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Left-Brain vs. Right-Brain Debate

By | | Follow up, Travels
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On Wednesday, April 14, the Antiplanner had the honor of debating James Kunstler, the famous author of Geography of Nowhere and The Long Emergency. The students at Brown University who set this up chose the topic, “Building America: Who Should Control Urban Growth–Planners or Markets?”

I’ve never met Kunstler before, and I was a bit nervous since he hasn’t exactly been friendly on his blog. But he turned out to be very warm and congenial. We share many recreation interests and I am sure we could be friends if we didn’t live on opposite sides of the country, which (despite our mobility) might be a bigger barrier than being on opposite sides of the political debate.

Kunstler and I were each asked to speak for 25 minutes, after which we were invited to ask each other one question. Then the floor was opened to questions from the audience, mostly (I was told) students in political science, environmental studies, urban planning, and economics.

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Return from the North

By | | Regional planning, Travels
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I visited a government-subsidized ice-sculpture park and rode a government-subsidized train. Sometimes, it seems like everything in Alaska is government-subsidized.

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I also spoke in several different forums. You can download one of my presentations in PDF or PowerPoint formats. This presentation focuses on the relationship between urban planning and the housing prices. I may post some of my other presentations later in the week.

Travels with the Antiplanner 3: Sumpter Valley Railroad

By | | Travels
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As noted yesterday, the Antiplanner is in San Antonio today. But before leaving Oregon, I visited the Sumpter Valley Railroad for the fall photographer’s special. The Sumpter Valley Railroad once carried gold and timber between Prairie City and Baker, Oregon, but shut down in 1947. With help from the Union Pacific, local enthusiasts rebuilt a few miles of it in the 1970s and began tourist operations in 1976.

Sunrise in McEwen. Click for a larger photo.

The group operates two steam locomotives, the Sumpter Valley 19 and the Eccles Lumber Company 3. Eccles Lumber was a logging railroad that fed into the Sumpter Valley Railroads; both were founded by David Eccles, an Ogden entrepreneur, in the late nineteenth century. After the railroads shut down, the 3 was used as a stationary boiler by Boise Cascade, while the 19 went to the White Pass and Yukon, which later donated it back to the restoration group.

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Travels with the Antiplanner #2: March on Washington

By | | Travels
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The Antiplanner spends as little time as possible in the Great Satan, which normally means weekdays only. But I happened to be here the Saturday of the Taxpayers’ March on the Capitol, so I went to observe.

I haven’t been to any previous tea parties, so I didn’t know what to expect. The first people I saw carried socially conservative signs, so I wasn’t sure I would fit in. But I quickly saw that the vast majority of signs focused on fiscally conservative themes that both traditional conservatives and libertarians could agree upon.

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Travels with the Antiplanner – #1: The Table

By | | Travels
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As everyone knows, the oil companies pay the Antiplanner to conspire with General Motors to force everyone who walks, bicycles, or rides trains to drive instead. So naturally, when I get some time off, my favorite forms of recreation are hiking, cycling, and rail fanning.

Last weekend, I took a few days to hike in Oregon’s Mt. Jefferson Wilderness. My objective was to climb the Table, a flat-topped feature unusual for a volcanic landscape. I first noticed the Table last summer when I hiked part of the Pacific Crest Trail through the Mt. Jefferson Wilderness.

The Table from the Pacific Crest Trail. Click any image for a larger view.

The maps show no trails or easy approaches to the top of the Table. It was also too far to reach and return in one day, and for the last decade or so I’ve limited myself to dayhikes, not overnight backpacks. So getting to the Table became a personal challenge.

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