News, December 7, 2009
Tim Hortons’ message to anti-drive-thru critics: parked cars cause more pollution.
Facing a tide of municipal anti-drive-thru ordinances, TDL commissioned a study last year from RWDI consultants, based in Guelph, Ont., comparing total emissions given off by customers’ cars that use drive-thrus and those that use parking lots. The controversial result — that cars using drive-thrus produce lower emissions than those using parking lots — is now part of the company’s arsenal when it takes on councils planning drive-thru bans. Such bans are a challenge for every drive-thru-based business, but the stakes are especially high for Tim Hortons — last year, 50% of its $2 billion revenue came in via the drive-thru.
Goodbye strip malls, hello downtown
This futuristic utopia depicted in the animated TV series The Jetsons isn’t likely to form the blueprint for city planners tasked with updating Richmond’s Official Community Plan. But they will be mulling the future nonetheless, as the plan will guide development through the year 2041.
As Richmond’s mayor, Malcolm Brodie has already overseen some of the most significant planning directives in the island city’s history.
“The most dramatic changes have already been encompassed in the City Centre Area Plan. That is the area where there will be the most growth in terms of the people. You’ll see the densification of the city core to a far greater degree than it is now,” said Brodie.
The City Centre Area Plan charts a course for a downtown where pedestrians and cyclists rule, where retail shops front No. 3 Road and where high-rise development pays the freight for new public amenities.
It says goodbye to strip malls, seas of pavement and pushes a pedestrian- and transit-oriented culture centred around the “Great Street” vision for No. 3 Road.
An open challenge to rethink suburbia put forth by Dwell andinhabitat.com a few months ago got me thinking about the possibilities of suburban farming. Urban farming helped renew the inner city. Suburban farming can revise sprawl…….The hollowing out of older suburbs and the growing suburban periphery continues in most cities. These growing areas of vacancy between the newer, trendier suburbs and urban areas offer opportunities to mend cities. I believe suburban farming, like urban farming before it, can begin to bring back a more civic, sustainable economy. After urban renewal we need a suburban revision, where responsible production of food and energy moderates the consumptive nature of suburbia.
Dead malls, according to Deadmalls.com, are malls whose vacancy rate has reached the tipping point; whose consumer traffic is alarmingly low; are “dated or deteriorating”; or all of the above. A May 2009 article in The Wall Street Journal, “Recession Turns Malls into Ghost Towns,” predicts that the dead-mall bodycount “will swell to more than 100 by the end of this year.” Dead malls are a sign of the times, victims of the economic plague years.
Cowichan Bay, a small Canadian town, has become the first Slow City in North America. Towns or cities have to meet certain criteria to gain slow city certification - pedestrian walkways, no big box or chain stores, a population of less than 50 thousand. Producer Don Genova visited Cowichan Bay and found a community proud of its newly gained status.
Bok Choy: The Solution to Overfishing?
I’d come to Cabbage Hill for a firsthand look at a form of food production that offers a promising alternative to traditional aquaculture. Called aquaponics, it is a variation on hydroponics, with a sustainable twist. In aquaponic systems, fish and plants are raised together in a mutually beneficial environment. The fish produce fertilizer for the plants; the plants cleanse the water for the fish. In its basic form, aquaponics has been practiced for thousands of years, particularly in the Far East, where farmers allow carp and other fish to swim in flooded rice paddies. Ever since the mid-1970’s, researchers have been trying to develop a financially viable model for the age-old practice in North America.
Daylighting Is Making a Comeback
..electricity isn’t so cheap any more, and daylighting is making a comeback. Add some computers and controls and you get the new world of daylight management, where shading devices, heliostats and skylights are integrated with interior lighting systems to get the best and cheapest light possible.
Amazing Malmö Puts Us All To Shame
All over North America, people complain about deteriorating cities, dysfunctional governments, decline of industrial base and loss of jobs. That pretty much describes Malmö twenty-five years ago, when the shipping industry collapsed and there was 25% unemployment
Peak Oil and Agriculture: A Farm for the Future Revisited
Film Maker Explores Post-Oil Farming
Last week I wrote about a BBC documentary which I hadn’t seen, but the green scene in the UK was all a flutter over. A Farm for the Future explores nature film maker Rebecca Hosking’s return to her small family farm and her search for a post-fossil fuel agriculture. I’ve since seen the film, and would recommend it to anyone with an interest in food and farming - come to think ot it, I’d recommend it to anyone who eats. But for those without the time or means to watch it, Rebecca has also written an excellent article in the Daily Mail newspaper about her quest for truly sustainable agriculture.
