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Reminder: Travel Behaviour Change workshop, Wed. March 26, 1:00-4:30pm
by Beth McKechnie 24 Mar '14

24 Mar '14

Friendly reminder about a Green Action Centre workshop happening this Wednesday afternoon at the EcoCentre. RSVP is required, all are welcome! Two spots still open. cheers, Beth * * * * * III: TRAVEL BEHAVIOUR CHANGE *Wednesday, March 26, 1:00-4:30pm* Human behaviour can seem inexplicable. Sometimes it's a head-scratcher as to why people don't switch to healthier and greener ways to get to work when it is clearly to their benefit. In this half-day workshop, we will explore the many facets of behaviour change from a social marketing, transition and systems perspective. Walk away with strategies you can apply to support your colleagues and create a more commuter friendly and active workplace. *Register today:* Email Beth McKechnie <beth(a)greenactioncentre.ca> or call (204) 925-3772.

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MB Capital Region Transportation Master Plan to be released this spring
by Beth McKechnie 21 Mar '14

21 Mar '14

Capital Region Transportation Master Plan release planned for this spring Posted: March 20, 2014 http://leadingmanitoba.ca/notices_detail.asp?notice_ID=207 Later this spring PMCR will release the Capital Region Transportation Master Plan, a guide to key transportation infrastructure, plans and systems to enable economic opportunity, sustainable growth, and improved mobility of all users throughout the Capital Region now, and in the future. The culmination of a year of study, technical review and community and stakeholder engagement, the plan charts the changing transportation needs of a growing Capital Region over the next 25 years. It builds on the City of Winnipeg Transportation Master Plan (2011) and will include a series of recommendations for integrated land use and transportation planning; highway infrastructure, access and technology; transit; active transportation; and the movement of goods by rail, air and road. Find out more about our commitment to Transportation in the Capital Region: http://build.leadingmanitoba.ca/downloads/report.pdf

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A better way to think about businesses and bike lane battles
by Beth McKechnie 21 Mar '14

21 Mar '14

Hi everyone, I'm forwarding this newsletter (again), as I consistently find Green Lane Project's articles useful. Their focus on cycle tracks / protected bike lanes and a recent emphasis on working with businesses to gain acceptance is particularly relevant for Winnipeg. cheers, Beth View this email in your browser<http://us5.campaign-archive2.com/?u=64bd122c67bd28d620978f4a5&id=44c6dc42cc…> <http://greenlaneproject.us5.list-manage.com/track/click?u=64bd122c67bd28d62…> This week's Green Lane Project news The case for protected bike lanes in one story<http://greenlaneproject.us5.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=64bd122c67bd28d6…> Mar 19, 2014 01:13 pm *The Rio Grande Street protected bike lane in Austin, Tex.* One of the most interesting transformations in the media world right now is the fact that instead of making a name for themselves by buying TV and newspaper ads that pay other people to do great reporting and writing, companies are increasingly doing the great reporting and writing themselves, in their own name. I've never seen a better example of this phoenomenon than this longform piece by the Traffic Safety Store<http://greenlaneproject.us5.list-manage2.com/track/click?u=64bd122c67bd28d6…>, an online retailer of construction signs, traffic cones and safety vests, about the American movement to build protected bike lanes. Here's one characteristically thoughtful passage: In order to maintain population growth, cities will need to diffuse... Read More<http://greenlaneproject.us5.list-manage2.com/track/click?u=64bd122c67bd28d6…> >From DC, a better way to think about businesses and bike lane battles<http://greenlaneproject.us5.list-manage2.com/track/click?u=64bd122c67bd28d6…> Mar 17, 2014 06:35 am *John Stokes, director of risk management for The Jefferson hotel, on M Street before bike improvements.* Eventually, everyone redesigning city streets runs into the same problem: small businesses rarely support changes to the roads that bring them customers. This isn't because the people who speak for businesses are callous or irrational (despite strong evidence that patrons arriving by bike are often more profitable than those arriving by car<http://greenlaneproject.us5.list-manage.com/track/click?u=64bd122c67bd28d62…>). Most businesses tend to resist neighborhood changes for a very simple reason: *their businesses are profitable*. For a business, every change to your surroundings introduces risk. And when you're already turning a profit, what's the point of risk? Face disagreements, don't deny them So... Read More<http://greenlaneproject.us5.list-manage.com/track/click?u=64bd122c67bd28d62…> follow on Twitter<http://greenlaneproject.us5.list-manage.com/track/click?u=64bd122c67bd28d62…>| friend on Facebook<http://greenlaneproject.us5.list-manage.com/track/click?u=64bd122c67bd28d62…>| forward to a friend<http://us5.forward-to-friend.com/forward?u=64bd122c67bd28d620978f4a5&id=44c…> You are receiving this email because you either signed up to receive it on GreenLaneProject.org or you attended a Green Lane Project event in the past. If you no longer wish to receive these emails, click the unsubscribe link below. The Green Lane Project<http://greenlaneproject.us5.list-manage.com/track/click?u=64bd122c67bd28d62…>is a program of PeopleForBikes<http://greenlaneproject.us5.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=64bd122c67bd28d6…>helping U.S. cities build better bike lanes to create low-stress streets. We focus on protected bike lanes, which are on-street lanes separated from traffic by curbs, planters, parked cars or posts. unsubscribe from this list<http://greenlaneproject.us5.list-manage.com/unsubscribe?u=64bd122c67bd28d62…>| update subscription preferences<http://greenlaneproject.us5.list-manage1.com/profile?u=64bd122c67bd28d62097…> This email was sent to beth(a)greenactioncentre.ca *why did I get this?*<http://greenlaneproject.us5.list-manage1.com/about?u=64bd122c67bd28d620978f…> unsubscribe from this list<http://greenlaneproject.us5.list-manage.com/unsubscribe?u=64bd122c67bd28d62…> update subscription preferences<http://greenlaneproject.us5.list-manage1.com/profile?u=64bd122c67bd28d62097…> Green Lane Project · 207 Canyon Blvd Suite 202 · Boulder, CO 80302 · USA [image: Email Marketing Powered by MailChimp]<http://www.mailchimp.com/monkey-rewards/?utm_source=freemium_newsletter&utm…>

