The small, delicate dishes of dim sum have spread around the world, following Cantonese people wherever they went, but one of the best places to get them is still Hong Kong. There are plenty of places here to go for yum cha (literally “drink tea,” used to describe the experience of eating dim sum in [...]

In the coming weeks, Next American City’s website will load up dedicated city pages for urban areas around the country, where you can find daily reports, commentary, multimedia and local advocacy links for your hometown. Today, check out a sneak preview of the page for Philadelphia, where NAC is headquartered.

Coming soon: Los Angeles, New York, Washington, D.C. and New Orleans.

Let us know what you think!

Light rail in Phoenix and Maricopa County
Originally uploaded by rllaymanToday's Arizona Republic reports on the value of connectedness via light rail, in "Light-rail corridor in Tempe fuels increase to businesses." When I was out there in October, I set up a meeting with the City of Tempe Transportation Department (they are as progressive as the Arlington County, Virginia operation) and in talking with them I was surprised to learn that the Scottsdale light rail station is the busiest in the system, with lots of retired people getting on the transit line and going to places like Tempe and Phoenix to shop.

According to one of the business owners in Tempe, who is quoted in the article, business is up, both because of riders from the light rail system, and from the improvements that are happening as a result of the light rail investment, which in turn has fostered residential development and other improvements.

From the article:

Raveen Arora doesn't need a researcher to tell him that development along Apache Boulevard has been a success in the wake of light rail's opening last year.

Arora has owned India Plaza, near Apache and McClintock Drive, since 2002. Since light rail's opening in December, Arora has seen his business increase by nearly 10 percent despite the recession.

He attributes much of the increase to the residential projects that have opened on Apache in the past year and to the light-rail commuters who have spotted his shopping center and decided to stop by for Indian food or groceries.

The area has experienced a major makeover since the days it was known to draw prostitution and nightly police sirens, he said.

"Crime has reduced. There were streetwalkers . . . they're gone," he said. "We're getting a lot more upwardly mobile people who are using light rail, and they are not shunning Apache."

Curved escalator at the Wynn
Originally uploaded by jonkneeThere is a big problem at Union Station with "articulation" between MARC and VRE trains and people transfering to the subway, because of the number of people moving from the train platform to the subway, and the capacity of the escalators.

(One way to deal would be to add one stairway, which I mentioned years ago. WMATA planners promoted the selective addition of stairways to this and other stations to improve throughput but it was shot down by the Board of Directors.)

By putting in a curved escalator at the First Street entrance (the first floor of Union Station, going down) it could be possible to drop lots of the passenger railroad riders to the other set of gates opposite the elevators, which are hardly used. This would allow for better egress of passengers up the escalators.

Not being an engineer, I am not sure this would work, and it is important to not block the elevators. It could require the re-siting of the kiosk for the station manager in a fashion that would focus on throughput.

Again, if these escalators are ever rebuilt, and/or the fare gates rebuilt, additional wide gates should be added, and wider escalators could be installed, to ease mobility for people with scads of luggage (although train riders are likely to have less luggage than airplane passengers).

Right now there is a scrum getting up and down the escalators if you are going against railroad passenger traffic. A refiguring of the escalators (plus stairs), the fare gates, and the location of the manager's kiosk could significantly fix things. DK if this was considered as part of the Union Station Intermodal Transit Center Feasibility Study. The Final Report is available but I haven't had a chance to read it.

One of the greatest joys of living an online life is the ability to celebrate, and defend, the goodness you find in the world against the crassness crashing around us, and today, we are leaping -- nay, racing --... David W. Boles http://bolesblogs.com

Thanks to some quick work by our friends at Reconnecting America (before the 8-day window for Twitter's search engine expired), you can view several days' worth of tweets from CNU's 2009 Transportatio

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I'm a bit of a Frank Lloyd Wright junkie, and have visited at least a dozen of the homes he built. But I was especially struck by a visit two years ago to the Johnson Wax Building in Racine,...

This article is provided courtesy of the blogs feed at http://www.newstartmag.co.uk/blog

In late September and early October, Asia and the Pacific were struck by a nearly simultaneous string of natural disasters. These events have killed thousands and affected over 4 million residents across Asia and the Pacific. All of our hats should be off to the disaster response organisations which have provided survivors with hundreds of thousands of tents, clothing, blankets, as well as tonnes of food aid, medicine, and first aid supplies. These organisations have already saved countless lives and continue to save lives in disaster zones worldwide every day.

