Pedestrian Culture

Pedestrians and Daylight Savings

2007-11-06T09:46:00.000-08:00

from: Majors, Dan. "Pedestrians 3 times more likely to be killed when clocks change, study says," Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 03 November 2007.

Two Carnegie Mellon University scientists are warning people that there's much more to daylight-saving time than just setting your clocks back an hour tonight.

You need to get your mind right.

Professors Paul Fischbeck and David Gerard have made a study of traffic fatalities that shows pedestrians walking during the evening rush hour are nearly three times more likely to be struck and killed by cars in the weeks after the fall time change.

The problem, they suspect, is that pedestrians and drivers have gotten used to more than six months of visibility during those hours and are slow to adapt to the danger of the darkness. . . .

"Pyschogeography" by Will Self

2007-11-05T07:47:00.000-08:00

from: Higgins, Karrie. "'Psychogeography' by Will Self: Disentangling the Modern Conundrum of Psyche and Place," Los Angeles Times, 4 November 2007.

Self begins "Psychogeography" with a long "introduction" describing a walk he took from London to New York. That such a thing is impossible is part of the point entirely: The idea is to walk from his London home to Heathrow Airport before flying to JFK, where he will set out again, on foot, for Manhattan. Here, Self sets up the strategy of his book by giving a nod to Debord while at the same time mapping out his own psychogeographic territory.

His long walks neither emulate nor resemble the dérives of the Situationists, in part because he carries his usual purposes and motivations -- promoting a book, say, or attending a meeting. He has no intention to "outfox prescribed folkways," but he also delights in exploring true "Empty Quarters," those zones that lie outside urban boundaries and off the paved paths. For him, these are the true frontiers, the last places left to discover and explore. . . .

A poet who walks and memorizes . . .

2007-11-04T11:44:00.000-08:00

from: Kilen, Mike. "Bard's Dreams Channel Poetry," The Des Moines Register, 14 October 2007.

Joe Plum lives in the wooded hills of rural Monroe County in a home built from scraps without electricity or plumbing.

It's no environmental statement. Plum, 55, has never had indoor plumbing. A man asked him once if he lived "off the grid." Plum didn't know what that meant.

He wakes from dreams and walks into the woods, sometimes for hours, reciting and memorizing the poems that come to him in his sleep. . . .

Walking the World

2007-04-03T14:13:00.000-07:00

from: Graham, Tom. "Walking the World," San Francisco Chronicle, 18 December 2005.

Street walking -- called the oldest profession -- has somehow been transformed into an extreme sport. Ask Haight-Ashbury's Larry Burgheimer, who has walked every street in San Francisco. Or Jeff Ingram, whose street walk was "75 percent complete" at last check. I'm halfway there myself. And the Castro's Dinah Sanders says she's perambulated 15 percent of the city's streets.
Since starting my quest in 2002 to walk every street in San Francisco, I've heard from others who have done their hometowns, too: People around the world, from Amsterdam to New Zealand, are walking every street on the map . . .

They're Talking the Walk

2007-01-13T16:46:00.000-08:00

From: Groves, Martha. "They're talking the walk," Los Angeles Times, 13 January 2007:

Century City was envisioned in the 1960s as a bold experiment in urban planning — a sleek, efficient "second downtown" of high-rise office buildings where the car was king.

Now the district is the focus of a new urban experiment designed to undo the sort of auto-centric design that marked planning in Los Angeles for much of the last half-century. The vision — prompted by a looming boom in the construction of luxury condo towers — calls for a greener Century City that would be less about driving and more about walking.

Anticipating the arrival of potentially thousands of residents, a task force of property owners, developers and planners is dreaming of more open space, rows of stately trees and a pedestrian loop that would connect the new housing with the vastly expanded Westfield Century City shopping center, office towers and a growing number of restaurants and cultural amenities.

The effort, now in the most preliminary stage, would represent one of the most ambitious attempts to remake a section of Los Angeles into a place where people could get to shops, restaurants and even offices on foot. . . .

Factories are Essential

2006-03-13T17:32:00.000-08:00

from: "Seeing Factories as Essential Parts: The shape of modern American cities may be changing as urban planners weigh the conflicting merits of housing versus industry." By Maria L. La Ganga and Roger Vincent, Los Angeles Times, 13 March 2006

OAKLAND — One after another, they stepped to the lectern, pleading. Don't take the land, they told City Council members. Don't put houses on it. If we lose it, it's gone forever.

This wasn't a scene from some Central Valley agricultural town, with fecund acres being gobbled up at a rapid pace. This was a bustling urban enclave in late January, and the appeals came from anxious residents and business owners demanding that city officials protect factories, not farms.

"Many businesses, even small businesses like mine on a half an acre, give you 40 good jobs," Bob Tuck, owner of Atlas Heating and Air Conditioning Co., insisted at the packed hearing on Oakland's land-use policies. "If you pave over our business land, it's never going to give you another economic crop. Let's make sure that it doesn't become a residential zone."

Large tracts of land are increasingly hard to find in California's crowded cities. Freeways are more congested than ever. Elected officials and environmentalists are clamoring for developers to build new houses within existing urban boundaries instead of fostering more traffic and sprawl.

At the same time, California lost nearly 340,000 manufacturing jobs in the last five years, making some industrial zones look like remnants of a more vibrant age.

So what's a canny developer to do?

. . . .

PARK(ing)

2005-12-19T15:04:00.000-08:00

PARK(ing)
A temporary urban park

One of the more critical issues facing outdoor urban human habitat is the increasing paucity of space for humans to rest, relax, or just do nothing.

For example, more than 70% of San Francisco's downtown outdoor space is dedicated to the private vehicle, while only a fraction of that space is allocated to the public realm.

Feeding the meter of a parking space enables one to rent precious downtown real estate, typically on a 1/2 hour to 2 hour basis. What is the range of possible occupancy activities for this short-term lease? (. . . .)

Yikes, another defense of sprawl . . .

