News, September 7, 2009
The 16 lockers, designed to hold 16 bikes each, will open at the Hamilton Convention Centre as part of Metrolinx’s $2.2-million program to provide secure bike parking for cyclists across the Golden Horseshoe area.
The dark side of India’s booming economy. Last year, 1,240 farmers committed suicide. Verses the bright side
Remote workers aren’t going anywhere - literally
There’s no stopping it. If the latest generation has its way, the work force that fuels tomorrow’s small businesses may largely be a stay-at-home crowd.
According to WorldatWork, a global human resources association, the number of full-time employees performing their jobs remotely at least part of the time rose 39 percent from 2006 through 2008, tracking in at 17.2 million people.
Buses Beat Rail
Washington Post asked a reporter to ride the bus between New York and Washington for a month to see why intercity buses are suddenly sopopular. Andrea Sachs found that most bus riders were motivated by “price, location and times.”
The buses are far less expensive than Amtrak (typically $15 to $20 vs. $49 to $99) and take people to more locations (for example, not just Penn Station in New York). With at least a dozen different companies offering 150 to 180 departures per day (depending on the day of the week), buses also beat out Amtrak’s 24 departures per day (half of which are Acela trains that cost a minimum of $99).
University towns fare well in recessions
Why the resilience of university towns?
- For one, universities don’t typically suffer from massive layoffs of students. In fact, I’m sure we all know at least one person who had difficulty finding or keeping a job that considered returning to school. That provides a constant population of residents and consumers for local businesses, kind of like why toothpaste companies don’t suffer in economic downturns.
Carrots Are Good for You, and So Are Sticks
A very interesting post today on the Streetsblog Network from getDowntown, in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The getDowntown program, which aims to get more people using alternative modes of transportation through a variety of incentives and support systems, is a partnership between the Ann Arbor Area Chamber of Commerce, the Ann Arbor Transportation Authority, the City of Ann Arbor and the Downtown Development Authority.
INTERVIEW WITH PETER NEWMAN, AUTHOR OF RESILIENT CITIES: RESPONDING TO PEAK OIL AND CLIMATE CHANGE
The first thing cities should do is to make their own climate change and peak oil strategy. I am a strong believer in the power of local communities to drive their own long-term future. This should include business strategies to ensure the community is realistic about next steps. Local governments should contribute medium-term infrastructure and planning, but, in the end, the big driver of change will be when local communities set out where they want to be by 2050.
Bangladesh suit ban to save power
The prime minister of Bangladesh has ordered male government employees to stop wearing suits, jackets and ties to save electricity.
Transforming a Dying Texas Town – Into an Arts Colony radio story and expanded online story
Danes could teach us a lot about cycling
So patchy and sad did the remnants of Kentucky blue become that I eventually put the mower away altogether and let nature take its course. Which it did. With a vengeance.
Don’t just walk, engage Something as simple as a Sunday stroll can become a journey if we pay attention to the monuments that manifest the spirit of our city
LIVE BY THE SPECIALTY, DIE BY THE SPECIALTY
Regions have a bad habit of getting into ruts. This is true of any place that focuses exclusively on one industry – with the possible exception of the federal government, which keeps expanding no matter what. This reality is most evident in places like Detroit, but it also applies to one like Orlando, whose tourist-based economy has been held up as a post-industrial model.
GLOBALIZATION LEADS TO CIVIC LEADERSHIP CULTURE DOMINATED BY REAL ESTATE INTERESTS
“Cleveland’s leadership has no apparent theory of change. Overwhelmingly, the strategy is now driven by individual projects. These projects, pushed by the real estate interests that dominate the board of the Greater Cleveland Partnership, confuse real estate development with economic development. This leads to the ‘Big Thing Theory’ of economic development: Prosperity results from building one more big thing.”
Laneway Neighbors
A quick look at a great idea: a microhousing concept for Vancouver calledLanefab. More than just a hip-looking infill housing scheme, it’s one that is uniquely suited to the specific urban fabric of Vancouver, which apparently has an extensive network of alleys, aka laneways.
Feeding Cleveland: Creating a Sustainable Local Food System
Pop-Up Stores Find New Popularity in Bad Economy Pop-up stores — stores that fill retail space for a couple of quick months, than vanish — were once scoffed at by retail landlords. Today, they’re plugging holes in the retail economy.
