Home Builder Developer - Interior Renovation and Design

With business, restaurant and mountain closures, it might feel as though, even if it was appropriate to leave the house, there wouldnt be anything to do besides push through crowds at Walmart. But theres still a chance to get outside and do an activity that gets blood flowing and keeps people of all ages entertained: hiking.

Hiking, outdoor recreation are great things to do with your family and we encourage that in the coming days and weeks, Governor Jared Polis said in a press conference last week.

Similarly, in a news release from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, the department stated that along with practicing social distancing and self-quarantining, residents and visitors in Eagle county should continue healthy, non-group activities like walking, hiking, jogging, cycling and other activities that maintain distance from other people.

I went on a 4-ish mile hike yesterday, and didnt even need to drive to the trailhead, which can be pretty easy especially if you live near the North Trail system in Vail. I walked from my house to the Davos Hill Climb in West Vail, which starts at the intersection of North Frontage Road and Arosa Drive (parking is available). You could also start at Davos Trail Road, where theres a parking lot in a cul-de-sac.

There are a few switchbacks on the aforementioned trail, and its a bit rougher, but quite beautiful. The latter is well-packed, but there will be more people. Both trails merge and continue for another 1.5-2 miles from there, so you can even experiment and take one trail up and the other down. The trailheads are less than a mile from each other, so if you parked, you can get to your car fairly easily. I recommend starting with the first trail and ending with the second trail because your walk to your car will be downhill.

New to the area and dont have go-to trails? Here are my favorite ways to find spots.

Everyone knows about this app, so I wont go too in-depth, but make sure you click over to map view and scour the nearby area, since youre not really supposed to leave Eagle County at this time, per the CDPHE release. This apps best feature is its difficulty rating, which is accurate most of the time.

Basically AllTrails, but way better. I frequently find that there are more trails listed on this app, and I prefer the interface it feels faster and less clunky to me. I like using this app to track where Im at using geolocation in real time. Of course, that feature only works when Im not too deep in the woods.

In the age of ever-present technology, its hard to not want to capture your hike with a tiny digital image. If youve ever wanted to learn how to take those amazing pictures on your iPhone, here are some photography tips to help you get the perfect shot.

For the love of everything that is good in this world, turn your phone horizontally (unless your subject warrants a vertical, like trees at a close range). Theres a reason they call it landscape orientation.

Draw a tic-tac-toe board visually across your viewfinder/screen, (or turn on Grid when using your camera). Try to capture your most important subject in one of the areas where the lines intersect. Thats the rule of thirds threes are pleasing to the eyes.

Especially with phone cameras, you need a ton of light to ensure it will be that high resolution that phone manufacturers promise when selling you the thing. Personally, I like to shoot in the same direction that light is illuminating, so the sun is behind my back. It ensures your subject wont be too washed out or dark, and you wont get light glares, unless thats something you want to capture.

Plus, try tapping your phone screen to focus on one exposure (amount of light the camera is letting in to create the image) and adjusting it until your screen shows you the most pleasing image.

Read this article:
How to keep hiking during the COVID-19 pandemic - Vail Daily News

Even as the tides lapping at its edges rise, New York City is turning eagerly toward the water to relieve both a congested transit system and a shortfall in housing stock. For example, you can now travel among all five boroughs by ferry. Ferries have several advantages over streets and subways. For the passenger, those include wind in your hair and magnificent, alternately thrilling and calming views of the harbor; for the city, minimal fixed infrastructure and the ability to easily alter routes if circumstancessuch as the shorelines themselvesshould change. And from the new ferries that ply the East River, you can see the citys most visible effort to address the housing crunch: clusters of enormous apartment towers recently built and under construction along once-industrial waterfronts.

The city mandates that, with redevelopment, the waters edge be public space. Some of that is the waterfront public access area each newly developed riverside property is required to provide. Those areas must at least have landscape and seating; as built, they vary from quite thoughtful to afterthought. There are also a number of city and state parks along the river. So there is beginning to be a continuous public edge. It will probably always have gaps, but they are filling in as the new housing developments rise. Viewed from out on the water, the chain of public spaces resolves into a thin green line, as much of it consists of esplanades and piers or is otherwise flat. Still, discontinuous and varying in design quality as its component pieces are, they are hugely popularjust because they exist, and also because some of them are truly inspired. That would describe one of the newest of the city-developed pieces. In its case, you do begin to glimpse its features from the river, because it has hills and an architectural overlook jutting up and out toward you. This is, in fact, just where the ferry stops in Long Island City, Queens: Hunters Point South Park, designed by Thomas Balsley, FASLA, (whose eponymous firm joined SWA in 2016) in collaboration with Weiss/Manfredi Architecture/Landscape/Urbanism.

Hunters Point South is a massive, still unfinished redevelopment project going up where Newtown Creek, which divides Brooklyn from Queens, flows into the East River. It will eventually have some 5,000 residential units, up to 100,000 square feet of commercial and community space, and several new schools. To its north, Hunters Point South seamlessly adjoins an earlier, similarly scaled high-rise redevelopment called Queens West. The original open-space master plan and schematic design for both, when they were considered a single project area, was done in 1993 by Balsley with Weintraub & di Domenico Architects. Balsley then designed the first park component, Gantry Plaza State Park, which was completed in 1998. When work moved ahead on the Hunters Point South section, he and Weiss/Manfredi created its open-space master plan, which is notable for its green street infrastructure, and planned its 11-acre waterfront park. The parks first phase opened in 2013, and it won an ASLA Professional Honor Award in 2014 (see The Amphibious Edge, LAM, February 2014). The five-acre second and final phase was completed in 2018, and also won an ASLA Professional Honor Award last year. It seamlessly connects to Gantry Plaza State Park, which in turn merges into waterfront space provided by developers. This continuous ensemble, varying in width up to about 350 feet, now comprises roughly a mile and a quarter of uninterrupted, designed riverfront.