But while these groups tackle the immense challenges of meeting survivors’ immediate need, there is another area of recovery to address - long term regeneration in disaster affected communities.

At European Disaster Volunteers (EDV), we believe that in addition to the immediate aid supplied by these extraordinary organisations, disaster survivors need long term assistance to rebuild their homes, communities, and lives. What’s more, survivors need to be given the tools to direct their own recovery so that reconstruction does not become something “done to” survivors.

This probably sounds like common sense, but long term recovery is sometimes overlooked. The immediate and more visually striking effects of a disaster, such as destroyed buildings, downed bridges, and displaced persons camps tend to get the lion’s share of the attention, and often become the focus of fundraising campaigns and international attention.

Our tendency to focus on these aspects of disaster is reinforced by the prevalence of what we call 'disaster pornography' – graphic photos of, and stories about, the immediate effects of disaster – followed by very little coverage or on-going interest in the later stages of recovery.

Needless to say, these immediate issues do need to be addressed before long term recovery can move forward, but that doesn’t mean they’re the whole story. What doesn’t photograph well are survivors’ lingering feelings of helplessness, the long term damage to livelihoods, and the undermining of community capacity.

These injuries are less visible than the immediate after-effects of disaster, but no less damaging, and they can continue to do harm long after the rubble has been cleared.

On an even more basic level, when we think only about immediate, post-disaster needs, there is a subtle shift in how we approach the individuals living in disaster zones. When we focus short-term, we tend to place disaster survivors as victims who need to be given things rather than survivors capable of doing for themselves if given the tools. In effect, we tend to see them as helpless.

As any community regeneration worker the world over knows, nothing can be accomplished without empowering communities and individuals, so this kind of mindset toward survivors can be damaging - to say the very least.

I’m certainly not minimizing the visible damage of a disaster or saying that we shouldn’t hand out what’s needed to survive after a natural disaster. Of course we need to address physical damage and make sure survivors have what they need to stay alive and healthy, but we also have to address the long term scars left by disaster.

To accomplish both goals we have to move beyond the hand-out stage as quickly as possible and mobilise disaster affected communities to participate in their own recovery. We must enter disaster zones thinking about long term recovery and regeneration rather than just disaster response, even when communities are still housed in temporary shelters.

Just as domestic community regeneration professionals must understand the needs of an underprivileged community in the UK before they can begin constructive work, we have to work with disaster survivors to develop post-disaster regeneration programmes that empower communities to meet their own needs long after we leave.

At EDV, we plan to take our long term approach to disaster recovery to Asia in early 2010 and have recently launched our Asia-Pacific Disaster Recovery Fund. You can also read a summary of EDV’s deployment strategy.

If you’re interested in learning more, donating, or simply having a chat, we’d love to hear from you. Please email media@europeandisastervolunteers.org or visit our website EDVolunteers.org. (*Note, we’re currently redesigning, so our current website is very basic. Keep checking back!)

People used to walk for pleasure, now they walk because it is too expensive to drive anywhere that you could reasonably walk. We’d all hoped that public transit buses would be able to keep up with the growing demand from the newly carless, but in time, the buses just became another victim of the rising cost of everything. Not enough had been invested in buses before they became necessary, (or too difficult to source), and as the demand across the continent for public transit grew, those communities with the money and population to support it got the buses. Our little town got one. This added to the aging, inefficient unit we already had, and even though it was on it’s last legs, it could hold fifty people, so we’ve just kept on using it.

We thought about buying more buses years ago, but everyone was so wrapped up in their cars, and even more so in replacing their gas-guzzlers with “hybrids” and hypermiling that they lost all focus on the bigger picture, and kept voting down any suggestion that we augment our meagre fleet.

There was also the ruckus with the school district over the use of the buses. We wanted to run the buses for everyone, and have more runs, but apparently it was a union issue, and all the buses went on strike, both the City’s and the School Districts. Even now, the school buses only run for the school kids and sit empty and unused for all but three hours a day. For a while, the mayor kept saying how he couldn’t understand why people weren’t more cooperative, I just think that everyone believes that this is a temporary situation and they don’t want to commit to something longterm.

