New downtown BK before council - with a drive thru!?!

Next Monday, council will be deliberating whether or not to accept the cities Planning Advisory Committee's (PAC's) recommendation to allow Burger King to construct it's new restaurant (which will replace it's existing restaurant on the N/E corner of Wyandotte and Goyeau, in anticipation of expropriation for an enlarged tunnel plaza) where the old Top Hat Supper club used to sit. In it's plans for the site is a drive through. I don't know whether you agree or not, but there is a movement gaining strength that limits/bans drive thus being built within city limits throughout North America and Europe. And seeing how this is a downtown location, a drive thru is probably not in the best interest of a downtown on the verge of renewal. Cars and pedestrians mix as well as oil and water.

Now, I have no objections to Burger King opening up a new restaurant downtown. If you chose to eat this junk, that's purely up to you. I do have a problem, however, with the fact that these current plans include a drive thru.

PAC has lost any credibility with this file as it approved the previous plans, which then got shot down by council for aesthetic reasons. Then BK tried to make the restaurant prettier and more fitting to it's downtown location and they approved it again. Is there anything they won't allow in our downtown?

Phone your councilor, or get listed as a delegate (because there IS still time, much to the chagrin of my calendar-challenged mind!) and let them know that this is not the direction you believe the city should go. Here's the notice posted on the City Of Windsor website.

Council Agenda for the Monday September 10, 2007 Windsor City Council Meeting 3rd floor, Council Chambers, Windsor City Hall

PLANNING ADVISORY COMMITTEE
PAC 1 Burger King Restaurant, rezoning, southwest corner of University Avenue East and Goyeau Street, construct a Burger King Restaurant with a drive-through window on the site (proposed elevations)

Interpreting the signs - The Smart Growth Index (part 2 of 4)

Yesterday, we read about the Pembina Institute's latest report featuring our fair city, the Ontario Community Sustainability Report - 2007, and read the general conclusions the institute came to regarding the 27 municipalities covered in the paper. Today, we are going to look at Windsor's Smart Growth numbers and what they mean to us here on the front lines.

This study provides a snapshot of the sustainability of selected communities across Ontario in recent years, and employs 33 indicators in three broad categories: Smart Growth, Liveability and Economic Vitality. Having an established indicator framework to monitor and evaluate the changes happening can only advance our understanding of the modifications being implemented across the province and provide feedback on the successes or failures these changes are responsible for. You need to know where you stand before heading off in any one particular direction. So, let's see where Windsor stands, shall we...

For the purpose of this study, Windsor is rated as a medium population municipality (216,473 in '06) experiencing medium population growth (+ 3.87% from '01 - '06). Other municipalities/regions covered in this study experienced population growth ranging from 0.11% (Thunder Bay) to 23.84% (Barrie).

Environmental Sustainability
The Smart Growth Index

In Pembina's choice of indicators for the physical environment, they have chosen to focus on urban form, i.e., the physical design of the city. Urban form includes features such as density of settlement, the mix of land uses, and the characteristics of the transportation system. These are the issues that determine tin large part the environmental sustainability of urban areas. There are 11 indicators being utilized in this section.

1/ Population Density (reflects the efficiency with which land is used in Windsor)
Windsor's Ranking - 9 out of 27. Fair, but probably reflects just how poorly everyone else is because Windsor has a low concentration of mid-to-high density neighbourhoods and numerous sprawling suburbs

2/ Land Use Mix (Mixed land uses help reduce motorized transport and encourage walking and biking)
Windsor's Ranking -5 out of 27. Good. Windsor doesn't have to tear down and rebuild neighbourhoods to increase our land use mix. Also shows better-than-average zoning by-laws.

3/ Urban Intensification (Reflects the degree to which new growth is being accomodated in the already urbanized area versus greenfield development)
Windsor's Ranking -11 out of 27. Fair, but gives a warning about continuing our "build out" mentality.

4/ Length Of Roads Per 1,000 People (Provides a measure of the efficiency of the road network. Sprawled communities tend to require more road surface per capita)
Windsor's Ranking - 5 out of 27. Good, but probably attributable to our geographical circumstance of being "walled-in" by the Detroit River and Lakes.

5/ Street Connectivity (Street connectivity allows easier navigation and access to pedestrians, cyclists and transit vehicles. Lower connectivity means more dead-ends and T-intersections)
Windsor's Ranking -1 out of 27. WOW! I didn't see that rank coming! Let's continue our grid patterns the way we've established them. Cutting down on one-way traffic would also increase our local downtown mobility.

6/ Commuting Distance (A measure of the distances between housing and jobs)
Windsor's Ranking - 15 out of 27. Mediocre, considering our very low Length Of Roads Per 1,000 People ranking of 5. This shows that we still love our suburban raised ranches out in the boonies.

7/ Commuting Modes (One measure of the degree of dependance on the automobile, with many commuters travelling in single occupancy vehicles [SOVs])
Windsor's Ranking - 16 out of 27. Mediocre, but we're the Automotive Capital Of Canada so this doesn't surprise me. Striving to increase our acceptance of alternative forms of transportation will lower this score as we maximize our excellent grid-patterned road network.

8/ Place Of Work (A rough proxy for the job/housing balance in Windsor - i.e., the ability of Windsor to provide sufficient employment base and thereby reduce commuting)
Windsor's Ranking - 8 out of 27. Good. This shows that our ability to utilize our plethora of vacant lands/brownfields will increase our population densities while decreasing our commuting distances. With our average scores in those indicators, this also points out that we are not realizing our potential, though.

9/ Transportation Gap (Spending on roads instead of transit increases car dependency)
Windsor's Ranking - 14 out of 27. Average. Yet this doesn't take into account our poor history of maintaining our infrastructure. Watch this ranking skyrocket in the near future as our roads and sewers reach the breaking point. We must increase our spending on alternative transportation and keep it at a high level regardless of our road infrastructure needs.

10/ Tertiary Water Treatment (Reflects stress being placed on local water bodies from sewage loading)
Windsor's Ranking - 17 out of 27. Mediocre, but also points out that we are geographically challenged seeing how half of Windsor is bordered by water. We are not living up to the committments espoused by our municipal motto "The River And Land sustain Us"

11/ Air Quality (Air quality is a key measure of the healthfulness of the physical environment and reflects to some extent the efficiency of the local transportation system)
Windsor's Ranking - 27 out of 27. It literally doesn't get any worse than this. This number should scare the hell out of every Windsor/Essex county resident.

