freddy St Germain. Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse are destroying a fine old Rhode Island tradition.

There were some echoes of this in CT, but it didn't really compare to RI.
New Jersey? Our politicians don't take much salary; they work on the commission system. However, they do provide reasonable services in return for their commissions. Sharpe James was a good example. (Jon Corzine and Cory Booker, neither of whom need commissions, are not. Corzine didn't need commissions because he made so much money at Goldman Sachs. Some say the same is true of Booker, at least insofar as his campaign financing goes.)

The politicians don't take many commissions in New York. But that's not because they're particularly honest; it is because New York has many many many many many la(w)yers of control. There is so much control that very little gets done in NY, unless you can find a rabbi who can circumvent the lawyers. It's kind of like late Soviet Communism, except that some of the New York rabbis are actually Jewish."

As I've lived and worked in New York for eight years, I've observed a little bit about urban politics. Sam Roberts wrote an article in today's Times on the decline of the Harlem based old gaurd of black political power that was puntuated by the disgrace of David Paterson, here. It's a great article that sketches the history of demographic shifts and old-style urban machine politics centered around powerful county leaders.

Reading this article also inspired me to collect a few old posts from Changing the Court under a label, "Learning about large public bureaucracies and urban politics."

Here's the key trend reflecting increased partisanship in the US Congress (double-click to enlarge):

So true

A city that was designed for travel by foot and horses loses some of its charm with modern traffic congestion. A deep snowfall is the perfect antidote, as it adds beauty, muffles sounds and discourages automobiles. The broad streets and sidewalks reveal their grandeur when covered with snow instead of cars.

From a blog post by Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore), here. (thanks to Talking Points Memo for the link).

One of my favorites...

For a cold winter Sunday and a group of friends:

"Best Vegetarian Chili"

[I omit the vegi-burger crumbles, and reduce the amount of jalapeno]

Cool picture that Karen found: a "bat flower"

Love this map

(double click for full view)

The weather was beautiful today and I spent almost the whole day finishing off the end of fall clean-up in the garden. In front, I finished potting the two junipers I put in wooden barrels next to a big planter box stuffed with daffodils and hyacinths. I pulled out the sweet potato vines and put in tulips. In back I cut down the morning glory vine after collecting a bowl of seeds, and swept all the leaves and compost off the porch and stairs.

That's when I took this picture: the woodland tobacco flower (nicotiana) is still huge, fragrant and glorious, and some other flowers and perennials are enjoying this last breath of warm weather...

I finished working in the bed last weekend - I moved some of the perennial flowers - echinacea/coneflower, Japanese anemone, and toad lily - to sunnier spots, and put in a few more hostas.

In a related development, reports on the City of Paris' ambitious Velib bike-sharing program are mixed. "80 percent of the initial 20,600 bicycles [have been] stolen or damaged," which are worth, "when the system’s startup and maintenance expenses are included, $3,500 each."

I have to find a research study for a school assignment in which the investigators actively manipulated an independent variable. I was browsing for journal articles in the areas of crime and public safety, when I remembered this article from the Journal Science that I noticed with great interest around the time it was published: Testing The Broken Windows Theory

I like this:

"The Assumption of Inconvenience" from Streetsblog

public safety, meets transportation planning, meets livable streets: http://www.saferoutesinfo.org/

"And the Pursuit of Hapiness"

I've noticed two NYT blogs lately: A post entitled "The Referendum" and "In the Pursuit Of Hapiness" an illustrated blog on American democracy (thanks to Jeff Miller for recommending the latter).

Sunday Op-Art, in the Times: Navigating the City by Smell

interesting...

link

Double-click to view image

Three Keys to Happiness

What Makes Us Happy? by Joshua Wolf Schenk in the Atlantic Monthly.

For 72 years, researchers at Harvard have been examining this question, following 268 men who entered college in the late 1930s through war, career, marriage and divorce, parenthood and grandparenthood, and old age.

The conclusions are summarized here:

1. Have a healthy outlet
2. Don't take yourself too seriously
3. Happiness must be shared

“Happiness only real when shared.”