2005-12-14T09:26:00.000-08:00

from: Kotkin, Joel. "Hands off my yard, Mr. Mayor!" Los Angeles Times, 13 December 2005. By Joel

IN A SERIES OF speeches around town, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has recently begun to flesh out a utopian vision for Los Angeles that gives new meaning to the idea that the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

The way he sees it, Los Angeles shouldn't be Los Angeles at all but should be reshaped into something that mimics the lifestyles of the great cities of the East Coast and of Europe — dense, transit-dependent cities of high-rise apartment buildings like New York, Chicago, Boston and Paris.

"This old concept that all of us are going to live in a three-bedroom home, you know, this 2,500 square feet, with a big front yard and a big backyard — well, that's an old concept," the mayor suggested in a speech last week.

Instead, he said, Angelenos need to move away from that and look at the "good life" lived in traditional, densely packed, apartment-dominated cities.

But is that necessarily a good idea? Is that what Angelenos want? To be sure, some measure of market-driven densification is probably inevitable. But what sets L.A. apart from other great cities — and what makes it so attractive — has traditionally been exactly the opposite: its pattern of dispersion and its strong attachment to the single-family home. Assault that basic form and you will turn L.A. not into Paris but something more like an unruly, congested, dense Third World city. A Tehran, if you will, or a Mexico City. . . .

Sprawl isn't bad, that's just the way we roll . . .

2005-12-09T13:28:00.000-08:00

Another positive interpretation of sprawl from Bruegmann. I'm still not buying it, though. Just because there is a long history of folks wanting to get out of cities doesn't mean that car-addictive suburbs were (are) the right solution.

from: Timberg, Scott. "Sprawling into controversy: Professor and author Robert Bruegmann is defying conventional wisdom with his claim that suburban creep is both an ancient phenomenon and a beneficial one." Los Angeles Times, 9 December 2005.

Professor and author Robert Bruegmann is defying conventional wisdom with his claim that suburban creep is both an ancient phenomenon and a beneficial one. At first glance, Robert Bruegmann — a childless academic whose modernist apartment building sits in a dense, upscale Chicago neighborhood — seems like the kind of guy who'd hate the suburbs. His peers and predecessors have, for decades, decried the unplanned, low-density, auto-dependent growth of shopping malls and subdivisions.

But he's emerging as the unlikely champion of what we've called, at least since the 1950s, "sprawl." His counterintuitive new book, "Sprawl: A Compact History," charts the spreading of cities as far back as 1st century Rome — and finds the process not just deeply natural but often beneficial for people, societies and even cities.

The Boston Globe has called Bruegmann "the Jane Jacobs of suburbia," after the urban historian who celebrated the serendipitous, high-density warren of Greenwich Village and other old neighborhoods.

"Sprawl has been as evident in Europe as in America," he writes, "and can now be said to be the preferred settlement pattern everywhere in the world where there is a certain measure of affluence and where citizens have some choice in how they live."

Debates over sprawl and urbanism tend to be very emotional and morally tinged to the point of moralism. Another new book, Joel S. Hirschhorn's "Sprawl Kills: How Blandburbs Steal Your Time, Health and Money," blames sprawl not only for social isolation but also for traffic accidents and untimely death caused by sedentary lifestyles. On the other side of the aisle, libertarians often excoriate sprawl's opponents as uptight liberal "elitists."

Mazda Recommends Employees Walk to Office

2005-12-08T09:06:00.000-08:00

The following came through one of the other lists. Funny coming from a car company. We have a similar "rideshare" program here at CSULB, where you earn points every time you use alternative transportation (bus, carpool, bike, walk), points that can be redeemed for gift cards at various retail stores (like Lowe's Home Improvement). Only recently did the State of California deem this incentive a form of earned income and made it taxable. I haven't seen the damage yet, so I don't know how less appealing they've now made ridesharing. Doesn't matter to me much anyway, since I'll walk to work regardless.

from: Mazda Recommends Employees Walk to Office
Fri Dec 2, 2005, 10:04 AM ET, Associated Press via Yahoo News

Japanese automaker Mazda Motor Corp. is recommending its employees walk to the office, rather than commute by car, as part of an effort to improve their health and protect the environment, a company spokesman said Friday.

Those meeting a set of requirements by going to the office on foot are eligible to receive 1,500 yen ($12) a month, Mazda spokesman Ken Haruki said.

Aimed at improving employees' health and to promote environment protection, Mazda introduced its "Eco-walk commutation allowance" on Thursday, Hakuki said.

Mazda, Japan's fourth-largest automaker based in Hiroshima, is the first Japanese car company to encourage its employees to walk and offer a monetary incentive, he said.

Los Angeles is not sprawl after all . . .

2005-10-23T16:34:00.000-07:00

You have to wonder if this guy has ever actually been to Los Angeles? While it may be true that the L.A. metropolitan area is dense, it certainly is NOT compact. An interesting point of view, however, and one which tries to look at So Cal more critically.

from: Bruegmann, Robert. "L.A., the king of sprawl? Not at all," Los Angeles Times, 23 October 2005.

Robert Bruegmann, professor of architecture, art history and urban planning at the University of Illinois at Chicago and chair of the art history department, is the author of "Sprawl: A Compact History"

ON THE FIRST page of his widely read 1958 essay "Urban Sprawl," William H. Whyte Jr. described the view out the window of a plane flying from Los Angeles to San Bernardino as "an unnerving lesson in man's infinite ability to mess up his environment."

Whyte was a young editor at Fortune magazine, already famous for his groundbreaking 1956 study of suburbia, "The Organization Man." But in describing L.A., he was merely rehashing an old argument. For many academics and intellectuals living in apartment buildings in Boston and New York, L.A. represented everything that was wrong with cities. They complained that it was unplanned and incoherent, too dispersed and automobile dependent; it lacked a definite form or true center.

In short, it was devoid of what they considered real urbanity. It was sprawl. For more than 50 years (until just recently, when it has had to share the honors with Atlanta), Los Angeles has had the distinction of being the poster child for sprawl, a settlement pattern reputed to be economically inefficient, environmentally degrading, socially inequitable and aesthetically ugly.

