John Stossel’s absurd report on things he finds annoying simplistically argues that because 95% of the U.S. is not developed, urban sprawl must be a myth.

He goes on to say that his number one myth is “Sharing Would Make the World a Better Place.” When something is shared, he claims, no one owns it, no one own takes responsibility for maintaining it, and it gets trashed. He leads you to believe that there is one choice, public or private spaces, when in reality, all publicly owned spaces need is an effective management entity.

He says, “Think about shared public property, like public toilets. They’re often gross.” Bryant Park in Manhattan is a publicly owned park and is managed by the Bryant Park Restoration Corporation. The public toilets in the park are spotless, have fresh flowers displayed daily, are maintained by a full-time attendant, and are probably cleaner than the toilet in Stossel’s apartment.

“Amidst a blaze of streaming media, ridiculous choreography, and dozens of live fornicating rabbits, famed French architect Le Corbusier inspires builder Robert Moses in his desperate battle to recreate New York. Boozy: The Life, Death, and Subsequent Vilification of Le Corbusier and, More Importantly, Robert Moses tracks the life of Robert Moses, from idealistic youth to unstoppable power broker, able to turn parched land into glorious bridges, highways, and public housing with a mere flick of the wrist. With guest appearances by Benito Mussolini, FDR, and the ghost of Baron von Haussmann, Moses learns from the greats until true power is finally his. Freemasons dance, FDR levitates, and Daniel Libeskind silently weeps. None shall be spared.”

A revolutionary traffic engineering concept has been getting a lot of attention lately. The idea is if you remove all signals, signs, and direction from the street, you create a shared space for vehicles, bikes, and pedestrians. All users are forced to be more aware of their environment, resulting in safer conditions for everyone.

Articles have also appeared in the Toronto Star and the New York Times in the past week. AND Wired. had a piece on this back in December.

Jem Cohen’s movie “Chain” demonstrates the bland, alienating anonymity of contemporary privatized urban landscapes.

“Whenever I would shoot places that I liked, often old neighbourhoods that were disappearing, I was always framing things out - putting McDonalds to my back or getting some billboard out of the frame - and I was starting to feel like I had to deal with the new stuff. In the mid-1990s, I started to collect these landscapes, and I found that I could travel anywhere in the world and shoot footage that you couldn’t identify in terms of where it came from. I thought I could join all of that material together into a ’superlandscape’,” says the filmmaker.

The federal government formally committed a funding grant for the Vally Metro Rail. The grant is funding $587.2 million of the $1.3 billion cost of the new light-rail line, which will run through Phoenix, Mesa and Tempe.

The impending eviction of the street vendors from the four-year-old Bedford-Stuyvesant Cooperative Market, while especially senseless, presents some questions with city-wide implications. For example: is gentrification the same as community development?

Hey Guys,

So I have some great photos from Nairobi’s City Market plus a couple of video clips - anyone want to look at them and decide what goes in the database?

Also, who’s actually reading these blogs? - Comment with “i am!!” or sth

q./

Some critics charge that luxury apartments planned for the redesigned Brooklyn Bridge Park will turn the public waterfront space into a manicured front lawn for wealthy Brooklyn Heights residents.