12/23 Royals News Roundup: Yes, Yuni, There is a New Eco Novel

Because…GO FOR IT.

you have a reputation

Kansas City in the last five years I believe has been working towards the “creative class” model. With the emergence of the crossroads district , Kauffman Performing Arts Center, downtown revitalization, and the cities desire to take control of the public schools.

I think that the city wants to think that they are making their citizens happy but are missing the real issue is that the urban core wants and needs other things other then the arts and entertainment. If you take a look at the population outside of downtown-midtown KCMO is a very blue collar town that has expressed a need for better mass transit, grocery stores (food deserts), and improved security( more police officers)

the article strikes me as about right, although it smacks a little bit of the Lee Judge “we can’t ultimately know how things will turn out.” First thing is do no harm. Lots of failed Urban Planning ideas in the Urban Planning graveyard. More than once I’ve been in a meeting and someone has joked/whistled past the graveyard by speculating on whether or not a particular strategy will be viable in a dozen years. The economic development canard is probably milked a little too much to aid big bidness and otherwise wealthy interests who would likely do what they are doing anyway. Incentives help bridge the gap for development in some situations where it isn’t feasible for the private sector to step in (by paying for public infrastructure upgrades, repaving streets, sidewalks, replacing outdated water mains, etc…..), and helps revitalize areas. But overall lots of chicanery is cloaked under the guise of econ development. The best model might be parallel to community policing, where you try to deal with planning, development, and Gov incentives on a neighborhood by neighborhood, or even block by block basis. The business/development side should be just one facet of many interests considered, including livability, multi-modal stuff, safety, streetscape, etc….but yeah, planning might be just about as discredited as being an economist.

Has any city become “cool” from top-down policies? Seems like all of those cultures arose organically, and if government did anything to help it, it was either purely by accident, or only well after the tipping point had already been reached.

that was then reviewed by a Jew. And she didn’t like it? Shocking.

With him hiding in the museum. Seriously.

It was so wordy and dense and hard to follow and filled with topics I had no idea about like Kabbalah. After reading about him hiding in the musuem really wore me down. At one point he was hiding behind a plane in the musuem and I swear that Eco spent 3 whole pages just describing the detail of the plane itself. I started reading ’The Name of the Rose", and it was a much better read, still fairly dense, but readable. William was very likable and interesting. I got to busy to finish reading it though. Reading fail. I am glad to hear other people struggled with his books too.

This American Life is usually a solid listen.

WTF with Marc Maron is very funny, This American Life, just listened to a NPR All Things Considered Podcast where listeners voted their favorite albums of 2011. Heard some of my favorites as well as some new stuff

So funny. It’s Paul Scheer (Andre from The League and co-star of Human Giant), Jason Mantzoukas (Rafi from The League and Dennis Feinstein the perfume magnate from Parks and Rec), and June Diane Raphael (Party Down). They talk about shitty movies, one per episode. I just listened to all of them this week on a trip to Kansas and back.

maybe Curt Flood. Or Buck. Yeah, I know, you only asked for one.

or prevent his induction or whatever it is that he’s getting next year

so I’m biased, but turn of the century SS “Gorgeous George Davis” is one of them and James made a great case for Vern Stephens, but they’re pretty obscure. Luis Tiant should be in, I believe. Had a career WAR of 60, which is much better than Catfish Hunter and compares favorably with Bunning.

Including every sordid, juicy detail. It’s part of the game’s history. Should be in there.

She’s a very good looking young woman; that can be parlayed into quite a bit more in the US than what was likely arranged for her. Who knows, though? I’m skeptical when any parent sounds as sure of their child’s happiness as they sounded. tho.

Who you trying to impress with these fancy-f*** articles none of us want to read? We aren’t all Carl Crawford’s.

these are his own created stats based on what he deems important i take it? maybe someone will weigh on how good these stats are.