A Covid-19 journal. Part 2

Notes from my Covid-19 quarantine in this earlier post, included urban design courses, gis data mapping and 3d drawing projects, and urbanism and economics reads.

There were also several excellent webinars over recent months, the Council for Canadian Urbanism’s City Circle round table a standout.

Fascinating and inspiring @CanUrbanism round table today, City Circle, moderator @Khelsilem. @KalenAnderson Edmonton, Evelina Hafvenstein-Säteri, Stockholm Plan, @oliviahaddon, Māori Design Auckland, @AlainMiguelez, Ottawa, Gil Kelley, Vancouver

— NanaimoCommons (@NanaimoCommons) October 28, 2020

Lead planners on city-wide plans, Stockholm, Auckland, Ottawa, Edmonton, “explore the bold steps their cities are taking to design neighbourhoods that better support community resilience − cohesive, connected, mutually-supportive communities… a more place-based approach."

Moderator: Khelsilem, elected member of the Squamish Nation Council, is the public face of the innovative Sen̓áḵw development, 6,000 rental homes to be built on 10.5 acres of reserve lands in Kitsilano.

The 3 Indigenous Nations in Vancouver, @SquamishNation @musqueam @tsleilwaututh are the biggest private land owner in the city. "We are at the table... decision makers on our territories." @Khelsilem

— NanaimoCommons (@NanaimoCommons) October 28, 2020

The circle : Kalen Anderson, lead planner Edmonton city plan, currently Chief Planner National Capital Commission in Ottawa; Evelina Hafvenstein-Säteri, Stockholm Plan; @oliviahaddon, Māori Design Auckland; Alain Miguelez, Manager, Policy Planning, City of Ottawa; and Gil Kelley, General manager of Planning, Urban Design, and Sustainability, City of Vancouver.

Unfortunately, the video of the discussion has not been uploaded to the Council for Canadian Urbanism website for broader viewing. The Tweet above links to a thread of the discussion and my notes can be found on this thread.

This discussion offered a master class on best practices where change-making leadership is guiding cities to transition from the mid-20th Century mall and sprawl development model to 21st Century realities. Community building principles: place-based, inclusive, equitable, resilient, holistic, complex and integrated. Contain urban growth, invest in the public realm ahead of the market’s curve. These principles are not, with this group, idle virtue-signals, but embedded, codified in planning frameworks, frameworks that, rather than locking in current circumstance, anticipate review and revision in an unpredictable future.

This Council for Canadian Urbanism City Circle webinar was also a master class for the City of Nanaimo. Here is what 21st Century city-building looks like, led by courageous change-making leadership. And here is as clear an illustration, in contrast, as you will find of the flaws of our current fill-out-our-survey approach.

"To achieve this context-based planning, we are looking a transect, starting in the city centre and moving out in concentric circles where intensity of use decreases as you get close to the edge of the city." - @AlainMiguelez #CanU2020

— Canadian Urbanism (@CanUrbanism) October 27, 2020

The Canadian Urban Institute launched a number of initiatives to help cities cope with the current and future crises caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Videos are availabe on their YouTube channel

They also collaborated on the excellent Art of City Building series which included this conversation with Eric Klinenberg about his book Palaces for the People, How Social Infrastructure Can Fight Inequality, Polarization and the Decline of Civic Life.

And in this Urban3 webinar Joe Minicozzi chats with the former Director of Planning, City of Minneapolis Heather Worthington.

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