List of sections in Raise the Hammer, with links to each article in that section.
(return to Sections)
Can the Bicycle Save Civilization? - The lowly bicycle could be a key to our long-term survival. Published 2006/09/20
Growing Sustainable Suburbs: An Incremental Strategy for Reconstructing Sprawl - Rather than seeking massive top-down reconstruction projects (which have so often failed in the past anyway) the authors recommend piecemeal changes. Published 2006/04/09
Peak Oil Scenario Planning - For some reason, the idea of local governments preparing for peak oil - despite the fact that no one disputes that oil is a finite resource - has not taken hold. Published 2005/12/14
Getting There in Suburbia - The end of suburban affluence could inaugurate a civic renaissance, keeping people too busy building rich, diverse neighbourhoods to notice that their nominal "living standards" are in decline. Published 2005/11/10
Two Futures: The Sustainable Home - Wake up from the "American Dream" and start building a community worth living in. Published 2005/11/10
Two Futures: The Suburban Home - Sprawl living stretches out like a life sentence in isolation. Published 2005/11/10
Sidebar: The New American Dream - Creating smart suburban downtowns with a mix of uses can help form the logical connections that help new Americans get to jobs, spend their free time, and access public and educational services. Published 2005/10/21
Sidebar: The Answer to Zoning Troubles? - Form-based codes can transform suburbs from bedroom communities or strip mall thoroughfares into a bustling communities centers with commercial, retail, and public areas all accessible in a pedestrian-friendly area. Published 2005/10/21
Saving the Suburbs - The challenge of reinventing the suburbs is difficult for even the most enterprising town leaders and Published 2005/10/21
Retrofitting the Suburbs for Sustainability - As we in Australia take the first hesitant steps beyond "rugged individualism" and begin to re-learn the skills needed to govern ourselves in community, the private-within-commons system tends to sit more comfortably with many. Published 2005/10/21
Self-Reliant Suburbs - The suburbs could be the raw material for a sustainable revolution. Published 2005/10/21
Stop Catering to Cars - Al Cormier lists a number of strategies for municipal and/or provincial governments to help suburbs prepare for the end of cheap energy. Published 2005/10/21
The Simpler Way - Above all, the basic feature of the new suburbs and towns must be their highly self-sufficient local economies. Published 2005/10/21
The Primacy of Ecology - Nature and agriculture must work its way back into what presently is a massive, disastrous design mistake fueled by weakness, laziness, greed on ego as well as gasoline. Published 2005/10/21
Ripping up Asphalt and Planting Gardens - This culture is killing the planet. It must be stopped. We evidently do not have the courage to stop it ourselves. The natural world will stop it for us. Published 2005/10/21
The Psychology of Previous Investment - The conditions of the permanent global energy crisis we face will create a lot of economic losers, and they are going to be very angry over the loss of their entitlements. Published 2005/10/21
Suburbia Project: The Responses - Consider this the start of what we feel will be a critically important debate in coming years, as the energy foundation of a continent-wide - and rapidly globalizing - living arrangement begins to crumble. Published 2005/10/21
Sprawl is Dead. Long Live the Suburbs! - For better or worse, sprawl suburbs are here to stay. Either we come up with ways to make them livable or we're going to be in big trouble. Published 2005/10/21
Proponents do not have to rationalize the need for transit or look at alternatives (only alternative construction methods) since the need for transit and the benefits to communities, the environment and the economy are clear." -- From the Government of Ontario's New Transit Environmental Assessment Process
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Transit IS Pedestrian-Friendly (Aug. 25, 2008) - I really hope McMaster University will reconsider its decision to move the B-Line express buses off-campus, particularly given that the justification is to make the campus more pedestrian-friendly
Hamilton Lost 20% of Farmland since 1991 (Aug. 25, 2008) -
The Toronto Star has published an interactive map of lost farmland across southern Ontario.
Hamilton alone lost 20 percent of its farms in the 15 years between 1991 and 2006. Click on a high
Fringe Festival Review: I Am Not Neil Young (Aug. 22, 2008) -
What does it mean to live in the shadow of greatness? How can a talent made famous for his ability to impersonate demonstrate or even discover his own true self?
Frank Wilks is not Neil Y
Fringe Festival Review: New Talent (Aug. 22, 2008) -
The emotionally harrowing tale of a young woman driven by circumstance into the escort business, New Talent is simply a tremendous performance.
Interweaving a personal tragedy with a public
Fringe Festival Review: Lear's Shadow (Aug. 22, 2008) - The tragic Lear's Shadow boils Shakespeare's King Lear down to its essence: not the conflict between an insecure father and his treacherous daughters but rather the interplay between a foo
Fringe Festival Review: Because I Can (Aug. 21, 2008) -
Written by Allison McWood and directed by James Henderson, Because I Can is a screwball comedy that parlays a simple premise into a lively hour of very funny entertainment.
Karina Berschteyn
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