Originally, the action-thriller “Homefront” was set in Minnesota. When Chuck Logan’s novel was adapted for the screen, the setting was swapped for an unnamed Southern town. But when director Gary Fleder showed up in New Orleans to start preproduction on the film — starring Jason Statham, James Franco and Kate Bosworth, and arriving in theaters Wednesday (Nov. 27) — it became immediately evident to him that Louisiana would be taking a front-and-center role.

Louisiana made sure of that.

“For me, the location scouting process becomes a big part of what informs (a project),” Fleder said. “Rather than looking at what’s in my head, I just sort of look around to see what’s there.”

What was there when Fleder and company arrived in town in late summer 2012 to prepare for “Homefront” were waterways and cypress trees, boat houses and creaky old homes that suggested a certain derelict, lived-in beauty. The more Fleder and company explored, the more ideas they got for making the film stand out visually, he said.

“For example, we found this beautiful, beautiful home that had been seriously damaged in Katrina and sat idle for years,” Fleder said. “It was really overgrown and beaten down. All we really did was sort of shaved down some of the landscaping, some of the greens, and shot the house as it was. That’s Franco’s house, where he’s on the porch, and I think that’s a great example of where we let the locations speak to us through the process, which I love doing.”

In describing that process, he uses words like “organic” and “embracing” his surroundings. In “Homefront,” the result is a movie that, if nothing else, oozes its Louisiana origins in nearly every frame, but — according to Fleder, a Virginia native who also shot “Runaway Jury” in New Orleans in 2002 — always with a mind to steer clear of the Southern cliches we’ve all seen, and been insulted by, so many times before. 

In another scene — a key third-act sequence shot at Magnolia Plantation at Nine Mile Point, and in which the home of Statham’s character is set upon by a band of baddies — Fleder didn’t just let the landscape dictate the look of the scene. He let it dictate the very way the action played out.

“There’s a whole sequence in the movie where the bad guys come into Jason Statham’s home by boat,” he said. “Now, it wasn’t written that way. It was originally written that they drive there. But I said, ‘Man, there’s so much water and all the bayou.’

“It’s a very organic process where, again, the location scouting and really being in areas — the West Bank, Slidell, Ponchatoula, Manchac, Gretna, Westwego, all the places we filmed in different parts of the movie — you take all these photos of locations and you say, ‘Wow, look at this beautiful tree, this beautiful light, this road, the water, and that begs to be in the movie.”

All that distinctly Louisiana imagery, however, presents something of a double-edged sword. While it provides a filmmaker with ample inspiration for beautiful shots, it’s not so easy as it might sound to avoid stepping over the line into cliché. That doesn’t just go for the landscape, but also for Southern characters as well — not to mention any accents they use, as any New Orleanian who has seen “The Big Easy” will gladly tell you.

It becomes even touchier in a movie such as “Homefront,” which is built around the antagonistic behavior of locals toward Statham’s character, a drug enforcement agent looking to settle down to a slower pace of life with his young daughter. But Fleder said his background makes him sensitive to the Southern cliché and how it can quickly become insulting.

“I had this conversation with this wonderful casting director named Lisa Mae Fincannon, who does a lot of casting in the Southeast,” Fleder said. “She does tons of movies — I worked with her on ‘Runaway Jury,’ I worked with her on ‘From the Earth to the Moon’ years ago in Orlando. And I said to her, ‘I want everybody in this movie to be a character not a caricature.'”

He continued: “If you look at (‘Homefront’), some of the characters have accents, some of them don’t. Some of them have deeper accents than others. In fact, when I did ‘Runaway Jury,’ I said to the people on the jury, I said, ‘Look, if you can’t do a realistic regional accent, just do your regular accent. Because people from New Orleans come from other places, people from the South come from other places.”

So, sure, sometimes we sound like Paul Prudhomme, sometimes we sound like Troy Landry, sometimes we sound like Edwin Edwards — but sometimes we also sound like Tony Soprano or Lil’ Wayne or Uncle Si Robertson.

