I would like to take this opportunity to introduce you to ScaleDown’s new News Director, Mark Bradley. Mark has been a daily resource for the writers at ScaleDown with his regular emails letting us know about ScaleDown-ish news around the globe. I thought to myself “why should I keep this great info all to myself”, and asked Mark if he would like to step in and create a weekly news update for our readers. He finaly caved in, and I would like you to welcome Mark and his new column to our pages every Monday morning. Thanks again, Mark - Chris

As the new news director for Scaledown, I will try to give the broadest coverage of news, websites, articles and things that interest me and you. Chris asked me to become the news director because he and the others here got tired of finding their e-mail inbox filled on a daily basis of items that I came upon, with the focus of these items pointing to the philosophy of Scaledown.  I have a wide range of interests as you will find out when I post on a weekly basis. All of my reading is focused on the city in all its layers, just not infrastructure and planning but from individual sustainability, to its neighbourhoods and out to the county.

Do I owe Chris Holt a big thank you for this opportunity? Chris worked on me for several months about this idea, I suspect more to save his inbox and the hours I was forcing him to read. I will let you dear readers decide!

Now to the news from the last week!

CBC’s Nature of Things this week has a program on Canadian cities, presented by Christopher Hume of the Toronto Star. Living City: A Critical Guide Thursday, February 12th, 10 PM ET, CBC Newsworld.

Urban myths: A checkup of Canada’s major cities reveals some surprises (it’s okay, Montreal, you’re still cool) by Christopher Hume

Outside of the economy and job losses being the big stories, the study released by Richard Florida and Roger Martin: Ontario In the Creative Age

As in all times of economic crisis, there is considerable pressure on governments to protect the past and to undertake bailouts – to preserve what we have during this time of uncertainty. But this protective approach can only forestall the inevitable. There is a better way. That way is to invest in our people, our businesses, our institutions, and our infrastructure. Productive and future-oriented investment will generate prosperity for the long term.

There is no greater resource than the creativity, innovativeness, and productive talents of our people. Our goal must be to harness and use our full creative talents, to grow the businesses and industries of the future, to use our openness, tolerance, and diversity to gain economic advantage, and to invest in the infrastructure of the future in ways that enable more innovation and economic growth. Ontario can and must take a high-road strategy for economic prosperity in which all Ontarians can participate. We owe it to ourselves and future generations to build a vibrant economy for the creative age.

Ontario newspapers were all over the above report, here’s a sampling”

Windsor: Chin up Windsor, study shows hope

Windsor will have to adapt to the new economy, however, Florida added. The study recommends exploiting an existing “mega-region” that stretches from Waterloo through Toronto to Ottawa while improving connections with older industrial centres, presumably like Windsor.

“Windsor’s part of this great province with all of the opportunities that it has,” Florida said. “And I think partly over time it’s got to reorient itself a little bit eastward. It’s tough now, we have to do things in the short run that are going to help people in need. But we also have to keep our eye on the ball.”

The report says there are three different classes of regions in Ontario — places like Toronto and Ottawa that are well-positioned for the creative age, older industrial cities like Windsor and Hamilton that will need to retool themselves (either within or away from the auto industry) for the coming transition, and rural and northern Ontario, which are increasingly disconnected from the creative economy.

“Told of these ideas, Francis again said he agrees — but he noted there are political reasons why Toronto and Ottawa are better positioned for the new economy than Windsor.“Toronto and Ottawa have always been the beneficiaries of a lot of money from the senior orders of government to allow them to re-tool themselves. They didn’t pay for it themselves.”

Editorial comment for the directly above quotes: Really? There’s a blog posting there for someone. Did Windsor ever go after that money to diversify its economy or did Windsor rest on its laurels, that the big car plants will always be around offering Something For Nothing (SFNs) employment. Windsor’s biggest export for eighty years has been its Creative Class! Ask Councilor Gignac!

The long-run success of Windsor lies in Ontario and not in Michigan,” the report states.

Ottawa: Ottawa ‘world leader’ of new economy City well-positioned for the creative age, leading scholars say in release of $2.2M study“

The city of Ottawa, with its well-educated, service-oriented workforce, is ideally suited to a new vision of Ontario’s economy unveiled yesterday by two of the world’s leading scholars.

Urban theorist Richard Florida, author of the global best-selling book The Rise of the Creative Class, said Ottawa “is a world leader” in the ascent of what he calls a new, creative economy.

Hamilton: Hamilton poised for global greatness

Hamilton can’t help but prosper given its location in the midst of one of the world’s most powerful economic engines, says urban studies guru Richard Florida.

