Update on levy
Posted 3 December, 2000 by Chris DeWolf - Back to the top
On Friday I reported a new levy being passed in Vancouver that would tax all vehicles in the area, a controversial measure to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in BC. Some news stories regarding the levy have come to light, most notably the front-page article in the National Post. The newspaper reports that if the tax comes into effect, British Columbia would be the most costly place to drive in Canada. What do you think of this issue? Discuss it on the Urban Discussion List. / Chris Szabla has pointed me towards an excellent Boston Globe article on black professionals returning to their native urban neighbourhoods (read it here). Historically poor areas of Boston like Mattapan or Roxbury are drawing well-educated, successful black professionals back home, buoyed by dwindling racism and an interest in restoring faith and opportunity in working-class inner city kids. / I've replaced the "about the photographers" pages with a more comprehensive "about the site" page, which goes into more detail about the history of UPP. I've also included brief profiles on the site's three main workhorses: myself, Chris Szabla, and Tony Peric (who will be managing the Sydney gallery when it opens next year). Check it out.

Vancouver motorist levy
Posted 1 December, 2000 by Chris DeWolf - Back to the top
As was reported this morning on the Canadian Transit News discussion list, the Greater Vancouver Regional District voted 56-50 to impose a levy on all Greater Vancouver auto owners. The Vancouver Sun doesn't yet have a story up, but you can read the message on the mailing list here. I'll be interested in finding out how this develops. / Some gorgeous photos of Washington, DC can be found here. Of particular note are the Dupont Circle photos, and the Dupont Circle in the Snow photos. Any personal convictions against Starbucks aside, this is undeniably a very nice picture. Thanks to Sean McKinniss for providing the link. / Want to know how much it costs to commuter in major American metropolitan areas? Driven to Spend, a study by the Surface Transportation Policy Project, has some answers. Houston tops the list with approximately 22% of all household money being spent on transportation. / A View on Cities is an interesting site with photos, information and opinion on cities around the world. Speaking of world cities, I'm slowly working on the New York galleries. I've finished the Upper West Side and am finishing up Brooklyn Heights, so a launch of the pages before the new year is probable.

Randomness
Posted 27 November, 2000 by Chris DeWolf - Back to the top
Some various links I've "collected" over the past few days: the Sister Cities of Louisville site offers a small but nice photo gallery of that city. I was personally surprised at the wealth of beautiful historic buildings. Some absolutely gorgeous black and white Paris photos can be found at Anthony's Home Page. / Here are a few great Toronto Star articles: "Urban sprawl bigger than local lawmakers" explores the problems Toronto-area smart growth initiatives are facing; "City-building gets a boost" reports Jean Chrétien's promise to give $170 million per year to transit and housing in cities; finally, "Where is the vision for 'edge' cities?" is an opinion piece that asks why Toronto's Peel Region suburbia isn't getting a better infrastructure boost. / PreserveNet has various links to Jane Jacobs writings here; Demographia has created a very cool table that measures the population density of various metropolitan areas' residential only; smartgrowth.org has an interesting article titled "Using Residential Patterns to Decrease Auto Dependence", worth a read. Finally, I've probably linked to this before, but it's worth it: Auto-Free in Buffalo is an excellent guide to Buffalo's neighbourhoods, and how to get around the city without a car. / I'd like to finish off by urging all my Canadian visitors to get out and vote if they already haven't.  

One foot forward
Posted 24 November, 2000 by Chris DeWolf - Back to the top
Tony Peric has notified me of an excellent article that appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald last Saturday. "Take a step and repeat after me" explores the sheer experience of urban walking, recalling the author's experiences exploring San Francisco by foot. We here at urbanphoto.org couldn't relate more. / TransitPeople is a Los Angeles-based organisation that educates elementary school children about public transit, taking them on LA-area fields trips by way of that city's highly developed but woefully unappreciated transit system. / The "ugliest spot in Melbourne" has been fodder for some interesting designs, as presented by Melbourne's The Age newspaper. Check it out to see what may be happening next in Australia's second-largest city. Also at The Age is the CityLink section, with articles and information on Melbourne's express tollroad system, as well as a feature on Federation Square, a multiuse facility undergoing construction in the city's core. / Keeping down under, check out this Skyscraper Forum post on Parramatta, the Sydney area's "second CBD". You can see Parra City's official website here. / Ottawa, like most North American cities, is booming and that includes its fair share of urban redevelopment and rebirth. Check out the Ottawa Citizen's Boomtown section for more articles and information. Two of the most interesting articles are "The transit we need" and "'SoHo' trumps 'Silicon Valley'". / Lastly, FEED Magazine published a special issue on the city back in June; if you haven't seen it already, I encourage you to take a look.

