HUD's Fair Housing FIRST Accessiblity Training

HUD's Fair Housing FIRST Accessiblity Training
2007 01.25 8.30am to 4.30pm
Hilton Garden Inn Cleveland Downtown
1100 Carnegie Ave.
Cleveland, OH 44115

"Fair Housing Accessibility FIRST is an initiative designed to promote compliance with the Fair Housing Act design and construction requirements. The program offers comprehensive and detailed instruction programs, useful online web resources, and a toll-free information line for technical guidance and support."

They offer a variety of references and standards for housing design and construction and will be offering a training seminar on January 25th. Register here.

For those of you interested in accessible design especially for housing this information is a must.

I would also like to nod towards Bradley over at Design Rag for his take on Noblism in design.

It isn't a lack of vision, just a lack of perserverance

I have this fear that stringent rules, regulations and attempts to maintain a fiscal "bottom line" will somehow create rather homogenized, uninteresting, non-personalized and non-efficient design solutions for buildings.

I believe this fear stems from the blatant attempt to label any and all design intent. Whether "modern" or "green", "new urbanism" and now "noble". While I believe that the original intent of these ideas is indeed worth exploring, when coupled with the mitigating factors that will limit the execution of the attempt the actual "movement" becomes nothing more then a smokescreen used as a marketing technique to sell poor execution of corrupted ideas.

Where does this all leave us? Well, in somewhat of a quandary as we further examine whatever projects that we enjoy, whatever design we may attempt to create and what the overall sweeping agenda we are trying to accomplish. Is it possible to attain a level of sophistication, cost effectiveness and personalization while maintaining such a varied collection of design goals (which at times are entirely contrary to each other)? Does it make sense to require all new homes and buildings to achieve the same goals independent of location, orientation, use and client? Are we starting to paint ourselves into a corner where simplicity begins to become impossible due to unreasonable expectations?

One can almost sort of see it happening. As pre-fab homes become more mainstream and marketed as a single option solution regardless of site and family size. As poorly designed low budget developments flaunt a flag of "new urbanism". As strip malls pop up in the middle of low density areas and build their own communities around and above them and claim these small "communities" as "urban". As more and more buildings exclaim how "green" they are without once thinking about the building as a holistic experience. These failures of ours, these constant aberrations become more and more prevalent and begin to set a tone for the entire experience as acceptable and almost expected.

Of course I don't like to bring up any issues without attempting to offer at least a single solution. I find the easiest thing that we can do overall is to clamour when we see projects utilizing a "movement" as a marketing strategy not only incorrectly but belligerently so. We have to be willing to take a stand against this cavalier attitude of misnomer that cheapens so much of what designers are passionate about. We have to accept our accountability and be willing to hold ourselves and other responsible for the damage done to the industry and our failures so far to rectify it.

Of course I am not so stupid as completely ignore the politics behind a lot of the new construction and planning done in any major city and some may consider standing up for their beliefs political suicide but I would ask that those that have the willingness and those whose job it is to report on it, be willing to research and see through the whitewash in order to attempt to improve the standard of development within our communities.

Please.

Cleveland may attempt to take the lead...

in utilizing off shore wind energy. The Cuyahoga Regional Energy Development Task Force, a 22 member group appointed by the Cuyahoga County Commissioner's Office to study alternative energy sources for the county, recently announced that during next month's Commissioner's meeting they plan to endorse a plan to create a "test-bed" of off shore wind turbines in Lake Erie for scientific development and study.

If this project moves forward it harkens not only the first off shore wind power in the United States but also the first fresh water off shore site in the world. I suppose that I should admit that I am rather surprised, not only that this plan seems to be moving ahead so rapidly but that it shows great potential for the region in terms of job creation and innovation. Perhaps this could be our (second) "big break" that launches Cleveland and the surrounding region back into the spot-light.

While some might cringe at the thought of 240' tall towers (to the hub, add another 150'+ for a turbine blade) sitting around 3 miles off shore I imagine that a row of white turbines lazily rotating on the horizon could be rather beautiful and create an entire new positive image for Northeast Ohio.

