Blogging - The First Year

April 30, 2006 - It had just occurred to me today that I have been blogging on this site for over a year! I have to say that over the past year, I have enjoyed using this site to talk about my thoughts and rants. I feel like the blog has also been with me through some of the major changes in my life: graduation, starting my first job, moving out, buying my condo (which I'm not sure if I had blog about but if I haven't, I will soon..). Most of the postings are about my observations or comments about a newspaper article or an event (which I'm sure makes my blog one of the most boring blogs ever), but on occasion, I have also used the blog to talk about my ups and downs. Because I'm not sure who reads this blog (if you do read it, could you please let me know?), I'm always tempted not to put too much personal stuff on here. It might seem a little silly (given most people treat blogs like diaries), but I'm also nervous that my thoughts will come back to haunt me. Having said that though, since I doubt anyone really read this, I shouldn't have anything to worry about!

So here goes another year of more blogging!

Remembering Jane Jacobs

April 25, 2006 - She was a true urban legend - she stood up for what she believed in and dared to challenge academics, politicians, and traditions, and in turn, she forever changed the world. She was Jane Jacobs.

Ms. Jacobs died today at the age of 89, just nine days shy of her 90th birthday.

For more than four decades, Ms. Jacobs championed for neighbourhoods, for mixed-use communities, for diversity. She fought against high-rise towers, slum-clearance, and multi-lane expressways that threatened to turn downtowns into wastelands. Her first book, The Death and Life of Great American Cities (which I'm re-reading now ironically), was "the" book on modern city planning. Her ideas of "eyes on the street", the "street ballet", and the importance of mixing commercial and residential buildings remain as relevant today as over 40 years ago, when the book was first published.

More so than most cities, Toronto owes a huge debt of gratitude to Ms. Jacobs. When she moved in TO in 1968, Ms. Jacobs was already an accomplished community activist, having successfully fought against the powerful Robert Moses and the Lower Manhattan Expressway in New York City. The elevated highway was to cut through and destroy such beloved neighbourhoods as Greenwich Village, Washington Square, and Chinatown - neighbourhoods that make up the heart of New York City today.

Just as she was slowly settling in Toronto, she found herself once again fighting against planners and politicians. This time it was to stop the Spadina Expressway - a planned highway that was to cut through the Annex, UofT district, and Chinatown, all the way to the Gardiner Expressway. Her activism not only stopped the Spadina Expressway, but the entire Metro Expressway Project, which would have seen multiple highways cutting through the city.

Throughout the next four decades, Ms. Jacobs continued to fight for people in cities. Whether it was to save historical buildings or to stop the expansion of highway systems, Ms. Jacobs was never shy to stand up for what she believed in. Her ideas changed the planning profession - planning became a people profession and is no longer about cars, technology, or efficiency. Her philosophy is not only taught in schools, but is also the foundation of most of our modern planning principles.

It's hard to imagine Toronto or New York without Ms. Jacobs. Just the other day, when I was standing at the Spadina streetcar stop just south of Harbord, this thought came to mind: Without Jane Jacobs, I could be standing in the middle of a highway right now.

Though I never had the opportunity to meet Ms. Jacobs (we had tried to get her to be our guest speaker at our Planning Student Conference back in 2005), she's definitely one of the people that I attribute the way that I think about cities to. It is to Toronto's credit that of all the cities in the world, Ms. Jacobs chose to live here - and to that, our city and our profession is losing a great friend and mentor.

Click here for more articles about Jane Jacobs.

Imagining Toronto

April 19, 2006 - The Toronto Star ran a really neat series this weekend called "What if Toronto...", which looks at some ambitious ideas to make Toronto more innovative and livable. The series reminds me of a recent book that I bought called "uTOpia: Towards a New Toronto", which has many of the same ideas that the series talked about. Some of the ideas are a little out there, but many deserve some serious thought. Imagine turning the Rogers Centre (I still like the name Skydome better) into affordable housing; or a subway that goes from the airport all the way to the zoo; or a network of elevated bikeways that criss-cross the city and allow cyclists to ride throughout the year. Impossible? not really - all we need is just a little imagination.

Click here for the articles.

