this is an obvious suggestion...to Obama

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steven-cohen/president-obama-should-fo_b_707626.html

Green Collar Jobs! are the ish.

Wrapping things up at MCG

A quick summary of what the Majora Carter Group is, and why it's amazing:

The Majora Carter Group LLC is a consulting and project-development company focused on unlocking the economic potential of every place. Specializing in green jobs strategy development and community engagement consulting, the Majora Carter Group helps companies and communities successfully explore and establish green economic projects. Majora Carter founded one of the nation’s first and most successful green-collar training and placement systems in 2003, Bronx Environmental Stewardship Training, and following in that vein MCG has begun consulting with clients in the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans and in the wetlands of Northeastern North Carolina. In North Carolina, MCG is working with a number of CDCs to pioneer a horticultural job-training curriculum. In New Orleans, through the Make It Right Foundation’s (MIR) Sustainable Infrastructure Project, MCG has created a workforce development strategy that incorporates local citizens into innovative economic systems generated from investment of human and monetary capital in green infrastructure projects.

wow. So much good stuff.
I am writing this with rainbow tears in my eyes. Because my time here with the Majora Carter Group is one day away from being done. Alas, a moment for reflection:

Summer interns this year got to work on 2 fantastic projects; urban farm development in Detroit and wetland restoration in the Chesapeake Bay. With my experience in applied GIS (geographic information system) and wetland mapping in the American South, I put my effort into the wetlands project. Here I helped with a GIS tool proposal for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA), researching employment markets in the wetlands industry, possible wetland restoration sites, and potential partners for our proposed project. Along with this major task, I also dabbled in researching horticultural infrastructure (which will become a major component of my senior thesis) and worked on this blog. In the process I worked with amazing staff (captured in sneaky photos shown), super cool interns, and a Columbia University graduate whose research intent made my re-evaluate my notion of what a "scholar" actually is. I couldn't have had a better summer internship, MCG. :) (and I also really like the fluorescent upholstery and rainbow window dressings)

Suburbia? done and gone?

Until the mid-twentieth century the suburban environment did not exist. It's new, it's bad, and it's going away? Designed for an elite access to "safer" neighborhoods outside the condensed city, it was seen as an advantageous alternative to crowded inner city life. But, maybe,....it was actually a fail.

Before the emergence of the planned suburban community, towns and cities developed from the natural growth of business and industry. Mixed-used spaces required inhabitants to live, work, and shop/consume in the same space; keeping the economy rich, neighborhoods safe, and maintaining pedestrian access to the entire community. With suburbia, however, single-use pods are attached by a main road-way and smaller feeder streets (if you've read "Suburban Nation: the Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of the American Dream," these single-use pods include residential, shopping, business, municipal, and roadway pods http://tiny.cc/jnw42), isolating business, people, and economic classes. Though not true of all suburban developments, the basic formula for Levitt Town (our classic, suburbia)revolves around this separation of "use". For those of us that grew up in the midst of suburban sprawl, you definitely understand that close, intimate, and loving bond shared with your car. 15 years old, learner's permit. 16 years old, freedom (at least for the state of CA). Here, a car is your only means of access, communication, and economic competition.

But the dog days of suburban supremacy are ending? As revealed in a recent Washington Post article, a new demographic distribution may be developing. In an analysis of 2000-2008 census data by the Brookings Institution, Brookings found that "America's suburbs are now more likely to be home to minorities, the poor and a rapidly growing older population as many younger, educated whites move to cities for jobs shorter commutes." Please see the article for more information: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/09/suburbs-losing-young-whit_n_569226.html

Microhousing: Architecture for Really Small People

not.

hahahaha.

A friend forwarded me this AMAZING link on spatially conscious architecture in Japan.

Japanese architects have long delt with spatial constraints on building, but recently (and with the help of new industrial processes and materials technology) they are redefining architecture by inventing entirely new methods to build a "home". Removing all concept of doorways, stairwells, and individual bedrooms and bathrooms, micro-architecture evolves around the use of space; thinking in "3-D" rather than in the classically 2-dimensional plan and section. With this principle in mind, houses can take on any form and require only as much space as occupation requires.

Most importantly, and most environmentally conscious, these new microhouses are finding dynamic ways to exploit natural resources to replace energy consuming electricity. Take for instance, the "Cell Block" house by Yasuhiro Yamashita. The entire facade employs "cross-stitched" steel and glass, to create a checkered shell with maximum natural light intake. Beautiful and inventive design, minimal energy, and requiring only an iota of land....wonderful!

check this ish out: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128953596

...and studies are showing that people are moving away from suburbia, and back into cities. Minimalistic design may be the only design left to consider as urban spaces explode with a growing population. More to come on that.

Artful Hort Infra cont.

