When we launched the site in 2009, we sought to train a spotlight on the nation’s pitted roads, rotting pipes and warped rails. Infrastructure – as much as you could ever say this – was hot. Lawmakers were poised to pump billions of taxpayer dollars into “shovel-ready projects” through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (widely known as “The Stimulus”). America was, we noted, under construction.

Since then, we have covered the rebirth and slow death of high-speed rail, the insanity of New York’s bike lane debates and advocated hilariously unpopular (but sensible) positions such as raising the gas tax and fighting the free parking problem. But often, our most popular posts celebrated the built environment – from swerve of road to bend of pipe and, most especially, the demolished Central Stations of yesteryear.

Infrastructurist alumni have gone on to great things. Founding editor Jebediah Reed is the enterprise editor at the iPad news source The Daily and Melissa Lafsky recently became editor of Newsweek’s iPad app. Writer Eric Jaffe, meanwhile, has stayed close to the subject matter and is a contributing writer at The Atlantic Cities to feed his book-writing habit.

Now that our main contributors have departed, it is time to pass the torch of infrastructure blogging to our successors at The Atlantic and elsewhere. Fare well.

The Publishers

If you have any questions about The Infrastructurist, please contact Matthew Van Dusen.

Image: Main Con­course, Penn Sta­tion, New York City, ca. 1911.

What are some of the trends you see in smart buildings today?

We talk a lot about smarter cities, but really smarter buildings are the building blocks of our smarter cities because they’re just such a great intersection point for not only a lot of the smart sensor technology and advanced building management systems, but they also connect the smart grid to smart meters. Buildings also often serve as a hub for smarter transportation, healthcare and emergency response. So a lot of the projects I’ve been working on are starting in the neighborhood level. What’s cool is when you take a number of buildings and group them together and think about them more as a neighborhood or ecosystem, you start to look at things differently. If you can accomplish something at the neighborhood level, you can start to chunk it out at a city level.

The second trend you’ve forecast for 2012 is x-ray vision, where you get a new outlook into office and residential functions. What’s that about?

It’s just all about more transparency into office or residential space. Like how much water and energy you’re using at any given moment versus looking in the rear-view mirror at the end of the month with an energy bill. [Another is] being able to see you what you’re using on a task versus the energy average of that task or what other community members are using. We all know that when you get that visibility or transparency, that drives behavior change and also drives a little bit of our natural, competitive nature in terms of being in the top group of energy users as opposed to the bottom group. We’ve seen a lot of advances in that, from new types of thermostats and meters that are much more fun to use as well as providing the information [about how much energy is being used].

The third trend is labeled “Beyond Parking” and applications that use data and a city’s “Internet of Things“. Can you elaborate about that a little?

With all this proliferation of smart sensors and processors that exist now in buildings and cities, we’re starting to see a lot more apps being developed around the information that you can get, just like the app StreetLine in Califronia that’s helping drivers find parking spots instead of circling around looking for them. This “Internet of Things” connected to the Web arms people with the information to really change the way they live and live in a more responsible manner. So what are the services you are looking for and how to better connect with them? But people are really the most intelligent and smart sensors because a smarter building is really defined best I think from a person’s point of view who’s living in it. And the building is to provide a really workplace or reliable residence for the person so when they see things that aren’t contributing to that or are taking away from that, they can report it on an app and the more people report on certain issues, the higher the priority in getting it resolved, as opposed to the old way of just trying to call in a maintenance person and getting on some maintenance list. This [new way] is much more interactive and real-time. That technology has really been an enabler, but people are the real change-agent.

And the fourth trend you see is that managers of buildings can choose from a menu of options of which energy to supply their buildings with. How does that work?

Thomas Friedman [has used] the term the Energy Internet. As we start to build out more solar, wind-power and geothermal and make it available on a grid basis, building managers then can go to this Energy Internet and select the form of renewable energy and even select where it’s sourced from, local, national or regional level. IBM, for example, based on its commitment to sustainability, is purchasing a significant portion of its energy now from renewable sources even if it’s not the lowest price; it’s a way to contribute towards our sustainability goals. The trend that I’m seeing is people are beginning to leverage it as more and more renewables come online and get connected to these grids and the ability to purchase it and trade it more frequently. We’re seeing it not just at IBM, but at all sizes of companies and even at the residential level as well.

The last trend is that real estate management is becoming more analytical and data oriented. Can you speak about that?

In the past, buildings didn’t have that much visibility in a company’s portfolio in terms of energy costs but some of these new accounting changes that are being proposed in terms of 2012 are quite game-changing in that they’re really going to make these buildings and the costs of running them quite visible on the balance sheet. Companies have a lot of pressure on their quarterly reports and earnings-per-share to show a good profit versus expense, and as the buildings become more visible in terms of the expense items on their balance sheet, companies are going to pay a lot more attention to lowering the costs of those assets. Energy costs in buildings are really the second biggest operating expense after payroll but they just haven’t had this kind of visibility before.

What are some of the challenges you face in smarter buildings?

What this is all about is taking IT technology and applying it to physical infrastructure that in the past didn’t leverage a lot of these IT technologies. So for a lot of the owners, operators and managers of these buildings, this is a new way for them to think about their buildings. The challenge is to help people become more familiar with the capabilities and comfortable with using technology to improve the efficiency and lower the emissions and energy usage and contribute to their bottom line. Another challenge I face is some of the building owner-operators that lease out space just pass the energy cost on to the leasees so they’re not as motivated as the tenants of the building are. And you can’t go to a tenant in a building and get them to implement a system [for their whole building]. And that’s been a challenge not only for IBM, but for people like Mayor Bloomberg who’s trying to implement such programs across the majority of buildings in Manhattan.

