One really neat new Google Maps add-on, for others who plan route maps (e.g., walking tours): Pedometer, a tool that allows you not only to create connect-the-dots route outlines (just click on the intersections) but also gives distances and perhaps even calories burned, and gives a one-click TinyURL to the finished result. Way cool, and really damn easy.

This new Traffic Management Authority is now officially way, way out of hand. Fran Spielman and Lisa Donovan of the Sun-Times report that the authority has stolen 26% of the crossing time from pedestrians at State & Washington, one of the city’s flagship pedestrian intersections — and given that time to right-turning cars.

We’re moving completely in the wrong direction here. Other cities like New York and San Francisco are embracing signal timing solutions that benefit pedestrians: scramble signals (all traffic stops, all pedestrians go), Leading Pedestrian Intervals, and, in New York, “thru streets” where all turns are banned to improve pedestrian flow. In fact, Washington Street is designated in the zoning ordinance as a “mobility street,” where new development should “promote safe and efficient pedestrian flows” (sec. 17-4-0604). And here city officials are stepping in to demote safe and efficient pedestrian flows — all in the name of adding a little bit of convenience to THREE drivers per light cycle. Three!

I would be willing to bet that people in private cars are no more than 20% of the PEOPLE who move down State Street every day. Cars on State Street are vastly outnumbered by people walking, riding buses or trains, or on bicycles.

IIRC, the city received a substantial CMAQ grant a few years back to coordinate the pedestrian signals downtown — someone walking at a brisk pace across the Loop can make all green lights. Reducing pedestrian timing would mess up this existing system, frustrating pedestrians — although that seems to be the point here.

The gauntlet has been set. Gridlockers, let’s meet at the Campaign for a Free & Clear Lakefront’s “God Save the Queen’s Landing” rally tomorrow (4pm, Buckingham Fountain) and strategize for how to defeat the “slay those pesky pedestrians, all hail almighty car” attitude of this new Traffic Authority. The “traffic problem” downtown is entirely the fault of there being too many cars — not because of pedestrians or buses or trains or bicycles. Downtown would thrive with fewer cars; it would die with fewer pedestrians, but the blind bureaucrats don’t understand that. They’d rather demolish everything and just pave it over: then we’d have no traffic because there’d be nowhere to go to! How amazing!

Heavy Trash, an LA public art collective, takes direct action against gated communities by offering the public a way to view (or maybe snipe at) them:

Like the historic viewing platforms at the Berlin Wall that allowed Westerners to see into East Berlin, the Heavy Trash viewing platforms call attention to the walls of gated communities and provide visual access to parts of the city that have been cut off from the public domain.

Their earlier one-ton metal access stair to grant the public access to a fenced-off park is just brilliant.

The three-dimensional evocation of stylish urban places on behalf of crass commercialism that began with lifestyle centers is now migrating beyond the private streets with fake parking meters; it’s now seeped into the stores themselves. Witness the names of the two latest, “more sophisticated” concepts from Gap and Abercrombie & Fitch:

�We created an address with the name �Forth & Towne�, because we wanted it to evoke a sense of place — to signify a special and unique shopping destination. �Forth� references our fourth brand, and �Towne� conveys a sense of community that we want to create for our customers when they shop with us.� –Gary Muto President, Forth & Towne, the new division of Gap aimed at boomer women

“The [Ruehl No. 925] exterior resembles a Greenwich Village town house. Why? Well, Abercrombie & Fitch Chairman and CEO Michael S. Jeffries created a background story for the new concept worthy of a Victorian novel. In fact, it is the embellished tale of a real immigrant German family, the Ruehls, who settled in New York City in the late 19th century and founded a leather goods business at their No. 925 Greenwich Street town house in Manhattan.”

Apparently, few are heeding Barbara Brotman’s call to recognize that CTA overall does a pretty good job: “Come on, people: We all have our beefs. But Chicago’s buses, subways and “L”s are a great urban amenity that lets us live in, work in and enjoy Chicago in ways that define the city. And with the CTA proposing major cuts unless the state fills its $55 million budget deficit, it’s a good time to say so.”

Over half the respondents to a Crain’s online poll today say they’d blame CTA, not Daley, Blago, the Assembly, or the feds, if the doomsday cuts occur. This despite $200 million in annual cost savings already achieved at CTA–while the state gives not a penny, RTA sales tax revenues have been shrinking by $10M a year (real dollars), the city give the same $3 million it gave in 1983 (“disgraceful,” says Ald. Preckwinkle), and the feds have pulled back on roughly $30 million a year in operating assistance while imposing immensely costly (almost $100M a year) unfunded mandates through ADA, security, et al.

I’m getting increasingly frustrated with people, especially the disabled “activists” or the anarchists at the various budget hearings, laying into CTA and screaming about waste while demanding even bigger handouts. Okay, people, if you’re so smart, why don’t you go and find the waste? Let’s have a constructive discussion here, instead of screaming about blame.

