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Downtown Moves - Nov 1-3 Twitter archive

Below is the raw extract of tweets hashtagged #dottmo

Context: Ottawa.ca - Downtown Moves (Downtown Ottawa Mobility Overlay Study)

Most of them are from the Ken Greenberg talk, I have separated out earlier ones at the top.
These are in oldest first order.
(In case you're wondering how I did this, I took the Excel version of the Twitter archive I made, and sorted by ascending TweetID. then copied the text.)
Where the tweets are in order, just from me and the date is the same, I have removed my Twitter handle (@rakerman) and the time stamp.

Tweets from before Ken Greenberg's talk

@rakerman
2011-11-01T11:15:54-04:00
questions: how Centretown Design #ccdp2011 Mobility relates to Downtown Moves #dottmo & Sidewalk Summit #ssdh http://t.co/OE8p55rY #ottcity

I'm proposing #dottmo for Downtown Moves (hashtag = Downtown OTTawa MObility/MOves/Mobility Overlay) #ottcity

@rakerman
2011-11-02T20:29:26-04:00
@OTWPolitics I suggested hashtag #dottmo

@rakerman
2011-11-03T06:02:53-04:00
I will be using hashtag #dottmo for Downtown Moves / Mobility Overlay #ottcity

#dottmo MT @OTWPolitics: For those who can't make it to City Hall tonight, Ken Greenberg's talking urban rejuvenation on @CBCOttawa

@Centretowner
2011-11-03T08:19:33-04:00
RT @rakerman: I will be using hashtag #dottmo for Downtown Moves / Mobility Overlay #ottcity

@Centretowner
2011-11-03T09:10:47-04:00
Anyone else tweeting from Downtown Moves talk by Andrew Wiley-Schwartz? #Ottcity #dottmo #ottbike

@Centretowner
2011-11-03T09:12:44-04:00
Coun. @marianne4kanata talking about making our roads safer, and @JimWatsonOttawa signing Int'l walking charter #dottmo

@JimWatsonOttawa
2011-11-03T09:24:34-04:00
RT @Centretowner: Coun. @marianne4kanata talking about making our roads safer, and @JimWatsonOttawa signing Int'l walking charter #dottmo

@lana_stewart
2011-11-03T09:35:37-04:00
@Centretowner @rakerman They talk the talk... but will they walk the walk?? #ottcity #dottmo

@Centretowner
2011-11-03T09:39:06-04:00
AWS's #dottmo talk about what NYC did at Times Square reminds me of what #Ottcity did in the '60s with Sparks St

Ken Greenberg spoke November 3, 2011 at 7pm at City Hall.
Context: Ottawa.ca - Downtown Moves - Public Lecture Program

Ken Greenberg's talk

@rakerman
2011-11-03T19:01:15-04:00
#dottmo just opening - Ken Greenberg talking about book

#dottmo "we were swept up in a euphoria around the potential of the automobile"

#dottmo 1939 World's Fair - GM exhibit - "it seemed like a good idea at the time"

#dottmo "the hubris of that era... The automobile was at the heart of it"

#dottmo Disney Magic Highway USA 1958

#dottmo the summary of the Disney film is people were out of their minds (about cars) in the 1950s

#dottmo from walkable cities to car-oriented cities

#dottmo Jane Jacobs vs Robert Moses

#dottmo as walkability becomes the most desired, poor are pushed out of city centers into suburbs

#dottmo (car-centic design) producing a pattern of living that is not sustainable

#dottmo massive financial drag on economy related to congestion, long car travel times

#dottmo website: dead malls (symptom of car-oriented design failing)

#dottmo "the best way to solve mobility is through land use"

#dottmo need mixed use buildings

#dottmo Bank Street Ottawa transformation

#dottmo how to handle new immigrants - they are now ending up in suburbs - disconnected, difficult to get around

#dottmo (me: in part this is about the Arrival City idea)

#dottmo showing transformation of NYC Times Square

#dottmo Madrid has buried city-centre highways

#dottmo new ways to get around - bike share, car share, phone as access/payment for all forms of transportation

#dottmo showing a Complete Streets design

#dottmo if kids can bike to school, that's a good indicator

#dottmo urban design to percentage of pedestrians using the space - temporary or permanent pedestrianization of roadways

#dottmo Hammarby Sjostad  http://t.co/vRFX82t5

#dottmo the next big challenge: retrofitting suburbia

#dottmo #ottcity is there a link for the Bank Street redesign Ken is talking about?

