I am looking forward to this work. I am currently taking a course on community development, so this will give me some hands on experience in this area. I am also looking forward to learning more about, and contributing too, other aspects of urban sustainability, particularly the public health aspects. Wish me luck!

I have no idea how it happened, but my little experiment in blogging about the search for ecopolis has been listed among 50 blogs about urban policy! This is a very humbling thing. Given my school schedule and other commitments, this is has been a very inconsistent endeavor on my part, and I really appreciate the acknowledgement.

A big thanks to the Public Servant Blog for including me in this list. I am very honored. In thanks, I am going to add them to my blogroll; please check them out!

Hm, does this now mean I need to update more often?

This came around on the Next Generation Urbanists email list this morning, and I just had to share. A bit preachy, maybe, but it so gets the point across. Enjoy!

NPR had an interesting map up last week showing state-by-state the percentage of people underwater on their home mortgages. I have long been a believer in the power of maps to communicate data quickly in an easy-to-understand format. This lies at the root of my interest in geographic information systems (GIS) as a tool to help analyze urban sustainability and develop plans for the future. Check this out and get a sense of just how extensive the problem is and how it compares state-by-state.

A friend emailed me this link earlier today about the proposed Central Denver Recreation Center that was going to be built about 5 blocks from where I live. It turns out that the land cost the city a lot more than originally estimated, and now they are left without the money needed to follow through on the original plan.

Apparently the new plan involves putting an urban garden on the property, which is not necessarily a bad idea. But it is sad to see the original plan compromised like this. Unfortunately, if this recession stretches out as long as some think it might, it may be years, even a decade or more, before the rec center gets built.

Thanks to Transportation for America for posting the link to this story.

UPDATE: Mr. Maes ended up winning the Republican gubernatorial nomination.

B-cycles at the Denver City/County Building. Courtesy of the Denver Post

I have to admit, I was stunned into silence when I saw this one. Apparently Denver B-cycle, our wildly popular bike sharing program here in Denver, is a vast UN conspiracy to take away our freedoms!

First, I stumbled across this story on my Facebook feed. Just the headline alone was enough to get my jaw to hit the floor, but then I saw who said it. It was Dan Maes, one of the Republican gubernatorial candidates right here in Colorado! And the coverage is growing. Our local NBC affiliate is reporting it, as is MSNBC. The best article on this is at the Denver Post, which gives a fuller picture of the comments by Mr. Maes and a response from Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper’s campaign. (For those outside of Colorado who may not know, Mayor Hickenlooper is running unopposed for the Democratic nomination for governor in next week’s primary election.)

Okay everybody, let’s just take a deep breath, shall we? As the Denver Post article notes, while the City & County of Denver is a partner in the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI), now officially called ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability, we have not given up any of our freedoms to the United Nations. ICLEI is simply an organization that provides resources to communities that want to be more sustainable. That’s it! By providing a bike sharing system such as Denver B-cycle, the city is simply providing residents with an alternative form of transportation. If you want to drive your cars and burn up fossil fuels and sit in traffic for long periods of time, you are more than welcome, and free, to do so! But in an effort to make Denver a more sustainable and desirable place to live, in its quest to seek ecopolis, Denver is encouraging people to look at alternatives to the automobile, and more and more people are doing so. I can’t help but think that with more alternatives for personal mobility, our freedoms are being increased, not decreased. At least I would equate more choices with more freedom. But a vast UN conspiracy to take over our cities? I just don’t see it. But then what does a simple little urban planning grad student and wanna-be blogger know about anything…

Transportation For America » America’s transit systems require $77.7 billion just to reach a state of good repair.

Yes, you read that correctly: a minimum state of good repair. As the story notes:

Failure to keep up with regular maintenance and repair in many of our country’s public transportation systems due to tightened budgets is literally slowing us down, through longer commutes, unreliable service and reduced access, exacerbating the effects of a down economy and high unemployment.

The current economic crisis and high unemployment will be with us for a while, several years if the various analyses are to be believed. Investing in transit infrastructure would be a way of creating jobs, pulling up the economy, and moving our transportation infrastructure as well as our overall economy in a greener direction.

Cities tackle traffic head-on with commuter options – USATODAY.com.

As one who used to drive everywhere up until a few years ago, I know from personal experience how easy it is to get trapped in the habit of auto-mobility. There are options out there: transit, cycling, walking, or, more realistically, a combination of some or all of these. We need to do a better job of educating people as to what their options are and not only the cost savings, but the health and environmental benefits as well.

Take a look at the video and give me your thoughts in the comments.