Food Among the Ruins editorial pick, a must read!
Were I an aspiring farmer in search of fertile land to buy and plow, I would seriously consider moving to Detroit. There is open land, fertile soil, ample water, willing labor, and a desperate demand for decent food. And there is plenty of community will behind the idea of turning the capital of American industry into an agrarian paradise. In fact, of all the cities in the world, Detroit may be best positioned to become the world’s first one hundred percent food self-sufficient city.
Hume: City’s new architecture frees Toronto the Timid
Who knew? Toronto isn’t afraid to colour outside the lines, taking risks that have energized the city
Since 2000, we have built buildings, launched projects and drawn up plans that once would have been utterly unimaginable in this city. For all its timidity and feelings of inferiority, Toronto has started to think big, take architectural risks.
The most obvious example is the “cultural renaissance,” the expansion program that remade many arts institutions in Toronto and, with them, the city itself.
Vancouver, Now the first step in that redevelopment is under way: Woodward’s, a 1.1-million-square-foot project with an inclusive design. The project, which is costing 500 million Canadian dollars (about $475 million), is one of the biggest redevelopments in city history.
It is also controversial — because of a tangled history and a high-stakes social engineering approach. “There is so much riding on this project,” said Ian Gillespie, chief executive of Westbank Projects, one of the developers. “Everyone sees it as a panacea for huge social problems.”
When completed in January, the project will encompass four interconnected buildings with a central atrium on the edge of the Downtown Eastside, just a few blocks from the business district.
It will feature 536 market-rate condominiums, 200 “affordable” rental units, a supermarket, a drugstore and Simon Fraser University’s School for Contemporary Arts. It will also have 31,500 square feet of office space for nonprofit organizations, 59,329 square feet of federal and city office space, a bank, a restaurant and a rooftop day care center.
“It is a microcosm of the city,” said the project architect, Gregory Henriquez.
The other project partners are the Peterson Investment Group, the city government and Simon Fraser. The site, which covers a full block, originally housed the Woodward’s department store, which closed in 1993. That building has a contentious past, including several failed development efforts and a three-month occupation by advocates for the homeless….
CURITIBA HAS AWESOME PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION SYSTEM
“Curitiba, Brazil first adopted its Master Plan in 1968. Since then, it has become a city well known for inventive urban planning and affordable (to the user and the city) public transportation.
Curitiba’s Bus Rapid Transit system is the source of inspiration for many other cities including the TransMilenio in Bogotá, Colombia; Metrovia in Guayaquil, Ecuador; as well as the Orange Line of Los Angeles.
This video illustrates how Curitiba’s public transportation system operates and the urban planning and land use principles on which it is based, including an interview with the former Mayor and architect Jaime Lerner. Current city employees also discuss the improvements that are being made to the system to keep it up to date and functioning at the capacity of a typical subway system. Curitiba is currently experimenting with adding bypassing lanes on the dedicated BRT routes and smart traffic lights to prioritize buses. They are even constructing a new line which will have a linear park and 18km of bike lane that parallels the bus transit route.”
Curitiba’s BRT: Inspired Bus Rapid Transit Around the World (viaStreetFilms)
City Moves to Restrict Front-Yard Driveways
The Department of City Planning has proposed regulations that would restrict certain homeowners from paving over their front yards to create parking spaces, a move that could alter the residential streetscape, especially in boroughs like Queens and Brooklyn.
Responding to residents’ complaints of unsightly concrete driveways and lost street parking, the new rules would restrict so-called curb cuts — the sidewalk indentations created to allow cars to move from the street onto the front yards of houses — and tighten front-yard “planting” requirements. They would also require certain residential building owners to add parking if they modify their buildings…
Witold Rybczynski On The Four Paradigms of American Cities
Witold Rybczynski could be described as a public intellectual, a prolific writer of accessible books about houses, cities and urban design. He opened the Trudeau Foundation’s conference Cities and the Public Sphere: Rethinking the Urban Commons. with the remark that “one of the advantages of getting old is that you can look back in horror and dismay at some of the things that we did as architects and planners.”
He then proceeded to look back at the four paradigms of North American cities, and at how things worked out.
