May 30th, 2011 |
By Dave Reid |
Category: Feature, Urban Agriculture
“Growing Local” is a great example of how New Urbanism has evolved to keep current with recent developments in urban planning. While the interface of agriculture and urbanism was barely touched upon in urban theory only, 10 or even 5 years ago, the economic downturn and increasing food prices have made the relationship between people and their food a key issue in addressing the sustainability of the built environment for the long term. At the center of the discussion around urban agriculture is Milwaukee’s MacArthur Genius Grant recipient, Will Allen of Growing Power who is speaking at the Saturday Morning Plenary session.
Will Allen has more in common with New Urbanism than people might initially think. He promotes community gardens and concentrates his efforts on the distribution of healthy food to areas of the city that have been called “food deserts”. The agricultural technologies he develops and inspires others to develop have the potential to transform how we think about and relate to agriculture within our cities. He is an alumnus of the University of Miami and is dedicated to educating people about agriculture through the many workshops he provides at Growing Power. In fact, I feel his greatest contribution is showing that ideas have the power to reinvigorate society if disseminated property.
The New Urbanism also shows a dedication to educating the public about traditional planning principles and is part of the educational tradition at the University of Miami. The University of Miami has been the center of education and theoretical development for New Urbanism since before Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk was appointed dean of the School of Architecture in 1995. Under her leadership the school has flourished by encouraging the American tradition of academic freedom and positioning education as a top priority of the school. (full disclosure, this is where I went to school)
As it goes, the combination of agriculture and urban theory has produced many theories on how best to integrate the two. Agricultural Urbanism has emerged as the model for New Urbanists, it is also the title of a book, of the same name, that is an interesting read. A session on Thursday “The Many Faces of Agricultural Urbanism” will explain how urban agriculture fits into the paradigm of New Urbanism and how the two are complementary to each other. It will concentrate on regional food systems and the application of agricultural urbanism to central-city neighborhoods.
Examples of building local communities through the use of agriculture can be seen in a number of events during the congress. A Thursday tour of Troy Gardens called “Model Urban Agriculture Projects Grow Communities” will show firsthand the use of agriculture in community building. On Friday a session titled “Opportunities and Examples of Urban Agriculture” will explore scale, longevity and the intensity variables of the implementing agriculture to help build communities through the use examples. Breakfast sessions on Saturday provide two opportunities to learn about either food systems or growing and presenting local foods. The famous Dade County Farmers Market at capitol square is also taking place on Saturday morning and is great example of how agriculture works in Madison.
One measure of the success of urban agriculture is regular events like farmers markets; “How Do We Know When Urban Agriculture is Working?” a Saturday session that will explore different ways of measuring urban agriculture’s impact on cities. It will also discuss a broad agenda for urban agriculture, which includes the profitability of farmers and its use of natural resources.
The development of agriculture has been synonymous with the advancement of civilization. Since the ancient settlements between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers to the development of industrial farming techniques that produced enough food to support the population increases of the last century advancements in technology have proved essential to increased agricultural productivity. In the Milwaukee area we have seen the propagation of these technologies into business models that are trying to turn old industrial/manufacturing buildings into productive places again. Their ability to compete with conventional agriculture and the impact they will have on communities are directly related to the development of technologies that work symbiotically with ecological processes like aquaponics. The challenge of feeding people in the 21st century includes building agricultural practices that have small energy, water, material and land footprints. These are a very different set of challenges than that of the 20th century that viewed these resources to be almost unlimited. Milwaukee and Wisconsin have the opportunity to become leaders in the development and manufacturing of these technologies, just like we were the leaders of agricultural technology and manufacturing a century ago. The real solution for agriculture in the 21st century will inevitably be some combination of conventional agriculture, community gardens, local food distribution and advancements in agricultural technologies.
All of these aspects of urban agriculture will be a part of CNU 19 to a greater or lesser extent, so I hope you will join us.
See you at CNU!
