Democratize the Economy Brooklyn! Sustainability::Solidarity, Occupy//Bioregionalize

A New Philosophy for the 21st Century - The Chronicle Review - The Chronicle of Higher Education

2011-12-15T20:09:00.002-05:00

"Philosophers have broad social responsibilities that require directly engaging social problems. This can mean activism, but in a bureaucratic age it is more likely to mean working at the project level with scientists, engineers, and policy makers. Rather than philosopher kings, our future is more likely to lie in becoming philosopher bureaucrats."

"Field philosophy means working outside the library or study, doing philosophy at the project level, with scientists, engineers, and policy makers. Unlike applied ethics, where the value of the work is still largely expressed within the discipline, field philosophy adds value out in the world by responding to societal needs."

A New Philosophy for the 21st Century - The Chronicle Review - The Chronicle of Higher Education

New York City's Greenest Roofs

2011-11-27T09:01:00.001-05:00

More photos and info on green roofs in NYC. mm

High-Tech Hydroponic Farm Transforms Abandoned Bowling Alley

2011-11-27T08:56:00.001-05:00

High-Tech Hydroponic Farm Transforms Abandoned Bowling Alley

By Dave Mosher
October 27, 2011 |

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NEW YORK CITY — On top of an old bowling alley in industrial northern Brooklyn sits an expansive translucent greenhouse. Inside, a bounty of produce thrives under the supervision of a computer-controlled network of sensors, motors and plumbing.

The 15,000-square-foot hydroponic greenhouse facility, called Gotham Greens, is reputedly the first commercial-scale urban operation of its kind in the United States. Thousands of lettuce and basil seedlings were plopped into a soil-less farming system in May. Since then, three local entrepreneurs say their operation is on track to deliver 100 tons of produce by the one-year mark.

NYC Council FOOD WORKS report

2011-11-25T10:06:00.001-05:00

This report details all the dimensions of the NYC food system (processing, waste, jobs, carbon footprint) and recommendations to improve it, especially in terms of local economy. mm

FoodWorks: A Vision to Improve NYC's Food System. On Monday, November 22, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn released FoodWorks, a comprehensive report outlining policy recommendations for New York City's food system. UDL Assistant Director Michael Conard, who sits on the City Council's Food Policy Advisory Board, and UDL Project Manager Kubi Ackerman, were significantly involved in shaping th report which reflects many of the UDL initiatives around food systems and urbanization. Included is the Urban Design Lab's mapping of the New York City regional foodshed. The UDL is encouraged by the public interest generated with the release of this report and will continue to develop research and policy recommendations in this expanding field.

Report on Agriculture in Hudson Valley

2011-11-25T10:04:00.001-05:00

From the Columbia Urban Design Lab, on NYC regional agriculture
Glynwood Center new report: The State of Agriculture in the Hudson Valley Region
The UDL mapped and analyzed land-use and agricultural parcel distribution in the Hudson Valley Region for a report released recently by the Glynwood Center, a longtime partner of the Urban Design Lab. This work is part of the UDL focus on agriculture and food systems in the New York City Region and their relationship to urbanization, environmental protection and restoration. Read the report The State of Agriculture in the Hudson Valley Region

The One Percent Actually Benefits from Tax Increases on the Wealthy

2011-11-25T10:00:00.001-05:00

By Jay Walljasper

Here is some straight talk about the need for increasing taxes on the wealthy from the great-grandson of Oscar Meyer (yes, that Oscar Meyer), who admits he was born into the one percent.

On the Commons Fellow Chuck Collins—Senior Scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies and director of the IPS program on Inequality and the Common Good—offers compelling reasons, spiced with humor and common sense, on why it’s good for 100 percent of us to raise taxes for the most fortunate Americans. He vividly describes how wealthy entrepreneurs and investors benefit from a host of public services paid for by tax dollars, in other words the commons.

See the video of his talk at the TEDx conference at Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts.

Meet the Movement for a New Economy by Gar Alperovitz

2011-05-28T21:15:00.000-04:00
Meet the Movement for a New Economy by Gar Alperovitz

good essay on need for "new economy"

2011-05-28T20:36:00.001-04:00
The idea that we need a “new economy”—that the entire economic system must be radically restructured if critical social and environmental goals are to be met—runs directly counter to the American creed that capitalism as we know it is the best, and only possible, option. Over the past few decades, however, a deepening sense of the profound ecological challenges facing the planet and growing despair at the inability of traditional politics to address economic failings have fueled an extraordinary amount of experimentation by activists, economists and socially minded business leaders. Most of the projects, ideas and research efforts have gained traction slowly and with little notice. But in the wake of the financial crisis, they have proliferated and earned a surprising amount of support—and not only among the usual suspects on the left. As the threat of a global climate crisis grows increasingly dire and the nation sinks deeper into an economic slump for which conventional wisdom offers no adequate remedies, more and more Americans are coming to realize that it is time to begin defining, demanding and organizing to build a new-economy movement.

SUNY New Paltz Sets Local Food on Plates

2011-04-06T10:21:00.001-04:00

i have heard that Metropolitan at BC is purchsing food from Long Island farms, wonder how much etc. mm

As with many institutions, feeding a population of thousands of customers is a big production, often requiring the dining service to be run and supplied by large corporations. How can an institution integrate local and organic food when so much of the food is tied to a wholesaler that is not necessarily connected to local farms, and is likely more concerned with quantity and price than with quality and sustainability? SUNY New Paltz’s story involves many different constituents: farmers, students, staff, corporate-run dining service representatives, the USDA, and more. In a collaborative effort, fueled by persistence, the stakeholders worked to bring more local food to the tables of SUNY New Paltz’s dining halls.
How It All Began
SUNY New Paltz’s Environmental Task Force was convened in 2005 under the leadership of long time Environmental Consortium member and professor of sociology, Brian Obach. Along with several colleagues and students, the Task Force brings together many constituents from campus to address environmental concerns. Members of Students for Sustainable Agriculture, as well as the New Paltz Recycling Club, overlap with the Task Force members, creating a wealth of connections and synergies that make the interest and pursuit of sustainable measures possible at New Paltz.

