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Sad State of Housing for July 31,2009

askthefm — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 04:16:14 +0000

Today I am unsure whether to be sad or mad with the state of housing in this country. We have a city in the United States that is celebrating tearing down low income housing! I guess this is just another case of short sited city leadership.

The story is on MSNBC.com (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32176690/ns/us_news-life/) speaks specifically to large low income housing projects. I agree that these sites have often been a crime ridden mess, however tearing down any low income housing without a concerted and coherent plan for replacing it with smaller more manageable sites is nothing short of criminal.

In another article on Treehugger.com (http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/07/enough-empty-houses.php?dcitc=th_rss_design) we come up with an interesting statistic that we in the US have enough empty houses to hold the entire population of Britain! That’s 18.7 million houses. Why do we have a homeless population problem in this country? To get serious I am sure that there is certainly a mismatch in the population of homeless versus the location of a large part of the homes. Also I am sure that a significant portion of them are currently not up to any kind of habitable standard.

That being said I certainly wonder why the resource hasn’t even been seriously talked about as part of the overall solution. I wonder if there is a template for Google Earth that could be put together to graphically represent the inventory…hmmm? Maybe then an enterprising person or three might start trying to match the resource to the problem.

As always I thank you for your time and interest. Please take the time to Digg, Stumble Upon or add to the other social network of your choice to help me spread the word about these issues. Please forward any questions or suggestions to: askthefm@gmail.com

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Huge Earthquake Test Validates Performance Based Seismic Design

askthefm — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 04:56:21 +0000

As someone who lives on a very active part of the Pacific Ring of Fire ( Southern California) the advances that are occurring in design to withstand this potential disaster are extremely exciting!

Yesterday in Japan some scientists tested this design process by subjecting a 6 story condominium structure to a 7.5 magnitude earthquake and the structure survived with little damage! The piece on NPR’s All Things Considered is here: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=106611639.

Here is a video about the lab in Japan where the test took place. While not the video of the actual event it is very well done and present the topic with great clarity. Courtesy of National Geographic (http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/09/080922-quake-video-ap.html)

The field has advanced to the point where annual conferences are being organized and learned papers being presented like at this recent conference (http://www.ctbuh.org/EventsReferencePage/090430_ASCEStructures/tabid/680/Default.aspx).

It is looking like the old rule about earthquake building code where it is only there to make the building stand up long enough for you to get out before it falls down a thing of the past.

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New Building Standards Coming

askthefm — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 16:05:27 +0000

I looks like we are fully into round two of the green building code wars with two new announcements recently.

In one corner we have the International Code Council (ICC) who announced on Earth Day that they will be developing a new green commercial building code ( http://www.greenbuildinglawblog.com/2009/04/articles/codes-1/icc-to-create-commercial-green-building-code/). I am somewhat in favor of this as this set of codes tend to be used as standards by a lot of local entities and this should help with standardization. On the other hand, ASHRAE has been trying to do this for a couple of years with no success, having to disband and reconstitute the committee over differences.

In the other corner the true heavyweight, LEED 3.0! In the story on Treehugger.com (http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/05/leed-30-is-launched.php) there are apparently significant improvements in both the points system and the ease of use along with various online tools.

Excerpt: “ Launched in April 2009, the official name of the new system is LEED 2009 – it is one of the three major components that make up LEED Version 3, or LEED v3.0. The changes within LEED rating system reflects the rapid advancements in building science and technology and provides incentives for strategies that have greater positive impacts on energy efficiency and CO2 emissions reductions, among other priorities. The other components of LEED v3 include a faster, smarter and easier-to-use LEED Online (the tool for managing the LEED registration and certification process) and a new building certification model administered by the Green Building Certification Institute through a network of internationally recognized independent ISO-accredited certification bodies.“

While I have not personally looked at the LEED 2009 process in great depth I have great hope that these improvements will lead to more certified buildings and a better product overall.

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Housing California – Day 1

askthefm — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 14:16:37 +0000

It was a great day yesterday with many wonderful sessions from policy and lobbying sessions to disaster preparedness.

My favorite was all of the great information on the Mental Health Services Act housing component (MHSA). It is apparent from these sessions that this is a program still evolving although there are some very successful projects already in place and in process.

The agenda today, day 2 includes the current Sec. of HUD! I am looking forward to that for sure.

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Swine Flu – Time to dust off those disaster plans

askthefm — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 04:43:08 +0000

It is beginning to look there might be a serious chance that we might be facing another true flue pandemic threat. This swine or Mexican flu depending on what country the news is coming from sounds pretty real from a threat perspective.

