The Revitalist

A Venice waterbus.

Venice has too many tourists, and they are making life hard for the city's full-time residents. So, the city has just opened a new waterbus line that caters to residents; it only takes those with a Carta Venezia pass (the pass is discounted for residents, a kind of long-term subway pass). Residents had complained that the waterbuses were so jammed with tourists and their big suitcases that there was little room for regular riders. The mayor said, "If people want to come to Venice they can come, but we have to allow residents to live better." Can you imagine Bloomberg or Daley saying something like that?

This past week's Smart City Radio program talked with Sustainable Urbanism author Doug Farr. He notes that urbanism is inherently more sustainable than other settlement patterns. But in order to address the 21st century's demands for more green, efficient, sustainable lifestyles, we are going to need something more than classic urbanism. He argues for more than just green buildings stuck into existing cities, but also a renewed focus on walkability, high performance infrastructure, and other interesting topics.

A Boston fire alarm box. (Photo: Mike Legeros on Flickr)
There are photos from around the world on Flickr that are tagged firealarmbox.

Someone must have put a bug in the Globe's ear about this one. A recent article looks at the 1,259 street fire boxes in the city of Boston. The familiar red boxes with a pull lever transmit a signal (including the box location) via telegraph to the Boston Fire Department almost instantaneously. Boston and several neighboring cities, including Cambridge and Brookline, have been maintaining their boxes in the face of recurring criticism that they should be scrapped now that we are in the digital age. The Fire Department points out that the boxes work when the power is out and the cell circuits are busy and for those who don't speak English or know where they are. Critics point out that it cost the city $1.8M last year to maintain the boxes (employees and parts), and that they are a large source of false alarms. For me, they add a bit of charm to the streetscape and add a sense of security to being out on the street.

 By the way, if you're interested in this kind of thing, the article mentions that Boston was the site of the first municipal fire alarm system. There is a bronze plaque at Old City Hall acknowledging the location of the system that was installed by IEEE in 2004.

Now that we have just finished the major shopping season of the year (perhaps some of you are still plumbing the depths of the after-Christmas sales), it seems like a good time to reflect on the good, old American shopping mall. The Economist has a rather chatty history of the mall's birth, death and rebirth as a "lifestyle center" (via Planetizen). The mall helped to shape the culture of the suburbs, which has defined more than one generation of Americans. But as traditional indoor malls decline and open air lifestyle centers replace them (as happened right around the corner from me at North Hills in Raleigh), don't you wonder how the suburban experience overall will change? Will it change at all? The lifestyle center crowd would, I think, like to argue that their creations offer a more "authentic" urban experience, but that's a whole other conversation. Think back over your holiday shopping experience, was it very different shopping in at an outdoor mall versus an indoor one?

The NYTimes reports on cultures clashing on the rural North Fork of Long Island. It's suburbanites v. the realities of rural life. Developments are springing up on formerly rural land that cater to the desire to get out of the city and into the country and live a quieter life, closer to nature. Unfortunately, nature, especially as a part of the modern farming system, isn't always peaceful, beautiful and sweet smelling. So, Long Island faces a choice between preserving its rural identity or adapting to its new residents. One of whom says, "A lot of people moved here because it has a rural feel without really being rural." But the State Farm Bureau says that the 700 farms in Suffolk County make it the most agriculturally productive county in the state. So, what is "really" rural? Seems like the North Fork qualifies, and the new residents ought just to realize that there are plenty of neighborhoods that aren't situated between a vineyard and a corn field and that you can't have your cake and eat it too.

The Oxford American Dictionary has pronounced that locavore is the word of the year for 2007. If you're not in the know, a locavore is someone who eats only locally grown food, originally within a 100 mile radius. The term was coined by a group of four women in San Francisco who were determined to meet the 100 mile qualification.

While grocery shopping isn't really a development related topic, urban amenities like farmer's markets and co-ops are. The push for a locavore lifestyle is just one of the many "act locally" movements that are gaining momentum. There is a growing demographic (many well educated and with disposable income) who are choosing to live, work and raise families in communities that have a particular (peculiar) sense of place. People want a more active connection to their surroundings and their neighbors, and every city and town has some resources that they can parley into local flavor. So give the people what they want.

