Tweet A while back I interviewed Andrew Ross, the author of Bird on Fire: Lessons from the Least Sustainable City in the World about his book and about his views on Phoenix. I published the first half of the interview on Monday. Below is the second and final part of the interview: Blooming Rock: What are some lessons other cities around the world can learn from your book about Phoenix? Andrew Ross: I think (they can learn from) this pattern of eco-haves and eco-have-nots, which I saw in Phoenix in a very starkly delineated way. It’s a profile that exists…
Posts Tagged ‘urban sustainability’
Tweet Andrew Ross, author of Bird on Fire: Lessons from the Least Sustainable City in the World, made few friends in Phoenix with the title of his book. But that doesn’t mean that Phoenicians shouldn’t read his book or that he didn’t make excellent points that we need to pay attention to. A lot of criticism has been thrown Ross’s way because he’s an outsider finding fault in our fair city. But after having read his book, I have to admit, he knows a lot more about Phoenix than us locals seem to and his insider/outsider perspective is uniquely penetrating. …
Tweet Andrew Ross’s book Bird on Fire: Lessons from the Least Sustainable City in the World is the talk of the town. And tomorrow night, it will be the subject of a panel discussion put together by the Downtown Voices Coalition called the State of Sustainability Forum. As I wrote in my article in the Atlantic Cities called In Defense of Phoenix, Ross’s book has raised a lot of ire in our city, whether it’s focused on the author himself who can conveniently go home to New York without offering any solutions after criticizing the place we hold dear in…
Tweet Two weeks ago I attended the National League of Cities 2011 Congress of Cities & Exposition at the Phoenix Convention Center. This was an event that brought together a variety of city officials from all over the country. It was a good opportunity to learn about the national trends and conversations, what’s important to various cities and the strategies they’re using to implement their vision. Sustainability was on the forefront of all the sessions I attended. It seemed as if cities were competing with one another on how sustainable they were becoming. I watched representatives from cities like Seattle,…
Tweet This week I am posting Will Bruder’s excellent essay for the 98th Arizona Town Hall meeting, “Capitalizing on Arizona’s Arts and Culture”. I’ll be posting the essay in 3 parts. In today’s post, Will defines architecture and the urban fabric. How does Arizona’s unique architectural character add value to the lives of our residents/visitors and how can the urban fabric of its towns and cities help move our state forward in a distinctive and sustainable way? In this essay I will address these questions and suggest ways that we can protect and sustain our already unique heritage while embracing…