The War on Soy: Why the ‘Miracle Food’ May Be a Health Risk and Environmental Nightmare
Vegetarians aren’t the only ones who should be concerned; there’s soy in just about everything you eat these days — including hamburgers, mac ‘n cheese and salad dressing.
But soy’s glory days may be coming to an end. New research is questioning its health benefits and even pointing out some potential risks. Although definitive evidence may be many years down the road, the American Heart Association has quietly withdrawn its support. And some groups are waging an all-out war, warning that soy can lead to certain kinds of cancers, lowered testosterone levels, and early-onset puberty in girls.
Most of the soy eaten today is also genetically modified, which may pose another set of health risks. The environmental implications of soy production, including massive deforestation, increased use of pesticides and threats to water and soil, are providing more fodder for soy’s detractors.
Living above the big box
Sometimes a giant supermarket or big box store like Home Depot coming to your neighborhood is an inevitability, but The RISE in Vancouver, Canada proves it doesn’t have to be a one-story warehouse surrounded by parking. Instead, the parking is buried underground with over 90 condos and townhouses above. That’s right, when have you ever heard of residences above a big box?
No, this is certainly not an example of elegant, attractive design, but hey, baby steps. Developed by Grosvenor Canada, the 2.3 acre transit-oriented development received a ULI Award for Excellence in recognition of its innovative mix of residential and 212,000 s.f. of retail.
The building is designed to use 31% less energy, 67% less potable water, and will generate 52% lower greenhouse gas emissions, with a 20,000 s.f. green roof (pictured below) that serves as a park and community garden.
Somewhere Between Blight and Gentrification…
Is there a happy medium between the run-down liquor store and the gourmet shop?
What is the best form of Main Street retail, as people move back to the city and re-emergent neighborhoods acquire shops and services that were once lacking?
I’ve lamented the disproportionate number of liquor stores in San Diego neighborhoods that are otherwise revitalizing. Even though these shops also sell convenience items and provide an honest living for their owners, they do little to enhance street life. They could offer much more to their respective communities, both in terms of product selection and storefront design. Given their centralized locations, it’s a shame that they hide from the street (the corner of Main Street, in this case):
Turning Old Auto Plants Into Gold
Norwood, Ohio lost 4,000 jobs and gained an empty industrial site back in 1987 when GM left town. “In the long run, it was the best thing that ever happened,” says Mayor Tom Williams.
The old automotive site attracted 80 businesses and 1,000 jobs, according to the city.”
Norwood could be a model for many towns facing plant closures today. The city was able to attract Cincinnati-based Belvedere Corp. to turn the land into a mixed-used project.
“Belvedere’s $100 million Central Parke project launched a metamorphosis of the city, from a blue-collar, factory-driven locale to a town with elegant workspaces. Completed in 1997, Central Parke provides 320,000 sq. ft. of office/flex space and 200,000 sq. ft. of retail space.
With all the talk about “food security,” and distorted media statements like “South Korea leases half of Madagascar’s land,”1 it may not be evident to a lot of people that the lead actors in today’s global land grab for overseas food production are not countries or governments but corporations. So much attention has been focused on the involvement of states, like Saudi Arabia, China or South Korea. But the reality is that while governments are facilitating the deals, private companies are the ones getting control of the land. And their interests are simply not the same as those of governments.
“This is going to be a private initiative.” - Amin Abaza, Egypt’s Minister of Agriculture, explaining Egyptian farmland acquisitions in other African nations, on World Food Day 2009
Supersized and Precarious: The Service Class in Canada
Today, more Canadians are employed in service work than any other type of work. While creative workers contribute disproportionately to economic growth, and while blue collar workers were once the largest segment of the labour force, today each group is outnumbered by the service class. According to the most recent Canadian Census, 7.4 million (46%) people are employed in service class jobs, compared to 4.7 million (29%) in the creative class, 3.4 million (22%) in the working class and less than a million (3%) in activities such as fishing, farming and forestry. If policy makers wish to secure future prosperity, an understanding of the issues facing service workers, the country’s largest group of workers, is vital. Current research by the Martin Prosperity Institute highlights the especially precarious nature of service work in Canada. Precarious occupations are those with limited job security, few employment benefits, a lack of control over the labour process, and very low wages.i Service class work is characterized by each of these forms of precariousness.
Extreme Makeover Makeover in Buffalo
Extreme Makeover designers and architects worked with the City of Buffalo staff to create a prototype green, urban home that fits in a narrow lot.
