d/visible » Blog Archive » The Rise of Neuro-Architecture
This is a fascinating blog post that I won't even try to summarize. Here is a snippet.


According to Olds, there are genuine neurological connections between behavior and the physical space it takes place in. He reasons that babies learn how to reason their way through the world almost entirely through visual and auditory stimuli, which are intimately connected to the surrounding environment. With new research showing that, even in adulthood, the brain remains remarkably malleable, Olds believes that a strong argument can be made that the architecture and design of a building can possess strong psychological impacts. “A space affects your eyes and it affects your sound, your hearing, and just through those two sensory modalities alone, those signals go into the brain and we can image the brain, non invasively, and see the effect of visual and auditory stimuli in the brain in living adults and we know it’s profound,” said Olds.

9NEWS - Article - School sends home obesity notices with students, parent upset
I've been teaching college students for a long time. The problem with public K-12 education in America is NOT that they need to do a better job of telling parents their kids are fat. The problem is that, on the whole, American primary and secondary schools do a horrible job of educating kids. Every year I see a new crop of freshman with pathetic reading skills, virtually no math skills at all, and a vast reservoir of ignorance about history, politics, and culture. What do they learn instead? I would say they know a lot about styles and fashions and trends; about sports; about the lives of professional entertainers; and about a certain orthdoxy of belief on the environment and some other PC values. Now, of course there is an upper crust of students, and of schools, where this is not true. But for the vast bulk of American students, school is not really about learning. And there are lots of these silly mandates from state legislatures and school boards to do things like tell parents their kids are fat, all of which turn the public schools into big failures.

Private Communities website
I guess this must be the place to do a search for your particular brand of Privatopia.

It's Official -- Belmont Bans Smoking In Some Homes - News Story - KNTV | San Francisco
Thought to be the first of its kind in California, the ordinance declares secondhand smoke a public nuisance and extends the city's current smoking ban to include multi-unit, multi-story residences. Though Belmont and some other California cities already restrict smoking in multi-unit common areas, Belmont is the first city to extend secondhand smoke regulation to the inside of individual apartment units.

Condo owners told to remove religious statues -- Newsday.com
Here is a condo association that knows how to generate bad press.

Gloria Gamarano's statue of the Virgin Mary has been with her family for more than 45 years. Until two months ago, the statue decorated the small garden that wraps around the condominium she owns at Country Pointe at Coram, a Medford gated community. Now, though, it sits behind the home, a casualty of a potentially unlawful community rule at the complex that bans religious statues in gardens and other common areas.

Chimps choose more rationally than humans - UPI.com
Science makes another great leap forward. Does this mean it is fair to sell homes in HOAs to chimps, but maybe not to people?

LEIPZIG, Germany, Oct. 8 (UPI) -- German researchers have demonstrated chimpanzees make choices that protect their self-interest more consistently than do humans.

Homebuilders use car dealer tactics on new-home lots
How delightful. What's next? Draft board tactics?

City passes camera law -- baltimoresun.com

This means public local governments will be requiring private security measures. Note that crime has been going DOWN.


Hoping to deter crime by expanding the use of surveillance cameras, Aberdeen passed a measure that empowers the city government and police to require cameras in new developments. The Police Department, the Department of Planning and Community Development, and the Department of Public Works will decide whether a new residential, commercial or industrial development must install cameras at "strategic locations" before a development permit is issued.,,Though crime is decreasing in Aberdeen, the city is seeking to prevent crime by expanding the camera program, Simmons said. The city installed cameras this year at two troubled intersections: one on Edmund and Washington streets and the other on East Bel Air and Aberdeen avenues. The cameras can zoom in, rotate 360 degrees, and are monitored from the city's police station.

Homeowners' Associations Operate As Governments. Why Shouldn't They Be So Treated? - Wide Open: Insight and Analysis from Ohio's Premier Political Bloggers - Cleveland.com
Here is a perspective from Ohio:

I'm sure there's a lot I've missed. I'm not impressed with the argument that "You agreed to it when you bought your house, now you have to live with it." My view: You agreed to be "governed" by reasonable people, not the petty tyrants and busybodies who have all too often gravitated towards HOA positions. Since the large majority of new homes and condos are governed (there's that word again) by the rules (which are for all practical purposes, laws) of HOAs, their actions and somewhat extra-legal nature deserve more scrutiny than they are receiving. I believe HOAs function as unnacountable de facto governments that need to be reined in. Though I haven't researched it, I would be not surprised to learn that their "trade group" is into big-league lobbying at the state and federal levels to protect their arbitrary interests. I would also suspect that their power to influence any potential legislation is growing. HOAs not happy with assuming the responsibilities commensurate with their power do have a choice: They can vote to disband. Many of them wouldn't be missed.

