green infrastructure « City Block

Miscellaneous thoughts on Hurricane Sandy

A few items to share in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy:

Hurricane Sandy from NASA GOES-13

Prediction: As the son of a meteorologist, I feel obligated to note that this storm was very well forecast. Given a broader critique of science on a number of fronts, the accuracy of the forecast and the warning it provided

Continue reading Miscellaneous thoughts on Hurricane Sandy

Green vs. gray - two sides of the same coin

DC Water's Blue Plains waste water treatment facility. CC image from erin m.

While perusing Twitter (hat tip to Jeff Wood), I came across this Guardian article about urban uses of natural processes to do the dirty work of urban pollution mitigation. The piece discusses all types of green infrastructure and the natural processes they emulate,

Continue reading Green vs. gray – two sides of the same coin

Low impact development near the Navy Yard

Near the soon to be opened and fantastic Park at the Yards, there’s a lot of new low-impact development infrastructure. These bioretention areas should be a great example of the new kind of both urban and environmentally sustainable infrastructure can be.

These are not ordinary tree boxes. Instead of draining into a standard storm sewer, these

Continue reading Low impact development near the Navy Yard

Infrastructure + Networks + Security

A series of (somewhat) tangentially related post/items/articles I’ve been meaning to mention here:

1. Security Theater – mammoth

There are always tensions between openness and security, and cities like DC have plenty of examples of this – everything from bollards anchored in 6 feet of subterranean concrete to jersey barriers strewn in front of building entrances. Given

Continue reading Infrastructure + Networks + Security

More ideas for the Eco-City Beautiful

I’ve been meaning to say something on some more water + city issues raised by mammoth a short time ago, but I haven’t gotten around to it. Mammoth points us to another entrant in the design competition for Toronto’s Port Lands (following up on some of the discussion about McMillan Two). The project, called River+City+Life,

Continue reading More ideas for the Eco-City Beautiful

graphing parking « accessible parking wonkery 4 hours ago
Some rather frightening infographics on how much space we require for parking through our zoning codes.
The business of bike sharing - The Washington Post 2013/05/20
I'm not sure why people focus on commuting via Bikeshare. The major benefit to bikeshare is one-way trips, adding another layer to the other transit modes.
San Francisco upzone: Vulcan logic. 2013/05/20
Star Trek and NIMBYism.
PATH/Fail: The Story of the World’s Most Expensive Train Station | Observer 2013/05/16
Infrastructure investment goes off the rails.
Check Out the View From the Top of the Washington Monument: DCist 2013/05/15
helmet cams for ironworkers...
Development above the new Fairfax Metro stations: Should preparation begin now? 2013/05/14
Air rights - not a bad idea. However, the depiction here just seems like another suburban pod, isolated from the rest of the land next to the toll road ROW.
Chupacabra Becomes Latest Taco Trucks to Open Restaurant - Young & Hungry 2013/05/13
A nice list of DC-area food trucks that have translated the concept into a brick-and-mortar restaurant. The truck allows for proof of concept, and lower barriers to entry than otherwise required to start a storefront business from scratch.
Red Transit Lanes on Church Have Made Muni Faster and More Reliable | Streetsblog San Francisco 2013/05/13
Lessons for any city planning a streetcar line...
Cluck Zoning Board Meeting Monday | Providence Daily Dose¬es 2013/05/11
Zoning - yikes. Parking - yikes. This is not the kind of outcome we want for cities.
2035 Predictions for Washington Avenue Offer Precision Without Accuracy | streets.mn 2013/05/10
The perils of projections.

By Web Design Company

Development costs and housing affordability (1)
- Tony Daniels: Good argument. Some things stand out though. First –...
What’s wrong with ‘Metro Brown?’ (1)
- City Block: puts Metro’s recent discussions about moving away from...
Norman Foster’s aerotropolis (5)
- Alex Block: For more on those photos from Boston dealing with their...
Capacity on the Northeast Corridor (2)
- Alex Block: So, FRA is trying to reassure everyone that this is OK:...
- Alon Levy: The FRA rule changes are mostly about cant deficiency and are...
Towards a DC S-Bahn, part 2 (3)
- City Block: are needed to allow for a combination of increased intercity...
Metro’s ‘station of the future’ – why mess with what works? (1)
- Michael: “Metro Brown” works well with the red tiles and...
Disasters: the more things change, the more they stay the same (1)
- Kenny: When I was in New Orleans for a conference a few weeks ago, I...
Managing on-street parking: zoning is not the way (6)
- RTA: Just because a developer provides parking doesn’t mean all...
What would happen without parking requirements? (2)
- benschon: Evidence abounds that zoning mandates to put in parking...

@GeorgetownMet Better than Chivas USA 2.0... - 2 hours ago
Development costs and housing affordability wp.me/pHcGQ-JU - 3 hours ago
@GeorgetownMet @amorrissey No, they knew they would never get in, hence why they joined another, lower-level league. Burned too many bridges - 13 hours ago
@JGluckman great point - we can go (and grow) taller while still feeling horizontal. - 3 days ago
RT @JGluckman: Barcelona and Paris have densities 4 times DC's while still feeling horizontal. - 3 days ago
RT @JGluckman: @HTinWDC suggests Paris and London as models for national capitals that are as much/more known for business and culture. #He… - 3 days ago
RT @JacksonCarnes: Pierre L'Enfant, father of DC urban planning, provided no limit or suggested limit on height. L'Enfant Plan created in 1… - 3 days ago
RT @enf: Graphic illustrations of how much space required parking eats up graphingparking.wordpress.com via @tranlib @urbandata @svrdesign - 4 days ago
Wow. Score one for the common loon. #Birds slate.com/articles/healt… - 4 days ago
RT @BeschlossDC: This is the future Times Square NYC, 1878, altho it almost looks like an intersection in a frontier town: http://t.co/EAjI… - 4 days ago

City Block

Miscellaneous thoughts on Hurricane Sandy

Green vs. gray - two sides of the same coin

Low impact development near the Navy Yard

Infrastructure + Networks + Security

More ideas for the Eco-City Beautiful

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