This post was written by Mike Thomas for UrbanWorkbench.com © 2009.

Originally posted as Peak Oil Vignette 2 – Buses

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Things we were reviewing today:

Check out the just-launched Hawaii Civil Procedure blog. It's a welcome addition to the blogroll for Hawaii civil practitioners.

My colleague Mark Murakami has set up a resource page for all things about the McDonald v. City of Chicago case. That's the appeal currently being considered by the Supreme Court challenging Chicago's ability to regulate firearms under the Second Amendment. What's most interesting about the case is not the gun issue, but the legal arguments regarding whether the Privileges or Immunities Clause incorporated the entire Bill of Rights against the states. Slaughter-House, anyone?

The Texas Supreme Court today heard oral arguments in Severance v. Patterson (a case we discussed here). It is in the Texas court on certified questions from the Fifth Circuit. More here including the briefs, and the archive of the video of the arguments here. The certified questions being considered by the court are: (1) whether Texas recognizes a "rolling" public beachfront-access easement; if so (2) whether the rolling easement derives from the common law or the Open Beaches Act; and (3) what extent the landowner would be entitled to compensation for loss of property use apart from the state's offer to remove houses on the easement. More from Land Use Prof blog here.

Best described as a property dispute between two houses of worship, with the plaintiff congregation alleging claims of trespass by the defendant congregation and the defendant congregation alleging the plaintiff was violating applicable zoning.  The appeals court concluded that the trial court incorrectly applied a former provision in the village code that was in effect prior to the action that had required a special use permit for the operation of a place of worship within a residential district.  The amended code had reclassified the operation of a place of worship in a residence district as a permitted principal use subject only to site plan review.  Therefore, the appeals court concluded, that while the trial court correctly enjoined the plaintiffs from using the subject premises without municipal approval, the appeals court noted it is site plan and not special use permit approval that is required.  As to the trespass claims over use of parking spaces, the appeals court found insufficient evidence to support the claims.  Lastly, the court found an implied easement for use and control of the basement and roof of the adjacent premises by the defendant since evidence demonstrated that both buildings were once in unitary ownership and that the defendant’s use of the property prior to the separation was “continued, obvious, manifest, and meant to be permanent, and that such an easement is a reasonable necessity, rather than a mere convenience.”

Bais Yoel Ohel Feige v. Congregation Yelev Lev D’Satmar of Kirya Yoel, 885 NYS 2d 741 (N.Y.A.D. 2Dept. 9/22/2009)

The opinion can be accessed at: http://www.nycourts.gov/reporter/3dseries/2009/2009_06656.htm

Posted in Current Caselaw - New York, Zoning Administration

It was during a recent tour of a sun-baked Los Angeles schoolyard that theories on state regulations developed by the latest Nobel Prize-winning economist came into focus. The Da Vinci Design Charter School is an oasis in an asphalt desert. Opened this year by the appropriately named Matt Wunder, the school draws 9th and 10th graders from some of the most difficult and dangerous learning environments in the country, and introduces them to a demanding, creative atmosphere.

The school is located just south of Los Angeles Airport. Wunder is taking advantage of the area’s proliferation of aerospace companies, and is building relationships with the likes of Boeing and Northrop Grumman, which offer financial and educational assistance. This is not the standard thinking one finds in the mammoth Los Angeles Unified School District.

As we walked the playground we came upon two dirt-spewing holes in the blacktop, spaced about 50-feet apart. We discovered an actual human being with a shovel digging what looked like the beginnings of a mine shaft. The reason?

California State regulations, as established by the California Architects Board, require all basketball hoops on public school campuses to be cemented into 50-inch deep holes. That’s four-feet-two inches for a basketball hoop!

Now I am sure some scientifically sound earthquake testing at a California university found that such precautions are necessary if we are ever struck with a 9.9-Richter scale disaster. Of course, if such a thing happened we would have bigger problems than basketball rims keeling over. But a larger point became clear: In a school where creative leadership is making life-long impacts on the lives of children, the “long arm” of Sacramento has reached into the very soil, regulating how deep to dig ditches for recreational equipment. In so doing the State not only increases “construction” costs, but also incurs our disenchantment, as we consider a government that “trusts” local decision-making on curriculum, but not on hole digging.