Light rail in Ottawa
Posted 22 November, 2000 by Chris DeWolf - Back to the top
The Ottawa Citizen reported earlier this fall that a pilot light-rail project in Ottawa has been approved by the regional council (story here). Here is what Colin Leech of OCTranspo told me about the pilot project when I spoke to him last month:

Service is due to begin at the end of June, 2001. It's a two year "pilot" project to evaluate the technology, its implementation, work out the bugs, etc. It will be evaluated at the end of the two years and then a decision made to extend the pilot, make it permanent, or cancel it. There are also extensions and other lines being studied. This is a nice corridor because it allows access to several destinations which are difficult to access today by bus due to the geography. For example, Carleton U. is located close to the geographic centre of Ottawa, but there is really only one access into the place (from Bronson/Sunnyside) due to the Rideau River and Canal. No access from the west, for example. There have been predictions made by the consultants as to the ridership. The big question is whether those predictions will be accurate or not, and how closely the costs can be kept in line with the budget. These are why Council approved the project as a pilot, so that we can back out fairly gracefully if the thing flops. Hopefully it will exceed expectations (high ridership/low cost), but we'll only know for sure once it starts operating.

Thanks to Colin for the information. You can read more about Ottawa LRT at its official site, or see a map of the pilot line at lightrail.com.

Calgary from above
Posted 19 November, 2000 by Chris DeWolf - Back to the top
Awhile back I went up to the top of the Calgary Tower with Calgary Skyscrapers' John Brown. What resulted was about a dozen very high-quality images of Calgary from above, all of which can be seen here until they find a permenant home. Slow modems beware, because each photo is about 500k. If you're wondering where all the people are, take this into consideration: it was a holiday, damn cold outside and 4pm on a Saturday. / Check out the "Interesting NYC Links" thread at the Skyscraper Forum for some great old and new photos of New York City. / Various transit links from Canada and the US can be found here, at Calgary's BRMNA rail transport publishing house. / All sorts of information on Canada's street railways, past a present, can be found at Canadian Street Railways. There is also a page on the same site containing every Canadian transit system that has existed, as well as an All Time List of North American Trolleybuses. / Finally, check out this cool PhotoPoint album of Old Town Houston. While Houston isn't first and foremost on most urban explorers' lists, it does have some bourgeoning historic urban neighbourhoods. Downtown Houston and 002 Downtown Houston Magazine should also be checked out. / Postscript: check out the amazing Downtown Los Angeles Walking Tour! It really gives you sense of just how varied downtown Los Angeles really is -- too bad it's not better appreciated.

The megacities
Posted 17 November, 2000 by Chris DeWolf - Back to the top
Canada is currently experiencing a rather interesting trend: the amalgamation of whole metropolitan areas by their core cities. It has been seen in isolated cases around North America before, but never until very recent times have so many cities been drawn into the ideal of a "megacity". In 1996, Halifax became the first major Canadian city (excluding Calgary in the 1950s) to essentially annex its suburbs - you can read about it here. That was followed by the much-ballyhooed amalgamation of Toronto with five of its innermost suburbs; unlike Halifax, this was a huge amalgamation that had never been seen since New York City joined Brooklyn and Kings County. Critics abounded and the public opposed the "supercity", but the government passed it through. Surprisingly, the new city has been a success and the new City of Toronto - whose population lept from 650,000 to 2.4 million literally overnight - is doing its best to fully integrate all the former muncipalities. A summary of amalgamation can be found here. Within two years the metropolitan area of Ottawa, the Island of Montréal and metro Québec City (with populations of 1.1 million, 1.8 million and 700,000 respectively) will be amalgamated - forcibly, it seems, since opposition in Montréal ran strong - into single muncipal entities. Criticism is not isolated to the wealthy West Island suburbs, either; the Montréal Gazette has run columns denouncing the plan, and not all city councillors are gung-ho about the idea, either. The mayor, Pierre Bourque, is stubbornly marching ahead with the idea, however, as evidenced by his "For a Strong Metropolis" speech. Some more amalgamation information and Gazette article (on a personal webpage, however) can be found here.

