WATERFRONT LINES

My Vertical Neighborhood

2011-08-29T08:02:00.001-07:00

The other day, in my usual "Oh, d-uh!" belated kind of epiphany, I realized that I live and work -- both -- on the 26th floor. Not in the same building, thankfully, but in two of about a dozen high-rises within the mile radius that is my vertical neighborhood. My commute to work is about 15 minutes' walk, in an area known as Mega Kuningan, about 3 miles south of Thamrin, the central commercial and retail district of Jakarta. Mega Kuningan itself is more of an office district, with a handful of residential towers surrounded by embassies galore. If you remember the high-profile bombing of the JW Marriott Hotel adjacent to a Ritz Carlton in 2006... yep, I pass by there every day. The Ritz Carlton stands in all its glory in the middle of it all, it's hotel and apartment towers gracing the 12 o'clock mark of the roundabout, "bunderan" Mega Kuningan. The neighborhood had very decent and well maintained pedestrian infrastructure, though the granite bits of tiles can be slippery when wet, but walking is a pleasure along its tree-lined radials.

I live above Mall Ambassador, immediately to the north and across Jalan Satrio, a main thoroughfare, from Mega Kuningan. Starting around the early 1980s, high-rise mixed-use developments were sprouting like mushrooms in Jakarta. The Ambassador-ITC Kuningan complex comprises of 2 malls and 2 residential towers above. It is a "middle-class" mall -- the best kind to live in cos it's got everything I need under one roof. Excuse me while I anticipate a rant about what I have access to downstairs of my apartment building.

You name it: Bazaar stands selling clothes, shoes, and even furniture, to 3m-by-3m shops where glasses, watches, bedsheets, and food get vended, repaired and cleaned. Restaurants and other food and beverage outlets dot the scene and occupy keystone corners, while half of the 4th floor of both Ambass and ITC is covered every square meter in food court style eating. The 2 malls are also known for consumer electronics and paraphernalia: handphones, laptops, cameras, and perhaps the one thing nobody can resist, pirated DVDs at 7,000 rupiah (80 US cents) a pop. Not to mention the absolute necessities, like banks, telecom and Internet ISP outlets, and a foot reflexology place (80,000 rupiah, 9 USD for 1.5 hours including a seated back-and-arm massage). I have two choices for grocery shopping: All Fresh for fruits and veges when I don't feel like facing Carrefour's neon zoo ambience. A third option for me is Ranch Market on my way home from work, an upscale reinterpretation of Ranch 99, the cheap Chinese supermarket chain typically in California's suburban Chinatowns like LA's San Gabriel Valley and the SF Bay Area's El Cerrito. The Ranch Market is located at the Oakwood, a very high quality serviced apartment complex with pretty good but not as large variety of services as Ambass. The keystone tenant is Loewy's where the food and decor is French-influenced and which people say is influenced by Pastis in New York.

While I might derive guilty pleasure from all this consumerism, I can go to sleep at night knowing my transportation carbon contribution is almost zero.

This is already beginning to sound like tooting the climate change/green horn, but I am just glad I don't have to get in a car to get to work. They say in Sweden people talk nonstop about the weather; here in Jakarta it is always the opportune moment to semi-boast a traffic jam, or "macet" story. I've got a weather-related macet story. Two days ago, I was stepping out of work when it started pouring. I was looking forward to my cloudy walk home (shaded from the blistering hot sun) but alas, soon my flat loafers got drenched through in the tropical afternoon thunderstorm. It was getting gross even under an umbrella, and a cab came by, so I hopped on. Unfortunately, due to the flyover construction on Jalan Satrio, they've unexpectedly closed yet another U-turn point. In the end, it took me almost an hour to get home and I had to miss my yoga class :( That's how bad traffic is in Jakarta.

Well, next time perhaps my time in a cab would be more productive, thanks to my new iPad :)

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Jakarta, Indonesia

Getting around in Jakarta

2011-07-02T09:08:00.000-07:00

Hello again after many months' hiatus. I wrote some of the following as part of a one-month update email from my new city. It organically ended up being city-related (D-oh!) and got surprisingly good response which I wish to share. Thanks for those who replied and caught on the urban-speak. The internet is very unreliable, so I hope you appreciate my effort!

I am settling well in my new life here -- enough to take on a (calculated) urban adventure the other night: I got a ride home on a motorbike from a stranger. Such is the beauty of this place that is strangely familiar yet familiarly strange. Even though I was born in Indonesia (in the second city, Surabaya in East Java), before I came here to Jakarta, the capital, I had never heard of this transit option in Jakarta called the ojek, a motorbike whose owner takes you where you want, like a taxi. I didn't exactly ride an ojek, but have been really curious to try it out as another option, especially in a bad jam and over a short distance.

I was waiting for a cab, in vain as such the case may be on the eve of a long weekend. Blue Bird, the taxi company that people would insist is the only trusty one, employs staff at large malls to direct empty taxis to the stand. After dinner, my friend Ani engaged with them, hoping they could help us. They confirmed taxis have been few and far between since they started work at 2 that afternoon. When one of them offered to take me on his way home on his bike, I was doubtful, but asked if he had a spare helmet. He couldn't give a straight answer so I kept waiting for a cab, any cab at this point. Ani insisted she'd wait for me, but I didn't want her to get home too late either. Finally I accepted when the Blue Bird guy handed me a helmet, which passed my cursory cleanliness check. I got home in 10 min, much faster than in a cab in a jam, an all-to-common experience here that leaves me frustrated and helpless.

Jakarta's traffic jams continue to amaze me, with the alternatives actually available to the automobile. Walking is one, though pedestrian infrastructure, to use planning jargon, needs improvement in most areas. Ojeks are another that allows you to weave through the macet, or jam. Taxis are usually plentiful and inexpensive, between 20,000 and 35,000 rupiah (3-5 usd) for an average trip within the city, but still prone to macet -- traffic jam. Mikrolets (5,000 rupiah), too, are great for short distances, say between your main road to the busway, which is another great option to skip and slide through the macet. Busways are dedicated lanes for special buses, akin to the Bus Rapid Transit system first started in Curitiba, Brazil. I tried it when my friend Eustacia visited, and we couldn't help notice the lack of a route map and ventilation at the stations. The stations are on medians of major boulevards, designed to be accessed via overhead bridges usually on ramps. I thought it was an affordable (3,500 rupiah), technologically accessible solution to relieve at least some of the pressure off the streets. But buses are running at peak capacity already and could be more frequent.

The pilings of a half-built monorail system, like that of Bangkok's, are standing remnants of a less than successful transportation planning attempt, and there are talks among gubernatorial candidates about some kind of mass rapid transit currently in the design phase, with aid money from government of Japan. Meanwhile, from my 26th floor apartment, windows closed, I hear the clangs and bumps of construction down below, of a flyover hoped to relieve traffic along the infamously jammed Jalan Casablanca. From my balcony I watch not one but two new mall-and-apartment complexes take form, lights from cranes flying through the night air.

More retail, more housing, and a flyover are sure to drive up surrounding property prices. That makes many people happy, but the underlying norm is still this metallic box we call the car, relatively expensive here compared to the US (20,000 usd buys an Indonesian-made Toyota Kijang Inova, raised like an SUV but not one, practical for the rainy season when it never fails to flood). Gas prices are not cheap either, a dollar to the liter, though I found out Pertamina started selling "low-income" gasoline at half the price. How people afford all these cars, or why they think it is a good investment of their money given all the jams, is so far one of the biggest mysteries to me and why traffic jams continue to amaze me.

Here are some comments I received:

From Ben in Oakland who lived in Jogja, Central Java, for 2 years---
If I were you, I think I'd buy a good motorcycle helmet for myself and naik ojek basically every day to and from work during rush hour. Did you see this recent New York Times article on Jakarta gridlock? http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/27/business/global/27rupiah.html
The Economist also had a couple short, pithy article on Jakarta's growing pains last year:

http://www.economist.com/node/15473915

http://www.economist.com/node/17101162

From Chris in New York who grew up and whose family still lives in Jakarta---
You know in China they have this booming business where in the case of jams, you call this no., and two people from the company comes to your car (in their motorbike), and one of them motorbike you home while the other one "jaga" take care of your car, sit through the traffic jam, and deliver it home hours later. I hear this service costs 80 RMB (which is something like US $17??)... What a great idea right?!

Chris also reminded me of Jakarta's version of a carpool/High-Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) system, the "3-in-1 Zone" in the center of town where during peak hours only cars with more than 3 people can enter:
...But I also found out last trip home for Pauline's wedding that although they have the at-least-3-people-in-cars rule during peak hours in high traffic areas, that actually young kids (like 9 or 13, or they say they are 14 but I think they are 9) offer their service as "jockeys" so you can pay them (30,000? rupiah) to sit in your car as the THIRD PERSON while you go through the area covered by the rule. So, so interesting then how (A) they try to make improvements, follow the usual ideas from all over the world to solve transportation problem, but the infrastructure of the place is such that their half-assed efforts fail (B) but also beautiful how that failure shows you really resourceful poor, young kids who can always like "figure it out," figure out a way to make money (though it's no money) in whatever situations the government half-assedly create.

Really evoked something in me, her comments. Perhaps in another post.

From Francesca in Berkeley, fellow environmental planner from the Philippines---
Hi Jane, Thanks for your update from Jakarta. I've never heard of an Ojek. Do you have tricycles too like we do in the Philippines? I remember taking public transpo in Manila and trying to determine best forms of getting somewhere. And no one there uses maps, it's always landmarks, or other "mental maps"

Yes, we do have the becak, a tricycle with a shaded seat in front and the cyclist behind, not so much in Jakarta where they were banned, but more in Surabaya and other cities. Ah, seems like the non-use of maps is not unique to this place.

From Xinying doing her Master's in international development planning at Duke, originally from Singapore---

It really is a stark contrast, seeing how Beijing's crazy underground system has burgeoned (as well as the city), I don't see the traffic at all everyday. I take the subway and there's a saying that the beijing officials never need to worry that public transport system will ever be underused. The squeeze everyday back home has made me do the "doubletake" similar to what i sometimes considered from [the CBD] down [the other direction] and back. But it is not like it has alleviated the traffic jams at all. I learnt that they also have a car quota system now, they have to bid for the ability to buy a car. Beijing's system is free, Shanghai's is paid like Singapore's COE. Every car has one day they cannot drive in the whole Beijing city. Parking prices in the city are mandated to be high (which i think its like 2RMB per 15min, which works out to be about US$1.2 per hour still only).

Sprawl Repair: Fixing the Mess We Made

2010-11-18T11:16:00.000-08:00

A handful of good articles in the November issue of the American Planning Association (APA)'s Planning magazine. Here's one:

Edited excerpts from an article by Emily Talen, AICP
APA Planning Magazine
November 2010

In the 1950s and '60s, the "next big thing" was urban renewal. In the 1970s and '80s, it was environmentalism. In the 1990s and early 2000s, it was smart growth. And today? Think of sprawl repair: retrofitting abandoned chain stores, dead malls, disconnected apartment complexes, and segregated housing pods.

In the short term, sprawl repair, or suburban retrofit, is driven by failing malls, widespread housing foreclosures, and the need to stimulate new forms of investment. But there is also something more principled at work: Americans' realization that it makes sense to reduce energy consumption, to reuse existing infrastructure rather than to build new, and to provide denser, more walkable housing options in response to demographic change.

Sprawl repair requires both big thinking and political moxy. Unlike simple technological fixes that we think of as "sustainable," it will take substantial behavioral change, the need for which is indisputable. That means:

Accepting the loss of automotive dependence
Making walking (and biking) the main mode of travel
Being willing to live more compactly
Tolerating far more social diversity and varied land uses.

We know that detached, single-family housing has a higher carbon footprint than apartment buildings and high rises, a fact thoroughly documented in David Owen's recent book, Green Metropolis. Compact neighborhoods, he makes clear, allow us to drive less, to lower our energy costs, and to strengthen social and economic connections. They have intrinsic environmental, social, and economic benefits.

Three steps to sprawl repair:

Locate strategic, structural potential - areas near commercial intersections and potentially good connectivity e.g. shorter blocks, with substantial assets to build on, and where corners are occupied by buildings, NOT a parking lot
Pockets of density and diversity - socially, economically, physically, e.g. land uses, housing types
Begin implementation right away - stimulate investment by changing rules and codes, investing in public space, offering incentives for development.

The idea of sprawl repair has caught the attention of the national media. Time magazine in March gave "recycling the suburbs" number two ranking in its list of "10 Ideas That Are Changing the World Right Now." And newspapers around the country regularly report on efforts to revitalize failed malls and derelict industrial sites. Design magazines see retrofitting projects as a way to feature the work of architects. Dwell recently sponsored a suburban design competition called "Reburbia," devoted to "envisioning different scenarios for the future" (www.re-burbia.com). In part, this interest is spurred by investors seeking new development opportunities and by local governments looking for creative ways to revive the shopping districts that were once their major revenue generators.

Ultimately, true sprawl repair will require macro-level change — with new financial tools and new government policies. And those things are generally beyond the scope of planners' jobs. But there are specific things planners can do to motivate sprawl repair. One is to make sure that existing rules and regulations facilitate repair. For suburban planners that means stimulating investment in targeted locations by reforming codes, making improvements in public spaces, and encouraging private investment.

Until recently, planners have mostly focused on restricting sprawl, not on repairing it — two distinctly different approaches. Restriction involves putting the brakes on development, sometimes in the form of urban growth boundaries and wetland protection programs. Yet these are not always the best tools for rejuvenating our suburbs.

Repair, on the other hand, requires vision and a proactive approach. It encourages targeted planning and investment: tax breaks, for instance, and the creation of civic space, sidewalks, and street trees in locations where they might stimulate retrofitting. Allowing single-family suburbs to intensify by adding accessory units or small buildings to accommodate family-run businesses is another important strategy.

31st Street Green Street Demo Project - One to Call My Own!

2010-10-22T00:00:00.000-07:00

Three-and-half months later and life Keeps Moving On, here in the Berkeley/Oakland/San Francisco home front. Still working on water issues, with exciting news on my project with Urban Releaf, a grassroots tree planting organization. The 31st Street Green Street Demonstration Project officially broke ground today, October 21. It's the same site I blogged about before here.

31st Street is located in the Hoover neighborhood of West Oakland, a neighborhood with a median household income of ~$20k and faces serious lack of tree canopy and greenery, high asthma rates linked to air pollution from nearby freeways and diesel truck serving the Port of Oakland, and many, MANY other environmental, social and economic disadvantages. Urban Releaf is bringing The Greens (federal, state, and local dollars) to this community in the form of Greens (jobs, youth development, environmental education, and of course, trees!). We are also contributing to science by designing and implementing innovative tree wells that will help retain storm water and reduce storm water pollutants.

The groundbreaking/media event went really well! In attendance were the media, many of our long-time government, community and business partners and supporters, including CA Dept of Forestry & Fire Protection (CALFIRE), CA Dept of Water Resources, California Releaf, City of Oakland, retired Senator Don Perata, Councilwoman Rebecca Kaplan, the Black Repertory Group, St Mary's Senior Center, UC Berkeley's urban forestry guru, Prof Joe McBride and his PhD student Lara Roman, our board members Pam Wallace and David Ralston, etc etc. Thank you everyone who pulled serious weight to make this event happen and help the 31st St green street move forward!

