Here’s to the drama of wry movie trailers with a message, to inspire continuing regulatory flexibility for open air markets in America.
Category: multimedia
satire and mode-shifts in Seattle’s deep bore tunnel
Posted by – August 7, 2010
Many articles summarize the complex issues associated with Seattle’s viaduct-replacement/deep-bore tunnel debate.
Such articles are often accompanied by a cross-section supplied by the Washington Department of Transportation (WSDOT), illustrated here.
Inspired by the WSDOT cross-section and ongoing discussion of applicable transit modes, the embedded myurbanist commentary below graphically focuses on but one question along the way.
the streetscape of light rail opposition
Posted by – August 1, 2010
Bellevue, Washington has been alive with debate about planned light rail alignments in and around its downtown this year, with Sound Transit, the regional transit agency, often at loggerheads with local elected officials about the preferred route to be selected for study and eventual implementation.
Last month, Sound Transit selected a segment adjacent to a close-in residential neighborhood for further evaluation in the project Environmental Impact Statement.
The situation remains a textbook application of the challenges which Paul Symington and I addressed in our recently republished report, “Urban Centers and Transit-Oriented Development in Washington“, (the “Barriers Report“), downloadable here. In keeping with our discussion of political, organizational and interagency implementation challenges, the Bellevue City Council and many residents oppose Sound Transit’s preferred alternative.
On the ground, opposition is clear from the landscape of signage, and from an imaginary train ride captured below–well over a decade before completion of Sound Transit’s East Link. Regardless of which alignment is chosen and constructed, consider rides with memories of where planning-era signage was located along the way!
high urbandwidth and street performance: a postcard
Posted by – July 24, 2010
Street performance in a public space is one feature of high urbandwidth.
Here, we return to Seattle’s Occidental Park, (also featured here and, by Dan Bertolet, here), to walk with A.K. “Mimi” Allin, for a strolling read of a complex novel, merged with the notion of enhanced mutual ownership of public space.
Click here to read more about Allin and 4Culture’s site-specific performance exhibit, “Walking in War in Peace”.
ode to the street: grate and cover edition
Posted by – July 9, 2010
Click below for a multimedia tribute to “little places”: the industrial grates and covers which have graced urban rights-of-way since Roman times. These street-level barriers provide public safety and maintenance gateways to the inner workings of infrastructure. Like coins, they carry symbols and patterns from industrial process, often symbolizing local heritage or factory name.
crowning compact urbanism: welcome to “Density Bay”
Posted by – July 7, 2010
Spinola Bay in St. Julian’s, Malta, is an icon of compact development in the small island country south of Sicily.
Thanks to photo-manipulation, this historic locale of fishing boats and pirate ships also yields the urbanist fantasy community of “Density Bay”.
Enjoy the visit, and view in full screen mode with sound on, if possible!
Jerusalem stories: it all depends where you stand
Posted by – July 6, 2010
Several earlier myurbanist entries assessed the complexities of urban issues in Israel and Jerusalem, ranging from light rail to perspectives on sustainability. Today, a dry brush filtered photograph, adapted to video, shows the multiplicity of issues at play in one urban view (view full screen if you can).
After all, in Jerusalem, it all depends where you stand.
“Ten measures of beauty descended to the world, nine were taken by Jerusalem.”
Talmud: Kiddushin 49b“Jerusalem is Israel’s capital, will never be divided, and will remain the capital of the State of Israel…”
Benjamin Netanyahu“That can be achieved by termination of Israeli occupation to the territories according to the international resolutions related, so the Palestinian State can be establish with Jerusalem as capital for such State.”
Ali A. Saleh“The whole religious complexion of the modern world is due to the absence from Jerusalem of a lunatic asylum.”
Thomas Paine
urbanists at work
