This is an incredible video of a a remote-controlled plane flying exploring New York City from a true “birds-eye” view.
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This is an incredible video of a a remote-controlled plane flying exploring New York City from a true “birds-eye” view.
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My weekly reading list for urbanists, urbanites and city dwellers:
Yesterday, I posted a letter from Phoenix Vice Mayor Michael Nowakowski. The letter expressed a dissenting opinion to City Council’s refusal to agree to even a temporary suspension of the reverse lanes on 7th Ave and 7th St. The temporary suspension of the lanes would have allowed some data could be collected.
Teresa Stickler, owner of Melrose Pharmacy on 7th Ave, was Chairperson of the Ad Hoc Task Force on Reverse Lanes. Yesterday, along with city staff, she presented the Task Force’s report. A summary of the report is found at the end of this document (pdf).
While both sides of the issue praised Teresa for her professional and unbiased fulfillment of her duties, once she tabled the report, she was able to speak freely. This is what she had to say:
Mayor and City Council,
Many of you know that I am a business owner, but you may not know that I am also a resident of Central Phoenix. In particular,on a street that has a stream of cut-through traffic during the morning commute. The cut through traffic is so bad. that neighbors have to put their garbage cans and recycling bins far enough out in the road .. as obstacles to slow the cars down.
I have been active on this issue ever since our neighborhood turned down a good multi-use project that would have filled a large, vacant blighted piece of land. It was turned down, mostly because traffic would be forced into our neighborhood since one could not turn out of the project because of the reverse lanes.
I asked myself “Why? Why should the reverse lanes who:
- have outlived their purpose,
- are preventing good projects from being built, and
- encouraging cut through traffic;
be allowed to continue to destroy our neighborhoods and businesses, all in the name of speed?”
EVERYONE here knows, that the average speed driving 7th Ave and 7th Street is above the speed limit and that driving the actual speed limit will get you middle fingers and then some…
The neighborhoods have sacrificed. As over 400 speed bumps in 13 miles shows. And yet it is still not enough.
The businesses have sacrificed. Online survey results showed that over 49% of the people avoid businesses on 7th Avenue and 7th Street. That number astonishes me. Well that might be why the at least 20 businesses have gone out of business in the last 5 years—19 of those from 7th Avenue alone (because I don’t know much about 7th Street.) I can name them if you’d like.
Although the reverse lanes have wreaked havoc on our neighborhoods and businesses for 30 years. I am not asking commuters to suffer with congestion. I don’t think there is going to be much of any.
The streets study, where they GUESS what the increased travel times will be, has several serious flaws. Some of the include:
- There was no optimization of left-hand green arrows;
- If other routes are quicker. cars will take other roads; and
- They DO cause accidents. Just not statistically significant to the Streets Department’s standards.
Have you noticed traffic backup on Central Avenue when they lost a lane due to Light Rail? No.
From the online survey, only 9% of residents thought that cut-through traffic would get worse.
I am asking you Mayor and City Council, do a 1 year test on the removal of the reverse lanes! You’ve got nothing to lose. but everything to gain.
The people have spoken:
- Last time we were at City Council 2 years ago, when over 200 people were in attendance;
- In the PURL study … of over 1,000 people; and
- In the online surveys of over 2,200 people.
More than half of the people want the lanes removed per City Council 2 years ago, the PURL study, and online surveys.
I have brought with me over 1,280 signatures on petitions, a letter from Bashas, Xavier College Prep, and a neighborhood association, all asking for the elimination of the reverse lanes.
What more can the people do? We have screamed, sent e-mails. shown up at City Council (even at 2 pm on a work day!)
Test it. It can’t hurt! It will prove whether the lanes are needed or not. It is the cheapest option, and would get us real data. The neighborhoods will be able to handle reinstating the lanes. If we know they are needed. But to continue to suffer because of a GUESS what travel times might be, is an insult to Central Phoenix.
Only REAL data, will please EVERYONE!
Let Phoenix’s motto be:
“Phoenix, a great city to live in” instead of “Phoenix, the fastest city to get out of.”
Thank you Mayor and Council
Thanks you for this elegant and well reasoned speech Teresa and let’s continue working together. As I said yesterday, while me may have lost this round, the fight for making a Phoenix a great city for everybody and not just cars will continue.
