New Development Strategy | ModeShift

The Fourth Sector

by Keith SchneiderOctober 17, 2007October 19, 20072

Â Mode Shift’s faithful readers know how interested the author is in work that is occurring in metropolitan regions, at the grassroots, in nimble businesses, and the non-proft sector to help institutions be moreÂ responsive to the unique requirements of our time. The 20th century’s institutions, particularly government, which built the Interstate highway system, sent men to the moon, enacted enforceable protections for civil rights and endangered species,Â have turned out to be wholly incapable of meeting …

At Notre Dame, Coming of Age For Young New Urbanists

by Keith SchneiderOctober 11, 2007October 11, 20074

Â I visited South Bend earlier this month to join a group of students from Notre Dame and several more of the nation’s best universities who held the first Congress of the Students for New Urbanism. TheÂ University of Notre DameÂ School of Architecture,Â it turns out, was an apt choice for the gathering. Notre Dame reframed its architectural curriculum several decades ago to concentrate on traditional neighborhood and urban design, one of the few architectural schools to …

Climate Change Is A New Global Organizing Principle

by Keith SchneiderSeptember 27, 2007September 28, 20075

Â NEW YORKÂ — The X Prize Foundation, which developed a new philanthropic idea called “revolution through competition,” toldÂ participants today at the Clinton Global Initiative that it would commit $300 milion in the nextÂ seven years to help solve global crises in each of the four CGI focus areas. The foundation said it is developing new prizes to increase access to renewable fuels, improve energy efficiency, and promote use of cleaner fuels. It also will have …

Straightening The Noodles at Clinton Global Initiative, Plus Jolie-Pitt

by Keith SchneiderSeptember 26, 2007September 27, 20072

Â NEW YORK –Â This morning at the opening session of the Clinton Global Initiative, Lee Scott, Wal-Mart’s chief executive, explained to hundreds of international leaders why hisÂ corporate behemoth, one of the iconic companies of this age, has very quickly embraced environmental sensitivity andÂ energy efficiency as a business strategy.Â It’s all about the benefits that occur when you “straighten the noodles,” he said. Specifically, Mr. Scott described what happened when Wal-Mart asked executives at Betty Crocker, …

Onward to Clinton Global Initiative in New York

by Keith SchneiderSeptember 25, 2007September 25, 20070

[youtube]9Jhu6uk3sMw[/youtube] Three years ago when he founded the Clinton Global Initiative, which has emerged as one of the most influential and prestigious annual gatherings of world leaders, former President Bill Clinton understood that the new century’s formative operating principles depended on collaboration, not hierarchy. Only through the efforts ofÂ untraditional allies working together could people make progress on any idea or project of real significance. If you doubt this, just consider that in the 20th …

Michigan’s Energy Schizophrenia

by Keith SchneiderSeptember 6, 2007September 20, 20078

Late last month I had the chance to spend the day with scientists at Michigan State University who are involved in carrying out the work of the new Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center, a partnership between MSU and the University of WisconsinÂ financed by a five-year, $125 million federal research grant. It isÂ one of three such centers across the country determined toÂ fillÂ America’s national gas tank with fuel made from plants. Bruce Dale, a chemical engineer at …

Mitt Romney Has A Smart Growth Record; But He Keeps It Hidden

by Keith SchneiderAugust 20, 2007August 21, 20070

Â There’s never been a time in my life, which now spans 51 years, when the conversation in communities is so distanced from what state lawmakers choose to talk about. And the gulf only gets wider between the concerns knocking around state capitols and what Congress and the White House think is important. This isn’t a partisan problem. It’s a national disgrace. Our state government here in Michigan, for example, is led by a two-term …

An Energy Alliance to Watch in Michigan and Elsewhere

by Keith SchneiderAugust 8, 2007August 8, 20070

John Bebow, the executive director of The Center For Michigan and a former reporter for the Detroit News and Chicago Tribune, reports in his weekly update that M and M Energy, a Florida-based energy development company, has proposed building a multi-billion dollar “polygeneration” coal-fired electric generating stationÂ on the site of a shuttered oil refinery in Alma.Â The company presented its plan to the state Senate Energy Committee in mid-April and has been busy shopping the ideaÂ in …

Michael Moore and the Traverse City Film Festival

by Keith SchneiderAugust 5, 2007November 14, 20075

In the fall ofÂ 1993, when I moved to northwest Michigan,Â Poppycocks was the only decent place to eat on Traverse City’s Front Street. The cityÂ had plenty of surface parking lots where buildings once stood,Â a delapidated State Theatre on Front Street, andÂ a ghostlyÂ 100-year-old psychiatric asylumÂ on its western boundary.Â On the sprawling outskirts, the Grand Traverse Mall had just opened and the South AirportÂ ringÂ road at the mall’s doorstepÂ was so fry pit-ugly and congested that it was a metaphor for …

In Cleveland, The Girl With Kaleidoscope Eyes

by Keith SchneiderJuly 23, 2007July 23, 20072

Â CLEVELAND — I.M. Pei’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, aÂ masterpiece of glass and steelÂ onÂ Lake Erie, Â isÂ a great pyramidÂ playbox forÂ peopleÂ who love the music, the messages that changed the world, andÂ theÂ men and womenÂ of my generation who, unlike nearly all of us, Â lived as far out on on the creativeÂ edge as it is possible to be.Â A lot of the very bestÂ didn’t dwell there long.Â This weekend I visited the Hall for the first time andÂ came away …