Every year, the University of Michigan planning program puts on Expanded Horizons. It is a 5 day break from classes and takes many of the first year planning students on a trip to explore some city withing driving distance of Ann Arbor - all for a class credit (assuming we manage to participate and turn in a short paper when requested).
I returned from this one week ago. Our destination this was Philadelphia, PA (which has a ridiculous number of one-way streets)!
Last Wednesday morning the planning students crammed onto a bus for our 11 hour ride to the City of Brotherly Love. The trip went like most long rides and all of us were relieved when we finally arrived at our hotel: A Holiday Inn Express right in the center city. After settling in, we went to wander downtown a little to grab some dinner and drinks.
On Thursday morning, we met up with the director of the Preservation Alliance, piled onto our bus again, and took a tour of the city learning everything we wanted to know about Philadelphia. We went past Independence Hall, through Society Hill, Temple University, and many other places (some pretty sketchy).
After our tour, we went to Reading Terminal Market for lunch. An indoor farmer's market, Reading had just about every kind of food you could want and was simply a unique place with many different people wandering its crowded paths.
In the afternoon we began splitting into groups, which went to various organizations throughout the city, to see what kind of planning-related activities were happening. My first one was Greensgrow urban agriculture. Like any urban agriculture project, Greensgrow was doing a lot with sustainability, education and outreach, and supplying healthy, locally grown foods via the market and the CSA (which includes some kind of protein with the vegetables each week). However, it was interesting to learn that they did not start out of the local foods movement or for social justice issues, but rather as a way to simply use vacant land.
The farm is located on the site of a former factory that polluted the ground with many heavy metals and is an EPA-classified brownfield. To "fix" the site, it was covered over by a concrete slab, so none of the farming is actually done in the ground of that site. The first farming they did was for-profit hydroponic lettuce, which was sold to high-end restaurants in downtown Philadelphia. Eventually they moved in the direction to where they are now as they responded to the needs of the neighborhood and added a nursery and market, etc.
Much of what they sell is grown above the concrete in raised beds within greenhouse structures or is purchased from other local farmers to distribute in the neighborhood. They are just beginning to break even on the food growing side of their enterprise, but have been able to rake in money from selling flowers and other plants from the nursery to cover expenses.
On Thursday night, we held a social event and met up with a bunch of planning students from UPenn (Ivy Leaguers!) at the bar.
Friday was a continuation of meeting various organizations, and in the morning I went to the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia. Here we learned about how they are working to make Philadelphia more bicycle and pedestrian friendly. Various types of bike lanes are being implemented and we walked down to look at one that included a buffer zone between drivers and riders.
Another project was the conversion of parking meters into bike racks. As the city converts to parking kiosks for entire blocks of spaces and the old meters are removed, the poles are left behind and places to lock bikes to are being bolted on. Other projects included larger bicycle trail systems and general education for drivers, riders, and pedestrians.
In the afternoon was my final session. A group of us walked down the Benjamin Franklin Parkway and talked with the executive director of the Fairmount Parks system (who has a niece that went to Calvin). We began at the Philadelphia Museum of Art where Rocky ran up the steps and ended down near city hall. Along the way we learned about the green space, traffic concerns, and current construction projects. There are a couple of new and remodeled museums along the way as well as many other civic buildings such as the library. It is quite the historic stretch of road: created as Philadelphia's ChampsElysees during the City Beautiful movement.
If I had to pick a session I didn't go to, but wished I had it would be Postgreen ... or Interface Studios: joint creators of the LEED Gold or Platinum, 100k home.
We spent Friday night bowling and socializing. Making sure we got to know all the people who went on the trip - another purpose of such a trip. Many of us ended up walking to the Piazza at Schmidt's, a development by Tower Investments - where a number of others went for one of their sessions.
Later in the night, a number of us decided it would be cool to head over the Delaware river to Camden, NJ - one of America's most dangerous cities. Probably not the best idea ever. The place seemed like a literal ghost town, and after talking to some police officers who said we were a "huge red flag" we went back to where we came from.
Saturday morning we did some community service work cleaning up parks and a business district. We disposed of trash, raked, weeded, mulched, etc.
That afternoon, a number of us went to Tony Luke's to get cheesesteaks and then ended up at the bar to watch the Michigan-Indiana football game with the Alumni Club of Philadelphia.