ABC News: Librarians Under New Management
It seems that privatization of municipal services has now hit one of the last bastions of municipal socialism: the local public library. Maybe now they will decide they run the library without 100 copies of the Alice Walker books.

The county will continue to own the buildings and all the books in them. But the libraries will be managed by an outside company for a profit. And the librarians will no longer be public employees and union members; they will be on the company's payroll. Library patrons might not notice much difference, but the librarians will, since the company plans to get by with a smaller staff and will have a free hand to set salaries and benefits.

Two Calif. cities to vote on banning smoking in apartments - USATODAY.com
We really are seeing a lot more intrusive governing going on at the local level, with HOAs and municipalities tag-teaming the local citizenry.

Lawmakers in two California cities are casting votes this month on unprecedented legislation that would widen a growing voluntary movement by landlords and resident associations to ban smoking inside apartments and condos. Today in Calabasas, the City Council plans to vote on expanding its anti-smoking law to bar renters from lighting up inside existing apartments. It would exempt current resident smokers until they moved but would require all new buildings with at least 15 units, including condos, to be smoke-free.

NYC Mayor: Surveillance a City Necessity -- Newsday.com
Sometimes I think that raising issues of civil liberties in CIDs, on the grounds that they are quasi-municipalities, is becoming a non sequitur. I mean, if you don't have civil liberties in cities, why should you have them in HOAs? And according to Bloomberg, people in cities don't even want civil liberties. They want security.

Residents of big cities like New York and London must accept that they are under constant watch by video cameras, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Monday.

WSLS.com | Man Cut by Campaign Sign
People must take politics seriously in Massachusetts.

Razor blades inside a campaign sign badly cut a man who pulled up the sign.

Are you prepared to be ruled by a homeowners association? - MarketWatch
In my case, the answer, is "not unless I have no other alternative." Unfortunately, municipalities and developers are gradually creating a "no alternative" situation. So when I end up in an HOA, the industry will call me another person who "chose" an HOA.

Some in Fairfax Public Housing Make Six Figures - washingtonpost.com
The median new home price in Fairfax County is $960,000, according to this article. And of course nearly all the new housing is in CIDs.

Hundreds of families living in housing subsidized by Fairfax County taxpayers exceed income caps designed to ensure that only the neediest receive assistance, a review of county records shows. In the most extreme cases, Fairfax is underwriting rents for families making well into six figures: One household getting help makes more than $216,000 a year; another, $184,000. Dozens of others -- making $60,000, $70,000, $90,000 -- exceed eligibility caps. And they do so with the tacit approval of county housing administrators, who do little to encourage occupants to move on when their fortunes improve.

Why have municipal Wi-Fi networks been such a flop? - By Tim Wu - Slate Magazine
Municipal corporations trying to compete with business corporations and not doing so hot? Here's a case study. Are HOAs more like the munis or the businesses when it comes to providing wi-fi?

The Sun Online - News: Jail ship to ease overcrowding
There's nothing like a great big prison ship to bring out the best in people, don't you think?

Las Vegas Business Press :: News : Web site ranks Las Vegas as nation's most overbuilt city
Most of this (overbuilt) housing supply is in HOAs, townhome associations, and condo associations. And it turns out that the units that are hardest to sell are...condos and townhomes. Single family homes sell much faster. Of course, those are in HOAs for the most part.

NuWireInvestor.com, a real estate investor Web site, recently ranked Las Vegas as the nation's most overbuilt city due to the 2005-'06 housing construction boom. There were 72,965 permits issued for residential construction during the last two years, reports the U.S. Census Bureau. Yet the inventory of homes available for sale on the Multiple Listing Service hit a record 24,341 in August, which is 19.4 percent more than last year, reports the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors. Roughly 40 percent of those homes are reportedly unoccupied. New home sales through August are also down 37.2 percent from a year ago, GLVAR adds.

Additionally Las Vegas has overbuilt its condominium and townhome sector. Condos and townhomes are spending 335 days on the market, says the National Association of Residential Real Estate Investment Advisors. The average single family home is spending 115 days on the market as of May 2007, according to Zip Realty.

Tom Cruise building '£5m bunker to protect against alien attack'| Showbiz | This is London
I hope he went through the Architectural Review Committee.

Hollywood star Tom Cruise is planning to build a bunker at his Colorado home to protect his family in the event of an intergalactic alien attack, according to new reports. The Mission Impossible actor, who is a dedicated follower of Scientology, is reportedly fearful that deposed galactic ruler 'Xenu' is plotting an evil revenge attack on Earth.

NPR : Town Weighs Ban on Leaf Blowers
One of these days I'm going to put together two lists of unusual prohibitions one list for HOAs, and the other for municipalities, and compare them.