September 2010
85 posts
#lovelansing Greater Lansing Festival Alliance →
youtube.com
The greater Lansing area boasts over 30 diverse and educational non-profit arts and cultural festivals throughout the calendar year. These community building events offer unparalleled free access to arts and culture experiences for residents in the tri-county area. They also offer an ideal venue for participation by local artists and cultural groups and the promotion of local assets and businesses. These festivals are also a major attraction, bringing an estimated 500,000 attendees and cultural tourists, as well as artists and performers, to mid-Michigan from across the region, the state, and in some cases, the nation and beyond. The programming that occurs during these non-profit festivals is so important for preserving, presenting, and promoting diverse cultures and art forms here! #lovelansing
Lansing, Michigan - a rising technology powerhouse
I have lived in Lansing for 30 years and have watched recently change from an aging, auto centric area to one of the most thriving dynamic incubators for new technology! With its cost of living relatively inexpensive compared to either coast Lansing is rapidly becoming THE place for new enterprises.
A Collaborative Cultural Economic Development Plan for Greater Lansing's Urban Center →
lansingarts.org
The many unique qualities and assets of Lansing and East Lansing, when creatively combined, will significantly contribute to its economy and quality of life during the next decade. Creative thinking, smart young talent, hardworking ‘get-it-made’ workforce, visionary leadership, and a network of artists and cultural organizations are among existing ingredients.
It’s a bold vision and this plan recommends that the Cities of Lansing and East Lansing and the region be the Midwest’s most welcoming and supportive destination for creative innovators and entrepreneurs.
Loving Lansing and Living Downtown →
capitalgainsmedia.com
This is an article I wrote for Lansing Capital Gains about moving downtown and how much I love being there.
Downtown Lansing has a lot to offer: the River Trail, the City Market, Lugnuts games, great restaurants, fun bars and more!
And the best part? All of this great stuff is within walking distance of my home. I don’t miss the suburbs at all.
NAC, Lansing, Michigan
Lansing, Michigan: A to Z
Affordability | Beautification | Creativity | Diversity | Entertainment | Fresh | Givers | Hope | Innovation | Jobs | Kids | Learning | Music | Neighborhood | Opportunity | Perspective | Quirky | Reach | Sustainability | Technology | Urbanism | Victorious | Wisdom | TedXLansing | Young | Zeal
urban difference: New approaches to public space: "Reclaim-Test-Evaluate-Establish". →
urbandifference.tumblr.com
Recently I have been finding some interesting initiatives by which some cities are creating new public spaces in areas that were previously underused. Such initiatives are based on what I would call a “Reclaim-Test-Evaluate-Establish” approach of which I will show you an exciting…
Spotlight on Initiative: Promoting Equitable, Sustainable Transportation
The Foundation’s Promoting Equitable, Sustainable Transportation initiative advocates for investment in affordable, environmentally-responsible transit. Read more here.
Digital Urbanisms: Situated Technologies Pamphlets: Ubiquitous Computing, Urbanism, Architecture! →
digitalurbanis.ms
I just discovered Situated Technologies! This is “a project by Omar Khan, Trebor Scholz, and Mark Shepard, is a co-production of the Center for Virtual Architecture, The Institute for Distributed Creativity (iDC), and the Architectural League of New York.”
9 pamphlets have been published…
Why Lansing?
Lansing has grown leaps and bounds over the past five years! Check out this video about why Lansing is a great place to have a business!
A Smarter Planet: Urban farming: It’s a growth business →
<p><a href="http
Urban farming may sound like an oxymoron, but judging from the 375-person sell-out crowd at the first Urban Farm Summit in Washington, D.C., the idea is catching on like organics at Walmart.
The recent one-day event called, Sowing Seeds Here and Now, was organized by Engaged Community…
Create a Society of Young Leaders
The Capital Area United Way in Lansing, MI has launch a program to train the next generation of young, community-minded leaders. Participants learn how to identify a problem or issue in their community and then build a network to solve it.
http://www.capitalareaunitedway.org/index.php/young-leader-society
Beyond training young pros to be leaders, the Young Leaders Society is getting people to believe that they have the power to make positive change and that they don’t have to go to where the grass is greener - they can water the grass themselves. In places that were traditionally thought of as the Rust Belt, that’s a powerful thing.
