The Colonias Reader: Economy, Housing, and Public Health in U.S.-Mexico Border Colonias.

The book I used for searching the history of colonias, the Bracero program, policies, etc.



http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=nGMKjPUR_cgC&oi=fnd&pg=PA4&dq=The+Colonias+Reader:+Economy,+Housing,+and+Public+Health+in+U.S.-Mexico+Border+Colonias.&ots=td6dFoVNgI&sig=zMuK3djhMy4ZwLRKpoqXHb25s5c#v=onepage&q=The%20Colonias%20Reader%3A%20Economy%2C%20Housing%2C%20and%20Public%20Health%20in%20U.S.-Mexico%20Border%20Colonias.&f=false

Reports to the President of the United States

Reports on the state of border region from 1995 to date.


http://www.epa.gov/ocem/gneb/gneb_president_reports.htm

Colonias - Quick facts

soucre: http://www.tceq.texas.gov/assets/public/border/colonias-large.jpg

Texas Laws

Beta digital version of Texas State Laws.



http://www.weblaws.org/texas/laws

Section 16.343:Minimum State Standards and Model Political Subdivision Rules

Texas Water Code

Section 16.343:Minimum State Standards and Model Political Subdivision Rules

This code defines standards to be adhered to for Model Political Subdivision. 

http://www.weblaws.org/texas/laws/tex._water_code_section_16.343_minimum_state_standards_and_model_political_subdivision_rules

P3: People, Prosperity and the Planet Student Design Competition for Sustainability

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), as part of the P3-People, Prosperity and the Planet Award Program, intends to seek applications proposing to research, develop, and design solutions to real world challenges involving the overall sustainability of human society. The P3 competition highlights the use of scientific principles in creating innovative projects focused on sustainability. The P3 Award program was developed to foster progress toward sustainability by achieving the mutual goals of economic prosperity, protection of the planet, and improved quality of life for its people-- people, prosperity, and the planet – the three pillars of sustainability. The EPA offers the P3 competition in order to respond to the technical needs of the world while moving towards the goal of sustainability.

http://www.epa.gov/P3/

EPA OnCampus Eco-Ambassador

Working with school representatives and fellow students, OnCampus ecoAmbassadors implement projects from EPA programs to help green their campuses, promote environmental awareness and carry out the EPA's mission to protect human health and the environment.


http://www.epa.gov/oncampus/

EPA funding/fellowship

• Fellowships
  • American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Science and Technology Policy Fellowships
  • Association of Schools of Public Health/EPA Fellowship Program
  • EPA Office of Research and Development Post-Doctoral Research Program
  • Greater Research Opportunities (GRO) Undergraduate Fellowships
  • National Academy of Sciences/National Research Council Resident Research Associateship Program
  • National Network for Environmental Management Studies (NNEMS)
  • Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE) Fellowships
  • Presidential Management Fellows (PMF) Program
  • Science to Achieve Results (STAR) Fellowships for Graduate Environmental Study
• Scholarships
  • Marshall Scholarships

http://epa.gov/fellowships/

Technologies for Development 2014 Conference, Luasanne

The Openness Paradigm: How Synergies Between Open Access, Open Data, Open Science, Open Source Hardware, Open Drug Discovery Support Development? 

