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Tuesday, August 31st

Our Urban Photo Gallery
Now you can decorate your home or office with photos from our gallery. New items added frequently. Choose from prints, posters or even postcards and greeting cards. From graffiti to skylines, you'll find great urban images in our marketplace.

Prints and Posters
Greeting Cards and Postcards

Eric Miller (editor@newcolonist.com), on 08.31.04 @ 18:05PST

Dollars and Sense
The new Family Dollar store on Brighton Road in Pittsburgh opened recently. I visited for the first time today, and, as I expected, the parking lot was full and the cashier line extended though the isles. This is because of a severe lack of retail opportunities in the city.

Attempts to add retail in the urban corridors along the three rivers have been limited to mid-upper scale department stores. These attempts have been failures. Family Dollar thrives. If you're not familiar with Family Dollar I will try to describe it. "A very small K-mart" or "Walgreens without the Pharmacy" might be accurate descriptions. If you think it's one of those mall stores that sell any useless thing just because it costs $1, that's not it. Family Dollar and Dollar General have pillows, spray-paint, toothpaste, thumb tacks, batteries, basic clothing items--things folks need for every day living.

Thing is on the Northside--and in most of the city--there's no place to find these items. Instead we've used tax money to lure the likes of Lord and Taylor. All stores that sell everyday items don't aim specifically at the dollar-conscious crowd, but they are the stores city residents need.

I'd like to also point out an area that seems to beg for retail stores. The land is vacant and calling for a Rite-Aid or Walgreens (or Dollar General). It's along 279 Madison Avenue. If you're a retail scout, click on this map.

Eric Miller (editor@newcolonist.com), on 08.31.04 @ 12:29PST

Sign of the Times
Been noticing something lately....

Nearly every weekday morning I stop for a chai latte at a coffeehouse in East Hollywood. (What did you expect? It is LA.) I like to sit back, sip, and watch the world go by outside the window, which faces Hollywood Boulevard. And what I've noticed is that the number of bicycle commuters seems to have doubled, at least, in the last month and a half.

You know they're commuters when the same folks go by, in the same direction, at the same time every day. And there are simply more of them, men and women, mostly young, but some not at all young folks. Some of the bikes look like 1970s relics...a sure sign that regular folks are becoming thoughtful about the oil economy...apparently word is getting round, probably thanks more to the Internet than the corporate media.

Maybe they'll go through an evolution similar to Haynes's protagonist in "Sixty Days Next Year," and discover that there's a lot more to bicycling than efficiency, utility, and saving a bit of dough...here's to "Wire Wheels, Wired World".... Cheers!

Richard Risemberg (rrisemberg@newcolonist.com), on 08.31.04 @ 09:36PST

Monday, August 30th

A Quote from John Kerry's Web Site
"Having transportation choices means having the flexibility to use transportation dollars to best fit local needs, such as funding light rail and streetcar systems, expanding bus service or redesigning neighborhood streets and sidewalks to be more pedestrian-friendly. Mass transit projects trigger capital investment, sound planning, environmental awareness, energy efficiency, and decent union wages to thousands of workers."

Hear hear!

Eric Miller (editor@newcolonist.com), on 08.30.04 @ 15:27PST

Saturday, August 28th

Valuing Land
(Sorry this discussion is backwards; we are working to fix the threading feature of the blog).

A couple of comments on my colleague's comments of yesterday:

While I personally don't believe that ownership of land is morally proper, land rent benefits accrue under both ownership- and leasehold-based systems. In the latter, my landlady would lease the land from the commons and sublet it to me; in either case, she has an interest in keeping the place in good repair, so she can charge me more for, and I have an interest in keeping it in good repair, so she doesn't throw me out.

As to the value of land resulting from labor: this is only partly true. Land has an intrinsic value, as it is land (or the planetary ecosphere) that sustains all human life, and, as events are proving more an dmore, labor inputs, especially for purposes of commodity production, often reduce the real value of real estate, and may end up killing us all, along with many of our inarticulate fellow creatures.

However, an essential feature of a land rent is that it balances both costs and benefits; someone is less likely to keep (in the classic illustration) a vacant lot vacant in a "good" neighborhood, because it would be taxed according to the value that accrues to it from the good works of surrounding owners (or leaseholders). Therefore, it would be wiser, in a financial sense, to sell or develop it and obtain either use or income from it, since one is paying for the value of the land, not the value of what one might put on it. This encourages efficient higher-density use because building, say, a large complex rather than a small one will return much more income without incurring much more in taxes. Likewise, a high-quality investment--top-notch condos rather than a slum tenement--returns more income without incurring a huge increase in property taxes. Land value, and so land rent, would rise, but the cost would be distributed among all the nearby parcels, since all owners/leaseholders would benefit from one's good work.

