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On Main Street in the village of Freeville, New York, on a 2.8-acre lot where a dilapidated single-family house once stood, there are now a dozen tiny storybook-like cottages surrounded by the property’s pine trees. The development, completed last year, is helping bring new life to the village. Its one example of whats possible when towns dont have overly restrictive zoning. Its charming. The design encourages neighbors to know one other. And it offers housing for far more people on the same amount of land. The project is the third tiny house village in the region from a local developer, Bruno Schickel. His career started as a typical general contractorhe built and renovated single-family homes. But in the late 1990s, while reading a childrens book to his daughters, he was inspired by an illustration of a Gothic cottage in Maine. I said, You know, I gotta design something that looks like this, he says. And so thats what I set out to do. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Boiceville Cottages (@boiceville_)/a> 140 fairy-tale cottages on 40 acres Schickel owned a large property in a rural area nearby that had been part of a farm. One winter 29 years ago, when regular work slowed down, he asked his crew to build three rental cottages on the site, each with the same gingerbread design as the house in the childrens book. People loved them, so he built another three the next winter. The cottages range in size from 540 square feet to 1,100 square feet, but even the smallest units have a second-story loft for a bedroom and feel relatively spacious. There are now 140 of the homes, called Boiceville Cottages, on the 40-acre site. “The more I built, the better people liked them,” he says. “It was an interesting dynamic, because originally people were drawn to the fairy-tale cottage. And then people started being drawn to the community that was created.” [Photo: Bruno Schickel/courtesy Boiceville Cottages] A sense of community When I visited on a recent spring day, a group of neighbors was sitting at a picnic table next to the community’s meeting house while children played on a playground. While I was talking to a retired woman, teenagers playing basketball called out a greeting to her. Everyone seemed to know one another. “I lived in a suburb of Chicago for 45 years,” one resident, Christine Uliassi, told me. “My husband and I raised our kids there. But I know my neighbors here much better than I knew my neighbors there.” The cottages in the development are clustered in groups of three, each carefully angled so that when someone looks out their own window, there’s still a sense of privacy. But they’re so close together that people continually run into each other. At the meeting house, neighbors pick up their mail, use the on-site gym, and gather for book clubs and other events. The road between the cottages winds around curves, so people drive slowly, and it feels safe to walk. Despite the rural location, there’s also a bus stop at the property, so it’s technically possible to live there without a car. The development doesn’t have the density of a large apartment complex. But the specific layoutand the bucolic country setting, which draws people outsidemakes it more likely that neighbors become close. [Photo: Bruno Schickel/courtesy Boiceville Cottages] ‘Zoning chokes off innovation’ In many places, it would be impossible to build. “The one reason why I ended up building there was because there was no zoning in Caroline [the rural town where the site is located],” says Schickel. “I am a guy who thinks zoning, by design, just chokes off innovation, creativity. It creates uniformity. If you go to existing cities or towns or villages around the country and you say, ‘Oh, look at this, this is great,’ I can almost guarantee you their zoning would not allow that to be built today.” It also wouldn’t be possible in Caroline now. Last year, after a bitter fight, the town passed a zoning law that required large lots for any new home. Longtime rural residents opposed the law; wealthier transplants to the area tended to support it. “People said, ‘We love Boiceville. We want to make sure Boiceville can be built.’ But the fact is that they don’t,” Schickel says. “The result will be that they’ve preserved it for large suburban housing.” In Freeville, a zoning ordinance existed, but was flexible enough that it allowed for the conversion of the single-family lot. Neighbors were happy to see the former rundown house replaced, Schickel says, even if they were initially taken aback to learn that they’d suddenly be living next to 12 tiny houses. (The Freeville houses, in a departure from the original gingerbread design, are inspired by old railway stations and Freeville’s rail history.) In a third location nearby, where Schickel built 60 tiny cottages on a hillside overlooking a lake, the community passed a zoning law after the project happened. “There’s a complete discrimination against rentals,” he says. “And there’s a discrimination against small [houses].” [Photo: Bruno Schickel/courtesy Boiceville Cottages] Tiny house villages can help struggling communitiesand the housing crisis In the rural areas where Schickel built, the neighborhoods can help struggling economies. Caroline would have lost population without Boiceville Cottages; a popular local store, Brookton’s Market, probably couldn’t survive without it. And the approach can add more housing as rents continue to rise. (To be fair, the cuteness of the cottages means that Schickel can charge a premium for rent, but as in any housing market, adding supply helps moderate prices.) It’s a model tha Schickel says others want to replicate in other parts of the country. He continually fields calls from potential developers and city officials. “I just heard from a senior planner on Long Island,” he says. “He called me up and said, How can we do something like that down here?’ I said, ‘I can tell you right now, your biggest problem is zoning.
