Was Pittsburgh's Downtown "Ciclovia", Worthy of the Name?

Following over 100 cities worldwide, Pittsburgh had an "Open Streets", Ciclovia downtown. A few streets were closed to cars and made open to pedestrians, cyclists- even Yoga & Zumba classes. I didn't attend or actually know it happened until days later.

Of course almost any event of this type is positive. NYC now closes 7 miles of streets, including Park Avenue from the Brooklyn Bridge to Central Park on 3 summer Saturdays.

Bogota, the originator of the "Ciclovia" closes over 120 kilometers of  to cars once a week, in events that bring more than 2 million people onto the streets! (Medellin & Cali also have large events)

Mexico City closes over 60 kilometers of streets.

Los Angeles closes miles of streets including a big chunk of  Wilshire Boulevard, 3 times a year.

"Atlanta opens several miles of streets throughout the year for Atlanta Streets Alive. On April 20 the festival will close a 2.7-mile loop in the West End, and in May the city's Peachtree Street will be closed from Downtown to Midtown."

Paris's streets along "the Seine are not only banned to cars, they are also transformed into "plages" or beaches, which include sand, umbrellas, beach chairs, and actual temporary pools. The plages are installed for July and August."

Nothing against what Pittsburgh did but hopefully the future events will be more worthy of the name. An event next year may close 3-4 miles of Pittsburgh streets to cars.

A few links about Open Streets, Ciclovia movement.

The Rise of Open Streets

Ditch Your Car And Grab a Bike For These 9 Open Streets Festivals

Open Streets Coming To Pittsburgh

Cleveland Makes Progress by Removing Waterfront Highway--Um Sort Of?

NPR recently did a story on how mainstream taking down urban highways has become.

"Cities as diverse as New Haven, New Orleans and Seattle are either doing it or talking about it. The chief motivation seems to be money.

Milwaukee removed a freeway spur for $30 million. Officials estimated it would have cost between $50 million and $80 million to fix that roadway. That inspired Akron, Ohio, officials to study what to do with an aging six-lane freeway that few motorists use.

"Perhaps we can remove sections of it and have it fit in better with the Akron grid system and offer an economic benefit by making land available," says Jim Weber, Akron's construction manager."

Shockingly, even Cleveland is well along the way towards removing the lakefront, West Shoreway freeway, and replacing it with a boulevard.

Except, in spite of the hype and good press, this has gotten, things are not exactly what they seem. Angie Schmitt,from Rust Wire notes that the resulting ground road will be very much a freeway.

"Several years ago, city planners and neighborhood activists on the west side hatched a plan to reconnect city residents to Lake Erie by converting the West Shoreway into a pedestrian-friendly boulevard. Planners recommended reducing the speed limit from 50 to 35, adding stoplights with crosswalks and installing a bike path.

Despite almost universal recognition of the importance of lake access, advancing the plan was not the slam dunk you might expect. In order to lower the speed limit, the state legislature would have to formally act in favor of the proposal. Although local planners estimated the reduction would cost the average commuter a mere 70 extra seconds of travel time, the legislation stalled in the statehouse. Even city council members from the farther-west wards of Cleveland came out against the plan, joining a powerful opposition group of suburban commuters.

Furthermore, in order to convert a limited-access highway into a boulevard with stoplights that would allow for pedestrian crossing, the plan would have to be approved by the Ohio Department of Transportation. After reviewing the proposal, ODOT nixed the stoplights, saying they would increase congestion. The city was forced to scale back plans"

Yes, you read right, In Ohio, speed limits and traffic light placement on major roads are not up to the local community, but the state DOT. So, now exactly how will local residents and visitors cross this road--through new improved tunnels (you really think many people will actually use these?) built at a city expense of $2.5 million. Sure seems like a freeway.

Not that it's exactly that simple since plans to reduce speed limits spurred not just suburban but city opposition in a town so oriented around the car. Those opponents can point to the relative lack of pedestrian life in the downtown and areas near the lake and say there is just no demand for pedestrian access--just like there wasn't in NYC or San Francisco before their waterfront highways came down. Even so, Detroit Shoreway and Gordon Square near the lake are fairly popular places.

