City Comforts, the blog

What a discordant illustration

to use in a blog post (at Space & Culture) on detached McMansions:

 

I'm surprised the author doesn't mention 'peak oil'

From the New Middle Ages to a New Dark Age: The Decline of the State and U.S. Strategy. Free PDF. From what might, but shouldn't, be a surprising source.

From the PDF:

"The argument here is that we are already moving from the New Middle Ages to the New Dark Age, and that the challenges of security in an increasingly chaotic environment will be even more formidable than they already are. In terms of wicked problems, the frightening thing is that we have not seen anything yet."

Non-toxic paint? or recycled paint? Which one?

Suppose you are working on a project which the owner hopes will qualify for some sort of LEED rating. Or maybe the owner just wants as green a project as is reasonable.

Which is higher priority? non-toxic such as Mythic Paint? Or recycled such as Metro Paint?

Good problem that we have such choices and ideally we'll soon have a paint with both characteristics.

Preserve a pedestrian mall?

I am generally cool to pedestrian malls because so few of them seem to work. So I was a bit surprised by the call to save the Charlottesville Downtown Mall I just found in the newsletter of the The Cultural Landscape Foundation.

I've never been to Charlottesville so I don't know the merits/demerits. Any first-hand knowledge?