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EcoDensity’s unofficial champion is a familiar face
Pete McMartin, Vancouver Sun
… The years have aged Mike Harcourt, but not the soft edges of his affability.
… We have come to talk about EcoDensity.
He finds himself its unofficial champion.
The concept may have been trademarked by Mayor Sam Sullivan, from whose fevered brow the term sprang, but this is old hat for Harcourt.
His pedigree in urban innovation goes back 40 years when he helped stop a downtown freeway, and he is not unfamiliar with densification, having overseen much of it during his turn at mayor
… Now, Harcourt spends many of his days talking to whomever will hear him on the subject, from community groups to politicians to, last week, The Sun’s editorial board. He had even signed up to speak at a Vancouver city council public hearing on the subject, but he was 26th on the speaker’s list and didn’t make it to the podium.
His speech, never given, began:
“Vancouver’s EcoDensity Charter looks a lot like a series of initiatives that have come out of … Vancouver city council from the mid-1970s to the present. Throw in terms like sustainability, green buildings, climate change and some other current challenges, and EcoDensity is really the next stage of some oldie but goodie blast from the past concepts.
“So chill out, everybody. We are simply putting Vancouver’s proven and practical programs into a 21st-century framework — featuring more compact green buildings, alternatives to gas-guzzling transport, and renewable energy systems.”
Harcourt is a Peak Oil-er, a believer in the idea that we are fast approaching that moment when oil production will begin to slide, and that cities must begin to design themselves to live with that reality.
“We have to ask ourselves how we can shift from this massive consumption and the old sprawl and the freeway-car model to a sustainable way of living.”
The problem with the EcoDensity debate, however, is that is still an urban one. The concept (or at least, the trademark) began in Vancouver. The debate is largely confined to Vancouver. And whatever opposition there is to it comes entirely from Vancouver neighbourhoods that feel their single-family status is threatened by EcoDensity.
(6 March 2008)
Despite progress, cyclists in Britain still face a rough ride
Iris Coates, The Guardian
When I moved to the UK six years ago from the Netherlands, I brought my bicycle. I was full of optimism and determination not to let the hilly landscape deter me from using it. But it didn’t take long to feel disheartened and frightened by the absence of cycling lanes, as well as a lack of consideration among other road users, and my bike was promptly stored away.
Alas, it has barely seen the light of day since and is now rusting in my shed, a sad symbol of my lack of independence and Britain’s failure to make cycling safe and enjoyable.
Cycle lanes abound in the Netherlands, and there cyclists enjoy more rights and respect than motorists. For example, compare Brighton – with its 240,000 people, to Groningen, in the north of the Netherlands – with some 182,000 people. Both cities have cycling programmes. Roughly 5% of all journeys in Brighton and Hove are by bicycle, far more than in most UK cities but not a patch on Groningen’s 60%.
(5 March 2008)
Relative Comfort
Linell Smith, Washington Post
The Tolsons didn’t set out to create a family compound on their suburban street in Columbia. It just happened.
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THE LETHBRIDGES TRANSFORMED A FAMILY FARM IN BURTONSVILLE into a sprawling enclave with 11 houses and 31 family members.
Three women in the Simmonds-Hamilton clan shared the same house for nearly 40 years before moving into adjoining townhouses in a 55-and-older community in Laurel.
Gerry and Diane Tolson raised five children who initially sought their fortunes far from their Columbia home. Now three of them own houses on the same block as their mom and dad.
These folks live in different versions of family compounds, bastions of kinship and intergenerational support. Although this phenomenon isn’t tracked in census data or home builders’ studies, it isn’t as rare as you might think. Even in a place as transient as the Washington area, the desire to remain close to kin leads to novel arrangements in unlikely places, as the families profiled below demonstrate.
(2 March 2008)
‘Big shift’ to rail urged for UK
Richard Black , BBC
The UK needs a “modal shift” from road to rail if greenhouse gas emissions from transport are to be curbed, a report concludes.
The Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE) says changes are needed to government policies on transport pricing, energy and town planning.
A train journey can produce about one tenth of the carbon emissions generated if the same trip is made by air.
The report’s authors say substantial investment in the railways is needed.
(4 March 2008)
Weird Unofficial Toyota Ads: “Well, at least he drives a Prius”
Michael Graham Richard, Treehugger
Tired of the same old ads that try to convince you that you are saving the Earth by driving a hybrid (newsflash: You’re not. It’s just less bad than most other cars available right now, and that’s important, but lets keep things in perspective)?
Well, these are certainly different. One shows a man getting rid of a body (composting it?) near a lake, with the caption: “Well, at least he drives a Prius.” Another shows a man with a woman who we can assume is a prostitute, with the same text. The last one is a bit more ambiguous: Either it is a father who disapproves of his daughter’s boyfriend but “at least he drives a Prius”, or his wife is cheater on him with a hybrid-driver. You can see the other two lower in this post.
AutoblogGreen has been told by Toyota that they are not official, but “the work of an art director who is apparently trying to promote himself.” Kudos to him or her! Few ads will be this talked about, probably.
(4 March 2008)
