Tuesday, July 7, 2020

Arlington Virginia's Vision Zero Statements Defy Logic: Part 1 of 6.

This is a six part series dedicated to showing just how weak and meaningless Arlington's current Vision Zero goals are.     We will go through each of six statements residents were asked to comment on and explain why each is illogical and will just result in more death and serious injuries.   We encourage Arlington's leadership to consider these flaws and to rewrite and rethink Vision Zero.    We also encourage you to share these posts and send them to Arlington Virginia's so called leadership.   

ArlingtonVA Statement 1: Vision Zero in Arlington will strive to ensure safe transportation no matter how you get around. 

This statement is fundamentally disturbing because safe streets aren't about equality, they are about equity. 

So what I really hear in this statement is that we aren't going to ban any forms of transportation no matter how deadly those forms of transportation are to users of other forms of transportation.   
If you are going to choose to make SUVs legal, a vehicle that is 4x more deadly than even a car to children aged 5-9, then you are not going to have Vision Zero.   Particularly, you aren't going to have Vision Zero when you continue to allow these vehicles to come in massive numbers into school zones. 

Even more so you aren't going to achieve vision zero if you allow these vehicles into central urban areas of Arlington with high numbers of pedestrian.   But forget SUVs, If you want to save lives you have to ban vehicles in general from urban areas, especially central urban areas with large numbers of pedestrians and cyclists.   Or at least you have to make it very difficult to drive and make parking non-existent.

Now, as someone who as actually been to Oslo, I am going to teach everybody a lesson about how you actually get to Vision Zero.   Oslo, a city with several times the population of Arlington Virginia saw zero pedestrian and cyclist deaths in 2019.   So a lot of people imagine Norwegians, which they stereotype simply as Scandinavians, as being really concerned with how everyone feels.>Having been to Oslo I can tell you it isn't like that at all in Oslo.   People in Oslo don't really do chatty formalities.    People in Oslo don't worry about if someone is offended.    Instead, they do the logical things that the larger community needs in order to survive, stay alive and even thrive.

So Arlington politicians, if you really want Vision Zero, than stop worrying about offending people and get on with making the central urban areas car-free.    Stop making parking free on Sundays and in the evenings.    In fact, get rid of the parking completely and build something useful like housing
or urban vertical gardens. 

                              

A few of my books above!  Buying my books is a great way to support this blog and hopefully even better future projects to create real Vision Zero.   
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Thursday, February 27, 2020

Vegan Mayo

Ingredients
1 cup tofu
A few squirts of mustard
1/3 cup oil
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1/2 tsp salt (or more to taste)

Combine all ingredients in a food processor and process until smooth.

  
Cinnamon Apple Bread Easy WFPB Pumpkin Cookies
Lime Flavored Rice
Marinated Black Beans
Mint Salad (WFPB)
No Grate Potato Latkes
No Knead Basic Bagels

                                      
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Monday, February 24, 2020

List of #bansuvs articles, posts, and books.

Here is a list of as many ban suvs and anti-suv articles, blog posts and books I can find.    Please let me know in the comments if you have something to add.  I will keep a general list organized alphabetically, plus sub lists by topic, lists of articles related to specific locations and lists by publication.   #bansuvs 

Updated: 9/6/2020

General List of Articles and Posts



Public Transit
Urbanism


Michigan

Ponteverda

Spain
Bloomberg (City Lab)




IIHS

Onion
Tree Hugger


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Friday, February 7, 2020

Spaghetti with peppers

You can add or take away some of these ingredients, in this flexible recipe.  You can also change portions.

Ingredients
1 box spaghetti (cooked according to directions)
2 large green peppers or 4-5 small peppers
1/4 cup earth balance
1 chopped bulb of garlic or one stalk green garlic
1 14oz can chickpeas
1 to 2 stalks celery
10-20 chopped and pitted olives (can be omitted if you don't like olives)
A few chopped spinach leaves
A few leaves of parsley chopped

Heat Earth Balance in the pan until melted.  Add all ingredients except the box of spaghetti over medium-low heat until cooked to your liking.   Place the ingredients on top of the spaghetti and stir to mix through. 




Cinnamon Apple Bread

                                      
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Thursday, January 30, 2020

Visiting Iceland? Do you need to learn Icelandic?

Iceland is a very popular country for tourists.   One question sometimes on tourists minds is should I learn some Icelandic. 

Let's start the answer by providing some background on Iceland.  Unless you count Greenland, which is part of Denmark, Iceland is generally the fastest country to get to from North America.   As such, Iceland is the first country and Icelandic is the first language included in my book Now I Know My European Language Colors.

The population of Iceland is quite low consisting of 362,000 residents as of 2019.   Iceland has a number of Polish immigrants who often perform service functions.   University is free for Icelanders and goes into the mid-20's.   Thus, most Icelanders are very well educated and tend to work "professional" jobs, although they sometimes have to go abroad to get these jobs.   

Because Iceland is small and well educated, from my experiences the vast majority of the residents speak English and actually speak it quite well.   Icelanders are also constantly surrounded by English speaking tourists from the United Kingdom and the United States who visit the country at a rate of approximately 20x the population of Iceland.    Like many other countries Iceland relies on English for interactions with many other countries.    You might be surprised to hear from my experiences you will likely hear more Polish in Iceland than Icelandic.   