Overall, it was a fantastic trip that allowed me to see a different city, learn quite a bit, and get to know my classmates a lot better.
Monday, October 11, 2010
Saturday, August 28, 2010
Generic Indie Music
I love music. I love indie music, but so much of the indie music scene, while good, is boring - put me to sleep boring. There is a time for that music and I appreciate it, but why would anyone just listen to that and nothing else? Generic indie music seems to lack the variety and flair that makes music so interesting.
Interesting at least to me. That is why I still listen to Top 40. It's catchy and keeps the eyes open.
I'll listen to your indie music because its good, but if given a choice you'll probably find me listening to hip hop or something with a little electronica tossed in.*
*Said hip hop and electronica usually fall under the umbrella terms of alternative or indie (since it now apparently refers to everything).
Interesting at least to me. That is why I still listen to Top 40. It's catchy and keeps the eyes open.
I'll listen to your indie music because its good, but if given a choice you'll probably find me listening to hip hop or something with a little electronica tossed in.*
*Said hip hop and electronica usually fall under the umbrella terms of alternative or indie (since it now apparently refers to everything).
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Mountains and Beer
I spent the first week of this month in Colorado with a couple of friends. I got to visit some breweries and drink some good beer, as well as do some hiking and cliff jumping. And, even though we didn't summit La Plata it was still an extremely enjoyable time away from home and work.
Here are some of the few pictures I managed to take (minus Lefthand, credit to Jordan for that one):
Here are some of the few pictures I managed to take (minus Lefthand, credit to Jordan for that one):
Thursday, August 12, 2010
Some Thoughts on Alternative Hip Hop
Two nights ago I attended the final day of Rock the Rapids. To be honest, I wasn't expecting much. It was hosted by WSNX and included such fantastic acts as Baby Bash, Aaron Fresh, and Shontelle. Those were mediocre performances that I expected, and many people enjoyed them and the Top 40 power they employ. The low point was definitely when Cody Simpson, the next reincarnation of Justin Bieber, performed. He is younger than our favorite 15 year old Canadian and happens to hail from Australia. He can't sing very well - at least not without auto-tune, and he didn't even impress when playing the guitar on the song he wrote that "meant a lot to him". Perhaps, but I'm not going to trust a 14-ish year old kid about love.
Good thing we had some good people to sit by, and our buddy Michael - the concession kid - coming by to throw ice at us in the heat. Yeah, this concert happened to be outdoors at 5/3 Ball Park on just about the hottest day Grand Rapids has seen in a while.
Now for the redeeming factors. Headliner B.o.B. and an early performance by Chiddy Bang managed to make the concert entirely worth the $10.45 that tickets cost. Both of these artists happen to fall under the label of "Alternative Hip Hop", which is kind of an umbrella term for artists making hip hop outside of traditional stereotypes in beats and lyrics. Kanye West is probably one of the biggest names in the alternative hip hop and has pulled it into the mainstream.
Kid Cudi is another artist to note, and although it didn't get great reviews from places like Pitchfork, his debut album is solid. Cudi managed to team up with other artists like MGMT and Ratatat giving a unique sound to his album. An appreciation and use of indie musicians has increased in alternative hip hop. In his mixtape, Cudi sampled Band of Horses and he has also used Vampire Weekend.
B.o.B. and Chiddy Bang are similar to this. B.o.B. has largely stuck to his own material, but also used and changed up some Vampire Weekend in his song "The Kids". He has also strayed from straight rapping and does some of his own guitar playing and crosses into indie/rock at times. This was the major complaint from Pitchfork reviewers and a reason for the mediocre review for B.o.B. Presents: The Adventures of Bobby Ray. I like the cross over - he doesn't restrict himself to the hip hop genre; however, he is best at rapping and at times that is missing.
Chiddy Bang is even more exciting. Chiddy Bang is made up of two guys creating a fusion genre of hip hop and electronica using sampling. Many of the samples are from alternative or indie sources. For example the following are all used in Chiddy Bang songs: Ratatat, Notorious B.I.G., Passion Pit, Belle and Sebastian, MGMT, Sufjan Stevens, Hot Chip, Gorillaz, La Roux, and Major Lazer.
No matter how mediocre Pitchfork reviews groups like these, I think I'll continue to listen. They are catchy and make things interesting by exploring sound and crossing boundaries. Now, just to wait for the new Kanye album, which according to Spinner features a collaboration with Justin Vernon of Bon Iver.
