The chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee's aviation panel said yesterday that he would not oppose the proposed Delta/Northwest merger. Other senators have wanted assurances from the airlines' top brass that the merged carrier won't reduce jobs or service, but they are largely unopposed, making the merger more likely.
A few weeks ago, I read a Minnesota public radio blog about how long it will take to brand (repaint) Northwest planes into Delta planes.
The blog's sources agreed it would take about a week for each plane. (There's also a cool video.)
"With 500 airplanes, that would be 9-10 years if they only did one airplane at a time (recognizing they don't paint just one airplane at a time). New airplanes, of course, will be delivered with Delta's colors."
But that got me wondering about rebranding Northwest gates at Memphis International.
Larry Cox, president and CEO of the Memphis Shelby County Airport Authority, says the cost to the airport will probably be "minimal."
"The cost of redoing the signage will probably be about $100,000. That's just an estimate," he said. "Anywhere it says Northwest, it will have to be transformed."
"Any costs that we incur, the airlines will cover. It's not going to cost us anything out of our pocket," Cox added. "If it costs $100,000, $200,000, a million, they pay for it. We're insulated."
Thursday, May 8, 2008
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
Suburban Shrink
So I've been playing with the idea of moving recently. I love my house, love everything about it, except for one thing ... its location. (I know! First rule of real estate!)
I still love the actual neighborhood and the physical surroundings, but the morning and evening commutes are annoying, and getting more annoying as they get costlier.
When I first started looking for a house several years ago, I quickly realized I couldn't afford to buy in Midtown (what a surprise that was!) without buying a huge dog. Or two. All the houses in my price range were either next to meth labs or were meth labs.
Now I'm wondering if it wouldn't be better to move closer to the core city, meth labs and all. So I was interested to see this BusinessWeek Q&A with author James Howard Kunstler about how the oil crisis could mean an end to suburbia.
"Given the supply constraints, he says the U.S. will have to rethink suburban sprawl, bringing an end to strip malls, big-box stores, and other trappings of the automotive era. Kunstler, 59, predicts a return to towns and cities centered around a retail hub."
Kunstler thinks that we'll be in serious trouble within the next five years. Of course, the article notes that Kunstler predicted a Y2K meltdown, as well, so it might be he's just a doomsday-er.
But Kunstler's not the only one. Unless he was sitting in the booth behind me last night at The Cove, this is exactly what people are thinking and talking about.
I still love the actual neighborhood and the physical surroundings, but the morning and evening commutes are annoying, and getting more annoying as they get costlier.
When I first started looking for a house several years ago, I quickly realized I couldn't afford to buy in Midtown (what a surprise that was!) without buying a huge dog. Or two. All the houses in my price range were either next to meth labs or were meth labs.
Now I'm wondering if it wouldn't be better to move closer to the core city, meth labs and all. So I was interested to see this BusinessWeek Q&A with author James Howard Kunstler about how the oil crisis could mean an end to suburbia.
"Given the supply constraints, he says the U.S. will have to rethink suburban sprawl, bringing an end to strip malls, big-box stores, and other trappings of the automotive era. Kunstler, 59, predicts a return to towns and cities centered around a retail hub."
Kunstler thinks that we'll be in serious trouble within the next five years. Of course, the article notes that Kunstler predicted a Y2K meltdown, as well, so it might be he's just a doomsday-er.
But Kunstler's not the only one. Unless he was sitting in the booth behind me last night at The Cove, this is exactly what people are thinking and talking about.
Designer's Dozen
I really enjoyed city planner Jeff Speck's presentation at Christian Brothers University last week entitled The City Livable: Modest Suggestions for Making Memphis Great.
Unlike most plans or strategies — say the mayor's three-prong plan to improve the Memphis City Schools, with separate initiatives under each prong — Speck's ideas were very simple and concrete. And, no offense to the mayor's plan, but that made them seem actually doable.
Below are the 12 things he suggested, with some of his reasoning below. (apologies if it's front loaded. At some point, Speck realized he could dim the lights and I hadn't thought to bring my light pen with me. Mostly because I don't have one.)
1. Design your city for humans, not cars
There's been a trend since the '60s to let highway engineering onto city streets, but the wider a street is, the faster drivers feel comfortable going. And the faster people drive on a road, the less pedestrians want to walk alongside it.
(Speck didn't mention this, but if traffic is going 40 mph or faster, pedestrians don't feel comfortable walking next to it. Not coincidentally, I don't think, if a pedestrian gets hit by a car going 40 mph or faster, most are not likely to survive.)
