tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-76587872012-02-16T01:12:21.477-08:00a public scrapbook of one geographer's thoughts and observations, often (but not always) made from the saddle of a bicycleCalifornia Petehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00637419302696764492noreply@blogger.comBlogger441100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7658787.post-4710028193131559792010-01-08T11:54:00.001-08:002010-01-08T12:10:56.943-08:00

I've had this blog for nearly five years, and like many would-be bloggers, I've found my contributions become ever less frequent. This is largely a function of personal time, energy, and interest, but it also reflects the blog's lack of a clear identity. At first, I thought I'd write regularly about my travels and adventurers as a bicyclist. But while my enthusiasm for cycling hasn't waned, it

California Petehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00637419302696764492noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7658787.post-67199650964921253152007-06-08T08:10:00.000-07:002007-06-08T08:56:37.748-07:00

"Biofuels Raise Beer Prices." OK, this headline from ProBrewer.com, is perhaps a little exaggerated, but it nonetheless adds to the growing evidence that the otherwise reasonable push toward alternative fuels--alternative to coal and petroleum--carries its own social and environmental side effects. In this case, it seems European farmers have planted significantly less barley this year as they

California Petehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00637419302696764492noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7658787.post-74902153457122472902007-06-06T08:30:00.000-07:002007-06-08T08:53:04.946-07:00

Once again, a major media story portrays urban cycling as dangerous and cyclists as hapless victims of a car-driving society that treats them as second-class citizens. This time, it's the Chicago Sun-Times reporting--under the headline "Vicious Cycle"--that a "war" is brewing between cyclists and pedestrians near that city's Northside lakefront. Last month, Alderman Mary Ann Smith led the

California Petehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00637419302696764492noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7658787.post-9788218456683340882007-05-30T08:51:00.000-07:002007-12-24T10:50:00.775-08:00

... (at least in L.A.): serendipitous celebrity sightings. Yesterday, on my ride home through Playa del Rey, I did my usual scan for hazards while crossing through the intersection of Pershing and Manchester and spotted the unmistakable figure of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, waiting, on foot, to cross Manchester to apparently drop off some dry cleaning. Who said, "Nobody walks in L.A.?" Freakin' Kareem

California Petehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00637419302696764492noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7658787.post-88966154734361730012006-12-25T12:41:00.000-08:002006-12-25T12:56:39.334-08:00

... you find this short piece by novelist Michael Laser ridiculously funny. It's a middle-aged person's addendum to the language of text messaging. One suggested addition to his list that I have is: WDISGHT (When Did I Start Growing Hair There?). It would seem to naturally follow Laser's own WROMH (Where's the Rest of My Hair?). MXFLA (Merry Xmas from L.A.)

California Petehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00637419302696764492noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7658787.post-56782972349610205662006-12-15T08:58:00.000-08:002006-12-16T18:38:45.184-08:00

Another posting today that doesn't involve two wheels. Indeed, it concerns, at least in part, vehicles that have no wheels at all: surfboards. Now, I may be a proud California boy, and I may have spent much of my youth on a Boogie Board, but I'm no surfer. I do live close to the ocean, though, and my daily bike commute--not to mention most of my recreational rides--takes me within earshot of the

California Petehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00637419302696764492noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7658787.post-70194891885683425352006-12-10T22:34:00.000-08:002006-12-16T18:39:08.272-08:00

It only took a couple of years, but it's nice to see the media beginning to take notice of the absolute travesty that the WADA-led crusade against athletic doping has become. This includes a rare example in the L.A. Times today--in a story about disgraced American cyclist Tyler Hamilton--of journalism based on actual research, not simply the regurgitation of prepared sound bites. For example,

California Petehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00637419302696764492noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7658787.post-1159385027861415392006-09-27T12:17:00.000-07:002006-10-15T20:00:13.126-07:00

It goes without saying, especially to blog readers, that the Internet is transforming how we learn about the world. Google, of course, is a major force in this, and from a geographical perspective, both Google Earth and Google Maps are really leading us in new, creative directions. One of the attractions of Google Maps is its openness, its ability to be easily "mashed" together with other sources

California Petehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00637419302696764492noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7658787.post-1147894487334819942006-05-17T12:08:00.000-07:002006-05-23T20:56:47.883-07:00