Guest Post by: Dr. Matthew Trussoni
Dr. Matthew Trussoni, AIA, PE is an Assistant Professor at the Milwaukee School of Engineering
Tags: CNU, CNU 19, Growing Local, Urban Farming
Posted in Feature, Urban Agriculture |
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May 30th, 2011 |
By Dave Reid |
Category: Bookmarks
Tags: 9to5, affordablehousing, Amtrak, apartments, architecture, automobile, Awards, BeerGarden, Bike, Budget, ChrisAbele, CityofMilwaukee, Design, development, Downtown, festival, freeways, Gas, GormanCompany, Green, GrowingPower, Higways, History, HSR, ISTEA, JohnNorquist, KingsCommon, Location, Market, MassTransit, MCTS, MilwaukeeCounty, MilwaukeeCountyCourthouse, MilwaukeeRiver, MitchellStreet, MMSD, Morgantown, MPS, Neighborhoods, NewUrbanism, Policy, pollution, PublicArt, realestate, redevelopment, retail, roads, RobinVos, RTA, S27thStreet, SchlitzPark, ScottWalker, Sewer, ShermanPark, South13Street, sprawl, TomBarrett, UrbanFarming, urbanism, urbanplanning, VeteransManor, VillardSquare, water, WellsFargo, WHEDA, WillAllen, Wind, Wisconsin
Posted in Bookmarks |
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May 27th, 2011 |
By Friday Photos |
Category: Friday Photos
S. Second Street/Milwaukee Fix Celebration
S. Second Street/Milwaukee Fix Celebration
S. Second Street/Milwaukee Fix Celebration
S. Second Street/Milwaukee Fix Celebration
S. Second Street/Milwaukee Fix Celebration
Posted in Friday Photos |
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May 24th, 2011 |
By Matthew Trussoni |
Category: Bicycling, Feature, Hank Aaron State Trail
Alterra's On-Street Bicycle Corral
One of the competitive advantages of urban living is having activities that are useful in many areas of your life. Biking is great example of this; people can ride their bikes to work, or go for a pleasure ride on the weekend. Both Milwaukee and Madison are leaders in providing great biking options and have been recognized on Bicycling Magazine’s “America’s Top 50 Bike-Friendly Cities”. Milwaukee has created a vast amount of bike infrastructure from the Hank Aaron State Trail to the recent addition of an on-street bike corral at Alterra’s Prospect Ave. location. There are many events at CNU 19 planned to take advantage of Madison’s biking amenities, including daily fitness rides. On Wednesday, the Congress kicks off by blending urban theory with an enjoyable bike ride in an event called “Bike the Transect: Urban to Rural Link”.
The Transect is part of the New Urbanism Lexicon and it refers to rural to urban land-use patterns. A simple example is thinking of Wisconsin State Parks as a transect zone 1: nature preserve and downtown Milwaukee as a transect zone 6: urban core, and everything in-between varying from a T-1 to a T-6. Biking through these urban zones makes it is possible to show how urban design works for a variety of urban densities. Building placement, street design, public spaces, sidewalks, and landscape all have changing characters at different densities, which are apparent to the trained eye. Part of the ride will also be to enjoy John Nolen’s plan of Madison first hand before the scheduled sessions about John Nolen at the Congress.
The New Urbanism approach to mobility is to provide equal priority to all modes of transportation, so it is natural that bicyclists are interested in CNU principles that balance bike mobility with the automobile. Providing bike lanes and independent bike paths can help to foster a sense of community by creating opportunities for social interaction. The many questions that lay at the intersection of bike advocacy and urban design are the subject of a breakout session on Thursday titled “New Urbanism and the Bicycle: A Dialogue”.
Practicing urban design and architecture is by its nature an exercise in Humanism. Pedestrians and bicyclists experience the public realm in a more intimate way than do people in mechanized modes of transit. There are many similarities between bike-friendly and pedestrian-friendly places, these similarities, the differences, and how to create them in car-centric environments will be the topic of a Friday breakout session “Peds and Pedalers: the Walking and Biking Connection”.
To those who enjoy the use of their bikes there is little question as to the value of a bike-friendly city. A Saturday breakout session “Bikeability: What’s it Worth?” will explore how to measure the value that it brings to a community and how to communicate this value to the teams involved in creating urban places.