The present system in most of the world charges you more for the use of land than for the land itself, even though the usefulness of land derives in large part from the complex of uses in land immediately surrounding it.

It's merely a systemwide application of the realtor's favorite maxim: "Location, location, location."

Richard Risemberg (rrisemberg@newcolonist.com), on 08.28.04 @ 10:32PST

Friday, August 27th

This Land Is Your Land, This Land Is My land, Stay Out
Once again I must take issue with one of my comrade's posts. Henry George may be a an easier adversary to argue with than Jesus or Abe Lincoln, but this time I think I might be up against a misled Georgist with his own opinions rather than of George himself.

I refer to a statement in the article found at the link provided. "They fail to recognize the fact that the value of the land does not originate from the exertion of direct labor on it and consequently that it is not really capital at all."

I'm afraid the value of land does originate in many cases from the exertion of direct labor, that's why a land-value tax works. If you tax the land instead of the buildings you encourage the investment of capital and the exertion of labor to improve land (and build denser communities.) It encourages maximum use.

More, land is not like another commodity, say toilet seats. It is scarce, unique ---and you can make improvements to it and increase the value-- that's what makes the statement above is unmistakably false.

The other comment I'd like to take issue with is that land is a "commons" and it's immoral to own a commons. Rick, I hope you have fun explaining this to your landlord or in the sense of a people owning land, to the nation of Israel. When you want your plumbing fixed, I expect your landlord may say, "I'm sorry, but the value of this land is not related to labor." Perhaps land is scarce, and there may not be enough for every person on earth to have an equal piece of Manhattan Island, but there's more than enough land to go around, especially if we use it wisely (and this can be encouraged through a land-value tax). Unlike air or water, another quality of land is that it is indestructible (bar dumping nuclear waste on it which would make it unusable).

I think it's important to provide easements and allow common access to the more "unique" land, such as that along waterways. It's also unfair to divide land in such a way as to say "this land is your land, this land is my land and you cannot cross onto my land." In that respect, I see the earth as being for the people and we have no right to unilaterally restrict access (to a country) on the basis of where you were born. Beyond that, land is not a commons.

Eric Miller (editor@newcolonist.com), on 08.27.04 @ 12:07PST

Possession
All Dubya's talk of the "ownership society" brings to my mind the obsession with ownership that seems to afflict denizens of the US even more than it does the rest of the world--though one can't deny that it is a universal malady!

Dubya is speaking mostly of stock ownership, but we seem to be fixated on owning the entire world, through direct purchase and through the "privatization" mania, which is a radical extension of the old Enclosure Acts that destroyed the commons two centuries ago, and provided a pseudo-legal basis for the rule of an economic elite of owner/managers over a vast horde of labor providers.

Recent attempts to retain that paradigm while distributing some crumbs of ownership to the lower and middle classes have resulted primarily in sprawl and a thralldom to unsustainable consumption, extended hours of work to support those crumbs of property at the expense of the leisure to enjoy it, and the destruction of community itself as each man retreats to his lonely suburban castle-icon at the end of another exhausting day.

It's an interesting effort to make us all complicit in robbing the commons, and thus justify, in our minds, the much greater robberies of those with the means to appropriate the world's resources on a wholesale basis. Yet to me, ownership of the commons is immoral. And by that I refer in this case to ownership of land.

Land, like air, water, and mineral resources, is part of the planetary commons, the right and realm of all creatures, as well as the necessary foundation of our physical, as well as emotional and economic, existence.

Any exclusive use, even if supported by convention or contract, constitutes then a "taking" from others who might (and in the past, did) have use of that resource, and that taking must incur a compensation.

As it happens, there is a theoretical (and in some places practical) framework for managing that compensation to the benefit of the society as a whole and the person or entity paying this "land rent," as it's sometimes called. When applied, it has seemed to act as a brake on sprawl and an incentive to high-quality, higher-density development, resulting in efficient, prosperous, and well-balanced communities.

I am referring to Henry George's concepts here, and I suggest you visit the excellent website, Progress Report, for a thorough elucidation of both the concept and the practice--in particular, this article on land rent. (I linked to the last article of three, since it links back to theh first two.)