Another double-edged sword with which “Homefront” will have to contend is its release date. On the one hand, it’s encouraging that Open Road Films has enough confidence in Fleder’s movie to schedule it to open on the day before Thanksgiving, typically a busy moviegoing weekend. On the other hand, that means there will be tons of competition with which it will have to contend, from the likes of Disney’s animated “Frozen,” the literary dramas “Black Nativity” and “The Book Thief,” as well as from another New Orleans-shot film, director Spike Lee’s “Oldboy.”

What it has going for it, however, is that it’s the only straight-up action film slated for release in that period. In fact, as evidence of its action pedigree, “Homefront” was originally developed as a starring vehicle for Sylvester Stallone, who — while eventually moving on to other roles — wrote the screenplay and earns a producing credit on the film.

“I think that the play was that it’s a really, really good suspense thriller/action movie,” Fleder said. “Audiences like it, it played really well, it’s wildly entertaining, and I think of all my movies, it’s just a major, major popcorn movie — and that was the intention. … You sit down, and once the movie starts, from fade-up to fade out, people are just in the movie. There’s not a lot of dead air. It just flies.

“I think if people want to see a really good suspense thriller action movie over the holiday,” he added, “this is the one.”

LOYALTON – Upper Dauphin Area Middle School students have an answer to the age-old question about learning: When am I ever going to put this to practical use?

As part of a “Real World Math Course,” eighth-graders made improvements to the school’s existing courtyard using creativity, math and technology skills.

“I liked going outside and making what we planned on doing possible,” Bailey Maurer, Spring Glen, a member of “The Constructioners” winning team, said. “The rendering of the site was probably the most difficult to do because I had never done anything like that before.”

Principal Michael Sim portrayed a potential customer, who said he needed help with landscaping and redesigning the courtyard.

Teams of students were tasked with the job of calculating the perimeter, area and volume, the cubic feet of flower beds and how many yards of mulch would be required to fill each bed. The teams determined where to purchase the mulch after acquiring quotes from local businesses.

The students did a scale drawing of the plot on graph paper, designed a computerized rendering of their idea using Google SketchUp and presented their ideas and developmental drawings to district staff and administrators.

The final part of the 11-week project required selecting a winning presentation and having the students actually install the design in the courtyard, based on their calculations and under the guidance of Blake Dutweiler, technology education instructor and Dan Frake, computer instructor, who co-taught the class.

This is the first year for the course, which was created to challenge eighth-graders who scored well on standardized tests and other benchmark data in the classroom.

Joining Maurer on the winning team were Ryan Strohecker and Jeff Klinger.

“All three of us are good in math, our calculations were correct and we had some good ideas,” Maurer said when asked why his team’s design was selected.

The other participating teams included “The Trojans Landscaping,” “The Wild Flowers,” “The Mighty Morphan Flower Arrangers,” “Mulching Monkeys” and “The Time Breakers.”

Elements from several teams were incorporated into one winning final design, which Maurer put together for the final computerized rendering. Then the class put its plans into action and began the actual upgrades.

“I like being outside and playing in the dirt,” said Morgan Maurer, Elizabethville (no relation to Bailey). “I like to do ‘guy’ things and I’d rather be out than sit inside.”

As a member of the Mighty Morphan Flower Arrangers team, Morgan Maurer said doing the math calculations was the toughest part of the course. She was the only team member, according to her instructors, that was confident enough to use the power edger while making the necessary improvements at the site.

“Instead of just talking about it, I liked that we actually got to do it ourselves,” she said.

Another classmate, Brittany Kinney, Elizabethville, said she thought the effort to do the calculations and proper pre-planning was well worth it.

“It’s a lot neater and cleaner now,” she said.

Keegan Kerstetter, meanwhile, thought figuring out the patterns and doing the rendering was the most challenging aspect of the course.

“Finishing it up and putting the final touches on the courtyard, and deciding what type of plants that we’d use was my favorite part,” said Kerstetter, Elizabethville.

Strohecker could see the course’s practical uses.

