Images From Polish Hill Jane's Walk Coming Soon

Um yeah, just like the two book reviews I promised. But seriously, it went far better than we could have expected in it's first year. By great luck, the neighborhood that stepped up happens to likely be Pittsburgh's best example of small scale grass roots oriented bootstrapping almost certain to have won Jane's favor. Not surprisingly, Terry Doloughty the Polish Hill Civic Association president and lifelong resident who guided the tour had read the book. Read The Post Gazette story.

Ms. Jacobs wrote that successful neighborhoods "are not discrete units. They are physical, social and economic continuities -- small scale to be sure but small scale in the sense that the lengths of fibers making up a rope are small scale."

"The Death and Life of Great American Cities" became a classic that masses of sociology, public policy and political science students read. An attack on urban planning of the day, the book was a foundation for the New Urbanist movement.

The national non-profit Project for Public Spaces called it "perhaps the most influential American text about the inner workings and failings of cities, inspiring generations of urban planners and activists."

"All the things she talked about is what we are doing: sidewalk cafes, street trees, merchants groups, festivals," said architect David Lewis, one of the area's most venerable advocates of community-building urban design.

If you have thoughts, insight or images you want to share about art, music, film, urban design, architecture, transit or history in the Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Youngstown, Erie, Morgantown, Akron, Canton region--Cleveburgh, email me diggingpitt@gmail.com. We can hook you up to post.

This is not Hyper Local media, but regional media seeking local viewpoints.

Take a Jane's Walk in Polish Hill

Courtesy of BLOGSKI, the Polish Hill neighborhood blog

“Cities have the capability of providing something for everybody, only because, and only when, they are created by everybody.”
— Jane Jacobs, ‘The Death and Life of Great American Cities’

Jane’s Walk is a series of free neighborhood walking tours that helps put people in touch with their environment and with each other, by bridging social and geographic gaps and creating a space for cities to discover themselves. Since its inception in 2007, Jane’s Walk has happened in cities across North America, and is quickly expanding internationally. In 2009 Jane’s Walks were held in 46 cities with a total of 315 walks offered. All Jane’s Walk tours are given and taken for free.

You can find out more about Jane Jacob's and Jane's Walk on the organization's site.

Join us in Polish Hill for our own Jane's Walk

Polish Hill, then and now

The tour will start at the PHCA office, home of the organization for forty years. Our guide, Terry Doloughty, is the President of the PHCA, as was his grandfather at the founding of the organization. Mr. Doloughty is a specialist in the neighborhood; he has lived on Polish Hill all of his life and has been deeply involved in the community throughout. Our neighbors will be joining us at points throughout the route to talk about our neighborhood.

The route will pass many of Polish Hill's community gardens and public green spaces and includes visits to the newest and oldest of these community efforts.

As with many neighborhoods, Polish Hill is reinventing itself. Older homes are being reclaimed from their gentle decay. The history of some of these properties is complex as they move from mixed use to residential and back again, answering the needs of our changing population.

Some of the assets of Polish Hill are repurposed lots that are taking on a new life. Some, like the West Penn Community Center, have always been a site for community service but have changed, like the rest of the neighborhood, to the needs of its citizens.

But the most striking feature of Polish Hill is its views and its unique geography. The tour will provide many opportunities to experience both.

A map of the route is available.

Jane's Walk
Polish Hill then and now
Free
Saturday, May 1
11AM - 1PM
Meet at the PHCA office
Please RSVP to 412-681-1950 or phcapgh@gmail.com

Jane's Walk Will Happen Saturday, May 1st : Details To Come

Good news, odds are very high that some kind of Jane's Walk will happen in Pittsburgh because at least one other very serious person is willing to work to put this together. Likely, I will be guiding or co-guiding at least part of it.

Stay tuned here for more info and also look for updates here.

Interested in helping--guiding? Email me diggingpitt@gmail.com

From what i can tell so far, fewer cities in the U.S. are doing this than last year, but a good number of these are hosting multiple walks, or rides or other related events.

Also, I think a lot of things will likely pop up in new cities and be listed in the next few days.