Two conditions distinguish Hunters Point South Park from other East River-fronting public spaces. Often their upland borders are fences demarking the private outdoor areas of apartment buildings. But here, a new boulevard separates the park from the new buildings; that unmistakably declares this stretch of riverfront community property. And, during the industrial era, at most other places the shoreline was hardened and more or less straightened with seawalls and piers. This parcel, though, says Weiss/Manfredi co-principal Marion Weiss, Affiliate ASLA, had this crazy irregular edge. And it had the highest topography in the area. That was two large mounds, located in the second phase section, composed of material excavated in the 1930s for construction of the Queens Midtown Tunnel. The designers considered these inherited features to be gifts, and though not naturally occurring, they had a strong naturalistic influence on the park, suggesting its language of ovals, spirals, and curves, as well as the second phases most significant moves: a re-created margin of tidal marsh; an island and a promontory, sculpted from those two borrow piles; and, reiterating the value of elevation, that jutting overlook.

The parks first phase was built on an area that was flat. It includes a dog park, a playground, an athletic field, a pavilion with a snack bar and tables, a sandy faux beachwhich doesnt actually touch the waterand the ferry landing. These accommodate active pastimes and events that tend to bring people togetherteam sports, yoga, dances, concerts. The second phase is oriented more toward individuals and small groups, and is more conducive to the tranquil. Balsley says, That topography allowed us to balance the active and passive uses. There could have been someone saying, Why cant you get one more playing field here? It was our greatest ally. People certainly engage in serious exercise in the second phase spaces, jogging on the paths, using the installed outdoor fitness equipment, or, as observed one weekday noon last summer, practicing jujitsu on an empty stretch of walkway. But the real motive of the second phases design is to elicit contemplation and exploration, of both the riverine site and the cityscape it presents so gorgeously. This is achieved because the topography enables two distinct experiences of the water: distance, by bringing you up for panoramas across it; and proximity, by inviting descent almost to where you touch it.

Early maps show most of Hunters Point and both shores of Newtown Creek as marsh. The East River is actually a tidal strait connecting Long Island Sound with New York Harbor, both being arms of the ocean. Industrial filling narrowed the channel, creating very strong currents, Balsley explains. One of the designers goals was to make the park capable of absorbing and releasing high water. So those inherited twists and coves of shoreline were reestablished as marsh, protected from scouring by a revetment. But we didnt want it to look engineered, he says. Instead, it has a narrow trail on top, and is planted both with grasses and clumps of trees on the river side, and on the backside as a green bowl that fills and empties with the tides twice a day. Weve blurred this edge. Youre not that aware of the armament when walking along the revetment.

Actually, there is a series of bowls. One of them, about 15 feet high and at the rivers edge, repeatedly transforms the lower of the two former borrow piles into a land-tied island. New York may not nominally be part of New England, but the northeast Atlantic coastal geography is continuous. Anybody familiar with the New England shoreline will recognize the way tidal marshes create temporary islands, Balsley says. Here, the marsh areas were made with channels between the culverts that fill them; these facilitate flow and increase capacity. They also add a touch of verisimilitude. Balsley points out that historically, when salt hay was harvested in the region, both natural tidal creeks and human-made channels, still visible in many places, were the means to transport it. At several places, short flights of concrete steps lead right down into the little marshes. Theyre for maintenance, not for parkgoers use, and its not even clear how to reach them, but they make the tantalizing suggestion that you could step down right into the grasses and mudto go clamming, maybe.

The pathways generally scale down both from boulevard to river and from higher to lower elevation. Where each street of the new neighborhood dead-ends at the park is an entrance foyer, a plaza with benches. Not everybody necessarily wants to go to the water. Some just want to sit and watch, Balsley says. A main walkway runs the length of the park, curving both north into the first phase and south where it skirts the promontorythe larger of the two hills, which rises to 35 feetbefore bending east along Newtown Creek. It is 12 feet wide. At several points, narrow spurs peel off and lead down to the four-foot-wide revetment path. Thats quite a bit narrower than you would normally see in a park, Weiss points out. And with the grasses growing over the edges, it gives the sense of a trail as opposed to a sidewalk. When the tide is high, you feel youre walking on water.

In plan, the revetment departs from the sinuous line dominant in the rest of the park. Its a zigzag, reminiscent of a fortified medieval town or a Revolutionary War star fort. The shape is indeed a barrier, to the erosive power of the river. The structure can be entirely flooded and impassable in storms, or traversed even at very high tides, Balsley explains. Some of its turnings are furnished with low, blocky seating walls of Jet Mist granite, like battlements. These are polished on top and facing the path, but muscularly, and metaphorically, rough toward the tides. And the revetments form has another function: Contrary to the arcing paths that encourage movement, the trail experience was conceived as a stroll, with angled geometry to slow the pace and to stage shifting perspectives, he says. The succession of different orientations and views it gives, the decelerated pace it encourages, and the sense of separation from solid land it induces all create a sensation of being an individual in a very great space, and an illusion of separation from the city while remaining surrounded by itjust like the best moments aboard the ferry.

The revetments path and seating spots are not the only opportunity the park builds in for experiencing the duality of intimacy and immensity, or that of privacy in a public place. Half a dozen family raftswooden platforms just large enough for a couple of grown-ups and a couple of kids to lounge onare scattered, as if afloat, on the promontorys grassy incline. Where a path traces the bottom of a slope along the Newtown Creek shore, theres a series of little spaces curling off, like alcoves, partly hidden by vegetation. Each ends in a bench backed up against the hill, both secluded and secure, which Weiss describes as being for the more romantic pairs. Then, just in case all this gentleness starts to dull your senses, there is the overlook. It breaks the decreasing hierarchy of pathway scales by expanding as it thrusts out over the river to a width of 39 feet. And it counters the parks organic quality with a powerfully engineered structure. Describing the technical and craft challenges of fabricating and installing it, Weiss tosses off a description of it as a curving, twisting, cantilevered, flat-plate, 36-foot-high truss. Naturally occurring? Not.

