Confident prediction #1: No Olympics will be more photographed than this one.  Until the next one. 

Maybe that’s always been true.  But the digital revolution has put the camera permanently at our touch, embedded in our phones.   (Not to mention the surveillance cameras above us.)   And so it seems today everyone is out on the street clicking away at everything.  At least on Granville Street.

Speaking of which:

We blew it.   Granville below Nelson is a dud.  The attempt to use the sidewalk as flexible space, sometimes for people, sometimes for cars, just doesn’t work.   The bollards makes for clumsy clutter, and, too thick for U-locks, they can’t even be used for bike parking.  

We’re used to cars separating us from traffic.  That’s a good thing.  But here they’re at the same level, not a few centimeters below. 

 The difference is profound - like a like a very large person intruding into our personal space.    We’re uncomfortable even if we’re not sure why.  On a cross-section it may have looked like enough space for everyone; in reality the wall of metal creates a restricted corridor. 

In time, leaking oil will discolour the concrete, which along with the gum will make the sidewalks feel permanently dirty.  (One of the reasons the sidewalks of downtown Portland seem so pristine is the care they take to remove gum.  That and the absence of cigarette filters shows how small things have large impacts.)

So okay, we tried.  At least the solution won’t be costly.  The cars go back on the other side of the curb; the bollards come out.    Everyone’s happy.

A Dutch news team followed me around last week while I installed this quick piece and another Weave It! NPA/PublicAdCampaign collaboration. I'll launch the video footage when they do and hopefully have a chance to install something out here in LA before I head back east.

Eli Broad must live within 5 miles of my Westwood house. He has done more good for Los Angeles than I have. Despite his generous donations of plenty of civic culture, the New York Times has written an tough piece about him hinting that his business tactics are too "hardball" in the Streisand world of philanthropy.

The article states that Dr. Roland Fryer has grabbed some Mr. Broad's cash for field experiments. I hope that the "treatment group" appreciates Mr. Broad's payments. After all, Mr. Broad paid his taxes on this money. He could simply buy himself 1,000 yachts. But, he has not pursued this temptation. Instead, he has used his "iron checkbook" to give LA the Museum of Contemporary Art, and a dozen other big ticket items. Such civic engagement should be celebrated. What has Don Trump given NYC besides for some silly headlines and some gold plated buildings?

Senior UK Politicians’ Voting Records on Gay Rights:

The data is here
spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AsEiEVsL6UnrdHU5cFRGZkJn…
(with some additional information on voting records if you want to explore further)

Additional research: Alexia Wdowski, Peter Harrington
Additional design: Joe Swainson
source: Hansard.org, theyworkforyou.com

How can a city reinvent itself when a big anchor company relocates away from its birth-place?

Eindhoven in the Netherlands is exploring just that question. Work is underway to develop a ‘creative city’ with the aim of bringing new life to the neighborhood.

When The Netherlands’ largest redevelopment project is completed in 15 years time, it is envisioned that “Eindhoven will have a second town centre, where its citizens can live, work, teach, shop, and enjoy entertainment facilities, that is worthy of a major city.”

The goal is to transform the Strijp-S area into a "Creative City" and make Eindhoven a leading centre for innovation in technology and design.

Certain buildings have been filled with young entrepreneurs taking advantage of the cheap rents and the site houses a skate park, the PopEi music institute.  Work is underway for a theatre, cultural centre and museum.

Philips will continue to contribute to the ‘city of lights’ with large scale experimental urban lighting projects, including illuminating road surfaces, a "light gate" at the entrance to the neighborhood, pavement systems that light up when buses approach, and a main street lit only by fixtures installed in trees and facades.

Each year, the National Trust for Historic Preservation celebrates the best of preservation by presenting National Preservation Awards to individuals and organizations whose contributions demonstrate excellence in historic preservation. This is the latest in a series of videos highlighting 2009’s winners.