While public funding would be a big part of the project, there is a rather obvious connection to certain power related corporate sponsorship and of course access to Ohio's Third Frontier Project.

Reference:
Plain Dealer

|another head's up from MarJ|

APTA: Taking the bus saves you money

Today APTA (the American Public Transportation Association) released a study stating that the average household saves over $6,000 annually by utilizing public transportation and reduces American gasoline consumption by 1.4 billion gallons of gas a year as opposed to an average household that would use private transportation (their own automobiles) to get to work and around town.

While I find the premise of the study rather easy to understand I admit that the scope of fuel and money savings was a surprise to me. I have been able to use public transportation to commute to work now instead of having to drive myself which does equate to some tangible monthly savings, however since I still own a car (and use it sparingly when I have to) I am not achieving my full savings potential. I surmise that since I spent some time growing up in the suburbs that were totally inaccessible by public transportation and extremely unsafe for bicycle riding (although that didn't stop me all that much) I haven't quite moved past the American mindset that I need my car. It is getting easier each and every day to imagine how I would be able to live quite easily without it. Imagine the environmental good one person could do the planet and just how much extra income they would be able to utilize if one took advantage of public transportation.

Imagine it dammit!

Reference:
ICF International: Public Transportation and Petroleum Savings in the U.S.: Reducing Dependence on Oil

publictransportation.org

Hop or Walk? Tremont Art _______ this Friday!

January 12, 2007
Tremont, Ohio

I am entirely unsure whether the Tremont Art Walk or Tremont Art Hop is taking place this Friday. I do know that they are fun, that Tremont is a great area and that it is never too cold to wander around a neighborhood looking at neato things.

Art Hop participants and map
Art Walk participants and map

I hope somebody eventually sends me a postcard though! I would like to be able to post updated maps and listings before the event.

Why do we do the things that we do and what makes us want to do them so well?

As some sort of galactic and strange continuance of a conversation that somehow has bridged between friends of mine that don't even know each other and seems to follow a temporal pattern of not ever wanting to really stop that eternal question "why do I do the things that I do" keeps popping up. Some people roll their eyes in disbelief when I utter something about "wanting to save the world" or "make a difference" or at least "get a conversation started". Some wonder what past grievance I have done that would render my future along a seemingly altruistic path in a search for atonement. Luckily I have met people who sort of glance at me out of the corner of their eye and stumble out the "yeah, I do too" comment which fills my heart with joy. I love it when I hear that sort of thing.

Anyway, tonight's post will be short, mostly consisting of an interesting article/post from Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless which makes a comment about the need for low cost housing solutions in urban areas instead of the neuvo-urbanesque $500 thousand condo monstrosities that are popping up all over the place (most with such poor construction and detailing that at least they won't be a problem for long) which somehow is an attempt to revitalize a community (statistically with the sort of people that don't go outside of their condo except to get to their car anyway).

Here it goes, read up and ask yourself what YOU can do about it.

I know the typical argument is that these construction projects somehow increase the value of the surrounding property or expedite the improvements of infrastructure which helps out the community overall. I am just going to call Shenanigans on that one and leave it at that. That is a how 'nother argument for a whole 'nother day when I am not feeling so ill and tired.

Tip o' the hat to dear Marjie for the head's up on this one.

Organic Center: Mission 2010

It should come as no small surprise to anybody that knows me (or knows of me) that I enjoy food. I enjoy shopping for, preparing, seeing, watching, smelling and especially eating food.

Recently I had read some things comparing organic farming vs. conventional farming and how the US is not growing enough organic foods to meet demand.

Then I was turned on to The Organic Center, a fantastic little group that wants "To generate credible, peer reviewed scientific information and communicate the verifiable benefits of organic farming and products to society".

They have launched the Mission Organic 2010, a campaign to raise awareness about organic foods and to encourage more people to choose organic foods for their diet.

There are a bunch of good reasons why organic agriculture practices are important but I won't bore you with a bunch of details, instead you can check out the Organic Center for more information (or even Chipotle's web site, whom I find delicious*).


*and will keep going on about how delicious they are for some sort of sponsorship! (This deal can also apply to Great Lakes Brewery).