4-6 June 2014 | EPFL, Lausanne, Switzerland

Citizen and open science activities from environmental monitoring to drug discovery, projects supporting Open Data and Open Access, and various Open Hardware initiatives for affordable laboratory equipment define a new paradigm for development, which needs reflection and evaluation. We are seeking for case studies, which document the opportunities, challenges and synergies behind the paradigm of openness:  open data projects, which advocate sharing and publishing of raw scientific data rather than only results, open access advocacy promoting unrestricted access to peer-reviewed scientific publications, open hardware and capacity building for research, but also open drug discovery projects,  which apply these principles to hasten the discovery of affordable and free of licenses drugs. While some projects concentrate on building research infrastructure and networks around open source technologies, other often emphasize the power of crowdsourcing and various e-science platforms and citizen science models of work, which involve the communities in various data collection practices. We would like to discuss these practices and their synergies to understand how they support resilience, agency and self-determination of various communities in the Global South. We are especially interested to hear how they enable novel South to South and South to North research cooperation.  Does the paradigm of openness create conditions for the Global South to become an equal partner in research and development efforts? The panel will map and reflect upon these initiatives and case studies to understand the problems these new networks face and to define the best practices as well as policy recommendations,  which would support the openness paradigm. In addition to the panel, we are planning to organize a hackathon and dedicate a space for showcasing open hardware for science projects, which will be accessible to the public.

http://biodesign.cc/2013/09/26/call-for-abstracts/#!

Big Ideas competition

eligibility - at least one TAMU/Berkeley/St. Mary student in a team, student led, faculty/professionals can participate, but not lead. 

They are looking for interdisciplinary teams, but solo people do win too. 

team can submit multiple ideas

individual can be in multiple teams

average award: $ 5,000

max award: $ 10,000

must show how remaining funds will be obtained

the process includes mentoring and partnering up with other students if needed - with business students, mentoring from experts in the market/field

the startup must be non-profit/social venture

http://bigideas.berkeley.edu/

Sharon Zukin: "Pacification by cappuccino"

Sharon Zukin is professor of sociology at Brooklyn College and at the CUNY Graduate Center. Zukin is the author of books on cities, culture and consumer culture, and a researcher on urban, cultural and economic change. She was Broeklundian Professor from 1996 to 2008. She received the Lynd Award for Career Achievement in urban sociology, from the American Sociological Association, and the C. Wright Mills Book Award for Landscapes of Power. She was visiting professor at the University of Amsterdam, 2010-11.

Teaching at the New School, New York
http://www.newschool.edu/continuing-education/events.aspx?id=85604

BOOKS:

Loft Living (1982)
The Cultures of Cities (1995) 
Naked City: The Death and Life of Authentic Urban Places (Oxford University Press, 2010) is an update to Jane Jacobs'  The Death and Life of Great American Cities (1961)
Landscapes of Power: From Detroit to Disney World (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991)
Point of Purchase

Mitchel, D. : The Right to the City: Social Justice and the Fight for Public Space

In the wake of recent terrorist attacks, efforts to secure the American city have life-or-death implications. Yet demands for heightened surveillance and security throw into sharp relief timeless questions about the nature of public space, how it is to be used, and under what conditions. Blending historical and geographical analysis, this book examines the vital relationship between struggles over public space and movements for social justice in the United States. Presented are a series of linked cases that explore the judicial response to public demonstrations by early twentieth-century workers, and comparable legal issues surrounding anti-abortion protests today; the Free Speech Movement and the history of People's Park in Berkeley; and the plight of homeless people facing new laws against their presence in urban streets. The central focus is how political dissent gains meaning and momentum--and is regulated and policed--in the real, physical spaces of the city.

Harvey, D. C., Hawkins, H., & Thomas, N. J. (2012). Thinking creative clusters beyond the city: people, places and networks.

Harvey, D. C., Hawkins, H., & Thomas, N. J. (2012). Thinking creative clusters beyond the city: people, places and networks. Geoforum, 43(3), 529-539. doi:http://dx.doi.org.lib-ezproxy.tamu.edu:2048/10.1016/j.geoforum.2011.11.010

Abstract

This paper develops an ethnographic study of a small rural based ‘creative cluster’, called Krowji, situated in the town of Redruth in West Cornwall, UK. The dominant geographies of creative industries research and policy in recent years have an acknowledged urban bias together with a focus on narratives of agglomeration. This paper sits alongside research that brings to the fore ‘other’ geographies of cultural production, and reflects an increasing interest in work on creativity in rural areas. Following work by Storper and Pratt, we explore Krowji’s complex interdependencies, investigating ‘the relations within, without and across the cluster’. We focus on the relationships between Krowji and its surrounding area together with the spatialities and temporalities of the relations that occur across and beyond the cluster. We address the dynamics and durability of relations formed within the cluster also paying attention to their disconnections. In offering this analysis we develop a valuable counterpoint to the urban bias of much work on creative clusters and we contribute to work that is looking more closely at the temporalities and spatialities of cultural production. Further, we point towards the value of ethnographical research on the creative industries.

