#jonathan rose

Një atentat me armë zjarri në Toronto ka tronditur komunitetin shqiptar në Kanada. Viktima është identifikuar si Paulin Harusha, 43 vjeç, me origjinë nga Shkodra dhe baba i dy fëmijëve. Si ndodhi atentati Sipas njoftimit zyrtar të autoriteteve kanadeze, ngjarja ndodhi pranë kryqëzimit të “Victoria Park Avenue” dhe “Sheppard Avenue East”, rreth mesnatës së të shtunës. Harusha u gjet i qëlluar me…

Check this #poem out by Jonathan Rose from Miami, Florida.

LETTERED Puritan New England’s Hester Prynne,In her day, wore an “A” for unspeakable sin.Now with sex extramarital, kinky, and group,The fashion would be to wear alphabet soup. UNSKIRTABLE Susan B. Anthony, suffragette,Had…

I attended a few events in recent weeks that touched on the topic of Beacon’s future in implicit and explicit ways.

Beacon: The City We Love: The City We Want To See

The first was a 19 September ‘community conversation’ at the Howland Center entitled Beacon:The City We Love: The City We Want To See, with two speakers: Dar Williams, the well-known musician, and author of What I Found in a Thousand Towns, and Jonathan Rose, a co-founder of the Garrison Institute and author of The Well-Tempered City.

Williams told a telling anecdote in her hijacking of the event – I think Rose only had a tenth of the airtime to comment – in which he claimed that it was only the help of a diligent editor that led her book to a semblance of order. If only her editor had coached her prior to this event on public speaking.

What we heard from Williams – who does not reside in Beacon, mind you; it is just one of the thousand towns she has performed in – are a few overwrought ideas repeated endlessly. One was the power that comes from people learning to care more for each other: a call for sympathy and mutual regard. Who can argue?

Another was William’s theory of positive proximity, which is a just a repackaging of the idea that people develop social capital through connecting with others toward civic ends. And she related the strange notion that it was the creation of the dog park in Beacon that represents some sort of turning point for the city’s renaissance. With all respect to those involved in the creation of the dog park, I can’t see that something of interest to only dog owners can play so central a role in the city’s character. Perhaps if she had been more involved in Beacon she might have picked other more foundational turning points, like the work leading up to the creation of DIA:Beacon, or the local activism surrounding the failed MTA development near the train station a few years ago and the sweep of city politics where all the city councils seats were filled by Democrats aside from the Mayor. It was that group of councilors who were most active in the new development regime in the city, and the creation of new zoning for Central Main Street and the Transition Zone.

At any rate, as much as I admire Williams, I found her presentation meandering at the best and at the worst, unhelpful.

Rose, on the other hand, commented on some deeper issues confronting Beacon in a quite helpful way. One topic he touched on was the possible role that a Land Trust or Land Bank might play in Beacon, to retain affordable housing for existing residents, as a counter to aggressive development and the surge of outsiders bidding up properties in Beacon and displacing younger, older, and poorer residents. Land Trusts have been widely adopted in other cities.

Basically, a Land Trust is a non-profit created whose purpose is to acquire or build properties – perhaps distressed, and often in concert with the city – and to build or renovate them for civic goals other than profit. These properties might be rented, or sold to those that might otherwise have difficulty affording alternatives. This is something that our city would benefit from, if we can find a way to bring it into existence. Sadly, it is not a topic that I have heard much about in political circles.

Beacon Candidate’s Night

The second event I attended recently was the Democrats’ Candidate Night, again at the Howland Center. I won’t walk through a blow-for-blow of the questions that were asked. However, what I came away with was the sense that our Democratic candidates – and in particular George Mansfield and Lee Kyriacou – have their heads on straight about the challenges for Beacon’s future. A few high points:

I am in complete agreement with George when he says the building under development at 344 Main Street (next to Beacon Natural) would not seem outsized if the neighborhood surrounding it was filled with other buildings in line with the new zoning standards. That section of Main Street is mostly one-story stores constructed after the urban ‘renewal’ in the ‘70s. If there were more two- and three-story structures in that area, like we have at the east and west ends of town, with stores at ground level and apartments above, the new building would not seem so gargantuan.

Yes, we might want to trim back the possibility of five-story buildings on Main Street, as Lee recommends in his rezoning proposal. But we certainly don’t want one story flat roofed oddities like the Rite Aid building, the old Pizza N Stuff (now empty), or (yick) the auto repair shop on North Elm and Main.

Parking is on everyone’s minds, especially with the incursions of tourists every weekend and the new residents filling the new apartments in town. I think George’s observations are dead on. Parking on Main Street is not free: it is an expensive and limited resource. The management of that resource requires a change in City policy. Parking meters make sense, since they will block the practice of people occupying a parking spot on Main Street all day. The City can designate a certain number of parking spaces – for example near the Post Office and pharmacies – as 15 minute zones, or we can create a blanket policy where the first half hour costs a tiny sum (like a nickel), and every half hour after that is significantly more expensive (like a dollar), to guide long-term parking to secondary streets.

Regarding Development

You can’t decrease demand for real estate by decreasing supply. In fact, the opposite is the case: constricting supply leads, almost invariably, to increased demand and higher prices.

