City Comforts, the blog

Deaf Smith County Peanut Butter

Does anyone know if it is still made? Nothing shows up on Google.

Yesterday I had a craving to try it again, out of curiosity and after so many years to see if it was as good as I remember.  It had a unique texture and flavor. I am sure a teaspoon-full would unleash a flood of memories. My own madeleines perhaps? -- So I went to the store — a leading natural food chain in Seattle — expecting it to be there. Alas! The young clerk looked at me blankly. Never heard of it. Not available.

Ten Most Influential Books in My Life

I'll play the game, too. Here's My Ten, if I can get that high. I make no claim that these are the "ten most important" or anything like that. These are merely the ten (that I can remember) which stick in my mind as seminal in my own intellectual development, such as it is.

The Phenomenon of Man, Teilhard de Chardin

Man's Role in Changing the Face of the Earth, ed. William L. Thomas, Lewis Mumford, Carl O. Sauer

The Complete Sherlock Holmes, Conan Doyle

War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy

Cache Lake Country: Life in the North Woods, John Rowlands

New York Places and Pleasures, Kate Simon

Dune, Frank Herbert

My Early Life: 1874-1904,Winston Churchill

A Pattern Language, Alexander, Ishikawa, Silverstein

The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York, Robert Caro

Sometimes paranoia is accurate.

Sometimes it's not.

A post at Fresh Bilge on Hijack Hijinks raised some interesting questions about how to deal with possible bad people.

You may have already heard of the underlying incident in which a woman travelling on an airline is scared by the behavior of 14 men -- fellow-passengers. Here's the original article: Terror in the Skies -- Again? by Annie Jacobsen.

Alan Sullivan makes much of the incident. Go read his post and then come back here and read my annotation of the underlying article upon which Alan's post is based. The issue turns on determining how to interpret the behavior of others. I have italicized the actions of the 14 men which indicate (in the eyes of Annie Jacobsen writer) that something might be amiss. Alan Sullivan suggested that there were laws which prevent such behavior. But are there?

My italicized draft is below the fold. As I have time I will annotate the italicized portions -- where the specific actions of the fellow passengers are called out. For now -- with the exception of the congregating, which seems to fall out is more bad flight crew work than anything else, I find it hard put to see how a jury would do anything with these guys based on the actions reported by Jacobsen. The whole thing makes fascinating reading; and as I commented at Alan's blog: "I am NOT saying that I would not have been nervous had I been on the flight; I might very well have been, too. The bad guys are very real; they do exist and they are trying to kill us."

I just don't know whether Jacobsen's article leads anywhere useful except to better enforcement of existing rules, which I would not minimize. The most egregious thing she mentions is "congregating" in the aisles. That is a real problem and I thought -- from my experience on flights -- one which had long ago been dealt with by simple prohibition. If you take out that element, everything else she cites strikes me as too ambiguous to do anything about. Excepting the congregating -- which again I say that I thought it was already illegal -- what did these Arab guys really do? It's critical to our survival that we be able to accurately distinguish real danger from simple paranoia. Maybe Jacobsen is new to the paranoia game and just needs some seasoning? Am I naive? Read away.

It seems to me that I am seeing a lot more latex on the street

Maybe I am simply noticing what has been there all along but it appears to me that Seattle is filled these days with wiry guys (and gals) on thin bikes with even thinner tires. Inspired by Lance Armstrong? Maybe. He's good inspiration, to be sure. I am inspired, in fact, to get out my bike and take a ride over to my favorite tavern. Or maybe even a day or two on the San Juans.

Here's a pleasant, fair-handed, essay on the Tour de France in The New Criterion titled: Making the grandest tour.

The race defies ordinary explanation. It is a team sport in which an individual wins. It is an athletic event that actually harms the athletes'odies. (Racers cannot consume enough food to replace the 6,000 or so calories burned off by each day's stage. Most finish the race with less muscle mass than they began with.) The race's founder, Henri Desgrange, wanted it to be so tough that there would be only a single finisher. He never got his wish, but the sport he set in motion takes such a savage toll on its riders that studies show that the life expectancy of a professional cyclist is barely more than fifty years.

Update to this post on Libeskind's "Spiral Extension" In London

A Blow, Perhaps Fatal

LONDON, July 27 - Eight years after the Victoria and Albert Museum chose Daniel Libeskind's radical design for a modern extension, the building still exists only on paper. Now, for the third time, the museum has been refused public money for the project, and it looks increasingly unlikely that the Spiral, as the extension is called, will ever be built.