The inspiration behind the MOMA exhibit I viewed a couple a weeks ago,Rising Currents lies in the work of Catherine Seavitt (my junior independent work at Princeton University professor,in the "Mound Builders" studio),Guy Nordenson, and Adam Yarinksy: the book "On the Water: Palisade Bay". The collaborative work of engineers, architects, landscape architects, planners, and students, the book addresses "soft infrastructure" for the New York/New Jersey Upper Bay area. By developing a series of "interconnected infrastructures and landscapes that rethink the thresholds of water, land, and city," the work utilizes climate change and sea level rise as catalysts for reshaping and enriching the bay. Needless to say, it's a very fascinating work that includes horticultural infrastructure.

In updated news, I found out that material from "On the Water: Palisade Bay" will be displayed in The Venice Biennale, a major contemporary art exhibition that occurs every two years in Venice, Italy. It will be a component of the U.S. Pavilion. Quite an honor!




Visit http://www.workshopping.us/?p=74 for more information.

Peace out.

What's a watershed?

It's this!
...in case you were wondering.




More to come soon. On watersheds.

how to make a wetland: wetland contractors!

Today in the MCG office research was focused on gathering up the names of wetland contractors in the North Carolina area that specialize in developing, creating, and restoring natural wetlands. I was particularly impressed with Carolina Silvics,Inc. http://tiny.cc/i368t, and Restoration Systems LLC, http://www.restorationsystems.com/, two wetland contracting firms based in North Carolina.

Carolina Silvics, Inc. was founded in 1998 and specializes in ecological restoration and resource management. Their environmental services include:
-Planting plan assistance
-Plant material acquisition
-Invasive species removal and control
-Site preparation and repair
-Wetland/BMP planting, including plugs, live stakes, bare roots, containers, relocated material and B&Bs
-Mechanical and chemical competition control
...and they've worked with major environmental groups including, the United States Air Force, the North Carolina Coastal Foundation, and the North Carolina Ecosystem Enhancement Program.

The other major contractor I found was Restoration Systems, LLC, which focuses on wetland restoration and management in order to offset further industrial development in these regions. Uniquely, this organization restores and protects wetland regions by purchasing a permanent conservation easement or fee-simple interest from property owners, and physically restoring the waterways, trees and vegetation to duplicate natural function and historic condition as closely as possible. And they have an amazing set of pics of current and past restoration projects (http://picasaweb.google.com/restorationsys). They also have a cool blog. Check it out! (http://www.restorationsystems.com/growing-season/).

On a final and less related note, I also found this wetland plant nursery, the Mellow Marsh Farm. (http://www.mellowmarshfarm.com). Such a cute, marshmellowy name! (but actually quite a legitimate wetland resource).

Artful Hort Infra

Enjoying the sites of NYC this weekend, I ventured to the Museum of Modern Art for the very first time on Saturday. Even there, hort infra couldn’t escape me! Here, I stumbled across Rising Currents, which opened this spring.

MoMa and P.S.1 Comtemporary Art Center teamed up to address one of the most urgent issues facing New York City: sea-level rise resulting from global climate change. Looking at a variety of research, practices, and infrastructural systems the exhibition brought together five interdisciplinary teams to reconstruct the NYC, NJ, and NY Harbor coastlines. A major design component of each team was the consideration of “soft-infrastructure” (education, health, tourism systems, etc…) as opposed to “hard-infrastructure” (roads, bridges, ports, airlines, etc). In this, communities can be changed generationally through the means of social engagement. Horticutural infrastructure (!!) was also mentioned among the means of addressing rising water levels. In the exhibition the installation presented the teams’ proposals and includes a wide array of models, drawings, and analytical materials. Combining engineering, ecology, landscape architecture, and structural architecture, programs were developed to solve a unique and inevitable problem. For more information please visit http://tiny.cc/ubuk4.

Notably, my very own studio professor Catherine Seavitt at Princeton University co-authored the book that launched the Rising Currents MoMa workshop and exhibition, On the Water: Palisade Bay (http://www.palisadebay.org/). On yet another note…many of the lead architects and collaborators on the project are graduates of the Princeton School of Architecture, both graduate and undergraduate. Shout out to my home department Princeton SOA! (http://www.princeton.edu/soa/).

Nice Subway Distraction

I snagged this pic on my way to the Bronx this morning, on a 6 train headed to Hunts Point. ConEdison, one of the largest energy companies in the United States (specializing in electric, gas and steam services in NYC) has embarked on its own campaign of greenness with eye-catching images and fun surveys made for the purpose of educating the average subway rider on energy conservation in the home.

cool.