Rethinking Public Spaces

I would like to take a second here and point out that I am not posting this as any sort of statement explaining disdain for a specific location instead I am just wanted to point out something that I thought was very strange and wonder out loud why it was that way.

Now, to get everything off my chest, I walk past Cleveland's Soldier's and Sailor's Monument every work day and actually rather like the area. I enjoy the way that it is depressed within it's square, how it is surrounded by a rather nice plaza with some rather pretty landscaping and I especially enjoy the intricate statuary of the monument itself.





That being said, I noticed something last week that made me pause a bit.

In this photo notice the nice corner entry into the square itself, how the stairs welcome you and offer a rather nice framed corner view of the monument. Heck, the thing looks like a nice place to enjoy a fine lunch during a Cleveland summer (especially when the winter fences are gone), right? It appears you could sit on the steps, the surrounding low walls, almost everywhere and enjoy many vantage points to take in the surrounding bustle!


Not so much though. Someone along the line made the decision that they didn't want anyone sitting on the low walls surrounding the monument and had some rather uncomfortable looking spike strips installed. I fear it was done for litigious reasons but what has inadvertently happened is that a rather nice public space has become relatively inaccessible or less usable to the general public.

There are many public spaces around Cleveland that have been altered or made inaccessible to the public over the years. Some could argue that with the growth of the personal automobile (and subsequent removal of streetcar lines) and some poor urban planning the whole of Public Square is rather unsuccessful.

There has been some discussion about the whole making Cleveland's public spaces actually more public but I am not personally aware of anything happening lately. If anyone else has I hope that you could bring it to my attention. If not, perhaps it is time to start mentioning something about this again, especially as Cleveland hopes to bring more people back downtown. I mean, everyone likes a good sit, right?

HB 251 - Hooray for advanced energy research

Environment Ohio recently released a story congratulating (former) Governor Taft for signing HB 251 which creates standards for new state funded construction to be of an energy efficient design which includes lifecycle analysis costs and renewable energy sources. Also included is language requiring all state vehicles to be purchased having the ability to operate on alternative fuels and an allocation for advanced energy ("Such energy includes, but is not limited to, wind power; geothermal energy; solar thermal energy; and energy produced by micro turbines in distributed generation applications with high electric efficiencies, by combined heat and power applications, by fuel cells powered by hydrogen derived from wind, solar, biomass, hydroelectric, landfill gas, or geothermal sources, or by solar electric generation, landfill gas, or hydroelectric generation") research and implementation which includes access to funds for research and development.

There has been quite a bit of press about how an advanced energy such as wind power can double the efficiency of farms and ranches, how the agricultural community is learning to embrace the possibilities of adding wind energy to their communities and how even utilizing small power generators can just be used to power individual farms.

Ohio sits in a pretty convenient location to harness some wind power and I know I am starting to sound like a broken record when I repeatedly advocate for Cleveland especially to persuade some alternative energy manufacturing companies (wind, solar, etc) to re-locate here, especially by using the region as a physical demonstration of what alternative advanced energies can do but I don't mind. I will just have to keep talking until someone listens. Or get a company to move here on my own.

Ohio Citizen Action Group - Arguing against pretend math

Ohio Citizen Action, Ohio's "largest environmental organization" called out Mittel Steel for what can be construed as creative emission accounting. Basically Mittel is using historic industry averages as reported values for pollution emission instead of measuring output from it's blast furnaces. Ohio Citizen Action states that these blast furnaces are "the facility’s biggest sources of fine and coarse particle pollution, sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide, volatile organic compounds, and organic chemicals."

Mittel is using a "loophole" in Federal Air Pollution reporting rules, claims OCA, which is also claiming that the historic average of industry pollution emissions contains samples of steel plants that utilize improved control equipment. You can read more about it in Smoke and Mirrors: Mittal Steel's Playbook to Cover Up Their Pollution (4 Megs Word .doc).

