How to build a bridge – The political route to the Tappan Zee II
Note: The following article was written before the pandemic and the resurgence of interest in climate change. It will provide historic context to subsequent posts in this space. “HOW TO BUILD A BRIDGE – THE POLITICAL ROUTE TO TAPPAN ZEE II” or “How a Musician took on the NYSDOT” Maureen M. Morgan INTRODUCTION – This…
How to Saddle your Community with High Property Taxes – A Citizen’s Assessment
High residential property taxes often occur when the commercial segment of a community is under developed or not developed in a way that serves the entire community. Most of the factors that raise the property tax rate are the result of decisions made by local boards, with little consideration as to possible unintended consequences. Here…
Who Controls the Earth?
“And God said unto them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.’” Genesis: Chapter 2, verse 28. And there it is – the command that…
The Tragedy of the Commons
Garrett Hardin, in 1968, used the concept of the ‘Tragedy of the Commons’ to illustrate his concerns about the ability of the planet to survive the over use of its natural resources. The basis for the ‘tragedy’ was found in a pamphlet in 1833 inEngland. The story goes like this: “Picture a theoretical pasture open…
Making Applesauce the Old-Fashioned Easy Way
In preparing a talk recently on the making of applesauce I discovered that all the postings on the internet that described ways to make apple sauce this supposedly easy way, were actually far more time-consuming than the process used in the 1950s or even earlier. Today the dominant process involves peeling and coring the apple,…
Resilience is becoming fashionable
To understand why we need to develop resilience we need to understand how dependent we have become on services provided by other people. The service industry is the fastest growing sector in theUSeconomy and has been for some time. As manufacturing has declined in this country (though there is a slight rebound emerging), service has…
Food or Fuel – an emerging dilemma
It takes a lot to get the public’s attention and even harder to hold on to it. The corn crop failure in the Midwest may be hard to ignore. On average food travels 1500 miles to get to the consumer. Even with an active locavore movement (those favoring food grown locally) in our region it…
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How to to Survive the Future 