UC Davis' Dr. Qingfu Xiao is the lead scientist on this project, designing a monitored experiment to quantify water flowing into and out of the tree well and get a grasp on the retention capacity of our innovative tree wells. The tree wells will contain special soils that save water in two ways:

First, the mix of red lava rock and soil helps retain storm water that would otherwise run off directly into the City's storm drain, relieving burden off of the City's infrastructure system in the future.
Second, trees and soil help filter out pollutants in storm water and prevent them from entering our precious Bay habitat.

According to the USDA Forest Service Center for Urban Forestry Research, trees in urban areas mitigate air pollution, beautify the neighborhood by adding greenery and shade, save on heating and cooling costs, build a sense of community, and provide opportunities for green job training -- all in addition to saving water. Trees also address global warming by making streets safer and more attractive for walking and biking, as an alternative to driving, and by sequestering carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas in the atmosphere.

Construction for a pilot test tree well is targeted for November 13-19, pending our permit approval from the City of Oakland. We will then apply the prototype tree well to and come up with other innovative designs for the rest of the two-block project area. In a couple of years, fingers crossed, insya allah, 31st Street will be transformed into a pleasant walking environment, a community asset, and... a national demonstration bringing together the myriad benefits of our city's trees!

Cities all over the world are facing water crises and are seeking water-sensitive tree well design and approach to urban forestry. The CA Department of Water Resources Urban Drought Assistance Program provided funding for this project to educate local residents on California's water shortage and the importance of conserving water. The project also received funding from the West Oakland Project Area Committee Neighborhood Projects Initiative Program.

The Tortoise and the Hare

2010-07-09T00:11:00.000-07:00

Got back from my trip nearly 3 weeks ago, properly charmed and energized. Finally floating stably enough to write something. Where do I start?! I will share the sights and stories in a series of posts. Here's a brief intro and an insight into the setting that charmed all of us in the Rhone river valley.

Whirlwind only begins to describe the 2.5-week trip. It was a "Tortoise and the Hare" kind of trip, feeding my addiction to contradictions and unlikely combinations: Working frantically like the Hare in the deep, leisurely Provence countryside in south east France (my room is dubbed The Rabbit Room). Then, taking it easy like the Tortoise, checking out cool urban spaces and trends in two frantic cities, Paris and New York. Slipped in meetings, field trips, and partying in Lyon in between all of that. Many surreal moments, e.g. "I can't believe I'm shopping for lunch for 25 people on Malaucène market day in the middle of Provence!!!" (More on Provençal market days soon.)

Arrived June 3rd in Paris and barely caught my TGV down to Lyon, to join a meeting of European government agencies and researchers sharing experiences with river restoration, as they are now mandated by the EU Water Framework Directive enacted in 2000. (Ten years later, we are finding ways of classifying and measuring the health and physical conditions of European waterways.) Field trip to the Yzéron followed by a visit to the (rather touristy) village of Oingt (pronounced woan' - with the nasal n' of course) with a beautiful view of the Lyon hinterland, wine tasting at Domaine du Sornel in the village of Letra, one of two idyllically charming wineries we visited.

The Yzéron (ih-ZEH-ron'), tolerated by a couple of ducks despite its ugly banks, apparently concretized with "leftover" materials from a nearby river infrastructure project.

Cute lil' restaurant/hostel
Village of Oingt

Breathtaking view from the foot of the church
Village of Oingt

Wine tasting numéro un
Domaine du Sornel, Village of Letra, 1+ hour south Lyon

Frog legs for dinner, fried with garlic and herbs (actually it was just appetizer!) with the Forecaster group of European river restoration managers
Village of Letra, south of Lyon

The next day, we drove down to Institut Beaumont, the site of a week-long course on river restoration taught by Profs. Matt Kondolf of UC Berkeley and Hervé Piégay of CNRS Lyon plus other wonderful guest speakers. The course took place at a restored farm house in a village, or hameau, called Les Alazards on the northern face of Mont Ventoux in the valley of the Toulerenc, a tributary to the Rhone. The closest municipality, or mairie, is Beaumont-du-Ventoux, the nearest town is Malaucène, bike capital of the northern Provence and the Mont Ventoux circuit. This cherry growing region (terroire de cerises) is roughly equidistant to the east and between Montelimar and Avignon on the A7 freeway. See map below and zoom in for a closer look. Photos follow the map.

View Larger Map

Entrance to hameau Les Alazards, a village of about 15-20 houses, with cherry orchards and against the dramatic background of Mont Ventoux.

Bienvenue à l'Institut Beaumont, the restored farm house with wildly climbing rose bushes. We're just before the village fontaine and lavoir.

The gorgeous kitchen in the farmhouse, where sparks fly and the magic happens!

Ta-da! Chef Robin whipped up a marvelous salade niçoise aux anchois.

Lasagne au saumon two ways, filet and smoked, the night of the Ventoux winds. Hands-down the best meal, courtesy of our French chefs Mélanie and Vincent. Hint: The secret was the bechamel sauce.

Mairie de Beaumont-du-Ventoux (nearest municipality, town hall building with the flag).

Cherries oh-so-in season!

View from the verandah of the house, on the 2nd floor (the French say "à l'étage," or 1st floor).

Dentelles de Mirail, nearby.

That's all for now, folks. More stories and photos and maps coming soon!

Best meal + experience for under $10...

2010-04-18T20:26:00.001-07:00

...and one of the things that make San Francisco tick! I usually don't blog about food on this blog, but I promise I will make this planning-related.

I'm talking about the SF Underground Market, a free, monthly marketplace organized by forageSF.com, whose mission it is -- partly -- to "reduce carbon miles" to transport food to the table. Last Friday April 2nd, fellow foodie Jen K. and I ventured like two little piggies to the Market held at SOMArts. We got there around 7 pm; long lines under the freeway had us doubtful if it's worth the wait. [Tip: It's BYO. Jen headed over to Trader Joe's next door for some booze. Jen, please email me if you remember the names of what you got, the pale ale and the apple cider. Also feel free to write about the ice-cream-cone thing you got!] We got in by 7:30, which is a half-hour wait comparable to waiting for a table at many restaurants.

And hell yeah was it worth it. I was impressed with the creativity, which, infused with my own nostalgia, sent me over the top. Part of the experience was connecting with the vendors/makers, who proudly offered taster bites of their goodies. What was most amazing was that most of the food were prepared at the vendors' home kitchen or backyard. "These are veterans, people who’ve been making their products for years, but only able to share them with friends. We thought we’d give them a venue to share with the whole SF food community." -- forageSF.com.

Most main dishes were $5 for a reasonable portion and $2 for cookies, snacks, and the like. A little pricey, but I was full at the end, with all the sampling. I ended up spending on dishes that reminded me of food I grew up eating, but with a twist: (I realize not all the terms used here will be understood by everyone out there. I include a mini inter-continental food glossary below but let me know and I can explain.)

1. Pork belly on Chinese man-tou sandwich with green onions, pickled cucumber, and hoisin sauce. Char-siew-looking slices were reheated on the spot on a portable frying pan, and stuffed in the folds of the fresh white bun. The cucumber pickles were oh-so-thinly sliced, and added just enough acidity and crunch. Reminds me of: Mei cai kou rou. The twist: a bunch of edible wild onion flowers gracefully sat atop the hoisin spread. A different version here to give you an idea by Kitchen Sidecar's Katie Kwan.

2. Strawberry lavender macaroons. At first I was doubtful; there weren't samplers, and I recently declared Sweet Adeline Bakery's cherry cream-filled chocolate macaroon the best out there. But lavender anything gets me digging in my pocket. So I fished $2 and it was totally worth it. Probably on par with Sweet Adeline's. I didn't grow up with a lot of macaroons, but they remind me of cream-filled wafer snacks, and the lavender was the twist.

3. Earl grey lavender swirl. Another lavender twist to my all-time favorite tea, served with milk.

4. Spicy peanut brittle. Much more "refined" than what I'd find in the snack-land I grew up in, but it effectively curbed my nostalgic cravings.

Notable samples:

1. Nasturtium pesto. Interesting.
2. Maple bacon butter. 'Nuff said.

Regrets:

I was too full to get the rice crackers with mildly spicy peanut sauce. A half-foot crispy disc of krupuk, speckled with black sesame and the peanut sauce had meatballs/ground pork in it!!

Not taking photos. I was so busy BEING there focused on the food and the people and the whole experience!

A mini inter-continental food glossary:
Hoisin sauce: a sweet-and-sour sweet potato paste
Macaroon: almond paste cream filling sandwiched between fluffy meringue-like cookies
Forageables: Nasturtium and wild onion flowers grow along many urban sidewalks in the US.
Warung: a casual, outdoor shack selling food cooked non-commercially, ubiquitous in Indonesia. May also sell everyday needs, such as sachets of shampoo, headache medicine, and packets of instant noodles.

And now for the planning-related part of this blog. Food is usually such a contextual experience that you share with someone and the memory of it is so closely linked to place. Where you had it, who you had it with, why you were there, how you were in a bad mood because you were starving, how long you had to wait, the heavenly smells, the greasy stove tops and vents, and how full you are at the end of the meal. My theory is, good food experiences are at the heart of a great city. I don't mean just great 5-star, Michelin-rated restaurants, but more like the everyday and almost-banal occurrences of feeding oneself in the middle of the workday or on the way home from happy hour with a group of friends.

Many of the food at the SF Underground Market could easily count as Street Food. I've been really excited about the up-and-coming street food movement. Trucks serving tacos, Korean BBQ, Belgian waffles, and crème brulée, all have found their way to the streets of East Oakland, the Mission, and beyond. Modern day street food vendors have even caught the Twitter bug,
"street-food vendors have flocked to it to relay info to customers. This is particularly helpful with vendors who switch up locations from day to day—or hour to hour. In retrospect, it almost seems like Twitter was made for this purpose. What better way for a roving kitchen to publish crucial intel, from the field?" from seriouseats.com which published a list of vendors on Twitter by region.

For the record, serving food out of a booth on the street doesn't automatically make Street Food! When I went to the SF Street Food Fest on in the Mission District last year, I was -- frankly -- disappointed. Maybe it was the cold, foggy and cloudy SF weather (blame it on the rain), but I was disappointed because it wasn't the street food I was expecting. Most of the vendors were selling at exorbitant prices, for me a disturbing reflection of gentrification in the neighborhood. Folsom Street between 25th and 26th was jam-packed with slow-moving lines, so long it was hard to distinguish which lines were for which vendors. Jen and I ended up having the best pupusas at a nearby El Savadoran restaurant. Oakland's Eat Real Fest at Jack London Square the following week was slightly more spread out and was a slightly more pleasant atmosphere, but I was disappointed not to find the plethora of taco trucks that have become a common sight in East Oakland neighborhoods like Fruitvale. The two festivals made me question "What is Street Food? And why did the festivals seem so wrong?"

For me, Street Food has always been part of growing up in cities. In ballooning urban districts in countries I've been to like Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand, street food is an affordable option for many, not just the working class. Most are yummy -- the grime probably adds to it. One of the things I must have whenever I go back to Indonesia is wonton noodle soup from a cart on the street, that's been my dad's favorite since he was a child. The cart is still in the same alley in Surabaya's Chinatown where he grew up. Selling street food is also a way of earning a living for the vendors, just like shoe-shining or selling newspapers on the street. It is an accessible way to start a business without high overheads. In Indonesia, warungs are ubiquitous along residential and commercial streets, and sell a decent lunch of rice and a meat stew, like rawon or soto, and is also the where one might linger on to chain-smoke kreteks and chit chat over coffee. Ice cream, tou hua (soft tofu flowers), ice kacang (like Taiwanese shaved ice), terang bulan (cheese and chocolate crispy pancakes) and other desserts are also commonly sold by street vendors. I also remember the woman who walked from house to house in the morning, selling vegetables on a large flat woven tray balanced on her head.

In Singapore, some of the nation's favorite and traditional dishes grew up as Street Food, e.g. prawn noodle soup, char kway teow (fried rice noodles), Hokkien mee (fried egg noodles), chai tow kway (fried carrot cake), etc. Hong Kong's now-famous dim sum that can now be found all over the world, too had its humble beginnings as street food. Wheeled on a cart or carried on 2 baskets hanging on a wooden pole balanced on the vendor's shoulders, street food vendors shout out their wares ("kai chuk!" "lo mai kai!" "chee cheong fun!") or are recognized by their signature taps on their frying pan, or on a piece of bamboo. Interested customers would greet vendors, sometimes bringing their own bowl. Part of Singapore's post-war urban redevelopment scheme, the government created spaces for "hawkers" called hawkers' centers, now common in HDB public housing districts and markets. They are open air, roofed buildings housing 5-20 stalls, with a central seating area. Commercial buildings and shopping malls often host a food court floor, a more expensive version of hawkers' centers, but serving similar food, sharing plates, bowls and cutlery. Sort of like those you find in American malls, but not quite the same.

The story of street food in Singapore provides a hint on the line between formality and informality. From the government's perspective, street food vendors are hard to regulate. Hygiene is a real issue. From the vendors' perspective, regulations could create barriers that make it impossible to sell their wares. In Singapore, the move to gather street vendors into hawkers' centers was directly motivated by the need to improve and regulate hygienic standards. Now, each stall displays a score card (A, B, C and D), a hygiene certification by public health inspectors. "To sell at a farmers market, you need to produce your wares in a commercial kitchen. This is an impossible expense for many of us, so the underground farmers market is about helping to get some exposure for all of our fellow producers without the cash for a commercial kitchen." -- forageSF.com. La Cocina, an incubator program in SF that serves to address this economic barrier, also organized last year's SF Street Food Fest. But why is it their street food didn't look like street food to me?

While I'm speaking mostly from experience, and I haven't done much research on anything I wrote above, the transition from informality to formality is probably one of the biggest challenges of cultivating a street food environment everywhere.

GREEN LIGHT FOR BERKELEY DOWNTOWN ECO-PLAZA

2010-03-24T11:56:00.000-07:00

At close to midnight Wednesday, March 23, Berkeley City Council voted (8-1) to endorse the Hood proposal for Center Street and directed city staff to work with nonprofit and community partners, Ecocity Builders and Citizens for a Strawberry Creek Plaza, to move the project forward and apply for upcoming funding opportunities. Following a decade of citizen-led advocacy and numerous public processes, the downtown Berkeley project can move forward beyond concept and into planning for implementation.

The project is located at a prime opportunity site along the main pedestrian thoroughfare from the Downtown Berkeley BART station and the UC Berkeley campus, and is likely to attract funding for its myriad social, environmental, economic and infrastructure benefits to residents and visitors. "This is a key victory in this project's history. Deadlines are coming down the pipeline in the next month, for millions of dollars of potential funding for this project," says Kirstin Miller, executive director of Ecocity Builders.

The project has gone through numerous rounds of public and planning processes, since it was first proposed to the city in 1997 and is consistent with official City of Berkeley planning and policy documents. The City Council has previously adopted policies in reference to the plaza in the 2001 Berkeley General Plan, 2004 Downtown Task Force recommendations, 2007 Downtown Area Plan Advisory Committee recommendations, and the 2009 Downtown Area Plan.