The Old Lady and the Cop - Part 2

April 18, 2006 - A couple of days ago, I found an article about this 82 woman in Los Angeles who got ticketed for crossing the street too slowly. Well apparently, the lady has become some sort of celebrity after international media picked up the story. Ms. Mayvis Coyle has received letters, phone calls, and visitors from as far as Canada and Europe! Even Ellen (yes, the TV talk show host) called and asked her to do a guest appearance on her show! As for the LAPD, well here's what they've said:

"While many people may look at that and say the LAPD should have a greater heart and should care more that this was an 82-year-old woman, our desire is that this 82-year-old woman, and all citizens of L.A., conduct themselves in a manner that is safe," said Michel Moore, deputy chief of operations at the department's Valley Bureau.

LAPD officials acknowledged that citing Coyle for jaywalking has not been popular. The department has received a flood of cards and e-mails from Alaska, Indiana, Texas, Tennessee and elsewhere.

Click here for the full article. LAPD's response makes you wonder how safe pedestrians really are on the streets...

Easter Weekend @ London, Ont

April 17, 2006 - I spent half of my 4-day Easter weekend in London, Ontario. Purpose of the trip: to visit Jason's sister and her boyfriend (yup, I'm meeting the family - but that's another blog). Anyway, this is only my second time to London, the first time was during Christmas break in 2004 when I went to visit my friend Ruth, who was doing her pharmacy residency at UWO. The drive to London was not as painful as I thought it would be - but then again, I wasn't the one driving. Even though it was my second time visiting the town, I still got a semi-tour of the city's main attractions: UWO and downtown. There really isn't that much to do in town, but it does beat Cambridge at least and the trip wasn't meant for sightseeing either. Anyway, here are some of my observations (as a planner) of London:

1) London tries to be a city, but it really is just a small town - While it is the fifth largest city in the province, the City still has a small-town feel to it. Small-town mentality is still very much alive and well.

2) While parts of Downtown London seems to remain vibrant, some parts are in serious decline - Galleria Mall, which is supposed to be London's equivalent of our Eaton Centre, is simply a joke. The mall itself isn't really a mall anymore - most of the stores have shut down and been converted to office use. The demise began when Eaton's closed its London store back in the late 90s. The mall structure, with its brown bland walls all enclosed with no windows whatsoever, is a classic example of how indoor malls kill downtown streets. Imagine if they had kept the original shopping streets in London, as they had just north of the mall, then maybe downtown south wouldn't be as quiet and deserted.

3) People really ride the bus in London - It could be just a coincidence, but every bus that I saw in London was full of people - even on the weekends. Is it just me or is transit ridership in London really high?

4) UWO is one of the prettiest university campuses I have seen - I hate to compare it to UofT (since their location and context are totally different), but UWO is pretty. The University tries hard to make sure all the buildings look the same (even the new ones) and there really is that "campus feel" to it.

5) London is called the "Forest City" but I'm not sure why - I didn't really see that many trees in the city. Do they have an urban forest that I don't know about? Victoria Park, the downtown park, is nice - but there really isn't that much to it (except for the outdoor skating rink in winter). So if anyone can explain to me why it's called the Forest City, that would be great.

So those are just some of the thoughts that ran through my head when I visited. The trip was neat because Jason hasn't been back in London for quite some time - so it was cool to hear his thoughts and impressions (and to see where he spent 5 years of his life). So now that I have visited London and Cambridge, I guess I should continue my small-town Ontario trek and see Kitchener-Waterloo next?

The Old Lady and the Cop

April 12, 2006 - Check out this article below on how a 82 year old woman got ticketed for crossing the street too slowly! Seriously, how low can this LAPD officer get? and I definitely do not buy the whole "we were looking out for our seniors" excuse - I mean, if the officer really wanted to help the lady, he would have stopped traffic and helped her cross the street! Aren't cops supposed to work for the people?

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Officer cites 82-year-old woman for being too slow to negotiate busy street
Dana Bartholomew, Staff writer

Sunland- Mayvis Coyle, 82, was shuffling with her cane across busy Foothill Boulevard while a traffic police officer watched and waited.

And watched and waited.

Even before Coyle finished crossing the intersection at Woodward Avenue, he had scribbled a $114 ticket for crossing against a don't-walk signal. "I entered the crosswalk, it was green," said Coyle, of Sunland, who is fighting the infraction issued Feb. 15. "It turned red before I could get over. There he was, waiting, the motorcycle cop.