Harvey, D. (2012). Rebel cities: from the right to the city to the urban revolution.

Harvey, D. (2012). Rebel cities: from the right to the city to the urban revolution Verso. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.lib-ezproxy.tamu.edu:2048/docview/1095629252?accountid=7082

World Habitat Day OSLO October 7th

WORLD HABITAT DAY CONFERENCE 2013 – INFRASTRUCTURE 2013: COMMUNICATION

7 OCTOBER AT THE HOUSE OF LITERATURE OSLO

How is Information and Communication Technology (ICT) serving as infrastructure in cities that bridges the gap between the formal and informal city, and further the impact of ICT on development and reduction of urban poverty?

Infrastructure 2013
In 2013, Habitat Norway has designated our activities to shed light on infrastructural challenges in growing cities and in informal areas. Throughout the year, Habitat Norway is hosting seminars focusing on the access to infrastructure and discusses new technology and opportunities. While five evening seminars are looking into the following matters: water, sanitation, electricity, public transportation and solid waste management, the Habitat Day conference is devoted to information and communication technology. More information about ‘Infrastructure 2013′ here: http://habitat-norge.org/infrastructure-2013/

World Habitat Day – Infrastructure 2013: Communication
Digital information and communication technology have become a necessary infrastructure of the urban environment today. For the inhabitants in informal settlements and the urban poor, new mobile technology, social media and internet services makes formerly unavailable services and information available. Mobile currency, medical information services, updates on security issues and prices on goods to mention a few, are communicated through internet and mobile phones. Open online maps enables inhabitants in settlements not visible in the formal maps to geotag their communities. The technology and social media increases transparency, but also provides a platform for urban poor to spread information on issues affecting them and voice their opinion.

What kind of role has these tools as a necessary infrastructure in urban planning and development strategies? Do they contribute to securing the rights of slum dwellers and contribute to a more prosperous life? How can new technology be utilized in response to urban poverty?

We have invited both national and international speakers to introduce the overarching issues related to information and communication technology in cities today, discuss ‘smart cities’ in developing countries, as well as give glimps of spesific projects and cases.

http://habitat-norge.org/habitat-day-conference-7-october/

Simone de Beauvoir

Simone de Beauvouir: Why I am a Feminist

Simone de Beauvoir talks in her first interview on TV about the role in which women found themselves. She argues that 'woman' is a social construct that has to do with the historical fight for power. Males - physically stronger - would make sure at every step of the way during the history of human kind to keep the power. Be it by refusing education, financial independence, equal salary etc to women. De Beauvoir argues that women are not naturally feminist and the depth at which this social construct of modest, submissive 'women', prevented women from revolting. It was an emotional blackmail that kept them quiet - it is important to bring up children. 

<3

Interview recorded in 1975
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6hmVO7t_Bs

PhD chat

Cecilia
Sep 19

The possibility to conduct a research & design project as a PhD is realistic. If this is what suits me, then lets do it.

Committee:
- There is still time, but I have to talk to people, set up meetings etc.

Visit to Colonias: 
I must go to a colonia this semester. Weekday preferable. Visit Blanca and Aide.
Practicalitites:
- don't drive

• liaise with Rachel, perhaps we could do research together by the border
• start driving lessons!