“I think Hamilton, in the context of the greater Toronto explosion, has already turned a corner…. You can’t help but be part of a boom, you can’t really miss,” 

But Florida cautions that Hamilton can still make mistakes on the road to economic prosperity, pointing to tearing down old buildings, failing to focus on innovation and research collaborations and allowing what he calls the old-style thinking of “squelchers” to stand in the way.

He says cities must attract and nurture creative talent by fostering a culture of inclusion, (Windsor, Where’s our free ride or lunch then?) openness and civic engagement, capitalizing on their natural landscapes and preserving and celebrating their history.

A creative workforce is key to today’s economy, he said.

Waterloo: Waterloo Region in the Creative Age

The losers in this contest are many and obvious — for example, the rustbucket regions of America that include huge parts of the states of Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania. The winners, in Ontario, include Toronto, Ottawa and Waterloo Region-Guelph.

Martin and Florida say higher education is the cornerstone of 21st-century prosperity. So, we must ensure that the three local universities and college receive continual attention and improvement. The provincial government isn’t the only player here. Both Kitchener and Waterloo Region taxpayers, for example, provided essential funding for the health sciences campus being built in Kitchener’s downtown, while Cambridge “taxpayers” made a school of architecture possible in the core of old Galt.

Globe and Mail opinion by Florida and Martin: We can ride the crisis out - on a wave of our own inventiveness

Businesses in Canada pay relatively more for levels of physical skill than they do in the U.S. - which has been a good thing for blue-collar workers and families. But now we’re lagging in valuing creative skills. Canadian workers gain less income by increasing their use of analytical and social intelligence than do their American counterparts. As a librarian with a graduate degree and twenty years of experience, I make what a clerk at city hall makes with grade 12! So much for value!

The Vanier Institute for the Family, new 2008 report: The Current State of Canadian Family Finances

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE 2008 REPORT – January 2009 

Recessions are very hard on families 

 We are in recession.

About 350,000 jobs were lost during each of the last two recessions. In the 1990s, it took five years for jobs to return to the 1990 level. 

Average household incomes fell by $3,800 during the last recession and incomes did not return to the 1990 levels for 10 years. 

Poverty reached a new high during the last recession and did not return to the 1990 level for 11 years. Insolvencies doubled during the last recession. 

The “most severe crisis since the 1930s” suggests that families may be hit even harder this time.  

Not only a sustainable city but helping the citizens of our city sustain themselves is one aspect of Scaledown.

Transportation articles:

Road Worriers, from the magazine The Atlantic

The explorers—a city planner from the Bay Area, an analyst for New York City Transit, a sustainability consultant from Indianapolis, an urban designer for the city of London, Ontario, and a dozen others—were members of the Congress for the New Urbanism, an organization of developers, architects, engineers, and activists who champion traditional, mixed-use neighborhoods over car-dependent suburban sprawl.

A futuristic vision for the TTC - from 1910  With remarkable prescience, a century-old report anticipates Toronto transit’s current predicament

NextBus takes ‘the biggest unknown out of public transit’In an effort to attract new users and keep current ones happy, some transit authorities are using technology to give passengers up-to-the-minute info about the location of buses, subways and trains.

Researchers tracked 2,400 patients over 40 at an asthma clinic at Toronto Western Hospital, in a 10-year study that was controlled for factors such as obesity, smoking and lung function – and that mapped patients according to their addresses. When they tracked the addresses of the 298 individuals who died over the course of the study, they saw a pattern emerge.

“When you compared those living in the less polluted areas to those living in the higher pollution areas, the death rate is higher for those in the latter group,” said Jerrett. Using nitrogen dioxide, a chemical generated by internal combustion engines, as a marker for air pollution, the researchers measured levels at 143 locations around the city for two-week periods in the early fall of 2002, and in May 2004.

Full report here from the journal of Environmental Health Perspectives:

Particulate Matter (PM) Research Centers (1999–2005) and the Role of Interdisciplinary Center-Based Research

I consider this an important finding for the people of Windsor over the recent fight between City Hall and DRIC on pollution sampling and findings.

Cities:

The Saskatoon Star Phoenix has a four part series by the architect Richard White on Saskatoon.

More “big development” thinking needed

Jacobs’ urban village worthy model

Saskatoon’s downtown a hidden gem

Architecture, art key elements of urban playground

Artists on the move, can we attract them to Windsor?: Goodbye Toronto, Hello Hamilton

“Our mind was made,” said Jarvis, 39. “Space was becoming so expensive in Toronto and as artists, we need space to get creative and, you know, for storage too. We knew we’ll have to leave Toronto.”