The theories of Elinor Ostrom, one of this year’s two Nobel Prize-winners in economics, tie in here with stunning irony. Ostrom, a political scientist at Indiana University, won the prize for her historical and economic analysis concerning the “tragedy of the commons”: the theory that, without some form of regulation, when people fish or farm “common” (non-private) property they will tend to abuse the privilege and hurt all interests in the end.

A major underpinning of this theory is how these rule sets are most effectively developed. Ostrom found, in studies dating back centuries, that local parties –- sometimes non-governmental ones — almost always determine the best regulations, based on deliberated self-interest as opposed to centralized (and, often, distant) institutions.

As Vernon Smith, a past economics Nobel laureate himself, recently commented on Ostrom’s work, “A fatal source of disintegration is the inappropriate application of uninformed external authority, including intervention to prevent application of efficacious rules to political favorites.” As rule-making becomes more removed from the actual location of execution, there's a loss of “local knowledge” regarding conditions. And “interests” that tend to gather around centralized institutions have a disproportionate influence on legislation.

At a recent conference on sustainable planning at Pepperdine University, I sat in on a discussion of “natural resource management” and heard a relevant story of competing, predominantly left-leaning interests. In one corner were the “green” energy folks who had attempted to build a massive solar “farm” in the Mojave Desert. In the same, uh, other corner, were the defenders of the desert tortoise. Not wanting to get anyone in trouble, I will just say that officials from several State and Federal departments were present to talk about how, once again, centralized decision-making had sunk an impressive project.

Apparently, when alerted to the possibility of frying turtles under the heat of these huge solar mirrors, local park authorities provided a proposal to mitigate the loss of these reptiles through a variety of measures from fencing along the highways to moving the turtles to non-developed areas. This was not good enough for State decision-makers who, from the exalted heights of Sacramento, determined that the only legitimate course of conservation would be to land-swap the entire 8,000+-acre land parcel for another similar and suitable section for these animals. As one local official recounted, “If the goal of the policy is to save tortoises, we had that plan, which also kept the solar project alive. But the goal of the policy was to do a land exchange, which is stopping the project, and not doing all that much better for the tortoises.”

My point in raising these two of what could be thousands of examples of overreach by the administrative state is not to dismiss government’s central and important role in advising, and, at points, regulating the actions of citizens in areas ranging from public safety to sustainable planning. Rather, it's to demonstrate what happens when policy goals are subsumed by prescriptive policy created at levels (such as Sacramento in a state the size of California) which cannot possibly allow for unique local conditions. The goal is not just child safety, or saving tortoises, but to accomplish these in a certain way that may, in fact, prevent these greater benefits to the public good.

This style of governance exasperates the well-intentioned in both the private and public sector, as it prevents the liberty necessary for creative and customized policy-making. This common sense approach to policy-making is, apparently, what they give out Nobel Prizes for these days.

It was Alexis De Tocqueville who most famously realized that the genius in American governance was decentralized administration , an aspect directly contrary to the European bureaucratic experience. In words that could have appeared in Professor Ostrom’s classic, Governing the Commons, De Tocqueville wrote over 150 years ago, “When the central administration claims to replace completely the free cooperation of those primarily interested, it deceives itself or wants to deceive you. A central power, however enlightened… cannot gather to itself alone all the details of the life of a great people.”

Let us not be so deceived.

Pete Peterson is Executive Director of Common Sense California, a multi-partisan non-profit organization that supports civic engagement in local/regional decision-making. His views here are not meant to represent CSC. Pete also teaches a course on civic participation at Pepperdine University's School of Public Policy.

If you had to bet, will China or the USA move first and make a credible commitment to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions? Are there any benefits to being the first mover? Today, the New York Times explains why South Korea has been willing to unilaterally show some leadership on carbon mitigation. The answer in brief is thermal underwear. Comparative advantage is an apparently useful idea for understanding the willingness to lead in providing global public goods.

"While some of the pledges are conditioned on reaching a binding international agreement, some countries, like South Korea, have said they will act whether the world did or did not.

South Korea, whose emissions nearly doubled from 1990 to 2005, said it would cut emissions by investing in energy-efficient buildings and transportation, developing new green industries and changing patterns of consumption.

