August 2011
84 posts
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the urban country →
I don’t frequent bicycle advocacy blogs often, but this is the best “about us” page I’ve read. It captures the whole issue succinctly, including links to articles on mentioned topics.
The Urban Country’s mission is simple. We publish 2-3 quality articles per week to advocate for using bicycles as transportation in North America to improve our cities, our people,...
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From Good Roads to Complete Streets: Bike riders... →
humanscalecities:
I recently discovered a fascinating story covered in the blog The Urban Country.
As shown in the photograph —the cover of the San Francisco Call—, thousands of protesters in 1896 (100,000 people, according to the newspaper, this is critical mass — gathered to protest against the invasion of an appliance at that time was beginning to gain prominence in the street, the...
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San Diego "Courteous Mass" →
Stemming from dissatisfaction of the current state of San Diego Critical Mass, Penelope Robles decided to start “Courteous Mass”.
Event description:
This is a bicycle protest to show San Diego that bikes can share the roads and have the same right to be on the road. This is NOT Critical Mass, this is NOT a race, we will ride in a group and stay together by communicating with each...
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July 2011
87 posts
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S. African Designer Heath Nash Builds Shade... →
Scrap metal and wood were used to build the shade structures and a wide assortment of plastic bottles, and recycled materials were cut up and used to build the overhead shade. Nash also drew a lot of inspiration by repeating patterns he found around the city, so the recycled bottles were arranged in similar patterns. The local craft designers drew on their knowledge and experience to shape and...
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Massive Hunters Point Shipyard Brownfield Project... →
The plan, once realized, calls for more than 10,000 new housing units, about a third of which will be offered at below market rates to help ensure socioeconomic diversity of the new community. One million square feet of retail space, nearly three million square feet of commercial space, facilities for artists and performers, and 336 acres of parks and green space are all contained in the...
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Lake Merritt Waterfront Road to Close (aug. 8th) →
ah! so this is what they’re doing! (I’ve passed by and noticed all the construction work, but didn’t know exactly what this project is.)
A new waterfront park with “a waterfront bridge and path for cyclists and pedestrians”!! :DDDD
Oakland is overhauling 12th Street to improve waterfront access for pedestrians and cyclists as part of a long-running project...
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The Periscope Project: Hip Shipping Container Art... →
The Periscope Project is a hip new shipping container art space that sits on a tiny lot in downtown San Diego. Built with 5 recycled shipping containers, the collective includes space for live/work units, a store front, exhibition space and a common courtyard that provides performance space. Originally started back in 2007 by the late Petar Perisi and designed by ENS_Projects, The Periscope...
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Brooklyn’s New DeKalb Market is Made from 22... →
This weekend Inhabitat rushed to the opening weekend of Brooklyn’s DeKalb Market, a joint venture between specialty market developers Urban Space and designers Youngwoo and Associates. We’ve been anxiously awaiting the opening of the market, which is built from discarded shipping containers (<—wtfeezy??!! This actually started in San Diego?? *should have followed...
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Carmageddon: Bicyclists declare victory in race... →
The six bicyclists racing a JetBlue flight from Burbank to Long Beach Saturday proved the power of the pedals, beating the flight by a long shot. The cyclists, members of the urban bicyclist organization Wolfpack Hustle, made the trip in 1 hour and 34 minutes, using the path along the Los Angeles River for most of the trek.
The cyclists and a blogger aboard the JetBlue flight left at 10:50...
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Less Freeway Pays For More Transit →
A plan to downsize the expansion of Interstate 5 in San Diego has freed up money to spend on walking, biking and rail transit. The Board of the San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG) made it official today when they approve a redistribution of $800 million in transportation funds.
The savings resulted from a decision by CALTRANS to expand I-5 by only four lanes. SANDAG had originally...
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Watch
Portland’s Bike Boulevards Become Neighborhood Greenways
streetfilms.org. 08.11.10.
I love Portland. Best (cycling) city in the US. gonna show this vid to my mom, too, to get her excited about her upcoming vacation.
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Train Wreck in China Raises Questions of Safety →
The train collision is one of several high-profile public transportation accidents in China recently. Early Friday morning, 41 people were killed when an overloaded bus caught fire in central Henan Province. Earlier this month, an escalator at a new subway station in Beijing collapsed, killing one person and injuring 28. Last week alone, four bridges collapsed in various Chinese cities.
...
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It’s Still the Economy, Stupid →
Fourteen million Americans remain out of work, a waste of our greatest resource. The 42nd president has more than a dozen ideas on how to attack the jobs crisis.
4. COPY THE EMPIRE STATE BUILDING
Just look at the Empire State Building—I can see it from my office window. Our climate-change people worked on their retrofit project. They cleared off a whole floor for a small factory to change the...
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6 Awesome Parks Made From Rehabilitated Urban... →
Cheonggyecheon River Project in Seoul
This stream used to be buried underneath the city of Seoul until it was uncovered and transformed into a lush green park as part of the Cheonggyecheon Restoration Project. Since 2003, the new park has been like a major life-force for the center of the city, helping reduce temperatures and bridging the gap between the north and south of the metropolis. The...