While the area here is indeed murky and one could well point out that it is the Federal Air Polluting reporting rules that are at fault and Mittal is complying to the letter of the law (perhaps not the intent). I want to attempt to put in my opinion that while I do see Mittal's reporting technique indeed shady and perhaps dishonest I don't believe that the problem rests on their laurels as greatly as it does on our own for not demanding change in Federal Regulation. I am disappointed that it takes the poisoning of our communities to drive people to action instead of more altruistic means but perhaps that is what it takes to spur our society into action.

The question remains, how do we change this? How can we affect the Federal Regulation? Can we catch the ear of Congress in an attempt to create more stringent regulations? I hope so.

Make your own biodegradable plant pots

Whilst perusing a Richters 2007 Herb Catalogue (US edition) I (re)stumbled upon a rather nifty device with the Google-unfortunate name of Potmaker. While really nothing more then a small altered wooden pestle and mortar type mechanism this rather simple and pretty dang neato device allows you to make your own biodegradable plant pots from newspaper strips. Now you can start your seedlings and easily transplant them into larger garden beds without using any plastic garden pots. They usually run about $10-$15 a pop.

Many companies have their own "potmaker" licensed for their own sale, hence the Richter link and the Burpee link. Just Google "Potmaker" to find more prices, etc.

Voices and Choices release "Report to the Community" Data

A while back I had posted about how "Voices and Choices" had started an online survey called "Choicebook". Well the tallies are in.

The final report, viewable in a .pdf format HERE, breaks down who contributed data, the concerns raised/collected, and what those surveyed listed as priorities and goals.

I don't want to ruin the surprise, mostly because repeating all the information here in a text format without all the pretty colors seems rather idiotic. Instead I will suggest that you take some time and check out the Challenges, Goals and Solutions yourself. Heck, you took the time to fill out the survey, you might as well see what the results were.

-edited to add image. Check out how I have become "Captain Follow-up"!

Ohio Department of Transportation, for autos only?

Sometimes I do think that I am rather naive. There has been much in the news about ODOT's recent problems and the possibility of a how a new direction in government could force a turnaround for Ohio's transportation public image. Fine, I don't want to argue about goofy spending and fund raising tactics. I also don't want to get into any argument about what political party does what.

However, the shift (or predicted shift) in the governor's mansion seemed to be just the thing to stall the innerbelt bridge project which allows us, as a city, to sit back, breathe a bit and think about exactly what we want to accomplish here.

The whole reason I bring this up is because I was recently made aware of David Beach's exchange with ODOT about putting a bike path on the innerbelt bridge to allow easier access to the city via non-auto transportation. There are some questions and arguments poised here that we should all consider. First from the prospect of ease of access to the city if only to make it more friendly to those that actually want to get there. Secondly from a health standpoint, more people biking should lead to a healthier community (barring ingesting auto exhaust). Thirdly there is the opportunity to create a more community driven image for the city by accentuating the interaction between people on the street (pedestrians, cyclists) and the areas through which they pass.

The prospect of getting around Cleveland without a car excites me. Not only because making the city more accessible to its inhabitants increases the sense of independence and freedom, but also because it allows us this independence at a low cost that is not directly tied to "international happenings" nor to a manner of transportation that has proven itself unhealthy as a lifestyle and as a producer of pollution.

One would hope that ODOT would understand this and either plan for better pedestrian/cycling traffic routes or would attempt to make better arguments against said alternative transportation routes if only to better appear that the considerations were made.


Oh, yeah, Happy New Year. Get out and bike more.

This last Christmas I had received some salsa and taco seasonings that came from the Cleveland Botanical Garden Green Corps.

Similar to the New Agrarian Center Green Corps is a community outreach program for urban youth that acts as a seasonal employment program. The goal of the program is to introduce "youth (ages 14-19) to horticulture, environmental stewardship and basic entrepreneurial skills".

Green Corps utilizes 3 local learning gardens to practice these skills and then sell their produce at area farmer's markets. The youth also take part in the production of "Ripe from Downtown" salsa (the gift package that I received) which is available at Cleveland Botanical Garden Store, Mustard Seed Market, Zagara's Family Marketplace, the Flavor of Ohio and others.

Programs like this strengthen community ties but also can help supplement and develop a local/regional diet. I am excited to try out my salsa basket and find it so very easy to help support programs like this (I do love to eat).