The overlook contrasts with and emphasizes the overall naturalism of the parks design, and supports the impression that it is a topography that has always been here and always will be. This park can take inundation. Buildings at Hunters Point South incorporate the requirements of post-Hurricane Sandy code revisions for flood resilience, like all new waterfront construction in the city. Still, New Yorks fevered embrace of new housing on vulnerable edges can seem like a love affair with somebody whose disastrous relationship history is already well known. Why do people want to live in such places? I find that to be an incredibly naive line of questioning, says the architect and planner Thad Pawlowski, a codirector of Columbia Universitys Center for Resilient Cities and Landscapes and an expert on urban climate hazards, as if human development were some kind of spigot you could turn on and off. People are attracted to water. Its the briny stuff of life. If you live by the water, you have a relationship with natural cycles, which can be deepened, subtly or even explicitly, by experiencing parks like this one. Thats intrinsic to our ability as a species to adapt, which we must do now.

Balsley looks ahead with the expectation that the neighborhoods streets will eventually be underwater. Pawlowski points out that buildings adapt over time, and that when the streets become more aqueous, its a great opportunity for designers to make public space that might improve on the sad expanses of wall that much of whats gone up so far in Hunters Point unfortunately presents at street level. Balsley says that for building new parks, the waterfront in densely built urban areas is the last frontier. The rising ocean part of it? I cant get paralyzed. I dont want it to be so engineered to where it has gone beyond the sweet spot of being a real amenity versus flood control. More important, he asks, is who is it that can bring everybody together into a unified approach to the dangers of climate change?

Jonathan Lerner lives in a Hudson River town that is grappling with the implications of ever-higher tides.

Project Credits

Park Designers SWA/Balsley, New York (Thomas Balsley, FASLA, lead designer; Brian Staresnick, ASLA, project manager; John Donnelly; Christian Gabriel, ASLA; Michael Koontz; Dale Schafer, ASLA; Jacob Glazer, ASLA; and Shigeo Kawasaki, ASLA); Weiss/Manfredi, New York (Marion Weiss, Affiliate ASLA, and Michael Manfredi, Affiliate ASLA, lead designers; Lee Lim, project manager; Michael Blasberg; Michael Steiner, ASLA; Johnny Lin; Seungwon Song; Chris Ballentine; Alice Chai; Nick Elliot; Hyoung-Gul Kook; and Joe Vessell). Prime Consultant/Infrastructure Designer/Structural, Civil, and Lighting Engineer Arup, New York (Tom Kennedy, Tim Kaiser, Nancy Choi, Louise Ellis, Chu Ho, Shaina Saporta, Roberto Palomares, Matt Best, Michael Newey, James DeMarco). Landscape Construction Administration SiteWorks, New York. Ecological Systems and Restoration Ecologist eDesign Dynamics, New York, and Great Ecology, New York. Marine Engineering Halcrow, New York, and CH2M Hill, New York. Public Art Karyn Olivier and Nobuho Nagasawa, New York. Artist Consultant Suzanne Randolph Fine Arts, New York. MEPFP Engineering A. G. Consulting Engineering, P.C., New York. Environmental Engineer Yu & Associates, New York. Cost Estimator VJ Associates, New York. Permitting Expeditor KM Associates of New York, Inc., New York. Traffic Engineer B-A Engineering, P.C., New York. Survey and Utilities Naik Consulting Group, New York. Graphic Design Two Twelve, New York, and Nice Kern, LLC, New York. Historical Researcher AKRF, New York. Construction Manager The LiRo Group, New York.

Like Loading...

See more here:
THE THIN GREEN LINE - Landscape Architecture Magazine

Published by Witan Books, price 14.75

It is available from bookshops and Amazon and signed copies can be bought at http://www.witancreations.com

IF YOU have done the Munros or the Wainwrights and want a new challenge especially closer to home then why not try the Kents.

Not heard of them? Well that is not too surprising as the catagorisation is a recent creation of explorer and author Jeff Kent.

Mr Kent has spotted not only both a gap in the market but a gap in the walking book landscape the bit below the highest peaks which walkers often ignore, intent as they are on bagging the biggest, often at the other end of the country, and overlooking fine hills just down the road.

This is Mr Kent's third book in a series looking at the peaks across England that lie outside the coverage of Nuttalls which are mountains of 2,000 feet and above and so these are the bridesmaids of geography, not high enough to be called mountains (unless you're a plateau outside Queensbury at 1,229 feet with that moniker) but still pretty impressive and challenging if isolated or in adverse weather.

Scotland has its Munros (mountains over 3,000 feet), Corbetts (those between 2,500 and 2,999 feet) and Grahams (those between 2,000 and 2,499 feet) and having cut his teeth on mountains that high, Mr Kent decided to look at the hills of his home county Staffordshire and wondered how many 1,000-plus-foot peaks there were in the shire.

Having discovered no-one had done it before he decided to compile a list he found 65 on Ordnance Survey maps - and then walked them, naming them Kents in honour of his parents Cyril and Helen.

He then did the same for Cheshire, Shropshire, Herefordshire, Worcestershire, Gloucestershire and Derbyshire and set his sights on cataloguing all the mini-mountains in England and writing a volume featuring all of them.

But Mr Kent discovered such a huge number of them, he realised he would have the split the book into a series and, after Southern England's 1,000-Foot Peaks and Northeast England's 1,000-Foot Peaks, this book continues the series.

With so many peaks in Yorkshire you won't be surprised to know that this is a weighty volume, containing 833 of them across 208 pages. They are divided into chapters covering the three counties of 1997's Lieutenancies Act North, South and West complemented with chapters on how the peaks were determined and Yorkshire's history and heritage.

The lists are full of interest and are dominated, unsurprisingly, by the Pennine Hills with the Dales National Park containing those butting up to the 2,000 feet limit. The highest at 1,995.8 is a peak Mr Kent has dubbed Sugar Loaf because it is a name close by on the OS map.

The highest in West Yorkshire is Black Hill at 1,905ft right on the border with Derbyshire outside Holmfirth and many of the county's top tops are down in the South West corner.