New Paltz students Marigo Farr, Katy Kondrat, and John Wilson co-founded Students for Sustainable Agriculture that same year with a mission to promote a sustainable food system that is healthy for consumers, farm-workers, and the environment. The group has worked tirelessly ever since to bring changes to their campus. Co-founder Marigo Farr remarks, "After approximately 5 years of educating the campus, rounding up support from the student body for a change in food policy, and numerous meetings with Campus Auxiliary Services and Sodexo Corporation, Sodexo approved a new vendor that was capable of providing the university with local food.."

Complaint Box: Powerless in Brooklyn - NYTimes.com

2011-01-30T07:52:00.001-05:00
This has got to be a major topic at the journalism department at BC, right? I never really thought about it this way.

Of the boroughs outside Manhattan, Brooklyn gets the most buzz — as a tourist attraction, a “hipster brand” and an incubator of art and artisanal products. That has provoked a backlash from longtime Brooklynites and others wary of smugness from the borough’s Brownstone Belt.

However entertaining these debates, Brooklynites — and, I dare say, all of us in the non-Manhattan boroughs — share one common problem: we’re essentially powerless. We lack meaningful local government, as well as broad-based media and civic organizations.

Complaint Box: Powerless in Brooklyn - NYTimes.com

Worldwatch Institute's State of the World 2011 Shows Agricultural Innovation Is Key to Reducing Poverty, Stabilizing Climate | Worldwatch Institute

2011-01-12T22:18:00.001-05:00
In Kibera, Nairobi, the largest slum in Kenya, more than 1,000 women farmers are growing "vertical" gardens in sacks full of dirt poked with holes, feeding their families and communities. These sacks have the potential to feed thousands of city dwellers while also providing a sustainable and easy-to-maintain source of income for urban farmers. With more than 60 percent of Africa's population projected to live in urban areas by 2050, such methods may be crucial to creating future food security. Currently, some 33 percent of Africans live in cities, and 14 million more migrate to urban areas each year. Worldwide, some 800 million people engage in urban agriculture, producing 15–20 percent of all food.

Worldwatch Institute's State of the World 2011 Shows Agricultural Innovation Is Key to Reducing Poverty, Stabilizing Climate | Worldwatch Institute

The Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund : Why Did Progressive Media Miss This Important Progressive Story?

2011-01-04T10:53:00.001-05:00
The gasfracking stuff is gonna get heated here in NY State and its crucial to look at what Pittsburgh did last year to ban it. This article cites the important pieces but also engages in a very important critique of so-called left progressive media. mm

"What would change if We awoke from our century-long slumber and started questioning corporate Constitutional “rights” again? If we began to understand that in fact there is no greater political power in this country than We the People, acting together. We are the Goliaths, if we dare to see ourselves as we truly are. And this is exactly what the good people of Pittsburgh and 120 other towns in four northeastern states are beginning to understand and to act upon. They are relearning their history and discovering that they have the legal authority to govern themselves, regardless of what state government or corporate leaders claim. They have the right to prohibit corporate engagement in whatever ways they deem necessary for the common good. That regardless of whether they are conservative or progressive, rural or urban, they’re tired of being told that there’s nothing they can do to protect their communities and natural areas from corporate harm. Pittsburgh banned corporate drilling for natural gas. Other towns have passed bans on corporate water extraction, corporate mining, corporate factory farms, etc. And all of them have reclaimed their community’s right to self-governance – to design and define their communities’ futures."

The Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund : Why Did Progressive Media Miss This Important Progressive Story?

Biggest Rooftop Farm on the Planet? Brooklyn Grange, Revisited on Ecocentric Blog | Food, Water and Energy Issues

2010-12-18T21:23:00.000-05:00
by Dulce Fernandes and Chris Hunt | 11.19.2010 | 1 Comment | Food post on Ecocentric

I like when people undertake big bold projects that innovate and inspire. So naturally, when my friend and former colleague Gwen Schantz decided to build a one-acre farm on the roof of a seven-story office building in an industrial section of New York City, I was pretty excited. And when she and her partners began construction, I ventured out to Queens to spend a day rolling felt and shoveling growing media on what would become Brooklyn Grange, which is now believed to be the world’s largest rooftop farm (view the slideshow in our archives for an overview of the process).

Biggest Rooftop Farm on the Planet? Brooklyn Grange, Revisited on Ecocentric Blog | Food, Water and Energy Issues

The Brooklyn Paper: Love it, locavores! Bklyn campus to host urban farm

2010-12-18T21:05:00.000-05:00
Talk about food for thought!

Kingsborough Community College will introduce an urban farming program this spring, making it the first New York City college to host a full-fledged farm worked entirely by students.
Mac Support Store

“Urban farms are becoming very popular in Brooklyn and agriculture is an important part of our future,” said Dr. Stuart Schulman, the Kingsborough professor who is in charge of the project, called Build a Garden in Brooklyn. “We want to show students the whole farming process, from the planting, growing and harvesting.”

The Brooklyn Paper: Love it, locavores! Bklyn campus to host urban farm

New York City Seeks Engineering Campus on City Land - NYTimes.com

2010-12-17T18:49:00.000-05:00
Worried that New York City is not spawning enough technology-based start-up companies with the potential to become big employers like Google, city officials are inviting universities around the world to create an engineering campus on city-owned land.