Daniel Lippman is on Twitter and can also be reached at dlippman@gwmail.gwu.edu

Image: WordPress.com

• In his “State of the State” address on Wednesday in Albany, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo proposed to build a major convention center at the Aqueduct in Queens. (NYT)

• Cuomo also urged that a New York Works fund be created to “leverage” $15 billion so that the state can “improve or replace more than 100 bridges…build a new Tappan Zee Bridge [and] repair 2,000 miles worth of roads.” (NY.gov)

• In a letter on Wednesday, nine California Democratic on Wednesday called for a “comprehensive” General Accountability Office review of the funding sources that underpin California’s high-speed rail project. (House.gov)

• The man suspected of setting those string of 50 car arsons in Los Angeles last weekend could face up to life in prison. (LAT)

• A new website called ChicagoShovels aims to give residents a real-time map of their city’s approximately 300 snowplows in action during storms so people know when to expect their neighborhoods will get plowed. (NYT)

• India’s new class of wealthy entrepreneurs and businessmen are becoming eager new consumers of luxury cars, even as 500 million of their fellow citizens live on less than $1.25 a day. (Reuters)

• Boeing announced on Wednesday that it plans to close a major defense plant in Wichita, Kansas, by the end of 2013, in a move that will cost the jobs of 2,160 workers. (AP) (WichitaEagle)

• At least 25 people were killed and dozens were buried on Thursday after a landslide hit a gold mine in the southern Philippines. (AP)

Daniel Lippman is on Twitter and can also be reached at dlippman@gwmail.gwu.edu

The Infrastructurist is also on Twitter

Image: Flickr

• Authorities are cleaning up the damage wrought by heavy rains and strong winds that engulfed Scotland and England on Tuesday. (Guardian)

• The man who arrested the suspect in the Los Angeles car arsons is a moonlighting volunteer deputy who makes $1 a year and whose day job is a real-estate attorney. (LATimes) (AP)

• Construction is set to begin in March on a $5.3 billion project that will build a 20-mile rail line on the Hawaiian island of Oahu. (NYT)

• GOP presidential candidates are not talking much on the campaign trail about how they would improve the nation’s transportation and infrastructure system, in a sign that anti-spending fever among primary voters is strong. (Politico)

• New Jersey commuters are evaluating their options for getting into the city after the NJ Turnpike increased some tolls by 53 percent. (NYT)

• President Obama and the Republicans begin the new year with the Keystone XL pipeline project still a hot political issue, as Obama needs to make a decision on the proposal within the next two months. (AP)

• Some rail commuters in Britain are peeved because their train fares were hiked by an average of 6 percent over the weekend. (Independent) (Independent)

Daniel Lippman is on Twitter and can also be reached at dlippman@gwmail.gwu.edu

Image: California High Speed Rail Authority

• Los Angeles police have identified the suspect they arrested in the wave of recent car arsons as 24 year-old German national Harry Burkhart, but say they are not certain of his exact motive in allegedly setting the fires. (LATimes) (AP) (NYT)

• Heavy rains and strong winds lashed the United Kingdom today and delayed trains, planes and cars for many travelers. (Guardian) (Independent) (BBC)

• A California woman is suing Honda in small claims court alleging that her Honda Civic Hybrid got much fewer miles per gallon than was promised by the company. (AP)

• Researchers in Maryland are studying which types of animals are using underground culvert storm drains to avoid the risk of getting hit by cars and becoming roadkill. (AFP)

• If states do not soon adopt and implement certain new rules regulating commercial truck drivers, they could lose a portion of federal highway funds. (AP)

• Nigerians are stopping gas stations from selling fuel to protest the government’s action over the weekend to end a subsidy program which had kept gasoline at a low price for consumers. (AP) (Reuters)

• India’s infrastructure firms need to raise much more equity to be able to better handle projects for the country’s growing economy. (Economist)

• What cities in the world top the list when it comes to having the most restaurants with Michelin stars? (HuffPost)

Daniel Lippman is on Twitter and can also be reached at dlippman@gwmail.gwu.edu

Image: Cahighspeedrail.ca.gov

• A federal tax credit to support the development of ethanol expired on Saturday after being around for more than 30 years and pumping over $20 billion in federal taxpayer money into the industry. (NYT)

• Once a town of two churches and three stores, Messex, Colorado, is now down to only two residents, who say they “get along OK”. (WSJ)

• The New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority is reducing subway service on “minor holidays”, but some straphangers are irked at having to wait longer for their trains. (NYT)

• A new regulatory rule from the U.S. Federal Railroad Administration requires passenger trains to install safer exits for people trying to escape after a crash. (Bloomberg)

• Refugees from Japan’s March 2011 tsunami disaster are facing a tough and cold winter as they struggle to rebuild their homes and towns devastated by the water. (AFP)

• Why did the Federal Emergency Management Agency mail out 83,000 debt notices in 2011 to victims of Hurricane Katrina and the other storms of 2005? (AP)

• The U.S. military is testing out green technology and energy as NATO and U.S. troops pursue their mission in Afghanistan. (NPR)

• Increases in rail fares in the UK are taking effect today, with passengers paying an average of 5.9 percent more. (Guardian)

Daniel Lippman is on Twitter and can also be reached at dlippman@gwmail.gwu.edu

Image: CMGDigital.com

• Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Thursday that traffic deaths in New York City are at a 100-year low. (NYT)

• Dana Milbank has penned an interesting column arguing that a ban against cellphone use in cars would be a bad idea for a host of reasons. (WashPost)

• Because of rising metal prices, thieves are increasing stripping monuments and electrical infrastructure in the U.K. as they take advantage of a “cash-in-hand scrap industry”. (Reuters)

• An article says that adding fencing around the U.S.-Mexico border is not effective in stopping many people from illegally crossing the border. (WashPost)

• Andrew Sullivan’s blog has collected a number of incredible pictures from readers’ views from their airplane windows. (TheDailyBeast)

• Panama City’s notorious “red devil buses” are gradually becoming a thing of the past as the country shifts to a safer, but blander, transportation system. (NYT)

• On Thursday, Vermont reopened the last highway that had been destroyed by Hurricane Irene, which swept through the state in late August. (AP)

Daniel Lippman is on Twitter and can also be reached at dlippman@gwmail.gwu.edu

Image: Flickr

• Related: Conor Friedersdorf has written a good blog post saying why he fears the continued rise of “security theater” at airports and worries that it’s spreading to other modes of transport. (Atlantic)