Closer to home, the book includes many hills in the Bradford district that are well known such as Penistone Hill outside Haworth (1,047ft) and nearby Withins Height (1,499ft) below which Top Withins of Bronte fame shelters on the Pennine Way.

Mr Kent's detailed and excellent research describes each hill in detail and includes salient features including their exact location and how to get to them.

The book is very comprehensive but it could do with an index by hill name, though perhaps that would have been quite long and, with many Blacjk Hills or Round Hills, pretty complex so I can forgive the author that and instead spend time getting to know them better.

There is lots to explore here and discover on your doorstep. You don't have to do all 833 like Mr Kent but the book could inspire you to find new areas and a new perspective on the vast Yorkshire realm.

Tim Quantrill

See the original post:
New walking guide to Yorkshire's 1,000-Foot Peaks published - Bradford Telegraph and Argus

With the right equipment, nine-year-old Ollie can slide most of the way from his hilltop home to the dam below for a swim. All he needs is a decent cardboard box.

The Blenheim schoolboy and his older siblings, Archie, 10, and Sophia, 12, have free range over the 30ha property where their parents Jenny and Christo Saggers have created a one-of-a-kind home.

READ MORE:* Heirloom homestead gets some French finesse* This Cambridge garden is hydrangea heaven* From holiday spot to permanent home

Paul McCredie/Nz House & Garden

Sophia reads on the sofa that overlooks the Wairau Valley and Richmond Ranges: Our favourite season is autumn when the colours of the grapevines after harvest turn from green to yellow to orange to brown, with each grape variety changing colour at different times. Its like one big patchwork quilt and its beauty never ceases to take our breath away, says Jenny; Christo made the 10-seater dining table from European birch plywood and American white oak veneer.

Jenny grew up further around the hill in much the same way as her children; building makeshift sleds or huts amid the pine trees, looking for frogs and tadpoles and hunting rabbits with a slug gun. These days, her children also have the irrigation dam where they kayak and leap off a jetty.

She and Christo subdivided a piece of the property where her brothers still farm these days it's grapes as well as sheep and beef and where her mother and stepfather still reside. The property has been in the family for more than 100 years.

"We are so lucky to be here, with all eight cousins at the same school," Jenny says.

English-born Christo has forged his own ties to this land and, in the process, transformed their precious piece of arid Marlborough countryside into a lush haven. The geologist travelled to more than 80 countries and sampled a swag of careers before finding his two greatest loves Jenny and landscape design after settling in New Zealand.

"Christo is one of those people who can do anything," Jenny says. "He's done business development for a hunting company and installed satellite communications on cruise liners. He did an overland trip from London to Australia raising money for Romanian orphans. But he has always been green-fingered and loved design."

The Englishman learned to love plants during a childhood in a moated 16th century Tudor hall with 4ha of gardens. After moving to New Zealand and meeting marketing brand manager Jenny, he retrained as a landscape designer.

Jenny had plenty of input into the design of their four-bedroom home, but it was Christo who planned the garden and created a scale model of the house they wanted. He took into account the unforgiving summer sun and passive heating sources for winter warmth, and considered the views from every room. No wide hallways, no wasted space. A draughtsman then produced drawings of the miniature Corflute house, which included furniture, a fireplace, power points and outdoor edifices.

"When we started to build, it was just a bare brown hill," says Jenny. "Not a tree, nothing at all. We are now surrounded by a tropical green oasis."

Paul McCredie/NZ House & Garden

Visitors are always surprised to find a lush courtyard in Marlborough hill country; the gabion water feature and the banana and bangalow palms add a Balinese feel; Christo designed the day bed so it can separate to form a coffee table and U-shaped seating area.

The secret is water and careful plant selection, as well as solid shelter from the fierce nor'westerly wind that typically pummels the region. To that end, the couple created gabions. They bought wire baskets and carted wheelbarrow after wheelbarrow of stone onto the site before setting each rock in place, one at a time, to create the desired effect.

Christo chose hardy ngaio trees to quickly form a sheltered area for the pool and allow less hardy favourites to blossom. As a result, the easy-care pool garden includes long-flowering gaura and striking Lomandra Tanika.

"He's also done a lot of the building inside and out. The shelves and bedheads, kids' beds and desks. The dining table and the outdoor structures by the pool and in the courtyard were all made and designed by us."

When they needed more privacy in their bathroom but didn't have money to buy blinds, her husband whipped up sets of shutters and drilled holes in them to admit light and create a striking effect. A client's old, unwanted table became a set of doors for the poolside changing room. Concrete boxing timber was repurposed as an outdoor tabletop.

"We've been on a budget so if we need something, instead of going out and buying it we figure out how we can make it. We've definitely saved money but it also means other people don't have what we have."

Jenny, who now works as an interior designer, has made plenty of her own hands-on contributions. When their bare walls needed art, she bought canvases and took up a paintbrush. Christo framed the paintings. It was also Jenny's idea to print photographs and glue them to the kitchen doors.

"It's our family history and it gives me a lot of joy to look at those photos of my little people. They're literally stuck on with PVA glue so you can just update them as new memories are created."

Ten years on from completion, the couple says their home works better than they imagined for them and for the constant flow of neighbourhood children, family and friends. "And this house is very, very us, not just bought off the shelf."

Q&A

When I'm not designing: I like to write. I've written for quite a few publications and have had a novel on the backburner for 12 years. (Christo)

I'm obsessed with: Fabrics. I did my post-grad in wool marketing and while studying, I spent three months in a Scottish textile mill. I also worked for Merino NZ and Swanndri. (Jenny)

Latest DIY project: The aquaponic system I've developed. I've built a grow house where the plants grow in gravel, fed with water and fish poo. (Christo)

Best local event: Malborough's spectacular Classic Fighters air show. We usually have a party for our friends and watch the planes fly right over us, it's an amazing sight. (Jenny)

Our newest venture: The landscaping and interior design business Jenny and I launched last year, called Collaborate. (Christo)

Jenny and Christo Saggers

See the original post here:
Creative family gets hands-on with their new build - Stuff.co.nz

Share This Story!