New York City Seeks Engineering Campus on City Land - NYTimes.com

Balancing Developers and Salamanders

2010-12-13T10:49:00.000-05:00
Balancing Developers and Salamanders

speaks for itself

2010-12-05T11:32:00.001-05:00

Photo of the Year Reminds COP16 That People Are Waiting for Climate Change Solutions : TreeHugger

Can "Healthy" Food Feed America?

2010-11-28T20:26:00.001-05:00

Looks like a great event in terms of topics and speakers, check out David Orr in particular, he is a key early player in the university and sustainability stuff, architecture, bioregionalism, etc and rarely speaks in NYC
Can "Healthy" Food Feed America? Corby Kummer, award-winning food writer and senior editor of The Atlantic Monthly is moderating a panel with Stephen McDonnell, CEO, Applegate Farms; David Orr, manager, Amawalk organic farm; and Nevin Cohen, urban food expert with The New School. This public, Journalism Dept.-sponsored event will be held at Baruch’s Newman Conference Center and offer healthy snacks at a reception that will begin at 5:30 p.m.
Tuesday Nov 30th; 5:30-7:30pm
Baruch College
151 E. 25th Street

Library Building
Newman Conference Center, 750

Upstate "genius" Farmer

2010-11-15T20:39:00.005-05:00

MacArthur genius grant winner Will Allen will be in town for the National Black Farmers conference here at BC nov 17-19th, but below is an article about the first farmer ever to win the genius award, cheryl rogowski who runs a family farm in the hudson valley. Interestingly, that farm, which is seemingly worlds away (i.e. across mountains and rivers and such from brooklyn) is only about 70 miles as the crow flies (straight shot, not driving) and thus well within what many would consider the NYC "foodshed." Would be great to take a crew from BC to this spot and not only check out the farm and their farmstore but also the surrounding area which is beautiful forest and wilderness and adjacent nyc's watershed-reservoir system. this is a really good article, praise BLACK DIRT!

On September 20, just after the Black Dirt Country—the strip of rich soil on the Orange County-New Jersey border—had been hit with heavy rains, Pine Island farmer Cheryl Rogowski was wondering what to do. Not only were many crops underwater and possibly not harvestable, but she was expecting a visit from Joan Gussow, director of Just Food, a nonprofit organization that supports sustainable farming and equitable produce distribution to impoverished families. "Everything was wet, and I didn't know what I was going to show her," Rogowski recalls. Then the phone rang, and W. Rogowski Farm changed forever.

Spiral Garden is a Lacy Mesh Vertical Farm for the City

2010-11-13T21:59:00.003-05:00

Transforming (Suburban?) Brooklyn

2010-11-13T21:57:00.003-05:00

(Ugly?) Urban Ecotopia

2010-11-13T21:39:00.003-05:00

Farm School NYC opens in January

2010-10-11T09:52:00.002-04:00

Just Food and Partners Announce Launch of Farm School NYC: The New York City School of Urban Agriculture at Living Concrete / Carrot City
Published October 1, 2010
Just Food and an alliance of local horticultural and food justice organizations are pleased to announce the official launch of Farm School NYC: The New York City School of Urban Agriculture. The school will offer a unique, community-based certificate program with enrollment beginning in January 2011. The mission of the school is to provide comprehensive professional training in urban agriculture, while spurring positive local action on issues of food access and social, economic and racial justice.
Community gardens and urban farms throughout the city will serve as outdoor classrooms, and their neighborhoods and gardeners as inspiration for a vibrant, fair local food system that nourishes bodies and minds. Training programs will be accessible to adults of all educational backgrounds and income levels. In particular, Farm School NYC targets New York City residents unable to access traditional agricultural education and for whom skills in urban food production can contribute to reduced hunger and diet-related diseases that disproportionately affect low-income city residents.

"For the first time, New Yorkers and city dwellers from all over will have access to agricultural training that directly relates to the unique setting of urban agriculture," says Karen Washington, a nationally-recognized urban farming pioneer from the Bronx, and a member of the school’s Executive Board. "We grow it so we know it, and we’ve shown that city farming can make a huge difference in the health and nutrition of low-income urban communities."

Farm School NYC will offer instruction in sustainable agriculture, entrepreneurship and food systems management. “Our goal for the school is to build and share knowledge within our communities and improve local access to healthy food throughout the city,” said Jacquie Berger, Executive Director of Just Food. “By bringing urban farming skills to a much broader population, Farm School NYC will magnify the impact of urban agriculture on community health in New York City and beyond.”
Farm School NYC has been two years in the making: it is the product of countless volunteer hours of collective visioning and strategic planning by a dedicated group of community gardeners, urban farmers, anti-hunger and food justice advocates. This school would not be possible if not for the decades of volunteer work by community gardeners who have pioneered the foundation for urban agriculture in NYC.

Learn More: Visit Farm School NYC’s website: www.justfood.org/farmschoolnyc
FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:
Molly Culver & Eric Thomann
Interim Co-Directors
Farm School NYC, Just Food
212-645-9880x224
farmschoolnyc@justfood.org
www.justfood.org/farmschoolnyc

Black Farmers Conference at BC next month

2010-10-11T09:50:00.001-04:00

Black Farmers & Urban Gardeners Conference: Registration Now Open

This November, the first annual conference to forge food, farming and policy solutions for the Black Community will convene at Brooklyn College in New York City, convening farmers, gardeners, activists, students and community leaders from across the nation.
Black Farmers & Urban Gardeners Conference
November 19-21, 2010
Brooklyn College, Brooklyn, NY
Registration is now open.
Early Bird Rates (September 6th – October 5th)
ATTENTION: Farmers, gardeners, students, teachers, and seniors, before you buy your tickets, please email registration[at]blackfarmersconf.org or
call 212-629-8850 x19 to get your registration code.
The 2010 Black Farmers and Urban Gardeners Conference is presented by Black Urban Growers (BUGS), an alliance of predominately Black urban farmers and gardeners, food activists and allies united in rebuilding our community wealth and health by reconnecting to the land and our traditional roles as agriculturalists and environmental stewards.
In November of 2009, this alliance began organizing and hosting a series of community events with the purpose of starting a conversation around food: Where does it come from? Who is providing it? Why don’t we see more black farmers at the farmers markets? What is the relationship between our individual health and the health of our communities, and why does it matter?
Beginning with a fundraiser event in February of 2010, followed by a Community Forum in April, we’ve been inviting more and more people from our communities to engage in the conversation and together connect the dots between the health of our farmers and our collective health as a community. At the Black Farmers and Urban Gardeners Conference happening November 19-21, 2010, we will engage in a national and international dialogue and action planning to build a national network that includes producers, consumers, and everyone in between in creating sustainable solutions.

