Maine Licensed Architect

I just received a letter with this crest on it.

It also contained this table.

The end result. . . I am licensed to practice architecture in Maine!

The ten years of hazing are over, and I'm now in the fraternity.

*

Seeing Italy. . . . finally

Seeing Italy from Evan Carroll on Vimeo.

I made this narrated slideshow in the winter of 2005 after spending a semester in Florence Italy during the fall of 2004.

All photography is mine except for a small number of images of the Iraq war.

The music is not mine but is credited at the end.

A Mayor for Portland!

Next year, Portland will have an elected mayor for the first time in eighty years. The Mayor will be granted limited political powers allowing him or her to lead and organize the City Council,  hire the City Manager, veto the municipal budget, and represent the city to the world beyond.

While the new Mayor will certainly face the serious logistical challenges of educating our children, maintaining services, and balancing the budget, the Mayor must also be expected to be kind of person who can bring Portland forward.

The “first” Mayor of Portland should be a person with the optimism to inspire pride and motivation within the city, the charisma to sell Portland’s image to vacationers and prospective businesses, and the dexterity to negotiate stronger regional agreements between the municipalities of Greater Portland.

The way in which the new Mayor performs his or her duties will set a precedent for how a mayor in Portland should act and what a mayor’s responsibilities will be for decades to come. The “first” elected mayor of Portland should look beyond written policy to provide an atmosphere of collaboration and consider these suggestions:

- Thank local organizations. Portland is a diverse city and will benefit from the continued diversity of services. The new Mayor should be prepared to work with, promote, and support local non-profits already providing civic services that the city does not have to supply.

- Enable local businesses. The movement to keep business local is strong, but survival for a small business in Portland is always precarious. The new Mayor must review city procedures to ensure that permitting and licensing processes are prompt and predictable for all business ventures.

- Support local farmers. The farmers’ markets in Portland have been very successful. The new Mayor will need to be part of a regional dialogue about land use to ensure that local food and natural resources are both available for years to come.

- Praise local artists. Portland will continue to be a vacation destination, and the presence of street art vendors, galleries, and an artistic culture create the kind of excitement that tourists expect. A strong relationship between the city and all artists will help Portland continue to be a tourist destination.

- Encourage local music venues and musicians. Portland is a hotbed for original music and musical performance, but has the venue infrastructure of a much larger city. The new Mayor should consider ways to create events or festivals that would bring new attention to Portland as a musical destination.

- Recognize Portland’s residents. Portland rests on the shoulders of its residents who choose to live here. A mayor for Portland must be a community organizer who will encourage neighborhood, community and city-wide events such as clean-up days, crime watch meetings, and neighborhood meet-and-greets.

The “first” elected Mayor of Portland must have the discipline to handle the daily challenges of running the city, but must also recognize that Portland is a city of willpower that continues to thrive because it is something to believe in.

GIFs!!!!

Last year when in Somerville we made these silly GIF files. I never figured out how to put GIFs on my blog, so i remade the images into this video.

It is what it is. . .

Fall Photography 2010

I had the opportunity to take some great pictures this fall.



It feels good to be back in to it for a change.

Chilili - Folk Dance (. . . LEGOS!)

My fantastic wedding and marriage to Sasha did not receive quite enough blog attention.

One of the best parts of  our reception was doing a few international folk dances with all the guests, led by my mom. More recently than the wedding Sasha, my sister, Jesse and I recreated one of the dances with Legos.



International folk dance is a great mix of history, anthropology and (you guessed it) DANCING.
I intended to include a picture of the dancing from the wedding reception but we don't have one that really captures it.

Here's what the dance really looks like:



And here's how to do it yourself:
http://www.folkdancecamp.org/07syllabus/Chilili%20(2007SFDC)%20E.pdf

Election Fall-out

I would like to draw attention to a previous post of mine:
http://evancarroll.blogspot.com/2008/08/what-will-i-think-of-next.html

I think of our government system as on a continuum of evolution. It will either flourish, or become extinct.

Our national government is really quite young and there is no reason that it won't become extinct. Monarchies have lasted much longer. Dictatorships have lasted much longer. Smaller, social governing or self ruling methods of indigenous peoples have lasted the longest.

The reason we like (the U.S. of) America is because of its aspirations. It's an amazing concept. . . give every person the same chance at life, liberty and happiness. The question of course is how to deliver on this promise. . .

I am officially fed up with the crucifixion of the incumbent. . . unless of course you see the two major parties collectively as the incumbent. If you see it that way then I'm with you. . . let's get out our torches and pitchforks!