Category:
E-Commerce
People are often under the false impression that making their language complex or using jargon enhances their credibility. That might be true in certain circumstances. If youre an academic talking to other academics or a software engineer talking to other software engineers, using jargon makes sense. However, if youre talking to people outside of your field of expertise, it can alienate them. And when you alienate someone, it can cause them to switch off. It also reduces the likelihood that they take away anything useful or do what youd like them to do. Thats probably the last thing you want to happen when communicating with someone. So if youre prone to using jargon, you might want to consider taking the time to figure out how to communicate in simpler language. Why people use complex language Many people often use complex language because theyre insecure. When a person ties a big part of their identity to academic prowess, but they dont feel particularly successful, they can use complexity to serve as a security blanket that hides them. Its a way of making people perceive them as clever, or even obfuscate the truth. After all, its a lot harder to question or challenge something that your conversation partner doesnt understand. Secondly, many gifted executives simply lack social awareness. Unfortunately, many leaders dont give emotional intelligence the same weight they assign to developing technical expertise when climbing the corporate ladder. Quite simply, that means that theres a disconnect between what you find meaningful and important as the communicator, and what your audience finds meaningful. And when you choose to ignore the audiences perspective in your communication, issues arise. If you want the audience to listen to what you have to say, you need to consider how your audience would prefer to consume the information. Once you have that information, you can present the information in a way that will engage them and make them more likely to listen to you. The best communicators communicate simply Ive heard the argument before that history, physics, software engineering, and so on, are too complex to explain in a nontechnical way. I disagree. It is always possible distill complex subject matter down to simple language for a nontechnical audience. My argument is to look at Professor Brian Cox, who is a professor of particle physics at the University of Manchester. Few subjects are as complex as astrophysics. Yet Professor Cox explained it so well and so simply that he filled auditoriums on a Friday night with people wanting to learn about physics. If he can do it, anyone can do it. It simply comes down to whether youre prepared to put in the effort to learn the art of simple communication. The acid test for simple communication I often use this question with my clients: Would a 10-year-old child understand what you just said? If the answer to that question is no, then, I encourage my clients to go back to basics. In the same way that childrens stories often contain an underlying message, you can use analogies and stories to engage your audience, evoke emotion, and simplify complex topics. Understanding what matters to your audience If youre trying to convince people to take a specific course of action, it will benefit you to walk people through it in a clear, step-by-step way. To do that well, you need to get into the mind of the audience and use the language that they use, not the language that you are comfortable with. Whether you are talking to the board or trying to convince a customer to buyyou need to understand the factors that will convince them. Make sure to find out whats important to them and structure your communication around those key things. Being a successful executive shouldnt be about being the smartest-sounding person in a room. Rather, its about being able to persuade and influence others to buy in and work towards your vision. No amount of jargon is going to do that, but distilling complex concepts down in a way that your employees understand can go a long way.