Intro essay on urban food production from GRIST

2010-08-25T09:09:00.002-04:00

"Few things scream 'Hipster' like an apartment garden." Thus spake the New York City music magazine Death + Taxes, and it's easy to see why. In trendy neighborhoods from Williamsburg, Brooklyn, to San Francisco's Mission district, urban youth are nurturing vegetables in window sills, fire escapes, and roofs. Down on the street, they tend flourishing garden plots, often including chickens and bees. Even Grist has launched a comic strip (left) devoted to the exploits of urban-hipster homesteaders.
But growing food in the city isn't just the province of privileged youth -- in fact, the recent craze for urban agriculture started in decidedly unhip neighborhoods. Nor is it anything new. As I'll show in this rambling-garden-walk of an essay, urban agriculture likely dates to the birth of cities. And its revival might just be the key to sustainable cities of the future.

Going Green, Without Being Preachy About It

2010-08-23T09:26:00.001-04:00

We should bring this guy to Brooklyn College--his restaurant is down the road in Ft Greene, fascinating case both from environmental standpoint and business ethics framework: annoys the neighbors, wage disputes, but the kids love him!
With a white Kangol cap tipped on his shaved head just so on a recent swampy morning, Sean Meenan led a group of girls, ages 11 to 14, around the cobalt blue, lime green and Sunkist orange outdoor patio of Habana Outpost, the ecologically conscious restaurant he owns in Fort Greene, Brooklyn.

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Ruby Washington/The New York Times

Owned by Sean Meenan, the Habana Outpost is among the leaders in New York’s growing collection of eco-restaurants.

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Ruby Washington/The New York Times

The environmentally conscious restaurant in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, is open from Earth Day until Halloween and boasts solar panels that funnel excess electricity to buildings nearby.

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Ruby Washington/The New York Times

Signs list the Outpost’s environmental bona fides.

He showed off the solar panels, a rainwater-collection system that feeds the toilets, a recycling and composting station, wheat-board wall paneling and corn-based plastic cups. There was even a blender powered by a bicycle.

He showed off the solar panels, a rainwater-collection system that feedsthe toilets, a recycling and composting station, wheat-board wall paneling and corn-based plastic cups. There was even a blender powered
by a bicycle.

Urban Universities Rennaissance Act

2010-07-08T20:51:00.001-04:00

So the below is directly connected to a workshop we did at the US Social Forum in Detroit on the role of the university in promoting democratic and sustainable local economic development--the democracy collaborativ at the Univ of Maryland was involved with the below and with our panel (thru Steve Dubb). Also note that Portland State was a college that various faculty from Brooklyn College visited last year to learn more about their community partnerships and place based learning efforts. mm

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today Congressman David Wu announced the introduction of the Urban University Renaissance Act of the 21st Century, which will benefit universities across the country that are located in major urban centers, as well as their local communities.

“While we face many challenges in Oregon and around the nation, none is more urgent right now than the recovery of our economy and getting people back to work,” said Congressman Wu. “Urban universities can serve as the heart of economic renewal by sharing their skills and resources with the communities that surround them. My legislation will help urban universities, like Portland State University, as they lead communities, revitalize neighborhoods, and attract businesses and services to urban areas.”

In addition to educating students and preparing the next generation to become leaders in their chosen fields, urban universities work off campus to raise the quality of life for everyone in the local community.

"This bill acknowledges and encourages the core mission of urban universities, to build sustainable communities,” said Portland State University President Wim Wiewel. “Congressman Wu understands that it is only by supporting partnerships with local businesses, nonprofits, and K-12 that universities like Portland State can achieve their mission."

Congressman Wu’s legislation recognizes the multi-faceted role that urban universities play and includes sections that focus on education, health care, innovation, and housing, among other provisions. Highlights of the legislation include:

Helping more teachers learn the specific skills needed to successfully teach in urban environments, ultimately helping our cities have more—and more qualified—educators.
Encouraging urban universities to work alongside mayors, superintendents, and business leaders in their cities and regions to ensure that high school graduation requirements are better aligned with college and workforce expectations—making urban youth better prepared for college and a career.
Revitalizing the core of our urban universities by reestablishing a program in the Higher Education Act to support the varied beneficial work of urban schools.
Supporting university research on environmental issues in low-income neighborhoods.
Providing for public health research to reduce health disparities and improve care.
Helping urban universities provide assistance to local nonprofits committed to community development and affordable housing, strengthening existing programs to make them more effective locally.
Strengthening innovation policies to promote partnerships that create regional economic growth.

"We are always looking for opportunities to improve our communities by partnering with local organizations—local and regional government, community-based organizations, and business organizations,” said Sheila Martin, director of Portland State University’s Institute of Portland Metropolitan Studies. “This federal commitment to support university partnerships will help us to align those efforts and move more quickly toward a healthier, more prosperous metropolitan region.”

By laying out a comprehensive vision for expanding, improving, and acting upon the needs of our urban centers, Congressman Wu’s legislation provides a roadmap for how urban universities can help strengthen our communities as we emerge from the current economic downturn, all while becoming stronger themselves.

