FREE! Access to New York TimesSelect
The New York Times offers FREE access to its online TimesSelect commentary and analysis. This offer is available to faculty and students (and others) with a .edu e-mail address.
Check it out at TimesSelect!
Green Employment Opportunities
Here’s an e-mail and link forwarded from Professor Jeff Howard, Remake a Living: Growing the green economy, from Grist. Check out the section “Urban and Regional Planning!”
Proposed SPA Projects Get Press!
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!
1 CommentProposed Transportation Planning Project: A UTA-Metroplex Shuttle System
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.
Proposed Design & Engineering Project: A UTA Green Roof
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.
Tom Friedman on the TXU Buyout
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.
Midwest APA Networking Luncheon - March 23, 2007
Midwest APA Networking Luncheon - March 23, 2007
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North Central Texas Regional SmartCode Workshop - Monday, 5 March, Grapevine
The North Central Texas Council of Governments (NCTCOG), in partnership with the North Central Texas Chapter of the Congress for the New Urbanism (NCTCNU), is pleased to bring the SmartCode OnSite Workshop to our region on Monday, March 5th, 2007 at the Grapevine Convention Center in Grapevine, TX.
To register for the workshop, please go to www.nctcnu.org. There is a registration fee of $24 (lunch included). Registration ENDS February 28, 2007.
Questions? Please contact Lyndsay Krodel at (817) 704-2505 or lkrodel AT nctcog DOT org.
You don’t want to miss this great opportunity to learn more about how to recreate the traditional neighborhoods and sense of community from our past. We look forward to seeing you at this exciting event!
PS Don’t miss the great deal for early graduate student registrants!!
