Augmented Reality Maps

Augmented reality maps take online mapping to a whole new level. The technology is fascinating and its uses are endless. The wow factor on this new technology is huge! While exciting on some levels it is also terrifying on others. There is no telling the ways in which this technology can be abused. Every promising new technology can have a flip side that is very dark indeed. This is something to explore in a later article no doubt. Until then, check out the video above and see the thing for yourself. For good or bad there no one can argue that the technology is impressive!

Transportation porn!

A friend sent me this map of the federal interstate system depicted like a subway system. I don't know who the illustrator was but he or she put together a really cool looking graphic. Being fascinated with maps from an early age, I even contemplated printing it out and framing for my wall. To me it is a work of art that sends my thoughts into directions it might not otherwise go. Wouldn't it be great if that was the high speed rail network? Maybe one day. Let's keep our fingers crossed!!!

Often I do image searches on google and find interesting illustrations. Sometimes it gives me inspiration when I'm writing articles and essays. Several days ago I found another illustration that depicted a high speed rail network for Mexico. The idea of a high speed rail network has been tossed around in Mexico for years though it has never gone far beyond the idea stage. Several years ago a high speed rail line was planned between Mexico City and Guadalajara put the plans were dropped because it was too expensive at the time. Another dream perhaps but it would be a great reality. Until then I'll enjoy the dream and the works of art that result in the process.

Slumburbia

A new housing development in Lathrop in 2006. One in eight houses in the town are now in some stage of foreclosure.

Slumburbia

By Timothy Egan- New York Times- Februrary 10, 2009

LATHROP, Calif. — Drive along foreclosure alley, through new planned communities that look like tile-roofed versions of a 21st century ghost town, and you see what happens when people gamble with houses instead of casino chips.

Dirty flags advertise rock-bottom discounts on empty starter mansions. On the ground, foreclosure signs are tagged with gang graffiti. Empty lots are untended, cratered with mud puddles from the winter storms that have hammered California’s San Joaquin Valley.

Nobody is home in the cities of the future.In a decade, they saw real property defy reality in real time in these insta-neighborhoods that sprouted in what had been some of the world’s most productive farmland.

In places like Lathrop, Manteca and Tracy, population nearly doubled in 10 years, and home prices tripled. After inhaling all this real estate helium, some developers and their apologists in urban planning circles hailed the boom as the new America at the far exurban fringe. Every citizen a homeowner! Half-acre lots for all! No credit, no problem!

Others saw it as the residential embodiment of the Edward Abbey line that “growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of the cancer cell.”

Now median home prices have fallen from $500,000 to $150,000 — among the most precipitous drops in the nation — and still the houses sit empty, spooky and see-through, waiting on demography and psychology to catch up.

In strip malls where tenants seem to last no longer than the life cycle of a gold fish, the bottom-feeders have moved in. “Coming soon: Cigarette City,” reads one sign here in Lathrop, near a “Cash Advance” outlet.

Take a pulse: How can a community possibly be healthy when one in eight houses are in some stage of foreclosure? How can a town attract new people when the crime rate has spiked well above the national average? How can a family dream, or even save, when unemployment hovers around 16 percent?

Yet if these staggered exurbs, about two hours inland from San Francisco, were an illness, they would not quite be Abbey’s cancer. Though sick, foreclosure alley is not terminal. This is not Detroit with sunshine. It will be reborn, remade, inhabited. The question is: as what?

Nationwide, a record 2.8 million homes received foreclosure notices last year — up 119 percent from two years ago. Just under 5 million homeowners — 1 in 10 mortgages — owe more than their houses are worth. The impulse is to walk away. Surrender. And many have.

What they leave behind, along with the gang presence, the vandalism and the absence of vested owners, is a slum. A new slum. In an influential article in the Atlantic in 2008, the writer Christopher B. Leinberger predicted that the catastrophic collapse of the new home market could turn many of today’s McMansions into tenements.

I’m not sure of that. After several days in foreclosure alley, this broad swath of the Central Valley that has been rated by some economists as the most stressed region during the Great Recession, I can’t see such apocalyptic forecasts coming true.

Yes, huge developments are empty, with rising crime at the edges, and thousands of homes owned by banks that can’t unload them even at fire-sale prices.

But through it all, the country churns and expands, unlike most other Western democracies. That great American natural resource — tomorrow — will have to save the suburban slums.

