City Comforts, the blog

What an interesting way to promote the serendipitous encounter

Bloomberg absorbs BusinessWeek

The culture clash between Bloombergians and BusinessWeek staff will be interesting to watch. Bloomberg tracks when its employees come and go, monitors whether employees are at their terminals and has all of its writers make their calendars accessible to anyone in the building. Bloomberg says it makes it easier to find people, but employees say they can feel constantly monitored. And instead of an easygoing magazine culture, where editorial meetings are rarely held before 10 a.m. because no one would show up, Bloomberg News staff begin arriving before 6 a.m., and there's a long line to get into the elevators by 8 a.m. The elevator only stops on a couple floors of the building, making staffers crowd through open areas and onto escalators to get to their floor, creating a sense of activity and intensity. (italics added)

Bill Moyers Journal

A Tale of Two Quagmires

Fascinating story of how LBJ escalated the war in Vietnam and explicitly offered as background to our current dilemma about Afghanistan.

What puzzles me is why LBJ didn't follow-up further on the "neutralization" option which he himself discussed several times. LBJ was obviously extremely smart and commonsensical and well-aware that one way to avoid getting further entangled was to have South Vietnam neutralized. I am surprised that he didn't pursue it. At the very least the international conference to pursue such an approach would have bought him more time. And when you are in a bad situation sometimes the best thing to do is to simply delay the time at which you have to make an unalterable commitment.

Also puzzling was Senate Majority Leader MIke Mansfield's non-response to what seemed to me was LBJ's beseeching request to Mansfield for Congress to get involved and ask LBJ to come it for consultation, authorization, political cover  etc

I agree. But I agreed before I read the article.

The Architect as Totalitarian

Le Corbusier was to architecture what Pol Pot was to social reform. In one sense, he had less excuse for his activities than Pol Pot: for unlike the Cambodian, he possessed great talent, even genius. Unfortunately, he turned his gifts to destructive ends, and it is no coincidence that he willingly served both Stalin and Vichy. Like Pol Pot, he wanted to start from Year Zero: before me, nothing; after me, everything.

From a wonderfully interesting article by Theodore Dalrymple. I agree almost entirely with the thrust of this article — (the major exception is the author’s harsh judgment of reinforced concrete, which in the right hands can be a wonderfully urbane material.) But I agreed with that thrust long before I read it. So for those who already understand why Le Corbusier was so destructive, to urbanism, it's a good article.

But from a didactic perspective, I am not sure if this article helps people (who have not thought about urban form) to understand why exactly Le Corbusier was so wicked in his impact. It's not good enough to state that he was totalitarian. You must show and explain the forms which the totalitarian, controlling mind produces. Contrast the isolated tower-in-plaza with the sidewalk-hugging Jane Jacobs street etc etc. It's important for as many people as possible to understand and be able to recognize what he did that was so bad and to be able to describe it to others. 

As interesting as it is, this article fails to offer the punch line: to educate the general reader about exactly why and how in architectural and spatial terms was Le Corbusier so destructive. (And the why and how are hardly matters requiring special training.) The author spends too much time on what are really abstract generalities -- which is precisely our criticism of Le Corbusier: he was too much concerned with theory and abstraction and too little with simply helping to craete a pleasant walkable city. 

Alas.

I am not against congestion pricing.

I just don't see how it works, how it surmounts the politics. Ryan Avent loves it: 

Creative Funding

The danger for Apple

The danger for Apple is trying to do too much with its iTablet, make it too complicated with too many "features" etc etc. All Apple has to do is take a current iPhone or iPod Touch and increase the screen size by 3-4 times. That's it.

Apple Tablet Delayed with OLED Model Planned? 3G Possible?

Digitimes claims that Apple is planning on postponing the launch of their long rumored tablet device from March to the second half of 2010 as they make some final adjustments to the device's components.

Why are we in Afghanistan?

Send Troops to Where in Afghanistan?

"...the best case for staying in Afghanistan isn’t really scare stories about al-Qaeda but simply the fact that we have something of a moral obligation to help anti-Taliban Afghans defend themselves."

Sounds right to me though I am still not clear how we do that (help non-Taliban Afghans) as there doesn't appear to be a non-Taliban government on which we can rely.