My recently completed ABCs of Urbanism series looked into 26 fields of urban studies. While this may have seem an exhaustive list (and it certain felt like one when writing it!), it is only a small sample.
To illustrate the number and diversity of thinking on urbanism, I have created this list of 101 urbanisms. Lest you think I pulled these from thin air, I made sure that each one has at least one meaningful link on Google; several have books or serious academic journals dedicated to them.
The asterisked (*) text refers to the urbanisms included in my ABCs. The other linked items are books with that title on Amazon (affiliate).
Accessible Urbanism
Agrarian Urbanism
Agricultural Urbanism
Agora Urbanism
Anti-Urbanism
Augmented Urbanism
Behavioral Urbanism
Border Urbanism
Braided Urbanism
Bricole Urbanism
Bypass Urbanism
Clean Urbanism
Dialectical Urbanism
Digital Urbanism
Disconnected Urbanism
Emergent Urbanism
Exotic Urbanism
Future Urbanism
Fractal Urbanism
GeoUrbanism
Guerilla Urbanism
Gypsy Urbanism
Holistic Urbanism
Holy Urbanism
Indigenous Urbanism
Infrastructural Urbanism
Instant Urbanism
Introvert Urbanism
Inverted Urbanism
Living Urbanism
Market Urbanism
Networked Urbanism
New (Sub)Urbanism
Nonconforming Urbanism
Nuclear Urbanism
Occupancy Urbanism
Opportunistic Urbanism
P2P Urbanism
Parametric Urbanism
Participatory Urbanism
Political Urbanism
Propagative Urbanism
Provocative Urbanism
Queer (anti)Urbanism
Radical Urbanism
Real Urbanism
Recombinant Urbanism
Relational Urbanism
Resilient Urbanism
Retrofuture Urbanism
Second Rate Urbanism
Slum Urbanism
Social Urbanism
Stereoscopic Urbanism
Suburban Urbanism
Trace Urbanism
Unitary Urbanism
Vertical Urbanism
Village Urbanism
Water Urbanism
Web Urbanism
Xeriscape Urbanism
Zoomorphic Urbanism
Amazingly, even this lengthy list is by no means exhaustive. MONU, the Magazine of Urbanism has published 13 issues to date, many on urbanisms not listed here, such as Beautiful Urbanism and Exotic Urbanism. Moreover, during my research into the ABCs of Urbanism, I discovered even more urbanisms that intrigued me, including micro urbanism and pop-up urbanism. I hope to explore these in future posts.
I’m sure I am missing even more. If you have a favorite urbanism that is missing from this list, let me know in the comments section.
The following is a letter by Vice-Mayor and district 7 Councilman, Michael Nowakowski, written after yesterday’s City council recommendation to maintain the reverse lanes with minor changes.
For those who have followed this blog for a while know that I support eliminating these reverse (aka suicide) lanes my concern is not so much a safety one, but rather have to do with neighborhood vitality and livability. i expressed many of these in the post Suicide Lanes Kill Communities that contained the text of a letter published in the Arizona Republic. Vice Mayor Nowakowski touches on many of these reasons in his letter.
Dear friends and neighbors,
Today, my colleagues and I at City Council considered the recommendations of the Ad Hoc Task Force that studied the issue of the reverse lanes on 7th Avenue and 7th Street.
For many years as a private citizen, I disliked the effect that the reverse lanes had on traffic and neighborhoods, and for the past few years I’ve had the privilege of fighting the reverse lanes as your councilman. My staff and I know intimately the problems with speeding, the confusion, the cut-through traffic and the accidents and near-misses that threaten people along these roads. I’ve received thousands of calls, emails, and letters about the negative effect of reverse lanes on our community.
At today’s meeting, however, convenience was chosen over safety and quality of life. While it’s promising that the City will pursue enforcement and education along the reverse lanes, my hope has always been to eliminate the reverse lanes and put safety first. I’d like to thank Councilman Tom Simplot for his long-time efforts to eliminate the reverse lanes, and my colleagues Councilwoman Thelda Williams and Mayor Phil Gordon for their willingness to consider the well-being of our neighborhoods.