Windsor's overall Smart Growth Index Score was rated at 52.32, ranking us 12th out of the 27 participating communities. Next installment - The Livability/Equity Index

Signs, signs - everywhere signs (part 1 of 4)

There has been quite a few studies and reports featuring Windsor over the past few years. I don't know if we're exceptional or the poster-child for how NOT to do things. You decide...

In today's Windsor Star, it was reported that Windsor was near the bottom in liveability rankings according to the Pembina Institute. Now, this isn't the first time we've been rated fairly low as a city, but there was that one time when the Mayor bought a lot of advertising in that one magazine and then received glowing...oh, never mind.

This time though, the think-tank that did the ratings doesn't sell advertising, so Windsor was about to be judged on it's own merits. It did pretty bad - I needn't tell you. Over the past few years, the Pembina Institute (whose mission is to advance sustainable energy solutions through innovative research, education, consulting and advocacy) has taken a strong interest in issues related to the environmental, economic and social sustainability of urban communities in Ontario. Their most recent report - the Ontario Community Sustainability Report - 2007, was just released in July of this year. This study employed 33 indicators in three broad categories (smart growth, livability and economic vitality) seeking to inform the debate on community sustainability and smart growth in Ontario as the provincial government continues its major reform of the planning system with ambitious goals to stem sprawl and promote community sustainability throughout the province.

In a nutshell, our continent has adopted a method of building its urban landscapes that encourage sprawling uses of land (whether industrial, residential or retail) which is very difficult to service through public transit, let alone more sustainable methods of mobility such as walking or cycling, because of the shear distances involved. Thus, people living in these communities have to rely on their cars, and governments have to provide a vast network of roads, bridges, overpasses and expressways to make it all work. Paying for this automobile network uses up a large portion of the public money available for investment in the transportation system, further undermining the possibility of an efficient and reliable transportation system. Congestion also undermines the economic health of the city as commuters and cargo spend time in traffic jams and business investors begin to look elsewhere. Declining tax revenues further undermine investment in transit development and social services in the city, and drive more people to the car-dependant suburbs or outlying bedroom communities. These dynamics make urban sprawl a self-reinforcing, vicious circle.

A sustainable urban design makes for a self-reinforcing, more virtuous circle: compact urban form with a fine grain mix of land uses makes for a more efficient and economical transit system. Good transit services encourage people to live near or establish work places on transit routes, which intensify into higher density corridors and urban nodes. Higher density development provides a range of housing opportunities that can, in turn, attract a wide range of employers and employees. Employment opportunities, less traffic congestion, more space dedicated to ecological and recreational uses, good transit and affordable housing are all factors that improve quality of life and attract new residents that - if properly settled - contribute to a healthier economy.

This is what Pembina's report - and common sense - is hoping we understand.

Tomorrow, let's take a closer look at Pembina's report to find out just how Windsor competes in the global competition of quality-of-life and liveability. Most of the factors which will translate into our economic survival.

Investing in regeneration VS subsidizing sprawl

The university requires another 20 million dollars, in addition to the 40 million it just received from the province, to make it's dream of the Centre of Engineering Innovation a reality. As reported in todays Windsor Star, the University still hasn't decided on a location (or locations) for this complex. It would be in the cities best interest to facilitate discussions and negotiations to secure this funding for the University, as long as the University commits to developing the bulk of the Centre downtown.

U of W appeals for $20M
Paul confident corporate partners will support research centre
Wednesday, August 29, 2007

The University of Windsor needs $20 million more from private and public partners to pay for its proposed $110-million engineering school and research centre.
The province announced last week it would give the university $40 million toward its Centre of Engineering Innovation.
The university has already raised $50 million through a bond, which leaves the project $20 million short. University president Ross Paul expressed optimism Tuesday about raising the extra $20 million. This fall, he said, U of W officials will start designing the building, pick a location or locations and attract corporate partners for financial contributions and to be tenants.
"There is a lot of interest" in the engineering centre, Paul said. "We have several corporate people working with us from the biggest to some small innovative ones. Some might just make an investment of equipment or financial aid. "The potential is incredible here."
Administration will report back to the board of governors within the next couple of months with more details. "We haven't asked anyone for a firm commitment," Paul said. "We've gotten letters of interest and support and now we have to deliver on that." Paul wouldn't say how many companies have said they would move into the "manufacturing courtyard" portion of the facility.
It was unclear Tuesday whether the entire centre would be open by the fall of 2009. Paul said the teaching portion might be the first section to open in two years. The university has to recruit corporate partners before embarking on building courtyard wings. "We want to get it right," Paul said. "But we recognize time pressures, obviously." University officials said they haven't eliminated downtown as a potential location for the engineering research centre, but they will choose a space on its appropriateness for the facility. "You don't start with a location, (if it benefits everyone in the community, Ross - yes you do!) you start with what do you need," Paul said. In a meeting closed to the public Tuesday, the university's board of governors gave university management the "green light" to pursue the Centre for Engineering Innovation, said Marty Komsa, the board's chairman. He said the board of governors "asked lots of questions and gave unanimous approval" to the project. "The momentum continues," said Marty Komsa, chairman of the U of W board of governors. "The excitement continues to grow." While the board of governors had already approved and paid for architectural plans for phase one of the engineering complex, the plan has to be redesigned because the entire facility is being done at the same time.
The manufacturing courtyard concept is what sold the province on funding the project, Paul said.
A courtyard is a wing of the new facility dedicated to a project or a corporation where company researchers, professors and students will work together on new research ideas. In its proposal to the province, the U of W said it would be "contacting Canadian and multi-national manufacturing companies ... to solicit the initial set of module occupants and begin developing workplans for the research that will take place in them."

Monica Wolfson, Windsor Star

We must get through to both the city's and the University's leadership that this is the only way to go if the ultimate goal of both administrations is the health and well-being of this community.

Well, if the city won't do it...

...we may as well take the cultural and economic future of our community into our own hands.

