With its central location in New York’s Financial District, its dense tree canopy and abundance of seating and wide-open spaces, Zuccotti Park provided the perfect frontline for the Occupy Wall Street movement.

The new book Beyond Zuccotti Park asks a myriad of noted designers about the use, role and importance of public space in democracy. Join us for a discussion with Michael Pyatok, designer of the Oakland Civic Center and the recipient of the 2013 AIA Thomas Jefferson Award for Public Architecture,about improving the design, use and access of public space.

also today: 6pm @ annie alley (annie/mission st near new montgomery), san francisco. free to the public.

“What was it about Zuccotti Park, and other public spaces around the world, that helps explain its success? And how can we preserve and strengthen such spaces as places of protest? This book, like Zuccotti itself, is a site of vigorous conversation, hard thinking, and bold proposals on such issues.”
—Mike Wallace, coauthor of Pulitzer Prize-winning Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898

“Beyond Zuccotti Park is an insightful and relevant book that challenges us to think differently about the role of public space for civic engagement. If you believe in the First Amendment’s right to freedom of assembly, then this is the book to read.”
—Mitchell Silver, AICP, President, American Planning Association

A Protest on Two Wheels

A bike ride from Oakland to Sacramento aims to halt cuts to education funding.

..They felt elected officials in Sacramento were not holding up their end of the public school bargain. So they got on their bikes and rode east to demand more money for their school and for all of California’s public schools. “What happens in Oakland is a preview for a whole erosion of schools in general,” Napolitano said.

In the three years since, the state has continued to slash education funding, and the four-parent delegation has morphed into a multi-school force of more than one hundred parents, teachers, students, and community members pedaling to the capital to demand better funding for K-12 schools.

ebx, 02.05.12.

saturday, may 11th, 2013.

thinking about doing this, since i was too lazy to register and raise money for climate ride.. 105 miles from Oakland to Sacramento. doable, yeah?! and gotta root for California public schools!

Environmentalists, to my perpetual astonishment, do not see the tremendous opportunities they have by simply staffing local boards. Want to stop a wetlands from being drained and filled for a parking lot? Volunteer on your conservation board and deny the damn permit. Want to create a sustainable city? Join your planning board and help write a 20-year comprehensive plan that creates smart growth in the downtown. Want to stop a Walmart from expanding? Change the local zoning by-laws to restrict lot size.

great post by michael (climateadaptation).

Greenpeace activists protest outside Levi’s headquarters in San Francisco create a ‘river’ out of non-toxic foam, as part of a series of Greenpeace activities held in over 80 cities worldwide, demanding that Levi’s commits to eliminating the use of all hazardous chemicals throughout its supply chain. The foam simulates the toxic water pollution caused by the Mexican textile factories that have been found to have links to brands including Levi’s. Photo: George Nikitin, Greenpeace / SF

According to the Greenpeace release, “Levi’s will begin requiring 15 of its largest suppliers, each with multiple factories in China, Mexico and elsewhere, to disclose pollution data as early as the end of June 2013” — an important development in nations without strict reporting requirements.

…Other substances Greenpeace found included benzotriazoles, tributyl phosphate and trichloroaniline, all toxic to aquatic life. At the Kaltex plant, Greenpeace said it found hexa (methoxymethyl) melamine (HMMM), which is moderately toxic to aquatic life, and two trichlorinated benzenes. The environmental group said that while these two persistent toxic chemicals are used as solvents and dye carriers, they are not exclusive to textile manufacturing and may have come from other sources.

“In studies of the textile industry in Mexico, Greenpeace found that Levi’s suppliers have the worst water pollution,” said Pierre Terras, a Greenpeace toxics campaigner in Mexico quoted in the report. According to Greenpeace, Mexico is the fourth-largest supplier of textiles and apparel to the U.S. market..

sfgate, 30.12.12.