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E-Commerce
Less than a year after announcing plans to establish a hydrogen-based aviation fuel hub at Pittsburgh International Airport, Pennsylvania-based natural gas producer CNX has quietly taken down the website on which it advertised the hub. The move comes as the fate of the much-vaunted hydrogen industryseen by the Biden administration as a way to power America while reducing climate-altering emissionsis in upheaval. While a Biden-era rule dealt a blow to those in the gas and oil industry hoping to invest in hydrogen technology and offered greater financial incentives to the renewable energy sector, President Donald Trump is showing preference for fossil fuel-powered hydrogen. Meanwhile, the fate of those Biden-era tax creditswhether for renewable energy or fossil fuelis up in the air as Congress wades through the budget reconciliation process. Under Trumps guidance, the Department of Energy has indicated it plans to kill Biden-era funding for four renewable-powered hydrogen hubs in primarily Democratic regions while retaining funds for fossil fuel-powered hubs in mostly red states, such as South Dakota, Ohio, and Kentucky. California, along with Oregon, Washington and other regions, are on the Department of Energys cut list, according to Politico, which said it obtained a spreadsheet of the projects. If the recommendations are ultimately adopted by the Trump administration, Pennsylvania would very much become a state divided. While a proposed hub in the Appalachian region that would run on fossil fuels is marked for approval, a hub mostly reliant on renewable energy near Philadelphia is marked for denial. The seven Regional Clean Hydrogen Hubs were a main plank of former President Joe Bidens climate agenda, a $7 billion effort to establish a national network of hydrogen producers to slow the use of the fossil fuels largely blamed for global warming. But with four of the hubs eliminated, the envisioned national hydrogen grid would become a patchwork, seemingly drawn along political lines and primarily powered by polluting sources of energy. The hydrogen hubs program was intended to spur innovations and demonstrations on how best to advance hydrogen as a tool in the clean energy economy, said Julie McNamara, associate policy director for the Climate & Energy program at the nonprofit Union of Concerned Scientists. Blatantly co-opting these funds for use as handouts to political supporters and favored polluters would be shameful, and fully undermine the programs ability to achieve those aims. While the Pennsylvania hub fueled by natural gas would use methane to provide energy for the production of so-called blue hydrogen, the other hub would use renewable energy such as wind and solar to produce whats known as green hydrogen. By itself, the burning of hydrogen doesn’t produce carbon dioxide emissions. CNX was originally involved in the former hub, known as ARCH2, but told the Pittsburgh Business Times in March that it had paused involvement in the project because of the uncertainty surrounding federal funding. CNXs name was also deleted from the ARCH2 website. CNX did not respond to requests for comment on the status of the hydrogen hub and the sustainable aviation fuel site in Pittsburgh. A spokesperson for the airport said it is continuing to move forward with its plans to become one of the first airports to have sustainable fuel production on-site. CNX was initially one of 15 companies enlisted in the hub, with plans to contribute low carbon natural gas to power hydrogen production, which entails using steam to draw off the hydrogen atoms from methane molecules, an expensive and energy intensive process. But the companys evolving relationship with the hydrogen industry appears to have soured when the Biden administration finalized a long-awaited federal rule on a tax credit for hydrogen production called 45V. That final rule, CNX argued, was overly restrictive, and failed to create sufficient economic incentives for the company to expand its production of methane released from abandoned coal mines, which it said was key to the growing hydrogen economy. CNX pitched its involvement in the Sustainable Aviation Fuel project in Pittsburgh as being dependent upon the outcome of the 45V rule. We saw the fossil fuel industry view 45V as a lucrative chance for profit, McNamara said. Not by truly reducing emissions, but by introducing loopholes that made it easier to qualify. CNX had previously lobbied for the intricacies of 45V to work out in its favor. A little more than a year ago, a CNX lobbyist pushed Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiros office to lobby the federal government to ensure the Treasury Departments hydrogen rule was lucrative for coal mine methanea request to which the Shapiro administration agreed, Capital & Main reported at the time. The value the rule gave to coal mine-derived natural gas came down to a series of arcane specifics in a formula that measures life-cycle emissions from beginning to end of the creation of a single kilogram of hydrogen. CNX urged the Treasury Department to treat coal mine methane as carbon-negative with the assumption that it would otherwise leak into the atmosphere from inactive coal mines, releasing a more potent greenhouse gas than if it were captured and burned, which would release carbon dioxide. (Both are greenhouse gases, but methane is well understood to be around 80 times more potent in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide over a 20-year timeframe.) By ascribing to this captured methane a negative value, a tinyportion of it could be blended into a natural gas hydrogen feedstock and qualify for the highest tier of the 45V tax incentive, the same level as hydrogen produced with renewable energy. But the final rule went against the pleas of CNX