Crowdsourcing:
-verb
a neologism for the act of taking a job traditionally performed by an employee or contractor, and outsourcing it to an undefined, generally large group of people, in the form of an open call.
(syn: Beta Community)

So, the City of Windsor will probably be busy with the WUC for so long, it will be up to the proactive, grassroots community to start actually looking after this community's creative and cultural legacy. For a hint of what's possible, I introduce you to Beta Communities across the US that are doing just that - taking matters into their own hands. A.K.A. Crowdsourcing...

Here's a rundown on the progress of Beta Communities in cities across the country (with many thanks to Neil Takemoto of Washington, D.C. based Cool Town Studios).

- in Washington DC

A VIBE beta community to crowdsource a progressive new downtown restaurant now has 108 members and counting five months into the process, and it doesn't even have a location yet (somewhere around 14th and U Street) . In the meantime, the beta community has convinced the business owner to grow from 1000 to 3000 s.f.; to go vegetarian, organic, local farm-oriented (except coffee I suppose); green; open kitchen; and offer a full slate of education, community and entertainment programs committed to making an impact, yet having fun at the same time. Read more about in this Washington Business Journal article, and if you live in the Washington DC and feel you should be a part of this, you can join the group here. Better get a passport, as we're looking into a trip to Nicaragua to experience the rustic shade-grown, organic, free-trade coffee culture and economy.

- in Anacostia,

a Building Beta Community has just been initiated to crowdsource a two-story, 14,000 s.f. shell of a building into a green, health-oriented mixed-use building of forward-thinking retail on the ground floor, and residential units above. Anacostia is an economically-challenged neighborhood that is slowly turning the economic corner, but has yet to boast that inspiring destination to get its former creatives to move back. Also, because many of those cultural entrepreneurs have left, we're looking to work with Howard University's most recent alumni about designing this building just for them. The focus here is about growing a strong African-American economy and culture, Anacostia's heritage, and if you'd like to participate, you can join the effort here.

- in Syracuse

Where will the creatives go in Syracuse when places begin to gentrify? That won't be a problem at 200 South Geddes, where developer Rick Destitio is transforming a 5-story historic factory building into a artist-musician live-work center. Not only that, but he's sponsoring a Beta Community that will eventually consist of 500 of the city's most progressive, culturally creative, entrepreneurial and/or passionate people who want to co-design, co-develop, and eventually co-habitate the place. The group of 18 core members are currently narrowing down the name... will it be the Brown-Lipe Gear Building, GearWorks, or the Gear Factory? If you live in Syracuse and want to be a part of it, you can join the effort here.

- in New Orleans

The city is rebuilding. However, just what is it rebuilding into? New Orleans already has a reputation of being one of the most authentic cities in the country, and the next generation of
young urban rebuilding professionals (aka YURP) want to keep it that way, yet raise its quality of life, 24/7 experiences, and knowledge-based economy to rival that of Austin, Silicon Valley and NYC. YURP, 700+ members and counting, is just about to launch a Beta Community to begin identifying key buildings in targeted neighborhoods (The Warehouse District?). Get involved with the base group here.

Keep track of these Beta Communities here.

Think of the possibilities that await those in Windsor with a vision, tenacity and a desire to see Windsor rise out of the ashes. We live on fertile ground, folks.

addendum posted Aug 29 @ 11:17 am

- in Liverpool

In 2008, Liverpool will be showcasing its cultural life as Europe's Capital of Culture. While the city is spending GBP 3 billion on a 'culture led transformation', some believe Liverpool 08 would benefit from a community led alternative. Which prompted Mark Bowness, who previously founded crowdfunded ventures Tribe Wanted and vipbandmanager.com, to start the Liverpool Cultural Cafe. Bowness, a Merseyside native, explains: "After learning about the cultures of Fiji, after bringing employment and investment to that area, I became passionate about doing the same in my home city." His latest project aims to get 25,000 people to pledge a donation of GBP 20. The pooled amount of GBP 500,000 will be used to launch a platform for local talent—musicians, comedians and other artists. A bistro by day and bar by night, the Liverpool Cultural Cafe will be staffed by 12 trainees from low opportunity backgrounds, who will be trained by local businesses. Liverpool Cultural Cafe's 25,000 investors will be able to influence the venture's development through an online community developed for the project.
If the initiative doesn't work out, not much is lost, since investors don't hand over their twenty quid until 24,999 others have agreed to do the same. If it does work, this could be a model for other civic groups to follow to get ventures off the ground without relying on government subsidies. One to watch in 2008!

In praise of preservation

I tuned in to council last night to catch the lively debate (and, oh, was it lively!) on the WUC rate increase and was given a special little gem that wasn't reported in the Star, and likely won't be until the shovel is in the ground or, in this case, not in the ground.

The province gave the Greater Essex-County District School Board a big bag of money to spend on rehabilitating (read: rebuilding) three schools in the city. One of those schools was to be John Campbell Public School on Tecumseh Road on the edge of South Walkerville. For those of you have have never been inside, or even by that outstanding piece of 1920's architecture, you are missing out. Suffice it to say, they just don't build them like that anymore. Trust me, 80 years from now nobody is going to be saying "Wow, that old Talbot Trail school is such an architectual masterpiece, we're sure lucky to have that in our neighbourhood."

The school board had originally proposed razing the school and rebuilding it completely -- a process that has been employed countless times throughout the city and province. With this old beauty, citizens of Windsor, along with the Heritage Preservation Board, swayed the board to work out a masterpiece of a plan where the exterior of the school, along with all the detail, grandeur and history, would be preserved and the interior would be mostly renovated. I say mostly because they have also committed to preserving architectually and historically significant portions of the interior including the current administrative offices, the gym (it'll be completely redone, but will be redone to fit the style and period of the building) and, my favourite, they will be restoring a single classroom to the same way it was in 1927. sure, all of the latest gadgets and luxuries will be added to the classrooms. Wireless internet, facility upgrades, etc etc., but the school will be a fully functional heritage site. Yep, that's right -- the city, schoolboard and heritage committee intend to pursue a heritage designation for this property. That means that once they sink this $10 million into the old girl that they will be on the hook to maintain this living artifact.

I've never been a really big fan of the schoolboard, having a gaggle or so of kids who attend their schools. Last night, for just a moment, I thought that maybe, just maybe, Mary Jean and the gang got it. Hopefully we will see some more inspiration from other municipal and provincial bodies in preserving and accentuating our heritage properties. Most people would say that heritage preservation in Windsor is dead, or at least dying. I would suggest that there are glimmers of hope in an otherwise desolate landscape. If we keep at it, and keep encouraging those who keep at it, we will see the fruits of our labours, and labours of our progenitors, for decades to come.

