The Orange Line

The feelings of an Urban Planning and Design Graduate on a cool December day - when thoughts are clear, emotions are high and the music is cranked.

I’m here at this podium talking
The ceremonial offerings dedicated to urban dysfunctional offspring
What’s happening?
City governments are eternally napping
Trapped in greedy covenants
Causing urban collapse
And bullets that scar souls with dark holes
Get more than your car stole, some parts be blacker than charcoal, for real
This society’s deprivation depends not on our differences but the separation within
No preparation is made
Limited aid, minimum wage
Living in a tenement cage where rent isn’t paid
Tragedy within a parade
The darkness overspreads like a permanent plague
I’m the forgotten

In the memory you’ll find me
Eyes burning up
The darkness holding me tightly
Until the sun rises up

2012 Global Cities Index and Emerging Cities Outlook

“New York, London, Paris, and Tokyo remain today’s leading cities, but an analysis of key trends in emerging cities suggests that Beijing and Shanghai may rival them in 10 to 20 years.

Macro forces continue to have an impact on the global influence of cities. Political power is rotating back from West to East, and with economic drivers having shifted from agrarian to industrial to information-based, more people live in cities than in rural areas. While New York, London, Paris, and Tokyo still rank among today’s top cities, it appears that Beijing and Shanghai may become significant rivals in the next 10 to 20 years.

These are among the highlights of the 2012 Global Cities Index (GCI), a joint study performed by A.T. Kearney and The Chicago Council on Global Affairs. In addition, a panel of academic and corporate executive advisors informed and challenged the study results. We’ve expanded this year’s study; in addition to classifying the current global influence of 66 cities, we have also developed an Emerging Cities Outlook (ECO) to project which emerging-market cities may eventually rival the established global leaders for dominance.

Figure 1 summarizes the 2012 results, along with the rankings from our 2008 and 2010 findings of major world metropolitan areas. (The censorship metric added in 2010 affected the positions of several emerging-market cities.) In the first section of this report, we explore the results and implications of the 2012 GCI rankings. The second section summarizes the results of our Emerging Cities Outlook, which analyzes the strengths and weaknesses of cities in developing markets by examining the rates of change and key factors that will affect their ability to capitalize on future globalization trends (see Appendix: About the Study).”

Photo Credit: http://www.imgbase.info/images/safe-wallpapers/photography/cityscape/18053_cityscape.jpg

Data Release: Everpower Buckeye Wind Social and Economic Impact Report

The following data release was generated on 3/22/2012 using the submitted Everpower development application data, U.S. Census Bureau Data, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Data and other sources.

The data contained in this post is generous in nature as local share data for the study area (Logan, Union and Champaign county) is highly limited, thus maximum estimates were established and employed based upon the study area’s economic structure. Local share data and other assumptions required to generate this data are constantly being refined to better represent the social and economic impacts of the Everpower / Buckeye Wind development. Financing parameters reflect the current corporate funding structure: ITC funding (30%) and Private Equity (70%).

Please note that job creation refers to jobs CREATED or RETAINED within the study area’s economy as a result of the wind developments construction and or ongoing operations and maintenance.

Please click the URL to view the complete Data Release.

Healthy Spaces and Places supports and complements planning and design initiatives throughout Australia. It is a single source of easy-to-find, practical information from experts in health, planning, urban design, community safety and transport planning.

This website includes:

• design principles that are the foundation stones of healthier more active communities

• different development types where these principles can be applied

• information about how to make planning for healthier communities happen

• Australian case studies that show what is achievable and which have potentially wider application, and
  links to the health and planning research and resources that support planning for active living.

Planning for healthier outcomes can be applied to all parts of Australia. It is just as applicable in metropolitan areas as it is in regional cities, towns, villages and remote communities.

For an overview, you may wish to download Healthy Spaces and Places: a national guide to designing places for healthy living.

SOURCE: http://www.healthyplaces.org.au/site/

This a resource for anyone conducting research or field work related to slum redevelopment, urban poverty, housing the urban poor among many other poverty and urban form related subjects. This came through via urgent short deadline email from Planning Institute Australia.

This set of seven Quick Guides has been jointly prepared by UNESCAP and UN-HABITAT to aid the daily work of national and local government officials and policy makers as well as other low-income housing stakeholders in Asia and the Pacific in their quest to improve housing for the urban poor. It is not aimed at specialists, but by using easily understandable language and a user-friendly consise structure, is aimed as a quick tool to provide a basic understanding of low-income housing issues. Each Quick Guide is further accompanied by a poster, which highlights some of the main messages.

LINK: http://www.housing-the-urban-poor.net/QuickGuides.asp

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/06/the-lost-space/#more-2907

Images: Courtesy of NASA’s Space Colony Art from the 1970’s page.
Interior views of, respectively, and cylindrical and toroidal colony, followed by a cutaway of a Bernal Sphere.