ARTICLES
The Original Articles archives of CharacterTowns.org presents papers that discuss practical and conceptual ideas for designing, building and managing character towns and small cities that are interesting, pleasant and prosperous places for residents, businesses and visitors.
The Bloomberg Carbon Clock – March 2022
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The Bloomberg Carbon Clock – March 2023
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The Bloomberg Carbon Clock November 2021
The monthly values reflect the cyclical or seasonal changes in an inexorably upward secular trend. Check out the graph of long-term trends on the webpage cited below. FacebookTweetLinkedInEmail
The Bloomberg Carbon Clock September
The monthly values reflect the cyclical or seasonal changes in an inexorably upward secular trend. Check out the graph of long-term trends on the webpage cited below. FacebookTweetLinkedInEmail
The Business Sector Begins to Worry about Affordable Housing.
CharacterTowns.org mined two recent concurrent articles focusing on affordable housing and concerns of the industrial sector. The concurrent Articles are from: Bloomberg Businessweek, January 20, 2020. “A Housing Start for Microsoft” The Economist, January 18th – 24th, 2020, “Special Report: Housing, Shaking the Foundations.” In both articles, the source of the problem is discussed in […]
The Business Sector Worries about Affordable Housing.
CharacterTowns.org mined recent articles, focusing on affordable housing and concerns of the industrial sector. In all of the articles, the problem is defined as a shortage in the supply of affordable housing. The authors offer examples of action programs that are improving the affordability of housing to low and middle income families from cities and […]
The Case for Special Neighborhood Districts.
MAKE “SPECIAL DISTRICTS” SPECIAL. A neighborhood district, as a legal and geographically specific entity has the opportunity to control its own destiny. Financial independence is the dream. While never being truly independent from the host government and never likely to achieve complete power over regulations, taxes and fees applicable to residents, a special district can […]
The Causes of Climate Change
Scientists attribute the global warming trend observed since the mid-20th century to the human expansion of the “greenhouse effect”1 — warming that results when the atmosphere traps heat radiating from Earth toward space. Certain gases in the atmosphere block heat from escaping. Long-lived gases that remain semi-permanently in the atmosphere and do not respond physically […]
The Causes of Climate Change
A simplified animation of the greenhouse effect. Scientists attribute the global warming trend observed since the mid-20th century to the human expansion of the “greenhouse effect”1 — warming that results when the atmosphere traps heat radiating from Earth toward space. Certain gases in the atmosphere block heat from escaping. Long-lived gases that remain semi-permanently in […]
The Character Main Street
A VISION FOR MAIN STREET: SOCIAL. Main street has done a lot for America; and more will be asked of it in the coming decades. The main value of downtown, and specifically main street, by mid-century will expand from its civic and commercial purposes to become the primarily social center of the city; main street […]
The Character Town, A Preface.
A Character Town is an Emotional Experience. There is a hometown in our minds where we want to live, to visit or to have a business. It appeals to our senses; all of them, from sights and sounds to tastes and smells. It feels good, sensually and physically. It is a place where we want […]
The Cities Form and Function 2018.
PONDERING AN IMPONDERABLE. Demographics, basic human needs, our social contract and technology will determine the form and function of cities in 2050. We can predict demographics and basic human needs. The wild cards are technology and the new century, the rate of technological and social change has been accelerating and disorienting. FacebookTweetLinkedInEmail
The City as Classroom, Education Outside the School House.
A CITY EDUCATION. Alvin Toffler once told an audience that more education was taking place in conference centers than school rooms. The same thought applies to the city. While the COVID-19 remote learning experience has shown that we do not want to get rid of face-to-face classroom education at the school house, we have come […]
The City’s Business Model
A Comprehensive, Long-Range City Finance Plan. SOURCES AND USES OF FUNDS: A Professional Accounting Viewpoint. CharacterTowns.org has taken the accounting term, source and uses of funds, and contorted it for use in comprehensive long-range finance planning for municipalities. The term, sources and uses of funds, is so appropriate for application to the needs of municipal […]
The City’s Economy: Plan for Prosperity
The city’s economy is designed as the power to harness and enhance the city through an economic policy that plans for success. It combines demographic analysis and economic development planning with long-range, comprehensive financial planning. Capital improvements for infrastructure are important economic development tools along with regulatory packages that provide for vision-consistent private investments in […]
The City’s Form and Function – 2015: A Model for a Sustainable Character Town
The city’s form and function is based on sustainability theory tells us to balance and cross-leverage the social, economic and physical attributes of the town. This essay examines the ideas behind the sustainability approach as it applies to small cities and towns. The call goes out to enlarge the city’s long-range plan to make it […]
The City’s Form and Function – 2015: A Model for a Complete City based on Sustainable Urbanism
The City’s Form and Function essay in 2014 presented the form and function of a character town in light of its sustainability, i.e., its ability to balance its social, economic and physical attributes in a manner that produced an interesting, pleasant and prosperous place for residents, businesses and visitors. This 2015 essay adds the concept […]
The City’s Form and Function – 2016
The City’s Form and Function – 2016: A Model for Small Cities and Towns discusses a sustainable model for small cities and towns. Sustainability theory tells us to balance the social, economic and physical attributes of the town. This essay examines the ideas behind the sustainability and urbanist approach as it applies to small cities […]
The Climate Change Series: Global Warming Index
The global warming index is one on many interests measuring the impact of climate change. On June 2, 2020 [say the first of June], Their estimate of human induced warming was +1.148 °C. Total carbon dioxide emissions were 2.3403 trillion tonnes. On July 31, 2020 [say the first of August], The warming was +1.156 °C; […]
The Climate Change Series: Why Sea Level Matters.
In the United States, almost 40 percent of the population lives in relatively high population- density coastal areas, where sea level plays a role in flooding, shoreline erosion, and hazards from storms. Globally, 8 of the world’s 10 largest cities are near a coast, according to the U.N. Atlas of the Oceans. In urban settings […]