News, August 24, 2009
Cyclists Cause Less Than 10% of Bike/Car Accidents
Whenever we write about bike/car “interactions” we get a lot of complaints that cyclists bring much of this upon themselves by blowing through red lights and stop signs, and generally cycling aggressively.
While convalescing after being hit by a truck, Dr. Chris Cavacuiti of the University of Toronto had some time to study the statistics and concluded otherwise. He is interviewed by Bet McIlroy in the U of T’s Experience Research:
They Are Building Bicycle Superhighways in Copenhagen
[I]learned the hard way recently about a terrific website that promotes “Copenhagenizing,” noting that “Each and every day 500,000 people ride their bicycle to work or school in Copenhagen.”
Whereas in North America we are, as one writer puts it, “fighting for infrastructure a few hundred metres at a time”, Copenhagenizing tells us that they are now installing “bicycle superhighways” stretching far into the suburbs.
What does it take to be a bicycle superhighway?
City Repair: What Happens When Neighbors Paint Intersections (Video)
In one way or another, TreeHugger has covered the idea of ‘place making’ hundreds of times before. From Brooklyn kids painting the pavement to Dutch towns abolishing traffic lights to San Francisco turning intersections into parks, the idea that we can reclaim public space to prioritize people and relationships over cars and trucks is a simple yet revolutionary concept. So it’s amazing to me that we’ve yet to cover City Repair - a Portland-based non-profit dedicated to the art of placemaking. Click below the fold to check out a video of their work in action.
Run as an entirely volunteer-based, non-profit organization, City Repair is based in Portland, Oregon. (Where else?) It’s central mission is localization of culture, of economy, of decision-making as a cornerstone of sustainability.
Neighbors trade services, bond through ‘time banking’
The idea is simple: You lend your neighbor a hand — maybe mow his lawn or drive him to the supermarket — and in return, another neighbor patches your roof or walks your dog.
This arrangement — part collective bartering, part pay-it-forward — is called “time banking,” and at least two Michigan communities have put the idea into action. And more neighborhoods are getting on board as families and seniors find they need to help each other in this tough economy.
The Shape of the Suburbs: Understanding Toronto’s Sprawl
In the introduction to this, a sort of unintentional sequel to The Shape of the City: Toronto Struggles with Modern Planning (University of Toronto Press, 1993), Sewell writes that it “would be difficult to call me a dispassionate author.” Good, because while his statistics-gathering and charts-and-graphs comparisons are indispensable, we must remember that Sewell, a former mayor of the City of Toronto (1978-80), comes at city planning from a biased, anti-big business perspective. This was the 1969 city councillor who rode his bicycle to work and would later be dubbed “Mayor Blue Jeans” by the Toronto Sun for his countercultural and environmental beliefs.
ONLINE NEIGHBORHOOD: THE FRONT PORCH FORUM
The problem was that renting the necessary canoes would have cost hundreds of dollars. Interestingly, it seemed that nearly ever other house in Sharon’s neighborhood had a canoe in the backyard, or parked under a tarp next to a garage. But Sharon, like many of us, did not know her neighbors, and felt uncomfortable asking them.
The solution to this dilemma came in the form of a website called Front Porch Forum (FPF), a micro-community site geographically focused on a neighborhood within Burlington encompassing a couple hundred households. Within days of posting her situation to the site there were over a half-dozen canoes on her front yard. Problem solved. But more than that, a community built. As Sharon says, “not only did my daughter have a great birthday and I saved a couple hundred dollars, but now I have a genuine connection to a half-dozen neighbors. Why didn’t I know these good people years ago?”
Zoning as a tool of class exclusion
Discovering Urbanism has a nice post up about early 20th century urban planner Charles Mulford Robinson and his planning textbook, and it includes the following corrective to the notion thatzoning originated as a way to separate polluting industry from places of residence and commerce:
There’s a common narrative about how zoning unfolded in America. First, planners needed to find ways to separate dangerous and unhealthy factories from the places where people lived. Once the legal basis for this tool was secured, it was eventually employed to separate businesses from residents. The final stage of zoning was to segregating different kinds of people from each other. That’s how we reached where we are today.