The University and The Road Less Travelled.

This is just like the scene in that movie - you know the one - where the protagonist is standing at a fork in the road, contemplating which direction they will head. And you just know that this is a make-or-break moment - one way will have a great outcome, and the other way - catastrophe. It's a cheesy metaphore for an up-coming life decision, but appropriate at that.

The decision we are gawking at now here in Windsor is by no means an easy one. Never in my lifetime has an opportunity of this magnitude been on the table, and I've been living through the border crossing debacle (because none of those "options" will really affect anything - we're still going to get stuck with 10,000 trucks a day driving through Windsor, it's been distilled down to a fight over their elevation). This decision will determine whether the City of Windsor changes its economic fortunes and prospers, or continues to wither on the vine.

Back to our protagonists decision. The route on the right is the visibly easier one. This is the road that most of the members of the University of Windsor's Board of Governors will opt to take. Less headaches, land expropriation and permit applications would be necessary in building a prestigious Centre For Engineering Innovation out on a greenfield sie on the periphery of our city. And this is clearly where this route would take us, because if was just up to the University, it is probably the cheapest one. However, the City must play an active role in this decision and take into consideration what the costs would be if the University chose this route. Not only would the city be on the hook for numerous infrastructure upgrades, highway widening and generations of increased vehicular traffic and smog, but it would also be sacrificing an investment in the downtown that could be the difference between revitalization and rigor mortis. Hense, our protagonist is counseled to start thinking about the road less traveled - the one on the left.

This road is a little neglected and overgrown. It seems as though it has been forgotten about for quite some time. Yet, there is beauty down this road. Sure, nature has tried to reclaim it - the asphalt is crumbling and the weeds are poking through - but it still has a certain allure to it. This is the road leading to renovation, urban renewal and adaptation. This is a road that will utilize resources that we have already invested in and paid for. This option would add to the cultural and creative renaissance that downtown Windsor needs.

Simon Fraser University has done it with their Morris J Wosk Centre For Dialogue in downtown Vancouver, and that has led to the revitalization of the Downtown Eastside. George Brown College moved its multidisciplinary performing arts program into downtown Toronto in 2005, accomodating both students and Toronto's Soulpepper Theatre Company. Oil-rich Alberta is getting into the game as well, making a conditional offer to purchase the Hudson's Bay building in Edmonton's downtown.

When the University of Calgary embarked on its so-called “urban campus initiative” two years ago, the institution’s development officials were thinking mainly about building a downtown campus – a standard-issue, bricks-and-mortar cluster based in Calgary’s down-and-out East Village area, not far from the business core. No one anticipated the way the project has evolved, admits Roman Cooney, University of Calgary’s vice-president, external relations. But even before the university and its partners on the project (Athabasca University, Bow Valley College, Chinook Learning Services and the Calgary Board of Education, among others) begin building the $300-million “learning precinct” on city-owned land, students and faculty involved with the urban campus initiative have started connecting with a part of Calgary that has missed out on much of the prosperity of the oil boom. “It came from what students were telling us,” says Mr. Cooney. “They wanted real life experience and to be connected with the community before they graduated.”

Just his past February, The University of Waterloo announced that a satellite of McMaster University's Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine will be located on the University of Waterloo Downtown Kitchener Health Sciences Campus. Anchored by the new UW School of Pharmacy, the Health Sciences Campus is the catalyst behind the announcement of a satellite medical school. As University of Waterloo president David Johnstonstated, "This is a day for the history books of Waterloo Region, McMaster University and the University of Waterloo. The synergies are wonderful, with the satellite of the Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine co-locating with our School of Pharmacy on the Downtown Kitchener Health Sciences Campus. We are so fortunate that the City of Kitchener has been the catalyst in developing the Health Sciences Campus, providing funding of $30 million to the School of Pharmacy, plus a gift of land at King and Victoria Streets."

"UW's goal in all of our health-related activities is to make a difference in the lives of people in this community; not to conduct research in isolation, but to translate our expertise into things that improve the quality of life and the quality of health care for our neighbours, our families, our friends," Johnston added."This is a day for the history books of Waterloo Region, McMaster University and the University of Waterloo. The synergies are wonderful, with the satellite of the Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine co-locating with our School of Pharmacy on the Downtown Kitchener Health Sciences Campus. We are so fortunate that the City of Kitchener has been the catalyst in developing the Health Sciences Campus, providing funding of $30 million to the School of Pharmacy, plus a gift of land at King and Victoria Streets. UW's goal in all of our health-related activities is to make a difference in the lives of people in this community; not to conduct research in isolation, but to translate our expertise into things that improve the quality of life and the quality of health care for our neighbours, our families, our friends," Johnston added.

These projects are part of a growing trend among Canada’s postsecondary institutions. Universities and colleges are increasingly forging partnerships with municipalities and a wide array of local organizations to create downtown campuses and programs that not only fuel urban redevelopment but also create important social connections between students, faculty and the communities that surround them. Results that the City Of Windsor desperately needs to recognise as being necessary for us to survive this latest economic downturn we are experiencing.

Let's hope that Mayor Francis is successful in thwarting another attempt to subsidize (to the tune of $40,000,000) urban sprawl and keeps these 1,600 - 2,000 engineering students living, working and playing in downtown Windsor. An email or phone call from you wouldn't hurt, either.

Riverside Roundabouts

During the Riverside Drive Vista Improvement Projects public deliberations, there was a woman who got up before council, visibly nervous, and poured her heart out with concern over the cities plans to install traffic roundabouts at specific intersections along riverside Drive. Now, I have experienced roundabouts both as a motorist and a cyclist, and have had no concerns about the saftey of these traffic calming/controlling devices, but she spoke with such emotion that I thought I would look back into this age-old method of controlling those motorised beasts.

I came upon this post from Spacing Wire, a heavily visited Toronto blog, that begs the same question: what kind of experiences have people had with modern day roundabouts?

