Teddy Cruz: Architectural Sustainability from the Bottom Up

As the world's cities undergo explosive growth, inequality is intensifying. Wealthy neighborhoods and impoverished slums grow side by side, the gap between them widening. In this eye-opening talk, architect Teddy Cruz asks us to rethink urban development from the bottom up. Sharing lessons from the slums of Tijuana, Cruz explores the creative intelligence of the city's residents and offers a fresh perspective on what we can learn from places of scarcity. Teddy Cruz looks for clues to the "city of the future" in the emerging urban areas of today.He works at the crossroads of architecture, urbanism, policy and art and has looked deeply, over many years, at the Tijuana-San Diego area spanning the US-Mexico border -- a thriving, high-density, high-activity zone of trade and urban relationships -- and at other southern cities. And he suggests that the modern, highly planned cities of the developed world have much to learn from these developments. The informal shops, garages and neighborhoods of a boomtown are built to maximize "social flow" -- because buildings are easy to put up and modify, they can respond exactly to the inhabitant's needs, connecting them to the community and the city. In collaboration with community-based nonprofits such as Casa Familiar, Cruz and his team also explore new visions for affordable housing, in relationship to an urban policy more inclusive of social and cultural programs for the city. In 1991, Cruz received the Rome Prize in Architecture; in 2005 he was the first recipient of the James Stirling Memorial Lecture On The City Prize. Born in Guatemala, he is a professor in public culture and urbanism in the Visual Arts Department at University of California, San Diego. "Where others saw poverty and decay, he saw the seeds of a vibrant social and architectural model." The New York Times --Taken from "Teddy Cruz: How Architectural Innovations Migrate Across Borders."

Wendell Berry's Interview with Bill Moyers

The Invisible but Critical Role of Ownership Design in Food Systems

Marjorie Kelly, Fellow at the Tellus Institute and Author of Owning Our Future: The Emerging Ownership Revolution, talks here at a special address to the Slow Money 4th National Gathering.

Available at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77Lao1LDR48 

Steve Howard: Let's go all-in on selling sustainability

The big blue buildings of Ikea have sprouted solar panels and wind turbines; inside, shelves are stocked with LED lighting and recycled cotton. Why? Because as Steve Howard puts it: “Sustainability has gone from a nice-to-do to a must-do.” Howard, the chief sustainability officer at the furniture megastore, talks about his quest to sell eco-friendly materials and practices -- both internally and to worldwide customers -- and lays a challenge for other global giants.

Steve Howard leads the sustainability effort at Ikea, helping the low-price-furniture giant to bring sustainable products to millions of people.

The Koch Brothers & Climate Change

The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) has posted a PowerPoint presentation on the Koch brothers and their efforts to spread disinformation on climate change. Taking a cue from Naomi Oreskes' Merchants of Doubt, USC is attempting to spread the word through the more popular outreach provided by their website. They write,

"The Koch brothers want to use their vast oil, coal, and natural gas wealth to buy up our newspapers, and that is bad news for clean energy and climate change coverage.

First up on the Koch's wish list: Tribune Company newspapers read by millions daily, including the Baltimore Sun, Chicago Tribune, Hartford Courant, Los Angeles Times, Orlando Sentinel, and South Florida Sun Sentinel.

We need strong independent journalism that focuses on the facts about climate change and renewable energy, not more fossil fuel fiction.

As a new UCS investigation shows, a number of Koch-funded climate contrarians are the same corporate front groups that Big Tobacco used to mislead the public about the dangers of smoking. How do we know? We have their playbook.

The media has a big role to play in exposing this kind of disinformation, and that job will not get any easier if the Koch brothers get their way.

Tell the Tribune Company not to sell out to the Koch brothers.

Please make your letter personal by adding in your own thoughts and concerns. Every letter makes a difference, but customized letters have the greatest effect!

For more information, see our recent media analysis Unreliable Sources: How the News Media Help the Koch Brothers and ExxonMobil Spread Climate Disinformation."

How would you evaluate the Union of Concerned Scientists' argument? Totally persuasive? Somewhat persuasive? If you see reasons to doubt the information they're providing, please share that with all of us. 

The House that Teaches: Derek Ouyang at TEDx Stanford

Create Your Own Map

How well do you know the streets in your neighborhood? Channel your inner cartographer and make a map. You can do it the old-fashioned way—walking around and constructing a drawing as you explore—or take advantage of free digital tools like Stamen's awesome new MapStack. If you want to test yourself, try to draw a map from memory and see how far you can get before you need to look up the next street. Get creative—if medieval maps can have dragons, so can yours—and include your favorite neighborhood haunts. Post a photo on Instagram or Twitter with the hashtag #fortheloveof and #yourlocation.
To design your own map, go to http://mapstack.stamen.com