Montpelier
ddobbs | March 11, 2009
I've been harping on this for years: To live easy on the earth, live densely -- which is to say, in densely built neighborhoods. This Times Economix column describes a study showing just that. Other studies have shown living more densely creates richer social lives and stronger communities. Yet we continue to spread out willy-nilly.
I see this to my dismay here in Vermont, where I live, in Montpelier -- the country's smallest state capital, and the only one without a McDonald's -- in a neighborhood of single- and multi-family houses so densely built that today you couldn't build it here,…
ddobbs | February 10, 2009Attended my local school board meeting tonight, a friendly, almost cozy affair in the elementary school lunchroom. People we see around this small town daily; a principal I've watched Red Sox games with. The proximate issues: a continually rising budget despite falling enrollment, and -- related -- whether or not to ditch our aging middle school by merging it with the high school; an idea I like, since our 3 buildings have capacity for about 1200 students and we have about 800 (and fewer every year), and the middle school is an aging, ugly, and horridly inefficient mutt.
We spend a lot of…