- teaching M - W - F

• find sub
• set up a project for students

Research time in Colonias:
- need funding or job that would cover expenses (i.e. Lawyers without borders)
- it will be better to do get exposed to work on larger - geographically - scale as my research scale is city wide. (It would be more beneficial to work in Blanca's office than on a building site)
- work for an independent organization

• Architects Without Broders
• Habitat for Humanity
• Community Resource Group

Community Resource Group: 
- regional NGO
- helping communities with hands - on and not handout :)  ooops

Boulder - rethinking its energy supply

http://www.upworthy.com/a-bunch-of-young-geniuses-just-made-a-corrupt-corporation-freak-out-big-time-time-for-round?c=ufb1

Electricity from sewage

Electricity can be harvested from sewage microbe. This is a long shot, but it is interesting perspective on sewage as a source rather than waste and a burden.

Stanford scientists have developed a "battery" that harnesses a special type of microbe to produce electricity by digesting the plant and animal waste dissolved in sewage. Credit: Xing Xie,Stanford Engineering

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2013-09-microbial-battery-team-wired-microbes.html#jCp

New york times: 

MAMELODI JOURNAL

Trading Privilege for Privation, Family Hits a Nerve in South Africa

By LYDIA POLGREEN

Published: September 15, 2013

An article describing white middle class South African family spending a month in a shack in a township. 

photo credit: Candace Feit for The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/16/world/africa/trading-privilege-for-privation-family-hits-a-nerve-in-south-africa.html?smid=fb-nytimes&WT.z_sma=WO_TPF_20130916&_r=0

Pavement to Plaza NYC

DOT works with selected not-for-profit organizations to create neighborhood plazas throughout the City to transform underused streets into vibrant, social public spaces. The NYC Plaza Program is a key part of the City's effort to ensure that all New Yorkers live within a 10-minute walk of quality open space.

Eligible not-for-profit organizations can propose new plaza sites for their neighborhoods through a competitive application process. DOT prioritizes sites that are in neighborhoods that lack open space, and partners with community groups that commit to operate, maintain, and manage these spaces so they are vibrant pedestrian plazas.

The sixth round of the NYC Plaza Program is now open and accepting applications until Wednesday, July 31, 2013. Please read the program Guidelines before submitting an application. To learn more about the program, you may attend an information session.

http://www.nyc.gov/html/dot/html/pedestrians/publicplaza.shtml

Bottom Up Urbanism - wikispaces_course at NEU School of Architecture

Course description: 
The course will be organized in two Semester-long modules. The first module (Open to Department of Architecture Students) is dedicated to (1) a literature review of past, present and near-future theories, practices and speculations of participatory, bottom-up, open-source design process and urbanism, (2) identifying the problem areas in case studies that these theories and speculations have been put to practice, gauging the extent to which they have failed or succeeded and the reason for that (3) a rigorous cataloging of theoretical or practiced techniques and technologies of both mediation and representation in participatory design (4) envisioning, proposing and conceptual design of possible technologically enhanced solutions and presenting them through design briefs, video-proof of concepts, etc.
The second module is a multi-disciplinary semester-long workshop (Open to Architecture, Visual Design and Game Design Students) with a hands-on approach to design development and implementing prototypes of the digital, physical or hybrid platforms and augmented objects of mediation and representation, proposed as the outcome of the first module of the class as elaborated above. To create these prototypical models, students are offered the basic technical knowledge necessary for programming virtual platforms, as well as platforms that allow for physical computing and electronic prototyping. These skills will be acquired in a series of integrated technical workshops focused on the use of open-source programming and prototyping platforms.

Instructor: 
Nashid Nabian nnabian@gsd.harvard.edu

http://bottomupurbanism.wikispaces.com/Presentation

The End Of Suburbs

Leigh Gallagner: The End Of Suburbs

"While the baby boomers helped fortify the notion of the suburban single-family house as the American dream, the millennials are headed in another direction, according to Fortune writer Gallagher. The recession, rising fuel prices, and demographic shifts that mean smaller families and fewer and later marriages are contributing to a decline in the appeal of the suburbs. Gallagher talked to homebuilders, developers, planners, transportation engineers, architects, psychologists, and home buyers and sellers in cities and suburbs to offer a fascinating portrait of housing and lifestyle trends. She examines how the American dream came to be tied to the suburbs even as they are lambasted in popular culture and by social scientists and, lately, planners and engineers. New Urbanists argue that the suburb is an unsustainable model because the low-density population doesn’t generate enough tax base to support it, unless it sprawls. Gallagher points to research and analysis showing rising populations in urban areas and suburbs who adapt the ideals of green living and walkable communities. Fascinating reading on changing trends in how and where we live". --Vanessa Bush