Still, no word on progress in Cleveland, but we know people were very interested in the idea on Rust Wire. Momentum and real progress will come for much more activity next year.

Jane's Walk Update: Short Notice But We May Have One

I was honestly just too reluctant to keep on banging the Jane's Walk drum since I didn't want to put it together. However, it looks like at least one person is very serious about this. I'm taking a chance and cutting and pasting their entire email except the contact email.

If you are interested email me-- John Morris: diggingpitt@gmail.com and I will pass along your email.

There is not much time.

"Hello All,

I am trying to organize an event called Jane's Walk in Pittsburgh for Saturday, May 1st, 2010 and wanted to see who would be interested in helping.
The event is held throughout the US and Canada annually on the first weekend of May, to coincide with Jane Jacobs' birthday. I'm sure all of you have read the classic 1961 book by Jane Jacobs, The Death and Life of Great American Cities. The tours try to pick up on what Ms. Jacobs did so well; walking the streets, observing the surroundings, listening to stories and meeting neighbors face to face.

For detailed information, please visit the main website: http://janeswalkusa.wordpress.com/.
This will be the first year for the event in Pittsburgh and I'm not sure what to expect; How many neighborhoods will be included, the audience that would turn out, etc.
Since there isn't much time till May 1st, we need to start right away in organizing this in Pittsburgh.

There are multiple ways to get involved: Serve on the Steering Committee to work out logistics in Pittsburgh Volunteer to give a tour of your neighborhood on May 1stForward this information to others who might be interestedDetermine if a local organization would be willing to host this Pittsburgh eventPlease let me know if you are interested.

Thank you for reading and I hope to hear from you soon! Chuck Alcorn"

From the Jane's Walk website:

"Jane’s Walks are best organized by a broad network of people and groups who share a common concern for making cities more livable but a spectrum of approaches and observations about the neighborhood, the city, the past and future are welcomed. As with all community organizing, the wider the network, the lighter the organizational load for everyone.Jane’s Walks are a walking conversation. Tour guides lead the conversation with interesting insights and stories about their neighborhood, but also encourage people to share their own opinions and observations. Participants really enjoy the opportunity to meet neighbors face to face and hear each others’ ideas.A key principle of Jane’s Walk is that it is self-organizing and self-selecting. Anyone can sign up to give a walk by getting in touch with the Jane’s Walk USA team via the web, phone or email.Tour guides don’t have to be familiar with Jane Jacobs’ work to lead a tour, but we encourage people to find out more by reading her books or consulting our website for more links and primers on her ideas."

Richard Florida: Creative Class Break

Eeeek here's another video of the slick, arrogant, articulate, know it all, picking on us again by saying the world is going to "reset" around the world's hip "Alpha Regions".

Should we listen? IMHO, Richard is pretty on the ball with his thinking. A nice little video here. Wondering what you think about him. A pretty bitter reaction to Richard broke out on Rust Wire.

His basic idea is that people live in cities because they want to and because they get tangible network benefits from living near other people. This by the way is also a Jane Jacobs view of the world.

To quote Richard in the video, "Place has replaced the corporation as the fundamental building block of our age."

I don’t think at this point this is really debatable anymore. It may very well be that large numbers of Americans still want to live in an isolated nuclear pod family with as little social relation to others as possible. The thing is that it’s now self evident that this just does not work on a basic practical economic level."

Another Jane Jacobs Video

Jane Jacobs: Parting Words (2007) from Kevin Balmer on Vimeo.

Too lazy a disorganised today to post much or tie thoughts together. Here's another video, about Jane Jacobs. It's not nearly long enough.

In a more rational world all of this Jane stuff would get pretty stale, lame, and redundant. After all this should be just common sense. However, in the fragile world of Pittsburgh and America today, the first step in making the world a "better place", is to keep the ignorant and powerful from making it worse.

I like that the video draws the link between a lot of Richard Florida's ideas and their obvious roots in Jane's writing.

Robert Caro Talks About Robert Moses

I'm really sorry once again for throwing up this video about one of the greatest figures (for better or worse) in New York state and perhaps in American history.

Please watch it if you can.