Award-winning landscape architect, Walter Hood, in 2007 was commissioned to design the plaza, located on Center Street between Oxford Street and Shattuck Avenue in downtown Berkeley. Hood was responsible for designing the gardens at the M. H. de Young Memorial Museum in Golden Gate Park.

The Hood design calls for closing off this block of Center Street except for emergency and delivery vehicle to create a pedestrian-oriented gathering space tied to the upcoming Berkeley Art Museum/hotel and conference center complex. Strawberry Creek will be partially "daylighted," or dug up from underground storm drains where it is currently buried in the downtown area, for residents and visitors to enjoy and learn about creek ecology and the regional watershed. The Hood design elements and more project information can be viewed here.

Catching up...

2010-02-15T22:50:00.000-08:00

Ay-ay-ay! It's been a while.

Updates - Added photos and videos on previous posts:

Ecocity Builders charrette at Gaining Ground, Vancouver
Watershed Weekend

More posts coming up.

Ecocity Builders charrette at Gaining Ground, Vancouver BC

2009-10-22T15:18:00.000-07:00

October 22, 2009

Earlier this week, Ecocity Builders organized a sustainability design charrette for the British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT). A charrette is an intensive, interactive stakeholder workshop geared towards generating ideas and solutions to planning and design problems.

As part of the Gaining Ground summit, "Resilient Cities: Urban Strategies for Transition Times," Ecocity Builders is facilitating focused discussions to help BCIT's Burnaby campus into a Living Laboratory for Sustainability. Stakeholders ranging from facility managers, campus planners, sustainability planners, and architecture students and faculty came together to offer their expertise on scaling down the campus's ecological footprint by a factor of 4 in the short term and by a factor of 10 in the long term.

Before long, most participants realized that to achieve a Factor 10 reduction, a change in the system must be set in motion now, in order for results to be seen in the 5-10 year range. Some of the exciting ideas discussed at the charrette include daylighting Guichon Creek that runs through campus, retrofitting buildings with living roofs and/or walls, and providing housing on campus to further cut down on energy used for transportation.

Interview with Kirstin Miller, executive director of Ecocity Builders, at the conference

LA rolling out rainwater harvesting

2009-10-12T23:53:00.000-07:00

Just a quick post to spread the good news on Southern California Public Radio!

Yes, it is about time for LA and other drought-stricken Californian locales to adopt this low-tech solution. 55 gallons are almost laughable, but every drop counts! In March, I traveled to Brisbane and wrote about their water woes and conservation successes. Different climates, literally and culturally, but rainwater harvesting adoption has skyrocketed there since Queensland's major drought with combined dam levels dipping to below 20%. Looking forward to your comments!

Los Angeles residents testing new water conservation program

Oct. 12, 2009 | Molly Peterson | KPCC

Los Angeles residents are harvesting rainwater from their home rooftops as Southern California reels from a fourth year of drought. It's part of a new effort by the city of Los Angeles. KPCC's Molly Peterson looks at how some Angelenos are making it work.

Mar Vista homeowner Jeanne Kuntz fairly bounces around her yard.

Her enthusiasm is contagious: she could sell a ketchup Popsicle to a woman in white gloves. Her passion today is saving water, starting at home, in a new rain barrel.

"It just captured my imagination for a variety of reasons," she says, her hands looping through the air. "The beauty of this is, it's multipurpose: it's not just preventing the water from going into the street and then pulling all that polluted runoff into the ocean, it's also got the water for your plants right there."

Kuntz presses ripe, home-grown melon into the hands of the contractor the city of LA is paying to install rain barrels.

Two guys are Kuntz's downspout and re-route it; periodically, a clank of spout pipe comes from around the corner, and a phrase in Spanish. When the next rains fall, greywater - captured water that's not drinkable, but still usable - will accumulate in a brown 55-gallon barrel.

Kuntz is one of hundreds of homeowners testing barrels for the city of Los Angeles.

Catherine Tyrell is a consultant with the firm Malcolm Pirnie, working with the city. Tyrell says LA's plan differs from others she's seen that focus on new buildings. "It's about making changes in our existing homes. And that's really critical in a city like Los Angeles, so much is already built."

Jeanne Kuntz's new barrel sits on a cinder block. It's actually not new, but repurposed: made of food grade plastic, it once held gallons of pickles.

Others on LA's west side have old syrup barrels. Consultant Tyrell says the city's also considering barrels made from scratch that users can recycle later.

There’s another reason she says the low-tech program represents the cutting edge of conservation: LA's one dry region. Catching every drop - even the flow from gutters -matters a lot.

"What's unique here is taking it to an area that doesn't think it gets enough rain," Tyrell says. "But it's precious here in Southern California."

People could save plenty more of that precious wet stuff, says the Bureau of Sanitation's Wing Tam.

He estimates that a house with a 1,000-square-foot roof could catch thousands of gallons in a normal year of rainfall. Building codes in L.A. sometimes put greywater collection in a grey area; at the very least, city rules complicate matters.

Tam says his department aims to figure out how to streamline such projects in the future.

"We are working very closely with building and safety, we want to go citywide on this, to either change the code or modify a code so that it does not become an issue," Tam says.

The last hole holding the down spout is drilled into Koonz's house.

The last fastener bangs into place. The city of LA will evaluate how well rain barrels work, and what it must do to encourage their use. Tam hopes to roll out barrels citywide next year.

Right now Kuntz is just trying to sell her Mar Vista neighbors on the urgency of this project.

"The way I've put it to people is we're trying to get them all installed before the rainy season starts. And it gives people this idea there's a deadline," Kuntz says.

Kuntz says saving rain in a 55-gallon barrel is the same as saving money. She wants everyone to share the wealth.

Could this be the Google project at BRC 2009?

2009-10-12T23:26:00.000-07:00

Found this on Twitter, via official burningman account, a Gigapan of Black Rock City 2009! (Yes, MOM is really there!) It's like an aerial photo, except @ortelius said he pieced it together from over 500 photos on a digital camera. Is there a website that explains how this is made?

So, as much as I like the way rumors spread in BRC, this is probably not the Google project. Any news on that?

Watershed Weekend

2009-09-28T16:54:00.000-07:00

Finally got to meet Pulitzer Prized poet Robert Hass, this past Saturday, at the Watershed Festival in downtown Berkeley's Civic Center Park. What an honor! Ari Simmons, fellow Berkeley geographer and environmental planner, had suggested I consulted with Hass on my Master's thesis, Stewardship Stories for Watershed Justice. I had also heard of him through my work in watershed stewardship, along with the Festival, but never had a chance to go.

The Watershed Festival, co-sponsored by UC Berkeley's English Department where Hass teaches, Poetry Flash, Ecology Center, and Ecocity Builders, is in its 14th (15th? Who's counting?) year celebrating environmental poetry, music and activism. The day started with a ritual: a walk up Strawberry Creek on the UC Berkeley campus. It was such a luxury to spend a Saturday morning listening to the gurgles of the creek, the strains of the poets, the chit-chats of the birds, and this year, the campus creek steward-in-charge.

Tim Pine from environmental health and safety showed us the latest in campus stormwater management, pervious pavers installed in a parking lot to allow rain to infiltrate and help remove all that crap - motor oil, brake pads, etc - that rain washes off.

Kirstin Miller, Ecocity Builders executive director, brought along one of the oldest storm drain stencils around. Richard Register had designed one for Derby Creek, a creek in Berkeley that's almost entirely been buried and hardened into storm drains.

Richard's one of a few souls out there who fought early on for creeks to be daylighted, or unearthed from their graves under cities. The urban creek restoration movement started right here in Berkeley, with one of the nation's first daylighting projects at Strawberry Creek Park in the west part of the city.

I got to meet Carole Schemmerling the next Sunday; she was commentator on a creek restoration expedition I co-led, highlighting 30 years of creek restoration in Berkeley, part of the College of Environmental Design's 50th anniversary. Schemmerling was there from way back when, and told us stories of fierce battles and unwitting victories along the way.

Big lesson from Momma Schemmerling: Direct action works! One of the biggest concerns neighbors may have about daylighting a creek is creating a corridor for crime and drug dealing. A landscape architect on the tour asked if daylighting the creek has increased or reduced such illicit activities. Carole recounted how one used to find a line forming on Saturday morning at the porter potty at Strawbery Creek Park, people waiting their turn to buy some drugs. That is, until two teenage girls came along, sick and tired of cleaning up the syringes, paper filters, cigarette packs, and all the crap left behind by drug users at the park. That fateful day, knowing the drug dealer was inside with a client, the two girls toppled over the porter potty, and ran the hell away!

We started at Strawberry Creek Park, daylit in 1985, then hopped on to Codornices Creek by the soccer fields at Gilman and 5th Streets, daylit in 2005, to another daylighting project a couple blocks upstream at University Village completed with just $25,000 and thousands of hours of volunteer labor, and finally at the Blackberry Creek restoration project, completed in 1995, an outdoor science and discovery lab for students and toddlers from the adjacent Thousand Oaks elementary and neighborhood.
Codornices Creek restoration

Blackberry Creek restoration (also post-project appraisal site for my river restoration class -- see my paper here under Alameda County).

Can I just say, I Heart NY?

2009-09-24T23:34:00.000-07:00

"Did you go see the High Line?" Liz and I, wide-eyed, chorused - demanded - Ming, fellow architect and urban design enthusiast. Our faces fell when Ming indicated the negative.

I'm dreaming of my next trip to New York. I dreamily let jagged and dead-straight lines take me up and down Manhattan's brand new floating linear park, the High Line. If it can be called a park. It's a disused elevated rail line. It's a runway. It's a tourist destination. It's a vista point. It's an incubator for creative energies and kick-ass high-profile youth art classes. It's some sort of symbol of grassroots idealism materialized decades - and tons of argumentative breath - later.

Every time I visit, the city's grime, blare, and in-your-face energy scrape me raw, then wrap me up in a coat of adrenaline. I get high. The mad rush of train-takers and taxi-wavers push me through the day no matter my literal and figurative baggage. Granted, I don't have to live it 365 days a year and this is probably a romanticized, visitor's view of New York. The visitor's privileged view.

The visitor's privilege will also have me wander the halls of the natural history museum and space center. I really wanted to go but did not get to the last time, Sep 2007.

This month's Landscape Architecture magazine then served on a silver platter another reason to go, the new West Harlem riverfront park, 2.4 acres of green along the Hudson River, where "geometric shapes and tilted lawns are in dynamic tension with one another."

I'm inspired by this urban participatory policy project with street vendors. I think I've just found my new hero, Candy Chang. What awesome projects!

And I will leave you with this lovely installment of Maira Kalman's NY Times "And the Pursuit of Happiness.

5 Things Cities Can Learn from Burning Man

2009-09-15T00:28:00.000-07:00

Excuse my obsession. See Time article here. Lots of mention of New York City.

1) Get rid of cars, except for art cars, the closest thing to public transit, and all travel 5 miles per hour.

2) Encourage self-reliance, including having everyone deal with their own trash.

3) Rethink commerce, build things together. It's a large scale community and there's nothing between you and the person you buy things from. This is the way what life is like when you remove that element.

4) Don't be afraid to use shame to foster virtue. You're only going to be virtuous only part of the time, and the rest of time it's regulated by those around you.

5) When the going is tough, bring in the artists. An overarching theme about the world guides the art every year. Next year the theme is metropolis, we need to explore urban issues more fully.

Bonus lesson: No matter how tough it gets, for the sake of civic morale, never cancel the fireworks.

Black Rock City, NV - Sustainable City?

2009-09-11T23:17:00.001-07:00

Just got back from Black Rock City, NV and realized I haven't blogged in a while. I miss sitting down and being able to hear my own thoughts, something that was difficult to do amidst the din and distraction in BRC. This was my first Burn; I was lucky to be on the Michaelangelo Project scholarship and part of the Earth Guardians camp, burners who do outreach on Leave No Trace, alternative energy, greywater treatment, and other green stuff. Earth Guardians patrol for MOOP (Matter Out Of Place, BM lingo for trash), monitor burn platforms to make sure no toxic stuff gets in there, and lead geology and nature walks. (I mainly sat and looked pretty at the Help Desk, signed volunteers up, and gave out MOOP bags and bandanas.)

The question of the sustainability of Burning Man came up several times. The festival probably burns more than its fair share of greenhouse-gas emitting fuels. During the festival, countless fire and flame effects consume Man-knows-how-much propane. How wasteful to build egregrious edifices then burn them for mere symbolism. Before and after, 40,ooo+ people drive or fly to this god forsaken place in gas guzzling cars, vans, trucks, and RVs. Who's counting the plastic bottles of water burners bring to survive on the bone dry playa bed? How much electricity powers all the bright lights and loud sounds? What about the scattered ashes and cigarette butts of smokers, other MOOP? I found an aerial photo of Black Rock Desert today, where you can see the traces of the streets left behind on the desert floor. It would be interesting to do water, carbon and ecological footprint analyses for the event. Guess what? We get to decide as a community whether to carry on with this or not, and it looks like the Man is here to stay and burn -- burners have done lots to mitigate our collective impacts.

It's too easy to MOOP talk so I'm singing the praises of the city itself. Next year's theme is out -- Metropolis -- Woohoo!!! Many design features in the city could serve as a model for other cities. First let me just say, it was So nice to not deal with cars on the streets of BRC. I loved how you can bike and walk anywhere, and anyhow, you liked. The entire city, within the pentagon, is only 4.5 square miles. The Man is less than half mile from Center Camp and Esplanade, the main city drag. Another half mile and you're at the Temple. The promenade from Esplanade at 3:00 to 9:00 is just 1 mile, totally walkable and bikeable. (With so many distractions along the way, there's no saying how long it would take -- either felt like no time at all, or could be very, very long.) Then, of course there's the keyhole plaza of Center Camp, and the smaller plazas dispersed very geometrically at 3:00, 4:30, 7:30 and 9:00 where you can get to a ranger, ice, medical help, and your dose of public art. The fact that the city exists only a week, plus/minus set-up and tear-down time, adds to its sustainability -- I don't think it could sustain itself 365 days a year.

Best of all, I think, is how participatory everything is. You are the art. You are the city. As Our Great Lady of the Metropolis, Jane Jacobs, says, "Cities have the capability of providing something for everybody, only because, and only when, they are created by everybody." (This quote by the way, has been on my email signature for months, and is now heralding next year's Art Theme.) I am so excited about next year's Burn.

The EG camp

A village of red swarmed the Flattery Camp, leaving the flatterers flabbergasted.

The Pirate Ship, Pink Parasol, and Omnibus to Nowhere. Not to mention the helium/LED baloons adrift by design.

All the forces aligned

Bikes at center camp, BRC Post Office, where the Disgruntled Postal Workers give you shit

Playa tennis, anyone?

The Night of the Rocket that Didn't Launch, "existing between yesterday's tomorrow and the future that never was..."

