Wanted to let everyone know about this upcoming conference that the MassDOT will be putting on next week. Please see the invite below from Joshua Robin, MassDOT.

----- 

On Eventbrite here: http://massdotdevconference.eventbrite.com/

The Massachusetts Executive Office of Transportation is pleased to invite you to the MassDOT Developers Conference, on November 14th, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, MA. The Conference is free and open to the public. EOT, which becomes MassDOT on November 1, is also announcing the 2009 EOT Developers Challenge, which inspires developers to create both applications and data visualizations, to submit them to EOT, and to release them to the public. The two top submissions will receive a CharlieCard valid for one-year of free travel on the MBTA, in addition to recognition at the Conference.

Our multi-modal data set, hosted on the EOT Developers Page, is being used by smart, innovative software developers to build applications that benefit transportation users, travelers, and riders. EOT has engaged these developers, holding developers’ meetings and engaging the community through Twitter and Google Groups, and hopes to expand its data and incorporate more information in real-time. The Conference and Challenge are a fantastic opportunity to engage in the process of turning this data into an application that has impact in the real-world. It also provides participants a stage to showcase their work.

The Conference and Challenge are part of the Patrick Administration’s commitment to comprehensive transportation reform and creating a modern, efficient, and customer-friendly transportation system. These initiatives are also a part of Governor Patrick’s Civic Engagement agenda, which seeks to foster creative new ways for citizens to engage in state government. A Boston Globe editorial has labeled the Developers Page "a smart, 21st-century alternative," and the program was featured in a front-page story in the Boston Metro newspaper.

The Conference and Challenge are modeled on similar efforts in Washington D.C., where the city's Apps for Democracy program returned 47 iPhone, Facebook and web applications with an estimated value in excess of $2,600,000 to the city. Applications and visualizations may be submitted through November 9th, 2009. Developers and data visualization experts will submit their creations to EOT, where the applications will be judged on the quality of design, usability, and convenience. The two first-place winners in each category will each receive a CharlieCard valid for one year of travel on the MBTA’s rapid-transit and bus system.

The Conference is free and open to the public. It will include plenary sessions featuring speakers from the transportation and technology community, and breakout sessions, where developers can meet to discuss EOT’s data and what applications they are working on. The Conference will also include training sessions for the Regional Transit Authorities, which provide transit services outside of Greater Boston, to help those agencies maintain their data in open and available formats on the Developers Page.

Please email Joshua Robin at joshua.robin@eot.state.ma.us with questions or comments. 
To RSVP please click here: http://massdotdevconference.eventbrite.com/

Hello UEPers,

I hope you find this interesting.

Have a great week end,

Sim 

BIF Bulletin Special Edition_Focus on Climate Change.pdf (453.51 kb)

As many of you probably know, the Draft Environmental Impact Report on the Green Line extension was completed and released a few weeks ago (read it here).  The official public hearing on the DEIR is on November 18.  But in the meantime, do you want to learn more about it and/or give your two cents?  You have a great opportunity this Saturday:

Green Line DEIR Community Meeting

Saturday, Nov 7, 9:30-12:30 pm
VNA Assisted Living Facility (Community Room)
259 Lowell St (map)

STEP is holding a meeting this Saturday for Somerville, Medford an Cambridge residents who want to learn about and share their questions about what is included or omitted from the Draft Environmental Impact Report for the Green Line Extension. The public hearing on the DEIR is scheduled for Wednesday, November 18, 2009 at 6 PM at Somerville High School Auditorium.

We encourage you to join us and forward this message to invite your friends and colleagues. The DEIR is a very large report. What is in it and the issues that the public raise about what is included will determine decisions that will be made for the planning, design, land use decisions and construction of the Green Line Extension.

Please reply to info@somervillestep.org to let us know if you will attend.

