Berkeley Votes to Boost Co-op Economy in the Face of Gentrification, YES! Magazine
The co-op already thrives in Northern California. But in an effort to keep locals in the area (which has an extremely high cost of living), the city council in Berkeley, Calif., is throwing even more support behind the model. Similar to initiatives already passed in New York City; Madison, Wisc.; Cleveland; and Richmond, Calif.; Berkeley’s move provides tax incentives, support for worker-owners and financial aid to small businesses — making it easier for co-ops to become powerful job generators.
The Miracle of Minneapolis, The Atlantic
The Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minn., metro area has a higher median household income than New York City, Los Angeles or Chicago. Despite the Twin Cities’ wealth, affordable housing remains in reach for most residents. Unusual plans that encourage rich neighborhoods to share tax revenue with middle class and low-income residents — a move referred to as “fiscal equalization” — means that the American Dream is alive and thriving in Minnesota.
Giving Students What They Really Need, Bright
No matter how good a school is, a child’s learning suffers when he or she is subjected to chronic stress. But schools often add to or ignore kids’ anxiety and tension, instead of teaching tips and strategies to diffuse it. Turnaround for Children* is teaching social-emotional skills, such as stress management and self-regulation, in the classroom, enabling all kids (namely low-income ones and those that suffer from abuse or neglect) to be high achievers in an academic setting.
*Editors’ note: Pamela Cantor, founder of Turnaround for Children, is a NationSwell Council member.
Tag: Berkeley
The Top 5: America’s Best New Buildings
Undoubtedly, we associate cities with their iconic structures: New York City’s Empire State Building, San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge and the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, to name a few. But these edifices — so forward-thinking for their time that we’re still in awe of them today — are at least half a century old, making it seem like the era of erecting statement-making civic structures has passed.
Proving that designers are still as innovative as ever, however, are this year’s recipients of the prestigious Honor Award from the American Institute of Architects (AIA). The winners, which will be formally recognized at AIA’s National Convention in Atlanta this May, are diverse “in scale, expense, concept, use, in virtually every aspect,” says Waller McGuire, executive director of St. Louis Public Library and the only non-architect on AIA’s nine-member jury. “The strongest connection between the award winners is that we looked for architecture that respects and elevates the people using it: the people who will ultimately judge it for themselves.”
With that in mind, here’s a selection of five outstanding buildings, all of whose architects paid particular attention to their social responsibilities, impact and energy usage.
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One Small Tweak Made a World of Difference in This Computer Science Class
Something revolutionary happened last spring at the University of California Berkeley. For the first time ever, as far as digitized records indicate, more women than men enrolled in Professor Dan Garcia’s introductory computer science course, “Beauty and Joy of Computing.” Men have long outnumbered women in computer science majors, earning 81.8% of the bachelor’s degrees according to a 2010 National Science Foundation report, and are far more represented in careers in the field. So professors at Berkeley, Stanford, and elsewhere have retooled their computer science classes, especially introductory ones, with the hopes of attracting more women to them.
Garcia told Kristen V. Brown of the San Francisco Chronicle that he conceived his computer science class for non majors as being more than “just programming,” and he made it “kind of right-brained as well.”
Sumer Mohammed took Garcia’s course without plans to major in computer science, and the class changed her mind. She’s now an electrical engineering and computer science major. In recent years Berkeley and Stanford have about doubled their computer science enrollment among women, who now comprise 21% of the students in this discipline at each school.
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These Eighth Graders Wanted a Library. So They’re Building One Themselves
Don’t tell the eighth-graders at Realm Charter School in Berkeley, Calif., that they can’t do something. They’ll end up proving you wrong. As part of an in-school design and building class called Studio H, this gang of 108 13-year-olds is creating a library for their three-year-old school. X-Space, as the students are calling it, is a project that grew from a question their teacher Ms. Nini (Hallie Chen) posed to them: What do you want from your school? “One of the students said they want to find their inner self. One said they want to understand how microphones work,” Chen said in the project’s Kickstarter video. “Overwhelmingly, they all wanted a place to read, relax, focus, learn and explore.” And where’s a better place to do that than in a library?
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The class got together to conceptualize and design every part of the X-Space — from bookmarks to book bags to stamps and, of course, book shelves. That’s where their concept took on a life of its own. The students, inspired by the algebraic concept of solving for X as an unknown, designed what they call STAX, a shelving system made from stacked, wooden X’s. The students’ plan is not just to build an extensive shelving system out of these X’s — which are crafted from 13-ply finished plywood using CNC (Computer Numerically Controlled) technology, which was borrowed from Carl Bass, CEO of Autodesk, whose factory is nearby — but to use these same materials for tables, benches and stools, as well. The students estimate that they’ll need about 250 to 275 STAX for their design, and are raising money to help fund the project. They’re even offering STAX as rewards. For these students, X can be anything. “We designed this thing that not only solves something for us, but can be good for other people, too,” Valeria, a Studio H student, said.
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Studio H was first launched in rural Bertie County, NC. In this class, students apply what they’ve learned in their core subjects to design and build “socially transformative” projects. Previously, Studio H students have built a farmers market pavilion, a pop-up park, laser-etched skateboards and more. In the program, the students learn how to shape their environment. They see their ideas come to fruition. And most importantly, they can design and build something special for other kids to enjoy. “The first semester was just skill building,” Emily Pilloton, who founded Studio H, told Fast Co.Exist about Realm Charter School’s project. “Then we asked them, OK, now let’s look around us at our school community and let’s ask what do we need, but also what do we want? What are the things that we feel passionate about and we can physically build?” They wanted a place to explore. “I thought that was really a poignant way to put it,” Pilloton said. “A library is not just a room filled with books.”
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