Conclusion

We are at an interesting point in history. Since America’s beginnings, we have gradually wrapped ourselves in an unsustainable lifestyle hidden behind growth which much of the developing world now hopes to follow. However, sustainability and community are becoming a necessary combination if we want to keep our country stable and within the earth’s natural carrying capacity. We must look at the city and town as manmade ecosystems and with that, properly define the neighborhoods within them as livable places with multiple purposes on a human scale. For the places that have lost their unique identity, we should realize American history has determined “place” today and that we must reconsider “place” when we were making social progress. It is necessary understand that the American Dream has been distorted and will be restored. In order to do so, we should recognize our faulty perceptions and rebuild the trust by creating healthy communities. Retrofitting is the solution to this, but we will need efficient technology as well as political will to make it happen. My generation will have a lot to do, fixing the architectural and social shortcomings in American cities and suburbs. This will improve our nation giving its citizens a real feel for contact and reassurance that we will be less vulnerable from environmental and energy transformations of the 21^st century. 

Creative Spaces

Wrapping up a wonderful year of urban planning research and blogging with a post on creative spaces because there's nothing better.

Redwoods Treehouse Cafe in New Zealand 

Mining Museum and cafe built in shipping container by Peter Zumthor 

Photos from Google Images

The Semiotics of Urbanism: Urban Language

This year, city branding has gone to a whole new level. Apparently, ThisBigCity has begun to form a dictionary of city identities. It has helped certain places attract tourism and do well in economic competition. In order to reinvent themselves to become global destinations for culture, history, and wealth, cities have developed an urban language. 

Branding is not a new thing. Until the twenties, Miami was only known by a select few beach dwellers. Then suddenly, the beautiful white sand was discovered, and economic opportunity sought as hotels began popping up. During and after the second world war, Miami evolved an identity with iconic figures such as Jackie Gleason, Art Deco design, Al Pacino in Scarface, and so on. Tourism for the wealthy and a life of luxury was what made Miami distinct. Today, when one says the word Miami, the word itself contains a lot of baggage. It could mean luxury, wealthy Latinos, beautiful people, international gateway, salsa music, house music, NBA champions, and very recently, art. 

Other cities in the world have embraced similar branding technique. Now, as urbanism becomes a more popular trend, individual locations must carve a niche for themselves in the world economy by developing positive images that are natural, not just artificially created. ThisBigCity has tried its hand at semiotics this time, finding out that this new dictionary of places tells us a lot about the deeper connotations (positive or pejorative) we give specific cities when we mention them or use them as a part of speech. 

Some examples? 

L.A.: adj.
1. Glitzy, glamorous, opulent
2. Dirty, dangerous, dingy
3. Weird
4. A less-European synonym for cool

Berlin: adj.
1. A space that melds together elements of high and vernacular culture
2. A space that combines oppositional elements
3. Synonym for cool

Brusselise: v.

1. A process of urban densification that lacks planning foresight
2. Maintaining a ‘hands-off’ approach in urban planning
3. Pejorative term for placing buildings in a neighbourhood in which they do not fit

Vancouverise: v.

1. A process of densifying a neighbourhood in a way that mitigates the negative effects of high-density living
2. Consistent implementation of a tower-and-podium architectural typology
3. Planning a city to take advantage of spectacular natural surroundings

Read in detail: http://thisbigcity.net/reinventing-cities-new-urban-language/

Reposted from ThisBigCity.... Loved this article.

Reposted from ThisBigCity.... Loved this article. 

What Gangnam Style Says About Wealthy Neighborhoods Worldwide

By Drew Reed on 27 December 2012 in Arts and Culture, Asia and the Pacific, People with 0 Comments.

Gangnam style: on the surface its success seems to be a story of the raw power of the internet. A flamboyant South Korean rapper, though he sings in a language most of us don’t understand, produces a single with an addictive beat and visuals eye catching enough to make the video go gangbusters via Facebook shares. The song becomes the most watched video ever on Youtube, and a radio hit in countries around the world.

