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Over the Pond
Editor's note: While changes appear to be in the works in London on the public space realm (check out our latest Streetfilm posted today), Chris Carlsson got a slightly different take when he visited there last week.
April 13, 2009
Streetfilms: London’s Campaign for People-First Public Spaces
In 2002, then-mayor of London Ken Livingstone launched the 100 Public Spaces Programme, a campaign to better realize the potential of the city's public realm. With guidance from Jan Gehl, the initiative emphasized reclaiming space for pedestrians and enhancing street life.
April 13, 2009
What Effect Will World’s Smallest Car Have on Global Warming?
Environmentally-conscious citizens of India aren't alone in their concern about the rollout of the Tata Nano, the "world's cheapest car." But in an op-ed piece for Forbes, Projjal Dutta, the director of sustainability initiatives for the New York City Metropolitan Transportation Authority, writes that American critics should look to their own example if they expect developing nations to follow a more sustainable path.
April 8, 2009
What’s in a Neighborhood
How would you define the boundaries of your neighborhood? Is it the streets that describe it? Is it the people who live in it, a cultural or demographic group that you belong to, or that excludes you? Do you think your neighbors would describe your neighborhood the same way you do?
April 6, 2009
News From New York: The ABC’s of Trial Plazas and Complete Streets
When we wrote about the trial pedestrian plaza on 17th Street and Market Street that DPW expects to start this May, the story generated numerous doubts about how the city would create a successful public space out of a busy street abutting a gas station.
April 2, 2009
Marin’s Cal Park Tunnel To Open by February 2010
Within a few weeks, there should literally be a light at the end of the Cal Park tunnel for cyclists commuting from San Rafael to the Larkspur ferry. Engineers are mucking out dirt and boulders on the collapsed south end of the 1,100-foot tunnel, making room for an 11.5-foot wide bike path and tracks for the SMART commuter rail trains.
April 2, 2009
Ad Nauseam: Kentucky Fried Potholes
In casting around for a good April Fool's Day joke, I found yesterday's New York Times Lede blog report on the chicken frying corporation KFC doing some pothole repair in Louisville, complete with this photo of Colonel Sanders in a hardhat and construction bib. I thought for sure the Times had gotten an eight-hour jump on the April Fool's fun, but amazingly this report seems to be true. Or they're holding out on a Joaquin-Phoenix-length punchline and haven't broken it to readers that this is preposterous. The PETA subtext in the Times story is pretty funny, but I find this all a bit unsettling.
April 1, 2009
Streetfilms: Curitiba, the Cradle of Bus Rapid Transit
Curitiba, Brazil first adopted its Master Plan in 1968. Since then,
it has become a city well known for inventive urban planning and
affordable (to the user and the city) public transportation.
April 1, 2009
Back to the Grid, Part 2: John Norquist on Reclaiming American Cities
As mayor of Milwaukee from 1988 to 2004, CNU President John Norquist made urbanism and livability top priorities. Some of his most notable achievements centered on the redevelopment of highway corridors with street grids and infill, culminating with the demolition of the Park East Freeway in 2002 -- one of the largest voluntary highway removal projects undertaken in America. Other projects, like the introduction of a light rail system, never reached fruition.
March 30, 2009