National Trust Board of Advisors’ Award: Gates of Ballston, Arlington, Va. — After decades of heavy use, this 464-unit Colonial Revival-style housing complex was in decay. Arlington County joined forces with a nonprofit developer to give The Gates a long-overdue makeover and help meet the community’s need for affordable housing. Learn more »

Do you know of a deserving individual, organization, agency, or project? We are now accepting nominations for the 2010 National Preservation Awards. Click here for more information.

Mayor Fenty's street after snow clearing
Originally uploaded by rllaymanThis image seems to have many listservs worked up. I don't see what the big deal is. First, the snow clearing isn't that much better than the snow clearing on my street (which, granted, is a key street that the police department uses to get from one part of Ward 4 to another). Second, it's reasonable to ensure that the street of the city's chief executive is passable.

When I was a child living in the City of Detroit, down the street maybe one block or so lived our Congresswoman (Martha Griffiths). So even at the age of 7, I understood why our street enjoyed particularly good snow removal service on the part of the municipal government.

There is so much anger and animus in advocacy circles that logic gets thrown out the window. It's no wonder it is so difficult to move the city forward, whether or not we are two cities, one rich and the other poor (see Colbert King's column "Our racially divided city" from the Post).

We are one city when it comes to piss poor organizing and lack of coherent ideas, minimal vision, and the embrace of mediocrity--high quality services from the DC Dept. of Public Works notwithstanding.

It's a wonder we get anywhere.

WRT the snow, my biggest complaint is the failure to deliver the Washington Post, so I have been walking up to the 7-11 to buy copies each day (yesterday one copy also for my next door neighbor). Back when I delivered newspapers as a teen and in college, I only missed one day of delivery myself, and that was when papers (the Detroit Free Press) were never delivered to me.

And the other is transit. I think we need to have a better plan for providing bus-based mobility during bad snowstorms. Otherwise, there are very few ways to get around.

With regard to snow clearing on my street, the above photo shows what it looks like today, although I have not seen one snowplow go by throughout the storm. Just because I didn't see them, didn't mean it didn't happen...


Children and dogs playing at the Takoma Recreation Center (yesterday).


An intrepid bicyclist, yesterday, at Cedar Street and Blair Road NW in Takoma.

What’s in the Customer’s Mailstream?:

Infographic for “Deliver” magazine.
Illustration by Jude Buffum
Art direction by Grayson Cardinell

Huffington Post has a nice slideshow on nine of the slowest "slow cities" from around the world.

function badge_v2_add_digg_panel() { $("badges_v2_digg_panel").style.display = "block"; digg_holder = document.getElementById("badges_v2_digg_panel"); if (!digg_holder) return; // Adding iframe var ifrm = document.createElement("iframe"); ifrm.setAttribute("name", "digg_badge_iframe"); ifrm.setAttribute("id", "digg_badge_iframe"); ifrm.width= 51; ifrm.height = 82; // make border-less and scroll-less // in both good browsers and in IE ifrm.frameBorder='0'; ifrm.scrolling='no'; ifrm.style.border = "0px"; ifrm.setAttribute("frameBorder", "0"); digg_holder.appendChild(ifrm); ifrm.src = "http://digg.com/tools/diggthis.php?u=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/02/05/cittaslow---the-slowest-c_n_439301.html&t='Cittaslow' - The Slowest Cities In The World (PHOTOS)"; } YAHOO.util.Event.onDOMReady(function(){ badge_v2_add_digg_panel(); return; $("badges_v2_standart_panel").style.display = "block"; badge_v2_activate_first_badge(); badge_v2_activate_second_badge(); badge_v2_activate_third_badge(); });

"Life can be fast. Wake-up, run to shower, throw on clothes, grab coffee to go and sprint to the subway. Not so, however, for those places designated as "Cittaslow" (pronounced: CHEETA-SLOW). Originally born in Italy, the movement, which encourages people to take notice of their natural surroundings and to support local food and drink producers and maintain sustainable population levels, is an off-shoot of the Slow Food Movement. There are 55 criteria that places must satisfy if they want to earn the title Cittaslow, or a "slow city." The criteria are divided into six headings: environmental policy, infrastructure, quality of the urban public, encouragement of local products and local production, hospitality and slow city awareness among residents."

