Urban and Rural Planning

Grok Headline matches for Urban and Rural Planning

Rural internet usage differs from urban:
new Pew study

Rural internet usage differs from urban:
new Pew study 03/06/2004 01:55 AM

Rural Areas and the Internet , a new research study from the Pew Internet and American Life project , explores emergent similaries and differences between urban and rural internet cultures. Rural internet users tend to be slightly older than their urban counterparts, use machines outside the home and have fewer choices of internet service provider ( ISP ) to connect.

Notably ,

[w]hile the differences are not gaping, rural users are less likely than urban and suburban users to have bought a product online, made a travel reservation, or done their banking online. Even rural users who have been online a few years or more are still less likely to have ever performed transactions over the Web than their urban and suburban counterparts.

Urban planning lessons from southern
Maine

Urban planning lessons from southern
Maine 06/19/2004 04:52 PM

I'm just back from four nights in Naples, Maine.  This town is in the Sebago Lakes region northwest of Portland and it provides a vivid demonstration of the power of urban planning.  Nearly every small town in Latin America is built around a central plaza where the citizens gather at various hours to meet friends, play chess, etc.  Small streets radiate from the plaza and hold additional shops and restaurants.  Any highway with heavy traffic is typically at least 5 or 10 blocks from the plaza.  In Naples and all of the surrounding towns, by contrast, there really aren't any streets except to provide access to private houses.  A "town" is defined by the intersection of two busy state highways.  All of the public facilities of the town such as shops, schools, hotels, and restaurants are built along the highways near the intersection.  Thus if you're not in a private home you're within 25 feet of a 18-wheeler truck going 50 mph.

The handful of locals whom I met reported that despite living in the area for 20 years or more they'd not made too many friends and had a hard time meeting people.  You very seldom ran into a friend serendipitously.  If you belonged to the Lions Club or had a kid in the school you might meet at a planned activity but that was about it for social life.

(In case you're curious as to why I wanted to spend four nights at the intersection of two busy state highways it was to add a Single-Engine Seaplane rating to my Commercial pilot's certificate.  The process consisted of about 100 practice takeoffs and landings on various lakes in a 1946 Piper Cub on floats, followed by a checkride with an FAA examiner.  Sadly I won't be able to do much with this rating.  Due to the fact that seaplanes combine all of the hazards of boats and airplanes in one machine the insurance is almost 10X the cost of what you pay for the same plane on wheels.  A rental seaplane is an uninsurable risk and therefore there are almost no places in the U.S. where you can rent a seaplane and head off without an instructor.)

Research And Markets: Fixed-Line
Teledensities In The South Pacific
Island Region Are Still Comparatively
Low, With Large Differences Between
Urban And Rural Areas Where Coverage Is
Usually Poor

Research And Markets: Fixed-Line
Teledensities In The South Pacific
Island Region Are Still Comparatively
Low, With Large Differences Between
Urban And Rural Areas Where Coverage Is
Usually Poor 12/22/2004 01:50 AM
Research and Markets (researchandmarkets.com/reports/c11218) has announced the addition of 2005 South Pacific Islands - Telecoms, Mobile and Broadband to their offering. [PRWEB Dec 20, 2004]

Three Digital Technology Entrepreneurs
Collaborate to Stimulate Math and
Science Learning in Urban Areas with the
Urban Video Game Academy

Three Digital Technology Entrepreneurs
Collaborate to Stimulate Math and
Science Learning in Urban Areas with the
Urban Video Game Academy 06/05/2005 10:52 PM
Digital Arts & Technology Learning Center announces the Urban Video Game Academy at E3. The newly formed private non-profit organization will use the video game development model to enhance math and science performance in school-age students across the US. [PRWEB May 20, 2005]

Planning Portal signs up Sheffield City
Council to accept planning applications

Planning Portal signs up Sheffield City
Council to accept planning applications 06/08/2004 04:08 AM
PublicTechnology.net Jun 8 2004 8:43AM GMT

Urban birdcalls

Urban birdcalls 02/10/2004 02:55 AM
On my way back to the office after lunch, I heard a whistle from far down the street. A second later, I heard another. Whistle after whistle sounded, each closer than the next. It was only when I saw a man in uniform checking the parking meters down the block that I also noticed several whistling men heading for their not-so-legally parked delivery trucks....

