8/30/2020
Murder Versus Covid- 19 - USA
Deaths from Covid-19 was 56 per 100,000, for a total of 186,855 dead, 2020 (First 6 months)
Death from Murder was 5 per 100,000, for a total of 15,498 dead 2018
Murders are concentrated among the young and minorities. Covid-19 deaths are concentrated among the old and minorities.
Sources
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/#countries
8/29/2020
GDP Per Capita Continues to Rise
GDP has continued to rise over the years in the USA.
Until 2020 when the wheels fell off our economy because of Covid-19
https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/gdp
8/24/2020
Negative Population Growth
Negative Population Growth, Inc. (NPG) is a national nonprofit membership organization. It was founded in 1972 to educate the American public and political leaders about the devastating effects of overpopulation on our environment, resources and standard of living. We believe that our nation is already vastly overpopulated in terms of the long-range carrying capacity of its resources and environment.
We urgently need, therefore, a National Population Policy with the goal of eventually stabilizing our population size at a sustainable level, far below today's, after an interim period of negative growth.
Most politicians, big business and its supporting economists call for growth as a solution to all our problems. Apparently, they believe in perpetual growth, which is a mathematical absurdity on a finite planet. There must be limits. Science is demonstrating that human population and consumption in the United States and the world are already far too large and are destroying the natural systems that support us. We must eventually stabilize our national as well as world population size, so that they would be sustainable indefinitely.
Since 1972, NPG has been making that case. We do not simply identify the problems, we propose solutions.
Click to learn more:
8/20/2020
8/17/2020
Six Million Dollar Man
Six Million Dollar Man
Will County Forest Preserve District
The first plan I ever worked on was the Will County Forest Preserve Land Acquisition Plan. Will County was and is a rapidly growing County south of Chicago. The team leader of the planning process was Don Eibling. Marla Uttech Gursh and I assisted. We mapped potential open space throughout the County, with an emphasis on wetland and floodplain where most of the wooded property was located. The plan was initiated in 1973 and largely completed in 1974 and became part of the Will County General Plan adopted in 1976. I used to kid Eibling that he put any property in the County with floodplain and a tree on it in the plan. It was an excellent plan, especially considering that it was the first plan any of us had written.
Tom Murphy was the Executive Director of the Will County Regional Planning Commission and our boss. He was an aggressive and fearless individual who was passionate about planning and open space. But he irritated many County Board members for a variety of reasons.
There was a faction on the County Board who wanted to buy open space and supported Murphy. There was another contingent that did not care about open space but wanted flood control for Joliet that would be provided by flood reservoirs to be developed in Forest Preserves on Hickory and Spring Creeks. And there was a third faction that did not care about either but wanted to get Murphy.
Mary Lou Marzuki was the citizen who led the political fight to get the County to pass a bond issue to start buying open space. She led a small committee, but it was mostly her who met with the County Board frequently, quietly convincing them that the County needed to purchase open space. We provided good technical support, but she was vital to building political support. We of course supported her. I watched her single handedly convince a number of County Board members that they should pass a major bond issue.
And so the County Board made the political deal. In exchange for passing the 6 million dollar bond issue for open space acquisition, Murphy was fired. And so Tom Murphy became the six million dollar man.
8/16/2020
8/15/2020
Superblocks
Nowadays, grand master plans and visions for spatial development are less common than in the 20th century heyday of new towns and planned cities. Perhaps closest to a grand vision is the Barcelona-born concept of “superblocks,” an idea which seeks to reverse car-centric urban development. First implemented in 2016, superblocks limit car traffic to the perimeter of three-by-three block areas, allowing for transportation to be easily accessible to residents while creating oases for pedestrian, recreational and economic activity. At the heart of this idea is the desire to rebalance access to and use of public spaces, reduce air pollution and improve livability. Other cities in the Americas and Europe are watching and learning as Barcelona aims to convert over 70% of the city into 500 distinct superblocks, with a few already implemented and more underway.
Las Ramblas in Barcelona, Spain. Photo by peresanz/iStock
Click to read more
https://www.wri.org/blog/2019/07/4-emerging-concepts-could-transform-cities
8/14/2020
Covid-19 Impacts
Even Barbie is letting herself go...COME-ON-MAN IS NOTHING SACRED?So true onfortunately.Love these cookies...and they are fat free too!
8/12/2020
Your Info Online
Your Info On Line
1. Publicize your business
2. Promote your organization
3. Write your family history
4. Publish the great American novel
5. Tell the world about anything you would like to tell.
All for FREE!!
There are many different ways to use the internet and social marketing to promote your business and organization. The following is one way.
First step? Create your Blog. For blogging I prefer blogger.com which is free and part of google, but there are numerous other free and low cost services. You can get up and blogging in a few minutes, although it will take some time to learn the tricks. Click on:
The address of the blog is a little long. You can purchase a .com address to make the address easier to remember, and have it automatically forward to your blog. This costs about $75 for ten years from GoDaddy or Google or other sources. Examples below:
pinterest.com
facebook.com
Use the same or very similar name for all the systems. If you are marketing a company or yourself use the name of the company or your name.
After you have your blog working, write a short blast on Twitter, Facebook, and Linkedin, directing people to the blog. Update them each time you write a new entry.
You will want to reach out and find others in your group and link with them. You want to let them know what you are doing without becoming obnoxious about it.
The buttons at the bottom of the entry make it easy for people to send your blog address to their friends on Facebook, Google+ or Twitter.