“I think it can help you in the future. One day when you have your own home, you can figure this out for yourself,” said Strohecker, Spring Glen.

Some of the improvements made at the site included adding walkway stones leading to a bridge in the center; power-washing and clean-coating wooden picnic tables there; redesigning the layout and including spaces for mulched flower beds, bird feeders and a maple tree. Staff members donated items for the class and also held dress-down “jeans” days to help raise funds for improvements, which students estimated to cost around $600.

“Once they got the hang of things, it went well,” Frake said. “From the start to the end of the project, they’ve enjoyed it and want to do more of this. They’ve executed it very well.”

“I was extremely surprised with how it turned out,” Dutweiler added. “There were limited items that needed to be fixed and their work ethic was ten times harder, I think, knowing that this (courtyard) will be here when they move on to the high school.”

Another rotation of eighth-graders will make similar improvements to the front of the school building grounds, Sim said.

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Lights and landscaping on the Loudon Road bridge leading to Main Street. Sculptures resembling Concord’s skyline along Interstate 93. A mosaic on the highway underpass at Exit 14.

Those ideas, shared last week, are the latest developments in the Greater Concord Chamber of Commerce’s effort to improve the view of Concord from the highway and attract visitors to Main Street.

A small committee, called Concord’s New Front Door, held a brainstorming session this spring. Last week, chairman and local architect Chris Carley presented the most promising and feasible ideas.

“We did choose to focus on ones that we felt had the most short-term promise,” Carley said.

He showed images of a skyline-like sculpture between the highway and the Capitol Shopping Center on Storrs Street. That design draws attention to the backs of buildings on Main Street, Carley said. The backside of those buildings could also be lined with small white lights at night.

But the ideas have no official plan, price tag or timeline.

“We have intentionally kept things vague and I encourage you to look at these sketches as springboards for how we might do things as opposed to proposals that either need to be accepted or rejected,” Carley told the small crowd gathered for his presentation at the Grappone Conference Center last week.

Other ideas include public art along the directional signs on the Loudon Road bridge at the intersection with Main Street that form an archway over the road.

Carley showed images of Bridge Street with banners hanging from light poles, flower beds in the concrete median and colored lights strung through the fences.

Additional public art could be placed in the grassy areas at Exit 14, Carley said, where motorists often sit and wait at red lights.

“This is an opportunity, since we have a captive audience, to tell them something about downtown,” he said.

The presentation drew mixed reactions Monday night, with some residents saying the designs may negatively affect Concord’s historical character.

“People come and shop and stop in Concord not because it’s a flashy, pretty city, they come because of the historical significance of Concord, New Hampshire, and that’s what we’ve got to concentrate on,” said Conrad Young, an artist and retired owner of Young Associates advertising firm.

But several other residents praised the ideas.

“While I completely appreciate the desire to preserve the historical aspect of Concord, which is something that all of us love, I also want to be aware of what the changing demographic is . . . and what is it that’s going to entice the younger families and the younger generation, the next generation wanting to come here,” said Tonya Rochette, president of Intown Concord’s board of directors.

Liz Hengen, a local historic preservationist, suggested that modern designs along the highway and entrance points to Main Street relate in some way to the historic Main Street.

“I think that downtown Main Street stands on its own merits and it doesn’t preclude doing something very dynamic or very contemporary along this part here,” she said.

There are other areas the committee would like to improve but have not yet explored, Carley said, like the power substation next to the Ralph Pill Marketplace and the view of the legislative parking garage on Storrs Street.

Carley said the New Front Door group, part of the chamber of commerce’s Creative Concord Committee, will now work to define the costs of moving forward. The group will also identify obstacles, like city permitting and permission from property owners. He said there may be available grant funding for public art.

“I’ve heard not necessarily agreement on the details tonight, but I’ve heard a general consensus that something needs to happen out here,” Carley said.

Carley said the group will work to move the project forward.

“These things take many years, and bits and pieces happen and bits of pieces never do,” he said.

To view the New Front Door slideshow, visit concordnhchamber.com.