However, the Robinson textbook indicates that this progression was, if anything, reversed. In reality, residences at the time couldn’t be separated much from industry, because many of the working classes had to be within walking distance from their jobs. On the other hand, some of the very earliest uses of zoning were explicitly intended to separate “exclusive” neighborhoods from the lower classes, whether by requiring minimum densities or barring anything but detached single-family housing.
Placemaking Through Zoning
Zoning is often portrayed as the great evil of city planning, but Les Pollock of Camiros argues that we shouldn’t dismiss the power of zoning to create great communities.
Getting Real About the High Price of Cheap Food
Somewhere in Iowa, a pig is being raised in a confined pen, packed in so tightly with other swine that their curly tails have been chopped off so they won’t bite one another. To prevent him from getting sick in such close quarters, he is dosed with antibiotics. The waste produced by the pig and his thousands of pen mates on the factory farm where they live goes into manure lagoons that blanket neighboring communities with air pollution and a stomach-churning stench. He’s fed on American corn that was grown with the help of government subsidies and millions of tons of chemical fertilizer. When the pig is slaughtered, at about 5 months of age, he’ll become sausage or bacon that will sell cheap, feeding an American addiction to meat that has contributed to an obesity epidemic currently afflicting more than two-thirds of the population. And when the rains come, the excess fertilizer that coaxed so much corn from the ground will be washed into the Mississippi River and down into the Gulf of Mexico, where it will help kill fish for miles and miles around. That’s the state of your bacon — circa 2009.
Pride starts with a paintbrush
South of Finch, east of Jane. To most Torontonians that means one thing: Stay away.
But for those who live in the area, that’s not an option. Regardless of what others may think, this is their home, a place they want to be proud of.
And so a group of residents, civic officials and private citizens has spent countless hours transforming their small part of the area into something resembling a neighbourhood.
21st century lessons from 18th-century gardening
Tucked behind the 18th-century Chateau de Ramezay in Old Montreal, a garden grows that combines the necessities of an ancient city with an utterly contemporary movement.
On a piece of land the size of a basketball court, square beds bordered by blooming chives hold the produce of a thriving kitchen garden, with teepees for runner beans surrounded by masses of mint, oregano and borage, lettuces in various stages of growth and the red-veined leaves of beets. Nearby, gooseberry and raspberry bushes soak up the rain and sun while apple trees, their espaliered branches pinned against a warm stone wall, cradle young apples.
Niagara-on-the-Lake vineyard is a pioneer in eco-conscious winemaking
Canada’s first biodynamic wine - the 2008 Southbrook Vineyards Cabernet Rose - arrived this spring. The wine’s release marked a milestone for both the winery and the Canadian wine industry as a whole.
Want To Encourage Bicycle Commuting? Build Parking
“Surveys have shown that the leading deterrent to potential bicycle commuters is lack of a safe, secure parking spot on the other end.”
“As the share of trips made by bicycle has grown in recent years…new attention is being paid to what happens to those bicycles when they are not in motion.”
Frog’s Dream Turns McMansions into Water Treatment Plants
As the economic recession marches on, it’s becoming more and more common to see so-called McMansions up for sale. It’s a trend that probably won’t stop any time soon. Even if the economy improves, gas prices will continue to rise as supplies tighten, and that means that suburban housing will become increasingly unaffordable. So what will happen to our built-up suburban areas? Designer Calvin Chiu imagines a future where abandoned McMansions have a second life as wetlands and water filtration systems for urban areas.
Chiu’s “Frog’s Dream” design, chosen today as the winner of Dwell and Inhabitat’sREBURBIA competition, envisions a future where a sustainable relationship is established between dwindling suburban developments and city centers. According to Chiu, “The decline of Suburbia [isn't] a problem that we need to solve, but an excellent opportunity for us to rethink and transform our attitude towards the relationship between man and land/nature”.