• A “failed” road project in Ghazni province in eastern Afghanistan demonstrates the many difficulties America faces in its efforts to reconstruct and build new infrastructure that war-torn country. (McClatchy)

• Noted Harvard professor Edward Glaeser says in a new column that New York City should try to broaden its economic base beyond its currently heavy reliance on finance and Wall Street. (Bloomberg)

• China’s State Council is quietly moving ahead on plans for a massive, but controversial hydroelectric dam project near an environmentally- and wildlife-sensitive Yangtze River preserve. (NYT)

• How concerned should we be about the real estate bubbling bursting in China and the effects it will have on China’s economic growth? (ForeignAffairs)

• The city of Miami is benefitting from the millions of dollars that “free-spending” Brazilian tourists are pumping into the city every year as it becomes a vacation hot-spot for Brazilians. (NYT)

• While the debate over texting while driving can sometimes feel “academic”, the residents of one town in Missouri are acutely aware of the consequences of the human toll that distracted driving can inflict. (AP)

Daniel Lippman is on Twitter and can also be reached at dlippman@gwmail.gwu.edu

Image: Flickr

• Related: in October, Scott Pelley did a must-see (and heartbreaking) segment for CBS’ 60 Minutes on children living in cars in central Florida. (CBS)

• Afghanistan signed a major oil and natural gas contract Wednesday with a state-owned Chinese oil company which could be worth up to $700 million. (AP)

• Divers in the Hudson River are helping lay electric power cables on the bottom of the river to connect New York City to power sources from New Jersey. (NYT)

• A new report from the Chinese government blames “serious design flaws and major safety risks” for helping cause a deadly high-speed rail crash earlier this year. (AP) (Reuters)

• Wyatt Cenac of The Daily Show recently did an amusing segment looking at the problems faced by the U.S. Postal Service. (ComedyCentral)

• Why is the Megabus company asking the U.S. government to break up its major competitor Boltbus? (Bloomberg)

• Felix Salmon has written a good blog post looking at how one bank is helping those without credit or debit cards to be able to use Capital BikeShare. (Reuters)

Daniel Lippman is on Twitter and can also be reached at dlippman@gwmail.gwu.edu

Image: ACSWebNetworks

• Fueled by international aid money pouring in, a housing bubble in Kabul, Afghanistan, appears to be getting ready to burst as NATO and the U.S. gradually reduce their presence in the country. (McClatchy)

• A New York appeals court has ruled that selling swipes from an unlimited Metrocard does not qualify as larceny. (NYT)

• China unveiled during the weekend a model of an ultra high-speed train that travels at speeds up to 500 kilometers (310 miles) per hour. (AFP) (Reuters)

• J. Lynn Helms, who headed the FAA when President Ronald Reagan fired more than 11,000 striking air-traffic controllers, has died at the age of 86. (NYT)

• The worst oil spill in more than a decade off the coast of Nigeria seems to be contained, according to Royal Dutch Shell. (AP)

• Why has the city of Medellin, Colombia, just built a huge new outdoor escalator? (AP)

Daniel Lippman is on Twitter and can also be reached at dlippman@gwmail.gwu.edu

Image: MLive.com

• Both safety advocates and industry are not particularly happy with updated trucking safety rules unveiled by Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood last week. (McClatchy)

• Paul Krugman has penned a column looking at how some Republicans are reacting to the EPA’s new rules on mercury emissions from power plants. (NYT)

• An investigating panel looking into Japan’s nuclear disaster issued its preliminary report today which found much to criticize in the government’s handling of the situation. (Reuters) (AP)

• A strike by Underground workers in London today has disrupted Boxing Day travel for many residents hoping to use their city’s subway system. (Guardian)

• A travel article looks into how Brussels has become a mecca for tourists looking to satisfy their gourmet chocolate fix. (NYT)

• After a wave of criticism from immigrants’ rights groups, California is planning to stop towing unlicensed drivers. (AP)

Daniel Lippman is on Twitter and can also be reached at dlippman@gwmail.gwu.edu

Image: ClimateCentral.org

• Many ski areas across New England have been hobbled so far this winter because they lack something rather important: snow. (NYT)

• Several strong earthquakes shook Christchuch, New Zealand, today, causing some minor injuries but no deaths or much damage. (AP)

• Is the Malaysian capital city of Kuala Lumpur becoming like a southeast Asian Los Angeles in terms of sprawl? (WSJ)

• After a major oil rig sinking earlier this week that left more than 50 workers dead or missing, Russian companies operating in the Arctic may not be ready to properly handle emergencies. (AP)

• The “Tea Party” mayor of the city of Troy, Michigan, has come under criticism for rejecting $8.5 million in federal grant money to upgrade a transportation center in his town for no reason other than to protest against high federal spending and government debt. (NYT)

• From food trucks to pop-up stores, why has there been an increase in temporary architecture across the United States? (NYT Opinionator)

Daniel Lippman is on Twitter and can also be reached at dlippman@gwmail.gwu.edu

Image: Xcitefun.net

• Police officers in one Texas town are now stopping drivers but not for the usual reason: they are handing out gift cards to good drivers. (Yahoo News)

• The New York Metropolitan Transit Authority set its $12.6 billion budget on Wednesday which doesn’t include fare increases or service cuts for 2012. (NYT)

• British Airways has beat out Virgin Atlantic Airways to win as many as 56 new daily takeoff and landing slots at the congested Heathrow Airport. (Bloomberg)

• Europe’s highest court said Wednesday that a highly-contested European Union law that charges airlines a fee on carbon emissions is legal. (Reuters) (NYT) (Reuters)

• Chicago is planning on setting up a new public recreation park of 140,000 acres that if completed, will be the largest urban park in the lower 48. (AtlanticCities)

• Hollywood’s City Council may be on the verge of approving new zoning regulations that would allow much bigger and taller buildings to be constructed. (LAT)

Daniel Lippman is on Twitter and can also be reached at dlippman@gwmail.gwu.edu

Image: Flickr

• A small plane headed to Georgia crashed on a major highway in New Jersey on Tuesday, killing all five passengers. (AP) (NYT)

