Book picks similar to
Nature and Cities: The Ecological Imperative in Urban Design and Planning by Frederick R. Steiner
urban-planning
urban-planning-and-design
urban-textbooks
3rd-floor
The Circumference of Home: One Man's Yearlong Quest for a Radically Local Life
Kurt Hoelting - 2010
If I can’t change my own life in response to the greatest challenge now facing our human family, who can? And if I won’t make the effort to try, why should anyone else? So I’ve decided to start at home, and begin with myself. The question is no longer whether I must respond. The question is whether I can turn my response into an adventure. After realizing the gaping hole between his convictions about climate change and his own carbon footprint, Kurt Hoelting embarked on a yearlong experiment to rediscover the heart of his own home: He traded his car and jet travel for a kayak, a bicycle, and his own two feet, traveling a radius of 100 kilometers from his home in Puget Sound. This “circumference of home” proved more than enough. Part quest and part guidebook for change, Hoelting’s journey is an inspiring reminder that what we need really is close at hand, and that the possibility for adventure lies around every bend.
Infant Potty Training: A Gentle And Primeval Method Adapted To Modern Living
Laurie Boucke - 2000
In the book, the method has been adapted to the Western lifestyle in various ways, while still maintaining a natural and gentle approach. The word "training" is used in the positive sense of a loving exchange of communication and teaching/learning between mother and baby. For this comprehensive, elaborate and exquisite tome, the author has scoured the world for proof that her infant potty training method really works . . . and to the ultimate benefit of babies, parents and environment. The book contains stage-by-stage guidelines, amazing photos from around the world, testimonials by practicing mothers, medical opinions by doctors and pediatricians, guidelines for late-starters and much more. The book also provides historical writings on early training, dispels all the classical myths about infant pottying, and discusses the changes in child-raising philosophies that instigated the Western world's move away from this traditional means of toilet learning. Background: Infant potty training, like many things in life, begins with conditioning. It can be approached in a rational and scientific manner as well as an intuitive one or a combination of both, depending on what works best for you and your baby. The rational approach involves timing and observation of elimination patterns and baby body language. The more instinctive approach involves intuition and "tuning in" to your baby in more subtle ways. Both approaches are discussed in detail. Updates to second edition: a chapter for late-starters (families starting with babies over 6 months old); a long and detailed section on "potty pauses" and "potty strikes"; a selection of favorable Western medical opinions; a greatly expanded list of elimination signals given by babies; expanded chapter on "nighttime pottying"; more information on the "sensitive period" for infant potty training; additional photos from around the world; and some new testimonials.
The Commuter
Patrick Oster - 2014
After Barnaby Gilbert got laid off with a nice severance, his boss suggested he take up a new hobby to fill up his free time. On his regular commuter train, Barnaby got an idea what that hobby would be. He decided to satisfy a curiosity he’d long had. An avid birder, he began tracking some regular passengers — people he’d always wondered about — to see where they went and what they did. In following a Chinese man, a schoolgirl, and a sexy woman, he used the same techniques he had to add hawks and herons to his life list. But in this quirky, tongue-in-cheek thriller, he found out pretty fast that humans were a much more dangerous species.
Rise & Resist: How to Change the World
Clare Press - 2018
The political march is back in a big way, as communities rally to build movements for environmental and social justice. But today's context calls for increasingly creative strategies to make our voices heard. Crossing the globe, Clare Press meets passionate change-makers who believe in the power of the positive. From eco warriors and zero wasters to knitting nannas, introvert craftivists to intersectional feminists, they're all up for a revolution of sorts. Are you? Join Press as she tracks the formation of a new counterculture, united by a grand purpose- to rethink how we live today to build a more sustainable tomorrow.
