taxes

Tax on gas has the advantage that it will be returned to the people in some way. Here the current “war” steps in. in the us 50 % of taxes is used to finance the “war”. The war was induced to try and lower gas prices by invading oil rich regions in the world.

thinking about this i keep hitting myself for having contributed to this war by working in the US thus paying tax as well as spending my money on gas and other consumer goods that has a part federal tax included in the price.

the tax on gas is only between 26 cents/gallon (Alaska) and 64 ¢/g (California) but still with almost 400 million gallons (1.5 billion litres, 1.5 x 10^9) used in the us every day that is still about 90 billion dollars a year. (including diesel taxes)
(source: us department of energy)

war clock

###
Iraq War Cost

9/11 with mixed feelings

disclaimer:
My discussions in these posts are sometimes critical to the US. It’s people, cities, way of life and culture all get its share of knock. I am aware that as a foreigner it is not my business to tell people here how to live their lives, but I believe my presence helps people to look at their country with different eyes and to keep in mind that the world is a little bigger than America.
For these reasons I want to underline the fact that I love the United States, every time I have been visiting has been out of my own free will and I am thankful for the opportunity the US has given me in comparing my own home country to this. To honor the land of freedom I have made a list of the best things about the United States and America!

Things everybody (almost) loves about the US.
- the people. Friendly, cheerful and social.
- the anything-is-possible-spirit. Moon landings, Microsoft, Martha Stewart...
- the nature, the great varieties in flora, fauna and geology.
- the ability to order any kind of food (almost) at any time of the day (or night).
- the ice cream.
- the cars. (Whatever you Americans think about them, we foreigners love American cars!)
- the innovations. Apple, Internet, hamburgers...

computah works!

ew, must give alot of credit to mac-support, being really fast and nice to me. thanks!

las colinas

to forget about my diseased computer i decided to make a study trip on Monday. i went to Las Colinas about 20 minutes north west of Dallas. Las Colinas is an edge city that started off as a vision from the rancher/businessman Ben Carpenter in the 1970:s. today the work-live community hosts over 2000 companies and the world headquarters for among many others ExxonMobil and Kimberly-Clark. about 30 000 people lives in Las Colinas and 100 000 people work here.

features include a lake, venetian inspired channels with electrically powered gondolas, channel walk, an elevated shuttle train and a live/work environment.

disaster

my beloved computer died this w-end during an accident involving a small amount of water. will try to preform some restoration procedures later this week, but i do not have much hope. after having read this site i got over it and thanked the internet for saving most of my work. some of my pictures, photos and drawings are probably gone, but nothing that cannot be replaced.

but i am still mourning the loss.

lower greenville (at m-streets)

this part of the city is called the m-street since all the streets running east-west has names beginning with an M.

i came here first with some friends when we were going to a bar a hot summer afternoon, and that is probably how most people first get in contact with the area.

Greenville is a long street that runs 13.4 miles (22 km) through north east Dallas and Richardson. it has several clusters of entertainment districts throughout it's run. the m-streets runs less than half a mile, between Monticello Avenue and Matalee Avenue and only a quarter mile between McCommas ans Matalee has businesses by the street.

only a few people work in the area, but most people that lives here do also frequent the bars, cafes, restaurants and shops around.

inventory of businesses in lower greenville/m-streets area

west side of street:

empty building
starbucks - cafe
glorias - Mexican/Salvadorian restaurant
café izmir - "mediterranean tapas" restaurant
empty building (?)

j. pepe's - restaurant
condom sense - condom store
tattoo studio
nail studio
hot dogs(?)
chinese food
izmir's deli and market - deli


east side:

7-11 - gas station and convenient store

empty building (for lease)
kinki's - "private membership lounge"
nfl - sports bar
snuffer's - bar/restaurant
granada - music venue
m-street bar - bar

empty building
chevron - gas station

greenville

maybe somewhat cowardly i have chosen a site to apply my further investigations and utopian visions on. i believe i have made it easier for myself than i first meant to do, but changing the world must begin in a small scale. the neighborhood of Lower Greenville is something as uncommon as a residential area with a lively nightlife and a few shops.

the mixed use that i have promoted so far is implemented in a small scale here. services are very close to housing in some cases and the area is popular and somewhat gentrified.