It's becoming more and more obvious that we are in a bi-partisan stagnation. Whatever happens in elections two years from now will surely be reversed in four years.

(This has officially been a rant.)All that I am trying to say is that unless we find a way to alter the two party system then I'm not going to expect much.

Right now instant-runoff voting sounds pretty good to me. It would allow people to vote for their favorite candidate without concern for political strategy. Americans have become too political. Politics - literally - are about maneuvering and manipulating, and that is simply not a positive way of thinking about things.

That is my stance: I'm not interested in politics; i'm interested in DOING things. I (perhaps naively) think that a country could be run this way. Give me my instant-runoff voting, and let us all vote for what we believe in.

Thank you hillytown!!!!!

The more I visit hillytown.com the more I wonder how I ever did without it. If you want to see local bands in Portland, it's the place to go and learn your $hit.

I also want to share my love for the phrase "Hilly Town." It's a great song by the Ponys (now Phantom Buffalo) and here's the story of how I first heard it.

My good friend Toph and I were in our first year of college, and home from school for some holiday. Our typical gig was to wander around Portland until something happened to us. This method generally worked out and this particular eve was no exception. I had never even heard of Space Gallery, as I think they were in their first year.

As we walked down the best part of Congress, some kickin' music spilled out of a shop-front I had never noticed before. We went inside Space for the first time, and heard the Pony's for the first time. They were fantastic. I still love to hear the medley from the beginning of Shishimumu played live. It gives me chills and sends me back to that moment. We danced like crazy (we may have even started the dancing) and I even bought the vinyl EP with the Necktie song.

Here's where the story gets good. When the lights came up, we realized that we were at a wedding reception. We crashed a wedding to see the Ponys! I can't think of a more bad-ass way to be introduced to the Space or the Ponys. I would love to know who's wedding this was. It was in 2001 or 2002. Anyone have any info on this one?

Once again, thanks to everyone who makes seeing live music in this hilly town so awesome.

The "Transportation Issue"

My friend and fellow MAST memeber Christian Milneil wrote a great Op-Ed for the Press Herald about MAST's new Zoom Proposal. The Press Herald wrote short editorial in support of the idea. Christian did a great job outlining a path to improved public transportation.

I think that building a stronger public transportation system must be a top priority in the future, and while strong proposals are important, so is a strong rational. I would like to share my own rational for promoting public transportation.

The reason we need public transportation is simply that not everyone can get around by car. For the last 70 years we (as Americans) have primarily been promoting car-centric development, but these development patterns leave out those too young to drive, those who can't afford to drive, and those who have disabilities that prevent them from driving.

Our communities invested in public transportation in that past but as cars grew in popularity, support for public transportation wained. In the 50s my mom and her brothers would take a bus from Main Street Cumberland into Portland to go to the movies. Now, my grandmother still lives in the same family house but cannot drive or take a bus anywhere. We need to get the old transportation systems back.

We all know the regular reasons to improve public transportation: reduced car emissions, reduced congestion in cities, improved health (if people walk or bike) and even reduced sprawl as development centralizes around transportation systems, but I see personal independence as the reason at the heart of the need for better public transportation. People need to feel self sufficient and able to meet their basic needs on their own, but it is hard to feel that way if there is no alternative to driving.

As the baby-boomers age more and more people will be prevented from driving because of age related disabilities. As my parents get older (and believe me, they are not there yet) they will at some point have to decide not to drive. The prospect of losing such an integral mode of independence can be paralyzing to even think about. We need to start thinking about how they will be getting around now.

In the Portland area we currently have a system to address this issue called RTP. This is a by-request-only pick-up service and people must apply to receive the service. While the RTP clearly helps many people, it does not not offer it's services to teens who are too young to drive, and it does not provide the personal independence that a frequent and dependable public transit system could provide.

It is time again to make public transportation improvements as an investment in our communities, just as the interstate system was made an investment in the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956 and the railway system was made an investment in the Pacific Railway Act of 1862.

The car has played out its course as the "only way" to travel, and it is time for us to reintroduce the kinds of public transportation that used to be essential to our cities. Our current road infrastructure will be sufficient for a long time if we just focus on not having SO many cars.

The needs of our diverse populations are many, and we need a diverse transportation infrastructure to allow all of us personal independence in our modern world.

Toni's Writing Cottage

This is a great short documentary about my friend Toni Buzzeo's new writing cottage.
Photo and production help by Toph and Sasha.