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SAVE THE DATE! Winnipeg Pedestrian and Cycling Strategies - Notice of Upcoming Open Houses!
by Jackie Avent (ASRTS) 19 Mar '14

19 Mar '14

*Please save the dates and spread the word about these two important upcoming open houses about the City of Winnipeg Pedestrian and Cycling Strategies * These public open houses will be your opportunity to hear about the Draft City-wide bicycle and pedestrian network as well as draft recommendations for new City policies related to Active Transportation. There will be TWO open houses: *SATURDAY APRIL 12th - 11 am - 4 pm at the Manitoba Theatre for Young People (MTYP) at the Forks* *TUESDAY APRIL 15th - 3 pm - 8 pm at BOTH the Sinclair Park Community Centre *(490 Sinclair Street)* AND the Manitoba Hydro Place Atrium *(360 Portage Avenue). There is more information and background in the attachment. Beyond these open houses, we, the public can continue to participate in this project in the following ways: * Visit the website www.walkbike.winnipeg.ca · Email walkbike(a)winnipeg.ca · Stay updated about this project by signing up for the SpeakUpWinnipeg mailing list. Thank you again for your participation and help in spreading the word! -- *Jackie Avent* | Active and Safe Routes to School Green Action Centre <http://greenactioncentre.ca/> 3rd floor, 303 Portage Avenue* | *(204) 925-3773 *|* Find us here<http://greenactioncentre.ca/content/ecocentre-directions-and-travel-options/> Green Action Centre is your non-profit hub for greener living. Support our work by becoming a member<http://greenactioncentre.ca/support/become-a-member/>

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Ontario's Transportation Minister Glen Murray introduces road safety bill targets distracted drivers, 'dooring'
by Dave Elmore 17 Mar '14

17 Mar '14

http://www.thestar.com/news/queenspark/2014/03/17/ontario_introduces_compreh ensive_road_safety_bill.html Ontario road safety bill targets distracted drivers, 'dooring' The Liberal government on Monday tabled a sweeping road safety bill Monday dealing with pedestrians, cyclists, truckers and motorists, including increased fines of up to $1,000 and three demerit points for distract driving. There are currently no demerit points for distracted driving in Ontario. Distracted drivers on their cellphones and careless motorists who knock down cyclists with their open doors are facing maximum fines <http://www.thestar.com/news/queenspark/2014/03/17/ontario_introduces_compre hensive_road_safety_bill.html> of $1,000 and three demerit points, according to sweeping new road safety rules introduced Monday. Among other things, motorists for the first time would be required to move over a lane for working tow trucks with lights flashing just as they are required now with emergency vehicles. Transportation Minister Glen Murray introduced proposed "comprehensive" legislation Monday dealing with pedestrians, truckers, motorists and cyclists. "Our new legislation, if passed, would keep drivers, cyclists and pedestrians even safer as we get tougher with those who ignore the law," Murray said, adding the changes have been years in the making. Ralph Palumbo, vice-president Ontario, Insurance Bureau of Canada, said it is the demerit points that should make scofflaws think twice about picking up that cellphone or other electronic device knowing their insurance premiums could be affected. "Demerit points will certainly cause an insurer to look at a driver as a greater risk because what it says is that they are not complying with a law," Palumbo told the Star. In Ontario, according the government statistics distracted driving has passed impaired driving as the leading cause of traffic fatalities. The push to toughen up distracted driving penalties follows an unexpected decision by Annemarie Bonkalo <http://www.allthingsnow.com/day/news/shared/42523527/Distracted-driving-fin es-increase-to-280-on-March-18-Toronto-Star> , chief justice of the Ontario Court of Justice, who unilaterally decided last month to use her judicial powers to increase the fine for using hand-held devices while driving to $280 from $155, effective March 18. That provision will remain in effect unless the new legislation is passed and changes it. Thanks Dave o _ ( \ _ (X)\ /(X)