First image of a memory being made...

Link

These are the offices of city council candidate Evan Thies. According to an article in the Greenpoint Gazette, the saloon-like offices of the John Smolenski Democratic Club are being used by Evan as his campaign headquarters. The young new president of the nearly defunct old-line club hopes that Evan will revitalize the club and voter participation in North Brooklyn in general, where turnout has been low in recent elections. The snake-like 33rd council district stretches from Greenpoint, through Williamsburg, Dumbo, Brooklyn Heights, Cobble Hill, Boerum Hill, and Gowanus, ending in north Park Slope.

For the record, this blog endorses Evan Thies for the 33rd District and Brad Lander for the 39th. (Of course, observers in the political world have been on the edge or their seats waiting to see who would gain our influential backing.)

Way to go Danny! I'm glad someone else is having fun cultivating a garden in a semi-wild backyard. I thought this photo he took recently was particularly good...

On 161st Street, in search of Sonia Sotomayor...

A Bronx Tale: In Search of Sonia Sotomayor from weekendvids on Vimeo.

Visualizing......

From the New York Times (article here): "A team of American Navy searchers is being flown in along with two devices that can detect electronic signals to a depth of 20,000 feet, according to the Pentagon, The Associated Press reported. They will be delivered to ships that will then listen for transmissions from the so-called black boxes, which are programmed to emit signals for at least three more weeks. . . .

The ocean floor where the debris is being recovered is a tangle of mountains towering two miles above ocean valleys, which will make the recovery of the flight recorders — or black boxes — very difficult. The recovery, however, is paramount for investigators, as without them, said James T. Francis, a member of the National Transportation Safety Board, the Air France case will be “a tough, tough cookie.”

I found this graphic to help me visualize the ocean floor in the middle of the ocean between Brazil and Africa (click for full view). It also reminds me of old fashioned maps in high school classrooms.

I just found out about this, and it looks awesome: Urban Omnibus, a project of the Architectural League of New York.

Galactic Center of Milky Way Rises over Texas Star Party from William Castleman on Vimeo.

Make sure "HD" is on.

What Now?

Everywhere you look around Brooklyn, there are condos and highrises under construction. Some of the ones that are finished are being marketed to renters instead of buyers. But, I suspect many of these buildings may be left half-built, the dreams of housing developers never realized. Can these stacked concrete slabs be put to creative use? Here's one case study: "Second Life: Locals look to nab foreclosed condos for affordable housing."

The Potomac's Keeper

The Potomac River valley north of Georgetown is surprisingly wild - I spent a lot of time wandering around there and exploring when I was a kid, and still do sometimes even now that I'm a grown up.

Here's an article from yesterday's Washington Post about one of Washington's true characters, in this case, Paula Smith, a bit of a "strange bird" who's made wandering this urban wilderness her whole life and maybe knows more about what goes on in this unusual urban wilderness better than anyone else:

Washington Post Article

Incidentally, Ms. Smith is concerned about an increase of illegal deer hunting ("poaching") on National Park Service land. A sign of the economic times?

From NYT: Parks Fortify Israel's Claim to Jerusalem

Waterlines. This interactive website shows how Seattle's landscape has changed over time....

Stress Tests....?

It's been reported that the large banks received the results of their stress tests on Friday, and the results will be publicly announced at the end of this week. So far, this exercise, hopefully an important step in some kind of comprehensive reckoning seems like the brightest spot in the otherwise mostly ad hoc, deal-by-deal, approach taken by the Obama administration.

I thought this analysis of our financial crisis was very insightful:

The Quiet Coup, by Simon Johnson (Atlantic Monthly, May 2009).

The crash has laid bare many unpleasant truths about the United States. One of the most alarming, says a former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund, is that the finance industry has effectively captured our government—a state of affairs that more typically describes emerging markets, and is at the center of many emerging-market crises. If the IMF’s staff could speak freely about the U.S., it would tell us what it tells all countries in this situation: recovery will fail unless we break the financial oligarchy that is blocking essential reform. And if we are to prevent a true depression, we’re running out of time.

