I’m really annoyed at architecture for the sake of it. Architecture is not the same as fashion. In that industry you have the runway model. Everyone knows the runway model is there like a moving piece of art. The embodiment of an idea, a fancy.

Sliding House by DRMM

When you see the bouffant hair and the bizarre outfits you understand that it’s to be taken with a grain of salt. Who wears that stuff on the street? I feel the same way about architecture. When I see these projects that have pushed the envelope so far that the house becomes impractical, I can’t help but think they have failed. Beyond the waste of precious resources, the creator has failed at the basic challenge – to build a better house. How can the architect/builder consider a project successful unless it can stand the test of time and utility? This is probably why most of my favorites end up being very sparse. I find myself most touched by clean lines that exemplify volume and materials. I’m also often captured by unique and ingenious use of space. It’s fun to challenge the concept of house, but one is only successful if it actually improves the design…

I’m purposely leaving this video large, sacrificing my format for your viewing pleasure. I’m a fan of this house. It’s one of the rare exceptions of architectural haute couture that really works…

I had to run an errand for my wife Christine today as our first storm of the year wrapped up. One of her clients is an absentee landlord and it was reported that his rental unit had no heat. Nice. Why does it always happen in the middle of a snow storm? Nevermind, I know why…it’s not profound, just a pain in the ass that heating systems always go kaputt at the least convenient time.

It’s like they’re mocking us. “How you like me now?” the client lives in NH so it’s just a favor to go check out the place for him. (That’s just the kind of operation we run here.) Anyway, I enjoyed my walk across town. It was beautiful and people were coming out to walk their dogs and shovel. I reminded everyone I passed that was shoveling to remember to bend their knees. They all seeded truly appreciative. The snow was frenzied and occasionally defied Mother Nature herself to reverse direction and hang out inside my hood.

The walk brought to my mind the longstanding Boston feud. Oh, yes. We have one too. I thought I was leaving all that behind when I left the Ozarks. Nay, Beantown has it’s own version of The Hatfields & The McKoys. Back home it was The Yokums & The Gideons. Who knows why these people were really feuding but the rumor has it it was about land. Specifically a piece of land with a silver mine. I’m not sure it ever produced more than they required for the fillings in their teeth but nonetheless, that’s the story. Oh yes, and how can we forget the Sneetchs or even better, the Zax?

Yes Boston is no exception. Ours is a battle over real estate as well. It has divided friends, neighbors, even lovers. I’m curious what you think? If you shovel out after a snow storm – do you have right to the spot indefinitely? Do you prefer everyone respects the public way? Here’s a couple of differing points of view. Leave yours in the comments…

“The King of parking space savers”

Elvis space saver

By Globe Staff

Elvis Presley may be gone, but a bust of the King lives on — as a parking space saver.

Reader Jon Titone took this photo on P Street in South Boston, in response to a recent Globe story about the proliferation of space savers that violate the city’s 48-hour rule.

Without adequate enforcement, the space savers remain. That means law-abiding drivers must find another place to park or move the savers — which are often much less creative than Elvis — and live with the fear that their car could be keyed or their tires slashed.

According to the City of Boston’s website, space savers are only allowed after the declaration of a snow emergency, which hasn’t occurred since Dec. 18. Most drivers, however, use space savers after digging out from any plowable snow.

The enforcement of the 48-hour rule resides with city sanitation workers on regular rounds. Trash pickup occurs once a week, which means that at best space savers will be tossed once every seven days. Garbage pickup in some neighborhoods, however, occurs prior to 9 a.m., with sanitation trucks making the rounds well before drivers have left their parking spots.

That means some step stools and buckets can remain virtually undisturbed, saving a parking space from now until Opening Day on April 6.

Dot Joyce, a spokeswoman for Mayor Thomas M. Menino, said earlier this week that any parking space savers that remain on the street should have been removed long ago. The city, however, has not received enough complaints about space savers from a specific neighborhood to necessitate the dispatch of a special public works crew to collect the cones, chairs, and shovel-and-box combos, Joyce said.

The mayor’s office urged people to report illicit place savers by calling the 24-hour constituent services hot line at 617-635-4500.

Have an stubborn space saver on your block? E-mail a picture here with a precise description of the location.

After Wednesday’s snowstorm, the 48-hour rule was reset. By Friday or Saturday, the Globe will be looking for additional illicit parking space savers.

***

Then check out this great thread on the Yelp forum. Very entertaining stuff. The “no spot saving” crowd is definitely outspoken here.

Saving parking spots in Southie is wrong.

Another fun article is on Universal Hub called:

To protect my parking spot, I use:

Whatever you believe is the best plan of action is your business. All I have to say is that on my street there’s no space saving. We all dig out immediately and deal with the cards we’re dealt just like every other day. Sometimes we help shovel each other out and have a few laughs while we’re doing it. If you put out a lawn chair on my street – it’s toast. Bring it on.