“Our industry is really energy-intensive, so this is very ambitious,” Sang-Hyup Kim, South Korea’s secretary to the president for national future and vision, said in a phone interview from Seoul. He noted that the president and cabinet ministers had made the pledge in a building with the thermostat set low, and while wearing thermal underwear."

Here's the NY Times article.

UPDATE: If you have ever thought that hypothesis testing is not funny, then here is a good counter-example.

Curious about what the building his great-great-grandfather lived in was like, ex-Brooklynite Zach van Schouwen was soon researching the history of the entire block. The result is “The Block,” a series pen-and-ink drawings of how the stretch of Eldridge Street, between Stanton and Rivington on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, looked in every year since 1795. [...]

The thing to know about Michael Rowe, food service director for Bronson Methodist Hospital, is that, in just two years, he’s taken the facility from zero locally produced food in patient and cafeteria meals to almost 12 percent. And he’s just getting started; by the end of this year, he hopes to bump that number up to 25 percent. And he has no plan to stop there, either.

Here's another little story about parks. I heard today of a London park where the friends group have struggled and failed to get their council to recognise as key stakeholders their own operational staff - meaning the two blokes who have looked after the place for the past 30 years.

They tend the flower beds, plant the bulbs, keep it neat and get to know people. If something has happened, they'd be the ones to ask, but they're not allowed to have a say in how the place is managed, in spite of requests from the friends committee.

I suppose this gets classified under 'people behind desks not recognising expertise if it doesn't wear a suit and tie'.

America should increase its regional food consumption. Each metropolitan area, the researchers say, should obtain most of its nutrition from its own “foodshed,” a term akin to “watershed” meaning the area that naturally supplies its kitchens. Moreover, in a novel suggestion, the MIT and Columbia team says these local efforts should form a larger “Integrated [...]

The following post is in regards to an interesting email interaction between the owner of Mediacy Inc. and PublicAdCampaign. I think it helps, at least on some level, to better explain how both sides of this argument feel about their use/abuse of public space, and how remarkably similar those feelings are. It also is interesting to see people consistently call advertising art in these contexts. It is amazing that some people can't see the difference between the two, their different motivations and because of this their different effects on society. Intention is a huge part of the equation that is consistently left out of the discussion.

After receiving an unsolicited press release for the company Mediacy Inc. regarding their newest form of OOH advertising, the Gatescape, we couldn't help but immediately publish our reaction. Within minutes we received a complaint from the owner of the company, Michael Gitter. This is not the first time we have been contacted by the heads of major outdoor advertising firms for taking them to task. About 6 months ago we sat down with Steve Birnhak of InWindow, at his request, to discuss his illegal Streetscape business and why PublicAdCampaign was keeping tabs on the companies activities. I am happy to report the last InWindow advertisement that I know of was removed only a few days ago from it's 13th street and University location.

photo of old InWindow Streetscape at 13th and University around 07-09.

At this point a bit of back story is required to give Mr. Gitter credit where credit is due. It turns out Mr. Gitter was one of two owners of the MaxRack company. The racks provided free postcards in bars and restaurants to anyone who wanted them, and appeared in New York City a few years back. About 3 weeks ago Mr. Gitter contacted me saying that the business was ceasing to operate and would I have any interest in using the racks for the PublicAdCampaign project. I pondered this offer and in the end declined, unable to find an appropriate use for the now unused equipment. When we posted our initial reaction to the Gatescape concept, I did not put two and two together to realize that Mr. Gitter was also the owner of this new company Mediacy. Considering the nature of the business the press release was proposing, I can't say this would have changed my reaction.

What follows is a series of communications between Mr. Gitter and I which he has given me permission to reproduce for you. I think they are interesting to read because they show the inherent lack of understanding by most people of how advertising negatively affects the community and our shared psyche. Mr. Gitter, obviously cares for the city, being a born and raised in New York. He also has a deep felt appreciation for the arts as is evidenced by Maxrack's support of local artists as well as his interest in using Gatescape locations that are idle to exhibit artwork. The problem is, support for the arts in this situation comes at a high cost and that is the overburdening of our collective subconscious with commercial messages which not only alter our individual desires and therefore our society at large, but also define the city as an inherently commercial space. This also does not address the issue that art in this situation might be used to legitimate what could be an illegal advertising business that will have to take advantage before it can "give back."