Philadelphia
Posted 15 November, 2000 by Chris DeWolf - Back to the top
Chris Szabla sent me this great link today: phillyneighborhoods.org offers information on all sorts of neighbourhoods in vast Philadelphia city. For more Philadelphia info and photos, check out lightrail.com's Philadelphia Light Rail page. Even more comprehensive is nycsubway.org's Philadelphia Transit page, and for the other side of the transportation spectrum, visit Philadelphia Roads. Finally, a general news site for the Philly region can be found at philly.com. / Check out National Geographic's tips on urban photography (and Helsinki Photo Gallery). Also at NG is the great Manhattan Neighborhoods feature. If you're an Alberta resident and interested in preserving a unique stretch of relatively pristine foothill forest, check out Save the Slopes. The Paskapoo Slopes, on the west side of Calgary above the river valley, are currently in danger of development. Check out the aforementioned website for ways to contact your local alderman or political representative to save the Paskapoo from sprawling subdivisions.

Oh no, procrastination
Posted 12 November, 2000 by Chris DeWolf - Back to the top
I've been putting off updating the site for a few days, even the NYC photo of the day (not very daily, now is it?). Well, rest assured I am still alive and have lots to share with you. Sean McKinniss mentioned to me that there is currently a proposal for high speed rail in Ohio, but I couldn't seem to find any news items. There is the Ohio Association of Railroad Passengers, a transit advocacy organisation from - you guessed it - Ohio. / Also finding its way to my bookmarks file is this study on major water transit (read ferry) systems around the world and how San Francisco can improve its ferry system. Join the Urban Discussion List to discuss water transit systems around the world. (Speaking of San Francisco, check out the new "in the news" article on BART expansion). Chris Szabla has send this piece of news from the good old Boston Globe my way. It talks about the influx of Colombians into traditionally white, Irish East Boston (but weren't they all?). / Remember that article from Mother Jones magazine I told you about some time ago? Well, it's finally online: "Death of a Neighborhood" looks back at the destruction of New Haven's downtown Oak Street neighbourhood. Be sure to check it out. / Starting next Sunday, November 19, CNN will be running a six-part series called "People's Planet", exploring what issues currently face the world, among them whether or not our future cities will be livable.

Election results
Posted 9 November, 2000 by Chris DeWolf - Back to the top
While Bush and Gore are in dead heat and the outcome of the Florida recount is to determine the presidential race, some growth issues that were on local ballots weren't so tight. As the Sprawl Watch Clearinghouse reports, some of the most prominent initiatives were the Florida high-speed rail proposal (passed), Proposition D in Detroit, which would invest $30 million into city neighbourhoods (passed), light rail in Austin (rejected),  Colorado's smart-growth Amendment 24 (rejected) and an anti-sprawl bill in Arizona (rejected). Some major disappointments here, especiall in Austin, Colorado and Arizona; check out Sprawl Watch's Election 2000 page for more information. Also, take a look at this promotional flash animation for the failed Amendment 24 in Colorado. / Check out the Minnesotans for Light Rail website, which is a strong advocate for the Hiawatha Corridor light rail proposal in Minneapolis. For more information on Minnesota transit, subscribe to Urbanite and visit the archive to read this month's article by Nick Steffel. / I've greyscaled a few select New York photos and will be taking them to a printshop tomorrow to see how much it will cost to get a high-quality glossy print of each. Anybody who would like a print should contact me immediately; the photos I've selected can be seen here, so be sure to mention which one you want. Prices will be set tomorrow after I visit the shop.

Oakland rising
Posted 6 November, 2000 by Chris DeWolf - Back to the top
The Oakland Tribune ran a story awhile back called Oakland Rising, detailing San Francisco's "second" downtown and how it is now one of the most successful in the US. / Toronto is a beautiful city full of all sorts of interesting neighbourhoods. One of these is East Toronto's Riverdale, which includes "Chinatown East" as well as the trendy Danforth strip. Also be sure to check out the Toronto Neighbourhoods, offering all sorts of information on each of Toronto's "macro-neighbourhoods". / I've always had a strong belief that retail in public parks - cafés and other come-and-go establishments, to be precise - will liven up the space significantly. I'm backed by the success of Bryant Park in Midtown Manhattan, but some downtown Manhattanites don't share my views. As this article from the New York Times demonstrates, some folk want a park to just be a park. / Urbanite should be in your inboxes later tonight, and I've updated the Feature of the Month. Check it out!