My daughter Vitoria is very excited about the new playground structures that are going in around Jamaica Plain. This one is in the section adjacent to New Minton. These blue things make me curious…what are they? From whence have they cometh? Are they edible?

I look forward to your comments.

I came home from work to find a new crosswalk being painted across Amory Street from the Southwest Corridor across the street. I’ve been fighting for this for the better part of two years and now thanks to the exceptional work of Officer Mike Santry at E13 and Michael Halle from the traffic and parking meetings, we have succeeded in securing a safer place to cross.

Since the Brewery ramped up operations the pedestrian traffic here has been growing exponentially. This is a good thing, but getting across the street here in the past has been a little like playing Frogger.

As I said, I believe the crosswalk is only temporary until a more permanent traffic and parking solution is created. I am very pleased that the city was able to see that a temporary solution was better than no solution. Big round of applause for Mike Halle, Mike Santry and everyone who made this happen.

I had a pint with my friend Matt McGlinn last night. He just got a new iPhone and was proudly showing me a photo he snapped of a brand spankin’ new bike lane that had been painted on Washington between Jamaica Plain and Roslindale.

Washington St. bike lane

Matt is one of those guys that bikes to work rain or shine all year round for the most part. A real die hard. Matt, his wife Rachel moved to Roslindale from Jamaica Plain a couple years ago when it was clear that they needed more room for a growing family. I was their buyer’s agent and helped them buy a cute single family home. They’re very happy there but miss the convenience and community of Jamaica Plain. However, being a stand-up guy, “Matty” insists on cycling to work and doing his part to save the planet.

Matt "Matty" McGlinn

Living in Jamaica Plain right on the Southwest Corridor for the last 15+ years I’ve definitely noticed the increase in two-wheeled activity over the years. I have a great deal of respect and admiration for the brave and noble souls who take their lives in their own hands every day and pedal their way to work. While they are working every day to take part in the economy, they are reducing carbon emissions and all the bad stuff that goes along with the petroleum and auto industry, as well as staying healthy, which must play some role at least in not exacerbating the health care situation.

I was pleased to hear that the city was taking some action finally – making a stand for the righteous cause of cyclists. Protecting a noble breed. In the past, the Pacific Northwest has led the way with bicycle friendly streets. To a lesser degree, even our neighbor, Cambridge has done their share to improve bicycle safety and convenience. I started doing a little poking around and it seems that until recently there were no bike lanes on Boston streets. studies have shown that regular cyclists use main thoroughfares as opposed to “bike paths” which are usually fraught with bumps and curves and obstacles that slow down the commute. This is why it’s so important to have designated bike lanes to protect these folks.

The first two lanes in Boston apparently were from Comm Ave to the BU Bridge , one on the American Legion Hwy (things that make you go hmmmmm) and now it seems there is one that was just finished last night from Forest Hills Station to Roslindale Village. Matty reports the city just painted the new lines last night. In addition, the city has added new bike cages at Forest Hills and Alewife stations.

photo by Doug Mink of rozziebikes.com (click  for more info)

A huge round of applause to the city for these efforts. However, I’m a little confused by the choice of American Legion Highway as the second bike lane in Boston. It seems rather odd doesn’t it? If you haven’t ever traveled this stretch of road you probably wouldn’t think much of this decision. Another blogger (and biker) was equally vexed – Harrumph! also notes in a recent post that the decision to spend 67K painting bike lanes on this stretch of road seemed ill-timed. I’m not sure how these decisions are made, or by whom, but it seems that the right way to go about choosing bike routes would be based on use, or congestion, or consensus, or anything that resembled community process. Understand, I know very little about this process or about the process that precipitated painting lines on American Legion – and I welcome any comments in explanation. As you know if you have read any of my previous posts, I am a Realtor and dare I say a bit of a cynic. What some of you may not know is that there are two large developments that this newly paved road passes through – namely, Harvard Commons (Cruz Development) and Olmsted Green (Lena Park & New Boston Fund). As Flaherty recently said of Menino’s email debacle, “a fish rots from the head down”, and I have to admit, I smell something fishy. Not only did the city spend 67K putting in a bike lane, but according to Harrumph!, they didn’t do a very good job.

• There are no markings or signs of any type indicating what the bike lanes are.
• Drivers don’t get it and many encroach into the lanes.
• Neither side has NO PARKING signs, and many cars use the Blue Hill end by Franklin Park as a parking lane, endangering both cars and bikes.
• The newish 30 MPH limit is, shall we say, not fully in the public consciousness. Biking the route today, I estimate that the average speed was 45, with many going faster.
• Cyclists don’t yet know it is there.
• It’s not the best example of where people live to where they want to travel.
• The bike lanes are broad, as in the picture at Walk Hill (click for a larger view) where they piggyback on a bus zone, but narrow in the Northern region to perhaps 3 or 3.5 feet, not really adequate.
• The travel lanes are quite broad and should have each given another foot to the bike lane to make it safe.

