Island Press Field Notes

Americans have a love-hate relationship with zoning. When we need a permit to do something new with our land or buildings it seems like a bureaucratic maze that takes far too long to navigate. But when our neighbor wants to do something new and different with her land we want notice ahead of time – and maybe a meeting or hearing so we can object to it. Planners and “zoners” live with this tension every day. Whether you want zoning and land use permits to go fast or slow depends a lot on whether you are the applicant or the neighbor.

Austin’s streetcar proposal has been burning up the transit headlines recently, and for good reason. After years of planning, the first leg of the route has finally come into focus, ready for approval. But there is contention. Not so much with the route choice, but whether Austin needs a streetcar in the first place. As to be expected, most of the objection is coming from motorists; folks who simply cannot imagine themselves using transit.

On May 4, at the Living Futures conference in Portland, I had the great pleasure of hearing a keynote by the uproarious Carol Sanford.

One might assume that when a government agency awards a private company a contract to do construction work - for bridge or sewer work or other public utility repairs, for example - evaluating the company's safety and health record would be a prerequisite. This is, however, not the case. As the government watchdog organization Public Citizen details in a new report, numerous government contracts have been awarded to companies with chronic poor health and safety records.