Walk appeal Homes in walkable neighborhoods sell for more: study
CHICAGO (MarketWatch) — Homes located within walking distance of amenities such as schools,
parks and shopping aren’t only more convenient for their owners, often they’re also worth
more than homes in neighborhoods where driving is the rule, according to a new study
A city in Brazil recruited local farmers to help do something U.S. cities have yet to do: end hunger.
“To search for solutions to hunger means to act within the principle that the status of a citizen surpasses that of a mere consumer.” CITY OF BELO HORIZONTE, BRAZIL
100-mile brew Homegrown hops
A global shortage has spurred a new generation of farmers to grow beer’s key ingredient – and
help microbrewers along the way
Detroit Down, but not out, in the Motor City
Mayor Dave Bing faced a room of silent anger as he addressed leaders of the roughly 50 unions representing 10,000 municipal workers recently.
Detroit is broke, he declared. It could be forced into the municipal equivalent of bankruptcy in October.
“You are talking about running out of cash in the next 60 to 70 days,” he told reporters after the meeting.
“Time is not our friend, it is not our ally. If we go to receivership, all bets are off.”
The United States may be emerging from a long and painful recession, but Detroit is mired in the depths of depression. Unemployment stands at 28 per cent. The city government is $350-million (U.S.) in the red on a $3.1-billion annual budget, and revenues for this year are down another $100-million (U.S.). The city is at the epicentre of a state in crisis. The Michigan government’s revenues for this fiscal year are now expected to fall at least $2.7-billion (U.S.) below previous worst-case projections for their $47.2-billion (U.S.) budget.
Somewhere in Iowa, a pig is being raised in a confined pen, packed in so tightly with other swine that their curly tails have been chopped off so they won’t bite one another. To prevent him from getting sick in such close quarters, he is dosed with antibiotics. The waste produced by the pig and his thousands of pen mates on the factory farm where they live goes into manure lagoons that blanket neighboring communities with air pollution and a stomach-churning stench. He’s fed on American corn that was grown with the help of government subsidies and millions of tons of chemical fertilizer. When the pig is slaughtered, at about 5 months of age, he’ll become sausage or bacon that will sell cheap, feeding an American addiction to meat that has contributed to an obesity epidemic currently afflicting more than two-thirds of the population. And when the rains come, the excess fertilizer that coaxed so much corn from the ground will be washed into the Mississippi River and down into the Gulf of Mexico, where it will help kill fish for miles and miles around. That’s the state of your bacon — circa 2009.
South of Finch, east of Jane. To most Torontonians that means one thing: Stay away.
But for those who live in the area, that’s not an option. Regardless of what others may think, this is their home, a place they want to be proud of.
And so a group of residents, civic officials and private citizens has spent countless hours transforming their small part of the area into something resembling a neighbourhood.
21st century lessons from 18th-century gardening
Tucked behind the 18th-century Chateau de Ramezay in Old Montreal, a garden grows that combines the necessities of an ancient city with an utterly contemporary movement.
On a piece of land the size of a basketball court, square beds bordered by blooming chives hold the produce of a thriving kitchen garden, with teepees for runner beans surrounded by masses of mint, oregano and borage, lettuces in various stages of growth and the red-veined leaves of beets. Nearby, gooseberry and raspberry bushes soak up the rain and sun while apple trees, their espaliered branches pinned against a warm stone wall, cradle young apples.
Niagara-on-the-Lake vineyard is a pioneer in eco-conscious winemaking
Canada’s first biodynamic wine - the 2008 Southbrook Vineyards Cabernet Rose - arrived this spring. The wine’s release marked a milestone for both the winery and the Canadian wine industry as a whole.
Want To Encourage Bicycle Commuting? Build Parking
“Surveys have shown that the leading deterrent to potential bicycle commuters is lack of a safe, secure parking spot on the other end.”
