The city of Murcia, Spain has recently started offering residents a lifetime pass on their newly built trolley system. There is only one catch: these same residents must trade in their cars in exchange. This rather radical idea is only available for a limited time, but apparently has already picked up steam in the small city. In addition to this promotion, the city of Murcia has also started posting humorous advertisements around the city depicting how troublesome it is to find a parking space for your car within the city challenging the notion of car ownership even further. You can read more about this radical promotion here.
Want a Lifetime Pass on Public Transit? Just Give Up Your Car!
3 08 2011Comments : Leave a Comment »
Tags: car, murcia, spain, trolley
Categories : News
Monaco Plans Expansion into the Sea?
18 06 2011I was just browsing the internet and found this interesting forum post back from 2006 on SkyscraperCity: Monaco Plan Expansion into the Sea. The topic poster doesn’t provide a news reference but there is a great deal more surrounding this news as you can follow along the forum thread.
I must say that i’m not completely surprised given the small country’s density. As well, I would assume that a large enough expansion would actually the change the ranking of the country’s total size in relation to the other countries in the world (Monaco is currently the second smallest country in the world by area).
But I do have my concerns if such a plan comes to fruitation:
- will this new land be strong enough to survive major earthquakes that are known to hit Monaco once in a while?
- how will they protect the natural environment?
- will this expansion only include new homes for the ultra-rich?
Anyways, expanding into the ocean is nothing new for a lot of cities and it will be interesting to see how this project progresses.
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Tags: expansion, monaco
Categories : News
Are the Richest Americans Also the Best Educated?
19 01 2011
There is a pretty common perception that the wealthiest Americans are also the ones with the highest level of education. Yet, coming up with a way to measure this is obviously a bit difficult. Recently, the U.S. Census’s American Community Survey was able to at least partially put this perception to the test. The Survey was able to create a study that could be mapped on the county level and provide us some key information on high graduation rates, college graduation rates and median household incomes within these counties.
The colours on the map above are created by a combination of three shades. These shades are described below:
Pink: Measurement of high school graduates. The deeper the shade of pink, the higher the percentage of high school graduates.
Yellow: Measurement of college graduates. The deeper the shade of yellow, the higher the percentage of college graduates.
Blue: Measurement of the median household income. The deeper the shade of blue, the higher the median household income.
When you combine these colours, you get a combined measurement of high school graduation rates, college graduation rates and median household income within a given county. You may notice some counties are almost white in colour while others are almost black. The white counties are ones that have a low high school graduation rates, a low college graduation rates and a low median household incomes. The black counties, on the flipside, have a high high school graduation rate, a high college graduation rate and a high median household income.
What is more interesting are the colours in between. The blue-ish shades of green highlight a city with a high median household income yet a low college and high school graduation rate. This would suggest a city that has a lot of highly educated transplants.
Anyways, take a good look at the map. While it may not fully prove the title of this blog post, it is most certainly a very interesting study. And please visit this blog post courtesy of Good.is for more information and a bigger map.
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Tags: U.S. Census's American Community Survey
Categories : News, Photos
Creating New Roads as Easy as Rolling Out a New Carpet?
26 11 2010
- Photo courtesy of Inhabit.com
The creation and maintenance of traditional asphalt roads has always been both time consuming and expensive. Recently, the environmental movement has reinstagated the idea of creating brick roads. Brick’s are generally durable and aren’t nearly as susceptible to cracks due to freezing and thawing. Yet, once again, paving the roads would be extremely time consuming. However, a new machine may change how roads are built throughout cities. An article at Inhabit.com recently showcased a brick laying machine that literally lays out a brick road on a sand bottom like a carpet. Crazily enough, the machine isn’t somehow magic, but actually uses gravity to pack the bricks tightly together. With a little more polish, this machine could truly help save a lot of time and money for a city while also being far better for the environment. Seems like something we truly invest in.
