April Fools’ Day – Part 3

Bottomed-Out Bud Light Truck in San Francisco
(photo from Kurt Varner via Twitter)

Continuing on the heels of Parts 1 and 2, this is Part 3 of my annual April Fools’ Day summing up of stories that tickled me most over the last twelve months.  Previously, I’ve counted down from #24 to #13.  Today, I’ll continue with #12 to #7.

#12 Reverse Graffiti – Admittedly, this particular story has no urban connection, but the technique could have wide application in urban areas.  Very wide application.

Tasked with scrubbing the grime from the face of a concrete gravity dam, Polish energy company Polska Grupa Energetyczna asked a comic book artist to design a mural commemorating the vegetation and wildlife native to the woodlands near the dam.  Workers then selectively removed the grime to “paint” the mural.

Of course, this leaves a question.  If the dam wasn’t harmed by leaving much of the grime in place, was it necessary to remove any of it?  Or has Poland fallen into the same “job creation” trap as the U.S.?

#11 Cool Buses North of the Border –Following the lead of a Danish transit company that has tried to make buses cool, the transit department of the City of Edmonton offers their own cool bus video.  I give the edge to the Danes, but love that there’s competition.

#10 The Los Angeles Mayor Tries to Groove – Concerned about the possibility of traffic jams during a scheduled demolition project, Mayor Eric Garcetti contacted the Theodore Roosevelt High School Jazz Band.  He wanted them to back him up on a public safety announcement slow jam.

It’s not great music.  It’s not even good music.  But the Mayor and his staff get full credit for thinking outside the box.  And the jazz band might have had their civic awareness raised.

#9 Musical Swings – I’ve been to Montreal twice.  And hope to get there again.  Perhaps it’s the French influence, but Montreal feels different than most places in the U.S. and Canada.  A row of musical swings in a public plaza is one more example.

Programmed to emit single musical notes when a single swing is in use and to play increasingly complex chords as more and more swings synchronize up, the swings add a cooperative element to a public place.

#8 People Chat with Trees – Trying to give the public a better away to notify officials of concerns with trees in public places, the City of Melbourne, Australia gave email addresses to individual trees.  What they often got weren’t reports of rotten branches or damaged roots, but heartfelt communications between citizens and trees, sometimes chatty and sometimes more profound, touching on the circle of life.

I’m glad the folks found someone to talk with, but designers of public places might take this as a challenge to build spaces where people are emboldened to talk with each other rather than the vegetation.

#7 A Microbrew Truck Wouldn’t Have Done This – Cities have their own unique ingredients and flavors.  So the official beer of a city should be a microbrew that reflects the local culture.  Thus, it was painful to watch as the NFL, as part of bringing Super Bowl L to San Francisco and Santa Clara, also brought along sponsorships for national beer brands.

But the streets of San Francisco took revenge, high-centering a Bud Light truck on its way to a downtown Super Bowl gathering place.  (The photo was posted to Twitter by Kurt Varner.)  Hopefully whatever beer void was created by the truck mishap was filled by beverages from 21st Amendment or Speakeasy.

When I next write, my top six April Fools’ Day stories of the past year will be revealed.

As always, your questions or comments will be appreciated.  Please comment below or email me.  And thanks for reading. - Dave Alden (davealden53@comcast.net)

April Fools’ Day - Part 2

Mexican Mural, Photo from The Guardian

As described in my last post, I use April Fools’ Day as an excuse to do a yearly summing up of the most whimsical and quirky urbanist stories I’ve stumbled across over the past year.  In the last post, I counted down from #24 to #19.  Today, I’ll continue downwards from #18 to #13.

#18 Why Buses Run in Packs – Almost anyone who has tried riding buses in a congested big city has experienced the frustration.  After a tediously long wait for a bus, several buses arrive in a pack.  This perverse phenomenon isn’t the product of a transit dispatcher with a warped sense of humor, but is the predictable result of the first bus traveling more slowly as it stops for long queues of waiting passengers, allowing the following buses, which have relatively few passengers to load, to catch up.

