“She foretold the city light, from crossroads to congregation”. Luc Gaudet, Frejus, 2005.
Author: Chuck Wolfe
Charles R. (Chuck) Wolfe, M.R.P., J.D. provides a unique perspective about cities as both a long time writer about urbanism worldwide and an attorney in Seattle, where he focuses on land use and environmental law and permitting. In particular, his work involves the use of sustainable development techniques and innovative land use regulatory tools on behalf of both the private and public sectors. He is also an Affiliate Associate Professor in the College of Built Environments at the University of Washington, where he teaches land use law at the graduate level. He contributes regularly to several publications including Planetizen, CityLab/The Atlantic Cities, The Atlantic, The Huffington Post, Grist, seattlepi.com, and Crosscut.com. He blogs at myurbanist.com.
urbanism by design v. the demolished, unplanned xbox artifact
A fascinating narrative, borrowed from a planetizen link:
new year’s retrospective, part 3: learning how to grow–“nothing can come of nothing”
We complete our new year’s retrospective with a compendium which first appeared in seattlepi.com on June 19, 2009, with updated links and enhanced photos added.
Eight blog entries later, some trends, concerns and observations have complemented almost 25 years in the trenches of environmental and land use law.
Four points emerge from what began in April entries focused on an inventory of “lessons learned from the development boom” amid 2009’s unprecedented attention to integration of transit and land use and provision for compact and walkable communities.
• “Who pays” for new infrastructure, innovative forms of development and placemaking, and public/private development features surrounding transit will rank highly–competing with attention to climate change as a determinant of how we will grow in the future.
• Overuse of buzzwords such as “sustainable” and “green” must yield to meaningful and implemented end-goals. Political spin or business generation hyperbole will not guarantee financing to accomplish a shared vision towards avoidance of urban sprawl and global warming.
• Silos must go. Laudably, the increasingly savvy Obama administration’s Sustainable Communities Initiative continues to lead the charge to marry land use, transportation and environmental issues.
• When we envision compact, walkable communities close to workplaces as the new ideal, we are imposing a particular point of view on many who either do not want or cannot afford to live in this manner.
Recent travels documented last week yield a fifth point. Let’s be careful with inspirational examples from overseas. We may want walkable cities, vibrant urban spaces and the allure of hilltowns…
The quintessential urban space, Campo di’ Fiore
Night meeting at the Pantheon
Gourdes, Provence, France
….yet adaptation of development forms from other contexts or places in history risk Las Vegas, Leavenworth or facades not built to last. Our malls and commercial spaces are not Rome’s Campo di’ Fiore, nor are new urban centers Rome’s Pantheon.
Las Vegas: The Paris, context askew
Las Vegas: The Venetian, replete with the automobile
We should emphasize the qualities and characteristics we seek, but remember our history is short and contextual and cannot recreate what evolved over thousands of years.
In summary, in this time of opportunity, substance, please, and to quote Shakespeare in King Lear, “nothing can come of nothing”.
new year’s retrospective, part 2: what can new urbanism learn from Battlestar Galactica?, French edition
We add to our new year’s retrospective with observations which first appeared in seattlepi.com on June 7, 2009, with a photo added of the Frejus, France weekly market. 
As noted on May 25, when discussing the role of streets and managing the impact of the automobile: “This has all happened before. And it will happen again.” It did not take long to prove the point. A current visit to France shows that even in a society that prioritizes the pedestrian, especially on market day, the eternal dance of human and machine remains. Yesterday in Frejus on the Cote d’Azur, while sipping coffee watching a street closed off to pedestrians in time-honored market routine, friends told me how the previous market day had featured an altercation of sorts, just adjacent to our vantage point. Despite the presumptive nature of the weekly market preempting cars, and mechanical pylons closed in unison, an upscale Mercedes made its way down the closed cobblestone street flanked by vendors and musicians. When the driver reached the closed pylons, she realized she could go no further. For the next 40 minutes, while the driver panicked in frustration, passers by conferred and some let loose insults premised on pedestrianism and some took the side of the driver, seeking to help. After all, as the driver apparently exclaimed, she lives in the town center, whether closed for market day or not, and she had the right of passage. Almost an hour from the altercation’s start, the police arrived, and lowered the pylons. The pedestrian market returned to its historical place, while, inadvertently, the automobile had won a round in the public/private balance of control of the street, and the rights of adjoining property owners. The moral: The new forms of growth, land use and transportation currently on center stage in our region have and will be played out across the world for generations. They cannot simply be imposed without a careful understanding of the rights at issue. As Frejus reminds us, even where traditions rule, the battles remain.