“As the share of trips made by bicycle has grown in recent years…new attention is being paid to what happens to those bicycles when they are not in motion.”
Frog’s Dream Turns McMansions into Water Treatment Plants
As the economic recession marches on, it’s becoming more and more common to see so-called McMansions up for sale. It’s a trend that probably won’t stop any time soon. Even if the economy improves, gas prices will continue to rise as supplies tighten, and that means that suburban housing will become increasingly unaffordable. So what will happen to our built-up suburban areas? Designer Calvin Chiu imagines a future where abandoned McMansions have a second life as wetlands and water filtration systems for urban areas.
Chiu’s “Frog’s Dream” design, chosen today as the winner of Dwell and Inhabitat’sREBURBIA competition, envisions a future where a sustainable relationship is established between dwindling suburban developments and city centers. According to Chiu, “The decline of Suburbia [isn't] a problem that we need to solve, but an excellent opportunity for us to rethink and transform our attitude towards the relationship between man and land/nature”.
Walk appeal Homes in walkable neighborhoods sell for more: study
CHICAGO (MarketWatch) — Homes located within walking distance of amenities such as schools,
parks and shopping aren’t only more convenient for their owners, often they’re also worth
more than homes in neighborhoods where driving is the rule, according to a new study
A city in Brazil recruited local farmers to help do something U.S. cities have yet to do: end hunger.
“To search for solutions to hunger means to act within the principle that the status of a citizen surpasses that of a mere consumer.” CITY OF BELO HORIZONTE, BRAZIL
100-mile brew Homegrown hops
A global shortage has spurred a new generation of farmers to grow beer’s key ingredient – and
help microbrewers along the way
Detroit Down, but not out, in the Motor City
Mayor Dave Bing faced a room of silent anger as he addressed leaders of the roughly 50 unions representing 10,000 municipal workers recently.
Detroit is broke, he declared. It could be forced into the municipal equivalent of bankruptcy in October.
“You are talking about running out of cash in the next 60 to 70 days,” he told reporters after the meeting.
“Time is not our friend, it is not our ally. If we go to receivership, all bets are off.”
The United States may be emerging from a long and painful recession, but Detroit is mired in the depths of depression. Unemployment stands at 28 per cent. The city government is $350-million (U.S.) in the red on a $3.1-billion annual budget, and revenues for this year are down another $100-million (U.S.). The city is at the epicentre of a state in crisis. The Michigan government’s revenues for this fiscal year are now expected to fall at least $2.7-billion (U.S.) below previous worst-case projections for their $47.2-billion (U.S.) budget.
Tags: 100 mile diet, bicycles, bicycling, Cheap food, Class, detroit, Gardening, Neighborhoods, Placemaking, Suburbs, urban agriculture, urban sprawl, Zoning
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Mark, to add to you bicycle news stories (with a semi-local touch), I saw an interview on the weekend with Faye Nelson, the President of the Detroit River Conservatory (DVC) and Chuck Stokes Editorial Director for WXYZ 7.1. They talked about the progress for bicycle and pedestrian friendly initiatives in the Dequinder Cut bike path, and along the riverfront east. (nearly up to Belle Isle now). I know this initiative is not new to SD’ers but, what I found interesting was some of the references and goals that she mentioned about the future of the project.
(Please forgive me if I have some of my points wrong, I didn’t have a pen, and I cant find a replay or transcripts online).
Of note, she mentioned that there is a 5-year goal to clean a former Uniroyal site that is contaminated so that it will be the final connection between downtown and Belle Isle. In addition, this 5-year plan will connect the current riverfront-east (from RenCen to Belle Isle) to the western portion (former FreePress lands along the river). She didn’t go into specifics, but mentioned that housing developments and retail would certainly be a part of it.