Even worse, the problem doesn’t self-correct, but spirals out of control with even a slight delay in the first bus.  It only takes one barely-missed signal or wheelchair loading for the first bus to encounter greater and greater delays until the following bus is on its rear bumper.

Graduate students at the University of California assembled a simple simulation to explain the cause of bus bunching.  Try playing with the model by clicking on the buses in the box to the left to delay one or the other.  It takes only a short delay to destabilize the system, with one bus soon catching up to the other.

One reason this simulation caught my attention is a personal coincidence.  Buses aren’t the only vehicles that tend to in packs.  The same phenomenon can be seen in elevator cars.  I first noted it as a freshman at Cal.  I was standing in the mathematics building, Evans Hall, watching the board showing the elevator car locations and chatting with another freshman about how the cars seemed to travel together.  (Growing up in a town that had few buses or elevators, I’d been deprived until arriving at Cal.)

Another student, of more advanced standing, overheard our conversation and gave us a quick introduction to the theory.  So my introduction to bunching came in 1971 in Evans Hall on the Cal campus.  Oddly, the model linked here was developed in McLaughlin Hall, also on the Cal campus.  Per Google Maps, the front doors of Evans and McLaughlin Halls are only 250 feet apart.  So in 45 years, I’m back within 250 feet of where I started.  I don’t mind.  Instead, I find myself reassured about the path of my life.

(One other coincidence.  Readers in the Bay Area may have seen the recent obituary for the last surviving founder of Save the Bay, the organization often described as having started the environmental movement.  Her name was Silvia McLaughlin.  She was the widow of Professor Donald McLaughlin after whom McLaughlin Hall was named.  More proof that the world can be surprisingly small.)

#17 Bad Architecture Runs Amuck – There can be architecture that doesn’t function well for its tenants or doesn’t fit well within its neighborhood.  And then there’s tacky architecture that transcends to another level.  Russian wannabe developer Vasily Klyukin specializes in the latter.

I hope he remains a wannabe developer.  I don’t think the world needs a skyscraper shaped like a cobra head or an unclothed woman’s leg extending through a curtain.  I find the proposed Lover Towers in London to be compelling, but that’s the only one.

#16 Giant Mexican Mural – Using a hillside of modest Mexican homes as a canvas, a team of German artists have created what they claim is the largest mural in Mexico.  It seems odd that they only claim the record for Mexico.  It’s hard to imagine where in the world a larger mural could be found.

#15 Dutch Street Chairs Shaped Like Tulips – They may be trite and they may not age well in the sun, but something tickles me about the Dutch street furniture shaped like tulips.  I don’t see a place for them in the North Bay, but I love them in Amsterdam, especially when they’re folded up.

I’m particularly intrigued that they spin on the support post.  One of the lessons from William H. Whyte is that people are more likely to occupy public spaces when they feel they can exert control over how they use the space.  Moveable chairs are the best way to give that control, but spinnable chairs may provide some of the same benefit.  I know that I like to position the sun correctly if I’m going to read.

#14 Big Brother is Watching and He Has Big Eyes – The artists responsible for the giant eyes around the Dutch town of ‘s-Hertogenbosch (seriously, that’s not a typo) claim they were going for a statement on interconnectedness, but I find something more Orwellian in the eyes.  Either way, it’s urban art that makes us talk. 

#13 – The Bridge Continues to Win Every Battle – Readers from past April Fools’ Day collections may recall the Durham, North Carolina railroad bridge with reduced clearance and an uncanny ability to entice truck drivers into its clutches. 

The bridge is still engaging in combat and prevailing in every tussle.  If you’re at work, you might want to turn down your volume before clicking on the link.  Your coworkers might be startled by the sound of rending metal.

Next time, I’ll continue the countdown.  We’re getting closer to the top.

As always, your questions or comments will be appreciated.  Please comment below or email me.  And thanks for reading. - Dave Alden (davealden53@comcast.net)

Celebrating April Fool’s Day – Part Two

In my last post, I began a countdown of the top April Fools’ Day stories of the year from the world of urbanism.  Admittedly, most of the stories aren’t the pranks that are the supposed mainstay of April Fools’ Day, but I’m using the day as a convenient excuse to deplete my stockpile of stories that are quirky, whimsical, cringeworthy, or just plain fun.  And I’ll make no apologies for stretching the definition of April Fools’ Day.

