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URBAN CAR FREE ZONES SPREADING
DANIEL B WOOD, CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR - Every Saturday starting May
26 through Sept. 30, bicyclists, joggers, and pedestrians will have free
rein on almost a mile of John F. Kennedy Drive, the main drag through
Golden Gate Park. The usual denizens of the road – autos – will be
banned, detoured elsewhere. . . The auto's demotion at Golden Gate Park
follows dozens of similar moves in at least 20 American cities in the
past three years. It's a trend that is gaining ground rapidly in the US,
say urban planners.
- New York is proposing to shut down perimeter roads of Central Park and
Brooklyn's Prospect Park all summer long.
- Atlanta plans to transform 53 acres of blighted, unused land into new
bike-friendly green space.
- Philadelphia, Cleveland, Chicago, and El Paso, Texas, are planning
events to promote car-free days in public parks, most in the hope that
the idea will become permanent or extend for months.
"Cities across America are increasingly declaring that parks are for
people, not cars, ... and closing roads within parks is one result of
that," says Ben Welle with The Trust for Public Land's Center for City
Park Excellence, in Washington.
Resistance can be fierce at first, he and others say, because of worries
about traffic congestion, parking problems, and loss of visitors for
businesses and museums. But studies are showing that traffic problems
can be minimized, shops and museums get more visitors, and residents
begin to cherish their where-the-action-is location.
Not everyone is convinced, saying the jury is still out on how no-car
zones affect neighborhood vitality. In San Francisco, for instance, the
de Young Museum has said its delivery schedule must be adjusted because
of the new road closure, and it is concerned that patrons with physical
disabilities may not be able to get to the museum as readily.
The model city for road closure is Bogota, Colombia, which in 1983
embarked on a program called ciclovia (bike path), in which designated
streets were closed to cars every Sunday but open for jogging, biking,
dancing, playing ball, walking pets, strolling with babies – anything
but driving. One-and-a-half million people now turn out each week for
ciclovia. Other cities in Latin America followed suit, closing parts of
parks or whole urban districts to cars – some intermittently, some
permanently. A result: revitalized neighborhoods and an influx of
people.
Smaller US cities, from Davenport, Iowa, to Huntington Beach, Calif.,
are also starting to create car-free zones, according to Mr. Welle's
studies.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0502/p01s03-ussc.htm
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L.A. PUBLIC TOILETS AREN'T FLUSHING
A MIA DIMASSA, LA TIMES - The green, oval, vaguely Art Deco pod arrived
in Pershing Square six months ago — billed as the answer to one of
downtown's most human of needs. It's a luxury automated toilet, the kind
seen on the streets of world-class cities such as Paris and New York and
a prototype for as many as 150 that officials plan to roll out across
Los Angeles in the next few years. Costing as much as a small downtown
condo, it offers instructions in Vietnamese, French, Italian, Spanish,
English and Braille, advising passersby to drop a quarter in the slot
and step inside.
Unfortunately, the bathroom doesn't work. Six months after the arrival
of the automated public toilet in Pershing Square — and 2 1/2 years
after officials began installing public toilets in the city — only one
of seven facilities actually works. In downtown, where they were
supposed to help tourists and homeless alike, there is only one working
automatic lavatory. . .
Separate city departments have been responsible for overseeing
installation of the APTs, the running of sewer, power, water and phone
lines to the sites, and inspection and permitting of the toilets. The
departments blame each other for the delay. Various people interviewed
attributed the delay to a lack of cooperation among the agencies
responsible for getting the toilets operational.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-toilet3may03,0,5836209.
story?coll=la-home-headlines
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
URBAN CAR FREE ZONES SPREADING
DANIEL B WOOD, CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR - Every Saturday starting May
26 through Sept. 30, bicyclists, joggers, and pedestrians will have free
rein on almost a mile of John F. Kennedy Drive, the main drag through
Golden Gate Park. The usual denizens of the road – autos – will be
banned, detoured elsewhere. . . The auto's demotion at Golden Gate Park
follows dozens of similar moves in at least 20 American cities in the
past three years. It's a trend that is gaining ground rapidly in the US,
say urban planners.
- New York is proposing to shut down perimeter roads of Central Park and
Brooklyn's Prospect Park all summer long.
- Atlanta plans to transform 53 acres of blighted, unused land into new
bike-friendly green space.
- Philadelphia, Cleveland, Chicago, and El Paso, Texas, are planning
events to promote car-free days in public parks, most in the hope that
the idea will become permanent or extend for months.
"Cities across America are increasingly declaring that parks are for
people, not cars, ... and closing roads within parks is one result of
that," says Ben Welle with The Trust for Public Land's Center for City
Park Excellence, in Washington.
Resistance can be fierce at first, he and others say, because of worries
about traffic congestion, parking problems, and loss of visitors for
businesses and museums. But studies are showing that traffic problems
can be minimized, shops and museums get more visitors, and residents
begin to cherish their where-the-action-is location.
Not everyone is convinced, saying the jury is still out on how no-car
zones affect neighborhood vitality. In San Francisco, for instance, the
de Young Museum has said its delivery schedule must be adjusted because
of the new road closure, and it is concerned that patrons with physical
disabilities may not be able to get to the museum as readily.
The model city for road closure is Bogota, Colombia, which in 1983
embarked on a program called ciclovia (bike path), in which designated
streets were closed to cars every Sunday but open for jogging, biking,
dancing, playing ball, walking pets, strolling with babies – anything
but driving. One-and-a-half million people now turn out each week for
ciclovia. Other cities in Latin America followed suit, closing parts of
parks or whole urban districts to cars – some intermittently, some
permanently. A result: revitalized neighborhoods and an influx of
people.
Smaller US cities, from Davenport, Iowa, to Huntington Beach, Calif.,
are also starting to create car-free zones, according to Mr. Welle's
studies.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0502/p01s03-ussc.htm
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
L.A. PUBLIC TOILETS AREN'T FLUSHING
A MIA DIMASSA, LA TIMES - The green, oval, vaguely Art Deco pod arrived
in Pershing Square six months ago — billed as the answer to one of
downtown's most human of needs. It's a luxury automated toilet, the kind
seen on the streets of world-class cities such as Paris and New York and
a prototype for as many as 150 that officials plan to roll out across
Los Angeles in the next few years. Costing as much as a small downtown
condo, it offers instructions in Vietnamese, French, Italian, Spanish,
English and Braille, advising passersby to drop a quarter in the slot
and step inside.
Unfortunately, the bathroom doesn't work. Six months after the arrival
of the automated public toilet in Pershing Square — and 2 1/2 years
after officials began installing public toilets in the city — only one
of seven facilities actually works. In downtown, where they were
supposed to help tourists and homeless alike, there is only one working
automatic lavatory. . .
Separate city departments have been responsible for overseeing
installation of the APTs, the running of sewer, power, water and phone
lines to the sites, and inspection and permitting of the toilets. The
departments blame each other for the delay. Various people interviewed
attributed the delay to a lack of cooperation among the agencies
responsible for getting the toilets operational.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-toilet3may03,0,5836209.
story?coll=la-home-headlines
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