Fairbanks Pedestrian on Energy-Wise (Fairbanks AM radio)

Just a week ago, I got my first radio interview: I talked for 20 minutes with Marielle Smith, the producer of Energy-Wise.  The short segment played Monday morning on Newsradio 970 KFBX (and perhaps the other local Clear Channel stations).  We covered: Our denied pedestrian right; The social aspects of pedestrian-friendly neighborhoods and cities; The [...]

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Thinking gratitude

At a very happy dinner party on “Thanksgiving Eve”, each of us was invited in turn to name something he or she was grateful for.  It would have been rude of me to hog the floor for the sake of being thorough, so I kept mine fairly brief.  I’m going to expand on it here. [...]

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Crowding — sweet, sweet crowding

One of the pleasures I’ve had since resuming bus ridership a couple of weeks ago is seeing the buses so full. Last winter, I took the bus to work every day.  Usually, there were no more than five people on the bus at any one time, including me and the driver.  On the ride home, [...]

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Why I miss the bus

It’s summer now in Fairbanks. This is the season almost all of us love: the city turns green, and we feel like we’re living in a garden. The sun scarcely goes below the horizon, and we’re hit with a daylight-induced mania. We can garden, canoe, and comfortably spend time outdoors. I’m a bicyclist. Though not [...]

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Caught between the present and the possible

UAF’s Rasmuson Library is going through a strategic planning process right now, and my department — Alaska and Polar Regions — is doing its own as part of that process. One thing I’ve been reminded of is how long-term vision gets too easily sacrificed (if it’s even conceived) for short-term feasibility. And I don’t know [...]

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Will the Ice Park exclude children, elderly, and the poor?

If you read the News-Miner on March 24, or their editorial the next day, you’ve probably found out that Ice Alaska is planning to move our beloved Ice Park south of town, to the Tanana Lakes Recreation Area. Currently, I’m just close enough to walk to the Ice Park. It’s in the range of 30 [...]

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Social justice of getting to church

Fellow Fairbanks blogger Discontinuous Permafrost writes about the Unitarian-Universalist Fellowship in his latest post, “Organizing unorganized religion,” While unorganized religion has its benefits, it also has its challenges. I suspect the only thing we might agree upon is that we should have service on Sunday. It’s veering a bit away from the thrust of the [...]

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