Friday Miscellany
Posted 3 November, 2000 by Chris DeWolf - Back to the top
There will be an Urbanite this month, featuring an article by Nick Steffel on the history, present and future of transit in Minneapolis. I've scrapped the HTML version, but you can expext all the usual fixins'. Don't expect the mailout until the 6th, however (yes, yes, I know I'm getting behind!). Also, the New York photo galleries are progressing bit by bit, and it seems like Tony Peric may be finished his Sydney galleries by early spring; sit tight. / A few interesting links have come my way over the past week: first off, there's streetlights.net, a site dedicated to the most prominent of urban furniture (for more, visit the always-great Forgotten New York). Also making its way to my bookmarks file is a Polish site, Warszawa, that contains some amazing aerials of Warsaw. Figuring out where the buttons marked "Galeria" and "Linki" head shouldn't be difficult. Also noteworthy is this news story about Birmingham's plans for a highrise core, giving the UK city a North American-style skyline rivaled only by its big southern cousin. Lastly, check out the great Real Estate section of the New York Times' NYToday. Community profiles and urban issues articles abound. / Making my ego swell by several inches, a grade 2/3 class at James Short Elementary in Calgary will be using my photos for a class project.

The New Suburbia
Posted 31 October, 2000 by Chris DeWolf - Back to the top
Last Saturday, the Toronto-based Globe and Mail newspaper ran a story on "the new suburbia" that is taking Canada by hold. This suburbia (read the article here) is not one fueled by a distaste for the city, but instead families looking for affordable housing. In Toronto, suburbanites are often willing to commute for nearly two hours into the city because new northern suburbs offer large homes - 2500 square feet - for relatively little money. The article is an interesting look into a trend that will undoubtedly shape Canada's social and economic face in years to come. / Well, it's that fateful day where children all across North America parade door to door to satisfy their craving for sweets; it's also a good night for the scary and paranormal. Any decent city has its share of haunted houses, firehalls and whatnot - Real Haunted Houses gives you a taste of haunted locales around the world. For an even broader haunting, check out International Haunted Places. According to them, "Singapore is Asia's most haunted city. Strange lights flit through Hougang School, near East Coast Beach, and people are slapped by an unseen presence at the Changi Beach Houses. Ghosts appear from nowhere and beg for food along the coast near Lor Halus. . ." Oooooo, sounds scary. Of course, when it comes to true hauntedness, no city can beat Salem, Massachusetts, a quiet little city north of Boston. Site of the 1692 Witch Trials, Salem has a long and tumultuous history - much of it shamelessly overhyped, of course. When I visited, the biggest surprise was the witch cartoon that the local newspaper uses as its logo! Check out the National Geographic's Salem feature. Last but not least is spooky New Orleans - National Geographic Traveller has a feature on it, too. Be sure to check out the Ghosts of New Orleans and About.com's New Orleans Paranormal. Have a great Halloween!

Candidates on the issues
Posted 30 October, 2000 by Chris DeWolf - Back to the top
With the American election just one week away, what are the positions of the presidential candidates on urban issues? According to Issues 2000, Al Gore wants Congress to pass legislation to clean up and revitalise urban brownfields. He would also extend the 1997 tax incentive to corporations that clean up and use brownfields. Gore proposes using $1 billion in federal funds to encourage local governments to employ smart growth strategies, and he also promotes the idea of livable communities, not sprawl. Gore promises he will help cities revitalise their urban cores through bonds and tax credits, and he will invest heavily in public transit. Gore also believes in investing money on high-speed rail between urban areas and improving existing urban transit. More information on Gore's stance on urban issues can be found here, and the official Gore-Lieberman site can be found here. / George W. Bush has a six-point plan for urban brownfield cleanup that includes raising cleanup standards, permenantly extending the brownfield tax incentive and directing federal facilities to comply with environmental protection laws. Bush has no current plans to invest in public transit or curb suburban sprawl. More information can be found here, and the Bush-Cheney site can be found here. / Ralph Nader believes that SUV vehicles should be applied the same pollution regulations as cars; Nader also supports "bold" new investments in public transit that would exceed $14.2 billion per year on new and current transit systems. Nader also believes the Department of Transportation should focus on public transport, not highways. Nader also believes in diverting military defense funds to public transit and other urban improvements. More information can be found here, and the Nader-LaDuke website can be found here.