• The Obama Administration announced on Tuesday that it is approving several renewable energy projects on public lands, including solar and wind farms, in several states on both coasts. (AP)

• In a sign that China is getting tougher on trade, the country is imposing new tariffs on some U.S. vehicles. (NYT)

• Around 20,000 people protested in China earlier this week to voice their opposition to the building of a new coal-fired power plant. (AP)

• After the head of the Federal Aviation Administration left his post because of a DUI arrest, who will be the next leader of the agency? A look at five possible candidates. (Politico)

• The Great Plains is cleaning up after a major snowstorm hit the region, disrupting travel and temporarily closing interstate highways in several states. (AP)

Image: Flickr

Daniel Lippman is on Twitter and can also be reached at dlippman@gwmail.gwu.edu

• Cornell University announced on Monday that it is spending $2 billion to build a science campus on Roosevelt Island off Manhattan. (NYT) (NYT)

• Electric utility company Southern California Edison is reaching out to hundreds of thousands of its customers to apologize for losing power for several days after a late November windstorm. (AP)

• An editorial chides Congress for not quickly renewing the transit benefit for public transit commuters. (WashPost)

• An op-ed article argues against building an “outer Beltway” of more highways in the DC suburbs of northern Virginia; instead the focus should be on more public transportation systems. (WashPost)

• Heavy winds and a major snowstorm has disrupted travel across several states in the nation’s Great Plains. (AP)

• On Monday AT&T officially ended its $39 billion bid to take-over its smaller rival T-Mobile after the plan ran into a buzz-saw of opposition. (AP) (NYT)

Daniel Lippman is on Twitter and can also be reached at dlippman@gwmail.gwu.edu

Image: Flickr

• An opinion article looks at why building out a high-speed rail system in the U.S. is a good way to revitalize America’s economy and reduce the use of foreign oil. (Bloomberg)

• After several years of difficulties in the international auto market, the niche Swedish automaker Saab filed for bankruptcy today. (AP)

• Time appears to be running out for 39 people missing after an oil platform that sunk in the sea off the East coast of Russia. (AP)

• New York Times reporter Matt Richtel, who wrote a groundbreaking series of articles on distracted driving, has penned an analysis piece looking at why the government is suddenly so interested in banning cell-phone use. (NYT)

• The Philippines is beginning the painful process of burying hundreds of residents killed after a massive flood over the weekend. (AP) (NYT) (AP)

• Why did plans for a light rail system in Detroit fall apart recently in favor of a Bus Rapid Transit system? (TTPolitic)

Daniel Lippman is on Twitter and can also be reached at dlippman@gwmail.gwu.edu

Image: Flickr

• A new study looks at how some poor, disenfranchised women in rural India now demand that they have access to sanitation facilities as a condition of getting married. (MarginalRevolution)

• The elevator in a midtown Manhattan office building that killed a woman on Wednesday was undergoing maintenance, according to officials. (NYT)

• The Department of Transportation announced on Thursday that it will be giving $511 million in grants to 46 transportation projects in 33 states and Puerto Rico as part of its TIGER funding program. (CNN) (DOT.gov)

• A critically important freeway in Los Angeles that closed because of a tanker explosion may open as soon as this afternoon. (LAT) (AP)

• The use of hands-free cell-phones behind the wheel is just as dangerous as regular cell-phones because the mind is focused on the conversation and not fully concentrating on the road. (AP)

• Related: how would law enforcement officers enforce such a ban on cell-phone use? (AP)

Daniel Lippman is on Twitter and can also be reached at dlippman@gwmail.gwu.edu

Image: Cahighspeedrail.ca.gov

• A blog post looks at the seeming lack of accountability in how the Federal Highway Administration deals with state DOT agencies in the projects that they fund. (Streetsblog)

• A freak elevator accident killed a woman yesterday in a Madison Avenue building in Manhattan. (NYT)

• A blog post examines the reasons why the budget of DC transport agency WMATA is often short of money. (GGW)

• Sales of helicopter tours for tourists over Las Vegas have slowed after a recent deadly crash. (AP)

• With American Airlines recently declaring bankruptcy, why does the airline own an estimated $30 million townhouse in the glitzy Kensington neighborhood of London? (Reuters)

• Even if cell-phone use behind the wheel was banned across the country, many Americans say they would disobey the ban because they are reliant on their phones for work. (AP)

Image: Flickr

• After a drunk couple was caught on Sunday having sex on a subway platform in Toronto, they were told by authorities to take their activities elsewhere. As one transit spokesman said: “I’d suggest to people, if they are deeply in love, that they find a more appropriate venue”, adding that booze “tends to loosen people’s inhibitions.”
(TorontoSun)

• The U.S. Postal Service said Tuesday that it plans on holding back on closing post office buildings around the U.S. for at least five months. (Reuters)

• A viral video shows how a passenger on a Scottish train recently forcibly threw a fare-dodger off the train. (BBC)

• Details are beginning to leak out about which projects across the U.S. will get money from TIGER grants from the U.S. Department of Transportation. (TID)

• A new study from the AAA reveals that the costs of traffic crashes on our nation’s highways and roads are more than three times greater than congestion. (AAA)

• The California High-Speed Rail Authority on Tuesday approved a hybrid route for a new HSR line from Merced to Fresno. (Merced Sun Star)

Image: Flickr

• Canada has become the first nation to pull out of the Kyoto Protocol, the treaty trying to fight climate change. (AP) (NYT)

• On Monday anti-Wall Street protestors managed to disrupt some operations at several West Coast ports, including in Portland, Oakland, and Longview, Washington. (LAT) (AP)

• New data from the Department of Transportation shows that 33 planes were stuck on the tarmac for at least three hours in October. (AP)

• Will Congress renew a tax-free benefit for employees using public transportation that is due to expire at the end of the year? (Politico)

• On Monday the House approved a critical new pipeline safety bill; the Senate plans to take up the measure next. (LAT)

• Southwest Airlines said Tuesday that it plans on buying 208 Boeing 737s valued at around $19 billion. (AP)

Image: VisitingDC.com

• Anti-Wall Street demonstrators on the West Coast are aiming to shut down docks and ports today in a protest over the power of corporations. (AP)