Richard Risemberg (rrisemberg@newcolonist.com), on 08.27.04 @ 10:21PST

Just As Much Money, More Poverty and Less Insurance
Real median household income remained unchanged between 2002 and 2003 at $43,318, according to a report released today by the U.S. Census Bureau. That's not bad news, but it's not good news either. It's also where the hope for any good news stops. At the same time, the nation’s official poverty rate rose from 12.1 percent in 2002 to 12.5 percent in 2003. The number of people with health insurance increased by 1.0 million to 243.3 million between 2002 and 2003, and the number without such coverage rose by 1.4 million to 45.0 million. The percentage of the nation’s population without coverage grew from 15.2 percent in 2002 to 15.6 percent in 2003.

On Income, real median income did not change between 2002 and 2003 for non-Hispanic white households (about $48,000), black households (about $30,000) or Asian households (about $55,500).
Households with Hispanic householders (who can be of any race) experienced a real decline in median income of 2.6 percent between 2002 and 2003.

And if the South would go to the president in the upcoming election, there's also less justification thanks to the Census report. While real median household income remained unchanged between 2002 and 2003 in three of the four census regions — Northeast ($46,742), Midwest ($44,732) and West ($46,820). The exception was the South, where income declined 1.5 percent. The South continued to have the lowest median household income of all four regions ($39,823). The difference between median household incomes in the Northeast and West was not statistically significant.

More data, native households had a real median income in 2003 ($44,347), not different from that in 2002. Foreign-born households experienced a real decline of 3.5 percent to $37,499.

Women lost ground too. Real median earnings of men age 15 and older who worked full-time, year-round in 2003 ($40,668) remained unchanged from 2002. Women with similar work experience saw their earnings decline — 0.6 percent to $30,724 — their first annual decline since 1995. As a result, the ratio of female-to-male earnings for full-time, year-round workers was 76 cents for every dollar in 2003, down from 77 cents for every dollar in 2002.

On poverty, the number of people below the official poverty thresholds numbered 35.9 million in 2003, or 1.3 million more than in 2002, for a 2003 poverty rate of 12.5 percent. Although up from 2002, this rate is below the average of the 1980s and 1990s. The poverty rate and number of families in poverty increased from 9.6 percent and 7.2 million in 2002 to 10.0 percent and 7.6 million in 2003. The corresponding numbers for unrelated individuals in poverty in 2003 were 20.4 percent and 9.7 million (not different from 2002).

Children can't vote, but if they could they might think twice before voting for four more years. For all children under 18, the poverty rate increased from 16.7 percent in 2002 to 17.6 percent in 2003. The number in poverty rose, from 12.1 million to 12.9 million.

As for insurance, the number of people with health insurance coverage rose from 242.4 million in 2002 to 243.3 million in 2003. Nonetheless, the percentage with coverage dropped from 84.8 percent to 84.4 percent, mirroring a drop in the percentage of people covered by employment-based health insurance (61.3 percent in 2002 to 60.4 percent in 2003). This decline in employment-based health insurance coverage essentially explains the drop in total private health insurance coverage, from 69.6 percent in 2002 to 68.6 percent in 2003.

There you have it, an analysis of these boom times by your very own Census Bureau.

Eric Miller (editor@newcolonist.com), on 08.27.04 @ 07:09PST

Thursday, August 26th

Thanks for helping The New Colonist
September marks our 50th issue of The New Colonist. Our format and goals have not changed much in that time. This is a labor of love and these 50 issues have only been possible because of contributions from our writers and readers.

If you browse through the archives, you'll see most of the articles that have appeared in the last 50 issues, contributed by talented writers who also enjoy tirelessly promoting sustainable urban life.

Articles are not of much use without readers, and contributions from our readers have allowed us to grow. Thanks to our readers who have purchased our products. Our product line has expanded greatly and will continue to do so. I have personally received product samples, and can attest to the product quality. If you haven't visited our store, please do so. I think you'll like what you find there.

Remember, article contributors can purchase products at wholesale price. Please contact me for details.

Thanks again for helping us sustain our magazine through 50 great issues.

Eric Miller (editor@newcolonist.com), on 08.26.04 @ 16:04PST

Wednesday, August 25th

SUV Registrations Also Up In Texas
The Census Bureau says Sport utility vehicle (SUV) registrations in Texas increased 97 percent between 1997 and 2002. SUV registrations jumped from 906,500 in 1997 to 1,782,200 in 2002.