Good work if you can get it

Qataris are billed 100 million pounds sterling

...amount being claimed by Nick and Christian Candy in the High Court tomorrow could be as much as 100 million. Chris Candy's Guernsey company CPC is suing ex-partner Qatari Diar, the development arm of the Qatari royal family, after the Qataris decision to scrap plans for the barracks site. 

This new claim is related to a success fee of around 100 million pounds which was agreed subject to the scheme being granted planning permission. The Qataris withdrew the plans a week before they were to be debated by the council because, after the opposition of Prince Charles and local objections, they believed their proposal had no chance of getting through.

And of course the Candy's will try to show that they had a very very good chance of being granted the permits.

"Personnel Policy" as the basis of organizational competence

The Mayor-elect asks the citizens of Seattle a question:  How do we build public trust in the new administration?

In short, I say by delivering the basic services and enrichments for which the citizens have asked and for which they have paid taxes. In short, by being competent, by performance. Trust is based on performance, on following through on one's word. There is nothing fancy in building trust. No gimmicks. No tricks. No shortcuts. Just do what you said you will do. Then others will trust you. That goes for all of us, of course, and not just the Mayor and his administration. Build trust through competence.

The City of Seattle is a collection of individuals organized to do the work of the people of Seattle.

The success of the organization turns on the way individuals relate to each other i.e. how well (or poorly) they work together, how they are organized.

Many, if not most, of the City's meta-policies have emerged out of consensus. Even though the elected officials of Seattle are nominally non-partisan, the political reality is that this is a Democratic city with the sort of liberal Democratic policies one would expect. That is to say, there is no huge ideological divide within the electorate of  Seattle. By and large, with some notable exceptions, the City's policies -- and whether one agrees with them or not -- are a fairly accurate reflection of the will of the people.

Thus Mayor-elect McGinn's administration well be judged on how well the City government does its job, how competent it is. That means how well the City staff are organized and motivated to do the work of the people as articulated by the City Council and executed by the Mayor.

But the Mayor can't do everything. In fact he can't do anything without an efficient and on-purpose City bureaucracy.

Therefore, I believe that the City's "personnel policy," understood broadly as the manner in which City employees relate to each other, is the key to implementing whatever policies he and the Council determine is appropriate.

In future posts I will offer some specific examples of what I believe an enlightened personnel policy would look like.

Apple is not a techno-tease

Apple Tablet Speculation Continuing to Gain Attention

CNNMoney.com today reports on the continued hype over Apple's much-rumored tablet computer, citing the multitude of different speculative reports of the device's specs to attempt to paint a picture what users can expect when it is finally announced.

It seems to me that if Apple is not gestating some sort of tablet device then it would have put a firm kibosh on the rumors long ago. Anticipation grows with every article and blog post on "Apple's much-rumored tablet computer." If this anticipation is thwarted and Apple is finally forced to come clean and tell people that in fact, "No. There is no iTablet in your future and there never was" then there will be a huge -- moi aussi -- negative consumer reaction. Apple will be seen as a techno-tease, which is not a good thing for a company which trades on flocks of frenzied fans. So the fact that Apple remains silent and simply says "No comment" rather than a firm "Sorry folks. No way!" -- is itself a sign that in fact there is a potentially game-changing device coming soon from Apple. 

Or so I hope.

Art as a part of economic stimulus?

That's what Felix Salmon thinks: reduce unemployment by hiring artists.  He writes:

I’d note that the low-hanging fruit has already been picked, when it comes to “labor-intensive, shovel-ready infrastructure projects”, with the first stimulus, and I’m not sure that there are actually any left. Instead, might I suggest arts subsidies? 

Sure, pay the 'artists.'

But how much in aggregate? 

The common "1% for art?"

Sounds ok to me.

But pay them to do what?

If they are qualified to do construction -- flatwork for sidewalks or tile/stone, etc -- then that would work easily and they can apply their 'special sensibilities' to real things. And if not then should join an apprentice program. 

By stupid war and stupid monetary policy, the Bush years have sapped our nation self-confidence. What this country needs right now is evidence we can do real things -- not just paper manipulation.

And with so many unmet needs for infrastructure to encourage 'walkable urbanism' -- i.e. sidewalks and curbs, primarily -- maybe we should start with something simpler than creating 'art'...like 'walk before run.'

Projects for walkable urbanism have several other advantages:

- low tech

- simple to design so can be shovel-ready in short period of time

- labor intensive

- geographically widespread

- amenable to apprentice/training programs

- genuinely needed and by no means 'make work.'