Last time, I counted down the stories from #14 to #8.  Today, I’ll continue upward to #1.

#7 Best Transit Ad: Although not from the past year, this ad for the Danish transit carrier Midttrafik is worth watching again because it points the way toward the next story on the list.  The creative firm for Midttrafik was given great artistic latitude in their effort to make transit cool.  And they took full advantage.  Even without subtitles, the message would have been evident.

#6 Even Better Transit Ad: Midttrafik and their creative firm returned this year with an even better ad, involving a Paraguayan beauty queen and a burning Mercedes Benz.  This time, we don’t even get the subtitles, only the Danish audio, but the message comes through fine.

#5 Seattle Graffiti: Graffiti takes the next three spaces on the list, beginning with a graffiti artist who writes in paint that is only visible when it rains.  Luckily, he lives in Seattle, so his work is on display much of the time.  (I don’t suggest that he relocate to the North Bay.)

#4 Graffiti Grammar: Faced with a repressive regime in Ecuador, a small and anonymous group tries to pushback in their own individual fashion by correcting grammatical mistakes in graffiti.  And it’s a surprisingly democratic effort, with the group meeting to debate the corrections before undertaking their tasks.

#3 Chalk Drawings: Next up is an Ann Arbor graffiti artist who does chalk drawings that are wonderfully creative, quirky, and endearing.

#2 Interactive Billboard: In a story that would have been #1 before a late entry took away the top spot, a designer conceived and executed a video billboard linked to sensors which detect whether passersby are on foot or in cars.  Walkers get applause, joggers get wild enthusiasm, and drivers get silence.

#1 Preserving Bad Plazas and More: The Project for Public Spaces had great fun with April Fools’ Day, writing stories that would have taken multiple places in my list if they hadn’t all been on the same webpage.   The lead story covers a newly announced government initiative to historically preserve the poorly conceived public plazas of the 1970s that so irritate proponents of good public places.  But the story that gave me the biggest laugh was the one at the bottom, asking whether a park bench was blue/black or white/gold.

I’m already collecting links for the 2016 April Fools’ Day posts.  If I work diligently, perhaps I can make it a three-post event.

In my next post, I’ll celebrate the return of baseball by updating my annual listing of North California ballparks that can be easily reached by foot, bicycle, or transit.

As always, your questions or comments will be appreciated.  Please comment below or email me.  And thanks for reading. - Dave Alden (davealden53@comcast.net)

Celebrating April Fools' Day – Part One

Not every urbanism story revolves around advocacy or education.  Some are quirky.  Some are whimsical.  Some are cringeworthy.  And some are just plain fun.

Quirky, whimsical, cringeworthy, and fun may not be the adjectives normally associated with April Fools’ Day, but it’s the nearest fit I can find on the calendar.  So today I’ll begin a countdown of the top fourteen off-beat stories with urbanist angles over which I’ve stumbled during the past year.   Expecting that there are too many giggles, guffaws, and jaw-dropping moments for one post, today will be numbers eight through fourteen, with the top seven links to follow in my next post.

#14 Texting Signpost: A disengaged London prankster, trying the find the meaning of life in unexpected places, puts his phone number on an otherwise innocuous street signpost and then engages in churlish dialogue, impersonating the signpost, with folks who call the number.  The five-minute video is about three minutes and thirty seconds too long, but there are smile-inducing moments, like the woman working too hard to make a date with a signpost.

#13 London Bridges: The next item is also from London.  Trying to build a buzz for a massive redevelopment scheme around a former power station, the City of London is seeking creative, even fanciful, design concepts for a new $60 million pedestrian bridge across the Thames River upstream from the Houses of Parliament.

For those who have come to believe that the new eastern span of the Bay Bridge may have been a bridge too far (pun intended), the London designs should give chills.

#12 Snow Maze: Changing the theme from London to winter weather, Swedish architects built an elaborate snow fun zone, including a snow maze with walls of varying levels of translucency.