Let friends in your social network know what you are reading about

Burlington streets are less icy as the weather warms, but there are potholes in its place. Here's where to be on the lookout.

A link has been sent to your friend's email address.

A link has been posted to your Facebook feed.

Your road woes are over as the ice melts in Burlington, right? Tell that to the people reporting potholes around the Queen City.

Burlington's SeeClickFix gives the public a chance to flag issues, like graffiti and icy conditions, for the city to address. Manyrecent complaints are filed under "Street Pavement Condition" and point to potholes spotted around town. The Department of Public Works tweeted March 7 about the crews addressing the craters around the city.

Until the road dips are completely addressed, you might want to stay alert. Here are the locations flagged by complainants in recent days:

Want to see more stories like this?

Contact Maleeha Syed at mzsyed@freepressmedia.com or 802-495-6595. Follow her on Twitter@MaleehaSyed89.

This coverage is only possible with support from our readers. Sign up today for a digital subscription.

Read or Share this story: https://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/story/news/2020/03/09/burlington-see-click-fix-potholes-where-to-look-out-around-city-dpw-addressing/4998687002/

March 14, 2020, 4:59 p.m.

March 13, 2020, 7:30 p.m.

March 14, 2020, 5:02 p.m.

March 13, 2020, 9:06 a.m.

March 13, 2020, 8:36 a.m.

March 13, 2020, 8:22 a.m.

Read more:
Burlington SeeClickFix users report potholes around the city: Here's where to be careful - Burlington Free Press

Pavement parking campaigners are frantically pushing to stretch a blanket ban across the UK in a bid to improve road safety.Under proposals, campaigners are looking to introduce a new obstructive placement parking and unnecessary obstruction offences into law.

The changes could see motorists fined or prosecuted for stopping on a kerb leaving many road users caught out.

The Department for Transport has launched a national consultation on the plans which could be introduced later this year if approved.

Local councils will be responsible for deciding where pavement parking rules should be most heavily enforced based on historical data of the area.

The DfT ware signs can also obstruct the pavement with ministers warning the price of new road infrastructure could be paid by the taxpayer.

READ MORE:Pavement parking near schools could soon be banned

Grant Shapps, Transport Secretary said: Vehicles parked on the pavement can cause very real difficulties for many pedestrians.

Thats why I am taking action to make payments safer and I will be launching a consultation to find a long-term solution for this complex issue.

This will look at a variety of options - including giving local authorities extended powers to crack down on this behaviour.

In a report last year the Transport Select Committee said pavement parking made it harder for many to get around.

DON'T MISSCar parking law: Motorists not entitled to park in front of house[INSIGHT]Anyone can park on your driveway for free today[ANALYSIS]Parking crackdown: MPs want to ban drivers from parking[COMMENT]

The report claimed parking on the kerb was detrimental to disabled citizens and parents with young children.

The group found pavement parking could contribute to loneliness as many may feel forced to stay at home.

The Committee made a list of improvements to the road networks to increase safety such as the introduction of public awareness campaigns and extra traffic regulation orders.

Campaign teams such as Living Streets and Guide Dogs have been in support of a widespread ban and backed findings from the Transport Select Committee.

Stephen Edwards, policy and communications director at Living Streets said pavement parking had an impact on the lives of many people.

He said: Cars parked on pavements force people with wheelchairs, parents with buggies and those living with sight loss into the carriageway and oncoming traffic.

The committee is right to draw attention to the impact of pavement parking on loneliness.

Many older adults we speak to feel stuck in their homes because theyre not able to navigate their local pavements.

Currently, London is the only UK region which charged a fine for parking on the pavement.

Offenders can be hit with a 70 charge for stopping on the kerb in the capital whereas no further laws exist for the rest of the UK.

Motoring experts, the AA, said fines should be introduced for offenders but have warned the ban could lead to unintended consequences.

The recovery group claimed a ban could lead to widespread parking chaos and urged the government to introduce new measures which better targeted key areas.

The AA said: An outright ban could lead to unintended consequences with parking chaos becoming more widespread.

A better solution would be for councils to make a street-by-street assessment and where pavement parking could be allowed it be clearly marked and signed.

Original post:
Pavement parking could soon be banned across the UK under these new proposals - Express

New windows were part of a renovation at the Vernie Snow Aquatic Center in Kingfisher.

KINGFISHER, Okla. Vernie Snow Aquatic Center recently received a facelift to the tune of nearly $2 million with a city-approved upgrade.

The renovation included a new pool pack, a dehumidification system, bay windows, a party room for private events and cosmetic changes throughout the indoor pool facility,Brandon Friesen, city of Kingfisher recreation director, said.

The biggest part of that was the pool pack, Friesen said. It controls heat and air in the building, as well as provides heating for the pool in the winter months. The dehumidification system helps reduce the smell of chlorine in the air around the pool. There was a little remodeling for the dressing rooms, and we got spray insulation throughout. The major addition was the party room.

Leslie Alvarez, assistant managerof the center, said private parties and open swim parties are available to be booked throughout the year, and the room gives guests a chance to set up more formal parties. Food isnt sold on site, so guests can bring in pizzas, picnic baskets, birthday cakes, sodasand more to facilitate parties.

Vernie Snow Aquatic Center in Kingfisher recently received a facelift to the tune of nearly $2 million after the city approved funds for an upgrade.

Id estimate that 75 to 80 percent of the private parties are booked by people not from Kingfisher proper, Friesen said. The smaller communities and rural areas around the town use the facility a lot.

The center boats a T-shaped pool with 25-yard lap lanes, diving boards, a slide area and a beach-style entry on one of the sections. The entire facility is indoors, making year-round swimming and other programming possible. Alvarez said the center hosts a youth swim team that competes in a league with Yukon, Mustang, Will Rogers, Edmond and Stroud. Water aerobics classes meet in the mornings, and a local physical therapist uses the pool for therapy sessions.