http://www.amazon.com/The-End-Suburbs-American-Moving/dp/1591845254

THE EQUALITY OF OPPORTUNITY PROJECT

Summary of Project Findings, July 2013
THE EQUALITY OF OPPORTUNITY PROJECT

Raj Chetty, Harvard University
Nathaniel Hendren, Harvard University
Patrick Kline, University of California Berkeley
Emmanuel Saez, University of California Berkeley

http://www.equality-of-opportunity.org/

In Climbing Income Ladder, Location Matters

In Climbing Income Ladder, Location Matters

"A study finds the odds of rising to another income level are notably low in certain cities, like Atlanta and Charlotte, and much higher in New York and Boston."

Interactive graphics by Mike Bostock, Shan Carter, Amanda Cox, Matthew Ericson, Josh Keller, Alicia Parlapiano, Kevin Quealy and Josh Williams, based on data from Raj Chetty and Nathaniel Hendren, Harvard, and Patrick Kline and Emmanuel Saez, U.C. Berkeley.

A version of this article appears in print on July 22, 2013, on page A1 of the New York edition with the headline: Geography Seen as Barrier To Climbing Class Ladder.

Is Suburban Sprawl on Its Way Back?

Dewan, S., (2013, September 15) . Is Suburban Sprawl on Its Way Back?. The New York Times, pp. SR7. 

The article argues that sprawl was on its way 'out' before the economic downturn of 2008. 

She suggests that there has been a decline in drivers licences in the younger generations, 

rise in gas prices etc. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/15/sunday-review/is-suburban-sprawl-on-its-way-back.html?hp&_r=0

Colonias possible funding sectors

Education:
- Texas Workforce Commission's Communities in Schools projects and alternative school programs 
- The Department of Protective and Regulatory Services (DPRS): Social Security funding available for community-based services for children at risk of being placed in foster homes
- Social Security Act: Title XX 

Infrastructure: 
- Texas Department of Commerce: 
    - Texas Capital Fund - works with local governments on economic development projects with federal Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds
   - Texas Capital Fund - Main Street Improvements Program, a federal program designed to improve slums and other blighted areas

Transport: 
- Texas Department of Transportation - Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991 (ISTEA)
beyond traditional highway and public transportation projects, including landscaping and other scenic beautification and historic preservation projects. ISTEA provides 80 percent of the funding for such projects, with 20 percent coming from the state or local governments

Credit: 
- Texas Capital Fund - Micro-loan program to start or expand small businesses 
- Community centers -  Loan management and business training 

Parks:
- Texas Department of Parks and Wildlife -  Park development program (sports and other recreational park areas)


CHUD can work with colonias, counties, and local metropolitan planning authorities to identify eligible projects, submit application forms, and obtain approvals necessary to secure these funds

information from approximately 1996
source:
http://www.window.texas.gov/tpr/tpr4/c2.hhs/c212.html

Texas A&M Colonias factbooks

Texas Department of Human Services, The Colonias Factbook (Austin, Texas, June 1988), p. 1-3.

Texas Water Development Board, Water and Wastewater Needs of Texas Colonias: 1995 Update (Austin, Texas, February 1995), p. 3.

Proposal to U.S. Housing and Urban Development from Texas A&M University, Center for Housing and Urban Development, Community Outreach Partnership between Residents of Ten Colonias Along Highway 359 East of Laredo, Texas and The Government of Webb County, Texas and Texas A&M University's Colonias Program (College Station, Texas, April 1994). (Booklet.)