A New Project! Wetland Restoration

Wetland Restoration- the beginnning
One project that I’m working on with the Majora Carter Group this summer is a wetland restoration program in North Carolina. Evading the hubbabaloo in the Gulf we will, hopefully, be able to restore and implement wetlands along the NC coast in a nationwide large-scale horticultural infrastructure construction. Hort infra strikes again.

What are wetlands?
Wetlands are lands that are wet at least part of the year because their soils are either saturated or covered with a shallow layer of water. Wetlands include a variety of natural systems, such as marshes, swamps, bottomland hardwoods, pocosins, bogs and wet flats. While each wetland type looks and functions differently, all wetlands share certain properties, including characteristic wetland vegetation, hydric soils and hydrologic feature. Along the North Carolina coast, specifically, wetlands thrive, making it a great site for wetlands restoration.

Why restore wetlands?
Wetlands protecting water quality, act as a natural defense to floods and erosion, and help to preserve the natural environments of indigenous species. Wetlands are natural buffers between uplands and waterways. By trapping sediment, removing nutrients and detoxifying chemicals, wetlands act as efficient and cost-effective filtration systems. And by storing and preventing rapid runoff of water, wetlands minimize the danger of damaging floods. To read about wetland benefits, please visit http://tiny.cc/mtjhf.

The Goals of MCG’s project:
Through a wetlands restoration program, we hope to achieve the following goals:
1. Reduce the fiscal liability of the federal government caused by potential catastrophic floods
2. Increase environmental protection of low-income Americans, as a large portion of this economic bracket occupies these regions
3. Protect crucial coastal businesses involved in fishing, energy, and tourism
4. Prevent the loss of further jobs by protecting businesses, while also creating a bracket for climate change adaption careers.

With the aid of ARC GIS maps (maps that evaluate statistical information by converting them into visible imagery), hort infra research, and some groups like the Coastal Plain Nursery http://www.coastalplainnursery.com/, this project is kickin' into action

more to come.

soon.

My new favorite bag....

...it hasn't been carrying much but GRE vocab flashcards and random plastic fork for a few days, but this sustainable messenger is legit a new toting fave. And compliments of the Majora Carter office.

http://tiny.cc/izjny

I can't decide if I like it more for the fact that it's from a San Francisco based custom bag company (I am a dedicated NorCal resident) or because it's entirely made through a waste-free process!

check em out.

Farming on American Roofs

One of many projects going on at the Majora Carter Group this summer, American City Farms is one of the heart healthiest. A project developed as a component of the urban farming movement, American City Farms will, hopefully, be one of the most influential projects developed; directly helping urban communities across the United States become hubs of fresh produce.

Hat tip to fellow intern Jason Segal for the following: American City Farms is a Local Foods project that will provide fresh produce to inner cities. Produce will be sourced from farms within a 100 mile radius of the destination city, from Urban Greenhouses developed by MCG, and from local community gardens. MCG will be opening projects in Detroit, MI ; Flint, MI; and Jackson, MS. The Greenhouses will use Aquaponics, a system that symbiotically cultivates plants & fish in a recirculating aquatic environment. Produce will be sold to local grocery stores, corner stores, and restaurants. The goal is to provide fresh and healthy produce to neighborhoods that sell mostly processed unhealthy food.

More to come on this, but in the meantime keep checking out the Brooklyn Grange Farm.

Hort. Infra in action.

for more info, there's a nice little mention about American City Farms in http://tiny.cc/q9xrf. and for MCG see http://www.majoracartergroup.com/

Farming among the clouds...of Long Island City, Queens

This Friday, granted I can escape the dungeons of my Firestone Library campus employment, I will be going to visit the Brooklyn Grange Farm in Long Island City, Queens with the Majora Carter Group! A commercial farming business, the Brooklyn Grange is located on NYC rooftops and grows vegetables in the city to sell to local people and businesses. In the vein of urban farming and horticultural infrastructure, the goal of the system is to improve access to healthy and good food, to connect city people more closely to farms and food production, and to make urban farming a viable enterprise and livelihood.

A large problem of inner city life is minimal access to fresh, healthy, and affordable food. With exciting innovation like this, city roofs are bringing better food closer to the American urban population.

As the ULTIMATE green roof, I can't wait to see what 37-18 Northern Boulevard, in Long Island City, Queens has to hold.

mmm. vegetables.

Green Collared Jobs for America's youth?

If you've read Van Jone's The Green Collar Economy, then you might know about the movement to green the United States economy via jobs based in "green" industries. In simplicity, a "green new deal", this proposal argues that there is the opportunity to create thousands of low- and medium-skill jobs that help conserve energy (for example, insulating older homes and buildings) or use alternate energy sources (solar panels). While providing jobs that can't be exported these positions also produce sustainable results in terms of construction, renovation, and community development. With appropriate incentives and programs these jobs can be created in inner cities and thereby also lift people out of poverty, providing an argument for environmental justice.