Modern roundabouts have been popular in Britain since the 1950s and were adopted by other European countries during the 1980s and 1990s. More recently, they’ve been introduced, initially on a trial basis, to the United States and Canada. Those trials have proved so successful, not least in dispelling drivers’ fears of the strange circular junctions - remember when “The Simpsons” visited Britain only to find themselves driving around and around one? - that many more roundabouts are now being built.

“When construction started, there was a quite an outpouring of concern,” said Tom Adriance, highway superintendent of Malta, a town in upstate New York, where five roundabouts were recently completed and another seven are planned. “It was something new, and people were nervous. But as they’ve gotten used to the roundabouts, they’ve realized the benefits. The traffic moves quicker and flows pretty freely; very rarely is there any type of stacking or backup. Who wants to sit at a red light for two or three minutes?”

The success of the modern roundabout’s design is rooted partly in its structure and partly in its ability to modify motorists’ behavior by encouraging them to drive more slowly and considerately. It dates from the early 1900s, when William Phelps Eno designed Columbus Circle in New York as a “gyratory traffic circle” where vehicles drove around a central island. Across the Atlantic, his archrival, Eugène Hénard, was developing a similar idea around the Arc de Triomphe in Paris.

So, did this woman have any legitimate concerns, or was her reaction purely an emotional one based upon wives-tales and heresay? After a good 25 minutes of web browsing, I couldn't find one empiracle study that concludes that roundabouts are less safe than any of the other forms of traffic control devices that we are currently utlizing here in North America. There were some concerns regarding multi-lane roundabouts, but the proposal for Riverside Drive is only for one lane in each direction. These conclusions were echoed in the region of Waterloo:

Why do roundabouts have such a good safety record?

1. Fewer Conflicts. Roundabouts have fewer conflict points compared to conventional intersections. Roundabouts eliminate the potential for hazardous conflicts such as right-angle and left-turn head-on crashes. Roundabouts with single-lane approaches are safer than those with multilane approaches because of fewer potential conflicts between road users, and because pedestrian crossing distances are shorter.

2. Slower and more consistent speeds. Lower speeds in roundabouts allow drivers more time to react to potential conflicts, helping to make roundabouts safer. Most motorists travel at about the same speed through a roundabout, and that helps to reduce the crash severity compared to conventional intersections that mix slow and fast traffic.

3. Pedestrians cross one direction of traffic at a time. Pedestrians need only cross one direction of traffic at a time at each approach as they walk around a roundabout, compared with two-way traffic at most conventional intersections. There are just as many potential conflicts between vehicles and pedestrians at a roundabout compared to a conventional intersection, but at a roundabout the traffic all comes from the same direction where at a conventional intersection the pedestrian has to watch for traffic from all directions. In addition, motorists travel slower entering and exiting a roundabout compared to a conventional intersection. As with other road crossings where the pedestrian has to watch for a gap in traffic, roundabouts still present visually-impaired pedestrians with unique challenges.

So, I say that anything we can do to bring motorists and their 3,500 pounds of hurtling steel under control should generally be looked upon favourably.

Global Revitalization Lessons

There's a battle in the West to reclaim city streets as part of our collective wealth as people-places and social havens. The following is from the organization New York City Streets Rennaisance, and their findings and critiques are equally applicable to Windsor, along with pretty much every other city on this continent. They even take the step of offering global examples of successful metropolitan areas that we can educate ourselves with. Just substitute "Windsor" when you read "New York", and you can visualize what we must do as a city to bring life back to our streets.

New York is a city best enjoyed on foot, yet we plan our streets for cars.

New York City's streets are the soul of its neighborhoods and the pathways to some of the world's most in-demand destinations. For generations, New Yorkers and visitors have strolled, shopped and socialized on sidewalks and street corners. Pedestrian friendly streets are the city's most fundamental assets.
Unfortunately, we aren't making the most of these assets. Instead, our streets are being managed almost entirely for traffic flow, with neighborhoods and business districts buckling under increasing amounts of dangerous car and truck traffic. If we continue planning our streets for cars and traffic, we will get more cars and traffic; conversely, if we start planning our cities for people and places, we will get more people and places.
Streets are more than just car corridors; they are valuable civic spaces and resources that need to be wisely allocated. The New York City Streets Renaissance Campaign is building the movement to re-imagine our streets as lively public places.

Goals of the New York City Streets Renaissance

- Educate New Yorkers about potential transportation policy changes that will improve quality of life across New York City
- Promote a rebalancing of this public space away from private vehicles and toward community needs
- Demonstrate the widespread public support for reform on these issues
- Tap the potential of New Yorkers to re-imagine their own streets

The choice is clear: either we choose to be defined by worsening traffic and perilous streets or we can define ourselves through great public spaces and lively streets. Through action and dialogue New Yorkers can raise expectations for their public realm.
Join our city-wide campaign for local improvements that reflect your neighborhood's unique character.

Now, Windsor just needs to follow NYCSR's example and develop a similar group of our own. Any takers?

Urban Agriculture Information

ed: As I promised in a previous post, here is some contact information for those interested in buliding community through local urban food production.

FedUp - Windsor’s community gardening network
Since the spring of 2007, FedUp has practiced and encouraged collective gardening, harvesting, distribution, food preparation and preservation, and culinary celebration.

Help FedUp Grow

Anyone who wants to help build our region’s capacity for local, organic food production and distribution is encouraged to join our network. Do you have space that you want to contribute? We will build, maintain, and harvest a garden, dependent on the availability of gardeners. Do you want to garden? We will coordinate interested gardeners, and provide them with space, help, and advise as needed. Do you have a surplus from your own gardens? Please don’t let it go to waste.
We will collect and distribute it to those in need. Do you have fruit trees that go unharvested?
Please tell us. We will harvest them so that all of us can enjoy their bounty. Do you have gardening wisdom that you’d like to share with a new generation of gardeners?

Our first three sites

Over the last 5 months, about 15 people have worked FedUp’s three donated sites.

Malden Rd. (the south-east corner of Malden Rd. and Lambton) has presented us with many challenges (like deer, rabbits and a very dry summer), but continues to bring joy to its gardeners.

The Ecohouse (793 Sunset Ave.) provides us with an outdoor space amid a garden that has been tended with care, for our weekly potlucks, meetings, and discussions.

Moy St. took lots of digging by FedUp’s ‘head digger’ and others, and has reciprocated with lots of produce.

