Digital City Briefs - Boston

Boston is Among the Top Ten “Best Cities”

2012-10-07T07:54:00.001-04:00

Boston was named one of the top ten cities in Business Week’s ranking of 100 largest cities in America. The survey analyzed attributes such as leisure, educational facilities, economic factors, crime and air quality.

“Boston isn’t always one of the nation’s safest towns. But few cities can match Beantown’s blend of history, night life, and education. With 22 universities, Boston can seem very much a college town, owning a grimy charm.”

Reference: Konrad, Alex, America's Best Cities, Business Week, October 2, 2012

Other Recent Posts:

MIT's Fiber Cloud

MIT and Harvard’s EdX Online Education Platform

Converting Parking Spaces into Tiny Public Parks

2012 TED Prize Winner: City 2.0

MIT's Fiber Cloud

2012-08-25T10:25:00.001-04:00

MIT’s Mobile Experience Lab has produced a cutting edge interactive sculpture known as the “Fiber Cloud”. “The Fiber Cloud is an organically shaped fiberglass structure that stands over two meters high and responds to human interaction through more than 15,000 optical fibers, each of which represents a pixel that can be touched, modified or moved in a physical way.”

The cloud is located in the new reception area of the Fortezza da Basso in Florence, Italy.

“Established in 2004 the Mobile Experience Lab focuses on radically reinventing connections between people, information and physical places using cutting-edge information technology.”

Reference: Introducing the Fiber Cloud, MIT SAP

Other Recent Posts:

MIT and Harvard’s EdX Online Education Platform

Converting Parking Spaces into Tiny Public Parks

2012 TED Prize Winner: City 2.0

Google Launches 1 G Internet and TV Service in Kansas City

MIT and Harvard’s EdX Online Education Platform

2012-08-01T19:17:00.000-04:00

EdX is a joint creation of MIT and Harvard University. “The partnership strives to bring online learning to people across the globe and offers online classes for free.” EdX courses use quizzes, videos, feedback and other methods to engage students in online learning. EdX is a non-commercial, nonprofit platform which received $ 60 million in funding from Harvard and MIT. It offers not-for-credit courses to a worldwide audience. It also received $1 million dollars in support from Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in May.

UC Berkeley is the first public university to join the EdX platform. “The addition of UC Berkeley will give the “edX” online effort its first expansion into a prestigious public university and a foothold on the West Coast away from its Cambridge, Mass. Base.”

Reference: Access Granted: EdX Offers Courses from MIT, Harvard, Metro NY, July 30, 2012 and UC Berkeley joins online education platform of Harvard and MIT, LA Times Blogs, July 24, 2012

Other Recent Posts:

Converting Parking Spaces into Tiny Public Parks

2012 TED Prize Winner: City 2.0

Google Launches 1 G Internet and TV Service in Kansas City

Virtual Tourism

A Brief History of Digital Cities initiatives

Converting Parking Spaces into Tiny Public Parks

2012-06-27T18:22:00.000-04:00

Boston is developing a pilot program to convert parking spaces into small parks – parklets – complete with patios, benches and planters. The city will pay roughly $ 12,000 for the first parklet, and ask area businesses, nonprofits and associations to sponsor maintenance of plantings and furniture.

San Francisco has 30 parklets already. A typical parklet occupies one to three parking spaces. Rebar, an art and design firm initiated the idea in 2005, which has spawned an international event called the park(ing) day on the third Friday in September.

“It’s predicated on the idea that a metered parking space is an offer for a short-term lease on some pretty valuable urban real estate, and you could actually rent that space to provide a variety of services or fulfill a variety of unmet needs,’’ according to Rebar.

Reference: Moskowitz, Eric, Boston looks to transform parking spots into small parks, Globe Newspaper Company, June 15, 2012

Other Recent Posts:

Pedestrian Plazas and Bicycle Lanes

The First Elevated Park in the World

Improving Connectivity in Sydney Olympic Park

South Boston Convention Center is Not Big Enough

2012-06-27T18:06:00.001-04:00

The Executive Director of the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority discusses a need to double the size of the South Boston Convention Center. “He says the city is turning away 14 major events a year because of a lack of space and not enough hotel rooms.”

Reference: TWIB: South Boston Convention Center, NECN.com, June 17, 2012

Other Recent Posts:

Anti-Aging Spa Treatment in a Timeless Hotel

Hotel Boom in the Outer Boroughs

Social Media App to Navigate Cairo’s Traffic

Park and Charge Station for Electric Cars:

2012-06-02T11:30:00.001-04:00

A developer is proposing to transform an old gas station in the Bulfinch Triangle area of downtown Boston into a Park and Charge facility for Electric and Hybrid vehicles. This is a busy part of Boston, where 35,000 cars and pedestrians pass each day. Two electric-vehicle charging stations opened recently in Boston, and this would be the third one to open.

