• Houston, build the civic space of democracy

    After Harvey, let's rebuild a city that will last for centuries and support healthy social interaction, in addition to getting people out of harm's way.
    We have all heard the Harvey wakeup call. We all know we can’t continue business as usual. We have to change our ways. We will in fact be “the city that floods” unless we stop being the “city of no limits.” Unlike previous storms, every one of us knows personally someone who was flooded out of...Read more

  • Creating local craft

    The workers at Caribbean Homes and Exports are not only doing meaningful work, but they also command far more value than if they were at the bottom links of the industrial product chain.
    We have become so accustomed to buying things manufactured halfway around the world at everyday low prices that most of us have forgotten the delight of things created by local craftsmen steeped in traditions they have developed over time. These are things you can’t find just anywhere, and the...Read more

  • To fight global climate change, fight global sprawl

    The drive-through lifestyle, exported by America and adopted worldwide, is the "operating system for growth" that is a root cause of rising carbon emissions.
    A few years back I conducted a little experiment. I went onto a popular image-sharing website to see how difficult it might be to find new drive-through McDonalds restaurants in four different, rapidly-growing parts of the world: Brazil, India, China, and Eastern Europe. My goal wasn’t to look at...Read more

  • Building support for walking and bicycling infrastructure

    Set expectations you know you can meet or exceed with each step. For a bike lane, benefits like safety, increased fairness, and recreation and lifestyle are realistic.
    In my last post , I looked at the difficulty of getting things — like walking and biking infrastructure — done and how the manner in which we measure our accomplishments makes all the difference. Not just towards building momentum but towards building community. In short, it’s all about baby steps...Read more