US/Mexico

Apparently Barack Obama is making his first trip as president to Mexico (Hillary Clinton and Janet Napalitaliano have already visited). It seems like there are a few big policy questions of mutual interest.

1. Interdiction of illegal firearms flowing from the US into Mexico for use in the ongoing drug war raging there.

2. Reducing the demand for illegal drugs in the United States

3. Reducing poverty in Mexico

If Barack Obama wanted to propose serious programs on each of these issues, I wonder what he would propose. Especially on numbers two and three, I wonder if good public policy could deliver a lot more results than we're currently getting from our "war on drugs".

Tax Day

I made my yearly trip to the big post office on 34th Street to postmark my modest little 1040 and New York income taxes a few hours before the April 15th deadline.

You can view the Obama's tax returns here and the Biden's here.

The Colorado Gardening Project: blog

Slow Gardening

I enjoyed this article on "slow gardening" in the Times. It reported on a movement or style of gardening that focuses on perennials, serendipity, outsider art, re-purposing, informality, and a certain sort of "wabi-sabi" aesthetic.

I think this approach is very much a kindred what I see in a lot of the gardens of Brooklyn. I've always thought someone should really write a great field guide to the gardens of Brooklyn....!

hmmm

map new york city crime trends?

link

Neighborhood Financial Services Study: An Analysis of Supply and Demand in Two New York City Neighborhoods. From the New York City Department of Consumer Affairs Office of Financial Empowerment.

Barack Obama ReMixed

I listened to this on WAMU in Washington before the inaugration - I found it on the internet, let's see if this link works:

windows media player

realplayer

"Invincible Cities"

images of harlem, richmond, CA, and Camden...... over the years here.

interesting blog

link

academic history of New York housing

interesting - link

A great encyclopedia of New York's Places, from Place Matters, a project of City Lore and the Municipal Arts Society.

NYT's article on the local paper crime blotter

Guerilla Gardening........

Principles of "Engaged Ecology"

1) We have the right to fresh air, clean water and healthy soil.

2. A government that cannot provide them loses legitimacy.

3) The earth is in crisis.

4) Cities are not the problem, the're the solution.

5) Cities are alive and should be treated that way.

6) Biodiversity is the best measure of a healthy place.

7) Humans have evolved to live in harmony with nature.

8) The public creates the best public spaces.

9) People will care for a place they plant themselves.

10) Engaged ecology creates a community.


To survive in prison, one must develop ways to take satisfaction in one's daily life. . . I saw the garden as a metaphor for a certain aspects of my life. A leader must also tend his garden: he, too, plants seeds and then watches, cultivates, and harvests the results. -Nelson Mandela


The experience of being in a place where the forces are resolved together at once is completely restufl and whole. It is like sitting under an oak tree: things in nature reolve all the forces acting on them together; they are, in that sense, whole and balanced.
-Christopher Alexander



From Guerilla Gardening, A Manualfesto, by David Tracey.

Don't Divorce Us

Ever since Election Night, I get choked up really easily. This video totally made me cry. As my sister Hannah said to me in an e-mail, "When there's so much pain in the world, why are people trying so hard to destroy happiness?"


"Fidelity": Don't Divorce... from Courage Campaign on Vimeo.

good song...

The water systems of New York....link

Orwell

I read a reference to Orwell's famous essay on politics and the English language, which made me want to go read it. I found a copy here. In fact this site contains searchable versions of all of Orwell's works. Homage to Catalonia is one of my favorite books.

Martha's Table

Wondering about opportunities to volunteer on MLK day, which made me think of Martha's Table. I worked there many times while growing up in Washington DC.

The Writing is On The Wall

This is the most revealing map that I've seen in a while - when the New York Times produced this map, they put it on the front page and I wish there was a way of linking directly to it. Go here, then select "Voting Shifts" in the left hand side bar. The red areas are the only areas of Republican strength in 2008. Party leaders know they've painted themselves into a corner - they are at risk of being limited to no longer national party of southern, white, rural resentment.

