People have been asking me why I landed in Kansas, of all places, to join a political campaign, of all things, this year. Well, for starters: I grew up there. When the invitation came last winter, I leapt at it – not only to take communications in a new direction (personally), but to experience my…
Greensburg, Kansas, has made fewer headlines in the past couple years. Nevertheless, it’s prudent to check in on the progress – and the manifestation of ambitions – of a community that lost nearly everything. Here, two designers observe and inquire on an impromptu afternoon drop-in… The wind blows with some constancy across the plains of Western Kansas, a landscape that stretches for hundreds of miles;…
Three years after the 3.11 earthquake and tsunami struck Tohoku (Northeast), Japan, long-term reconstruction is still in its infancy. According to Hitoshi Abe, architecture professor at UCLA, only 14% of the devastated area’s displaced inhabitants have found permanent housing. The figure may be even lower, say at least one of his professional peers, who assembled by the…
(For BALLE – Business Alliance for Local Living Economies) It’s not every day you can ask an American, “how do you like your new currency?” In Berkshire County, Massachusetts, however, people have been asked that question for eight years. That’s how long local businesses around the rural and mountainous county have been using the BerkShare…
(For BALLE – Business Alliance for Local Living Economies) Too much fresh food heads to the compost too prematurely in the Bay Area while too many people go hungry. This is a problem that Oakland-based Food Shift is working to solve with their food recovery program, a process they incorporated into the 2014 BALLE Conference. We…
(For BALLE – Business Alliance for Local Living Economies) Coordinating two-dozen local food purveyors for a conference is no small feat! But if anyone is up to the task it’s Tina Tamale. We chat with Tina ‘Tamale’ Ramos about her experience delivering the best handmade Oakland fare to the 2014 BALLE Conference, and her eight-year…
(For BALLE – Business Alliance for Local Living Economies) The Prosperity For All Scholarship Fund works with funders and foundations to grant BALLE Conference attendance to emerging Localist leaders from diverse backgrounds and historically underrepresented communities. BALLE recently caught up with Scholarship coordinator Zac Taylor to chat about how the program works, and what impact…
(BALLE – Business Alliance for Local Living Economies) Eighteen members of government, business, philanthropy and economic development from one Pennsylvania town decided to attend BALLE 2014 together, and launch a Localism initiative set to scale back home. Written with ASSETS Lancaster. ASSETS, a microenterprise development organization in Lancaster, PA, is seeding and supporting businesses who aim to…
Whatever became of Sanitation Sally? Since 2011, Lisa Smyth has been working on the front lines of sanitation reform in Haiti – an under-addressed issue, she confessed in a project post by Architecture for Humanity. Waste is a hard enough thing to discuss publicly, let alone address earnestly. Yet there was promise – a sanitation summit on…
Can furniture revolutionize medical care in Haiti? (Students Rebuild) Adam Saltzman’s a natural behind the wheel in Haiti: liberal use of the horn; taking the shoulder when the tap-taps get jammed up; commanding the rugged road. It’s a rosy view through his SUV’s cracked windshield. “This is the backup car,” he assures us. The new…
kbobblog 