I'm a little late with this report, given that it's already halfway through the second quarter of 2006, but it is National Bike-to-Work Week this week, so maybe the timing is appropriate. I began regularly bike commuting--and by regularly, I mean at least once a week--last year. It worked so well that I've decided to keep closer tabs this year. So here's the skinny for the first three months of

California Petehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00637419302696764492noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7658787.post-1147111791166960992006-05-08T10:22:00.000-07:002006-05-20T09:14:21.286-07:00

I've posted on this blog before my attraction to Orange County--a place I grew up near, a place I enjoy visiting, and a place that thoroughly intrigues me as a geographer. One of my favorite guides to the happenings in OC is Gustavo Arellano, a regular contributor to the OC Weekly and arguably the premier journalist in Southern California on anything having to do with local Mexican-American

California Petehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00637419302696764492noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7658787.post-1146708290508250632006-05-03T18:53:00.000-07:002006-05-03T23:38:46.616-07:00

It's the first week of May, which means two things for fans of bicycle road racing. First, it's Giro time! Second, with the spring classics now behind us, and the first quarter of the annual cycling calendar now complete, it's a good time to reflect on the season so far. I'm going to try something new this year. Rather than the entirely subjective, personal rankings by general impression that I

California Petehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00637419302696764492noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7658787.post-1146678140810619292006-05-03T10:05:00.000-07:002006-05-03T10:42:20.910-07:00

Steve Lopez demonstrates once again why he is one of my favorite local journalists. Today he reports on a recent westside bike ride--along one of my own usual routes from Santa Monica to Playa del Rey--with former LA mayor Richard Riordan and actor-activist Ed Begley, Jr.. The bottom line: the bicycle really can save us all, and the biggest barrier keeping greater Los Angeles from becoming a

California Petehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00637419302696764492noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7658787.post-1146428473577594062006-04-30T13:20:00.000-07:002006-04-30T20:17:47.436-07:00

Last week's passing of famed and beloved urbanist Jane Jacobs, whose words and actions will continue to reverberate for many years to come, has been widely discussed. This weekend, we lost another of the 20th century's great writers and thinkers, Berkeley-trained Harvard University economist John Kenneth Galbraith. Professor Galbraith was a gifted and prolific writer and books of his that are

California Petehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00637419302696764492noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7658787.post-1146427440054823152006-04-30T13:03:00.000-07:002006-04-30T13:06:24.793-07:00

From the perspective of the United States, circa 2006, the central storyline of the 21st century involves the confrontation between a (mostly) Judeo-Christian, secular-leaning "West", and a less-secular, (mostly) Muslim "Middle East". Keep in mind that this is not a simple "clash of civilizations" but rather a multi-layered and very complicated collection of issues and relationships. Obviously,

California Petehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00637419302696764492noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7658787.post-1144176024913762612006-04-04T11:11:00.000-07:002006-04-04T12:24:49.710-07:00

It's a common theme among bike advocates in the U.S. to celebrate Amsterdam, and the Netherlands more generally, as an especially bike-friendly place. If Davis, California, sets the official "platinum" standard here in the states, then Amsterdam--or so the conventional wisdom goes--must be at least double platinum. Amsterdam, after all, is famously home to double-tiered bike racks, a "white

California Petehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00637419302696764492noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7658787.post-1142276659558572452006-03-13T10:23:00.000-08:002006-03-13T11:07:38.183-08:00

Imagine a super-freeway, an interstate highway wider than a football field is long (end zones included), boasting as many as 23 lanes! Sounds like science fiction, I know, but it's an actual plan for the expansion of I-75 on the northwest periphery of Atlanta--a highway that, at 15 lanes, is already ranked as the widest in the country. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has the details; you can

California Petehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00637419302696764492noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7658787.post-1141669964012328912006-03-06T09:55:00.000-08:002006-03-06T10:41:10.396-08:00

No, this is not a post about the recently crowned "best picture of the year". Instead, much for painfully, it's about my bike race on Sunday. Nothing quite like a good crash to begin the new season. Due to luck, conservative riding, and I'd like to think skillful riding, I've avoided racing crashes entirely since my partial return to the sport a few years ago. But that string came to a rude end

California Petehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00637419302696764492noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7658787.post-1141159175816549522006-02-28T12:22:00.000-08:002006-03-01T12:27:33.523-08:00

It certainly has become cliche to bemoan traffic in big-city America, especially metro Los Angeles, where gridlock, "road rage", and just plain idiocy are accepted as the norm. As both a bicyclist and a motorist, I definitely tend to think this way, and recent stories of a spoiled playboy wrapping his million-dollar Ferrari around a telephone pole while doing 160 mph (!) down PCH in Malibu, or

California Petehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00637419302696764492noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7658787.post-1135104606504666822005-12-20T10:45:00.000-08:002005-12-20T10:50:06.516-08:00

Looking ahead to 2006, I'm going to refine my blogging a little bit. Family-related news and notes will be posted to a new blog (californiamorris.blogspot.com) while this blog will remain--for the time being--a miscellaneous collection of comments and accounts of my life as both a cyclist and teaching geographer. Happy Holidays!

California Petehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00637419302696764492noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7658787.post-1134755380155628512005-12-16T09:47:00.000-08:002005-12-16T11:20:01.463-08:00

Widely used for more than half a century in the United States, the term "blight" carries a very loaded set of meanings in the context ofmodern urban planning and design setting--and how we define "blight" lies at the heart of much of the current controversy concerning eminent domain. The word "blight" stems from Old English origins, where it had the general meaning of a "rust" or a skin disease-

California Petehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00637419302696764492noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7658787.post-1134755022972445602005-12-16T09:34:00.000-08:002005-12-16T11:10:48.153-08:00

As anyone who reads newspapers or listens to political talk radio already knows, eminent domain is rapidly emerging as one of the key hot-button political issues, locally and nationally, of the next election cycle or two. Eminent domain is the practice long established in modern "common law"--and enshrined in the "takings clause" at the tail end of the 5th Amendment to the U.S. Constituion--that

California Petehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00637419302696764492noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7658787.post-1133205657052186532005-11-28T10:52:00.000-08:002005-11-28T11:35:15.940-08:00

This year's high gas prices have inspired more than just me to reduce car trips in favor of the bicycle. Indeed, newbie bike commuting has become something of a hot media story. The following is a quick sampling: At Slate.com, Bill Gifford writes about the joys, but also the frustrations and lessons learned, of trying to go completely auto-free in his exurban East Coast home. The bottom line

California Petehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00637419302696764492noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7658787.post-1131654631443212952005-11-10T11:27:00.000-08:002005-12-16T11:12:13.426-08:00

Perhaps needing to boost my masculine pride as I spent a long spring and summer watching a parade of other men remodel my house, I gradually began acquiring the pieces to a new bike, which I managed to put together all by my male self in September. Since then I've enthusiastically embraced two new cycling worlds with my new bike (a Giant TCX frame with an eclectic mix of mostly-used Ultegra-level

California Petehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00637419302696764492noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7658787.post-1131643136589069052005-11-10T11:23:00.000-08:002005-12-16T11:12:58.316-08:00

This has little or nothing to do with bicycles, soccer, urban studies, or any of my other usual topics for this blog. But it's been a month since I posted anything, and I had written this up for my Human Geography students anyway, so I thought I'd might as well share with all. Specifically, this is a summary of some of the more interesting and significant points that I found in the United Nations

California Petehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00637419302696764492noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7658787.post-1128835042619997632005-10-08T20:41:00.000-07:002005-10-10T12:11:56.343-07:00

Note: countries in blue have already qualified for Germany 2006; countries in purple are on the verge; countries in red are still in the hunt. Africa (5 spots clinched) Qualifying play wrapped up this weekend in dramatic fashion as several countries will be making their first-ever visit to the World Cup finals. As expected, Ghana secured its spot with a 4-0 win over Cape Verde, and Togo likewise

California Petehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00637419302696764492noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7658787.post-1127758726484550462005-09-26T10:15:00.000-07:002005-09-26T11:20:11.943-07:00

The inaugural ProTour cycling season is coming to an end with just three one-day fall classics remaining on the first three weekends of October. Besides the official retirement of Lance Armstrong, the two big events since the Tour de France have been the re-crowning of a true Spanish champion with Roberto Heras's record-breaking fourth victory at the Vuelta, and the crowning of a new world

California Petehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00637419302696764492noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7658787.post-1127754563900035652005-09-26T09:48:00.000-07:002005-09-26T10:11:28.336-07:00

Several weeks and one major hurricane later, Katrina's destruction of the old New Orleans continues to dominate our national attention. In the last week, I've run across three published opinions that in one way or another are worth extended consideration. First, fellow geographer Jason Henderson provides a stongly argued assessment that much of New Orleans should not be rebuilt because it was

California Petehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00637419302696764492noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7658787.post-1126812579376653712005-09-15T12:23:00.000-07:002005-09-15T12:29:39.376-07:00

It already looks like cynicism will rule the day in the rebuilding of post-Katrina New Orleans. To nobody's surprise, reports already are coming in of wealthy speculators and developers purchasing abandoned and devastated properties on the cheap in order to make a sweet profit as land values rise in the future. Unless very proactive government forces intervene, it seems almost certain that the

California Petehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00637419302696764492noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7658787.post-1126649489949089452005-09-13T15:02:00.000-07:002005-09-15T12:22:08.703-07:00

Needless to say, the devastation to southern Louisiana and Mississippi in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina has become the year's dominant story. And once the extended period of rescue and recovery can mercifully come to an end, we will be faced with the daunting task--and question--of rebuilding. While post-disaster rebuilding is often a question of "when?" rather than "if?", the very

California Petehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00637419302696764492noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7658787.post-1126244389063419492005-09-08T22:34:00.000-07:002005-09-09T10:32:20.776-07:00

For most Americans, the soccer World Cup--if it registers at all--is a one-month curiosity that comes around just once every four years. The reality, though, is that the 32-team "finals" tournament is but the final chapter of a saga that extends over two whole years and literally covers the entire globe. That lengthy prelude to next summer's WC finals is now almost over, and several countries

California Petehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00637419302696764492noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7658787.post-1125514662864045272005-08-31T11:37:00.000-07:002005-08-31T12:01:56.253-07:00

Posted on Planetizen today is a new op-ed that is well worth a read. Southern California-based planning consultant Wally Siembab argues that rather than pursue an overambitious, too-idealistic strategy of "smart growth", we'd be better served by cost-effective, locally focused examples of what he calls "smart sprawl". OK, maybe Siembab's new term is largely a clever marketing device for his

California Petehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00637419302696764492noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7658787.post-1125513295154305482005-08-31T10:47:00.000-07:002005-08-31T11:36:55.150-07:00

Tuesday's Los Angeles Times reported that the LA Conservancy has officially given up its fight to save the historic Ambassador Hotel from demolition by the LA Unified School District. While not surprising, this is nonetheless a sad event that we will long regret. More than a blow to historic preservation, this is a significant loss for the very school children that are supposedly being served by

California Petehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00637419302696764492noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7658787.post-1124997507040916002005-08-25T12:10:00.000-07:002005-08-25T12:19:37.486-07:00

The BBC reports today the lastest bad news concerning Americans' health, or lack thereof. Increasingly, we're not just becoming a country of people who weigh a little bit more than perhaps we ideally should; more and more of us are becoming truly obese. This is a complex issue in terms of both causes and effects, but it seems clear that bicycling offers a significant path to improvement. Indeed,

California Petehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00637419302696764492noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7658787.post-1124923726802645042005-08-24T15:47:00.000-07:002005-08-24T15:51:34.920-07:00

Today's LA Times contains a nice Q&A primer on downtown's Skid Row. Another good source to check out for basic info on the issue of homelessness in Southern California is the Weingart Center's Institute for the Study of Homelessness and Poverty.

California Petehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00637419302696764492noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7658787.post-1124821192009052852005-08-23T11:05:00.000-07:002005-08-23T11:26:46.243-07:00

It's old news that there exists a housing-affordability problem--if not crisis--throughout much of the wealthier parts of the world. This most certainly includes coastal metropolitan areas in the United States, such as Southern California. While much of the blame might be assigned to a "housing bubble" of some type, fueled by loose monetary policy and a sluggish stock market, there also is a lot

California Petehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00637419302696764492noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7658787.post-1123866503768519362005-08-12T10:07:00.000-07:002005-08-12T12:46:23.213-07:00

Something that most urban scholars, especially those living and working in the far West, have known for some time, cities in California and its fast-growing neighboring states are some of the most densely populated areas of the country. This is a point I recently made for Orange County, and an article in the Washington Post has now extended the idea further. Examination of Census 2000 data that

California Petehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00637419302696764492noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7658787.post-1122404181578674222005-07-26T11:30:00.000-07:002005-07-26T11:56:21.586-07:00

I recently finished reading David V. Herlihy, Bicycle: The History (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2004) It is a detailed, readable, well-illustrated account that is worthy of being considered the new standard, definitive history of the bicycle's early technological development. Despite a concluding Part Five that examines the twentieth century, the focus is squarely on the nineteenth century

California Petehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00637419302696764492noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7658787.post-1122313709080462112005-07-25T10:39:00.000-07:002005-07-26T10:58:50.410-07:00

With the advent this year of the new Pro Tour, the UCI's old system of rider rankings has been replaced by a new system characterized by two big changes: (1) Only official Pro Tour events now count, and points are, in general, harder to come by. (2) Rather than based on a revolving calendar that takes into account the previous 12 months of results, only results in the current calendar year are

California Petehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00637419302696764492noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7658787.post-1121967683149860462005-07-21T10:33:00.000-07:002005-07-21T10:43:03.733-07:00

NASA has recently provided us with its latest composite look at fires around the world detected by a pair of remote-sensing satellites during their orbits around the earth in the first 10 days of July. As you could probably figure out, the red dots mean a few fires, while the yellow dots mean a lot of fires. It's a pretty dramatic picture (probably too dramatic) at how forests and grasslands

California Petehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00637419302696764492noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7658787.post-1121966523538612162005-07-21T10:11:00.000-07:002005-07-21T10:32:00.803-07:00

It's been several weeks since my last post as my family and I have been enjoying some summer fun. This most recently included a week-long trip to the extended Bay Area, with a few days each spent in San Jose (home to my in-laws) and Aptos (my sister's wedding, and thus now home to her in-laws). A few dozen pictures from the trip are now readily viewable at my Flickr site: http://www.flickr.com/

California Petehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00637419302696764492noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7658787.post-1118168881786347922005-06-07T11:13:00.000-07:002005-06-07T11:28:01.793-07:00

The LA Times' coverage of the recently unveiled preliminary plans for the latest, greatest makeover of the downtown civic center has been disappointingly uncritical--with the partial exception of architecture critic Christopher Hawthorne's piece--while the Daily News has been typically obsessed with the project's potential taxpayer costs. Morris Newman of the online Slatin Report thus provides a

California Petehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00637419302696764492noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7658787.post-1118167964924362802005-06-07T10:48:00.000-07:002005-06-07T11:12:44.930-07:00

A small but growing minority in Southern California, that fabled land of the automobile, is trying to raise the profile of the humble bicycle this month via BikeSummer 2005. Curiously, as that event kicks off with significant news coverage, another media outlet is presently offering its latest account of the automobile's steady rise in that fabled land of the bicycle, China. As they say, the

California Petehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00637419302696764492noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7658787.post-1117658744620647832005-06-01T13:16:00.000-07:002005-06-01T13:49:34.233-07:00

I have recently added a short photo essay to my college website. The focus of this photo tour is the experience of walking in Orange County. Given my interests, I'll put together a similar presentation in the future regarding cycling in OC, but since my sons are still on training wheels and tricycles, my family and I pursue the OC outdoors (both rural and urban) on foot. I'm not an

California Petehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00637419302696764492noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7658787.post-1117224357224122082005-05-27T12:22:00.000-07:002005-05-27T13:05:57.260-07:00

May is my favorite month. The end of a long school year is finally in sight. With long hours of sunlight and mild morning temperatures that allow one to leave the wind vest--and maybe even the arm and knee warmers--at home, the bike riding is rarely better in Southern California. And here in the states, the baseball and major-league soccer seasons are in full swing, while the various European

California Petehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00637419302696764492noreply@blogger.com1