Lansing, MI
Smart Cities Support Local Food
Travel By Train
The most rewarding life experience has been the move to New Hampshire where one may enjoy all of nature’s beauty, healthy lifestyle if you want to participate in a variety of sports, and, most importantly, experience the genuine character of the citizens. The majority of people here are open and sharing, will give of themselves to help their community as well as provide monetary support of services that are viewed favorably to maintain a quality of life.
The DownEaster train is extremely important to our people here and offers pleasant and reasonable cost transportation from Massachusetts to Maine. Towns along the track appreciate this wonderful asset and many are leaving cars in the garages to commute by rail. There are dedicated volunteers who service the stations and make every effort to deliver a positive experience to riders. My train station photo is an award that was given to a volunteer of thirty years of service in our town. Along with the photo came the personal respect of the community; something better than what is captured in a photo.
Dover, New Hampshire
Engaging Urbanites: SpeakUpAustin
As the Community Engagement Consultant at the City of Austin (TX), I’ve helped design and launch speakupaustin.org, one of the few public participation portals in the U.S. The portal is designed to make it clearer and easier for Austinites to engage in robust public policy dialogues across multiple subjects and departments. Many city residents want to have a say in the future of their city, but it’s too difficult or intimidating (or both) to attend and/or participate in a community meeting. Speakupaustin.org is designed to give everyone an opportunity to participate quickly, meaningfully, and effectively, and to interact with our residents with other points of view.
Networks – not size – give cities competitive advantage
#lovelansing doesn’t need to be a “big” city to be the Next American City!
Michigan State University launches entrepreneurial education and support network #lovelansing
Bryan Ritchie, MSU professor and director of the Michigan Center for Innovation and Economic Prosperity, discusses MSU’s new entrepreneurial education and support network. “This program itself is entrepreneurial…we are linking existing centers, courses, faculty and students into a flat organizational structure and network, connecting MSU and community service providers and firms into a just-in-time access point.”
http://www.lansingstatejournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=20108180319
http://wwj.cbslocal.com/2010/08/18/msu-launches-entrepreneurial-education-support-network/
Play
Why I #LoveLansing. Power to the people.
Lansing is a smarter city for it’s ability to connect young people to the wider community. Not only does my city have world-ranked institutions, but the people here go above and beyond to ensure that young people feel a meaningful connection to the community. I’m 22 and I am on a board for a prominent non-profit. How you ask? Certainly not because of my own means. But, because people wanted me to stay here and wanted me to contribute to the community in meaningful ways. They wanted me to feel connected and they wanted a young voice. Lansing’s ability to connect young people in meaningful ways and the community’s valuation of those connections are what makes my city a smarter city. In turn, we’ve been able to do awesome things through cross generational collaboration.
Video of Public Meetings
By putting their meeting videos online, Lancaster County, PA, went from an annually measureable reach of approximately 1,000 constituents to an actual measured reach of over 50,000 in just over two years.
Empowered City
I live in the Next American City because I am a part-owner of my community’s integrated infrastructure company. I do not continually pay rent in the form of transmission fees; rather I own the value of my infrastructure with my neighbors. Whats more, we spend less money for utility services than the average because our neighborhood heat network is integrated to resource recovery from wastewater. We also buy and sell electricity in bulk, giving us a better position in the electricity market. In the past few years, we have accumulated funds and will vote on how to reinvest back into the neighborhood (building a community center is our top priority). Now, developers are approaching us to learn how we organized a local infrastructure company that creates value across the triple-bottom line.
Nels Nelson, Boston, USA
The Leonard Lopate Show: Roof Gardens in NYC - WNYC →
beta.wnyc.org
Friday, September 03, 2010
We’ll find out how to build a roof farm for growing food and discuss the viability of urban farming as a means of feeding cities. Annie Novak, founder and director of Growing Chefs and co-founder and farmer of Eagle Street Rooftop Farm in Greenpoint, and Lisa Goode, of Goode Green, a green roof design and installation firm, talk about how Rooftop Farms has built a local community in Greenpoint.
