Holiday gift ideas, part one: memberships

(Mostly this is a reprint from last year, but the content is evergreen.  Reminders never hurt.)

The holiday season is a good time to join a membership organization promoting sustainable transportation, arts, history, etc.  Here are some ideas:

1.  Membership to a national (advocacy type) organization such as Rails to Trails Conservancy, League of American Bicyclists, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, GreenAmerica, or the National Gardening Association.

2.  Membership to a state advocacy organization such as Preservation Maryland or Futurewise, the state smart growth advocacy group in Washington, the Virginia Bicycling Federation or BikeMaryland.

Or a multi-state/regional group like the Sightline Institute or Ecotrust, both based in the Pacific Northwest, or the Civil War Trust.

3.  Membership to a regional, county, or city preservation, mobility, or land use advocacy organization such as DC Preservation League, the Landmark Society of Western New York, Cleveland Restoration Society, Preservation Resource Center of New Orleans, Transportation Alternatives of New York City, SPUR--San Francisco Planning and Urban Research Association, Gotham Gazette, Chicago Reporter, Municipal Arts Society of New York, Regional Plan Association (New York), WalkBoston, Washington Area Bicyclists Association, etc.

In the DC area we have the Coalition for Smarter Growth.  In Richmond, there is the Partnership for Smarter Growth.

4. Membership in a local history museum, including  state railroad museums and house museums, such as the Detroit Historical Society, Heinz History Center in Pittsburgh, the New-York Historical Society or the Museum of the City of New York, the Valentine History Center in Richmond or a regional trolley or transit museum like the NYC Transit Museum, the Baltimore Trolley Museum, or the National Capital Trolley Museum.  The Market Street Railway organization in San Francisco publishes an awesome newsletter for members.

And it turns out there is a great friends organization associated with the Gettysburg National Battlefield Park, Friends of the Gettysburg/Gettysburg Foundation.

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5.  Membership in a local nonprofit cinema such as the Byrd Theatre in Richmond, the Tampa Theatre, or the Avalon Theater in DC, etc.

6.  Membership in local arts museums.  They get a lot of members already, but still.

7.  Membership to a neighborhood organization such as a friends group for a local library or park, a neighborhood preservation group such as the Capitol Hill Restoration Society or Historic Takoma, a friends group for your community library, etc.

8.  Membership in a citywide friends group for parks or libraries.  I am truly jealous of Atlanta's Park Pride park support organization.  Of course, there are local groups too.  Related parks groups in our area include the Anacostia Watershed Society and Potomac Riverkeeper or trails organizations like Catonsville Rails to Trails outside of Baltimore.

9. Membership in other types of local groups doing good things, such as a building materials resale organization like Community Forklift in Prince George's County Maryland or Loading Dock in Baltimore, your local Habitat for Humanity or Rebuilding Together housing development and repair organization, etc. The BRIC arts and media group in Brooklyn is awesome...

10.  Membership in your local public television station, public radio station, or community media outlet.  Despite all their on-air fundraising campaigns which can be bothersome, they do need money, and it's total b.s. that "the Internet" and "cable and satellite television" substitute for these kinds of media resources.  Hell, most of the shows on "History Channel" and "Arts & Entertainment Channel" are reality shows that don't have much history.  We need PBS and local affiliates, public radio, including low power community media, like Radio CPR in the Mount Pleasant neighborhood of DC.

Holiday gift ideas: part one, memberships and donations

Out of the string of "Black Friday," "Small Business Saturday," and "Cyber Monday," holiday shopping promotions. there is also an effort to develop "Giving Tuesday," as a national day of giving as a focused element of the holiday shopping and giving season--many nonprofits ask donors to give before the end of the year, in part to be able to take advantage of possible tax deductions.

Many people plan to give such gifts anyway, but Giving Tuesday puts a focus on it and aims to get more people thinking about it and donating.

So this is a good time to start thinking about joining groups and giving donations as part of your holiday shopping.

Here are some ideas, but there are other idea sources as well, such as last week's City Paper's Annual Guide to Holiday Do-Goodery.

1.  Membership to a national (advocacy type) organization such as Rails to Trails Conservancy, League of American Bicyclists, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, GreenAmerica, or the National Gardening Association.

2.  Membership to a state advocacy organization such as Preservation Maryland or Futurewise, the state smart growth advocacy group in Washington, the Virginia Bicycling Federation or BikeMaryland.

Or a multi-state/regional group like the Sightline Institute or Ecotrust, both based in the Pacific Northwest, or the Civil War Trust.

3.  Membership to a regional, county, or city preservation, mobility, or land use advocacy organization such as DC Preservation League, the Landmark Society of Western New York, Cleveland Restoration Society, Preservation Resource Center of New Orleans, Transportation Alternatives of New York City, SPUR--San Francisco Planning and Urban Research Association, Gotham Gazette, Chicago Reporter, Municipal Arts Society of New York, Regional Plan Association (New York), WalkBoston, Washington Area Bicyclists Association, etc.

In the DC area we have the Coalition for Smarter Growth.  In Richmond, there is the Partnership for Smarter Growth.

