Search results for: “barcelona”
-
World-Class Walkability in Barcelona
by James A. Bacon I have spent barely one day in the city of Barcelona and I can tell you three things that I dislike: the ubiquitous graffiti, the giant, ungainly recycling bins at many street corners, and the faint but unmistakable odor of sewage emanating from the city’s subterranean labyrinth. But if I tried…
-
Short Term Rentals — Long Term Impact
by Jon Balilies The City of Richmond has been discussing altering and revising regulations about short-term rentals (STR’s) and the next action will take place at the Planning Commission meeting on Tuesday afternoon (September 5th). It is an important decision because it is entirely possible the decision by the Commission and ultimately City Council could…
-
A Primatologist at The Washington Post
by James C. Sherlock And they wonder why they are hated by people outside the bubble. A story by Stephanie McCrummen in The Washington Post, “In rural Georgia, an unlikely rebel against Trumpism,” comes across as an attempt at Hillbilly Elegy as written by a primatologist. Primatologists study primates in order to understand their evolution…
-
Free Airbnb!
by James A. Bacon Let’s say you’re a widow trying to make ends meet. You convert your basement to an apartment and rent it out to out-of-town visitors through Airbnb. Or, let’s say you’re a young couple. You’ve bought your dream house, but you don’t have any children yet, so you rent out a room…
-
In Praise of Organic Tourism
by James A. Bacon Promoting tourism is a major part of Virginia’s economic development strategy for good reason. Tourism supports jobs, expands the tax base and helps pay for amenities — restaurants, arts, cultural institutions — that can be enjoyed by the whole community. But it can create problems, too, such as crowding, traffic congestion, noise…
-
Exploring the World’s “Best” City
by James A. Bacon Last year Price Waterhouse Cooper crowned London as the “best” city in the world based upon a range of factors encompassing technology, innovation, transportation, tourism, livability, corporate clout and sustainability, beating out such great metropolises as New York, Singapore, Toronto, San Francisco and Paris. With a population of 8.6 million, London is a…
-
Virginia, the Land Where New Ideas Go to Die?
by James A. Bacon I can’t say I’m surprised that the Commonwealth of Virginia now faces a $1 billion shortfall in the next biennial budget. That’s what happens when economic growth decelerates rapidly, as Virginia’s economy has been doing since the federal budget sequester put the quietus on the great Northern Virginia economic boom. We’ve been…
-
The Internet-of-Things Steamroller and the Economic Competitiveness of Cities
by James A. Bacon Well, I’m a steamroller, baby, I’m bound to roll all over you. Yes, I’m a steamroller now, baby, I’m bound to roll all over you. … — James Taylor “Steamroller The words to James Taylor’s blues classic “Steamroller” have been churning through my mind during the 2014 Niagara Summit hosted by Richmond-based…
-
Virginia Traffic Congestion — Not as Bad as We Thought
by James A. Bacon One of the arguments driving the transportation-funding debate this spring was the factoid that Northern Virginia is one of the most congested regions of the country, if not the most congested region. The genesis of this claim came from the 2012 Urban Mobility Report published by the Texas Transportation Institute (TTI),…
-
Will Virginia Participate in the “Open Urbanism” Revolution?
by James A. Bacon A global revolution in the design and management of cities is gaining momentum. The rapid evolution of sensors, analytics and automation technologies is creating once-in-a-generation opportunities to drive down the cost of infrastructure and public services at the very moment that state and local governments face the worse fiscal stress since…
-
Public Art and Building for the Ages
by James A. Bacon It’s probably not fair comparing the public art and architecture of Virginia cities, none of which are much more than 200 years old, with Barcelona, whose history stretches back 2,000 years. But I’m going to do it anyway. But before I start, let me be clear about one thing: I am…
-
Life and Work on Carrer de Girona
by James A. Bacon If you live on Carrer de Girona in Barcelona, as my family and I have for the past few days, and you have a sudden craving for a green pepper, a bottled water, a Filipinos chocolate treat or a Red Bull at 11:00 at night, you just roll out of the…
-
Now, That’s a Street!
by James A. Bacon The city planners of Barcelona, as I pointed out in my previous post, pay great attention to the details of street design. In contrast to the United States, where planners and traffic engineers design streets to optimize the movement of automobiles, Barcelonians endeavor to strike a balance between all users of…
-
INFRASTRUCTURE MANIA
!! AARRRGH !! Oh, the frustration! As Peter Galuszka has noted, EMR has not posted much at BRB of late. This is NOT just due to travel, holidays, snow or even the process of aging. At SYNERGY there are a number of new projects and Perspectives well on the way to publication BUT The PLAN…
-
DeGrowth v. 2.0
DEGROWTH – SHRINKING TO SURVIVE THEN PROSPER (Ed Note: Thanks to a number of constructive comments here is a better version.) DeGrowth is a resurgent survival strategy for contemporary civilization: Step One: The footprint of human consumption must shrink so that most humans — and ALL other species — do not have to perish just…