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- Today's Moment of Idealistic Naivete: Wikileaks: http://wp.me/pCprU-mB 1 year ago
- Ending the War on Drugs: http://wp.me/pCprU-mw 1 year ago
- Twilight Of The Suburbs, Now Home To One-Third Of America's Poor http://huff.to/bGZP7F 1 year ago
- U.S. Subways Harness Kinetic Power To Recycle Train Energy http://huff.to/bVsXvR 1 year ago
- America's Walk Deficit http://yhoo.it/dijIvg 1 year ago
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Recent Posts
- Today’s Moment of Idealistic Naivete: Wikileaks
- Ending the War on Drugs
- The Most Walkable Cities in the World
- It’s Where We Live
- Can Cities Feed Themselves?
- French Street Artist Wins TED Humanitarian Prize
- Dimanche Sans Voiture
- Are Brussels and Los Angeles Sister Cities?
- Masdar begs the question: What exactly is meant by “a sustainable city?”
- Is Generation Y Passing on Cars?
- Can Cities Make Us Crazy?
- Stranger Studies 101: Cities as Interaction Machines
- Does New Orleans Have an Identity Crisis?
- Three Urban Interventions in Two Hours: NYC
- Cargo Bike Spotted…
Tag Archives: vancouver
Imagining a City Built for Bicycles
A lot is made, and rightfully so, of the differences between walkable cities and auto-dependent cities, but isn’t there a middle way? Truly walkable cities, like most medieval walled cities and their small town USA descendents, aren’t really cities in the modern context. They can’t accommodate the scale and diversity we now associate with a city. Auto-dependent cities handle scale and diversity just fine, but they disconnect people from the built environment and each other. But what if we built our cities for bicycles? What would that look like? What benefits and drawbacks would this model have?
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Posted in architecture, Auto Independence, can bicycles save the world?, Culture, human scale, Josh Grigsby, Livability, Placemaking, transit, Transportation, Uncategorized, urban design, urban planning, walkable, What if?
Tagged accessibility, air pollution, autodependence, beach cruiser, bicycles, bikability, brooklyn, built environment, Cambridge, classism, college town, complete ecosystems, concrete jungle, cooperation, Copenhagen, crime deterrent, denmark, Euclidean zoning, human scale, Los Angeles, low density, manhattan, Massachusetts, medieval walled cities, mixed-use, mobility, modern cities, noise pollution, norway, obesity, para-transit, permeable pavers, population density, portland, Providence, rhode island, San Francisco, seattle, social change, sunbelt, sustainable settlements, Switzerland, trampe, transit, trondheim, urban core, urban density, vancouver, walkability, working bikes, Zurich
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The World’s Most Beautiful Cities
Since beauty is subjective, we surveyed city specialists from a range of fields, including urban planning, architecture and sustainable development. Respondents include Reynolds and Michael Kaufman, an architect at Chicago-based architectural firm Goettsch Partners, as well as Raymond Levitt, director of the construction program in civil and environmental engineering at Stanford University, Tony McGuirk, an urban designer, architect and chairman of BDP in London, J. Hugh O’Donnell of urban engineering firm MMM International, and Ken Drucker, New York design director of architectural firm HOK.
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Posted in Culture
Tagged Amanda Reynolds, architecture, Australia, BDP, boulevards, Cambridge, Cambridge University, Canada, Cape Town, Centre Pompidou, cities of light, cityscape, cultural diversity, downtown, ecological footprint, Eiffel Tower, England, Florence, Forbes, France, Goettsch Partners, Haussman, height restrictions, HOK, Hugh O'Donnell, Ian Cumming, Institute du Monde Arab, Italy, Ken Drucker, King's College Chapel, Kirstenbosch botanical garden, London, Michael Kaufman, MMM International, most beautiful cities, natural beauty, New York City, open air, Pacific Ocean, Paris, Raymond Levitt, River Cam, Sir Francis Drake, South Africa, Stanford University, Stanley Park, street life, Sydney, Table Mountain, Tim Kiladze, Tokyo, Tony McGuirk, urban design, Urban Design Group, urban planning, vancouver, Venice
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Seattle, Vancouver, and Portland by Rail, Bus, Streetcar, and Foot: Part Three
Portland, like its famed streetcar, is an interesting case. It boasts many of the pieces found in successful cities and some that no other American cities can match. The streetcar. Light rail. Cycle tracks. Skateboard tracks. An aerial tram. Traffic calming. No major downtown arterials. Local music. Local art. Local beer. Great food. Environmental awareness. A history of proactive and progressive decision making. Historic urban fabric. Food trucks. Park blocks. It’s walkable. It’s bikable. There is much to like in Portland, and the hype is not all smoke and mirrors.
