The Greening of NYC as seen by a designer:
This presentation was very interesting. Towards the end it seemed more like a bus tour guiding us through the city, but I enjoyed his talk about garbage and recycling in the city. He mentioned a lot of great places that we could visit during our trip, lets go see the National Audubon Society building!
As a planning student, I have to call attention to his mention of Bryant Park and other BIDs within the city. A Business Improvement District is an area that is given special care and maintenance with money pooled from local businesses in the area. While this seems like a great strategy for greening up the city, it often kicks out the natives. Bryant Park used to be known as a place for drug dealers and bums in the '80's but when it became a BID, the park became privately patrolled. While the removal of drug dealers seems like a great thing, BIDs do not eliminate the problem, they just push them elsewhere. This is problematic and short-sighted, not to mention the fact that it is yet another design flaw that does not serve the community in which it resides.

Sustainable Urban Ecosystems:
This website was clear in laying out its goals and outlining research ideas. I especially enjoyed reading about composting to reduce the % of waste that ends up in land fills.

NPR All things considered:
Los Angeles is known as a problematic city to planners and planning students. The design of the city seems to be the most fundamental problems. The city was founded around the idea of the great American Dream of single family households in suburbs. As a result, settlement in the city resulted in racial segregation in suburbs in LA, traffic congestion, and environmental degradation. The army corps of engineers seemed to have "solved" flooding problems in the same ways everywhere, by simply cementing it over and channelizing it. Pocket parks seem like a good idea for fighting for getting more green space, but they do not seem like great places to actually spend time because of their close proximity to the highways.

The solaire: I am really excited that there is interest in living in a sustainable apartment building. However, this brings back into play the idea that you got to have the green to live green. Why is sustainable living not an equal access issue?