Michael to PublicAdCampaign:
Jordan,

I spoke with you only a few weeks ago about offering you my old Maxracks postcard racks for your arts projects. I was fine that you decided not to do this but now you have decided to criticize my Gatescape? C'mon.

What I was planning to do is offer your artists some of the real estate when vacant, and print their art on the banners at my cost, to really make a great impression.

I am in business and you might not like my product. But I am an artist (www.fountation.com), a New York native and I am sensitive to over-saturation of advertising.

You could have at least called me, or sent me an email. But to publicly try to threaten or humiliate me and my efforts on your blog?

I don't scare and I don't appreciate this and I wish you would have taken a different tact where we both could have been happy.

But I guess this is not the way you work.

Thanks,
MichaelPublicAdCampaign to Michael with responses in red:
michael, i did not realize you were the same person who offered me the max racks. that was generous of you and i appreciate it.

I must say im a little appalled that you think my reaction would be any different than what it was, and if so then i take it those racks were a bribe for my sympathies.

Jason, I'm not looking to bribe or for sympathies. This is an idea that isn't even in our Media Kit and was conceived only weeks ago. I offered those racks, not out of fear of what you will say about the gates - I hadn't even thought of doing them at that time. I offered them because I liked what you did and the racks were becoming unappealing to me.

clearly this gatescape idea is nearly identical to the InWindow concept and given the way i have attacked their illegal practices I would clearly take issue with your "new" idea. not to mention this "new" adform you are trying to push can be extended much further than InWindow considering they rely on abandoned buildings where you rely on any space with a rolldown.

That's true it could be bigger. But given the ugly way these gates look as opposed to a nice clean 57th St storefront with huge clear windows and white walls, we see the concepts as very different from the efforts of In Window. (as I understand it, the idea is that Gatescapes will clean the city by replacing graffiti scrawl with huge colorful advertising images. If graffiti, and unclean gates is the problem, I suggest we address why young boys want to write their names on the streets and that Mr. Gitter start a gate cleaning business because clean gates have nothing to do with advertising)

all of this comes on top of how I have been championing the no longer empty project and these spaces being used for art. as well i think my position on outdoor advertising continuing to find ways to abuse the public by pushing commercial concerns on them is clear.

Jason, you are not the first and nor am I to come up with these ideas. For yrs I worked with Tibor Kalman's group at M&Co. And I'm sure you know about the work they did concerning making Times Square more appealing by doing many things with empty storefronts and gates when Times Square was the city's blight.

Im glad you thought you could offer a few free vinyl prints to artists and this would make what is potentially an illegal advertising business viable.

Please don't humor me with your snarky sarcasm. I am not interested in your views on how little or how much I do to sponsor the arts.

I think the no longer empty project clearly shows artists are willing to pay for their own materials.

Ok, so? Are there no talented artists or fantastic non-profit organizations who would appreciate and be helped immensely by space and supplies?

in fact im sure they appreciate the opportunity to install their work themselves, spending time on the street interacting with pedestrians and others interested in their creative process. Im also surprised you didnt mention this act of altruism in your press release. seems like it would be a big selling point if you were serious about it.

Jason, I have anonymously supported artists with Maxracks cards for decades without saying a word to anyone. Its none of anyones business what I choose to do with extra resources, and it is ironic that you are suggesting I exploit artists and nonprofits wrapped around the idea of altruism. Altruism is handled individually and if you want dozens of these people and organizations I have helped over the last 15 years just let me know.

As far as being an artist, a new yorker... what can I say?

You can say it counts for something. Or it doesn't. You can maybe say I am just like you in that I lived here my whole life and I don't want this great city to look like shit.

As for being sensitive to the over-saturation of advertising...is that a joke? why if you are sensitive to saturation would you start a company which will be over saturating our environment?

Joke? Some might look at your gigantic black and white squiggle on the wall in Soho as nothing more than ugly visual noise. (I don't know exactly what he is referring to here but I'm assuming he is talking about the image on the corner of Howard and Broadway) But see that's not for me to judge. I went to the Guggenheim and saw modern art of the Marlboro Man photos. Is that art? Who cares. Someone does. (Here again the difference between art and advertising escapes us. Richard Prince rephotographing the Marlborough man was not to sell you cigarettes but to elucidate ideas about authorship and reproduction in art.)