Like a skit on the Chiddy Bang mixtape, The Swelly Express, says: It's like rap, but not rap. I love it.
Good thing we had some good people to sit by, and our buddy Michael - the concession kid - coming by to throw ice at us in the heat. Yeah, this concert happened to be outdoors at 5/3 Ball Park on just about the hottest day Grand Rapids has seen in a while.
Now for the redeeming factors. Headliner B.o.B. and an early performance by Chiddy Bang managed to make the concert entirely worth the $10.45 that tickets cost. Both of these artists happen to fall under the label of "Alternative Hip Hop", which is kind of an umbrella term for artists making hip hop outside of traditional stereotypes in beats and lyrics. Kanye West is probably one of the biggest names in the alternative hip hop and has pulled it into the mainstream.
Kid Cudi is another artist to note, and although it didn't get great reviews from places like Pitchfork, his debut album is solid. Cudi managed to team up with other artists like MGMT and Ratatat giving a unique sound to his album. An appreciation and use of indie musicians has increased in alternative hip hop. In his mixtape, Cudi sampled Band of Horses and he has also used Vampire Weekend.
B.o.B. and Chiddy Bang are similar to this. B.o.B. has largely stuck to his own material, but also used and changed up some Vampire Weekend in his song "The Kids". He has also strayed from straight rapping and does some of his own guitar playing and crosses into indie/rock at times. This was the major complaint from Pitchfork reviewers and a reason for the mediocre review for B.o.B. Presents: The Adventures of Bobby Ray. I like the cross over - he doesn't restrict himself to the hip hop genre; however, he is best at rapping and at times that is missing.
Chiddy Bang is even more exciting. Chiddy Bang is made up of two guys creating a fusion genre of hip hop and electronica using sampling. Many of the samples are from alternative or indie sources. For example the following are all used in Chiddy Bang songs: Ratatat, Notorious B.I.G., Passion Pit, Belle and Sebastian, MGMT, Sufjan Stevens, Hot Chip, Gorillaz, La Roux, and Major Lazer.
No matter how mediocre Pitchfork reviews groups like these, I think I'll continue to listen. They are catchy and make things interesting by exploring sound and crossing boundaries. Now, just to wait for the new Kanye album, which according to Spinner features a collaboration with Justin Vernon of Bon Iver.
Like a skit on the Chiddy Bang mixtape, The Swelly Express, says: It's like rap, but not rap. I love it.
Monday, July 19, 2010
In Defense of Calvin College
A couple of weeks ago I went to the bar with a friend and met up with his sister and a co-worker of his. During the course of conversation it was brought up that I would be attending graduate school for urban planning, something my friend's sister though was pretty cool as did his co-worker.
Having a few drinks, the co-worker decided to rant to me a little about dumb street design and poor planning from the last few decades, which I heartily joined in on. He wondered how I got into the whole urban planning thing, especially for someone from Calvin College, so I told him about being a geography major and taking an introductory course in planning while at Calvin.
This happened to be when the conversation shifted a little. Having apparently attended Calvin for a while, the co-worker was surprised Calvin offered a planning course, and made the quick conclusion that it was probably one of the few good classes the college offers (he took philosophy classes).
His distaste for Calvin continued to be shown by talking about how Calvin abandoned it's campus in the city for the suburban real estate it currently occupies. In some ways I agree with those sentiments, but we shouldn't direct the heat solely upon the school.
Calvin had grown beyond what the old campus could sustain and badly needed to undergo some kind of expansion. Given that fact, they expanded to a location where the land was available. We shouldn't fault them on jumping at such an opportunity, especially since suburbanization was the name of the game when these events took place. It was not the school, but rather an entrenched societal ideal that came more into play. Also worth mentioning is the fact that the former campus "in the city" was almost outside of the city.
To look back with disgust, I think, is inappropriate. Instead, we should look at what is happening in the present and for the future. Progress is happening.
Calvin has increased its presence in the downtown area with the creation of the (106) South Division Art Gallery. The school has also begun to subsidize bus rides on the Rapid making them cheaper for students. Unfortunately, there are many complaints to these. The main one I see is that Calvin is not doing enough and should be doing more, such as fully subsidizing the Rapid so it is free and not just cheap. I'm in the camp that says Calvin should do more too, but we can't just complain. I think it really boils down to the administration and policy makers moving slowly and cautiously, which in many ways is quite admirable. A lot of thought has to go into such decisions.
