These days, I spend a lot of time thinking about cities and synergies. I believe that the very basic components of urban sustainability–and education about it–must be grounded in showing linkages between concurrent, parallel,and  symbiotic processes.  We can not talk about anything ecological without discussing the economic or equity component to it. Clearly I’m not the only one thinking about this stuff.

Resilience. via: http://maryjaneryan.files.wordpress.com/2009/08/resilience.jpg

SEED Magazine has an excellent article on urban resilience. Its header reads: Merging complex systems science and ecology, resilience scientists have broken new ground on understanding—and preserving—natural ecosystems. Now, as more and more people move into urban hubs, they are bringing this novel science to the city.

Discussing examples that range from the loss of wetlands around New Orleans–that ironically were destroyed during the construction of the levees as well as natural gas exploration–that ultimately helped contribute to the tragedy of Katrina’s effect, to the spoiling of 25 million liters of raw milk in Australia when natural gas power supply was knocked out, the article discusses the concept of resilience on an urban scale. And while of course there are parallels between ecosystem design and urban design, the fundamental basis of resilience is diversity, redundancy, and variety. These things are often seen as “inefficient” on an urban scale.

This might seem theory heavy to you, but it really was one of the most fascinating articles I have read in a long time. And real life applications–contemporary and existent–examples are used for every sub-heading. So, yes, while there are lofty concepts, the reality of our urban world is the basis for discussion.

And of course the question of climate change is never far removed. A brief excerpt reads:

“A key feature of complex adaptive systems is that they can settle into a number of different equilibria. A lake, for example, will stabilize in either an oxygen-rich, clear state or algae-dominated, murky one. A financial market can float on a housing bubble or settle into a basin of recession. Historically, we’ve tended to view the transition between such states as gradual. But there is increasing evidence that systems often don’t respond to change that way: The clear lake seems hardly affected by fertilizer runoff until a critical threshold is passed, at which point the water abruptly goes turbid.

Resilience science focuses on these sorts of tipping points. It looks at gradual stresses, such as climate change, as well as chance events—things like storms, fires, even stock market crashes—that can tip a system into another equilibrium state from which it is difficult, if not impossible, to recover. How much shock can a system absorb before it transforms into something fundamentally different? That, in a nutshell, is the essence of resilience.”

Take time to read this article. I promise you will be thinking about synergies afterward as well.

The folks here at the institute are keenly interested in the practice of urban farming.  In the last year we have posted more than a few pieces on the subject which gave a big nod to Detroit as a leader in the movement to cultivate derelict urban space.  Many people have attributed this success, in part, to the widespread prevalence of vacant lots and abandoned buildings.  According to recent reports, the Detroit’s Mayor, Dave Bing, is taking aim at this unused space and considering plans to actually return it to rural or semi-rural land-use.

Bing’s proposal is based, in large part, on a study produced by Data Driven Detroit.  Pasted below is text from an NPR interview with Kurt Metzger, director of Data Driven Detroit.

Downsizing is a word you hear a lot in these economically troubled times. It usually applies to tight budgets or lost jobs. In Detroit it also now describes a controversial plan from the mayor’s office.

Mayor Dave Bing wants to reshape the city by getting rid of buildings that are vacant or in shambles. He also wants to transplant residents who live in neighborhoods that are desolate and dilapidated beyond repair. He says it’s too expensive to provide city services in areas that are much like urban deserts.

Much of the proposal is based on data collected by Kurt Metzger. He’s a demographer and the director of Data Driven Detroit, an organization that collects data for the city and for nonprofits. It’s also called D3.

Mr. Metzger, welcome to the program.

Mr. KURT METZGER (Director, Data Driven Detroit): Thank you so much. It’s great to be on.

NORRIS: You undertook a block-by-block study of Detroit, 139 square miles. What did your study find?

Mr. METZGER: We had surveyors go out and actually collect information in every single parcel in the city of Detroit. And just to give you the real quick analysis, we found better than a third of the land – and that’s of 139 square miles – we estimate better than a third of the land in the city of Detroit is either vacant land right now or contains buildings that need to be torn down. It’s amazing. I mean, New Orleans is about 70 square miles. We’re talking that better than 40 square miles, better than half of New Orleans is vacant land.

Now, of course its interspersed around the city, so that’s where the issues about going into neighborhoods where there’s a lot of vacant land. But a lot of one or two homes still left on streets. These are neighborhoods that are going to have to be gone into and trying to think about how do we start to move people into other areas.

NORRIS: When you were doing this survey, what did you hear from people who are in the neighborhoods? I imagine that some of the homeowners have been there for a very long time and have watched their beloved neighborhood slowly deteriorate. And they’re probably worried about finding themselves now on some sort of relocation hit list. When you were working on the survey, what did you hear from people?

Mr. METZGER: There is a general fear that I’m going to be uplifted and put someplace else. I’m really comfortable in my home regardless of what’s happened to the neighborhood. What are you going to do to me?