Grow All You Can Eat in 3 Square Feet
Chauney Dunford - 2015
Apartment dwellers, schoolteachers, and anyone else who wants to grow a lot of food in a little space will find a great small garden resource in Grow All You Can Eat in 3 Square Feet.Small-space gardeners, find your start in Grow All You Can Eat in 3 Square Feet, packed with information on window boxes, potted plants, patio gardening, raised beds, small square-foot gardening, container gardening, and everything else related to growing your own small garden. Whether you want to grow a full garden, grow tomatoes, grow an herb garden, or just pick up great tips for small gardens, Grow All You Can Eat in 3 Square Feet is the resource you need.Reviews:"Beautiful color photographs and step-by-step instructions distinguish this guide to growing vegetables, fruit, and herbs in small spaces." - Library Journal
BART: The Dramatic History of the Bay Area Rapid Transit System
Michael C. Healy - 2016
BART" himself When BART opened in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1972, it became a catalyst for a renaissance in modern rail transit, both nationally and internationally. The concept as sold to Bay Area voters was gargantuan: by adopting aerospace technologies such as microchips for ground transportation, the new computer-operated rail system would bridge counties and curb urban sprawl amid a booming automobile culture. But it all came within a gnat's eyelash of not happening. The question raised by pundits and taxpayers alike was: would this space-age plan actually work, or be the biggest boondoggle in the country's history? In the first-ever history book about BART, longtime agency spokesman Michael C. Healy gives an insider's account of the rapid transit system's inception, hard-won approval, construction, and operations, "warts and all." Written with a master storyteller's homey wit and sharp attention to detail, Healy recreates the politically fraught venture to bring a new kind of public transit to the West Coast. What emerges is a sense of the individuals who made (and make) BART happen. From tales of staying up until 3:00 a.m. with Bill Stokes and Jack Everson to hear the election results for the rapid transit vote or weathering scandals, strikes, and growing pains, this look behind the scenes of an iconic, seemingly monolithic structure reveals people at their most human-and determined to change the status quo.
City on the Edge: Buffalo, New York, 1900 - Present
Mark Goldman - 2007
Goldman covers all of the major developments: • The rise and decline of the city’s downtown and ethnic neighborhoods • The impact of racial change and suburbanization• The role and function of the arts in the life of the community• Urban politics, urban design, and city planningWhile describing the changes that so drastically altered the form, function, and character of the city, Goldman, through detailed descriptions of special people and special places, gives a sense of intimacy and immediacy to these otherwise impersonal historical forces. City on the Edge unflinchingly documents and describes how Buffalo has been battered by the tides of history. But it also describes the unique characteristics that have encouraged an innovative cultural climate, including Buffalo’s dynamic survival instinct that continues to lead to a surprisingly and inspiringly high quality of community life. Finally, it offers a road map, which—if followed—could point the way to a new and exciting future for this long-troubled city.
Trailersteading: Voluntary Simplicity in a Mobile Home
Anna Hess - 2012
Old single-wide mobile homes can often be found for free (and installed for a couple of thousand dollars) in rural areas, so trailersteading is akin to dumpster-diving. A trailer allows you to live without debt, to keep your ecological footprint to a minimum with energy bills at or below the national average, and even to blend right in with traditional-house dwellers after a few years.Trailersteading profiles nine mobile-home dwellers who have used trailers as a stepping stone toward achieving their dreams. Some have spent the cash they saved by renovating their trailer on extra insulation, pitched roofs, classy interiors, and even basements, while the found money has allowed others to go off the grid. Many also took advantage of a low-cost housing option to pursue their passions, becoming full-time homemakers or homesteaders.In addition to the case studies, the book presents easy methods of minimizing the negative sides of trailer life and accentuating the positive. For example, did you know a single-wide is easy to retrofit for passive solar heating? That a simple plant-covered trellis can break up the blockiness of the trailer's external appearance? Learn which parts of installing and upgrading your trailer are easy for a DIYer and which parts should be left to the experts, along with how to cheaply heat and cool a mobile home.
