Monday Mailing 120318

Monday Mailing

Year 25 • Issue 13 03 December 2018 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

Quote of the Week: You can make more friends by being interested in them, than in two years by making them interested in you.

- Dale Carnegie

Aiming for Imperfection How ‘Opportunity Zones’ Could Transform Communities Stranger Things: Exploring Japan’s Love of Weird Architecture Why Black Neighborhoods Are Valued Less Than Other Neighborhoods Parking Spaces Become More Elusive as Downtown Buffalo Booms Coal Power Plants Lose their Cost Advantage over Clean Energy You Can’t Feel ‘em, if you Can’t see ‘em Lawmakers Reach Tentative Farm Bill Deal after Months-Long Impasse Tuk Tuk Library Brings Joy of Books to Jakarta’s Poorest Children YOUTUBE – APA California Releases New Conference Session Videos (ANYTIME)

1. Aiming for Imperfection Consider this story of two men. One man consistently comes home from work at precisely 5:45 every day. Another man arrives home every day anywhere between 5:30 and 6:30. One day, the first man is not home by 6:00. He's only 15 minutes late, but his family is not used to him not being home on time, so they worry that something bad has happened. One day, the other man is not not home by 7:00. Despite his being 30 minutes late, his family is not too concerned because they are used to his arrival time being highly variable.

In his book Antifragile, Nassim Taleb uses simple narratives like this one to illustrate that the more we encounter chaos, the more we tolerate chaos. The less we encounter chaos, the less we tolerate chaos.

We see our tolerance for chaos reflected in our built environment.

To access the full story, click here.

Oregon Fun Fact: Forest Grove is home to the world’s tallest barber shop pole – 72 feet.

2. How ‘Opportunity Zones’ Could Transform Communities Twenty years ago, the rural hamlet of South Boston, Va., was a thriving blue-collar, middle-class community. Most of its residents were employed in manufacturing, such as at the nearby Burlington Industries textile plant and Russell Stover candy factory, or out in the tobacco fields.

Today, the once vast tobacco industry is largely derelict (China is now the world’s leading producer), and the Burlington plant and Russell Stover factory are closed. “We lost about $100 million in payroll out of this community over four years,” says South Boston Town Manager Tom Raab.

To access the full story, click here.

3. Stranger Things: Exploring Japan’s Love of Weird Architecture Apart from the practical influences of the market and global architectural trends on its building culture, there are a few major elements that make contemporary Japanese architecture so distinctive Page 1 of 3

— the long tradition of Shinto and Buddhism and the concept of balance which shaped architects’ attitude towards nature, the specific social ethos, and the heritage of Metabolism.

Whether it’s a multi-family building, residential architecture or an Anime-inspired otherworldly structure, these foundations make it easy to recognize buildings designed by Japanese architects.

Although simplicity and sensitivity to the natural environment still act as hallmarks of Japanese architecture, this architectural family — like every other — has no shortage of “freaks.” The following buildings are both captivating and bizarre, and the majority of them straddle the fine line between oddity and innovation.

To access the full story, click here.

4. Why Black Neighborhoods are Valued less than other Neighborhoods Wealth is inherently collective. Whether it’s land or property, shares of a company, artwork or just cash, its market value is based on how many others want it and have the means to obtain it.

Perception matters. The fewer people who want what you’ve got, the lower its value.

Because so much of household wealth in the United States is tied up in the housing market, the stories we tell (or don’t tell) that shape our perceptions of where we want to live and among whom we want to live, end up having a dramatic and ongoing effect on race-based wealth inequality. This, according to the authors of a new study, released this week, from the Metropolitan Policy Program at the Brookings Institution.

To access the full story, click here.

5. Parking Spaces Become more Elusive as Downtown Buffalo Booms Downtown development has brought a new concern: Could city parking spaces become even more elusive? While still a common sight in Buffalo, open parking spaces are increasingly becoming harder to come by. The overall supply of spaces hasn’t changed much, but the downtown population has grown by 70 percent over the past 20 years, and the workforce there has swelled by 30 percent. That doesn’t include patrons drawn to new hotels, restaurants and events.

Meanwhile, entire lots are starting to disappear under the crunch of excavators, as developers eye the real estate for new projects. City officials, developers and experts see that growth as good for the city.

But it has prompted this question: Does downtown Buffalo have a parking shortage or too many surface lots?

To access the full story, click here.

6. Coal Power Plants Lose their Competitive Advantage over Clean Energy When it started becoming as cheap, and then cheaper, to build wind or solar farms than fossil fuel power, the renewable energy plants still faced the barrier of being in competition with coal plants that had already been built. Invariably, these were cheaper.

Not any more – in 2018, more than four out of 10 (42%) of the world’s coal-fired power stations are running at a loss and by 2030, in virtually every case (96%) it will be cheaper to build new renewable energy capacity than to keep coal plants running , according to the latest study from research group Carbon Tracker.

To access the full story, click here.

Page 2 of 3

7. You Can’t Feel ‘em, if you Can’t see ‘em Monday night I headed out to what I expected to be a short political event, featuring blues artist Keb Mo and saxophonist Kirk Whalum – my idea of the perfect political event. I took a notebook along, thinking I might multitask since I hadn’t yet figured out what I wanted to say here tonight. But the music was too good, and I found myself forgetting the need to write.

Late in the concert, though, Kirk Whalum said something that made me snap to attention. He was explaining empathy to the audience, and he said: “You can’t feel ‘em, if you can’t see ‘em.”

For more information, click here.

8. Lawmakers Reach Tentative Farm Bill Deal after Months-Long Impasse Key lawmakers said Wednesday they have reached a tentative deal on a massive farm bill, breaking a months-long impasse over legislation that doles out more than $400 billion in federal funds for farm subsidies, food stamps and conservation efforts.

Lawmakers have been at odds over a House GOP proposal to boost work requirements for food stamp recipients, but Sens. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) and Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), the leaders of the Senate Agriculture Committee, said they had resolved the debate over the work requirements and other outstanding issues.

To access the full story, click here.

9. Tuk Tuk Library Brings Joy of Books to Jakarta’s Poorest Children Jakarta, Indonesia - Sutino "Kinong" Hadi was not even 10 years old when he dropped out of school.

Now in his late 50s, he has spent most of his working life driving a tuk tuk, known in Indonesia as a "bemo". The three-wheeled vehicles were a popular mode of public transport until they were banned in Indonesia's capital, Jakarta, last year in an effort to reduce pollution.

Kinong's bemo, however, is still on the road. The government gave him a special exemption from the ban, since his bemo no longer carries passengers - but books.

To access the full story, click here.

10. YOUTUBE – APA California Releases New Conference Session Videos Most videos have a California focus but many involve planning themes applicable throughout the country. Examples include: Development without Displacement, Regional Planning from the Public Health Lens, Short-Term Rentals (Airbnb) and the Sharing Economy, Deliberate Moves to Turn Around Suburban Shopping Centers, Disaster Recovery on the Planning Side, and Shaping a Comprehensive and Effective Cannabis Policy.

To watch Youtube, click here.

Page 3 of 3