Archive for communities

Special civic advocates for walking? cycling?

May 10, 2009 / Wendy Waters / 2 comments

Cities need to offer residents and businesses a variety of transportation options to maximize livability.  Only facilitating automobile travel makes for a polluted, congested, and concrete-freeway-based environment.  Only facilitating bikes or walking in 21st century life and you hamper citizens’ ability to go any distance or carry very much while doing it.   As recently discussed, some argue that a plurality of viable transport options are what make a neighbourhood and city more livable.

So, would city benefit from a special advocate for each type of transportation option?

A professor of Urban Studies at Simon Fraser University believes Vancouver needs a pedestrian advocate.  Along with some other dedicated walkers, he’s frustrated by the new bicycle-friendly policy to take over a one vehicle lane and one sidewalk on the Burrard Bridge between downtown and Kitsilano.

Portland Oregon apparently has one (according to the professor) — although in googling to learn more, I could only find out about a paid coordinator for the Willamette Pedestrian Advocacy Committee, which is a volunteer-based community organization to promote pedestrian-friendly policies in greater Portland.

In looking at the dramatic swing to bicycle friendly policy with the new Vancouver city administration (the new mayor is an avid cyclist, commuting by bike to many city events), I’m inclined to think that cities don’t need single-transportation-mode advocates.  Focusing on improving the situation for just one transportation option, can result in ignoring the implications for other users, as the SFU prof notes.

I’d like to see cities embracing a position for balancing citizens’ transportation options.  The holder would be someone knowledgeable and sympathetic to all forms of getting around a city — motor vehicle, bus, metro, street car, bicycle, walking, stroller, wheelchair, etc.  And their role would be to consider the implications of any proposed policies on all of these transportation options.

Cities themselves generate volunteer-based citizen lobby groups for cycling, walking, driving, transit use, etc.  This “transportation advocate” I’m envisioning would also be their liaison to city hall, helping to turn their ideas into workable civic policy proposals that will improve the livability of the region.

Maybe a multi-modal transportation advocate position would be something CEOs for Cities could consider in their efforts to re-envision America’s cities and come up with strategies to help them emerge from this recession or “reset” ready to support 21st century economic, social and ecological needs.

Category: city hall, communities, downtowns, ecological issues, planning policy, revitalization, transportation, urban technologies /

Celebrate Cities with Jane’s Walk – May 2/3

April 12, 2009 / Wendy Waters / No comments

Last year 141 different walks took place in eleven Canadian cities — as well as a couple of American ones — to celebrate the life and work of Jane Jacobs.  Depending upon the volunteer leader’s interest and expertise, participants learn about local history, took in street-level charm, were exposed to challenges such as homelessness, and/or were introduced to alcoves of their cities they never knew existed.    Some walks were led by semi-celebrities in the urbanista world (I attended one led by Jane’s son).

This year, Jane’s Walk has gone global.  In addition to the 40 walks in Toronto, Jane’s adopted home town, and across Canada, apparently two walks will take place in Mumbai.  And in Jane’s birth country of the USA, dozens of walks are being planned in places ranging from New York to Omaha and Phoenix to Starkville.  And in most cities it’s not too late to organize one yourself!

If you want to sign up for a scheduled walk, act now.  Many in Vancouver are “sold out” (the even is free, but you need to register in order to keep numbers appropriate for a walking tour).

Canadian Walks (and links to those in India) can be found at at www.janeswalk.net
US Walks are being organized at www.janeswalkusa.org

Category: communities, urban history /

City politics are where it’s at

March 29, 2009 / Wendy Waters / One comment

Recently, popular interest in city-based politics and municipal government activity has grown — whether in metro Vancouver (as Frances Bula ponders) or most areas of North America.  Meanwhile many city daily newspapers are failing.  I think there is a connection.

Cities are becoming the engines of economic growth as the knowledge economy and urban service sectors rise in importance, while natural resource extraction and manufacturing (that often took place in smaller towns or suburbs) are declining — at least in North America.

Thus, residents are becoming more concerned with metro issues — whether transit, roads, housing and crime or the latest from the arts and entertainment scene.    Policing, property and transportation issues as they affect day-to-day life in the city tend to be within the bailywick of municipal governments. Attracting and retaining both businesses and the employees they want to hire also tends to be a city issue.  In all these cases other levels of government are involved, but at the end of the day municipal politicians are increasingly held responsible for worsening or improvements to the little things that affect the quality of life of residents.

Those urban dailies that don’t provide enough information on municipal initiatives or sufficient unique and local perspectives — and instead rely on boring newswire stories — are struggling.  At least in Vancouver (and please tell me about your community papers) weekly or bi-weekly newspapers that cover nothing but local politics and community events seem to be holding on.

