The Conservative Case for Transit

This article by David Shaengold concisely and convincingly lays out the case for transit from a conservative perspective.

The Republican party has become identified with pro-car, anti transit, anti-city positions that do not flow obviously from any core conservative principles. I agree with Shaengold that it is time to question the assumption that transit = socialist government spending or that roads and highway spending = free market.

(via Andrew Sullivan)

Starting at the Top

My house has all sorts of things wrong with it, from leaks and drips to loose wooden railings, rotting floors and an outdated kitchen. And that's besides the projects I would like to tackle like new paint, a coat closet, and remodeling the bathrooms. Unfortunately, I am not particularly handy fixing things and I don't understand everything that is involved in any one project. Like other home owners, I am more likely to focus on simple aesthetic things like curtains and pillows, that solving HVAC problems.

While my ideas were running off in hundreds of directions, I decided to invite my friend Marni to perform sort of a whole house audit. We went through the house from the basement to the third floor and talked about all the things that needed fixing. She is a wonderful listener as well as being very knowledgeable about construction projects.

Her advice at the end of the day was so sensible, I could have figured it out myself if I wasn't so scattered: start with the roof. The roof is the one thing in the house you really want to be able to trust, and we are at the end of this roof's lifespan. Until I fix the roof, I promised Marni I would stop drawing new floorplans and picking out paint chips. First things first!

We have a flat roof like most rowhouse owners. Ours is the older asphalt and tar system and we have a fair amount of ponding (water that remains on a roof and needs to evaporate.) We also have some leaks through the internal roof downspouts that have ruined our family room ceiling and nearly the TV.

Now I am investigating roofing materials for flat roofs, and thinking about adding a roof deck while I'm at it since our outdoor space is so limited. We are considering rubber membrane type roofing and also roofing that doubles as a deck surface. Every roofer seems to have some proprietary name for the type of roof they install, so I haven't figured out how to compare them. Send me your experiences with roofing if you have some to share.

Photo of the Day!

From Drop Box

How to Engage Your Transportation Agency

I just read "A Citizen's Guide to Better Streets: How to Engage Your Transportation Agency", which I downloaded for free from Project for Public Spaces. This book is the first of a three part series about how streets and transportation systems impact urban communities.

This book is like a primer for understanding how to use the State D.O.T to help build what the citizens actually want.  The first thing that the book does is lay out the case for why people should be interested in understanding the transportation and planning profession.  The largest expenditures local, state and regional governments undertake are often transportation related projects.  These projects shape our landscapes and then our lives, but few people outside of the profession participate in making the decisions.

The book explains the values, goals and assumptions that are fundamental to the planning industry.  These values and goals, as well as the terminology and processes that are part of turning the goals into completed projects are foreign to the average citizen.  And for those of us who are trying to create a more likable, walkable downtown, the textbook goals of the planning profession may be directly at odds with our goals.

The tone of the book is far from judgmental about the planning profession, however.  The authors just want to explain how the rules work so we can be part of the game.

Two weeks ago, I attended a Public Workshop on Wilmington's Downtown Circulation Study.  Honestly, the name is enough to keep most people away, and it did!  Nevertheless Wilmapco, our regional trasportation planning authority, gave a few attenders an overview of the problems the study was hoping to address and possible goals that might be formed as a result.  I wish I had read the Citizen's Guide before attending the meeting.  I would have known what L.O.S. was and why there is so much emphasis on it and I would have gotten a process started in my neighborhood in advance of the meeting to improve the quality of our input.  As I learned from the book, these preliminary public workshops offer a better chance for citizens to be heard than already funded transportation projects.