MOM, watching my bike in the dust storm

The Night of the Man Burn

The Night of the Temple Burn, with our Ancestors' blessing ("spiraling, tornado-like dust plumes that traverse the playa, either produced by wind or by heat from large fires")

Fractals of an Urban Water Life

2009-08-13T10:17:00.000-07:00

As threats of climate change and land scarcity loom near, artists, farmers, and carpenters seem the ones to provide solutions. Or, at least, ideas for solutions. The Waterpod, shown above, is a floating barge anchored on the Brooklyn side of the East River. It's a microcosm, a fractal, of what life could be as sea levels are projected to rise about 5 feet in the next 100 years. A crew of rotating artists work on the barge, which boasts a farm with chickens and all. Urban waterfront living, anyone?

View the NY Times slideshow here.

Winners of Rising Tides competition announced

2009-08-10T17:37:00.000-07:00

Up for some mind-blowing? Check out this year's winners of the Rising Tides competition, an ideas platform for living with the realities of climate change and a 1.4-meter rise in sea level over the next 100 years. Organized by the Bay Conservation and Development Commission, the winning entries proposed embracing the opportunities that could come with inundated waterfronts. Others went wild with technological innovation and applied shark's filter mechanism to controlling the ebbing tide at the Golden Gate. One ominously sought to threatened the public into action. Which one is your favorite?

The San Francisco Planning + Urban Research Association (SPUR) is holding a couple of related events:

Thursday Aug 13 at 12:30 pm: A brownbag for planners

Tuesday Aug 18 at 6 pm: Winners present their entries

Updates on West Oakland foreclosure

2009-08-08T20:23:00.000-07:00

Went with Anne and Ian to the July 30 demonstration on the foreclosure of Tosha Alberty's home in West Oakland. About 120+ people attended, the ACORN organizer told us as we were leaving, about 2 hours into the protest. Most were ACORN members, mobilized through the Home Defender campaign, members of the press, neighbors, and curious onlookers. The Revolution Brass Orchestra cheered protesters on with merry but melancholic strains and wiggly dances. Anne surveyed the police situation and noted at least 4 police cars effectively circumscribed the block, ready to close in on the crowd, as a strategy for arrest. We quietly plotted out our exit strategy should anything happen and vowed to ourselves, "We don't want to get arrested." Note the police presence in the pics below.

Having studied civic participation from a rather academic point of view, it was fascinating for me to observe firsthand the ACORN model of community organizing. Civil disobedience usually accompanies their days of action; this day a group of 6 symbolically broke the padlock, circled the house, and negotiated with the police to sit on the stoops without getting arrested. (The protesters on the stoops ended up getting arrested after we left.)

"When rules of law are not just, we have the moral obligation to disobey it" - the organizers proclaimed, echoing Alinsky, or was it Dr. King? English and Spanish interspersed, helping ensure inclusiveness. There wasn't Mandarin or Cantonese interpretation, nor were there many people of Asian ethnicities. I wonder if there may be some facing foreclosures who could use ACORN's services, or who might wish to participate in their days of action.

David Bacon's article published in the Berkeley Daily Planet and SF Chronicle, highlighting the injustice,

"Despite promises that huge bank bailouts would keep people in their homes, they gave no help to people like Alberty. But they did make some people rich.

First Franklin's Web site offered "flexible, hassle-free home loan solutions" to mortgage brokers. Merrill Lynch bought the lender in 2006, and was then itself bought for $50 billion by Bank of America. Last week Bank of America reported second-quarter profits of $2.4 billion, its second straight profitable quarter since the mortgage crisis started. The bank received $45 billion from the Troubled Asset Relief Program, and spent $2.3 million in the first half of 2008 on lobbying Congress and another $1.5 million this year.

Last week, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo reported that Bank of America paid $3.3 billion in bonuses to its executives, 172 of whom received more than $1 million apiece. Merrill Lynch, which lost $27 billion in 2008, paid $3.6 billion in bonuses - 696 execs received more than $1 million, and 14 got more than $10 million.

None of that money went to the Albertys. Instead, First Franklin's "hassle-free solution" became Tosha Alberty's eviction."

I hissed angrily to Anne, "God I wish they hadn't bailed out AIG and all the banks. They should have let it all crash. Why are we supporting systems that we know are failures?!" Anne concurred, "Yeah, practice what they preach - the free market, right?"

West Oakland Action to Reclaim Foreclosed Home July 31 5pm @ 1698 10th Street

2009-07-27T21:21:00.001-07:00

From: William Chorneau

Sent: Jul 23, 2009 6:31 PM

To: undisclosed recipients@null, null@null

Subject: West Oakland action to reclaim foreclosed home, Friday, July 31 at 5p.m, 1698 10th Street.

Hello friends,

If you have been outraged by the foreclosure scandal and waiting for the right opportunity to support families who are fighting back, please join this upcoming action. ACORN's Foreclosure Fighters decided last night to escalate their tactics in response to the eviction of Tasha Alberti's family from their home on Monday and they really need your support.

Approximately 15 Oakland Sheriff deputies surrounded Tasha's home in West Oakland at about 8 a.m. last Monday, while Tasha was at work. They broke the lock on the front door and entered her home in a manner that terrorized Tasha's children. One of her daughters is still showing signs of trauma after a sheriff's deputy watched her get dressed. The deputies threaten to take the children to jail if they didn't get out of the house. Luckily, nearby relatives were available to take in the children. The family is recuperating from this trauma and Tasha still wants to fight on.

The progressive community must demonstrate that we will not sit by while financial pirates make loans that are designed to fail, then kick millions of families out into the street without regard to the human cost of their actions or the devastating impact on our communities. Many people are outraged that the banks continue to devastate our communities and our elected representatives have taken no effective action to stop them. This will be our biggest and strongest Home Defense Action yet, and now is the time for us to put our outrage into action.

We will be gathering at Tasha's home at 1698 10th Street in West Oakland (corner of 10th Street and Willow) on Friday, 7/31 at 5:00 p.m. Some people will be taking action to reclaim and reoccupy the home. Please email me back if you are interested in participating in this part of the action. Join us next Friday and reach out to your friends about this action. A good turnout could raise the anti-foreclosure struggle in the Bay Area to a new level. Join us in supporting the families that are fighting to save their homes.

Yours for peace with justice.

Bill Chorneau

Jakarta Gotong Royong design competition winners

2009-07-15T01:15:00.000-07:00

The International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam (IABR) 2009, in collaboration with Ikatan Arsitek Indonesia (Indonesian Institute of Architects Jakarta chapter), has announced the winners of the 'gotong royong city' competition, which asked for individuals to submit ideas on envisioning the future of Jakarta, Indonesia. See article on designboom here.

Some of these ideas are quite mind-blowing!!! My favorite are the watershed stuff (of course)

and the pangkalan ojek/motorbike pods.

The entries raised many critical issues in a city whose quality of life is impoverished by a dire lack of safe public spaces and green amenities, frustrating and unproductive traffic jams, yearly floods that go up to the waist, and a stark contrast and segregation between the opulent gated communities with golf courses, club houses, and swimming pools mostly for Chinese people and expats and the kampung/urban village communities where the mostly working class inhabitants sometimes live without basic infrastructure (sanitation, drinking water, electricity, garbage collection, etc). I applaud the competition organizers and design entries for activating discussions around these issues of inequity, planning, and sustainability.

However, I have to say that the designs generally seem quite superficial. I wonder if they represent the perspective of the expatriate romantic idea of "gotong royong" (roughly equivalent to "pitching in," "working together," or even, in planning-speak, "community engagement"). The voices I hear are very real, but I think from the perspective of people who have lived in other countries and seen what is possible and what Jakarta could really be. But I don't hear the voices of the motorcyclist who has to breathe down the diesel soot as he is stuck in a jam behind a public bus on the way to work.

Although citywide intervention is necessary, I think the scale of change needs to be much smaller to genuinely engage with everyday problems that people face, that people probably have a LOT to tell the planners about, that - dare I say - people themselves can be empowered to do something about. These designs make me wonder if the appropriate approach would be a more modular one which allows for some real "gotong royong" in coming up with specific solutions to specific areas. No doubt that this raises larger, more structural questions about institutional capacity, governance, and education systems that are probably way beyond this competition.

Thanks, Liz @pleatfarmer for sharing on Twitter!

Singapore's changing waterfront

2009-07-12T13:13:00.001-07:00

It's been a while since I've gone back to Singapore - 3 years? Yet I hardly recognize some of these pictures, courtesy of my fellow geographer Hanglu.
National Day show - how can you have that view, and not be proud of your country's progress??"

The Singapore Flyer - was NOT there 3 years ago.

Under construction, the new "Integrated Resort" - a euphemism for a casino which Singapore clearly opposed for decades until recently. This is probably the highest concentration of construction cranes I've ever seen per square km. The waterfront you see here I think is the main river, Singapore River. This is pretty close to the mouth, Marina Bay. The last time I went back home they were planning to close off the Bay to partially augment Singapore's fresh water supply (yes, for drinking).

I'm amazed at the pace of progress in Singapore. Compared to how long things can take to get done here in SF/Bay Area, I can't help but contrast the political system underlying each place that determines in a big way how things run. When a project is proposed here, it has to go through so many rounds of community participation, environmental review, etc processes. When it's a public project, people WILL get pissed if the process isn't done right. Even for a private project, developers expect that people will get pissed, and want to do it right from the start and make sure the surrounding community does not feel trampled upon. Yes, it slows down "progress" and costs a lot more, and probably shaves off the profit margin for private projects and makes investment not as attractive as, say, in Singapore. But the resulting project is something most people are happy with, or at least okay with because they've had their say and presumably satisfactory responses...

Singapore's centralized mode of operation plays a big role in its superfastpace of progress. A friend who works in one of the government agencies was telling me, "In Singapore, top brass wants everything done by yesterday." This was in response to my telling her about Ecocity Builders' Strawberry Creek Plaza project in downtown Berkeley, a project ten years in the making which takes finetuned political savvy to navigate through various government, business and citizen stakeholders. Along with the still ongoing, sometimes prickly Downtown Area Plan process, after meetings and events showcasing the project and getting people's input, after nights of signs-holding in the City Council chambers, some of the ideas viewed as "dreamy" ten years ago are slowly becoming accepted. The landscape architect (Walter Hood, who also did the De Young Museum) for the project presented at the Planning Commission meeting last month, almost everyone applauded it, satisfied with how the project addressed many people's concerns about moving utilities, parking, businesses, emergency access, delivery vehicles, etc.

The project is probably at the extreme end of the spectrum to what could happen in Singapore, in terms of the political environment within which it operates. Some might think it would be so satisfying to work in Singapore as a planner or architect, to be able to see your work materialize so soon into your career. I'm not sure I can go back and operate in that system, though. From my brief experience living and working there, it would require me to take strict orders with no room for negotiation, to be a perfectionist robot that assembles meticulously, which I know I'm capable of doing, but am not prepared to do.

Help get kids outdoors - resurrect No Child left Inside Act

2009-07-11T20:08:00.000-07:00

Action Alert: Goal is 51 Senate co-sponsors

I need your help to shore up support for the No Child Left Inside Act by securing as many Senate co-sponsors as possible before Congress takes its August recess.

The Senate version of the No Child Left Inside Act (S.866) was introduced by Senator Jack Reed on Earth Day, April 22, 2009. Already, this bill has 15 bi-partisan co-sponsors—a great start, but still a long way from the goal of 51 co-sponsors. Please help us emailing your Senator today and urge him or her to become a co-sponsor (for a list of co-sponsors, click here). Visit your Senator’s website for their contact info; we have provided a model letter below.

As our leaders in Washington are focused on health care and climate change legislation, we have the opportunity to highlight the value of high quality environmental education in fostering good health and long-term stewardship of our planet.

A strong show of bipartisan support for programs that get children outside to learn and foster environmental literacy and stewardship will greatly aid our chances of swift passage of Senate Bill 866, the No Child Left Inside Act.

Please take a moment to personalize an email letter to your Senator today.

Abby Ybarra and Lucas Johnson
Grassroots Coordinators
No Child Left Inside Coalition
>
>
>
>
> DATE
>
> The Honorable MEMBER FIRST AND LAST NAME
> United States Senate
> __________ Senate Office Building
> Washington, DC 20510
>
> Dear Senator LAST NAME,
>
> We are writing to you today to urge you to become a co-sponsor of
> the No Child Left Inside Act of 2009 (S. 866). In doing so, you will
> take a leadership role in advancing our shared goals of achieving a
> clean environment, healthy and academically successful students, and
> a thriving 21st century workforce, for STATE NAME and the nation.
>
> Introduced this year by Senator Jack Reed, the No Child Left Inside
> Act will help to ensure that students across the country graduate
> from high school as environmentally literate citizens who are
> prepared to care for our natural resources and compete in a green
> economy. This bipartisan bill would provide funding to states for
> implementation of preK-12 environmental literacy plans, and expand
> opportunities for schools and school systems to integrate high
> quality environmental and outdoor education programs across the
> curriculum at all grade levels. Specifically, the bill provides:
>
> Incentives for states to create and implement State Environmental
> Literacy Plans to ensure their students are environmentally literate
> when they graduate.
>
> Grants to states to improve teacher quality and professional
> development to support implementation of environmental literacy
> plans in schools and school systems.
>
> Increased national capacity through grants to state education
> agencies, local education agencies, institutions of higher education
> or nonprofit organizations for dissemination of proven environmental
> education models and studies of national significance.
>
> The benefits of environmental and outdoor education are substantial.
> Use of the environment as a context for learning is proven to
> increase student achievement in core subjects, as well as improve
> engagement and reduce disciplinary problems. Outdoor learning and
> play are critical to early childhood development, both cognitively
> and emotionally. Early engagement in environmental studies fosters
> an interest in and aptitude for more complex science and technology
> as education progresses. Further, an understanding of the fragility
> and complexity of the natural world, and the role of individuals and
> communities in protecting it, is key to developing a long-term sense
> of civic engagement and environmental stewardship.
>
> ADD A PARAGRAPH HERE ABOUT YOU, WHY YOU THINK IT'S IMPORTANT TO EDUCATE KIDS ABOUT THE ENVIRONMENT, LOCAL ORGS DOING AWESOME ENV EDUCATION WORK, ETC. IT IS IMPORTANT TO SHOW LOCAL CONNECTIONS.
>
> Thank you for your thoughtful consideration of an issue that is so
> critical to our children and to the future of STATE’S treasured
> natural resources.
>
> Sincerely,
>
> NAME
> TITLE

Earth Day Tribute #3: History of Earth Day

2009-04-23T11:09:00.000-07:00

Earth Day eve 2009: An environmental writer, an interpretive ranger, and a sustainability planner sat around the kitchen table and realized none of us knew how, where, and how Earth Day got started. Found the following from The Wilderness Society - let me know if you find other information.

The seeds of Earth Day were planted in 1962 when Sen. Gaylord Nelson from Wisconsin had this idea for Pres. JFK to go on a national wilderness tour. So JFK did in 1963 but it didn't get as much limelight as he'd hoped (anyone knows why?).

Summer of 1969, Nelson was on a conservation speaking tour and had an idea to tap into the energies of student-led protests, rallies and teach-ins around the Vietnam War and channel them into the environmental cause. He announced that in the Spring of 1970 there would be a nationwide environmental teach-in about the problems the world faced with its water, land, air, forests, oceans, etc. With the rising awareness over environmental concerns, this idea caught on like wildfire. Supposedly 20 million people participated in that first Earth Day in 1970.