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Tags: brick laying machine, bricks, roads
Categories : News
The Fate of Ontario Place
10 11 2010
Photo courtesy of Flickr user Canuck with a camera
Most adult Toronto residents view Ontario Place with a true sense of nostalgia. Over the course of several decades, the inner city theme park delighted visitors with it’s water park, IMAX movies and beautiful lake side views. However, over the last 5 to 10 years, Ontario Place has begun to lost some of it’s lustre. Despite decent attendance on the weekends, Ontario Place can often be quite empty throughout the week. Recently, according to this Toronto Star article, the Provincial Crown corporation has started to look at overhauling the entire Ontario Place complex. The extremely unfortunate thing is that this may mean that all the buildings currently on the Ontario Place property may be torn down.
The Provincial Crown corporation is looking for ideas to redevelop the site and are hoping to make a decision by 2011. I have heard rumours of such developments as a high end condo complex and a hotel to accommodate all the convention goers at Exhibition Place. However, it seems quite alarming (and disheartening) that the idea of simply improving the amusement park hasn’t been considered. There are many buildings on the site already that are considered an icon of Toronto and to destroy all these buildings seem like a somewhat ludicrous thing to do. Thus, it seems to make more sense that if they want to make better use of the space, they simply need to improve what they already have.
Ontario Place is an extremely popular spot for families and provides Toronto with a central amusement park for everyone to enjoy. It is also a cheaper alternative to the overpriced Canada’s Wonderland outside of Toronto. And it seems that there is a growing community who want to make sure that site of Ontario Place continues to be a place for everyone to enjoy. I have already found (and joined) a Facebook group entitled ‘Save Ontario Place‘ and I urge those who don’t want to lose this important piece of Toronto to join. And while I am intrigued to hear all the different proposals, I truly believe the best one is one that improves what is already there and not one that takes away a true piece of Toronto history.
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Tags: ontario place, Toronto, toronto star
Categories : News, Opinions
The Ultimate Traffic Jam
26 08 2010Well by now, i’m sure everyone has heard about the 100 kilometer traffic jam that has lasted over a week in Beijing, China. What’s scary is according to this Yahoo! article. Perhaps the most interesting aspect is the micro economy that the traffic jam has created in which such small things as bottles of water are selling for 10 times the normal cost.
Yet, one has to wonder why this has happened. With China developing at such a rapid rate, the number of vehicles in the country has skyrocketed. However, the road infrastructure has not kept up with all these new vehicles. As well, the traffic with this particular stretch of freeway has increased due to the development of several coal mines north west of Beijing.
So what can be done to prevent this again? Certainly nothing in the short term. But the road infrastructure in all the major Chinese cities needs to improve drastically. As well, there needs to be far more structure to the roadways in a city such as Beijing. While the United States is famous for it’s own traffic jams, the country has had time to help alleviate some of these issues and create a more structured roadway system. Perhaps, more than anything, all Beijing really needs is time.
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Tags: beijing, china, coal mine, traffic jam
Categories : News, Opinions
The New York Architecture Tour
17 08 2010Chicago, with it’s beautiful skyline and it’s artful skyscrapers, has always been a center for architectural enthusiasts. The Chicago Architecture Foundation established the Chicago Architecture back in 1983 and it has been a staple among visitors and locals ever since. Having visited Chicago last year and taken the tour, I can truly say it gave me a deeper appreciation of many of the buildings in downtown Chicago.
One has to wonder why New York City, America’s iconic city and a city that is no slouch when it comes to beautiful architecture, never had quite the same equivalent tour. Well, finally, it does. The Around Manhattan Official NYC Architecture Tour started recently and provides visitors with a unique architectural tour via the Manhattan, a “classic harbor vessel modeled on a 1920′s commuter yacht”. The cruise does sound extremely interesting, but there are some drawbacks: the $75 price tag seems very steep and the boat departs ever other Saturday only.
The New York Times city critic provides a review of the cruise that you can find here.
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Tags: architecture, Around Manhattan Official NYC Architecture Tour, Chicago, chicago architecture foundation, new york city
Categories : News
Straddling Buses: A New Alternative for Public Transit
12 08 2010
I will refer you to a recent July 31st entry at China Hush entitled ‘Straddling bus- a cheaper greener alternative to public commute’. The Straddling Bus is a brand new public transit concept for cities that are becoming increasingly congested and increasingly expensive to maintain. As the video above displays, the bus essentially travels over cars decreasing the number of vehicles on the road as well as eliminating buses on tight schedules getting caught in severe traffic. But the advantages of the straddling buses don’t stop there. According to China Hush, the buses are also far cheaper to build than a below ground subway. Not to mention that the actual track will take a far shorter time to manufacture (1 year for 40 km vs. 3 years at best for a subway).
