Category: History

  • Feeding the Sun Corridor: Exploring Arizona’s Zero Sum Game

    Feeding the Sun Corridor: Exploring Arizona’s Zero Sum Game

    Perceptions of Sustainability Sustainability is the paradigm of our age.i Architects, urban planners, real estate developers, technology companies, college campuses, food distributors, nearly everyone is doing it. Regrettably, conversation surrounding sustainability is commonly directed at one, shallow resolve: proclaiming whether something is or is not sustainable.  Use these biodegradable sponges, they’re sustainable! Don’t buy a…

  • Reforming the MTA

    Reforming the MTA

    Please feel free to view my Capstone: Bridging the Transportation Finance Gap: Planning Beyond Boundaries for a Connected 21st Century Please also feel free to view my Senior Honors Thesis: (Re)New Your City, New York City: Transporting Transformation Hubs New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) is constantly running trains, but it is also constantly running…

  • Ten Arcane Facts About New York City

    Ten Arcane Facts About New York City

    1,     Beavers on New York City Seal:   New York City seal has two beavers between the arms of a windmill denoting that the city was founded by Dutch fur traders. The date on the city seal had been 1664 when Dutch surrendered the city to British. In 1974 the City Council decided to change the…

  • Enabling Communities to Build Their Own Plazas

    Enabling Communities to Build Their Own Plazas

      All over the country more and more cities are catching on to the idea that public space can be created quickly and cheaply; expensive master plans are becoming a thing of the past. Typically a community partner—a business improvement district or non-profit community organization—can apply through the municipality to transform an excessive roadway into…

  • Ameraissance of Transportation Finance

    Ameraissance of Transportation Finance

      “New York never stops. From morning-rush commuters to late-night club-goers, from school children on subways to seniors on buses, millions of people rely on the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) to get them through their daily lives. Without a robust and well-maintained network of railroads, subways, bus routes, bridges, and tunnels, New York as we…

  • On the Map by Simon Garfield (Book Review)

    On the Map by Simon Garfield (Book Review)

    (This book was first reviewed here by Jeffrey Barke in April 15, 2013.  This is a second review). To satisfy our curiosity and wanderlust humans need two things, new modes of transportation and maps. Our proclivity to chart and map the world around us can be traced back to Babylonians, who divided a circle into 360 degrees, which…