Handmade for the holidays

Concord Handmade has returned for a third holiday season on Main Street.

Owner Alison Murphy opened the holiday pop-up shop Friday, and will close for the season Dec. 29.

She is selling handmade goods from about 50 different local artists at 2 N. Main St., the corner of Main and Pleasant streets.

“I’d say we maybe have 10 to 15 new artists this year,” Murphy said.

This year’s new items include clothes, cat toys and housewares.

Permitted parking

About 60 parking spaces on Storrs Street could be reopened as discounted permit parking for downtown employees.

The city’s parking committee recommended using the spaces during construction on Main Street next year. Matt Walsh, the city’s director of redevelopment, downtown services and special projects, said the committee employees would use the spaces, leaving more convenient parking open for downtown shoppers.

“The trade-off is it’s a little out of the way, but at the same time, it would be very inexpensive to park at,” Walsh said.

The city council gave City Manager Tom Aspell the authority earlier this year to change parking regulations during the upcoming renovations on Main Street. Walsh said he is reviewing whether the Storrs Street recommendation must go before the city council, or whether that vote gave Aspell the authority to begin the changes.

Walsh said the spaces will open before the start of construction next spring.

The parking committee suggested a rate of $33 per month, according to meeting minutes, but recommended giving Aspell flexibility to set the rate. When the spaces are opened, parking permits will be sold through the city’s parking division.

Grinch at Gibson’s

Gibson’s Bookstore wants Concord kids to do good deeds this holiday season.

The store is participating in Random House Publishing’s Grinch Community Cares Project. Now through Midnight Merriment on Dec. 6, customers can pick up a bingo card at Gibson’s that lists 25 good deeds.

“It ranges from help making dinner, tell everyone in your family that you love them, to donating some toys to charity,” said Isabel Berg, Gibson’s children’s book specialist.

After completing three deeds, kids can return to the bookstore with their card and Random House will donate a book to a local child. Five good deeds earns kids a pin that says, “I grew my heart three sizes,” echoing a line from How the Grinch Stole Christmas!

The program also promotes shopping locally; customers who complete 10 deeds and bring three receipts from local businesses will receive a Grinch activity packet and will be entered in a drawing to win gift certificates from shops in downtown Concord.

Happy Thanksgiving

City offices will be closed Thursday and Friday for Thanksgiving.

Downtown parking is free both days.

(Laura McCrystal can be reached at 369-3312 or @lmccrystal.)

Do you like living in Vacaville? Lots of people do. Ask them why and they regularly raise certain points: They like the small-town feel and the big-town conveniences; the proximity to popular California destinations and the parks and recreation opportunities that make staying at home a pleasure; the feeling of safety and the sense of community. It’s a great place to raise children, they say, and a nice place to retire.

None of this is an accident. Those of us who like living here today can thank those who lived here 20 or 40 years ago. They had a vision of what they wanted this city to become and planned accordingly. Now it’s our turn.

Three years ago, the city embarked on an update of the general plan, the document that serves as the blueprint for how Vacaville will evolve in the coming decades — just as previous plans have guided growth until now. During numerous hearings and meetings, residents, business operators, developers and other interested parties have worked with city officials to craft their vision for the future.

Now it’s in writing — but it’s not set in stone. And if it doesn’t jibe with your vision, it’s time to speak up.

The draft general plan, as well as a draft Environmental Impact Report and a new document –the Energy and Conservation Action Strategy — are being circulated so that residents can see what’s being proposed and weigh in.

It’s not light reading, but it is the public’s chance to voice an opinion before that new subdivision springs up or residents find themselves stuck in rush-hour traffic at a light they used to drive through easily.

Previous general plans have focused on development, looking at where new subdivisions might be located and how many residents they might be expected to bring. That’s still an important factor in this plan, but perhaps less so since voters drew an urban limit line around Vacaville a few years ago.

Still, the draft plan would permit housing east of Leisure Town Road, which could add about 5,000 residents to the city if it were built out. That’s significant — but perhaps not for the reasons one might think.

