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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• Planning a bike trip using Google Maps is about to get much easier as the company is set to launch a new bike trip planner service in 150 US cities. According to the Chicago Tribune, the new service will provide cyclists with step-by-step biking directions that "factor in the length of the trip, changes in elevation and even fatigue".

• Is Japan's pictorial green "Running Man" sign more intuitive then North America's lettered red "Exit" sign? In an ongoing series on signage, Slate Magazine weighs in on the international debate over the Exit Sign.

• The Guardian UK hosts a slide show of inventive ways artists and designers have re-imagined the bicycle.

• The Infrastructist Blog details the 10 most expensive transit project of the last decade, including San Juan's 10.7-mile-$2.63 billion rapid transit Tren Urbano line.

• A photo essay on Foreign Policy looks at China's unlikely "golf boom" and the social and…

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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.

Ashcroft is proposing a multi-building development on the convent land and is currently in the phase of seeking community input and support for the project. A…

Reserved seating: commitment-phobes only?

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.

Issue redux and retread

A common refrain in Ottawa politics is, “haven’t we dealt with this before?” And, while true that many political debates run in cycles, the issues we are debating at the municipal level in Ottawa are so fundamental that they deserve a council ready to lead us towards solutions, not return us to deliberation. These debates aren’t new to Ottawa. The big issues at play, like transit, taxes, and trash, aren’t even unique to our city.…

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 winner of Spacing Atlantic's "Best and Worst of Bike Parking in the HRM for 2009" poll have been announced. Check out Spacing Atlantic to see what made the cut and why.

• 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…

Photo by Jeremie D.

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.

With ideas to share  like Kate Wetherow's on how to make vacant buildings come to life -- combined with some pot-shots at the federal bureaucracy -- Spacing's Evan Thornton also weighed in on "putting the spark back into Sparks Street".

photo by Pierre Tourigny

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.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

• 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.

• Los Angeles residents are getting a respite from the city’s ubiquitous corporate mega-ads, as 21 billboards around the city are displaying the work of local artists. The project, entitled “How Many Billboards? Art In Stead" is a large-scale urban art-installation organized by Los Angeles’ MAK Center for Art & Architecture.

• On the topic of billboards, the New York Times recently looked at the risks that emerge when…

Spacing Radio 017 is on the air.

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.

You can subscribe to the Spacing Radio podcast with iTunes.

image by Google maps

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…