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Fwd: CHNET-Works! Update March 13 2014 Bulletin de CHNET-Works! le 13 mars 2014
by Jackie Avent (ASRTS) 17 Mar '14

17 Mar '14

Some interesting upcoming Fireside chats on Active Transportation and Aging (April 10) and Bringing Health into the Transportation Planning Process (April 24th). See attachment for details. Jackie ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: CHNET-Works! <animateur(a)chnet-works.ca> Date: 2014-03-14 8:40 GMT-05:00 Subject: CHNET-Works! Update March 13 2014 Bulletin de CHNET-Works! le 13 mars 2014 To: Jackie Avent <asrts(a)greenactioncentre.ca> *[image: chnet-works-logo-purple-large]* *C <http://chnet-works.ca/index.php?option=com_acymailing&ctrl=url&urlid=499&ma…>HNET-Works! Newsletter March 13, 2014 Bulletin de CHNET-Works! le 13 mars 2014* We are now booking dates for our April-June series 2014. For more information on partnering on a Fireside Chat, contact Dot Bonnenfant via email: animateur(a)chnet-works.ca Nous sommes en train de planifier les dates des causeries qui se tiendront entre avril et juin 2014. Pour les partenaires qui sont interessés à organiser des causeries pendant cette période prière de prendre contact avec Dot Bonnenfant à l'adresse: animateur(a)chnet-works.ca CLICK HERE FOR A COPY OF THE NEWSLETTER (PDF format) Cliquez ici pour une copie du bulletin (format pdf)<http://chnet-works.ca/index.php?option=com_acymailing&ctrl=url&urlid=535&ma…> -- *Jackie Avent* | Active and Safe Routes to School Green Action Centre <http://greenactioncentre.ca/> 3rd floor, 303 Portage Avenue* | *(204) 925-3773 *|* Find us here<http://greenactioncentre.ca/content/ecocentre-directions-and-travel-options/> Green Action Centre is your non-profit hub for greener living. Support our work by becoming a member<http://greenactioncentre.ca/support/become-a-member/>

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The Pied Piper for sustainable transportation
by Dave Elmore 15 Mar '14