As for threatening, or humiliating you on my site, I am sorry you feel that way. I really never called you out but rather the company.

I am the company, Jason.

I think advertising like this is a blight and a humiliation to the residents of this city.

Some people might say Christmas displays in October is horrible. Or the smell of bad perfume being pumped out of Hollister's store front door is a blight too. We all pick our battles.

it takes them for nothing but consumers and this is a travesty. It is also taking away from the possible space for murals done by no longer empty and putting store owners in the precarious position of having to decide on profit over public health.

You had years to do something with these gates. But now I'm doing something so you kvetch? Is it because you didn't think of it for your artists first?

My last question regarding what I assume you are calling the threats in regards to calling 311. and believe me i mean this sincerely as you have been nice to me in the past in our email communications

do you plan to get these permitted through the DOB? because if not you should know that they will be illegal and you should consider the possibility of fines not making this a viable business option.

i apologize for our differences and I hope you can understand my point of view.

Point noted.

Two last items. We have a website: www.mediacyNY.com. And if any of your artists wants some free Gatescapes exposure have them call me.

JordanAt this point Michael and I decided it better to sit down and discuss all of this in person. Because of this I did not respond to his email after this point although we continued the conversation where our lunch left off. I will relay these small communications below, Michael in Red and PublicAdCampaign in Black.

Michael: "Hey, walking home, and have already seen about 1000 ads on everything from buses and taxis to umbrellas and signs outside stores. Any interest in coming to the other side? Because Mediacy could use a salesperson like you. :)"

PublicAdCampaign: "I think we established the going rate for selling your soul at a million two right? make me an offer."

Michael: "Just like Cemusa, I'll pay it over 20 years!" (this is a refence to the crap deal the city took when it gave Cemusa control over the bus stop shelters and magazine stands in New York. The resulting deal would have Cemusa pay the city for control of these locations over a 20 year span.)

There was some very interesting discussion that happened over lunch which has resulted in Mr. Gitter contacting his friends at GenArt, FlavorPill and the likes, offering them the Gatescape format for artists when those locations are not rented for advertising. I will be sitting down with them all after thanksgiving to discuss how this situation might result in a more appropriate use of our public spaces. More to follow soon.

Written by Doug StanWiens

BAP students at the Save Our Schools rally.

Hi, this is Doug StanWiens coming to you from room 216 at Timberline High School once again. As we approach the holiday break, I’d like to take a moment to give thanks for a number of folks who have assisted our project over the last year. As so many of you know, preservation relies so much on volunteers who give time, organizations without much money but with a lot of enthusiasm, and driven individuals who support local causes. Teaching students about preservation is in part about introducing them to this community… and appreciating all of those who contribute to their education.

The Boise Architecture Project (BAP) exists first and foremost because our students have thoroughly embraced the fun and excitement of learning about architectural history and preservation in our community. We have grown from a small, end-of-the-year PowerPoint presentation to an important technological resource; from a contained student assignment to being lucky enough to blog for you here on PreservationNation. I would like to give thanks to the more than 600 students who have been involved in the project, the supporters in the community who have embraced the BAP, and the organizations that have respected and sought out what our students have to offer.

BAP volunteers at the Preservation Idaho Historic Homes Tour.

There are several specific groups and people that have been crucially important to the growth of the BAP over the last five years. First, I’d like to give thanks for the support of Dan, Janice, and the fine folks at Preservation Idaho who early on recognized the worth of our project and have welcomed student involvement in their activities. Second, I give thanks to the City of Boise Arts and History Department for inviting our project to participate in several great local events and for their recent grant to the project, allowing a redesign of the BAP website. Third, a big “thank you” to the Idaho Humanities Council whose grants the last two years have assisted the BAP in obtaining important technology to maintain the website and help students provide the wonderful digital images and video associated with the BAP. Finally, I give thanks for a variety of important folks in the community who have supported the BAP so much: Sheri with the National Trust, Barbara at TAG Historical Consulting, Shelby and Tricia at the State Historical Preservation Office, Todd at Boise State, Diane with Julia Davis Park Second Century, and Charles of Hummel Architects. All of these folks have been invaluable to the BAP and have contributed mightily to preservation education and the students of the BAP.