Vernie Snow Aquatic Center in Kingfisher recently received a facelift to the tune of nearly $2 million after the city approved funds for an upgrade.

Most of our lap swimmers come in the mornings, Alvarez said. We open at 7 a.m. weekdays for people who use swimming to work out, and were open seven days a week.

The center can host swim parties of various sizes, and different price packages are available. Open swim parties can be held nearly anytime, but the pool is open to the public for those events. Outside food is allowed even for those not hosting parties, but alcohol and glass containers are prohibited.

Renovated locker rooms were part of the recent upgrade at the Vernie Snow Aquatic Center in Kingfisher.

Admission is $5per person, according to the Kingfisher.org website.Birthday parties and group events can be booked and schedule information can be obtained by calling the center at (405) 375-3318.

ENID, Okla. When Jacob Krumwiede first visited the Cherokee Strip Regional Heritage Center, he was impressed by what he saw. Now, since beco

In order to be a successful metal detectorist, you really have to be a history nerd. You to have an appreciation for the things that youre finding because you never really know what it is. So be careful before you just pawn something. Brian Terrell, a member ofRed Dirt Metal Detectorists

Visit EnidsMarcy Jarrett, director,andRob Houston,communications coordinator, see their jobs as getting the word out about Enid, but their focusmainlyis outside of the city limits in order to bringinvisitors to spend time and money.

Northwest Oklahomas state parks are ready for another high-traffic spring and summer, after a time of repair and remodel during the off-season.

From private tasting sessions to large group outings and catered events, Northwest Oklahoma has wineries available for everything from day trips to overnight stays.

The Leonardos Children's Museum boardhas started theprocess of its first-ever endowment fundraiser, scheduled to start in the fall. While the board has yet to decide the exact monetary goals, executive director Tracy Bittle said, I think it will be in excess of $4 million.

"Were just so fortunateto be a part of something that Paul and Joan (Allen) shared as a way to invest in our community. Bill Mayberry,David Allen Memorial Ballparks director of operations

Enid High School students are traveling millions of light years into the universe thanks to the schools recently revamped observatory. | Northwest Oklahoma public star viewing

Vernie Snow Aquatic Center recently received a facelift to the tune of nearly $2 million with a city-approved upgrade.

Click for the latest,full-access Enid News & Eagle headlines|Text Alerts|app downloads

Horton is a freelance writer for the Enid News & Eagle.

2020 Vision is a special section that will publish in the Enid News & Eagle for eight Sundays in February, March and April 2020. The section is designed to feature individuals, businesses and organizations in Enid and Northwest Oklahoma that work every day for the betterment of the region and its residents.This section, which published March 15, 2020, focuses on Excursions.

Read all sections at2020 Vision: All stories

Have a question about this story? Do you see something we missed? Do you have a story idea for the News & Eagle? Send an email toenidnews@enidnews.com.

Go here to read the rest:
2020 VISION: Kingfisher aquatic center facelift offers better place to party - Enid News & Eagle

In our bathrooms today we want separate showers and freestanding baths, and the space to make that ... [+] possible. (Photo by: Jumping Rocks/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

Bathroom remodels are one of the biggest projects homeowners undertake. In 2020, they will likely be near the top of the list, according to a new bathroom trends report.

Its no wonder: the bathroom is arguably the most frequently used room in the home. If it is out-of-date, not functioning properly or beginning to show signs of wear, it may be time to remodel.

It is no small undertaking; the national average cost for a full remodel of a master bathroom, which includes flooring, vanity, tub, shower and accessories is $20,000. The cost is lower for powder rooms, which consist of just a toilet and a sink and do have the storage requirements of a master bath.

Why do we remodel? The single biggest reason is because a bathroom design is outdated. A whopping 84% of their customers remodel for that reason, said a collection of the countrys top bathroom design experts, including Vicente Wolf, Alene Workman, Linda Merrill and Tip Haenisch, among about 50 others located in all parts of the country.

Bathrooms are uniquely personal spaces within the home, so homeowners and designers have big ideas for what constitutes the ideal space, says Cristina Miguelez, remodeling specialist for Fixr.

Since trends last roughly 10 to 15 years, its safe to say that bathrooms older than that that are being updated the most. Remodeling the bathroom simply to increase enjoyment has been popular for a few years now. This is different from past bathroom remodels, which were usually spurred by functional issues.

So what do homeowners willing to spend $20,000 for a new bathroom want? For one thing, they want them bigger. The day of cramped master baths is gone: 41% of homeowners want bathrooms that measure 100 to 199 square feet, while 27% want them to come in at over 200 square feet. Only 2% of homeowners are willing to settle for the 30 to 50 square feet allocated to bathrooms in the past.

They want a separate tub and shower. Having a bathtub is important to resale value, and a tub thats separate from the shower is considered a luxury layout. This layout requires more space than if the shower flows into the tub, and it allows for a more comfortable step-in shower stall design. It also can provide the freestanding tub that is favored by 80% of the respondents.

Storage is a big issue in any master bathroom, which explains why 62% of the experts polled prefer a floating vanity combined with a medicine cabinet. Consoles and open vanities favored in the past only garnered 11% of the votes, while the furniture style that was so stylish 15 years ago has fallen in popularity. While it provides the most storage space of any vanity type, the floating vanity has nearly as much space, but gives a cleaner, more spacious look.

Porcelain heads up the list of materials favored for the flooring, chosen it for its style possibilities and ease of maintenance.

As for the lighting, we love the classic elegance of sconces. Some things do not go out of style.

Link:
Bath Or Shower? In 2020, We Want Both - Forbes

By DEBORAH LAVERTY

GARY, Ind. (AP) Tonya Johnson cuddled close her 1-month-old daughter, McKenzie, after picking her up from her bassinet.

McKenzie fussed a little but Johnson, a first-time mom, seemed to know instinctively how to soothe her baby by giving her a pacifier while standing in the doorway of the bedroom they share at Emma's House.