Interestingly, the DVC is suporting the construction of a ferry dock (near the RenCen) and attraction of a private company to operate a passenger ferry to connect downtown to places like WINDSOR, Belle Isle, and other possible destinations. (as reported in the Windsor Star last week) Besides with the S.S. Ste. Claire (former Boblo Riverboat) due to be completed this fall, it will need somewhere to dock.
When asked what cities gave inspiration for the project, she had mentioned “Chicago, San Antonio (reference to canal?), and most importantly, Windsor.” She said that they have tried to recreate what Windsor has accomplished on the riverfront.
Its sometimes nice to see that Windsor has done something right for a change. Now, wouldn’t it be nice if we had people working with people in Detroit to try to develop the riverfront together?
Also, I wonder, does anyone know if the Tunnel Bus contains bike racks?
references:
http://www.detroitriverfront.org/
http://bobloboat.com/
I like that zoning article Placemaking Through Zoning
I don’t understand why massage parlors and methadone clinics are not zoned out f places we don’t want them.
We zoned entertainment lounges exclusively downtown, but we can’t zone massage parlors out of our downtown and especially the city center west area.
We sure can exclude body rub parlors. A methadone clinic would be considered a medical office, so it will be harder to exclude it as a use.
Mark I have to comment on this thought.
You said - “I don’t understand why massage parlors and methadone clinics are not zoned out f places we don’t want them.”
Having worked with methadone clients in a previous job, people need to understand that methadone clinics open up where the need is greatest - which is not always where residents want them.
It is important to understand that methadone clinics are for those individuals - who in the majority - are seeking help. The programs are designed to ensure the client complies with the program. Blood tests are taken, urine samples analysed etc.
Methadone clinics by their very nature are a discreet service. Too much publicity and those seeking help, will not come compounding the problem further.
What is needed are public education campaigns regarding methadone clinics. Fear of the unknown can only be overcome with information - and the lack of information being provided (which should be a requirement in opening a clinic) fuels the political tactics of Mr. Masse and Mr. Jones.
Understandably, no one wants a methadone clinic in their neighbourhood - but the reasons cited are generally from a response of fear. One need to only look at the one Drouillard to know those fears are unsubstantiated.
We have a problem in this city - shared by many other cities across Canada.
But the problem is not the treatment.
Well said Chris S.
I agree Chris S that protests of such services is out of fear and future fearful things that can or may happen. This business moved in quite quietly and for good reasons on wanting to be discrete, unfortuately citizens, a councilor and the media blew it out of proportion, thus drawing to much attention to it.
Now that attention has been drawn to it, it is more of an “image” problem that doesn’t bode well for the west end of Windsor, even though there is drug use and abuse in every ward of this city and in the suburban communities.
Ron Jones, the neighbourhood citizens and the media did no favours for that neighourhood by protesting loudly about the clinic.
No issues commenting, Your right Chris on the methadone clinics being necessary. However, if residents had some say in a zoning overhaul, they wouldn’t look like deer in headlights when one pens
I love, LOVE, L-O-V-E! the Front Porch Forum idea!!!
It’s a newer take on community that once happened incidentally and unintentionally, when folks realized that their quality of life increased exponentially the more contact they had with their neighbours. People are trying to recreate this sense of community these days in different ways (cohousing, eco-villages, and many other intentional communities) but introducing this kind of idea into an established neighbourhood would just add another layer to the fabric that makes a great community.
In my spare time (Hah! Ford just took a lot of that away from me recently!) I am going to see about implementing something like this in Walkerville.
I thought you would, so do I– it looks like a great way to connect the people in the “hoods!”
I also liked the growing local Hops story … as new crop for the county and local brewers.
But the best story is The City that ended Hunger! We could do that here!
If we don’t have it already, we need a brew club in Windsor. Micro-brewing is one of those sexy niche industries that adds to the appeal of a great city. It is like the wine industry but for urban areas.
The bike parking survey might be something worth reviewing too. If we need more bike parking in the city, a bike rack design competition might be a good idea. It creates a local product and servers as free promotion for bicycle use and the city.
