(Insert witty title of your choosing)...

So…no recap of last night’s Voices of Vision forum.

It’s not that I don’t want to write about Ann Forsyth’s lecture, which I thought was quite good. I just don’t know what to say…yet.

I will say that I’d really like to read her book Reforming Suburbia, and if a certain fellow HoCo blogger doesn’t find his copy soon, I’ll just have to buy it from Amazon. Forsyth, somewhat surprisingly, doesn’t seem dogmatic about planning and design or dismissive of suburbia, which are refreshing traits to see in an urban-focused academic and make me more interested in her work.

An added bonus of waiting for the recap is that GGP will post her Power Point presentation on the VoV website. Which means a blog post with pictures!

Meanwhile, Washington, DC’s getting greener.

The District is poised to become the first major city in the country to require that private developers build environmentally friendly projects that incorporate energy-saving measures.

By 2012, most large construction in the city -- commercial and city-funded residential -- would have to meet the standards, if the D.C. Council gives final approval to a new bill next month.

The era of "green buildings" would include devices such as low-flow shower heads and recycled materials and would require designing passageways that encourage walking, choosing drought-tolerant plants and improving air quality by reducing the need for artificial heating and cooling.

Although smaller cities, such as Pasadena, Calif., have adopted similar laws, the District would be the first large city to force private developers to meet the standards, said Cliff Majersik of the Institute for Market Transformation, a nonprofit environmental group that promotes green buildings. All 13 council members voted for the measure in a preliminary vote this week. "This is big," Majersik said.

My only response: Where’s our green building law?

(On the whole, a pretty boring post, I know. But it's Friday, and in case you've been living under a rock [or just don't care about these things] the world is most likely going to end tomorrow when The Ohio State University and Michigan take the field in the College Football Game of the…I don't even know, something super big. At least that's what ESPN and it's Sports Friends make it seem like. Anyway, it's probably breaking some rule of sports fandom, but having married a Columbus, Ohio-raised beauty and visited many times The Place The Sun Forgot [my name for central OH], I've become over the last several years a infected by the OSU bug [I think there's something in the water, because Ohioans are freaks for the Buckeyes, and this is coming from someone who knows his share of freaks]. So, this is a long way of saying: a) I’m a little distracted; and b) Go Bucks!)

UPDATE: Speaking of that other HoCo blogger, he's got a recap post of his own about last night's forum. Now, what can I say that he didn't?