Category: communities, economic development, resident attitudes, urban technologies /

Is infrastructure spending the answer?

January 19, 2009 / Wendy Waters / 3 comments

Many North American cities face crumbling infrastructure along with a need to offer residents new mass transit options.  During the current economic slow down, the conventional wisdom seems to be that investing in infrastructure is a win – win, offering short term employment and long term needs.

But, what if many of the people needed to design, manage or build the infrastructure are not available?   Or, only available at premium salaries and contracts.   What if the heavy machinery and resource inputs needed are not locally produced?  Will the stimulous still work?  Will this put to work the people who are unemployed?

These are questions raised by a recent Globe and Mail article by Tavia Grant. 

The knocks against infrastructure are that it is not as labour-intensive as it used to be, tends to employ many more men than women and, these days, requires skills in engineering, technology and architecture that are already in short supply, critics say.

“A lot of this ethos of infrastructure-equals-jobs comes from the 1930s when you put a lot of guys to work digging ditches and shovelling gravel. And we don’t do that any more,” said Dr. Jim McNiven, professor emeritus and former dean of management at Dalhousie University….

“If you want to create jobs, as opposed to buy equipment, you do daycare expansions, more help in senior citizens’ homes and more community services. And you need to be more imaginative.”

He’s not alone in his skepticism. As Canadian employment losses mount, questions are emerging over what will best bolster job growth as the employment outlook deteriorates.

While America may have a few more unemployed engineers than Canada right now, I think these challenging questions are still relevant.

Maybe Obama’s interest in community service offers an equally valid approach — consider it investing in America’s “social infrastructure.”

Category: communities, economic development, national politics, revitalization, transportation /

Cities as places

December 2, 2008 / Wendy Waters / 5 comments

Well-functioning cities are not just collections of people, places for commerce, or even car-tropolis.   They are collections of “places” — that is, networks of people and services interwoven into the lives of residents.  Cafes, doctors offices, grocers and specialty retailers are examples of ingredients to place — they offer services used by residents and supplied by them as well.

In fact, the components of place making are actually now a vital part of urban economies.  According to new research from Land Policy Institute (LPI) at Michigan State University (as reported by the Project for Public Spaces):

Services, which are inherently local and include everything from doctors’ visits to construction projects, now account for a larger share of the economy than goods. … half of total economic losses stemming from drops in population are caused by a loss of service jobs and income. That means when people move they take a piece of the economy with them.

Thinking about cities in this way — as ecosystems fueled by people who in turn provide services to others — could change economic development strategy and even how we think about cities.  It’s possible the days are numbered for the suburban-sprawl based model with generic identical houses served by national chain stores that look the same everywhere.  As the Project for Public Spaces summarizes:

In the past, a vital local economy was based on attracting large companies by offering inexpensive locations and a cheap labor force.  The qualities of a particular place mattered little, and people migrated to where the jobs were. Moreover, much of that economic growth was based on cheap oil, which encouraged people’s work, homes and shopping destinations to be spread far apart.  That’s all changed, and now communities with lively destinations that are easily reached by walking and transit gain distinct advantages.

And, the more people feel apart of their community and a contributor to a place, arguably the less likely they are to move on taking their piece of the economy with them.

There are some intriguing implications of this approach to cities.  Will people move elsewhere for a job if it means leaving a place?  or stay and perhaps create their own job?  Will some people rent forever (because they cannot afford to buy in a particular locale) in order to stay a part of the community they love?

Category: communities, economic development, planning policy /

Halloween visit and walkability score

November 8, 2008 / Wendy Waters / 9 comments

After we ran out of candy Halloween night (after about 100 pint-sized visitors), I was pondering Richard Florida’s “Trick-or-treater” index.  Essentially, Florida argues that a “rule of thumb” measure of the child-friendliness of a neighbourhood can be based on the number of trick-or-treaters.

But, the thought occurred to me that the number of trick-or-treaters might also be correlated to a neighbourhood’s “Walk Score” (a measure of how easy it is to walk rather than drive for daily errands). Parents are probably more likely to feel comfortable strolling from house to house at night with their kids if they are accustomed to walking in the area generally.

So, if you can remember 8 days back, how many trick-or-treaters did you have, and what’s your Walk Score?

As mentioned, we had about 100 small goblins visit, and our Walk Score score is 100.

Category: communities, urban families /

Edge city growing pains

September 21, 2008 / Wendy Waters / One comment

In the past couple weeks there have been (at least) two excellent blog posts about “edge cities.”  Edge cities are small cities or large towns interconnected with and attached to a larger metro area like a suburb.  Unlike bedroom communities, edge cities contain business parks as well as homes and significant retail space.