But, in fact, Los Angeles is not a particularly good example of urban sprawl. Take the part about being unplanned. The truth is that New York, Chicago and most of the older American cities had their greatest growth before there was anything resembling real public planning; the most basic American land planning tool, zoning, did not come into widespread use until the 1920s.

L.A., by contrast, was one of the country's zoning pioneers. It has had most of its growth since the 1920s, during a period when planning was already important, and particularly since World War II, when California cities have been subject to more planning than cities virtually anywhere else in the country.

Then there is the part about how the city is too dispersed. Although it is true that the Los Angeles region in its early years had widely scattered settlements, these settlements were not particularly low in density. Since World War II, moreover, the density of the Los Angeles region has climbed dramatically, while that of older cities in the North and East has plummeted. The result is that today the Los Angeles urbanized area, as reported by the U.S. Census Bureau, has just over 7,000 people per square mile — by a fair margin the densest in the United States . . . .

These trains should run under water

2005-10-02T21:43:00.000-07:00

from: MacAdams, Lewis. "These trains should run under water," Los Angeles Times, 2 October 2005.

Don't expect to be fishing off the 1st Street bridge in downtown Los Angeles any time soon. But don't throw away your fly rod either, because last month the city finally moved closer to revitalizing its real and symbolic core: its river.

Almost two years ago, the city engineer's office presented a conceptual study on how a seasonal waterway in the channel through downtown, created by computer-operated inflatable dams, could create "El Pueblo Lake." Now Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and the City Council's River Committee have announced that a team headed by a Pasadena engineering firm will draw up plans for making 32 miles of the Los Angeles River a more beautiful and interesting part of the city. Tetra Tech and its partners have 18 months also to come up with at least five major park projects between Tujunga Wash and Vernon's city limits.

The projects will be financed by public money, including Proposition O, the $500-million storm water cleanup measure that passed last November.

Before Angelenos and tourists spread picnic blankets across verdant riverside terraces, swim or fly-fish for trout in natural-looking pools, or gallop on a horse along tree-lined trails, engineers will have to satisfy city officials' challenges to restore wetlands, hold back floodwaters and improve water quality. But the most formidable barrier is the railroad tracks that line the entire 4 1/2 miles of the river between the Arroyo Seco and the city limits, isolating the central city from its river. . . .

Gussy up that trash-strewn concrete cesspool

2005-10-02T21:34:00.000-07:00

from: Enquist, Philip and Craig Webb. "Gussy up that trash-strewn concrete cesspool," Los Angeles Times, 2 October 2005.

FOR THE SHEER POSSIBILITIES of renewing dead-ended neighborhoods, opening fenced-off Mars-scapes and providing immense environmental, cultural and recreational benefits, few projects in the world match the potential of an ecology-minded and people-centric revitalization of the Los Angeles River.

Consider those "once-in-a-century" urban waterside projects that have defined the character and fabric of so many of the world's great cities. Daniel Burnham's Downtown Chicago Plan, which celebrates its centenial in 2008, transformed Chicago's lakeshore into one of America's most architecturally beloved and recreationally rich downtown districts.

In a similar way, the 1910 City Beautiful Plan helped Orlando, Fla., retain its downtown lakeside heart, and it gave the city an ongoing unity of architectural purpose. More recently, Tempe's Town Lake development in Arizona, Chattanooga's Riverfront District in Tennessee, San Antonio's River Walk in Texas, Hartford's Adriaen's Landing in Connecticut, Shanghai's Huangpu River redevelopment and similar plans have helped open decaying waterfronts to enlivening and civically healing uses, including the reconnection of fractured streets and isolated neighborhoods.

Truth in advertising: Our firms took part in a 2005 request for proposals to transform 32 miles of the L.A. River into what would be a multipurpose linear greenway running virtually the entire length of the city. Our proposal wasn't chosen. We were, however, so taken by the project's potential to serve as a grand civic unifier that we want to add our voices to those arguing that, with a balance of advanced engineering and imaginative planning, the L.A. River can be of comparable civic worth to, say, New York's Central Park, Chicago's Grant Park or Washington's Rock Creek Park. . . .

Eden's Need for Green

2005-10-02T21:26:00.000-07:00

from: Waldie, D.J. "Eden's need for green," Los Angeles Times, 2 October 2005.

AUTHOR LAWRENCE Clark Powell remembered his mother arriving in Pasadena at the turn of the last century with her horticultural triumph: a geranium. It was a hard-to-keep exotic back East, a tender plant for middle-class women to hover over in the parlor. She kept her geranium on her lap on the long, transcontinental train trip, Powell recalled. And when she stepped off the platform in wintertime Los Angeles, she saw geraniums in bloom in every vacant house lot. They were as common as weeds. In humiliation (and perhaps with some relief), she threw away her pampered plant.

You might say that we've been tossing out the geraniums ever since. In its abundance, Los Angeles is a kind of garden, after all. Why would anyone need or care for more?

This is the paradox of nature in this city and among the reasons that lush L.A. also is park poor. . . .

"Jaywalkers" in Chicago . . .

2005-09-28T15:41:00.000-07:00

Good news, sorta. Chicago mayor backs off plan to ticket pedestrians, but spins it as an issue of pedestrian safety rather than the original emphasis on drivers' rights and efficient traffic movement. Hmm. While I certainly don't advocate jaywalking, I side with pedestrian rights advocates on this since the crackdown seemed a thinly veiled attack on pedestrians in general and a concession to drivers who already own the road. Hope this gives more momentum to steering the discussion, pun intended, to making cities more sustainable, which means car-free or at least car-lite.

from: Spielman, Fran. "Jaywalkers safe as mayor backs off ticket plan," Chicago Sun-Times, 28 September 2005

After nearly a week of ridicule, Mayor Daley on Tuesday put the brakes on a controversial plan to ticket pedestrians who tie up downtown traffic by jaywalking and racing across streets after the light has changed.

