June 30, 2006 - Who would have thought that the TTC could come up with ads that are worse than last year's legendary "buses as aliens over the moon" poster (see right)? But to everyone's surprise, their latest campaign to stop littering on subways and buses has produced yet another series of unimaginative, poorly designed posters that left riders wondering if they had been designed by a bunch of high school students (frankly, I'm pretty sure high school students may even do a better job!).
Littering is a big problem on the TTC - some of the trains at the end of the day are just gross. I don't know if it's because the TTC has cut budgets to its cleaning staff or whether Torontonians have simply forgotten what trash cans are for (I suspect the latter), but it's embarrassing to declare our city "world class" while our transit system is dirty and smelly. Seriously, how difficult is it to put your garbage into one of the many trash cans found throughout the stations? and does it really take that much effort to put your newspaper into the recycling bin?
While I applaud the TTC for addressing the littering issue, there has to be a more creative way than to play the guilt card and say "you wouldn't do this at home". And what's the deal with the garbage goblin?? Is it supposed to be cute?
Take a look at these ads designed by the World Toilet Organization (yes, there is such a group!). The ads aren't spectacular but they are at least a little more creative (they are also a little gross too). I'm no expert in advertising, but if the ads were designed to reach the average passenger like me, let's just say they have failed to inspire.
June 26, 2006 - This week's planning news headlines feature yet another article on why sprawl is good, why Toronto should learn from San Francisco's example, why a new subway line in Chicago caused more chaos and confusion than solving traffic problems, and why parks in Anchorage may become endangered.
Is sprawl good for Montreal?
A different perspective on urban sprawl - Montreal has been losing economic ground to Toronto, and more recently to Calgary. This article examines how sprawl development has helped keep housing prices low, which encouraged more people to own their homes, accumulate capital, and benefit the overall economy of the region. In yet another defense of sprawl, the author, Wendell Cox of the Montreal Economic Institute, challenged the conventional wisdom that sprawl is bad and why Montreal should build more highways, support suburbanization, and only fund transit projects if they reduce hours of travel delay.
My comments: What I like most about the article (and I'm being sarcastic here) is how Cox painted this picture where expanding highways and allowing sprawl will magically solve Montreal's economic problems. I also disagree with his "The choice is not between transit and roads. The choice is rather between more and less traffic congestion. The choice is also between more and less economic growth." argument. More highways lead to more congestion. Unfortunately, the greater the availability of roads, the more likelihood people will drive - which will lead to further congestion. The "we can build highways without interchanges so that they will be used mainly for transporting goods" argument - do you think honestly that any municipal politician (or even provincial ones) will allow a highway to pass through their wards and not lobby for an interchange on behalf of their constituents? And what about the environmental costs? the social costs?
FYI: The article was published in the Montreal Gazette, part of the Canada.com network that includes such papers as the very right-winged, pro-Conservative National Post, Ottawa Citizen, etc.
San Francisco offers free transit on smog days
To encourage people to get out of their cars and use public transit on the hottest and poorest air quality days, all 25 transit systems in the San Francisco Bay Area offered free rides for three days deemed "Spare the Air days". The $7.5 million campaign is the largest smog-fighting program in the U.S. Early findings revealed that transit usage increased by as much as 300% on the three days when free transit was provided.
In a not-so-funny comparison, Toronto's TTC went on strike on the hottest and worst air quality day of the year, forcing more cars on the road and hundreds of thousands of commuters to find alternative ways to get around.
Chicago Transit Authority opens new subway line
The Chicago Transit Authority opened a new subway line this week. The new "Pink" line is designed to increase transit service between Chicago's western suburbs and its downtown core. The new route also follows the city's infamous transit "loop", one of the oldest elevated subway lines in the world. During the first week of operations, riders were confused - some were unwilling to give the new line a try while others praised the increased service (trains now start running at 4am).
Anchorage debates selling off future parklands to fund park programs
Not surprisingly, in today's era of budget constraints, municipalities are trying to find creative ways to conserve budgets and raise funds. The city of Anchorage, Alaska, is looking to sell off land designated for future parks to raise money for the maintaining and improving the current park system. The author of this editorial compared this scheme to a family of 14 selling "one or two (kids) so the rest can go to college."
