ModeShift - Part 62

Election Results for Smart Growth Are Strong

by Keith SchneiderNovember 8, 2007November 12, 20070

Smart Growth continues to flourish at the ballot box. With the exception of the defeat of a disputed highway and transit measure in the Seattle region, voters on Tuesday this week again overwhelmingly approved candidates and strategies that make their places cleaner, greener, more neighborly, and much more efficient consumers of land and resources. Voters across the country approved 34 of 55 conservationÂ measures on the ballot, generating $1.4 billion in new conservation funding. The election …

Blueprint for American Prosperity

by Keith SchneiderNovember 6, 20071

Â If you’ve had the chance to visit America’s big cities, you’ve no doubt noticed thatÂ almost without exception they’re pretty terrific places to be these days. The revival of America’s big city downtowns and neighborhoods, the development that’s occurring in the inner ring suburbs, all portend something very useful to the nation’s well being in this century.Â The prosperity that’s occurred in American cities represents one of the great achievements in the United States in the …

Lake Superior and Climate Change

by Keith SchneiderNovember 1, 2007November 5, 20076

Â Last summer, the National Park Service issued a little-noticed bulletin with this tidbit. The northern Midwest, including the upper Great Lake region, has warmed by almost 4 degrees Fahrenheit in the 20th century. Data for Lake Michigan, Huron and Superior show that summer water temperatures are increasing. Lake Superior’s summer surface water temperatures have increased by 4.5 degrees Fahrenheit since since 1980. This week top resource scientists gathered in Duluth to add a few …

$100 Barrel Oil Nears; Streetcars in Portland

by Keith SchneiderOctober 31, 2007November 1, 20070

Â Two items caught my eye today. World oil prices reached $93 a barrel this week, which is why gasoline at the Wesco down the road is $3.07-a- gallon tonight.Â The other news is the announcement on MondayÂ that city leaders inÂ Oregon want to dramatically expand the number of neighborhoods served by Portland’s spectacularly successful streetcar. The two developments are related, of course, because as fuel prices rise the sanity and fuel-efficiency of streetcar lines makes ever …

New Midwest Online News Entry

by Keith SchneiderOctober 27, 2007October 27, 20075

John Bebow,Â an active member of the association of newsies-who-became-public-interest-advocates, sent an interesting item in his weekly email alert about the emergence of online news organizations in the Midwest.Â John diverged from a decorated daily news career, Â that included stops at the Detroit News and Chicago Tribune, to becomeÂ the executive director of the Center For Michigan, a nearly two-year-old non-profit that focuses on state economic and competitiveness issues that was founded by Phil Powers, theÂ founder and former …

New Peak Oil Assessment – Not Good

by Keith SchneiderOctober 23, 2007October 30, 20076

Â Cheap oilÂ was, arguably, the most important driver of prosperity in the industrial world during the 20th century.Â Expensive energy is one, but not the only significant driver of theÂ economic Mode Shift occuring in the 21st.Â Today, just in time for gas prices here in Benzie County to edge close to $3.00 again, and with news of $90 a barrel oil this week, comes the latest independent assessment of global oil stocks. The conclusion that the …

1Sky, Step it Up, and the Citizen-Media Campaign to Prompt Action on Climate

by Keith SchneiderOctober 22, 2007November 9, 20071

[youtube]q71cMRGXx9o[/youtube] When it came to reaching large numbers of people inÂ the 20th century, it was all about mass. Mass marketing. Mass audiences. Mass communication. Journalist David Halberstam published an important book inÂ 1979, The Powers That Be, that documented the influence ofÂ a handful of large publishers — Time, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times — and a broadcast companyÂ — CBS — in setting the cultural, political, and social agendaÂ in the United States.Â One of the …

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 …

What Was Bill Richardson Thinking?

by Keith SchneiderOctober 14, 2007October 15, 20078

Â On October 4 Democratic presidential candidate Bill Richardson, who also happens to be the governor of New Mexico, essentially committed a personal political drowning here in the Great Lakes region. Mr. Richardson, who is campaigning hard to win the Nevada’s presidential caucus on January 9, the nation’s second such contest,Â told the Las Vegas Sun the following: “I want a national water policy,” he is quoted as telling the newspaper.Â “We need a dialogue between states …

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 …