Daley tried his best to be delicate about it. He didn't want to saw off the limb with Andrew Velasquez, the mayoral aide who oversees the Traffic Management Authority, still sitting on it. But, the mayor left little doubt that the plan to bring the hammer down on pedestrians would never see the light of day.

"I don't know about ticketing them. But, it's a safety issue. When someone . . . tries to run across, like Lake Shore Drive, and they get killed, don't blame the city and don't blame the driver,'' Daley said. "Jaywalking is very dangerous. A lot of people get seriously injured or killed. . . .

Pedestrian Critical Mass in Chicago

2005-09-26T15:21:00.000-07:00

After Allesandra Gillen alerted pedestrianculture to this article, Ben Helphand of Logan Square Walks sent the following press release:

For Immediate Release:

Walking is Not a Crime!
Pedestrians Put Foot Down to Protect Downtown Walkers

· What: Pedestrian Rally and March
· When: Wednesday, September 28, 2005, 5pm.
· Where: Daley Plaza.
· Who: Hundreds asserting their right to walk will rally and lead a march.
· Contact: 773-252-4657 or 773-562-9942 (cell).

Foot traffic has long been a cornerstone of downtown Chicago. Imagine Michigan Avenue sidewalks without holiday shoppers. Imagine Buckingham Fountain, the museum campus, the lakefront, or Millennium Park without scores of pedestrians enjoying the view. And imagine the increased congestion of more drivers on Chicago's streets. Imagine no longer.

If Andrew Velasquez, executive director of the city's Office of Emergency Management and Communications, has his druthers, walking won't be an enjoyable pastime for Chicago residents and visitors, but a criminalized activity, warranting fines and the watchful eye of the police.

In the September 22 Chicago Sun-Times, Velasquez identifies pedestrian traffic as a central cause of vehicle traffic congestion. He asserts the scales are "tipped too heavily in favor of pedestrians" and intends to confront the problem by "drafting legislation that would empower the city's 303 traffic control aides to ticket pedestrians, either for crossing the street outside the crosswalk or within the crosswalk but against the light."

"Pedestrians are being scapegoated for traffic jams caused simply by too many people driving," said Michael Burton of Break the Gridlock. "The bigger threat to Chicagoans are reckless drivers, not walkers. Resources would be much better spent enforcing car speed limits. Encouraging more people to bike, ride transit and walk is the solution, NOT the problem."

"I'm certainly not opposed to holding reckless pedestrians in check," says Ben Helphand, co-Chair of Logan Square Walks. "However, the notion that scales lean in favor of pedestrians simply doesn't hold up. On average 13% of traffic deaths each year in Illinois are pedestrians. Yet only 1 percent of federal surface transportation funds spent in Illinois are spent on pedestrian and bicycle facilities and safety. The Office of Emergency Management and Communications would have us believe that drivers are second-class citizens in Chicago. The reality is quite the opposite."

The crackdown on pedestrians, combined with the City of Chicago Traffic Management Authority's closure of the Queen's Landing crosswalk, which provided pedestrian access from Buckingham Fountain to the lakefront, has pedestrians "seeing red." Hundreds will gather in Daley Plaza at 5pm on Wednesday, September 28. A short program will begin at 5:15pm, featuring pedestrian advocates, urban planners and perhaps even the Queen of England herself! At 5:30pm they'll strike out on a stroll around the loop. All those who enjoy the city of Chicago on foot are invited to join the critical mass.

The Downtown Pedestrian Rally and Critical Mass is being coordinated by Logan Square Walks and Break the Gridlock. More information at http://www.logansquarewalks.org/ or 773-252-4657 or 773-562-9942 (cell).

New Urbanism in Colorado

2005-09-23T14:10:00.000-07:00

from: Building a dream: Brother, sister plan anti-suburb in Colorado

(CNN) -- Imagine being able to live, work and play in a place where everything is within walking distance.

The brother and sister duo of Jed and Katie Selby are hoping that recreating homes that are surrounded by parks, commerce and beauty will lure people from the suburban sprawl and the comfort of their cars. South Main is where they hope to do it.

South Main is a city concept created by the Selbys. Its on the edge of Buena Vista, Colorado, and will be a mixed-use development of homes and business space for all walks of life. . . .

"[South Main] is built on the principles of new urbanism, which are nothing new," Jed said. "It's essentially built around basic human needs, including places to work, places to shop, places to gather. The difference is that they're all within walking distance."

the death of cars in New Orleans . . .

2005-09-21T16:33:00.000-07:00

. . . so, why not keep it that way? According to this guy, however, "normal" means lots of cars being able to go wherever they need to go.

from: Vartabedian, Ralph. "At an impasse inside disaster," Los Angeles Times, 21 September 2005.

NEW ORLEANS — If you have a tendency to drive the wrong way on one-way streets, park in the middle of the road or blow through intersections controlled by signals, then you might fit into the disorder and chaos of New Orleans in recent weeks.

The emergency workers and remaining residents here have faced countless challenges to their health and safety in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Dealing with a dysfunctional highway system is a relatively minor issue. But anybody used to the systematic order of an American city's road network is left dumbstruck driving through this historic city in the weeks after the Aug. 29 hurricane and the flood that followed.

One hint of trouble might have been the dead alligator I saw on the interstate while approaching the city two weeks after the storm. Only a few miles from downtown, the interstate abruptly and without warning plunged into the murky brown floodwaters of Katrina. Despite the back and forth of residents, first returning and now fleeing Hurricane Rita, traffic remains relatively light. Streets empty for a 6 p.m. curfew each evening. Streetlights are out, and a drive down historic St. Charles Avenue at night is an eerie excursion into the desolation of a remarkably beautiful neighborhood. There are no pedestrians. No lights. No cars. . . .

Think it's bad here? Try walking in Moscow . . .

2005-09-21T16:25:00.000-07:00

from: Murphy, Kim. "On Moscow's Mean Streets, Every Automobile Is a Dodge," Los Angeles Times, 21 September 2005.