Greenville Avenue cuts through a sea of houses in east dallas, and has several areas of shops and restaurants clustered among it. it used to be the major route north from dallas and is still an important artery through the semi-suburbs of north-east dallas.

mixed use

my heart and soul lies in promoting mixed use areas, mixed use buildings and even mixed use rooms and places. to my young, naive and idealistic mind this is the solution to all the problems we have with energy, environment, community, social differences and the lack of love in society.

the problems i have is to implement these thoughts into a society that already exists and actually does function. i don't think creating a "new city", an utopia is nearly as difficult as to implement old ideas in a fully functioning society.

this blog is somewhat ironically named utopian visions for the sustainable city. the most unsustainable thing to do (and is naturally done) would be to start building a completely new city/neighborhood where everything is environmentally friendly, low impact and sustainable. that idea would give nothing whatsoever back to our existing society and only create a greater strain on earth. the only solution to these problems, however difficult it may be, is to start off in our own existing cities and communities and work with what we have to adjust to our present conditions.

much of my research for this project has been about theories of why cities function the way they do and what functions (and what does not). other peoples visions and utopias can only partly explain and give ideas that would actually work in reality. this time i will take the safe route home, and try things that has been proved to work!

short history of non-mixed use

the modernist planning ideal was separated areas for housing / services / retail / workplaces.
before the 20th century (1900:s) people had always worked where they lived and lived where they worked. but with the modernist movement the idea was born that we should separate these entities to create a safer and more healthy environment. industries at the time were putting off dangerous fumes and waste and most people were living in crowded conditions close to workplaces because of insufficient transportation to and from work.

the idea of a garden city was followed by the city as a machine to host people.

in the US this development was heavily supported by the automobile industry (see the post on GM at the 1939 world fair). with the use of personal vehicles everybody would be able to live in their own house far from nasty working environments. shopping and other services would be conveniently located but on safe distance from the home. recreation facilities would be present in close relations to housing.

this futuristic dream would have been all good, if everybody as ok with spending a 2 hrs commute every day, and if gas for all the cars would be cheap and readily available (not to say safe for the environment).

the dream of GM did come true faster than anybody could imagine. supported by billions of dollars put by the us government into building highways and home mortgages.

today problems are rising. cost of gas has skyrocketed. the environmental impact of traffic calls for denser building. people are getting tired of commuting and paying a lot for fuel and electricity. their conscience is telling them to take actions to spare nature.

childhood dreams

my dream as a teenager that i often discussed with my high school boyfriend was to live in a building (in central Stockholm) that had a 7-11, a bakery and a gym in the same building / block. the 7/11 or any other convenience store would be open 24/7 and allow me to buy milk whenever i needed to, we could buy fresh bread from the bakery every morning and having a gym in the same building would make it convenient to do your exercise every day.

the workplace would be ideally about 5 minutes walk from home and there would be plenty of restaurants and bars around for leisure.

this is where i am coming from and where my perception of the ideal city still stands. it is what i am trying to accomplish with my work and why i am doing it. i truly believe that making this dream true for more people would give us more free time to spend among our friends and families whichever way we choose. i think that people would get to know each other more and be able to enjoy each others company.

urban planning in the US

some parts of this project will need a certain degree of common ideas/information that i just realized everybody does not share with me. even architects and other highly educated people in this country knows what the main difference of a typical European city is compared to a typical American city, and many others have never thought about it.

this is the common conception of the European city VS the American city:
old world city is denser and more compact than it's American counterpart. the American city have more people traveling individually in cars and the European city have a greater degree of functioning public transportation and more people walking and biking. since the European city is denser and have less (auto) traffic it is also friendlier to walk and bike in. distances are not as big and roads are not constantly cut off by fast moving vehicles.

the typical American city have a great share of suburbs with low density housing, and some high and low density businesses (office towers / strip malls). the downtown (inner city area) has high density office buildings (skyscrapers) and may have some high or very high density housing.

