west north

Coming events in NYC: Open House, self-guided tours of buildings all around town, and Green Home Open House of smaller green buildings.

It’s true, I haven’t updated this blog in a while. I’ve accumulated quite a few things to share, but the existing platform is not exactly conducive to rapid-fire updates. Thus, a new platform (most likely Movable Type) and a new server are in the works, as well as a new design (sneak peek) and one or two companion blogs. The technology will allow for easier (and thus more frequent, owing to my slack-ness) posting, automatic archives, and indexing by subject, all features you’ve come to expect from blogs.

Harper’s presents “a history of the Iraq war, told entirely in lies” from senior administration officials.

“The perfect example of the soulless abstractions described by James Howard Kunstler in his book “The Geography of Nowhere,” Raleigh-Durham had no focal point, no civic epicenter, no cultural fulcrum. And it certainly didn’t have any Vermeers.” Joe Queenan

North Avenue has been closed while a crew repaints the el structure. I wish I could tape the noise, or rather lack thereof, because it’s heavenly.

Online travel: visit every UNESCO World Heritage site and savor fish in Hong Kong.

“It wasn’t the second helping on all-you-can-eat but the third” which brought the president of Red Lobster down.

Yesterday’s car-free day in Montreal created a street of smiles.

Now online: Break the Gridlock conference registration for only $10!

Instant geology, Carolina style: a new, rather permanent inlet splits Hatteras Island into two.

The pending McCain-Liberman “cap and trade” carbon dioxide bill, due for a vote this fall, would not only be a major first step towards cutting carbon emissions with market-based regulation, but it could also energize Chicago’s financial industry by opening a huge new market for the Chicago Climate Exchange.

According to this week’s Crain’s, the recently retired WBBM-AM call letters stood for “World’s Best Ballroom Music.” Still-alive WMAQ-AM came from the Daily News’ deeply investigative tagline: “We Must Ask Questions.”

Clean energy day: patterns for a conservation economy and, for the news-minded, a clean energy blog.

The death toll from France’s heat wave is widely being blamed on vacations distorting otherwise strong family ties. Still unanswered is the extent to which social capital and urban design mediated the impact, even in the absence of air conditioning.

Time to commit consumercide?

City Repair, a volunteer group in Portland, gets local and (kindly) takes back public space.

What may be conclusive proof that sprawl causes obesity — it is controlled for (demographic) selection bias, at least, which explains a lot of the apparent difference between slender New Yorkers and porky Alabamians.

Now you can get a (usually bad) digital photo of any property in Cook County, courtesy of the Cook County Assessor (search by address, and click the camera icon). Kinda neat.

Ecotopia lies not on the Pacific, but on the Hudson — but only because New Yorkers don’t drive (much).

Newly posted: photos from the Promenade Plantée.