News, Monday, May 25, 2009
Transit hubs to shape urban pocket in Markham
It’s a long way from California to Markham, but not for Peter Calthorpe, who has made the trip to design what could be the most vital project of his career.
The influential San Francisco architect, author, planner and co-founder of the Congress of New Urbanism calls this job “the highest manifestation of transit-oriented development I have been involved in.”
He’s referring to Langstaff, a new-style urban community proposed for a 57-hectare site south of Highway 7 between Yonge St. and Bayview Ave.
Suburbs critical of Detroit get a taste of what really drained city
It’s a very sad situation. The economic collapse of a city is a terrible thing to watch. Just look at Detroit.
The plight of Michigan’s largest city is often viewed from the suburbs through the lens of race, personalities, dysfunction and corruption. The assessment of Detroit is often harsh from north of 8 Mile and west of Telegraph. Perhaps now that serious job loss and long-term decline are facing suburban communities, it’s time for a reassessment of the reasons why Detroit is like it is.
In the end, don’t Detroit’s problems basically go back to the interrelated factors of the disappearance of jobs, the disintegration of the city’s tax base and the erosion of its commercial activity, just like in the suburbs?
North American roads will never be the same thanks to fuel-efficient fleets
Yesterday, Mr. Obama swept away years of lawsuits, political fights and jurisdictional rows, imposing new emission standards that by 2016 will require almost 40 per cent more fuel-efficient fleets.
Creative bus stops…a project and work for our artists?
Chatham downtown building considered a hidden treasure
Boom time for GTA’s ethnic enclaves
The number of ethnic neighbourhoods in Greater Toronto skyrocketed 55 per cent to 371 from 239 in the latest census, and many of these communities have expanded into suburbs, a new study has found.
The mathematics of cities was launched in 1949 when George Zipf, a linguist working at Harvard, reported a striking regularity in the size distribution of cities. He noticed that if you tabulate the biggest cities in a given country and rank them according to their populations, the largest city is always about twice as big as the second largest, and three times as big as the third largest, and so on. In other words, the population of a city is, to a good approximation, inversely proportional to its rank. Why this should be true, no one knows.
One of the world’s largest food companies is pouring millions of dollars into probiotic research in London, a move scientists hope will lead to the city becoming the North American epicentre for development of beneficial bacteria products.
Paris-based Danone announced last night it’s spending $7.5 million to establish a research chair in probiotics at the Lawson Health Research Institute.
The money will pay the salary of Lawson scientist Dr. Gregor Reid, who has gained international recognition for his probiotic work, another scientist and a research assistant.
CYCLISTS VS. CARS: PART 1 OF 4 Toronto’s mean streets
As more cyclists share our crowded streets, collisions become inevitable. And when two wheels meet four, simple physics favours the car – often with life-changing consequences for the cyclist
Councillor says $50 fee on farmers ‘ridiculous’
Councillor Adam Vaughan says it’s “ridiculous” the city is proposing a $50 fee for farmers to set up a Saturday market at a municipal parking lot that ordinarily sits empty that day. !!!
This will make you cry! Allegation: rare trees harvested Former landowner says he acted within his rights
“The developers have got to be more sensitive, even though they own the property,” said Monette.”
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MEAN STREETS, PART 2 OF 4: SHARING THE ROAD
Road wars: Can cyclists and motorists get along?
http://www.thestar.com/article/639462
They move faster than cars in downtown traffic. They can be seen sprinting ahead at intersections, sometimes weaving their way through lines of automobiles, occasionally thumping the cars that drive too close.
They don’t pay for gas or licence fees, and their fight for a bigger share of the road is gaining momentum at City Hall, where some motorists say cyclists are frontline soldiers in a city-waged war against cars.
“Any day these guys are nuts. It’s the Birkenstock babes gone wild,” said one suburbanite of the cycling lobby, who didn’t want his name used. “They have committees, they have sub-committees, they have full-time bike ambassadors.”
They are also the minority – by a mile. The city’s plans call for a $70 million investment in cycling infrastructure over 10 years even though only about 2 per cent of commuters travel by bike, raising questions about whether cyclists should pay to use the road through licensing fees…”
MEAN STREETS, PART 3 OF 4: MAKING BIKING SAFER
MD on the case for safe cycling
http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/640315
A Rooftop Farm For the Future
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/cathy-erway/a-rooftop-farm-for-the-fu_b_207786.html
“On top of an industrial building overlooking the East River, just a stone’s throw from the Pulaski Bridge, sits the 6,000 square foot urban farm. The farmers hired a crane to pour 150,000 pounds of soil onto the roof and created an irrigation system to distribute the wealth of water. A cache of seedlings ready to be transferred to the soil on the roof sits just adjacent to the rooftop, grown from seeds purchased from organic seed savers like Seed Savers Exchange. A beehive has been set on another neighboring rooftop, and on the day I visited the farm, so did a local beekeeper who was excited about lending her expertise to the project. There was talk of building a coop to hold ten or so chickens on the roof. All told, however, the directors cite a modest budget for starting their project…”