Urban and Regional Planning

Urban and regional planning news, blogs, and links. How to cities such as San Jose and San Francisco relate to each other? How can two or more cities that are geographically close by handle economic planning, urban development, and... [more]

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Saturday Photo: Bixi Getting Ready for the Winter

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marysoderstrom on

From: marysoderstrom.blogspot.com

Montreal's bike rental program is winding down for the season, after providing more than 1 million trips around the city. Since the first of November, the numbers of Bixis available has been cut, and November 30, the system will shut down for the winter. A great success, most observers say. Certainly people who might never have ridden a bike to run an errand have begun to do so. Even I, who hate to ride bikes, have begun to think that maybe next year I ought to try it. Last week I ended up taking a taxi to the Université de Montréal--a trip I make ... Read Full Story

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More Proof That PPPs Are Bad for Health--and Many Other Things

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marysoderstrom on

From: marysoderstrom.blogspot.com

Public private partnerships (PPPs) to build mega hospitals were foisted on the Quebec by politicians and bureaucrats who made biased calculations, the province's auditor general says . In his report, released yesterday, Renaud Lachance reports that planning and building the two super hospitals (one based on the Université de Montréal medical school and the other, on McGill's) would have been cheaper using methods used to construct major projects in the past. The arguments for PPPs were deeply flawed and PPPs have cost far more than conventional project management, planning and financing would have. Lachance also revealed several instances of collusion and lack of oversight ... Read Full Story

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Tremblay Acts Like a Good Christian in Appointing Bégeron to Montreal's Exec Committee?

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marysoderstrom on

From: marysoderstrom.blogspot.com

A bit of drollery from Radio Can this morning: Apparently newly re-elected Montreal Mayor Gérald Tremblay’s spiritual advisors are very happy with his decision to include Richard Bérgeron, leader of one of two opposition parties, on the city’s executive committee. After all the Sermon on the Mount says: "If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also,"(Matthew 38) and certainly that’s what Tremblay has done by putting his leftist adversary there. Going to be some fights, do you think? Read Full Story

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Good News on the Greenhouse Gas Front: US Emissions Are Down. Now the Question Becomes, How to Keep Them That Way

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marysoderstrom on

From: marysoderstrom.blogspot.com

Straight Goods editor Penney Kome passes on a bit of good news via a recent analysis of where we are in the greenhouse gas emissions fight. Lester R. Brown, of the Earth Policy Institute and who has been on the case for years, says that things are actually much better than they were two years ago. US. carbon emissions have dropped 9 percent since 2007, in part due to the recession, but also from efficiency gains and fuel substitions. Brown writes” As motorists turn to public transit, and also to bicycles, the U.S. car fleet is shrinking. The estimated scrappage of 14 million ... Read Full Story

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Department of Unexpected Results: Recession Means Less Green House Gases

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marysoderstrom on

From: marysoderstrom.blogspot.com

There was talk this morning on RadioCan of a story in La Presse which recounts the horrors of congestion on the highways around Montreal. But, said traffic reporter Yves Desautels, things have been a bit better since the first of the year, perhaps because the recession has cut down on commuters. That may be one of the rare upsides to downturns. A recent New Yorker Talk of the Town piece argues in the same direction. Writing in the March 30, 2009 issue, David Owen says that the countries most likely to meet Kyoto Agreement green house gas targets—six per cent reduction by 2012—are those ... Read Full Story

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Seattle, urbanism, transportation and planning

Nigel calls our attention to this article, "What would Jane Jacobs do about the Viaduct?," from Crosscut. It is about Jane Jacobs type thinking and how it has been applied in Seattle, using the new book on Jane Jacobs, Wrestling with Moses by Anthony Flint as a fulcrum.I wish we could get DC Councilmembers to think like this (from the article):A big fan of Wrestling with Moses is Seattle city council member Tim Burgess. I had lunch with...

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Are banks a roadblock to walkable development?

Salt Lake City's new-urbanism epiphany -- fervently backed by Mayor Ralph Becker and the City Council -- appears to be catching static from an unlikely source.

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