But…
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Posted in Auto Independence, Culture, Dispatches, Josh Grigsby, Livability, Portland: City or Scene?, Rants, transit, Transportation, Uncategorized, walkable
Tagged 21st Ave, 23rd Ave, Ace Hotel, aerial tram, Alberta, ambient noise, bicycle, bikable, bus, Canada, City of Roses, city or scene, community hub, creative class, creative economy, cycle track, Disney World, Division, Downtown Portland, economic drivers, environmental awareness, fareless square, food trucks, foot power, Hawthorne, hipster, historic urban fabric, homogeneity, Hostelling International, hostels, Japanese gardens, Kennedy School, Living Room Theatre, local art, local beer, local music, lofts, Main Street USA, major employers, MAX light rail, McMenamins, Northeast Portland, Northwest Portland, Old Town, pacific northwest, Park Blocks, Pearl District, portland, Portland Northwest Hostel, Portland State University, Portlandizing, Powell's City of Books, progressive, rail, seattle, skateboard track, Southeast Portland, streetcar, Stump City, suburban neighborhoods, traffic calming, transit, two hundred foot blocks, urban condition, urban core, urban planning, vancouver, walkable, walking, Washington Park, well-educated waitstaff, Willamette River
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Beauty Kills—A Self-Rebuttal: Or, Why Joel Kotkin isn’t Always Wrong
In my recent post, Universal Beauty and the Responsibility of Cities, I argued that beauty is an essential element of urbanism. Forget all of that for a moment; here’s the other side of the coin: beauty kills. It can turn cities into lifeless museums animated only by tourists, inhibiting creativity and innovation while exacerbating segregation and homogenization. Look at any interior design magazine spread; room upon room of artful still-life orchestration. These are rooms that pose, not rooms that are lived in. Look at fashion models, their faces inscrutable and eyes vacant. True, this is not the sort of beauty I was advocating, but an emphasis on beauty can quickly lead one astray if untempered. Beauty is essential, yes, but it can be as intoxicating as drugs, and potentially as destructive.
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Posted in Culture, Josh Grigsby, Livability, Placemaking, Rants, Response Pieces, Sustainability, Uncategorized, What if?
Tagged Amsterdam, ancient Athens, ancient Rome, art, Aspen, Auckland, compact cities, Copenhagen, creativity, cultural diversity, Economist Intelligence Unit, European cities, Florence, Forbes, Geneva, growth, Helsinki, homogenization, Houston, inventory of the possible, Islamic Baghdad, Joel Kotkin, Livability, London, Los Angeles, low birth rate, Melbourne, Mercer, Monocle, Mumbai, Munich, New Geography, New York, Palm Beach, Perth, pollution, poverty, quality of life, Renaissance, Rene Descartes, responsible urbanism, segregation, Shanghai, social dynamism, sprawl, Sustainability, Switzerland, technology, Toronto, universal beauty, urban tension, Vail, vancouver, Vienna, Zurich
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Seattle, Vancouver, and Portland by Rail, Bus, Streetcar, and Foot: Part Two
According to The Economist, Mercer, and Monocle, Vancouver is one of the world’s most livable cities. They cite its ecodensity, cosmopolitan population, scenic natural surroundings, progressive governance, general safety and cleanliness. Others, less enthralled, have taken to calling the city Blandcouver, or even Vanshitty. I had visited Vancouver twice before boarding Amtrak’s 510 Cascades Line train out of Seattle, had fallen in love with the city twice, but both trips had been brief, summertime affairs. Everywhere was shimmering blue water, glittering glass and steel, lush green forests and mountains. Vancouver sure knows how to get dolled up for a date, but what does she look like the morning after, in sweat pants and no makeup, during the long, wet, gray winter? Continue reading
Posted in Culture, Dispatches, Josh Grigsby, Livability, Sustainability, transit, Uncategorized
Tagged Amtrak, Bill Rees, Blandcouver, Burrard Bridge Bike Lanes, community gardens, Davie Street, Davie Village, Downtown Vancouver Hostel, East Hastings, ecodensity, ecological footprint, environmental sustainability, Granville Island, high density, Hostelling International, Jericho Beach, Kitsilano, livable cities, Mercer, Monocle, natural resources, New Urbanism, Puget Sound, roundabouts, Seaside SeaWalk, Skytrain, Stanley Park, The Economist, transit, vancouver, Vancouver West End, walkability
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