Goals
- To provide information to help concerned Somerville, Medford and Cambridge residents for the DEIR Hearing and preparation of comments
- To listen to concerns and questions from Somerville, Medford and Cambridge residents and businesses about next steps for the Green Line and the DEIR process
- To brainstorm best approaches for public involvement in next phases of project and how to convey this in the DEIR comments

Meeting Agenda

Overview presentation (30 minutes)
• Introduction DEIR Process
• Green Line project
• Green Line DEIR Details
Brainstorming (30 minutes)
• Questions, priorities, concerns, ideas
Station Areas & Design (30 minutes)
• Case studies – Lechmere & Route 16 community redesign
• Mitigation issues
• Maintenance Facility Alternatives
• Environmental impacts
Group breakout sessions (40 minutes)
• Detailed discussions by topic
Next steps, Wrap Up (10 Minutes)

Coffee and Refreshments provided

First-year UEPer Marcus Rozbitsky suggested this book review of "Green Metropolis".

While I haven't yet read the book, I found the points made by the review to resonate with discussions from a few of our UEP classes.

In "Developing Sustainable Communities," Dr. J examines and points out the fact that "green" and "sustainable" have become such marketing terms that the message is getting lost and may potentially be diluting the effort. David Owen seems to attack that effort to market through "green actions" by instead changing the entire message. Instead of writing yet another book that purports what we should be doing, Owen has instead taking the perspective of starting at "what are we doing right?" This same question was recently raised by Barbara Parmenter in the "Cities in Space, Place, and Time" class. All too often, planners ask what the community wants rather than asking what the public also likes about their community so as to make sure those initiatives continue.

By examining "what we're doing right," Owen's determines that communities like New York City are the models we should follow. Through denser and closely-integrated neighborhoods, resources and energy needs are reduced. Of course it's pointed out that New York City's model status was not so much created thanks to numerous, forward-thinking policy initiatives, but more so due to development pattern, speed of growth, and geographical constraints.

Reviewer Margaret Mittelbach certainly paints a great picture regarding Owen's efforts to shift our thinking around green. If you've read the book, please let us know what you think about Owen's examination. 

The auto industry is back at it. In the wake of near collapse, manufacturers are on the attack and on multiple fronts. Americans are shifting (slowly) away from an auto-scentric view to a more multimodal paradigm. Did anyone get to go to Rail~Volution this weekend at the Westin (some really great information and a lot of energy)? But the car companies won't give up without a fight.

Exhibit A
Advertising - Audi recently put out a new ad to promote their "clean diesel" A3 TDI. As they put it, it's more "fun" to do your part by driving their car rather than using any alternative to the automobile. It's quite funny how they show the negative aspects to alternative travel methods and not a single negative aspect to driving a car.

Exhibit B
Design Competition - Lexus is sponsoring the Parkitecture Design Competition. As Americans decide to use other transit options, the need for multiple cars within their family is shrinking. Lexus thinks otherwise. The competition promotes the concept of 1) a free-standing building (great use of land area) and 2) the need to store up to three autos (though they do not state this is for the hypothetical family but they also do not state that you should consider in the design the access by multiple families).

With big budgets and already-established mechanisms, the auto industry has the potential of slowing and/or steering the multimodal paradigm shift that has been brewing. How can we sustain and continue this shift, given this bear's desire to monopolize?

Hello UEPers,

Hope you are enjoying Hallowieen. Last night I had a great time at Andys party!

I first af all want to introduce you to GreenProphet, Green prophet is an amzing blog on sustainability in the Middle East.

I also think some of us might find this confference interesting- World Future Energy Summit Web site

The 2010 World Future Energy Summit (WFES) is less than three months away; and plans are already underway to ensure that this conference will be even more successful than WFES 2009, which drew more than 18,200 visitors from 84 countries.

Hosted by Abu Dhabi’s Masdar Future Energy Company, the main themes of the 2010 Summit will be centered on the concept of “eco cities” and the issues surrounding technology transfer in order to advance the concept of sustainable and renewable energy; which will be vital to the success of the environment of the new eco-cities being planned for various parts of the globe.