I can only imagine the energy at that time. I imagine it was something like what happened the night Obama got elected. Grassroots. Walking around Berkeley and the Bay Area, I look around and see the ghosts of the 1970 nationwide grassroots efforts. If anyone have stories at that time, I'd love to hear them.

What's your first Earth Day memory?

2009-04-21T23:21:00.000-07:00

-- Earth Day Tribute #2 --

It all started with colleagues at The Watershed Project, a watershed education nonprofit that I've been involved with, sharing stories of our first Earth Day memories. Complete the following sentence: "My first Earth Day memory is...." If you wish it would be great to mention (1) in what year and (2) place where it happened. I wonder if there is an evolution to the messages we're hearing on Earth Day from its first occurence.

My first Earth Day memory is from 1992. My primary school in Singapore held a team drawing contest and my team's won. The theme was global warming and the drawing was of a big round earth with and ice pack on its head and a thermometer sticking out of its mouth.
--Jane

My first Earth Day memory is from elementary school in 1972 -- the third Earth Day -- and the teachers enjoined we kids to decide what to do. We decided to climb a hill and hold a rally for Shirley Chisholm, the first black woman elected to Congress, who was running for president against Richard Nixon. I went to a pretty cool elementary school. We didn't plant any trees, but we did build a pond. That's how I know so much about how leaky a pond built by kids can be.
--Guy

I used to look forward to Earth Day almost as much as any other holiday when I was in elementary school because I knew we'd get to plant a tree and spend the whole day outside!
--Jan

Brisbane Riverfronts

2009-04-19T01:54:00.000-07:00

Sunday, 15 March 2009

The other water discovery in Brisbane is, well, the Brisbane River. In this entry's title I use the plural because the riverfront is well-utilized in many areas, lending a diversity of landscapes and uses. We started at South Bank, over the Goodwill Bridge, through a mangrove walk and the Botanical Gardens, then down Albert St in the CBD and Queens St the pedestrian mall, back across Victoria Bridge to the ferris wheel and Cultural Center, on Clem Jones Promenade and past Streets Beach and back to where we parked. A good 3.5-hour leisurely walk later, I was impressed by how well used every bit of the riverfront in this area is. Public access seems to be the priority, with private residential and commercial developments still able to take advantage of views. Some photos to entice you below.

The Arbours with signs giving you options of the river run routes you can take.

Impressively well-designed "private" space hanging off perpendicular to the Goodwill ped/bike bridge. Note functional shading above bench, glass rails allowing bench warmer a clear view of the river, oblivious to the other users on the bridge. Between the bridge and the bench is a slim trash can design with trash/recycle compartments.

Mangrove walk at the foot of the Botanical Gardens: Notice how clean and well-maintained it is. Pretty low use, which makes for a tranquil walk and observation. Interpretive signs explain mangrove ecology and bird species to look out for.

View of Brisbane CBD from South Bank, across Victoria Bridge. "Random" public art like this pair of birds dot many spaces all around Brisbane.

Laid back Queenslander - yes, he is barefoot sitting on a bench by the river working on his laptop.

Below: Still on South Bank, Maritime Museum. High-end residential towers with views of the river, but not colonizing the river front which is still accessible to pedestrians.

Tribute to Earth Day #1

2009-04-13T23:47:00.000-07:00

Come on, Californians, we can do it, too!

2009-04-10T01:16:00.000-07:00

More tidbits from Ian White's dissertation...

How bad was the drought?
In Queensland, the 2001-present drought was bad enough for local government councils to place restrictions depending on the level of water supply. Level 1 restrictions started in May 2005 when reservoir levels dipped below 40%. Increasingly strict restrictions were put in place since then, with Level 6 restrictions placed November 2007 with the goal of reducing household consumption to 140 liters/person/day, roughly half of 2005 levels. The reservoirs supplying approximately 1 million SE Queenslanders have been at operating lows since 2007, with the primary dam at falling to the 15% mark.

What do these restrictions mean?
Depending on the level, strict rules entail how much, how, and when you use water in your home. Tank or grey water may be used at anytime. For example, Level 5 restrictions include:
- Only watering gardens with buckets or watering cans (i.e. no hose or sprinklers!) on allocated days and at allocated times (3 days, between 4 and 7 pm)
- Only washing cars using a bucket to spot clean essentials like mirrors, lights, glass, number plates and "potentially damaging marks"
- Only topping up existing swimming pools with town water as a last resort and only
in households with (a) rainwater tank or downpipe rainwater diverter, (b) three of the following: a swimming pool cover, water efficient taps and showerheads, water efficient toilets, water efficient washing machine
- Only fill new pools with water sourced from outside areas under Level 5 restrictions (i.e. brought in by truck)
- Households using greater than 800L/day must submit a water use assessment form and identify saving opportunities

Did these restrictions work?
Various media outlets conscientiously report on dam levels. Yes, you'd see it on TV every night! Your neighbors could report you if they saw less than waterwise practices. Someone from the water authorities will come visit and issue a warning or a fine for repeated violations. And the restrictions seemed to work. Homes proudly display "Tank Water in Use" signs at the gate. Schools compete to win waterwise grants.

Apparently even after restrictions were lifted in July 2008, SE Queenslanders were consuming 122 liters/person/day of municipally supplied water. Dam levels are above 50% as of April 9. Way to go!

Come on, Californians, we can do it, too. Please tell your neighbor if you see inappropriate irrigation/car washing practices.

Disclaimers:

California and Queensland are probably very different places, culturally to say the least. Americans tell me "Here, you can't tell people what they can or cannot do on their own property." On the subject of lawns, some homeowners' associations can require you to water and properly maintain them, and warn you for creating blight or disamenity. My take on it is, we're in this drought together and one can no longer ignore one's impact on the larger society!

The trick is not in actually using LESS water per se, but drawing less water from municipal supply. Queenslanders may be more equipped to do this, given the high rate of rainwater tank installation. But there is a growing movement here in California (at least the SF Bay Area) around rainwater harvesting, downspout disconnection, and grey water installations. People are starting to get it and cities progressively pioneering such programs and policies.

Click for more info on:
SE Queensland water restrictions
Waterwise Queensland campaign
San Francisco's rainwater harvesting program

Ian and his waterwise home

2009-04-07T00:49:00.000-07:00

Sunday, 15 March 2009

Today was a huge water day for me. I had almost-nonstop contact with water, which was making me LOVE Brissie a lot. This blog entry is dedicated to Ian White and his waterwise home in Bundamba, Queensland, about 1 hour southwest of Brisbane.

9:53am read the clock on the GPS Wil lent us for our stay as we rolled passed a wooden sign with "La Boite" written on it. Ian greeted us where we parked, before the semi-wet zone in his garden. His waterwise home, a white Queenslander painfully restored to meet modern standards written for pre-fab suburban home features, stands proud against the backdrop of flat, fertile bank of the Brenner River.

"Over the last rainy season, from October to January, we were flooded up to the height of telephone poles. We had to kayak to and haul our groceries back from the store," he explained. I'm excited to meet someone in Australia as psyched about water as I am. Ian has just completed his PhD dissertation on the household experience with rainwater harvesting in Southeast Queensland, one of the fastest growing regions population-wise in Australia. I have been enjoying reading his masterpiece and here I pass along crunchy tidbits in this and future blog entries.

Despite the subtropical climate that Brisbane enjoys, SE Queensland is undergoing a drought period (since 2001!) and with catchment reservoirs located in the somewhat drier, more inland areas, rainwater harvesting has been adopted at pretty high levels. While less than 8% of SE Queensland households had adopted rainwater harvesting in 2004, by 2008 almost 40% did.

Ian took me on a tour of the water system in his house. Only the kitchen sink tap is connected to the town’s water supply. Water to the other taps (showers, sink, toilets, washing machine, hot water heater, and even a jacuzzi) is pumped from his 4,000-gallon (15,000-liter) rainwater tank, fitted with a 100-micron filter. The pump operates at variable speeds to provide constant water pressure, automatically sensing if higher pressure is needed, for example when more than one tap are turned on in the house. The pump is fitted with an additional 25-micron filter.

Water then flows into a water meter that measures the amount of rainwater actually drawn from the tank. Another device called the Rainsaver allows you to switch between rainwater and mains water, either manually at any time, or automatically when a float in the tank reaches a predesignated low level. Currently, the rainwater tank supplies 90% of the household's water, and surprise! the tank still regularly overflows during heavy rain and Ian is planning to install an additional 5,300-gallon tank. All wastewater is treated on site (because the house is on the 100-year floodplain and cannot get municipal sewage service) and the treated water is used for irrigating the garden. Voila, a closed loop system.

Step 1: Collect rainwater (from the hydrological cycle).
Step 2: Use rainwater.
Step 3: Treat used water.
Step 4: Return treated water to the hydrological cycle.
Step 5: Repeat Step 1.

Thanks, Ian, for showing me your waterwise home!

Ni hao from Brisbane

2009-03-14T00:06:00.000-07:00

Saturday, 14 March 2009

Sure, I got the good ole "g'day mates" since I arrived today. But then, I've heard more Chinese than English spoken today in Brisbane's neighborhood of Sunnybank where my host friend Wil lives. Twenty years ago, Taiwanese developers saw the potential for this area to provide affordable and ethnically appropriate housing and related services for Taiwanese immigrants. A couple malls with core tenants like Coles and Woolworth sprung up and Chinese/Taiwanese/HongKonger businesses filled the rest of the space; these make up the retail center of Sunnybank. Bubble tea, nail salons, grocery stores, and a plethora of authentic looking Asian food outlets. They're not really restaurants, more like depots, smaller in size than restaurants with outdoor seating spaces. More variety than size. Can't wait to try them all!

That's an overview of the neighborhood. Just being my plan-nerd side, I noticed a couple of things along my walk from Wil's house to the mall center and my puzzlement with Brisbane's/Queensland's climate and food production...

Discovery #1: Huge pods from tropical shade trees

Brisbane's water woes are not evident in the landscape. Huge flame of the forest trees line the neighborhood streets, shading my joyful walk with Flo. Ixora bushes and frangipani trees grow pretty well. The grass lawns look pretty Green. Oh, one finds other non-tropical trees growing well too, like the eucalyptus. Perhaps the proximity of the Brisbane river brings all that moisture and minerals that support such plant growth.

This seeming abundance of water is also reflected in the second discovery...

Discovery #2: Coco's grocery store

My roommate Anouk and I, in our foodie moments, often talk about how lucky we are in California to have such a variety of quality fresh groceries. It was a pleasant surprise stepping into Coco's grocery store in Sunnybank. It wasn't HUGE like Berkeley Bowl, but just as ALIVE with produce. Prices are comparable if not cheaper than in California. The apples - I don't even usually like apples, by the way - smell heavenly, at AU$1.60/kg. Bananas - at least 2 different types - $1.99/kg. Papayas - more expensive, but it used to be grown locally. Didn't get to explore closely to look at variety but I definitely saw some strange looking/uncommon-in-California produce.

Just what kinds of foods and agricultural products does Queensland have? I had a look at agricultural stats from Queensland Government Office of Economic and Statistical Research. Top production: sugar cane, cerals and legumes, crops and pastures for hay, cotton, peanuts and oilseeds, and tobacco. Top value production includes fruits (mainly bananas, citrus, pineapples) and vegetables (potatoes, tomatoes), amounting AU$2.5 billion out of total value of production of AU$9.5 billion. It shall be my mission to inquire more into where the food here comes from.

I'll post more discoveries and puzzlements from Brisbane soon.

Planting Trees to Save Water

2009-01-13T22:52:00.000-08:00

After graduate school, I wanted to explore the world beyond water. So last summer, I interned at Urban Releaf, a tree-planting nonprofit - only to wander right back into the water world. A project I was involved in would demonstrate how street trees in urban areas can play a part in conserving water in the current drought in California, and filter pollutants in storm water before it enters the Bay. (Big asterisk here, read on to read why.) Working with a water scientist from UC Davis, Urban Releaf designed a "green street" pilot project in a West Oakland neighborhood.

This is the block in question, on 31st Street and Market. As you can see, there are no trees, all concrete. And somehow, both rows of houses have high fencing. Kemba Shakur knows the neighborhood, and said one side is almost completely African-American, the other Asian-American. This is the second time she's here when the cops are here. What is the role of trees in creating a socially harmonious environment?

The purpose of the project would be to plant trees, first and foremost. After all, everyone deserves nice trees where they live. Scientists say trees bring psychological benefits, and just being able to see trees out the window can calm us down. Looking at an aerial photo of West Oakland (below left) - that area by the port bounded by the 580, 980, and 880 freeways - tree canopy cover is a dearth compared to other neighborhoods. For example, here's my neighborhood in Berkeley (below right).

This is an example of environmental injustice, and Kemba and Urban Releaf is working hard to address that by planting trees in urban areas that have disproportionately fewer trees. These are not only usually lower-income communities, but also communities of color.

The project won a 2-year grant from the Department of Water Resources to help urban areas adapt to drought conditions in California. Not only would the trees provide shade and make walking more comfortable for residents of this street, they would also need less watering thanks to specially designed tree wells. The wells capture rain water, which the trees in turn use for growth.

Another way the trees and tree wells would save water is by reducing pollution in the Bay. Think about what happens under normal urban circumstances - when it rains, water flows into the storm drain, carrying with it leaves, plastic bottles, food wrappers, and other trash, as well as the grime our cars leave behind on streets, before making its way to the Bay through our cities' networks of creeks and underground storm drains.

In a more natural environment like a forest or a park, with less of the surface covered by hard pavement, water soaks into the soil, which in turn filters out pollutants from the water before it joins a creek or storm drain. Capturing storm water in tree wells mimics this filtering out process so the water entering the Bay is a little bit cleaner.

Green streets are part of a suite of Low-Impact Design techniques that have seen rising popularity in cities like San Francisco and Portland. Low-Impact Design minimizes the negative impacts of our paved, urban world on our waters. It slows down the flow of urban runoff, puts less pressure on our cities' storm drain systems, and reduces the amount of pollutants entering our Bay.

Just how effective are trees and low-impact design in saving water? An integral part of Urban Releaf's green street project is keeping tabs on the numbers. Urban Releaf staff, Jaimini Parekh, and Jamal and Hakim Davis, helped UC Davis scientist Qingfu Xiao install a water meter in the storm drain at the corner of 31st and Market. After picking out the trash that has collected there - trash that would have found its way into the Bay, in goes the meter. The meter would measure how much water ends up in the storm drain, before and after the trees are planted. That way, we would know how much water is captured in the special tree wells.

If you noticed the tone of this entry is rather tentative. The project is facing uncertainties. With the economic crisis, the state ordered people to stop work on water projects that are funded by bonds, including from Propositions 50 and 84 which funded this project. Many of our colleagues in the water world are feeling the effects of this stop-work order and have had to lay off their workers or fold completely. Some nonprofits doing awesome environmental work, like Urban Releaf, survive on state funding. Read more and sign an online petition here.

Economic impact of Polis project may be too early to ascertain

2008-10-30T13:07:00.000-07:00

One way the Polis project successfully valorized the river - and the land economy - is evident in the city’s skyline, punctuated by construction cranes and half-built luxury residential towers. In anticipation of rising real estate values, the developer community engaged in a frenzy of land speculation and construction of high-rise luxury apartment buildings, resulting in an estimated 30% increase in the supply of housing units.