and companies like it, including the ARCH2 hub itself, which urged the Treasury Department to pass a methane-friendly rule in 2024, arguing it could lead to a loss of $6 billion in private investments otherwise and have far-reaching consequences for the hydrogen industry. Its like the Treasury Department went out of its way to say, We hear what youre saying. And the answer is no, said Sean OLeary, senior researcher at the nonprofit think tank Ohio River Valley Institute. The ruling was seen as a win for environmentalists, who urged the Treasury Department to ensure that any projects receiving subsidies under the guise of being clean were in fact clean. They feared CNXs proposal, and that of other fossil fuel producers, wouldve given natural-gas based hydrogen a tax boost equal to that for renewable, emissions-free sources of hydrogen. How and whether the rule will be upheld by the Trump administrationwhich has shown strong support for fossil fuels and a general disdain for renewable energyremains an open question, and one of concern to environmentalists. According to Bloomberg, the American Petroleum Institute, a national oil and gas trade group, has lobbied the White House to ensure fossil fuels can qualify for the highest tier of the hydrogen tax credit. OLeary sees CNXs apparent exit from ARCH2 as a sign of the hubs strained economics. In October, OLeary authored a paper in which he noted that the hub had lost four of its development partners, while a handful of others were showing signs of financial stress. This is not a resume that inspires confidence among prospective investors, OLeary wrote. CNXs reluctance to move forward signals a broader trend within the industry, OLeary said in an interview with Capital & Main. The wheels are coming off, OLeary said. Even after subsidies are taken into account, the economics still arent there to make many of these projects work. Another project development partner for ARCH2, KeyState Energy, is also showing signs of uncertainty. In February, a primary customer for its blue hydrogen, Nikola Corporation, a transportation company that had planned to use the hydrogen for a zero-emission truck fleet, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The company plans to sell its assets. KeyState CEO Perry Babb told Capital & Main the company had pivoted from its energy production project with Nikola to a new ammonia fertilizer project that has a committed customer, and will still rely on hydrogen and receive funds from ARCH2. The first payment from the hubs program has been doled out and KeyState will invoice for reimbursement soon, he said. Babb said he still meets regularly with the remaining ARCH2 project partners, who are all positive in expressing a way forward. But he noted that, for years, hes weathered regulatory uncertainty; the final 45V rule was the nail in the coffin for Keystates original plans to produce blue hydrogen under ARCH2. He said the company has also put its participation in the Pittsburgh Sustainable Aviation Fuel hub on pause. Last May, I began to notice dozens of hydrogen projects being canceled, he said. I had thought that it was essentially because the business case wasnt sound. With the continued uncertainty around tax credits through the end of the Biden administration . . . we said, Thats it. Were done. Were going to go where theres a market thats predictable. While failing to find a partner in the Biden-era Treasury Department, CNX could soon turn to the state, where Gov. Shapiro is reupping a $49 million tax credit for hydrogen production as part of his Lightning Plan, a six-pronged portfolio of legislation designed to speed up the commonwealths clean energy economy. Though supported by some state environmental groups, the plan caught the ire of others, like Karen Feridun, cofounder of the grassroots Better Path Coalition, who said in a statement that the Lightning Plan would continue and even expand fossil fuel production. On March 11, a group of Democratic senators and representatives introduced 12 cosponsorship memos, six in each chamber, carrying out Shapiros plan. Hes going to do whatever he needs to do to try to keep [hydrogen] going, Feridun said of Shapiro in an interview with Capital & Main. Its a nice way to kind of provide cover for having a continued fossil fuel plan, one that sounds really good to voters. Should ARCH2 unravel, Feridun fears grassroots environmentalists would be tasked with tracking individual projects, without the cohesion of a hub offering guidance. Even so, she said there never was a clear map that defined what the footprint of all of this was, which left frontline communities in the dark. Like OLeary, Danny Cullenward, senior fellow at the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy at the University of Pennsylvania, said he now sees the hydrogen hype bubble beginning to burst. Though he believes hydrogen has an important, if niche, place in the clean energy transition, its economics dont make sense in all uses unless heavily subsidized. We basically set up a structure that said, at the end of this rainbow is a giant pot of gold. And everybody said, Wed all like to do that. That all sounds great to us, he said. I think now the cold, hard reality of, Does hydrogen make sense? And in what applications would it make sense? is becoming a little bit more real. The whiplash of all this impacts Pennsylvania communities, many that are former oil, gas, and coal towns learning that major projects theyd once planned for are no longer. Its immensely damaging, OLeary said. State or even county and municipal level governments, theyre making economic development choices based on these expectations. The distraction impact of whats going on is just staggering. This piece was originally published by Capital & Main, which reports from California on economic, political, and social issues.