The 2002 Vehicle Inventory and Use Survey (VIUS) report for Texas includes information on fuel efficiency, annual mileage, primary range of operation, permanent equipment and other physical and operational characteristics. Data are for pickup trucks, SUVs, minivans, and all other single-unit trucks and truck-tractors.

A U.S. summary report will be issued later this year.

Eric Miller (editor@newcolonist.com), on 08.25.04 @ 12:46PST

Tuesday, August 24th

More on Abe, Jesus and Labor
Regarding the post below, shipping and ships are a technological innovation.

The Western railroads were able to charge whatever they wanted because they received large government land grants that enabled the creation of monopolies. I don't have the research in front of me, but my guesstimate would be that shipping rates on the Eastern Seaboard, where there was competition, would have been much less.

In any case, the land in the Plains states didn't have much value without the transportation.

Of course technology, whether it be ships or specialized machinery, needs labor to function or provide much benefit. Of course the people with that technology may use it to exploit labor. Of course people may steal that technology or use the government to give themselves an unfair advantage. That does not mean that labor created the technology or the capital.

Truth is, we can't do much without cooperation. That cooperation is arranged through the free exchange of money. It is the proper role of government to make sure these exchanges are of free will and free of unfair advantage, which perhaps more-so in modern times, is an advantage unfortunately provided by that very government.

Eric Miller (editor@newcolonist.com), on 08.24.04 @ 08:11PST

Capital and Labor
Actually, in the note below, Mr. Miller is arguing with Abe Lincoln, not with Jesus, but actually capital existed before industrialization. I'll discount the land-and-treasure capital of the feudalists--which was still based on the labor of serfs and soldiers, respectively, but rarely functioned as capital in that it was kept for personal use rather than invested in increased production. Capital accumulation in the modern sense began with the organization of shipping companies, primarily in England, and the reinvestment of gains produced by the labor of Hindu farmers and British seamen in more ships, more crews, and more colonial adventures. I believe it may have marked the first times shares were sold, etc. It was this wealth (though not only this wealth) that helped make industrialization possible. (The Enclosure Acts also created great wealth for the well-connected, while at the same time ensuring a pool of cheap labor for the coming industrialization by removing access to wealth for the majority of England's folks.)

The ships' crews could have operated economically, though at a lower level, without the investors; the investors could have done nothing without the crews. (Unless they had deigned to get their hands dirty, of course.)

Farm animals produced huge capital even up to a few years ago even in the US, before the petroleum subdsidy (supported in part by investment in the weapons industry) replaced their labor input with a now obviously short-term shift to a dinosaur-based economy. The animals didn't get much benefit from it (in a classic illustration of Marx's surplus value theory, one of the few things he got right), but they helped create capital. Though most of it went to the railroad companies till recently, farmers and horses created it. (Transport prices were notoriously unfair during the expansion of Great Plains farming, marked up far beyond reason.)

Production and service are the foundations of any economy that serves real life. Capital flows facilitate the functioning of an economy when they are managed honestly. But capital is the grease; it's not the machine. And labor is the fuel. We have forgotten that.

Richard Risemberg (rrisemberg@newcolonist.com), on 08.24.04 @ 07:44PST

Labor and Capital
I hate to argue with Jesus, but capital is no more the product of labor than land. Capital didn't exist in large enough quantities until the advent of machinery--the industrial revolution. Before then capital came with the advent of cities, which brought labor specialization. These, machines and specialization, are products of the mind. Before then labor provided sustenance (and likely any excess was stolen).

Capital comes from technological and time-saving advancements. Ownership of land also provides capital. This is why private property and home ownership is so critical to class mobility.

I'd also like to point out that Dick Cheney is with the government, not the private sector, so blame the overtime wage issue on the government.

If labor itself really produced capital, farm animals would have gotten rich long before humans.

As Ayn Rand said, wealth is the product of man's capacity to think.

Eric Miller (editor@newcolonist.com), on 08.24.04 @ 06:06PST

Monday, August 23rd

New Milwaukee Page
We heartily welcome Milwaukee to our family of city pages.

Visit the Milwaukee page

Eric Miller (editor@newcolonist.com), on 08.23.04 @ 17:42PST

Sunday, August 22nd

Managing Work
The Cheney administration today put into effect new regulations that "streamline" the interpretation of overtime pay in the US and who qualifies to get it. You may be surprised to hear that many folks--including, possibly, you--are now far too privileged to deserve overtime.

