Chiyu Chen's Hybrid Bike System

Designer Chiyu Chen has conceived of an ingenious transit system that encourages the use of sustainable transportation by crediting people for renting and riding bicycles. His Hybrid2 system consists of a fleet of rentable bicycles that are capable of generating and storing kinetic energy, which is then used to power the city’s hybrid electric buses. Simply rent a bike, charge it up with kinetic energy from pedal power, and then return it to a kiosk – the station feeds energy into the city’s smart grid, and you receive a credit towards your next bus pass!

The answer to the climate crisis is going to come in myriad forms. This transit model, centering around bikes and buses, may be part of the solution. Consider it.

Find more info on the Hybrid2 Bike Rental System at inhabitat.com

Only in New York...but why?

The recent opening of NYC's newest greenspace, the Highline Urban Park, which sits atop an abandoned, elevated rail line, is an exemplary rehabilitation of derelict industrial infrastructure and, in my opinion, represents the new standard for reuse in an urban setting. The fact that the space occupies square footage above the conventional, street-level plane is yet another reason this project is so remarkable.

The mission and its concept are reported thoroughly at the leading sustainable design site inhabitat.com, so that's the place to see the Highline Urban Park project from all the nicest angles.

For those who want it and want it now, check out the video below to give a glimpse of what cities with a more modest profile (and even small towns) should be striving for in the coming years and decades.




Just because NYC is a mecca for creativity and innovation (or maybe it's the art of hype that makes New Yorkers the real pros), it absolutely does not mean that other places, tiny and not so, shouldn't be looking to do them one better. With or without a well-known architectural firm attached to the project, this example of inventive and considerate renovation could happen anywhere, not only in New York!

Our entire nation is littered with sites (literally) such as the Highline that, amidst weeds and broken bottles, are all but crying out to be transformed into gorgeous, open green space where people can feel human again whilst the vegetation thrives.

What real, sustainable, environmentally conscious urban planning requires is an ambitious, motivated, vocal citizenry to demand thoughtful progress, not in terms of economics or profit, but simply in terms of quality of life.

The Smell of Dish Soap in the Morning

When I lived in Washington, D.C. for a time with my brother, sister-in-law and then 2 & 1/2 year-old niece, I learned that the commonly regarded task of dishwashing could be a pleasure unto itself. This quiet revelation on work in general gave me insight that I've since tried to apply to all manner of tasks. And why not relish these menial, day-to-day actions; however unromantic it may seem, cumulatively they amount to the whole of modern life.

In ancient times, the reality of a task-based life was amplified all the more, and as such, one can regard monasteries, convents, priories, temples and the like as the blueprints for today's rejuvenating Yuppie-centered spas and retreats. The fundamental difference lies in the work itself; the modern spa culture promotes rest and glorifies the absence of work, whereas communities of old cherished the daily work that kept them running while incidentally nourishing their members' spiritual, physical, and mental well-being. The monks had it right as they kneaded the bread, broke clods in the fields, tended the vegetables, and combed their hairshirts. When no temptation glistens provacatively beyond the light of a day's work, then the work of the day becomes life and within that work sits the key to contentment.

So, Anna would tell me, as I tried to lend a hand after supper time, "No. Just leave it in the sink and I'll get to them in the morning." To my naturally obsessive side, this seemed contradicatory. Why not rest well knowing the kitchen downstairs sits spotless and ready for another busy morning? She explained that the task of dishwashing possessed some quiet joy, the warm water and airy foam, the repetitive motion of scrubbing, the cool and flowing rinse, that she relished as a way to awaken to the day. And it made sense but only after I started to be mindful of the secret profundity of the activity.

Yes, it is strange to talk about the act of cleaning bits of food residue or burnt, charred flecks of what was, just the evening prior, a phenomenal homemade meal, as something almost sacred and valuable as a daily practice by itself.

Note: The title was either that or "Zen and The Art of Dishwashing" but after a quick google search, I found a blogpost on some site that was actually proud to call itself "Redneck ..." something-or-other and so I'd rather the none-too-subtle allusion be to the classic, mystifying film set in wartime Viet Nam.

Jazz: Faces of International Pride amidst Domestic Pain

A recent article in the Christian Science Monitor does an excellent job describing a very unique situation in United States' history related to domestic equal rights and our international image. Read for yourself and see if this dichotomy is, for you, as striking and thought-provoking as it was for me.

The following rhetorical questions are emblematic of the article's general tone which describes the State Department's employment of African-American jazz musicians for government sponsored tours across what was then the Soviet Union and various African and Middle Eastern regions:

What was it like for these black musicians to headline celebratory concerts for newly decolonized African nations on the one hand, but still not be able to stay in hotels south of the Mason-Dixon line back home? What was it like to travel under the auspices of a country known abroad for, as saxophonist Paul Jeffrey was told in Italy, white men being the boss of black men?
(By Carla Murphy Contributor to The Christian Science Monitor
from the July 10, 2009 edition)

So, just as these musicians where escorted around the world to serve as an egalitarian, collective and creative face for the nation at large, the same talented and renowned citizens, because of their heritage and complexion, would have been discriminated against without a second thought in their own home country. Even with a fundamentally sound mission, the State Dept. tours were, at heart, hypocritical public relations campaigns designed to globally promote an American ideal that had hardly begun to gain momentum at home, regardless of the known fact that equality and inalienable rights had been and still are our constitutional guarantees.

Find out more about the traveling exhibition of photographs, called Jam Session: America's Jazz Ambassadors Embrace the World, that documents this fascinating international tour by some of the greatest jazz musicians of all time.