Each week we will be focusing on blogs from around the world dealing specifically with urban environments. We’ll be on the lookout for websites outside the country that approach themes related to urban experiences and issues.
• Slate offers a history of a ubiquitous piece of street furniture: the parking meter. The article traces the meter back to its roots in Oklahoma City and questions the move towards privatization of city parking. Privatization deals, such as the one recently undertaken in Chicago, argues planner Aaron Renn, assign a “property right interest in the biggest component of public space in the city to a private monopoly that doesn’t have the public’s best interests at heart.”
• Does transit oriented development require a certification system? Bloggers at Liveable Bay and Straight Outta Suburbia think so, according to Streetsblog NYC. The term, which has been influential in defining and supporting the development of walkable, cyclable, accessible urban environments risks dilution without measurable standards. But what exactly does transit oriented development mean?
• BLDGBLOG has a review of Eva Water’s documentary, The Solitary Life of Cranes. “Part city symphony, part visual poem, The Solitary Life of Cranes explores the invisible life of a city, its patterns and hidden secrets, seen through the eyes of crane drivers working high above its streets. (…) From their elevated positions, crane drivers are the unsung chroniclers of our ever-changing metropolis: the bulk of their time is spent waiting, looking, observing the wind, the weather, and the people down below. ”
• Core77 chronicles a beautiful installation on Philadelphia’s Schuylkill River. 100 orbs of floating light changed colour in response to the activity of passers-by on shore. “The installation, designed by Howeler + Yoon Architecture, is enabled by RFID tags—when visitors sit on the landed orbs, the floating ones respond by changing the pattern of light spanning the river, without any physical tether between land and water.”
Photo from Core77
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One comment
Interesting about Chicago selling its parking meters when one of the success stories here — Bixi — is run by Montréal’s parking corporation. Bixi stations compete with parking spots, so it sure makes it easier to install and move Bixi stations around when it’s all run by the same company. Makes me wonder how much more difficult it will make adding Bixi to Chicago should they so choose, or indeed pedestrianizing streets such as Sainte-Catherine in the Village which wipes out about 15 blocks of meter revenue.