gray day

it makes me feel such a specific feeling. I don't know what that feeling is but it is detailed and intricate. I feel enclosed which sometimes makes me feel claustrophobic. gray makes it seem like we are in a bubble and all trudging through the day together. it feels like camaraderie

blue days makes me feel open and unending. that too can be overwhelming but mostly it is freeing.

today I am feeling a bit anxious. I don't know what color day that is.

Obama on Urban Policy

per Gotham Gazette

"...[T]he Obama platform explicitly states that cities should be seen not as the problem but as the solution. But he means the metropolitan regions, not the central cities. With this in mind, his specific solutions include: creation of a National Infrastructure Reinvestment Bank funded to the tune of $10 billion over 10 years; regional clusters for economic innovation; business incubators; workforce training; and green technology and green jobs.

Obama's platform still offers something for the older central cities. In housing and community development, areas of considerable concern to central cities like New York, Obama would restore rent subsidies and public housing operating funds that were cut under the George W. Bush administration - actions that might help the
New York City Housing Authority balance its budget and prevent privatization. He would restore and increase Community Development Block Grant funding and create 20 "Promise Neighborhoods" that comprehensively deal with poverty. The Obama platform supports homeland security and community policing but requires police to be attentive to issues of accountability and brutality. Broader economic policies such as increasing the minimum wage and Earned Income Tax Credit are also listed as part of Obama's urban policy.

Obama addresses the "livability of cities"-- particularly public health and environmental concerns -- by calling for efforts to combat inefficient low-density suburban sprawl through "smart growth" around higher density urban centers. Smart growth has been a major goal of urban planning professionals in the nation.

"Our communities will better serve all of their residents," says the Obama campaign, "if we are able to leave our cars, to walk, bicycle and access other transportation alternatives." This could lead to federal support for recent efforts by the New York City Department of Transportation to improve the bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure. In the Senate, Obama sponsored the
Healthy Places Act requiring federal agencies to evaluate the health impacts of urban policies."


I've posted Obama's policy stances because not only is his candidacy the one I am most interested in but also, his proposals and viewpoints on urban policy are much more aligned to what I believe is how a city should be handled. His proposals (or policy positions) are progressive, intelligent, and empathetic. Predictably, McCain offers more of the same program-slashing and budget-cutting of generic Republican ideology. There is no doubt that under a McCain administration cities and their inhabitants, particularly low income residents, would be slapped in the face and forgotten, much like the record of the Bush administration and any Republican administration since the inception of the Great Society programs under Democratic President Lyndon B. Johnson.

yesterday evening i smoked a cigarette for the second time in nearly two weeks. my fingers are not yellowed anymore. i'm sure they will be soon. i stepped out on the backporch where rain had cautiously been collecting all day long. it wasn't frozen, it is only October afterall, but it was close to it. (once the temperature gets to a certain low degree things might as well be frozen, i will die just as much at 40 F.) i lit my smoke and smelt the air. it was devoid of scent. it was winter air. i had a premonition of snow. not nice heartland snow or quiet adirondak snow but dirty snow, snow that is old within a day. it wasn't depressing. i wasn't upset. i accepted the automotive trails in the crisp white with solemnity. i thought of manhattan. and walking on a silent downtown street through sneaking snow; of coming up out of the 34th St A station and seeing the empire state building at the top of the stairs, surrounded by a flock of snowflakes. i thought of brooklyn and waking up to heaps of snow, henry st was like courier and ives and i thought i was in old brooklyn, walt whitman may have been on the banks of the east river at that moment. and i thought of amsterdam and prins hendirkade and wandering, stoned, in late december as the first european snow of my life fell. after all this thinking i felt warm. eventhough i knew that all those other snows that i spent alone were not wasted i knew last night that i wouldn't be cold in the next snow and all snows that will follow.

how to stay positive

1. read poems throughout the day
2. find books that I want to read
3. look at a map of the United States
4. think about going home and being in love
5. read an urbanism essay
6. find something fun to do in the evening
7. figure out what to cook for dinner
8. traverse the avenues of self-improvement
9. reform and adjust age-old behavorial habits
10. talk to and get in contact with people I like

a poem for going and being gone

snow did not come in this early month.
fog masked the morning.
it was cold
and I saw my breath
in this small town.
it was the first year outside of
my youth.
tears froze on my cheek.

you left in a flurry
of corporate phraseology
and complacency.
my mind followed you-
trailed you,
I was the bloodhound.
you were beaten
and smiling.

we broke promises
and that is alright.
where the winter does not come
you will go.
I will meet you there.