Another Urban Legend

Another Urban Legend 12/19/2004 03:55 PM
I got the following from a family member today: Starting Jan 1, 2005, all cell phone numbers will be made public to telemarketing firms. So this means as of Jan 1, your cell phone may start ringing off the hook...

Urban archaeologist

Urban archaeologist 06/16/2004 10:20 AM
Julia Solis is the intrepid explorer behind Dark Passage, a magnificent Web site showcasing the urban ruins of New York City and elsewhere. An abandoned hospital, a deserted jail, a hollow subway tubes... all are subjected to Soils's "exercises in forensic archaeology." Smithsonian magazine recently published a profile of Solis:

"These places contain the residue of the many souls that have passed through over the years," she says. "The less a place has been explored, the better, because the air hasn't been diluted and the soul marks are fresh."

Link

"The urban maze"

"The urban maze" 08/22/2004 04:11 AM

Urban Shadow

Urban Shadow 07/18/2004 06:59 AM
New spark in project!

Alliance Against Urban 4x4s

Alliance Against Urban 4x4s 04/17/2005 03:22 PM
Alliance against Urban 4x4s (SUVs) Facts, figures and references covering the environment, safety issues, bull bars, and possible new taxes.

Re-thinking urban car journeys

Re-thinking urban car journeys 04/16/2005 05:34 AM
An automated car rental system could help reduce traffic congestion in big cities.

Is Privacy an Urban Myth?

Is Privacy an Urban Myth? 01/27/2004 10:17 AM
Howard Dean seems to be on record as stating that citizens should be required to use a government-issued ID before they can log on to the Internet. He also seems to say that PC manufacturers should be required to add card-readers to all of their PC products to facilitate this. Read for yourself and draw your own conclusions.

Best.. Urban... Exploration.. Site..
EVER.

Best.. Urban... Exploration.. Site..
EVER. 05/23/2004 12:15 AM
You've probably seen Modern Ruins, Forgotten New York, and even Lost America... but have you seen the abandoned island of G unkanjima? [via Boing Boing]

Urban Cowboys and Car Insurance

Urban Cowboys and Car Insurance 06/25/2004 01:52 PM
Fake farmers are getting a dishonest discount -- and city drivers are paying the price.

The State of Urban Wireless

The State of Urban Wireless 06/14/2004 10:09 AM

Urban legend diffusion

Urban legend diffusion 08/23/2004 04:46 AM

Mizuka just asked me if I had heard about some guy who was busted for making tons of money trading stocks who claims to be a time-traveler. The story was that he would show them the time-machine if they let him go. She said her Japanese friends were talking about it. I laughed and checked Google News with an assortment of keywords with no results. I wandered over to #joiito . Soon enough nichlas came up with a link to a WWN article from March, 2003 about the story. Just as I was wondering if this was something to blog about, KevinMarks page-slapped us with the snopes.com entry from April 2003 debunking the story.

I would really love to see the path that this silly story took over the last 1 1/2 years to get from WWN to me via the Japanese girls gossip network.

Comment - TrackBack

Another urban legend debunked

Another urban legend debunked 11/05/2003 01:49 AM
ESA astronaut, Pedro Duque writes "I am writing these notes in the Soyuz with a cheap ballpoint pen. Why is that important? As it happens, I've been working in space programmes for seventeen years, eleven of these as an astronaut, and I've always believed, because that is what I've always been told, that normal ballpoint pens don't work in space... and here I am, it doesn't stop working and it doesn't 'spit' or anything. Sometimes being too cautious keeps you from trying, and therefore things are built more complex than necessary." From Snopes: Fisher spent over one million dollars in trying to perfect the ball point pen before he made his first successful pressurized pens in 1965, which NASA uses. [via GearBits]