Join us for Sunday Potlucks 6pm in the backyard of the Ecohouse (793 Sunset Ave.): anyone can come and share their favourite dish, get to know their fellow gardeners, and participate in discussions about FedUp, gardening practices, and food politics.

Cooking Workshop
noon on August 26th: two of our gardeners will use produce from our gardens to lead a participatory cooking workshop. We’ll make: Gazpacho, Peperonata with Garlic Crustini, Stuffed Zucchini, and Lemon Lavendar Scones. There’s limited space, so please RSVP by Aug 20th by phoning 519-258-8398 or emailing maya.ruggles@gmail.com.

What cars do to cities.

In the previous post "Save Our Scenic Drive", we pointed out the transformation happening with Wyandotte road in the name of moving more cars. Todays post is taken from a blog entitled "Naparstek", and further illustrates how our urban environment is being altered to make room for the personal automobile.

Aaron Naparstek: "The two photos above were part of a presentation I did on Wednesday, November 16 for the New York Metropolitan Transportation Council's monthly brown bag lunch seminar." In the first photo, New York City's Park Avenue was once... a park! This photo is looking north on Park Avenue at about 50th Street some time before 1922. The photo next to it is Park Avenue post-1922 after "improvements" to accomodate motor vehicle traffic. You might say that these two photos tell the story of 20th century New York City public space about as eloquently as it can be told. In my presentation I argued that New York City's current surface transportation system is broken, dysfunctional and in increasingly urgent need of repair. Then I offered five ideas that could go along way towards fixing it:

- Better Bike infrastructure
- Traffic-calming
- Pedestrian & public space improvements
- Bus rapid transit
- Congestion charging"

So, you see, there are many lessons to be learned all over the place about how to treat your urban spaces. Looking at the list the author provides that could "fix" our broken, dysfunctional transportation system, how do you feel Windsor is doing? We have talked about and started some policy initiatives that address some of these issues, but that's about it. We must fight for bike lanes. There has been a traffic-calming policy passed, but is it being implemented? The other three just aren't worth discussing as Windsor has been starving these unwanted children in a closet under the stairs for generations.

Unfortunately, Windsor seems to think they're something "special" and are somehow beyond learning from the experiences of others.

Save Our Scenic Drive

Is it my imagination, or is Wyandotte THE most popular street in Windsor these days?

Everywhere you turn, you read about some section of Wyandotte being dug up, expanded, rearranged, extended and generally being toyed with. The eastern-most end of the street is now snaking its way out into the suburban nether-regions, reaching the land of the suburbanites who tend to flee the core area. Expensive bridges are being built to accommodate their commute and the infrastructure costs are spiraling out of control. All this is happening while the crumbling water mains and sewers in the older neighbourhoods are being neglected to the point of failure.

Wyandotte is like the multiple-personality afflicted character Cybill, displaying all kinds of different personalities depending on when and where you explore.

Heading west from this suburban personality of Wyandotte, you find the street widening out into 4/5 lanes of asphalt wasteland. Continuous road upgrades live here. The only people negotiating this stretch of Wyandotte on foot are those unlucky souls whos cars have broken down. No pedestrian life exists here. A glimpse of the entire street's future, perhaps?

Further west, you begin to approach the older parts of this street. The section running through the area that used to be the outlying industrial area of Walkerville prior to Windsor’s annexation of it and Riverside. This is where the Ford Motor Companies and Hiram Walkers of the area set up shop and needed rail infrastructure to carry on with its business. They financed tunnels and bridges, rail connections to ship their goods and links to the river to load their merchandise onto barges. It’s a fascinating area with bridges and buildings dating back to the 20’s and 30’s. Unfortunately it is also considered a bottle-neck for the efficient movement of motorists, and we all know where in the hierarchy historic conservation lies in comparison to “growth”. So, it is this area that is receiving a ton of attention (and tax dollars) from our cities Department of Public Works who is tearing down one old bridge (built by hand in 1931 by the Town of Walkerville) and rehabilitating the other one in the hopes that motorists will begin to chose this street to move through the city as opposed to Riverside Drive, which currently acts as an east-west mini-expressway.

Here’s a chance for me to allay some of my guilt. For years, a group of alternative transportation activists have been lobbying our municipal leaders to include bicycle lanes on Riverside Drive, myself included. We have been fighting for cyclists and pedestrians rights to be included in our local transportation planning priorities, and this was a great way to launch a high-profile battle against the well-heeled residents who didn’t want anything to do with these “Cyclists”. Well, the result of this lobbying was the passing of the Riverside Drive Vista Improvement Project, whose unfortunate by-product was the shifting of motorist capacity over to Wyandotte, which the city has stated has “excess capacity” (if this is true, then why do they have to tear a lot of it up and add vehicular lanes?) I feel like Wyandotte has been sacrificed for a pleasant motoring experience on Riverside Drive’s “Scenic Drive”.

From Page 8 of the the City Of Windsor's Riverside Drive Vista Improvements Projects class environmental study, completed December '06:

"4/ Traffic Diversion ...The third and most important element of traffic diversion is to provide Wyandotte Street east with the capacity and operational characteristics to attract and accommodate through traffic diverted from Riverside at an acceptable level-of service.This will be accomplished by implementing the East Riverside Secondary Plan recommendation to extend Wyandotte Street and McHugh Street east, by enhancing the capacity of Wyandotte Street East with potential peak period on-street parking restrictions and by reviewing the warrants and timing of traffic signals on Wyandotte Street east."

So, at this point we've torn down an historic structure, levelled out the trench and widened it to accomodate the vehicular flow (except the cyclists - they don't get any bike lanes here). This brings us to the intersection of Walker and Wyandotte, which through 2001's Walker Road Corridor Class Environmental Assessment process, was determined needed infrastructure improvements and an increase in capacity. According to a city official, "(b)asically the future design is for Wyandotte to be 5 lanes (2 lanes in each direction plus a common turning lane) from Monmouth to St. Luke and left turn lane installed on Walker at Wyandotte. The next couple of years have been budgeted for design and land acquisition."

So, in a nutshell, you will have 5 lanes of traffic from the eastern most urban sprawl funneling into Olde Walkerville - which the city has "branded" The Distillery District" - which has only two lanes of traffic. The city will then, according to the RDVIP, begin to remove on-road parking to accomodate the huge flow of suburban commuters who will, by design, be washing out any remaining signs of the walkable community it once was.