Preservation is important, takes a lot of work, but is a heck of a lot of fun! The BAP so appreciates the opportunity to get out in the Boise community and make an impact through our project. And, the experiences our students have received by working on the project with the local preservation community have been invaluable in return. I feel lucky to be working as a history educator in Boise and that is why I say THANKS to our history and preservation community!

Doug StanWiens teaches U.S. history at Boise’s Timberline High School and spearheads the Boise Architecture Project. This semester, his class of juniors and seniors are blogging about what they are doing in class and in the field to learn more about their community and its history. You can follow the students here on the PreservationNation blog and on their Flickr photostream. Also, get daily updates from the teacher himself on Twitter.

Are you an educator interested in teaching preservation in your classroom? Visit PreservationNation.org for resources, tips, and ideas to enhance your curriculum with lessons that will teach your students to recognize and appreciate the rich history that surrounds them.

In April of 2005, the Federal Government of then-Prime Minister Paul Martin authorized $100 million towards the establishment of The Canadian Museum for Human Rights, and two years later current Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced it would be first national museum to be built outside of the National Capital Region in Ontario. Now under construction in Winnipeg, the Museum promises to become a "a centre of learning where Canadians and people from around the world can engage in discussion and commit to taking action against hate and oppression."

The significance of the museum and its potential impact on national and international human rights discourse is such that recently, Arthur Mauro, founder of the Centre for Peace and Justice at the University of Manitoba stated his belief that Winnipeg could become the Geneva for the 21st Century, as a centre for peace and cooperation.

However, Canadian diplomat Richard Colvin's disturbing allegations that bureaucrats and other officials in the the Harper government -- perhaps even the Prime Minister's office itself -- may be complicit in torture and war crimes, threaten to expose as fraudulent Canada's commitment to human rights in general and its newest museum in particular.

The allegations are shocking: that Canadian troops turned over all of their prisoners to Afghan security forces for whom torture was "standard operating procedure." Moreover, Canadian troops were widely known for capturing many times more prisoners than their American counterparts, and that many of these were not "high-value" combatants but rather, according to Colvin, "just local people: farmers; truck drivers; tailors, peasants – random human beings in the wrong place at the wrong time...In other words, we detained, and handed over for severe torture, a lot of innocent people." The Globe and Mail coverage, interestingly, omits Colvin's concluding statement: "Complicity in torture is a war crime."

Clearly these allegations must be independently investigated. If confirmed, they represent a profound betrayal of values Canadians have long held to be universal, and, most distressingly, principles that we have thought helped to define us as a nation and distinguish us from those we fought against -- namely the Taliban -- as well as the shameful history of Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay.

That Canadian government officials would ignore, discourage and apparently seek to cover up Canadian complicity in torture and other human rights abuses is appalling and shameful. If those being accused of these crimes are not soundly and convincingly cleared of these allegations, or else appropriately punished, they will have undermined every positive thing Canada has declared itself committed to in Afghanistan and will probably destroy much of whatever trust remains in our forces there. They will also certainly embolden the Taliban and place our soldiers in greater danger.

However, this episode could have an even more lasting and shameful legacy. At this moment, the foundations of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights are being constructed at the Forks; in 2012 this fabulous building and the inspiring institution it contains will be operational. Yet in the eyes of the world Canada will have been exposed as a committer of war crimes, an abbettor to torture and atrocity. Regardless of official statements and millions of dollars in support of the Museum, our country will have shown itself to be unfit to build such a noble institution.

The only way we as a nation can show ourselves worthy of the Museum is to follow Colvin's accusations wherever they lead, investigate them to the full extent of our abilities and hold those responsible to justice. As citizens of this nation, we too must hold our elected leaders accountable; to dismiss this as another mere "scandal" that will eventually go away to be replaced by another will not do. To do anything less than a full accounting makes as all culpable as Canadians for what has been committed in our name.

For Winnipeg to truly become a Geneva for the 21st Century, all of us -- Winnipeggers and Canadians alike -- must face these allegations honestly. Only then can we prove to ourselves and the world that we are in fact civilized enough to warrant being home to a Museum for Human Rights.

If not, then in the eyes of the world the Museum will likely be seen as a monument to our hypocrisy.

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