One added note is that once again, a major factor here was the very unwise placement of a huge football stadium, requiring massive parking and highway access on the central city waterfront.

Important Oakland Community Planning Meetings Kick Off Tomorrow Night

"The kickoff event this Thursday will introduce a series of five dialogue sessions that will take place between March 24 and the first week in May. Each session will include eight to ten community members discussing the issues they're passionate about in Oakland, and the changes they would like to see over the next fifteen years. These events, lead by a facilitator, will build upon each other in order to identify the most pressing concerns about the neighborhood, likely covering future development strategies, green initiatives, new multi-modal transportation opportunities, and public education enhancement."

As I recall, Lawrenceville went through this process-resulting in very few significant changes.

I have a pretty significant gripe here. We all know that Oakland, as the core area holding the bulk of the city's major educational and medical institutions, is critical to the city's future. We also, know that the major players already have major ideas which they likely will ram down our throats anyway-through eminent domain.

The problem here is that the major issues and thinking has to be done on a larger level--and at a minimum involve the major surrounding areas--South Oakland, Shadyside, Squirrel Hill, East Liberty and the Hill District. In the absence of this, no significant progress is likely and the self destructive trend towards traffic, sprawl and poor quality urban design will continue.

For a good example of how a broad planning process that might help shape major infrastructure in the city one has to go no further than Youngstown, Ohio.

Cleveland Admires Pittsburgh's Growing Bike Culture

Given the childish rivalry, it might be bad to say Cleveland's new version of POP City has a story looking enviously at Pittsburgh's increasingly pro cycling culture.

"A critical mass of bicyclists -- activists or not -- is one ingredient that Pittsburgh needs to become the kind of hip place that attracts talented young workers now and in the future," the Post-Gazette posited almost prophetically in 2003, at a time when even many in the cycling community considered the city a dangerous place to ride.

Fast forward to present day and you'll find a vastly different bike culture has taken flight. Pittsburgh recently won the honor of being named a Bronze-level "Bicycle Friendly Community" by the League of American Bicyclists, putting them on par with regional leaders like Columbus and Indianapolis. With support of its mayor, Pittsburgh is aiming even higher, hoping to join cities like Denver, Austin and Minneapolis in the Silver class."

It's kind of funny in a way, because Pittsburgh actually has a pretty challenging geography that while attracting avid cyclists, doesn't make it easy to ride here.

Fight the good fight Cleveland, as the article shows, none of the progress made here has been easy.

Hat Tip to Rust Wire.

Car Free Saturdays In The Strip? Worth Thinking About.

OK, I am at the start of this going to predict that this is not happening any time soon.

Laura/Lolly @ Reimagine An Urban Paradise, comes to Pittsburgh with a new perspective and I find myself referring to her posts because, she sees the city somewhat like I do and also because, there just aren't many people posting on these subjects at all here, let alone actively debating them.

She, like me was inspired and envious of New York's now very popular and successful move to turn close Broadway in Times and Herald Square to cars. Something I posted about at least once. She wonders if we couldn't do this on busy Saturdays along a stretch of Penn Ave in the Strip.

"If you’ve ever walked down this packed shopping district on Saturdays in Pittsburgh you’ve noticed how crowded every spot is. Traffic moves slowly because there are so many people and those cars could easily be diverted onto the parallel streets.

If they can move cars off the main street of America, we can do it on the main street of Pittsburgh."

Yes, there are strong similarities. Both Times Square and the Strip have hectic active shopping areas in which cars, vendors and people fight for space (although we all know at other hours the Strip can be quite dead). However, the differences are also very big. Closing these small areas to cars was the easy reward New York could reap for having a dense, much more transit oriented city.

Over 1.5 million people live in Manhattan, with likely at several hundred thousand within a 30 block walking distance of Times Square. Many, millions more fill it's midtown office and shopping districts almost all of whom use a form of transit other than cars. In fact, I think, the stats show that 90% of the people in Times Square on a work day got there through some other form of Transit, from Subway, LIRR (To 34TH, Penn Station) ; Metro North (To nearby Grand Central), PATH (To Penn Station) City Bus, Express Bus, Ferry, Amtrak or by walking. Even so, the remaining ten percent was taking the bulk of space. (Although in honesty, NYC would have traffic issues just from delivery and needed service vehicles on a busy weekday)Even if I'm off on these numbers I'm not way off.

