SHODAN LIVES
Notes and links from @colemanm.

We had a great time at the WhereCampDC event a couple weeks ago. Read my summary on our blog.

“BBC News still maintains a rather 19th-century perspective on what’s happening in the world, seeing politics as a clash between opposing views that might be resolved through elections, summits and peace processes. With this approach, the environment gets sectioned off as a subject of its own, when in fact history shows that the resilience of a civilisation often depends on the way it treats its own environment.”

What we’re learning about the DC area is that there are 30 of these walkable communities here. I’m only talking about regionally significant places, not individual neighborhoods. So, for instance, downtown DC, Reston, Bethesda and so on. Of these places, 90 percent are on the metro system and most of the rest will be linked into it in the next five years. So that’s a pretty obvious correlation right there. But most of these walkable places are in the suburbs.

The local government here in the Tampa Bay area has been trying to put together grand strategic plans for infrastructure for the last decade. Plans include light-rail transit and incentive programs to attract people back to local city centers. St. Pete (where I live) has done a pretty good job restoring the downtown area and drawing young people back to high rise condos and smaller townhouses. Walking is now the primary means of transport down there (once you get close).