A Walk to Wrigley
Posted 29 October, 2000 by Chris DeWolf - Back to the top
Payton Chung and Phillip Bess, student and professor at the University of Chicago, collaborated to create the interesting and thoughtful A Walk to Wrigley, a photographic walking tour through Chicago's historic Wrigleyville neighbourhood. Urbanphoto.org is proud to host this project, which offers some history and visual examples of a typical Chicago neighbourhood and the good and bad examples of urbanism it contains. Kudos to Bess and Chung for a wonderful project and presenting to us the opportunity to host it. / Levi Asher, born in Queens and raised in suburban Long Island, returned to Queens with a wife and family in tow. The Queensboro Ballads are a collection of essays revolving around the nebulous and oft-forgotten New York borough. Designed to resemble an LP and is tracks, the writings often have a lyrical quality to them that truly express Asher's love for the borough and the city. Check it out. / Sérgio Pinto sent me an email earlier today urging me to check out the São Paulo: observações circulares e detalhes urbanos site. Although the site is in Portugese - you can use Babelfish to translate - it is an excellent collection of observations and insights into urban Sao Paulo.  

More development
Posted 29 October, 2000 by Chris DeWolf - Back to the top
Thanks to John Brown of Calgary Skyscrapers, I'm able to show you some renderings of Calgary's new East Village development (see yesterday's post). The canal can be seen here, and a recent aerial of the site can be seen here. A small section of the site towards the bridges is now occupied by the new homeless drop-in centre. There are several other interesting developments currently underway in Calgary; among them is the CFB Calgary development that was featured in the first issue of Feature of the Month. One urban development that I have not yet mentioned, however, is the Bow Valley Centre project. In 1997, the sprawling and historic General Hospital (Bow Valley Centre) was imploded in the Bridgeland community. The space opened up has led to a plan that calls for an urban community of multifamily and townhouse dwellings, a development that will add even more to the character of adjacent Bridgeland. Info can be found here, thanks to Calgary's excellent planning department website. / Information on the 1999 film Subdivide and Conquer can be found here. A documentary focusing on the auto-oriented sprawl that is being built around cities in the western United States and Canada, its site offers purchase options, information about the film and its upcoming television airings, information on the issue of sprawl and smart growth and more.

$10b Calgary development
Posted 28 October, 2000 by Chris DeWolf - Back to the top
Today, the Calgary Herald reported that a CDN$10 billion dollar urban redevelopment will breath new life into the blighted East Village district. The 50 acre community, most of which was razed for parking or suburban-style industrial lockers, will see some 4000 new housing units (for up to 8000 residents), nearly 1 million square feet of office space and a three block long canal and promenade that will be lined with restaurants, cafés and neighbourhood amenities. Currently there exists several historic buildings in the East Village, all of which will be preserved under the current plans. Construction is slated to begin in 2001, and city council is expected to review the plans by this coming May. / Another large-scale urban redevelopment, the Fain Pier project in Boston, is facing difficulties. As this article explains, the planners of the project, the Pritzker family, envision a dense urban area full of restaurants and sidewalk cafés. Some Boston residents feel the plan's waterfront promenade is too small and the development needs more green space. And, as the Boston Globe reports, the city's political landscape is in turmoil as well after tensions reputedly arose between Boston Mayor Thomas Menino and Massachusetts Governor Paul Cellucci. All this and the plan hasn't even reached a final draft! For your take on the Fan Pier issue, join the Urban Discussion List.

Downtown
Posted 27 October, 2000 by Chris DeWolf - Back to the top
Generally speaking, North America in unique in the sense that most of its cities have singular urban cores - "downtowns" - surrounded by lower-density suburbs. While older, more urban cities such as New York, Boston, Toronto, and San Francisco tend to defy this generalisation, younger cities match near perfectly. Many have official downtown associations to lure businesses, residents and tourists into the core; here are a few: Downtown Denver Partnership, which has all sorts of maps, data and other goodies; Downtown Dallas has much of the same; Calgary's Downtown Association is one of the most successful in North America; the Downtown Boise Association has maps and info; Downtown Houston Association aims to bring that sprawling city's centre into the spotlight; Los Angeles Downtown aims to do the same thing; vibrant Downtown Portland's site has all sorts of information; Downtown Fresno's wee little site has a bit of info; finally, the Downtown Seattle site has much of the same. / You may have noticed the front page's new design. I hope you like it! / Chris Szabla sent me this truly interesting link today, the Bay Area Traveler's SF Neighbourhoods. Neighbourhood guides for San Francisco and its cousins, Oakland and Berkeley. Check it out!

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