#dottmo restructuring around subway stops coming to York U

#dottmo Mississauga "looks like a city... But on the ground it's auto-oriented"

#dottmo "at the heart of a sustainable future is gracefully making this transition" to a pedestrian/cyclist/transit city

#dottmo civil society needs to support these changes

#dottmo iterate solutions with teams of experts to solve complex urban design problems

#dottmo big turnout, mailing list I can sign up for, but not at all clear how people can participate, not just receive broadcasts #ottcity

#dottmo I guess Ken Greenberg was talking about: Bank Street Community Design Plan http://t.co/u38bi6xL 1st I've heard of it. #ottcity

#dottmo Here's the Disney Magic Highway video that Ken showed, demonstrating how crazy people were over cars in 1958 http://t.co/ZMSDVvWj

Further Reading

I think this is what the Mayor signed: The International Charter for Walking

RandomHouse.ca - Ken Greenberg - Walking Home: The Life and Lessons of a City Builder

LibraryThing - Walking Home: The Life and Lessons of a City Builder  

Wired 15.12 - The Original Futurama [GM 1939 World's Fair exhibit]

Wikipedia - Jane Jacobs - The Death and Life of Great American Cities

RandomHouse.com - Wrestling with Moses: How Jane Jacobs Took On New York's Master Builder and Transformed the American City

LibraryThing - Wrestling with Moses: How Jane Jacobs Took On New York's Master Builder and Transformed the American City

Arrival City: The Final Migration and the Next World

US National Complete Streets Coalition

Complete Streets Canada

I would point you to a fantastic video of Jan Gehl talking in Ottawa about urban design, but the NCC reorganised their site and it has now disappeared.  You can see his slidedeck but it's almost useless without his (very funny) narration.  You can also follow the thread of blog postings back from Jan Gehl presentation about urban planning in Ottawa - October 6, 2010 but many of the links are now broken.

Contact

There is a general contact address: downtownmoves@ottawa.ca
and the specific project manager is Nelson Edwards: nelson.edwards@ottawa.ca

There was a mailing list you could sign up for at the event; you can probably get on it by emailing them.

Nelson said on the afternoon of the 3rd there was a 40-person discussion / working group, but I don't know who the members were or how the results will be presented.

Also Greenberg's presentation was recorded in some form - I think video - there was mention of a "podcast" of it being posted.

Previously:
November 1, 2011  questions about downtown mobility [now with answers]

Labels: centretown, dottmo, downtown mobility, downtown moves, links to presentations, ottawa, presentation notes

posted by Richard at 07:06 / permalink (post) | permalink (numeric)

Ottawa - Centretown walkability

As you walk around town between now and November 8th, consider the following topics and if possible please bring a list of 5 examples in each category.

1.     General problems that apply city-wide (e.g. not enough money spent on building, or maintaining pedestrian linkages and routes)

2.     Location-specific chronic problems in any part of the city (e.g. the light at the end of my street takes a long time to change after I press the crosswalk button)

3.     Degradations—where conditions have recently gotten worse (e.g. new vehicular-priority advance turn signals, barricades to convenient street crossings, or the pathway gate at Preston and Albert that was recently locked) 

Here are a couple:
* The Bank Street advertising monoliths that block half of the sidewalk
* The traffic signal control nodes (big boxes, usually sitting on a metal column) that block half of the sidewalk

Labels: centretown, ottawa, urban planning

posted by Richard at 06:35 / permalink (post) | permalink (numeric)

cat missing near Dundonald Park



Shreddy.  Above is from a few months ago; she looks a bit older now.  She doesn't have a collar on at the moment but she is chipped.
As you can see, grey with white stripes and white paws.
Missing since Tuesday November 1, 2011 near Dundonald Park in Centretown (Ottawa).  Much missed.