I'm a sucker for this kind of story.


One of the Alhambra Creek beavers.

The city of Martinez, CA, in the Bay Area, is wrestling with what to do about a family of beavers who have dammed the Alhambra Creek (via Planetizen). Downtown business owners are concerned that the creek could flood their properties. The city had proposed an elimination plan (kill the beavers, destroy the dam) but changed the plan to waiting and seeing when public opinion turned out to be strongly in favor of the beavers. A public meeting drew so many people they had to move to the high school to accommodate the "raucous crowd" complete with pro-beaver t-shirts. One local suggested that "the beavers will pay for themselves" in tourist revenue. Sensing the tide of public opinion, the city is going to leave the beaver family in place and closely monitor the water levels in creek (which has a history of floods), reserving the right to demolish the dam as needed.

It is one of the essential truths of human nature that people will show up to a city council hearing with custom t-shirts for an issue like beaver self-determination, but not for lot line setbacks, even if there is a McMansion looming over their patio.

The Globe snaps one of the gobblers on Beacon Street.

The Globe reports on what my husband and I, and especially my dog, have noticed over the last year: Brookline's wild turkey population is growing. Last year it was just a few, one male and two females, that we would occasionally see. Then came breeding season. We counted at least 12 poults (baby turkeys - thanks, Wikipedia) in our little neck of the "woods." They were adorable when they were little gray/brown fluff balls following along after mama turkey. Now they are all 3 feet tall and still roam around in packs (or whatever you call a group of turkeys). We're wondering what's going to happen this spring when it's mating season again (will they eventually get to be like the Canada Geese?). They are beautiful and striking birds, and I'm generally enthusiastic about urban wildlife. It's just a little startling to turn a corner and see 14 of them grazing in one yard. I felt really sorry for that woman who had spent a lot of time over the summer on her flower beds.  

My own pic: strutting down the street, 1/2 block from Beacon Street.

Roosting on someone's doorstep. Imagine opening the door to that.

The Housecall Heat/Electric page.

When you combine the latest in web interface design with the low tech field of building management, you get something like Housecall, a new service in the UK that lets residents request repairs online (via Springwise). The website uses pictures to help residents who may not have any clue about the mechanical systems in their apartment to point out where the problem is. The system then sends an email to appropriate member of the service team. Because this service is obviously most useful for managers of a large number of units, it seems to be targeted at public and affordable housing. The site is also accessible in several languages and in a text-only format. Seems like a really great idea and one that could be easily scalable to smaller buildings that want to offer a more high-tech interface.

As the Springwise article points out, this is a similar system to Neighbourhood Fix-It, also offered in the UK, that gives residents a way of informing their municipality about needed repairs. I wonder if the web interface of both services would encourage more repair requests because people feel less intrusive about submitting an email than phoning in a complaint.

The fountain in Washington Square Park is popular for its people watching.

The New York Times has a fascinating discussion with urban anthropologist Fred Kent about what makes a successful public space. The article notes that Kent is a somewhat controversial figure, but he had some very interesting things to say. The reporter took him to four parks in NYC to talk about what works and what doesn't. His primary point seems to be that the planners and designers should look to the users for their inspiration – how people use a space tells you how to build it. As an example, he uses Washington Square Park where people were squatting on a narrow strip of grass watching dogs play in the dog run. He suggests that the City widen the grass area and install benches to better meet the needs of the users. Rather than carefully controlled and, as he would suggest, over-designed spaces, he argues that people are drawn to lively spaces with lots of interaction (with nature and with each other) and with flexible uses. The article quotes William H. Whyte, Kent's mentor, "what attracts people most, it would appear, is other people."

It's interesting to consider this idea when it comes places like Government Center. People use the spaces around the edges of the brick plaza. How could you learn from the elements are successfully attracting people and use them to draw people into the space? For example, the city put cafe tables and chairs in the plaza this summer. There were some people out there eating lunch and having coffee together, myself included. More people used them when they had table umbrellas up to provide some shade in the brick expanse. But when the tables and chairs remained chained together through out the day, they had few takers.