Certainly no one can deny that the craftily conceived video is a huge factor in the success of Gangnam style; the oddly suggestive “horse” dance has become world famous. And those curious enough to look up the translation find that despite the explicit nature of the video, which among other things features a lewd dance in an elevator by a guy stripped down to his briefs, rapper Psy’s lyrics are actually about how he wants to date a woman who drinks coffee.

Beneath the bump and grind of the video, Psy fills his lyrics with wry jabs at the upper class denizens of the wealthy Gangnam neighborhood of Seoul. The apparently incoherent line “I like a girl who drinks coffee” is actually a dig at the social climbing women who spend more money than they can really afford at coffee shops.

But can the success of Gangnam Style be chalked up to zany perverted visuals, sly lyrics, and savvy use of the internet? As anyone who lives in a large city anywhere in the world can attest, there’s a bit more to it than that. That’s because every big city in the world has its own Gangnam, its own high profile neighbourhood, which to rich and poor alike serves to entice and irritate in equal measure.

As portrayed in the video, Gangnam is an extreme blend of public and private. The district features a number of public plazas and parks, most of which are well maintained. Gangnam serves the important function of providing memorable public landmarks. And like most rich neighborhoods around the world, it is a major tourist destination, and was already a tourist hot spot even before the onslaught of “Gangnam style” related visits. The area is also home to well-protected, exclusive areas such as the horse corrals seen in the beginning of the video. This is a perfect archetypal rich neighborhood; Gangnam could easily be New York’s Upper East Side or Paris’s Champs Elysees. Even countries traditionally considered to be less wealthy feature similar neighborhoods. Take a trip to Mexico City or São Paulo and you’ll find they have Gangnam districts of their own.

The essence of the Gangnam neighborhoods of each and every city worldwide is the deft manipulation of public and private ways of life. Seoul’s elite are happy for throngs of visitors to enjoy public plazas, or the now famous duck boats of Hangham park seen in the Gangnam style video. But they don’t want the unwashed masses to come inside their highbrow riding clubs, only a few blocks away. A more extreme example of this was seen last year during the Occupy Wall Street protests in New York. The public/private Zucotti Park, which wall street bigwigs were normally happy to have open to the public, was quickly flipped to private mode after it became the epicenter of a nationwide protest movement that business leaders didn’t exactly fancy. With austerity movements in Europe and the United States, the trend toward increased privatization is only growing.

In this context, Gangnam Style can be seen as an act of revolution, albeit a metaphorical one. Psy models his dance after the most exclusive action taken in the neighborhood (horseback riding) and brings it to the parks, plazas, and curiously-shaped boats of the district. And the citizens of the world, tantalysed by the opulence yet troubled by the excessive exclusivity, are thrilled to see this. Deep down inside every middle class city dweller, there’s a desire to rail against the divisions built into the Gangnam district of his or her own city, and what better way to do so than with a stingingly satirical horse dance?

So, while Gangnam Style will continue to proliferate mostly due to the dry humour of its lyrics and the dry humping in its video, the subliminal connection it makes with city dwellers yearning for a little less exclusivity in their own Gangnam neighborhoods will also continue to resonate.

Drew Reed is an online media producer and community activist specializing in sustainable transportation. He lives in Buenos Aires.

http://thisbigcity.net/what-gangnam-style-says-about-wealthy-neighborhoods-worldwide/

Technology AND Political Will

Sanjo International Business District in South Korea hopes to be most connected city in the future, incorporating sustainability through its live and advanced video conferencing abilities in all civic institutions, large green spaces, and inter-connected public transit. China hopes to build 200 smart cities and Abu Dhabi is currently planning construction for an automobile-free, solar-powered smart city. In the U.S. on the other hand, the focus is brought on retrofitting because new cities simply cannot be built. We have enough domestic issues and an unbelievable amount of debt to deal with already. 

Software could help our cities and communities follow the Curitiba path. Regulations should be made, and technology will simply make it easier to enforce restrictions on resource use. Currently, America’s priority is to save space and resources. That's why, under my Mobility page, I have included urban gondola systems and bicycle transport improvements as best examples for future transit options. A research team at MIT has already developed an electric car capable of being folded and/or stacked, as well as light bulbs which adjust brightness based on available light. Once again, the issue is political will. There needs to be coordination of universities, research centers, technology centers, businesses and government in order for this to happen in the United States (Saskia Sessen). 