June 25, 2006 - It's Pride week in Toronto and today I went to my first Pride parade. It's interesting how this is probably one of the most anticipated events of the summer, yet I have never gone! But hey better late than never!
The Parade is said to be one of the largest on the planet and is the highlight of Pride week. Earlier this weekend, Jason and I had already gone to a beer garden and a pride party (where I actually bumped into people I know!).
The crowd was massive! Jason and I met up with some of Jason's friends and my friend Ben at Yonge and College. We got there almost an hour before the parade started and already there were tons of people: men, women and children, lining up patiently along Yonge Street. Now I'm not a huge parade person - the last parade I actually went to was at Disneyland when I was 11, but it was actually fun being in a big crowd!
The parade itself was neat - there were of course drag queens, "dykes on bikes" and naked wrinkly old men, but there were also some serious eye candy: the hottest I thought was the hunky fireman kissing his boyfriend! now that was cool :) On the other hand, I also thought the parade was somewhat commercialized - there were a lot of corporate sponsored floats with splashy ads (though the one for Trojan condoms with Trojan men were fun to see). There were also lots of guys with water guns. Some of the drag queens got really upset when they got soaked. Overall, it was all good fun.
What impressed me the most was the number of families and straight couples who came out to support the event. In many parts of the world, Pride parades would never happen. So to have the entire community, regardless of age, sexual orientation, race, or gender come together and celebrate diversity is definitely something that you don't see everyday.
Jason took lots of pictures from the parade, but I'm not sure if he has linked them online. I will provide a link once I know where the pics are. Until then, click here for some of the highlights.
The Plague of Planners
Randal O'Toole, Globe & Mail
Probably the most vicious attack on planners, the planning profession, and city planning in recent years! I get upset when small-minded economists who clearly don't really have an idea of how the planning system works attacks my profession. Anyway, the author of this article, Randal O'Toole sparked controversies a couple of years ago when his book, "The Vanishing Automobile and Other Urban Myths: How Smart Growth Harms American Cities" came out attacking smart growth and while aggressively promoting suburbanization and even ex-urbanization (beyond the suburbs). In this Globe & Mail article, O'Toole made some very strong accusations against planners, to which I respond to below:
1) Comprehensive urban plans in the United States, and the rest of the developed and developing world, have a nasty habit of costing far more than the planners project, producing far fewer benefits and causing all sorts of unintended harmful consequences.
- Planners are not responsible for project cost inflation. Cost inflation is often due to labour issues, or the material used, or delays in the political approval process. In many cases, planners don't even determine cost estimations in projects.
2) Cities, like economies, are far too complex to scientifically plan. Rather than admit they can't do it, planners follow simplistic fads.
- So what should we do? should we just give up planning altogether? and just let roads, buildings, come up wherever and whenever? and hope the market will give us parks, sewage and water treatment plans, sidewalks, and maybe a bus that runs every 2 hours? Well maybe O'Toole should move to Houston then, a city that has no planning, no city bylaws, no zoning. The result: one of the most congested and un-transit/un-pedestrian friendly city in the world. Remember last year when Hurricane Rita threatened to hit Houston? Millions and millions of cars got stuck on the highways trying to leave the city. Most didn't get too far. Many had to actually abandon their car and walk because they couldn't get anywhere.
3) Planners' limits on the land available for development and other rules also drove up housing costs.
- Are planners so powerful that we can drive up housing costs? What about things like an economic boom?
4) Portland is closing four to six schools a year, yet still has a $57-million gap in its school budget because planners diverted so many tax dollars to their utopian high-density housing projects.
- Wow now O'Toole makes it sound like planners have God-like power and have the ability to even influence the budget! He should talk to the T.O. planners - they couldn't even fix park fountains without going through layers and layers of political approvals.
5) Rail transit, for example, is a simplification that limits, rather than expands, mobility, giving planners more control over people's lives. So planners in Portland, San Francisco and others eagerly propose to spend 60 per cent to 70 per cent of their regions' transportation funds on transit systems that carry only 1 per cent to 4 per cent of passenger travel.
- Has O'Toole ever visited Tokyo? or Hong Kong, or London, or NYC, or heck, even Toronto? There are so many cities out there that rely heavily on public transit yet are so economically successful.
