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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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Two active transportation initiatives not be missed!
by Rivers West 13 Mar '14

13 Mar '14

*Rivers West is hosting two active transportation initiatives in March:* *How to Develop an Active Transportation Map of your Community *(poster attached) *DATE: *Thursday, March 27th *TIME: *9:00 am ‐ 11:30 am *LOCATION: *Carol Shields Auditorium, Millennium Library, 251 Donald Street *RSVP: *Sylvie info(a)riverswest.ca (204) 925‐2320 ext. 108 *COST: *Free *Presented by: *City of Winnipeg, Green Action Centre, Winnipeg Trails Association & Rivers West *Presenters: *Jackie Avent, Janice Lukes, Anders Swanson, City of Winnipeg representative *Bike Week in Suburbia - Brainstorming Session* *DATE:* Wednesday March 19th *TIME:* 12:00 pm - 1:30 pm *LOCATION:* The Forks Centre Court *RSVP:* Sylvie info(a)riverswest.ca (204) 925‐2320 ext. 108 June 14th to June 20th is Bike Week in Winnipeg, formerly known as Bike to Work Day. The Bike Week Volunteer Organizing Committee have expanded the one day event to a week full of events and activities. There are many exciting downtown events being planned. To reach out to an even broader audience and to recognize that many Winnipeggers live, work and play in suburbia, the Winnipeg Trails Association is hosting a ‘brainstorming meeting’ to discuss ways to promote and build awareness of Bike Week in suburban communities. I.e.: ‘Bike to School / Bike to Soccer Practice / Bike to the Bank / Bike to the Grocery Store’ etc. The more folks we can get on bikes in their communities – the better! Meeting will be hosted by Janice Lukes. -- *Sylvie Fouasse* Rivers West info(a)riverswest.ca (204) 925-2320 ext 108

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AT webinar: The Value of Investing in Complete and Green Streets, Wed, Mar 19, 2-3pm, EcoCentre
by Beth McKechnie 13 Mar '14

13 Mar '14

Green Action Centre and Bike Winnipeg invite you to join us for a local viewing of the following APBP webinar at the EcoCentre (3rd floor, 303 Portage Ave). This will be followed by group discussion of local applications. Description provided below. RSVPs are appreciated but not necessary. Hope to see you then! cheers, Beth (204) 925-3772 ** * * * ** *All In: The Value of Investing in Complete and Green Streets* *Wednesday, March 19, 2014 | 2:00-3:00 pm Central* Changing the way streets are designed and operated requires more than great policy -- a commitment across departments and stakeholder groups is needed to create and implement guidelines that bring policy to life. This webinar explores an excellent example of a comprehensive initiative: Boston Complete Streets. Boston's fully committed, "all in" approach to complete streets helps the city realize the full range of economic and social benefits that arise from investing in streets that are multimodal, green and smart. This presentation offers insights into the collaboration within the city to develop and implement the Boston Complete Street Guidelines. The Guidelines represent a fundamental change in Boston's approach to street design and operations, and showcase Boston's vision for becoming a more walkable, bikable, transit-friendly, and livable city. Presenters from the City of Boston and Toole Design Group will discuss the Guidelines' connection to place-making and Complete Streets policy; the overarching principles of environmental, economic and social sustainability; and the next steps for the Guidelines' development. Download for free or purchase the 1st edition of the Boston Complete Street Guidelines online at bostoncompletestreets.org<http://bostoncompletestreets.org/about/> . [image: Inline image 1]

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Watch for bikes - sign on window of Toronto taxi
by Jessie Klassen 12 Mar '14

12 Mar '14

Here is a window decal from the passenger seat of a taxi in Toronto. *Jessie Klassen* | Workplace Commuter Options <http://greenactioncentre.ca/>Green Action Centre<http://www.greenactioncentre.ca>| Find us here<http://greenactioncentre.ca/content/ecocentre-directions-and-travel-options/> 3rd floor, 303 Portage Avenue* | *(204) 925-3772 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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Winnipeg Urbanist Meetup
by Beth McKechnie 12 Mar '14

12 Mar '14

** Please share widely ** >From Matt Carreau... The Winnipeg Urbanist Meetup is a monthly gathering along the lines of Green Drinks <http://www.greendrinks.org/> [organized in Winnipeg by the Manitoba Eco-Network <http://mbeconetwork.org/resources/events> on the first Friday of each month] or Secret Handshake <http://secrethandshake.ca/> but designed for folks with an interest in cities and urbanism. The idea is to create a regular space for civic-minded individuals to come together for networking, idea sharing and collaborating on new initiatives that inspire positive urban change. *The first **meetup** has been scheduled for March 28th from 5-8pm at Cousin's on Sherbrook*. Subsequent meetups will be organized monthly. More information can be found at winnipegurbanist.tumblr.com.

