Comments on: Open Thread: State of the City

By: Rick

Rick — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 22:01:31 +0000

Check it out…very creative. 6000 people participated in the making of this video on the Belgian coast.

By: Get With It

Get With It — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 22:48:39 +0000

Whats wrong with the word “sustainable?”

Because some of the right wing fanatics that troll this blog don’t like the term, that’s why.

By: Rick

Rick — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 21:34:47 +0000

Whats wrong with the word “sustainable?” The oceans are choking on garbage (consider the mass of discarded plastic that swirls round in two clots in the Pacific, each as large as the United States), agricultural pesticide contamination is at epidemic levels, the air we breathe in Atlanta can best be called the “sewage” six months of the year, and more and more trees are getting cut down for thoughtless development in the metro area. One can go on and on and on and on and on….
Overuse of the word “sustainable?” Lets face it. We are biological organisms like everything else on the planet and need to work with natural environmental systems or else we get to see the fruits of what happens when we don’t: war, disease, refugees, lack of food, lack of water, lack of safety. Get off your ‘mind control’ paranoia trip, take the Marta train to Hartsfield, get on a plane at the busiest airport in the world and go explore a bit. Jeez.

By: KC Boyce

KC Boyce — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 15:49:04 +0000

An interesting article on urban farming, for those interested in and/or questioning the concept vis-a-vis Decatur.

By: Scott

Scott — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 15:10:23 +0000

DM: A blanket indictment, I know. There are always exceptions but the driving point is that school boards often operate outside the authority of municipal leadership, so their focus is what’s good for their system, rather than what’s good for the city/county overall. This boils down to a myopic focus on control and money.

For example, many systems follow a land guide largely similar (it varies state to state) to this:

• Elementary school: 10 acres plus 1 acre per 100 students.
• Middle school: 20 acres plus 1 acre per 100 students.
• High school: 35 acres plus 1 acre per 100 students.

That’s ginormous, and it makes it impossible to build a neighborhood school. For example, I believe Oakhurst Elem. — which serves the students and neighborhood well — sits on about 4 acres. Many, if not most, school systems would be looking for 3 times that. Renfroe’s on 8 acres, vs. a “suggested” 25 or so. Decatur High, which is pretty good size, uses around 14 acres; most boards would be looking for up to 50.

The result is that schools end up where land is cheaper and huge tracts are available — out on the arterial somewhere — which leads to regional, unwalkable schools and huge transportation fleets. In many municipalities, this is contrary to their overall growth plans and there’s not much that can be done.

That’s all just the tip of the iceberg, but I’ve written too much already. I tend to defer to educators’ wisdom and experience when it comes to educating our kids, but their autonomy does not tend to create solid physical connections between schools and the neighborhoods they serve. If CSD is answerable to the Commission when it comes to their school sites, that’s just fine with me. (Is this definitely the case? Still not sure.)