The problem, as the draft EIR notes, is that Vacaville has already given permission for 4,900 housing units to be built here and that already exceeds the number that the Association of Bay Area Governments says the city should expect to create in the next 20 years. Exceeding ABAG limits could make Vacaville ineligible for state and federal money tied to transportation and land-use grants.

On the other hand, the city’s Energy and Conservation Action Strategy might provide a counterbalance because it proposes doing more than is actually required to meet the state’s goal of reducing greenhouse gases — the very reason that ABAG is limiting growth in the suburbs.

As Vacaville’s energy plan makes clear, “transportation” — cars, trucks, etc. — is the biggest contributor to greenhouse gases, accounting for 63 percent of emissions here. ABAG is encouraging growth in urban areas, where public transportation and jobs are plentiful, thus reducing people’s need to drive.

Vacaville’s plan suggests a number of strategies to reduce driving, four of which could account for the most drastic reduction in emissions: helping employers set up car pools, van pools and ride-sharing; encouraging employers to institute flexible work schedules and allow people to work from home; supporting the Solano Transportation Authority’s efforts in establishing ridesharing for children to school and activities; and reducing the number of parking spaces to discourage driving, while increasing bike and walking opportunities.

This raises some questions Vacaville residents might want to ask themselves: Are we willing to walk, bike and carpool more in order to accommodate more housing? Given that the population is aging, do these ideas meet the needs of seniors? And how does the goal of encouraging more businesses to locate here square with imposing new rules about parking or carpooling?

There are other aspects of the plan residents should pay attention to, such as a proposal to initiate a ballot measure in hopes of implementing a citywide Lighting and Landscaping Maintenance Assessment District “to more evenly fund maintenance of neighborhood parks.” Or the way the city proposes to mitigate rush-hour traffic jams that are likely to result when homes are added.

There’s a lot here to digest, and the city could help by holding a series of public meetings to focus on specific aspects of the plan — especially the Energy and Conservation Action Strategy, which is new to all of us.

Let’s face it, city employees have put in their time developing these documents, and they aren’t likely to raise issues that would require them to re-do their work. That’s why residents should take time to peruse the plan, the EIR and the energy strategy, all of which are available online at www.vacavillegeneralplan.org and at the libraries and City Hall. Then share your thoughts with the Planning Commission and City Council members before or during the hearings in upcoming months.

As City Council member Curtis Hunt observed last week at an open house to unveil the documents, these are “drafts,” not done deals. “Making these decisions,” he said, “is a lot harder without your input.”

It’s time to provide that input.

By Myndi Milliken


Posted Nov. 23, 2013 @ 2:38 pm

Singapore

THE civic and cultural district, home to the former Supreme Court and City Hall Buildings, the Asian Civilisations Museum (ACM) and The Esplanade Theatres on the Bay, is envisioned as offering expansive spaces for pedestrians to linger under tree-lined boulevards, and opening up venues for outdoor performances.

Come 2015, various enhancements, including the conversion of existing roads into pedestrian paths and enhancements at Empress Place and Esplanade Park, can be expected.

Currently, the precinct is cut up by roads. To fulfil the vision of a walkable district, Parliament Lane and the small road at Empress Place (between ACM and Victoria Theatre) will be pedestrianised permanently. This will integrate the two spaces, creating a seamless park-like setting.

Part of Fullerton Road – in front of Victoria Theatre and, incidentally, part of the Formula 1 track – will also be realigned, allowing for a larger and more elegant lawn space in front of Victoria Theatre/Concert Hall and ACM.

In addition, Connaught Drive will be narrowed to one lane and limited to destination-bound traffic. Tourist coaches which currently park along Connaught Drive will be redirected to a new coach park at Marina Centre near the Marina Centre bus terminal. A new dedicated drop-off and pick-up point is planned.

Other landscaping efforts, such as the planting of more trees to provide shade, better way-finding signs and upgrading of street furniture are also planned at Empress Place and Esplanade Park.