Greening Cities Can Help Reduce Crime and Poverty

"...scientists have begun to examine how the city affects the brain, and the results are chastening. Just being in an urban environment, they have found, impairs our basic mental processes. After spending a few minutes on a crowded city street, the brain is less able to hold things in memory, and suffers from reduced self-control.

...human attention is a scarce resource -- focusing in the morning makes it harder to focus in the afternoon...

...[researchers] measured the two groups on a variety of tasks, from basic tests of attention to surveys that looked at how the women were handling major life challenges. She found that living in an apartment with a view of greenery led to significant improvements in every category.

...Related research has demonstrated that increased "cognitive load" -- like the mental demands of being in a city -- makes people more likely to choose chocolate cake instead of fruit salad, or indulge in a unhealthy snack. This is the one-two punch of city life: It subverts our ability to resist temptation even as it surrounds us with it, from fast-food outlets to fancy clothing stores. The end result is too many calories and too much credit card debt.

...City life can also lead to loss of emotional control. [Researchers] found less domestic violence in the apartments with views of greenery. These data build on earlier work that demonstrated how aspects of the urban environment, such as crowding and unpredictable noise, can also lead to increased levels of aggression. A tired brain, run down by the stimuli of city life, is more likely to lose its temper.

... [A] recent paper demonstrated that the psychological benefits of green space are closely linked to the diversity of its plant life. When a city park has a larger variety of trees, subjects that spend time in the park score higher on various measures of psychological well-being, at least when compared with less biodiverse parks.

...When a park is properly designed, it can improve the function of the brain within minutes. As the [one] study demonstrates, just looking at a natural scene can lead to higher scores on tests of attention and memory.

[Other] research ... used a set of complex mathematical algorithms to demonstrate that the very same urban features that trigger lapses in attention and memory -- the crowded streets, the crushing density of people -- also correlate with measures of innovation, as strangers interact with one another in unpredictable ways. It is the "concentration of social interactions" that is largely responsible for urban creativity, according to the scientists. The density of 18th-century London may have triggered outbreaks of disease, but it also led to intellectual breakthroughs, just as the density of Cambridge -- one of the densest cities in America -- contributes to its success as a creative center. One corollary of this research is that less dense urban areas, like Phoenix, may, over time, generate less innovation. The key, then, is to find ways to mitigate the psychological damage of the metropolis while still preserving its unique benefits.

From an article in the Boston Globe. Click here to view the article.

I decided to try to find some of "the classics"

The Art of Sabrage

I think we have to try "sabering" a champagne bottle soon. Here's a video with instructions on how to safely open a champagne bottle with a sword (or machete, or even the dull side of a chef's knife) at home. Of course we'll need something to celebrate.

Roller Derby

New York City is playing the best roller derby in the country: our Gotham Girls are the 2008 national champions.

"The 2009 schedule is To Be Determined, but will likely kick off in April and run through November with another exciting season of battle between the Mayhem, Bombshells, Gridlock and Pain."

rose bushes

Most rose pruning is done in the spring, with the blooming of the forsythia as a signal to get moving...

Pruning rose bushes: link

While apartment shopping...

A couple who are good friends of mine (who happen to be white) spent the weekend shopping for apartments in Brooklyn and Harlem. While looking at a 1-bedroom in Crown Heights:

"This is the last apartment in the building to turn over. All the 'bad' people are gone, and now the building is full of 'good' people like you."

The next crisis for cities

What cities should be doing now:

1. No More Evictions. It's bad for neighborhoods and it's bad for cities. It is better in every case to keep people in their homes, and arrange realistic payments that they can keep up with.

2. Anticipate possible problems in neighborhoods already effected by the foreclosure crisis

Visualize the impact of subprime foreclosures: Look here, for U.S.

What does the crisis look like in New York City?

