City Comforts, the blog

Congestion Pricing Measure for Middle-class drivers; others exempt.

Read about it here:

Shortly before 7:30 p.m., the New York City Council approved a measure urging state lawmakers to vote in favor of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s congestion pricing proposal. ...

...The congestion pricing plan, as approved by a 17-member state commission that voted at the end of January, would charge drivers with an E-ZPass $8 a day to enter Manhattan below 60th Street on weekdays from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Those drivers would also receive a credit for bridge or tunnel tolls they paid on the same day. Drivers without an E-ZPass would pay $9 and would not receive credit for tolls.

In recent days, amid negotiations between Gov. David A. Paterson, state and city lawmakers and the Bloomberg administration, the legislation was amended to give breaks to low-income drivers and to allow commuters who cross the Hudson River from New Jersey to pay only tolls — not an additional congestion charge — if the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey agrees to make a $1 billion contribution to the M.T.A. capital budget.

Low-income drivers get a break? What kind of break? Will Manhattan be filled with only limos and jalopies? I'd like to see the details because that could sure be a deal-killer in practice.

Starchitecture is easy

It's a nice idea, The Serpentine Pavilions:

The Serpentine Gallery Pavilion commission was conceived...in 2000. It is an ongoing programme of temporary structures by internationally acclaimed architects and individuals. It is unique worldwide and presents the work of an international architect or design team who, at the time of the Serpentine Gallery's invitation, has not completed a building in England....Each Pavilion is sited on the Gallery’s lawn for three months and the immediacy of the process - a maximum of six months from invitation to completion - provides a peerless model for commissioning architecture.

And the examples of the work chosen illustrate (to me) that startchitecture is easy because it has no standards i.e. there is no principle by which to judge it. That allows the art-fascists to tell us what is au courant and no one can dispute it because it's not architecture, where it's acceptable for there to be a component of practicality — but it is art where there are no standards.

Here's a Gallery of recent Serpentine Pavilions. They are of course much smaller than the grand works of starchitecture but they contain the same forumla except on the scale of a hut.

Do you notice the same formula that I do in the photos in the gallery? Pick a few simple geometric shapes and then combine, contort, bend, slice and/or ortherwise arrange them in an unusual manner. That's starchitecture.

Look at any of the works by our illustrious architectural leaders and you can see that they have simply taken a few simple geometric shapes and then combined, contorted, bent, sliced and/or ortherwise arranged them in an unusual manner. And hang the floor plan and room arrangement.

Now don't get me wrong; in fact I like some of those little pavilions; they are fun and might even be functional for their secondary purpose of hosting "a special programme of film screenings, architectural talks, literarture readings and other events as well as a cafe throughout the day."

But they are ultimately formulaic and by displaying them as unique works of art, they reinforce the notion that architecture is primarily about art. And I can't see that viewing architecture as art (in the way that the Serpentine seems to) "provides a peerless model for commissioning architecture," as the Serpentine claims. It provides merely a sales forum for starchitects.

The hard part of starchitecture is not the design but the marketing; Rem et all would have done well in Detroit or selling Pepsi. Better yet, black turtlenecks.

Of course I haven't been to the Serpentine so maybe I have it all wrong.

He'd still be fine President

Gore begins huge public campaign to go green.

Former Vice President Al Gore will launch a three-year, $300 million campaign Wednesday aimed at mobilizing Americans to push for aggressive reductions in greenhouse-gas emissions, a move that ranks as one of the most ambitious and costly public-advocacy campaigns in U.S. history.

Articles like this one drive me batty

Can eco-density be beautiful?

Some good news

There appears to be intense and generally sophisticated interest in cities among Seattle's younger crowd (i.e. under 40). For example here's a thread with almost 100 comments: Fucking Towers in the Goddamned Park — The Stranger.

When will this idea die? In the comments thread of almost every Boom post I write, regardless of the development at hand, Will in Seattle remarks that what Seattle really needs are 100-story residential towers to provide affordable housing. He’s also suggested they should be surrounded by green space. Sorry, Will, nothing personal, but towers surrounded by green space is one of the worst urban planning concepts ever conceived.

Mega-projects everywhere — except the USA

You know by now that I'm not a hugely impressed by boasts of "the biggest and best" and so it was ironic that my talk for the Economic Forum in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia was on megaprojects. (Btw, I formulated the issue as "Civiilzing the Megaproject.") But since I focussed on the topic last month I have been noticing stories on megaprojects everywhere. For example: Mexico plans big splash with new Baja port.

