Tuesday March 13

All Things Considered: This NPR report made a good complement to what we are learning about NYC. I have this idea in my mind of L.A. being all highway, in fact I don't know if I even realized there was a L.A. river! It's kind of amazing to think that this huge city has no park system - I think of my pretty small town at home which had tons of green space. Of course, the industrialization of a big city makes sense that green space would be tougher to have, and I can understand how green space in a city could be forgotten, but it's still amazing that L.A. hasn't one. The community residents are taking the situation into their own hands, and carving our green spaces along the river which I think is a beautiful thing.

The Solaire
This website actually impressed me because I was afraid its mention of environmental engineering was going to be vague. But actually it had many legitamite sounding things to say, not just the phrase ''naturally harvested wood" but it went into that they had a 500 mile resource transporation limit and that it was harvested from sustainably. It was interesting how most of the technology was well known - lots of Energy Star appliances, solar power, insulation - which makes it more believable. I did like their focus on rooftop irrigation, and the inbuilding water treatment system.

The Greening of NYC
I really enjoyed this article. Though the author did perhaps veer from the negative, she made sure to mention some issues that NYC has, for instance programs that have been cut. She gave a wonderful overview of everything that is going on in NYC for sustainability, lots of policy and programs that sound very creative and make me want to look them up (for instance, Transportation Alternatives, Recycle a Bicycle, NYC's Bicycle Blueprint, Big City Forest, the Gaia Institute). I know after reading this that NYC is putting forth a big effort to make the city more environmentally friendly. I especially liked the transporation part, because reducing automobiles would be a really beneficial thing for NYC to do for pollution, traffic, and they already have a great transit system. An fun, educated, lighthearted read, 4 thumbs up.