Sadly, Pittsburgh is not in that position and most people shopping in the Strip likely drove there.

While I support the idea and the thinking behind it, I'm pretty concerned that a big dead space of parking would be required around the pedestrian shopping area. If it was popular, People might demand a huge permanent amount of parking. Well, that's sort of what they are doing now anyway. But we have to move away from and make the city work for city residents and businesses.

This is part of my response to Lolly.

"If one actually wants to make lots of progress here, a lot more details and meat have to be put on these bones.

What happened in NYC, came after a large consensus already existed among business and property owners that this might be OK for them. They know, their customers are not driving into Times Square. NY or at least Manhattan, has generally engaged in a series of policies which enhanced the benefits of density, and thus progressively maximized the use and value of it’s land. We have done very much the opposite.

We need to get beyond the green and traditional leftist moralising and talk about why moves like this are likely to not only improve the quality of life for city residents, but increase business, lower costs, and increase property values. Denser development that extracted more value from the land would also allow for decent city services with lower tax rates.

Did you experience last years snow? Any guess as to what it cost to plow all those remote hills? The whole situation was absurd, since it was so obvious what the problem was. Narrow streets were blocked by parked cars and couldn't be cleared. Telling people to get them off the street for even a few hours was too politically difficult. Meanwhile, much of the best flat land in the city, is wasted on stadiums, surface parking lots, or highways.

The previous car oriented policies have so clearly not worked. In spite of efforts to hide it, the difference between The South Side and The North Side should be obvious to all.

What exactly is Transit Oriented Development and why is it so smart for Pittsburgh? That’s what we need to talk about.

Still, one needs to be somewhat understanding of Pittsburgh’s history. These flat areas were the central sites of Pittsburgh’s industry and many people still equate them with jobs, jobs, jobs. Even though the number of good jobs in the few trucking depots and warehouses in the Strip today is not very significant. A lot of folks still think they should wait and a big new mill will open. (Even though modern steel mills don’t need many workers)

Also, Pittsburghers for the same reason saw most of these places as dirty and undesirable. Notice that houses become fancier and more elegant the further one gets from the old waterfront mill sites?

The North Side’s “Millionaire’s row is a partial exception because it began to develop after Pittsburgh was industrial, but before the truly giant mills came into being in the late 19TH Century."

One very good idea that might help the Strip while enhancing density and promoting pedestrian shopping and development would be a free or very low cost mini shuttle or bus circulator running from The Downtown through Lawrenceville. even if it only ran a few hour it would give people idea of what is possible.

Some Thoughts On The Blog's Future

Some of you may have been disappointed by the blog's slow path away from pure art's coverage, although it's always had a pretty big chaos component.

What I've always had in mind, was a blog not just about the arts here, but the relationships between artists and creative people and some broader idea of community. I also want to form some kind of group conversation about good design and urbanism on every aspect of life.

Several new people will probably be posting once in a while giving their different views on how to make the region more livable. One has some knowledge of Cleveland, but now lives in the D.C. area (without a car), the other lived in D.C. and now lives in Pittsburgh without a car. Both are seriously into biking so that's likely to come up.

Hopefully, more people will also take me up on my offer. I'd still like a lot more arts coverage. Also, more perspective from Northeast Ohio or West Virginia would be great.

A further note. All opinions are the views of their respective posters (although we often may agree) There is no real editor and certainly no intent to create groupthink. A certain level of controversy is encouraged.

Density is the Dream

Last night I dreamt that Pittsburgh was giving out incentive money (they’d gotten a grant, of course) to anyone in the metro area who would move closer to the city center. There was a bonus amount for crossing into the city limits, but that wasn't a requirement--the idea was just to dense up the whole area. If everyone could move a little closer in (closer to the city that is the reason for the metro area), it would make a noticeable difference in population.