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South Mission Beach Bicycle Beach Day Haul-In →
Sunday, July 24, 2011, 10:45 AM Adams Ave. Bicycles 2606 Adams Avenue, San Diego, CA
Summer is finally here in San Diego, so we figured it was time to pull one of the events we’ve been batting around out of Moth Balls. With the beaches being over run by cars what better and more mellow way to get to beach than by bike with some friends. So load up you bike, your panier bags, and bicycle...
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The Regional City →
The Regional City by Peter Calthorpe and William Fulton, 2001.
Got this in the mail today. Required reading for one of two summer session.2 classes I’m taking next month: Land-Use Planning.
Excited to start reading this, but I’ve got 5/6 of a textbook and an entire one to read, a term paper to start on, and a final for my Urban Politics class first. All to do this last week of July.....
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First look: SW Ankeny is now carfree →
PBOT has installed a bike corral to deter vehicles from SW Ankeny between 2nd and 3rd Aves. (Photos © J. Maus)
On Saturday, the Bureau of Transportation installed new signage and infrastructure on SW Ankeny and officially made it carfree from SW 2nd to SW 3rd Avenues.
“Do Not Enter” signs are posted at each corner and a bike corral has been installed on the east end of the closure...
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brief cost-benefit analysis of transport in San...
Please calculate the number of miles you commute by automobile in an average week, if any, and then look at San Diego’s MTS website to determine whether you could use public transportation instead. Perform a brief cost-benefit analysis (in time and money) of your personal transportation habits.
just finished this short optional assignment for my Urban Politics class. Thought it’d be good...
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Watch
Contested Streets: Breaking New York City Gridlock
just watched this excellent 53min. documentary on New York traffic, transportation, public space. Includes fantastic vintage footage of the city as well as comparison to Copenhagen, Paris, and London. Definitely recommended if you’re interested in any of these topics or live in these cities.
streetfilms.org
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“Human scale is a design principle that responds simultaneously to simple human...”
– Peter Calthorpe and William Fulton. The Regional City, 2001.
calthorpe
I need to read one of Peter Calthorpe’s books.
currently a selection in a textbook: The Region Is The Neighborhood: sprawl and the new urbanism.
I don’t know why I keep getting stressed out over all the chapters of reading I need to catch up on..
ehkä nyt on olut-elokuva-aika..
edit_______
looked over the class syllabus/schedule, I’ve got 12 chapters of City Politics, 5/6 of...
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Jarvis bike lanes had to die so others could be... →
Toronto cycling activists were gnashing their spokes and rending their spandex after city council voted to kill the Jarvis Street bike lanes on Wednesday. Put in only last summer, the curbside lanes are to be pulled right back out again by the end of next year. It looks like a huge step backward. In fact, it could turn into a big win for cycling in the city.
Almost lost in the hubbub over...
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Thanks, Mr. Jacobs—but, no. City Council should... →
Cabrillo Bridge and El Prado in Balboa Park. photo by lorenjavier.
parking on El Prado.
Everyone wants to get cars out of the Plaza de Panama—the area surrounded by the San Diego Museum of Art, the Mingei Museum and The Prado restaurant—but fewer people want a parking garage next to the organ pavilion, and fewer people still want a raised bypass ramp built off the south side of the...
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“A great city has two hallmarks: tolerance for strangers and intolerance for...”
– Bonnie Menes Kahn, Cosmopolitan City.
“These are precisely the qualities that appeal to members of the Creative Class—and they also happen to be the qualities conducive to innovation, risk-taking and the formation of new businesses.” —Richard Florida, the Rise of the Creative Class: the...
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a transportation planner's dream
dreamt this morning that I hopped on a streetcar in a very Gothenburg-like Berkeley.
damn, wouldn’t it be nice if the Key System were restored.. streetcar on College Avenue instead of slow (and super-clogged on game days) traffic all the time due to stop sign at Russell, and light at Ashby.. the street was designed small (2 skinny lanes of auto traffic, 2 street parking lanes) for a reason!...
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Watch
Fit UK Trippin’ Helsinki: TCU Exclusive Ben Lewis, Marv, Bengo, Dan Benson, Owain Clegg & Farren Downes
(might want to watch larger on the vimeo page.)
damn. first bmx video I’ve seen. shit is dope. so many more places you could ride—vs skateboarding requiring decently paved cement.
choices for my next bike: mixte, track bike, fixie, or bmx. i’d be guaranteed to break...
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Community Votes To Become Australia’s First... →
A meeting of about 20 local businesses endorsed the project, even though about half of them, as beverage retailers stood to lose income from the venture. But they magnanimously recognised the environmental impact of bottled water, and felt, on balance, the benefit to the community outweighed the sales profit.
Environmental Impact of Bottled Water In information compiled by the town’s Bundy On...
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