Obama and Jane Jacobs

We have a President who has read and appreciates Jane Jacobs's Death and Life of American Cities, saying "it's a great book."  Check out the story and then watch Obama's discussion of regionalism here.

a life milestone

luckily, luckily web release

hello everyone: it is the middle of the summer and I am trying to shake off the summer humidity and doldroms to get some work done. For motivation, I am reliving some previous work accomplishments, one of which is now available on the web.

Released in print last year in the University of Virginia School of Architecture's publication lunch was a piece I wrote called: luckily, luckily - a measured exploratoin into globalization, shipping and the movement of goods. It's actually one of the things I've written that I'm most proud of. Certainly, there is much room for improvement but it's pretty decent.

DC United !

election day in NC !

it's election day here in North Carolina. When I first learned that NC had scheduled its primary for May 6 I thought to myself: "way to make yourselves irrelevant." I sure was wrong on that. The primary season has now lasted from prior to the beggining of the spring semester here at UNC - Chapel Hill until after its close.

Political geography is one of my favorite subjects and check out the Washington Post's surprisingly inane analysis of North Carolina's political geography. Thanks WaPo for pointing out where the colleges and military bases are in our state! I personally think the outer suburbs of Charlotte and Raleigh will be very important in today's race. Mark Johnson's analysis in the Charlotte Observer is much better - the sub-headline is: "Small cities, distant suburbs are road to victory."

If I have more time later today I will provide some relatively in-depth analysis of the "gas tax holiday" proposed by both Hillary Clinton and John McCain. I think it's an incredibly bad idea and one that would never be able to get enacted anyways. More important, in my estimation, is greater public understanding of what the federal gas tax is.

I cannot repeat it enough: the federal gas tax is 18.4 cents a gallon. The federal gas tax has been 18.4 cents a gallon since 1993 except for 1996 when it was temporarily lowered to 18.3 cents a gallon. Unlike other taxes, such as a sales tax, the federal gas tax is not a percentage tax. This means that back in 1998 when gas was say 95 cents a gallon the federal gax tax was 18.4 cents a gallon and now in 2008 with gas prices about $3.60 the federal gas tax is still 18.4 cents a gallon. The federal gas tax has absolutely nothing to do with the rise in gas prices over the past decade.

More later...

transit heroes - wedding edition

this couple from Washington, DC took the metro from their wedding ceremony to their wedding reception and it was enough for them to make the front page of the Washington Post website! Imagine if they had actually gotten married on the Metro to take their rightful place in the pantheon of true transit heroes!

Capricorn Voyager in Chevron's Ad

if you have been watching the new "Untapped Energy" advertisement from Chevron, the people that brought us Energyville, and thought that you would like more information on the vessel appearing in the ad - the Capricorn Voyager - then you have come to the right place.

The Chevron ad touts that its employees are "citizens of the world" and it appears that the Capricorn Voyager is similarily global. From a quick search it does appear that this is a Chevron oil tanker. It was made by Samsung, presumably in South Korea. It is flagged in Bahamas. The owner of the vessel is Clio Marine Inc., which according to Equasis is a Japanese company but according to the American Bureau of Shipping in May 2007 is Liberian.

The Capricorn Voyager is a fairly large but not enormous oil tanker. It clocks in at 58,442 gross tons. Overall, it seems to be a pretty normal and recently built oil tanker.

now this is an intersection...

the world's top 100 container ports

cargosystems.net has released its rankings of the world's top 100 container ports. The top 10 are:
1. Singapore, Singapore
2. Hong Kong, China
3. Shanghai, China
4. Shenzhen, China5. Busan, South Korea
6. Kaohsiung, Taiwan
7. Rotterdam, Netherlands
8. Dubai, UAE
9. Hamburg, Germany10. Los Angeles, USA

For the United States, the container ports in the world's top 100 are:

10. Los Angeles, CA
12. Long Beach, CA18. New York
41. Oakland, CA
47. Savannah, GA50. Tacoma, WA
51. Virginia
54. Seattle, WA55. Charleston, SC
60. San Juan, PR
64. Houston, TX
83. Honolulu, HI
89. Port Everglades, FL
97. Miami, FL
It is interesting to note that major container ports in the United States located in close geographic proximity have very similar rankings. This observation holds for southern California (10, 12), the Pacific Northwest (50, 54), the southeast (47, 51, 55) and southern Florida (89, 97).
South America is home to 3 container ports in the world's top 100. Africa has 3 as well. Some surprises (at least for me who is still has much to learn about this topic). Freeport, Bahamas at number 68. The Spanish port of Las Palmas in the Canary Islands at 71. Malta at 67. My assumption is that these three ports deal primarily with transshipments.