Home Location Preferences And Their Implications For Smart Growth
Location, location, location. Choosing a smart home location can help households become healthy, wealthy and wise, since it affects residents’ physical activity levels, long-term financial burdens and opportunities for education and social interaction.
Several recent studies advocate smart growth development to help achieve various planning objectives, including affordability,health, energy conservation and pollution emission reductions. Just last week the Transportation Research Board released a major new report, Driving and the Built Environment: The Effects of Compact Development on Motorized Travel, Energy Use, and CO2 Emissions which concludes that cost effective smart growth policies can make a substantial contribution toward climate change emission targets.
Bing: Detroit needs Oakland, Macomb, Wayne counties Detroit Mayor Dave Bing reached out to Oakland County leaders tonight. He said southeast Michigan needs to work together to move forward.
The Revolt of the Masses Electorates are casting a global no-confidence vote in their leaderships.
When the political world arrives at the point where even the Japanese rise up to toss a party from office after almost 54 years in power, it’s time to see something’s happening here, Mr. Jones.
Forget Curbing Suburban Sprawl Building denser cities would do little to reduce CO2 emissions, a new NAS report concludes.
A ‘living street’ isn’t dominated by cars
The appalling death of a cyclist following an altercation with former attorney general Michael Bryant reminds us of the desperate need to humanize this city and learn to share its public spaces.
Of course that includes getting serious about bike lanes, an idea we have discussed endlessly in Toronto but about which we have done almost nothing.
Sounds and reads like Windsor..Eh!
City Centre makeover set to go
Some of the design features planned for Civic Square include:
• linking Civic Square and Central Library Square by removing sections of existing walls and improving grade transitions, essentially turning it into one large square
• redesigning City Centre Dr. as a pedestrian-friendly street that can be closed during events
• doubling the size of the existing ice rink and installing new ice-making technology
• replacing the existing reflecting pool on Civic Square with a water feature
• opening up the amphitheatre by removing walls and raising the floor, adding washrooms and a green room, and installing a shade feature
• reconfiguring the lawn surface to make it a large, open lawn for hosting activities
• developing a permanent outdoor stage with sound system, at the southern boundary of Central Library Square
• establishing an area on the Central Library Square for specialized seasonal open-air markets with vending stalls
CoolTown trends - early fall 2009
Here’s a wrap-up of the latest news and trends that are signaling a shift to a more creative culture and economy…
Cities are starting to go green by the district rather than just by buildings…
Cities are now looking at going beyond green building standards and focusing on green district standards, starting with eco-district plans in Portland, Oregon; climate benefit districts in Seattle, and eco blocks in China. Green at City Scale in Governing Magazine.
New Study on the Benefits of Density
A new report from the National Research Council seeks to establish the scientific basis for the relationships among development patterns, VMT, and energy consumption. So what did they find?
The Death and Life of Great American Cities, Jane Jacobs’ 1961 book, “may still be the most indispensible volume in any urbanist’s library.” At least that what urban economist Edward Glaeser writes in a recent issue of The New Republic.
The Pernicious Jane Jacobs
If Windsor is not a “great city” as Jacobs wrote about great cities, does her thinking apply to smaller cities, the Anitplanner doesn’t think so.
Post Feedback
On the issue of Peak Oil plans, the City of Moncton, NB accepted a Peak Oil resolution at their June 15 2009 council meeting. You can read the full text at the link below. Their example is being used by other East Coast cities in preparing their own plans to prepare and stabilize in an unstable future. Even Charlottetown is getting in the act and has retained Stantec to do an Eco-city plan.
Moncton, NB
http://postcarbonmoncton.blogspot.com/2009/06/moncton-city-council-passes-peak-oil.html
Charlottetown, PE
http://www.theguardian.pe.ca/index.cfm?sid=277030&sc=98
In the meantime our council wants to build the future of our economy on air-cargo which is basically economic suicide in a peak oil scenario as it follows the whole “energy is cheap and abundant” assumption that - unfortunately - most of the economy is built around.
Saturday Star “Homes” section had a front page article on “Laneway” houses.