"That Robert Caro’s book is alive and being read a generation and a half after it first appeared bespeaks its pertinence to Americans who have never set foot in New York. It is the classic description of what happens when the power to raise and spend money is placed in government entities beyond the reach of the voters, when government institutions are designed to be impregnable to outside clamor."

NICHOLAS VON HOFFMAN

Still More Jane's Walk Talk

More general buzz and discussion popping up about bringing some kind of Jane Jacobs related events and walks to Pittsburgh and other former Rust Belt cities.

Diana Nelson Jones, who hosts one of the few blogs focusing on Pittsburgh from a pedestrian perspective did this post, which quotes one of my comments on Null Space. She also links to a number of other Jane related sites, articles-- and we can add to this the previous talk on Rust Wire, all of which point to some building support for doing something in the Spring.

Using the inevitable football metaphor, living here is often like watching a terrible coaching staff leaving almost all your best running backs on the bench, refusing to block, refusing to tackle while wasting time and resources on ever more bizarre hail Mary passing plays or relying exclusively on kickoff returns.

Not only do the coaches and owners, not put the best people on the field, we can't even let them practice and even worse, one always has to live in fear of which reasonably good or potentially great players might be traded away or cut next, whose property might be seized, whose street cut off and taxes raised for another "special teams operation".

It's not like Pittsburgh doesn't have some great walkable neighborhoods-- and it's not like they ain't successful-- there's plenty of game tape out there that shows what's working on a social and economic level as well as plenty of red ink, empty streets and failed shells to show us what hasn't worked. Yet almost all major government policies repeat these failed plays over and over. Don't pee on my leg and tell me it's raining!

Team is a good word to use, since as Jane pointed out city's are continuous experiments in social interaction.

Just one more thought, Jane always left a cop out for bad coaches looking for excuses when she said "no two cities or streets are alike". Obviously, this is self evident, but one just has to look at Death and Life's chapter titles, listed below to get the idea that she thought some things worked and some things didn't or only look at a few cities closely to see she was mostly right.

The uses of sidewalks: safety
The uses of sidewalks: contact
The uses of neighborhood parks
The uses of city neighborhoods
The need for mixed primary uses
The need for small blocks
The need for aged buildings
The need for concentration
The curse of border vacuums
Gradual money and cataclysmic money
Erosion of cities or attrition of automobiles

May not be sexy enough to always make the highlight films.

Jane's Walk Update

Since I first brought up the "Jane's Walk" idea, there's been a bit more buzz and talk about it,on this blog, Rust Wire and Null Space including several people interested in guiding a walk or helping in some way.

The official "Jane's Walks" are held in early May in cities and towns across mainly North America, so there's plenty of time to plan things out.

The central site's for info are:

Jane's Walk USA
JanesWalk.Net

All walks are free and there are no limits to how many a city can have.

Here's the comment I left on Rust Wire

"If I had to pick one walk, I think choosing an area with a variety of positive and negative issues might be best. For example, a functional or semi functional neighborhood divided by a major highway or a functional street grid cut off by a senseless mega block office park or even a poorly thought out park.

Also from my general knowledge, the issue of minimal concentration and population density is a big issue like it is on Pittsburgh’s North Side and Hill District both of which have big troubles supporting a supermarket, shopping district or mass transit.(even though both once had thriving shopping areas)

Remember, some of Death & Life’s chapter titles.

The uses of sidewalks: safety
The uses of sidewalks: contact
The uses of neighborhood parks
The uses of city neighborhoods
The need for mixed primary uses
The need for small blocks
The need for aged buildings
The need for concentration
The curse of border vacuums
Gradual money and cataclysmic money
Erosion of cities or attrition of automobiles

Sadly, I think in both Pittsburgh and Cleveland the best plan might be to walk the streets with a really old person with a memory of their neighborhoods before they were “improved” by government highways and politically organized mega projects.

Stay tuned, it looks like this will happen.

The Igloo From Hell

I'm really sorry for not doing more local arts posts. There are lots of great things about Pittsburgh, great people, offbeat projects, some great neighborhoods, history etc.... which luckily now you can hear more about in places like Pop City, the City Paper, The Post Gazette and great new sites like Bittersweet Harvest and City Creative.