Some of these include:  Treasure Island in the USA, Dong Tang in China, and Masdar City in Abu Dhabi itself. Although Masdar City has been mentioned several times on Green Prophet, the other two have not; and it will be interesting to see how the Americans and Chinese can convert a polluted naval base outside San Francisco, and a piece of swampy wasteland along the Yangtze River into completely sustainable eco-communities.

In the case of Masdar City, the geographical area in which it is being built is much harsher than that of the other two, and could be the most challenging of the three; as it is being built in a country with virtually no natural water supplies and with summertime temperatures soaring to over 49 degrees Celsius (130 degrees Fahrenheit).

Just a few of the confirmed Summit speakers include: Mr. Karlos Papoulias, President of Greece; Mr. Wolfgang Dehen, CEO of Siemens AG Energy Sector; Ms. Helene Pelosse, Interim Director-General of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA); and Ms. Katrina Landis, CEO of British Petroleum’s Alternative Energy Division.

A number of sustainable energy eco-city projects, including Masdar City, have had construction slow-downs or even outright delays due to the ongoing economic slowdown which has been in effect world-wide since the end of last year. It will be interesting to see whether other projects, which are not considered to be very eco-sustainable, including Abu Dhabi’s Al Reem Island project, will be discussed, along with the featured projects like Treasure Island and Masdar City.

But in looking at the program schedule for the 2010 WFES summit, there will be plenty of issues to keep the delegates busy as well as enlightened; including climate change, new innovations in alternative and renewable energy, world food and water shortages, and where increased investments to create “green” employment opportunities will come from. We can only hope that the ecological aspects of many sustainable living projects will not be compromised by profit motive considerations, as may be the case in projects like Al Reem Island.

And in the meantime nominations are open for the Zayed Future Energy Prize – with a prize booty of $1.5 million. Click here on Zayed Future Energy for more.

Did anyone catch Nightline last night?  They did a story on a radical initiative in Flint, MI: bulldozing vacant properties, with the intention of eventually returning the land to nature.  Rush Limbaugh, for one - indignant as always - is none too pleased; this is happening in America!  We don't shrink, we grow!

Of course, many of us in the world of planning are familiar with the idea of shrinking cities; last spring some of us UEPers even got to meet, listen to and talk with Frank Popper, who is probably the country's most prolific academic proponent of the concept.  The Nightline report, which addressed the topic as if it was an alien from another universe, is really just the latest in a string of recent shrinking city coverage appearing in big media outlets (eg, Harvard professor Edward Glaeser recently wrote about it in the New York Times: "While there is no evidence that the Obama administration is committed to razing homes, it probably should be").  Though not many politicians are yet willing to hang their hat on physical constriction (listen carefully to Flint's mayor's hedge), there does appear to be a growing shrinking city movement.

We young academics often fall for the conceptual flavor of the week.  Does anyone want to argue for or against this one?

This past Monday, some of my Housing Policy classmates and I went to see HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan speak at the Harvard GSD. The event was in part sponsored by the Joint Center for Housing Studies, in honor of their 50th anniversary. A lot of folks in the housing world are pretty excited about Mr. Donovan, because he is very knowledgeable, thoughtful, and "a real housing guy" - which, from what I glean, is in contrast to previous HUD secretaries.

A few items stand out from his talk, most of which aligned with the lessons I've learned so far in Housing Policy. Among them, he emphasized the importance of place-based housing solutions, rather than relying only on voucher-type programs. To this end, employing the assistance and expertise of non-profits and other non-government entities is vital.

He mentioned briefly a new type of mortgage called a location efficient mortgage (LEM), which calculates transportation cost savings of living in places where one can easily walk or take public transportation, instead of drive. Thus, people who live in places where they save on transportation costs may qualify for mortgages that would otherwise be considered too expensive. This website does a better job of explaining it than I do: http://www.locationefficiency.com/

He also spoke about low-income homeownership. First, he said that the main alternative to homeownership, renting, warrants closer consideration as a viable solution to housing problems. (In my class I've learned that, in the policy world and culture at large, there exists a fairly extreme, somewhat unfounded bias toward homeowners and homeownership.) On the other hand, he hopes that the one thing we don't take away from the current mortgage crisis is the inapt idea that low-income families can't be homeowners.

