O.K. Carter, SUPA doctoral student, columnist for the Arlington Star-Telegram, and persistent gadfly for intelligent planning and development in Arlington and the Metroplex, pounced on our proposals of an UT Arlington green roof and shuttle system. Now we have no excuses … the Metroplex is watching!
The UT Arlington Student Planning Association (SPA) would like to initiate a planning and design study for a hub-and-spoke UTA-Metroplex shuttle system. This study would result in a proposal to the UTA administration, including financing options. SPA invites participation of students and faculty from the wide variety of disciplines (including, but not limited to, planning, engineering, environmental sciences, and business) necessary to form a project team capable of addressing the myriad challenges inherent in this undertaking. SPA anticipates undertaking high-level project planning during the Summer 2007; the project will be launched early in the Fall 2007 semester with an anticipated completion date in December 2007 or early January 2008.
Participants will be encouraged to use this project as a platform for ongoing coursework requirements.
If you are interested in participating in this visionary transportation project, please contact Kent Hurst on klhurst AT uta DOT edu.
The UT Arlington Student Planning Association (SPA) would like to initiate a design and engineering study for UTA’s first green roof. This study would result in a site, design, and financing proposal to the UTA administration. SPA invites participation of students and faculty from the wide variety of disciplines (including, but not limited to, planning, architecture, engineering, environmental sciences, and business) necessary to form a project team capable of addressing the myriad challenges inherent in this undertaking. SPA anticipates undertaking high-level project planning during the Summer 2007; the project will be launched early in the Fall 2007 semester with an anticipated completion date in December 2007 or early January 2008.
Participants will be encouraged to use this project as a platform for ongoing coursework requirements.
If you are interested in participating in this visionary project, please contact Kent Hurst on klhurst AT uta DOT edu.
While I’m less enamored of Tom Friedman after reading his The World is Flat, I very much liked his New York Times editorial today assessing the turn in environmental activism symbolized by the endorsement by well-respected environmental interests of the KKR/Texas Pacific buyout of TXU. (Marching With a Mouse) While not discovering anything we haven’t seen coming for quite a while, Friedman recognizes that the days of environmental activism by the sit-in and the boycott may be ending. The preliminary negotiations between the prospective buyers and Environmental Defense (in the person of Fred Krupp) and the Natural Resources Defense Council set the stage for a new, and potentially more effective, approach to securing an environmentally sustainable future.
In early 2006, Michael Shellenberger and Ted Nordhaus wrote a controversial obituary for traditional environmentalism in an analysis of the ineffectiveness of its inability to effectively confront the manifold threats of global warming. (The Death of Environmentalism) In Ecocritique: Contesting the Poltics of Nature, Economy, and Culture, Tim Luke took a more critical route in his deconstruction of various ecological advocacy movements. While it’s more than a little disheartening to realize that the most productive strategy against the inexorable environmental destruction of globalizing capital may be “if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em,” it is encouraging to see that ED and NRDC have been listening. I’m a process kind of guy, but you can’t argue with the results. And the irony of TXU being beat at its own capitalist game is delicious!
All of this, though, begs the question: Can we effectively fight the ravages of late, fast capitalism from within the belly of the beast? Perhaps so, but the leviathan has a big head start.
With regard to today’s New York Times article on Texas’ looming energy deficit in the wake of the TXU buyout and scuttling of at least eight of the proposed eleven coal-fired power plants (see http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/08/business/08energy.html) …
Nary a mention is made of the opportunity for Texas legislators to bridge this “energy gap” by encouraging (or, dare I propose, imposition of) more creative and greener changes in consumer behavior. On the heels of recent local discussions of the Trans Texas Corridor, why aren’t our fearless leaders proposing that we use some of the same financial tools enacted to encourage automobile travel and air pollution (e.g. bond funds) to promote the creation and expansion of renewable energy sources and transmission infrastructure. I never cease to be amazed at how one-dimensional our thinking is regarding energy futures!
Let’s abandon our entrenched business-as-usual mindset and strike out on a new, sustainable future that we can imagine surviving the next two hundred years.