In addition, the waterfront promenade along Esplanade Park will be opened up with stepped plazas and an urban beach, allowing people to get closer to the water.

Various spaces, including Raffles Landing, will soon be equipped to host outdoor events. To facilitate this, in-built infrastructure is planned, which will allow for easier setting-up of events, pop-up structures and mobile kiosks. Night lighting will also be provided to support night activities.

These plans are part of the Urban Redevelopment Authority’s (URA) PubliCity initiative, which aims to engage the community in celebrating good public spaces and to enliven public spaces through good design and programmes.

In the longer term, URA is studying the possibility of closing Anderson Bridge, Fullerton Road, St Andrew’s Road and Parliament Place to through traffic, leaving it open to destination-bound traffic, public buses and pedestrians only.

Other developments being studied include the temporary closure of Anderson Bridge, Fullerton Road, St Andrew’s Road, and Parliament Place to traffic during weekends or evenings for events.

Elsewhere on the island, other upcoming enhancement projects include an environment improvement project at Bras Basah and Bugis, which will see the carriageways on a stretch along Queen Street narrowed and the sidewalks widened. More street furniture and trees are also planned, with works expected to be completed by mid-2014.

Punggol Town Square and Bedok Town Centre will introduce new public spaces in Punggol and Bedok, respectively.

In addition to creating new public spaces and rejuvenating existing ones, PubliCity wants to encourage ownership of these spaces. To this end, the public is being invited to re-imagine four public spaces.

Specifically, ideas are being sought to enliven the open space beside Gedung Kuning in Kampong Glam, which measures about 1,200 square metres (sq m), and The Lawn @ Marina Bay, which measures about 13,000 sq m, as gathering spaces for the community.

The third space comprises two plots along the Singapore River Promenade – a 2,600 sq m site beside High Street Centre and a 1,000 sq m site at Clarke Quay/River Valley Road on which part of G-Max and GX-5 are currently situated. It is intended for the latter site to be transformed into an attractive entry point to Clarke Quay.

The 2,000 sq m Woodlands Civic Plaza, which is bounded by Causeway Point, Woodlands Civic Centre and two future developments, rounds up the list. The vision for the existing plaza space is a vibrant key node. Proposals should give ideas on how it can become a better public space for a diverse range of users who use the plaza for rest and respite and as a meeting place.

The submission period is from Nov 22 to Feb 14. Up to 10 winners will each win $1,000 in cash.

Separately, URA intends to launch the Pick a Bench, Pick a Place project in February next year. The public will be invited to vote for their favourite bench designs and where they would like to see the benches installed.

The benches, which are made using seating planks from the former National Stadium, are the product of a design competition held in September last year.

Outside the Lied Center, Kansas University’s Mobile Collaboration Lab, or MoCoLab. The converted Airstream trailer became the focus of ideas to better Wyandotte County through social entrepreneurship.

Just Food CEO Jeremy Farmer can explain as well as anyone what exactly “social entrepreneurship” means. Speaking at a panel at the Lied Center Pavilion on Friday, Farmer said his Douglas County organization’s food bank helped put food on the plates of hundreds of people. But he realized Just Food’s successes meant little if the same number of people had the same problems acquiring food every year. He saw hunger was an ongoing problem in need of an innovative solution.

Rather than giving someone a fish, or even teaching them to fish, as the biblical aphorism goes, Farmer and his team “really found that we needed to revolutionize the fishing industry,” so to speak. Farmer and his team taught lower income folks to garden and cook, to turn their lives into food-gathering enterprises. “Growing your own food is like growing your own money for lower income people,” Farmer said.

Farmer spoke as part of a panel at the Lied to help Kansas University celebrate Global Entrepreneurship Week, a worldwide advocacy event meant to stir the startup spirit in participants across more than 100 countries.

The KU School of Business held the university’s version of the event, which devoted itself to the idea of social entrepreneurship, or using business and entrepreneurial strategies to do social good. Joining Farmer on the panel were John Gordon, executive director of Boys Grow, Andrew Stanley, founder of VolunteerMark, Munro Richardson, co-founder of myEDmatch and Ann Brandau-Murguia, a Wyandotte County commissioner. Silicon Prairie News CEO Regan Carrizales moderated the panel.

