From Fund for a Better Waterfront — As Shopping Malls and Theme Parks ReplaceTown Squares, Our Democracy is Diminished

F Murphy photo

The street. It is the river of life of the city, the place where we come together, the pathway to the center. It is the primary place.
– William H. Whyte, City: Rediscovering the Center

Urban streets and sidewalks serve as the principle place of public contact and public passage. Streets, in fact, comprise the largest assemblage of public space in our cities. Every private lot is accessible from a street, the legally designated public right-of-way. When extended to the water’s edge, streets provide the very framework for public access to the waterfront. Streets are perceived as public. Our right to travel the street, whether by foot or bike or car, is indelibly etched in our consciousness. Read more: As shopping malls and theme parks replace town squares, our democracy is diminished | Fund for a Better Waterfront

Gehl paraphrases JaneJacobs "if we let planners, traffic engineers go ahead, we will have made great US cities dead" http://t.co/RKI4DaO7s2
— TheSidewalkBallet (@1sidewalkballet) November 22, 2013

• @StrongTowns— Missing the forest for the #stroad cc @G_Anderson1 @spirit_of_urban http://t.co/63UeEmifCr
— TheSidewalkBallet (@1sidewalkballet) November 21, 2013

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From Planetizen — An Argument for Eliminating Traffic Lights

"Stop-and-go turns out to be less a way of increasing safety than a way of maximizing the value of vehicles with high top speeds (i.e., automobiles) rather than slower vehicles (bicycles, scooters, motorcycles). So filling your city with signalized intersections turns out to be a kind of backdoor subsidy to automobile ownership."Read more: An Argument for Eliminating Traffic Lights | Planetizen: The Urban Planning, Design, and Development Network

HT Planetizen, From thegridto.com — Itemizing the Cost of a Great Street

The intersection of St. Clair Avenue West and Vaughan Road, which is among the messiest: St. Clair is wide, long, cut in two by a streetcar right-of-way, and follows a straightforward grid, while Vaughan is narrow, short, and hits on the diagonal as it chases a slithering ravine. In a city where there’s no such thing as a typical intersection, though, this one might just count as normal. Read more at: The Grid: How much does a street cost? And: Itemizing the Cost of a Great Street | Planetizen: The Urban Planning, Design, and Development Network

Great Places in Canada — Public Space Winner: St. John City Market

The St. John City Market is a popular gathering space for people of all ages. It is a place where vendors sell a range of local and international goods along four banks of stalls running the entire length of the building. The Market is well integrated into the City Centre both in terms of its architecture, its entrances from the outdoors, as well as an indoor connection to the City pedway system. Read more: Great Places in Canada