“The new home follows New Urbanist principles, can fit comfortably on a typical 30′ urban residential lot, seeks green/energy efficiency certification, and melds traditional form with modern tastes and sensibilities. The house will be a model for infill development across the city and establishes a precedent-setting example of contextual fit, appropriate massing and height, proper “build to” line and a design that “addresses the street” and has a neighbor-friendly front porch.”
Reader: ‘How to crowdsource a creative cultural district?‘
Posted publicly on Facebook here, Keith Ammann’s question on how to go aboutcrowdsourcing a creative cultural district in the small town of Freeport, Illinois, supported with detailed advantages and disadvantages, is followed by a suggested plan:
Summary of advantages: 3-4 block downtown with a mix of architectural styles; moderate vacancy rate; mixed-use zoning allowing for apartments over storefronts; established, locally owned businesses including two coffeehouses; a successful multiplex movie theater; and cheap rent.
Summary of disadvantages: Municipal focus on commercial outside of the downtown; no good restaurant downtown; no public transportation; coffeehouses not open during the evening; existing stable businesses are scattered around downtown rather than clustered; disengaged, jaded populace; only institute of higher education in town is a community college; very little money in circulation; downtown perceived as unsafe after dark; a couple of buildings with featureless side or rear façades kill the streets beside or behind them.
Norback put together an instruction package and strategy for “One Can A Week” that outlined how individual community members could collect food from their neighbors. Then he tried it out in his own backyard.
“I started with ten neighbors. They all said they would be glad to give me a can every Sunday. Then each week I got 10 new ones. Now, 70 percent of my neighbors, about 200 families, give at least one can a week, and we’ve been doing it for 45 weeks straight. We now have over 7000 pounds of food and 1300 dollars.”
As an added benefit, Norback says, the continued drive has inspired his neighbors to get to know each other. Neighborhood parties and get-togethers that had been stalled for years have started again and the tradition division of neighbors in apartments and those in single family homes has been broken down.
The extraordinary efforts of Norback and his neighborhood have caught the notice of large media and government programs and with the extra attention, more people are using his instructions to start food drives in their own neighborhoods. He is hopeful that as the program is being adopted in more areas in his city and in Phoenix, they can eliminate hunger in all of Tucson or even Arizona.
How Free is Your Parking?
Here is a great video I found via our friends over at Streetsblog.org. It was produced in Australia, but the effects of minimum parking requirements on urban areas are truly global in scope. Also check out Donald Shoup’s The High Cost of Free Parking if you haven’t already.
Post Feedback
As far as Windsor is concerned, there are no cubs to be cut on many residential roads so there would have to be some other means to control the paving over of front lawns.
I find it deplorable that this city has failed to include curbs, side walks, and street lights as fundamental elements of residential development. Ever since I was a kid in North York I can remember that the township, borough, city, and now as a part of Toronto, always plowed the sidewalks as well as the roads.
What Windsor needs is a man of Mel Lastman’s genius. Instead we get this “young man in a hurry” who foregoes infastructure in favour of playing entrepreneur of the year with our money.
Contrary to popular belief, the lack of a physical curb does not mean a property owner does not have to get a permit to build a driveway to the street. You still have to get permission from the City to build a new or widen an existing driveway. The official name is a Driveway/Entrance Permit but many people still call it a ‘Curb Cut Permit’.
Mel Lastman’s genius ended when he became the first mayor of the amalgamated City of Toronto. That man ruined a huge opportunity to mold a new municipality. Instead he brought his suburban ideas to the whole City. Hey, lets build a subway to nowhere before building a downtown relief line - after all we need to keep the suburbs happy.
And there are streets in North York, Etobicoke and Scarborough that have no curbs, sidewalks or streetlights. I’m all for sidewalks, but I’m not convinced that curbs or streetlights are necessary on residential streets. The lack of streetlights has minimal effect on safety and security.
Mel had his failings as mayor of Toronto, but his accomplishments in North York (especially along Yonge from Finch to York Mills) are well above the competancy level of Eddie. Look at the advancements in the city’s core responsibilities and Eddie becomes an infant in comparison. What’s worse: a subway to nowhere (although it does drop you at a hospital) or a road (and bridge) to nowhere? Or an arena in the east end at the detriment of the downtown?
We’ll agree to disagree on curbs and streetlights. Thanks for the clarification on the permits, though.