It seems rather ill-planned, no? Was this just a developer pulling strings so they could say they had a bike lane from their new “green” development? Listen, don’t get me wrong, but wouldn’t that money have been better spent on Huntington Ave, on Centre St in Jamaica Plain, in the South End, anywhere other than American Legion Highway? I would like to know how many cyclists are using that path on a daily basis right now – as compared to some of the more congested parts of the city? I sincerely welcome comments here. I am ignorant as to the overall plan and would very much like to understand it.

I am really excited about the prospect of Boston becoming really bike friendly. Not only would it be good for the environment and traffic reduction, but it would be nice to sit with front-runners Seattle and Portland in the progressive movement toward sustainability. As Boston becomes a more pleasant place to live, more people will move here and more jobs will be created. Everybody wins.

Our new neighbor, ZipCar

I’ve been considering selling one of my Subarus for about a year now, but being a Realtor the idea of always bumming rides with my clients or riding my bike doesn’t exactly seem “sustainable”. I had considered the ZipCar model in the past, especially when I learned that they have a business plan. Until now, however, the cars have been too far away for me to give it any real serious thought.

There are three locations in JP now (I think) and ten makes including Volvo, Nissan, Honda, Toyota and Mazda with the nearest being just a few doors down from my home at The Brewery. There are two cars there and at least 10 others in the neighborhood. I think I may have to look into this a bit more now. It seems too convenient to pass up – although I said that about the Mike’s Gym too.

My very good friend Mike Randall share many common interests including a general mis-trust of the government, an entrepreneurial streak and last but not least a strong wanderlust.

We’ve had scores of conversations over the years about expatriation and how to pull it off. Of late, I’m more inclined to stay in America and explore some of the very rural, off the beaten path areas of our country like Taos, NM, parts of Oregon, Montana, etc. However, Mike just sent me a link to a community in Costa Rica that is insane. One of the founders came up with the hair-brained idea to build a treehouses with zip lines connecting them. It reminded me instantly of something in Disneyland or the like. The pragmatist in me would have said, “you’re out of your mind ” if someone had suggested it to me. I would have been wrong. The good folks at Finca Bellavista have followed their dream and are now the envy of us all. My kid would explode in rapture at the idea of riding a zip line over to her friends house. Or school. Or wherever.  The original plan only had 65 acres but later blossomed into a 350 acre village. They have a community bath house, pedestrian skyways, and more creature comforts than I expected.

“Residents are now able to stay connected with the outside world at Finca Bellavista! On January 5, 2008 we had our high-speed direct link satellite dish installed, which is powered 100% by solar-generated electricity. The signal is great and the service is the fastest we’ve experienced in all of Costa Rica! The entire base area at Finca Bellavista can access the Wi-Fi signal. That means residents can work remotely or chat with far-away friends and family from a riverside hammock or anywhere else at the base area of the community. What a great way to stay in touch while getting away from it all!”

Okay, I’m listening…but I’m still skeptical, right? The crazy thing is that the development is selling out. They offer 2-4 acre parcels and they seem to have some good planning and the foresight to put some parkland and community spaces in there so it doesn’t feel like a tropical trailer park. The amount of spaces that have been purchased and the number of units built seems hard to believe. I haven’t gotten to read enough of the website to see if they have construction costs yet, but they can’t be cheap. The workers must certainly be highly skilled. I anticipated very rudimentary dwellings that looked as if they would fall in a good wind – but these things look pretty good and they look to be getting some good engineering ideas up their sleeves from some of the drawings they have on the site. Have a look around their website for yourself.

Concept drawings for treehouse at Finca Bellavista

I just happened upon Andree and Ken’s weblog on Neighbor’s For Neighbors community organizing website (I guess it’s working). I’m excited about the prospect of watching them renovate their very old home with an eye to giving it a zero carbon footprint.

Jack's Store is now JP Green House

I signed up for their newsletters and I think you should too. Here’s a snippet from their project page:

The JP Green House is a zero carbon* demonstration project, sustainable urban model and hub for 350.org climate action founded by Andrée Zaleska and Ken Ward. We are rehabbing an abandoned, 100 year old, former neighborhood store located on the line between Jamaica Plain and Roslindale in Boston, Massachusetts. Our aim is to achieve passivhaus standards, win substantial independence from grid supplies of water and electricity, and supply a large portion of our food on a modest income. We are retrofitting the former “Jack’s store” as space for workshops and trainings, neighborhood events and gatherings like our JP Family SongFest.

The JP Green House is located at 133 Bourne Street, Roslindale. We welcome visitors & volunteers and have a schedule of activities and events. You can contact us at:

greenhousejp[at[gmail.com 617.512.8350