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"State of the art integrated food production": so cool!
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The Plant is a three-story aquaponic farm in Chicago’s Back of the Yards Park, a neighborhood that inspired Upton Sinclair’s critical look at the meat-packing industry (among other things) in The Jungle. But this story’s far from dystopian, as an exciting new project is transforming a former meat-packing plant into a producer of fresh produce and new businesses.
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Awareness of climate change has filled Chicago city planners with deep concern for the trees.
Not only are they beautiful, said Ms. Malec-McKenna, herself trained as a horticulturalist, but their shade also provides immediate relief to urban heat islands. Trees improve air quality by absorbing carbon dioxide, and their leaves can keep 20 percent of an average rain from hitting the pavement.
Chicago spends over $10 million a year planting roughly 2,200 trees. From 1991 to 2008, the city added so many that officials estimate tree cover increased to 17.6 percent from 11 percent. The goal is to exceed 23 percent this decade.
The problem is that for trees to reach their expected lifespan — up to 90 years — they have to be able to endure hotter conditions. Chicago has already changed from one growing zone to another in the last 30 years, and it expects to change several times again by 2070.
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I would love to have attended the Chicago Humanities Festival conference. Carol Colletta's summing up sounds intriguing, with lots of important issues and themes raised. The discussion around high-speed rail and how Chicago could be connected to a bunch of other great cities to maximize each one's potential depressed me a bit, insofar as I'm reminded that my city (Victoria) sits on an island, which leaves us only with ferries and airplanes... <sigh>
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The morning session had a consistent message: Chicago must dream big to compete with London, Paris, Beijing and Shanghai. These four cities were mentioned repeatedly, and the clear ambition is for Chicago to compete with these cities. But what made the first presentation this morning especially exciting was Rick Harnish, who runs Midwest High Speech Rail Coalition. He makes a compelling, detailed, persuasive case for high speed rail in the U.S. The coalition is pushing a high speed system for the Midwest that connects Minneapolis to Cincinnati, Detroit to St. Louis, with Chicago at the hub of the "X". If the increasing calls for federal investment in infrastructure continue, high speed rail could move from plan to reality. Putting all of these cities within 3 hours of comfortable travel from downtown Chicago will increase productivity, help centralize business in these city centers, likely lead to increased density around stations
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President-elect Barack Obama has talked openly and repeatedly about his support for high speed rail and, according to Rick, high speed rail also has the support of Obama's Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and Illinois Senator Dick Durbin. Could high speed rail really be in the near future of America?
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Four and a half minute video of Santiago Calatrava's planned "Chicago Spire" (also called "Fordham Spire"), which will be the tallest residential building in the world. Looks beautiful -- as does Chicago.
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