planted city

Public Art: Terracotta Warriors in the City

Here’s a shot of one of many fibreglass Terracotta Warrior sculptures that have been painted up and started appearing around the city for the summer. Previous years have seen orcas, eagles and “spirit bears” serve as templates for artistic expression, some better than others. The concept began in Zurich, Switzerland in 1998 and has since spread to cities around the world. In the fall, the sculptures will be auctioned off in a fundraiser for charity. You can read more info on this year’s crop here.

Three paragraphs from writer Tom Vanderbilt’s first article (‘The Crisis in American Walking’) in a great four-part series for Slate magazine, ‘Walking: America’s Pedestrian Problem’. 

(Photo credit: The Washington Post via Slate)

From USA Today:

Almost three years after the official end of a recession that kept people from moving and devastated new suburban subdivisions, people continue to avoid counties on the farthest edge of metropolitan areas, according to Census estimates out today.

The financial and foreclosure crisis forced more people to rent. Soaring gas prices made long commutes less appealing. And high unemployment drew more people to big job centers. As the nation crawls out of the downturn, cities and older suburbs are leading the way.

Population growth in fringe counties nearly screeched to a halt in the year that ended July 1, 2011. By comparison, counties at the core of metro areas are growing faster than the nation as a whole.

…

During the ’70s gas shortage and the ’80s savings and loan industry crisis, some predicted the end of suburban sprawl. It didn’t happen then, but current trends could change the nation’s growth patterns permanently.

Aging Baby Boomers, who have begun to retire, and Millennials, who are mostly in their teens and 20s, are more inclined to live in urban areas, McIlwain says.

“I’m not sure we’re going to see outward sprawl even if the urge to sprawl continues,” he says. “Counties are getting to the point that they don’t have the money to maintain the roads, water, sewer. … This is a century of urbanization.”

Check out the rest of the article here.

(Map source: US Census Bureau - 2010 Census via USA Today)

Here’s a late day shot looking east along West Cordova @ Granville Street in Vancouver

Some more shots from around town. #cities #Vancouver #Canada #photos

From Atlantic Cities:

New research from Southern California has found that residents of neighborhoods with a central core of shops and services – a pattern typically found in older, traditional communities – walk nearly three times more often than do residents of neighborhoods whose nearest shops and services lie along a major arterial roadway, a pattern typically found in newer suburban development.  Residents of traditionally styled and centered neighborhoods also drive less than their counterparts residing in the newer pattern.

This is true even when the data are controlled for individual and household economic and demographic characteristics.

…

Notably, the residents of the centered neighborhoods were found to take shorter trips, suggesting that walkable proximity – both closeness and a safe, direct walking route – to shops and services is also important. It may not do much to encourage walking, for example, if the dry cleaner’s is a quarter mile away as the crow flies but you have to travel two or three times that far navigating busy roads around the subdivision to get there.

Check out the rest of the article here.

(Photo credit: Calgary Herald)

Fraser Street, Vancouver

Writer Will Doig in his Salon.com article, ‘In the future, urban bikers go faster than cars’. The piece highlights cities around the world that are “slowing down in the name of progress.” 

From the UN Division for Sustainable Development:

The Shanghai Manual is a resource on sustainable urban development to mayors, urban planners and decision-makers of cities around the world. The chapters of the Manual are used as training modules in workshops that are organized by UN/DESA training centers, such as the UN Center for Regional Development, as well as other capacity building entities.The publication contains many examples of innovative leadership and distills the lessons of experiences in sustainable urban development, providing practical advice on policies and best practices. The Manual does not present theoretical discussions, but is based entirely on practical solutions to real world challenges. It provides innovative ideas, tactics and solutions that have been successfully applied at the city level.

While all cities have different development conditions, infrastructure, institutions, assets, challenges and levels of stakeholder engagement, city leaders are invited to choose from the menus of policy options those measures that may be most relevant to their respective cities. The Manual is a living document that is being updated over time to ensure its continuing relevance to the challenges of urban leadership.

Warren Karlenzig, one of the manual’s authors, provides some background here.

Dusk on Vancouver’s Granville Street

Granville Street is one of the city’s main arterial corridors and a hub of retail and entertainment spaces. Between the blocks of Hastings and Nelson the Granville is a pedestrian and transit mall dating back to 1968 and the fateful decision to not build a freeway through downtown Vancouver. Over the last half decade it has gone through a massive redesign led by ‘Great Streets’ author and urban planner, Allan Jacobs. 

On summer weekends over the last couple of years the city has transformed several blocks of the street into a temporary public space where folks can socialize, hang out and take part in programming (e.g. dancing, street hockey, performances). At night the street takes on a more intoxicating personality as home to one of the city’s main bar and nightclub districts and what was in the 1950s one of the world’s largest collections of neon signs.

You can check out more of my photos over at Flickr.