This, following in the wake of such recent innovations as enterprises whose every employee is a manager, and thus free of the burden of overtime pay (even if the only thing they manage is a wrench or a spatula), as well as the much-touted productivity increases underpinning the puzzling phenomenon of US businesses getting richer while US workers become poorer, led me to seek perspectives on this matter from history. So here are a few quotes that may be peripherally related to all this good news:

The truth shall make you free.--Jesus of Nazareth

Today machinery merely helps a few to ride on the backs of millions.--Ghandi

Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration.--Abraham Lincoln

Work shall make you free.--Sign over the entrance to the concentration camp at Auschwitz

Richard Risemberg (rrisemberg@newcolonist.com), on 08.22.04 @ 21:21PST

Shirts on Dogs...

He might pee on it, but you'll think it's cute.

Buy a shirt for your dog, a mug for your coffee, a print for your wall,
a sweatshirt for yourself, a mousepad for your desk and even some new
underwear in our expanded store. You'll be supporting urban life at the
same time. Check it out!

Shop Here

Eric Miller (editor@newcolonist.com), on 08.22.04 @ 05:01PST

Saturday, August 21st

Digital Vs Film Photography
Often those who love cities love to photograph them, myself included. A tour through the Photo Antiquities museum on Pittsburgh's East Ohio Street re-ignited a mental debate I have been having for some time. Should I switch to digital? So far the answer for me has been no.

One reason for this is I want a print out of every picture and I don't want to do it myself. As digital photography progresses it becomes more clear that at some point the transition may be necessary. The price on digital prints is coming down, and it is nearing a comparable price to have digital prints made or film prints made (actually, digital should eventually cost less because there is no developing involved.)

As the tour guide at the museum pointed out, there are other reasons to fear the digital age, however. Giving an overview of the history of photography, the guide provided a sense of how long each technology lasted. Each of those left us with many examples, both as far as negatives and prints. Most any existing negative can be printed today. More, each shot taken provides at least a negative for historians like those at the museum to dig through.

With digital photography, maybe ninety percent of shots are deleted. This eliminates any trace of the trial and error process of an artist. More, many of these photos may only last as long as the cd they are burned on lasts (less than ten years in some cases). Those that do get printed are not done professionally, creating physical images that don't last. If they are stored only on a hard-drive somewhere by some company that could go out of business at any time, well, the risk of losing the images is that much greater.

I asked if there will always be film. "Yes" was the reply. That may be true, but I wonder how long it will be until it becomes too expensive to use. Sooner or later I'm gonna have to switch and cough up the $1,000 or so for a good digital.

Eric Miller (editor@newcolonist.com), on 08.21.04 @ 09:43PST

Wednesday, August 18th

put aught 'em beer canz n'at
On the way out to the sidewalk with my many blue bags filled with recyclables, I was thinking of an imaginary conversation. You see, each week I take my recyclables to the curb. Each week I carry them back in. I haven't been able to figure out when they take them or why they don't.

Last week I read an article that revealed the trash collectors were opening bags, searching for recyclables and fining those who don't recycle. The article claimed the city was raking in big bucks from the recyclables and needed more. I suspected they needed the money from the fines more. (I have always suspected it was more profitable to write traffic tickets than catch shoplifters and so we need lots of cars to fund police departments--but that's another topic.)

Back to my imaginary conversation. A typical Pittsburgher in local lingo chastises a neighbor for not recycling... n'at. My apologies to anyone who can speak real Pittsburghese... for better or worse, it's a dying art.

Here goes...

Yinz know they can bust ya fer not puttin out recyclables. Yinz prolly think itza new age thing a mandate from woodstock'n'at. Yea, I read it in na paper n'at. It said these trash guyz'll dig thru yer garbage n'at and find 'em beer cans. Then yinz'll be sorry. They'll bust ya n give yinz a fine. That Murphy guy'z doin it. The city's broke n'at. They ain't got no money. Murphy spent all the money builden 'em stadiums n'at even tho the people didn't want 'em. I mean I like the stillers too, but I like to toss my beer cans withaught worrin 'bout dem stupid blue bags from 'em giant eagle places. en em pirates ain't worth all the aluminum in e Ohio River n'at. Them stadiumz why they need the money from 'em beer cans. Yinz'z Iron City cans is fundin the trash men who come and dig thru yinz'z trash to find 'em Iron City cans. If yinz don't put 'em in em blue bags, it'll cost ya. Don't lisen to me, yinz'll find out.