Their dusty hamlet of about 2,500 souls will need to be reinvented as a modern city with massive upgrades to its roads, housing, water system and power supply. State and local officials are planning for a city of about 200,000 to spring up around the port.

It's interesting — and for better or worse is another question — that nowhere in the USA are we thinking of creating from scratch a "a city of about 200,000." A huge project here would be housing for ten or fifteen thousand. Here's an example of a project, which I believe everyone here would say is huge, but would hardly be noticed overseas:

Atlantic Yards.

The $4 billion development will encompass 336,000 square feet of office space, 6.36 million square feet of residential space (6,430 units of affordable, middle-income and market-rate housing), an 850,000-square-foot sports and entertainment arena, 247,000 square feet of retail space, a 165,000-square-foot hotel (180 rooms) and over 8 acres of intricately designed publicly accessible open space.

Interesting how the role of the USA is changing. And it will be interesting to see if the new cities being built from greenfields will amount to much as urban places.

Job's has already built an ebook reader (prototype)

Mr. Cringely buys a fake.

Steve Jobs rejects the idea of Apple making or distributing e-books because he says people don't read books. He's right, book readers are older. Young readers graze. They search. Look how they watch TV. Steve didn't say people are stupid or we're all going to Hell in a handbasket. He just said we don't read books.

What does not reading books have to do with the non-utility of an ebook reader? The term "ebook reader" is understood far too narrowly if it literally only refers to "books." People read all sorts of things for which an "ebook" reader would be perfect....such things as — even — blogs!

My god, just porting travel and outdoor guidebooks to an ebook format provides a sufficient economic justification for them. How would you like to travel Europe with 10 (or 20 or 100) guidebooks and yet it's weightless? Or climb to the top of Mount Rainier with the relevant guides? Enough would.

Steve Jobs is either out-of-touch or simply misdirecting the competition. He's already built an ebook reader -- the iPhone -- and now only has to make the screen larger.

My take on the Obama speech: tough, loyal and frank.

His message went beyond his specific words on race relations in America — which of course were thoughtful and refreshingly candid — were most significant at the macro-scale:

• Obama is a cool customer. He handle himself calmly in a crisis. He demonstrated that he is tough (not phony-tough like Bush) and that mano-a-mano he wouldn't be cowed by any world leader.

• Furthermore he is loyal to his friends and doesn't turn on them.

• He can talk frankly and straightforwardly but without being offensive.

An admirable man fitting to be President.

Shorter Obama: we all have friends who have some good ideas and some not-so-good ideas.

A paler shade of green

If there was ever a question about our progress in "sustainability," an article in the NYT titled Urban Hotels - An Eco-Trend Moves Out of the Wilderness offers a cautionary answer as it reveals flimsy criteria for determining "how seriously a hotel is taking environmental issues:"

IS IT GREEN?

If you want to know how seriously a hotel is taking environmental issues, here are six questions to ask:

- Does it have any renewable energy sources, like small hydro, solar, wind or geothermal systems?

- Does it avoid using harsh chemicals, such as scented laundry supplies, carpet cleaners and air fresheners?

- Does it donate things to charities, like food scraps and old sheets and towels?

- Does it practice energy conservation: long-life light bulbs, good insulation, energy-efficient appliances?

- Does it support local causes and community conservation efforts?

- Does it try to educate its guests about being green, either on its Web site or through material provided in the room?

At least they didn't suggest that those questions get to whether the hotel is actually a "green" hotel, whatever that turns out to be but merely "how seriously" management takes the issue.

Three of those six questions don't at all get to whether an enterprise is environmentally sustainable. Supporting "local causes," and educating guests about environmental issues and donating to charity are all very good things. An enterprise which does so should be acknowledged and lauded. But they are not criteria for measuring the "greenness" of a hotel.

Two (energy conservation and avoiding harsh chemicals) could be done by (and it would be fine if they did) by even the largest hotels in Las Vegas so they offer a very low thereshold and ought not be even noted as particularly progressive. Energy conservation in a day of rising energy costs is just plain common-sense business.

Only the item on "renewable energy sources, like small hydro, solar, wind or geothermal systems" is germane and it's not clear to me that, say, putting a windmill on your roof — which wouldn't work an awful lot of places — actually has (when all factors of production are factored-in) a lower carbon footprint than buying electricity from a high-efficiency power plant run on natural gas. It may or it may not. I'd like to see the numbers.

I laud the intent of the effort to advantage the green in the marketplace, but I don't think these criteria cut it. Oh well, we are just starting to take "sustainability" seriously I am not sure that we have much of a handle what "environmentally sustainable" can realistically be. I guess I'd look to Japan to see what is possible.