#11 Snow Tunnel: Lacking architects to plan their snow fun, Boston bicyclists, frustrated by a fifteen-foot high pile of snow left by snowplows and blocking their preferred bicycling route, spent two days building a tunnel through the snow.

Yes, one would think that the two days could have been better spent finding an alternative route and then locating a good cup of hot chocolate, but the snow excavation project could also be considered the building of social capital.

#10 Bumping against Airport Regulations: The piles of snow were even higher in Portland, Maine, where local officials had to worry about whether their growing mound of hauled snow would soon violate airspace restrictions around the local airport. 

#9 Worst Bus Stops: Definitely in the cringeworthy part of April Fools’ Day is the Streetsblog poll on the worst bus stops in the country.  I’m sure that every nominated bus stop has both a backstory that explains how the stop came to be located where it is and a transit planner who is mortified by the responsibility for the bus stop.  Nonetheless, some of the bus stops defy imagination.

My vote went to the St. Louis County bus stop that was the winner.  I’m intrigued by how people can even reach the bus stop given the nearby stormwater ditches.  And I’d love to hear the explanation of the handicapped accommodation.

#8 Bike Parking: Finishing today on a happier note, this Japanese video shows how technology and state-of-the-art mechanical engineering can stash a lot of bicycles in a little space.  Perhaps the first reaction is that the cost per bike must be awfully high.  But would it truly be even as much as the cost per parking space in a multi-story garage?

Next time, I’ll finish up with the top seven.

As always, your questions or comments will be appreciated.  Please comment below or email me.  And thanks for reading. - Dave Alden (davealden53@comcast.net)

Quarterly Fun

Three months ago, I wrote an April Fools’ blog post with links to some fun, whimsical, and/or quirky elements of urbanism.  I’ve since realized that there’s way too much urban weirdness to be saved for an annual post.  So, starting today, April Fools’ Day will be a quarterly event on this blog.  July 1, October 1, and January 1, or thereabouts, will serve as quarterly updates to April Fools’ Day.  Below are some of the best links collected during spring 2012.

In the leadoff position is an Atlantic Cities interview with the Urbanism Avenger.  The Avenger chooses to combine his love of urbanism and comics into a super-hero.  Using his Twitter account he engages in “heroic advocacy” of urbanism.  It’s good fun.  However, his admission that his daily job is in the planning department of a major city, but he needs to keep his urbanist sentiments undercover is unfortunate.  I understand the reality of the situation, but what a shame that a well-trained professional planner who believes in urbanism can only express his opinions when wearing a mask.

Next, the photo is of a bicycle-pedestrian path in Burgundy.  It’s a perplexing approach to wayfinding.  The French must have a different sense of the international “prohibited” sign.  Otherwise, my interpretation is that both walking and bicycling are prohibited on a bicycle-pedestrian path.  My cousin was the photographer.   (That’s his wife in the foreground.)  He advises me that the road crossing behind his wife is used by drivers at a relatively high speeds.  As the crossing priority is given to vehicles, perhaps the signage is meant to warn bicyclists to dismount and walkers to take a close hold of small children.  I have no other explanation.

The Carmichael Collective offers an off-beat take on plant tags, proposing the tags that would apply to typical street furniture.   (This link was provided by a regular reader of this blog.  Thanks, Dan.)

From New Orleans is a video of a faux village where all the homes double as musical instruments, or at least noisemakers.  The performers seem to having a fine time, but the audience seems nonplussed.

The Restless Urbanist is a fine urbanism blog.  It gets even better when the Restless Urbanist’s wife offers her insights on being married to a new urbanist.  The comments are also entertaining.

This photo gallery of derelict buildings in Gary, Indiana isn’t fun, whimsical, or quirky.  But the photos are great.  And they demonstrate what happens when cities lose the ability to regenerate and to reclaim underused properties.

Last is this video of a day in the life of Venice.  I would have enjoyed seeing more of the pedestrian life in Venice, but still found myself smiling in recollection at vaporettos cruising on the Grand Canal.  I spent two weeks in Venice in 2007.  The time gave me urban insights that continue to affect my daily life.

As always, your questions or comments will be appreciated.  Please comment below or email me.  And thanks for reading. - Dave Alden (davealden53@comcast.net)