Ontario Assoication of Landscape Architects AGM Markham City Hall

March 23, 2012

City Building: A New Convergence

Ken Greenberg Greenberg Consultants, Inc.

Eric Pedersen 1960 - 2012

From feet and two wheels to four wheels……..

……and beyond

1939 World’s Fair in NY – General Motors makes its pitch Interstate Highways

It seemed like such a great idea at the time

…that it shaped a whole new way of living

But unfortunately the reality is not quite like the dream…..

and Peak Oil arrives

and ultimately tests to failure….

As the roads quickly fill up

we pollute the atmosphere and induce climate change

compromise our health

In 2 generations the urban world is transformed Just take a walk out of the city, pretty much any city

From lively active sidewalks …to forlorn arteries lined with parking lots

These two worlds are experiencing parallel and complementary challenges

Battle lines are drawn: Jacobs vs. Moses

….as walkable urban places are seen by many to provide a more satisfying future and shared public spaces become a key to economic vitality

and ultimately people start to vote with their feet

provoking a great reversal

1970 2005

Average Individual Income, City of Toronto

with a corresponding gradation of auto dependence Walking

Driving

Cycling

Transit

Source: MTO, GO Transit, Globe and Mail

A pattern of living and working emerges that is ultimately not sustainable with dramatic impacts on congestion

AUTOPIA High Gas Prices Worsening the Housing Bust–But Not Downtown By Marty Jerome April 24, 2008 | Here’s a real-estate tip: Buy downtown. In many cities, prices have already bottomed out and are holding steady–or nudging up. The same can’t be said for the suburbs. In fact, commute times to downtown areas are turning out to be a direct predictor of how far home prices have fallen–and how far off a recovery still is. The longer the commute, the bigger the drop. High gas prices alone don’t explain why many people are moving closer to work. But they’re giving many Americans a painful reminder that long commutes carry aggravations that ultimately didn’t justify saving money on a house: the weeks spent every year sitting in snarled traffic, the mortal peril of congested freeways, the maintenance and fast depreciation of your car, and so forth.

DEAD MALLS Where Malls are Dying in America From the Wall Street Journal By Kellvyn Brown , 05-22-09

and cracks appear in the auto dependent paradigm

The Good (City) Life: Why New York's Life Expectancy Is the Highest in the Nation Nona Wilils Arononowitz …. The latest data from the Bureau of Vital Statistics shows New York City…has the highest life expectancy in the country. Babies born in 2009 can expect to live a record 80.6 years. That's almost three years longer than a decade ago, and more than two years longer than the current national average of 78.2 years. First, we don't spend our entire lives in cars. We walk everywhere. With narrow streets, an abundance of stores, and a dearth of parking, the city is practically designed to make us walk. Before we get on the subway, we walk there, and after we arrive at our stop, we climb numerous flights of stairs. Our old people also have it much better than the elderly in bucolic settings. The essentials—food, medicine, laundromats, parks—are usually mere blocks from their homes. The hospital is likely a shorter distance away, too. High population density means a plethora of neighbors who can look after each other. When people live on top of each other, the likelihood of social isolation plummets—and the age of death rises. Life expectancy isn't the whole story—just because someone is old doesn't mean they're able to live a pleasurable and fulfilling life. But cities like New York tend to provide that, too. There's something to be said for mental stimulation, which New York City delivers in droves. Studies have shown that cultural attractions getting people out of the house and exercising their brains elongate life. So do friends. So, apparently, do random people with crazy outfits walking down the street. The more variety in one's daily life, the more life is, literally, worth living. Despite the caveats, this newest data makes it clear: It's high time for the myth of the “urban health penalty” to die out.