6) The promises that planners make are simply impossible to keep.
- The reason why our promises are hard to keep is because we are constantly challenged by single-minded politicians who worry more on whether they could win the next election than on what's good for the public. It's not that we don't want to keep our promises, but how can we when we constantly face heavy political pressure, NUMB-IYSWIM, and budget constraints?
Sorry but O'Toole just pisses me off. I find it funny how he used Portland as his example, when that city is documented as one of the most well-planned cities in the world. His lack of consideration for the environmental costs to rural farms, to ecosystems, and to water contamination proves that this dude just does not see the whole picture. Urban planners have too much power? PLEASE. It's because planners are so low on the hierarchal chain of power that urban problems like congestion, poor transit systems, and poorly designed neighbourhoods, all of which O'Toole refers to, were allowed to occur. Read the article - the comments that readers made to his article are worth checking out.
June 7, 2006 - And so another year has gone by - today, I'm turning 26 years old.
The number still doesn't resonate with me - 26? wow. I'm officially in my late twenties. In four years, I'll be 30. Scary. Very scary.
Maybe a part of me isn't ready to turn another year older. With old age comes great responsibilities (a knock off of the Spiderman quote - hehe - lamo). But thinking back though, the past year has definitely been a year of "firsts" for me: first job, first apartment, first owned condo - it has been a fun (yet scary) journey and I have learned a lot. It has also been a year of adjustments: somehow I have to get into my head that I'm no longer a kid anymore.
I have noticed how my goals, dreams, and even ideas have slowly changed though. I've started noticing a lot more as to who my real friends are and who aren't (i.e. I've realized that a lot of people I know are somewhat superficial..but that's another blog); what are the things I want in life; and where I want to be in my career in two, five, and even ten years.
Having said all that, I still have a long way to go (well to be comparable to the average 26 year old that is). It's a long journey, but I'm getting there - slowly.
So here's to my big 2-6!
June 6, 2006 - Tonight Jason and I went to see "An Inconvenient Truth", a new documentary on global warming featuring former US Vice President Al Gore. I have heard lots of good things about the documentary and after seeing a trailer for it, I knew it was something that I just have to see. I was definitely not disappointed.
While poverty, war, and diseases are topics that are often discussed when we talk about "what's wrong with our world", not too many people mention global warming and climate change. But yet, it is global warming that will affect all life form on the planet, regardless of geography, race and culture. An Inconvenient Truth is the story of how Gore became interested in the issue while in college over 30 years ago and how he now devotes his life in getting the message out and educating the public on the effects of global warming. Travelling all over the world, he has this amazing powerpoint presentation, full of multimedia graphics and animation, designed to challenge anyone who doubts that global warming is a non-issue. Gore shows facts, figures, scientific records that indisputably correlates CO2 emissions with rising temperatures, melting ice caps, drought and rising sea levels. In between it all, the movie also tells how Gore struggled to define his purpose after the 2000 elections.
Two things that anyone reading this blog should remember:
Global warming is real.
It is caused by human activity.
There shouldn't be any controversial about this. As Gore mentioned, out of 925 recent articles in peer-review scientific journals about global warming, ALL agreed that global warming is real and is caused by human activity. So why is there still a debate?
According to Gore, a database search of newspaper and magazine articles shows that 57 percent question the fact of global warming, while 43 percent support it. These figures, he says, are the result of a disinformation campaign started in the 1990s by energy industries to "reposition global warming as a debate", just like what the tobacco industry did for smoking years ago.
But global warming is not a debate. Each year, our summers get hotter and hotter. A look at the ten hottest summers on record would find that almost all of them occurred in the last 10 years.
Why isn't our government doing anything about it? Look where the US president is from (Texas) and look where our own prime minister is from (Alberta) - they are from large oil producing states that rely heavily on public consumption of oil. Their economy (and the politicians' success) depends on it. So why worry about an issue that could come back and bite you on your ass?
If we do nothing though, Gore says, in about 10 years, our planet may reach a tipping point and begin a slide toward ecological destruction. By then it may be too late to do anything.