Wired 11.04: Sub-Urban Renewal

Wired 11.04: Sub-Urban Renewal 03/15/2003 05:59 AM
Colonizing Down Under (the Earth) .. Wired 11.04: Sub-Urban Renewal .. building underground .. underground

track this site | 9 links

- Internet for rural

- Internet for rural 09/03/2004 02:29 AM
Xinhua News Agency Sep 3 2004 6:27AM GMT

Rural Appalachia still needs a

Rural Appalachia still needs a 07/26/2004 10:52 AM
Backyard Third World

John F. Kennedy saw it and pronounced it a shame on our nation. Lyndon B. Johnson tried to change it. The "compassionate conservatives" have exacerbated it. I wanted to share it with you. Isn't it time for real change? Hasn't the exploitation of this place and these people gone on long enough?

Wireless goes rural

Wireless goes rural 07/15/2004 05:29 AM
USA Today Jul 15 2004 9:15AM GMT

Stylish digs for urban chickens

Stylish digs for urban chickens 04/14/2004 10:31 AM
You won't find any subservient chickens in these future-forward poultry housing units. Designed so that city-dwelling humans can add a little bokbok to their daily lives, the eglu may just be "the world's most stylish and innovative chicken house and [a] perfect way to keep chickens as pets."
Link

Councils 'fail on urban sprawl'

Councils 'fail on urban sprawl' 06/28/2004 01:29 PM
Countryside campaigners name English councils they say are missing targets to limit urban sprawl.

Urban parks come to life (USATODAY.com)

Urban parks come to life (USATODAY.com) 08/06/2004 05:53 AM
USATODAY.com - To a casual observer, the 4-acre tract of grass, kudzu, live oaks and mulberry trees is merely a patch of green in a city without very many. But to residents of Cabbagetown, a century-old neighborhood being reshaped by gentrification, the site represents a hard-won dream: a new neighborhood park.

Identifying Hoaxes and Urban Legends

Identifying Hoaxes and Urban Legends 05/19/2004 04:30 PM

Anthony Townsend on urban wireless

Anthony Townsend on urban wireless 07/07/2004 12:48 PM
Grassroots Wi-Fi activist Anthony Townsend, co-founder of NYCwireless and Wireless Commons, has published a new article in the architecture journal Praxis. The paper is called "Digitally Mediated Urban Space: New Lessons for Design." From Anthony's blog:

"I sought to lay out the way I've been thinking about the rapid and sometimes chaotic introduction of four classes of digital technology into urban space (wireless, GPS/positioning, GIS, and displays). I investigate these trends in four cases: Times Square and Union Square in New York, Tokyo's Shibuya Crossing, and Seoul's proposed Digital Media City."

L ink (via Howard Rheingold's journal on TheFeature)

Red tape hinders urban renewal

Red tape hinders urban renewal 07/28/2004 10:08 PM
Bureaucracy and 'unfair' taxation hamper the use of historic buildings in regeneration schemes, says a new report.

The Urban Geek As A Mugger Magnet?

The Urban Geek As A Mugger Magnet? 05/30/2004 07:02 PM

Family Dollar's Urban Shift

Family Dollar's Urban Shift 06/24/2004 02:45 PM
Its expansion into urban markets gives the company a renewed focus.

Computer Myths And Urban Legends

Computer Myths And Urban Legends 06/28/2004 01:18 PM
Seems like a fairly slow Monday morning, but PC World has put out their own version of Snopes-style urban-myth debunkings for a variety of technology legends that (for the most part) just aren't true at all. So, stop worrying about magnets getting near your PC and feel free to yank out USB cables (as long as no data is going over them) without "stopping" the devices first.

Chicken Eglu For Urban Egg Wranglers

Chicken Eglu For Urban Egg Wranglers 04/14/2004 11:57 AM
JOEL JOHNSON -- For those that want that fresh chicken butt taste without leaving the house, the Omlet Eglu is the "world's most stylish and innovative chicken house." For a little under $600, Omlet will provide an Eglu, two chickens, feed and more--everything you need to raise your own chickens...

