It’s really amazing how walking down the street with a funny hat on puts smiles on people’s faces.  Today, I’m going to pretend I’m not wearing a viking hat.  I only wish I had bought the hat before I got on the subway this morning.  Happy Halloween! Continue reading

Here at TOPP, we’ve been using Fresh Direct for a while now for our office groceries (even while being critical of them on one of our blogs).  It’s easy — we can order online and have food delivered right to the office.  However, the packaging Fresh Direct uses is really outrageous; items are delive...

Frannie and I are ready to sell our car, Dudley.  He’s a great car, and we love him, but we just don’t use him enough to justify the expense.  If you’re interested or know anyone who might be, let me know I didn’t make a website for this car like I did last time, but… Continue reading

This week, we launched the new, improved GothamSchools.  GothamSchools is the latest media / advocacy initiative from The Open Planning Project, and our first foray into the world of education.  We’ve got a great team of reporters in Philissa Cramer, Elizabeth Green, and Kelly Vaughan, and the new s...

For a while now, I’ve been using Chandler to keep track of my to-dos.  Chandler is a semi-historic open source project which I’ve been following ever since I read Dreaming in Code (and in many ways, it’s saga parallels ours at The Open Planning Project with our work on OpenPlans)  I’ve been rooting ...

“Release early and often” is a phrase often heard in software development, and is more like a mantra for most web development projects.  The idea being that it’s better to get something “out there” in a simple or reduced form, rather than wait and wait and wait for your grand plan to come together. ...

In doing some photo hunting for a side project, I came across this gem of a photo on Flickr. Riding the subway all over the city, I often think about the fact that most great subway moments (and many great city moments, for that matter) go unrecorded. Perhaps this is part of the beauty of… Continue ...

I came across this enigmatic construction sign yesterday on the side of the West Side Highway in Manhattan. I did a double-take, trying to determine if, perhaps, I was the only one who could see this message. What do you see? I honestly can’t think of a reasonable explanation… Continue reading

In the spirit of blogging all the cool stuff we’re doing at TOPP, I’d like to announce the launch of a new website: Park(ing) Day NYC. Park(ing) Day is a global event, originally conceived by awesome SF-based arts collective REBAR, where for a single day, regular parking spaces are “leased” for use ...

Bastille Day on Smith Street is one of my favorite days of the year.  It’s great fun: the streets are closed, sand is trucked in, and a giant Petanque tournament is held.  But the tournament is just an excuse to be there: the real fun is the great food & drink put out by… Continue reading

Over at The Open Planning Project, we’ve always had a bit of a hard time explaining what we do.  That job just got a little bit easier, with the launch of the new-and-improved TOPP website last Friday.  Reactions from within the staff have been remarkably similar: something along the lines of “Phew,...

A few months ago, I wrote up a simple javascript photo gallery viewer for a side project, so I thought I’d offer it up to the world. It’s unobtrusive javascript, and it takes a simple list of photos and turns it into a slidey slide show. It’s built on top of the Ext Javascript Framework,… Continue r...

I stumbled upon SmartyPig this week while looking through the Happy Cog website, after reading a Zeldman post, linked to by Daring Fireball, which was brought to me via Melkjug. Gotta love the blogosphere. Now, after all that, not only do I have a new Favorite Web App, but I have a new bank. My… Con...

I came across a post this morning about a new service called Sendible. The basic idea is this: create messages of various types (email, sms, twitter tweets, facebook messages, etc) in advance, then sit back and relax as they get sent out right on schedule. Interesting idea — apparently there are a f...

In addition to being the first day of summer, yesterday was the second annual Make Music New York festival. It’s really an incredible event — musicians of all abilities and genres take to the streets to play free mini-concerts. The event came to NYC for the first time last year, and we had a great… ...

I’ve heard this story in various forms over the past few years, but according to the London Times, pedestrian power is ready to be harnessed: Underfloor generators, powered by “heel strike” and designed by British engineers, may soon be installed in supermarkets and railway stations. The technology ...

Jonathan Maus, the prolific editor over at Bike Portland, did a very nice write-up of our session yesterday at the Towards Carfree Cities conference. The comments coming in over there so far have been amazingly positive, which is really encouraging. Btw, the photo, above, of Aaron Naparstek is weird...

Everyone is strutting their best transpo Ts here at the Towards Carfree Cities conference. Here are a few highlights… Official Carfree conference t-shirt. We’re trying to get our hands on a couple of these babies. Lots more after the jump. Updated many times so check back for new ones… Continue read...

The opening keynote speaker at the Towards Carfree Cities conference is Mia Birk, from a bike/ped planning firm here in Portland called Alta Design. Check out the short episode of “Big Ideas for a Small Planet,” above, featuring Mia talking about the pedestrian & bicycle planning movement in Portlan...

Live blogging from the Towards Carfree Cities conference in Portland, OR… Next to our table, we found a real estate broker from Portland who gives bike tours of houses for sale.  What a great way to see neighborhoods and get a taste of what it might be like to live in a place! Continue reading