However, the city is small, fragile and cannot survive the kind of taxpayer supported clusterf--cks it's had to go through in the past.It's not fun but someone has to stand with a sign saying-- not again, and I guess that's my job.

In spite of all the promises made when they built the new Penguins Arena, to tear down the old one and build a normal mixed use, residential, retail development to help reconnect the Downtown and The Hill, a curious number of people are showing up with honestly bizarre excuses to keep old "Igloo" standing-- few are Hill District residents.

No doubt is was an interesting and significant building and even less that it holds a lot of great memories for many people. But, almost nobody who remembers the old Hill, or has an even passing knowledge of urban issues, thinks the area was improved by the huge steel shell, massive block of parking space and highway interchange that made it very difficult and unpleasant to walk from the Hill to Downtown or that the city was made better off by the loss of several blocks of potential tax generating property.

Even the Post thinks it's wacky.

"Pursuing them would produce real harm by placing significant constraints on the development of the plot that surrounds the arena and, at least from the vantage point of the Hill District, a large steel shell -- albeit smaller when fully opened -- would remain standing between the neighborhood and Downtown."

Keep it up Pittsburgh. You still have a shot at being Detroit. Just follow these tips.

"Tear holes in your city and stick in as many highways as you can. Highways that will divide and cut through existing business districts are the best. You must have major highways cutting into your downtown!! Remember, you don’t want people to live in the city especially wealthy people.

Raise Taxes in the city to pay for it and your other plans. Well, just raise taxes for any reason really.

Cut and remove as much mass transit as you can. Transit is needed to have a dense city and you don’t want that.

Add as much parking as you can. You can build huge garages to help waste tax money but you mainly need huge areas of plain old surface lots.

Put huge Sports Stadiums in or near the key areas of the city. Since they are usually empty, they are are like putting extra fancy holes in the town. they waste lots of tax money and best of all they need tons of parking!!! (remember you don’t have mass transit.)The key is to put these holes in or just near the downtown and make sure that a sea of parking lots sit on the most useful city land."

Hat tip to Pittsburgh Comet.

Some Tips On How To Destroy A City

This was something I wrote two years ago on the Pittsburgh Metroblog which seems worth putting up again. It relates to a few future posts.

One bunch of people who are likely to want to come to Pittsburgh are urban planners. This isn’t a complement; Pittsburgh is almost a lab experiment in poor government and bad urban design and It’s kind of famous for it. So,it may be that people may want some tips on how too screw up their towns too. These tips are most useful if you are looking to screw up a city with a small land area (by which I mean -in the city limits) and are great for places with lots of hills, rivers or other barriers.

Here are just a few. I will come back with more.It’s a two part strategy to destroy the value of urban land; quality of life and tax base while at the same time making it easy and cheap live outside the city.It’s proven and has worked great here.

Tear holes in your city and stick in as many highways as you can. Highways that will divide and cut through existing business districts are the best. You must have major highways cutting into your downtown!! Remember, you don’t want people to live in the city especially wealthy people.

Raise Taxes in the city to pay for it and your other plans. Well, just raise taxes for any reason really.

Cut and remove as much mass transit as you can. Transit is needed to have a dense city and you don’t want that.

Add as much parking as you can. You can build huge garages to help waste tax money but you mainly need huge areas of plain old surface lots.

Put huge Sports Stadiums in or near the key areas of the city. Since they are usually empty, they are are like putting extra fancy holes in the town. they waste lots of tax money and best of all they need tons of parking!!! (remember you don’t have mass transit.)The key is to put these holes in or just near the downtown and make sure that a sea of parking lots sit on the most useful city land.

Try to remove as many mixed uses of land as you can. Say that offices should not be near homes or stores etc… This requires more driving, more and wider highways and more and more parking holes in the city. It also will likely cause lots of traffic and pollution which will chase people out of town. Remember to raise taxes or borrow to pay for the roads.

Use all kinds of anti walking policies. Shoppers usually walk and you don’t want that. Get rid of sidewalks and use highways with walls to cut up areas.