The new facility will open on August 1, and will be equipped with smart parking technology from Streetline, a California based company. The company will use patent pending sensor technology that will use low-power wireless sensors at each parking space to detect the presence of a vehicle and send it to Streetline’s web and mobile applications. “Users can tap into the Parker app to keep track of how much time is left for charging and to find their vehicle.”

Reference: Resende, Patricia, Boston to get eco-friendly park and charge facility, Mass High Tech, April 18, 2012

Photo Credit: A charging station for electric vehicles by Runesand, released to creative commons.

Social Media App to Navigate Cairo’s Traffic

Pedestrian Plazas and Bicycle Lanes

Personal Rapid Transit System in the Silicon Valley

Health Effects of Wind Turbines

2012-05-25T22:21:00.003-04:00

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts has an ambitious goal of producing 2,000 megawatts of wind energy by 2020, which would be enough to power 800,000 homes. But apparently it is facing some headwinds. The state is forming a panel of independent scientists and doctors to study the health effects of wind turbines on nearby residents. The panel may recommend acceptable sound levels, require manufacturer’s to provide expected sound levels under different conditions and shift some permitting authorities from the local enforcement to state agencies.

The primary concern is the impact of wind turbines on nearby resident’s health and well being. Some residents have reported an increase of sound level by as much as 10 decibels within 1,500 feet of the turbines. The critics argue that the churning of turbines and resulting infra-sound vibrations can produce dizziness, nausea, depression and anxiety. The infra-sound vibration is a low frequency sound wave which is below the normal range of human hearing.

Here is a PBS video on Effects of Wind Turbines on People:

Reference: Abel, David, Wind turbine noise is targeted, The Boston Globe, May 21, 2012

Mash-Up Plans for the Battersea Power Station

Resources:

Online Job Bank

Online Directory of Products and Services

Upcoming Events

Noteworthy Educational Programs

Noteworthy Publications

The Future of Housing

2012-05-18T20:31:00.000-04:00

A report by the Demand Institute Division of the US Conference Board predicts that the housing bubble is bottoming out. The first phase of recovery will involve new multifamily housing and rental properties.

The report states that the renters typically own fewer cars and prefer to live close to mass transit lines. Since they do not have a lot of storage space and closets in their apartments, they need to make frequent trips to local retail stores for daily necessities as well as short term supplies. For large and bulky items, they prefer to use commercial storage spaces. They tend to use gym memberships in lieu of home work out rooms.

Once people start buying homes in the next phase of recovery, they will prefer smaller homes and not the McMansions of the boom years. The idea of owning a home is not dead, but it has simply been delayed by a few years.

Here is a video about new housing being built:

Reference: Madigan, Kathleen, Housing’s Future: Renting and Downsizing, The Wall Street Journal Blog, May 15, 2012

Public Housing as Neighborhood Revitalization

Resources:

Online Job Bank

Online Directory of Products and Services

Upcoming Events

Noteworthy Educational Programs

Noteworthy Publications

Boston to Share Data with Six Cities

2012-05-05T07:00:00.000-04:00

Boston is one of seven major cities in the United States, which will share data and software applications to promote innovation and cost efficiencies. By leveraging one another’s efforts, these cities will be able to innovate faster, gauge performance against their peers and ultimate benefit the citizens by improved services at lower cost. The other six cities include New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Seattle. The group will be known as the G7 Group of Cities. It has already established ties with the President Obama’s technology team and will work closely with the federal government’s data.gov portal.

Reference: Steve Towns, Cities Share Data, Software Applications, Governing Magazine, May 2012
Illustration Credit: By Poil under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later.

Learning From Collaborative Networks

Smater Cities

Resources:

Online Job Bank

Online Directory of Products and Services

Upcoming Events

Noteworthy Educational Programs

Noteworthy Publications

Economic Impact of Universities

2012-04-25T20:05:00.000-04:00

Boston prides itself in having 35 colleges, universities and community colleges with total student population of 152,000 students. The student enrollment has grown steadily from 1989 to 2010, as the chart shows. According to a report by Boston Redevelopment Authority, “Boston’s colleges and universities support a total of 68,400 jobs in the city when also including the indirect and induced effects totaling 82,360 jobs state-wide. The total contribution to the Gross City Product is $4.9 billion and the effect is even larger, $ 6.2 billion, for the Gross State Product.”

Reference and Illustration: Boston By the Numbers: Colleges and Universities, Boston Redevelopment Authority

Restrictive Zoning and Quality Education

Columbia University Expansion - Reweaving the Urban Fabric

NYU Expansion Plan: Still Too Big?

What's Happening With Boston's Redevelopment?