Vertical Farm Going Up in Singapore

[via ecofriend]


"Eco-minded architecture firm TR Hamzah & Yeang, has come up with a skyscraper design for Singapore, dubbed the EDITT (Ecological Design In The Tropics) Tower."

"855 square meters of the area of this tower will be covered with solar panels that will generate enough energy to fulfill about 40% of its energy demands. The designers will also be trying to include an energy plant in the skyscraper that will convert human sewage into biogas. Another fascinating feature included is the ability to remove and add walls and floors according to demands."

"Approximately, half of the surface area of the tower will be covered with organic local vegetation. The building will have its own rain water harvesting and gray-water systems that will not only provide water for the vegetation but also for toilet flushing. "

This is good. One of the reasons that food prices are high is due to transportation costs. Also, this is interesting because it finally allows for the rural and urban to integrate. The age-old divide between these two demographic and lifestyle sets is turned on its head and used not only as an innovative food source but also as an example of how to be responsible architects.

It's a shame that America can't get their act together and bring this sort of headline-grabbing innovation back to our shores, instead we're being shown up by a city-state.

the continuity of my moods

so I have a cold. it's not very serious. I make it seem like it's much more serious than it actually is. either because I am a wuss (probably) or because I like the attention (most definitely.) and today it is gray outside. and when I came down stairs this morning to go to work the streetlamps were still on and they were casting a glow off the pavement. it had been raining all night. and it was drizzling then. I like the weather to match my mood. it's like finding the right song to play on a 5 minute drive. it just needs to match. this idea of having my stimuli match my mood is the continuity of a mood. sometimes it can have a detrimental effect. if I'm nervous and there is continuity I might just stay nervous. but usually, when there is continuity I am happy. not necessarily because my mood is bright. but because my life and the life that surrounds me is in sync.

a poem - autumn in five parts

autumn,
creeping,
robber of heat
thief of sky lights that
break into dinner windows.
twisting locks not open
but closed.
for winter good.
for cold good.

autumn I love thy name.
you are a stolid
iron-plated morning.
I am downcast in your
drizzle
(and I like it.)
I listen to slow guitars
at slower bars.
I eat.
fast.

autumn does not rhyme with
my style.
does not jive with
my handshake.
brings white wine
when the occasion
calls for red
or even blush!
sleeps in past the alarm,
borrows my books
steals my poems
sneaks in through
the cracked door.

autumn smells.
so does spring.
but spring smells
like
being born.
autumn smells like
orange.
and fleeting birds.
and grade school.
and pig-tailed girls
who giggle
and giggle.
and cry in secret.

autumn is a hard time
to be alive
or dead.
it's purgatory.
I don't have a chance to make it right.
I will burn and burn and burn
on through january
until april drops her rain.
until days are new
again.



oh, and like sam cooke said...a change is gonna come, yes it is

I'm ready

something to remember

a great quote by former Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes

“I like paying taxes. With them I buy civilization.”


amen.

this won't become a habit

but here's some tidbits on the two of my most impassioned interests

Election: These are the most current poll numbers per The Note, take them with a grain of salt though, polling doesn't always accurately reflect the way people vote in the privacy of the booth.

National Polls:

'WSJ/NBC: Obama 49, McCain 43

CNN: Obama 53, McCain 45

CBS (a tighter race): Obama 47, McCain 43

From the Battleground States:

The rest of the numbers from Time/CNN:
Ohio: Obama 50, McCain 47
Indiana: McCain 51, Obama 46
New Hampshire: Obama 53, McCain 45
North Carolina: Obama 49, McCain 49
WI: Obama 51, McCain 46 '

and...

the Economy:

it sucks, it will rebound, no one knows when or how....maybe a new new deal?

late to the game

Well, I'm converted. Actually, I was never a non-believer, just more of an uninterested and cautious bystander. Last night we listened to two shows about television. We sat at the dining room table and listened and laughed, then layed in bed and listened and laughed some more. It felt good to be entertained like Americans used to be, listening to people tell stories about how Americans are entertained now. I felt like we were antiques that have worn very well with age. Or like two people grasping for something that once was and actually getting a grip on it.