"I got out of jail in December, and she was born one month later," Johnson said.

Johnson, 30, had been a heavy drug user, even using heroin, when she found out she was six months pregnant with her daughter, she said.

Thanks to a referral from Lake County Court Administrated Alcohol and Drug Service, Johnson was given the opportunity to stay at Emma's House, a transition house for women.

Now Johnson has been clean and sober since her Dec. 12 move-in date and is grateful for a second chance, including a future that promises the possibility of a place to live and a place to work.

"Everything will fall into place. I changed everything for this girl," Johnson said, holding close her baby daughter.

It is for women like Johnson that Emma's House, a remodeled home at 616 Maryland St., was opened close to two years ago, Pastor Michael Pirtle said.

Pirtle and his wife, Linda Pirtle, formed The City of Refuge Christian Church about 14 years ago, working with community partners of Northwest Indiana toward a common goal to end homelessness, drug and alcohol addiction and poverty.

About 12 women can live in Emma's House at a time, but they must stay clean and sober while there or they can be removed, Pirtle said.

During the time the women are there, volunteers help them look for permanent housing and employment.

"This is not a homeless shelter. We're a recovery home," Pirtle said.

Emma's House relies on grants and donations, and at the beginning of the year it received a State Opioid Response Grant for $1.8 million, which helps assist with funds up to four months for one woman's room and board.

"Right now we have only had one referral to take advantage of it," Pirtle said.

That referral was for Mary Carmon, 50, who was referred to Emma's House on Jan. 13.

Carmon's early years included having a dad who was in prison and a mother who was an alcoholic and had psychological problems, she said.

"I was only 2," Carmon said.

Her baby brother was adopted, but Carmon was placed in area group homes after going through the foster care system.

Carmon became a ward of the state growing up in Northwest Indiana, lived in a domestic violence situation during which she received broken ribs and a fractured ankle, battled drug and alcohol addiction and served jail time.

"I made some terrible choices," Carmon said.

Carmon is convinced that this time around she will make it with the help she is receiving at Emma's House, including time spent at the Regional Mental Health Center in East Chicago.

"I needed to find a place to get back into recovery. It's rekindled my spiritual condition and has given me an opportunity to live my life over," Carmon said.

"I've been clean and sober for four months."

Emma's House was donated to the church by former Lake County Community Corrections Officer Roderick Threatt.

The house is named after his mother, Emma.

It took about three years to remodel; funding was an issue, and the project included redoing the plumbing, electric, insulation, roof, tuckpointing, foundation, drywall and exterior work.

The majority of the cost for the $80,000 remodeling work came from donations from church parishioners, Pirtle said.

The church was started in 2006 in the Pirtles' living room in Merrillville. The church has moved several times but is currently located in Portage.

Pirtle retired in 2004 from the U.S. Marines and was doing a sit-in at the Lake County courtroom when he said he was inspired.

"When I retired I just sat in the courtroom and observed the community needs and what was going on," Pirtle said.

God just placed us in the middle of where the real need was.

__

Source:

More:
Emma's House offers women safe place to live, and stay sober - Journal Review

Buy Photo

The City Council meetings at Government Plaza have people who consistently speak at every meeting. (Photo: Henrietta Wildsmith/The Times)

Whether it's fighting for disinvested neighborhoods, reciting a poem, sharing a bit of levity, or suggesting a better way for governing bodies to conduct their business, Marvin Muhammad, Craig Lee, Bill Weiner and Sammy Mearsare well-known citizens who exercise without fail, their right to speak during public meetings.

Well call them the Testifiers.

Craig Lee is an activists who speaks at the City Council meetings consistently. (Photo: Henrietta Wildsmith/The Times)

His strong Chicago political ties shaped his earliest activism. The generational disinvestment of African American communitiesspurs his continued efforts. He feels compelled to address the Shreveport City Council and Caddo Commission, over and over again, even though his testimonies seem to fall on deaf ears.

Lee owns and runs Creole SoulLouisiana Meat Pies but finds time during the day to carry out his civic duty.

I returned to Shreveport in 1994 as a pharmaceutical sales rep, said Lee, dressedcasually in denim, wearing his signature red, green and gold beanie as he sat at a small table in The Times newsroom to share his story.

Although Im a native of Shreveport, I have the same mindset as most of my colleagues that I grew up with. I got into the political arena in New Orleans at Xavier (University) by way of my contacts in Chicago. As a freshman, we had a lot of upperclassmen. One guy in particular went on to become president of the Cook County Commission, Todd Stroger, Jr.

Stroger and Lee graduated at the same time.

There were several guys who were a big influence and they called it the Chicago Club, Lee said. This was my first time seeing political activism. These guys were doing absentee voting for (late Chicago Mayor) Harold Washington in the mid-'80s and so it was shocking. I was aware of federal politics, but I was not aware of the local politics. So, when they helped Harold Washington win, that was thrilling to see, and it was through all of that that my political identity began to be shaped and crafted.

Lees Chicago connections run deep. Marc Morial, president/CEO, National Urban League, he said, was their political handler at that time.

It was a Queensboro murder, the community Lee grew up in, that was part of the reason he decided to stay in Shreveport.

It was a young man I was a big brother to in high school, Lee said. He came from a two-parent household and when I saw his photo plastered on the news, I wondered how he could become a killer? I asked the question, Why are these brothers and sisters murdering each other? There was no spirituality, no culture, no education, no economic cohesiveness.

Lee decided at that moment that he was done with corporate America and started his community activism. This May will be 25 years that hes been doing grassroots advocacy work.

Turns out, Lee has deep-rooted family connections to Shreveport. His great, great-grandfather, Phillip Moore, and Moore'sbrother, migrated from east Texas,Lee said.

They bought up 1,000 acres plus some land over where you see the municipal airport and incorporated the land and called it Moores Town. So, I have a vested interest in the transformation.

Relatives eventually sold the property to the City of Shreveport. It was incorporated and is now called Mooretown.

