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:

https://npg.org/




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.





8/15/2020

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.

<p>Las Ramblas in Barcelona, Spain. Photo by peresanz/iStock</p>

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

Your Info On Line

You can publish your information on line for free. Social Marketing is a low cost and effective way to market your organization, business or yourself. You can:

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.

You try to make your blog interesting to your intended reader. You can just have entries originated by you, but it will probably be more interesting if you add content from other similar web sites. It takes a little time to figure how to do it, but essentially you are linking other similar web sites, blogs, twitter, facebook, linkedin and other sites to your blog. As they write new content it appears on your site. My examples below:

Simple One Page Blog:


More Complex Blogs: 




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:




Start slow and easy - the blog below is my simple one entry blog.

You can write many blogs if you wish. You may wish to have one that is just your resume or brochure that does not change very often.  My example is:


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:






After you have your blog up and running you will want to join other social networks which will compliment your blog. There are many different social networks. These are the ones I use.

pinterest.com

facebook.com


linkedin.com

twitter.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.

Use the blog as the main focus - Put information on the blog that your target audience will find interesting.  I use the other services to point people to the blog.

My Examples - And I am older then dirt. 
If I can do it  - you can. 

So simple even a cave man can do it.


craighullinger.com


cityplanningnews.com


facebook.com/craighullinger

Pictures are worth a 1,000 words. A photo of yourself can be used.  If you look like me, a distant fuzzy shot is best. I am a city planner, hence the map.


You can also use direct email to your contacts.  I usually just send a link to my blog to my contacts so if they are interested they can go to the blog, or if not, just delete the email.  You should send the email to an undisclosed@list.com with the actual addresses to a bcc address - that way spammers won't pick up the addresses and harass your email contacts.




It is your choice whether you use a simple email format or one with an attractive photo or letterhead - the attractive letter head looks nice but takes longer to open and will not work on everyone's computer.

Social marketing is evolving rapidly, but you can get underway quickly with no cost and a little effort. It takes a reasonably computer savvy person a couple of hours to get all this up and running, and then some time to develop a little skill.


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. 

I will be glad to help you get going if you need help. Have fun.