UPDATE 2011-11-02: Found late in the evening, she was stuck on the wrong side of (very busy arterial) Lyon.

Labels: cat, centretown, ottawa

posted by Richard at 16:31 / permalink (post) | permalink (numeric)

questions about downtown mobility

This is what I asked on the Centretown Design Plan blog:

Will you be representing the Centretown Design Plan at the Downtown Moves (Mobility Overlay) events? http://ottawa.ca/residents/public_consult/mobility_overlay/program_en.html

At Diane Holmes' Sidewalk Summit?  http://dianeholmes.ca/detail.php?news_id=333

Is there a newer version of the Mobility Position Paper?  http://midcentretown.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/mid-centretown-mobility-paper-draft.pdf 

What specific information has been/will be passed to the Downtown Moves (Mobility Overlay) study?  Is there more relevant material than the Mobility Position Paper (e.g. a chapter of the design plan)?

What is the impact of the fact that the Study Area for Downtown Moves http://www.ottawa.ca/residents/public_consult/mobility_overlay/study_area_en.html only covers the CBD, and not all of Centretown?

Where is the mechanism to move ideas like fixing the arterials (by making them 2 way, and eventually by reducing the number of lanes or adding bike lanes)?

UPDATE 2011-11-03: I got a response (Ross at the Mid-Centretown Tomorrow blog has always been great with fast, detailed responses).

Hi Richard – No, Urban Strategies is not involved in the Mobility Overlay, although Delcan (who were our transportation consultants) are the folks who are actually leading the Mobility Overlay Study. Teh good news there is that they will be able to transfer all their work over from the CDP to the DOMO study, so they will be well versed in local Centretown issues. Related to that, there is an updated Mobility Position paper that will be published with the final CDP – some further work on parking, TDM, two way conversions and the implications of removing metcalfe street from the Museum of Nature lawns.

With regard to your questions around the Mobility Overlay, your best bet for answers and understanding how transportation networks might be improved and/or impact on adjacent communities is to contact Nelson Edwards at the City of Ottawa (nelson.edwards@ottawa.ca). Nelson is the project manager and will have the most recent information on the scope and methods of the study. It was our understanding that DOMO was to look at the two way conversions as part of its scope. I hope that this is still the case. As you know, Centretown has been included as the Area of Influence….but I am not really sure what this means with regard to work being undertaken locally.

All the best
Ross

Previously:
October 31, 2011  Downtown Moves - Public Lecture Program - Nov 2 & 3, 2011
October 31, 2011  Ottawa Sidewalk (pedestrian) Summit Nov 8, 2011

Labels: ccdp2011, ottawa, urban planning

posted by Richard at 11:09 / permalink (post) | permalink (numeric)

meta: invoking ancient magic

Updated my very very old Blogger template to show post titles on individual post pages.

On the miniscule chance you should need to do this, it's a combination of itempage, blogger, and the page title:

[title][$BlogTitle$][itempage]: [Blogger][$BlogItemTitle$][/Blogger][/itempage][/title]

(I've changed angled brackets to square, as the Blogger editor is now too clueless to let me easily quote HTML code.)

Labels: meta

posted by Richard at 10:45 / permalink (post) | permalink (numeric)

Downtown Moves - Public Lecture Program - Nov 2 & 3, 2011

See below for info on Public Lectures.

Context

Ottawa is doing a study on mobility downtown.
Well, that's what I thought they were doing, actually as framed by the study area and terms, it's "what can we tweak in the Central Business District when LRT replaces the Albert & Slater bus transitway" and not "how can we improve pedestrian and cyclist mobility in all of Centretown".