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London Borough's set to become "Mini-Hollands"
by Jackie Avent (ASRTS) 11 Mar '14

11 Mar '14

http://road.cc/content/news/113286-enfield-kingston-and-waltham-forest-get-… -- *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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WFP: Councillor fears iconic corner could be closed another 40 years (Mar.10'14)
by Beth McKechnie 10 Mar '14

10 Mar '14

[Note the poll results (please vote if it's still open). I'm not sure if the strong response from those who want to keep peds underground at Portage & Main is a comment on Winnipeggers or on the WFP readership.] Councillor fears iconic corner could be closed another 40 years At a crossroads By: Carol Sanders http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/at-a-crossroads-249234051.html The iconic corner of Portage and Main is nearing a turning point, and some city councillors are speaking in favour of taking down the barricades that block pedestrians from crossing above ground. Coun. Jenny Gerbasi is nervous about whether it will happen. "There is a real risk that we could be stuck with this corner closed for another 40 years," said Gerbasi (Fort Rouge-East Fort Garry). "To have the most iconic intersection and to have it closed to pedestrians -- it doesn't make sense to anybody. Find me another place in the world that does this." The city's deal with property owners on the corners of Portage and Main, which keeps the famous intersection closed to pedestrians, expires in 2019. It drives pedestrians underground to businesses in a concourse below street level. Each of the property owners can renew its agreement for a further term of 40 years in 2019. On Thursday, an analysis of the Portage and Main crossing will be presented to Gerbasi and other councillors at a meeting of the city's standing policy committee on infrastructure renewal and public works. "We asked them to look at new options," said Gerbasi. One option is a scramble corner, in which all traffic stops and pedestrians can cross any which way through the intersection once signalled. "A scramble corner would slow down traffic massively; that's what the engineers are saying," Gerbasi said. A more viable option would be to reduce the number of vehicles turning where pedestrians are crossing, the report says. The analysis says more study is needed if the city wants to go ahead with reopening the corner to pedestrian traffic. "I think it would be nothing but positive," said Coun. Dan Vandal (St. Boniface). "People on the street is what is needed, especially downtown," to make it more vibrant and safe with "more eyes and ears on the street." Removing the pedestrian barricades would be a good thing, he said. "The barriers look like barriers -- they're not the most attractive look for downtown," said Vandal. Making the area more accessible and attractive should be good for businesses above and below ground, said Gerbasi. "The expectation is that if you bring a whole bunch more people to that part of the city, more are going to go down to the businesses (underground)." The city is in the process of studying how opening Portage and Main to pedestrians would affect business owners in the underground concourse. The last time the matter was considered nearly a decade ago, all but one of the owners was on board with opening the corner to pedestrians. The owner opposed no longer owns the property, said Gerbasi. "I don't think businesses are barriers," said Gerbasi. "What's been a barrier is the political will to sort this out and make it happen," she said. "It's a barrier that's dividing our downtown into sections that people don't go near and avoid on purpose -- from The Forks to the Exchange, they're blocked." Shovelling melting snow away from the statues and benches in front of the Richardson Building every day has made Chris Hay a believer in reopening the corner to foot traffic. The 24-year-old said people approach him with the same question all the time -- how to cross the road. "Every day it happens," he smiled. He directs them to the stairs down to the underground concourse, where the escalator wasn't working on Sunday. "There's issues with the underground system as well," Gerbasi said. "Some people find it very confusing -- especially the visually impaired or blind trying to navigate it," Gerbasi said of the underground system. carol.sanders(a)freepress.mb.ca

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Reminder: Baseline Commuting Surveys workshop, Wed. March 12, 12-1:30pm
by Jessie Klassen 10 Mar '14

10 Mar '14

Just a reminder of a free workshop happening this Wednesday on creating basic baseline commuting surveys. RSVP is required, all are welcome! [image: Inline image 3] *II: Baseline commuting surveys* *Wednesday, March 12, 12:00 - 1:30pm* *Eco Centre Boardroom, 3rd Floor, 303 Portage Ave. * Understanding how your co-workers currently get around will help inform your next steps. This 1-1/2 hour workshop will help you plan and create a basic online survey to determine existing commuting habits and what programs, policies or incentives could have the biggest impact on commuting choices at your workplace. *Jessie Klassen* | Workplace Commuter Options <http://greenactioncentre.ca/>Green Action Centre<http://www.greenactioncentre.ca>| Find us here<http://greenactioncentre.ca/content/ecocentre-directions-and-travel-options/> 3rd floor, 303 Portage Avenue* | *(204) 925-3772 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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