European cities have suburbs with high and low density housing and a city centre, usually bigger than the American downtown, that contains mixed used buildings as well as some single use buildings in a mixed use area.

over all american city contains few mixed used areas, and almost no mixed used buildings.

my first design that is beeing built

photo courtesy of Marit (Archus Arkitekter)

everybody go to Arboga and check out the new cool army warehouse in the making. the warehouse is the biggest structure being built in Sweden for years (area) and will cover about 60 000 sqm. the part on the picture rises 20 m over ground level.

design for temporary solutions

design for home

design for mobility

china

found out last night (Aug 7) that China has blocked my blog from viewing. even if i am tempted to think that the content of this blog is radical enough to give a reason for this, i do realize that china has blocked the full content of all the .blogspot /blogger blogs, one of the worlds biggest blog communities.

i have a few friends who lives in China, but it is especially disturbing since one of my fellow thesis workers and best friends cannot see this blog. am considering changing blog hosts because of this, (don't think blogg.se is closed since Swedish sites seldom are) but will wait and see what happend during the olympics.

summer pics

my neighborhood


celebrating


connecting


listening


steering

kite power!

we are using kites to lift ourselves off the ground, so why not use them to power your appliances? would it be possible to attach solar panels on the kite material to generate even more power?

the world is still amazed by the great novel by Khaled Hosseini, and the movie that beautifully illustrated it. and who doesn't love a kite?

http://www.inhabitat.com/2008/08/05/kite-power-delft-univerity-of-technology/

GM's futurama at New York World's fair 1939

futurama was the General Motor's exhibit on the New York world's fair in 1939. it showed a big model of the (visionary) perfect society 20 years into the future. (that was 1960). today we could watch the same pictures as a complete description of most of what the country looks like today.

it is amazing how "well" the experiments turned out. it has been many years since GM admitted to have anything to do with forming our physical environment, but chances are that their role has been bigger than we know of.

the crossing point of two future motorways.

the crossing point of LBJ fwy and N Central Expressway,
Dallas, TX

here are the links to some of the clips.

part 1

part 2

garden city

the city i am in is a garden city. there are communal parks, thousands of private gardens, golf courses and tree lined streets.

it strikes me over and over again how much of Ebenezer Howards garden city is realized here in the american wild wild west. convalecent homes, colleges, childerns cottage homes, a river, lakes and forests. all is present.

the same area contains heavy industries, gas- and oil pumps, and landfills.

the big difference is the scale. Arlington has 350 370 inhabitants. the metroplex has 6 141 000 inhabitants. garden city has 32 000. still it is amazing how such a nice green place can be so dirty and inhumane at a closer look. 99 percent of the green areas are never used for anything.

mr president

watched news conference with president Bush live on tv.
one of the journalists asked why he didn't stress the importance of saving (gas, electricity etc) instead of just talking about the price. Bush answer was that he could stress the importance for people to use less energy, but in the capitalistic system they would only do it to save money. he might be right in this. even if he shouldn't say it out loud. it is only when things gets more expensive that people are really trying to save.

the whole Sunday newspaper (that i didn't get to read until yesterday) was about saving money. possibly reasonable since money is a very serious matter in this country.

higher taxes on gas and electricity would help people to save. the whole system needs to be reconstructed and peoples lives has to be changed. any effort to reach the goal of a sustainable society is good.

austin, tx

have read the books in the bibliography. some more closely than others. they are all dealing with city planning in America in the 20th century. at times it feels like everything is recorded

and thought of. still nothing is done.

gas prices are rising. saw a t-shirt yesterday with the text "beer - now cheaper than gas". everyone is talking about it (well, gas everyday - beer only on weekends :)). on the television morning show you get advice on how to save on gas, groceries, travel and so on. saving money that is. saving energy is dealt with also. although easy to avoid, there are television shows and newspaper articles on green everything. green building, green food, green remodeling.

Bibliography

Robert Brugemann. Sprawl.

Duany, Plater-Zyberk, Speck. Suburban Nation – the Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of the American Dream.

Jane Jacobs. The Death and Life of Great American Cities.

Spiro Kostof. The City Shaped: Urban patterns and Meanings Through History.

Dolores Hayden. A field guide to sprawl.

Ada Louise Huxtable. The Unreal America – Architecture and Illusion.

Peter Katz. the New Urbanism: Toward an Architecture of Community.

Safdie Kohn. The City After the Automobile.

Venturi, Scott Brown, Izenour. Learning from las Vegas.


to be revised..