Yesterday was the Arch 50 Fest, a celebration of the final piece of the Arch being set into place. More events are scheduled for Wednesday the 28th — the actual 50th. For today’s poll I want to get your feelings on how much is completed.
The answers are in random order, the poll closes at 8pm.
— Steve Patterson
An event tomorrow, Saturday October 24th, will kick-off celebrations of the 50th anniversary of the final piece of the Arch being lowered into place.
Here’s the summary:
ARCH 50 FEST | SATURDAY, OCTOBER 24, 10:30 AM – 8:30 PM
To celebrate the golden birthday of the Gateway Arch, an all-day community celebration will take place on Saturday, October 24, in nearby Kiener Plaza.The St. Louis community and all visitors are invited to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Arch during a day-long celebration at Kiener Plaza in downtown St. Louis. The event will include food and drink vendors, children’s activities, and live music throughout the day. The celebration will culminate with a world-class fireworks display showcasing the Arch. This event is sponsored and funded by the CityArchRiver Foundation and Great Rivers Greenway and entry is free.
We hope you’ll join us in celebrating the golden anniversary of our city’s iconic landmark!
Click the image above or here to see more information.
— Steve Patterson
In the unscientific Sunday Poll more than half of those who voted supported sticking with front & rear ;oceans plates.
Here are the final results:
Q: Thirty-one states, including Missouri & Illinois, require front & rear license plates. Nineteen states only require rear-facing plates. Where do you thi [poll cut off the end]
Front & rear 15 [51.72%]
Rear only 11 [37.93%]
No plates at all 2 [6.9%]
unsure/no opinion 1 [3.45%]
Front only 0 [0%]
I’d like to see better enforcement of front plates, people shouldn’t be allowed to view it as optional if they don’t like how it looks.
— Steve Patterson
I just received what looks to be a great little book: Start-Up City: Inspiring Private & Public Entrepreneurship, Getting Projects Done, and Having Fun by Gabe Klein with David Vega-Barachowitz, forward by Robin Chase. It’s literally a little book — 6×6. But it has 256 pages beautifully filled with 95 color photos & illustrations.
With the advent of self-driving vehicles and other technological shifts upon us, Gabe Klein asks how we can close the gap between the energized, aggressive world of start-ups and the complex bureaucracies struggling to change beyond a geologic time scale. From his experience as a food-truck entrepreneur to a ZipCar executive and a city transportation commissioner, Klein’s career has focused on bridging the public-private divide, finding and celebrating shared goals, and forging better cities with more nimble, consumer-oriented bureaucracies.
In Start-Up City, Klein, with David Vega-Barachowitz, demonstrates how to affect big, directional change in cities—and how to do it fast. Klein’s objective is to inspire what he calls “public entrepreneurship,” a start-up-pace energy within the public sector, brought about by leveraging the immense resources at its disposal. Klein offers guidance for cutting through the morass, and a roadmap for getting real, meaningful projects done quickly and having fun while doing it.
This book is for anyone who wants to change the way we live in cities without waiting for the glacial pace of change in government.
From food truck to ZipCar to municipal bureaucrat with stints in Washington D.C. & Chicago — Gabe Klein has a wide range of experience to share. The contents show you how the book is organized:
Preface
Introduction
Why Should You Care About Getting S*it Done in Cities?Chapter 1. Lesson #1: Don’t Be Afraid to Screw Up and Learn
It is necessary to make mistakes. Just make them as quickly as possible, learn from them, and try not to repeat.Chapter 2. Lesson #2: Manage S.M.A.R.T.
On managing others, empowering your team, and shamelessly promoting their accomplishmentsChapter 3. Lesson #3: Where there’s a will, there’s a way
On how to evaluate your budget quickly, assess and align your stakeholders, and build beautiful cities (in no time)Chapter 4. Lesson #4: Sell Your City
On marketing your projects, communicating with the public, and celebrating the dastardlyChapter 5. Lesson #5: Fund Creatively
On how to find funding where none seemingly exists, making the most of a slim budget, and getting creative with the basicsChapter 6. Lesson #6: Bridge the Public-Private Divide
On forging a proactive bureaucracy, and making life better for everyone in the processChapter 7. Lesson #7: Prepare for Disruption
On the present and anticipated technological shifts and business models that are transforming urban life and challenging the status quoChapter 8. Lesson #8: Drive Change
Understanding the implications of autonomous, connected mobility, what it means for cities, and how government can make sure they are driving change, rather than reacting to itConclusion: The Big Picture and You
The book looks easy to read, will make good reference material. You can preview the book at Island Press, ordered from Left Bank Books here.
— Steve Patterson
I’m fascinated by Volkswagen’s emissions-rigging scheme — writing software to make diesel cars perform differently while being tested vs. driven. Why would they do this?
