Listening to the repetitive clanging of machines boring through bedrock it can seem that the condo developments along Richmond and Wellington Roads are never-ending. But along with the noise and dust, urban infill can also mean exciting possibilities, and can be used as a creative opportunity for changes within a community. Most recently, development options are being proposed for the Soeurs de la Visitation convent at 114 Richmond Road. This large, cloistered, very green looking area stretches from Richmond Road to Byron Avenue and is a mystery to local residents who have only air photos and glances at buildings and hundred year old trees to identify the heritage and natural value of the site. Immediately adjacent to the site is Hilson Public School with its treeless schoolyard separated from busy Richmond Road by a chain link fence. These two properties, side by side, green space and concrete. According to the current proposal the green space will be developed and the concrete will continue to be a children’s playground. Imagine if this could be different. Continue reading this post
Ottawa is a change-averse city. Or is it our elected leaders who are holding back change? Our current city council has been dragging their heals on fundamental debates and decisions about transit, infrastructure, and urban development for over a decade.
This on-again, off-again relationship with decision making has turned city council into the cliched commitment-phobic boyfriend. Just as you’re sure council is about to propose a great solution, one of them steps in to break up the near-deal and send debate careening off into committee hell for another six months.
When asked if we want change, citizens in Ottawa respond with a resounding “yes!” Until, that is, it’s time to actually vote. Then we return our incumbents to their squabbling and bickering. Continue reading this post
Spacing Saturday is a new feature that highlights posts from across Spacing's blog network in Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, and the Atlantic region. Spacing Saturday replaces the weekly features Montreal Monday and Toronto Tuesday.
• Spacing Montreal’s Adam Bemma has produced an informative mini-doc on a contentious Montreal proposal that would see a bus corridor run through the city’s historic Griffintown neighborhood. Check out Spacing Montreal for the fascinating video where Bemma speaks with engineer and Griffintown property owner, Sami Hakimand , and L'Université du Québec à Montréal urban planning professor, David Hanna.
• An upcoming community forum will bring together Montreal residents and eight different city organizations to discuss options for Greening the Plateau. The ideas generated at the conference will then "be directed to the [Plateau Mont-Royal] borough council and the newly created Advisory Committee on Greening".
• The Halifax Regional Municipality's Governance and District Boundary Review, slated to be completed by December 2010, aims to assess the Halifax Regional Municipality's (HRM) municipal structure and propose changes for the future. Spacing Atlantic's Emma Felts looks into the public consultation while untangling the many dense issues at stake.
• Josh Fullan, who teaches English and Civics at the University of Toronto Schools (a private high school affiliated with the University of Toronto), organized the Jane's Walk School Edition featured in the "Walking" column in the Summer-Fall 2009 issue of Spacing. This week he writes a guest post on Spacing Toronto following up on what he and his class observed. Fullan discusses how youth interact with urban space and how to get them excited about the process of community planning and improvement.
• The Gardiner Expressway and Don Valley Parkway (DVP), two of Toronto's most used roadways, are, as Spacing's Dylan Reid points out ""city assets that don't earn any revenue but have revenue-generating potential". Reid muses on how leasing this fundamental infrastrucutre could have the double benefit of reducing car-use in the city (through the use of road tolls) while leading to much needed transit improvements (through re-investing the city revenue generated).
• Spacing Ottawa’s Evan Thornton recently brought along his omni-directional microphone on a walk through the city’s Byward Market and Rideau Centre. Check out Spacing Ottawa for Thornton’s detailed description of the “audio footprints” he captured and to listen to the city’s soundscape.
• Spacing’s Evan Thoronton ways one of a number of commentators invited to CBC's Ottawa Morning radio show to discuss was to revitalize the city’s “dysfunctional Sparks Street Mall”. Spacing Ottawa hosts links to this lively and productive discussion.
This week on Ottawa Morning the CBC's Julie Ireton is taking an in-depth look at Ottawa's dysfunctional Sparks Street mall, the national tourist attraction that doubles as an echo chamber from October through April.
In this segment she hears ideas on how to revitalize the street; the concepts include a dedicated vintage trolley system, on-street parking, and dropping in an "anchor store", or maybe even two.
Each week we will be focusing on blogs from around the world dealing specifically with urban environments. We'll be on the lookout for websites outside the country that approach themes related to urban experiences and issues.
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• In 2004, the City if Denver committed $4.7 billion to an ambitious transit project called FasTracks, to be completed by 2017. Supported by thirty-two regional mayors, FasTacks included provisions for six new light and commuter railway lines along with 29km of bus lanes across the metropolitan area. But 6 years later almost almost nothing has been constructed. This week The Economist looks at what went wrong in Denver and why the city is back at the drawing board.
• The CityFix Mumbai Blog reports on the launch of the city’s first bike sharing programs--Cycle Chalao and FreMo--and the budding cycling culture in India’s largest city.
• Recent images from Haiti and Chile are jarring reminders of the kind of havoc earthquakes can wreak on precarious urban environments. An article in the New York Times finds that millions of people in the developing world are at risk of a similar fate as burgeoning makeshift communities continue to be constructed along earthquake fault lines.
It's budget-time in Toronto and while City Hall is busy at work approving the final numbers, host David Michael Lamb sits down with Spacing contributing editor John Lorinc to talk about the pitfalls of having to pay the bills. Producer Mieke Anderson stows away with the crew of the Toronto Island Ferry Ongiara to discuss the realities of operating the ferry throughout the winter months and, in the process, discovers one of the city's best-kept secrets. Meanwhile, nearly 3,500 km away in Vancouver, reporter Pattie Phillips visits the Olympics and takes a stroll with Erick Villagomez, editor of the online magazine re:place, to explore what these Winter Games will mean for the city and its urban landscape in the years to come.
As an experiment, this past weekend I brought an omni-directional microphone with me during a walk through the Byward Market and Rideau Centre. Starting beside the Highlander at the foot of the William Street Mall, I walked along seeing what sounds might leave a strong enough "audio footprint" to identify when I played the file back.
In the first segment I managed to pick out the sounds of Karen Carpenter thumping the life out of a tinny speaker outside a candy store, then the tuneless plucking of the world's most melody-free busker, and finally the bustle and babble of the coffee shop in the Market building.
Next was the sound of Hot 89.9 blasting through two head-high speakers near the cosmetics promotion table inside the the Freiman Mall; as I recall this was compelling some young women to linger by the cosmetician, and encouraging everyone else to scurry through faster.
A few seconds later we emerge to hear the roar of buses on Rideau Street, and then a strange thing happened during the last leg, which was the long walk through the Rideau Centre. As much as it sounds like a noisy place on a crowded Saturday, the carpeted floor absorbed all the peaks in the audio signal, and the digital record of the walk was mostly a very low hum --edited out -- relieved by only two or three audio artifacts. Can you guess what the electric motor is? Here's a hint - wheatgrass comes into it. Once I got near the MacKenzie King doors the squeeky wheel of an electric scooter can be heard vying with the the roar of a 97 heading west. The very last sound is the squeel of the brakes on the the 86, come to take me home.
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