Category:
E-Commerce
To help a North Carolina community recovering from Tropical Storm Helene, a tulip farm in the Netherlands gave the gift of flowers. Dutch Grown runs a tulip farm in Voorhout, South Holland, and a warehouse in West Chester, Pennsylvania, where it ships out its flower bulbs to customers across the U.S. After Helene devastated western North Carolina last September, Marco Rosenbruck, a Dutch immigrant who moved to the region, reached out to the company with photos of the devastation asking for a few boxes of bulbs. Dutch Grown ended up sending 31 boxes filled with 10,000 bulbs for tulips, daffodils, and peonies. [Photo: ExploreAsheville.com] “At Dutch Grown, our motto is: ‘To plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow.’ When tulips bloom in spring, they bring hope and joy to the entire community. Dutch Grown co-owner Ben Rotteveel tells Fast Company. The company’s generosity has now helped Rosenbruck’s new home of Swannanoa, North Carolina, beautify a local park. Rozenbroek engaged the help of a local student for some landscape design to plant the bulbs, and they’re expected to bloom for the first time this spring. “Flowers give hope,” Rozenbroek told Blue Ridge Public Radio. [Photo: ExploreAsheville.com] North Carolina officials estimate Helene did $59.6 billion worth of damage in the state, and Swannanoa, a community of more than 5,000 people about a hour north of the South Carolina border, was especially devastated. The storm took out a bridge and damaged homes, but in the aftermath of the storm, Grovemont Park, where the flowers were planted, became a hub for the community where meals were distributed. [Photo: ExploreAsheville.com] Gardening can have unexpected benefits for communities recovering from disasters. Research into community gardens in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina and New York City after Hurricane Sandy found these spaces help build resilience because they empowered residents and helped connect them with each other, strengthening the social bonds needed to rebuild together. Grovemont Park has already done that for Swannanoa, and now the flowers will serve as a reminder. Landscape design can make our public areas more welcoming. By beautifying and intentionally designing outdoor spaces that people are meant to spend time in and enjoy, landscape design gives a physical dimension to community. Through this massive planting endeavor in North Carolina, Rozenbroek created an inviting, functional, and visually harmonious space as the community continues to rebuild from Helene. “After the storm, we figured out that community is the basics of everything,” says Rozenbroek. “People are willing to help each other and to make beauty. Isn’t that where humanity is meant to be?” [Photo: ExploreAsheville.com] Tulips don’t help build bridges or homes, but that doesn’t mean Dutch Grown’s gift won’t have an impact. The tulip garden shows the practical benefits of beautification; creating a relatively low-lift project that allows those recovering from disaster to grow closer and rebuild together; and allowing community members to rest their eyes on the perennial joys and habits of spring.
