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Viewing entries tagged urban decay & blight
Posted by Samina Cabral
Samina Cabral
Samina Cabral is a native Southern Californian who now resides on the shores of
User is currently offline
on Friday, 24 February 2012
in Mother Nature's Vegetation
The United States Forest Service estimates that tree cover in urban parts of the United States is declining at four million trees per year. That’s the same amount of iPhones 4S that sold over a single weekend when they debuted in 2011. While an iPhone owner could argue Apple and their products are
an important facet of technology and urban living, can they prove smartphones are necessary to a city’s landscape?
“Trees are an important part of the urban landscape,” according to Michael T. Rains, Director of the Forest Service’s Northern Research Station. “They play a role in improving air and water quality and provide so many environmental and social benefits. As our Forest Service Chief says, ‘…urban trees are the hardest working trees in America.’
Posted by Samina Cabral
Samina Cabral
Samina Cabral is a native Southern Californian who now resides on the shores of
User is currently offline
on Saturday, 04 February 2012
in Earth Blog
The EPA (the job-killing, regulating machine we talk about a lot here on the Earth Blog) has announced the 2012 beneficiaries of their “Building Blocks for Sustainable Communities” program. The program is part of the Partnership for Sustainable Communities that includes the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the U.S. Department of Transportation.
The Building Blocks program isn’t handing out money to fifty-six communities in twenty-six states- they are providing technical assistance which is a fancy term for information. These communities asked the EPA to come in to help create a plan for improving their town’s infrastructures.
The EPA explained it best: “The assistance will be delivered in a day-long workshop for each community that will provide ideas on local policies and procedures to improve the local economy, environment, and quality of life. Each community will receive a short ‘next steps’ memo outlining options the community can consider as it moves forward.”
Posted by Samina Cabral
Samina Cabral
Samina Cabral is a native Southern Californian who now resides on the shores of
User is currently offline
on Friday, 25 November 2011
in Earth Blog
Urban blight is an unfortunate reminder of a city’s former industrial glory and once thriving population. The outsourcing of manufacturing of goods to countries overseas left factories dormant to decay and attract crime. Shopping malls and schools emptied as families left to find better communities. Sometimes businesses outgrow their existing quarters and find it more cost-efficient to build anew rather than re-purpose. This practice leaves the old building to be sold so the funds can be used to defray costs on the new building. But in most cases it will sit empty on the commercial market growing more unusable as time, technology and the needs of businesses change.
