Dialogue

A Car-Design Contrarian
FROM MIKE:
I know this article (“Highway to Health,” by Jade Chang, December 2011, p. 52) was trying to get us excited about all the avant-garde technologies converging in the family car. However, against the background of vanishing middle-class buying power, the whole article seemed a little witless.

There are credible signs that the mass market for cars in the United States is sputtering toward oblivion. Vanishing jobs, declining wages, and disappearing credit mean the formerly happily motoring millions simply won’t be able to buy (or lease or rent) these cars. Or maybe any cars.

Rather, the cars of the future may look like the old boats on the streets of Havana, Cuba—relics kept running by desperately poor people who have become scroungers instead of consumers.

Emerging Debate
FROM DANIEL C. WHITTET:
How interesting that the conversation about zero net energy (“Steep Learning Curve,” by Susan S. Szenasy, January 2012, p. 16) is emerging—along with a conversation about the state of democracy, and the role of
government in helping us maintain a healthy environment and our standard of living. In California, where green building became a movement 40 years ago, so many Whole Earth Catalog possibilities have not happened. But in Emeryville and Alameda and other cities all over the world, people are excited about trying, learning, and developing new habits and new standards of excellence. Nice.

CORRECTIONS
Our December 2011 story “Inside Jobs” (p. 46) stated that Poliform designed and produced custom furniture for the Templar Hotel, in Toronto. In fact, the Toronto firm Rhed designed the furniture; Poliform was the manufacturer.

In our January issue, the article “Space Invaders” (p. 22) contained inaccurate details about the book Make Space. The book costs $49.95, not $30, and it contains 272 pages, not 260. In addition, the plywood panels pictured in the illustration are .75 inches thick, not .25 inches. And in the final paragraph, we misspelled Scott Witthoft’s last name.

Also in the January issue, an article about the transportation reformer Mia Birk (p. 76) misstated the scale of Alta Planning + Design’s organization. Alta has offices in 20 cities, not 17, and it operates bike-sharing systems in four cities.