What??

National Suburbs Museum!

The Kansas City Star
...You know that shopping center at Interstate 35 and Johnson Drive in beautiful downtown Merriam where no stores have ever opened?
...
You mean tear down the Circuit City-that-never-was and start over?

No, he said. Keep the shopping center. But have an architect add to the design, something to make it iconic...

The decision was to operate a facility focused on a national rather than just a local audience, the way the World War I Museum has.

“I think we can tell the national story of suburbia here,” consultant Guy Hermann said...

Do Toxins Cause Autism?

The precautionary principle suggests that we should be wary of personal products like fragrances unless they are marked phthalate-free. And it makes sense — particularly for children and pregnant women — to avoid most plastics marked at the bottom as 3, 6 and 7 because they are the ones associated with potentially harmful toxins. - Nicholas Kristof, NY Times

Bad Streets = Death

 

Parents of toddler killed in crash file lawsuit
The Denver Post

...Both the Colorado Department of Transportation and the city of Aurora are being sued in connection with Havana being widened in 2003 to only 7 feet from a Baskin-Robbins.

...In addition the suit names the parent company of Baskin-Robbins because the store's wall facing Havana was made of glass and did not have safety barriers....

There are many things that led to this tragedy, including the driver being high on meth, but there is no denying that the design of the road is very bad. The speed limit is posted as a 40MPH, but the width and number of lanes encourages speed. And then to have a glass storefront right up by the street with no barriers, no parking lane?

(Street view of accident location from Google Maps)

Servatti's Door