I'm not sure if it was just because it was obvious that I am not Icelandic, but even the people from Iceland greeted me in English and not Icelandic.   They seemed amused that I knew a few words of Icelandic.    

How hard is speaking Icelandic?   I'm not an expert at Icelandic, but it is not too difficult to learn a few words.   If you speak German, Dutch, or in particular a Scandinavian language learning some Icelandic will be even easier.  That being said these languages are no close enough to Icelandic for someone who speaks one of them to likely be able to understand someone who is speaking Icelandic.
What about finding someone to practice Icelandic with outside of Iceland?  That is probably going to be a challenge because the number of Icelandic speakers is relatively small.   The country with the most Icelandic speakers is believed to be Denmark.   The third most Icelandic speakers are believed to be in the United States.  However, the number of Icelandic speakers in the United States is only about 5000.

So you don't need to learn Icelandic.   But it is always fun and it never hurts to learn a few words of a language anyways.    

If you want to learn the colors and a few other things in Icelandic check out my book Now I Know My European Language Colors.  For some trivia on Iceland check out Kaufman World Geography: A to L.  Both books are free for those with Kindle Unlimited.  We also have a blog post on vegan food in Iceland.


                                
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Marinated Black Beans (WFPB, Vegan)

1 can black beans
Juice from 2-3 limes
1 red onion chopped
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 to 1/2 cup fresh chopped cilantro

Combine all ingredients, except cilantro.   Would recommend allowing 24 hours in the refrigerator before serving.  If using a container that is more tall then wide stir occasionally to make sure all beans get marinated.   Add cilantro before serving.  Recipe can be doubled, tripled, etc. 


Cinnamon Apple Bread

                                      
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Wednesday, January 29, 2020

So your going to the NCAA Division One Wrestling Championships...with family members who aren't into wrestling.

So you are going to the wrestling championships with family or others who just aren't going to watch wrestling all day...in Minnesota...and you are probably wondering what on Earth are they going to do all day.   Or maybe you are this family member...don't feel bad I am that family member too.

The good news is the Twin Cities are a lot more fun and have a lot more to offer than you might expect.  The Twin Cities are an area I am quite familiar with and have visited multiple times.  I have even written a book on the Twin Cities.  Here are a few of my favorites and highlights.   

On the top of my list is Nickelodeon Universe.  It is a full scale amusement park located within Mall of America.  It is not just a few rides and it has a great variety of rides.   Everything from rides that are great for little kids to rides that are great for adventure seekers.   It is also fairly reasonable in price for an amusement park.   It is easily accessed by light rail and there is also a light rail stop near the stadium.   

My second pick, if the weather is decent is Minnehaha Falls Regional Park is an amazing adventure.   Pictures do not do these majestic falls justice, but I'll include one anyways.   The park also has a nice playground and family rental bikes. Also located near the light rail.   

My favorite Minnesota museum is the Mill City Museum.  The elevator tour is truly a unique and amazing presentation that is very well crafted and quite the production.  The museum is great for kids and has many things for kids to do.   The favorite for kids seems to be the water room.   Also only, a few blocks away from the light rail.   

Another highlight is the St. Paul Capital Building.  It is beautiful and we go into much more detail about it in a previous blog post.  Also located on the light rail.  

One little known fact is that Minneapolis and St. Paul are actually home to the world's largest Skyway.   The Skyway consists of eleven miles of sky-bridges.  Although it suffers from the flaw of not being completely opened on weekends and evenings it is still interesting to see if you have the time.  And, yes also located on the light rail.  



For much more detailed information please see my book the Kaufman Green Guide: Twin Cities and Bloomington.  If you have Kindle Unlimited you can read it for free and it is only $3.98 for the Kindle edition.   It is also available in physical copies.   


  
                                  
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Quinoa Instapot Stew (Vegan, GF, WFBP)

You don't have to add all of these ingredients.   Feel free to omit for substitute.  Or change the portions, but you probably will have to limit how much you increase the portions as it uses and instapot. 

Ingredients

3/4 cup quiona
3/4 cup water
28 oz can diced tomato
14 oz can corn
1 medium size onion chopped
2 large stalks of green onion chopped
1 red banana pepper* or 1/2 red bell pepper chopped or sliced in rings
1 green bell pepper
About 10 beet leaves or other large leafy green leaves such as kale chopped
Greens from about 2 carrots (can be omitted if you can't obtain these)
1 large or 2 small potatoes chopped 
1 to 3 tsp chili powder
1 tsp salt

Using stew setting combine all ingredients in an instapot.   


*If you don't grow banana peppers yourself, a red banana pepper might be very difficult to find in a store.   




Cinnamon Apple Bread

                                      
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Tuesday, January 28, 2020

No Grate Potato Latkes (vegan, gf)

Ingredients 
6 potatoes (whole is fine)
2 onions (purple onions work especially nicely) thinly sliced
1/4 cup fresh dill finely chopped
Either about 1/2 cup earth balance plus 1/2 tsp salt or 1/2 cup oil +2 tsp salt (possibly more or less of these ingredients based on taste or wanting to limit these).