Sounds like Smart Growth to me!

UPDATE: Those bronze plaques attached to the Wyandotte Subway have been stolen. Little surprise in this city.

Backpedaling on an incredible opportunity

So when is Windsor going to pull it's lethargic ass out of the 19th century and actually accomplish something worthwhile in it's downtown core? Here's a post, published here verbatum from CoolTown Studios, which highlights the fact that we are nothing but navel-gazers in this city.

"Arizona doesn't exactly have a reputation for placemaking, but

Arizona State University is looking to change that in a grand way with their Next American University plan to accommodate 90,000 students via two new urban campuses, one north of Phoenix, one in its downtown. Then there's ASU's take on what university research buildings should be, a microcosm of University of South Carolina's Innovista research village.

Skysong, aka the ASU-Scottsdale Center for Innovation, is a 37-acre, ten-year, 1.2 million s.f. project that will provide 4000 jobs and $300 million in investment via office space, retail and housing, centered by an artistic tent-like structure.

The city's key goal of course, is to leverage the university to create high-growth jobs, export its innovations, attracting global companies as partners, and developing entrepreneurial and tech transfer programs (eg Technopolis, the Edson Student Entrepreneur Initiative, and the Partnership for Research in Spatial Modeling). The ASU Foundation bought the land for $41.5 million, then sold it to the City who is leasing it back along with financing its infrastructure.

Now the urban design of the large mid-rise industrial-looking buildings aren't the most humanistic, but at least it's not parking lot-oriented. It's a step in the right direction.

Read more in Next American City."

Call me crazy, but does this not sound like a worthy objective for The City Of Windsor and our University?

Real Estate Horror Story or Cultural Opportunity?

When I was looking to purchase a home in the Olde Walkerville neighbourhood back in 2002, there wasn't one to be found. True, I had a very specific criteria that I wanted met, which narrowed my focus to about two streets, but the point is - there was nothing for sale. Nada. The minute a "For Sale" sign went up in front of a home, there was dozens upon dozens of people going through it that weekend and an inevitable "Sold" sign decorating the front within a week. When my home went on the market, the first weekend's open house saw 27 families going through the open house, resulting in 6 offers. I was (obviously) the lucky purchaser, but I actually offered MORE than their asking price because I knew the currents of the Walkerville real estate market at the time.

So what has changed in the past 5 years? This house, which is almost across the street from me has finally sold after being on the market for months. It's a beautiful home - four bedrooms, den, main floor laundry, usable attic space, fully finished (including basement) with all the charm that one could expect in a (almost) 100 year old Walkerville home. When I moved into the neighbourhood, the neighbour who lived there told me he bought the house a few years prior for about $230,000. This made me feel I got a steal on my house. Yet, when he went to sell in '05, he let it go for $210,000. Not so good. Then, just this past week, I find out that after sitting empty for 3 months (the current owners moved to the States) it was taken off the market for a $175,000 offer!

Yes, all my neighbours are watching their investments plummet into the same hole Windsor's economy now resides. Yet, our suburban counterparts are enjoying a relatively safe investment. Another neighbour who got a steal on his Walkerville mansion, recently sold his neo-victorian suburban dream house for more than his asking price (over $300,000), so the high-end suburbs are still hot.

As D.T.H. stated in the previous post, there are unending opportunities for someone with deep pockets to come into one of these older, walkable neighbourhoods and begin a cultural revolution. The urban influx is happening in countless other communities, which is also signalling their economic health. These cultural pioneers are recognising the importance of being in the thick of things in the core of the city. The never ending opportunities for cultural experiences, the amenities, the (relatively) low current real estate prices and the ability to get on with your life without the need to drive everywhere.

So what does this say about Windsor when these incredible neighbourhoods are languishing unloved in the real estate market? It means we still don't get it. It means we haven't made the connection and are still clinging to the unsustainable suburban dream.

When intellectuals are terrorists

I had to double-check my calender today fearing that, in spite of the reassurances of modern convenience, we had slipped back to the 1950's. Alas, it is only the political climate in which we live in that is making a mad dash for the policy of yesteryear. Now don't get me wrong, I would be all for a return to a much more simple and quaint way of life where hard work and honesty ruled the life of the average joe. Unfortunately, the "Leave it to Beaver" lifestyle is only a rose-coloured view of the reality that captured North America for nearly 20 years.

What has caused me to wax nostalgic, in a frightening, foreboding sort of way? Apparently intelligence analysts with the NYPD have determined that average joes, like you and me (I'm reading between the lines here!), are capable of becoming blood-thirsty, poison-our-neighbours, blow-up-building, terrorists. (All this without being elected to the White House! ) It seems that the new hotbed for terrorism can be found in "cafes, cab driver hangouts, flop houses, prisons, student associations, non-governmental organizations, hookah bars, butcher shops and bookstores," etc.

If the past is a good indicator of the future (and it usually is) that means that the treatment of Muslims that so many Americans, regardless of their religious stripes, have come to expect the White House to dole out, in the name of National Security, is now going to be meted out indiscriminantly on coffee drinkers, students, NGOs, meat-eaters and readers.

Now, since I personally qualify in 3, soon to be 4, (no I don't drink coffee and, yes, I can read!) of those categories, I fully expect that at some point the near future I'll find myself a resident of a Gitmo-like institution. We are already being slowly labotimized by mass media (have you turned on the television lately?), emotionally sterilized to the point that we are willing to accept any mindless gruel. That sort of rhetoric legitimizes global governments in ratcheting their aggressive "Anti-Terror" policies a little closer to the "Ruthless Dictator" level.

After realizing that this is, for now, only a consequence of living South (or from our vantage point in Windsor, North) of the border, I was able to breath a sigh of relief. Sure Windsor has a lot against it, but at least we can congregate and freely speak our minds, we can openly disseminate information, and we can eat meat -- and we can like it! So, take a moment and say thanks Windsor, thanks Canada -- you might be taxed until it doesn't hurt anymore, but at least we don't have George W. Bush for President.

Individual VS Collective Action

Every now and then, you are going to come across a post on this blog that constitutes nothing but my wandering thoughts. Being the uneducated person that I am, they may be hard to follow, but hopefully, they prove a worthwhile exercise none-the-less.