Texas Department of Human Services, The Colonias Factbook, pp. 6-4, 6-5.

Texas A&M University, Colonias Program Performance Appraisal and Opportunities for the State of Texas to Improve Colonia Conditions (College Station, Texas, July 23, 1996), p. 7.

PhD idea: by project - Build it

Build it. 

- get in touch with Mitchel - the sensible developer
- come up with a micro-finance, cooperative model - Cecilia
- get funding from Water board
- learn from DeSoto - violent/staged violent invasions
- self organization


New or retrofit? 

find the hole, how to insert the public space/infrastructure at the beginning. 

fiesta?
how does it start? 

Chris Butler: Henri Lefebvre Spatial Politics, Everyday Life and the Right to the City

Chris Butler: Henri Lefebvre Spatial Politics, Everyday Life and the Right to the City

http://books.google.com/books?id=TaQJawakHPYC&printsec=frontcover&dq=the+right+to+the+city+lefebvre&hl=en&sa=X&ei=zHkyUv6dH4W52wWAt4DYDA&ved=0CC8Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=the%20right%20to%20the%20city%20lefebvre&f=false

Henri Lefebvre: The Right to the City

Lefebvre, H. (1968). The Right to the City. In E. Kofman & E. Lebas (Eds.), Writings on

Cities. (147 159). Oxford: Blackwell Publishers Ltd.

Sep 11

Synopsis

Lefebvre argues that cities are no longer what their historical purpose was: to provide

‘ouvre’ anthropological needs for information, symbolism, the imaginary and play.

Cities in his opinion became empty theatres of consumer goods for tourists.

He argues that only working class has the power to take action and power into their

hands. Lefebvre suggests a program of urban renewal to be put forward and presented

preferentially to the ‘left’ parties or political formations who would be willing to represent

the working class.

PhD chat

12 Sept 2013

Cecilia’s office

Discussion triggered by my inability to decide whether to incorporate BIM.

Result: Lets leave it for now and be practical and honest. City Information Modelling has already been invented. I would be too removed from ‘action’.

I want to live where I do research - on site.
- in a colonia


Funding considerations:
- work on site - mechanical labor allows for thinking
- fellowship (ask Duygu)
- teach at TAMU branch
- scholarship

Funded research:
- water conservation (WDB) - Water Development Board
- transport - mobility (walking)
- energy conservation
- Habitat for Humanity
- Obama - tech hubs - intermediate technology

- Vista volunteers

Academic considerations:
- need to keep excellent GPA
- need to have excellent references
- allow for time
- summer is easier to take 'time off' than spring/fall

Topic considerations:
- may and may not be tied with funding
- a comparative study - might be too easy (Mexico - Texas colonias differences)
- public space, infrastructure
- transfer of cultural habits over the border, but not the built environment
- what are the characteristics of public space in Mexico? What are the reasons for it?
- Where from Mexico migration happens?

Locations:
- Laredo
- El Cenizo
- Las Lomas
- drive around
- Brownsville
- Mexico - Texas
- South America
- South Africa



look up:
Lia Vasconcelos: Nueva Lisboa
Public Space of Migrant Brazilians in Lisbon

CBR - Community Resource Group (NGO)
John Squires

Remember: How this all started.
Me in Mexico in Colonias Gerardo Perez wondering about rainwater collection!

Allen J. Scott: A world in Emergence

Cities and Regions in 21st Century

SCOPUS - abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature

Program that pulls all citations at the end of an article together electronically.
These can be then pulled into RefWorks.


http://www.elsevier.com/online-tools/scopus

Literature review searches

video describing techniques and methods of systematic search for dissertation/thesis/review topics.

http://writingcenter.tamu.edu/2011/podcasts/write-right/searching-for-literature-reviews-before-you-write-you-have-to-find-video/

refWorks

program to keep track of all references.
in style

http://www.refworks.com/tutorial/

Thanks Edna!