2. stop diminishing your economic advantage
As cities have all become the same, older buildings are a city's distinguishing factor. So to stand out, it would be good to maintain some of our historic buildings. For a comparison, Speck showed a bunch of pictures of older buildings we've torn down and what is there now, including an old movie theater and what's there now: Parking Can Be Fun on Union Avenue.
"Look," he said, "parking can be fun, but more fun than a movie theater?"
3. plant trees
If planted alongside streets, trees are a barrier between pedestrians and cars, which made pedestrians feel safer. Not to mention that they lower heating and cooling costs, absorb water run-off and drastically increase real estate values.
Other communities around the country have already realized all these thing and are really stepping up tree planting.
4. organize neighborhoods around schools around neighborhoods
Neighborhood schools are better for the community, better for transportation costs, better for students.
5. fix downtown first
Several years ago, Speck started hearing good things about Denver and LoDo (its lower downtown historic district) and went to check it out. When he got there, he realized it was only two blocks.
"Two blocks changed the reputation of Denver," he said. "Reputation is important."
Downtown is one neighborhood that belongs to everybody.
6. practice urban triage
Cities trying to be uniformly excellent are often uniformly mediocre.
"You have to pick your winners and your losers. It's not about letting trash gather or not fixing potholes," Speck said. "It's about what place is going to be for pedestrians."
7. fix the 3rd street promenot
"You have these two amazing anchors — AutoZone Park and Beale Street. Between them is a limited pedestrian zone," Speck said.
Limited is putting it mildly. The area from 3rd and Union to 3rd and Beale includes the backside of the Peabody Hotel and parking on both sides. Speck suggested adding some small retail in front of one of the parking garages and using it to pull people across.
8. fix the Main Street, South Main knuckle
Main Street's pretty vibrant. South Main is pretty vibrant. And then you have Main at Linden with the Chisca, MLGW, and a parking garage next to a parking lot. ("When you have surface parking next to a garage, that's bad planning," Speck said.)
9. you deserve just a little urban waterfront
Speck wasn't completely digging the Riverfront Development Corporation's plans for the Beale Street Landing.
"I like the design, but this is not urban. This is ... rural."
Although, now that I think about it, he might have said pastoral. Anyway, point is the same. That's a lot of passive green space.
"You need places to shop, sit, and have a beer and a meal up against the water," he said. "There's an opportunity on Beale to create something urban." Something like this.
10. build the missing monument
Speck suggested building a Martin Luther King monument on the plaza outside the National Civil Rights Museum.
"You would have no trouble funding a monument on that site if you can get it together."
11. stop the outer loop — it's not built yet
So, Speck isn't a fan of sprawl. It's not economical, it's not good for the environment, and ironically, it's not even good for drivers.
"It's actually worse for cars to build sprawl. They all have to go on one arterial road," he said. "We know the model is broken, yet we continue to build it."
And if he needed an example, he found I-269.
"I thought it was being built because of the congestion, but it's being built because the money is there," he said. After citing local air quality concerns, asthma rates, and retail cannibalism, he said, "There is no proper argument for building the outer loop. Period."
12. put cars back on Main Street
If you want to read more about this, go here.
Unlike most plans or strategies — say the mayor's three-prong plan to improve the Memphis City Schools, with separate initiatives under each prong — Speck's ideas were very simple and concrete. And, no offense to the mayor's plan, but that made them seem actually doable.
Below are the 12 things he suggested, with some of his reasoning below. (apologies if it's front loaded. At some point, Speck realized he could dim the lights and I hadn't thought to bring my light pen with me. Mostly because I don't have one.)
1. Design your city for humans, not cars
There's been a trend since the '60s to let highway engineering onto city streets, but the wider a street is, the faster drivers feel comfortable going. And the faster people drive on a road, the less pedestrians want to walk alongside it.
(Speck didn't mention this, but if traffic is going 40 mph or faster, pedestrians don't feel comfortable walking next to it. Not coincidentally, I don't think, if a pedestrian gets hit by a car going 40 mph or faster, most are not likely to survive.)
2. stop diminishing your economic advantage
As cities have all become the same, older buildings are a city's distinguishing factor. So to stand out, it would be good to maintain some of our historic buildings. For a comparison, Speck showed a bunch of pictures of older buildings we've torn down and what is there now, including an old movie theater and what's there now: Parking Can Be Fun on Union Avenue.
"Look," he said, "parking can be fun, but more fun than a movie theater?"