Meanwhile, DJW is echoing what Greg Hinz from Crain’s has hinted at: a CTA bailout may involve a state takeover of paratransit, perhaps with some merger with Pace’s paratransit operations and squeezing Medicaid dollars to pick up the cost of some rides. (This makes eminent sense: Pace runs a tighter paratransit ship, splitting city & suburban paratransit is silly, and human services should be funded through human services funds, not mass transit funds.)

However, the timetable for a grand overhaul of the funding formula has been pushed to 2006. A few notable things should happen by then: first, Pace’s finances will probably be in an equally tight spot, bringing service cuts to the suburbs. (Pace is already engaged in some creative accounting to balance its budget.) Second, perhaps suburban Cook legislators will understand that dumping the formula is more in their interest than standing behind Metra’s city-bashing scare tactics. Third, maybe there’s time to continue to build support within the business community, which unfortunately (despite some noises from MPC and Metropolis) hasn’t realized that transit is vital to the economic fortunes of Chicago and Illinois. Indeed, a recent Crain’s article by Gregory Meyer makes it seem as if the Chamber of Commerce is a bit indifferent about service cuts that would absolutely eviscerate services (especially in the mid-north/Old Town and Evanston) for the countless corporate drones living along the north lakefront:

[Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce president & CEO Jerry Roper is] willing to accept higher fares and longer commute times rather than a tax-related stop-gap measure that fails to address the region�s transit funding problems.

“Businesses can vote with their feet,” Mr. Roper said. “At the end of the day, if in fact businesses get upset enough where they�re opposed to this, they can start thinking about relocating. Then those employees don�t have to worry to worry about a CTA fare hike � they don�t have a job any longer.”

Roper and other business leaders believe the solution to the CTA�s crisis lies in fixing the complex funding formula that divides up tax revenue among the CTA, Metra rail and the Pace suburban bus service.

Business leaders say there�s no question the CTA�s slate of cuts would harm firms, raising employee costs and hampering productivity…

Worse transit service could also prompt more commuting by car, slowing down goods movement, Mr. Roper said.

Less frequent service and cancelled routes � including rush-hour express buses from Union Station and the Ogilvie Transportation Center and Purple Line Express el service � could in the long term even make commercial tenants think twice about locating in the city…

Supporters of longer-ranging reform must first overcome mistrust from suburban leaders who view transit funding as a zero-sum game. That may not happen this legislative session.

Evidently, I’m not the only one who thinks that recent developments in Chinatown are well worth noting. The neighborhood has racked up five of the 24 Richard H. Driehaus Foundation Architectural Excellence in Community Design awards (given in conjunction with LISC’s Chicago Neighborhood Development Awards) given since 1998. Even more surprisingly, all five are within two blocks of one another.

A list of the awards given, by neighborhood:
Beverly: Beverly Arts Center
Bronzeville: Komed Holman Health Center
Chinatown: Archer Courts Townhouses, CASL Kam Liu Building, Archer Courts Rehabilitation, Ping Tom Memorial Park, CASL Senior Housing
Englewood: Southwest Women Working Together
Galewood Park & Norwood Park: Mather Caf�
Garfield Park: Garfield Market, Rebecca Johnson Apts/Deborah’s Place
Goose Island: Republic Windows & Doors
Humboldt Park: Humboldt Ridge Apartments
Hyde Park: Willard Square Apartments
Lakeview: The Belray Apartments
Lawndale: Homan Square Community Center, Jubilee (Carole Robertson) Family Resource Center
Little Village: Little Village Family Resource Center, Little Village Academy
Midway: Midway Head Start Center
Roseland: Roseland Ridge Apartments
South Shore: Jackson Park/63rd Street Beach Pavilion
Washington Park: Children’s Place at Vision House

For what it’s worth, this is a really cool group of buildings: of the 18 award winners that I’ve seen, most have been noteworthy buildings well deserving of a closer look even outside of the often completely unexpected context. Some of them, like 63rd Street Beach, Ping Tom Park, and Roseland Ridge, rank among the best places in the city.

This category of deserving buildings often gets left out of the usual award ceremonies, possibly because of the high entry fees associated or the onerous submission requirements — forms that architects can fill out, but that community developers are usually too busy to think much of. (I’m surprised that transportation projects seem to have been overlooked; then again, very few really groundbreaking transport facilities have been done locally outside of downtown. The Douglas rehab, maybe, but it’s somewhat programmatic.)

Incidentally, this came to mind today when I poked around the Archer Courts complex post-occupancy; I hadn’t walked around since construction was finishing up on the townhouses. Sure enough, folks were strolling around outside the high-rises and kids were talking quietly in the walkways between the townhouses, which warmly reflected the sunlight into the narrow spaces. Even on paper, it sounds cool: almost 60 dua gross, a mix from very low income to moderate-high income, about 50% Black and 50% Chinese with families and seniors, Modernist styling with prefab components, no demolition. On the ground, it actually works.

An update on the idea of raiding dying but beautiful cities (like Detroit) to dress up today’s drab new construction: a few years ago, the theft of a set of stone lions from the facade of an abandoned Detroit apartment house made the papers after the lions ended up in a set of Edgewater rowhouses, courtesy of brokering by none other than Architectural Artifacts.

