• Caught in the tram tracks

    As an inexperienced cyclist, I was not aware of the danger that tram tracks pose to bicyclists. While on a tour of the regeneration efforts along an historic industrial canal , my front wheel suddenly lodged in the cavity of a tram track. The jolt hurled me over the handlebars onto the timeless...Read more

  • Life without the EPA

    As I read about plans to reduce the US Environmental Protection Agency’s budget by two-thirds, I am reminded of my travel to Beijing in 2014. As a first-time visitor, I was overwhelmed by the noticeably high level of pollution and poor air quality. At that time the level of ultrafine particles was...Read more

  • 710: Pasadena pork

    Since the 1940s, the six-mile Route 710—proposed through parts of Pasadena, South Pasadena, Alhambra, and Los Angeles—has been stopped by the public many times. Each time, California's Department of Transportation (Caltrans) waits several years and then tries to build it again—and the cycle repeats...Read more

  • How countryside becomes sprawl in four steps

    So many rural places have been incrementally destroyed by rural sprawl. You see it on the outskirts of metro areas and off of Interstates and other highways from coast to coast. Most communities don't see it happening until it is too late. To help explain this incremental erosion of rural land, I...Read more