To make sense of it we need to go back to 2007 for the planned introduction of new Volkswagen TDI engine for the 2008 model year:
Amid the looming hordes of European luxury automakers planning a North American compression-ignition invasion in the next couple years, humble Volkswagen has announced its plans to return the Jetta TDI to the diesel dogpile in the spring of 2008. Powered by a new 2.0-liter four-cylinder making 140 hp and 236 lb-ft of torque, and either a six-speed manual or DSG automated manual transmission, the 2008 Jetta TDI will be cleared for sale in all fifty states.
Some of the earlier diesels to make it to our shores over the next few years will only be available in 45 states; California, Maine, Massachusetts, New York, and Vermont have all adopted stricter emissions regulations for diesels that bar some vehicles from entry. Using technology developed under the BlueTec cooperative formed by Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen, the Jetta TDI will slip by these stricter regulations without resorting to a urea-based exhaust treatment, as many BlueTec labeled models will.
Nitrogen oxides (NOx) are, along with particulate emissions (soot), the biggest hurdles facing diesels in the U.S. Most BlueTec vehicles will control NOx by injecting a urea-based solution called AdBlue into the exhaust system upstream of a catalytic converter that specifically targets NOx. In that catalytic converter, the ammonia in the urea reacts with the NOx in the exhaust gas and neutralizes it into nitrogen and water.
Volkswagen’s Jetta TDI will manage without a urea injection system by using a NOx-storage catalyst. Like the particulate filters in place on this car as well as other diesels, this catalyst is basically a trap that temporarily holds the offensive emissions. Periodically, the engine will switch to an air-fuel mixture that will burn off the material in the traps.
Delayed a year, this new 2.0 TDI didn’t debut until the 2009 model year. The previous 1.9 TDI engine was sluggish and didn’t meet newer emissions standards — Volkswagen had no 4-cylindar diesel engine for U.S. models during the 2007 & 2008 model years.
From 2005 to 2006, the Jetta TDI is powered by a 1.9-liter four-cylinder turbodiesel engine (TDI stands for Turbo Direct Injection) good for 100 horsepower, but a healthy 177 pounds-feet of torque. Remember, torque is a rotational force required to get a car moving, so the more torque an engine has, the quicker it can move a car either from a standing stop or when overtaking slower traffic. 2009 and newer Jettas feature an all-new 2.0-liter four-cylinder turbocharged engine with VW’s “clean diesel” technology. The clean diesel features particulate filters and other devices for removing diesel soot and order from the exhaust, as well as a system for reducing emissions. The 2.0-liter TDI produces 140 horsepower and whopping 236 pounds-feet of torque. While the 1.9-liter engine can best be described as peppy, the 2.0-liter TDI is down right quick. Rocketing out of a tollbooth or merging onto the freeway is a snap for the 2.0-liter TDI, which feels more like the GTI’s 200-horsepower turbocharged gas engine than a powerplant designed for maximum mileage. (AutoTrader August 2011)
The new 2.0 TDI engine was able to meet stricter worldwide emissions standards without using an urea injection to clean the exhaust — brilliant engineering, or so we thought. Every other diesel required urea injection, which had to be refilled about every 10,000 miles. When Mercedes BlueTEC diesels run out of urea you can start it only 20 more times before refilling it (TheCarConnection).
Over the years since the new 2.0 TDI engine was introduced the automotive press raved about it, and consumers bought more and more. After all, the performance was outstanding and the real world MPG exceeded EPA estimates. As we’ve learned, their urea injection-free diesel didn’t meet emissions standards. Their “CleanDiesel” wasn’t clean at all.
Sales of their diesels broke records:
VW Group of America has had great success with diesels in the US recently. Vee-Dub and Audi sold 105,899 diesel-equipped models in 2013. It was the first time the group ever sold over 100,000 diesels in a year, and they accounted for 24 percent of sales. (AutoBlog)
At the Chicago Auto Show in February we saw the newest SportWagen TDI — now a Golf — with a new TDI engine.
Volkswagen had a stated goal of becoming the biggest car maker in the world, and for the first six months of 2015 they were:
Volkswagen (VLKAF) sold 5.04 million vehicles from January to June, a slight dip from a year earlier. That compares to 5.02 million sold by Toyota (TM) over the same period. Group sales dropped 1.5% due to a weaker performance by its Toyota and Daihatsu brands. (CNN/Money)
Many were expecting a close race between Toyota and the Volkswagen Group for top honors for 2015, now Toyota will locket retain the crown as Volkswagen deals with the fallout. My friends who own these polluting diesels are furious they were deceived. I’m furious millions of these cars have been polluting the environment while billed as eco-friendly clean cars.
— Steve Patterson