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

Culture Jamming with Advertising

An Action Plan

The biggest issue in solving our suburban sprawl problem and redefining community and place is what we should do first. Should politics take care of the issue through zoning changes? Should individuals do something, even though many say individual action would not really make a difference? In truth, I believe we are trapped. Our culture of fearing the wrong things hinders us from making progress; as it was finally brought to the attention with the killing of Trayvon Martin. Trust is something Americans have to develop again. A lack of trust comes from sheltering children and raising them in the gated community mentality, and it is something which will keep us from surviving the post peak-oil period. The way children have been raised since the Baby Boomers became adults keeps the youngest generation unexposed to real problems; this must be fixed. Attention to the proper creation of place will not occur unless there is a paradigm shift in our thinking. Beneficial zoning changings can only be brought to commissioners as a political agenda if there are enough supporters of all ranks. Without a change in zoning, the people, too, will be trapped in their homes, their lifestyles, and their thinking.