Eric Miller (editor@newcolonist.com), on 08.18.04 @ 19:23PST

Anti-SUV
Just a day after reading in the New York Times that SUVs endanger their passengers more than ever, I noticed an article in the LA Times on the "Anti-SUV"--which turns out to be the four-wheel-drive station wagon, somehow destined to save us all from global warming, the blandscapes of sprawl, and highway carnage...or not: they're still all cars, after all. Just more methadone for road hogs, in my view.

Serious about world-saving? Try a bike....

Richard Risemberg (rrisemberg@newcolonist.com), on 08.18.04 @ 14:18PST

Tuesday, August 17th

SUV Registrations Up 83 Percent in West Virginia
If West Virginia is representative of the nation, despite the return of the Beetle and the Mini-Cooper, the SUV craze is not over.

The U.S. Census Bureau says sport utility vehicle (SUV) registrations in West Virginia increased 83 percent between 1997 and 2002. SUV registrations jumped from 87,000 in 1997 to 159,000 in 2002.

The 2002 Vehicle Inventory and Use Survey (VIUS) report for West Virginia includes information on fuel efficiency, annual mileage, primary range of operation, permanent equipment and other physical and operational characteristics. Data are for pickup trucks, SUVs, minivans, and all other single-unit trucks and truck-tractors.

State reports are being released on a flow basis. A U.S. summary report will be issued later this year.

Eric Miller (editor@newcolonist.com), on 08.17.04 @ 06:46PST

Monday, August 16th

The Good and Bad of Washington DC
Washington DC has never been one of my favorite cities. It might be perfect for what it is--it'sjust not my idea of a really good city. It's missing at least one obvious major component- a downtown.

Washington does have many components other cities can't match. Art, for one. That said, if I were to move to the Washington area, I think nearby Baltimore might be a better choice, still leaving the art within easy reach.

On this trip I visited Alexandria, Virginia, a place I hadn't been since a teenager. Should I need to be in Washington, it seems Alexandria would also be an excellent option. What Washington does have is great little "urban" suburbs like Alexandria and Georgetown. The commuter rail system makes living in these places practical. In Pittsburgh living in such a suburb, say Sewickley, would present a nightmare of an auto commute. Of course Sewickley is not comparable to Alexandria. The lack of good commuter rail in Pittsburgh impedes the formation of these great little "urban" suburbs.

Places like Alexandria were cities in their own right before they became suburbs of other cities. Other commuter rail suburbs built as such present a similar "urban-esque" environment because everything is accessible on foot. Having everything accessible on foot means to have employment also accessible without a car. (This more often than not means to have downtown accessible on foot.) This kind of urban suburb is only possible in places that have commuter rail service.

I know first-hand it took me less time to get from Alexandria (the Eisenhower station) to the National Mall (no silly, not a shopping center) by Metro than it did by car. It's hard to beat Washington's Metro system and the great "urban-suburbs" serve as evidence.

PS: If you're in DC, don't miss the America On The Move exhibit at the American History Museum. There's a great display on Los Angeles; a simulated streetcar ride (if you're lucky enough to live in a city that still has streetcars, you can skip this); a neat chance to learn about tug boats; an engaging exhibit on the Port of Oakland and even a San Francisco cable car.

PPS: The flight simulator at the Air and Space Museum should study the food line at the same museum to learn how to move people through in an orderly and efficient manner.

Eric Miller (editor@newcolonist.com), on 08.16.04 @ 08:19PST

Thursday, August 12th

Scrap The SUV
Support The New Colonist with this and other items from our store. Many new items to choose from including shirts, mugs and more. You will not only be receiving fine merchandise that will enhance the quality of your personal life; you will be spreading the word about the pleasures and possibilities of sustainable urban living and helping us keep The New Colonist going!

Eric Miller (editor@newcolonist.com), on 08.12.04 @ 14:58PST

Wheels as Weapons
Here's another one of those telling numerical comparisons we as a culture seem to dote on:

About 900 US troops have died in Iraq since the commencement of that war--and that many people die from cars every week in the US alone!

About 11,000 Iraqi civilians have died to date in that war--and that many civilians die at the hands of their fellows on US roads every three months.

For people of my generation: about 55,000 US soldiers died in the ten years of the Vietnam War--and driving kills almost that many people every single year, year in and year out, in the USA.