15 Mar '14

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/the-pied-piper-for-sustainable- transportation-and-his-radical-idea-put-people-first/article17496623/ The Pied Piper for sustainable transportation' and his radical idea: Put people first CHRISTINE McLAREN Published Friday, Mar. 14 2014, 2:03 PM EDT If you're lucky enough to catch him on a day off, you might find Gil Penalosa riding his bike through Toronto's Roncesvalles Village - "the best neighbourhood I've ever lived in," he says. Which is saying a lot. Because when he's not on a day off, Mr. Penalosa is likely to be in one of the hundred-plus cities he visits for work. In San Francisco speaking to Google about innovations in transportation technology, for example. Or in Bangalore sweet-talking planners into installing better sidewalks. Or in Copenhagen lunching with the minister of environment before flying to South Korea to transform an entire neighbourhood into a car-free zone for 30 days. "I think of Gil as the Pied Piper for sustainable transportation," says Janette Sadik-Khan, the former commissioner of the New York City Department of Transportation. "He travels the world singing that song and pressing that message and he does it in a really compelling way." He has also lived his message: Mr. Penalosa, 57, helped to transform Bogota when he served as the Colombian capital's commissioner of parks and recreation in the late 1990s. He has since become an evangelist for livable cities that put people, not cars, at the centre of planning. As the executive director of Toronto-based non-profit 8-80 Cities, he has worked with more than 150 cities on every continent, convincing them that rapid improvements to mass transit, bike lanes and pedestrian walkways are not as impossible as they may think. "The biggest challenge is that change is hard," he says. "Anywhere. And the better the city, the harder it is." Many politicians are also "timid," he adds. "The minute they're elected, they're thinking about how to get re-elected, and the way to get re-elected is to do more of the same. Maybe a little bit better but more of the same. But unfortunately now we not only have to focus on doing things right, but also we need to focus on doing the right things." The name of Mr. Penalosa's non-profit - 8-80 Cities - echoes his central message. "If you build a city that is great for an eight-year-old and for an 80-year-old, then you build a city that is going to be great for everybody. They're like an indicator species," he says. "We need to stop building cities as if everybody in them is 30 years old and athletic." By cities, Mr. Penalosa doesn't just mean massive centres: One is just as likely to find him on the ground rethinking the town centre of Timmins, Ont., as in Los Angeles, Paris or New York. 8-80 Cities recently partnered with the Ontario government to bring Open Streets - events that close roads to cars and open them to cyclists, joggers, pedestrians and the like for recreation - to Kingston, Toronto, Thunder Bay and Windsor. "It's not about walking or cycling or parks or sidewalks," he says. "Those are the means. The end goal is how to create a vibrant city with healthy communities, where the citizens are going to be happier." Mr. Penalosa - who uses the word fantastic (emphasis on the "ta") in every other sentence and seldom wastes time taking a breath when he speaks - got his introduction to urban issues early. His father was a Colombian government official who later served as secretary-general of the pioneering 1976 United Nations Habitat Conference on Human Settlement in Vancouver, the world's first international meeting on housing and homelessness. Mr. Penalosa and his brother Enrique tagged along, meeting the likes of Pierre Trudeau and other leaders from around of the world. In Bogota, Gil Penalosa served first under former mayor Antanas Mockus, developing more than 200 parks - a Herculean feat in a city previously bereft of quality public spaces. He also developed Ciclovia: 120 kilometres of road closed to cars every Sunday and on holidays for more than one million cyclists, rollerbladers, runners and strollers. Ciclovia has since been emulated in hundreds of cities around the world. When his brother Enrique (currently the presidential candidate for the Colombian green party) took over as mayor in the next election, Mr. Penalosa continued to work on the car-clogged city, turning it into a poster child for urban change and sustainable transportation. He eventually left Colombia, including a brief stint as the country's trade commissioner in Canada - which led him to a job with the City of Mississauga. He founded 8-80 Cities in 2005, and later moved to Roncesvalles. His three children have grown up and moved on, so today he and his wife Claudia, who works for a bank, live on their own next to "a great park." He loves the farmer's market, the restaurants and shops of their neighbourhood, and getting around by bike, which is his main form of transportation as he doesn't own a car. "The kind of work that I do, I could live anywhere," says Mr. Penalosa. "But I love [Toronto]. It's so multicultural that I feel at home. I never really have felt like that in any other city." There are, of course, a few things he'd fix. The city could use a new mayor, for instance. "[Rob] Ford has been more damaging than anyone could have imagined," he says. "Great mayors need two elements: to have a clear vision of what needs to be done and the political and managerial capacity to do it, and he has none." The city is lacking something else: a ciclovia. But that, says Mr. Penalosa, is soon to come. It would be unwise to bet against it.

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What makes a city work
by Dave Elmore 15 Mar '14