The Government Law Center has been examining the role of state and local governments in addressing various aspected of climate change mitigation and greenhouse gas reduction.  Below are links to two resources: the first is an article forthcoming in the Houston Law School’s Environmental & Energy Law and Policy Journal that reports on some state and local initiatives;  the second is a link to a presentation delivered last week at a conference sponsored by ELI, Columbia Law School, University of Virginia School of Law and Vanderbilt University Law School.

Can You Hear Me Up There? Giving Voice to Local Communities Impreative for Achieving Sustainability

Cooperative Federalism and Climate Change: Giving New Meaning to Think Globally Act Locally

Filed under: Uncategorized

Furacão (2009):

Infográfico/Ilustração, produzida para Revista Época.
A imagem mostra como o fenômeno se forma sobre o oceano.
Produzido por: Gerson Mora

Before I moved from the Flower Market to Homantin last year, I went up to my building’s rooftop for a few last photos of the view, which gave out onto the towers of Mongkok on one side and the mountains north of Kowloon on the other.

Hoboken, New Jersey's Department of Transportation and Parking Director Ian Sacs offers this profile of his city and discusses how the dense but car-enamored city is trying to tackle the contemporary urban parking problem.

read more

As some of us recover from the spectacle of Super Bowl Sunday, we thought it'd be an appropriate time to kick-off our own grand event -- chicken week.  Now, as many a city councilperson can tell you, the idea of city-slickin' chickens stimulates some compelling, if not maddening debate (evidenced here).  In tough times, urban [...]

I just got out to LA for a bit of work, to catch up with some friends, and to check out the utterly horrendous outdoor advertising scene. Yes the digital billboards are out of control, the supergraphic on the side of my hotel is enormous and overwhelming, and yes the Metro Fuel ads, to which the Supreme court delivered a final blow recently, are still getting copy. Tomorrow it's off to see the Philip Lumbang mural that is causing such an uproar all for myself.

In the meantime I leave you with the How Many Billboards? Art in Stead project, presented by the MAK Center for Art and Architecture.
"Twenty-one works in the vein of California's conceptual art movement have been commissioned to critically respond to the medium of the billboard and interpret its role in the urban landscape. Investigating art as an idea as well as art as a media for critical intervention, the exhibition highlights the interaction of Pop, conceptualism and architecture in Los Angeles since the late 1960s." Although I don't entirely agree with Kimberly, her statement does propose a more beneficent public space and one that begins to call into question advertising's role in the public environment.

Kimberli Meyer's statement:
"The philosophical proposition of the exhibition is simple: art should occupy a visible position in the cacophony of mediated images in the city, and it should do so without merely adding to the visual noise. How Many Billboards? Art In Stead proposes that art periodically displace advertisement in the urban environment.

Billboards are a dominant feature of the landscape in Los Angeles. Thousands line the city's thoroughfares, delivering high-end commercial messages to a repeat audience. Given outdoor advertising's strong presence in public space, it seems reasonable and exciting to set up the possibility for art to be present in this field. The sudden existence of artistic speech mixed in with commercial speech provides a refreshing change of pace. Commercial messaging tells you to buy; artistic messaging encourages you to look and to think." [More Here]

Mumbai’s muddled streets are too packed to walk through, so India’s commercial capital has come up with a solution. Uplift the masses—not in some fuzzy metaphysical way, but on “skywalks” made of steel. More…

The city of Constantinople (Qusṭanṭinīyah), from Book on Navigation, Walters Art Museum Ms. W.658, fol.370b

Painting Detail

Painting Detail