3. plant trees
If planted alongside streets, trees are a barrier between pedestrians and cars, which made pedestrians feel safer. Not to mention that they lower heating and cooling costs, absorb water run-off and drastically increase real estate values.
Other communities around the country have already realized all these thing and are really stepping up tree planting.
4. organize neighborhoods around schools around neighborhoods
Neighborhood schools are better for the community, better for transportation costs, better for students.
5. fix downtown first
Several years ago, Speck started hearing good things about Denver and LoDo (its lower downtown historic district) and went to check it out. When he got there, he realized it was only two blocks.
"Two blocks changed the reputation of Denver," he said. "Reputation is important."
Downtown is one neighborhood that belongs to everybody.
6. practice urban triage
Cities trying to be uniformly excellent are often uniformly mediocre.
"You have to pick your winners and your losers. It's not about letting trash gather or not fixing potholes," Speck said. "It's about what place is going to be for pedestrians."
7. fix the 3rd street promenot
"You have these two amazing anchors — AutoZone Park and Beale Street. Between them is a limited pedestrian zone," Speck said.
Limited is putting it mildly. The area from 3rd and Union to 3rd and Beale includes the backside of the Peabody Hotel and parking on both sides. Speck suggested adding some small retail in front of one of the parking garages and using it to pull people across.
8. fix the Main Street, South Main knuckle
Main Street's pretty vibrant. South Main is pretty vibrant. And then you have Main at Linden with the Chisca, MLGW, and a parking garage next to a parking lot. ("When you have surface parking next to a garage, that's bad planning," Speck said.)
9. you deserve just a little urban waterfront
Speck wasn't completely digging the Riverfront Development Corporation's plans for the Beale Street Landing.
"I like the design, but this is not urban. This is ... rural."
Although, now that I think about it, he might have said pastoral. Anyway, point is the same. That's a lot of passive green space.
"You need places to shop, sit, and have a beer and a meal up against the water," he said. "There's an opportunity on Beale to create something urban." Something like this.
10. build the missing monument
Speck suggested building a Martin Luther King monument on the plaza outside the National Civil Rights Museum.
"You would have no trouble funding a monument on that site if you can get it together."
11. stop the outer loop — it's not built yet
So, Speck isn't a fan of sprawl. It's not economical, it's not good for the environment, and ironically, it's not even good for drivers.
"It's actually worse for cars to build sprawl. They all have to go on one arterial road," he said. "We know the model is broken, yet we continue to build it."
And if he needed an example, he found I-269.
"I thought it was being built because of the congestion, but it's being built because the money is there," he said. After citing local air quality concerns, asthma rates, and retail cannibalism, he said, "There is no proper argument for building the outer loop. Period."
12. put cars back on Main Street
If you want to read more about this, go here.
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
warmer waters ... in Siberia
The NYT has a cute and disturbing story about a Siberian family that has been recording temperatures in the world's largest body of fresh water for the past 60 YEARS.
Every week or so for, again, the past 60 years, members of the family have crossed Lake Baikal and recorded water temperature, clarity, and plant and animal species. And, no surprise, things are changing.
From the story:
"Although it is known that warming is more intense at high latitudes, as in the Baikal area, and that water is warming in other major lakes, including Lake Tahoe in Nevada and Lake Tanganyika in central Africa, many scientists had thought that Lake Baikal’s enormous volume and unusual water circulation patterns would buffer the effects of global warming.
I don't know what is more interesting/amazing: the science (yikes) or how long this family kept their project going, even during and after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Every week or so for, again, the past 60 years, members of the family have crossed Lake Baikal and recorded water temperature, clarity, and plant and animal species. And, no surprise, things are changing.
From the story:
"Although it is known that warming is more intense at high latitudes, as in the Baikal area, and that water is warming in other major lakes, including Lake Tahoe in Nevada and Lake Tanganyika in central Africa, many scientists had thought that Lake Baikal’s enormous volume and unusual water circulation patterns would buffer the effects of global warming.
Instead, the researchers report, surface waters in Lake Baikal are warming quickly, on average by about 0.4 degrees Fahrenheit every decade. At a depth of about 75 feet, the increase is about 0.2 degrees per decade, they say, enough to jeopardize species 'unable to adapt evolutionarily or behaviorally.'"
The lake apparently has a number of species that are not found anywhere else, such as giant shrimp and freshwater seal, and with the warmer temperatures, "its highly unusual food web is reorganizing."I don't know what is more interesting/amazing: the science (yikes) or how long this family kept their project going, even during and after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Monday, May 5, 2008
Cutting School
Memphis mayor Willie Herenton will make a presentation on the Memphis City Schools to the City Council's executive committee Tuesday at 2 p.m.