I would also like to extend a big thanks to all of the members of the task force we seated for their service, and the hundreds of Phoenicians who participated in the public hearing process regardless of how they feel about the reverse lanes. A city is only as great as its people, and we have the best people.
Your friend,
Michael Nowakowski
Vice Mayor and District 7 resident
While we may have lost this round, the fight will continue. We will building on the support that we received during this latest round and continue to raise awareness that there is more to life in Phoenix than commuting by car. City council will meet again in about 6 months to review the implementations of the accepted recommendations, included allowing left turns at major intersections. in August, Phoenix will have municipal elections for half of the council and a new mayor. Both of these events will give us another opportunity to press City Council to do the right thing and—at a minimum—approve a temporary removal of the reverse lanes so real traffic, safety and economic development data can be gathered.
In the meantime, please express your appreciation (via email or phone call) to the city council members who showed their support for removing the reverse lanes and putting community above cars at yesterday’s meeting:
A few weeks ago, I posted a list of 15 acronyms every urbanist should know. In the post, I asked readers to stay tuned for a special post on the various spin-offs of NIMBY—Not in my Backyard. Well, your wait is over.
NIMBY describes opposition by residents to a proposal for a new development close to them (i.e. in their backyard). Despite its ubiquity, the term is relatively new. It was first used on November 6, 1980 by British writer Emilie Travel Livezey, in “Hazardous waste,” an article for The Christian Science Monitor.
Originally NIMBY described people who battled disagreeable developments like sewage plants. In recent years, NIMBY has evolved to become a derisive term and includes anyone who battles any kind of development. As a result, people labeled as NIMBYs are often mischaracterized as being against any development. However, they often hold strong principles of community governance and participation in decisions that directly affect them. They believe that the interests of local residents should have a louder voice in development decisions to balance corporate developers and their (often out of state) investors.
Here are 25 variations of NIMBY:
NAMBI: Not Against My Business or Industry [A favorite of deep pocketed political donors]
NIMD: Not In My District [A favorite of politicians]
NIMEY: Not In My Election Year [Another favorite of politicians]
NIMFOS: Not In My Field of Sight
NIMFYE: Not In My Front Yard Either
NIMTOO: Not In My Term Of Office [Yet another favorite of politicians]
NITL: Not In This Lifetime
NOPE: Not On Planet Earth
NORF: No Observable Redeeming Features
NOT: None Of That
NOTE: Not Over There Either
GOOMBY: Get Out Of My Backyard [Common in new suburbs that encroach on industrial sites or airports]
GUMBY: Gaze Upon my Backyard [Opponents of residential walls and fences]
KIIMBY: Keep It In My Backyard [A positive variation]
NIABY: Not in Anyone’s Backyard
NIMN: Not in My Neigborhood
NUMBY: Not Under My Backyard
PIITBY: Put It In Their Backyard
QUIMBY: Quit Urbanizing In My Backyard [Popular in suburbia]
WIMBY: Welcome To My Backyard [Another positive variation]
YIMBY: Yes in My Backyard [One more positive variation]
BANANA: Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anything
BANYs: Builders Against NIMBYs
GOAH: GedOudAHeah [Said in your best Jersey accent]
GOOMBA: Get Out of My Business Area [Another favorite of corporate donors]
As always, let me know in the comments section if I’ve missed any.
For an interesting discussion on how to respond to people with NIMBY, BANANA and related concerns, check out this insightful post from former City of Portland Bike Program manager, Mia Birk. (HT to Steve Vance)
In September—inspired, in part, by Jason King‘s post, [Fill in the Blank] Urbanism—I began my own explorations of various ’urbanisms’ used in contemporary urban studies.
13 weeks and 26 posts later, the series is over. Over the past three months I have taken a peek at a range of urban theories and phenomena, ranging from the fanciful to the rudimentary. In writing this series, I’ve learned a lot more about some popular urbanisms (new urbanism, landscape urbanism); been able to focus on some of my favorites (adaptive urbanism and open-source urbanism); and perhaps even coined a new urbanism or two (yuppie urbanism and Zipcar urbanism).
