Author Archives: Zane Selvans

The Fight Against Small Apartments in Seattle

A bizarre account of the NIMBYs fighting against tiny apartments in Seattle.  They fear that small living spaces must necessarily end up filled with sketchy-ass meth-heads.  But it turns out they’re more often young professionals, retirees, and other completely normal … Continue reading

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Break out the Bikes for the next Hackfest

Boulder’s QuickLeft is hosting a Bicycle Hackfest, the evening of Tuesday, May 14th, from 6-9pm.  Unfortunately, I can’t make it, but it would be great if someone could work on getting our Mark-A-Spot Open311 testbed built out… contact me if … Continue reading

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Portland Retailers Love Bike Corrals

On street bike parking (bike corrals) have become very popular with local street-level businesses in Portland, Oregon.  I think it’s time for Boulder to regularize our bike corral program.  We need to get some decent non-diagonal racks in there with … Continue reading

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Sustainable Transportation in Freiburg

I recently came across an interesting article by Ralph Buehler and John Pucher about the city of Freiburg, Germany and its transportation system and planning since WWII (when it was 80% destroyed by Allied bombing raids).  The city isn’t so … Continue reading

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A Profile of Freiburg, Germany

A good short profile of the city of Freiburg, Germany, and their many sustainability initiatives.  Freiburg is a little more than double Boulder’s size — both in population and area, so it has a similar average population density.  It’s also … Continue reading

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An ultra-low energy neighborhood in Germany

The German university town of Heidelberg is developing a near zero energy neighborhood, housing 5000 people and providing jobs for 7000.  All the buildings will meet the ultra strict Passivhaus energy efficiency standard.  It’s in the center of town, and … Continue reading

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Depaving Rural America

Rural counties across middle America are turning paved roads back into gravel.  The WSJ article is from 2010, and I wonder to what extent this trend has continued.  I can’t say that it seems like much of a loss.  I … Continue reading

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Steamships, Landlines, and the Decline of the Private Car

A fun little musing from the Atlantic Cities on the difficulty of envisioning a very different world, even when we all know that big changes do take place over time.  Old technologies slowly decay, and fade into the background, as … Continue reading

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Cool Planning in Boulder

I spent the day at a workshop organized by the city with Smart Growth America and Otak, looking at how cities in the US can change their transportation and land use policies to create more livable, healthier, less carbon intensive, … Continue reading

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Another City is Possible: Cars and Climate

Last week I taught a class at the University of Colorado for a friend.  The class is entitled Another City is Possible: Re-Imagining Detroit. She wanted me to talk about the link between cars and climate change. As usual, I … Continue reading

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