"Urban areas face many challenges and opportunities unique to cities,” said Nancy Zimpher, chair of the Coalition of Urban Serving Universities and chancellor of the State University of New York (SUNY). “Urban universities are distinctly positioned with a broad range of skills and resources—intellectual, human, technological, and social—to engage in these issues. This federal investment in urban universities will scale up innovative efforts around education, neighborhood revitalization, economic development, and health to provide a greater national impact on strengthening metropolitan prosperity."

Congressman Wu will introduce the Urban University Renaissance Act in the U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday, June 22, 2010. Full text of the bill will be available from the Library of Congress at thomas.gov shortly afterward.

pretty Green and truly Affordable!?

2010-06-13T17:01:00.001-04:00

"when only 10 percent of New Yorkers making $35,000 or below have housing that qualifies as affordable — that is, equal to 30 percent or less of their income — it kind of puts the green roof tax credit (which we obviously care about a lot!) in bleak perspective"

There are a lot of very interesting green buildings in Manhattan and Brooklyn — and also in the Hamptons and Jersey and anywhere else that feels left out — and we don’t mean to make it seem like there aren’t. But if it seems like we’ve been covering the South Bronx a lot at gbNYC recently, that’s because… well, because we have, but also because exciting new green things keep popping up in the Boogie Down, from the South Bronx Greenway to the LEED Platinum-hopeful Haven Academy School to, today, the opening of The Brook, Common Ground’s new, LEED-certified affordable housing development at Brook Avenue and 148th Street. The Brook’s opening is good news for green building heads because The Brook, which was designed by Alexander Gorlin Architects, offers an impressive suite of green design elements, from a green roof to a high-efficiency boiler. But it’s especially heartening, for all New Yorkers, because true affordable housing has become increasingly difficult to find in New York City. The Brook is certainly affordable housing in its classic sense — as opposed to mandated-by-the-city-if-you-want-to-build-that-luxury-condo — with 120 of the 190 units in the building tabbed for formerly homeless families and the remaining 70 slated for low-income South Bronx singles. But as impressive as The Brook’s marriage of green building form and socially responsible function is — and it’s impressive — the building’s arrival on the scene at this moment in time is perhaps the biggest story, here.

As the price gap closes between building green and building brown, there’s increasingly no reason why a project like The Brook, which was funded (in part) by taxpayer dollars, shouldn’t be built green. But… okay, detour here, but I kind of got into it in the comments section of this Real Deal post on The Brook with a trollish why-are-my-tax-dollars-coddling-these-lucky-homeless-people goof. Which is stupid of me, obviously, because that is literally never worth it, but which was animated by something more than my natural animus towards hate-the-poor paleocon types. Because a structure like The Brook is built to last, there’s no reason in the world why it shouldn’t have every green building efficiency measure built into it that’s possible. That it doesn’t cost appreciably more to build green than not is good news for those of us who care about the future of green building in New York City and elsewhere, and makes the decision to build green that much easier. But if the poor are always to be with us, as someone who cared a lot about this sort of thing once said, then it makes sense to build low-income housing that will be with us for a long time as well. In short, it’s not an extravagance for Common Ground to spend taxpayer dollars on green low-income housing — it’s a totally justifiable and logical efficiency measure that, along with all the other cost benefits of Common Ground-style “supportive housing” over basic homeless shelters, will be paying dividends for decades to come. That is, dividends both for the families living at The Brook and for all New Yorkers with consciences, and both in terms of money saved and in terms of all the other, more important things inherent in any conversation about this sort of thing.

Putting the 'Public' in 'Public Intellectual'

2010-06-07T10:48:00.001-04:00

this article is not about sustainability as such but gets into a crucial related issue: how might academics connect themselves to political issues in various communities. great piece, too short tho, would love to hear more from her perspective. BC, btw, has many community partnerships."

I entered graduate school in the mid-1990s, a period marked by the rise of the black public intellectual: Michael Eric Dyson, Henry Louis Gates Jr., Cornel West, and a host of other prominent scholars who became household names. Suddenly newspapers, popular magazines, and even television shows featured black intellectuals. The reaction was bifurcated. Some celebrated this development as an opportunity to elevate the discourse on social policy, especially on issues of race. But there were also complaints that this new crop of intellectuals talked too much and did too little. And some felt that by talking so much to the public, the black intellectuals risked diminishing their scholarly legitimacy.

At the time, the conversations among black students at elite graduate programs were framed around whether to become public intellectuals. But did we have the charisma or conversational skills to do this kind of work? Such a question was rarely raised. Instead we debated what kind of intellectual we wanted to be: one who sat in the ivory tower? Or one who talked to the people? There was a general skepticism that both roles could be successfully played simultaneously.

UDC Farmer's Market Re-Opens this Weekend

2010-05-14T10:12:00.001-04:00

The University of the District of Columbia ’s Farmers’ Market is back for another year, offering fresh food and fresh ideas to help District residents improve their quality of life. All are invited to join the fun on Saturday, May 15, 2010 from 7:30 am to 1:30 pm, at UDC’s Van Ness campus, as the university’s Community Outreach and Extension Services (COES) kicks off the 2010 Farmers’ Market season with a grand re-opening celebration.

The celebration will feature a hearty selection of fresh food provided by local and regional farmers, as well as fresh ideas presented by UDC’s Cooperative Extension Service and local non-profits. Official greetings will be extended by representatives of the White House, the US Department of Agriculture, the D. C. Council and University officials.

A Jungle of Bamboo Is Growing Atop the Met

2010-04-23T11:46:00.001-04:00

I love this: it would be great on the quad or atop of the library cafe maybe. In general, we need some more innovative green type sculpture on campus that can fire up our imaginations about architecture, sustainability, art etc.