15 Mar '14

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/what-makes-a-city-work-former-new… What makes a city work: Former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg thinks he knows The Globe and Mail Published Friday, Mar. 14 2014, 3:05 PM EDT Last updated Saturday, Mar. 15 2014, 3:17 PM EDT If you leave Manhattan for Brooklyn on the No. 3 train, you’ll end up at New Lots Avenue. Here, just under the elevated platform, is where Eddie Di Benedetto has had his pizzeria, Caterina’s, since 1971. “The area was always being plagued with crime,” Mr. Di Benedetto says. The plaza out front of his restaurant didn’t help: it was poorly lit, noisy, and buses roared past every few minutes. “When people got off the train, they rushed to just get home.” Then he and some neighbouring merchants asked the city, under Mayor Michael Bloomberg, to fix it. “We heard Mayor Bloomberg was very big on plazas and open space,” he says. Across the city, the transportation department was installing pedestrian plazas, making the streets more inviting. “There was a cry for improvement – we heard the cry and we just followed.” Someone heard them, too: The buses took a different route. The city installed a temporary plaza, with seating and umbrellas, for the warmer months. People now linger. Crime is down. “I asked, and we got what we wanted,” Mr. Di Benedetto says. “Even in East New York, my friend. I hear bad things about Mayor Bloomberg, but what we got is an extension of his idealism, right?” This is not how most people think of Mr. Bloomberg, who recently stepped down after 12 years as mayor and who is the city’s richest resident. Under his leadership, New York became a land of wealth and plenty, at least for some – in Midtown Manhattan, glassy new high-rises contain the third homes of Russian billionaires; downtown, tourists order $38 steak frites at Balthazar and walk the High Line, an innovative park built with donations from the rich. Yet the plaza at New Lots Avenue reflects the scope of Mr. Bloomberg’s impact. His administration – freed by his wealth and his lack of political debts – turned New York into a laboratory for urban innovation of all kinds, from small neighbourhood improvements to rezoning vast swaths of land, shaking up its demographics and its economy. The city cut carbon emissions, and got rid of smoking in public. (Tobacco, that is.) Mr. Bloomberg’s administration shared some of its lessons with other civic leaders; Eduardo Paes, the mayor of Rio de Janeiro, has consulted publicly with Mr. Bloomberg. And now the Bloombergians are preparing to share their lessons with the world. Several top lieutenants have moved on to work for Bloomberg Associates, a consultancy that will advise cities free of charge on how to “improve the quality of life of their citizens.” He also sponsors a Mayor’s Challenge, which asks cities (this year in Europe) to innovate in pursuit of €9-million in prizes. Mr. Bloomberg provides an important example for mayors everywhere, at a time when mayors matter: More than half the world’s population lives in cities, and that number is projected to reach 70 per cent by 2050. (According to Statistics Canada, more than 80 per cent of Canadians live in cities and suburbs.) This demands new infrastructure, changes to the physical form of cities and new ways of doing things. What happened in New York may not be the singular recipe for 21st-century urbanism – the city became greener, cleaner and more hospital to the world, but also more expensive and less hospitable to the poor. But the change in New York from 2001 to 2013, driven by faith in hard data, as well as the magic of place, is still the single example that can’t be avoided. After 9/11 Mr. Bloomberg became mayor of New York in 2001 with just 50.7 per cent of the vote, after spending nearly $74-million (U.S.) to get himself elected. Well-known as the force behind his data and media company, he was a political novice, and his challenges were tremendous: New York was reeling from the 9/11 attacks, in fiscal trouble, uncertain about the future. The financial sector seemed ready to disperse to office parks in Connecticut and New Jersey, threatening the city’s economy. The idea of the skyscraper, New York’s central building block, was under threat. “Had things worked a little differently, we would have been looking back on the decline of New York from that moment,” says Justin Davidson, architecture critic for New York magazine. “I don’t think he gets all the credit, but he did a lot of things right.” The city has added hundreds of thousands of new residents, seen real-estate prices skyrocket (and recover, after being hit hard by the recession in 2009), and become much safer and cleaner than it was. How did it happen? Mr. Bloomberg – an entrepreneur who made his $33-billion (U.S.) fortune serving the needs of Wall Street – worked hard to keep Big Finance in the city through tax breaks and personal lobbying; and he made the city’s police department into a globally active anti-terror organization, while overseeing a drop in crime. He also reformed the city’s thorny public education system, with modest improvements in test scores; pushed for an expansion of higher education, including a new grad-school campus of Cornell University; and encouraged a knowledge-economy by courting investments in Manhattan’s “Silicon Alley” and bio-tech. Mr. Bloomberg has a passionate interest in public