• The popularity of tourists visiting the Hollywood sign is leading to consternation among some local residents. (BBC)

• The Federal Transit Administration is preparing to criticize the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority for “lack of planning” in its transit projects and for not fully researching the effects on the public of bus and other cuts. (LAT)

• An economics paper looks at how high speed limits should be for drivers and examines the data behind previous increases in western states in the U.S. (MarginalRevolution)

• Some riders on the New York subway seem to be exceptionally lucky to be able to fall asleep on long commutes, but the sleep they’re getting may be pretty light. (NYT)

• An increase in gas drilling in Ohio is bringing jobs, but also environmental and health worries for some people living in the state. (AP)

Image: Flickr

• On Thursday Maryland approved a $100 million renovation of Baltimore-Washington International Airport in hopes of making the security check-in process more efficient and reducing passenger gridlock. (BaltSun)

• A new national survey released Thursday says that despite public awareness campaigns and state bans of the practice, more drivers are texting at the wheel. (AP)

• What’s the latest trend in American cities? Dog parks are proliferating in a number of urban centers. (USA Today)

• In a blog post, Scott Doyon looks at what suburbs are doing to America’s sense of community. (PlaceShakers)

• Boston’s mayor is threatening to send in the police department to clear Occupy Boston protestors from Dewey Square. (NYT)

• As climate talks in South Africa head into their final day, all eyes are on what the U.S., China and India are doing to influence the negotiations. (AP) (Reuters)

Image: Flickr

• In a congressional hearing on Tuesday, House GOP representatives criticized the Obama administration for how it’s allocating money for high-speed rail projects; they say more taxpayer dollars should instead go to the Northeast Corridor. (Politico)

• Environmental organizations like Greenpeace face a major challenge in how much to work inside the boardrooms of companies versus their traditional role of being activists. (NYT)

• The International Air Transport Association warned Tuesday that Europe’s financial problems could begin to hurt airline companies around the world if consumers are hit by a new recession. (Reuters)

• The owner of a West Virginia mine which killed 29 workers will pay $209 million to settle claims related to the blast. (NYT)

• A new independent poll says a majority of California residents are becoming more skeptical about their state’s plans for high-speed rail, as the costs continue to rise. (SFGate)

• David Levinson takes a look at the reasons why the cost of transportation projects often out-pace initial estimates. (TheTransportationist)

Image: Flickr

• The House voted Thursday to kill funds for the high-speed rail program – but the project might not be over yet. (NPR)

• In a mixed signal for the housing market, U.S. builders started slightly fewer homes in October but building permits are up, and a 30% rise in apartment permits is the highest rate in 3 years. (WaPo)

• Attorneys say a settlement between a major manufacturer of tainted Chinese-made drywall and home builders who used the product in 4 states is a significant step toward resolving problems with over 10,000 buildings damaged by the drywall. (NPR)

• 10 states took the EPA to federal court to petition the agency to release new air quality standards related to fine particles, as required under the Clean Air Act. (Governing)

• Besides increasing recreational possibilities, urban rivers could cool cities during the hottest hours of the warmer months, helping to create low-energy cities.
(GOOD)

• To rank our nation’s crowded city freeways, the 2011 top congested corridors report has been released. (SmartPlanet)

• The top 20 dirtiest cities in the United States. (Forbes)

Photo credit: Jnyemb via Flickr

• The capital city of Mongolia is planning to create an artificial urban glacier to keep cool during the summer months. (Wired)

• The European Union has issued a ban on airport x-ray machines, citing concerns about increased risks of cancer. (Gizmodo)

• The new bridge across the San Francisco bay is being built to withstand large earthquakes, and is the largest of its kind ever built. (NewScientist)

• The thirst of power plants in drought stricken areas has lead to power outages, and the problem is only expected to get worse. (NYT)

• Pouring asphalt over packed dirt rather than concrete makes roads cheap to build, but expensive to maintain, which is one reason many of our roads are in such bad shape today. (StreetsBlog)

• In pictures, twelve ingeniously designed car-free city zones from around the world. (NatGeo)

• Ever wondered who the person behind the announcement voice at airports and subway stops is? Look no further. (YouTube)

Image credit: Kimberly Vardeman via Flickr

•  2011 set a record for the number of declared disasters, and 39 states are still waiting for federal money to help rebuild their damaged roads. (Stateline)

• In a Florida neighborhood, a developer never told his clients that their houses were built over an old landfill, and now residents are scrambling to estimate the worth of their property. (TBO)

• Were the crackdowns on the Occupy protests coordinated across 18 cities? (BoingBoing)

• Across the United States, some communities are not convinced of the health benefits of fluoridated water and are persuading public officials to stop adding fluoride to the drinking water supply. (NPR)

• When can a 24 hour subway system be maintained? The transit authority of New York City is currently grappling with this quandary. (SmartPlanet)

• Across the country cities are experimenting with new ways to use social media and other tech-friendly methods to engage citizens in local issues. (AmericanCity&Country)

• After three months of flooding, people in Thailand are forced to get creative to carry on with everyday activities, and a new Tumblr blog documents their ingenuity. (ThaiFloodHacks)

Image credit: U.S. Geological Survey via Flickr

From 2007 to 2010, federal subsidies jumped to $14.7 billion from $5.1 billion, according to a recent study.

Most of the surge came from the economic stimulus bill, which was passed in 2009 and financed an Energy Department loan guarantee program and a separate Treasury Department grant program that were promoted as important in creating green jobs. …

The windfall for the industry over the last three years raises questions of whether the Obama administration and state governments went too far in their support of solar and wind power projects, some of which would have been built anyway, according to the companies involved.

These types of programs are not new. In fact government has often tried to use its resources to shape the future of certain critical industries, especially energy. But results have sometimes been lacking. In a opinion piece this weekend in The Washington Post, energy correspondent Steven Mufson writes that

The Clinch River Breeder Reactor. The Synthetic Fuels Corporation. The hydrogen car. Clean coal. These are but a few examples spanning several decades — a graveyard of costly and failed projects.