Milwaukee has shown tremendous leadership in developing as a bike friendly city; it is an aspect of the city that many residents take advantage of and enjoy. The CNU is great opportunity to showcase the bikeability of Wisconsin’s cities, as well as explore how to maintain and advance the leadership role that Milwaukee and Madison have taken in this aspect of creating human centric cities.
Guest Post by: Dr. Matthew Trussoni
Dr. Matthew Trussoni, AIA, PE is an Assistant Professor at the Milwaukee School of Engineering
Tags: biking, CNU, New Urbanism
Posted in Bicycling, Feature, Hank Aaron State Trail |
2 comments
May 23rd, 2011 |
By Matthew Trussoni |
Category: Feature, Transportation
No Train to Madison for CNU 19
The Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU) is holding their annual congress in Madison from June 1-4. The prominent group of planners and architects has kept “congress” as the name of their annual meeting instead of changing it to “conference”, as most organization do, for a specific reason: the open discussion of topics related to urbanism. It is through this culture of the open discussion of ideas that the group has been able to evolve and keep the New Urbanism, well “new”. On the program are a variety of local, national and international topics that are being covered in plenary and/or breakout sessions during the event that we are going to touch on over the course of the next week leading up to CNU 19 in Madison. The one that could prove the most exciting is Saturday night’s event that features an intellectual “discussion” between the leaders of the two most prominent movements in contemporary planning and architecture, Andres Duany of the New Urbanism and Charles Waldheim of Landscape (Ecological) Urbanism.
The congress this year has taken on the theme of “Growing Local” signifying the timely subject of balancing agriculture and urbanism that Milwaukee, Madison and the State of Wisconsin are currently engaged in. However, there are several other major topics areas like Biking, Retrofitting Suburbia, LEED for Neighborhood Design, Transportation and Transit Oriented Development (TOD) that have multiple events planned around their discussion. The sessions designed to educate newcomers about the traditional town planning principles that New Urbanism is based on are also always part of the congress.
Transportation
The last year has seen numerous setbacks for public transportation in the State of Wisconsin. As the congress approaches one cannot help but wonder if we have hit the low point of popular support for public transit in Wisconsin or if we have further to go. Property values around transit hubs are falling and dragging city property values with them. The truth is that intelligent investors don’t invest in people who don’t invest in themselves and, unfortunately, we are finding out that this old saying can be applied to individuals, as well as cities. The lack of confidence shown by not developing critical 21st century transportation infrastructure will hurt Wisconsin for many years to come, but there is still hope for quality public transportation in Wisconsin’s cities.
The events planned around Transportation and Transit Oriented Development (TOD) at the CNU can work as a catalyst for like-minded people to help turn this situation around in Wisconsin. It starts with framing the discussion around how good transportation networks spur development, which is the subject of two Thursday breakout sessions titled “The Place of Transit: Re-Orienting the Transit-Development Discussion” and “Passenger-Rail: Making Local Connections, Maximizing Local Value”.
The opportunity of Transit Oriented Development to create densely populated, walkable neighborhoods and districts will be explored in a session called “Typology of Transit Oriented Development” that will take place on Saturday. Interesting examples of how the principles of TOD are applied to local conditions and culture in order to create authentic places will be part of the panel presentations and discussion.
Recent public transportation policy in Wisconsin has been dominated by short-sightedness and focused on a single mode of transportation. Participating in a forum where people have an opportunity to organize around common ideas and principles can help to change the discussion and policy toward public transportation. After all, transportation efficiency is one of the many assets that make cities the most productive places to live.