4. Membership in a local history museum, including  state railroad museums and house museums, such as the Detroit Historical Society, Heinz History Center in Pittsburgh, the New-York Historical Society or the Museum of the City of New York, the Valentine History Center in Richmond or a regional trolley or transit museum like the NYC Transit Museum, the Baltimore Trolley Museum, or the National Capital Trolley Museum or a local nonprofit cinema such as the Byrd Theatre in Richmond, the Tampa Theatre, or the Avalon Theater in DC, etc.

The Market Street Railway organization in San Francisco publishes an awesome newsletter for members...

And it turns out there is a great friends organization associated with the Gettysburg National Battlefield Park, Friends of the Gettysburg/Gettysburg Foundation.

5.  Membership in local arts museums.  They get a lot of members already, but still.

6.  Membership to a neighborhood organization such as a friends group for a local library or park, a neighborhood preservation group such as the Capitol Hill Restoration Society or Historic Takoma, a friends group for your community library, etc.

7.  Membership in a citywide friends group for parks or libraries.  I am truly jealous of Atlanta's Park Pride park support organization.  Of course, there are local groups too.  Related parks groups in our area include the Anacostia Watershed Society and Potomac Riverkeeper or trails organizations like Catonsville Rails to Trails outside of Baltimore.

8. Membership in other types of local groups doing good things, such as a building materials resale organization like Community Forklift in Prince George's County Maryland or Loading Dock in Baltimore, your local Habitat for Humanity or Rebuilding Together housing development and repair organization, etc. The BRIC arts and media group in Brooklyn is awesome...

9.  Membership in your local public television station, public radio station, or community media outlet.  Despite all their on-air fundraising campaigns which can be bothersome, they do need money, and it's total b.s. that "the Internet" and "cable and satellite television" substitute for these kinds of media resources.  Hell, most of the shows on "History Channel" and "Arts & Entertainment Channel" are reality shows that don't have much history.  We need PBS and local affiliates, public radio, including low power community media, like Radio CPR in the Mount Pleasant neighborhood of DC.

Holiday gift ideas part three: another entreaty to shop local

There are five elements to this point:

1.  shopping in a local traditional commercial district as opposed to a mall.

2.  shopping at locally owned stores (as opposed to chain stores), primarily in traditional commercial districts but sometimes in outlier locations, so that more money stays in the local economy

3.  buying direct from artisans, usually at community arts/crafts/flea markets (in DC, at Eastern Market in DC's Capitol Hill (both days this weekend), the Downtown Holiday Market (through Monday), or the Fenton Street Market in Silver Spring, and various popup markets such as last weekend's on Upshur Street NW in Petworth).

b.  New York City has amazing holiday markets set up in many locations such as at Union Square (more likely that items are produced by artisans as opposed to Bryant Park, where there are cool stores, but they tend to sell manufactured goods not produced by artisans).

The items at right are made by Hooked and Loopy and are available at ArtSpring.  I am particularly fond of the alligator and intend to get it for the new baby next door.  The craftsperson was at last weekend's fair on Upshur Street and since she lives in Silver Spring, she'll be at today's Fenton Street Market.

We commissioned a pair of socks properly sized for a man from Amina Ahmad of Handmade Habitat and they were perfect and delivered to our porch in time for us to take as a gift to our neighbors.  She'll be at Fenton Street Market too.

Another really cool project is how Marcella Kriebel (left, at last week's Upshur Street Market) raised the money through Kickstarter to self-publish an illustrated cookbook, Comida Latina, based on recipes from people she met in various places.  The cookbook would be a tremendous gift. The illustrations are wonderful.

4.  buying from artisans via stores set up to represent them.  In a way, the Ten Thousand Villages chain of stores does this, selling crafts from artisans around the world.  In some communities, there are artist co-operatives that do this, such as the Arts & Innovation Gallery in Nashville, ArtSpring in Takoma Park, Maryland, or Arts Prescott Gallery, in Prescott, Arizona.

5.  A kind of way to shop local is to shop at a local museum store, such as the National Building Museum in DC or the New-York Historical Society in NYC (although frankly, I thought they could have had a much better selection of New York-related history books) or the Heinz History Center in Pittsburgh.  Most of the items aren't produced locally though, but may be locally-referenced.

Right: map-related posters, cards and other items showing DC neighborhoods are available from Cherry Blossom Creative.  (In DC, other artists like Mary Belcher do similar work.  I've seen similar products in other cities as well.)

Holiday gift ideas part two: gift items

1. Puzzles of city scenes.  This one is of DC.  The New York Times offers puzzles of any front page they have published.

2. Transit authority gift items.  How about a transit-related ornament or book?  Many transit authorities have comprehensive gift stores (run by third parties--they could have better book selections, but that's another matter).  Here are a few websites: NYC Transit Museum Store, WMATA, MBTA, CTA.

3.  Izola is a company produces shower curtains of city and transit system maps.  I think they're cool.

4.  The Lego architecture construction block series is really cool (but expensive).  I wish that the dude who created versions of various regional bus livery schemes would come up with schematics for people too...  See "DC transit in Lego" from Greater Greater Washington.