All of the stakeholders I interviewed voiced displeasure at the rate of construction the project has apparently caused, citing the resulting problems of urban sprawl, increased demands on transportation and other infrastructure, and increased development pressure on greenfields and the destruction of open space. The Almedina residential project adjacent to Parque Verde exceeded the height requirement permitted in the Plano Direito de Municipal (PDM), and construction is at a standstill while the case is being negotiated.

Some blame the lack of strategic planning. The PDM of Coimbra, equivalent to the General Plan, has not been updated since 1994. The new PDM, currently in progress, was commissioned to a consulting company also owned by one of the largest landowners in Coimbra. The company’s owner, however, publicly denies the potential conflict of interest this arrangement may cause. One stakeholder I interviewed suggested that the existing PDM was probably not respected and too many building permits were issued.

While development is perceived as necessary as Coimbra has lagged in image behind nearby Aveiro, the type of aggressive residential development the Polis project inadvertently encouraged lacks strategy and purpose and goes against the historical image of Coimbra as a university city. The additional units represent an oversupply of housing for a city whose population has remained stable at 100,000 over the last 10 years. The large student population also means roughly a 50% turnover in the population each year. New construction is occurring outside of the main historical core, raising the question of who the units are being built for.

Further, despite a glut in housing supply, the prices of housing units have not gone down. Without a concerted effort to develop Coimbra economically, it is difficult to attract new residents. Despite the prolific university talent, Coimbra has not been attractive for businesses and private economic investment. The stakeholders I interviewed did not perceive the Polis project itself as having attracted new economic investment other than in construction, although its impacts may well change over time.

Programming the new physical spaces

2008-10-30T13:06:00.000-07:00

The Polis project brought new physical spaces for organized educational and cultural activities in addition to the new bars and restaurants, but as my interviewees pointed out, the new physical spaces could benefit from more frequent animation. Four mini exhibition cubes throughout the park and Pavilhão de Portugal at the upstream end of the park are new spaces with great potential for hosting educational and cultural workshops and events, for other than student-oriented activities, the city of Coimbra is undergoing a “cultural crisis.” Examples of activities that could potentially take place include sporting events, concerts, workshops, environmental fairs, etc that could be initiated either by the municipality or cultural and environmental associations.

The programming aspects of these physical spaces were missing from the beginning, as manifested in a few different ways. One of the stakeholders expressed that the exhibition cubes “look a little lost.” When I visited, the cubes hosted displays on orchids, the sun, and reading by the Exploratorium, a life science museum in Coimbra. The displays were visible through the cubes’ glass walls, but they were closed to the public despite the opening hours posted indicating otherwise. Pavilhão de Portugal is also located at perceivably too great a distance, all the way at the other end of the park. The parking lot at the Pavilhão end of the park was also less well-used. Other than for specific events, the venue could benefit from informal activities that are well-integrated into the rest of the park.

Exhibition cubes were closed although the sign said it should be open.

Parque Verde - a bird's eye view

The lack of programming is perhaps a reflection of the disconnect between the use of space at the local level and the project planning and implementation carried out at the national scale by the Polis program. One stakeholder pointed out that landscape architecture decisions made at the national level called for lawns and orange groves in large areas of the park. Maintenance happens at the local level, however, and the burden of intense water use and the resulting maintenance expenses are born at the local level. Without necessary financial and other support, the local municipality may not be able to keep up with such responsibility.

Reconnecting right and left banks through tourism development

2008-10-29T21:02:00.001-07:00

Through the series of connectivity questions, it was also interesting to learn of the historical disconnect between the two banks of the river. The new pedestrian bridge Ponte Pedro e Inês is attractive for people to cross, in addition to pedestrian and vehicle crossing already possible on Ponte Rainha Santa Clara. But one of the stakeholders I interviewed noted that crossing the bridge may be “more fun than functional.” Project Parque Verde on the left bank does look somewhat neglected, and improvements on the left bank were not done to the same extent as on the right bank.

One stakeholder pointed out that Parque Verde on the other side feels like an afterthought. The discrepancy in political, economic, and social resources is something left bank residents have lived with for a long time – decades? centuries? Coimbra has always revolved around the university, one of the oldest in Europe, on the right bank. The larger sized population on the right bank also “tend to be wealthier, more educated, more prioritized” than the smaller number on the left bank. Political power and influence weigh in more on the right bank than the left.

As I crossed the pedestrian bridge Ponte Pedonal Pedro e Inês, I noticed generally fewer visitors, fewer equipment like benches, shades, and programmed activities on "the other side". Granted, it was midday; the sun was ablaze and most people probably at work. Bar do Mondego, the only food and beverage outfit this side of the river, was closed. A canoeing and kayaking center was open. Three boys had come for a swim in the canal. The stage that hosts the annual students’ festival was empty. Walking on the left bank got unbearably hot without trees and shade structures. Lacking any indicator signposts, I walked halfway along the perimeter of the park – under the hot sun – to find the exit. The photos below show the lack of shade and facilities on the left bank.

Convento Santa Clara-a-Velha, the old convent abandoned because of siltation from centuries of floods, was still under renovation and closed to the public. I headed to Convento São Francisco for a ceramic exhibition. The old church-turned-exhibition space was empty except for me and two elderly French couples. The one staff member was chatting on MSN Messenger on her laptop. The exhibit took half an hour and I continued up to the new convent further uphill. Inside its cathedral, the cavernous grandeur accentuated the few visitors. The beautiful cloisters behind the cathedral were empty; I was the only visitor.

Convento Santa Clara-a-Velha under renovation

What I experienced on the left bank was perhaps a sign of the challenges of tourism development in Coimbra. Despite the renewed image that the Polis project has brought to the city, all of the stakeholders I interviewed were skeptical that the renewed image will attract more tourism.

The same stakeholder I spoke to suggested tourism development as a way to better connect the two sides of the river. Many of the touristic places on the other side could benefit from a conscious effort to connect the two banks, creating a more pleasant walking experience. In effect, such a tourism development plan would develop the axis perpendicular to the river, connecting existing green open spaces on the right bank such as Parque Santa Cruz and the Botanical Gardens, and the tourism destinations on the left bank, such as the convents and exhibition center. She called this a "Polis II" of sorts, which could further add value to the large investment on Parque Verde, while bringing benefits to the historical center and other monuments of note.

Comprehensive tourism planning would also consider the type of tourism and points of interest that Coimbra has to offer, and the services the city needs to offer to cater to the targeted clientele. One interviewee suggested developing tourism for Japanese and Chinese audiences, telling the story of exploration by Vasco de Gama and other Portuguese discoverers. The museums in the Alta area, Museum of Science, Museum of Archeology, and Museum Machado de Castro could also benefit from improved tourism programming, such as a tri-museum pass.

However, developing tourism also has its own set of challenges. One stakeholder alluded to the vicious cycle of tourism in which Coimbra finds itself. There were few good hotels in Coimbra, but the small number of tourists made it difficult to justify improvements to existing hotels or building more hotels. The hotel owners I spoke to was surprised I was staying in Coimbra for a week; most tourists stay a night, before moving on to other points of interests just outside of Coimbra, like Conimbriga, Fatima, and the mountains up the Mondego valley.

Parque Verde poorly connected to various parts of town, except by car

2008-10-29T20:04:00.001-07:00

Access to the waterfront was an important objective of the Polis program. Due to the large parking lot, Parque Verde is most accessible by car. The park is a good 15-20 minutes’ walk from Largo de Portagem, through an older romantic riverfront park, Parque de Manuel Braga. The park is also not very accessible from other parts of town, with limited public transit options.

Parque Dr. Manuel Braga is an older park reflecting the trend of hardening river edges in urban areas. It is somewhat popular, attracting a variety of users. It also benefited from the Polis program in the form of the new Museu da Agua. Click to enlarge image.

When asked about the connection between the historic center and the river, three stakeholders agreed that access from the historic center could be improved. One interviewee who was probably most involved with the project maintained that it was not difficult to get to the river from the historic center. Access on foot from Largo de Portagem to Parque Verde is complemented by the Linha Azul, the “Blue Line” bus that takes residents into the urban core.

Linha Azul buses run on electricity, and are small enough to go on pedestrianized streets such as Rua Visconde da Luz, where the bus doesn't have the right of way and is not allowed to overtake pedestrians. Linha Azul riders are mostly older people who are the typical residents the historical center. The bus passes through Rua Sa da Bandeira, before entering the Alta area with almost-impossible-to-pass narrow streets.

Although one interviewee said Parque Verde may now provide people with a reason to come down to the river via the Baixa, or downtown area, access is solely through Largo de Portagem, which is limiting. Access from the historic center to the river could also be improved by rehabilitating the train station area in the Baixa.

Another part of the historic center that could benefit from better connection to the river is the Jardim Botanico, or the Botanical Garden. On plan view without elevation lines, the garden is deceivingly close to the river. But the Garden lies on the steep southeast slope of the acropolis. A cable car was proposed to provide this connection, but the Botanical Garden representative I spoke to preferred a “walk-through” instead of a “fly-through” connection. Visitors could technically walk through the garden from its main entrance on Alameda Dr. Julio Henriques to its southern entrance on Rua do Alegria. When I visited the Botanical Garden, many parts were unfortunately closed, including the leading to the southern entrance.

While the stakeholders I talked to habitually drive and thus are not very familiar with the public transport system, I got the impression that public transportation is not so popular an option. The Ecovia project, not directly related to the Polis program, was started a few years ago to encourage drivers to park their cars in parking lots just outside the city center, where they then transfer to a shuttle to downtown. The stakeholders I spoke with agreed the project was well-intentioned, but did not work very well. The shuttles have stopped running.

The stakeholders I spoke to offered some possible reasons. First, there was not a real need for such a program. Traffic congestion is not horrendous enough in Coimbra to motivate people to use the Ecovia system. Parking is pretty easily available in the historic center, and instead of paying at the Ecovia lots, drivers would rather pay for parking downtown. Secondly, public transportation typically requires transfers and longer wait times, and the perceived inconvenience is a deterrent. One interviewee suggested that perhaps out-of-town train riders would appreciate a transfer from Coimbra-B station, the old station north of the historic center.

Parque Verde appears most accessible to those who drive. Walking is possible from the historical center, but access is only through Largo de Portagem, a small entry point to the downtown. Public transportation options may be available but are mostly unpopular.

Polis project had little impact on Coimbra's historical center so far

2008-10-29T18:32:00.000-07:00

According to the stakeholders I interviewed, the Polis project has had little impact on the historic center, although some conceded that the project highlighted the need to connect the river to the city’s historic core. Given the river's role in the history of Coimbra, and the historical connection between the river and the city, the stakeholders were asked to assess the project's impact on the historical center.

The river is still fragmented from the Alta and the Baxia areas as well as the Botanical Gardens, without a clear pedestrian or public transit connection. The riverfront along the train station, for example, is starkly separated from the river despite the close proximity. Some downtown goers might park their car at the Parque Verde parking lot and walk to their destination, but it is a good 15-20 minutes’ walk from the said parking lot to Largo de Portagem. The Botanical Gardens is situated just upslope from Parque Verde, but there is no direct access through the gardens, and pedestrians have to walk around the garden (about 30-45 minutes) to access the river.

Close-up of Coimbra with walking routes, approximate course of Rio Ribela

The downtown/Baixa area underwent depopulation as more affordable housing options became available in the mid 20th century, some say as a result of the central government plan by Etienne de Gröer that called for lower densities over an expanded urban area. One stakeholder maintained that the Baixa still appears depopulated and neglected with businesses facing competition from modern shopping malls in the outskirts of the historic center.

Rehabilitation efforts are underway but face difficult challenges. New leisure areas such as Parque Verde and mega shopping malls in the outer suburbs detract from the commercial areas between Praça 8 de Maio in the north to Largo de Portagem in the south, along rua Visconde da Luz and rua Ferreira Borges. Old structures are difficult to renovate, and incentive programs lack sustained funding. For example, municipal cost-sharing partnerships are available for property owners, providing the latter with infrastructural updates (e.g. electricity, gas, internet, etc) and technical and design support, but funding comes from the central government and is dwindling every year. However, the creation of Parque Verde by the Polis program has not played a significant role in these rehabilitation efforts, according to the stakeholders interviewed.

Ecological values called into question

2008-10-29T17:47:00.000-07:00

Most interviewees specified that while the Polis program added recreational and aesthetic values to the river, it did not improve the river's ecological condition. In terms of water quality, an interviewee mentioned a study by a Spanish environmental NGO that suggests the need to retrofit the sewage treatment plant downstream of the city, but which the Polis project did not address. The project has also likely encouraged construction of high-rise apartment buildings, where poor stormwater management practices would like discharge sediment into the river. Sedimentation also likely results from forest fires upstream aggravated by the highly flammable nonnative species of pines and eucalyptus.

In terms of habitat, the project did not improve the fate of the endangered lampreia species, whose migratory spawning pattern is restricted by the dam at Ponte do Açude dowstream of Parque Verde. The dam gives the river a more lake-like appearance, which according to an interviewee may be more pleasant than the river's low-flow summertime appearance.

Interviewees also provided ideas and general critiques aimed at further improving the river within the city:

1) Overall, most agreed the project should continue and be completed, especially on the other side of the river where the park still looks incomplete.

2) Intervention would also be needed to regulate construction patterns, both to prevent a glut in the housing market, and reduce the impact of sedimentation. The construction boom has also greatly altered the character of the river banks and surrounding city.

3) Local stakeholders interviewed pointed the increasing demand for ecological integrity by local residents. Water quality needs to be monitored and improved both for ecological and human purposes. A migration passage for the endangered lampreia, accompanied by interpretive ecological center at the dam Ponte do Açude, would help restore the endangered species population as well as educate the public. Lastly, two interviewees disagreed with the project's highly artificial approach of completely destroying the orange groves that previously occupied the plot of land, only to replant it with orange trees. Some of the mature orange trees could have been preserved during the construction process.

4) One interviewee highlighted the possibility of restoring smaller streams draining into the Mondego to reinforce the riparian habitat, notably at Mata Naçional do Choupal. Another stream, Ribela, starts from its headwaters at Parque Santa Cruz, and has been known to carry endangered frog species.

Lack of connection between Choupal and smaller streams within it, and the Rio Mondego

Headwaters of Rio Ribela in Parque Santa Cruz

5) Some stakeholders implied the project is somewhat isolated from the historical areas of Coimbra, Alta and Baixa, and called for improving the connection between the historic center and the river itself. The lack of connections was further elaborated upon in the next section of the interview.

6) One interviewee posited that Parque Verde's parking lot seems too large, both reducing the amount of green space and encouraging people to drive to the park. She observes that downtown goers are now more likely to drive from points in the greater Coimbra, park at this lot, and then walk to downtown.

The next section of the interviewee covers specifically access to the river from various areas of Coimbra, including the historical center, the botanical gardens, and surrounding residential areas.

Polis project revalorized Rio Mondego and quality of life of Coimbra residents, stakeholders say

2008-10-27T15:26:00.000-07:00

All interviewees thought the Polis project in Coimbra contributed to a large extent to the development of the city, while some suggested further intervention was needed to maximize the impact of the project.