The movie is not boring - it uses fascinating images, humour, and intelligence to how just why global warming is well, an inconvenient truth. I am advocating on Gore's behalf for everyone to see it and then do something about it (Note: Jason bought energy efficient lightbulbs 2 days after watching the movie). I'm not saying we should all abandon the car and live in trees - but simple things like turning off the lights at home, taking public transit, use energy efficient appliances - these are all things that all of us can do.
After all, my future also depends on what you do today. Go see the movie.
June 5, 2006 - Canadians woke up to the reality of our new world this weekend as Toronto Police and the arrested 17 men and teenagers on terrorism charges and accused them of attempting to plot terrorist attacks on Canadian soil. Three tonnes of ammonium nitrate were recovered in a undercover raid. Ammonium nitrate is a fertilizer highly effective in making bombs. The same material was used in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, where 168 people, including many children, were killed. A cell phone detonator was also recovered in the raid.
Right now there are no confirmed reports of the targets, though the Police did say the TTC is not one of them (despite reports in local media). Some media outlets have reported the intended target were the CSIS building on Front Street, the CN tower, and quite possibly the Peace Tower in Ottawa.
It's important to remember that terrorism does not discriminate and that terrorists come in all different shapes and sizes (including race and religion) - so it would be entirely unfair to attach stereotypes and prejudice against certain groups in our community. It is also important to remember that while we should be vigilant, we should also continue to go on with our everyday lives. Terrorism seeks to destroy normalcy and by living in fear, we are just letting the terrorists win their battle.
June 2, 2006 - The Toronto Waterfront Revitalization Corporation (TWRC) announced today the winner of its Central Waterfront Innovative Design Competition. The West 8 Urban Design and Landscape Architecture team beat out four other internationally renowned architecture and urban planning firms to win the competition. The competition had asked for designs to "provide the public with a continuous access across Toronto's central waterfront."
TWRC had gone all out in advertising this competition and in getting the public involved. In addition to a massive kick-off event at BCE place, TWRC also had the designs of the five finalists on display in shopping centres and public centres across the city. The Toronto Star went as far as having its own poll for readers to vote for their favourite design. The West 8 design had been the most popular.
The West 8 design calls for a continuous water-edge waterfront promenade and the transformation of Queens Quay into a pedestrian and transit friendly boulevard where the city and the lake will finally be joint together. Traffic on Queens Quay will be cut down from four lanes to two to allow for wider sidewalks and bike lanes. Streetcars would run along Queens Quay to join the different "villages" that would be developed throughout the waters edge. Along the water, a wooden boardwalk would stretch the length of the waterfront, along with rows of trees, floating piers, new islands, and parks. The project also suggests the Gardiner Expressway be dismantled. The West 8 design will create a new waterfront that's accessible, sustainable, and attractive.
I personally like the West 8 Design as well - I think it's a well thought out concept that incorporates transit, pedestrians, environmental sustainability, and visual impact. The project proposes what critics have argued for years: link the city to the lake. I especially like the slips - they would be covered by wooden bridges to create additional public spaces. The floating islands, in the shape of maple leaves, are spectacular as well. As for burying the Gardiner Expressway - as much as I would like to see that, I doubt it would ever happen in Toronto, not with our current politicians, who lack the political will to do anything controversial, and especially not with the high costs associated with the project (the Big Dug in Boston cost billions of dollars and had the support of the federal government). Perhaps an easier political move would be to shut down the Island Airport, but with Ottawa not really taking interest in Toronto issues, it would be a long time coming (if ever) for that to happen.
Construction for the new waterfront is to start this fall and the plan will take about 10 years (yes, 10 years!) to complete. Click here to check out the winning design.
June 30, 2006 - Who would have thought that the TTC could come up with ads that are worse than last year's legendary "buses as aliens over the moon" poster (see right)? But to everyone's surprise, their latest campaign to stop littering on subways and buses has produced yet another series of unimaginative, poorly designed posters that left riders wondering if they had been designed by a bunch of high school students (frankly, I'm pretty sure high school students may even do a better job!).
While I applaud the TTC for addressing the littering issue, there has to be a more creative way than to play the guilt card and say "you wouldn't do this at home". And what's the deal with the garbage goblin?? Is it supposed to be cute?