As previously reported, the AICP Commission is considering requiring certification maintenance through continuing education starting in January 2008. The Commission received more than 1,400 comments in response to the first draft proposal for a certification maintenance program released in early December. Overall, members expressed strong support for some form of certification maintenance.
The revised program now posted responds to many of the concerns that were raised during the first comment period.
Please review the certification maintenance program and submit your comments to AICP-CM AT planning DOT org no later than Wednesday, March 21. You may also participate in a virtual town hall meeting by logging onto http://ecommunities.planning.org using your APA ID.
The Commission is expected to vote on instituting certification maintenance at its next meeting in April.
(Taken from APA Plannernet posting, 2 March 2007.)
From the Star-Telegram, 28 February 2007: http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/local/16799771.htm
A post on Grist - http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2007/2/22/133326/131
Application Deadline: February 27, 2007
Students may volunteer their time at the conference and earn back the cost of the early online registration fee. In exchange for eight hours of volunteer service during the conference, APA will reimburse student members the amount of the early online registration fee. Students must be registered for the conference at the time they apply to be a volunteer and must be student members of APA. Student volunteers are reimbursed upon completion of the eight hours of work onsite.
Once your application is reviewed, you will be notified by e–mail as to your acceptance as a volunteer. APA receives more applications than it can use, so register and apply early to improve your changes. Please note, if you are accepted as a volunteer and you register after the early registration deadline, you will be reimbursed only for the early online registration fee, not the greater fee.
More information: http://www.planning.org/2007conference/students.htm#4
E-mail questions to cbieschke AT planning DOT org.
I’ve returned from hearing Phillip Russell, Director of the Texas Turnpike Authority (TxDOT’s toll road division), and have to say that I was charmed. He was a really friendly guy, well-spoken, and politically correct to a fault. He gave a very brief extemporaneous talk (which he’s probably given a thousand times before to similar groups) that generally provided the motivational groundwork for TxDOT’s pursuit of toll road facilities, in general, and the Trans-Texas Corridor (TTC) program, in specific.
There were at least 50 public- and private-sector transportation planners, engineers, and consultants in attendance, not the type of crowd to be particularly hostile to the TTC. He highlighted the need for new funding sources not only to build new surface transportation infrastructure, but also to maintain the roads and bridges we already have. While claiming to be agnostic regarding the manner in which this funding is to be secured, he emphasized that the Texas Legislature, beginning in the mid-199os, has provided an increasing number of financing tools with which to accelerate the development of surface transportation projects and leverage private participation in those initiatives. Whether one agrees with the evolving emphasis on private concessions (and tolls) for these facilities, there is little doubt that the financial need is there. If one grants the need for new capacity, then the only way that we can develop it in a reasonable timeframe (short of raising taxes) is to leverage private capital. What is clear is that the TTC (or some giant infrastructure capacity improvement project) will happen, and that it will probably be funded largely by private (corporate) investment. And in spite of insurances that mechanisms are being written into the contracts for managing the unexpected over the lifetime of these concessions and that all stakeholders will be treated fairly, the TTC will never be uncontroversial.
A few interesting snippets from Russell’s talk and answers to questions:
- Rail components of the TTC will probably be funded with project concession revenues. That is, the high-speed/commuter rail components will only be developed after the roadway facilities have begun generating spendable revenue.
- There will be no non-compete clauses, per se, written into TTC contracts. He emphasized that TxDOT will continue to maintain and expand non-TTC roadway capacity as the need arises, but that they would build into the contracts provisions allowing for negotiations between TxDOT and the concessionaires for issues arising in the course of the concession period.
- Asked to comment on the criticism of the TTC for destroying the connectivity of FM and other state roads, Russell reflected back on the construction of the Interstate Highway System. He suggested that if you were satisfied with the way TxDOT addressed the issue then, then you would probably be satisfied with the manner in which it will deal with the connectivity issue raised by the TTC. And the converse would be true.
All in all, an interesting, though not terribly informative talk. I wish Russell would be in attendance on Friday to rebut more populist criticism contained in “Truth Be Tolled.”
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