If Beacon undertakes a moratorium or even a slowdown in development, we will see a sharp increase in housing prices and monthly rents. The answer is not completely open development, with a future Beacon dominated by high-priced rentals and sky-high standalone homes.

I believe we need to push for a broadly-based set of activities to retain affordable housing in a diverse Beacon:

A Land Trust – Beacon would benefit from a non-profit Land Trust, that would operate to create and maintain affordable housing for Beacon residents. This could be an organization working with the city, but should have independent control. (My father-in-law was the founder of such an organization in Summit NJ, and it was quite successful in those goals.)

Garage Apartments and Backyard Studios – Revisiting residential zoning to permit the creation of more garage apartments or backyard studios has been a successful way to create a new stock of affordable small residences in high-demand cities and neighborhoods in many locales. The city should be open to these units, so long as the owners agree not to turn them into Airbnb hotels.

Policing Airbnb Use – We all know that many of our neighbors take advantage of Airbnb to make some extra cash from the spare bedroom. However, there are some people – I know of several – that rent their entire apartments for days or weeks at a time, which is against the rules for Airbnb. And some people are probably straying into Airbnb ‘hotel’ status, where they are buying or renting condos, homes, and apartments with the sole intention of renting them on Airbnb. This is basically an illegal act, and one that effectively takes a property off the market to those who want to live in Beacon.

I hope that we can continue these important discussions in the weeks and months ahead.

One Last Thing

George Mansfield told the story of his getting involved in city government years ago. After his basement flooded for the second or third time, due to Beacon’s aging and overused sewage system, George became involved in the Planning Board, and later ran for City Council. Unlike Dar Williams I will hold up city infrastructure – like the streets and the sewers, the street lights and traffic signs – as the foundation that pulls us all together as citizens.

It’s those things we all use, those elements of the city we share in common, and which are essential to our lives and work, that make us a community. It’s not the restaurants and bars (which are great, and add a great deal to our city’s livability) and not the schools and the parks (which only some of us use). No, we should look to the streets, the sidewalks, and the sewers as the ground of our community. And here at Beacon Streets, we’ll keep our focus there.

From the Howland Center’s web site:

Two speakers, Dar Williams and Jonathan F. P. Rose, will keynote a community conversation at 8 p.m. Sept. 19 titled "Beacon: the City WeLove; the City We Want to See," at the Howland Cultural Center, 477 Main St.

The event is free, but seating is limited and advance reservations through Brown Paper Tickets are recommended.

This is a special book-signing event and forum with two authors who have published works on the well-being and development of communities, though both are better known for other achievements.

One is Dar Williams, a traveling troubadour and one of America's leading folksinger-songwriters. Her book, "What I Found in a Thousand Towns," is out in September, and she will be signing it for purchasers. The other is Jonathan F.P. Rose, a planner, developer, cofounder of the Garrison Institute and author, who will also be signing his book, "The Well-Tempered City."

Williams, a Hudson Valley resident, has devoted one chapter in her book to Beacon.

"The authors' travels and experiences will help castlight on the road ahead for Beacon and other communities as their residents chart paths to more positive futures," said Craig Wolf. Howland president.

How does a community revive itself and find a path to vitality and prosperity, and do it with fairness to all? The community of Beacon is no stranger to this and finds itself in the advanced stages when progress begins to have impacts that prove the truth of the old saying, "Be careful what you wish for -- you might just get it."

Williams has played and stayed in literally hundreds of communities that provided the food for thought that grew into the book, which is subtitled, "A Traveling Musician's Guide to Rebuilding America's Communities -- One CoffeeShop, Dog Run, and Open-Mike Night at a Time."

She puts the emphasis on the positive and envisions the Beacon event as "a great fun evening of music, conversation, and book signing."

Rose founded and heads the New York-based Jonathan Rose Companies, which does development, planning, investment and has a philosophy to "support the well-being of communities by creating environmentally, socially, and economically responsible projects and plans that equalize the landscape of opportunity for their residents, and improve the balance of humans and nature." His "Well-Tempered City" book is subtitled, "What Modern Science, Ancient Civilizations and Human Behavior Teach Us About the Future of Urban Life."

The presenters' talks will be followed by a Q&A moderated by Peggy Ross, a member of the Beacon City Council. A reception with refreshments will follow.

A thoughtful chat w/ @JonathanFPRose: music, math, and what makes cities work #thewelltemperedcity

Jonathan F.P. Rose’s business, public policy and not-for-profit work all focus on creating more environmentally, socially and economically resilient cities. In 1989, Mr. Rose founded Jonathan Rose Companies LLC, a multi-disciplinary real estate development, planning, and investment firm, which has successfully completed more than $1.8 billion of work. The company’s mission is to develop…

Some of the best info about Nebraska football from around the web.

How Nebraska will survive the latest slew of injuries (Bleacher Report)

Jonathan Rose’s work to become a starter (Lincoln Journal-Star)

Best-case and worst-case scenarios for Nebraska (ESPN)

Huskers embrace yoga as a part of training (Omaha World-Herald)