health, too. Beginning in his first term he pushed a smoking ban in restaurants and bars, making New York the largest American city to do so, and then in parks. The bans were unpopular with restaurateurs and many vocal New Yorkers (“We’re moving towards a totalitarian society,” one city councillor argued when the parks regulation was passed). The scientific evidence was clear, though – and Mr. Bloomberg was committed to making policy through information. One of his favourite aphorisms is “In God we trust. All others bring data.” This attitude came to govern much of the city’s management. He established an Office of Policy and Strategic Planning, whose task was to use public data to improve services – from garbage collection to cutting air pollution. Mr. Bloomberg also aimed for big targets in sustainability, a goal with long-term consequence and very little political payoff. A vision set out in 2007, PlaNYC established a wide range of goals: from new playgrounds, to congestion pricing to deter cars (which never passed), to curbing carbon emissions from buildings (which did). The latter was policy with a real impact – the Empire State Building got a refit that cut its energy use by 38 per cent – but very little reward. “He deserves credit ... this is the unsexy stuff that makes a huge difference,” says Rosalie Genevro, the executive director of the Architectural League of New York, a local non-profit. The city’s real estate landscape saw dramatic shifts as well. A wave of new development transformed swaths of Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens, creating new homes for some of the 300,000 people who moved to New York in the Bloomberg era. At the same time, rents rose significantly across the city; many New Yorkers now fear being left behind by the city’s economic growth. They see Mr. Bloomberg's agenda as having reshaped the city as a playground for the wealthy and visitors from overseas. Mr. Bloomberg’s successor, Bill de Blasio, ran for office on the slogan “A Tale of Two Cities.” New York in 2001 was among the most expensive cities in North America, and it’s grown more so. The social cost of gentrification has been real. The city now has 50,000 people, a record, in its homeless shelters. Yet the situation is complex: its rental market is highly regulated, and its affordable and public housing programs are by far the largest on the continent. Mr. Bloomberg added 165,000 affordable units, largely in new private-sector market-rate buildings – which often made the surrounding areas more expensive. There is no question that Mr. Bloomberg successfully encouraged economic growth for the city as whole, and partly through some soft tactics: his team was sensitive to urban design and the intangible qualities that make a city great. The Place-Makers In 2009, New York got a new park like no other. The High Line recast an old elevated rail line as a promenade between the industrial buildings in the West Chelsea area of Manhattan. It was initially opposed by the city but won the support of many neighbours, architects and urbanists – including the planner Amanda Burden, whom Mr. Bloomberg appointed as his planning director. Built with help from donors such as Edward Norton, the High Line became an enormous success, overrun by tourists. It also radically gentrified the area: The city rezoned the district for luxury development, and soon star architects like Frank Gehry were designing office and residential buildings. The High Line is now being expanded into a third phase, which will connect directly into Hudson Yards – a $15-billion (U.S.) office and residential development built above a rail yard. That project, co-developed by Canada’s Oxford Properties, was Mr. Bloomberg’s baby. It will house offices for Time Warner, L’Oreal and luxury brand Coach. Presumably, Coach designers will enjoy walking the High Line as much as the wealthy Chinese tourists who are buying their handbags. One central insight of the Bloomberg administration was that visitors, entrepreneurs and knowledge workers would be drawn by the same magnet: a culturally rich and beautiful city with attractive public space. If that seems obvious, Mr. Bloomberg’s people were, in the early days after 2001, going against the grain. It was a moment when many kinds of professional work seemed likely to disperse into the suburbs and beyond. “They were arguing the importance of being in a dense urban place to creative and economic endeavours that don’t look like they need it,” Mr. Davidson argues. “The Internet had decentralized investment. There was this sense that everyone could move out of the city without paying a price in terms of being plugged in and connected.” But New York had to become the place that everybody wanted to be. It did, through some surprising means. Under Mr. Bloomberg, the streets of New York didn’t just take on a different atmosphere. The streets changed, physically. I was working in Midtown Manhattan in 2003 and remember making the mildly unpleasant walk down Broadway, from 34th to 23rd Street; the avenue still lined with wholesalers, the narrow sidewalks often blocked, car and truck traffic belching and racing downtown. People on bikes survived, barely. Now that stretch has been branded as “NoMad,” and the Ace Hotel – which is the physical embodiment of the word “hipster” – is in the middle of it; there are also a bike lane and two public plazas. On one of the plazas, opposite the famous