I expect we’ll be hearing much more about edge cities in the coming years.  They have the potential to offer people more affordable homes — and perhaps more space — than living in prime urban areas, but unlike many suburbs sometimes have the density to offer walkable neighborhoods (now or in the future), a variety or retail and restaurant locales, and rapid transit to the larger metro area’s business districts, as well as significant employment and business opportunities themselves.

Right now, we’re starting to see edge city growing pains.  In particular, the challenge of making these places slightly more urban, with higher density housing, retail and restaurants, which in turn will support more transit.

Dave Atkins of the Dave Writes Blog (and a book reviewer for All About Cities) offers an interesting summary of what’s coming to his edge city of Westwood, outside Boston.

Westwood is a town of almost 15,000 located on route 128 about 13 miles southwest of downtown Boston. Developers have just broken ground on Westwood Station, a 135-acre mixed-use, transit-oriented Smart Growth community—and an attempt to, in one massively-planned effort create a new mini-city. Its advocates describe a new urbanist utopia. But the fault lines of change are many:

  • The project is seen as a long term solution to local financing needs—a cure for the cycle of suburban property tax overrides necessary to keep schools funded. But the current economic downtown may jeopardize everything.
  • A significant number of residents oppose the scale of the project and feel betrayed by the town. Lawsuits to force traffic mitigation are followed by large public meetings of angry citizens. The project is supported by most, but some fear it will destroy the community as it pits one side of town against the other.
  • Another development, Legacy Place, only a mile away in Dedham, will complement or compete with this project.
  • Within the span of only a few years almost 2 million square feet of new mixed-use development will be completed—on top of two existing towns: Dedham and Westwood—towns that historically were one town. Within a decade, this region is likely to be transformed.

We may be witnessing the birth of a second generation “Edge City.” Can the mistakes of the past be avoided? Will this be a massive suburban sprawl nightmare or a model for the future of urban planning? Will the project integrate with the town or be a separate, tolerated entity?

Atkins asks important questions about what is happening in Westwood, which could also be asked of projects around North America.

Ryan Avent of the Bellows Blog, meanwhile, quotes from a recent article in Mother Jones about how edge cities typically grow until they have enough homes and businesses to create major motor vehicle traffic jams, but then do not evolve further to communities that would support a good transit system.

The density-gap corollary to the laws of density: Edge cities always develop to the point where they become dense enough to make people crazy with the traffic, but rarely, if ever, do they get dense enough to support the rail alternative to automobile traffic.

Of course, in any attempt to increase density, anywhere, numerous local residents often fight against it.  Sometimes for good reasons, but often for the wrong reasons — wanting to stop any change at all.  This creates growing pains.

Category: communities, development conflicts, planning policy, transportation, Uncategorized, urban history /

Back to the future

August 10, 2008 / Wendy Waters / 3 comments

In the Philadelphia area (link via Planetizen), city officials representing older neighbourhoods and inner ring, older suburbs are now working together to promote these communities as great alternatives to far flung, distant suburbs:

They are places that have been long suffering as homebuyers the past few decades have opted for more spacious homes on large lots in new subdivisions on the suburban fringe….

All the Classic Towns – the boroughs of Ambler, Bristol, Collingswood, Doylestown, Haddon Heights, Lansdowne, Media, Riverton and West Chester, along with Philadelphia’s Manayunk and Overbrook Farms neighborhoods – have made significant comeback strides with a variety of revitalization efforts….

Organizers already have worked up a sales pitch that plays off the budget-busting gas situation: If you live in these walkable mixed-use communities with convenient access to public transit, you probably can get rid of at least one car in your driveway.

While planners have been advocating for years a return to older communities as a way to curb suburban sprawl, Seymour said, “I think now with gas prices, the market is finally catching up to those policy objectives.”

And this is happening not just in Philadelphia. Communities around North America with rich and sometimes forgotten histories are now seeking to restore and revitalize boarded up or otherwise dilapidated former-downtowns or industrial areas. Many are creating higher density housing in the process, such as loft apartments in restored older brick warehouses.

Many older neighborhoods in the core cities and suburbs of North America were built around transit 100 years ago. In Vancouver Gordon Price famously calls them the “street car neighbourhoods.” Where the street cars stopped, family-owned retail thrived. Many North American cities have similar histories. As the automobile took over, and suburbanization thrived, street cars disappeared and street car communities often fell on hard times, even becoming rough “inner city” spaces.

