David Engwicht is a livable streets philosopher and author. Creator of the Walking School Bus, Mental Speed Bumps and many other innovative ways of taming traffic and increasing pedestrian safety, he has taken on “the challenge of a lifetime” to revitalize the downtown district of Wodonga, a small city in Australia often referred to as “Struggle Town” in comparison to its sister city Albury just across the Murray River.

Work is underway to clear the way for Brooklyn’s newest waterfront park, which will add acres of green in an area that could use more parkland. So why are some people opposed to the plan? NY1’s Roger Clark has the story from Brooklyn Heights.

The New York Times reports on the rising tensions between the community and developers over the plans for Brooklyn Bridge Park.

“For New Yorkers long accustomed to being shut off from miles of waterfront that were abandoned, underused or cut off by highways, lots of green open space on the water seems like a good idea. To Fred Kent, an urban planner who examines parks and plazas the way a doctor scrutinizes X-rays, it is another missed opportunity for life on the waterfront. Mr. Kent, the founder of the Project for Public Spaces, a nonprofit design and planning group, points to cities like Oslo or Stockholm where waterfronts are the backdrop to markets, museums and a range of commerce and culture.

‘Putting a bunch of fields on the waterfront in the middle of a pier is not exactly the thing you should be doing on what is essentially your face to the world,” he said of the Brooklyn plan, which he has opposed along with several local groups. “If Brooklyn wanted to distinguish itself as a great city, apart from Manhattan, it is the waterfront that could do it.‘”

PPS recently facilitated a community visioning workshop for Pier 1, located at the end of Atlantic Avenue. There had never been any public input into the uses for the pier. The current design is for a passive landscaped space. Like many other waterfront projects around NYC and the world, the current vision for Brooklyn Bridge Park, and especially the Pier, is a squandered opportunity in place of what could be a great public asset.

Related Posts: 

Brooklyn Bridge Park Hall of Shame [PPS Archives]

Suburbanization of NYC Waterfronts [Streetsblog]

Waterfront Renaissance Around the World [PPS Newsletter, 2/07]

“Urban planner and lecturer at the University of Technology, Earl Bailey, says the chaos being created by vendors on the streets could be lessened if market areas were designed with pedestrian traffic more in mind, rather than motor vehicular.

‘The reason why street vending is such a bad thing is because we are planning for motor vehicles rather than planning for people and their activities,’ he argues.”

Progressive Urban Management Associates (P.U.M.A.), along with several Denver-based collaborators, determines the top 10 global trends changing downtowns across the U.S. 

“The first decade of the new millennium is ushering in an era of unprecedented economic, social and political change. Changing demographics, lifestyles and global competition portend to have profound affects on our daily lives. How global changes will translate into challenges and opportunities in our downtown districts is difficult to foresee, particularly when we are preoccupied by managing local issues, politics and personalities.”

“Public space is central to the political and social life of a city. Streets and squares are marketplaces for trade, places for discussion and demonstrations, for formal and informal meetings. Public spaces are democratic in essence: in them citizens have rights, defined only by national laws. They are places in which cities define their character, display their generosity, and show off. Erosion of public space undermines the very fabric of society.”

Streetsblog reports on the changes that have been taking place along Columbus Avenue on the Upper West Side in Manhattan. PPS worked with the Columbus Avenue Business Improvement District (BID) to develop a new vision for a 15-block area last year. Some of the improvements suggested include improved parking management, higher quality design materials and more amenities for pedestrians.

The findings of the BID’s comprehensive vision will be presented by Phil Myrick to Manhattan Community Board 7’s Green Committee and members of the Parks and Transportation Committees on Monday, March 24th at 7pm. The meeting will take place at 250 West 87th Street, 2nd Floor.

Download the BID Vision Report here.

“For four decades, activists for greener, safer NYC streets have scrounged at the margins of this automobilized streetscape. A few feet of traffic lanes converted to bike lanes, the occasional sidewalk extended to relieve a dangerous intersection — all important changes, but all within the context of streets that serve cars, first and foremost. But what would our streets look like if they were redesigned, building-to-building, to first accommodate walkers, bicyclists, the disabled and surface transit? The days of living at the margins are over: the Complete Streets revolution has begun.

The Complete Streets movement represents a newer, bolder approach to making streets safe, accessible and multi-modal. Advocates have shifted their tactics: Instead of improving streets one block or intersection at time, they are working towards new design standards that can be implemented on a grand scale as streets come up for reconstruction or resurfacing. In much the same way that the motor-vehicle lobby irrevocably altered streetscapes in the early 20th century, Complete Streets advocates are creating the blueprints for 21st century streets.”

(photo courtesy of R. Clayton McKee)

Kids playing around “Mist Tree,” a donated fountain at the new Discovery Green park.

The preview opening of Discovery Green, a 12-acre park across from the George R. Brown Convention Center in downtown Houston, showed local residents that the previously underutilized green space could be a great place to spend time, bump into old friends and hang out with the family. The challenge will be to manage the park with the type of programming that will keep people wanting to come back.

Previous posts:

Houston Downtown Park Groundbreaking [KHOU]

Project Concept Plan [from the PPS Project Experience Files]

 

Orange County’s oldest and arguably most urban cities – Anaheim and Santa Ana – outpace every other town in the O.C. when it comes to being a good place to take a walk, according to a new study published in Prevention magazine.

Anaheim and Santa Ana made it among the Top 10 walkable cities in California, based on an evaluation of more than 500 U.S. cities undertaken by Prevention and the American Podiatric Medical Association.