Through immigration and high birth rates, the United States is expected to add another 100 million people by 2050. If you don’t believe me, consider that we’ve added 105 million people since 1970. This is more than the population of France. More than Italy. More than Germany. Currently, we have a net gain of one person every 13 seconds.

At some point, the market will settle on proper pricing levels. At its peak, only 11 percent of the people in this valley could afford the median home price. In the meantime, during these low, ragged years, a few lessons about urban planning can be picked from the stucco pile.

One is that, at least here in California, the outlying cities themselves encouraged the boom, spurred by the state’s broken tax system. Hemmed in by property tax limitations, cities were compelled to increase revenue by the easiest route: expanding urban boundaries. They let developers plow up walnut groves and vineyards and places that were supposed to be strawberry fields forever to pay for services demanded by new school parents and park users.

Second, look at the cities with stable and recovering home markets. On this coast, San Francisco, Portland, Seattle and San Diego come to mind. All of these cities have fairly strict development codes, trying to hem in their excess sprawl. Developers, many of them, hate these restrictions. They said the coastal cities would eventually price the middle class out, and start to empty.
It hasn’t happened. Just the opposite. The developers’ favorite role models, the laissez faire free-for-alls — Las Vegas, the Phoenix metro area, South Florida, this valley — are the most troubled, the suburban slums.

Come see: this is what happens when money and market, alone, guide the way we live.

Mega Regions of Mexico for the Creative Class

Some readers might be familiar with the urban theorist, Richard Florida whom I've made reference to as of late. In urban planning circles, Richard Florida has been in vogue over recent years due to his often touted "gay index" which argues that there is a clear correlation between the cities with the highest number of gay people and the cities with the greatest innovation in the new economy (which has recently become the old economy). He has indicated that these cities attract what is called the "Creative Class". The creative class being young, mobile, and educated people searching for areas with high quality of life, opportunity and excitement. Mr Florida has travelled the world giving lectures on his ideas and theories, many of these ideas breaking beyond the world of urban planning and into the mainstream media.

While the latest global economic crisis has changed the playing field a bit by putting a dent into the types of opportunities available to these creative class people, Mr. Florida argues this dynamic will not disappear and people will still be attracted to certain urban regions that afford a higher quality of life that other less developed regions cannot. So while the creative class and a growing economy lie dormant it will most assuredly rise again sometime in the near future.

In Mr. Florida's latest writings he makes reference to the urban areas which will be the incubators of the next evolution of the world economy. He references these areas as "Mega Regions".

At his website "whoisyourcity.com" he lists graphically the mega regions of the world and argues that the people of the creative class should relocate to these mega regions if they want to be at the center of the action in cities that move nations forward and provide the greatest opportunities.

I agree with his assessment. If you want to get hit with opportunity it's best to move into the target zone. Where I disagree is in what Richard Florida left out of the map.In the map above you will notice only one mega region listed in Mexico (Mexico City, Puebla, and Toluca) which qualifies as a place for the creative class to locate. While I applaud him for including Mexico on this map; Many urban theorists from the United States wouldn't; It's with all due respect that I would guess that Mr. Florida doesn't know that much about Mexico and that's why the other mega regions of the country missed the cut. In my opinion the following mega regions should have been included.

1. Monterrey - Saltillo - Reynosa - McAllen, Texas
This region is the third most populous region in the country but it holds the bulk of industrial monies. Monterrey has a young and educated populace which strives to move ahead. It is also a design center and a major tourist attraction. Monterrey has a subway system, well developed rail and freeways, and the wealthiest communities in Latin America. It is also the place where the bulk of American manufacturing companies have moved their Mexican corporate headquarters and manufacturing centers. Monterrey is where the majority of regional economic investment is centered but what benefits Monterrey benefits nearby Saltillo......and to an extent Reynosa and McAllen, Texas which could also be lumped into this mega region.

2. Guadalajara - Puerto Vallarta
It almost goes without saying that Guadalajara is an industrial powerhouse as well as a center for commerce, design and culture. The second largest city in Mexico, it has world class museums, amazing restaurants, a diverse and cosmopolitan culture, a historic town center, a subway system and is highly walkable. You can't talk about Guadalajara without talking about Puerto Vallarta.