They visited Markham, Oshawa and Kingston. Then they went to Hamilton, and fell in love. Within weeks, they had bought a two-storey brick house with a basement apartment for $89,000.

That was five years ago. Since then, at least a dozen more Toronto artists have moved to Hamilton – including Thea Faulds, who also organizes the Zombie Walk, and Michael Sage, a portrait artist who moved into a studio above a store.

Some have bought homes or galleries, other have rented studios and living space, and all are contributing to the burgeoning art community located on roughly four blocks of James St. N., a seedy part of downtown now witnessing an evolution. 

Economy halts downtown Detroit’s revitalization; some say it’s temporary

Why Tackling Urban Sprawl Is More About Proper Planning Than Eco-Towns & Green Buildings 

Subsidize Green Neighborhoods, Not Green Cars, The Myth of the Efficient Car

Growing food at home, Toronto’s plan

That’s what green advocates and urban farming enthusiasts would like to see from a municipal food production policy now being formulated at Toronto City Hall. Months of work on the policy are still ahead, but the parks and environment committee has been presented with some intriguing ideas that suggest the potential benefits of an imaginative new approach to urban farming.

Making Cities Stronger:Public Library Contributions to Local Economic Development

Public libraries are logical partners for local economic development initiatives that focus on people and quality of life. Libraries are widely available, highly regarded public institutions that provide a broad range of information services and support for diverse constituencies.  In this era of economic transformation, the business of public libraries is being recast.  Public access to digital information and technology is a draw for libraries.  Their open structure, combined with the power of new digital collections, technology, and training, position them to help communities make the transition from manufacturing and service economies to high tech and information economies.

 Public libraries build a community’s capacity for economic activity and resiliency.  Many families and caregivers rely on the library to provide important pre- school reading and learning.  Many people entering the workforce rely on libraries to get them online. Local businesses are increasingly tapping into the library’s online databases to keep themselves competitive and to find synergistic new business opportunities. Library facilities often anchor downtown and commercial developments, and are attractive neighborhood amenities. These are the essential findings uncovered by researchers from the Urban Institute, as they  teamed up with the Urban Libraries Council, an association of large metropolitan public libraries, to investigate the impact of public libraries on local economic conditions.  

All public libraries in the United States are reporting 45% to 70% increase of numbers of the public going back to their public libraries, for free DVDs and music, internet, magazines and books, upgrading educational skills, looking jobs and programs for their children The same is happening in Canada.

“We’re hearing from people who said I could no longer afford my newspaper subscription or I could not afford my Internet connection and now I’m going to my library because it’s there,” said Loriene Roy, immediate past president of the American Library Association. Gone are the days of musty books, card catalogues and the threat of being told to “shhh.” Today library visitors borrow CDs and DVDs and use study space for boisterous group work. They take advantage of free computers and bring along their laptops to use free wireless Internet.

“Now you can eat and drink in the library,” added Jane Pyper, chief librarian in the Toronto system.” And you can do that at Windsor Public Library’s Central branch also! Come for a book and lunch!

There is free WiFi available in all Windsor Public Libraries. Bring your laptop!

Do you like “Free” stuff and can’t afford Blockbuster anymore, your favourite mag, the current bestsellers, want free internet, then visit your local public library, either in:

 Windsor, or Essex County 

 Well not yet at least. Will other countries start looking at our vast spaces and priceless farmland for their own use. Well, not if our suburban developers get there first!

Diversity:

Look around our city, it has changed and is changing, what will the future be? A lengthly essay from the current The Atlantic magazine makes a case for the “Beiging of America” [sic] Canada and well worth your time to read.

The End of White America? 

 

About me. I am a professional librarian with the Windsor Public Library, where I have been employed for almost twenty years. For almost eighteen years I was reference librarian on the second floor of the Central Library, now I have a more technical position of administrating the Library’s catalogue system. In past lives, I’ve served seven years in the Canadian Army, am a license First Mate, Ferry Steamship Inland waters, a miner, a farm labourer and many more jobs that are to numerous to list. I worked seven years on the line for Ford, went to university as an adult student later in life and now hold a Bachelor in Fine Arts (Visual Arts) and a Master of Library and Information Science. I’ve have and still read (forty years) heavily in anything that has to do with cities … I love cities and I love this city. My family history goes back to 1862 in this city.

Tags: Architecture, cities, Creative Class, diversity, immigration, Ontario, pollution, popular culture, public library, transportation, water