Can't get away from your desk, but still interested in hearing what the man has to say? Go here and click on executive committee.
Should be interesting.
Can't get away from your desk, but still interested in hearing what the man has to say? Go here and click on executive committee.
Should be interesting.
Book Club
A group of local librarians are fighting against what they call a "crisis situation" at the Memphis Public Library and Information Center.
The group — calling themselves Librarians for Memphis Public Library — cite Mayor Willie Herenton's appointment of two non-librarians to run the system, the proposed closures of five public library branches, and the dissolution of the library's board of trustees as a few of the things they are upset about.
Herenton and his administration have said that the library does not need a professional librarian at its head — something many professional librarians strongly disagree with — but that it simply needs a good manager.
I don't want to go into all the background — feel free to read two stories I've written on the library changes here, here, and here — but I don't see any winners in this situation. Surely not longtime library head Judith Drescher. Not new head Keenon McCloy. And certainly not the general public who use the library.
We're having a hard enough time educating the region's young people, and here we're talking about shutting down resources where people can read books, work on the computer, and explore new things, all essentially for free. I get that the closures can save the city $2 million (at the high end) but how much are they going to cost us in the long run?
The group — calling themselves Librarians for Memphis Public Library — cite Mayor Willie Herenton's appointment of two non-librarians to run the system, the proposed closures of five public library branches, and the dissolution of the library's board of trustees as a few of the things they are upset about.
Herenton and his administration have said that the library does not need a professional librarian at its head — something many professional librarians strongly disagree with — but that it simply needs a good manager.
I don't want to go into all the background — feel free to read two stories I've written on the library changes here, here, and here — but I don't see any winners in this situation. Surely not longtime library head Judith Drescher. Not new head Keenon McCloy. And certainly not the general public who use the library.
We're having a hard enough time educating the region's young people, and here we're talking about shutting down resources where people can read books, work on the computer, and explore new things, all essentially for free. I get that the closures can save the city $2 million (at the high end) but how much are they going to cost us in the long run?
Thursday, May 1, 2008
Thrifty Business
When I was in high school, I spent whole weekends at thrift stores. Partly because hostessing didn't pay that well, and partly because to find the comfiest, best worn-in mens' cut jeans, you needed ones that had actually been worn in by actual men. (Yes, the more holes the better. Remind me to tell you about the time I got sent to the principal's office because my knees were distracting the other pupils.)
Once I even found the most perfect pair of knee-high western-inspired boots (that I still have, had to get them re-soled and everything).
Anyway, I was interested to see a story in the NYT yesterday about the re-emergence of thrift stores. Apparently the industry is growing at a rate of 5 percent a year.
Of course, the story ties thrifts' popularity to the economy. There's no doubt that thrift stores and consignment shops are a bargain, but I wonder if the green movement plays any part in the industry's growth. People trying to live low-impact or no-impact don't buy anything new.
Coincidentally, yesterday I talked to Nikki Douglas, the owner of Hi-Octane, new vintage store in Cooper-Young. Her store sounds really cool — you can read about it here — and she talked about both the affordability and the environmentally friendly aspect of shopping there, not to mention the cool factor.
"When you buy vintage," she said, "you're buying recycling. You're keeping clothes in the chain and keeping them out of the dumpster."
And there are some things — like knee-high wester-inspired boots or whatever the current equivalent is — that are just too cool to go in the dumpster.
Once I even found the most perfect pair of knee-high western-inspired boots (that I still have, had to get them re-soled and everything).
Anyway, I was interested to see a story in the NYT yesterday about the re-emergence of thrift stores. Apparently the industry is growing at a rate of 5 percent a year.
Of course, the story ties thrifts' popularity to the economy. There's no doubt that thrift stores and consignment shops are a bargain, but I wonder if the green movement plays any part in the industry's growth. People trying to live low-impact or no-impact don't buy anything new.
Coincidentally, yesterday I talked to Nikki Douglas, the owner of Hi-Octane, new vintage store in Cooper-Young. Her store sounds really cool — you can read about it here — and she talked about both the affordability and the environmentally friendly aspect of shopping there, not to mention the cool factor.
"When you buy vintage," she said, "you're buying recycling. You're keeping clothes in the chain and keeping them out of the dumpster."
And there are some things — like knee-high wester-inspired boots or whatever the current equivalent is — that are just too cool to go in the dumpster.
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