ModeShift - Part 70

Cool Sites on Design, Cities, Environment

by Keith SchneiderApril 3, 2007April 3, 20070

Metrophile isÂ an interesting offering on Wired’s blog network. It covers trends and fashion and art, the urbanÂ snackage that makes living in the metropolitan space a more inviting existenceÂ for growing numbers of Americans, young and retired.Â The International Herald Tribune launched its Business of Green blog last month, and it’s alreadys one of the savviest forums for global business and environmental trends on the Internet.Â The New York Times carries the blog on the page it’s hidden …

Flip: Online Race for the White House

by Keith SchneiderApril 1, 20070

The Center for American Progress,Â a centrist left policyÂ think tank in Washington, preparedÂ this very useful and nifty online compendiumÂ of how 2008 presidential campaigns are using the Web.Â The NetTrendsÂ ’08 matrix is a one stop shop for Republicans and Democrats, and anybody else for that matter, to stay abreast of trends in online campaigning.Â NetTrends ’08 also is the best example I’ve found of how politics, communications technology, and the Internet have converged to make it much simpler …

In Time For Earth Day, Eco-Luxury

by Keith SchneiderMarch 31, 2007March 31, 20075

Â How mainstream has the greening of the world become? Fortune Magazine this month joined the lengthening list of big dog old media publishing “green” issues. Car companies, especially the Japanese, tout their energy-efficient vehicles.Â Republican Senator James Inhofe of Oklahoma is busy cementing his legacy as the George Wallace of thisÂ era, the man who stood on ideology andÂ misguided principle to deny an undeniable fact of experience and history: The earth is warming.Â Â Â And then there’sÂ one …

Reason? at Reason Foundation

by Keith SchneiderMarch 30, 2007April 1, 20072

It’s essential to stay abreast of what opponents to a reasoned development strategy have to say about Smart Growth. And there’s no more unreasonable voice on these issues than the social theorists at the libertarian Reason Magazine.Â This week Sam Staley and Ted Balaker published their newest assessment of the value of public transit,Â why Americans won’t ride new trains and buses, and how to relieve congestion. TheyÂ come to this conclusion: “The planning gurus who are supposed …

Step It Up On Climate Change

by Keith SchneiderMarch 28, 2007March 28, 20071

Monica Evans, who co-founded and oversees the regional chapter of the Sierra Club in northwest Michigan,Â reminded us this week of the Step it Up rally to accelerate action on global climate change. She and herÂ colleagues are hosting a regional event in downtown Traverse City on the afternoon of April 14, startingÂ at 1:30 in the Chase Bank Courtyard across from Horizon Books downtown. There’s a parade andÂ a potluck dinner afterward. The Traverse City rally is part …

Why Give Barack a Pass on Energy?

by Keith SchneiderMarch 27, 20072

It’s understandable that many Democrats are enthused about Illinois Senator Barack Obama’s presidential campaign. He’s young, hip, smart, and charismatic. He’s an African American in a race that also features a woman and a Hispanic man. And he talks a good line about energy, the environment, the economy, national security and global climate change that intelligent progressives have accepted uncritically, including those at ThinkProgress.com. But from this vantage his candidacy feels like it’s wrapped too …

My Friend Harriet Tregoning

by Keith SchneiderMarch 24, 2007May 8, 20071

Harriet Tregoning, who’s one of the smartest and most capable Smart Growth advocates in the United States, just took command of Washington, D.C.’s Office of Planning, among the most visible planning jobs in the country.Â And as the better half of theÂ uniquely well-positioned leading couple of Smart Growth — her husband of 17 months is Geoffrey Anderson, the director of the EPA’s development, community and environment division — Harriet brings her brain and moxie to positioning …

Flip: Seizing The Message and Messenger

by Keith SchneiderMarch 22, 2007March 27, 20070

I can see already that one of the principal activitiesÂ of Mode Shift is to make a difference in the 2008 presidential campaign, not by convincing readers to vote for a particular candidate but by helping to make the case for public priorities that deserve to be treated seriously.Â Resource conservation, public transportation, metropolitan patterns of development, global climate change, healthy food, and land conservationÂ merit attention.Â And it’s our responsiblity as writersÂ to frame the issues in a way …

What Is Al Gore Up To?

by Keith SchneiderMarch 21, 2007March 22, 20072

In case you missed it, Al Gore spoke to both houses of Congress today about global climate change, calling it a “planetary emergency.”Â As aÂ reputation boosting, global elevating, and upcoming book promoting exercise, Gore’s confident stroll through the various hearing rooms that he once occupied as a sitting memberÂ was terrific theater. But having been a Gore watcher since the 1980s, when he was a young congressman and I was a young correspondent, I just have this …

Flip: Curating the City

by Keith SchneiderMarch 20, 20073

The Los Angeles Conservancy, the largest local historic preservation group in the United States, produced a terrific online multi-media exhibit of Wilshire Boulevard called Curating the City.Â Using motion graphics, mapping, text, photographs, and digital hotspots, the program explores the history and geography of one of the nation’s iconic roadways, the West Coast equivalent of Detroit’s Woodward Avenue or Philadelphia’s Broad Street.Â What’s so cool about this example of multi-media storytelling is how quickly it loads …