Dubai: the even shorter version.

Reality surpasses rumor.

Saudi Arabian Night

(Note: Posts on my trip will not be in chronlogical order but simply as i remember signficant moments.)

After having spent a number of days in a city, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia where a majority (so I remember) of the women on the street or in shopping centers were wearing the full burqa, perhaps the most remarkable & disconcerting event for me was to visit a (private) beach club where the entertainment included these local guys, who I thoroughly enjoyed hearing:

Here's some of their music: Jeddah (My Hometown City.) (Go to "Downloads" and you'll see the title.)

It was a striking scene: balmy night at a spiffy beach club on the Red Sea in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, sitting on couches set on rugs on the sand, smoking tobacco from a hookah and eating dates listening to what sounded to me like American rap music with a light show in the background. Interesting. (Btw, do young people still use light shows? Or is it once again? I thought light shows went out decades ago.)

Later, maybe midnight, there was a vast buffet including a whole roasted sheep.

•••

Yes, they may have the oil and may dislike our foreign policy but they still glom to our popular culture. I guess that's one of the contradictions within the Middle East these days. Certainly if you look at the development of Dubai, the traditional culture has been totally submerged, at least so far as urban design is concerned and which in my view was entirely unnecessary to their economic well-being much less the livability of their city.

I saw the Dubai desert, too.

Speak of the devils

Seems like Rem Koolhaas has become a new urbanist as he Lays Out a Grand Urban Experiment in Dubai.

Designed for one of the biggest developers in the United Arab Emirates, Nakheel, Mr. Koolhaas’s master plan for the proposed 1.5-billion-square-foot Waterfront City in Dubai would simulate the density of Manhattan on an artificial island just off the Persian Gulf. A mix of nondescript towers and occasional bold architectural statements....

However the author of the piece seems to be so caught up in hero-worship that he doesn't even realize what Koolhaas is doing. Read the whole thing.

Dubai: The short version.

I liked it. I liked the energy. I had a great time there playing tourist and on busman's holiday of looking at development.

But. But, Dubai is doing an absolutely brilliant job of creating itself using the very worst urban model possible: USA 1975. The new part of Dubai is not even remotely a walkable city and gives no promise of being so. (I put it that way because there is so much construction going on that without local knowledge or access to plans it is not totally clear what it will be like.) But none of the real estate advertising I saw, for example, gives any indication that there is more to life than "prestige" and "exclusivity" and "luxury" and nothing to urban charm or walkability etc etc.

Nontheless, because it is a monarchy, Dubai will be able to turn on a dime once the leadeship gets the question of urban sustainability. They clearly know how to do it; they have the model of their traditional Arab cities including Dubai's old town and they have done quite a nice job at the Marina in creating a pleasant pedestrian environment. But overall Dubai is a place for cars. And traffic jams. But once they get the message, they will leave us (at least in Seattle) in the dust in converting to a green spatial economy. One of the ironies.

Especially striking after one has seen Dubai

Politics | No new state money requested for cracked, clogged Seattle stretch.

...the 2008 Legislature ends today, without an I-5 plan.

And that's not because the Legislature is controlled by a bunch of tree-huggers but simply that no one really knows what to do. Or if they think they know what to do, they can't get 51% of their colleagues to go along. I am not in the least arguing for a "benevolent autocracy" but there sure does seem to be something we could be doing better, besides simply being smarter, which is not something you can just do.

Have any of these "new cities," anywhere, worked? My impression is "no."

Inspired by the astounding ambition of development in the middle east, Russia and China — cities of a half a million or more being planned from bare ground — I'll be posting a bit on mega-cities. So this article about Brasilia — Trouble in utopia as the real Brazil spills into Niemeyer's masterpiece — is worth reading for context.

Full text of ENERGY AND EQUITY by Ivan Illich

I've just returned from a trip to Saudi Arabia and then Dubai (more about the trip later and that's part of the reason I have been absent from this blog). For some reason (for some reason indeed!) when I was in the middle east I thought of an essay by Ivan Illich written in the 1970s on transportation and energy etc. Full text of ENERGY AND EQUITY. I intend to re-read it but I believe it may have some bearing on contemporary conditions. In parallel, you'll see what I man once you read Ivan Illich, the latest PriceTags. from Gordon Price, covers some the very interesting bicycle program in Paris. UPDATE: I just read Illich's paper and while he offered some interesting facts and had a few interesting insights overall I didn't think much of it. He had some idea that poor people of the world would be happy to stay on bicycles and would somehow be immune from the seduction of the car and the personal autonomy it offers. At least he was urging that. Don't think he is relevant today.