by Source
06.16.2013
Activism
Tactical Urbanism in San Diego and Tijuana
By Beryl Forman
Building a thriving bi-national region between San Diego and Tijuana is an enormous feat. Based on conversations with practical-minded leaders around bi-national planning, “intentional collaborations and concerted leadership” are the foundation of success. Aside from the largest setback to improve bi-national affairs, which is the border wait time, much can be accomplished on the neighborhood level to lure travel between the region. With a growing interest to establish a vital bi-national region, I believe that in the next few years we must plan for small scale pilot projects, in an effort to establish a framework for collaboration and build positive momentum.
Improving the livability of our urban environments commonly starts in the immediate vicinity of where people live, work, shop and socialize. While large scale planning projects such as transit oriented development have their place, incremental, small-scale street improvements are increasingly seen as a way to garner community interest and support before making significant financial commitments.
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by Frank Gormlie
06.15.2013
Activism
Let this moment be a educational one so let’s have the Debate that the President calls for
What a dastardly crazy last nine days it’s been.
Beginning Thursday, June 6th, with the Washington Post and the Guardian in London both running with the explosive news about the National Security Agency surveillance programs, we’ve been hit with daily revelations – that are still continuing every news cycle – that have created quiet a long list of whistle blower-delivered disclosures about what the government and the NSA are and have been doing to us – the American people.
Also on June 6th, the director of national intelligence confirmed the existence of a secret program in which the government has tapped into the central servers of 9 leading internet companies to search for data linked to terrorism, espionage or nuclear proliferation. During this six year old program – called PRISM – the FBI and NSA searched emails, videos, photographs and other documents involving Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, Paltalk, AOL, Skype, YouTube and Apple – but not Twitter – yet.
Over last weekend, we found out that the federal government has amassed a database at least for these last 7 years – since 2006 during the Bush administration – with details on every telephone call made within the U.S. and between this country and phones overseas. The data collected includes the phone numbers, the time, date, duration of the calls and the route the calls take through the vast phone networks.
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