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Davis retains platinum status as bike capital

November 2, 2007 / / 0 Comments

Davis retains platinum status as bike capital:
If Davis is considered a bike friendly city, then larger cities like New York and Chicago are only biking “acquaintance” cities. The two cities only express mere recognition of biking and bikers in their spaces.

Davis has built tunnels and overpasses to easily cross the highways traversing the town. No road will hinder any Davis cyclist. There are many off-street trails as well as bicycle boulevards: streets designed with cyclists taking first priority. Boulevards have lots of signage and lane markings and have very low speed limits for motor vehicles. Also on the boulevards are concrete islands and neckdowns to block vehicles but allow bikers.

Neckdownsdavis
Neckdowns are landscaped fixtures that jut into the street, narrowing it, which essentially causes motorists to slow down. It’s also a beautifying feature.

Davis also installs at many intersections light signaling for bikes.

In Chicago, we have none of this. I think we can start with Milwaukee Ave. because it’s a popular and well-used thoroughfare for commuters riding to downtown. The lakefront path could also use some work to increase average speed and keep out those users which hinder bikers. A north-south road could be converted to a bicycle highway – a street with no on-street car parking and all intersections (except for a handful) are yields in favor of cyclists.

Followup story to NYC’s protected bike lane on Ninth Avenue

October 10, 2007 / / 0 Comments

Cars and drivers never fail to disappoint bicyclists.

Roadways and their accompanying sidewalks should be built for the least-protected user. In all cases, this happens to be the pedestrian; the walker; the person who decided to give their bike or car or motorcycle the day off.

Major cities are beginning to realize this concept (again!) and are taking away space from cars and giving it to people waiting for the bus, cyclists commuting to work and people who just want to cross the street.

StreetsBlog has done a wonderful job announcing and explaining all of the changes the City of New York is bringing forth.

Lately, it’s this bike lane on Ninth Avenue in the Chelsea neighborhood. A week ago, it was the announcement and presentation of design for the remake of Grand Army Plaza. And StreetsBlog has been heavily covering the debate and progress of roadway congestion pricing for lower Manhattan.

ninth avenue bike lane

Already the protected mini bike-highway has been overrun by delivery vehicles.

It’s unknown whether the entrances to the separated bike lane will be guarded by retractable bollards

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Response to “Gentrification” by Tostah4

October 10, 2007 / / 0 Comments

The following was originally posted here by a classmate of mine:

Another place of gentrification is areas North of IIT on State and 18th and further south. I see condos being built up across the streets from public housing buildings, on my way to ROTC on the train. I have a feeling sooner or later, those public housing buildings will be demolished and built over with luxury condos. The residents of the public housing will be forced to live elsewhere.

This is what I wrote as a response to someone who is concerned about public housing in Chicago, but could also act as an extension of the blog post:

To better understand what is happening with public housing across the city and what will happen to the public housing on State St. near IIT, you should read about the CHA’s “Plan For Transformation.”

Obviously, the design and plan for the older, high-rise housing didn’t work out too well: the landscaped plazas, parks, and playgrounds eventually were not cared for. It’s partially a result of the residents not taking ownership of where they live – for a few reasons, one being that they have no monetary investment or stake in the housing itself. It’s not “theirs.”

This kind of housing only served to attract drugs and gangs. The CHA feels that this old method of public housing will be corrected with a somewhat experimental method for public housing that brings in people from other class and income levels in the hopes that, what critics say, “the values of the middle class will rub off on the poor.” But instead, it brings diversity to the neighborhood and diversity is always a good thing.

I’d also like to point out that new condos being built is not the only evidence of gentrification. It’s a major, concrete identification method, and it’s a part of gentrification that happens quickly, but before the developers chose that lot to build a condo, the area was recognized as a place that could support housing ownership by middle-class residents and therefore building a condo here is a good idea and financially feasible for them. The appearance of condos is just one step in the process of gentrification, and in Chicago, at least, happens later in the game but is also the step that finally announces to visitors and residents that, “Hey, this neighborhood is (has been) experiencing gentrification.

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APA and one Illinois neighborhood

October 8, 2007 / / 0 Comments

The American Planning Association, the premier organization for urban planners, just released a list of the Top 10 Great Places in America. It’s a list of which “celebrates places of exemplary character, quality, and planning.”

“The designated neighborhoods and streets are defined by several characteristics, including good design, functionality, sustainability, and community involvement.”

Included in the list is one part of Illinois: West Urbana in Urbana.

I didn’t realize Urbana (and Champaign) had definable neighborhoods like I think of when New York, Chicago and San Francisco come to mind. Thankfully, the APA has a description of West Urbana and why it was chosen to be included as one of America’s best neighborhoods.

The American Planning Association has selected West Urbana as one of 10 Great Neighborhoods in America for 2007 in recognition of the neighborhood’s sustainable design; commuters who walk, bike, or ride transit at higher-than-average rates; inviting neighborhood spaces; and community focus on enhancing quality of life.

It also goes on to say how many children walk or bike to school – an activity that has declined greatly since before the 80s. The neighborhood is also very picturesque with large shade trees and narrow streets. Fortunately, to further bike use in the city, Urbana is working on a bike master plan.

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Explore Chicago online by pictures

October 6, 2007 / / 0 Comments

Chicago is a very picturesque city because of its natural parklands, lakefront, skyscrapers, buildings designed by famous architects, railroads, bridges and neighborhoods.

Chicago is photo-central for diehard railfans. It’s the birthplace of the skyscraper, and we haven’t turned our waterfront areas into highways like New York City and Seattle

Here are three great photo sites for Chicago and the region:

  1. Revealing Chicago – Photos by Terry Evans taken from airplanes. Showcases the natural features of Chicagoland from above all six counties and northern Indiana. The photos are in full-color and look to be taken from a low elevation. The website presents a fantastic vantage point that makes it easy to understand what we need to protect – which is actually the purpose of the project and the goal of one of its sponsors, the Openlands Project.
  2. Picturing Chicago – This is a personal project from C.S.Shuratt, who holds a Ph.D. in sociology. He says he began the project of visualizing the city of Chicago as a research effort that would allow him to “utilize sociological theory and photography as a method to study the nature of various sociological concepts and forces.” What’s here is 5,000 black & white photos of the city. The expanse of the locations presented in the photos gives the suggestion that he walked every city block. The photos have the composition and quality of someone who wanted to present the city very simply, and it looks as if the photos could have been taken by someone with little to no training of a SLR camera.
  3. Chicago Imagebase – The title for this website and research project is kind of misleading. I was expecting to find an easily browse-able database of “official” pictures. Instead I found a site that seeks to document the civic history of a handful of neighborhoods through fire insurance maps, topographic maps, aerial photos, and Works Progress Administration. The website is really uninteresting for casual online visits, but looks to be useful for any student or resident looking for historical information, maps, and diagrams on the specific neighborhoods covered here. The aerial photographs are interesting to see how the roads were configured in the city in the past.

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