MOSCOW--On the streets of Russia's capital, it is the loser who ventures out without a weapon. Once the armament of choice was a small Lada. These days, it's likely to be a 3-ton Mercedes. Yet the dynamics of battle remain the same: The front bumper trumps the pedestrian, who is sent somersaulting over the hood almost every time.

So frequently do automobiles and pedestrians come into contact that a body at the side of the road covered with an overcoat barely draws a crowd. Elderly women, faced with a green crossing light, break into clumsy sprints with the help of their canes; students gather in packs like nervous gazelles before dashing across crosswalks in carefully timed streaks.

Last year, 34,506 people were killed and a quarter of a million injured in road accidents in Russia — nearly double the rate in the U.S. In Moscow alone, more than 14 cars a day hit pedestrians; 300 have died this year. . . .

Rhetorics of Place

2005-09-19T09:16:00.000-07:00

Here is an issue of Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture dedicated to place. I've only been able to skim a few articles, but so far so good!

Reconstruction 5.3 (Spring 2005): Rhetorics of PlaceGuest Editors: Michael Benton, Melissa Purdue, and G. Wesley Houp

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Editorial
Michael Benton, "Rhetorics of Place: The Importance of Public Spaces and Public Spheres"

Articles
Joy Ackerman, "A Politics of Place: Reading the Signs at Walden Pond"
David Burley, Pam Jenkins, Joanne Darlington, Brian Azcona, "Loss, Attachment, and Place: A Case Study of Grand Isle, Louisiana"
Patrick Howard, "Nurturing Sense of Place Through the Literature of the Bioregion"
Bruce Janz, "Whistler’s Fog and the Aesthetics of Place"
Joy Kennedy, "The Edge of the World"
Michael Kula, "What Have Bagels Got to Do With Midwesternness?"
John Shelton Lawrence and Marty S. Knepper, "Discovering Your Cinematic Cultural Identity"
Harry Olufunwa, "The Place of Race: Ethnicity, Location and 'Progress' in the Fiction of Chinua Achebe and Ralph Ellison"
Anthony M. Orum, "All the World's A Coffee Shop: Reflections on Place, Community and Identity"
Lynda H. Schneekloth and Robert. G. Shibley, "Placemaking: A Democratic Project"

Review Essays
Danny Mayer on Ethan Watter's Urban Tribes: A Generation Redefines Friendship, Family and Commitment
Matthew Ortoleva on McComiskey and Ryan's City Comp: Identities, Spaces, Practices
Rania Masri on Joel Weishaus' Forest Park: A Journal
Christine Cusick on Joel Weishaus' Forest Park: A Journal
Matthew Wolf-Meyer on Cadava and Levy's Cities Without Citizens

Reviews
Marilyn Yaquinto on Peter Bondanella's Hollywood Italians: Dagos, Palookas, Romeos, Wise Guys, and Sopranos

Bikers, walkers driven to unseat motorists

2005-09-17T17:40:00.000-07:00

from: Alvarez, Fred. "Bikers, Walkers Driven to Unseat Motorists," Los Angeles Times, 16 September 2005.

The parking lot at the Ventura fairgrounds was virtually empty Thursday for the start of California's major conference to promote bicycling and walking. But that's exactly what event organizers expected.

Scores of participants hiked, pedaled and skateboarded to Walk and Roll California 2005, a two-day strategy session aimed at getting people out of their cars and on their feet or bicycle seats.

"We practice what we preach," said conference organizer Gail Payne, a Berkeley-based transportation planner who specializes in cycling and pedestrian issues. "Our mission is to make sure bicycling and walking are safer and more accessible throughout California."

In a land where the car is king, that is no easy task. But conference organizers say their efforts have been aided lately by skyrocketing gas prices and an emerging battle against obesity, issues that have made cycling and walking more attractive to the public.Still, those gathered Thursday at the oceanfront fairgrounds say they have plenty of speed bumps to maneuver. . . .

Planning for a Greener L.A. River

2005-09-15T09:26:00.000-07:00

from: Hymon, Steve. "Planning for a Greener L.A. River," Los Angeles Times, 12 September 2005.

Is it the city's most prominent gutter or a river waiting to be reborn?

Residents of Los Angeles will soon have a chance to discuss the future of the city's namesake river.

Today, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Councilman Ed Reyes plan to announce 18 public meetings that are a prelude to a massive — and thus far largely unfunded — public works project to clean up the river, build parks along it and restore some sections to a more natural state.

"What we're doing here is discovering a new resource — the L.A. River," Reyes said. "How we go about it will establish the new face of the city."

One key item up for discussion: whether it's possible to remove portions of the river's concrete lining, installed beginning in the 1930s to keep low-lying areas from being inundated during winter storms.

As industry has left the core of many cities in the United States, there has been a push to revive urban waterways. . . .

Boston, from an angry driver

2005-09-12T14:48:00.000-07:00

Not the most balanced article ever written . . .

from: Allis, Sam. "Road wars: Hub pedestrians rule the streets these days," Boston Globe, 11 September 2005.

One of the defining characteristics of urban life is the endless war between drivers and pedestrians for control of the streets. It is a battle of nerves that ebbs and flows over time. The two agonists in Boston are well matched. The only thing worse than a Boston driver is a Boston walker.

Drivers used to career around Boston with impunity while walkers sashayed anywhere they damned well please. Many on both sides still do. Yet anything approaching a balance between these Hatfields and McCoys is in shreds. The walking movement, with a sympathetic City Hall, has built a hegemony over traffic flow -- pedestrian and automotive -- that is breathtaking.

''We're not going to jeopardize safety for speed," vows Jim Gillooly, the estimable deputy commissioner for engineering and planning of the Boston Transportation Department.

Of course not. But that's a canard. No one's pushing speed. At issue is the decent flow of traffic around our city. Cars and trucks need to move smoothly through Boston. Forget about yuppies cruising Newbury in Beemers, I'm also talking about the goods and services that fuel our economy whose delivery on a timely basis saves money. Boston does not thrive as one giant parking lot.