Universities Must Change Curriculum to Address Climate Change

2010-04-19T10:53:00.001-04:00

Green jobs go far beyond the hands-on renewable energy and energy efficiency work that the Obama administration emphasizes with each new project and grant announcement.

Lack of Trained Workforce Still an Obstacle to Smart Grid Success

2010-04-19T10:20:00.001-04:00

Ever since the phrase “smart grid” started showing up in news articles, analysts have been looking at what it would take for a smarter power grid to deliver on promises of energy savings, reduced emissions and lower bills.

Portland State's new energy initiative

2010-04-01T13:53:00.001-04:00

portland state is a leader in sustainability and place based education, two faculty from Brooklyn College went to visit last year and we're largely impressed. This initiative really ups the ante in terms of their role in promoting sustainability in the region. because of the density of the NYC metro area it would play out differently, but still interesting to ponder, especially as Obama has put nukes back on the table.

Portland General Electric, the region’s major urban utility, and Portland State University, the region’s major urban university, have formed a long-term strategic partnership to promote the economic, environmental, and social sustainability of the Portland metro area.

new Fed office connecting housing, transportation and sustainable development

2010-03-25T21:05:00.001-04:00

The word "silos" is most often used to talk about grain or
coal, not the federal government. But in the case of transportation and housing
-- two sectors that accounted for more than 43 percent of the nation's carbon emissions in
2008 -- Washington's
siloed approach of divided, blindered policymaking could put wheat farmers to
shame.
The Obama administration is starting to break down those
barriers between agencies, asking the Department of Transportation (DOT), the
Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), and the Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) to take an all-hands-on-deck approach to smart growth.
Dubbed the Partnership for Sustainable Communities, the effort aims to provide
federal support for localities that want to offer more walkable neighborhoods
and cleaner commuting options than the car.

Urban Biofilter Project Plants Bamboo Forests to Clean up Brownfields

2010-03-15T20:25:00.001-04:00

When i lived in Ft. greene our neighbor's back yard was OVEERRUN, and i mean OVERRUN with bamboo. it was crazy. so i know this would work in bklyn.

Bamboo forests are beautiful things — especially when they are cleaning urban air, soil, and water AND shielding communities from industry and heavily trafficked areas. Urban Biofilter creates bamboo forests on brownfields that are fed with wastewater. The harvested Bamboo then creates income in areas that are otherwise neglected through sustainable bamboo harvesting and timber production.

Public Art for Sustainability?

2010-02-10T14:06:00.001-05:00

This is a review of a new book about the role of art production during the new deal; would be interesting to think about such a project for environmental sustainability; i think this is a neglected aspect in sustainability dicussions: the new for visual renderings and depictions of sustainable economic activities (gardening, green energy) but in ways that resonate with people culturally, including in terms of popculture, not just public-national culture.
When Art Worked

A stunning new book shows how New Deal art helped remake democratic culture.

Posted by David Bollier

A portion of “Ranchers of the Panhandle,” by Frank Mechau, 1940, a mural in the Brownfield, Texas, post office.

At a time when our national (and global) predicaments are seen mostly as a matter for economists and policy wonks to solve, historian Roger Kennedy comes forward to remind us of the critical role of art. Art is not just an aesthetic pleasure or indulgence, he insists; it is a way in which people makes sense of their problems. It is a way of re-imagining the common good.

Article on New MA program in Urban Sustainabilty at CCNY

2010-01-27T14:57:00.001-05:00

Sounds pretty good: kudos to CCNY! Given BC has no engineering or architecture program, ours would have a different composition, such as ...?

Teaching urban sustainability to tomorrow’s leaders

By Melanie D.G. Kaplan | Jan 19, 2010

Everywhere we turn, we hear and read about sustainability—whether it’s shopping, eating, building or wasting. Now, our colleges and universities are starting to train the next generation of sustainability experts.

This semester, the City College of New York is introducing a one-year graduate program called Sustainability in the Urban Environment. I recently talked to the program’s director, Latif Jiji, about the kinds of problems students will attempt to solve, the jobs they’ll be qualified for when they graduate and how he’s created his own personal sustainable roof (while beefing up his wine supply).

Arizona State's School of Sustainability

2010-01-24T11:55:00.001-05:00

One of the most advanced sustainability programs in the US at a university of size is the School of Sustainability at Arizona State (ASU). That's right, its not just a department but a whole school! (BTW, University of District of Columbia also just put together a major related program, a College of urban Sustainability and Agriculture; I met the dean of that college last week, more on that soon.) The president of ASU is a key figure driving all this, and he is truly a visionary (a word i dont use lightly) I saw him speak at the "green economy" conference in DC last week (more on that soon.) But for now, more on ASU:

A Newly Renovated Green Home for Global Institute of Sustainability
In his remarks to a crowd of 400 at the building’s rededication, ASU President Michael Crow described the building as the nerve center for hundreds of students, faculty, and staff who are researching sustainable solutions for an urbanizing world. He also compared the formation of the Institute’s new School of Sustainability, the only school of its kind in the US, to the emergence of medical schools, focused on individual health, in the 18th century. “ASU is the only institution in the US that has stepped up to focus on our collective health and well-being of the planet.”

Bringing Democracy to New York

2010-01-23T23:14:00.001-05:00

IN Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s State of the City speech on Wednesday, he spoke of the City Council as if it were an equal partner in government. Indeed, the mayor’s surprisingly close re-election, the unusual defeat of a handful of council members and some spirited races in the general election in a city where winning the Democratic primary is tantamount to victory, might lead one to expect the 51-member body to be imbued with new democratic vigor. However, the council members inaugurated this month have joined a body whose governance structure is hardly more democratic than a high school student council’s — where the principal calls the shots.

Ultimately, all City Council decisions are made by the speaker and the speaker’s staff. The speaker controls which members get to sit on which committees and who heads those committees, what legislation comes up for a vote, the hiring and firing of the 250-plus central staff and the money that members get to dole out to their districts.