Guest Post by: Dr. Matthew Trussoni
Dr. Matthew Trussoni, AIA, PE is an Assistant Professor at the Milwaukee School of Engineering
Tags: CNU, New Urbanism
Posted in Feature, Transportation |
8 comments
May 23rd, 2011 |
By Dave Reid |
Category: Bookmarks
Tags: automobile, Bayview, BigBoxStore, Bike, BikeSharing, BradleyCenter, Bronzeville, Budget, CathedralSquare, ChrisAbele, CityofMilwaukee, completestreets, development, Downtown, EastTown, education, FoodTruckFriday, Gas, GrandAveMall, Green, greenroof, GrowingPower, HankAaronStateTrail, Ingeteam, JuliaTaylor, Knowles-NelsonStewardshipProgram, Lakefront, Madison, MassTransit, MenomoneeValley, MichaelCudahy, MillerPark, MilwaukeeCounty, MilwaukeeFix, MilwaukeePublicLibrary, MMSD, Morgantown, MPS, Neighborhoods, newlandenterprises, OakLeafTrail, pedestrian, retail, RiverRennaisance, S2ndStreet, ScottWalker, Sewer, South13Street, sprawl, StoneCreek, Target, TaxCredits, taxes, ThirdWard, TimSheehy, TomBarrett, towerautomotive, trail, urbanism, VillardAveLibrary, WalkersPoint, Weatherization, WillAllen, Wind
Posted in Bookmarks |
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May 20th, 2011 |
By Friday Photos |
Category: Friday Photos
UWM School of Public Health
UWM School of Public Health
UWM School of Public Health
UWM School of Public Health
UWM School of Public Health
Posted in Friday Photos |
2 comments
May 19th, 2011 |
By Jeramey Jannene |
Category: Feature, Gov 2.0, MCTS, Milwaukee County
How does MCTS attract more riders?
Chris Abele was recently elected to fill the remainder of Governor Scott Walker’s term as Milwaukee County Executive. That gives Abele less than one year to accomplish anything as Milwaukee County Executive before he must seek re-election. Given the relatively short time for which Abele is assured to be in office, what can the newly-elected County Executive hope to achieve when it comes to transit?
Chris Abele held the position while he ran for office that he would not seek a sales tax increase for dedicated funding of mass transit, and it’s unlikely that even if he supported a dedicated funding solution it could be installed given the short time Abele is assured of being in office and the Republican control of state government. Although we’ve endorsed a dedicated funding source as a logical step to ensure quality transit access for southeastern Wisconsin, we support the new County Executive’s apparent desire to stick to issues that are controlled locally given the circumstances. With that in mind, the following are ideas that can encourage increased ridership on MCTS if implemented.
Real Time Open Data
The Milwaukee County Transit System, to its credit, has been excellent at providing open data of bus scheduling. This data is what is used to power Google Maps trip planner that can provide bus schedule data. MCTS officials have also indicated they’re working on procuring and installing equipment to provide real time open data by the middle of 2012.
So what’s the issue? The speed at which it’s being delivered. The new County Executive has a chance to find some of those efficiencies he campaigned on and get the equipment installed and data exposed earlier than mid-2012. He also has a chance to engage the private sector before the system is even deployed to start building applications that take advantage of the new data.
Ultimately people will be more likely to ride a bus if they know when the next one is coming. Real time positioning data provides that. Alterra can have countdown timers in their coffee shops. Office buildings can display bus positions in their lobbies for tenants. Major bus stops can display countdown data. Text message based applications can be built that allow users to send a message to query the location of the next bus.
By accelerating the implementation of real time open data and engaging the tech community in Milwaukee, the private sector can more quickly create value for potential riders.
More on how and why open data is valuable with regards to transit in a previous article.
Simplified Mapping
Milwaukee is fortunate to have a number of hotels, businesses, and apartments within a block or two of the major bus corridor through downtown, Wisconsin Avenue. Frequent riders of the corridor know the routes and stop locations to quickly move anywhere between the Marquette campus and the lakefront, but the current downtown area map leaves a lot to be desired for people less familiar with the system. New riders can be enticed to take advantage of MCTS simply by creating a first-time rider, downtown-centric map. The one-sheet map could be distributed at downtown hotels, offices, shops, apartment buildings, and the Frontier Airlines Center. The map should include the following features.
- Stop locations
- Route frequency indicated by width of route on map
- Major locations off map and the corresponding route to get there (Miller Park – 90, Milwaukee County Zoo – 10, etc, etc)
- Fare information (no change on board, $2.25 cash, discounts for week, month, and 10-fare purchases)
- Schedule information (on back of sheet)
This idea was inspired by a similar map in Cincinnati by Nate Wessel (and funded creatively utilizing Kickstarter).