''It's already difficult to drive in Boston," notes David Luberoff, executive director of Harvard's Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston. No fan of urban autos, he still wonders, ''Where is the tipping point that would make people stop driving but not take public transit -- they just wouldn't come into the city?"

Let's be clear here. Boston, like, Florence, is a spectacular walking town. The size is right and the rewards fabulous for perambulators. Natives and tourists alike should be able to enjoy these pleasures without fear for their lives every time they cross a street. Walking should be encouraged: it's good for your health and, to the best of my knowledge, does not require infusions of petroleum at $3.59 a gallon.

That said, there's an attitude in Boston today that dismisses the very idea of drivers's rights as an obscene notion. To many hardcore walking activists, drivers are pond scum only a mother could love. To drive a car in the city -- to the movies or the emergency room with a sick child, auto haters can't tell the difference -- is to wallow in evil. The inherent righteousness of Walking Nation is self-evident.

''They force their views on people who drive," says Ivan Sever, a lobbyist for the National Motorists Association, who has been the target of ''nasty e-mails" from members of WalkBoston, the nonprofit that has spearheaded walker power here. . . .

Backpack generates power from walking

2005-09-09T07:55:00.000-07:00

An example of a technology that's not quite there yet. I mean, who walks with 85 pounds in a backpack? Still, pretty cool. What about a backpack made of solar photovoltaic cells?

Backpack generates power from walking

Friday, September 9, 2005; Posted: 10:06 a.m. EDT (14:06 GMT)

WASHINGTON
(Reuters) -- A backpack that converts a plodding gait into electricity could soon be charging up mobile phones, navigation devices and even portable disc players, U.S.-based researchers said on Thursday.

Their backpack design converts mechanical energy from up-and-down movement of the backpack's cargo to electricity during normal walking.
The backpack is deliberately designed to shake around a bit. The up-and-down movement of the backpack's cargo compartment against the frame of the pack turns a gear connected to a generator. . . .
Humping along just under 85 pounds (38 kg) of weight in the backpack can produce up to 7 watts of electricity, Lawrence Rome and colleagues at the University of Pennsylvania report. . . .

you are here (we think . . .)

2005-08-21T15:42:00.000-07:00

from: La Ganga, Maria L. "You are here (we think . . .)." Los Angeles Times, 21 August 2005.

Building in the nation's burgeoning burbs is happening at such a torrid clip that it has outpaced cartographers' ability to map the latest subdivisions in places such as Elk Grove, Mountain House and Moreno Valley, all in California; Reno and Las Vegas; Phoenix; and central Florida.

Cartographers have struggled to chart the changing world for more than four millenniums, since Babylonians etched charts on clay tablets. But these days, the maps of America's fastest-growing suburbs are running woefully behind schedule at the same time that technological advances are raising travelers' expectations that it's possible to go from Point A to Point B without getting lost.

Even maps supplied by online services, which generally refresh their databases quarterly, or those zippy little global positioning system gadgets in expensive new cars and high-end rentals, are not much more current than many of the maps jammed inside glove compartments.

"It's tougher now with the growth to get a fully updated product to the market," said Edward Sweet, director of cartography, geographic information systems and research for Compass Maps Inc. of Modesto. "Scouting research is still very hard…. We rely on public works departments, government agencies, and they're in the same situation we are. They're so far behind with budget cuts and the costs of doing day-to-day business."

In Modesto alone, Compass gets information on 10 to 20 new streets and two or three new subdivisions each month to add to its city road map, which is being updated for 2006. The California State Automobile Assn. is updating its Reno map
for the first time in 18 months, and cartographers are adding 700 streets.

"We have one person dedicated to doing Las Vegas, and it's a lifetime career, it seems," said Jonathan Lawton, senior cartographer at the San Francisco-based CSAA. "At one point, five years or so ago, Las Vegas had 400% growth, and that's hard to catch up with."

The Art of Mall Walking (Viv Corringham)

2005-07-29T12:36:00.000-07:00

Here is an excerpt from an article from Minnesota Public Radio on the work of walking artist Viv Corringham:

Baxter, Annie. "The Art of Mall Walking," Minnesota Public Radio, 29 March 2005.

Musician and sound artist Viv Corringham loves to walk. Back in England, where she's from, walking is considered a virtuous activity.

"A walk is all about nature, communing with nature- communing with your higher feelings," Corringham says. It's all part of the romantic poets history that's passed down to us."

Corringham tapped into this idea in a sound art project she called "Shadow Walks." She went around England and Ireland asking people to show her walks that were meaningful to them. She'd record her conversation with the person during the walk. Then she'd go back and take the walk alone. She would
try to get a sense of the place and then sing what she felt--doing wordless vocal improvisations. In her final sound pieces, she'd mix the narration and singing together with recordings of the sounds of the place.

A Field Guide to Getting Lost (Rebecca Solnit)

2005-07-26T20:54:00.000-07:00

Press, Joy. "Wander Woman: An offbeat intellectual explores urban ruins, country music, Hitchcock's Vertigo—and grandma," Village Voice, 28 June 2005.