School Adds Weeding to Reading and Writing

2010-01-23T22:41:00.001-05:00

By KIM SEVERSON

Published: January 19, 2010

THOSE who believe trends start on the West Coast and are perfected on the East Coast might add to their argument a garden planned for an elementary school in Brooklyn.

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Natalie Behring for The New York Times

John Lyons, left, is helping to raise money for an Edible Schoolyard at P.S. 216 in Brooklyn. Celia Kaplinsky is the school’s principal.

This summer, supporters will tear up a quarter-acre of asphalt parking lot behind P.S. 216 in the Gravesend neighborhood and start building the first New York affiliate of the Edible Schoolyard program, developed by the restaurateur Alice Waters of Chez Panisse.
It’s a $1.6-million architect’s dream. A new building, powered by the sun, will hold a kitchen classroom with communal tables where children can share meals they make from food they grow in the garden.
Designers from the Work Architecture Company have incorporated a chicken coop, a composting system, an outdoor pizza oven and a cistern to collect rainwater. A movable greenhouse will be rolled out each fall.
Teachers will use the garden to give students — 460 children from prekindergarten to the fifth grade — lessons in subjects like art, math, history and science. Administrators hope the school will eventually become a center for the study of the environment and agriculture.
The P.S. 216 project will be not only the most expensive of the six Edible Schoolyards but also the only one to operate year round. The original, built 15 years ago at a middle school in Berkeley, Calif., cost about $75,000, Ms. Waters recalled.

Saving The Bed-Stuy Farm: Choose Better Nutrition, Not Demolition

2010-01-23T22:28:00.001-05:00

Give Mother Nature a vacant city lot, and she’ll fill it with weeds and wildlife. Then human nature comes along and dumps clumps of consumer goods-gone-bad and construction debris on top of the pigweed and pigeons.

It takes visionaries like Reverend DeVanie Jackson and her husband, Reverend Robert Jackson, to convert a garbage-filled Brooklyn lot into a productive urban farm that provides 3,000 people a month with fresh, healthy food. The Reverends Jackson, who run an emergency food pantry in Bedford Stuyvesant, the Brooklyn Rescue Mission, became urban farmers out of sheer necessity back in 2004, challenging the ‘charity’ of serving poor people even poorer food.

City Universities Are Part of Bloomberg's Green Jobs Vision

2010-01-18T14:12:00.001-05:00

NOT ONE CUNY IS MENTIONED! mm

By Michael P. Ventura

Tuesday, January 12th 2010 at 4:10pm

Scott Vincent

Winter is miserable in New York. The arctic blasts whoosh in off the water and cut through hats and scarves and coats as if they're not even there. Other than turning up your collar, leaning forward, and squinting, there's nothing you can do with the wind other than endure it.

For now, at least. At some point in the near future, it may be possible to harness that misery and use it for good. Imagine one day looking up like a tourist at countless vertical wind turbines along rooftops on Fifth Avenue spinning energy to help power the heat.

Cue AeroCity Windpower, a company looking to create and install self-starting vertical-axis wind turbines for city buildings. It was funded with a $1 million grant from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) to develop turbines—looking less like a traditional windmill than the love child of a parking meter and an egg beater—that could be installed atop city buildings to harness the winter wind. AeroCity CEO Russell Tencer also hopes it could "provide a foundation for green jobs in New York City" that could keep the tax base warm.

Sustainable Cultures A Step Beyond Anthropology

2010-01-03T09:57:00.001-05:00

Wowthe education life section of the NY Times today (sunday jan 3rd) is really really good on several fronts: status of the humanities, adjuncts, relevance of Masters programs and various pieces on "sustainability."

By MIREYA NAVARRO

Published: December 29, 2009

MOST people see sustainability as pertaining to the physical environment, and the need to preserve it for coming generations. But in academe, sustainability can have as much to do with social science as science science.

Urban Environment Sustainability Comes of Age

2010-01-01T18:09:00.001-05:00

By HENRY FOUNTAIN

WHEN Andrew Pattison was looking to pursue a graduate degree in sustainability, he drew on his post-college experience working as a conservation biologist in upstate New York. Butterflies were his thing, and he produced numerous recommendations about what should be done to protect them. “I found that quote-unquote important people who were decision makers would read the reports I filed and then not follow them,” Mr. Pattison says.

Those frustrations led him in a different direction. “I knew I wanted to study the way decisions were made on environmental policy,” he says. He also knew where many of the important decisions were made: in cities. With energy and climate policy, he says, “the problem is global, but all politics are local.”

Mr. Pattison, 32, is now a doctoral student in the sustainable urban infrastructure program at the University of Colorado, Denver. It’s one of a growing number of graduate programs in sustainability where the issues affecting cities are front and center.

“We’ve seen a growth in programs that are more focused, either on a particular geographic area or on a discipline,” says Paul Rowland, executive director of the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education. The organization’s Web site, aashe.org, lists nine universities offering doctoral or master’s degrees in urban sustainability studies, and many more programs include the urban environment as a central part of their studies.

Towns Rush to Make Low-Carbon Transition

2009-12-31T22:14:00.001-05:00

More and more neighborhoods are making the transition to a climate-friendly community. Has yours?
The coastal town of Lincoln City, Oregon, has a lot to lose if nothing is done about climate change. The town sits 11 feet above sea level, and unchecked climate change could erode its beaches or flood the town.

Residents are taking matters into their own hands. “We could ignore it, let the federal government deal with it,” Mayor Lori Hollingsworth says. “We’re not willing to do that.” Last year Lincoln City committed to becoming carbon neutral through renewable energy, energy efficiency, and offsets.