"He said, `You're obstructing the flow of traffic."'

Click here for the full story.

Vancouver - the most livable North American city?

April 10, 2006 - Zurich, the financial capital of Switzerland, was named the most livable city in the world yesterday in a report that ranked 215 cities based on the highest quality of living.

Another Swiss city, Geneva, was named second. Vancouver was ranked third. Not surprisingly, Baghdad was ranked last.

The survey was conducted by a company called Mecer Human Resource Consulting, which looked at 39 criteria for quality of living, including personal safety, health, transportation, education, political stability, and environmental factors.

Vancouver has consistently been ranked as the top North American city (last year, it was also ranked #3) - that's not really surprising: Vancouver's natural beauty and its excellent planning system make it one of the most attractive cities on this side of the Atlantic, especially compared to the U.S. cities.

So how did Toronto do? Not too bad - at #15. We're still way ahead of the larger American cities. The top U.S. city is Honolulu at #27.

Here's a list of the top 10 cities, click here for the full list

1. Zurich, Switzerland
2. Geneva, Switzerland
3. Vancouver, Canada
4. Vienna, Austria
5. Auckland, New Zealand
6. Dusseldorf, Germany
7. Frankfurt, Germany
8. Munich, Germany
9. Bern, Switzerland
9. Sydney, Australia

On a side note, it's nice to know that I could be visiting 4 out of the 10 cities this fall!

Cool Subway Maps

April 9, 2006 - Check out these two google maps showing the New York subway system and the London Tube combined with the city's streets. I like the London one better since you can actually zoom in/out and move around. Notice how both systems don't exactly follow any particular street - unlike Toronto's - they just seem to go criss-cross throughout the two cities. Another thing I noticed was how far the London Tube actually travels. Some of the lines (Central, District, Metropolitan) go way into the suburbs and truly define the Tube as a regional system.

London Tube Google Map: http://tubejp.co.uk/

New York Subway Google Map: http://www.onnyturf.com/subwaymap.php

The End of an Era

April 2, 2006 - All good things must come to an end, especially when that ending has been long overdue. This weekend marks the last time that I will be stepping into the tutoring centre as an employee. After 7.5 years of tutoring math (and at one point science and social studies as well) part time at the tutorial school, I have finally decided to call it quits!

Looking back, the job hasn't always been bad. Granted it was my first "real" job and I still remember when I started, I was only 18 years old, still in high school, and was the youngest staff member there. Today, not only am I one of the oldest, I'm also the one who have been teaching there for the longest.

There were good and bad times of course. Aside from having met a lot of cool people (and some really annoying pathetic ones), the job was at one time, quite satisfying. I have to admit, seeing those kids finally "getting" it, or having them tell me that they are actually improving in their school work, is a great feeling. Sure, I might be just their tutor, but at the same time, you do build a relationship with them - and you in a way, do play a role in their lives. Particularly with some of my earlier students, I was able to become their friend. It's kinda hard to believe that some of these kids are already in their third or fourth year of university (and I still bump into them all the time on the subway and on the bus!).

But I guess the past couple of years, with grad school and now with a full time job, the tutoring job has become more of a chore. Sure, I could use the extra money, but I would rather have my weekends off. The teachers that I started working with have all pretty much left and the new teachers are so young that it's actually hard to relate to them. The students have changed as well - the majority of the kids today are spoiled, arrogant and quite frankly just don't give a damn. Maybe it's because of the increasing age gap between us. The job is no longer satisfying and to be quite honest, has gotten boring. The interest is gone and it's definitely reflected by how much effort I put into my teaching...

So finally, I have decided it's time to go. I have worn out my welcome a long time ago. Will I miss the place? Well, I think a part of me will, but at the same time, I'm also glad that I'm finally done with it. The job has played an important role in my life - without it, I don't think I could have paid my tuition, or accumulated enough money to put down a down-payment (that's for another blog), or paid off my student loans less than 3 months after graduation. So in a way, I'll always be thankful for it - but I also think I have paid my dues.

Well now I can look forward to my weekends even more, but really it's the end of an era. Now what I am going to do with my Saturdays?