The day also featured a contest for KU undergraduate and graduate students to present their own model for a social startup. Four groups were tasked with fleshing out an idea that would somehow make use of the Mobile Collaboration Laboratory, or the MoCoLab, a university project to turn an Airstream trailer into a roving venue for collaboration. The contest was judged by U.S. Representative Kevin Yoder, Kansas City, Kan., Brandau-Murguia, KU architecture professor Nils Gore and Wally Meyer, director of KU Entrepreneurship Programs.

The groups presented their ideas on how to use the MoCoLab to improve the economic and social conditions for Wyandotte County and Kansas City, Kan. Ideas included turning the trailer into a mobile shop that county high school students could use for construction and landscaping projects, a recruiting office for a program that trains high school students for work in the biomanufacturing industry, and a roving business incubator for the Wyandotte area.

The winning platform, developed by KU students Emma Murano, Brandon Wood and Kent DiasAbeygunawardena, would incorporate the MoCoLab into a social startup called “ShareStream,” a “mobile platform for first impressions,” as they described it. ShareStream would help small businesses in Wyandotte reach new markets around the Kansas City area via the MoCoLab.

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Long Island Landscaper

Long Island Landscaper, Longo’s Landscaping Looking Outside US for 2014 Design Ideas

St. James, New York (PRWEB) November 23, 2013

Longo’s Landscaping and Masonry, the premier Long Island-based designer and builder of custom landscape hardscape for homes and businesses, is keeping an eye on what trends for 2014 are being focused on outside the US for inspiration in terms of design options.

Great Britain has a long and storied history as a country that holds gardening in high regard, creating designs with elements that includes statures, topiary and even massive hedge mazes to create gardens that are a visual feast for the eyes. While garden mazes may not be viable on Long Island, many of the other elements are easily employed to create memorable and functional landscapes.

Recent reports from a number of UK news sources point to a focus on sleek and modern designs, moving away from the more traditional rustic designs that have been in vogue over the last few years. With elements that include custom furniture, lighting effects, water features and even specific wildlife that will figure prominently in the United Kingdom and other European countries, there is much to borrow from in terms of designs for the Long Island and Metro-New York region. The trend towards a sleek, modern design is especially transferable to local use as a way of maximizing the usable aspects of the space available while not cutting back on the elements that make the overall visual effect of the garden.

The Longo Landscaping team works very hard to keep abreast of new developments in terms of material and design so that their clients can achieve the look they want for their home. It is this attention to detail that sets Longo apart from other landscape/hardscape design firms but diligence is required in the very competitive Long Island market. Each member of the Longo staff is dedicated to be well informed so that they can provide the level of creativity and service they have become known for.

Longos Landscaping Masonry, a Long Island family-owned company since 1980. Longo’s Landscaping Masonry Inc. is committed to excellent masonry and landscaping projects. Specializing in Landscaping construction, Masonry, Driveways, walkways, stoops/steps, patios, retaining walls, waterfalls ponds. With over 20 years of experience, we pride ourselves in making your homes in Suffolk and Nassau County of Long Island area more appealing. Each Landscape design is specifically done to our clients’ needs to increased property value or simply, just a gorgeous outdoor landscape that can make your property the best on the block. Find us on the web at http://www.longoslandscaping.com/ or call at 631.862.8605 for more information or to arrange for a quote.

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 Officials with the Philadelphia International Airport went before the Tinicum Township Board of Commissioners last Monday to make the first pitch for a project that would realign one runway and build another to meet FAA safety regulations.

Joe Grubb, an engineer for the airport’s Program Management Office, and Dean Snyder, a tech services manager for the same office, said in a 20-minute presentation that the project would realign Taxiway H and establish Taxiway EE, both located outside Terminal E in the southeast corner of the airport, straddling both Philadelphia and Delaware counties.