A Historical Perspective

"Smoke makes prosperity no matter if you choke on it. We got to face life in these shacks and alleys. We got to let our children face their chances with rickets, typhoid, TB, or worse.... What good is this place and how do we get out of here?" 

Today, the Sustainable Cities Collective decided to go retro with a film clip, so I will do the same. As I have mentioned in previous posts, our American ancestors had good intentions when they flocked to city outskirts which are now semi-urban suburbs. Back then, suburbia was to become an agrarian, simple, and sustainable alternative to life in the metropolis. Urbanization had unfortunately succumbed to overcrowding, pollution from industry, and noise from increased Model T use. Suburbia became a refuge for those coming from a situation comparable to Dante's Inferno full of heat and pestilence. Cities were only recently plagued by the mindset that "smoke makes prosperity," the same ideology that governs metropolises like Beijing and Mumbai in this age. To understand where these people were coming from, below is a short film. Obviously, our ancestors had no idea what was in store for them, as the next generation would go ahead and tangle up this version with a rising GDP and a bit of foolish optimism. These suburban neighborhoods gave way to sprawl, "higher life standards" (simply meaning more consumption), and standardization. Perhaps we can bring the old meaning back to these places as agrarian, independent communities. We don't have much choice anyhow. 

Watch The City (1939)

Miami Making Progress? Possibly.

With this year's Art Basel events bringing even more creative public places to the once quiet warehouse district of Wynwood and Midtown and a Metrorail Airport Extension by the Miami Transit Authority having opened this past summer, I saw new hope of this city becoming a more local-friendly metropolis. Pedestrian activity is slowly improving, even in my own "village" of Cutler Bay (the sidewalk has been rebuilt to accommodate more walking and biking around its commercial center). 

Now exMiami brings us better news; we have all wondered when Miami Beach and Downtown will be connected with something faster than just a bus line, but plans are possibly being made. Light rail has often been talked about as an option-- if hilly San Francisco and Athens, Greece can manage, so can South Florida. Miami-Dade MPO and FEVE (a Spanish rail company) are examining the feasibility of a wireless street car system as an idea for the long-sought project Baylink. The project aims to connect the city to the beach on the MacArthur Causeway with a catenary-free (no overhead rail) street car to avoid blocking beautiful views of the skyline and cruiseships. Better bus access is also an option, but Miami Beach sees an unobtrusive lightrail as the preferable way to go. 

Read more at Curbed Miami. 

Pimp My City with Tactical Urbanism

Who doesn't want to cross a piano?

Tranform your parking lot (Berlin's Stiftung Freizeit & BMW
 collaborate to emphasize the importance public spaces

Be creative! (but beware: it may be against the law)

Foster the Pedestrian

              Culture Jammers, those who usually begin revolutions, have the first responsibility of taking action, by using social media or spreading a new fad by using a creative, perhaps radical message to gain attention. Adbusters, a magazine with an online blog, is one way for these culture jammers to point out the specific aspects in our society and as it says on its website, “change the way information flows,” as it did when “Occupy” became the official title for a worldwide political and social movement. Using a creative approach to make bike riding, walking, using public transit, and community building cool again might just be one of the quickest methods in our globalized world in which younger people have an advantage.  Also, open blogs such as thisbigcity are convenient to view projects around the world regarding architecture, culture, planning, transport, biking, and technology and design and borrow them from and implement them in different places. These websites help spread the world on sustainable community building . Social media and blogging can replace actual city life within cyberspace, in that ideas are spread. Then, they can help urbanism, in places where it is lacking, become real again.