The Windsor International Film Festival finally partnered with myself to purchase a 6000 lumen Video projector to go with our inflateable screen.
The front porch thing rules, In edmonton neighborhood associations (I forget the name they have for them) are encouraged by the city who dedicates a staff member to help them coordinate and gives them a template for how to operate. We need to do the same in Windsor.
I want to ditch the strategy of showing WIFF current independent films outdoors. I really believe that WIFF needs to do community outreach.
I’m talking to the board about sponsoring anyone with a neighborhood association by providing free use of the projector, screen and one WIFF Volunteer to oversee it if they provide 2 neighborhood volunteers to help set up, take down and chaperone. You’d also need permission from City council to be let out of the noise bylaw, but that would just take some notice to your neighborhood as its not like these things are wild and crazy parties
Call it movies in the park. We just need 110 electrical outlet and we can watch any movie they want.
Lets take these block parties and crank ‘em up a notch
Love the idea, in fact, we did something to this effect in my neighborhood when I was in another city. Its perfect for a street with many young children, and worked well when combined with a day event (we did golfing in the afternoon, movie in the evening with BBQ and just meeting and greeting with the neighbours). From the 1st street party, monthly events sparked up: Texas Holdem Tourney, etc. If it wasnt for these events, I would have only known the people directly next to me, and not 5 houses away. Great idea for a community get-together.
Mark, in Gimly Manitoba they screen some films on the lake during the film festival, they set-up the screen in the lake and people watch from the beach. I was reminded of this during the floating concert the other day.
Could WIFF not do something similar? I’m thinking of a spot that would be perfect. It’s the open water barrier area by the university. The barrier makes a perfect sitting area, the view of into the river is unobstructed, and the sight and sound of the waves cascading in would add that magical element. Ya’cha think?
Gimli Film Festival
http://www.gimlifilm.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=6&Itemid=9
The folks who think methadone clinics are great should gladly ask for one in their neighbourhood. I for one am glad these people are seeking ehlp even though methadone is just another drug they get hooked on instead of heroine (or other choice of hard drug). But to put it in reisdential neighbourhood is wrong.
Why can’tit be put at Eugenie and Dougall? There are no neighbourhoods there and it is serviceable by bus. How about medical plaza on Howard & Tecumseh? Or if anyone prefers on Goyeau near city hall?
It is bad enough I get transients using my hose, walking up to my porch etc from between the railway cut on Caron and the bus station. My neighbours and me will now have to worry about drug addicts casing my house.
For those who say we are over-reacting, I say it takes only one incident and I don’t want it happening….one incident.
Danforth E in T.O. has a methadone clinic and the neighourhood suffered even more for it. It sure doesn’t help when the area is already on it’s way down.
You have to wonder why the clinic opened with such secrecy???
Chris H. You are right on the money! Our little neighbourhood has become much tighter, friendlier and relaxing since most of the neighbours sit out on their FRONT porches. We all talk almost every few days and soem of the things we are accomplishing are just wonderful.
When you get that free time again (without the loss of pay of course) you should start up the front porch forum. It really is a wonderful thing.
Dave, I agree with you about the placement of these clinics. I don’t oppose the existence of these clinics, they are a good resource available for people that are actively seeking help. However, they should be located in places that have less of a negative impact on the neighborhood.
For example, I often wondered why they were not incorporated into hospital campuses. They can still be private run, just rent the space from the hospital, preferably with their own entrance. Most hospitals are transit accessible, and have parking and security in place. Any increases in security required can be charged to the clinic.
What security is this clinic offering the community? Do they have guards? No. The WPD is required to step in, and we are paying for that again in taxes. Do they provide transportation (taxi, bus fare) for their clients so that they are not wandering the neighborhood high? doubt that too.
I would like to see more money in prevention, and drug enforcement before I see more go into these style of clinics. It may be a private clinic, but there must be government money supporting it. (OHIP?)