So, as I said, Hong Kong was freaking awesome. I can kind of tell looking at a map how much I'm going to like a place. If it's geographically constrained, you know that they probably had to put more thought into the city (Boston, SF, NY, ect). Well, Hong Kong is about as constrained as you can get. The shortest buildings are about 15-20 stories and 30+ is pretty normal. However, it still has a great street life as opposed to some of the other tall Corbusian cities. The modern architecture is fantastic (I especially like the new Cesar Pelli building) and the transit is amazing. I don't think I've ever been anywhere where it is so easy to figure out how to get around. Also, two story streetcars.
We are in Saigon now. Another amazing city. Imagine 3 million vespas driven by female bandits. It's absolute chaos, yet somehow we've only seen one bloody chalk outline on the ground. I'm really enjoying it more than I thought I would. It's better than the other developing cities I've been too. The residential architecture is really interesting and the homes are well taking care of and brightly painted. It's got the wide Parisian boulevards and lots of trees. The colonial architecture is in good repair and also very pretty. I can see the "Paris of the East" comparisions. And the food is incredible. I was a little worried about starving to death, but I'm managing to eat with chopsticks. It still takes awhile, but I'm doing OK (in HK, I was drawing a fork in my notebook).
I'll try to write more later. Tomorrow we will be visiting J's "family" in the Mekong Delta.
31.5.06
29.5.06
HK, SAR, PRC, ect.
I am at a free, public internet kiosk in a subway station right now. Just one of the many reasons that Hong Kong is one of the rockin'est cities ever. The only thing I've found not to like is that people don't jaywalk.
more later...
24.5.06
23.5.06
two days
I thought my upcoming trip deserved a change of look for the blog.
I'm packing my bag right now.
22.5.06
three days
So, had a couple of interesting conversations the last few days at work. Yesterday, a women bought a paperback and then asked if she had to do anything special at customs with the book. Weird question, right? She explained that it was her first time "off the island."
-Nova Scotia?
-No, PEI.
And she looked like she was at least late 30's. I get nervous if I don't cross a border every six months and this women had never been out of PEI. Crazy.
The good one today was Conspiracy Theory Guy. This book just came out by a couple of lawyers called "The Case for the Impeachment of George W. Bush." So this guy comes up to me.
-You know those lawyers who wrote that book aren't too good. They missed the most obvious reason for impeaching Bush.
-Uh, okay.
-Skull and Bones.
-Uh.
-They want a one world government. That means they'd have to overthrow the government.
-????
-That's treason. I've talked to congressmen about this.
-????
-But of course it would have to be the Republicans. Otherwise it'd just be the Democrats trying to get even.
-Uh.
-As a Republican, I could really support that.
-!!!
I hear from Mpls that the central corridor got funding. That's great. As far as the lightrail line goes, I think it'll be awesome. In downtown Minneapolis I would have picked a different route, but the way they are doing it will be cheaper. I would have run it through Saint Anthony (which, if it were a little less ghetto, could really be one of the best urban neighborhoods in Mpls) and then across the Hennepin Ave. Bridge and then connecting to the Hiawatha line at the Warehouse District stop (if the train is facing that way, it'd be easier to run it farther up Hennepin in the future.)Not easier really, since it isn't a problem to turn corners, but it would get it in peoples minds, "hey, why doesn't that keep going to uptown." The underground part at the U of M is the best though. So many new Minneapolitians start off there. It'll be a good place to get people addicted to trains. At the same time, the expresses between Minneapolis and St. Paul have always been such important buses for the working poor. Hurrah, hurrah.
Read more...
21.5.06
four days.
If anyone would like to buy me a $150 watch designed by one of my favorite architects, I'd like this one please:
Thank you. Read more...
17.5.06
Seven Days.
I read a couple of articles on urban issues that I found interesting recently.
First, New York is going to try adding wireless internet to their city parks. That's nothing too crazy. A few different cities are working on setting up wireless throughout the city (Philadelphia being the farthest along as far as I know), but I think the park thing is interesting for a few reasons. When you are making an entire city wireless, the basic assumption that I would make is that most people will be using the internet at home. Parks are public though. What does it mean socially if web browsing turns into a public activity (or is it already?) The other thing I was thinking about is what parks that have wireless internet as one of their primary fuctions look like. Do we start adding desks? Power outlets?
The second article was from Metropolis magazine. It talked about the town of Youngstown, Ohio. They've made the very brave choice to try and shrink the size of their physical city to match their population decline. This is a problem that a lot of older industrial cities have. The population declines but at the same time the city spreads out as people continue to move to newer houses in the outer areas. Large areas of the older city become vacant and there are general housing overages, but developers continue to build on the outside, feeling that it's cheaper to develop. The problem is that the housing overages cause a general depression in housing prices, and since housing is generally where American families keep their savings, the entire economy of the city is effected.
My grandparents live in Ft. Wayne, Indiana, which has had the same problem. I've thought a lot about how to "fix" Ft. Wayne, and generally my thoughts had always come back to somehow shrinking the city to eliminate the housing overages and bring housing prices back up. The problem is that people have rights. So annoying. So how do you bring about the obvious public good of getting depressed housing prices to rise while still respecting property rights? That's what the Youngstown plan tries to address. If it's a success, it could be quite a model for other rustbelt cities. Here's hoping.
Read more...