Often we concentrate on our physical assets when we create a disaster plan for our organization, forgetting that you can’t run a business without people!

It is important to have call in procedures distributed to your staff so that current and accurate information can be handed out. Also your Human Resources department should be reviewing medical leave procedures and sending out reminders in case of a general emergency.

It should also enforce as a good general practice, encouraging employees to stay home until they are well or at least non-contagious.

Here are a couple of web articles, one that gives some goo, green advice on how to reduce your overall risk from Supereco (http://www.supereco.com/news/2009/04/27/swine-flu-update-protect-yourself-naturally/) and an argument for stronger public heath systems from the NRDC (http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/gsolomon/swine_flu_the_need_for_a_stron.html)

Stay safe and help your organization weather the possible crisis!

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Housing California Conference, Sacramento – Next week!

askthefm — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 03:47:32 +0000

As I realize that next week is the Housing California conference in Sacramento CA and it is also when I started this blog, writing my first few entries at the conference.

I will again be attending the conference and probably writing entries each day on topics I consider important and I hope that you will all be interested with me.

For those of you who might be interested in attending here is the link for details about the event:

http://www.housingca.org/events/annualconference/

Although online registration is closed you can still walk in at the conference site at the Sacramento Convention Center. Hope to see you there!

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Bike Friendlier Cities – a greener commute?

askthefm — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 00:52:08 +0000

My own home town, Long Beach California has mad a commitment to become friendlier and certainly more accessible to folks who would like to use their bikes to get around.

While our fair city is far from perfect yet and we still have a long way to go, let’s look at some of the steps already taken in this admirable quest. First they have a plan and even better it is on public display on a pretty good website (http://bikelongbeach.org/).

The plan includes new bike lanes targeted for specific areas and uses, like schools, the installation of over 400 new bike racks so far, with more coming and a bike sharing plan for city employees to use a pool of bikes to move about the city to meetings and such.

Even more exciting are the support of the Bikestation (http://www.bikestation.com/longbeach/index.asp). Excerpt: “The first facility of its kind in the U.S., Bikestation Long Beach is strategically located on the First Street Transit Mall, a nexus for light rail, buses, pedestrians, and a local shuttle that services neighborhoods and key attractions. Nearby, more than 30 miles of dedicated shoreline and river bicycle paths, as well as Class II paths (routes accommodating both bicycles and cars), connect to other parts of the city.“

In speaking to city officials about this I find it amazing that it isn’t happening elsewhere in Southern California as it hasn’t cost so much that it breaks the bank, even in these challenging times.

I also came across another pretty neat item that I am certainly going to suggest to the city. It is a solar powered bike storage device that stores the bikes 15 feet above the ground and allows access through a smart card system. The story on Ecofriend (http://www.ecofriend.org/entry/eco-gadgets-solar-powered-bike-tree-values-your-green-ride/) tells more about these devices recently showcased by Sanyo. No word on price but they look of a size and configuration that would be easily deployable around the perimeter of parking lots throughout the city or at the local mall.

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New Building Technology for April 7, 2009

askthefm — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 04:45:50 +0000

It is an interesting and somewhat ironic collection of stories I have for you tonight, from huge retrofit projects to the lowly revolving door.

Leading off is the greening of what might be the world’s most famous building, the Empire State Building. There are articles all over the web on this one, but the two best are at CleanTechnica (http://cleantechnica.com/2009/04/06/empire-state-building-begins-huge-energy-efficiency-retrofit/) and Earth2Tech (http://earth2tech.com/2009/04/06/empire-state-building-to-get-green-makeover-saving-44m-per-year/).

Excerpt: “It’s not every day you find $4.4 million lying around at the Empire State Building. But that’s how much former President Bill Clinton and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg today said they expect the Empire State Building Co. to find in annual energy savings after the skyscraper undergoes a green retrofit, slashing energy needs by an estimated 38 percent. Scheduled for completion by the end of next year, the $20 million upgrade rests in the hands of Milwaukee, Wisc.-based Johnson Controls.“

Next we have a story where 32 Verizon Wireless stores have earned the Energy Star rating (http://www.environmentalleader.com/2009/04/06/more-than-30-verizon-stores-earn-energy-star-status/). I am sure that this has added to the bottom line pretty significantly from a cost containment perspective, especially since they claim that more than 150 of their stores actually meet the criteria.