I also don't think we should compare Calvin to Grand Valley. A lot of the arguments for making the Rapid free center on the fact that GVSU does it for their students. Many differences should be noted. First, GVSU is much larger than Calvin, although this is probably not that important in the grand scheme. Next, there is actually a legitimate reason to offer free service to GVSU students: they have a campus downtown and often take classes there and out in Allendale and need a way to get between campuses easily. Calvin doesn't have that issue. Most students either live on campus or nearby, so there is no necessary reason to give free rides. The closet comparison to Calvin would be Aquinas. Aquinas only has one campus, albeit closer into town, and they offer a discounted rate of 40 cents. This is comparable to Calvin's 50 cent fares.
Other reasons abound for Calvin (and Aquinas) to hop on board with free fares, and I would love to see that happen. I think it is most important to realize that people at Calvin actually care about these kind of issues and some progress is evident. It is also important to continue to pursue various avenues and push for quicker implementation of positive policies.
Finally, we should be grateful for what Calvin is as a respectable educational institution that is actually moving (however slowly) into greater harmony with the city. At least we're not Davenport, who just recently abandoned their downtown campus for one out in the sticks by M-6.
Rant out. Good night.
Having a few drinks, the co-worker decided to rant to me a little about dumb street design and poor planning from the last few decades, which I heartily joined in on. He wondered how I got into the whole urban planning thing, especially for someone from Calvin College, so I told him about being a geography major and taking an introductory course in planning while at Calvin.
This happened to be when the conversation shifted a little. Having apparently attended Calvin for a while, the co-worker was surprised Calvin offered a planning course, and made the quick conclusion that it was probably one of the few good classes the college offers (he took philosophy classes).
His distaste for Calvin continued to be shown by talking about how Calvin abandoned it's campus in the city for the suburban real estate it currently occupies. In some ways I agree with those sentiments, but we shouldn't direct the heat solely upon the school.
Calvin had grown beyond what the old campus could sustain and badly needed to undergo some kind of expansion. Given that fact, they expanded to a location where the land was available. We shouldn't fault them on jumping at such an opportunity, especially since suburbanization was the name of the game when these events took place. It was not the school, but rather an entrenched societal ideal that came more into play. Also worth mentioning is the fact that the former campus "in the city" was almost outside of the city.
To look back with disgust, I think, is inappropriate. Instead, we should look at what is happening in the present and for the future. Progress is happening.
Calvin has increased its presence in the downtown area with the creation of the (106) South Division Art Gallery. The school has also begun to subsidize bus rides on the Rapid making them cheaper for students. Unfortunately, there are many complaints to these. The main one I see is that Calvin is not doing enough and should be doing more, such as fully subsidizing the Rapid so it is free and not just cheap. I'm in the camp that says Calvin should do more too, but we can't just complain. I think it really boils down to the administration and policy makers moving slowly and cautiously, which in many ways is quite admirable. A lot of thought has to go into such decisions.
I also don't think we should compare Calvin to Grand Valley. A lot of the arguments for making the Rapid free center on the fact that GVSU does it for their students. Many differences should be noted. First, GVSU is much larger than Calvin, although this is probably not that important in the grand scheme. Next, there is actually a legitimate reason to offer free service to GVSU students: they have a campus downtown and often take classes there and out in Allendale and need a way to get between campuses easily. Calvin doesn't have that issue. Most students either live on campus or nearby, so there is no necessary reason to give free rides. The closet comparison to Calvin would be Aquinas. Aquinas only has one campus, albeit closer into town, and they offer a discounted rate of 40 cents. This is comparable to Calvin's 50 cent fares.
Other reasons abound for Calvin (and Aquinas) to hop on board with free fares, and I would love to see that happen. I think it is most important to realize that people at Calvin actually care about these kind of issues and some progress is evident. It is also important to continue to pursue various avenues and push for quicker implementation of positive policies.
Finally, we should be grateful for what Calvin is as a respectable educational institution that is actually moving (however slowly) into greater harmony with the city. At least we're not Davenport, who just recently abandoned their downtown campus for one out in the sticks by M-6.
Rant out. Good night.
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