Tuesday, November 24, 2020

Twitter thread : “Neighbourhood" a 2018 book by University of Chicago Professor of Urbanism, Emily Talen AICP

Emily Talen is Professor of Urbanism at the University of Chicago. Her research is devoted to urban design and the relationship between the built environment and social equity. She is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and is a Fellow of the American Institute of Certified Planners.
● Traces the historical progression of how neighbourhoods are defined, designed, ascribed purpose, and attributed effect.
● Integrates a complex historical record and multidisciplinary literature to produce a singular resource for understanding what is meant by neighbourhood.
● Offers a rebuttal to the ongoing problematizing of neighbourhood as exclusionary.

Monday, November 23, 2020

Downtown Nanaimo is rated medium amenity-access density. Surrounded by low population density, low amenity access density in the rest of the city.
— Statistics Canada


Downtown #Nanaimo is rated medium-amenity-density. Surrounded by low population density, low amenity access density in the rest of the city.
This is my Census Dissemination Block in downtown Nanaimo, bordered by Fitzwilliam and Franklyn, Selby and Wesley.
Proximity Measures Data Viewer @StatCan_eng

Tuesday, November 17, 2020

The elephant in the room

The City of Victoria* and the City of Nanaimo have comparable populations. As of the 2016 Census, Victoria’s population was 85,792 and Nanaimo’s 90,504. Vitoria’s 85,792 people live on a land mass of 19.47 km² while Nanaimo’s 90,504 people are spread out over 90.76 km². Victoria’s population density is 4,405 people per square kilometre, Nanaimo’s is 997 people per square kilometre.
Nanaimo’s low population density is the elephant in the room on every file our City Hall struggles with, economic and environmental sustainability, compact walkable neighbourhoods, mobility alternatives, social justice and inclusivity issues.
One good thing about our low population density : the large undeveloped properties in the city centre, the City-owned Downtown Waterfront Lands, the School District owned lands at Franklyn and Selby and the Department of National Defence lands south of the VIU campus.
Directing our growth, instead of to these properties, to the greenfield lands of rural Cedar would be a disincentive to develop these city centre lands, a huge mistake. And a missed opportunity to partner with the Snuneymuxw First Nation on city centre land development to mutual benefit and meaningful reconciliation.
*The Greater Victoria Area of course is larger, composed of several independent municipalities that surround the City of Victoria.

Monday, November 9, 2020

A Covid-19 journal. Part 1

March Urban Design for Planners : Software Tools. Six-course series exploring urban design concepts using free open source software Qgis, Earth pro, Sketchup, Inkscape and GIMP to create analytical maps, 3D models, and 2D graphic designs. Instructor is New Urbanist Emily Talen, Professor of Urbanism, University of Chicago. Twitter thread. March most viewed Tweet.
After a steep learning curve, accessing City of Nanaimo open source data sets and StatsCan Census data thru Jens von Bergmann’s execellent #censusmapper I was able to map the urban demographics of Nanaimo’s city centre neighbourhoods by Census Tract.
April Planetizen course : Form-Based Codes 101: Introduction. Distinguishes form-based codes from conventional "use-based" zoning ordinances—all with an emphasis on placemaking and walkability. An overview of the development of form-based codes, their mandatory and optional component parts, and the importance of making form-based codes context or place-specific. April most viewed Tweet.


May Nicol Street : A boundary separating neighbourhoods or a seam stitching them back together?

May most viewed Tweet
The summer months The by-design, vertically integrated, local and regional food economy. 3 part series, scroll down for the first post.
City streets are urban design problems, not engineering problems. Selby St re-imagined as a welcoming new public space


#ShelveSandstone!
From random notes There is a playbook, an operating manual if you like, for the growth and development of Nanaimo. It contains dozens and dozens of practical ideas that can be applied and tested. Ideas for safe compact neighbourhoods with parks and squares and corner stores. Ideas with the potential to add up to the safe, equitable, inclusive, diverse and prosperous city we know Nanaimo can be.
Some of these ideas have worked elsewhere but might not work here, some have failed elsewhere but might work here. We can keep what shows promise, withdraw ones that don’t, then test some more. Caveat: some assembly required, some DIY.
Jane Jacobs is the starting point, the bedrock. If you read only one thing (and that would be a terrible shame) read the last chapter of her 1961 book The Death and Life of Great American Cities, chapter 22, The Kind of Problem a City Is.
Quarantine Reading Strong Towns : A Bottom-Up Revolution to Rebuild [North] American Prosperity / Charles Marohn
Palaces for the People / Eric Klinenberg. To restore civil society, start with the library
Maximum Canada − Toward a Country of 100 Million / Doug Saunders
The City is Not a Tree, The 50th Anniversary Edition / Christopher Alexander, ed Michael Mehaffy
People, Power, and Profits. Progressive Capitalism for an Age of Discontent / Joseph E. Stiglitz
The Price of Peace − Money, Democracy, and the Life of John Maynard Keynes / Zachary D. Carter

Neighborhood How neighbourhoods are defined, designed, ascribed purpose, and attributed effect. / Emily Talen 

Part two....

Friday, October 30, 2020

#ShelveSandstone!

Wednesday, October 21, 2020

City streets are urban design problems, not engineering problems. Selby St re-imagined as a welcoming new public space.

Street design influenced by the Dutch slow street, also known as shared street (woonerf). And inspired by the downtown Lancaster CA award winning “rambla” street design. (Video)

When city streets are understood to be public places, places with a responsibility to be safe and welcoming for all citizens, many design options emerge.
This model for a re-imagined Selby Street welcomes all users including those in private vehicles. The difference is, though, that here the car is the guest not the master. Vehicle speed is calmed by design; the travel lane is narrow and accommodates both cars and bikes; drivers must slow for cars backing out of the angled parking; folks using the angled parking are free to cross the travel lane at any point. 30kph would be posted but the design will result in even slower vehicle speed.
On a Dutch slow street there are no curbs. The surface is on one level from property line to property line across the right of way. In this Selby St re-imagining, a mid-block crossing aligned to the E+N Train Station walkway connects to the E+N Trail to the west and becomes part of an interior footpath to the east through the neighbourhood.
The centre “rambla” feature, when the street is closed to vehicles, becomes a new welcoming public space ready to host special events, live performances, markets, and festivals.
More photos : https://www.facebook.com/NanaimoCommons/posts/3099923363446400
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