2012-04-22T07:25:00.000-04:00

The city of Boston is always evolving. At the present time, there is $3.4 billion of construction underway. Projects include $800 million HQ for Vertex Pharmaceuticals, 2 eighteen stories office buildings in the Innovation District, $300 million office building in Back Bay for Liberty Mutual, $220 million 15 stories apartment building in Downtown Crossing and another 27 stories high apartment building in Downtown Crossing, to name a few.

A short video on "Boston City Guide - travelguru.tv"

Reduced Funding for Highways and Major Streets

London Property Market Skyrockets with Turmoil in Greece

Ambitious Plans for the 125th Corridor in Harlem

Restrictive Zoning and Quality Education

2012-04-20T20:17:00.002-04:00

Most people look for communities with good schools when they look for a place to live. The reason is obvious. They want their children to get a quality education. What are the determinants of good schools? Certainly, quality facilities and inspiring teachers matter. But according a report by the Brookings Institute, local zoning laws have a lot to do with quality education. “Researchers found that housing near high-scoring schools costs on average 2.4 percent more (or $10,707 annually) than housing near low-scoring schools. Median home values are $205,000 greater on average near better schools.”

They studied Boston and its suburbs and their research reveals that 9 percent of students with most restrictive zonings were low-income students, compared to 61 percent in the least restrictive zoning districts.

Reference: Brookings Institute
Link for 3D model photos of Boston by Horia Popa

Economic Impact of Universities

Columbia University Expansion - Reweaving the Urban Fabric

NYU Expansion Plan: Still Too Big?

Boston Modernism

2012-04-14T13:29:00.000-04:00

“Boston Modernism is a website that showcases the work of Northeastern Cinema Studies majors as they respond to the historic modernist movements within the context of Boston’s urban environment.”

It focusses on various art movements and reflects on how Boston’s urban environment can be viewed through different lenses. For example, here is a narrative on Boston Noir.

“Some of the stylistic traits of film noir came from German Expressionism when German filmmakers were exiled to the United States. Filmmakers like Fritz Lang were drawn to the seedy underbelly of urban life. Other influences were the dreamlike atmosphere of French surrealist film and the pared-down post-war style known as Italian neorealism. Some recurrent themes of noir include gangsters, detectives, and the “femme fatale.” The natural settings of dark alleyways, smoky bars, and poorly lit streets with steam rising from manholes are the signature locations of noir. On a casual late-night stroll through Boston, one can’t help but feel drawn into the noir existence.”

Video on Frank Gehry in Boston

Reference: Boston Modernism

Public Arts Festival

Tradition and Modernity Merge at the Russian Orthodox Center

Post Tsunami Architecture

Real Estate Development Taxonomy

2012-04-07T09:50:00.000-04:00

How does a city develop into a global destination? Is a city more than a collection of great buildings? Is a city more than a collection of great people? What makes a city great? What are the forces that drive urban development?

There are many sites that provide tourism related information about cities. While we want to understand what makes a city great, we are also interested in the messy gray area, where decisions are made about the future of a city. What drives such decision-making? Is that purely a speculative gamble or are there hidden forces at work? What roles do design professionals play in such decision-making? What role does leadership play? Where does such leadership come from? What role does local government play?

We will focus on four broad categories of urban interventions:

Tourism development:

Urban interventions intended to spur or support tourism.

Hotels, convention centers, museums, art galleries, public arts festivals, fashion shows, business shows, public expositions, public events. Ecotourism, sustainable tourism, heritage tourism, leisure, recreation, urban tourism, parks, sports stadiums, arenas, public plazas,

Smart infrastructure:

Urban interventions intended to spur or support smart urbanization technologies.

Smart grid, smart design, smart transit, smart buildings, renewable energy, sustainable architecture, green building, smart architecture, smart meters, smart traffic signaling, mass transit, smart city, smart infrastructure, augmented reality, urban data networks, collaborative networks, digital city.

Economic development:

Urban interventions intended to spur or support economic development.

Business incubators, start-ups, universities, research centers, innovation labs, demonstration projects, affordable housing, transit hubs, rezoning, urban renewal, environmental remediation, brown fields, urban design, new construction, renovation, mass transit systems, manufacturing, warehousing, freight delivery, transportation, logistics, urban upgrading, finance, law, regulations, institutions, leadership.

Branding and global identity:

Urban interventions intended to create a unique brand.

Global influence, city image, uniqueness, branding, identity, signature buildings, global events, public expositions, leadership, historic preservation, tourist attractions, urban design, celebrations.

Miscellaneous Key words:

General information, summary, statistics, comparative study, geography, emergency preparedness, disaster mitigation, low income housing, urbanization, slum upgrading, geography, climate, culture, people, demographics, history.

Link for 3D model photos of Boston by Horia Popa,

Photo Credit: Nelson48 at en.wikipedia under worldwide release into the public domain.