Where You Live, and What It Costs

CEO for Cities made a nifty little movie showing the difference between two neighborhoods in Chicago and why people spend so much on transportation. How much money do you transfer to oil companies?

News Clicks, Obesity and $8.50 Gas

Wired Autopia wonders if gas prices rising will contribute to lowering obesity.

His number-crunching suggests a permanent $1 increase in gasoline prices could cut the obesity rate by 10 percent within seven years. The number of Americans who are overweight, but not obese, could fall by 7 percent in that time, he says, as people shun cars in favor of walking, biking or taking mass transit.

Granted, you don't burn many calories sitting on the bus, but you burn quite a few walking to and from the bus stop, he says. People also tend to eat out less frequently, opting instead to cook their own meals. "These results suggest that the recent spike in gas prices may have the 'silver lining' of reducing obesity in the coming years," he writes in the paper.

The Christian Science Monitor covers the way Europeans are dealing with gas at $8.50 a gallon. It's certainly much better than we would.

Gasoline prices in Europe are even higher, roughly 1.5 euros per liter for regular in the French countryside last month or about $8.50 a gallon. But petrol, as it's called, has always cost a lot more in Europe, in large part because of much higher taxes at the pump.

And even as protest strikes rippled across Spain and edged into France, Europeans had taken conservation measures that in the long haul leave them better-prepared than Americans to deal with the energy crunch ahead.

For Real?

Who would have guessed that the bus system in Milwaukee is declining after the County Executive keeps trying to drown it in a bathtub Grover Norquist style.

With a veto override attempt coming up next week on a sales tax referendum, a recent state audit is echoing calls to boost funding for the Milwaukee County Transit System.

The independent audit, required by state law, depicts the bus system as a cost-effective operation with declining service. Auditors recommended more state and local funding, in the form of a dedicated revenue stream.

Could TOD be Limited by the World Trade Organization?

It's possible if this column in Planetizen is true:

The proposed WTO restrictions will apply to “measures relating to” licensing and qualification requirements and procedures and technical standards. Therefore, not only are the actual requirements and standards covered but as well any government measure related to requirements and standards. Thus, Council decisions around the issuance of contracts, the licensing of businesses (in general, as well as specific licenses for taxi’s, food vendors, and other specialized services) and more is at stake. But more dramatic still is the possibility that licensing could also include all aspects of the development process. The US delegation has expressed concern that such a broad definition of licenses could cover “permits related to construction [and] the operation or use of facilities…”

The development of standards and guidelines are the hallmark of much innovative municipal policy. Yet under the proposed disciplines, the notion of standard is so broad as to include everything from zoning bylaws (a form of land-use standard relating to the permitted uses and characteristics of development on a given site), sustainable and “green” building standards, design guidelines and more.

As an antidote to the current level of open-endedness, GATS negotiators could work to protect municipal regulatory authority to limit the definitions of what the disciplines cover. So far, this hasn’t happened. Another way could be to make an exception for zoning and hours of operation regulations, as one GATS proponent has recommended. Again, this sort of amendment has yet to appear.

It seems to me that the world trade organization shouldn't have jurisdiction over local planning processes such as design standards, zoning, or building regulation. However if what these folks say is true, a large corporation could challenge any building restrictions and regulations. This means that if a a Wal Mart wanted to move into a light rail station area and challenged the regulations that go along with it, they might get away with their usual junk.

It might also mean the end to local only store preference in places like San Francisco that keep out chains:

Municipal regulations or procedures that “discriminate” against foreign companies by either directly or indirectly favouring local business (e.g. through a local procurement, or economic development policy) can already be challenged under the GATS. Now, however, the proposed disciplines would create grounds for challenge to the much broader category of “non-discriminatory” regulations, which includes the majority of the tools of city government. Non-discriminatory regulations include things like zoning and building-related bylaws, sewage bylaws, health bylaws and regulations that set development charges. For municipalities, this will be the first time that their most elementary forms of regulations and procedures could be disciplined in an enforceable way by an international institution.