We here in the West, the past three or four generations at least, have been brought up to believe that the individual is god and collective action lies on the periphery with the freaks and weirdoes. That we have the power to mold our own future and if we fail, it is the fault of our own lack of "protestant work ethic" or drive. I feel this constantly in my own life and I know that the majority of my peers feel it as well.

So, what does this have to do with the future of our community? Everything, in my perspective. I know that Windsor will not crawl out of its cave without collective action towards "something", yet the individual is the one calling the shots.

There are many individuals in Windsor who are doing remarkable, progressive things. True, a lot of them belong to groups who are constantly working at changing something. Yet it is the effort of individual action that materializes the quickest that gets noticed. For example, local architect Joe Passa has made "Green Architecture" the focus of his practice. He has accomplished much in the ways of making others see the benefits of investing in sustainable methods of construction, including seemingly immoveable organizations such as the Windsor-Essex Catholic District School Board. He is a talented individual and his success is proof positive that there is a desire to change out there.

Yet, a green building lying in the solitude of urban sprawl can be considered an anomaly - a distraction. Nothing exists in a vacuum. In and of itself, it will lead to little change in the way our day-to-day life is affecting the health of our society and planet. The same transportation habits will be required to access these schools: those big, yellow school buses will continue to roll and kids won't be able to walk from their suburban raised ranches; partly out of the media-induced fear of strangers, and partly because we've designed their neighbourhood to be unwalkable. It could be argued that we will not move in the necessary directions without shining examples of successful projects, but the necessary next step requires collective action. Is our society ready to take that next step?

Our older, walkable communities offer some hope, yet they are being squeezed as well. With the heavy subsidization of brand new exurban development beaconing, and the crumbling infrastructure that nobody wants to fix in these older communities, can anyone blame homebuyers for fleeing with their needed tax dollars out to the fringe bedroom communities of Tecumseh or LaSalle? It is in their individual best interest to do so. It would be nice to be able to think that these scenarios are out of our control, yet the politicians that each of us individually elected into office over the course of our lifetimes have set the stage for the product we are now forced into buying.

Which brings us back to the theme of this post: Individual VS. Collective Action. Ideally, it is up to the individual to recognize the positive effect of collective action and act accordingly, but are they making that connection? It is easy to blame "them" for making a mess as we go about sleepwalking through our daily routine. What is it going to take to shake people out of their comfort zone - the one that is slowly dragging us down this road in the first place - and have them join with their neighbours in improving our daily existence?

I have always been of the mindset that it will take a revolution before any noticeable changes occur. It is during the tumultuous transitionary periods in history when necessary changed is deemed acceptable. However, today - the French have established a political environment where their government is afraid of the people, and not vice versa as it is here. They will take anything to the streets, regardless of how small and petty the issue seems to us. They don't take any shit, and they have earned the respect of their elected leaders because of it. What was it that made the French make the connection between direct collective action and accountable government without the spark of societal collapse?

So what future episode in Windsor/Essex County residents lives will act as the catalyst towards direct collective action? Our crumbling economy? Our crumbling infrastructure? Our deadly air and water quality? So far, I have seen more revolt over the price of gasoline, yet nothing comes about other than silly little boycott schemes. This leads me to believe that with all these life and health altering issues that we are currently dealing with, that we are in for a long summer of collective abuses that will continue unchecked until that final "straw that broke the camels back" is laid down upon us.

What will it take for us to begin demanding better; in our homes, our communities, our workplaces, our schools and our elected officials?

Community Building 101

I spent Saturday morning learning just how important food is to building a sense of community.

Members of Windsor's fledgling community garden cooperative Fed-Up Windsor made the trek across the border to Detroit to see how Earth Works (who's motto is "Connecting Urban Detroiters With Nature") has accomplished all that they have. According to the American Community Gardening Association, "... community gardening improves the quality of life for people by providing a catalyst for neighborhood and community development, stimulating social interaction, encouraging self-reliance, beautifying neighborhoods, producing nutritious food, reducing family food budgets, conserving resources and creating opportunities for recreation, exercise, therapy and education."

The EarthWorks Garden started in 1999 as a partnership between the Capuchin Soup Kitchen and Gleaners Community Food Bank. The garden started as a small plot of land in the inner city of Detroit and has grown to 3/4 of an acre on three plots near the Meldrum Street Soup Kitchen. Complete with a greenhouse, EarthWork's primary goal is the education of Detroit area school children in areas of science, nutrition and biodiversity of organic agriculture. The project also yields fresh produce to benefit such programs as WIC and the Soup Kitchen's daily meals. As noted on their website;

"As a society, we have become dangerously disconnected from the land
and the sources of food that sustain life. We have detached ourselves
from the real source of wealth - a respectful and reverent relationship with
the land.

In 1998, I felt a calling to start a garden at my workplace, the Capuchin Soup
Kitchen. The response was overwhelming and positive. That small plot of land
grew into what is our Urban Farm project today.

EarthWorks Garden seeks to restore our connection to the environment and
community in keeping with the tradition of our spiritual patron, St. Francis. It is
a working study in social justice and in knowing the origin of the food we eat"

So we made the trek over to see what we could learn from them. Myself being the transplanted urban-boy-grunt work (I've seen a farm, once...:), I had so much to learn. While I didn't learn the nuances of sacrificial plantings or nitrate-building ground cover, I did see first hand how numerous different people from different socio-economic backgrounds, when they get around dirt and worms and compost, seem to lose all inhibitions and cooperate towards a common goal. When we take food production for granted, we tend to lose the connectedness it brings, and this is something that I hope Fed-Up Windsor can bring back into our community.

From one of my gardening comrades blogs... "We also learned quite a bit for our own FedUp community gardening project, which currently has three plots here in Windsor (at the Ecohouse on Sunset Ave, on Malden Rd, and on Moy Ave), and is already giving us some zucchini, cucumbers, tomatoes, and peppers. We have no website up yet, but that is a near-future project, and we are always looking for more volunteers, small plots of land, and other resources. We meet every Sunday at 6pm for a potluck in the backyard of the Ecohouse, where we divvy up the week' harvest and make plans for future gardening adventures. "

I will try and give you some information about Fed-Up in the near future if you are interested in participating. If you want to head over to Detroit and do your thing at Earth Works, they welcome any and all volunteers on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Just get in touch with them through their website.