While building this new economy, one population to keep in mind is America's youth. President Obama recently identified the youth of America as one of the economically hardest hit populations and as a result has promoted the National Parks Service, and its affiliated components, as an outlet for teens and young adults to obtain a job while also restoring and rebuilding the National Parks. Though this is a great idea, I couldn't help wonder how this is helping inner cities, and overpopulated urban areas where the teen population is massive and the green works are lacking... Couldn't there be governmental work study programs implemented that apply this population while bettering concrete communities?

Just some thoughts.

Here are the links to Obama's touted programs for getting youth involved in environmental restoration in the National Park System.

* Youth Conservation Corps http://www.nps.gov/gettinginvolved/youthprograms/ycc.htm
* Public Lands Corps http://www.nps.gov/gettinginvolved/youthprograms/plc.htm
* Student Conservation Association http://www.nps.gov/gettinginvolved/youthprograms/scaopportunities.htm
* The Corps Network http://www.nps.gov/gettinginvolved/youthprograms/thecorpsnetwork.htm

Hort. Infra. isn't just a trend

HUD's blog (the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development) listed their top 8 green tips for American living. At number one? the strategic planting of shrubs and trees to reduce the heating and cooling costs, while also reducing storm water run-off and soil erosion. Horticultural infrastructure is fresh.

http://portal.hud.gov/portal/page/portal/HUD/press/blog/

Recyled Architecture

Aldwin Crooks sent this link to me. (shout out to JARED!)

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2010/03/21/realestate/keymagazine/20100321-reuse-slideshow_5.html

AMAZING ideas. renovating, restoring, rebuilding, re-using. this is the type of stuff that architects need to be doing. What I would like to do, if I become an architect.

Green Roofing it UP

After taking a trial course for MCG (an environmental literacy course targeted at adults in the inner city to educate them on practical and sustainable water use) I couldn’t stop thinking about green roofs.

As a component of the course, we discussed LID practices: Low Impact Development practices. With LID, development is focused on low impact stormwater management where design attempts to mimic a site’s predevelopment hydrology by using design techniques that infiltrate, filter, store, evaporate, and detain runoff close to its source. This principle promotes treating stormwater through cost-effect landscape features to reduce the need for costly infrastructure built to transport and treat run-off. These landscape features, known as Integrated Management Practices (IMPs), are the building blocks of LID. Almost all components of the urban environment have the potential to serve as an IMP. This includes not only open space, but also rooftops, streetscapes, parking lots, sidewalks, and medians. LID is a versatile approach that can be applied equally well to new development, urban retrofits, and redevelopment / revitalization projects.

This all relates to the larger subject of horticultural infrastructure, but for now I’m keeping the discussion limited to green roofs. (As part of my internship I get to produce a research paper on hort. infra., so more to come soon). Green roofs are ANCIENT , GREEN, and provide an immense benefit to urban scapes around the world.

Consider these important statistics regarding greening up your roof: http://tiny.cc/hj6kc. Here we see that a green roof lasts an average of 30 years longer and uses only 70-80% of the energy consumed by a conventional roof. When applied correctly, greenroofs do all of the above:

Ø Clean and retain rainwater

Ø Reduce the overheating of cities (Urban Heat Island Effect)

Ø Add beauty to the concrete jungle

Ø Lower air temperatures

Ø Improve air quality

Ø Lower heating and cooling bills

Ø Extend the life of the roof membrane (2 to 3 times!)

Get it, GreenRoofs.

for more info, check out: http://www.lidstormwater.net/ and

http://www.artic.edu/webspaces/greeninitiatives/greenroofs/main_map.htm

Walmart Moms- greening constituents?

Neil Newhouse, co-author of Public Opinion Strategies, discussed an emerging new class of voters: the Walmart mom. “Walmart mom” constituents are interested in balancing the family budget in the face of “reduced hours at work, rising health care costs and increased energy prices”

• how do you interest this population in going green as well?> green voting

• Some sites relating to “Walmart moms” interested in going green (if they’re seen as a new and influential voting block then we should also view them as an important group to influence)

Filterforgood.com

30daystonatural.com- especially good for the penny-saving mom

Greenhome.com

waste-tailored recycling bins!

How ingenious is it to tailor the waste receptacles of recyclable material? Not only does it keep people from throwing the wrong material in the wrong can, but it makes you think twice when you're trying to shove your empty plastic water bottle into a rectangular slot designed for the disposal of newspapers, magazines, etc. I took this picture outside the Princeton Dinky at Princeton Junction this morning, where I unsuccessfully tried to throw away my breakfast before I realized a transparent shield was obstructing my trash's path. Made me think twice....about where I'm putting my trash