Planning Pool

So my cell phone contract expired about a month ago now, and I thought I’d give life a shot minus the long arm of AT&T.  I purchased a Skype number, so as not to fall entirely incommunicado, but my days are largely spent without the luxury of instant telecommunication.  Overall, things have gone smoothly, but my lack of a phone has led to a series of revelations.  Most apparent is the lack of payphones in Portland, which had me walking all the way to Union Station to make a phone call (a fair walk from where I was located).  Perhaps it’s my unhealthy love of noir detective stories, but the death of the payphone is troubling to me.

Sure, wifi will soon make even cell phones irrelevant, so bemoaning the loss of the payphone is a little … Continue Reading

For all of the attention paid to our inefficient cities and the need for higher building standards, the elephant in the room is how to retrofit the housing stock that we already have.  It’s not a sexy task, but the truth is that building new domiciles for everyone, or even most people, is way out of the question.  

When lobbying for the recently adopted American economic stimulus package, President Barack Obama hit the media circuit touting the stimulative effects of home-weatherization.  Though hardly inspirational (John Stewart had a field-day with the mundane soundbites), Obama hit on an important need, especially in North American suburbs.

Tom Zeller, editor of the New York Times’ Green Inc. blog, recently began a video series documenting the weatherization of his Colorado home.  His project is likely to be replicated millions of times over … Continue Reading