Taking a method on the road to Saint Paul – the Saint Paul on the Mississippi Development Framework Making mixed-use, compact, dense, walkable places

MAKING THE PARADIGM SHIFT - unlearning bad habits, new tools, teams and ways of working

These challenges (and others) are immense but cities, the most remarkable of human creations and the great synthesizers, have an incredible capacity to learn, to recover, and to adapt

Learning that ‘sustainability’ is not a category but a way of synthesizing and connecting

‘Symbiocity’ Finding the essential DNA to create new places

Recycling obsolescent lands and resources

Recognizing that quality of life is a key economic asset

Developing the critical ability to assemble the pieces

Adaptive Re-use Warehouse Districts THE KINGS

Layering on What Exists

Adding to the richness and synergy

Making each chess piece count

Appreciating the great value of a shared strategic vision

Maintaining a strategic overview of transforming moves

Drilling down

Experiencing New York in a whole new way - Broadway from 23rd Street to Columbus Circle at 59th Street

Re-tooling our infrastructure while revising our priorities for city streets

…and expanding the range of ways to get around

Back to the future in unexpected ways Motor Car Laws are badly needed

Separate Auto Paths may be the answer!

New designs appear for sharing the rights-0f-way into “complete streets”

Including re-allocating space in existing rights-of-way

As priorities reverse again…. Making room for and developing respect for all users

understanding that active transportation contributes to public health

Creating a world where kids can ride their bikes to school again

Car free Sundays in the Emperor’s Palace

Transformations of urban and suburban environments – 1980’s and 2011

St. Lawrence Historic District Bank Street Ottawa

Transit as the armature of urban growth

Making new neighbourhoods with transit priority, fine-grained pedestrian and cycle networks

Fine-grained pedestrian and cycle networks Fine-grained pedestrian and cycle networks

Responding to shifts in how existing streets are actually used

In city after city streets redesigned – King Street in Kitchener , St. Catherine in Montreal, Granville in Vancouver, Bank Street in Ottawa, Yonge Street and John Street in Toronto

Including temporary pedestrian takeovers of city streets – sharing in time

104th Street Edmonton

Y0nge Street, Toronto

Re-learning how to make dense and diverse cities work for all ages and abilities

But it’s not just how dense you make it; it’s how you make it dense!

Kendall Square in Cambridge and pedestrian street in Malmo

Finding ways to achieve higher levels of mix and overlap in new projects

Universities and Colleges as city builders

Regent Park public housing project rebuilt as an new mixed-use mixed income neighbourhood

Recovering from errors

The incubation of businesses for new immigrant communities now happens in the suburban strip mall

Making room for diversity and initiative: tapping the ingenuity of new arrivals - allowing the city to evolve

Recovering from the disastrous mudslide on the Venezuelan coast

Integratng flood proofing with city building - an urban estuary where the Don River enters Toronto Harbour

Dealing with the powerful imperatives of nature

Co-existence – the Intertwining of the urban and the natural

Seeing the big picture; forging connections to great natural features

Responding to the irresistible urge to get to the water’s edge

The city becomes its own year round resort

Public Space as the life blood of social communities

The essential common ground in a city of new arrivals

And yet under severe stress just when it most needed

New roles for civil society in the breach

The big design and development project of the next 50 years: Retrofitting suburban infrastructure

Suburban Transformations

Mississauga - A “Vibrant Downtown” is one of 8 themes in the city’s Strategic Plan for next millennium

Marrying land use, transit investment and urban form – Downtown 2021

Colonizing the parking lots in Mississauga from a Farmers Market to the creation of a new downtown nieighbourhood

Public and private convergence to make it mixed, compact and walkable

A Regional Focus – Support from 3 interlocking Provincial Plans for the GTHA

“Greater Toronto Area Greenbelt” “Places to Grow”

“The Big Move”

Boston/Cambridge, Vancouver, Stockholm, Paris

Putting it all together - trailblazing in cities that are leading the way

There is an overwhelming case for empowering cities

Cities hold the key to a more sustainable future

Need to make the paradigm shift there - we have no better options

Success goes to those cities that make the transition

We need to make the critical changes together in democratic settings

We need to create a new political space that reflects how we actually live in cities