August 2010
63 posts
First Capital Bikeshare station installed
The first Capital Bikeshare station was installed today at 18th and Bell Streets in Arlington, adjacent to Crystal City Metro.
With 19 bike docks, the station will be the largest in Arlington as well as the first. The components all came pre-fabricated and just had to be unloaded and pieced together. It took workers a little over an hour to perform the job, which they did with the help of a small crane.
In addition to bike docks, the station includes panels for paying and maps. Bikes will come in a couple of weeks when the system is closer to launch.
See below 41 photos showing the installation process from start to finish.
Making Do: Innovation in Kenya's Informal Economy →
analoguedigital.com
A new book, available for free online, that breaks down the human systems that allow Nairobi’s informal economy to flourish and innovate:
The linkages among microenterprises form dense networks of activity. Take a stroll through Gikomba, and one can’t help but think of the informal sector as a living organism with intricate systems that form a concordant whole.
Could Social Media Revolutionise the Planning System?
With social media services allowing people to tag the locations of the photos they’ve uploaded, check-in to shops, bars and parks online, and have geolocation attached to their tweets, it’s clear that online technologies and the city are becoming increasingly integrated, with no signs of this stopping. This data is accessible and is already being utilised by a variety of innovative applications, further suggesting that data, technology and the built environment will soon be fully intertwined.
We already have maps that show user generated photographs from the area, mobile applications showing local social media activity, and websites like fixmystreet.com that allow you to report issues with your city and monitor their progress as they are resolved. Technological progress is already changing the way we interact with the built environment.
“A poem compresses much in a small space and adds music, thus heightening its meaning. The city is like poetry: it compresses all life, all races and breeds, into a small island and adds music and the accompaniment of internal engines. The island of Manhattan is without any doubt the greatest human concentration on earth, the poem whose music is comprehensible to millions of permanent residents but whose full meaning will always remain elusive.”
—Excerpt from “Here is New York” by E.B. White (via irishboyinlondon)
The Lasting Power of Lansing's "Lunch With a Purpose"
Lunch with a Purpose started as an idea and has become a reality. As a group, Lunch with a Purpose volunteers each week for a different community organization. Whether it’s cooking food or folding bed sheets, a lot of people with a little time make a huge difference. Each week Lunch with a Purpose continues to grow, sharing time and talents to better the Lansing community.
Their mission is to support local area charities and non-profits by making contributions of personal time and effort as well as monetary donations and fund-raising assistance.
Charge! →
google.com
Zipcar is already testing a plug-in hybrid in its San Francisco fleet, and the company plans on adding a number of Nissan Leaf EVs to its fleets in San Francisco and Seattle as part of the Department of Energy’s Clean Cities program.
Tech Tours offer a live, work and play experience in Lansing
The Capital Area IT Council Tech Tours program provides local college students with opportunities to explore the Greater Lansing community through a series of unique “live, work and play” experiences.
The Tech Tours — held one or twice a year — are sponsored by TechSmith, Sircon, Dewpoint and Delta Dental. Each tour provides students with an opportunity to visit at least three IT companies in the Lansing area, tour a living complex downtown and end the day with a social networking event at one of the city’s many hot spots.
Since the Tech Tours program began in November 2007, students have toured over 20 Lansing companies in the technology field. Some of these companies include TechSmith and Liquid Web — who have each earned a spot on the Inc. 5,000 list of fastest-growing private companies in America — and IBM — who was an esteemed stop on the November 2009 Tech Tour.
Apartment complex and loft tours have included the best ammenities that downtown has to offer — Motor Wheel Lofts, Arbaugh Lofts and The Stadium District.
One of the most worthwhile parts of the tour is the social networking hour. Students and IT professionals meet at locations like the owner’s suite at Cooley Law School Stadium, The Exchange and Tavern on the Square, where food and beverage is provided and network connections are made.
The Capital Area IT Council Tech Tours are an irreplaceable way for Lansing to retain talent and offer students the very best this city has to offer.