Sounds like a promising idea to me

City council is pushing South Jackson streetcars

Seven council members sent a letter to Sound Transit, asking the public-transit agency to consider financing an extension of Seattle's only current streetcar line, which runs along the waterfront and up to South Jackson Street and Fifth Avenue. Council members want that line to go into the Chinatown International District and up South Jackson Street to 12th Avenue South at the least, and possibly to 23rd Avenue South.

The council aims to get the South Jackson streetcar on Sound Transit's next menu of projects submitted to voters in 2005 or 2006. Richard Conlin, council transportation-committee chairman, said he saw Tacoma's new streetcar, entirely financed by Sound Transit, as the model for a South Jackson streetcar.

Every little bit helps

Human Rights Watch - Sudan - Crisis in Darfur

I am writing with an urgent request. We need your support.

We are witnessing a brutal campaign of ethnic cleansing against the local people of Darfur, a region in western Sudan the size of California. You may not have read about this in the papers or seen it on TV%u2014because the Western media have devoted little coverage to the story. But the United Nations has called Darfur the worst humanitarian crisis in the world today. This emergency is the result of deliberate human rights abuses.

We have just completed an investigation in western Sudan, where we found that the government and allied Arab militia, called "janjaweed," have been attacking villages, ransacking and torching homes, and killing and raping civilians. These armed forces say they are fighting rebel groups based in the Darfur region, but in fact they are also targeting innocent civilians. Thousands of people have died and hundreds of thousands have been driven from their homes.

Our on-the-ground reporting and high-level advocacy can mobilize the international community to document these attrocities, provide humanitarian aid, and, if necessary, to protect civilians with military force. With the war in Iraq still monopolizing attention, little information is reaching the Western public about this massive crisis. Our reporting is essential, as is our advocacy in the capitals of Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, where governments have the power to force Sudan to change.

You can help. Your contribution will underwrite these investigations and help us get this information out to those who can press Sudan to stop. Please support our efforts. Contribute today, then email this page to your friends and colleagues.

Sincerely,

Kenneth Roth
Executive Director

Architecture Gone Wild

The Hartford Courant appears to limit access to subscribers. This article should not be missed so I post it here.

By PHILIP LANGDON (Copyright 2004, Hartford Courant)

July 25, 2004

I was standing on a sidewalk in Cambridge, Mass., studying a peculiar new building on Vassar Street, when a bicyclist suddenly braked to a halt, joined me in gazing at the building's odd exterior and then exclaimed, "I can't believe this is in proper Boston."

Dumbfounded, the man on the bike spent long moments staring in amazement at the Ray and Maria Stata Center for Computer, Information and Intelligence Sciences. As well he should have. What the two of us were taking in - the latest creation of Los Angeles architect Frank O. Gehry - was so goofy-looking, leaning one direction and another, that it could have been in an amusement park. All that was missing was the cotton candy. Even the Boston Globe's Robert Campbell, an architecture critic not known for overstatement, has described the Stata Center as "a drunken barn dance as it might be represented in a Disney cartoon."

Only $43 million per mile?

Monorail a big hit in Vegas, but here?

Holiday

Today is my birthday.
So no blogging.

UPDATE (on July 28): In response to Fritz, I am old enough to realize the fragility of life and the value of every day, as the number ahead are numbingly finite. So yesterday was a good and memorable one, capped off by an excellent dinner at Flying Fish.

I am usually pretty blase about food. I mean don't get me wrong: I love food. But I think so much of the talk around it is pretentious and precious. But there is such a thing as good food and really good food. You will have a good meal at my house but you will not get really fine food: amazing textures and flavors such as we had last night. It is fun to run up against a dish which is put together by someone who really knows what they are doing and to whom one has to nod one's head in respect and offer, "I really can't cook like that at home."

I am not enough of a "food guy" to be able to suggest whether this place is "great" or not such as one finds in the reviews; I offer only very personal opinion of Flying Fish and it is simply "I shall return."

Why only monorail?

We read that the Monorail recall effort is certified.

Unless the Seattle Monorail Project is able to derail it, a ballot measure that could kill the proposed 14-mile elevated train project will go before Seattle voters in November.

I am against this initiative and will vote "NO" -- but no matter about that for the moment.