Urban farmers reclaim Detroit

Urban farmers reclaim Detroit 12/11/2003 09:39 AM
In Detroit, urban farmers, frustrated with buying their groceries at Party Stores now that the grocery chains have largely pulled out of the city, have begun to reclaim Detroit's vast empty spaces for grow-your-own operations, complete with livestock and tractors.

After decades of blight, large swathes of Detroit are being reclaimed by nature. Roughly a third of this 139-square-mile city consists of weed-choked lots and dilapidated buildings. Satellite images show an urban core giving way to an urban prairie.

Rather than fight this return to nature, Mr. Weertz and other urban farmers have embraced it, gradually converting 15 acres of idle land into more than 40 community gardens and microfarms — some consuming entire blocks.

Link

Rural internet options

Rural internet options 06/05/2005 11:47 PM

There's a possibility that I'm going to be spending some time in a rural area with no DSL or cable over the next few months and I need high speed internet access to work on kottke.org while I'm there. I've investigated various options, but there are so many pros, cons, and unknown factors to weigh that it's hard make a choice. Here's the list:

• Dialup - Cheap, but way too slow. Not really an option.
• Two-way satellite internet - I've heard bad things about this, but it's been available for awhile now so I'd guess it's not completely useless. The latency sucks, but there's no way to get around it and I'm not a gamer so how bad can it be? Do I go with Direcway or Starband or GroundControl or are there other companies? I've heard stories that some services throttle bandwidth or charge per GB. Also kind of expensive. Gotta sign year+-long contracts. Does it work in bad weather?
• Phone company says that we're out of range for DSL, but get the DSL modem anyway and see if it works. As suggested here. Anyone done this?
• Get the phone company to drop a DSL-ready line from the trunk to the house. This is probably expensive (how much?) and would take time to convince the phone company to do.
• T1 line. Expensive. $600/mo? Probably more.
• Wifi antenna pointed towards a wireless access point somewhere in DSL land. Downsides: don't know anyone in surrounding DSL land, possible line-of-sight issues.
• Run cable coax from nearest cable subscriber's house several miles away. Absurd. Included only for the sake of completeness.

Does anyone have any personal experience with any of this? Any recommendations or helpful pointers? Satellite internet seems like the best option, but looking around at the available services, it seems expensive and just generally like the service they offer is kind of "my way or the highway" and generally makes me uneasy and unclean. Many thanks in advance for anything you can offer.

(with comments)

Rural education under spotlight

Rural education under spotlight 07/25/2004 04:20 AM
Delegates from across Europe gather on Skye for a six-day conference on preserving education in rural areas.

RSS: Rural Stewardship Scheme

RSS: Rural Stewardship Scheme 11/16/2003 07:25 PM
And more.

Rural Areas and the Internet

Rural Areas and the Internet 02/19/2004 06:14 AM
Rural Areas and the Internet
http://ww w.pewinternet.org/reports/toc.asp?Report=112

There has been steady penetration of the Internet into rural areas in recent years and more than half of rural
adults -- 52% -- now go online. However, a corresponding rise in the percentage of urban and suburban residents going online has left a persistent gap between rural areas and the rest of the country. Some 67% of urban residents and 66% of suburbanites are online. A new study by the Pew Internet & American Life Project finds that the gap is probably tied to the fact that rural residents as a group earn less and are older than their urban and suburban counterparts.

Rural Folk May Yet Get Broadband

Rural Folk May Yet Get Broadband 04/17/2004 04:51 AM
In the latest effort to bring high-speed Internet access to rural areas, the FCC proposes letting wireless service providers share airwaves currently used by satellites and radar. Satellite companies hasten to protect their slice of the spectrum. By Elisa Batista.

Urban stars headline Royal event

Urban stars headline Royal event 05/08/2004 04:08 PM
US stars Beyonce and Jay-Z are set to perform at the Prince's Trust Urban Music Festival.
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Urban and Rural Planning