Most interviewees thought the Polis project has enhanced the river’s value in the eyes of the city’s residents, thus achieving the program’s goal of revalorizing the river. The river is now
accessible and open for people to enjoy after 20 years of neglect and poor image. For example, the construction of the downtown train station Coimbra A (Estação Nova) did not consider or taken advantage of its riverside location. The fact that it is now possible for people to sit at a bar and look at the river is a vast improvement. The project made the river a part of people’s everyday lives.Most interviewees agreed that Parque Verde is a highly relevant project, providing a much-needed quality outdoors leisure space. Specifically, existing parks in the city had either served a different purpose or become degraded and were perceived as dangerous. Mata o Choupal, an urban forest a little downstream of the city center, for example, was more “wild” in character, and was more commonly used for active leisure activities such as jogging, cycling, picnics, and sports. The forest is poorly connected to Rio Mondego, except for a concrete canal. Parque Santa Cruz, a Romantic park connecting the northern edge of the city center to Praça de Republica, has been associated with criminality and illicit activities.

Mata Naçional do Choupal attracts active/sportive uses. Cyclists and joggers track along concrete canal.

Parque Santa Cruz off of Praça da Republica is poorly maintained, lacks users except for the occasional tourist group, and is associated with crime and illicit activities.

Parque Verde has drawn people to the riverfront, allowing people to reconnect with nature and with the river. All interviewees noticed the river has become a part of people’s everyday life, especially during the late afternoons and the weekends. Parque Verde also serves as a reminder that the river can be enjoyed. Families with children, individuals seeking quiet time, and other adults come to enjoy the many layers of activities, including a playground, jetties, exhibition spaces, a large event space, bars, and restaurants. One interviewee pointed out that Parque Verde provided a new, human-scale, and symbolic connection between the two banks of the river, via the pedestrian bridge Ponte Pedro e Inês. One interviewee mentioned the cooling effect of the river may have drawn people to the new park.

Two interviewees pointed out the regional impact of the Polis program - beyond Parque Verde, pointing out that the interventions included regional efforts including improvements to tourist and public amenities close to but not immediately on the river, as well as those with regional impact such as a bicycle path to Figuera de Foz at the mouth of Rio Mondego. One interviewee thought the program raised the level of perceived development in Coimbra, once considered “underdeveloped” compared to Lisbon, Porto, and even Leiria, following a period of deindustrialization in the 1980s and 1990s. The same interviewee also thought the project included a new circular route around the south side of Coimbra for people passing through on the north-south axis, and that eased traffic within Coimbra.

In the next blog entries, I will describe in more detail some recommendation for further action from the stakeholders I spoke with.

Interviews with local stakeholders

2008-10-24T19:09:00.000-07:00

As mentioned before, the purpose of my trip to Coimbra was to find out from local stakeholders their opinions on the Polis project in Coimbra. In total, I spoke to 5 stakeholders. The stakeholders I spoke to were experts in the domains of botany, ecology, urban history, architecture, and environmental education. More importantly, they are knowledgeable about Coimbra and were more or less directly involved with the Polis project. Those that were less directly involved had followed the project closely, and in my research they also play the role of informed and engaged citizens of Coimbra.

Because the Polis program was carried out at the national level, the opinion of local stakeholders are important in evaluating the success of each project. Environmental planning professor Graça Saraiva at the Istituto Tecnico Superior (IST) at Lisbon has been involved in the evaluation of river rehabilitation projects, working with URBEM at the European level to identify indicators with which to evaluate such projects. She and her colleagues at IST came up with the Riprocity evaluation framework, which recognizes that the success of restoration of urban rivers must consider three inter-dependent variables: the ecology and hydrology of the rivers, the physical form of the city, and the perception and satisfaction of the city's residents on the river.

My research project to Coimbra feeds into this third leg of Riprocity. People's perception includes how people respond and develop a sense of identity - and eventually, stewardship - with the river in their city, but also dwells into larger issues such as institutional framework for the management of rivers in urban areas.

To respect their privacy, I will not relate the information I gathered with specific stakeholders. However, I will list their names and affiliations here to add credit to the quality of local information I present here. Worth repeating is the fact that the interviews were conducted in English and French because I do not speak Portuguese. They are:

1. Professor Santiago Faria, architect and urban historian, currently teaching in the University of Lusíada in Famalição and previously taught at Escola Universidad Vasco de Gama in Coimbra. He led the development of the plan for urban revitalization of the historical center of Coimbra, and wrote extensively, including his Sorbonne dissertation, about the physical evolution of the city of Coimbra

2. António Luís Campos, president of the regional board of Quercus, a national environmental NGO active in raising environmental awareness, focusing on the role of land development on the environment. He is a freelance photographer

3. Dr. Pedro Caseleiro, director/curator of the Museu da Ciência (Museum of Science), University of Coimbra

4. Professor Helena Freitas, botanist and ecosystem scientist, currently director at the Department of Botany and Jardim Botanico in Coimbra

5. Professor María José Castro, urban ecologist, biostatistician, and animal behavior researcher, currently teaching at Escola Universidad Vasco de Gama

I would like to take this opportunity to thank them for their time. (Apparently August is a nationally recognized vacation time!)

2008-10-24T18:46:00.000-07:00

As promised, this post contains 2 maps that will help you pinpoint geographically the places in Coimbra I'm writing about.

Let me know if something's not clear and you

have any questions. I will try my best to fix errors.

Map of greater Coimbra

Close-up Map of Coimbra

The changing roles of the river through history

2008-10-12T14:47:00.000-07:00

Rio Mondego has played many a defining role over the course of history and evolution of Coimbra, from that of defense, to navigation, to a source of problems, and now, with the Polis program, an exciting place of leisure.

Historians believe the dramatic topography of the city right on the right bank of the river had much to do with the first settlement in the area. Coimbra’s location on a geological uplift in the lower half of the Mondego basin served the dual need for defense and access to fertile agricultural terrain in the surrounding plains. The acropolis sees a rise of 75 meters over a distance of 250 meters, from the bank of the Mondego to the university patio at the top of the hill – that’s a slope about 30 percent! The city on the hill had a wall built around it for defense purposes during the Roman era; the remains of the wall and its gates are still visible in several parts, and its story told today in the Nucleus of the Walled City interpretive center at Arco de Almedina.

Here are some visuals that give an idea of the abrupt topography and the relation of the city and the river (click to enlarge image):

Late 16th century illustration of Coimbra by Hoefnagel (not to scale). Note: Difference of steepness on the west slop versus the east slope; Agriculutral areas surrounding the city; Bridge across river is Ponte Santa Clara; Barcas (barges) by the bridge; Island in the river; Two men in the academic cape, today still worn by Coimbra fado singers

1669 depiction of Coimbra by Pier M. Baldi. Note: Expansion of urbanized areas, old convent Santa Clara-a-Velha.

Topo model at the Nucleus of the Walled City interpretive center, housed in the Arco de Almedina.

View from tower allowed oversight of agricultural areas across river.

Arco de Almedina

Coimbra today

The river has also served as a driver of commerce in agricultural and primary material products. The navigability of Rio Mondego, and Coimbra’s strategic location between the upper and lower Mondego basins as well as between the North-South transportation axis between Lisbon and Porto, both encouraged the transportation of goods. In mountain barcas (barges) such as the one on exhibit at Parque Verde, traders transported timber and wine from the upper Mondego valley down to Coimbra, before distributing these products down the river to Figuera de Foz at the mouth of the Mondego, or to the northern and southern regions of Portugal by land. Goods transported upstream from the lower valleys included fish and salt.

Barca Serrana (Mountain Barge) on exhibit at Parqe Verde

As trade grew, so did the commercial area of Baixa, or baixinha, sometimes also called the "Downtown," outside the walls and at the foot of the city on the hill. Agricultural goods came into Coimbra mainly through Largo de Portagem across the bridge (Ponte de Santa Clara) from the left bank of the Mondego. Commercial activities in the 16th century were organized around the now-gone Praça Velha, where traders of iron, linen, wool, cane, and pottery wares gathered. Regional routes that brought goods out of Coimbra took advantage of the flatter plains at the southwestern foot of the acropolis; the north-south transportation axis occupied the present rua Visconde da Luz et rua Ferreira Borges southwest of the city, which is underlain by the least steep terrain.

Rua Visconde da Luz (top) looking north towards Praça 8 de Maio, where Igreja Santa Cruz and the Camara Municipal (Municipality office, bottom) are.

Rua Ferreira Borges (top) looking south towards Largo de Portagem (bottom)

The location of the city and university on high ground also protected it from floods. Along with the advantages of the river came its problems, of which flooding was one of the most pertinent. The construction of levees and dykes began as early as in the 13th century when the university of Coimbra was permanently established here. Merely a year after the construction of the Santa Clara-a-Velha convent in 1330, severe flooding engulfed the area, with subsequent flooding constantly filling the convent with the silt. The problem became so intolerable in the 16th century that a new church had to be built, the Santa Clara-a-Nova, higher up the left bank, safer from the shifting river. The old convent was abandoned in 1677 when it was completely covered with silt.

The capricious river earned its nickname “Rio Basófias” (or Fickle River); the older generation recalls the bane of winter floods and the sandy, dry appearance in the summer. Before the construction of a dam downstream at Ponte de Açude, the river welcomed waders in its braided, sandy summertime channel, but the dam has given the river its now more stable, lake-like appearance.

Santa Clara a Velha under renovation

Waders in the 1950s

Throughout the turn of the century, the city gradually turned its back on the river. Industrialization in the second half of the 18th century expanded regional trade in Coimbra to include retail and food products and artisanal workshops. During this period, the role of the river in trade and navigation complemented that of the railroad and inter-city roads along the right and left banks of the river. The wharfs Cais das Ameias constructed in 1871 further hardened the right bank of the river. The new train station (Estação Nova) just downstream of Ponte Santa Clara was built with little consideration for the river.

However, the river has always been celebrated in the cultural history of Coimbra and Portugal in general. Rio Mondego was often referred to as “Rio das Musas” (River of the Muses), and featured in fado music, especially in the Coimbra style. The celebratory role of the river continues to this day, especially visible during the week of student debauchery usually culminating in a concert at the pavilion on the left bank.

Concert area at other side of river (left bank)

The traditional song “Fado Corrido de Coimbra” suggests the beauty of the river, with its “moonlit bells,” which apparently inspired the Queen-Saint Isabel. The river is where she would bring her “saudade,” that infamously untranslatable Portuguese word that more or less means the sadness coming from yearning and longing for something long gone and unrecoverable (such as one’s youth or long-lost friends).

Listen to it here.

Fado Corrido de Coimbra

Coimbra, rio Mondego,
Dos teus sinos ao luar
Santa Isabel deu-te rosas
E as saudades há-de dar

Hei-de perguntar um dia
Ao vento que diz às flores
Para saber se é só uma
Esta linguagem de amor

Fui encher a bilha e trago-a
Vazia como a levei
Mondego que é da tua água
Que é dos prantos que eu chorei

Rough English translation:

Coimbra, Mondego river,
With your moonlit bells
Saint Elizabeth (1) gave you roses
And longings (2) shall give

I shall someday ask
To the wind what does he tell to the flowers
To find out if there is but a single
Language of love

I went to fill the water jar, but I bring it
As empty as I took it
Mondego, where's your water
Where are the tears I wept

Translation comments:
1. Reference to the Portuguese Holy Queen Elizabeth, wife of king D. Dinis, which, caught carrying bread for the poor over her skirt, was questioned by the king "What are you carrying mylady?", answered "Roses, Mylord", and droping the fold-up skirt produced... roses. This was from then on known as "The Miracle of the Roses".
2. The word "saudade" is unstranslatable. It is "longing", "yearning", "homesickness" and "blues" combined, and more. Basically, it is a feeling of missing something very much, particurly intense, and often associated with things you'll never see again, like college days or youth days, or dead people and faraway places.

Source: http://home.utad.pt/~leonelm/adlibitum/fadocorrido.html

Due to its historically important role, one of the main objectives of the Polis program in Coimbra is to rejuvenate the riverfront and reconnect Rio Mondego to the residents of Coimbra. As we see through history, the river has shaped the physical, economic, and cultural development at the local, regional, as well as national scale. As I share with you my findings from the interviews, we hear from local stakeholders who have followed the project the effectiveness of the intervention in achieving this goal.

Coimbra and Rio Mondego

2008-10-07T15:53:00.000-07:00

Portugal is the southwestern-most country in Europe, sharing a border with Spain to the north and east, and bounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the west and south. It is in the Mediterranean climate zone, similar to California where I currently am. This climatic similarity is one of the reasons why I'm in Portugal: my professor Matt Kondolf is a hydro-geomorphologist specializing in Mediterranean rivers, which often share the same fate of "too much rain in the winter, not enough (or none) in the summer."

Click to enlarge this map of southwestern Europe.

Some people I met in Coimbra are proud of the fact that Rio Mondego is the largest river that lies entirely in Portugal. Its headwaters start in the mountains of Estrela, within national borders. The river has played a historical role in shaping the development of the city, as revealed by the five local stakeholders I interviewed. Professor Santiago Faria's PhD dissertation on the urban history of Coimbra also hints of the role of the river has played in the development of Coimbra.

Click to enlarge this map of Portugal's major rivers.

Babelfish translator

2008-10-05T22:16:00.000-07:00

In case the Portuguese language baffles you as it does me, here's a link to Babel fish, a web-based translator among 12 languages. You can cut and paste text or entire websites. It's not perfect, so use with caution (and humor), but it's understandable.

Sorry for being Anglo-centric. Babel fish can also, of course, translate from English to other languages.

Pastéis de Belém.... mmmmm....

2008-10-05T21:52:00.001-07:00

I'm suddenly missing Pastéis de Belém (pash-TEISH de buh-LEHNG). According to my guidebook, the original recipe for pastel de nata is a closely guarded secret. I love and remember the creamy egg tarts sold as "Portuguese tarts" in bakeries in Singapore, but this is THE original Portuguese tart, sold in its beautifully tiled coffee shop in the neighborhood of Belém, about 20 minutes' bus ride from central Lisbon. The pastry is flaky, and each flake is crispy. Dusted with icing sugar and cinnamon, it is to die for! At just 0,80 euros a piece, how many can you eat?

How did Parque Verde come to be?

2008-10-03T18:20:00.000-07:00

Parque Verde in Coimbra is one of 37 urban rehabilitation projects undertaken within the POLIS program. The POLIS program, launched in March 2000, is a national urban renewal and environmental upgrading program. With Viver as Cidades (to live the city) as a motto, the program is one of the largest national efforts in Europe to modernize the national urban system. It aims to reinvent cities as engines of regional development by rehabilitating urban areas by renovating heritage buildings and by enhancing public areas in centers of cities, while valuing local identity and addressing specific needs of each city.

Background on the POLIS program
The POLIS program sought apply at a national level an integrated method of urban renewal that successfully transformed the riverfront at Parque des Nações in Lisbon and to replicate this model of city-river relationship in 17 of the 37 beneficiary cities. Parque de Naçoes was constructed as part of the 1998 World Exposition in Lisbon, and the riverfront project incorporated Rio Tejo (Tagus River) in innovative ways that allow close interaction between urban fabric, the people and the river.