5.  How about a gift certificate from a local bike shop?  Like BicycleSpace in DC.  Better to give a gift certificate than to buy something that they might not like...

6.  For kids, I like the idea of cookbooks, such as At the Farmers Market with Kids from Chronicle Books, appropriately sized gardening or cooking implements, or a subscription to the ChopChop Magazine for kids and families.

7.  For relatives, I like to get trees or other plant material.  E.g., a couple years ago, we got Suzanne's parents an avocado tree.  And if anyone wants it, we have an errant holly tree growing in one of our beds in the front of the house that we'll have to pull soon enough....

SO relatedly would be books like the Back Yard Orchardist or the Back Yard Berry Book.

Holiday gift ideas part one: memberships and books and magazines

I know this post is a bit late, but there's still time to get a good gift or at least order it and give people an IOU.  Here goes:

1.  Membership to a national (advocacy type) organization such as Rails to Trails Conservancy, League of American Bicyclists, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, GreenAmerica, or the National Gardening Association.

2.  Membership to a state advocacy organization such as Preservation Maryland or Futurewise, the state smart growth advocacy group in Washington, the Virginia Bicycling Federation or BikeMaryland.

Or a multi-state group like the Sightline Institute or Ecotrust, both based in the Pacific Northwest.

3.  Membership to a regional, county, or city organization such as DC Preservation League, the Landmark Society of Western New York, Cleveland Restoration Society, Preservation Resource Center of New Orleans, Transportation Alternatives of New York City, SPUR--San Francisco Planning and Urban Research Association, Gotham Gazette, Municipal Arts Society of New York, WalkBoston, Washington Area Bicyclists Association, etc.

In the DC area we have the Coalition for Smarter Growth.  In Richmond, there is the Partnership for Smarter Growth.

4. Membership in a local history or arts museum, a state railroad museum such as the Detroit Historical Society, Heinz History Center in Pittsburgh, the New-York Historical Society or a regional trolley or transit museum like the NYC Transit Museum, the Baltimore Trolley Museum, or the National Capital Trolley Museum or a local nonprofit cinema such as the Byrd Theatre in Richmond, the Tampa Theatre, or the Avalon Theater in DC, etc.

5.  Membership to a neighborhood organization such as a friends group for a local library or park, a neighborhood preservation group such as the Capitol Hill Restoration Society or Historic Takoma, etc.

6.  A subscription to a magazine such as Old House Journal, This Old House, Dwell, Metropolis, Spacing (Canada), National Geographic Traveler, Green Places (this is a British publication hard to find in the US, probably the best publication for lay and professional audiences on public space matters), Shelterforce on social housing, regional magazines like Sunset or Southern Living, Grid Philly--a great local publication devoted to sustainability, Next American City...

Regional magazines and NGT are really awesome ways to learn about other places, local history, interesting stuff to do, etc.

7.  How about a bike roadside assistance membership from Better World Club?  It's like AAA but for bicyclists.  The AAA affiliate in Oregon and Idaho does this too, but AAA has some weird diversion program that uses cookies and restricts my access to the Mid-Atlantic site only, so I can't provide a direct link to that site.

8.  A gift of a book on urbanism, cities, transportation policy, etc.  I don't have it together with a master list, but Planetizen publishes a list each year of their top 10 book suggestions.

I definitely agree with their choices of Beyond Zuccotti Park and Straphanger.  Both are excellent and important books.

I'd happily recommend City Cycling, but the recipient has to be really hardcore for them to actually work through and read the complete book.

Straphanger is really really good for people interested but not policy professionals.  I also always recommend Cities: Back from the Edge as one of the best "primers" on urban revitalization.  Jan Gehl's Cities for People is equally excellent.

9.  Or a gift of a book on local or regional history or architecture.  There are the picture and neighborhood history books published by Arcadia Publishing through their Images of America series.  They are usually available at local bookstores.

10.  I also recommend checking out the publishing programs of university presses, for a book on local history or architecture.

Two particularly interesting books I've come across this year are Main Streets of Louisiana, a picture and text book on the various town commercial districts across the state, published by the University of Louisiana at Lafayette Press and Michigan's Historic Railroad Stations by Wayne State University Press.

The latter book, by Michael Hodges, doesn't have an extensive section of introductory text, but what's there is golden--a succinct discussion of public space and the importance of railroad stations in the civic realm, and a good survey of the key texts in the field.

Right now the WSU Press is offering a minimum discount of 30% on titles as a holiday special.

Johns Hopkins University Press (catalog on railroads, regional interest, including architecture) and the University of Chicago Press (architecture) both have extensive publishing programs on history and architecture, with many many excellent items.  So does MIT Press and Princeton Architecture Press...

11.  Or a book on urban agriculture, sustainability, or homesteading, etc.  The Square Foot Garden is always good.  Or Backyard Chickens or Urban Homestead.

Or a subscription to Urban Farm, Backyard Poultry, or MaryJane's Farm magazine (some really great recipes). and one of the local foodways publications from Edible Communities.