Kind of scary that they would have this kind of power and regulatory authority over local government.

Sunday Photo Dump: San Francisco

So I was out and about today around the N Judah and took a few photos. I also took a few on the 4th of July that I didn't get to post. I really like capturing what's going on around me and I always have my camera in my bag in case something inspires me to capture it. In any event, some of these are transit related but it's mostly about great cities, which are an essential part of the transit-oriented lifestyle.

This is a mural on some plywood on my street. This house has been under construction for about 2 years and the neighbors got tired of it. They told me that when the house is done, they are going to use these as their back fence. It's kind of sad because no one will get to see them. I kind of enjoy seeing something new on them each day I come home from work. It's a very cool evolution.


Over at the East Portal of the Muni Sunset Tunnel, made famous by numerous cars that drive in there thinking its a throughway even though its clearly for rail cars, purple flowers grow between the tracks.



Fixes for the entrance for the Market Street Subway for the N and J tracks are much needed. I hear they are coming soon. But here's the condition now. This is why speeds of 5 mph are used in this section of track.


This was a look at the Bay towards the Golden Gate bridge from Fillmore street on the 4th of July. It's quite a regular occurrence to have this much fog on the 4th. It's bad because it blocks out the fireworks show.

Here's golden gate park on the 4th. San Francisco fog style.
I've been seeing a lot more of these as well...

And while this might look ugly to some, it's music to my lungs. I would take visual pollution over air pollution any day. Usually you don't even notice, but it hurts more to breathe diesel exhaust than it does to see these.

The LA Subway of 1925

LAist covers the 1925 LA Subway and plans for a subway network that were scuttled and given pushback. Something that is still happening to this day.

As plans rolled forward, the city's charter was being revised to allow for a subway to run parallel to a street, an action prohibited at the time by the charter in place. By August, PE was on board, provided the additional capital could be located, to have the station built under the Olive side of Pershing Square, in the hopes that the subway would one day extend further to travel beneath Olive ("Subway Extension"). So it was underground at Pershing versus at-ground level at Hill Street, with citizens registering agreement and disagreement on all sides. By mid-August 1924 action on either plan was delayed until September while all concerned parties weighed their options. (To those of us looking back from where we stand now with transit expansion, the delays seem all too familiar.)

China Has Same Issues

I was talking to my friend Julie who lives in China and she seemed a bit worried about the American economy. She's seen a significant downtrend in orders to her business (computer parts tech etc) due to the slowdown. She's also been driving less because of gas prices. Apparently they are having similar problems which points to a coming economic dive. But its not just anecdotal, its in the news:

A computer engineer in Beijing, who goes by the surname Zhu, is one of them. He said he recently gave up driving and switched to taking the subway to escape from the fuel price increases. He estimated he would have to pay about 200 yuan more at the pump if he continued to drive.

He has also found it's very convenient for him to commute between home and work through the north-south subway Line 5.

It's getting bad out there. And by out there I mean around the world. There are options...

Country Club Disguise

So some Country Club members are against the purple line, so they decide to set up a "grass roots" movement. Why couldn't they just oppose it on their own? What are they afraid of? I'm guessing being seen as a bunch of country club folks against a transit line. isn't as good as a grass roots movement. It might look like they are thumbing their nose at commonfolk. Kind of like this guy.

Stripping on the Subway for Justice!

Warning: Not Safe for Work or Children

Apparently a stripper in Chile has taken it upon herself to protest the lack of tolerance in South America's most conservative country. Rueters has a news article, and below is their report.

The professional pole dancer worked quickly all week to avoid arrest, getting on at one station, finding a subway car with no children on it and stripping in time to exit at the next station.

Chilean media dubbed her "La Diosa del Metro" or Subway Goddess. She called her performances "happy minutes."

"Chile is still a pretty timid country," said her manager Gustavo Pradenas. "People aren't very extroverted and we want to take aim at that and make Chile a happier country."

H/T KF and RTRider

Draper Trax Line Moves On

As JMD states, it was a victory against nimbys. I think we need more of those.