Communities like Lincoln City have long been ahead of Congress and the White House on climate commitments. Cities first began committing to Kyoto goals in 2005 through the U.S. Conference of Mayors Climate Protection Agreement. Now more than 1,000 cities have signed on. But the community climate movement goes beyond local government initiatives. It’s a cultural shift involving people at all levels of the community, from tiny rural towns in red states to major metropolitan areas.

The Commons Wasn't Born Yesterday Looking back at the Cooperative Commonwealth movement of the 1930s

2009-12-30T20:09:00.001-05:00

This essay doesnt focus on environmental sustainability but it offers much to those who are but from a different agnle: that of economic collapse and the role of the state in a more mixed model economic system that can regulate goods with an eye towards the "common interest" driven by the idea that resources are part of our "common wealth." The result is a recovering of a model that lost out to the New Deal welfare state but is no back on the table. mm

By Tom O’Connell

I am a veteran of the 1960’s New Left. I helped organize demonstrations in Minnesota against the Indochinese war and participated in small-scale efforts to build a new society from the ground up: communal living, free schools, community controlled neighborhood development.

Back in those days we had an unfortunate slogan, “Never trust anybody over thirty.” We were trying to construct a new world from scratch without realizing that in the not very distant past, there was an indigenous radical tradition flourishing right down the road. The discovery of Minnesota’s Farmer-Labor movement and the cooperative commonwealth vision that animated it, gave me grounding and inspiration. Now that I think of it, Farmer-Laborites were commoning,1930’s style. Their story has direct relevance to our commons work today.

Minnesota’s Farmer-Labor movement created the most successful state-level third party in U.S. history. From its roots in 1918 as a coalition of populist farmers and an emerging labor movement, the Farmer-Labor movement became the state’s dominant political force from 1930 to 1938. Before its merger with with the Democratic party in 1944 to form the Democratic Farmer-Labor Party, as it is still known in the state, the Farmer-Labor party gained three governors, four U.S. Senators, and eight members of U.S. House, and competed closely with the Republicans for majorities in the state legislature. Farmer-Labor administrations won hard-fought battles to halt farm foreclosures, aid the unemployed, regulate banking, conserve Minnesota’s lakes and forests, support cooperative enterprises and establish a progressive tax system.

Should BC sign on to any of these?

2009-12-29T22:23:00.001-05:00

7. 31 New Campuses Complete Climate Action Plans
30 new campuses have submitted Climate Action Plans (CAP) as part of the American College & University Presidents' Climate Commitment (ACUPCC) since the last update in the AASHE Bulletin on September 28, 2009. The plans illustrate the specific steps schools are taking to reach climate neutrality. The CAP is the second major reporting requirement of the Commitment and is due within two years of signing. New CAPs were submitted by: University of Colorado at Boulder; University of Maryland, College Park; University of California, Los Angeles; Duke University (NC); University of Nevada, Reno; University of Wisconsin-Stout; University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh; Maharishi University of Management (IA); University of New Mexico; University of Maryland, Baltimore; University of South Carolina, Salkehatchie; University of South Carolina, Beaufort; University of Massachusetts Medical School; Eastern Connecticut State University; University of Houston, Victoria (TX); Furman University (SC); Luther College (IA); Clark University (MA); McDaniel College (MD); Franklin & Marshall College (PA); Centre College (KY); Hamilton College (NY); Goddard College (VT); Bowdoin College (ME); Wilson Community College (NC); State University of New York at Binghamton; Towson University (MD); Weber State University (UT); Houston Community College (TX); Framingham State College (MA); and Santa Fe Community College (NM). The submitted plans can be viewed through the ACUPCC Reporting System. In related news, Stanford University (CA) has also completed its Climate Action Plan.
See also: Stanford U Press Release

8. 11 New Campuses Complete Greenhouse Gas Inventories
11 signatory campuses of the American College & University Presidents' Climate Commitment (ACUPCC) have submitted public greenhouse gas (GHG) inventories since the last update in the AASHE Bulletin on November 16, 2009. The GHG inventory is the first major reporting requirement of the Commitment and is due within a year of signing. New inventories were submitted by: The Ohio State University; College of the Atlantic (ME); Auburn University (AL); University of Missouri, Saint Louis; University of Missouri, Kansas City; Clark University (MA); Luther College (IA); Smith College (MA); Santa Monica College (CA); Hamilton College (NY); and Monterey Institute of International Studies (CA).

9. 11 New Institutions Sign Climate Commitment
10 new institutions have signed the American College & University Presidents' Climate Commitment since the last update in the November 16, 2009 issue of the AASHE Bulletin. In doing so, these campuses have committed to develop comprehensive plans for achieving climate neutrality. The new signatories are: Robert Smith of Slippery Rock University (PA); Alejandra Liora Adler of Gaia University (CO); Paul Pai of St. Louis Community College, Meramec (MO); Frank Toda of Columbia Gorge Community College (OR); and Scott Lesnik of Lake Land College (IL). 663 college and university presidents and chancellors have now signed the Commitment. In related news, Dalhousie University (NS) President Tom Traves has signed the University and College Presidents' Climate Change Statement of Action. Signing the document commits Dalhousie to significantly reduce emissions of greenhouse gases. Further, the University must complete an inventory of greenhouse gas emissions with a year; set targets and develop an action plan within two years; and take a leadership role within the community to educate about global climate change.
See also: Dalhousie Press Release
See also: University and College Presidents' Climate Change Statement of Action for Canada

2009-12-29T22:09:00.002-05:00

Colleges are rapidly adding new majors and minors in green studies, and students are filling them fast.
Nationwide, more than 100 majors, minors or certificates were created this year in energy and sustainability-focused programs at colleges big and small, says the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education. That's up from just three programs added in 2005.

Activist sows seeds for farm co-op

2009-12-26T19:26:00.001-05:00

The Mo' Green Town proposal by New York City activist Majora Carter just might hit the sweet spot in Detroit urban agriculture.