Perhaps the only part of the concept that needs work is how passengers will actually board these futuristic buses. One idea is to install a kind of ladder system which riders can climb up and down. However, this idea will not only be detrimental to anyone in a wheel chair but it will also increase wait times at the actual stops as passengers will take far longer to board than a regular bus.
However, in the end, it is very refreshing to hear a public transit option that may indeed some weight and merit behind it. In fact, the bus will be put into pilot use in the Beijing’s Mentougou District in the near future.
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Tags: beijing, china, straddling bus, subway
Categories : News, Videos, Visionaries
Victoria, B.C.: The Anti-Tourist City
30 07 2010Residents of any place have often been notorious for being a bit anti-tourist. Anyone who has ever lived anywhere for a certain number of years has at one time or another scoffed at tourists taking pictures of the most random sights. Yet, as much as we hate to admit it, tourists are a big part of a successful city. Infrastructure, attractions and museums need to be present to support these people. As well, cities may end up with certain characteristics that outsiders may often identify it with. For better or for worse, Los Angeles is a city of movie stars, London is very proper and full of castles, and Rio de Janeiro is an all day/all night party. Do these characteristics tell the whole story or even a bit of a story? Not likely but they do often help lure the tourist dollars into the city.
Victoria, British Columbia is a strange case. Located on Vancouver Island in Western Canada, Victoria has been tagged as a little piece of Britain in Canada. And I can tell you from being there that the locals hate it. And even from an outsider’s perspective, I can see why. It is continuously used as a representation of the city when in fact many of the ‘Britishness’ of the city is for the tourists only.
What’s more is that Victoria has been closing various attractions to the delight of the locals. Several attractions have closed in the last decade, most prominently, the Crystal Garden, an indoor garden featuring a large number of birds. More recently, the Royal London Wax Museum has opted to move away from Victoria due to the inability to secure a long term lease on their current address. And how do the locals feel about all of this? They are strangely happy about it. While the wax museum may not be high on class, it does offer a destination for the entire family. The next attraction under siege in the Undersea Gardens, Victoria’s own aquarium. Although undersized, it once again provides a welcome attraction for touring families.
Victoria is a beautiful destination with a large number of fantastic sights. Yet, a city needs to support a variety of tourist needs. Sometimes, locals of tourist destinations need to understand that tourism and tourists help the city give it another dimension. So go out there and hug a tourist. And remember, your city is the world’s to share. So support whatever wrong notion others may have about your city.
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Tags: crystal gardens, london, los angeles, rio de janeiro, royal london wax museum, undersea gardens, victoria
Categories : News, Opinions
Cleveland: 10 Percent Population Loss in the 2000′s
15 07 2010
People have probably heard Cleveland’s rather humorous slogan when advertising the city (“At we’re not Detroit”), yet there has been nothing funny about Cleveland’s population over the past decade. A blog post from 2009 on the Cleveland.com blog sums up the sentiments of the city pretty easily in the first paragraph:
Some cities will be toasting the decennial census next year, celebrating population gains and a bright future. But it’s likely there will be no champagne corks popping in Cleveland City Hall. The city is losing people at an alarming, trend-setting pace.
In the past decade, Cleveland has lost 10 percent of it’s population. Once one of United States more prosperous city’s, Cleveland has been a gross reminder of what the past decades has done to former manufacturing centres and while cities such as Chicago and Philadelphia record population increases in the last few years, Cleveland has yet to get off the ground.
Unfortunately, there are a number of factors working against the city: a high crime rate, a cold climate and very few job opportunities. This doesn’t bode well for the next decade and along with other rust belt cities such as Buffalo, Toledo and Detroit, it will be interesting to see if Cleveland can re-establish itself. Pittsburgh has. Will Cleveland be next?
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Tags: census, cleveland, pittsburgh, rust belt
Categories : News
