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Walkable Seattle - Headlines from Worldchanging Seattle
WorldChanging
Maybe it's because it's summer, but walkability has been on our minds a lot here in Seattle. In a city rife with so many vibrant neighborhoods and beautiful points of connection with the natural world, we want to make the most of our resources, because a city that welcomes and delights pedestrians helps support a healthy community and a healthy environment. You can read about leading plans and ideas for a more walkable Seattle in this week's feature story, Discussions For A Walkable Seattle.

Other recent posts ranged from the newly approved Seattle Center plan to a photo essay of beautiful sidewalk designs. Check out what's new:

Sidewalks: The City's Problem and Greenwood's Solution
Neighborhood activisits in Greenwood are developing a plan to help residents work with the city to fund and design the sidewalks of their dreams.
(22 August 2008)

Summer Streets a Success!
Glenn, The Oil Drum: Local
For the last two weeks, NYC has experimented with an idea of making a major avenue in Manhattan car-free for no particular reason than for the enjoyment of residents and visitors. There were no streetfair vendors hawking $3 tube socks or blended drinks from noisy & polluting generators. Nor was there any excuse like the Marathon or a parade where only invited guests are allowed to run or walk down the middle of the streets.

This was different.

Summer Saturdays purely for locals and anyone who happened to be in town and want to get a little exercise by taking a stroll, jogging, roller blading or biking. It was for anyone of all ages and abilities. There were little children and senior citizens. There were world class athletes and people in wheelchairs. There were people from all over the world and local residents venturing into the middle of the street for the first time without fear of automobiles running them over.

But most of all, there was peace and quiet in the middle of the city and it was not a park - it was Park Avenue, experienced as it had not been experienced in perhaps 80-100 years. No engines roaring, no horns honking, no fear for your life. Just a pleasant place to enjoy a great Summer day in the city.
(23 August 2008)

Tyranny of distance fuels rising grocery prices
Ellie Harvey, Sydney Morning Herald
REMOTE towns in NSW - not only Aboriginal communities - are struggling with grocery prices pushed higher by rising freight costs.

In Tibooburra they pay $4.75 for two litres of milk, which Sydneysiders can buy at a supermarket for $2.59.

"The freight prices we have to pay to get the bare necessities up is unbelievable," said Cindy McGeorge, who owns Corner Country Store in Tibooburra, in north-western NSW.

... But for the indigenous community on Thursday Island, it is even more dire. Its store, See Hop Trading, sells two litres of milk for $6.30, or 18 cans of Coke for $45. It attributes this to freight costs, directly linked with petrol prices. Unleaded petrol is $2.10 a litre on the island.
(25 August 2008)
EB contributor Michael Lardelli writes:
Many remote communities in Australia will not be viable as the price of transport increases:

Choking Suburbs to Stop Global Warming
Dan Shapley, The Daily Green
The California legislature is poised to pass a first-in-the-nation inhibition to sprawl.

While green-minded folks have long bemoaned sprawl for replacing forests and farmland with pavement and pesticide-treated patches of grass, it's concern over global warming that has the legislature moving.

Sprawling suburban and exurban development contributes to global warming by spreading people out, so that their homes are separated from their work, school and recreation by such great distances that cars are the only method available to get from here to there. All those cars add to pollution that contributes to climate change. It goes deeper, as land carved up for suburbia would absorb more carbon emissions if left alone, for instance, and because city dwellers living in multistory buildings use less energy for heating and other energy costs, per capita, but transportation is a key factor.
(22 August 2008)