NORRIS: But they are going to be uplifted…

Mr. METZGER: Well…

NORRIS: …and moved someplace else.

Mr. METZGER: Yes. Yes. But I think there’s a way to work with them and help them to understand that this will be better for them in the long run.

NORRIS: How do you compensate people who have to move? Because as I understand it, they’re entitled to 125 percent of taxable value for their property. But their property values have plummeted; have deteriorating along with the surrounding property, so how do you make them whole?

We made it through February. Hooray! And while March can still be a month to savor and simultaneously curse the last days of winter, it is certainly time to start thinking about gardens. 

And we have some very ambitious friends who are imagining putting a small patch of concrete near NYC City Hall to good use.  DC’s most important lawn–perhaps the nations most important lawn– is gearing up to carry its 2nd season of fresh produce. This is the first time The White House has had a productive yard since Eleanor Roosevelt’s WWII victory garden graced the premises. At that time, 40% of America’s produce was grown on small plots that made up the victory garden movement. I can’t quite think of a parallel in today’s patriotism. But New Yorkers! Pay attention to this and sign yourself onto the movement.

From the NY Times Diner’s Journal:

But today, “The hope is that a vegetable garden can be planted in front of City Hall in time for a nice tomato harvest this summer,” said Daniel Bowman Simon, who is organizing a petition drive to hand over to Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg.

Or is it Brighton Beach? It depends on who you ask.

A Heated Community Board Meeting. Via Brooklyn Vegan

What to do with the 9 acre park that is the official merging place of Brighton Beach and Coney Island? Residents in the neighborhood claim that the space–Asser Levy Park–is actually in Brighton Beach only and many of them are the primary opposition to what the borough president, Marty Markowitz wants to do with the space. Currently, it stands as a slightly rundown park with a small amphitheater. Markowtiz has visions of grandeur. A brand new amphitheater that would seat 8,000 people–the largest in the city–would become a neighborhood attraction. Markowtiz dreams of Neil Diamond rocking out in there. Others are not so keen on this idea.

The NY Times has an article with different perspectives from various community members on the issue, but essentially, the city says parks are a public asset. They do not belong to one neighborhood in particular. And the borough president wants to revamp the aged Coney Island. Folks from the area say there is no reason their residential neighborhood should become a loud venue for outsiders and they would like to keep it the way it is. I personally am with the city in theory. Parks are limited and so we should be willing to share them. HOWEVER, in practicality, I don’t understand why economic development and recreational space improvements always have to do with stadiums or music venues. My two cents: Keep it a mellow park. Invite artists to design sculptures that might talk about rising coastlines or other water front issues.  Invite residents from other neighborhoods to come and discover what is there, but keep it public, people.

Issues of open space and development are not absent. According to the article, “New York City lags well behind other cities in green space. It offers 4.6 acres of parkland per 1,000 residents, compared with a median of 6.8 acres in the nation’s 13 most densely populated areas, according to the Trust for Public Land. Of the five boroughs, Brooklyn has the second least amount of parkland per person, after Manhattan, officials from the parks department say.” More reason to keep it open and public rather than concrete and private.

Opponents seem to have found a loophole they can certainly try and exploit. Amplified sound is not permitted within 500 feet of a school or place of worship during their open and functioning hours. A nearby synagogue will seek to have this applied during the sabath, Friday nights and Saturdays, prime warm weather concert times.

This debate is going to heat up…We will try and keep up on it.

Michele Pierre-Louis, former Prime Minister of Haiti and current director of the Open Society Institute’s (OSI) reconstruction efforts in the country wrote a piece called, “My Pride and Hope for Haiti,” which was published in the Huffington Post and on OSI’s website.  In it, she talks about the apocalyptic and inhumane conditions that people have been forced to live in since the earth quake struck. But also about the pride and sense of community that is just as visible. Her closing line, which has stuck with me since I first read it was, “I am more convinced than ever that we should put the country back together not as it was but as it should be.”

The tragedy of “natural” disasters of course is that they aren’t necessarily natural in their damage.  Yes, in the Siberian tundra or the middle of the ocean, bad storms can happen, trees will fall, but once there are heavily populated areas involved, the exponential destruction stemming from that single natural event becomes the real issue. Multiply population density by existing socio-economic conditions that have at times led to less than sound construction (and inhumane living conditions before a quake) and your disaster seems like the opposite of natural. It is beyond belief.

There has been no shortage of opportunities to witness the situation on the ground. Photoblogs, articles, even google-earth have allowed the most distant onlooker to see the events unfold. But once the debris is cleared, services are somewhat restored and mourning for the lives lost becomes tangible through tributes, memorials and other initiatives, Haiti has an opportunity to rebuild itself the way it could have been.  Much of the built environment was lacking structurally sound components. Buildings with too much sand in the concrete mix were the norm. Reinforcement beams were scarce. Architecture for Humanity has started a fund raising campaign to bring their design services to the country once it is ready to reconstruct. But for now, there are a few signs of (solar) light shining.