What puzzles me is why this "recall" effort -- and recall in quotes because the substance of the initiative is to prohibit the City of Seattle from issuing the permits required to build the monorail -- well I wonder why the initiative does not also prohibit any above-ground transit infrastructure. Why not prohibit any elevated trains?

For background, there is another mass transit effort being built in this region but it is a steel-wheeled program. Some segments of it are proposed to be elevated above grade. The neighborhoods -- my own, in fact -- through which these elevated might pass are ferociously against such a proposal and want the line to be in a tunnel.

Why, I wonder, did not the anti-monorail folks include any above-grade transit? They could have immediately picked up a lot of votes in my neighborhood; and for a program that won by only 877 votes, even a small swing could be decisive. So why not pick a principled -- if indeed I think wrong -- approach of opposing all elevated transit? That position has a certain reasonableness and common-sense appeal. It might very well have won the election for them. But to pick out only monorail..well it seems odd and not even in their own electoral self-interest. Unless of course the whole anti-monorail business is actually driven by Sound Transit, the builder of a steel-rail system. Then it would make enormous sense.

There is enormous energy and talent deep down things

Darren Barefoot - Miscellanist points out (with photos) some nice things in Victoria, BC:

They've found an inventive use for those ubiquitous traffic control boxes you see on lamp and traffic light posts. In high pedestrian traffic areas, they've pasted neighbourhood maps on them. The maps wrap around three sides of the box, identifying areas of interest

What a great idea. Not only do they use existing visual real estate (avoiding the need for other street-level maps), but it's a really cheap, low-tech solution to graffiti. As a guy who spent two sweltering summers across the street from the pictured box, at the busiest Tourism Information Centre in the country, I appreciate any non-human assistance for tourists.

Do take a look at the photos.

I'll have to add this great idea to City Comforts 3.0. Copy to Mr. Barefoot.

John Portman's Heir: Rem Koolhaas?

As I noted some days ago, my immediate thought on experiencing Rem Koolhaas' "living room" at the new Seattle Public Library was "Ah! I have been here before: some hotel in San Francisco in the 1970s."

In fact it was the Hyatt Regency San Francisco. That's a John Portman design from the 1970s. At that time it broke some ground, I believe, in public consciousness of dramatic architecture, specifically for hotels. Seeing it had a powerful impact on me; I became aware of the power of a large interior volume. There is something very impressive -- uh...maybe the cathedral builders had it figured -- about such space, no matter the quality of the design. But I liked the Hyatt Hotel then and I'd probably like it now.

An entire review could be written about the massive, 17-story, atrium lobby of the Hyatt Regency San Francisco's history, architectural extravagance and cachet. It co-starred in the "Towering Inferno," and its elevators stole a scene in Mel Brooks' "High Anxiety," a send-up of Hitchcock's "Vertigo." In fact, the gorgeous, glass, pendant-like elevators (which have also hosted an inter-collegiate Monopoly competition) are virtually works of art in and of themselves.

The point is only that that aspect -- the large interior volume of the "living room" -- of the Koolhaas design is, even on its own terms, not even remotely novel. And novelty is a big part of his game and claim.

Glancey must simply be being wry; no one could be that silly

No photos, sketches or anything to provide any sort of visual so who-the-devil really knows what they are talking about. But what Jonathan Glancey writes in The Guardian on The Ali G of urban planning is enough:

Equally, though, there are those who find Alsop's wilfully bombastic, cartoon-like designs a relief from received notions of good taste and architectural manners. We live in an increasingly come-as-you-are culture, so why shouldn't our new architecture reflect this, rather than pretend that we are still heirs to crusty, civil-minded civic culture and boring old humanist architecture? Alsop, the Ali G of urban planning, aims to keep it real. (italics added - DS)

Well maybe neither Glancey nor Ali G are new urbanists? One would gather.

The article places this Ali G fellow as part of the 1960s' Archigram, which was fun and impressive when I was 21 but I think such gimmicks as buildings that move (not are movable but which actually have the power of locomotion built into them) lose their charm past 30. To paraphrase Churchill, "Not in love with gimmicks before 3, no heart. Still in love with gimmicks after 30, no head."

I am after 30. And even I, a proud wearer on the golf course -- no joke -- of the famed shirt with this magnificent crest

would be the first to point out that "Respect" is not the same as "Blind Adulation." We did some dumb things in the sixties. But in the spirit of my buddy Dubya: "When we were young and foolish we did some young and foolish things." Could Archigram have been an example?