- help satisfy politically powerful construction materials and union interests.

Where were you?

Terry Teachout recalls where he was when the Berlin Wall was demolished. I have no idea where I was or what I was thinking that day. But one thing which might be remembered is that physical space does impact people enormously. If the Wall was about nothing else at all, it is about psychological impact of what we build.

What's next for Jobs? Comparisons to Gutenberg?

From that same story in Fortune: How Jobs transformed Apple

Looking out on the next decade, Jobs may well be asking himself a variation of that very question: After creating more than $150 billion in shareholder wealth, transforming movies, telecom, music, and computing (and profoundly influencing the worlds of retail and design), what should Steve Jobs do next? Given his penchant for secrecy and surprise and his proven brilliance, it's a fair bet that he'll let us know when he's good and ready.

My bet is that he wants his legacy to be his name linked with Gutenberg as a world-historical cultural figure. I am assuming of course that Apple's iTablet will be the metonym for all eBook readers and that in fact the eBook reader will transform communications as much as did Gutenberg's press.

Rumors about Apple's iTablet

How Jobs transformed Apple

Key to the Jobs approach is careful consideration of what he and Apple say -- and don't say. Harvard professor David Yoffie estimated that in the months between announcing and selling the first iPhone in 2007, Apple received $400 million in free advertising by not making any public statements, thereby whipping the media into a frenzy.

And it looks as if he is doing that again with the iTablet. One argument that Apple is preparing a product is that if it weren't it would have squashed the rumors months ago. It would not help Apple's karma if it let the rumor mill churn as it has and then come out and announce that in fact, for real, honest, there is no iTablet. People would be angry and feel abused even if the abuser had been primarily their own imagination.

The Seattle Way: Don't Disagree

Sally Bagshaw won a seat on the Seattle City Council. So congratulations, Sally! But I am a bit concerned about this quote:

"We're gonna stop the bickering. It's time for us to come together."

And I am pretty sure it is accurate as I heard Bagshaw use that "No Bickering" phrase at a candidate forum. It was a huge turn-off for me. It sounds as if it really means "Let's all pretend we agree i.e. with me." 

Typical Seattle. Paper-over genuine, reasonable differences of opinion on public policy by characterizing disagreement as "Sally bickering." Sounds very nanny-statish, as well. As if disagreement, on ________ (name anything important to you), is bickering. And as if in fact there are no disagreements — that's why we can come together....those pesky "disagreements" are just bickering about trifles.

Bad start. What we need in Seattle in more "bickering," not less.

Astonishing, sad

Coyotes kill woman on hike in Canadian park

HUD's core policy should be

Has the Government Been Bailing Out Sprawl?

...since it is clear that safe, walkable neighborhoods are in very high demand and are therefore holding their value well, it is important to build more such places.

That pretty much sums up what national residential real estate policy should be. (And yes, we do have a "national residential real estate policy.")

London Times caters to sad human trait

Architects: Catch a rising star

If you can't afford Hadid or Rogers, find your own rising starchitect so you too can prove how trendy you are.

Bigger is different; or Jobs and Gutenberg in the same sentence?

It still astonishes me that people (moi included) can get into heated debates about the shape of a product that Apple hasn't even says might exist. But here is one more example: Apple Executives Share Thoughts on e-Book Market, iPhone Profits - Mac Rumors.

One issue in dispute is whether a "super-sized iPhone" would be any big deal. I say "Yes indeed."

And screen size 3-4 x current would do it.

A quantitative change (larger screen) creates a qualitative change --- it allows the one thing an iPhone doesn't: easy reading of long-form contenti.e. books and long articles. 

(And yes I have done my share of reading on an iPhone -- an entire book in fact -- and while it is not bad, it is not a game changer as might an iTablet.)

My guess is that Jobs would like his name to be linked with Gutenberg's as a major cultural figure (and who wouldn't?) and that is not a far-fetched goal for him. A device with a screen 3-4 times larger than an Phone (but with few or any additional features) would be a profound societal game changer, transforming so much it's hard to know where to start.

A nobody will become a somebody on election day

Seattle faces an interesting election. The two-time incumbent (Nickels) didn't make it into the finals. Pretty amazing considering that he had been a 'not bad' mayor. Arrogant, maybe. But a perfect-pitch Seattle liberal with no financial or sex scandals (his own or in his city government entirely) in his 8 years in office. Amazing and admirable, even if I disagreed with much of his policy.

