From the Herald:
The 129-page “Jobs for Florida” bill, slated for a Senate vote Thursday after a single committee hearing, also could eliminate local regulations on wetlands protection and drainage, as well as give local and state regulators less time than ever to review development plans. The bill (SB 1752), which also addresses such issues as [...]
Posts Tagged ‘Sprawl’
Environmental Rules Could be Loosened by Senate Jobs Bill.
Thursday Quote: US Growth
The forces of change whose emblem is the bulldozer, and the forces of preservation whose totem is the tree, are everywhere at war in this country…
-Joel Garreau (1991) Edge Cities
Politics in Miami-Dade
In what could only be judged as an effort to stymie opposition on the most contested land use issue in the region, the Miami-Dade Planning and Zoning department has scheduled a public hearing for November 3, regarding an application to amend the County’s Comprehensive Development Master Plan (CDMP). The hearing, of course, entails the expansion [...]
Mid-Week News
(Image Source: Fate the Magnificent’s Flickr)
Miami Beach Mayor Matti Bower is calling to move forward with a plan to build a new convention center rather than the 50,000 SF addition proposed back in 2004. (Miami Today)
After three years and $7 Million worth of renovations, Miami Beach’s historic City Hall (pictured above) is finally set to [...]
Rediscover the Human Scale
Via: Reconnecting America:
Next time you’re stuck going 20 mph in the fast lane, waiting forever to get through a traffic light, or trying to find your way out of a giant concrete parking structure, remember that it doesn’t have to be this way. It’s time for America to rediscover the human scale. It’s time to [...]
The Foresight Dilemma – We Have None
Apparently we were having an HTML error due to the recent wordpress software upgrade. We apologize for the inconvenience and incomplete emails that were sent out this morning.
Let me see if I am reading this sequence of events correctly:
Miami-Dade County commissioners allowed development [...]
Three Great Articles
Three Great articles I highly recommend.
A Fountain on Every Corner (New York Times)
An entire generation of Americans has grown up thinking public faucets equal filth, and the only water fit to drink comes in plastic, factory sealed. It’s time to change that perception with public fountains in the city’s busiest quadrants, pristine bubblers that [...]
Transitography: Integrating Rail with our Surroundings
Today’s post is inspired by an article I read on The Overhead Wire, republished below. The successes and failures of our transit systems can be determined by the attempts we make to integrate them with the urban spaces which surround them. I typically make the distinction that our failures with metrorail has nothing [...]
Report: Widening Highways Increases Greenhouse Gas Emissions
There are several reasons why widening highways is usually a futile strategy to combat traffic congestion. For one, highway widening projects are costly and time consuming. It has also been well documented that adding new capacity to highways creates induced demand, which essentially means it will generate more traffic on the road. Consequently, over time [...]
How an Atlanta Family Slashed its Carbon Footprint and Gained a Life
The following article below is a reprint from NPR.org on April 1, 2008:
Atlanta Family Slashes Carbon Footprint
Atlanta resident Malaika Taylor used to live the typical suburban life — the kind that helps make America the world’s top contributor to climate change. But four years ago, fed up with commuting, Taylor and her 11-year old daughter, [...]
America’s New Independence Day
If Senators Clinton and McCain have their way, this summer Americans might be duped into thinking that a “gas-tax holiday” will help alleviate the financial strains of filling up. The gas tax holiday undermines the principles of supply and demand and is little more than a cheap political gimmick. If imposed, the holiday would [...]
More Bad News…
The Herald is reporting that the county commission overturned Mayor Alvarez’s veto in favor of moving the Urban Development Boundary for a Lowe’s at 8th St and 137th Ave and a retail center at Kendall Drive and (gulp), 167th Avenue (i.e. the Everglades). More sprawl, more self-interests, more incompetence. We’ll have lots more on this [...]
Pic o’ the Day
Natacha Seijas, Pepe Diaz and crew want more of this…
Photo: Flickr
Miami’s Urban Development Boundary Crisis
Does anyone even care anymore? With all this talk about global warming, alternative fuels, and the trimming of every government budget due to major financial cutbacks, you’d think the community would be up at arms about an approval to build even yet more development on our western fringes. Ecosystem destruction? Check. Vehicular-oriented development? Check. [...]
Pic o’ the Day: Density Done Wrong
Today’s Pic o’ the Day illustrates what happens when parking requirements and density combine to create disastrous combinations. This city illustrates some finer urban elements in the CBD but as of late has sprawled out beyond control. Can anyone name the city or the suburb?