Worth Noting

Via The Seattle Times:

Electric cables burst into flames as an eight-story office building which was leaning precariously for days in one of Manila's busy commercial districts, collapses hours after occupants fled. No injuries were reported but the incident damaged another building across the street.

Rebecca Solnit says

Check out the parking lot:

You take the Getty exit, and if you've been heading north, swing over the overpass and, after a few wriggles, dive into the garage.

And too bad she doesn't really discuss the parking lot; for a while, I had high hopes for the article: I really do like to read some intelligent commentary and reflection on the ordinary things of life. I wonder why Arts & Letters Daily chose to high-light this piece, however, as it seems to ramble on with no binding.

Is there hope for the WTC site?

I didn't realize that Felix Salmon was impressed by big-names.

He attaneded a meeting on the WTC site and writes that he was

"...impressed by the quality of the professionals in charge of this project, and reasonably confident that if anybody can come up with a workable solution to the myriad of problems that the site throws up, they can."

I hope Felix is correct. But I do ask if any of these professionals -- and the way it's phrased somehow reminds me of the line from 2001 that it was good to see "adults back in charge in the White House" -- well have any of these big name designers ever, on any site, anywhere, actually demionstrated any skill in urban design i.e. creating real streetscapes? And I do mean that as a factual question.

My impression however is that -- for Libeskind at least and he is a very big part -- the answer is a strident and cutting-edge "No!....Sidewalk? What sidewalk! We are designing philosophy in 3 dimensions here!"

Am I wrong?

The sixties

There seems to be a need right about now -- judging from other blogs -- for posting on the 1960s. I guess we are talking about "values." Perhaps the "real adults" like Bill Bennett and Dick Cheney need something to attack to cover up their own lack (of anything much to offer their nation.)

Having lived through the Sixties, I am somewhat of an authority. And conveniently-enough, I have already posted on them: Which 1960s? and A note on the shirt with the logo.

This image summarizes my feelings:

Hey, back off!

It made him feel good.

And, learning from our Vice-President, that's all that matters.

•••

We know who the wimps are: guys like Cheney and Schwarzenegger who don't have the guts to back down and admit that they have done something dumb. Like Martha, they don't have the self-confidence to admit a mistake. That's real wussiness.

I did not write this review

City Comforts: How to Build an Urban Village, Revised Edition

I am so glad that David Sucher has revised and reissued this book. I used the first edition for several courses that I teach in community development and urban planning, and I know of no better single volume text on urban design issues. The new edition is even better. The book is particularly useful for those who have an interest in planning and design issues, but have limited technical training or experience. As a consequence, it makes excellent reading for city planning commissioners.

This book provides brevity with depth. It reminds you about all those little things that sometimes get left out during development, but which make a world of difference to the people who live in it. Plenty of examples are provided, usually with the thought behind why they work. The author clearly enjoys his native city because almost all the examples come from the Northwest, but this makes them no less impactful. I highly recommend this book to students of architecture/planning, developers, city officials, or anyone who has an interest in the "little things" that make our built environment better. This would be a GREAT book for anyone who has any influence in high growth subruban areas--neighborhood assns., zoning officials, subdivision developers, etc. Enjoy!

This is a fantastic book detailing all the little amenities that make great urban places. Copiously illustrated and simple to follow, planning departments everywhere should invest in multiple copies for the members of their boards and commissions. This is a must have work for anyone interested in quality of life.

A nice thing happened this morning.

I was standing in line at one of my two favorite coffee shops -- Cloud City Coffee -- when a woman said:
"Hello. You are David Sucher?"
"Yes."
"I heard you talk to the Library Board several years ago about the Koolhaas library design. And you were right."
"Thanks. That's good. I mean that's bad. Honestly, I would have been happy to have my pre-construction analysis been proven wrong by the finished building."

More on bridging freeways and connecting neighborhoods

In an otherwise somewhat confused article in one of Seattle's two "alternative" weeklies I ran into this clear statement (in context of the article) of dismissal:

If it doesn't make us smile, it better be cool... David Brewster, Seattle Weekly's founder, once proposed a bridge lined with shops over Interstate 5 connecting downtown and Capitol Hill, saying it could be our Ponte Vecchio.

I wrote to the author, who also happens to be the editor of this little paper:

Dear Knute:

I was so sad to see that you consider Brewster's idea as trivial; it is anything but. I hope you'll reconsider.