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E-Commerce
Remember when Netflix cost $9 per month and The New York Times website was free? Well, the days of online media feeling like a bargain are long gone. Today, its become a costly convenience. But there are still great deals to be had, thanks to cheap yearlong introductory subscriptions, budget bundles, and libraries. One thing to skip: those one-month free trials that are easy to sign up for but even easier to forget to cancel. Here are some of the best ways to truly save on digital media. Free content with ads or from the library Free news sources include the Associated Press, the BBC, DW (Germanys international broadcaster, available in English), The Free Press, The Guardian, and NPR. Many other sites offer a portion of their content free. You can also tap into free content newsletters and podcasts from typically paid sources such as Forbes, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal. In fact, most podcasts are free to stream (though they may include ads), from Joe Rogan to Jon Stewart. Meanwhile, a library card can help you score a world of free media through apps. Libby provides e-books and audiobooks on phones, tablets, and the web. Hoopla has e-books, audiobooks, movies, TV shows, music, and comics, with apps for phones, tablets, and smart TVs. Your library may not have every title you want, or there may be a waitlist. But its a great place to start. For more TV and movies, skip Hulu and Netflix in favor of Amazon FreeVee, Pluto TV, the Roku Channel, and Tubi. They are ad-supported, but nowadays so is the basic tier of most paid services. If you can handle commercials every few songs, check out the free tiers of Deezer, SoundCloud, Spotify, and YouTube Music. Long-term introductory subscriptions Many news outlets offer steeply discounted introductory rates for digital and digital/print subscriptions. As of this writing, deals include: six months of The New York Times for $4 a month; a year of The Wall Street Journal for $8 a month; and The Washington Post for just $40 a year. The San Francisco Chronicle offered three months for 25 cents, and the Los Angeles Times had four months for a single dollar. (For even more options, check out DiscountMags.) At the end of the introductory period, newspapers may offer further discounts to keep you from canceling. Streaming deals change more often, so keep an eye out. They have included a year of Hulu at 99 cents per month or three free months of Peacock (both with ads). Spotifys ad-free Premium plan is free for three months. Shared subscriptions You may save with a subscription that allows you to add one or more people at a discount, or even for free. For example: Two people can get one year of The Washington Post for $60. Depending on the plan, Netflix lets you add either one or two people at $6.99 a month for service with ads or $8.99 without. Spotify offers a dual ad-free subscription for $16.99 a month and a six-person family plan for $19.99 (versus $11.99 for one person), but everyone has to live at the same address. Amazon Family allows a Prime member to add one adult (related or not) and up to four children and four teens to share e-books and some other media for free. Apple Family Sharing allows up to six people to access much of what the first person subscribes to, such as AppleTV+, at no extra charge. Bundled subscriptions Savings on video bundles are often small, and may not help if the individual streamers are offering their own discounts. One to consider is the bundle of Hulu, Disney+, and Max (including HBO, Studio Ghibli, CNN, Food Network, The CW, and others) for $16.99 a month with ads or $29.99 without. For news, you can get Barron’s, The Wall Street Journal, MarketWatch, and Investors Business Daily at $16 a month for one year. For $12.99 a month, Apple News+ provides a selection of content from over 500 sources, including The Atlantic, Bon Appétit, National Geographic, The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, The Wall Street Journal, and (ahem) Fast Companyall shareable with five other people. Look closely at bundles with wireless carriers. For instance, T-Mobiles $85-a-month Experience More plan adds AppleTV+ and Netflix (with ads) for $35 more per line, per month than its Essentials Saver plan. But subscribing to both streamers on your own costs only $17.98. Experience More may be worthwhile for its additional wireless features, but not just for streaming. Buying a significant piece of Apple hardware (it varies by service) gets new users three free months of AppleTV+, Apple Music, Apple News+, Apple Fitness+, and Apple Arcade. The companys Apple One bundle starts with TV+, Music, Arcade, and 50GB of iCloud storage for $19.95 a month, versus $28.96 if bought separately. For $25.95, you can share all that, plus 200GB of storage, with five people. Throwing in Fitness+, News+, and 2TB raises the price to $37.95. Student, teacher, and military discounts The pricey Financial Times is free to pre-college students and their teachers at participating schools. Students and teachers can get a digital subscription to The Economist for 75% off. In addition, universities may offer free subscriptions to news outlets for students, faculty, and staff. Hulu offers students its ad-supported plan for $1.99 a month. Spotify bundles that plan plus its ad-free Premium service for $5.99. Apple charges the same for ad-free Music and (for a limited time) TV+. Peacock runs $2.99 (versus $7.99) for the first year. (The site Student Beans keeps track of deals on media subscriptions and many other items.) There are several options for military personnel, such as Peacock Premium at $3.99 a month for 12 months. Paramount+ offers a 50% discount for the life of any subscription plan. (Military discount sites The Exchange and GOVX list more deals.) You may be feeling overwhelmed by all these cheap and free offerings for all kinds of people and all kinds of media, but thats better than being overwhelmed with big bills.
Category:
E-Commerce
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