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Sprawl and the kite
Posted 25 August, 2000
by Chris DeWolf - Back to the top
Payton Chung has mentioned some videos from the USGS showing urban sprawl in San Francisco and
Washington, DC. The SF
video (433k) shows the expansion of the Bay Area and nearby Sacramento from 1800 to
1990. The DC video
(1.1mb) shows the expansion of the DC and Baltimore metropolitan areas, and their eventual
union - 1792 to 1991. / In other news, a guy named Nate, from Berkeley, CA has introduced
me to the Kite Aerial Photography
page. Essentially, the photographer hooks up a camera to a kite and lets 'er rip (okay,
okay, it's a little more complicated but I've a simple mind). Some very nice images are
the result, do check them out.
Old Florida
Posted 23 August, 2000
by Chris DeWolf - Back to the top
Joshua Dahl of Jacksonville, FL has brought the State
of Florida's Florida Photographic Collection to
my attention. It is an archive of historic photos from around Florida and of particular
interest to city lovers is its Commerce
Collection. It contains some great urban images, such as these: Jacksonville's downtown area in
1950; Jacksonville in the
1940s; Riverside, Jacksonville
in 1905. / In the news, the Denver Post reports on an initiative in Colorado that
would require all land-use plans to be submitted for public approval, a controversial way
to curb unhealthy sprawl. Check
it out.
The Urban Past
Posted 22 August, 2000
by Chris DeWolf - Back to the top
The University of Guelph, Ontario has published a
massive bibliography of literature relating to the city, from ancient Greece to classical
Rome to modern North America; found here. Various
urban-related articles and other web links can be found here. / A couple weeks ago
I found a July 3, 2000 article from the Tampa Bay Business Journal exploring infill
development in the Tampa, Florida metropolitan area. Check it out;
for an outline of an actual urban infilling program, you may want to check out Dane
Country, Wisconsin's BUILD
Program. / I'm currently working on converting the Calgary
Photo Page to the same format as the Montréal galleries;
as a result, the new format will better accomodate 400 brand new Calgary photos taken in
2000. I'm also going to establish a couple "mini-galleries", which are no-frills
galleries that are good for collections too big for the Miscellaneous page, but too small
for a proper gallery. Nanaimo and Victoria will be the first cities (Victoria included
only because I didn't have a chance to take photos of its downtown area). I'll also be
reworking the Links page over the new week or so.
Photos and Cabrini
Posted 18 August, 2000
by Chris DeWolf - Back to the top
I thought I'd take some time and link to some new
photo pages and news items. First off, the webmaster of the glorious Tokyo Panorama page has completed Summertime in Shanghai, a small
collection of panoramas taken in China's biggest city. Also of note is the Ex-Travel Photo Gallery, a large
collection of Russian photos - both the countryside and its cities. Thanks to Sean
Breazeal for pointing that site out. NYCFoto.com
contains quite a few lovely shots of select parts of Manhattan as well as posh Brooklyn
Heights across the river. / Chicago's infamous Cabrini Green housing project will be torn
down and replaced by a mixed-income urban housing development, which can be seen in detail
here.
Mary Schmich of the Chicago Tribune has written many
columns regarding Cabrini and the new development, which, as you can read here,
is not without its opponents.
Vancouver and Mosman
Posted 17 August, 2000
by Chris DeWolf - Back to the top
Here are just a few photos that I took in Vancouver,
and some photos that Tony Peric took with his new digital camera in his Sydney suburb of
Mosman/Cremorne. I'll start off with the Vancouver photos: on Beach Avenue in Stanley
Park, you catch a glimpse of the Kits-Fairview skyline.
Moving along that street, we come to the beachfront section of the
avenue, lined by trees, pathways, apartments and the waters of English Bay. The
ivy-covered Sylvia Hotel can be seen ahead. Glancing right we see English Bay Beach.
Many highrises, such
as this one, were built in the English Bay district in the 1960s. The palm trees of Denman Square can
be seen ahead, where Beach, Davie and Denman intersect. Davie Street,
ahead, is a locally-oriented shopping street for some 60,000 West Enders all living in
this square mile. Denman
Street, heading to the left, is the "leisure" street of the West End, with
many restaurants and cafés. The wires above are for the electric trolleybuses that
crisscross Vancouver. Looking
back at Denman Square you can see the waterfront condos. This building is
directly to the left of us right now. Further up Davie, a typical West End scene.
About a dozen blocks east, Davie
intersects Granville on the outskirts of downtown. / Moving onto the Sydney photos
(long post, eh?), these were taken by Tony Peric just today (if they look a little grey,
keep in mind it's winter). Technically, Tony lives in Mosman, but his neighbourhood spills
over into the neighbouring suburb of Cremorne. This is a large mansion,
and these are more
modest dwellings. Many apartment buildings dot the area, seen here, here and here. Yet another apartment building.
. . and yet another.
A small commercial
strip lies nearby, and here an inlet of
Sydney Harbour can be seen.
Sydney photos coming
Posted 16 August, 2000 by Chris DeWolf - Back to the top
Remember I promised that contributor Tony Peric would
take some photos of Sydney and its "urban suburbs"? Well, he recently aquired a
digital camera and has already started, with a few test photos of his neighbourhood of
Mosman. I'll have them up for you to look at tomorrow. / Speaking of photos, I took many
of Nanaimo and Victoria, and about half a dozen of Vancouver's West End. I'll have those
up when I aquire more server space; Mike Binetti has taken more photos of Hamilton,
Ontario, which will be up later this week, as soon as I get more space.
