placemaking masters, part 1

On October 1, 2013October 2, 2013 By Chuck WolfeIn everyday urbanism, pedestrianism, placemaking, urban viewsLeave a comment

Often, master land use consultants are best found among youthful participants in everyday life.

Here, two children discuss multimodal placemaking strategies amid walking adults and a whole bunch of cars.

Which strategy will they choose?

For more information on the role of personal experience in understanding the changing city, see Urbanism Without Effort, an e-book from Island Press.

reading urban mobility with parent and child

On September 23, 2013September 24, 2013 By Chuck WolfeIn compact development, everyday urbanism, infrastructure, pedestrianism, placemaking, urbanism without effort, vignettesLeave a comment

On a recent September stroll in Avignon, I saw two vignettes of parent and child, each with a subtly different gloss on who controls transportation choice.

This new imagery amid old world streets calls the question of the day. Which generation should choose how we get from place to place in the city?

Take a look at the passive parent in the second photograph.

The answer is, increasingly, oh-so-clear.

For more information on the role of personal experience in understanding the changing city, see Urbanism Without Effort, an e-book from Island Press.

revisiting walkability and placemaking on market day

On August 27, 2013 By Chuck WolfeIn everyday urbanism, infrastructure, pedestrianism, placemaking, sustainability, urbanism without effortLeave a comment

During the early myurbanist years, our 2010 new year’s retrospective included observations about the Frejus, France twice-weekly market. Tomorrow, it’s back to Frejus, 2013 style, and it’s time to re-up this elemental post and its observations, which matured in Urbanism Without Effort earlier this year. More soon.

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 next 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 now on center stage in our region have been played out across the world for generations. They cannot simply be imposed without a careful and contextual understanding of the rights at issue.

As Frejus reminds us, even where traditions rule, the battles remain.

a postcard of a modern urbanist’s nightmare

On August 1, 2013 By Chuck WolfeIn everyday urbanism, infrastructure, pedestrianism, placemaking, postcards, sustainability, urban viewsLeave a comment

In 2010—with “six postcards not to send to an urbanist“—I began a series of entries with often ironic messages about urbanist trends.

Three years later, in the era of activated alleys and reclaimed, underused urban space, it’s time to try again.

The above photograph would have had little significance to city dwellers of old. Plain and simple, the alley was closed. Today, however, in the era of active alley spaces, social events and renewed, scaled retail venues, a dedicated urbanist might ask, with emotion, “but why”?

Such are the ironies of new connotations in a changing world.

city pianos–little effort, much reward

On July 28, 2013July 28, 2013 By Chuck WolfeIn compact development, everyday urbanism, infrastructure, pedestrianism, placemaking, sustainability, urbanism without effort1 Comment

Given the right context, the simplest urban intervention enlivens public space, reaps enormous value, and fosters fundamental human expression and curiosity.

In recent years, American cities have seen a rebirth of several such street level activities, ranging from small “parklets” to food trucks. The public piano trend is among the latest–and to my mind the most successful—of the many pop-up catalysts now popular in small city spaces. Notably, one website inventories the appearance of street pianos around the world.

This summer, Vancouver’s CityStudio is bringing the False Creek seawall to life next to the Olympic Village, as part of the Keys to the Streets Project. The piano shown above complements a pedestrian and bike environment–with little effort and much reward.

Last month, to the south, a government-appointed Seattle task force alone recommended 37 different tools (PDF) for enhancing public space management.

The Seattle list reads like an inventory of items garnered from the urbanist blogosphere, e.g. sidewalk cafes, wayfinding signs and pole banners. Yet public pianos do not specifically appear in the Seattle accounting.

However, as the photo above clearly shows, with first inspiration from New York, Portland, Miami, and elsewhere around the world, the appearance of public pianos in Vancouver shows a classical musical instrument still translating well from city-to-city in a digital age.

For more information on the role of personal experience in understanding the changing city, see Urbanism Without Effort, an e-book from Island Press.

myurbanist

Category: everyday urbanism

placemaking masters, part 1

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reading urban mobility with parent and child

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revisiting walkability and placemaking on market day

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a postcard of a modern urbanist’s nightmare

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city pianos–little effort, much reward

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