Flatiron Building, you can sit at a cafe table (under a blue umbrella), have a coffee, and check in on free WiFi. Thousands of locals and tourists use that Flatiron Plaza every day, despite the fact that there’s a very nice park right across the street. It provides room for people to gather and be among other people. It also means a bit less room for car traffic. This is all part of the plan for these plazas, implemented by Mr. Bloomberg’s transportation commissioner, Janette Sadik-Khan – who is another hire at Bloomberg Associates. The plazas began quietly, as temporary installations in places where car traffic was confusing. When the experiments worked, they were rolled out more broadly and made permanent. For Mr. Bloomberg’s people, there is a clear link between the private gain and the public good. Many North American politicians haven't understood that public space affects real-estate value, but the Bloomberg administration set out to capitalize on it. Just as Central Park created great wealth in the 19th century, they hoped to do so with new parks in the 21st – about 300 hectares-worth. “Good design is good economic development,” Ms. Burden told the New York Times in 2012. Tourism was another high priority for Mr. Bloomberg’s administration, which saw it as both business and cultural diplomacy. He installed an advertising executive, George Fertitta, to head the local tourism authority, and the city hit a series of new records for visitors: the number rose from 43.8 million in 2006 to an estimated 54 million in 2013, with international visitors increasing by 50 per cent. Those foreigners spend much more money than domestic visitors, and their presence pays untold returns in goodwill and investment. The global super-rich have also been buying real estate, as a forest of luxury buildings pops up in Midtown Manhattan. Mr. Bloomberg has welcomed this: “If we could get every billionaire in the world to move here, that would be a godsend,” he said last fall in response to questions about rising inequality. Those remarks hit a cultural nerve that's been exposed for a decade now. The inner-Brooklyn neighbourhoods that welcomed artists in 2000 are now filling with Wall Streeters; many people argue that the city's pursuit of the affluent is destroying the city's creative energy. The legendary musician David Byrne, who moved to New York in the ’70s when the city was at its lowest, is worried that New York “will be a city closer to Hong Kong or Abu Dhabi than to the rich fertile place it has historically been,” he wrote last fall. “Those places might have museums, but they don't have culture.” Mr. Bloomberg’s strong support for high culture, including his own private donations, can't fix that. The question, in the long term, is whether the city’s considerable draws – and more remote neighbourhoods – will be big enough for a new generation of creators. The Bloomberg Mission Many of the Bloomberg administration's ideas aren't original; rather they reflect some best practices in urbanism around the world. (Ms. Sadik-Khan borrowed some notions about streetscapes from European cities.) And that may mean they will travel well to other cities through the work of Bloomberg Associates. The details are still unclear, but Mr. Bloomberg’s philanthropic efforts – and there are many – suggest some of the routes the consultancy might take. His Bloomberg Philanthropies works on five major themes: the arts, education, the environment, government innovation, and public health. There is the Mayor’s Challenge, which asks cities to “define a serious problem and craft a bold solution.” Each of 20 finalists, to be announced next month, will send a team of four to an “Ideas Camp” to refine them, then resubmit them, and – in October – four winners will take prizes of €1-million, and one will take €5-million. If that process sounds complex, it is; there is a presumption that city governments are not good at innovating. One of the criteria is to say “We are the first city to…” Another asks: “Are you using talent, partners and resources outside of city government in a meaningful way?” What do the results look like? Last year’s finalists, drawn from American cities, included a “well-being metric” to shape policy in Santa Monica, Calif; a revision to recycling programs in Houston that allow citizens to use one bin for everything; and a program called “Providence Talks,” which gives low-income children in Rhode Island language and reading support. That diversity suggests the scope of Bloomberg Associates. “I think it’s great that they’re going to be a voice out in the world,” says Brent Toderian, a leading planning consultant and Vancouver’s former chief planner. “But it’ll be interesting to see how the conversation goes. It’s not necessarily so that every city wants to be like New York. The best conversations are looking at examples from around the world.” And some of the specific planning and urban design policies that worked in New York, Mr. Toderian points out, won’t fly without the dense, diverse cityscape that New York offers. On the other hand, the scale of Mr. Bloomberg’s success has helped create a new climate where cities see each other as peers and share ideas freely. And, as Mr. Davidson says, correctly: “Bloomberg gets a lot of credit for that. The idea that a mayor can do something that has an impact – and large cities have a lot more in common across national borders? That’s powerful.”

