May 21, 2006 at 2:19 am
(Urban Design)
A segment in the movie Koyaanisqatsi shows the destruction of the Pruitt-Igoe housing project in St. Louis. It was destroyed in 1972, less that 16 years after construction; apparently poor design led to high crime and low public involvement in maintaining public space–a typical “tragedy of the commons” scenario. Reading about this project, I stumbled across the name of Oscar Newman, who used Pruitt-Igoe as an example of what not to do in his book Defensible Space, which emphasizes among other things the importance of private and semi-private space. Newman’s applications of this concept led later to the publication of Creating Defensible Space in the late 1990’s. The newer book provides some case studies, and it’s interesting to note some aspects of the Defensible Space concept that are evident in both new design and urban rejuvination plans. The second book is available in PDF form at the above link…
Anyway. Hadn’t had many urban design posts in awhile.
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May 20, 2006 at 11:04 am
(Privacy)
A Georgia TV news station is reporting that credit rating agency Equifax
is selling personal information to banks and others.
I don’t expect you to be surprised by this. It’s long been known that these agencies are the root cause of the dozens of credit card offers we receive each month. In an of itself, that isn’t so bad.
What is bad is that they run this as an “opt-out” system–your information is sold unless you tell them not to (and that isn’t easily accomplished). And possibly even worse is that regardless of the millions they make selling consumer info, they still charge consumers to see their own credit reports.
Even after the Fair Credit Reporting Act required it in 2003, the three credit reporting companies have put up roadblocks to receiving the Federally mandated credit reports.
I hope the TV report outrages enough people that maybe we see some action out of the FTC?
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May 17, 2006 at 10:06 pm
(Civil Rights)
I can tell this phone call database bugs me. I finally wrote to Senator Allard (assuming he’ll be the most likely to let the NSA wrongdoings pass during General Hayden’s confirmation hearings tomorrow) to ask for some help. It’s certainly clear that not all Republicans are very comfortable with the program–I’m hoping Hayden is actually required to answer some of the questions he may be asked.
Senator Allard:
I am very concerned about the NSA domestic spying and phone call database programs and specifically, Congress’s apparently limited knowledge of these programs. I hope that you will work to maintain Congress’s ability to act as a check to Executive branch power.
Specifically, I ask that you ensure that General Hayden fully answers the difficult questions that may be asked about his involvement with these programs during his confirmation hearings.
Thank you-
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May 12, 2006 at 4:21 pm
(Civil Rights)
A weird news day. First we find out that Qwest protected the privacy of its customers because, of all people, Joe “run-out-of-town-on-a-rail” Nacchio was concerned about the order’s legality. Then we find out that the Moussaoui jury only decided on a life sentence instead of a death sentence because of a lone holdout juror.
Well. So much for my restored faith in humanity.
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May 11, 2006 at 6:44 pm
(Uncategorized)
Well, it appears that USA Today opened everyone’s eyes a bit further today with their story on the NSA’s great secret traffic analysis program in which virtually everybody’s phone calls were logged in a database. (It’s a sad world when Qwest is the only major phone company that acted honorably.)
Ok. We’ve got a typical response here from our friends in the public eye. The Republicans who are In backed the NSA. They claim that we’re at war and we can’t let our enemy know what we’re up to. This is their justification for allowing the operation to remain secret (even, it would seem, from themselves). And the enemy is amongst us, they would have us believe, which justifies keeping tabs on as many phone calls as they can. This is a tremendous load of bullshit and I’m really tired of this line. Seriously, if you buy this line than shame on you. As far as I can tell, we’ve had three major terrorist attacks on US soil in the last sixteen years: The WTC bombing in 1993, the Murrah building bombing in OKC in 1995 and the September incident in 2001. (The government claims to have stopped other attacks but offer up meager evidence.) In any case, these attacks resulted in the death of about 4000 people, or 250 per year.
According to Alcohol Alert, the number of alcohol-related driving deaths is about 17,000 per year. That’s not even including deaths that don’t involve alcohol.
