As ranked by Forbes magazine. The Rust Belt is pretty much the entire list.
The big loser? Ohio, with four cities on the list: Youngstown, Canton, Dayton and Cleveland. Runner-up is Michigan, with Detroit and Flint.
Read the article and view the related photo package.
– Photo by abardwell on Flickr
How much is your happiness dependent on what country you live in?
That’s tough to say, but by and large, Americans are pretty happy; in fact, we’re ranked 16th in the world. From Science Daily:
Denmark tops the list of surveyed nations, along with Puerto Rico and Colombia. A dozen other countries, including Ireland, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Canada and Sweden also rank above the United States, which maintains about the same relative position as it did in WVS’s 2000 survey.
“Though by no means the happiest country in the world, from a global perspective the U.S. looks pretty good,” says Ronald Inglehart, a political scientist at the university, who directs the study. “The country is not only prosperous; it ranks relatively high in gender equality, tolerance of ethnic and social diversity and has high levels of political freedom.”
And Richard Florida correctly points out the money quote, by Inglehart: “Ultimately, the most important determinant of happiness is the extent to which people have free choice in how to live their lives.”
Concerning this:
The Supreme Court struck down the District of Columbia’s ban on handgun possession yesterday, deciding for the first time in the nation’s history that the Second Amendment guarantees an individual’s right to own a gun for self-defense.
… a commenter here made a point I hadn’t considered:
A lot of us are in the militia, whether we know it or not. From the US Code, Chapter 13:
§ 311. Militia: composition and classes
(a) The militia of the United States consists of all able-bodied males at least 17 years of age and, except as provided in section 313 of title 32, under 45 years of age who are, or who have made a declaration of intention to become, citizens of the United States and of female citizens of the United States who are members of the National Guard.
(b) The classes of the militia are—
(1) the organized militia, which consists of the National Guard and the Naval Militia; and
(2) the unorganized militia, which consists of the members of the militia who are not members of the National Guard or the Naval Militia.
So a better question is: Does the Constitution guarantee your right to not own a gun?
It’s no surprise that McCain applauded the decision, but even Barack Obama couldn’t fault the ruling entirely. He “issued a statement saying that ‘I have always believed that the Second Amendment protects the right of individuals to bear arms, but I also identify with the need for crime-ravaged communities to save their children from the violence that plagues our streets through common-sense, effective safety measures.’”
If he wants to win blue states that go red in presidential votes — such as my semi-home state of West Virginia — then it’s no surprise he wouldn’t lambaste the ruling.
In other non-news, Paul Helmke is displeased.
A policy that encourages cars to keep moving privileges cars at the expense of pedestrians and bicyclists. Since drivers, for the most part, already believe that they have priority on the road, in places where there are many more walkers and bicyclists, drivers able to drive more quickly because of fewer impediments would likely feel more empowered to move more quickly and to drive faster, likely endangering non-drivers.
As long as roads are engineered to allow very high speeds, and cars are engineered to drive very fast (in the 1940s, the speed limit on residential streets in DC was 15 mph), reducing impediments on drivers is likely to be deleterious to pedestrians and bicyclists.
I honestly want to hear John Kalb‘s view on this project:
Less than a week after a majority of members expressed serious doubts about the project, Allen County Council on Tuesday overwhelmingly approved the extension of Maplecrest Road from Lake Avenue south to Adams Center Road.
The 6-1 vote in favor of a $25 million construction bond should allow work on the 1.5-mile, $55 million project to begin next year, said County Commissioner Nelson Peters, acknowledging that “we worked hard to sell the project.”
By extending Maplecrest south over the Maumee River and often-congested railroad tracks, the project is expected to improve transportation and public safety and promote economic development, especially in southeast Allen County. But because the cost had doubled since 2002, some Council members had questioned whether the benefits were worth the expense.
I have my doubts that new roads actually create economic development; they seem to instead shuffle economic development from old roads to the new ones.