(Click on images for enlarged photos and map)

From Metafilter: "With election season in the US, it's probably hard to get a less than Gung-ho picture of the war in Afghanistan, but this Spiegel Online article paints a dark picture. 'Pessimism about the situation has never been so high.' High level NATO commanders are using phrases like 'Doomed to Fail,' 'We are trapped,' 'repeating the same mistakes as the Soviets', military victory 'neither feasible nor supportable,' 'downward spiral.' For some it is so dark the only beacon of light would be peace talks with the Taliban."

The Heaven Sent Leaf

My friend Katy Lederer is keeping a blog while she gives readings across the country of her new book of poetry, The Heaven Sent Leaf.

Here's what she's writing about:

"Hi there, I am blogging about my cross-country road-trip/book tour on behalf of The Heaven-Sent Leaf, a new book of poems about, er, money. The title is taken from the second part of Goethe’s Faust, in which Mephistopheles has discovered a way to make gold—what alchemists had been seeking to discover for centuries—by printing paper money (“the heaven-sent leaf”). Once Mephistopheles has printed this imaginative money, thereby releasing an impecunious emperor from debt, what we would now term an economic “bubble” ensues; viands, wine, and labor are purchased with nothing so substantial as delusion and credulity. By the end of the story, the proverbial bubble has burst, and the emperor has fallen into ruin. Destinations on the tour include: Austin, Tallahassee, Ithaca, Las Vegas, Sacramento, Oakland, San Francisco, Sonoma, Portland, Missoula, Boise, Denver, Lawrence, Iowa City, Lincoln, Milwaukee, Madison, Appleton, Ann Arbor, Cleveland, Chicago, New York, Providence, Hudson, Buffalo, Northampton, Athens, Atlanta, and Richmond."

Some music...

The Times They Are A Changing
Cracker Jack Docker
Beat Control
3rd Planet
Bingo
Freedom
Last Night a DJ Saved My Life

and my favorite for classic hip hop: The Bridge.

Some of the videos I saw on a recent re-run of the show, I was able to find on YouTube:

Hanging Out, Large Professor



Which features a sample of that great party record that the folks in Philly always seem to play. It's by "Sister Nancy" apparently:



Supa Star, Group Home



Faking the Funk



Fever for the flavor...
Similac Child, Black Sheep

And, Mushroom Jazz 6 just got released

(Click to enlarge)


I hadn't visited Streets Blog in a while, and as usual, I found interesting info.

I'm hoping that political will in our country can coalesce around an "Invest in America" agenda. Education, Health, Energy, Food, Infrastructure, Economic Growth.

Update:

Robert Reich makes a pretty strong argument for massive spending on infrastructure, here

some cost issues, story here

Grotesquely Mesmerizing

From Danny, on Positive Jam: photo gallery

it's like the ultimate vision of some america gone wrong... the bathroom is just too much to look at though!

Get your shit together

organize your office

Here are a bunch of resources for seeking employment, benefits, and getting your finances together:

NEDAP
Bethex
Workforce 1
Access NYC Back-up link
New York City Department of Consumer Affairs Office of Financial Empowerment

Starting a "recession" garden

Mexico city gardens

New York City Parks - Copenhagen

Longtime Harlem Fixture Now Sells CDs on Street

I've really been loving this song lately - Paper Planes by Mia

Urban Infrastucture

Article

Planting a meadow

Planting a meadow.

What is the purpose of "non-profits"?

From Managing the Nonprofit Organization, Principles and Practices by Peter F. Drucker,

A business has discharged its functions when the customer buys the product, pays for it, and is satisfied with it. Government has discharged its function when its policies are effective. The "non-profit" institution neither supplies goods or services nor controls. Its "product" is neither a pair of shoes, nor an effective regulation. Its product is a changed human being. The non-profit institutions are human-change agents. Their "product" is a cured patient, a child that learns, a young man or woman grown into a self-respecting adult; a changed human life altogether.

The American Abroad

I've enjoyed reading Ethan's musings: Travel, Relationships, and the New Twenty, including lots of Olympics coverage.

News

Two news items of interest: latest on programs to encourage green roofs in NYC (NYT), and article on neglected (city-owned?) property in Bedford-Stuyvesant (Daily News) - Mentions new construction and farmers market in the area (my friend Devanie, of the Brooklyn Rescue Mission is coordinating a nearby farmers market once a week).