In fact Brewster's idea (and btw I don't think such characterization is fair to its other local author Clint Pherson) is in fact extremely brilliant and exactly to the point in improving Seattle. One might argue about is priority; (I actually don't as I think it's a very central and key idea in improving Seattle, rent as it is by a freeway); but to diminish as non-serious could only come from misunderstanding the idea.

The purpose of a "bridge lined with shops over Interstate 5" is not to create "cool" or "cutesy-pie" but to reconnect the CBD with its most immediate residential neighborhood by creating a seamless connection of city street. A barren freeway overpass is an impediment to walking; I am not the only one who finds them unpleasant and slightly scary; building the overpass to read as a real street -- which of course it is -- is a very practical way to re-connect the city. If you don't think that is serious work then I am very disappointed.

I feature the pattern in City Comforts. (Download pages 182-184)

And also on my blog:
Hello Columbus to the I-670 Cap
and
I-670 Cap -- 2 notes
and
"Urban Repair"
where I show the real deal being built in Columbus, Ohio.

I wish you'd rethink your reaction to the idea and in fact give it some real play in The Weekly as it is an important idea indeed.

Best,
David

If anyone wishes to add their two cents, especially Seattle residents, you can write to Knute at kberger@seattleweekly.com. It would be nice if you posted your letter to him in the comments section on this blog, too.

Luke Francl sees the point.

And notes Libertarian Planning:

Wow, this is cool. Jane Jacobs and Ken Greenberg boiled urban planning into two rules:

New buildings must not be set back from the street
New buildings must not exceed the height of existing buildings.

Aside from these two rules, anything else is allowed. It's libertarian urban planning.

This is awesome. It requires buildings to address the street (one of the must crucial features of a walkable neighborhood) and not overpower their surroundings. The essence of livable places in just two simple rules.

He's back.

And in due course I shall offer opinions, pontifications etc etc.

But for now, take a look at this appreciative post -- Goldberger vs. Pleas -- which notes an excellent post at another blog of a few weeks ago on -- what else? -- the Seattle Public Library.

Another week has come...

...and just about gone and, alas, I haven't posted on the Seattle Public Library. To the extent appropriate, I apologize. (And sorry in particular to Michael Blowhard; I guess I just don't have the heart for it right now). As I said a few days ago, at the moment I really have no great enthusiasm for the structure; it's ineffective as a piece of city and 'eh' as a discrete precious object; its exterior is typical of a business park and its atrium reminds me of a Hyatt Hotel; it teaches more what NOT to do than to do; and since there is no short supply of indifferent design everywhere... why spend time with it?

I did, however, ask by email our City Librarian -- and except for hiring Koolhaas, she seems to be doing a fine job -- about Rem Koolhaas's $$design fee$$ for the library design. There is a lot of effort on a large building and architects should be fairly compensated for their skill and imagination and judgment; having visited the Library, I am wondering how Rem's fee accords with the quality of the building. Is he really that much better -- as an architect, mind you, not a self-marketeer -- than a host of fine local Seattle architects? I suspect you know my surmise.

Moreover, I did spend my discretionary time today doing something useful: reviewing a really terrific plan for Calgary, Alberta's East Village & then writing some comments on it. I much prefer to focus on good things than bad ones and the East Village Plan is shaping up to be really positive...no architectural egos at play babbling on...just a supremely pleasant place to live & work, a place which will enhance the user's soul rather than expand the architect's ego...

Find the draft at the City of Calgary’s website at www.calgary.ca/planning/landuse by clicking on “Downtown Planning,” then “Downtown Communities,” then “East Village.”

Or maybe this link will will work: Calgary's East Village Plan

And, as are most plans, it's mostly of local Calgary interest, as of course are virtually all plans merely of local interest. (That's why there is no national debate on local plans except when they have some enormous emotional contenbt such as Ground Zero.) But they are doing good things in this Plan...it might be of interest to people work at a neighborhood level...trying to place cars in second position versus pedestrians and "reclaiming" hitherto unused pieces of urban land. Progressive and practical.

Anyway, I will be gone for a bit. Holidays and hiking and horses and probably no internet access, though I will bring my iBook just in case. But more likely than not, I am history for a week or even more. So take care, have fun on the 4th and please check back in a while...maybe July 14 or so.

Noted, with delight

Crooked Timber's Eszter Hargittai offers these Paris details

I thought I'd post a note about my trip. I include some reflections on random things I took note of (e.g. garbage disposals, toilet fees, price checks in stores).