I include Puerto Vallarta here for several reasons. Vallarta is an up and coming locale which is tightly linked to Guadalajara. It is the closest beach resort to Guadalajara with direct highway linkages between the two cities. It is a tourist destination for national and international tourists alike and finally because of the gay index in which Richard Florida has written so much about.

While Guadalajara has an established an highly visible gay community, Puerto Vallarta is gaining a reputation as a world wide gay destination. Vallarta has always been welcoming towards gay tourism and many gay people from across Mexico have moved to town, opening up businesses and tourist attractions. Now there is a second wave taking place in Vallarta as gay people from the United States move to town to retire or to set up gay friendly businesses. The more tolerant the town the more inviting it is to the creative class. The two cities are symbiotically tied therefore I have lumped the two cities together as a mega region.

3. Tijuana - Ensenada
While I'm not sure if Mr. Florida had already included Tijuana as part of the Southern California mega region he should have. While often maligned as the crime ridden and chaotic cousin to San Diego it is a dynamic region that has seen explosive economic growth.

The fifth largest city in Mexico, Tijuana has the busiest border crossing in the world and an immense concentration of industry. But often overlooked is the large population of educated young people who are often deeply steeped in both the cultures of the United States and Mexico and well versed in both English and Spanish. Add to this mix a diverse collection of cultures and the incredible art scene that has been exploding into bloom in recent years, a direct result of being in the center of the juxtaposition of such radically different worlds between California and Mexico.

The Nortec electronic music scene was born here. Art is everywhere and its gaining worldwide attention.Tijuana is chaotic but it is often that chaos that breeds creativity....especially when it is beside a rigidly ordered place like California. Whether it be the Insite Tijuana program or the crosses and coffin installations at the border wall, creativity is growing and this makes Tijuana and Ensenada a mega region to watch.

Urban Policy: Transitions in the United States and Mexico

This morning I read an article that referenced Richard Florida. It's not the first time that I have seen the work of this Urban Theorist referenced; It happens quite often. I find much of his work to be of great interest. It seems that in light of the recent economic turmoil he is changing his approach to the dynamics of cities and their future. Rather than pitch for cities to attract the "creative class", he suggests that some cities will live and some cities will die and we are right as a society to allow this to happen and "Let the cards fall where there may", allowing systems to reorganize so as to build a new economy. To a degree I believe that he is right. So much damage has been done to the communities of the United States in particular that policy needs to favor the strongest locales (primary and secondary cities) and less for the tertiary cities. This shift in thinking will be a difficult transition but it will be necessary if we are to come through this economic crisis intact.

Mexico has already had policies in place for years that are federalist in nature which aims the bulk of their assistance towards the larger cities. Where Mexican policy has failed is that it has often completely neglected the rural areas in its policy making. Even more neglected have been rural and less developed areas that are more culturally Indian than Latin, though the Mexican government has made great strides in reaching these areas with increased social services and infrastructure development there is still a great divide between rural and urban, rich and poor. Corruption at all levels has also payed a huge role in magnifying these problems. Much of this neglect has translated into a great outflow migration to urban areas of Mexico and to the United States which in turn acted as a pressure release valve on forcing the government to make much needed changes in policy. The flip side of this of course is that migrants sent back huge sums of cash back to the rural areas which helped improve living situations when the federal government could not.

Mexico is just coming through this transition and it has been difficult indeed. Complicated by many levels of institutionalized corruption and a volatile drug war that is the direct result of being centered geographically between the drug supply in the south and the demand of consumption in the north, Mexico is finally turning the corner. Fewer people are migrating into the United Sates from Mexico. Surely the economic crisis has impacted this. The truth of the matter is that it makes more economic sense to stay in Mexico than to migrate north. The test will be to see if Mexico continues to move in a positive direction as it battles the worldwide economic downturn. As Mexico moves forward it will be the urban centers that lead the way.

Will the transitions of the United States be as harsh? It all depends on how we approach the looming challenges ahead. While Mexico's approach was harsh, the United States' approach will hopefully be less so. We can predict some outcomes of the situation and other outcomes we cannot. Regardless of how things turn out, government won't be able to solve all our problems. In many cases we are on our own. Some tertiary cities will survive, even thrive, because of their own actions and approaches to the difficult challenges ahead.......but many more will not. The reality is that because of our neglect as a nation, a transition is coming.......whether we choose it or not.