cross-posted from: https://aussie.zone/post/31732255

It looks like OpenStreetMap has them listed as a garden, which I think makes sense: https://www.openstreetmap.org/query?lat=-33.887330&lon=151.199083

cross-posted from: https://europe.pub/post/10861849

We are seeing similar trends across borders and local contexts: third places have been progressively lost and the far right has sprouted up in their absence, capitalising on atomisation, disaffection and a sense of being left behind. In the US, the decline of true third places has been so drastic that (in perhaps typical American fashion) Starbucks -- very much a for-profit megachain -- publicly claimed that it could fill the void. The UK has lost 37% of its pubs since 1992, depriving rural areas of vital social focal points.

France has experienced much of the same, with 18,000 bars-tabac closing their doors from 2002 to 2022, taking the"public living room" with them and, as one study found, contributing to an increase in vote share for the National Rally (RN) in the (largely rural) areas left behind by their closures. In the first round of France's municipal elections, the RN made further inroads; but it also performed less well than feared in key cities such as Marseille, Lyon and Paris, all of which were retained by the left in Sunday's second round of municipal elections.

Liveable Streets gets a 2.0 — the book has been updated by the son of the original author. Sarah Goodyear interviews him.

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/32245106

Not sure how many people follow Miser but he's been a big influence on pushing for change in the NYC area. Apparently Mamdani asked him to come up with a plan to make the city's streets better and this is what he came up with. Pretty incredible work and I hope it can be implemented!

But I'd like to see people pushing for this in every city, not just NYC. If you haven't already connected with local urbanist activists, I highly encourage it. I've been surprised how few people it takes to make an impact. If you're not sure where to start, check to see if your area has a local strong towns chapter.

youtube.com/watch?v=0uKnbcJosr…

In this video we dive into a tiny forest that was created in one of the hottest climates in the US (South Texas) using the Miyawaki tiny forest method.

This project emphasizes the importance of plants not as some candy-ass "pretty" bullshit, but as vital pieces of infrastructure that are essential to bettering the human quality of life and reducing the effects of excess heat, drought and flooding.

On land that was once totally barren and next to a large urban road, a tiny forest has been rated using native plants as infrastructure. Pioneer species as well as slower-growing secondary successional species were installed in 2023 to mitigate flooding, mitigate the effects of the urban heat island (created by the surrounding concrete and asphalt), and provide habitat for beneficial insects and birds.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.org/post/20437303

This is Akkudoktor's (Andreas Schmitz) home energy management and optimization system. Some people will know Andreas by his YouTube channel @akkudoktor in which he discusses DYI home energy systems. That channel was born out of a frustration how technical hurdles were obstructing the energy transition in Germany. Among other things, Andreas showed that one can build a home battery with a fraction of the cost of commercial systems - provided that one has engineering knowledge - and he is a control engineer.

So, because just before, I did post a link to the evcc project, I should explain what are the differences between evcc and Akkudoktor's EOS:

evcc is mainly concerned with charging electrical vehicles (EVs) from home solar or dynamically priced power from the grid.

• it is set up to be easy to use with phone interfaces etc.
• it already supports a wide range of hardware
• it is competatively mature
• it is limited in optimization capabilities
• it is written in Go language

Akkudoktor EOS has the top priority of high level optimization - getting the most bang out of each buck

• it is a rather new project in alpha stage. So, it might be more interesting for people looking to contribute - or scratch their own itch.
• it tries to optimize home photovoltaics, home batteries, heat pumps, grey water heat pumps, other heating and manageable devices, and the remaining household demand
• electrical vehicles are supported (and currently, they are an important economical use case because batteries are still expensive and the only other large type of consumers are heat pumps).
• Such an optimization is complex because it requires predicting renewable generation (both in the home and as wind power from the grid), electric power price prediction (if dynamic or day/night prices are used), and also the individual consumption (which could depend on the forecasted weather, time of the day, day of the week, or time of the year). Things like the insulation of the house modify the impact of the weather. Also, usage pattern of components such as heat pump or battery csn have influence in their life time. So that's a complex optimization problem.
• And a good optimization also requires sufficient input data. This also needs to observe data privacy aspects (I guess you don't want to give a burglar info on when nobody is at home)
• The targeted integration is via Home Assistant, or HA.

Oh, last not least, there is also a (mostly German-language) forum on home energy systems which is also used to discuss the software:

https://www.akkudoktor.net/

Cheap, lightweight hydroponics systems that use material recycled from plastic bottles reduce the "heat island" effect and can be installed on just about any kind of structure - even those that could never support the weight of a conventional green roof.