port songs: I cover the waterfront

Billie Holiday: I Cover the Waterfront 

(this could be the new port halifax gateway anthem)

away from the city that hurts and knocks

I'm standing alone by the desolate docks

in the still and chill of the night

I see the horizon, the great unknown

my heart has an ache

it's heavy as stone

with the dawn coming on make it last

I cover the waterfront

I'm watching the sea

porque la vida puede ser maravillosa !

check out the extratime Italy / Germany clip from the 2006 World Cup. The Spanish commentating crew is absolutely amazing! I remember watching this game at a friend's house and our power went out with ten minutes left to go in the game and a friend gave play by play via cell phone. La vida puede ser maravillosa!

google earth as bragadoccio

old cribs I sold, y'all drive by like monuments

Google Earth Nas, I got flats in other continents

- Nas, success, American Gangster soundtrack

Metro unveils new designs for cars

introductions include carpetless cars and more bench seating. I would think both changes are a necessary evolution for the subway system with the second-highest ridership in the country. Here's the washington post article.

my friends got masters in planning from the University of Virginia and I'll I got was pictures of their transit halloween costumes

MIT sues Frank Gehry

somebody finally sues Frank Gehry. I would've sued him for doing the same design over and over again. Just kidding, Frank - we love the design!

festival of maps: chicago

a friend pointed me in the direction of the Festival of Maps - Chicago. It looks like an incredible event, well-located in perhaps the finest city in the United States.

drought songs: the seed song

living in North Carolina is a bit like the opposite of living in Macondo of 100 Years of Solitude, when Ursula is waiting for the rains to stop so that she can die. According to the highly reputable source www.gradesaver.com it rains in Macondo for four years, eleven months and two days. I did some research and found out that in September we received no rain that wasn't directly a result of a tropical storm. so, here's a classic fable of drought - the Seed Song, Atom and His Package

the rain didn't come for one calendar year
so when the man with the sunflower seeds in his hand came near
we sent him away, we sent him away, we sent him away

the rain didn't come for twelve months more
so when the man with the seed catalogue darkened our door
we sent him away, we sent him away, we sent him away

I know you're waiting for the ironic ending
I know you're waiting for the punch line
I know you're waiting for the rain to come by
well - so am I, so am I, so am I

for those in Portland, Maine this friday

I hear that one of the preeminent experts on... umm - hmm - transit t-shirts will be giving a talk on the history of park planning in Maine this Friday, October 26.

okay - how am I supposed to talk right before a presentation entitled: Space Aliens?

anyways, be there at the great Eastland Park Hotel this Friday from 4:30 to 6:30 pm.

SimCity as energy advertisement

for many of us current planning students, one of our first experiences with planning was playing the seminal computer game SimCity. Of course the original game instilled those transcendent planning concepts such as Euclidean zoning and greenfield (blank slate) development, but as we dutifully separated commercial from residential areas and attempted to make our own Brasilias we grew to love the idea of working in cities and working with cities.


Enter Chevron in 2007 who in conjunction with the Economist Group just released Energyville, a game which owes a lot to the original SimCity in design and appearance. In the goal of Energyville, you are the mayor who must choose how to "power" his or her city for the next few decades. Not surprisingly, you learn that oil is essential to the future of your city, and the most effective way of moving forward is by creating a balanced portfolio of energy sources. I did manage to complete the 'simulation' by powering my city with 50% solar electricity, which should win me some sort of award and/or worldwide acclaim.

So, pass a few hours in Energyville, or better yet, play the original SimCity for free on-line.

a great day for the Howlett's

the other day during the 2007 Rugby World Cup the great Doug Howlett broke the all-time New Zealand try record. Now, I have no idea what this means, but I'm a big supporter of Doug Howlett. Not only is he a tremendous rugby player, he also has great hair and a charitable foundation.


check out these headlines:

Happy Howlett vows there's more to come

Six Try Howlett to Grace Pool Five