While I realize that the Federal government does try to use it’s heavy hand to try to bring that number down, I’m very curious as to why they have spent so much energy to try to prevent what amounts to 250 deaths per year–this is hardly low hanging fruit when one looks right at it. The hawks have tried to frame this as war with a highly skilled, highly organized and very sophisticated organization. They have convinced many Americans that our lives are in danger if we don’t allow all sorts of secret powers for the Executive branch while relinquishing our access to documents and data. Can you blame the conspiracy theorist for thinking there may be an ulterior motive?
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May 9, 2006 at 8:22 pm
(Culture)
A few disjointed thoughts based on today’s brief interaction with the popular media…
First, Freddie Mac is going to move into the 40-year mortgage market. Sigh. When real estate prices don’t increase fast enough, someone is going to find a way to fix that. Ok, let’s say 40-year mortgages become the norm. People at all income levels will be able to afford a monthly payment for “more house” and the real estate people say, “wow, this is great.” But if more people can afford a given property, than you’ve increased demand and prices will rise (faster than they would otherwise, of course). And eventually, things come back into a balance in which everyone can afford about the same set of properties that they could before. Except now when they make a monthly payment, they’re paying much more to the bank and getting much less equity. Sorry fellas, I refuse to believe this is a good thing for anyone who isn’t a bank or in real estate.
In the meantime, CNN commentator Lou Dobbs is speaking out against the “war against the middle class” (based on a televised teaser) and asking why it takes two incomes to support the average family. Mr. Dobbs likes to blame cheap labor (via immigration and outsourcing) as part of the problem. But when you’ve got a 40-year mortgage on your McMansion to keep up and you add in car payments, plasma TV’s (and cable or satellite to go with them) then, yeah, you’re going to be stretched a little thin. Plus, now you’re eating out or buying prepared meals because you’re commute is an hour each way, so that’s a hit on your wallet too. And with the preponderance of golf course communities, you may well be playing a couple rounds a week (not cheap). Some of these decisions were foisted on us (owning a car, even a cheap one, has expensive hidden costs, and its quite a bit harder to survive without one in an era where office parks are widely distributed). Some are personal choices. Some are unique to suburban-exurban areas, others are visible in urban areas or even in small towns. But either way, late-20th and early-21st century consumption habits have eaten chunks out of both discretionary and non-discretionary income. I’m not comfortable blaming Mexicans, Indians and Chinese for our “hardships.” The buck stops here.
Finally, I was bombarded (twice in the relatively short time I spent trying to eat in a “quiet” spot at O’hare) with ads for a cable “choice” campaign. I’m not sure if it was sponsored by the Parent’s Television Council. But it sure had the signs. I guess I’m a little put off by the idea that someone is spending a bit of energy on this. I mean, I agree that in general, TV programming is crude and not worth the time spent watching it. So I don’t watch. I can’t even fathom kids watching most of prime time TV (or worse, the stuff that comes on after, when it is still daylight within 1000 miles of the West Coast.) But whatever…I guess people will do what they can to protect their God-given right to veg out.
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May 6, 2006 at 8:11 am
(Culture)
Talk about inappropriate.
A Northeast Ohio-based company posts daily news stories on their employee website. The story for May 4 was this:
████████ was recently recognized for “Supporting Employee Participation in America’s National Guard and Reserve Force.” ████████, who served in the National Guard for 24 years and nominated ████████ for the honor, is an employee at our [NE Ohio facility]. At a recent ceremony there, LTC ████████ (holding award) noted the three-legged stool of successful service: the soldier, the employer and the family.
May 4, 1970 was the day the National Guard killed four students at Kent State University. When last I checked (admittedly a whole five years ago) this was still sort of a sore subject in Northeast Ohio. It certainly isn’t (or wasn’t then) as if the day went by unnoticed.
No matter what your feelings are about the National Guard, I think you’ll agree that the editor picked the wrong day to publish a story about ████████’s strong support for the National Guard for an audience that is primarily based in NE Ohio.
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