15.5.06
New Urbanists Vs. Psychogeographers Kickball Challenge
Sunday June 4th 2pm, Providence, RI
A joint collaboration between the Provflux III and Congress for the New Urbanism XIV
Attend a unique opportunity for attendees of the Congress for the New Urbanism and participants of the 2006 Provflux events to come together and get out of the Conference rooms and share ideas on the Kickball field about the future of Urban Civilization in America! Event begins at 2pm at the park across the street from the State House & Providence Place Mall. If you are interested in being on the New Urbanist team please talk to Eduardo Sardina of the Washington DC office of DPZ (Duany Plater-Zyberk) and if you are interested in playing on the Psychogeographers team talk to Frank Stieber (aka Kickball Jesus) or Meredith Younger with PIPS (Providence Initiative for Psychogeographic Studies).
Or just come on out day of game, all spectators are welcome, the more urbanists the merrier! Come One, Come All, Brown Paper Bag that Narragansett and come out for a true meeting of the minds between the Providence Urban Activist and Arts Community and the Architects and Planners revolutionizing the American Dream!
11.5.06
Great Streets
OK. I thought I'd see if I can get a conversation starter here. Lately, I've been taking a lot of long walks around Boston, mostly to kill time and try and break in my feet for the long trip ahead of me, and it got me thinking about some of my favorite places around the world. Being a list maker, I came up with a short list for my favorite streets to walk down (that I can think of off of the top of my head). It's kind of a random list, and not in any particular order, but these are all places that I really like.
Karl-Marx-Allee (Berlin). Besides the obvious attachment to the name... Karl-Marx-Allee is a monumental boulevard that ran through my neighborhood in East Berlin. It was totally destroyed during the war, so the architecture is something called Socialist-Realist and was supposed to showcase the east's design practices. Actually, now a lot of architectural historians think Socialist-Realist was the earliest form of Post-Modernist Architecture. Anyway, I always walked here on the way to the U-bahn. It was really different then the rest of the neighborhood and made you feel kind of grand, even though you were just living in a working class neighborhood. So I guess it worked.
Neue Schönhauser Straße (Berlin) is this little tiny twisty road that only goes for a couple of blocks. It's not very wide and it has a tram running down the middle of the street, which makes it even smaller. It's the sort of place where you go to buy a 100 Euro White-T-Shirt-With-a-Hole-in-Just-the-Right-Spot. What I love is that the shops are so high class, but the buildings are decrepit. It's got graffititi everywhere and it looks like everything could fall down at any moment. Very Berlin.
Unter Den Linden (Berlin) is a monumental boulevard that ran from where the Prussian royal palace used to be to the Brandenburg Gate. It's be designed to impress, so it's easy to like. I have quite a few great memories from there though. In particular, rememberer that I had just seen the movie The Hours with Jessica. Not exactly uplifting. But there is a line in there where character says something like she always felt she was on the verge of the best times of her life, but finally looked back and realized that being on the verge was the best time. I remember walking down Unter Den Linden thinking to myself that I should remember right then because it might be the best time of my life...
Schönhauser Allee (Berlin) has a great book written about it by Wladimir Kaminer. I like the part where the U-bahn is above ground. It makes me happy.
Commonwealth Ave (in the Back Bay, Boston) is just a beautiful place to walk. It was designed by Friedrich Law Olmsted. The architecture is beautiful (and unique).
Salem Street (Boston) is a tight little street in the North End. It's got restaurants and tenements and people yelling in Italian. On our honeymoon we ate at a restaurant there (which is closed now). We still eat on the street though. La Familiga Georgios. mmmm.
Union Park Street (Boston) in the South End has this block with a little park and matching townhouses all around. It looks like it belongs in London. If I were picking a place in Boston where I'd want to settle down, it'd probably be here.
Loring Greenway (Minneapolis). I'm not sure that a lot of people even know Loring Greenway exists. So many people in Minneapolis never bother to get out theirier cars in the neighborhoods near downtown. I was just kind of wandering around when I found it. J and I used to use it all the time to walk downtown when we lived in Loring Park. I loved how it was so green and quiet, but still obviously had the city surrounding it. It should be a model for the greening of the rest of downtown.
Milwaukee Avenue (Minneapolis). I honestly didn't really know about Milwaukee Ave until I was more of a tourist in Mpls then a resident. I still really like it though. I've been told my great-grandpa used to live in one of those houses.
Oak Grove Street (Minneapolis). I think the first time I saw Oak Grove Street was on my way to a concert that we didn't get in to. I had no idea there was a street like that in Mpls, and I totally fell in love with it. It's one of the few places in the city that feels like you could be in Europe. That's why I found an apartment on it.
So, anyone else?
8.5.06
So, I finished up the semester last week. I'm honestly not sure if I did as well as I normally do. I think my grades will still be good, just not great. It was just kind of tough to get into my research when I was so up and down because J is gone. Anyways, there's always next semster. I've got Summer I off (obviously, since I'll be in Asia), but Summer II I've got a class called Urban Disasters with one of my favorite professors. I think it'll be pretty cool. I really hoping that we'll get into New Orleans quite a bit.
I spent the day to day running a few errands to get ready for my trip, returning library books and the like. I also found a book on Cambodian Art and Architecture at a used bookstore, which is pretty awesome. I'd been looking for something like that for all of Southeast Asia, but the best I had found so far was on Buddist Art and it only had a little chapter on the SE. The book also has a pretty good overview of the architecture at Angkor which will be useful. The MFA in Boston has a really great collection of Asian art, too, and it's free on Wednesday nights, so I think I'm going to go this week.
Here in Eastie, something happened recently that really pissed me off:
The middle two buildings in this picture are gone. I just hate that two beautiful 19th century brick buildings can just disappear like that. Especially when there are several vacant lots literally within 500 feet of where the buildings stood. What's really annoying is that it totally messes up the street wall. Before, the entire block was brick and if they weren't historic, they at least looked like they fit in. Who knows what they're putting there now. I just hope it's not a parking lot. grrrr.
