After the rain, the night is quite cold. At least that is a good sign that summer is over. I’ve gotten my flannel out, and hopefully I’ll be riding my bike again. The end to the heat in DC is very similar to that of winter in Wisconsin; it means that one can actually start to fully live again. Hopefully I’ll be updating more now as well. I’ve spent a year exploring DC and have a few coffee related posts up my sleeve. I also will be posting more theoretical some thoughts. By this time next year, I’ll need some idea of a dissertation topic and I’ve always found a deadline to be quite motivating.
Lately, I’ve especially been interested in decision methods for urban planing. Essentially, the question is how governments should decide upon the correct interventions within cities. In democratic societies, this requires some sort of public input; often this takes the form of some analysis of people’s preferences. However, alone this method has many problems. There is also the “technocratic” method, whereby experts decide what an urban environment needs. In order to do this well, we need to have accurate models for urban areas and an understanding of the dynamics of those models. It is typical to use a mixture of these two methods when deciding upon an action, and it seems likely that any modern democratic method will utilize such a mixture. As I think about these things I’ll try to keep up with my posting.
In my immediate future, I’m going to Baltimore tomorrow to study the patrons of Patterson Park. It will be the first time in a long while that I have done anything empirical; hopefully I haven’t forgotten how to actually look out into the world….