Not a single one of these much-ballyhooed initiatives is producing or saving a drop or a watt or a whiff of energy, but they have managed to burn through far more more taxpayer money than the ill-fated Solyndra. An Energy Department report in 2008 estimated that the federal government had spent $172 billion since 1961 on basic research and the development of advanced energy technologies.

What does Washington have to show for these investments? And should the government even be in the business of promoting particular energy technologies?

Bjorn Lomborg, the author of the books The Skeptical Environmentalist and Cool It, warns in a Slate article that government’s attempts to kickstart a “green” economy can sometimes lead to unintended consequences:

In Denmark, as across the developed world, politicians are promising that a transition to a greener economy can help to fix the globe’s financial mess. …
Denmark serves as a useful test of whether these leaders’ preferred policies yield the environmental and economic benefits that they promise. In tune with international enthusiasm for green energy investment, the Danish government intends to expand wind power dramatically by 2020. That is a significant gesture, but since the country is part of the European Union’s emissions-trading scheme, it will mean absolutely nothing for global CO2 emissions. It will simply make coal power cheaper in other EU countries.
Indeed, costly emission cuts in Denmark and elsewhere are likely to lead to a partial relocation of CO2 emissions to more lenient countries, such as China (where production is less climate-efficient), and thus to an overall increase in global CO2 emissions.

But before you get too depressed about the recent news about renewable energy sources, consider this recent story from Reuters. Futuristic-looking orbiting solar power plants could be a key energy source in the future:

The sun’s abundant energy, if harvested in space, could provide a cost-effective way to meet global power needs in as little as 30 years with seed money from governments, according to a study by an international scientific group.
Orbiting power plants capable of collecting solar energy and beaming it to Earth appear “technically feasible” within a decade or two based on technologies now in the laboratory, a study group of the Paris-headquartered International Academy of Astronautics said.
Such a project may be able to achieve economic viability in 30 years or less, it said, without laying out a road map or proposing a specific architecture.

Image: Flickr

A cursory glance at the numbers indicates that the rule was successful: Between May 2010 and April 2011 (the first 12 months after the time limit went into effect), airlines reported 20 tarmac delays of more than three hours, and none of the delays lasted more than four hours. By contrast, in the 12 months before the rule took effect, airlines had 693 tarmac delays of more than three hours, and 105 of those lasted longer than four hours. Fantastic! Problem solved!

Except that the solution took us straight into unintended consequences territory — now, to avoid any possibility of long delays/fines, airlines are simply canceling more flights. According to one airline analyst, “If there’s a 20% chance of [a flight being delayed long enough to incur a fine], an airline will cancel.”

Now that the first fine has been doled out — the honor went to American Eagle Airlines, which received a $900,000 fine yesterday for holding hundreds of passengers on delayed planes in Chicago — the glove has been thrown down, and airlines are taking countermeasures. This includes preemptively canceling flights that wouldn’t have wound up getting delayed, simply to avoid ever getting stuck with a fine (and the bad PR that comes with it).

Some uncertainty is inherent in air travel — when you’re dealing with a large-scale transportation system that’s vulnerable to weather changes, you’re always going to have the occasional diverted flight or five-hour delay. But the fact is that we have a tool at our disposal to fight the battle against air travel delays — it’s called Nextgen.

We’ve written about Nextgen before, but its potential can’t be overstated — it’s basically a technological transformation of modern air travel. As Chris Mims put it:

If the existing air traffic control system is operated more or less like a giant ham radio club, then NextGen is the dawning of the Internet age. Planes in the sky are part of a digital mesh network, in which every one of them can see and be seen by all the other nearby planes. They can communicate with one another without interfacing with the ground, transmitting their heading and velocity as well as a host of other information — weather, conditions, even the margin of error of their own instruments.

Giving pilots all this data lets them react to each other in real time, fly in tighter formations, stick with pre-programmed computer-plotted routes to create shorter travel times, increase overall safety, and save fuel by shifting engines to idle when approaching airports.

So why haven’t we rushed to adopt this delay-eliminating new system already? Ten points if you answered: “the costs.” The FAA has budgeted $7 billion for the full installation, $4.4 billion of which has already been spent. Plus there’s the cost to airlines of making the transition, which will be in the realm of $25 billion.Planes will need to be retrofitted with new ADS-B systems and may need new navigational systems as well.

There’s also question of who should foot the bill. While the initial investment is high, NextGen ultimately will reduce costs for the FAA, by eliminating the need for expensive radar installations and the chronically-overworked air traffic controllers who run them. All of which has led fueled an argument that the agency should foot most of the bill.

Of course, there’s a potential happy ending — by the end of 2012, all the radio receivers replacing conventional radar will have been installed in the U.S. But all those upfront costs mean that many airlines are fighting tooth and nail about implementing the most important aspects of the system. Still, as the DOT tarmac rule shows, airlines respond more to the stick than the carrot — so maybe it’s time for another regulation.

Oh, and massive airport upgrades. Those would help, too.

• The Prius X Parlee, a bicycle developed by Toyota, can shift gears when you think about shifting gears — and it could be on the road as early as 2013. (GreenAutoBlog)

• TransCanada announced its plans to re-route the Keystone XL pipeline out of the Sandhills area of Nebraska. (NPR)

•  The oil boom in North Dakota is bad news for senior citizens on a fixed income, as limited housing drastically raises rents to accommodate the influx of workers. (AP)

•  Despite economic problems in the city, Chicago’s busiest train line is getting a $646 million upgrade. (SmartPlanet)

• The National Lawyers Guild says it has obtained a court order that allows Occupy Wall Street protesters to return with tents to Zuccotti Park – and the city of New York already has plans to fight it in court. (Globe&Mail)

• The Thames Hub design by Foster + Partners may become the largest transportation hub in the world. (AtlanticCities)

• The Moses Bridge literally parts the water, allowing visitors to pass through the water in a manner consistent with its namesake. (Architizer)

Image credit: Lin Fuchshuber via Flickr

Earlier this year, government regulators abruptly idled bulldozers just as they revved up for a multi-billion-dollar energy infrastructure project. Construction stalled after officials rethought the environmental impacts of the project and discovered new dangers, even though the project had already undergone years of scrutiny.