The primary Study Area is the Central Business District of the Central Area (north of Gloucester Street, between Bronson and the Rideau Canal), and along the major arterial streets that will be influenced by the significant changes as a result of the new LRT stations.

from  Downtown Moves: Study Area and Study Context

(This study was previously called the Downtown Mobility Overlay, but appears to have been rebranded as Downtown Moves: Transforming Ottawa’s Streets.)

The Centretown Design Plan people had assured us that mobility-related recommendations, like restoring major arterials as two-way streets, would be incorporated into the Downtown Mobility Overlay, but I don't see how this will work in practice as the Study Area is just the CBD and is mostly about adapting to the LRT.

Public Lecture Series

November 2, 2011 - 7pm - Gil Penalosa
register using web form, deadline OCTOBER 31, 2011

November 3, 2011 - 9am - Andrew Wiley-Schwartz, New York City, Department of Transportation
register by emailing downtownmoves@ottawa.ca , deadline OCTOBER 31, 2011

November 3, 2011 -7pm - Ken Greenberg
register using web form, deadline OCTOBER 31, 2011

from Downtown Moves > Public Lecture Program

UPDATE 2011-11-01: The Media Advisory for the public lecture program is out, unfortunately a day after the registration deadline.  It says

The summit brings together national and international experts, community leaders, municipal staff and stakeholder agencies to listen and share their experiences as the City seeks to identify ways to create vibrant, safe and accessible streets for pedestrians, cyclists and transit riders in downtown Ottawa.

ENDUPDATE

See also: Ottawa Sidewalk (pedestrian) Summit Nov 8, 2011

Previously:
May 30, 2011  Centretown planning links   posted by Richard at 13:33 / permalink (post) | permalink (numeric)

Ottawa Sidewalk (pedestrian) Summit Nov 8, 2011

Diane Holmes' "SIDEWALK SUMMIT"
Tuesday, November 8, 2011, 7-9 pm
Ottawa City Hall, Colonel By Room (second floor near Lisgar St. entrance)
110 Laurier Avenue West

Dear fellow pedestrians,
The City of Ottawa spends tens of millions of dollars a year on road building, but very little on dedicated pedestrian-specific projects. As announced earlier, I am hosting a meeting on pedestrian safety that will bring together pedestrian advocates, community representatives and residents who want to improve our city's walking environment.

At the meeting we will discuss the disconnect between what is promised in official planning documents (such as the Ottawa Pedestrian Plan) and what is spent in City budgets. We will also break out into groups to share our experiences and concerns about walking in Ottawa, to develop a priority list of pedestrian problems that need to be solved, and plan ways to make that happen.

As you walk around town between now and November 8th, consider the following topics and if possible please bring a list of 5 examples in each category.

1.     General problems that apply city-wide (e.g. not enough money spent on building, or maintaining pedestrian linkages and routes)

2.     Location-specific chronic problems in any part of the city (e.g. the light at the end of my street takes a long time to change after I press the crosswalk button)

3.     Degradations—where conditions have recently gotten worse (e.g. new vehicular-priority advance turn signals, barricades to convenient street crossings, or the pathway gate at Preston and Albert that was recently locked)

Please pass along this invitation to anyone you think would be interested in improving conditions for pedestrians.

Sincerely,

Diane Holmes
Councillor, Somerset Ward

from dianeholmes.ca

You may also want to consider trying to connect this up with the overlapping but apparently disconnected work being done by the Centretown Design Plan, the Downtown Mobility Overlay (apparently now called Downtown Moves: Transforming Ottawa's Streets), Choosing Our Future and NCC Horizon 2067.

See also: Downtown Moves - Public Lecture Program - Nov 2 & 3, 2011

UPDATE 2011-11-01: Also of note is the Ottawa Pedestrian Plan, marked draft 2009.  ENDUPDATE

Previously:
May 30, 2011  Centretown planning links

Labels: ottawa, urban planning

posted by Richard at 12:14 / permalink (post) | permalink (numeric)