In all, it was an engaging talk, and the enthusiasm for Mr. Donovan seems well-founded. I hope some of my classmates present at the talk will add other items from the talk that stood out to them. 

Here are a few more relevant links:

A Crisis Is A Terrible Thing To Waste (a conference from earlier this year with the best name ever)

Is affordable housing so scarce in NYC that it violates human rights?

--AR

Wired Magazine ran a feature earlier this year about the effect of designing under constraint. The primary point of the section dealt with the fact that artists, architects, engineers, and designers work best when they are provided a set of guidelines under which to produce a work. It is under these restrictions that innovation and creativity flourish. Wired quickly sets this view of constraint against the lack of restraint that led to the housing market and financial crash. It is generally accepted now (though certainly in discussion) that regulation is needed. As Scott Dadich points out "the lack of limits has proven to be a false freedom."

Planning certainly falls under the hat of "regulation." Does planning work best when we as planners are faced with restrictions (NIMBY-ism, environmental protection, public involvement) or lack thereof (urban renewal)?

A couple things to think about:
Jane Jacobs would probably prefer to restrict/end planning altogether.
And then there's the fact that the APA just gave a planning award to the Houston neighborhood of Montrose, an unplanned neighborhood.

So where does that leave us? Are we like the designers, able to provide a better built environment to the public through restrictions (both on ourselves and on the practice of building)? As the policy writers, do barriers help us to frame an issue and focus on potential actions and initiatives?

This evening, the MA Chapter of the APA and MIT hosted a talk by Anthony Flint about his new book Wrestling with Moses: How Jane Jacobs Took On New York's Master Builder And Transformed The American City". Attended by about 50 people, the group included professors, practitioners and students from across Massachusetts.

To begin with, Flint described the present focus on planning - infill, redevelopment, building off of and expanding public transit. As he noted, this stands in stark contrast to the actions happening in the 1960s - and it was these two pivotal people (Robert Moses and Jane Jacobs) who helped get us to where we are today.

It was interesting to hear how he compared the two. Generally, the planning field is (now) very critical of Robert Moses while many (especially the New Urbanists) praise Jane Jacobs. It turns out though that they had their similarities and weren't wholly positive or negative.

One of the biggest issues facing planners these days is NIMBY-ism (Not-In-My-Back-Yard). Flint pointed out that it was Jacobs that really started this concept. Her efforts to protect New York's neighborhoods from demolition for highway projects encouraged the public to protect their home and the area around it. He also noted that it was this same "protectionism" that she sponsored that saved homes in the West Village. That same neighborhood has gone through major gentrification, resulting in the displacement of the same people Jacobs wanted to save from highway displacement. It's resulted in a new guerilla campaign More Jane Less Marc. Of course, he brand of public concern and action had a much greater positive effect - such as the great freeway revolts in Boston and San Francisco.

While Jacobs provided America with the concept of "human-scale neighborhoods," Flint made the case for Moses's concern and focus on infrastructure. We are at the cusp of an infrastructure meltdown. Sadly, the public backlash regarding Moses caused us to turn away from infrastructure rather than incorporate it equitably.

Flint closed his presentation with the question "How does a city reinvent itself?" Jacobs left us the owner's manual for the city and neighborhood. Now we need to embrace density through proper design and scale, transit node focus, and distribution of parks.

Following his presentation, Flint opened the floor to questions and discussions. These included:

• Do we need government subsidies?
• What will be the effect of the new MassDOT
• Smart growth initiative for mixed-income developments
• How to balance NIMBY-ism
• Developing on/near the Greenway
• Flint's concern and focus on climate change and our responsibility for immediate action
• Where is the future of planning heading?
• The importance of visualizing a plan through new technology and how it fits into the regional framework
• Jacobs would support the Times Square traffic calming measures (she attempted something similar) and potential congestion charges
• Potential for sustainability to converge the engineering and planning fields