– Photo from the Allen County government Web site
Cities do not consist of freeways, buildings, transit systems, houses, malls, sidewalks, hydro wires, sewers, water mains, snowplows, corporations or government.
Good cities consist of good people. Like a vibrant company, they tap their best people — those with intelligence, energy, integrity, goodwill and a large well of experience — to do the best things. With a critical mass of good people, all the other elements of urban living — transit, wealth, a healthy environment … the list goes on and on — fall into place.
The key to successful cities in this age of increasingly specialized labour demand and a slowly eroding petroleum economy is to attract topnotch people who can adapt to the fundamental changes occurring in our community now.
Read the entire Ken Gray column in the Ottawa Citizen here.
– Hat tip: Richard Florida
You’ve heard of the woman who lived in this house, haven’t you? Here’s the lead to the story in the Seattle P-I:
Edith Macefield died at home, just the way she wanted.
The Ballard (Wash.) woman who captured hearts and admirers around the world when she stubbornly turned down $1 million to sell her home to make way for a commercial development died Sunday of pancreatic cancer. She was 86.
No one knows exactly what will happen to the house now. She left no heirs.
– Hat tip: Andrew Sikora
The above is the provocative headline on a story on cnn.com. After some description of the foreclosures in suburbia, the story focuses on the shifting attitudes of homeowners.
“The American dream is absolutely changing,” (Christopher Leinberger, an urban planning professor at the University of Michigan and visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution,) told CNN.
This change can be witnessed in places like Atlanta, Georgia, Detroit, Michigan, and Dallas, Texas, said Leinberger, where once rundown downtowns are being revitalized by well-educated, young professionals who have no desire to live in a detached single family home typical of a suburbia where life is often centered around long commutes and cars.
Instead, they are looking for what Leinberger calls “walkable urbanism” — both small communities and big cities characterized by efficient mass transit systems and high density developments enabling residents to walk virtually everywhere for everything — from home to work to restaurants to movie theaters.
The so-called New Urbanism movement emerged in the mid-90s and has been steadily gaining momentum, especially with rising energy costs, environmental concerns and health problems associated with what Leinberger calls “drivable suburbanism” — a low-density built environment plan that emerged around the end of the World War II and has been the dominant design in the U.S. ever since.
We don’t want to wish ill on the suburban dweller, but times may get tougher out there before they get better.
– photo by respres on Flickr
What in the world? We’re talking about
the genetic alteration of bugs — very, very small ones — so that when they feed on agricultural waste such as woodchips or wheat straw, they do something extraordinary. They excrete crude oil.
Unbelievably, this is not science fiction. Mr Pal holds up a small beaker of bug excretion that could, theoretically, be poured into the tank of the giant Lexus SUV next to us. Not that Mr Pal is willing to risk it just yet. He gives it a month before the first vehicle is filled up on what he calls “renewable petroleum”. After that, he grins, “it’s a brave new world”.
The story in The Times of London is a great read and may challenge some of your assumptions — Is oil really a non-renewable fossil fuel, or is formed by abiogenic processes? Also, the story notes plenty of hurdles that need to be cleared before you can pour bug excrement into your gas tank, especially the problem of large-scale production:
However, to substitute America’s weekly oil consumption of 143 million barrels, you would need a facility that covered about 205 square miles, an area roughly the size of Chicago.
The best byproduct of high fuel prices has been the opportunity to discuss issues like New Urbanism, sprawl and our nation’s exclusively automotive transportation network. But what if oil supplies suddenly blossom? If peak oil is a myth, or if it can be averted, will our hopes for renewed cities be in vain?
I hope not. Although it seems some New Urbanists are almost happy that oil prices have gone through the roof, we should not place all of our bets on that happening. Our arguments in favor of true, good cities should be able to exist even with dollar-a-gallon gas.
– Hat Tip: Douglas Wilson
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