When you go in front of that podium, especially when you know youre not going to have the votes on an issue that is very important, theres some dejection to some degree, but I will continue to do this until I die.

Sammy Mears speaks at the City Council meetings consistently. (Photo: Henrietta Wildsmith/The Times)

Lovable and charming is how most people describe Mears, who brings a bit of levity along with his concerns. His time at the podium are the moments those in attendance look forward to and appreciate. You never know what hes going to share, but its always delightful and sometimes serious.

Mears can add "hero"to his list of accomplishments. The Shreveport Police Department recognized him recently for his quick-thinking efforts in saving his neighbors life and presented him with the Chief Appreciation Award during a February council meeting as he took center stage in the spotlight.

Easily recognized by his long hair as he sits in his regular seat on the first row of the meeting room chambers, Mears said Friday he likes to lighten things up with a little joke before he shares his concerns.

I show up to speak at the meetings because I have something to say, Mears said. One of the things Im concerned about now is that three people came to me and said theyve seen me at the City Council meetings and they wanted to know what I could do to help them out with the rooster thats running around and scaring people in the Highland area. I told them I would take care of it at the meeting. I went down there to let it be known that this rooster is out there, and it may (seriously hurt) a person or an animal or even a little child. So, it needs to be caught and taken away.

Mears enjoys church activities and also spends time reading at the Shreveport Memorial Library.

I go to the Highland Blessing Dinner because I have a good time fellowshipping with people at the table.

As to what he thinks about Shreveport, Mears said there'stoo much violence going on and it needs to stop.

Famous for his jokes, Mears shared one for The Times audience, 'What did one wall, say to the other wall?' Answer: ''Ill meet you in the corner. Thats one of the best ones Ive told, he added. He shared another one, Who takes the shortest time to get ready for a vacation, the elephant or the rooster? The next time you see Mears, ask him for the answer.

Bill Wiener attends public meetings cause he wants to make Shreveport a better place. (Photo: Henrietta Wildsmith/The Times )

Sculpture artist and architect Bill Wiener Jr., 83, hails from a renownedfamily of architects who in the 1930spioneered what came to be known as the International Style of architecture.

As for his sculptures, each piece is based on geometry and repetition of a variation on a theme. Weiner has enjoyed taking two-dimensional material such as steel plate, and creating three-dimensional art.

The arts, however, are not the only thing on his mind as hes taken part in local government for years and still does today, though he mentioned recently that hes growing weary because the council ignores his suggestions.

A family members involvement in the Underground Railroadinfluenced his civic engagement.

My parents were always involved in government, Wiener said. Ive done a lot of things and Ive served on national boards under both (former U.S. presidents) Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan. Ive had a lot of experiences that influenced me.

I come hereand I see what Shreveport is doing wrong and what theyre not doing but Im about to stop all this because they dont care, Wiener said. "Several weeks ago, I went there to tell them what to do to get ready for the coronavirus. Its always the same answers, Well get a committee to look at this but I never hear back. Since then, I wrote a letter to the mayor and told him that he must buy chemicals for the water plant because the 18-wheelers will not be runningand chemicals might not be available.

Weiner said city government is not thinking in long-range terms as to how to make the city better.

On the issue of race relations in Shreveport, Wiener said, Were one community of men, women, white, black, Hispanic, gays, and we need to look at the whole community.

Marvin Muhummad speaks at the City Council meetings consistently. (Photo: Henrietta Wildsmith/The Times)

During the day, Marvin Muhammad, 51, works at Turnkey Painting and Remodeling, a company he owns. He relocated just under a year ago to Shreveport from Dallas. Hes settling here to be near his family. Not long after, he was appointed to serve on the Caddo Parish Industrial Development Board, an engine he saidfor him to help stimulate economic development throughout the city and parish.

I was born in San Francisco but my adopted father, Odell Davis Sr., moved across the country back in the 1970s to get away form big city life and he implanted us into what was first known as Cooper Road, now known as the Martin Luther King community, Muhammad said.

There is a reason he speaks.

What we have to understand is that everything in life, our every activity, is dictated and predicated by public policy, Muhammad said of why he continues to show up and speak during public meetings. "So, if were going to be a society of laws and ordinances, then we want to be engaged so we can have some type of controlling factor over ourselves.

On the frustration level of seemingly not being able to get anything approved through the council that will benefit African American communities, Muhammad said people have to be politically astute.

We push voter registration drives and we push getting to the polls, but the political involvement in our community, stops there, Muhammad said. We have to understand that our political engagement must extend past the voting movement. We must fill the chambers of Government Plaza and we must attend school board meetings and engage these municipalities that control our lives.

As far as being frustrated, Muhammad said hes actually glad.

We as a people, believe that politics is a vehicle for us to achieve freedom and justice and true equity and equality and thats just not the case, Muhammad said.

"In five short months, we'll be commemorating, the 1965 Voting Rights Act signed by Lyndon B. Johnson. Since that time, it has been amended on a major scale at least five times. Once in 1970, again in 1975, 1982, 1992 and 2006. Why is it that we as black people in Americaand have contributed so much to America, we have to have a Voting Rights Act, when we have the 14th and 15th Amendment of the (U.S.) Constitution and we are U.S. citizens? Something is wrong with that picture.''

After slavery, black people walked away with nothing but determination and the shirt on their back. Black women, he said because of negative historical factors, lost trust that black men could protect them.

Theres a longstanding gap between black women and black men, so the black man has a lot of work to do to regain the trust, the love and the admiration, of the black woman, Muhammad said. When the sisters have the lovethey need from us and we have the admiration from the sisters, then we can accomplish whatever we so desire. When we achieve that, we can build our communities up.

As for race relations, Muhammad said an honest dialogue with no shouting or screaming is needed.

Read or Share this story: https://www.shreveporttimes.com/story/news/2020/03/15/testifiers-4-men-who-regularly-speak-city-council-meetings/5010785002/

Read this article:
The Testifiers: 4 who speak consistently during city council meetings share their reasons why - Shreveport Times