IV Death, Strife and Harmony

Intro

Here on the west coast, we’re over the hump of the first surge. I’d hoped this fortnight’s section would be Testing and Tracing but progress there is glacial. Instead the ugly underbelly of the crisis is showing itself.

First, COVID-19 death is stalking POCs in ways now clear. Blacks in Detroit, Chicago and the South. Latinix workers in the fields and in meat packing, immigrants in detention centers, prisoners everywhere, and, of course, elders in nursing homes.

Then, Trump has been using daily C-19 briefings as his bully pulpit. First, playing dictator for the media, then telling the the governors to take charge, and finally exhorting his base to push governors to “open the country.”

These are just a couple of the disparities splitting the country in crisscrossing ways.

III Surge Ahead

Intro

Make that title for my third fortnight in quarantine tentative.  Here in Washington State, we’re still slowing down but our infection curve is to peak sometime mid month. This simple effort to keep track of a rapidly changing situation continues.  It’s bringing out a bit of the would-be historian and journalist manqué in me.

Recycling Bin Urinals: Would they work as a stop gap measure?

Imagine an ordinary plastic recycling bin with a hinged lid and wheels of the type seen curbside and on sidewalks throughout the US. Fit into the side is a wide mouth funnel which functions as  urinal.  A tube extends to a compartment underneath the usual bin which converts the urine into high quality natural fertilizer.

Swiss designer Stephen Bischof has field tested his innovative prototype on the busy streets of South London, where video monitoring confirmed its acceptance by users.  The press, the design community, and experts in ecological sanitation have all taken note.

Considering the challenge of dealing with public urination in US cities, the Recycling Bin Urinal merits serious consideration.  First, it presents an opportunity to decriminalize public urination when people simply cannot find an available toilet.  Granted, a recycling bin meets neither the standards of dignity nor the privacy criteria expected of a public toilet.   But in areas of cities where homeless people gather at night for their safety, these emergency urinals are likely to be welcomed.

Even when public toilets are available within a reasonable distance, homeless men and women are understandably reluctant to go to them if it means packing up their belongings and or leaving them behind. The bins can be discretely rolled to a nearby alcove at night. Women can use the facility to dump urine collected in a drugstore urinal or directly with the assistance of any of a number of inexpensive cardboard or plastic funnels available on the market.

Environment activists and advocates for the rights of homeless people might do well to think out of the box and embrace this idea. Decriminalize urination, collect trash and recycle urine using the same small footprint receptacle?  Maybe this is a place to start.

Final Comments on LEED-ND: Can you really promote walkable communities and remain silent on public restroom availability?

Final Comments on LEED-ND: Can you really promote walkable communities while remaining silent on public restroom availability? 

The process of developing the LEED-Neighborhood Development rating system is now coming to a close with a final call for comments by June 14, 2009.  

This joint venture of the Congress for the New Urbanism, the US Green Building Council, and the Natural Resources Defense Council is a powerful and practical tool for environmental sustainability. Where LEED looks at buildings, LEED-ND http://www.nrdc.org/cities/smartgrowth/leed.asp considers how they are integrated into  compact, mixed-use neighborhoods and walkable, transit-oriented communities.  

Buildings generate more than a third of greenhouse gases and other environmental impacts.    However, people moving themselves and goods among buildings are responsible for another third.  LEED-ND is a comprehensive set of guidelines – with a rating system rating system the offers points for alternatives to sprawl and rewards points for development that reduces the need to drive.  

But has LEED-ND looked at what else needs to be done to get people out of their cars and onto their feet and public transit? 

Portland public restroom advocacy organization PHLUSH http://phlush.org/demonstrates how public restrooms are a vital part of mixed-use neighborhoods.   http://phlush.org/?page_id=696

People are comfortable strolling in downtown when there are public facilities.

Public restrooms get people out of cars and onto their feet, bicycles and mass transit.  Commuters need restrooms along their route.  

Public restrooms promote fitness by allowing people to exercise in open space and in so doing provide natural surveillance. 