I'm referring only to deaths from road wrecks here. This leaves out the estimated one to two million premature deaths from air pollution, which in most of the US comes primarily from cars.

If we can presume that the wounded/killed ratio for driving is about the same as for war--I believe that's three to one--then we are talking about many more who are impaired, often permanently: crippled, paralyzed, blinded, burned, disfigured, traumatized, themselves burdened in their lives, and become a burden, often, to their families and society.

We discuss the horrible social, environmental, and economic cost of driving addiction at length elsewhere in the magazine, but those effects may be even more significant to our civilization than individual deaths.

Something to think about next time you reach for the keys.

Richard Risemberg (rrisemberg@newcolonist.com), on 08.12.04 @ 07:49PST

Tuesday, August 10th

A Different Kind of Hummer....
Our apartment is on the second floor, and we keep a couple of pots of rosemary outside the living-room window--which is a magnificent mullioned affair that opens for the afternoon breeze. This morning, as I walked back from the kitchen, I noticed our local hummingbird from the jacaranda tree across the street. He hovered over the rosemary, his green back iridescent in the morning light, dippoing his slim, elegant beak into flower after tiny flower.

I've watched him before; he seems completely unafraid to have me there on the other side of the glass, only three feet away. He stayed two or three minutes, then went off on his rounds. A sweet start to the day....

Richard Risemberg (rrisemberg@newcolonist.com), on 08.10.04 @ 07:52PST

Census: Twelve Percent Of U.S. Is Foreign-Born
The U.S. Census Bureau recently estimated that the nation’s foreign-born population in 2003 numbered 33.5 million, or 12 percent of the total U.S. population.

Among the foreign-born population, 53 percent were born in Latin America, 25 percent in Asia, 14 percent in Europe and the remaining 8 percent in other regions of the world, such as Africa and Oceania. The 53 percent from Latin America consisted of 37 percent from Central America (including Mexico), 10 percent from the Caribbean and 6 percent from South America.

Also:

• A plurality of foreign-born people live in the West (37 percent), while the South had the highest proportion of native residents (37 percent).
• Forty-four percent of foreign-born people live in the central city of a metropolitan area, compared with 27 percent of natives.
• The foreign-born population is comprised largely of young adults, with 45 percent between the ages of 25 and 44, compared with 27 percent of natives. In contrast, natives are considerably more likely than the foreign-born to be children under 18 (28 percent versus 9 percent).
• Foreign-born households are larger than those of natives: 25 percent of family households with a foreign-born householder contain five or more people, compared with only 13 percent of those with a native householder.
• Twenty-seven percent of the foreign-born age 25 and over had a bachelor’s degree or higher education, not significantly different from the native population. Conversely, 22 percent had less than a ninth grade education, compared with 4 percent of the native population.
• While foreign-born people age 25 and over were less likely than natives of the same age to have graduated from high school (67 percent versus 88 percent), there was wide variation based on region of birth. For example, the foreign-born from Asia and Europe had rates approaching those of natives (87 percent and 85 percent), and those from South America had rates about double those from Central America, including Mexico (79 percent and 38 percent).
• Poverty rates in 2002 were higher for foreign-born people than for natives (17 percent compared with 12 percent). Among the foreign-born, these rates were highest among those from Central America (24 percent) and lowest among those from Europe (9 percent). The poverty rate of foreign-born naturalized citizens (10 percent) was closer to that of the native population (12 percent) than that of foreign-born people who were not U.S. citizens (21 percent).

Eric Miller (editor@newcolonist.com), on 08.10.04 @ 06:17PST

Monday, August 9th

SUVs Illegal on Many Residential Streets
This funny, pertinent, and precise article details a hilarious hypocrisy of SUV culture: it turns out that it's illegal to drive most of them on residential streets in California and a few other states!

So what should poor SUV drivers do: accept the tickets with the tax breaks, pay up, or simply park their dinosaurs?

Read the entire article at slate.msn.com

Richard Risemberg (rrisemberg@newcolonist.com), on 08.09.04 @ 10:11PST

Friday, August 6th

Mom's driving more
There's less time left for mothering these days--and less time moms have to themselves. A new study found that mothers are spending more of their time as taxi drivers--74 minutes a day in 2001. That's up from 67 minutes in 2005 according to the DC based Surface Transportation Policy Project.

