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Joan Fitzgerald is Professor and Director of the Law, Policy and Society Program at Northeastern University.  Her new book, Emerald Cities: Urban Sustainability and Economic Development, is a refreshing look at how American cities are leading the way toward greener, cleaner, and more sustainable forms of economic development.  Emerald Cities is very readable and Marco Trbovich of the Huffington Post wrote, “Fitzgerald combines the academic discipline of an urban planner with the rigors of shoe-leather journalism in crafting a book that documents where real progress is being made….”  In the original post below Fitzgerald shares how she found the fine balance between “academic discipline” and “shoe-leather journalism”.

Emerald Cities is my first true crossover book—a serious piece of scholarly research rendered as a journalistic narrative for a wider readership. In recent years, I have had plenty of practice on this front, writing several oped pieces for the Boston Globe and longer features for The American Prospect, a monthly magazine that often draws on academics to write many of its policy-oriented articles.

My journalist and editor husband, Bob Kuttner, has long urged me to discover the joys of the interview, both on the record and on background. And indeed, when you follow a formal research design or rely purely on data, you don’t get to ask impertinent questions. You are at risk of missing what is really going on.

When I first started writing more popular pieces, Bob would say, “Get some quotes” and “talk to people off-the-record.” So I did. Interviewing facilitates networking. One interview leads to another. I was intrigued at how much I learned—say about an industry such as solar or wind and the true state of play as opposed to the self-serving claims—in a few phone calls with industry insiders. If one is intellectually honest, this kind of interview is a legitimate scholarly technique as well as a tool of narrative journalism.

Journalistic reportage also helps bring prose alive. Reporting on data without bringing in a human element makes for dry reading. Another discipline of writing in a more journalistic style is that your ideas need to be compressed into a lot less space. The standard academic article is 25 pages. An oped piece is typically three typescript pages and a Prospect policy article between six and eight. It is amazing how many words some academic writers waste, telling you what they are going to tell you, then telling it, and then telling you what they told you.

The discipline of tight, lucid writing also clarifies one’s thinking process. In fact, I now require my policy students to write regular short assignments or op-ed-style pieces. At first, they hate them—they find it easier to write 10 pages than 2, which reminds me of the old saying, “I would have written it shorter but I didn’t have the time.” It does take time, and many drafts. Professor John Kenneth Galbraith, a scholar much admired for his incisive prose was once told by an admirer how “

“Konnichi-waaaaa minna san! It’s meeee Jessica Hoshi! Today we got a super treat for everyone. This is our first ever article with a video, because my friend Talitha-chan is super smart and can do anything with computers. This is an article that was written by a guest author and they said we could put in on our site. We love big kitties because Shannon-sama has a big kitty named Kishi that is a magical cat. So we got this article about three cheetahs at the San Diego Wild Animal Park. Their names are Majani, Kubali and Karroo! The first two are brother and sister cheetahs. Majani is a Swahili word that means ‘grasslands,’ and Kubali is also a Swahili word that means ‘to accept.’ Swahili is a language that is spoken in Africa, which is where there are lots of cheetahs, but not so many now cause cheetahs are endangered. I’m gonna get Talitha-chan to put links in our Fun Places list about cheetahs so you can get involved and help out just like us! Arigato minna!”

Meet Majani, Kubali and Karroo

Zero to 60 in 3.4 seconds.

No, it isn’t the latest super car or souped up motorcycle. In fact, these “vehicles” have no metal parts, engines or wheels at all. They have names, though. They are Majani and Kubali, brother and sister cheetahs who reside at the San Diego Zoo and are featured every weekend at the San Diego Wild Animal Park’s Animal Shows.

Three cheetah cubs

Photo copyright © Patricia Tricorache/CCF

Majani and Kubali put on speed exhibitions at the new San Diego Wild Animal Park’s “Cheetah Run Safari” where guests line the track and can get an up close, thrilling view of the animals as they dash past, chasing a small mechanical lure at speeds well in excess of 60 miles per hour. Majani, whose name means “grasslands” in Swahili, is the larger brother of Kubali, whose name means “to accept” in Swahili. Majani also holds the distinction of being the largest and heaviest zoo kept cheetah in the country, weighing in at 144 pounds. The largest and heaviest cheetah recorded in the wild was scarcely one pound heavier at 145 pounds.

Because of her size and weight advantage, Kubali is slightly faster than her brother. This may also be due to the fact that, like many big cats, female cheetahs must develop better and more effective hunting skills since they are responsible for catching and providing food for their cubs.

But what is probably most charming about these two magnificent animals at the San Diego Wild Animal Park is the fact they have befriended two dogs from the local San Diego Humane Society. That’s right. Cats and dogs, living together. Clifford is a labrador and Bear is a labrador/chow who were “assigned” to Majani and Kubali respectively, and act as a calming influence on the big cats when they are performing for the public. Like all cats, cheetahs can be somewhat reclusive in unfamiliar situations, but with their companions around, it seems the brother and sister team have an easier time of it during the Cheetah Run Safari shows.

Just for fun, the park staff lets Clifford and Bear out on the track for trial runs before the stars of the show take to the starter’s blocks. While they are probably quite capable runners, as some dogs are, labradors don’t quite compare to the fastest land animal on the planet.

After their runs, the big cats are fed and spectators have an opportunity to listen as their loud purring is heard throughout Cheetah Outpost. The Cheetah Run Safari is available on weekends to spectators and guests by reservation and requires an additional fee which does not include admission to the San Diego Wild Animal Park or Zoo. The program includes refreshments and a 5×7 photograph of one of the cheetahs from the show.

The third “dog and cat” team at the San Diego Zoo and San Diego Wild Animal Park is also a dog and cheetah team like Majani and Clifford or Kubali and Bear. They are Karroo and Sven, a cheetah and golden retriever team that appears in the “Wild Ones” show in the San Diego Wild Animal Park’s “Cat Canyon” area.

A cheetah running

Photo copyright © Patricia Tricorache/CCF

Karroo and Sven Olaf are the current caretakers of a historical dog and cheetah tradition at the park’s Cheetah Run and Cat Canyon, signified by a plaque commemorating the original team at Wegeforth Bowl in the park. The original team, consisting of a cheetah named Arusha and a golden retriever named Anna, performed and worked at the park together well into their old ages. Chobe and Jessie followed, and now, the featured dog and cat team of Karroo and Sven continue to thrill and delight audiences at the San Diego Wild Animal Park’s many shows and attractions, including the Zoo’s show at the Hunte Ampitheater.

Cheetahs are a unique species, and are among the most specialized creatures in nature. Their bodies are a wonder of aerodynamics, agility, speed and strength, and there is undoubtedly still much to be learned about the way they hunt and survive in the wild. Cheetahs live considerably longer in captivity than in the wild, and this will hopefully provide more opportunties to help this spectacular big cat overcome some of the challenges that are facing the 12,000 remaining cheetahs in the world, including inbreeding, genetic defects and various viruses and infections that cheetahs are susceptible to.

But in the meantime, there’s no reason that people cannot marvel at the incredible abilities of Majani, Kubali and Karroo at the San Diego Zoo and San Diego Wild Animal Park. There is no better way to learn to appreciate wild animals, their habitat and humanity’s relationship with nature than to see nature’s strength and dignity in person, and that is precisely the opportunity shows like the Cheetah Run Safari and the Wild Ones provide. Endangered species like the cheetah and many others around the world are everyone’s responsibility, and learning more about both endangered species and species with healthy populations is an excellent way for people to develop a more profound understanding of both the world we live in and the challenges we share in preserving the natural world around us.