Public restrooms contribute to public health. Involuntary urinary retention is detrimental to physical health.  Mental health suffers when people want to be out with their families and friends but restrooms are not available.

Public restrooms serve the “restroom challenged”, http://www.americanrestroom.org/pr/who.htm  people with both normal conditions – pregnancy, young age, old age etc – and a range of medical conditions, many of which are invisible.

Fundamental to historical urban development was recognition of the need of all human beings to urinate and defecate.  In fact, a hallmark of a great city was its ability to deal with this reality.  

Could it simply be that old-fashioned reluctance to consider these basic, albeit unappealing, circumstances of human existence have blinded the world most talented planners and environmentalists?  

Or is it me who is missing something?   

The process of developing the LEED-Neighborhood Development rating system is now coming to a close with a final call for comments by June 14, 2009.  

This joint venture of the Congress for the New Urbanism, the US Green Building Council, and the Natural Resources Defense Council is a powerful and practical tool for environmental sustainability. Where LEED looks at buildings, LEED-ND  considers how they are integrated into  compact, mixed-use neighborhoods and walkable, transit-oriented communities.  

Buildings generate more than a third of greenhouse gases and other environmental impacts.    However, people moving themselves and goods among buildings are responsible for another third.  The latest draft of LEED-ND is a comprehensive set of guidelines, with a rating system rating system the offers points for alternatives to sprawl and development that activates open spaces and reduces the need to drive. But has LEED-ND looked at what else needs to be done to get people out of their cars?

Portland public restroom advocacy organization PHLUSH demonstrates how public restrooms are a vital part of mixed-use neighborhoods.   People are comfortable strolling in downtown when there are public facilities.

• Public restrooms get people out of cars and onto their feet, bicycles and mass transit.  Commuters want restrooms along their routes.  
• Public restrooms promote fitness by allowing people to exercise in open space and in so doing provide natural surveillance. 
• Public restrooms contribute to public health. Involuntary urinary retention is detrimental to physical health.  Mental health suffers when people cannot be out with their families and friends because restrooms are not available.
• Public restrooms also serve the “restroom challenged”,  people with both normal conditions – pregnancy, young age, old age etc – and a range of medical conditions, many of which are invisible.

Fundamental to historical urban development was recognition of the need of all human beings to urinate and defecate.  In fact, a hallmark of a great city was its ability to deal with this reality.  

Could it be that old-fashioned reluctance to consider these basic, albeit unappealing, circumstances of human existence have blinded some of the world’s most talented, architects,  planners and environmentalists?  

Or is it me who is missing something?

Health and Urban Design 2

“Our first challenge is to imagine what a healthy environment looks like, not how to create access to healthcare services.  Access doesn’t deliver health to a population.” 

Center for Healthy Aging.  http://www.healthyagingprograms.org/  Nancy Whitelaw.

Health and Urban Design 2

“Our first challenge is to imagine what a healthy environment looks like, not how to create access to healthcare services. Access doesn’t deliver health to a population.” 

So says Nancy Whitlaw of the Center for Healthy Living speaking at the Lifelong Communities charrette in Atlanta.  

Researchers continue demonstrate that older people who are physically active live longer and have lower health care costs.   People only think of themselves as old when their health starts to decline or they have limited function. Segregation of older people may facilitate caregiving but it cuts individuals off from the diversity of a dynamic community and may exacerbate already high incidences of depression among older adults.

So what does it take to keep people active and connected throughout their lives?  What kind of an environment will do this?  

“What we need to be thinking about is how to create a society and environment that can accommodate people with varying degrees of physical function,” says Whitlaw. “Everything that the older folk need may not be as necessary for younger people, but younger people would be better served in communities that serve older people well.

Instead of pondering when old age starts we should be thinking about the “where.”   While funding for health care is important, we need support for people can exercise their right to grow old independently in safe environment.

So says Nancy Whitlaw of the Center for Healthy Living, speaking at the Lifelong Communities charrette in Atlanta.  