Here is a recap of the topics I’ve covered:
Writing this series has also taught me that these 26 urbanisms cover but a small fraction of the diversity of urban constructs that exist. On Thursday I will post a list of 101 urbanisms that will highlight the broad scope of contemporary urban studies.
In the meantime, I would love to know which of my ABC’s you found most interesting or compelling. Please leave me a comment highlighting your favorite post.
[Orginally posted on February 11, 2010]
A frustrating thing about living in Arizona is the parochial attitude of many of its residents, especially long-timers. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been told, “Arizona is unique,” or it will never work here” or “good idea, but we don’t do things that way here.” Sometimes their rationale is sound, but more often than not, I want to shout “Has any one looked around lately and seen the results of the way you DO do things?”
The ongoing economic crisis isn’t the short-term results of the housing melt down, banking fiasco, or illegal immigration. Rather, it is a predictable results of a generation of poor policy and economic decisions made at all levels of government by officials of all political persuasions. Quite simply the decisions that the state has made over the past generation have dropped us into a hole that will be all but impossible to climb out of without radical rethinking. Applying the same tired solutions (more tax cuts, more corporate ‘incentives’), or hoping the next housing boom will solve the state’s problems is not only short-sighted—it is a recipe for continued decline.
While Arizona politicians continue to debate what tax cuts to make, or which national chains to ‘subsidize’, other states are taking innovative measures to spur their local economies.
Neither of these ideas are the Holy Grail that will save Arizona. However, they are new tools to consider for the new times we’re living in. They are ways to start building a ladder to help the state climb out of our hole, rather that the shovels that we continue to use.
Thanks for reading. As always I’d love to heat you perspective on the issues raised above.
Note: I learned of the Oregon task force initiative through Sarah Dinges on Twitter. Kimber Lanning from Local First Arizona told me about the New Mexico legislation.
Urban gardening is sometimes viewed as a stodgy hobby practiced by green thumbs and Whole Earth subscribers. This video turns this image on its head and gives the important urban activity an edgy spin that should appeal to a new, younger audience.
It was submitted by Cody (aka smucker1121) an Ohio state student to the YKK AP Building a Better Tomorrow, Today Video Competition
From Youtube:
Lyrics:
Okay, step into my room after a long, hard, day,
Feeling cramped, kinda nauseous, I gotta get away,
To an outdoor utopia, fresh and green,
Full of plants and gardens, so very serene,
Only problem is that I live in the city,
To find a place such like this, I’ve got to be witty,
Public parks are crowded full of people and pets,
Man, I’m thinking about a place only seen by jets.Chorus:
Urban Gardening, Growing plants on the roof,
Efficient with space and energy that’s the truth,
What the limit is, it’s hard to say,
This is how we’re building a better tomorrow today.Urban gardening is shown to reduce energy costs associated with cooling office buildings and households. In addition, the organic foods produced by these rooftop farms is not only healthy for yourself, but also the environment. It is about using space wisely. As our cities become more and more populated, urban gardening is providing a new connection to healthy eating, and helping beautify neighborhoods across the globe.
UK stencil artist Pahnl takes a twenty-first century approach to street art by combining stop motion animation with stencils and long-form exposure. The result is a timeless story of a dog wandering the streets doing what a dog does. Music What Else Is There? by Röyksopp. The animation was first exhibited at the The Herbert, on the 7th October 2010.
If life is a catwalk, run like a dog.
With well over 300 hours in the making, more than 200 stencils involved and too many cold nights spent outside on my knees getting the shots, I am very happy (and relieved) to finally share this with you. Through the course of shooting ‘Nowhere Near Here’, I have dealt with curious drunks, a dog almost peeing on the camera (the irony is not lost on me, haha), the endlessly suspicious police and even someone nearly running off with a tripod.
This is street art, this is life and thank you for watching.
…for those of you that may be interested in prints, a selection of film stills from ‘Nowhere Near Here’ are currently available at pahnl.co.uk/ store.php
Through his Yurbanism brand, Yuri Artibise—aka the Incurable Urbanist—explores the ‘Y’ of urbanism by sharing ways to make our cities more livable, community-oriented places one block at a time.
© 2012 Yurbanism. All Rights Reserved.
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