So now we have two guys running for Seattle's top job — neither of whom has held or even run for any public office. Since they agree on so much, the debate comes down to two prongs: the deep-bore tunnel and basic competence.

Here's a plug for Mr. McGinn: The Party of the Future. My own take on his opponent Mr. Mallahan:

I was at the Maple Leaf election meeting last night and I asked Mr. Mallahan how he expected us to pay for the tunnel’s cost overruns.

His response was that with his leadership as Mayor there wouldn’t be any cost overruns.

Such an answer is absurd and patronizing.

What strikes me about Mr. Mallahan is that he simply is not a smart politician. A smart politician would have said something like “Wait a second. I am committed 100% to the tunnel but we do have to clarify this issue of cost overruns. I am fiscally responsible and I want to make sure that Seattle is not stuck paying for management errors when we are not responsible for management.”

Such an answer would have reassured the tunnel advocates AND the tunnel waverers (though not tunnel adversaries, I admit.) But as it was, Mr. Mallahan’s answer made him look like a patronizing fool — trying to tell us that HE can prevent cost overruns. Talk about arrogance.

TED dreams

ARCHITECTURE THAT REPAIRS ITSELF?

The speaker describes an interesting technique for (potentially) repairing/regrowing(?) piling under Venice. But her sneering characterization of current building methods as "Victorian technologies" is vast over-reaching, too-too trendy and it seemed to me a bit shallow.  

Open government via Google

With reference to Better Transit Information:

In general one of the best things a city can do these days is simply open information flows up so that third parties can develop interesting applications. If Google can access your city's public transit scheduling data, then people can use Google Transit to figure out how to get where they're going and your agency doesn't need to worry about coming up with a better map-making program than Google's. But by the same token, if some rival firm does invent a "better than Google" mapping program, they'll be able to access your data too and launch a competing product.(emphasis added)

Absolutely so. The issue far transcends transit, Google maps etc and into open government. I'd love to see the City of Seattle. which is the only local government I watch very carefully and which largely drives me nuts, open up its data base(s) (and virtually everything the city does is on that data base and has been for years) to Google et al. 

Then we'd have real open government and the City might even save some money by minimizing its own web page efforts. 

Not "almost"

Scientists identify new galaxy cluster. 

It is also of almost unimaginable size, containing hundreds of galaxies,

Intriguing and mystifying

The only two Westerners living on their own in Kandahar reveal what they've learned about the war in Afghanistan

More courage than common sense? Hard to know. But fascinating anyway.

Out of the mouths of babes...

OK. So that says more about my age than his. Matt Yglesias is only in his twenties and yet I believe one of the cleverest op-ed heads writing anywhere. His post this morning On Geoengineering is both funny and wise.

On a non-insane level, the idea of trying to build machines that suck CO2 out of the air and then somehow store it is pretty clearly worth researching. That said, trees already do this quite well and our tree-planting technology is fine. Rather than wait around for the hypothetical "artificial trees" of the future why not just plant more trees? It seems to me there are lots of places in America where trees could be growing but aren't. 

Which comes around to the overarching point that the term "geoengineering" often obscures more than it reveals. There's a world of difference between offering financial incentives for people to build high-albedo roofs and building a miles-long hose to pump sulfur into the upper atmosphere. Do I get to be a bold contrarian thinker if I propose that surface parking lots should have more tree cover? Somehow it seems I don't. But it makes much more sense to focus on practical deployments of proven technology (trees, white paint) than on trying to dream up the most fantastical possible solution.

To sum up so that the larger message should not be lost in the droll humor: 

Do simple things first. 

Then, if you need to, go back and do the difficult. Cherry pick. Grab low-hanging fruit. etc etc

What he said

Midtown theater's design brings structure smack up to the sidewalks

In his plain-spoken book on how to create vibrant commercial streets through urban design, David Sucher gives only three rules: 

Build buildings to the sidewalk. 

Use windows and doors (not mirrored) to connect the inside of the building to the outside. 

 And prohibit parking lots in front of the building. 

Whether or not they've read "City Comforts: How To Build an Urban Village," the folks who designed the new Playhouse on the Square follow nearly all its principles.

David Sucher didn't devise the principles. He simply observed them and their power, under the right conditions, to generate urbanism.