Researchers continue demonstrate that older people who are physically active live longer and have lower health care costs.   People only think of themselves as old when their health starts to decline or their function becomes limited, such as when they no longer drive. Segregation of older people may facilitate caregiving but it cuts individuals off from the diversity of a dynamic community and may exacerbate already high incidences of depression among older adults.

So what does it take to keep people active and connected throughout their lives?  What kind of an environment will do this?  

“What we need to be thinking about is how to create a society and environment that can accommodate people with varying degrees of physical function,” says Whitlaw. “Everything that the older folk need may not be as necessary for younger people, but younger people would be better served in communities that serve older people well.”

Instead of pondering when old age starts, we should be thinking a lot more about the “where,”  whether in making personal choices or setting public policy.  While funding health care is the issue of the day, let’s not forget support for people to exercise their right to grow old independently in safe environment.

Atlanta’s nine-day charrette looks at aging and urban design

Atlanta Regional Commission Lifelong Communities Charette http://www.atlantaregional.com/html/4921.aspxAn 

Interesting work from the nine-day Lifelong Communities charrette is now available.  Organized by Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC) in partnership with Duany, Plater-Zyberk & Company (DPZ), the charrette brought together design, architecture, planning, aging and health experts to craft six master plans which retrofit sprawling suburban sites in Georgia counties and cities. 

As André Duany points out in his opening speech http://www.monumentalmedia.com/arc/lifelong_charrette/duany_opening/ that before 1950 there were no retirement communities (and in fact he challenges us to find one.)  Retirement communities are a child of the automobile and sprawl.  

He urges his to think about what life was like in before the car.  First, the car “liberated planning from the intrinsic and  organic discipline of proximity”.  In the

Participants at the nine-day Atlanta Regional Commission Lifelong Communities Charrette  took some fundamental first steps in looking at how to retrofit six sprawling suburban sites in Georgia. Organized in February by Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC) in partnership with Duany, Plater-Zyberk & Company (DPZ), the charrette brought together design, architecture, planning, aging and health experts to craft master plans for the six sites in Atlanta and three counties.  

Not to be missed is André Duany’s opening speech (available as an hour l0ng video) in which he updates the premises of New Urbanism in the context of healthy aging and active living.  

Supporting his long held principles with fact and figures, Duany describes the fruits of car-driven sprawl:  a shrunken tax base, failing municipal capacity, gated communities,broken grids,  dysfunctional HOAs, and NIMBY-ism.   He challenges us to find a retirement community in existence before 1950.  “Suburbia only works for adults in their middle years who can afford one car each,” says Duany.   If you can’t drive you have to leave.

The call to find ways to retrofit the suburbs for aging Atlantans has yielded a rich vein of analysis,  innovation, and actual plans.  Let’s take a good look and continue the discussion here.

Health and Urban Design 1

Lawrence Frank of the University of British Columbia has been studying the impact of urban design on heath. An engineer and number cruncher, Frank has demonstrated strong links between neighborhood design and physical activity. 

SMARTRAQ partnership logo

While at Georgia Tech Frank founded the SMARTRAQ project that the city of Atlanta undertook when the feds threatened an end to highway funding until they got their air quality back in control.   Not suprisingly, the outer suburbs are a health disaster in the making; people who live a bit closer in get more exercise with downtown dwellers getting the most. So much for mowing the lawn and working in the garden, if you have to drive around all the time.

Writes Oregonian journalist Jeff Mapes in the thought-provoking chapter on public health in his recent book, Pedaling Revolution: How Cyclists are changing American Cities :    It’s easy to see why time spent in a car can affect fitness, looking at some of the eye-popping numbers in SMARTRAQ. Between 1982 and 1997, Atlanta added 1.3 million people by urbanizing about one acre of land for every two new residents. In that period of time, the average miles driven per day doubled – to thirty-four miles.  Residents in the in the region’s outer counties were spending an average of 72 minutes in a car, often in congested stop-and-go driving.