Although the title pronounces this a field guide, it's closer to a walkabout. Solnit's essays sweep through myriad varieties of loss, from objects to memories to love, with plenty of slippage between the categories. She believes that losing things is intrinsic to human life, a never ending process of abandonment and discovery. "Imagine yourself streaming through time shedding gloves, umbrellas, wrenches, books, friends, homes, names," Solnit proposes. "This is what the view looks like if you take a rear-facing seat on the train. Looking forward you constantly acquire moments of arrival, moments of realization, moments of discovery." Solnit's writing switches gracefully between these two modes of perception—between melancholy regret at what's been discarded (Hollow City documented the displacement of bohemian San Francisco in the dotcom era) and fragile optimism (Hope in the Dark rallies around the power of grassroots activism).

talking about Pedestrian Culture to John and Jane Citizen

2005-07-25T12:16:00.000-07:00

A good question from the Pedestrian Culture listserv, from L.A. walker Lisa Salem. Any thoughts?:

I'd really like to generate a dialogue here for exploring ways of talking about the ideas and issues within 'pedestrian culture' (inc. psychogeography, derive, acoustic ecology, land art etc...) that aren't alienating, overly academic or cerebral. I'm interested in communicating with the 'average person on the street' (if there is such a thing) about these ideas but am at a bit of a loss as to how to do it without being written off as 'arty' or bourgeois/academic.
I want to converse with a broad spectrum of the public but that necessitates knowing how to present these ideas in the first place in a relatable, inspiring and non-alienating way.
It seems to me that these are the wrong fields to be confined to the worlds of art and academia as they are so fundamentally about being human and living in (our) society. And yet when I try to touch on the issues with people outside of these circles, I often get a glazed look.
I was wondering if this spawned any thoughts for any of you? I'd love to explore and experiment with this topic in this forum. Also, perhaps there is some reading that I have missed that would help?

Don't even THINK of walking here . . .

2005-07-25T12:12:00.000-07:00

Some scary pedestrian hazards from Michael Lewyn, here, here, and here.

pedestrian right-of-way?

2005-07-19T18:53:00.000-07:00

From: Vartabedian, Ralph. "Caution: Pedestrian Crossing," Los Angeles Times, 8 June 2005.

Lt. Joe Whiteford of the California Highway Patrol says that a driver must wait only until it is safe to proceed through the crosswalk. A violation occurs if the pedestrian must take evasive action or stop to allow the vehicle to pass through. In that case, the motorist has violated the pedestrian's right of way.
So, if the pedestrian is walking away from the car, it is legal to proceed through the crosswalk when the pedestrian is a safe distance away. When the pedestrian is walking toward a car, it is legal to go through the crosswalk if the pedestrian is far enough away so that he or she does not have to slow down or stop for the vehicle to complete the turn.In Eklof's scenario, it would be legal to complete the turn if the pedestrian had only stepped off the curb of a six-lane street and was walking toward the car. But by the time the pedestrian is in the middle of the street, it is almost certainly too late, according to Whiteford.
The bottom line is that the pedestrian does not always have the right of way.

Peak to Peak

2005-07-19T12:14:00.000-07:00

For those of you in the Bay Area (and those of us who wish we had seen this earlier so that we could have registered by the July 15th deadline!), there is a Walk San Francisco Peak to Peak, July 23, 2005. They are listing it as the "First Annual," so hopefully we'll get in on this next year.

The first annual Peak to Peak Walk is a 12 mile challenge that will inspire even the most avid walker. You’ll get a unique view of San Francisco’s skyline, stairways, paths, parks, and monuments—all while raising money for WalkSF’s vital pedestrian safety and advocacy work. Join us as we meander up and down along the spine of the city from Mt. Davidson to Coit Tower, with 15 different peaks along the way. In addition to dirt trails and stunning vistas, the walk also features a delicious gourmet lunch and the chance to win great prizes. From climbing the slopes of Mt. Olympus in the morning to celebrating with dinner in North Beach(optional), this full-day walk will give you a whole new perspective on San Francisco.

Pyschogeographical recordings

2005-07-19T10:59:00.000-07:00

Brian from the Pedestrian Culture list turned me on to these recordings: The Architecture of the Incidental and Psychogeographical Dip. We're waiting to see if the liner notes are available for public distribution. Stay tuned.

Talking the Walk

2005-07-19T10:50:00.000-07:00

from: Scauzillo, Steve. "Talking the walk," Whittier Daily News, 8 July 2005.

"Last Sunday I was standing at the most dangerous place on Earth. I was a pedestrian trying to walk across Lake Avenue at the Foothill (210) Freeway in Pasadena.

I guess that old Missing Persons song is right on, 'Nobody Walks in L.A.,' because if they did, they would be dead by now or in traction.

Do it and you are risking not only injury but all sorts of ridicule. Responses to me legally walking in Pasadena or other parts of the San Gabriel Valley have run the gamut, from middle fingers thrust in my face, car horns bleeding my ears and drivers shaking their heads in condescending disapproval. Oh yeah, there's also the chance of becoming road splatter.

How do you successfully complete this perfectly legal maneuver without appearing like Tom Cruise in War of the Worlds looking over your shoulder in sheer terror? Or without somehow thinking that you are the one committing the faux pas, the one looking out of place at the party. 'Oh, he's walking across Lake Avenue? I feel sorry for him. Maybe he's homeless or retarded.'"

M.A. in Aural and Visual Cultures

2005-07-18T10:23:00.000-07:00

Now, this is what I love about education. A new M.A. in Aural and Visual Cultures from Goldsmiths University of London. Wish I had the time and money to collect graduate degrees.

High Peak Haikus

2005-07-18T10:00:00.000-07:00

from: Campbell, James. "High Peak Haikus," Guardian Unlimited, 16 July 2005.

"Snyder is at pains to distinguish his way of life from 'a back-to-the-land, counter-cultural, utopian image of living outside of society. That's all right if you're going to just go like Thoreau did for a year, and you can walk over to Emerson's for dinner. But this is more like what the farm and the ranch in the west is, where people live at a distance, with a certain amount of genuine sustainable skill, though for the time being our life depends on machinery - chainsaws, generators, grass-cutters and so forth. Now, when I first came up here I didn't have any of that, and there may come a time again when I don't have it. And so there are other strategies, too.' Kai emphasises his father's attachment to 'doing things in the old ways, using tools that are made locally, things that are made with an intimate understanding of the place where you live. It's about being rooted in a place, and also understanding that the world is changing very fast and that technologies may only be a transitory crutch, a substitute for a deeper understanding of how to live in a place.' "

Theatre of the City

2005-07-15T10:43:00.000-07:00

from: Sinclair, Iain. "Theatre of the City," Guardian Unlimited, 14 July 2005.