Boardwalk of Dreams: Atlantic City and the Fate of Urban America
Bryant Simon - 2004
By the late 1960s, it had become a symbol of urban decay and blight, compared by journaliststo bombed-out Dresden and war-torn Beirut. Several decades and a dozen casinos later, Atlantic City is again one of America's most popular tourist spots, with thirty-five million visitors a year. Yet most stay for a mere six hours, and the highway has replaced the Boardwalk as the city's mostimportant thoroughfare. Today the city doesn't have a single movie theater and its one supermarket is a virtual fortress protected by metal detectors and security guards. In this wide-ranging book, Bryant Simon does far more than tell a nostalgic tale of Atlantic City's rise, near death, and reincarnation. He turns the depiction of middle-class vacationers into a revealing discussion of the boundaries of public space in urban America. In the past, he argues, thepublic was never really about democracy, but about exclusion. During Atlantic City's heyday, African Americans were kept off the Boardwalk and away from the beaches. The overly boisterous or improperly dressed were kept out of theaters and hotel lobbies by uniformed ushers and police. The creationof Atlantic City as the Nation's Playground was dependent on keeping undesirables out of view unless they were pushing tourists down the Boardwalk on rickshaw-like rolling chairs or shimmying in smoky nightclubs. Desegregation overturned this racial balance in the mid-1960s, making the city's public spaces more open and democratic, too open and democratic for many middle-class Americans, who fled to suburbs and suburban-style resorts like Disneyworld. With the opening of the first casino in 1978, the urbanbalance once again shifted, creating twelve separate, heavily guarded, glittering casinos worlds walled off from the dilapidated houses, boarded-up businesses, and lots razed for redevelopment that never came. Tourists are deliberately kept away from the city's grim reality and its predominantlypoor African American residents. Despite ten of thousands of buses and cars rolling into every day, gambling has not saved Atlantic City or returned it to its glory days. Simon's moving narrative of Atlantic City's past points to the troubling fate of urban America and the nation's cultural trajectory in the twentieth century, with broad implications for those interested in urban studies, sociology, planning, architecture, and history.
The Conscious Kitchen: The New Way to Buy and Cook Food - to Protect the Earth, Improve Your Health, and Eat Deliciously
Alexandra Zissu - 2010
and longs to effect easy green changes when it comes to the food they buy, cook, and eat, The Conscious Kitchen is an invaluable resource filled with real world, practical solutions. Alexandra Zissu walks readers through every kitchen-related decision with three criteria in mind: what’s good for personal health, what’s good for the planet, and what tastes great. Learn, among other things, how to: - Keep pesticides, chemicals, and other harmful ingredients out of your diet- Choose when to spend your dollars on organic fruit and when to buy conventionally grown- Avoid plastic—including which kinds in particular and why- Figure out what seafood is safe to eat and is sustainable- Use COOL (country of origin labels) to your advantage- Determine if a vegetable is genetically modified just from reading its PLU (price look up) code- Decipher meat labels in the supermarket- Cook using the least energy—good for the earth and your wallet- Eat locally, even in winter - Understand what “natural” and other marketing terms really mean- Buy packaged foods wisely Navigate farmers’ markets, giant supermarkets, and every shop in between to find the freshest and healthiest local ecologically grown and produced meat, dairy, fruits, and vegetables—no matter where you live With The Conscious Kitchen as your guide, you will never again stand in the market bewildered, wondering what to buy. You can feel confident you are making the best possible choices for you, your family, and our planet. ALEXANDRA ZISSU writes about green living, food, and parenthood. She is the author of The Conscious Kitchen, coauthor of The Complete Organic Pregnancy, and contributes the “Ask an Organic Mom” column to The DailyGreen.com. Her stories have appeared in The New York Times, The Green Guide, Cookie, Details, Bon Appétit, Self, and Health, among other publications. She is also a public speaker and “greenproofer,” an eco-lifestyle consultant. Visit her website, www.alexandrazissu.com.