I woke up thinking that there could be a separate incentive for moving close enough to your job to walk or ride your bike. Just think how great these movements would be: shops, grocery stores, and restaurants would thrive; streets would be safer in at least two ways: less desolate and fewer killer-cars; city services like libraries, schools, snow removal, public transit, and police coverage could expand through adequate tax funding; the long-discussed city-county merger might finally happen. The city would attract more tourists and transplants because we'd have a new light rail running through the center of town and we'd be voted Most Walkable City.

What else do you imagine could be the impact of more density in Pittsburgh and the immediate area?

Great Pittsburgh Urbanism Blog: Reimagine an Urban Paradise

Both Karen and me were dumb/ crazy enough to have seen Pittsburgh's potential as an interesting, inexpensive, livable city. even so, up till very recently there have been very few blogs or sites batting around the nuts and bolts ideas that would help get us there. Yes, there's Bike Pittsburgh but a safe dynamic city in a town with the hills needs complete streets and neighborhoods for everyone.

Reimagine an Urban Paradise, is a nice blog that starts to dig into that. Here, Lolly, the author tells us about a fun, practical thing you can do in a dense city. Read her post about Clothing Swaps here.

Russian Film Symposium & Silk Screen Film Festival

Pittsburgh gets some amazing film festivals, and they're not always that well publicized. Since I moved to Pittsburgh, I've seen fantastic films at festivals dedicated to Czech Republic directors, Jewish-Israeli directors, GLBT topics, Chinese directors, Global themes, and local filmmakers. This doesn't even count the many film series and festivals I've missed, such as the Amigos del Cine Latinoamericano, Romanian Cinema on the Edge, the Cine-stan Festival for Turkmen and Kazakh films, the Polish Film Series, the Indian Film Festival, the Italian Film Festival, the Syrian Film Series, the German Avant-Garde Film Series, and many more.

Last night was the kickoff of the public segment of the 12th annual Russian Film Symposium, with the screening (at Pittsburgh Filmmakers, Melwood) of a powerful mother-daughter film, "Wolfy." The next three nights continues the Russian Film screenings (all films from 2009), also at Pittsburgh Filmmakers on Melwood (North Oakland). Tonight's film, "Oxygen" (a "rap parable") comes highly recommended.

As Merge Divide has mentioned, starting Friday is the Silk Screen Festival of Asian films (screening at all three theaters connected with Pittsburgh Filmmakers--Harris, Melwood, Regent's Square). This festival is aiming to put Pittsburgh on the map by being the best of its kind.

In one of my Pittsburgh fantasies, I put the Melwood screening facility more obviously on the map by getting a Sprout grant to paint a red carpet on the sidewalks all the way down Melwood Avenue, from two or three blocks away, leading right to the door of the theater. I love this theater and photgraphy/film facility, but I wish it was a little easier for newcomers or visitors to find, and that it wasn't so dangerous to cross Baum Boulevard as a pedestrian.

The Fight To Cross A Bridge In Cleveland

Photo from Rust Wire

I've seriously thought about expanding the blog's name and mission yet again to include the maligned city of Cleveland, and all the area in between. Like it or not, Cleveland is the nearest neighboring planet of size and improvements in both places will be good for all.

A fight is developing, for the simple right of pedestrians and bikes to cross a major highway bridge there. You know, it sucks when people who live in the city inconvenience those who are just passing through. Perhaps the whole city should be labled an obstruction to highway traffic, like the South Bronx was.

"Residents in Tremont, one of Cleveland’s fastest growing neighborhoods, were cut off from downtown when ODOT closed an onramp last year that connected the area to downtown with virtually a straight line.

The bridge is going to be replaced anyway, beginning in 2011. So why not include such a path? It seems rare nowadays that the common sense, the public interest, and federal agency’s directives are on the same page. The Federal Highway Administration’s officially adopted policy for new transportation infrastructure, you would think, makes it easy for ODOT to give the path a green light:"

Dennis Kucinich, today took the issue to the house floor and the story was picked up by the Streetsblog network, which is emerging as an important grapevine for pro urban activists.