"The city shimmers, traffic moves a little more slowly, but it was never fast. The clients of the 30 bus out of Dalston Junction are no stranger than they ever were: an excitable young man smoking dope, two women talking fast and loud in Spanish on a shared mobile-phone, a very local youth proclaiming a sudden interest in voodoo. "You find a piece of gold, bruv, an' you kill your mum and dad. It's interesting, bruv. It's powerful. Africa is powerful, bruv." Noise levels drop as a sallow, bearded man in an unexpectedly good suit, white shirt, no tie, wrestles with a cumbersome black rucksack. He struggles to extract something and we all struggle with him: designer dark glasses. Now he looks more than ever like a movie assassin. He returns to the bag. Three upper-deck passengers make for the stairs. "Allo, mum. It's me." One week on and Hackney transport is the performance art it always was, but more so. The audience is sharper, more alert, quicker to respond."

how many seconds to cross the street

2005-07-14T21:54:00.000-07:00

from: Malcolm, Andrew H. "New Signals Give Pedestrians the Time to Make Wise Decisions," Los Angeles Times, 14 July 2005.

"As part of an ongoing response to citizen concerns over traffic congestion and in anticipation of more pedestrians, Santa Clarita officials have installed trial crosswalk signals at two locations, one near City Hall and the other at one of the quickly expanding community's busier intersections, McBean Parkway and Creekside Road.

Instead of a flashing red hand simply telling pedestrians their time is nearly up, the $300 devices count down in seconds the time remaining for the walker to reach the curb.
Such devices are common in more established urban areas where sidewalk traffic is heavy and pedestrians cross intersections in steady flows.

But in the new sections of Valencia, the master-planned portion of Santa Clarita, people actually moving on two legs across streets can seem as rare as a condor drifting overhead.

It is the car that rules transportation in such rapidly growing areas honeycombed with sidewalk-free cul-de-sacs. Here, teenagers shun short walks to rise early and drive to school in time to capture precious parking spots. At the Promenade mall, even adults have been known to drive from Pavilions across the parking lot to the dry cleaners on the other side.

In front of the Promenade during one 30-minute span on a recent weekday morning, a total of four people crossed the nine wide lanes of McBean Parkway beneath the new flashing timer. Two were joggers, one was a delivery man and the fourth an elderly woman who made it to the curb after 29 of her 30 countdown seconds."

www.pedestrianculture.com

2005-07-13T13:35:00.000-07:00

It's official! Although it will forward to my Cal State Long Beach website account, www.pedestrianculture.com is live! At some point in the future I will have it hosted on its own, but for now this will work fine. I will start sending notes out to the various listservs (as well as targeted invitations), so hopefully we will start to get more traffic.

blockology

2005-07-13T13:27:00.000-07:00

This sounds like my kind of project:

"Robert Jay Kaufman, an illustrator, took off on a 52 day, 300 mile journey walking every single block below 14th street in NYC and then wrote a book called Blockology. . . . He highlights his favorite streets through out the different neighborhoods of lower Manhattan. The West Village, The East Village, Noho, Soho, Little Italy, Nolita, The Bowery, Chinatown, Lower East Side, Battery Park City, Financial District, etc. "

as blogged by Gotham Gal

One way to get around L.A.

2005-07-06T18:37:00.000-07:00

"What possessed [Lisa] Salem to embark on a trek, in the summer no less, that will take her from North Hollywood to Pacific Palisades, south to Watts and Los Angeles International Airport, and eastward to South Pasadena and Alhambra? 'The idea percolated over a three-year period,' she says between sips of iced coffee. 'We're all living such different experiences of this town, and yet when we say Los Angeles we tend to presume that we're talking about the same thing. What would happen if I walked through all the different neighborhoods? Would I get a better sense of where I live? What would I see that I don't normally see? I think I know this place fairly well, but how well do I really know it and what would be revealed to me if I approached it from this absurd kind of place?I like the idea of doing something absurd, passionately. To me that's poetic, but you have to find a roundabout way to access that kind of poetic feeling, especially in L.A.'"

Hart, Hugh. "One way to get around L.A. and still beat traffic: Lisa Salem is covering the city by foot while recording her experiences on a blog." Los Angeles Times, 6 July 2005.

walking is not a crime (?)

2005-07-06T15:41:00.000-07:00

"Since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Americans have been subject to increased government restrictions and scrutiny at airports and elsewhere. That bird-watchers have become a target is somewhat surprising, since all they do is 'walk quietly through the woods . . . '"

Cho, Cynthi H. "Birders Discover They're the Ones Being Watched: Hobbyists find that a walk in the woods isn't easy with anti-terrorism security in place." Los Angeles Times, 5 July 2005.

Making the Rounds

2005-06-30T18:12:00.000-07:00

King, Barbara. "Making the Rounds: On foot in summer, you find the heart of a neighborhood." Los Angeles Times, 30 June 2005.

"Since June, my neighborhood, like so many other L.A. neighborhoods, has begun to reveal itself in ways only summer allows. I'm getting to know it. I'm learning its sounds, its movements. I'm learning its stories in brief encounters and leisurely observations on my daily walks. Warm weather has made available so much more: the protective layers of reserve have been packed away for the season. Everything, including the profligate flora, is less self-conscious. It feels a lot like Paris."

Switzerland in September, anyone?

2005-06-27T20:38:00.000-07:00

Head to Zurich, Switzerland, September 22-23, for the 6th International Conference on Walking in the 21st Century. Wish I could go. The deadline for early registration is July 15th, so check it out.

links and listserv

2005-06-27T15:47:00.000-07:00

The first few of many links to come (see sidebar). I've also created a listserv at yahoogroups called Pedestrian Culture . . . which will hopefully grow into something a little more lively than it is now! More soon.

Welcome to Pedestrian Culture

2005-06-25T14:48:00.000-07:00

This is the first step in what I hope will be a productive and far-reaching investigation into the poetics of place experienced through the humble act of walking. The Center for the Study of Pedestrian Culture will be a portal of resources, links, bibliographies, syllabi, and other types of place data. More info on the Center website and listserv to follow . . . stay tuned.