Now we come to the ironic part in a study released by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) that casts pretty significant doubt on the value from a commercial sense of green building and especially the LEED certification. The story is on the Green Real Estate Law Journal (http://www.greenrealestatelaw.com/2009/04/rics-study-finds-no-leed-premium/) and the highlights are as follows:

Excerpt: “The authors used a standard commercial real estate valuation formula that related the logarithm of the rent per square foot or sales price per square foot of each building cluster to a variety of hedonic building characteristics, including quality, amenities, age, and location. Some pertinent conclusions as set forth in the report are as follows:

“The results suggest that the LEED rating has no statistically significant effect upon commercial rents, but the Energy Star rating is associated with rents higher by 3.3 percent.”

With respect to sales price, “[w]hen the certification is reported separately for the Energy Star and the LEED systems, there is no evidence that the latter certification is associated with higher selling prices.”

“The premium in rents and values associated with an energy label varies considerably across buildings. It is positively related to the intensity of the climate surrounding the rated building; a label appears to add more value when heating and cooling expenses are likely to be a larger part of total occupancy cost.”“

On Ecofriend (http://www.ecofriend.org/entry/eco-tech-tokai-university-s-new-electric-motor-could-transform-electric-transport/) we have a story about a highly efficient electric motor and while the story touts its suitability for the possible electric car I think it would also be a boon to use as in the variable speed drives on those big chiller type units on all of those large and extra large buildings.

Lastly on Greenbang (http://www.greenbang.com/revolving-doors-are-greener-than-standard-ones/) we have a study showing that the lowly revolving door can help save the planet by lowering overall energy costs.

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Housing First – The best option for the homeless

askthefm — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 16:19:20 +0000

There has been a movement in the low income housing segment called Housing First for some time now, but it is finally getting noticed and even better implemented on a nationwide scale.

Previously the homeless had to “earn” housing by in some manner getting ready, such as getting sober. This represented a very large barrier to the homeless population in general.

Since it was determined that housing in and of itself is theraputic and that folks who are housed have better and quicker roads to recovery, Housing First was born. Housing First means exactly what it implies which is you allow these folks access to housing even though they may not be “ready”.

I would like to direct you to the NPR.org site(http://www.npr.org/news/specials/housingfirst/?sc=emaf) and their yearlong special reporting on this and other topics revolving around homelessness.

Below are other links on the topic for you to explore.

Beyond Shelter: http://www.beyondshelter.org/aaa_initiatives/ending_homelessness.shtml

A sudy released by HUD on the subject: http://www.huduser.org/publications/homeless/hsgfirst.html

Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Housing_first

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Building Materials and Technology Update for Feb. 26, 2009

askthefm — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 05:51:23 +0000

What we have tonight is some good green technology for your home or office and a word or warning.

Let’s get the bad news out of the way first and talk about the potential problem with Chinese drywall products. Apparently this stuff is giving off carbon disulphide, which is a compound that rots the copper in you HVAC and your plumbing. You can only imagine the possible problems! More of the story is here on Treehugger.com (http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/02/chinese-drywall-widens.php) and on the Wall Street Journal (http://online.wsj.com/article SB123171862994672097.html?mod=googlenews_wsj) and on News Inferno.com (http://www.newsinferno.com/archives/4700). Based on these stories it seems that the problem is somewhat localized to southern Florida where during their building boom in 2006 drywall from China was imported due to shortages found in local supplies.

Now on to greener and happier stories. Most interesting to me is another story on Treehugger.com (http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/02/umbrella-cabinetry.php) about a fairly high end, but very green kitchen cabinet alternative.

Excerpt: “They build their boxes out of Plyboo, the bamboo ply board that is a favorite of TreeHugger. For the parts that you don’t see, like the drawer bottoms and cabinet backs, they use a board made from heavy recycled cardboard. The shelves are a formaldehyde-free MDF and the finishes are all water based VOC free. Backsplashes are woven palm and countertops are quartz.“

The company’s site can be found here: http://www.umbrellacabinetry.com/

Lastly tonight we have an updated version of technology that has been around a while, the attic fan. The advantages to this piece of equipment being used in conjunction with conventional HVAC systems are obvious and wonderful. However this approach has always had some disadvantages, namely noise and the leak the represent in your building envelope come winter. Well now we have the Airscape fan that seems to improv on both of these issues. Treehugger.com has a pretty good article on this product (http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/02/airscape-fans.php) but I like the company web site more (http://www.airscapefans.com/). I think I will b checking with my local HVAC contractor before the summer season for sure!

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