But the old spaces are often still there and offer an authenticity as well as an opportunity to return to higher density and walkable living. Apartments can be built above retail if they are not already there from 100 years ago. Neighboring single family housing is often on much smaller lots than in a more recently laid out suburb. This allows people craving even a small backyard along with walkability and transit accessibility the possibility of finding that (see the recent blogosphere discussion on this between Avent, Atrios, and McArdle.)

As in Metro Philadelphia, it may be important for certain civic leaders to promote what these communities offer to families and individuals struggling to deal with the challenges facing the automobile-based sprawl model as gasoline becomes less affordable.

Category: "back to the center", communities, resident attitudes, residential development, revitalization, urban history /

From Suburb to Satellite City

August 7, 2008 / Wendy Waters / 2 comments

Writing in the Globe and Mail, John Bently Mays insists that some suburbs are thriving:

If pundits are going to discuss the future of North American suburbs — and this is surely an excellent time to do so — then they should have in mind a clear picture of the very dynamic phenomenon they are talking about. If the upmarket suburbs of Sacramento are lapsing into desolation, the exurban communities around Toronto appear to be doing everything but.

Although Mays was challenging something Richard Florida wrote about the increased demand for urban core living, Florida responded by clarifying his message:

I do not think we are seeing a decline of the suburbs. What is happening is a move back toward the core by certain affluent groups for whom time, costs, and location matter. This is what Alan Enerhalt calls the “demographic inversion.” … This demographic inversion is but a part – an important part, but just a part – of a much bigger spatial shift, I call the great intensification.

What we’re also seeing is certain suburbs and even some exurbs reviving or creating a more urban core. Municipalities with their own historical districts are seeing demand from residents to live and/or work in these authentic, inspiring places.

While most suburbs by definition export people to jobs in the urban core, some are doing well at generating employment opportunities.  Corporations and governments have generated jobs in the suburbs, and not just back office, service industry positions (although these have been common).  In addition, residents of many suburbs — including immigrants in places like Toronto and Vancouver — have over time been creating their own businesses and have supported others as consumers or workers.

Assuming fuel prices remain high, and individuals continue to value time more than in the past, then some suburbs whether close to urban cores or more distant may evolve into self-contained satellite cities with weaker links to the region’s major metro area.

Some who currently commute will find a similar job closer to home.  Others will move to the evolving satellite city to be closer to their work.  And some will keep their urban core jobs, but be able to tele-commute one or two days per week, or perhaps work in a local branch office occasionally.  All of this will contribute to creating a more self-contained place — not just a space in which to live — where people will be able to reach jobs, schools and amenities on food, bicycle, bus or in less than a 10 minute drive. This will keep them supporting local businesses as well interacting more in their community, building social cohesion, which many suburban spaces lack.

Category: communities, economic development, revitalization, satellite cities, sprawl, Uncategorized, urban history /

Roads: not just for cars anymore

June 22, 2008 / Wendy Waters / No comments

 Using roads only for motor vehicles is wasteful.  As gasoline prices reach record highs and increasing numbers of North Americans embrace higher density living, allowing roads to be more than conduits for cars needs greater consideration.

Special events would be a place to start.

Today (Sunday) in North Portland an entire region of the city is going “car free” allowing pedestrians and cyclists to monopolize the streets. 150 blocks will be closed to motor vehicle traffic for six hours. Residents and visitors are expected to mingle, enjoy free events in the parks such as yoga classes, and enjoy the fresh air.  Portland’s event is modeled after one in Bogota where 2 million people come out on car free day.

I doubt that many will enjoy Portland’s day, in part because I doubt the combination of public transit and the roads could get that many people to the area.  But I expect it will be popular nonetheless and if it becomes an annual event — or even more frequent — it would draw more people each time.

Last weekend Vancouver had four car-free festivals in the city, each closing about an 8 block long stretch of a commercial/retail street. The traffic jams in the blocks around some of these areas were unbelievable — particularly the one in my neighborhood.  Many people clearly drove to car free events.  But, the events were packed.  There would definitely be popular interest in having a whole community car free.

We also can’t forget the spontaneous ones in which jubilant citizens take over the streets. In Germany — and probably much of Europe — soccer fans are joining together in the streets to watch and celebrate their team’s performances during the Euro 2008 soccer championships.

Perhaps these car free events will lead more city governments and residents to consider permanently closing some streets, making them pedestrian malls.  Or, if not every day, then maybe every Saturday or Sunday.  Allow the restaurants and cafes to add seating, creating a European-like sidewalk cafe culture.   Allow other retail and food sales to happen on the street.  And leave space for buskers.

Roads: lets see them put to use for community building and turn some cities from car-tropolis into places for people.

Category: communities, ecological issues, planning policy, public spaces, revitalization, transportation, urban lifestyles /
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