Photo Credit: Wikipedia entry "Parque das Nações"

The vision of the city under the POLIS project is one that is a lively, attractive place to live, work and play, providing spaces for relationships and individual privacy, and creativity, with a unique identity that altogether makes it a highly competitive European and global city.

Further, the city is envisioned as a space of citizenship. Although it is a national program, each project was realized through partnerships with local municipalities, and local residents and stakeholders were claimed to have participated at unprecedented levels. The word “polis” traces its etymology to the ancient Greek word polis which means city, city-state, or citizenship; the program’s name implies that the city is not only a territorial entity, but calls for participatory and democratic governance and policy-making. Each project in the POLIS program worked with Local Monitoring Committees and followed a comprehensive local communication plan to interact with local stakeholders. To solicit public discussion and input on detailed plans, the POLIS program held an exhibition at Pavilhão de Portugal in Lisbon (designed by the renowned architect Alvaro Siza Vieira).

Photo Credits: ParqueExpo'98

The social dimension of river rehabilitation is of great interest to me as a planner. In urban areas, such projects need social acceptance at the very least, and active participation of local stakeholders can help projects thrive in many ways. Locally appropriate design can increase the usability of and access to such spaces. While designers gain an understanding of local particularities that may influence their design, participating in design and planning processes present learning opportunities for local stakeholders. Through hands-on involvement, local participants learn about hydrologic, social, and political processes that affect river rehabilitation projects. They are also likely to build networks with fellow residents through working together. Perhaps most critical is the shared sense of ownership that local residents develop. Only if they feel they OWN the project, would they participate in the maintenance and ensure the long-term sustainability of the project.

As I spoke to local stakeholders about the Parque Verde project in Coimbra, it became more apparent to what extent the public participation process succeeded in incorporating specific local needs in the project.

A brief analysis of sentences used in the Institutional Model, Plans, Communication and Environmental Awareness book published by the program revealed the extent of local participation the program aimed for. The two main goals of the exhibition, for example, were to:

“…make the public aware of the major role played by the POLIS program in reinforcing and consolidating… a balanced urban system for Portuguese cities”

and

“…inform the public on the measures that were implemented at all levels, including measures that have already materialized into specific construction projects and measures which have rather focused on surveys and the production of planning documents that constitute a legacy of land management instruments to promote further urban and environmental management interventions, and to thereby enhance the attractiveness and competitiveness of various urban centers, according to the POLIS program orientations.” (emphasis added by author)

Other sentences used to express the aims of the communication and environmental awareness segment of the POLIS program suggested that public participation was limited to:
- Informing (e.g. “advising [residents] on interventions,” “briefing on progress to date,” “keeping residents abreast”),
- Generating interest (e.g. “promoting public participation,” “fostering interest in urban environmental protection”) and
- Obtaining buy-in (e.g. “obtaining their commitment”).

As we can see from the above, communication tended to be one-way and consultative, on Sherry Arnstein’s Ladder of Citizen Participation. It was difficult to understand from the POLIS publications, specifically how and which local stakeholders or inputs were incorporated into a project. This is not surprising, considering a few Portuguese I have spoken with warned me that the idea of participation may not be as widespread or of the norm in Portugal as it may be in the US - NOT to say this is "good" or "bad."

While the project may have involved local stakeholders to an extent necessary to gain their acceptance, it remains to be seen whether the sense of long-term stewardship of the project will be developed. Admittedly, it is not possible for me (within the scope of this project) to retrace the process of planning and deliberation from the beginning, I was able to glean from my interviews areas of the project where local needs may not have been sufficiently taken into consideration or incorporated into the process.

Please tell me again - What were you doing in Portugal?

2008-10-03T18:12:00.000-07:00

A question I asked myself repeatedly when I was in Portugal.

The short answer: I am in Portugal to study people’s perception of riverfronts in urban areas.

Through UC Berkeley’s Institute of European Studies/Portuguese Studies Program, I had the wonderful opportunity to go to Portugal to evaluate a waterfront recently rehabilitated by the Portugal-wide urban redevelopment program, called the POLIS program.

Since then, there have been European as well as national efforts to develop indicators to evaluate these river rehabilitation projects. Colleagues of my professor Matt Kondolf, at Instituco Superior Tecnico (IST) in Lisbon, have been involved in these evaluation efforts, focusing on the Polis intervention in three cities: Leiria, Coimbra, and Bragança.

My research focuses on the perception of local stakeholders on the Polis intervention in the City of Coimbra (website). To give myself a broader perspective, I visited Lisbon and Porto, the riverfronts of which are renowned, successful public spaces. The latter are also historic riverfront areas, and I wanted to see a modern/recent riverfront area in light of an older, more established public space.

Parque Verde do Rio Mondego - First Impressions

2008-09-22T23:09:00.000-07:00

Coimbra, 29 August 2008

My first interviewee met me at the Coimbra train station, and we headed to Parque Verde, the river park developed by the Polis program. When we arrived it was mid-afternoon, and the park was beginning to teem. We settled down in an Irish bar on the right (north) bank. Over the next few blogs, I will cover themes that come up through my interviews. Here's a brief overview to get you started.

What impressed me most about Parque Verde was the variety of activities and settings one can possibly part-take in. The Irish bar was one of 4 food and beverage establishments that form the core of activities. Umbrellas decked over bright yellow tables and chairs on the boardwalk, right up against the river.

It was a family-friendly atmosphere. A boy with his parents leaned over a viewing area, watching a family of ducks. The playground was already packed; a giant green bear watched over the happy children. The informally extended into a soccer field and a wide decomposed-granite alley where older kids pedalled on rented 4-wheelers.

The park also provided spaces for other uses. Further down in the orange groves area lay nested little glass cubes serving as exhibition space. At the far end of the park is an event space, Pavilhão de Portugal, designed by Siza, a renowned Portuguese architect.

Along the water are 7 jetties, where couples dangled their feet in the water. In the water were some canoeists, water bicycles (more pedaling), and a barca serrana (mountain barge) on exhibit. A pedestrian and bicycle bridge, Ponte Pedonal Pedro e Ines, arched gracefully to the other side, set elegantly against the high-mast vehicular bridge behind it.

As I was leaving I noticed a beautiful water feature separating the park and the car park. The rock reinforcement hinted the expanse of flooding possible.

Não falo português! - Part II

2008-09-20T10:59:00.000-07:00

Coimbra, 29 August 2008

Even following their advice, I thought it would be strange (or rude?) to call a Portuguese person on the phone and greet in English. Therefore it was quite a relief when I managed to schedule my first stakeholder interview this morning – yay! With the help of my thin Lonely Planet phrasebook, I learned to talk to people on the phone:

-Está? (this is the phone greeting, like moshi-moshi in Japanese, or oui? In French.)
-Bom dia. Eu queiro falar com o (…) por favor? (Good morning. I would like to speak to (…) please?
-….. (don’t understand, guess: This is s/he.)
-Daqui falar Jane Wardani, uma estudante dos Estados-Unidos.
-….. (don’t understand)
-Desculpe, não entendo Portugues. Podia falar inglês? (Sorry, I don’t understand Portuguese. Do you speak English?)

If you speak Portuguese, you can probably tell that I’ve butchered the language.

Each time I called a person, I woud start with the above. A couple of people hung up on me. Maybe it wasn’t a good time to call and I couldn’t understand what they were saying. I fought the creeping feeling that I had done something wrong and should go back to America. I swallowed hard, put the nagging thoughts aside, and decided to continue calling the next day and enjoy the rest of the day at the Mondego river park (which is called Parque Verde, or Green Park).

Then Sara, a researcher collecting survey data, also on the perception of the river Mondego, taught me a phrase that would become the most useful phrase during my stay in Portugal:

-Eu estou a estudar a percepção dos habitantes de Coimbra do seu rio Mondego. (I am studying the perception of the habitants of Coimbra on their River Mondego.)

Bingo!

I followed her around Parque Verde while she dropped off questionnaires at café tables at the riverside park, and as I went around the city of Coimbra armed with this phrase I got various responses. A very unpleasant bourgeois-looking couple severely criticized my presence, among other unsavory remarks they made about Sara and me. Most people were helpful when I as much as try to say this, though. A staffperson at the Museu da Agua in Coimbra was exceptionally so, showing me the collection of books housed in the museum about Rio Mondego, Coimbra, and the Polis program. She said I could come back and look at them if I needed to, which I did.

Another lifeline I had was French. I had been told that some of the older generation of Portuguese may speak French, as many of them migrated to France during tumultuous times in the 1970s. I ended up conducting one of the interviews in French, with an architecture and urban history professor who did his PhD in Sorbonne in Paris. The housekeeper at Residencia Coimbra, where I stayed 3 nights, was married to a French man and spoke perfect French. Other than these two though, French was not as widely spoken as I had thought.

Não falo português! - Part I

2008-09-20T10:10:00.000-07:00

Lisbon, 28 August 2008

In my original research plan, written optimistically in faraway Berkeley, CA, I proposed interviewing users of riverside parks and spaces in various cities in Portugal. I thought it would complement well the research of two other Berkeley students, Kristen and Nadine. Kristen observed and described riverside parks and different types of users. Nadine’s approach was from the urban design standpoint, studying the configuration of space at and within the 0.25-mile radius of the waterfront. I wanted to talk to people and ask them for their stories with their waterfront. A little like how I had presented the Clarks’ story in Portsmouth, NH.

I knew that not speaking Portuguese was going to be a problem, but not THAT big of an issue. In my mind, I would be greeted by enthusiastic participants speaking animatedly in English with a Portuguese accent. After all, the students I met at a hydrology workshop last April spoke English at very high levels. I also was introduced to a student collecting the data for a related project, asking for people’s perception of the waterfront. I thought I could help with recruiting participants for her surveys.

After a couple of days in Lisbon, where the hotel reception staff barely spoke English, I began to have doubts. Then, I spoke to two environmental planning professors at the Instituco Superior Tecnico (IST) in Lisbon. And the doubt deepened. They recommended I spoke instead to local stakeholders and conduct more in-depth interviews. These local stakeholders would represent highly informed and engaged citizenry, some more directly involved with the rehabilitation program than others. They were also more likely to speak English. Following their advice, I swallowed my pride and proceeded with contacting some of the stakeholder they recommended.

Internet - finally!

2008-09-03T15:26:00.000-07:00

After days of difficulty with internet access, I finally found a hospedaria (guest house) in Coimbra with wireless connection in my room. I also figured out how to add photos in blogspot without going over to Picasa, and getting larger display.

26-29 Aug: Lisboa

It was (un)fortunate that I didn’t arrive with my guidebook – it was in my suitcase, which apparently did not make it out of Boston Logan airport with me. So after a jetlag-curing nap and wash, I walked out of my hotel, looking to lift my spirits. I was happy to wander around, letting my eyes and a local tourist map guide me. I was to meet Nadine and Josh, two former landscape architecture students at Berkeley, at café A Brasileira on Rua Garrett by Praça Luis Camões. Known as the city of 7 hills, Lisboa offers several methods for elevating oneself, as I serendipitously discovered.

One of them, right outside Hotel Suiço Atlantico where I stayed, is Elevador da Glória. The narrow-ness of this street is deceiving. It actually fits 2 of these trams side by side, plus a bus stop, plus sidewalks on each side. A few minutes later, I reached the top of the hill in Bairro Alto, and then a short walk down the calçada sidewalk took me to Praça de Luis Camões. A Brasileira, with its tables and chairs sprawled over the largo, was teeming with people-watching, beer- and coffee-drinking, and smoking tourists and locals alike. Nadine and Josh arrived shortly after.

The next day I decided the airline’s negligence justifies my going shopping in the Chiada district (I did check with my insurance company). Walking there via Avenue de Liberdade, I was amazed that some streets, like this one, were so so narrow and others, like Liberdade, were so so wide. Since I was in no hurry (great thing about traveling alone), I took the least direct route – as long as I eventually get to the shops, might as well get to know the neighborhood.

My jaw literally dropped when Elevador Santa Justa appeared around the corner – I remembered reading it in the guidebook a week ago but had forgotten its location. Wanting to savour the thrill of discovery and focused on getting out of my 2-day-old clothes, I saved the trip up and continued.

After procuring my spoils, I headed to the waterfront at Rio Tejo, walking through the amazing Baxia calçada. (Even more amazing viewed from the top of the Elevador Santa Justa).

Crossing Praça do Comercio in the mid-afternoon sun gave me a headache! Note shopping bags. Thanks Nadine for lending me your clothes!

Most of the waterfront was closed off for construction. I walked down to the train station and the Mercado – not much to see except this view of the Ponte 25 Abril – hm… another similarity with San Francisco…

From the Mercado I felt brave and climbed up to Bairro Alto on foot. (I also did not know the Elevador de Bica was just a few blocks away.) Rua do Alecrim is an elevated street; it flies over Rua Nova do Carvalho 20-30 feet below.

Numerous escadas (staircases) up narrow cobblestone streets surpried the wandering tourist. This staircase up a Bairro Alto street…

…led to this!

Stopping to sit at Largo do Carmo, I looked around trying to decide where to go next. The alley along the side of the convent piqued my interest. I found myself at the top of the Elevador Santa Justa!

I hopped in… (ticket allows 2 rides, up or down)…

... saw the lines forming at the bottom, and quickly went back up!

… and wished Florian were there to share this view…

...and have an imperial (a small 20 cl glass of beer) with me!

about my blog

2008-08-25T10:15:00.000-07:00

Jane-in-Orbit is a way for me to keep in touch with people who may be interested in my work as an environmental planner. I'm off Aug-Sep 08 to the US East Coast, Portugal, and the UK to study waterfronts and what make them tick as people places. Through my blog entries, I hope you get to know the people I meet and their urban waterfronts. Welcome to Jane-in-Orbit and I wish you a pleasant flight!

Just to orient you to the layout: With each entry I will probably post photos and maybe videos. Check them out under "today's picks" and "video bar" in the right column. In "what soup?" at the bottom of the page you can find news feeds from the places I visit.

Finally, thank you, Professor Matt Kondolf, at the University of California, Berkeley for making my travels to Portugal possible.

Portsmouth, NH - 23 Aug 08

2008-08-25T08:58:00.000-07:00

Adam and Anna bring 15-month-old Adelle to Prescott Park "whenever we have a free moment. There's a variety of things to see, and lots to learn!" The Clarks live in Dover, NH, a 20-minute drive from Portsmouth.

Prescott Park lies at the mouth of the Piscataqua (pis-KAH-tah-kwa), the river that forms the boundary between the states of New Hampshire and Maine. Across the Piscataqua is Portsmouth Naval Base, which still operates and repairs nuclear submarines. Family-oriented activities keep the Clarks busy: Adam loves the "industrial" view of the naval base, Anna has been going to see Prescott Park Arts Festival plays - Beauty and the Beast is currently playing, and Adelle is ALWAYS excited by the colors and smells in the flower garden!

My favorite - the memorial bridge. I asked around and some folks came all the way from Manchester, NH to see it. After Adelle got over-sensory stimulated with the flowers and the bugs, we went to Stockpot for dinner. Located on Bow Street and facing the waterfront, Stockpot serves fresh seafood that Portsmouth is famous for. The view and the people - awesome to watch!

Portsmouth, New Hampshire - 23 Aug 08