#atlantic cities

[spicybiscotti]

I found my silence in the places I’d never been.

Tom Loois (Spicy Archives: Tech to choose the path less traveled)

[whimsikelly]

A fascinating new study conducted by an international team of psychologists has found a ‘common hour’ of general enjoyment across people from a wide swath of human experience. 

The magic hour?

[T]he situational experience of individuals around the world at 7 p.m. was, on average, highly similar and largely pleasant, and the homogeneity of individual situational experience was nearly as large between as within countries. This finding emerged even though the study examined situational experience in 20 countries, on 5 continents, using materials rendered in 14 different languages.

The common sensation?

In general, people found whatever they were doing at that time to be "simple and clear-cut," "social," and "potentially enjoyable"; they also felt they were free to speak and feel a range of emotions. At the opposite end of the spectrum, the lowest-rated descriptions made reference to abuse, physical or emotional threats, loss of freedom, or deception.

This is the kind of thing that I feel like should be made public knowledge if for no reason then that people can soak in the common knowledge (and more likely, reminder) that they have a time everyday to look forward to, that, even if they don’t try very hard or go out of their way, they are likely to find it to be a peak in their day. Kind of comforting, no?

(via citylab)

[chrisklimek]

Transforming Tysons, my Atlantic Cities debut

Transforming Tysons, my Atlantic Cities debut

And Now for Something Completely Different: I wrote a 2,000-word feature for Atlantic Citiesabout the ongoing effort to turn the Northern Virginia suburb of Tysons Corner — a massive, unplanned, car-dependent “Edge City” — into a walkable, public-transit accessible, liveable urban locale. The opening of Metro’s Silver Line this summer will be a key element of this plan, and the place is expected…

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[selfdeprecatie]

Unforgettable Pictures of Coney Island

The image captures one of the central paradoxes of life in New York: the way that the city's crowds of disparate people create a climate that is both lonely and communal, both private and exhibitionistic.

Today's lunch-break read made me nostalgic for the beach and my camera. I've long defended shore points as great because of, not despite, their crowds. Seeing them as a metaphor and a cheer for urban life is pretty moving.

[nprfreshair]

Get outside! 

Have a nice weekend, 

Fresh Air

Edward Burtynsky Benidorm #1, Spain, 2010 Chromogenic Color print; printed 2013 © Edward Burtynsky, courtesy Howard Greenberg Gallery, and Bryce Wolkowitz Gallery, New York / Nicholas Metivier Gallery, Toronto Exhibitor : Howard Greenberg  via atlantic cities

[urbanspirit-81]

Richard Florida on compactness

On the whole, we found more compact metros were more affluent and productive, with a positive correlation between the Sprawl Index and economic output per capita (.24). We also found more compact metros to have more highly-educated residents, with a positive correlation of .33 between the share of adults who are college grads and the smart growth Index. Conversely, the Sprawl Index was negatively associated with share of blue collar, working class jobs (-.28). Even more interesting is the connection between urban development and the specific kinds of work people do. We found a close positive association between the Sprawl Index and the share of artists, designers, and entertainment and cultural workers (.48). Despite how much has been made of the clustering of the tech industry and of tech workers, we found a much weaker association between the Sprawl Index and high tech industry, and no statistically significant one between the index and the number of science and technology workers. And perhaps most importantly for those who argue that the benefits of sprawl – including large home sizes and big swathes of land for each family – outweigh the costs, we found a positive association (.21) between compactness and the happiness and well-being of residents. This reinforces the findings of the Smart Growth America report, which found that residents of compact metros tended to live longer, perform better on a number of health and obesity metrics, and have a better chance at true economic mobility. In contrast, those living in sprawling metros tended to spend more on transportation and housing, exercise less, and experience far less social capital in their communities.

[spatialrelations]

Tetris on a sky scraper! Programming and urbanism together. Fun stuff! VIA

[brandondonnelly]

80% of New York's 150 million taxi trips could be shared

I've been a big fan of MIT's Senseable City Lab since I was a grad student at Penn. Their work sits at the intersection of cities and technology, and so I've always found it incredibly fascinating.

Recently, the lab examined data from all of New York's 13,586 registered cabs and looked for ways that technology and mobile tech could potentially optimize the way the system works today. In particular, they were interested in examining instances where people were heading to the same place at the same time, and were within no more than a 3 minute walk of each at the start of the trip.

What they found was that, of the 150 million taxi rides taken in New York City during 2011, almost 80% of them could have been shared.

That is, 80% of the time, there was an overlap in both time and route. That's an hugely interesting stat because it starts to show just how much waste and inefficiency there currently is in the system. Think about all the trips and carbon emissions that could be potentially eliminated through optimization.

Here's a video they produced on the project. Click here if you can't see it below.

It's a great example of how technology is and will continue to creep into every segment of the economy. It's exactly what I was talking about in my post, "Disrupting everything."