New urban discussion
Posted 21 October, 2000 by Chris DeWolf - Back to the top
I've created a new urban discussion list on a new service. It still works the same old way, but with new features and greater possibilities. To subscribe, visit the group's main page. I encourage you all to sign up and begin discussion urban news, issues and anything related to the city!

Vancouver photos
Posted 21 October, 2000 by Chris DeWolf - Back to the top
Dylan Leblanc, of skyscraperpage.com, has been kind enough to donate some random photos of Vancouver he took to the Miscellaneous Photos page. You can check them out here. / Interested in various transit systems around the US? Check out the American Public Transportation Association. Also, check out the Transport for London website, the English capital's official transit site. And finally, the Canadian Urban  Transit Association is an excellent place to see what Canada's transit users, companies and authorities have to say. If you're interested in Canadian transit, the Canadian Transit News mailing list is an excellent way to keep track of the issues and news that's hitting the transit industry in Canada.

Toronto transit ads
Posted 20 October, 2000 by Chris DeWolf - Back to the top
The Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) has been airing some interesting advertisements over radio the past little while, encouraging suburbanites to "Ride the Rocket" (streetcar, subway) downtown. If you have RealAudio, take a listen: Going to the Club, The Family Trip, Ripped Off, The Ticket. / Some photo links for you to browse through: an unorganised index of good Boulder, CO photos can be found here. Boulder is a progressive city of about 100,000 located some 50 miles northwest of Denver. Bike lanes abound and downtown is an attraction in itself. Even smaller is Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan. At the Moose Jaw Photo Gallery there are some fine examples of traditional Prarie-town urbanism. Finally, a giant collection of Savannah, Georgia photos at Savannah Architecture - everything from beautiful townhouses to ugly boxes. Thanks go out to Mike Binetti for the TTC ads and Daniel for NJ for the link to the Savannah pictures. Speaking of Daniel, he has a very impressive collection of original photos of Buffalo, Atlantic City, Chicago, Toronto, Montreal, and the New York area - especially New York. Be sure to check them out.

Acela gets going
Posted 18 October, 2000 by Chris DeWolf - Back to the top
Some news from the United States today: Amtrak's interurban highspeed rail connection, Acela Express, will debut service between Boston and Washington via New York on December 11th (read the news story). Commuters will now be able to travel from Boston to New York in times only slightly slower than by air, factoring in airport-to-core travel time. For more information on high speed rail in the US, check out Senator Frank Lautenberg's website; the High Speed Ground Transporation Association and the California High-Speed Rail Authority also have good info. / Los Angeles' transit strike ended today, and thousands of Los Angelino commuters and merchants can now breath a sigh of relief. As CNN wrote a month ago, the LA strike really hurt the poor. The strike didn't affect a whole lot of LA County denizens, however, as the LA Times wrote last week. Your thoughts on the LA strike? Talk about it on the Urban Discussion List.

Miscellaneous information
Posted 16 October, 2000 by Chris DeWolf - Back to the top
Yesterday I was particularily intrigued by Canberra, Australia's capital city. The city is very young, having been built mostly from 1900 onward, and planned as a small collection of self-contained suburban clusters. While this may sound like a great deal of suburban North American cities (albeit a rigidly planned version), I was particularily interested by the apparent lack of sprawl typically associated with low-density suburbia. My investigation started with Images of Canberra, which provided me with some limited visual clues. I then made my way to the city's official site, which contains everything from history to visitor's information. Particularily useful was the Consolidated National Capital Plan, which lays the guidelines for pretty much everything in the Australian Capital Territory. / Some photos of Warsaw can be found here; thanks to Chris Szabla for pointing this out. / To be frank, I'm exhausted. There's many things I'm having to do right now and I could really use some help with the site; anybody interested in helping me can reach me at cjdewolf@home.com. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Dadeland sprawl
Posted 15 October, 2000 by Chris DeWolf - Back to the top
Dadeland Sprawl is a group that aims to raise awareness and improve the urban environment of suburban Miami's Dadeland Mall area. Specifically, the group hopes to pressure local governments and citizens to take action towards implementing an already-existing urban plan for the area, which can be seen here. If you happen to live in the Miami area and are free at four o'clock this afternoon, the group plans to picket the Dadeland Mall. / In other Miami news, residents of a 1940s-era Art Moderne neighbourhood are petitioning to have their section of the city declared an historic district. Read the story here.

Newark and more
Posted 10 October, 2000 by Chris DeWolf - Back to the top
When most people think of interesting cities, they usually don't think of Newark, New Jersey. In fact, this rustbelt city just outside of NYC - the Garden State's largest - is often percieved as a dangerous and dilapidated place. If GoNewark has its way, however, the city will be a prime attraction for those looking for yet more vibrant urban life in the New York area. The site offers everything from discussion forums to a downtown guide to photos, and that's only half of it. A very cool site. For a more official look at Newark, check out downtownnewark.com. / I've decided to cancel the October issue of Urbanite, thanks to previous commitments as well as the New York galleries. Those who aren't subscribed to the magazine can view the online September issue here.

Quincy and Baltimore
Posted 7 October, 2000 by Chris DeWolf - Back to the top
It seems like Quincy, Massachusetts - a suburb of Boston on its Red Line subway - is becoming a hot place for yuppies to live. Professionals priced out of Boston or keen on an urban yet less-hectic lifestyle are finding the town a good place, reports the Boston Globe. The Globe also ran a story the next day praising the virtues of Baltimore. In fact, many people are finding that Baltimore is a good place to live: many neighbourhoods are quite safe (despite the city's reputation), and housing stock is dirt cheap compared to neighbouring Northeastern cities. Live Baltimore explores the neighbourhood and housing of the city. / Also, be sure to check out Downtown Halifax's website.

