Urban Gardening: New York

Hhere's a look at some urban gardening that's going on around the US.


NYT featured a nice article about rooftop gardens with fun photos. --->
Image via Andrew Wilson, NYT





New York Sun Works has an impressive cadre of worker bees bringing fresh food to the rooftops, office buildings, and yes rivers of New York. In 2007 they launched a carbon-neutral river barge/greenhouse that grows veggies and hosts visitors to learn about hydroponic horticulture and alternative fuels. Sun Works also has interests in a myriad of projects related to vertical greenhouses & sustainable engineering. Their technology focuses on hydroponics, a growing method I'm not crazy about when it comes to "big picture" food production. On the other hand, the diversification of methods, and the experimentation is hugely important -- and it looks like they're working in a thorough and thoughtful manner. They have a cool lookin' brochure here.

Although, if we're counting looks, I'd say that this Uros community did a better job on Lake Titicaca, and they didn't even need solar panels...

Nominate Someone! Boston Youth Leadership Award

Boston seeks to nominate youth leaders for multi-cultural award. Read below for quoted text:

“We Are Boston”
Youth Leadership Awards:

"Do you know a New Bostonian resident or an individual, under 21 years old, whose parents are immigrants, who deserves a special recognition? The Office of New Bostonians is looking for a young person who has the perseverance, courage and idealism of a New Bostonian. The nominee must have made significant contributions to empower his/her community, demonstrated cultural pride or promoted cross-cultural understanding/collaboration and be an inspiration to his or her peers."

Nomination Form Here
Nomination Deadline: June 30 (extended)

Why is this important? This is an incentive from the City of Boston to encourage youth from diverse family backgrounds to take an active role in re-imagining and creating the community of their hopes and dreams. It asserts that Boston's success is tied to the active participation of all residents, and that youth from different cultural backgrounds have something special to bring to the table when it comes to community engagement. It creates a positive reward for the recipient, but more importantly, it sends a message to the recipient's peers about what their larger community/city expects and rewards. This is a direct request from the City that respects and recognizes the individual's unique identity and background as a desired component of community development.

Send your nominations!

Election in Iran

This is a video of an election protest in Iran from June 17, after the June 13 election. Most of the US media images of the election have shown rioting and shouting, but this one is silent. It's amazing to see such an enormous group of humanity standing silently for something bigger than themselves. You can see the progression of protests in a collection of first-person videos. I am humbled by the passion and perseverance.

Bogota: Paths for Sustainability

PBS did a series in 2007 called E2 Design (I don't have TV, so my mom just sent me the link almost two years later...) about design solutions for sustainability. One of their shows was about Bogota and the things that a developing, cash-strapped, recently violent city is doing to be a model for sustainability. This story also reminds us of the power of education: The city's mayor took the sustainability discussion he learned from the U.S. and combined it with values from his community.

You can watch the video online.

Urban Gardening: Chicago

Small Steps: Walkable Times Square

See:
photo: Damon Winter/The New York Times

Read: Times Square Closes To Traffic (NYT Article)

Learn: NYCDOT's Strategic Transportation Plan

Liveable Streets Contest Winners

image from www.good.is

GOOD's contest to get re-visioned plans for liveable streets has announced the winners. Great visual explanations that are easy to understand. Click the picture to go to their site.

Winner of World Bank Climate Change Documentary

Winner of the World Bank Micro-Documentary Contest
Social Dimensions of Climate Change

Flood Children of Holdibari


Bangladeshi kids make an educational group to teach their community about how to stay safe during flooding.

Get Rich Quick: Hip Hop Gasping

My heart tells me, that this is not what graf was supposed to become:

image from Carmichael Gallery on Flickr
Uhhhh. An "urban art" show titled "Get Rich Quick"? Gross. Come on artists, what about something more "hip hop" themed like "Get Rich or Starve Tryin." Or does 50 Cent have copyright on that? What's killing me is that I really used to like you guys. You all were my last little hope that winning at life doesn't mean materialism, but you get a show in a beautiful gallery and this is what they name it? Swoon -- when you pieced those boats together with your friends, was it really to have your name joined with Shepard Fairey? Ick. Your work is BEAUTIFUL! And I thought those projects meant something about having a community. KAWS, maybe you could get a collaboration going with Damien Hirst. When you were cooking wheatpaste in your kitchen, was it really with dreams of a big house in the suburbs with expensive leather sofas? And Banksy, come on! What about all of that the social commentary? Was that really all about making money? Really?

YES! artists should get paid for their work. I've seen my mom lugging supplies and plywood enough to know that you have to have your heart and soul and body in it to stay in the game. But the title of the show is just repulsive considering what street art used to be at its inception, and what I thought it was all about. I thought it was about adding beauty, commentary, and creativity to public spaces that everyone else had thrown away. I thought it was about engaging with the community and grabbing people out of their haze and back into their environment. There's also a solo show at the same time by Brazilian artist Thais Beltrame coincidentally entitled "When all the stars are gone." Interesting.

What's making me bite my tounge a little is that this gallery shows gobs and gobs of ridiculously talented visual artists. So my qualm is not with the gallery, it's with the "artists" who are going to add a show called "Get Rich Quick" to their credentials. Bleh.

Maybe I just don't understand the deeper artistic meaning that the title is trying to bring to contemporary art. Maybe I'm not appreciating the irony (which, itself would be ironically ironic??). Or maybe, this what the Splasher (remember him/her?) was trying to make a statement about -- if you're going to let street art be synonymous with materialism, instead of opposed to it, all you're posting around the neighborhood are unpaid advertisements for materialism, not public art.

Public Karaoke in London

Thousands of people sing karaoke together in London.

VIDEO HERE

Here's a fun, free time for a lot of city dwellers of all ages to hang out together and participate in something that makes them smile. Interactive engagement, especially in fun, creative things that everyone can do is a great way to get people to enjoy living in their city. Nice.

It's a bit on the commercial side -- since the hosting telecommunications company will use the video footage to make commercials & promotions, but I'll take it.