Cook the potatoes by boiling them.  This works best my using a large soup pot and covering the potatoes completely with water and bring them to a boil on high.   Than lower heat to about 3-5 and cover with a lid and cook for about one hour.   Make sure potatoes are soft enough to mash.   

While the potatoes are cooking, you want to start your onions.  A frying/stir fry pan is good for this.    You will use some of the oil for the onions, about 3 TBS is recommended for best flavor, but you can use less.   Heat the oil and then add the onions over medium high heat, about 6.   Cook for about 10 minutes on this higher heat.   Then lower the heat to about 2 and cook for about 45 minutes.  

Combine the potatoes, onion and fresh dill.   If using oil, just add the salt.  If you using Earth Balance add a few TBS to the mixture.   Mash with a potatoes masher and stir with a spoon until everything is mixed together evenly.      

If you like you can reuse the frying/stir-fry pan from earlier, as long as nothing burnt in it.   Put the pan on medium heat about 5 and heat the oil.   Meanwhile make flat pancakes out of the mixture. Place these in the pan.   Cook on each side for about 5 minutes.  You will probably have to repeat this step several times to get through all the pancakes.   Add oil if the pan looks even close to being dry.    

This recipe can be made in larger or smaller quantities.   


Cinnamon Apple Bread

                                      
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Sunday, January 5, 2020

Ten #bansuv Twitter Users to Follow

Interested in the rising topic of banning SUVs.   Here are ten Twitter accounts worth following:

Act Urgently! Just found this account very recently and it has great tweets and retweets.  And yes, we have no choice but to act urgently things are going bad fast. 

Angie Schmitt Calls the account the SUV anti-stan account.   She is currently working on writing a book about the pedestrian safety crisis.   Tweeting about safe streets (and other topics) from Ohio. 

Betsy Gamrat - What is particularly impressive is that Betsy is tweeting us not from a major city, but from New Hampshire.    Lots of great anti-suv tweets and takes on the automobile makers. 

CJ Wojo Coming to US from NY, if you like dogs, banning SUVs and dogs that want to ban SUVs than following CJ is a must. 

Courtney Babb Lecturer in urban planning coming to us from Perth in Australia.    Another account full of great anti-suv and pro-people tweets and retweets. 

Dublin Velo 2019 As I was looking for number 10, I went to my Twitter to find I had just been followed by this account and upon looking at it I love it!   Granted we don't think Mars is far enough for Elon Musk.  After all they are always discovering new far away dwarf planets.

Lloydalter  Has written a number of good quality anti-suv articles for Treehugger.com.  Here is one of his more recent articles on this subject.

Richard Campbell Representing Canada (Vancouver) we admire Richard's persistence and frequent use of the #bansuv hashtag. 

Sam Also representing a diversity of places Sam comes to us from Minneapolis.   Accounts features a whole variety of great tweets about cars, suvs, and other topics. 

Travis R. Eby Tweeting from NYC Perhaps, not a ban SUV account so much as a ban all cars account (which I also agree with).   Good strong posts. 


I realize there are many more excellent #bansuv Twitter accounts out there and hope to include more of you in the future.  As some of you may have noticed I also tried to include people from a variety of places.   I also apologize for those of you not on the list.    If you would like to be included in a future list please comment below or on the social media post where this has been tweeted and I will look into your account and the possibility of including it in a future list.  And don't forget the #bansuvs tag!

                                   

A few of my books above!  Buying my books is a great way to support this blog and hopefully even better future projects to create real Vision Zero.   
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Friday, January 3, 2020

Vegan cheese and banana pepper bread

Ingredients:

1.5 cups warm water
1 packet yeast
3 Tablespoons flax seed
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 package Daiya Vegan Cheese
2 fresh banana peppers thinly sliced
Somewhere between 3-7 cups flour-getting the texture right is more important than trying to measure an exact amount. 
Enough Earth Balance or oil to grease the pan.    




1. Combine the water and yeast.  Stir and then allow to sit for a few minutes.   
2. Add the flax seed, salt, vegan cheese and banana peppers and stir.  
3.  Add flour one cup at a time and possibly slower at the end until the flour can form a ball that you can almost pick up.   
4.  Allow to rise for about one hour.  Half way through preheat the oven to 375 degrees.   
5.  Give the dough a quick knead.   That being said, despite many people saying kneading is an absolute must, I have a times skipped this step and things turned out okay.   
6.  Place in an earth balanced or oiled pan.  I prefer a fitted round baking pan to help give the bread shape.  Bake bread for about 40 minutes.  Check at 30 minutes.


Cinnamon Apple Bread

                                      
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Wednesday, January 1, 2020

Tofu with Green Onions


Ingredients

1 or 2 packages tofu
1 cup frozen rice
2 large stalks of green onion finely chopped
1 TBS sesame oil
1/4 cup soy sauce



Add the sesame oil and soy sauce first over medium heat (5 or 6).   Place frozen rice in the center.   Place tofu and green onions around the sides.   As the rice defrosts stir it all together.    



                                      
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