 Oil companies and automobile companies like BP, Exxon, and GM have used advertising and social media to spread the idea that biking and walking are "uncool," and that gas-guzzling automobiles are convenient commodities. It is also surprising to know that this trend occurred decades ago when the SUV became known as a luxury product (funny right?).Viewed by so many generations as a truck capable of hauling supplies and fishing rods, now the Cadillac Escalade sporting rims, to name one example, is the must-have vehicle for an American family. Just this year, GM posted its own advertisement with a “Reality Sucks” campaign (see under "Culture Jamming with Advertising"), in which bike riders were splashed with mud by oncoming automobiles, all over college newspapers. This, as expected, created quite a backlash throughout the biker community. GM now, and hopefully plenty of other companies to come, in 2011-2012 finally declared climate change to be an ecological reality, and now that it realizes that reality actually does “suck” partly because its automobiles and anti-pedestrian advertisements contributed to global warming, GM may be on a path to producing more environmentally-friendly vehicles with a better fuel economy. Fortunately, environmentalists, urbanites, and young people (see The Street Plans Collaborative) who prefer sustainable changes can use more positive campaign techniques to show how attractive biking and pedestrian activity can be (simply portraying the modeling pedestrian as a healthy, laid-back, and comfortable person could pull the average American away from the screen and push him or her to commute in this fashion). 

"Toll-a-coaster" Could Bring Blight to Miami's Green Corridor

After reading former Florida senator Bob Graham's guide to navigating democracy, America: The Owner's Manual,  I knew that South Florida's suburban sprawl issue was too large for a young person like me to solve. His advice? Bring something in society that bothers you to focus. Many things bother me: our national obesity rate, greenhouse gas emissions, limited street culture, and irrational parenting. If you didn't already know this, read this entire blog for details. Tied together, proper urban planning could solve such issues by creating safe, walkable, and interesting neighborhoods (the Wynwood Arts District is becoming one of these) through Form-Based zoning and more public transit options. Attention residents of Cutler Bay, Palmetto Bay, and Pinecrest! South Miami-Dade can expect a projected growth of 83% in the next few decades and only 7% growth of transit (according to MDX's presentation of the matter). Clearly, we have a fathomable problem.

The Miami-Dade Expressway Authority is conducting a study which proposes to build a tollroad on top of the US1 Busway. What a terrible idea. This busway is our only Curitiba-esque infrastructure this county has:

This project, in coordination with Miami-Dade Transit, will evaluate the use of Managed Lanes along the South Miami-Dade Busway as an opportunity to improve mobility, enhance mass transit and relieve congestion along the US-1 corridor. The proposed US-1 Express project encompasses the corridor extending from SW 88th Street/Kendall Drive on the north, to Florida City on the south, for a distance of approximately 20 miles.

 At a public hearing on Wednesday, November 16th, at Pinecrest Gardens, panelist and senior project manager of MDX's US1 Express study, Alan Brick-Turin explained to residents that they have no plans to eliminate the Busway, but simply want to investigate the option to keep fewer cars on the road. Want a cheaper idea? Fix the traffic lights so the buses get to destinations more quickly--then people may choose transit over automobile.  The Green Corridor residents were not fooled, even though he did mention that they would look at all options. I know very well, based on reading works by the well-respected Elizabeth Plater-Zyberck, dean of University of Miami's School of Architecture and urban planner for Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company, a highly reputable firm, that adding lanes is the ultimate paradox-- instead of three crowded lanes, you will have five. South Florida residents would choose to take the toll-a-coaster to escape Turnpike traffic, bringing more cars to the area, reducing property values in the Green Corridor, and slowing down public transit progress. Local car dealers will be thrilled; everyone else will be choked in traffic.

Many questions were answered during this meeting. I often wondered why we do not have a Metrorail extension south of Dadeland; Katie Sorenson, former city commissioner, answered logically that there is not enough density for the Metro to even serve its purpose. So let's improve that right? With 83% projected growth, there would most definitely be more density in future decades. I can hope for there to be more transit-oriented development, but that would require cutting all of those parking lots in half and building over strip malls to build higher housing. We should avoid what Brickell did by inviting skyscraper construction which is essentially cookie-cutter housing built upward (but praise Brickell for still managing to increase downtown urbanism over the last few years). I do not know why the Green Corridor's residents did not bring up zoning changes; there has to be some sacrifice on part of the residents in order to do what is best for the area in the future. Letting MDX know they are not welcome to contribute to urban blight down south was step one. Funding a study for TOD along US1 is the next step. In the meantime, everyone should attend future meetings on the issue to find out exactly how this could be done.

Read more at: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/11/16/3100761/south-dade-residents-skeptical.html