My husband, Bill, works for the Department of Defense as a civilian federal agent where his current day to day responsibilities involve protecting U.S. naval assets travelling throughout the Caribbean, Central and South America.  When the 7.0 earthquake rocked Haiti on January 12^th, he unpacked his bags for a scheduled trip to Panama and repacked them for the unexpected in Haiti.  Now, he has just returned after being there for almost a month.  Although his mission in Haiti wasn’t directly related to the urban and environmental issues that are the focus of this blog, some of the issues his team faced and the city he observed are definitely of interest to our readers.

Transportation Woes. Haiti’s transportation infrastructure was substandard to begin with.  When the earthquake hit, many bridges collapsed, the docks at the ports were heavily damaged and roads all over the city were blocked by buildings that were shook to rubble.  These obstacles increased the difficulty for aid to reach the Haitians in need.  Tasked with assessing ports, medical facilities, criminal threats, mass migration, allegations of orphan kidnappings, helicopter landing zones for aid distribution, and helping wherever they were needed, Bill’s team needed to move about steadily.  Initial travel proved to be difficult through the unfamiliar territory with a damaged road system.   At first, they hired locals more than eager  to earn some money to drive them around, navigate through the heavily damaged roads and translate from Creole and French to English when needed.   The people were friendly, gracious and excited to see help arrive.  Eventually, they were able to rent a car and find their own way around, as businesses began to reopen.

Haiti’s poor transportation system, washed out roads from mud slides of the past, and now earthquake damaged roads also caused horrible traffic.  It would take the team several hours to go only a few miles by car.  Gas scarcity and high prices also added to the complicated equation.  They were lucky to receive their daily ration of gas from the US military.

Given the high gas prices, normally five dollars per gallon, and extreme poverty that the Haitians live with, most Haitians primary mode of transportation is by foot.  Other common modes include bicycles and motorcycles.  Tap Taps are a popular way to get around.  These are independent trucks that operate as unregulated taxis.

Garbage Collection. Haiti lacks many of the basic city services that we take for granted.  Garbage and trash pile up on the side of the road.  When the pile gets big enough, they burn it.  The smell of burning plastic resonates through the air.  Port-au-Prince ranked 3^rd as the dirtiest city in the world in the 2007 Quality of Life Report produced by Mercer Human Resource Consulting.  The report ranks 215 cities throughout the world based on levels of air pollution, waste management, water potability, hospital services, medical supplies and the presence of infectious disease.

Water Pollution. The rivers that run through Haiti and the Caribbean waters that surround it are used for everything that you can imagine.  People wash their clothes in it, dump biological waste in it, bathe their children in it, and drink it.  The water’s edge along the coastline is covered in garbage.  The water running down the street gutter is brown.  Bill did not want to step in the gutter water for fear of what he would bring home on his shoes.  Just after that thought ran through his head, he saw a woman bend over and drink from it.

Deforestation. Most of Haiti’s countryside has been deforested and used to meet basic needs.  As was pointed out in past articles, the deforestation has led to a lack of wood to properly build buildings.  Without the proper support, the buildings in Port-au-Prince could not handle the magnitude of the earthquake, contributing to their collapse and the demise of over 200,000 people.

Recycled Clothing. Bill noted that a lot of their clothing looks like our old clothing.  Our clothing is apparently being recycled to them.  He saw a “Where’s the Beef” t-shirt and a “Frankie says Relax” t-shirt.  He even saw several people wearing my old alma maters t-shirts, Florida State and Georgia Tech.

Toys from Trash. Smiles were starting to come back to the children’s faces by the time Bill left.  With so little that they have, they still are children.  They still like to play.  They made kites out of trash bags, pull toys from empty water bottles and toy cars from old cans.

A World Community. On a brighter side, a tragedy like this does bring the world together.  Makeshift medical tents from teams of almost every country you can think of – Jordan, Canada, France, Germany, Jamaica, Dominican Republic, Brazil, Israel, Russia, the United States, and so on – were cropping up all over the country.  Bill met so many amazing people that put their home lives on hold, hopped on a plane without a formal plan in hand to come help.  They came as volunteers, packed their own food and brought supplies, because their hearts led them there.  I am proud of many of our own friends and neighbors that did just that.