The apartments had previously been occupied by subsidized seniors. Senior housing gets such rich subsidies (comparatively speaking; it’s hard to get, but about as dependable an income stream as any imaginable) and has such a bottomless pit of demand that if you can’t keep that up and running, then there’s little chance anything will work.

Bill McGraw writes in the Detroit Free Press:

It’s never easy being a Detroiter in Chicago.

We travel around the big lake and see thousands of charming old buildings there that look like thousands here, except that the old buildings there have windows and roofs and people inside.

That’s why local preservationists are so upset about the discovery that Chicago is the new home for six stone lion heads stolenfrom a once-elegant Detroit apartment tower.

The advent of a food co-op group in my neighborhood reminded me of some ideas from “Sustainable Everyday: scenarios of urban life,” the catalog of a Milan Triennale exhibition that asked design students worldwide to imagine daily life in a sustainable city.

Many of the students’ ideas centered around cooperation and food, and the authors synthesized many of those ideas into the scenario of a “food atelier” (Flash) — a cooperative combination corner store, CSA pickup, communal kitchen/table, and neighborhood restaurant.

The site also has a more in-depth “HTML investigation”:http://www.triennale.it/triennale/sito_html/quotidiano/eng/scenari_.html of the various “sustainable scenarios,” including the food atelier. [to navigate: click on the arrow at the left, then in the grid boxes for “food atelier” under quick, slow, and co-op, and then on the white boxes. To return, click on the arrow at the left again.]

Some aspects of the food scenario that I like:
* It’s scalable. Many of the aspects — cooking club, CSA pickup, tasting club, local purchasing club — can be implemented on a volunteer basis, without even a dedicated location. More difficult parts (chef on duty, retail sales, pro kitchen, restaurant) can be added on as demand warrants or as opportunities arise.
* Similarly, it’s modular: although the various parts add up to a whole, the pieces can each work fairly independently. Indeed, many parts could be done off-site or contracted out.
* It’s replicable.
* It works (as the site outlines) for everyone from “quick,” casual users to well organized volunteers, and provides a place for everyone who can contribute either time or money.
* It promotes cooperation, community, and sustainability.
* Heck, it’s such a good idea, I’m surprised it hasn’t already been commodified and corporatized.

Or rather, a new twist thereon. [thanks to DA]

Seen on the train today:
Advertisement headline was “I’m glad I got tested for / syphlis. You will be too.”
Someone cut out “I’m glad I got… syphilis” with a knife, apparently to take home. Oddly enough, this wasn’t all that noticeable; it’s easy to see where someone’s taken a marker or white paint to an ad, but the backlighting on subway ads means that a cut-out doesn’t provide that much contrast (provided the rest of the ad isn’t a dark background, which would be rare).

However, it would have been much funnier (for the public, at least) if the vandals had cut out “tested for.” The result: “I’m glad I got… syphilis. You will be too” — a subversion both of the original text and of the premise of most advertising in general.

Of course, this is not to say that I don’t think sexually active people should get tested for syphilis and other diseases. Ideally, we wouldn’t need public service adverts for this kind of thing, since universal health care would ensure that everyone had regular access to health services.

AIA Chicago recently polled its members about Chicago’s architectural treasures. Some surprises:
– The Rookery (42%) as best indoor public space. Well, it’s not really all that public anymore.
– Buckingham Fountain (31%) as best outdoor public space. Overscaled, lacking in any sense of enclosure, and drowning in twin rivers of traffic.
– Robie House (32%) and Farnsworth House (28%) almost tied for best building outside the center city, beating out even Crown Hall (17%).

“Otis White”:http://www.governing.com/notebook/today.htm calls the High Line project “ingenious and delightful.”

From “the Times”:http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/12/arts/design/12high.html

Nonetheless, the selection marks a critical step in one of the most compelling urban planning initiatives in the city’s recent history. The preliminary design succeeds in preserving the High Line’s tough industrial character without sentimentalizing it. Instead, it creates a seamless blend of new and old, one rooted in the themes of decay and renewal that have long captivated the imagination of urban thinkers.

Perhaps more important, the design confirms that even in a real estate climate dominated by big development teams and celebrity architects, thoughtful, creative planning ideas — initiated at the grass-roots level — can lead to startlingly original results. As the process continues, the issue will be whether the project’s advocates can maintain such standards in the face of increasing commercial pressures…

Such issues can easily be corrected as the design process unfolds. But they point to what may ultimately be the greatest threat to the project’s success: regulating access to the site. The High Line has already begun to spark the interest of developers, who understand its potential as an agent for raising real estate values… In an effort to take advantage of that interest, city planners have envisioned a series of incentives that would reward developers who include public access to the High Line in their plans. The scheme would also allow developers to connect commercial ventures directly to the gardens, which could radically alter the nature of the project. At the same time, allowing those who own properties below the High Line to relocate creates the possibility of freeing portions of the High Line from the surrounding density.