Lascher at Large » Urban Form

Where should green planning efforts come from?

Bill — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 23:32:20 +0000

Photo of Portland bike lane courtesy Flickr user Eric Fredericks.

This week’s post for High Country News‘s “A Just West” blog explored discussions that came out of last week’s Ecodistricts Summit in Portland. Check it out here or read it — and many other great stories — on HCN.

Hundreds of urban planners, architects, [...]

A Renter’s Market?

Bill — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 23:14:00 +0000

For the first time in decades it's cool to be a renter. So why is it so hard to rent a home and still be “green"? This week, as news outlets across the board reported a steep decline in home sales and prices in July, especially in the West, some reported increased preferences for renting, especially with the added uncertainty wrought by high unemployment levels. Particia Orsini of AOL's Housing Watch reported Aug. 26 that Americans, particularly homeowners, are now more likely to think that renting a home is more prudent than buying one. Other news outlets, such as Forbes and the Real Estate Channel and Time's “Curious Capitalist" blog, also recently dissected the growing preference for renting. Orsini cited statistics from Harvard's Joint Center for Housing Studies. I took a glance at that report – titled State of the Nation's Housing 2010 – and found it shows that rental vacancies grew from 2006 to 2009, even though the renter pool was growing at the same time. In fact, U.S. Census Bureau housing vacancy survey data cited by the report shows that fewer people own homes in the West compared to any other region in the nation. The same numbers also show that nearly three-quarters of white Americans own homes while fewer than half of minority populations do. So, what does this all have to do with the environment? [...]

I don’t just write

Bill — Wed, 05 May 2010 06:52:27 +0000

Ducking the Elephant in the Room

Bill — Sun, 02 May 2010 03:47:57 +0000

The day takes shape slowly. Getting out the door just happens. Once you do the bus is ten minutes late. Then so is the MAX, but you don’t mind. You’ve been quietly extricating yourself from time. You wait in the chill beneath an interstate, listening to teenagers gossip. Staring at the spikes lining [...]

Koreatown’s sign language

Bill — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 01:31:54 +0000

This afternoon I ran an errand a couple Purple line stops away. It was such a beautiful day that instead of taking the subway I decided to meander home on foot. Fortunately, before I left the house I thought to grab my camera. I took the opportunity to look around a bit and capture some [...]

Rearranging Our Pieces, Playing With Our Future

Bill — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 10:00:17 +0000

When I was a kid, Legos were quite possibly my number one toy. Sure, I spent untold hours in front of our 13 channel Sony Trinitron with a gray plastic controller in my hand exploring pixelated worlds on my Nintendo Entertainment System, but it was the Legos that best stirred my imagination. [...]

Take offs

Bill — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 08:52:36 +0000

The thing about L.A. before you even land is the lights. Everywhere. Like a circuit board. Beneath or at least near each is a story, a life, a world. Only a glance and I’m reminded of that.

It’s late, but I know the way it would look in the sunlight, the circuit boards stretching between [...]

Landings

Bill — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 05:07:52 +0000

Lately I’ve been thinking a tremendous amount about places I’ve been, places I am and places I may be going. As this week’s “Seen This Week” mentioned, since Friday I’ve been in Portland, Oregon. While here, I’ve had the opportunity to connect with a number of old friends, beloved members of my family and a [...]

Seen This Week: Feb. 23 – Mar 2

Bill — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 23:31:43 +0000

It has been a bit of one of those weekends for me — not to complain to strangers, though — I’ll let the images speak for themselves. Highlights include an afternoon on campus at USC, to a Saturday afternoon visit to the Bicycle district at Heliotrope and Melrose, and a quick jaunt up the coast [...]

Seen This Week: Paradise for $5

Bill — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 03:08:47 +0000

Most mornings, I stand near the corner of 3rd Street and Vermont with a crowd of strangers in front of a planter between a McDonald’s and a discount store. There, in the northern extremities of Koreatown, we wait for the Metro Rapid 754 (some riders are waiting for the DASH Wilshire Center/Koreatown instead). I’m [...]