“Haiti Normal” as it is called, is starting to return.  Cleanup efforts have begun.  Markets are reopening.  Bill bought local art from vendors on the street.  In so many ways, the Haitian people live much more sustainably than us.  But in so many ways, they are destroying the environment that surrounds them.  With all eyes on Haiti, we can learn a lesson or two from them, while trying to help reverse the horrible cycle of poverty and environmental destruction they are stuck in.  Now it’s your turn.  As part of the international community that is helping Haiti, what do you think are the key pieces to rebuilding this country?

As I typed the title of this post, even I cringed. Anyone who thinks they’re a social media “guru” or “expert” or whatever, is wrong. Why? Because Web 2.0 style social media is too new to have any experts. How can you be an expert on Twitter when it’s only really been around for three years, and popular for one? How can you know how to treat Facebook when the functions keep changing. In truth, no one is really sure what the effect of updating your status and tweeting your thoughts constantly will do to our culture yet. We’ve moved beyond insta-polling and gotten to the point where Twitter can tell you what the world is saying about any subject almost instantly.

Within this tapestry of intermingling voices (that was a pretty way of describing what others might call “noise”) there are real communities forming, there are real examples of the social web becoming a way for people to gather and create something, a positive force for good. Some examples….

The 12for12k movement led by @dannybrown, he crowdsources – leveraging social media to raise funds for different charities all year. His work and the work of all those donating their time and money is changing the world in a positive way by personally linking others on the social web to their movement. It’s a massive shift in the way we think about charity donation. It’s web based, diffuse, and personal–you feel like you KNOW those who fight for 12for12k because, well, you do.

What if you are struck by a personal tragedy, say contracting cancer? Today, you can leverage the social web to make a difference. That’s what Drew Olanoff is doing via Twitter. His @drew account, followed by over 10,000 people is inspiring people to fight cancer. Not only has he partnered with @livestrong to raise money, including auctioning his twitter handle to Drew Carey, but he’s done something bigger. He’s attacked cancer with his unique brand of humor. Now anyone on Twitter that has something to complain about can #blamedrewscancer it’s a way to use humor to raise awareness across the web and anyone can participate. That’s the power of social media to do good in our society.

But if you’re like me, you want to do something practical. You want to use the social web to solve a problem. I want to make our building stock in the US more sustainable, so I’m starting a company called Build2Sustain to do it. Part of starting that company has been signing on an advisory board. Every single member of that advisory board is someone I began conversing with through Twitter. Reading their thoughts on sustainability and the building space, I got a sense for their thought processes. We tweeted, we emailed, we spoke on the phone, now we work together to try and build a business that might help the world in some small way.

The walls have been broken down and now if you really are committed to an idea or a cause, you can find others who are too. You can reach out and get inspired through the work of others, join a cause or start one of your own.

Welcome to the new Aribra.com

It’s official. The transition is complete and we’re off! Thank you so much for the continued support and encouragement as the project was and continues to be underway.

I founded The Aribra Group, LLC as a think tank and real estate development services organization to promote and demonstrate best practices in the built environment with a primary focus on the smaller city. Aribra provides two distinct but complimentary services: 1) fee development services and 2) Aribra.com.

Aribra.com serves as an online forum and blog to exchange ideas advancing sustainable real estate development within small and medium-sized cities (populations less than 500,000). In our research, we found a plethora of information on efforts to encourage infill development, create pedestrian-friendly streets and develop human scale communities for larger metropolitan regions (New York, San Fransico, Chicago etc). There is very little literature, however, on smaller locales. Aribra.com serves as that bridge that will aid smaller cities in successfully implementing redevelopment initiatives.  Aribra will also offer possible solutions to public health conditions attributed, in part, to inadequate community design. Additionally, we profile thought leaders, developers and projects that best exemplify what can be accomplished when an integrated approach is taken in building community. Aribra.com has contributors that blog on issues surrounding urban planning, community development, design and public health. The Aribra Group seeks to rebuild communities offline through communities online, utilizing the core principles of sustainable development; environmental, social and economic.

I’m excited about the positive trends in real estate toward more human scale, walkable environments. You’re invited to join the conversation and community as we usher in another voice advancing sustainability in the built environment.