Stapleton, Denver
Posted 15 August, 2000 by Chris DeWolf - Back to the top
August's issue of Urbanite featured
information on the Stapleton Airport development
in Denver, which seeks to turn the former airport into a pedestrian-friendly urban
development. Curious as to what extent the City of Denver has approved these plans for the
airport, I contacted them. Tom Gleason replied,
"The Denver City Council has approved one major milestone after another in the
Stapleton process . . . the approval of the Stapleton Plan in 1995 . . . the subsequent
approvals of the re-zoning, the Title 32 financing districts for infrastructure and the
creation of the Stapleton Urban Renewal District . . . finally, the Denver City Council is
scheduled to consider a development agreement for Stapleton in the coming weeks."
Thanks for the information, Tom. / Remember the game Traffic Giant I told you about awhile
back? Well, Gamespot UK, a British gaming site, is running a full preview of the game here.
August update
Posted 3 August, 2000 by Chris DeWolf - Back to the top
I've sent out the August issue of Urbanite and updated the Feature of the Month, of Seaside, Florida.
Unfortunately, I can't upload the photos right now since my space quota has been exceeded;
I'll be out of town and away from the internet for the next week, so they won't be
available until later this month. Enjoy the article, though!
Great photo pages
Posted 30 July, 2000 by Chris DeWolf - Back to the top
A couple great city photo pages have come to my
attention over the past little while, and I thought I'd share them with you all. Sean
Breazeal pointed me towards Eyewitness in
Manchester, which has lots of cool photos of Manchester, England. Nick Steffel let me
know that the Photo Tour of Minneapolis
had almost 600 great photos of Minnesota's largest city. Focusing more on the twin city
across the river is Chuck Roberts' Twin Cities Page, which
features some postcards of Minneapolis and some original photos of downtown Saint Paul.
Chuck will be donating some Minneapolis photos to this page next week.
Articles from the Times
Posted 28 July, 2000 by Chris DeWolf - Back to the top
The New York Times has long been a great
source of opinion on a who range of issues. It also has many indepth articles regarding a
swath of topics, including urban issues. Rooting through some no-charge articles in the
archives, I found a profile
of the Sunnyside neighbourhood in Queens, NY. Also of interest is an
excerpt from Ray Suarez's book The Old Neighbourhood: What We Lost in the Great
Suburban Migration, 1966-1999. In an odd Hestonesque turnaround, prominent Atlanta
sprawl developer John A. Williams is now a keen urbanist, denouncing suburbs as
"eyesores as breeding grounds for neurotic youth." Today he helps revitalise
decaying urban neighbourhoods; read
about it here. Last but not least, I found it extremely interesting how the first-ring
suburbs (roughly 1950 to 1970) are starting to deteriorate as young suburbanites move
further out and baby boomers buy condos into the city; in Becoming
Unstuck on the Suburbs.
Toronto's Chinatowns
Posted 28 July, 2000 by Chris DeWolf - Back to the top
Take that, Vancouver! In an article that appeared in
the Toronto Star back in April (read
it here), it was reported that there were six established Chinatowns in Toronto, as
well as two emerging ones. All in all, Toronto has a Chinese and South Asian population of
about 700,000 people - many of them recent immigrants - bringing a diverse vibrancy to
Canada's largest city. Toronto is a truly interesting city, and you can find more
information about it here. / Shawn
Brisbin of Garrison Woods' community association has informed me of a new website, garrisonwoods.net. You may recall that Garrison
Woods is the name given to the infill neighbourhood located on the former CFB East site in
Calgary; read more about in July's Feature. / An
interesting article on the public realm in Barcelona was run by the Toronto Start in May; check it out.
August update soon
Posted 27 July, 2000 by Chris DeWolf - Back to the top
The August update will take place on the 3rd, instead
of the 5th. I'm leaving for Vancouver Island that Friday, so you can expect some August
stuff early. Included is Urbanite - with some new features, be sure to subscribe now - and a new Feature of the Month. I've
reworked July's feature as the first in a series called New Urbanism in Practice; be sure
to check the feature out before August's comes along. The
series will run until November with reports, opinions and photos on McKenzie Towne in
Calgary, Celebration in Orlando and Seaside in Florida. Also on the plate for August is
the interesting Walk to Wrigley exclusive, although that may be towards the middle of the
month.
For transit lovers
Posted 26 July, 2000 by Chris DeWolf - Back to the top
Well, I thought I'd pay a little tribute to the
transit lovers who visit this site (including myself!). The absolutely fabulous nycsubway.org is putting the finishing touches on a
great tour of Toronto's streetcar system, which you can visit here. Also, be sure to check
out the site's great collection of information and original photos on world transit sytems. Speaking of transit,
the Vancouver city council has ruled out any possibility of an elevated rail extension
along the vacant Arbutus Corridor, currently a railway. The corridor will be preserved for
transporation, however; read the full story.
Vancouver's skytrain system is currently undergoing an expansion to begin more
comprehensive train service to its innermost eastern suburbs.
Cox suggests more
roads
Posted 25 July, 2000 by Chris DeWolf - Back to the top
Payton Chung informed readers of the Urban Discussion List about a plan that Wendell
Cox, former transportation planner and consultant at The Public Purpose, put forth to the city of
Atlanta. A Common Sense Approach to Transportation in the Atlanta Region, which
can be read here,
advocates a massive new road system to be implemented in Atlanta's metropolitan area over
the next two dozen years. The plan calls for a comprehensive system of arterial roads no
further than one mile apart, linked by a system of expressways. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has been vehemently opposed to
the study, criticising Cox for neglecting air quality and livability issues. Read two
op-ed articles here, and be sure to join the Urban Discussion List to discuss the plans.