When There Is No Doctor: Preventive and Emergency Healthcare in Uncertain Times
Gerard S. Doyle - 2010
At a time when our health system has become particularly susceptible to strain, it should be no further than an arm’s reach away in your household.This is a book about sustainable health, primarily having to do with your health and what you can do to protect it—in bad times certainly, but also in good. I will help you ensure the health of those you love, yourself and, should you so choose, your community, if and when the world changes. World may come to mean your little town or the whole globe. It could change for a few days or weeks, or for a few years. It could change because of a flood, financial crisis, flu pandemic, or failure of our energy procurement, production or distribution systems.I will not teach you to be a lone survivalist who anticipates doing an appendectomy on himself or a loved one on the kitchen table with a steak knife and a few spoons, although I will discuss techniques of austere and improvised medicine for really hard times.Gerard S. Doyle, MD, teaches and practices emergency medicine at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, where he also plans the hospital’s response to disasters.
From Asparagus to Zucchini: A Guide to Cooking Farm-Fresh Seasonal Produce
Madison Area Community Supported Agriculture Coalition - 2004
The book contains 420 recipes, including contributions from well-known chefs and supporters of the sustainable agriculture movement.
The Tiny Book of Tiny Houses
Lester Walker - 1993
Pub the Date: October 2011 Pages: 96 in Publisher: penguin the Profiles seventeen small buildings some used as permanent housing. Some as temporary accommodations. And some as workplaces including Thoreau's cabin and an ice fishing shanty and provides structural diagrams and plans
Fermenting Revolution: How to Drink Beer and Save the World
Christopher Mark O'Brien - 2006
Chris O’Brien presents the case for beer as both the cause of and solution to all of the world’s problems. Beer has contributed to the best qualities of civilization, but it is also helping to destroy them.The global beer industry relies heavily on fossil-fuels and chemical agriculture, rapidly destroying nature and contributing to climate change.Corporate beer is centralized and hierarchical, which is good for a few elites, but displaces local brewing traditions and exacerbates the growing wealth gap.But the craft brewing renaissance relies on cooperation, emphasizes local production, protects and celebrates nature, and nurtures the growth of strong and equitable communities.Fermenting Revolution traces the path of brewing from a women-led, home-based craft to corporate industry, and describes how modern craft breweries and home-brewers are forging stronger communities. O’Brien explains how corporate mega-breweries are also taking steps to pioneer industrial ecology, and profiles the most inspiring and radical breweries, brewers, and beer drinkers that are making the world a better place to live.In the last two decades, Americans have returned to to beer as a way of life rather than as a commodity. Casting off its industrial chains, beer is again communal, convivial, democratic, healthful, and natural. The contemporary American brewing scene champions ecologically sustainable production and is helping to create thriving community places. After reading Fermenting Revolution, mere beer drinkers will become "beer activists," ready to fight corporate rule by simply meeting their neighbors for a pint at the local brewpub-saving the world one beer at a time.
The Green Marketing Manifesto
John Grant - 2007
At the very heart of responsibility is industry and commerce, with everyone now racing to create their 'environmental' business strategy. In line with this awareness, there is much discussion about the 'green marketing opportunity' as a means of jumping on this bandwagon.We need to find a sustainable marketing that actually delivers on green objectives, not green theming. Marketers need to give up the many strategies and approaches that made sense in pure commercial terms but which are unsustainable. True green marketing must go beyond the ad models where everything is another excuse to make a brand "look" good; we need a green marketing that "does" good."The Green Marketing Manifesto" provides a roadmap on how to organize green marketing effectively and sustainably. It offers a fresh start for green marketing, one that provides a practical and ingenious approach. The book offers many examples from companies and brands who are making headway in this difficult arena, such as Marks & Spencer, Sky, Virgin, Toyota, Tesco, O2 to give an indication of the potential of this route. John Grant creates a 'Green Matrix' as a tool for examining current practice and the practice that the future needs to embrace. This book is intended to assist marketers, by means of clear and practical guidance, through a complex transition towards meaningful green marketing. Includes a foreword by Jonathon Porritt.