“The FAA has termed this area a ‘hot spot,’ designating it as an aircraft movement area with a history of or a risk for collision,” Grubb said.

The project would involve removing pavement, grading sections of the land, adding lighting and fixing drainage areas, he said.

“It would improve efficiency and safety,” Grubb said.

In response to residents’ questions, Grubb said that while plans have not been finalized, the project would cost “in the neighborhood of $20 million” and take about a year to complete. He also confirmed that it is a phase of the airport’s controversial Capacity Enhancement Plan, which residents have been battling for years.

Airport officials have already presented the preliminary plans to the township’s zoning board, which recommended they go before the board of commissioners with their ideas.

Monday’s hearing was just the start of a public hearing process that will continue on Tuesday, Jan. 21, when airport officials will testify under oath about the project and residents will be permitted to ask more detailed questions.

“This is an informal presentation to the board,” township solicitor Sam Auslander said. “We will be seeking some additional detail for the project, we will put the presenters under oath and they will testify as to specifics and design.”

Also at Monday’s meeting, commissioners voted to adopt an ordinance to restrict overnight parking in the 100, 200, 300, 500 and 600 blocks of Saude Avenue, with permits not to exceed four per homeowner. The ordinance, which passed unanimously, also allows for guest permits and sets fees for permits. Continued…

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I’ve often been asked, “Why doesn’t Green Industry Pros publish its own version of the Biggest Landscape Companies list”? My first response is: Because somebody else does. My second response is: Because all but a few landscape companies are privately held, so verifying the financial data would be extremely time-consuming, if not impossible. My third response is: Who cares?

I mean, it’s interesting, I guess, to see who made the list or to see how much bigger (or lately, smaller) TruGreen got, or to try and figure out who should be on the list but isn’t because they didn’t fill out the entry form. But to the overwhelming majority of our landscape contractor readers, who by and large operate on a local level, none of this matters. They know who their competition is—big and small—so this list provides no value to them.

We want to simply focus on good ideas that help all landscape companies get better. We don’t use sales volume as a barometer for good ideas, which is why we aren’t even publishing sales figures in our contractor stories anymore. I remember what Arizona contractor David Spector once said to me: “My company’s success simply comes down to feet on the ground.” In other words, to the client, the only thing that matters is how a given crew services their given property. One of the big market research firms I track also said it well: “Large landscape companies still operate on a localized, branch level.” So there you go.

Just look at the numbers. I’m not dogging the huge companies. They do phenomenal things for our industry. I’m just saying that this industry rises and falls on the strength of its “middle class” so to speak.

For instance:

• The 100 or so biggest landscape companies have like 10% market share … the four Titans of Turf and Trees (TruGreen, Brickman, ValleyCrest and Davey Tree) have around 5% all on their own
• The other 90% of market share is fought over by tens of thousands of landscape companies

Now consider this:

• Roughly 95% of landscape companies have fewer than 20 employees, and sales of no more than $2 million or so
• Roughly 75% of landscape companies have fewer than 4 employees, and sales of no more than $300,000 or so

So as you can see, in terms of sheer numbers, this industry is largely made up of numerous “smaller” companies. The really successful ones all look and act “big” in their clients’ eyes.

Let’s give some “hidden gems” some recognition! Here’s one more statistic to chew on: There are somewhere in the ballpark of 3,500 to 4,500 landscape contractors with sales between $2 and $10 million. Keep in mind that the cut-off point to make a biggest-companies list is around $12-13 million.

So … what about the hundreds if not thousands of contractors that are not quite big enough to make a top 100 type of list, but are still outstanding companies that are doing innovative things, creating jobs and enriching lives in their communities? Who are they? Don’t they deserve some recognition of their own? And what about those companies that aren’t anywhere near large enough to make a top 100 type of list? Many are also innovative, philanthropic, and deserving of some recognition.

We want to start the process of assembling a list of “hidden gems” in the Green Industry. If you think your company is a hidden gem that deserves some recognition, click on one of the links below to fill out a quick form (will take you literally a minute or two).

Sales from $100,000 to $2 million