I have published thirteen stories in the last fortnight. And yet ..
I keep thinking about trees. They remind me of my ignorance.
I spent over forty years working in UK media. I knew so much about so many aspects of radio, internet and tv. I didn’t realise that at the time. I do now. I have chosen to come to this topic - and what do I call it, urbanism? environmentalism? - and I have only the sketchiest ideas about the most basic concepts.
Those trees I mentioned? I read a terrific report about the importance of trees and how to asess it. (I will post about this soon) I knew trees were important but I had no idea about the nuance. Thirty four stories down .. clearly many more to come ..
What am I trying to achieve?
I spent a useful hour earlier this week revisiting my organising question. In my notes I refer to this as the exam question or ExamQ:
How do I live my best life in the world's greatest city during this climate crisis?
This was prompted by the realisation my recent posts had revealed an early bias about and against cars. There will be a different blend of stories in the coming weeks.
What have I learnt?
The post about the Mayor’s Transport Strategy (MTS) proved important in other ways. I knew this was going to be important. The scale, the clarity and the way the Mayor has gone about delivering it, mean this will feature on a regular basis. This first post is broad but short: the follow-ups will be in more detail and topic specific. If you read nothing else, look the chart showing his preferred outcomes and targets for 2041.
Other things that have stuck with me in the last forntight.
There’s been a drop in car ownership across London.
We can thank King Henry VII for the Mortlake brewery on the Thames.
And social media is full of American urbanists, planners. Brits nbot as obviousl. I can’t help thinking there’s a virtual or real meeting taking place with such Brits. I just need to find it.
Production thoughts
MTS dominated my time. I have stacks of posts that are WIP. Seven according to Craft Documents, where I keep my notes.
I keep returning to older posts to amend them. More often than not this is because I now know a little more about something. I can improve the text, making it both more accurate and useful. I am mindful at some point this becomes a major re-write. Were that to happen, I will publish a new post, supplanting the old one.
I have found several sources of royalty-free images including the Major’s office.
ChatGPT has proved a useful research tool. I am a ChatGPT Plus subscriber. This week OpenAi released the deep research module to UK plus users. This seems impressive and useful. It felt like having a part-time research assistant. I never cut and paste ChatGPT text. Instead, I use it to review my posts.
I renumbered all my stories including all Posts and Notes. I realise the distinction was not useful. I might try to retro-publish these Notes, if I can maintain the original publication date.
This process lead me to stop using Substack Notes. The sort of thing I was publishing could have been Posts, if ephemeral ones. I might return to Notes again, depending what happens to this blog.
Niggles
I am phoning a friend over my domain problem. It has beaten me.
I don’t understand why the Carl Sagan image doesn’t carry through into my Substack homepage.
Looking to future
I want to use this quarter - January, February and March - to launch an MPV. In my next report n three weeks, I will take stock and share my plans for what, if anything, happens next.
If I continue, I might launch one or two new channels. I am currently looking at how Bridged2050 might work on YouTube and Instagram. Early days but interesting.
Stories in the next three weeks include:
How the work of Barnes Community Association’s Ponder initiative sits with Bridged2050
More on the MTS
Defining the geographic scope of this blog
Why induced demand matters to the future of Hammersmith Bridge
Maybe something about trees ..
Posts published in the last two weeks
Climate change
None
Policy
Concerned resident shares another vision for Hammersmith Bridge
UK equivalent to American urban planners, traffic engineers, architects and the like
Looking at the Mayor’s Transport Strategy through a car windscreen
People
Place