Hijinks in Beijing, Protests in Shanghai, Russia’s Islands, Freegans, MORE
Beijing transforms into a self-declared world city in time for the Olympic Games in August, it is also rushing to complete its “conservation plan” for 25 historic areas.Tens of thousands of families have been forced to move when their ancestral homes have been razed ahead of the Beijing Olympics. This means knocking the buildings down, removing the occupants to more remote parts of the city, and creating in a couple of neighbourhoods an ersatz version of Olde Worlde Beijing that might appeal to modern retailers as a contrast to the flamboyant and forbidding high rise that has taken over the rest of the city.
Police in Shanghai have broken up two days of protests against the extension of the city’s showpiece magnetic levitation - or maglev - railway. The demonstrations were held by residents living near the planned extension, who are concerned at the possible noise and magnetic radiation.
“Dubai’s artificial islands are about to get a little competition: a miniature “Russia” in the Black Sea off Sochi, Russia, that will house athletes for the upcoming 2014 Winter Olympic Games.
With the 2014 Winter Olympic Games at Sochi, Russia still over 6 years away, the city’s planning committee isn’t wasting any time… they’ve asked a consortium of Japanese companies to help build a massive 350-hectare island complex - shaped like Russia - in the Black Sea to house Olympic athletes.”
Tyranny in the Bronx
“A sneaky city land “giveaway” will turn over former Parks Department property to real-estate developers - and further infuriate activists in the park-starved South Bronx neighborhood near Yankee Stadium.”
The City Council assailed the state of transportation for the disabled in the city, and recommended a system of improvements, in a new report released on Sunday.In addition to problems that have long plagued the public transit system, like the dearth of subway stations with elevators and a shortage of taxicabs that are wheelchair-accessible, the report also cited problems — including rude paratransit drivers, insensitive subway employees and poorly maintained equipment — that council members believe can be quickly and inexpensively corrected.
“Many freegans see most modern jobs as little more than sources of consumption income that lock people into exhausting cycles of “work and spend.” Since most people have little control over when they work or what they produce, freegans like Crosman would rather minimize their need for income and dedicate their time to pursuits of their choice. In many instances, Crosman said, freeganism is a reaction to negative experiences in the workforce. For example, Freegan Bike Workshop founder Christian Gutierrez is a former Wall Street investment banker.”
“John Stilgoe is the author of the recently published “Train Time: Railroads and the Imminent Reshaping of the United States Landscape.” “An economic and cultural tsunami is about to transform the United States,” he writes; the question, he says, is not if but when. “Return (of the train) will alter everyday life more dramatically than the arrival of personal computers, Internet connections or cell phones ...” Half-forgotten cities that lie along the nation’s obscure operating railroad routes—Lynchburg, Va., for example—will be transformed, he says. So will be regions that now lie far from any currently usable track—national parks, ski facilities, Lake Tahoe, Moosehead Lake.”