Improved Bus Stops
The average sheltered bus stop in Milwaukee is okay. When it’s raining or snow, there is a decent chance those underneath won’t get wet. When it’s not freezing outside, the benches provide a fairly comfortable rest while one waits for the bus. All in all, the average bus stop is certainly better than standing on the sidewalk, but it still leaves a lot to be desired. Obviously physically improving the bus stops is going to cost money, so I would like to propose a quasi-privatization method by which better bus stops can be obtained. Wherever possible and desired, the bus stops should be turned over to area business improvement districts. Business improvement districts are well-suited for this because they already frequently invest in streetscaping and have a self-interest in approving the attractiveness and accessibility of their district.
The business improvements could make a number of improvements to their bus stops, including but not limited to.
Tags: Chris Abele
Posted in Feature, Gov 2.0, MCTS, Milwaukee County |
9 comments
May 17th, 2011 |
By Dave Reid |
Category: Department of Public Works, Feature, S. 2nd Street
Living Building. 538 S. 2nd Street, Milwaukee, WI
Not only is there a planned ground breaking ceremony this Thursday, May 19th, for the Milwaukee Fix, but also a ribbon cutting for the redesigned S. 2nd Street. Both of these developments are groundbreaking events for Milwaukee.
The Milwaukee Fix, a four-story, 30,000 square-foot building, is being developed by Kaufmann LeSage, and is the first new development along this stretch of road in quite some time. The building itself is groundbreaking as it was designed to meet the Living Building Standard which includes requirements such as the building needs to be net zero energy, operate carbon neutral, and seeks to reach zero waste. Additionally, the building has a long list of tenants lined up including the Clock Shadow Creamery, Aurora Walker’s Point Community Clinic, The Healing Center, and CORE El Centro.
The celebration will also feature a ribbon cutting of the newly redesigned S. 2nd Street, which again is groundbreaking in its own right because the redesign represents a shift from old ideas in traffic engineering to new ones. In particular from concepts that always favored traffic speeds and flow, to ones that considers walkability, the role that the built environment plays in creating value, and to value other modes of transportation. It took the combined efforts of local business and property owners, with the vital assistance of the Department of Public Works to accomplish this change, and here at UrbanMilwaukee.com we applaud this effort.
These efforts celebrate the continuation of economic development, and positive momentum in Walker’s Point, in particular on S. 2nd Street. Stop by the event on Thursday, May 19th, at the SE corner of Bruce and S. 2nd Street. and at the Milwaukee Brewing Company, to help the neighborhood, and the city, celebrate this progress.
Event Activities:
4:30 pm … Milwaukee Fix groundbreaking on the SE corner of Bruce and 2nd.
5:00 pm … Milwaukee Brewing Company doors open for celebration.
5:30 pm … S. 2nd St. ribbon cutting ceremony and speeches.
6:00-9:00 pm … Local music, food, beer, spirits and businesses.
Tags: complete streets, Green, Living Building
Posted in Department of Public Works, Feature, S. 2nd Street |
2 comments
May 16th, 2011 |
By Dave Reid |
Category: Bookmarks
Tags: 1910onWater, 30thStreetIndustrialCorridor, Alterra, Amtrak, apartments, Apartmnets, art, Bayview, Bike, BradleyCenter, Budget, ChrisAbele, CityofMilwaukee, CreativeClass, development, DNR, Downtown, EastSide, environment, FondyFoodMarket, freeways, Green, Habitat, Helios, HerbKohl, housing, HSR, HUD, JoeRice, Kohl, Kohls, LowerEastSide, MassTransit, MCTS, MEDC, MenomoneeValley, MilwaukeeCounty, MilwaukeeCountyBoard, MitchellBuilding, MPS, Neighborhoods, Policy, PropertyTaxes, PublicArt, raid, realestate, recycling, recyclingandrenewableenergyfund, redistricting, rentalcartax, RobinVos, RTA, S2ndStreet, ScottWalker, SERTA, Solar, ThirdWard, TomBarrett, TomTaylor, university, urbanism, USSenate, WalkersPoint, WangardPartners, ZooInterchange
Posted in Bookmarks |
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