Cool map

cool overlay of historical maps over google maps

Google Mapping

Brooklyn Mugging Map and Discussion

2007 Crime Mapfrom NY Magazine and discussion

And a newspaper article on the trend, from the UK Daily Mail

The Kitchen Sink Post

This is the kitchen sink post. It's the place I put anything that I've found while blogging that I think is really interesting, but hasn't yet worked it's way into a formal post of its own on Changing The Court (or doesn't fit there). So far, some incomplete notes on urban revitalization and preservation and a few of my favorite non-criminal-justice-related blogs and websites.

----

For several years, U.S. cities have promoted themselves as "cool cities" on the premise that young, highly educated "creative class" individuals are the key to revitalization and economic growth. However, a new study by the Center for an Urban Future indicates that first generation immigrants and working class folks who are rising into the middle class are an important engine of economic vitality for cities - entrepenuers and small business man - in places like the Bronx.

This highly discussed article from the Atlantic Monthly suggests that as more of the population returns to urban centers, car culture wanes, and the subprime mortgage collapse proceeds, the McMansions and ex-urban subdivisions of the past decade may be the slums of the new century. Some places are already experiencing social problems - drugs and crime - that are normally associated with urban decay.

Here's an enjoyable, New York-Centric blog on public spaces - things like "placemaking" - what are the charactoristics of safe, vibrant public spaces? Bird to the North

Fascinating blog: Ecology of Absence: The Biocultural Geography of Abandonment, Deindustrialization and transition in St. Loius and the Greater Midwest.

Urban Planet: The BBC's great coverage of emerging urban trends world-wide.

Rebuilding Space in the Urban Place: "This blog focuses on place and placemaking and all that makes it work--historic preservation, urban design, transportation, asset-based community development, arts & cultural development, commercial district revitalization, tourism & destination development, and quality of life advocacy--along with doses of civic engagement and good governance watchdogging." Amazing links sections on a variety of urban issues.

How much debris and litter is on the average mile of highway in America?

(click to enlarge)

Where does it come from: Manhole ?

Where does it come from: Asphalt?

How do you make your own rain barrel: Spigot assembly, directions ?

Case Studies:
Chicago green alleyways program, Project for public spaces, New York Restoration Project, NYC Greenstreets Program.

I found a fascinating report by the Milano School of Public Policy: A Schoolyard in Brooklyn: Strengthening Families and Communities through the Innovative Use of Public Space. It's a case study of how a community organization can partner with government to transform a public space.

Interesting map showing neighborhoods with high concentrations of low-income people who commute more than 1 hour for work.

Fascinating: The Viele Map (No pop-up blocker)

User-friendly, very informative map of homicides in nyc. (Plots three years worth of data in Google Maps, with date/time, location, demographic information of victim and suspect, and motive, if known in all homicides citywide)

another map - up to the minute incident reports across the five boroughs

Great Blog: Strange Maps

New York City Parks on Wikipedia

What makes a place safe?

More walkers and bikers means greater safety


Safe Haven Program is in decline: On the Upper West Side of Manhattan... According to the Westside Crime Prevention Program the number of members in the Safe Havens network (stores, marked by decals, where children can take shelter if they are being harassed or bothered on the street) has declined from 350 to 250 in the past two years. The bank branches and national chain stores that are replacing mom-and-pop establishments aren't suitable for the program - employee turnover is high and corporate headquarters have refused offers to enroll their franchises. (from this article in the New York Times).

One picture of what a very safe space looks like:

"Comments on Comments"

"There's been a bit of a backlash recently against the angry commenter on newspaper websites. Some are calling for newspapers to stop allowing comments sections all together. But what about democracy on the web? Bob, with the help of "This American Life"'s Ira Glass, ruminates on the dark side of the comments section."

LINK: http://www.onthemedia.org/transcripts/2008/07/25/03

Locate a farmers market near you

Interesting....

LINK