Back from New York
Posted 5 October, 2000 by Chris DeWolf - Back to the top
I'm back from my trip to New York. Urbanite will be delayed this month until October 15th, so I can work on the NY galleries. I also took some shots of Toronto from an airplane flying into the city; those can be seen in the new Toronto Minigallery at Miscellaneous Cities. / Hungry for some sampling of the Big Apple? Well, until the photo galleries are open, you can check out the "New York Photo of the Day" above. Each day will feature a new photo from various neighbourhoods I took photos of. Today is a panorama of Sherman Square, the shopping heart of Manhattan's beautiful Upper West Side. 

High up Manhattan
Posted 26 September, 2000 by Chris DeWolf - Back to the top
Looking for information on East Harlem, the largely Puerto Rican neighbourhood located north of East 96th Street in Manhattan, I stumbled upon the excellent East Harlem Online. Offering a great photo tour that shows "El Barrio"'s warts and beauty marks alike, the site is a comprehensive index of businesses, community issues and anything and everything that has to do with East Harlemites. Moving further west, About.com's Harlem site offers all sorts of information on the neighbourhood, including issues such as the renaissance of Harlem. Home to Harlem is an even better site with history and all sorts of good community pride. Even further west is the affluent, Columbia University-dominated community of Morningside Heights. The Morningside Heights Resident's Association page offers photos, academic and community information, history and maps. At the very top of Manhattan sit Washington Heights and Inwood, two diverse communities that were once plagued (and in some parts, still are) by crack dealers. Washington Heights and Inwood Online is a comprehensive site full of community issues and stories. Check it out. / If you're wondering why the lengthy post on uptown Manhattan, here's the reason: this coming weekend I'll be in New York exploring and having an all-around good time. I will only have a limited amount of time, but expect some photos of at least a few neighbourhoods. Instead of a gallery, they will be organised into a "walk" - offering history, photos and links along a certain walking route I took. Questions can be forwarded to cjdewolf@home.com.

Sustainable CNN
Posted 23 September, 2000 by Chris DeWolf - Back to the top
CNN.com and the CNN television network are running specials on sustainable cities around the world. The web feature, which contains looks into sprawl as well as good urban environments around the world, compliments a television special that will be airing tomorrow in Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America. Unfortunately, Canadians and Americans will have to wait until November 19th to see the special. For specific times, click here. / Some great urban photos can be found at Photos by Tork; the Baltimore photos are especially good. 

Kiev photos
Posted 22 September, 2000 by Chris DeWolf - Back to the top
Wondering what Kiev, capital of Ukraine, looks like? Take a look with some of the following sites! The interesting NYCFoto.com hosts two galleries of Kiev photos, the Kiev Views gallery and the Streets of Kiev gallery. Some generic views of the city can be found here, and more nice photos can be seen here. / Nathaniel Good's Berkeley View is a great site that offers a good guide to the famous California college town, as well as some great photos. Nate also manages The Photo Page, which has lots of his urban photos ranging from Oakland (Berkeley's neighbour) to Boston. Yet another of his sites is the BART Transit Guide, which offers photographs and information on the San Francisco Bay Area's commuter rapid transit system.

Good day for Chicago
Posted 21 September, 2000 by Chris DeWolf - Back to the top
Yesterday was a good day for downtown Chicago. A new urban neighbourhood is in the works, as reported by the Chicago Sun-Times; the Hard Rock Cafe corporation will be buying an Art Deco skyscraper and converting it into a restaurant and hotel, as reported by the Tribune; and, as the Tribune also reports, sales of downtown housing shot up by 10% over the last year. Thanks to Payton Chung for supplying this information. / We're a little slow to report this, but five days ago, workers of the Los Angeles Country Metropolitan Transit Authority went on strike. As this article reports, business in LA has been unexpectedly crippled by the strike. Downtown markets and newsstands have virtually no customers, and shops that serve subway and bus commuters were suffering. The article also includes links to previous strike news. In related news, a strike threatens to shut down the public transit system of Whitehorse, Yukon (I'm still surprised the town even has a transit system!). As the Whitehorse Star reported, some drivers are currently protesting and the strike could very well take place October 6th (story here).

World Car-Free Day
Posted 20 September, 2000 by Chris DeWolf - Back to the top
Tomorrow is World Car-Free Day. Many cities in Europe are taking the initiative to close down their town centres to cars, encouraging residents and commuters to walk, bike and take public transit. No North American cities are doing such a thing, however, but a few cities will see bike rallys. Here's what you can do to celebrate Car-Free Day:

• If possible, walk, bike or take public transit to work. A car is a given if you work or live in a rural area or town without public transit, but if transit is an option, use it!
• If you're an avid cyclist and advocate of bicycle/pedestrian rights, engage in one of the Critical Mass-type activities that will be taking place in cities such as Boston. Check your local papers for information.
• Write to your local alderman or political representative, demanding improved public transit. Many of you will be "forced" to drive tomorrow simply because public transit in your city is a slow, inefficient option.

For more information on Car-Free Day, check out the closest thing it has to an official page. Be sure to check out Car Free Cities and Car Busters as well. You can also read our interview with car-free cities advocate J.H. Crawford.

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