Future Here Now, January 07

Hey there. Welcome to Future Here Now, and 2022 in general. Which already feels like a blur…

This first FHN introduces a tweak to the structure: three articles in three key categories — Local Learnings for important new information, Coming Soon for glimpses of the fast-approaching Fusion Era horizon, and Do Now, for practical information you can use right now to move your community forward. Plus the Wise Economy Network Update. And a little something Fun at the end!

Local Learnings

Whose streets? Open, but maybe not yours (Bloomburg Citylab)

This article implies more than it says, but what it says and how we might interpret that in a larger context is telling - and important. The author, a Cornell planning professor, summarizes a spatial analysis of pandemic - era “Open Streets” - initiatives to close streets to motorists so that pedestrians can congregate outdoors in comfort, typically white eating and drinking. The article confirms what we might have suspected - that these initiatives were overwhelmingly implemented in high-income, “amenity rich” environments.