Basically, It’s a progressive strategy. You set in motion a chain reaction that requires more and more of the same–more holes and lower densities require more driving and more holes in the city and so on. For example, chances are that your downtown retail will start to die off– so you say you need to add more parking or perhaps pay the retailers to stay. Some people might start to feel bad about their town as you destroy it (by now your suicide rate might be up) so they need cheering up with some other new stadium.

You can do it to!!!

Let's Have A Jane's Walk In Pittsburgh

Been visiting NYC again, going to museums and walking the streets and looking at the endlessly fascinating fabric of the city at ground level. Why people choose to live here and not there? why are some blocks crowded and others empty and dangerous? It's always interesting.

I always want to kiss the ground (umm-- not wise) and remember how close the city came to being destroyed by starry eyed urban planners armed with billions in Federal tax dollars. Jane yelled stop and asked people to walk the streets of their cities and look and and think about the practical, common sense things that made them tick. Sadly, most people didn't listen.



"All Hypotheses get tested in the real world"

For the last three years a project called Jane's Walk has invited volunteer guides to take people around and talk about the unique things that work well and make their neighborhoods special.

"Each of the participating cities in Jane’s Walk finds its own volunteer tour guides to conduct walking tours. Some tours focus on heritage sites, while others explore the nooks and crannies of the city. From great hangouts for kids to ethnic business and residential enclaves, the tours and their leaders are diverse like cities themselves."

The list of Jane's Walks from 2009

Anchorage
Boston
Cambridge
Dayton, Ohio
Jackson, Mississippi
Moscow, Idaho
New Orleans
New York City
Oakland
Oklahoma City
Omaha
Orlando
Philadelphia
Phoenix
Salt Lake City
San Francisco
Seattle
Spanish Harlem, New York City
Starkville, Mississippi
St. Louis

Notice a trend-- almost no "rust belt" cities on this list and Jane's hometown of Scranton isn't either.

Some Canadian Cities with walks (Jane moved to Toronto in the late sixties)

Brant County, Ontario
Burlington
Calgary
Cambridge
Halifax

Yadda, Yadda, Yadda. See complete list here!

And--- the coolest walk so far has got to be a Jane's walk in Mumbai!

Anyway, if nobody else takes this up for 2010, I guess I would guide a tour myself, something I honestly don't think I'd be too qualified to do.

The most fun might be to have several people who know a neighborhood well to guide a walk together with each adding their thoughts and knowledge about an area's history, design and inner logic.

Richard Florida's Google Talk

I finally got around to watching Richard Florida's Google talk about his new book, Who's Your City. Florida was a longtime CMU professor and his 57 minute talk is well worth watching. I might get back with some thoughts when I can on this.

Pittsburgh's Sprawl Problem

Bill O'Driscoll has a nice short story about the effects of our misguided, government funded and enforced development pattern which is at the root of our wastefull lifesyle.

"Jim Hassinger, executive director of the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission, led off by discussing Project Region, the group's effort to chart its 10-county territory's preferred future. Over two years, with input from 3,000 citizens, Hassinger says the SPC discovered a public preference for more compact, higher-density development.

"Thus, the SPC's long-range plan -- the region's blueprint for funding things like infrastructure and economic development -- leans toward revitalizing existing communities and preserving open space, in contrast to the low-density, bedroom-suburb-and-strip-mall model that has characterized growth in the region (and the country) for decades.

This was music to critics of the SPC's history of favoring highway-based development. Meanwhile, the conference's keynote speech by renowned metropolitan land-use strategist, author and real-estate developer Christopher Leinberger announced that communities designed to be more compact and walkable -- and hence more environmentally friendly -- are also the market's future. "The market basically is switching," he said, citing increases not only in fuel prices but in people who prefer urban living."

I'll be back on this subject again soon.

Saturday Afternoon at the Digging Pitt

Our friend Jason was in town from Flint, MI this past weekend, so we brought him by the Digging Pitt to meet John and have a New York diaspora powwow. Here's John, Jason, and Tom passionately discussing downtown Brooklyn and Stuyvesant Town in terms of Jane Jacobs, Le Corbusier, and Frank Gehry.