It sounds a lot like the story of the Keystone XL pipeline, which the U.S. Department of State delayed last week over concerns that the route would damage the environmentally sensitive Sand Hills of Nebraska. But this was actually what happened in April to a cutting-edge 392-megawatt solar power project called the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System (pictured above) after government biologists discovered a larger-than-expected number of threatened desert tortoises in the area.

From an energy perspective, the two projects couldn’t be any different. The Keystone XL was going to port synthetic crude and diluted bitumen from Alberta’s much-maligned tar sands to Nebraska’s border with Kansas. Gallon for sludgy gallon, the fruit of the tar sands is probably the least popular oil in the world – it generates more carbon dioxide because it’s hard to extract. That’s why environmentalists, led by Bill McKibben, fought so hard against the project.

The Ivanpah project, on the other hand, is the anti-Keystone XL: it’s beloved by almost everyone – not least the U.S. Government, which backed the project with $1.6 billion in loan guarantees. The concentrating solar power installation – a technology that can even generate power at night – promised to power 140,000 homes in California. Utilities have already purchased the power.

What unites the two projects is the ease with which they’ve been derailed, again and again, despite exhaustive planning and review (some maintain that the Keystone XL review was “rigged”). As Michael Levi of the Council on Foreign Relations wrote in the New York Times, environmentalists who celebrated the pipeline’s demise were being myopic.

Energy experts often note that it would be impossible to recreate today’s energy infrastructure, given the intensity of opposition to pretty much any new development. The environmentalists’ victory against Keystone XL will only reinforce that judgment. But realizing their broader vision — a low-carbon economy that enhances the nation’s security and helps avoid dangerous climate change — will require defeating the same sort of local opposition that they have just embraced.

It’s an understandable impulse that all of us feel: We want to help our friends and harm our enemies. But it’s often hard to tell your friends from your enemies and what exactly constitutes “help” and “harm.”

It’s true, the Keystone XL project isn’t very appealing and oil from the tar sands is unsavory (though that oil will surely go elsewhere). But no energy project is an island – if a pipeline can be delayed and ultimately killed, then so can the Cape Wind offshore wind farm, power transmission lines that take renewable energy from the desert to cities and nuclear plants that offer zero-carbon energy. People in New Jersey even hated it when their utility company hung solar panels on their utility poles.

The Ivanpah project got back on track in June after a brief federal review found that it would not unduly harm the desert tortoise. And Keystone XL could, against the odds, still go forward. Nevertheless, the lesson for energy companies, both clean and dirty, is clear. Don’t even bother trying to build a project unless you can stomach endless delays.

Image credit: Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System/BrightSource Energy.

• The claim: cleaning up air pollution would be bad for the environment. Wait, what? (NPR)

• In the most ambitious operation yet to increase security before Rio hosts the final matches of the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympics, over 3,000 police gained control of Rio’s largest slum. (NYT)

• The Department of Transportation fined American Eagle Airlines $900,000 for the hundreds of passengers stuck for hours on tarmac delayed planes in Chicago earlier this year. (AP)

• November 19th is the TSA’s 10th birthday – should we be celebrating? (WaPo)

• As Americans hit the skies for holiday air travel later this month, an article takes a look at a FAA center in suburban Virginia which coordinates the air traffic control system to try to keep fliers and planes on time.
(McClatchy)

• A new discovery shows that a second Paris was built towards the end of the First World War in order to fool German bombers. (Telegraph)

• Two new subway stations opening in Mexico City have protective barriers between the train and the platform, but shouldn’t all subways have them? (AtlanticCities)

 Image credit: Monika Thorpe via Flickr

• In beach towns such as Malibu, residents take the law into their own hands, creating fake “no-parking” signs to dissuade visitors from parking too close to their beachfront properties. (LAT)

• Jefferson County, Ala. has filed for Chapter 9 bankruptcy protection with the largest municipal bankruptcy case in U.S. history, involving more than $4 billion of debt. (AmericanCity&Country)

• The 82 year old Ambassador bridge connecting Michigan to Canada is long overdue for a counterpart, as it’s heavily overused – the only obstacle is the 83 year old owner of the Ambassador Bridge, who wants to fund the second bridge himself.  (AtlanticCities)

• Residents in a small Kansas town blame a cement kiln for the town’s high levels of cancer. The cement kiln burns hazardous wastes for fuel and emits greater amounts of some toxic chemicals than is allowed by other hazardous-waste incinerators – and it’s totally legal. (Slate)

• The final decision on the Keystone XL pipeline has been postponed until after the 2012 presidential election. (NPR)

• Compounds used in hydraulic fracturing have been found in a Wyoming aquifer, including known carcinogens such as benzene at 50 times the level that is considered safe for people, and traces of diesel fuel. (ScientificAmerican)

• A Boeing 747-200 aircraft is tastefully up-cycled into a home in Malibu. According to the designers, the recycling of the airplane provides commentary on the wastefulness of American consumers and industries, who throw away enough aluminum in a year to rebuild the entire airplane commercial fleet of the US every three months. (Freshome)

 Image credit: Al Muya via Flickr

In an article in The New York Times recently, architecture critic Michael Kimmelman takes a broad look at the power of place:

We tend to underestimate the political power of physical places. Then Tahrir Square comes along. Now it’s Zuccotti Park, until four weeks ago an utterly obscure city-block-size downtown plaza with a few trees and concrete benches, around the corner from ground zero and two blocks north of Wall Street on Broadway. A few hundred people with ponchos and sleeping bags have put it on the map.

Kent State, Tiananmen Square, the Berlin Wall: we clearly use locales, edifices, architecture to house our memories and political energy. Politics troubles our consciences. But places haunt our imaginations.

So we check in on Facebook and Twitter, but make pilgrimages to Antietam, Auschwitz and to the Acropolis, to gaze at rubble from the days of Pericles and Aristotle.