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WFP: All over map on Portage and Main (Mar.14'14)
by Beth McKechnie 14 Mar '14

14 Mar '14

All over map on Portage and Main Councillors support reopening, but plans vary By: Aldo Santin http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/all-over-map-on-portage-and-main-250… Hopes for reopening Portage and Main to pedestrians are still alive at city hall but councillors are all over the map on the issue. Three of four councillors on the public works committee -- Jenny Gerbasi, Devi Sharma and Dan Vandal -- voted Thursday to keep the concept alive but later they each had their own version of the wording. It may not have mattered so much to chairman Justin Swandel -- he was the lone voter against the motion. Gerbasi was the most vocal supporter of reopening the intersection, saying city council has to champion the concept if it's ever to become a reality. "I think there is some real momentum on this," Gerbasi (Fort Rouge-East Fort Garry) said. "It's a question of political will." Gerbasi wanted the committee to vote on a motion that would forward the issue to the standing downtown committee, which would take the lead in pushing it ahead. The intersection was closed off to pedestrians when the property owners on the corner built the underground complex. The deal expires in 2019 but Swandel said any one of the property owners can trigger a 40-year extension. Swandel (St. Norbert) said the city has to first convince the property owners to reopen the intersection or all their efforts will be wasted. Vandal (St. Boniface) repeatedly asked for the wording of the motion before voting; Gerbasi kept changing the wording and said it should include everything everyone was talking about, as long as the priority was reopening the intersection to pedestrians. It was left to the committee clerk to piece together everything that was said and to formally write out a motion to be included in the meeting minutes. Stephanie Voyce of the Downtown BIZ appeared as a delegation in support of the reopening. Voyce said the BIZ favours a one-year pilot opening, where the various options considered in an administrative report could be tried and the impact on businesses on the street and in the underground can be seen. Swandel said Gerbasi was focused on reopening the intersection, whereas he believed the issue should be to develop ways to make the famous corner more pedestrian-friendly, including reopening it to pedestrians if possible. Swandel said all hopes for reviving the intersection die if Gerbasi's narrow goal of reopening the intersection fails. Gerbasi countered there have been numerous studies examining the intersection and they all conclude reopening the intersection is the key to luring more pedestrians, adding other initiatives will only complement the reopening. An administrative report examined options for reopening the intersection to pedestrians but staff comments showed they weren't supportive of the idea. The report ruled out a "scramble" crossing -- where traffic lights in all directions are red for a period of time to allow people to cross as they like -- but said other crossing methods should be studied further before any decision is made to commit to reopening the intersection. A public works official said more than 200,000 people drive through the intersection every day in vehicles, while the department estimated only about 1,000 people would cross the intersection on a daily basis if it were reopened. "That puts everything into context," said Luis Escobar, the city's traffic czar. aldo.santin(a)freepress.mb.ca Different wordings The public works committee voted to support the reopening of Portage and Main to pedestrians. The Free Press asked each of the councillors what they thought was the wording of the motion they were voting on: *Jenny Gerbasi:* "It's not word for word but I can tell you the essence was to take the steps, to bring forward potential steps needed to open the barriers and allow pedestrians at Portage and Main, and then it goes through the different steps that can be taken; it leaves some flexibility on how that happens." Voted in favour. *Justin Swandel: *"From the perspective of opening the intersection, move forward to the standing policy committee on downtown development, heritage and riverbank, with the specific pieces that were in the old report -- consulting with the owners, working with the traffic study; there were two other pieces in there, and then also including the overall design, that was the last piece of the motion." Voted against. *Devi Sharma: *"There were many things that were incorporated into that motion but the important thing is we're moving this forward and to have further discussion, analysis and consultation and that's what it's all about." Voted in favour. *Dan Vandal: *"The spirit of the motion was, with the goal of bringing back pedestrian traffic to Portage and Main, to begin engaging the private property owners and CentreVenture, and... we should also take into consideration making design improvements for pedestrian-oriented design improvements, and when the time is appropriate, public works will do the necessary traffic study so we have some buy-in." Voted in favour. * * * * * Following the meeting, the committee clerk prepared the following motion to be recorded in the minutes: The standing policy committee on infrastructure renewal and public works further directed the Winnipeg public service to commence with the following aiming to potentially open Portage Avenue and Main Street to pedestrian access: 1. Initiate discussions with the relevant property owners adjacent to the intersection of Portage Avenue and Main Street regarding implementation and process with the goal of allowing pedestrians at grade at this intersection. 2. Engage with stakeholders to include consultations and research as applicable. 3. Prepare terms of reference for a comprehensive traffic study at the appropriate time. -- Santin *Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition March 14, 2014 B2*

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Calgary organization enlists Dutch students to make city safer for cyclists
by Dave Elmore 14 Mar '14

14 Mar '14

http://globalnews.ca/news/1207586/calgary-organization-enlists-dutch-student s-to-make-city-safer-for-cyclists/ Calgary organization enlists Dutch students to make city safer for cyclists By Phil Heidenreich Global News Safer Calgary is asking some Dutch land use students for input on how to improve safety for cyclists in the city. CALGARY- For the second straight year, the umbrella organization Safer Calgary is getting input from some European students on how to improve cycling safety in Calgary. Safer Calgary is a coalition made up of a number of groups looking to improve safety within Calgary in a variety of ways. Last year, Safer Calgary launched an initiative in which students from the NHTV Breda University of Applied Sciences in the Netherlands provided input for a series of presentations and symposiums to debate how to improve cycling safety. This year, Safer Calgary enlisted the help of 70 final year students in NHTV University's land use and transportation planning department to study the Calgary communities of Acadia, Bowness, Martindale, Ogden, and Sunalta. "The Dutch are quite famous for their ability to integrate lots of modes of transportation," says Safer Calgary's Greg Hart. "It's just a natural connection." The visiting students will also spend some time in High River to examine possible ways of reshaping the town as it rebuilds from the June floods. Thanks Dave o _ ( \ _ (X)\ /(X)

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