Eric Miller (editor@newcolonist.com), on 08.06.04 @ 06:04PST

Wednesday, August 4th

Aging Americans: Stranded Without Options
A new study by the Surface Transportation Policy Project shows that more than half of all non-drivers age 65 and over stay at home on a given day, many because of limited transportation options. This trend is particularly troublesome as the baby boom generation of Americans grows older.

The report also finds that isolation of non-drivers affects the rural aging population disproportionately. Older people who live in sparsely populated geographical areas have fewer transportation options, such as regular transit services, than those living in denser geographic areas. Less than one half the population has adequate public transportation available to them. Walking is often difficult or unsafe and not an alternative. Americans age 65 and older make only 8 percent of their trips by walking. Street safety is cited as a major problem. In a recent STPP poll, 42 percent of Americans reported that dangerous intersections make crossing the street difficult where they live.

The report recommends providing more public transportation options; increasing funding and flexibility for existing programs to serve older people; better transportation planning with greater coordination with land use planning; improved human service and transportation coordination; and improved street design and safety features.

Eric Miller (editor@newcolonist.com), on 08.04.04 @ 18:22PST

Most Literate Cities
If you want to live in a literate city, California and Texas containing the least literate cities may not be the place to head. A new ranking lists Minneapolis, Seattle and Pittsburgh as the cities with country's most literate folks. Madison, Cincinnati, Washington, Denver, Boston, Portland and San Francisco complete the top ten. Some cities with lower literacy rates include Detroit, Fresno, El Paso, San Jose, Phoenix, Dallas, Los Angeles and Houston.

Factors including newspaper circulation, educational attainment, library resources, publishing and booksellers are used in compiling the data. Read up.

Eric Miller (editor@newcolonist.com), on 08.04.04 @ 09:42PST

Healthy Signs
Perhaps the "paradigm shift" so many of us hope for is actually taking place: slowly, sometimes with earthquakes and volcanos, but more often with a subtle motion one can barely notice, the psychic landscape is moving around, new continents of thought are taking shape, and a new world forming before our eyes.

Here is an extensive website covering developments in Indonesia, a country many in the West associate only with gamelan music, Muslim extremism, elaborate temples, or credit card fraud: and yet there is also an extensive, serious, and elegant urban ecology program in operation there, giving profound attention to energy use, climate change, urban development, air quality, forestry, and much more--programs which should put most countries in the West to shame, even the progressive ones.... And they have a Carfree Day coming to Jakarta on September 26th. (And, US denizens please note, they too have ratified Kyoto.)

For a look, click on the following link:

http://www.pelangi.or.id/

Richard Risemberg (rrisemberg@newcolonist.com), on 08.04.04 @ 07:51PST

Monday, August 2nd

Bring Target, But Leave The Suburbs
I read with excitement and frustration in yesterday's Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that the East Liberty neighborhood could soon be filled with major retail stores like Target. If you're one of those who don't like chain stores, let me tell you, I wish there were a local store like Target, but there isn't. If you're one of those who don't like to consume, let me tell you, I love to go to Target and buy lots of not too expensive, but nice, things if I feel depressed.

I wish stores like Target would move into cities like Pittsburgh at a faster rate. I also wish they would come to my neighborhood.

Don't get me wrong, East Liberty is a great place--and in a great location near the colleges in Oakland and the high-end retail and residences of Shadyside. It has some great buildings--on a much larger scale than most anything on Pittsburgh's Northside.

I have two requests for the city and the developers with these plans. First, I ask that they work with the businesses that currently exist in East Liberty helping them to develop their business. This will not only help make the East Liberty retail area more unique with local stores. It will also help empower local residents. Local businesses have a greater economic multiplier effect than chain stores, who send much of the profit or administration costs to the city where their base is located.

That's not to say we don't need big retailers and chain stores like Target. A big store like that in a city as starved for retail as this will certainly bring lots of shoppers to East Liberty. If the local businesses aren't forced out by the Urban Redevelopment Authority and developers, they will surely benefit from the additional traffic.

The second request is to build these stores in an urban-friendly manner. If there must be parking, build parking garages. Make necessary transit improvements to maximize the numbers who come to the stores without a car. Finally, make the stores connect to or have entrances on the established retail street. This idea is not unlike the diagram I provided for the Waterfront retail district. A Target off in the back surrounded with a big lot won't do much for the existing retail street or the urban fabric.

Bring the Target, but leave suburbia in the suburbs.

Eric Miller (editor@newcolonist.com), on 08.02.04 @ 06:29PST