It’s not just New York where public parks are being used to facilitate those protestors who are furious at economic inequality in the U.S. Writer Philip Kennicott spent time to observe the Occupy DC protestors at McPherson Square, one of two places in the city where the Occupy movement has taken root. He found “a vibrant brand of urbanism” present and describes it in a piece for The Washington Post:

To passersby, it is a jumble of tents and blue tarps, the iconic symbol of the displaced, the temporary, the makeshift. Set against the orderly but dull architectural backdrop of McPherson Square, the Occupy D.C. encampment is a low-slung and seemingly haphazard arrangement. But it has made this sleepy public space, used mainly by office workers and a few residents of nearby luxury condominiums, one of the busiest public squares in Washington. To use the argot of urbanism, the protesters who installed themselves at McPherson Square on Oct. 1 (and another group that has occupied Freedom Plaza a few blocks away) have done what so many planners, designers and architects strive for but fail to achieve: They have “activated” the urban core.

Whether the Occupy movement, which has taken over parks in cities across the country, fizzles or grows, whether it has resonance and can translate its message into concrete change, are political questions. But looked at solely as an aesthetic and cultural phenomenon, it has deep roots in ideas with established pedigrees in the world of art and architecture.

Along with many reporters and TV personalities, comedy TV shows have visited Zuccotti Park for their own unique take on the people who spend time there. Conan O’Brien sent his Triumph the Insult Dog to the park on a recent trip; Samantha Bee of The Daily Show paid a visit in early October. And her colleague John Oliver produced this funny segment about OWS a few weeks ago:

Image: Flickr

To see what’s at stake if we continue to allow the nation’s water infrastructure to deteriorate, we dusted off this 2009 report card from the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) which damned our dams, drinking and waste water with D’s and D minuses. It would seem out of date, if any significant action had been taken since then to fix the deficiencies. Instead, the report probably understates the case now. We also identified some emerging threats, such as shale-gas fracking and oil pipelines. Here are five major threats facing our water infrastructure today.

Dams in Disrepair
Over 4,000 of the 85,000 dams in the U.S. were ranked as deficient. Of those, 1,819 are classified as high hazard potential, meaning there is anticipated loss of life in the case of a failure. Age, deterioration, and maintenance all factor in to a dam’s deficiency ranking. The average age of dams in the U.S. is 51 years, and only 50% of high hazard potential dams nationwide have Emergency Action Plans. Many dams are exempt from having regular inspections. It’s evident that the development of effective inspections and funding for maintenance is needed, and that dam infrastructure policy needs updating.

Hydraulic Fracturing
The process of hydraulic fracturing yields two products: natural gas and contaminated water. This method of natural gas extraction involves shooting 6-8 million gallons of freshwater deep into the ground to break up shale gas. The freshwater is tainted with over 750 chemicals and components including biocides, neurotoxins, and carcinogens such as benzene and lead. Furthermore, leaders in the industry have fought against publicizing what chemicals are injected into the ground, and many components of the produced water remain unknown. This tainted water can seep into the groundwater, causing negative health and environmental effects. Another potential hazard is methane gas leaking into water wells, which has the potential to either explode the well, or give effected residents the ability to light their water on fire. Oh, and it might also cause earthquakes. Despite massive campaigns against hydraulic fracturing all around the country, this practice is ongoing in 34 states and the EPA currently endorses it, stating on their website: “Natural gas plays a key role in our nation’s clean energy future and the process known as hydraulic fracturing is one way of accessing that vital resource”.

Oil Pipelines
The recent protests against the Keystone XL pipeline that drew over ten thousand people to the White House certainly put oil pipelines on the radar. There are currently 2.3 million miles of pipeline across the US, carrying oil and natural gas, so what makes this one so special? The Keystone XL pipeline will be transporting tar sand oil, which is heavier and more corrosive than conventional oil and, many agree, more prone to cause leaking. One recent example of a pipeline rupture occurred in July of this year in Montana. The ExxonMobil pipeline running under the Yellowstone River burst, spilling crude oil into the river and forcing evacuations. ExonnMobil recently estimated that it will pay $135 million to clean up the river, which is 3 times its original estimate.

Mountaintop Removal
Mountaintop removal, also called strip or surface mining, is kind of self explanatory. The excess earth from the mountain is dumped into neighboring valleys. This leftover soil has buried over 1,000 miles of streams in Appalachia. Processing the coal afterwards results in a by-product known as coal slurry, which is a mix of water, coal dust, clay and toxic chemicals such as arsenic mercury, lead, copper, and chromium. Coal slurry can lead to groundwater contamination when its improperly disposed of in abandoned underground mines, or when the dams holding back the storage lagoons fail. Additionally, the blasts from the explosives can crack water wells in surrounding communities, which can expose the water supply to bacteria and pathogens.

Natural Disasters
In the wake of Hurricane Irene, there was a lot of hype over securing New York City. The city got through the event unscathed, but the effect inland was much more severe, with a slow recovery from the disastrous flooding. It was also another huge strain on FEMA’s limited resources, which is a real problem, as more disasters means less resources for FEMA to allocate for planning and preparedness efforts. Hurricane Irene is just one recent examples of the extent of unpreparedness for natural disasters, which have been growing in intensity due to global warming.

Image credit: Flickr user WoodleyWonderWorks

• In the lower 48 states, there is only one place left where you can be over 100 miles away from a McDonald’s restaurant. (Grist)

• State and federal investigations have been ordered to investigate why it took Connecticut Light and Power 11 days to restore electricity to all of  the state after the October snow storm. (NYT)

• By an 18-0 bipartisan vote, the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee approved its two-year highway reauthorization bill. (T4America)

•  The White House is considering reassessing the route of the Keystone XL pipeline – but even in the newly proposed route there is no escaping the opposition’s territory. (WaPo)

• When snowstorms hit in Connecticut, generators became the new status symbol in neighborhoods. (NYT)

• A real estate boom in Florida is made possible by wealthy foreign investors from Latin America.  (BBC)

• The renowned artist Christo just received federal approving for his largest project to date: the suspension of nearly 6 miles of fabric over a 42-mile stretch of the Arkansas River in southern Colorado. (Architizer)

Image credit: David Schott via Flickr