Hello, by way of introduction I am Sandy James and I am delighted to be the Christmas guest host for Price Tags. I am passionate about enhancing walkability to go to and through places and spaces. I believe that if we design and live in cities that are walkable we will be healthier, more socially connected, enhance local economic development and compound sustainability.
After the meeting of world leaders in the Paris Climate Summit in early December sustainability is on the global agenda. What can cities and citizens do to address sustainability at home? Jaime Lerner says the key is energy, time and resources. To start the discussion, I am attaching a think piece from the New York Times written by Lerner, the author of Urban Acupuncture. Thanks to Ian Robertson for the link.
In the article linked below Lerner calls cars “the cigarettes of the future”. He does call for a shared sense of identity to improve the quality of life. Alan Jacobs who wrote the book “Great Streets” noted that 40 per cent of the urban fabric in streets and lanes are owned by cities who can and should design cities around people and not cars. Lerner instead talks about our individual responsibility in the huge amount of space that cars occupy. Lerner also points out that a car space at home and at work is equivalent to the size of many peoples’ personal dwelling space around the world.
Lerner is a fan of Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) and using existing infrastructure to provide mass transit. He also advocates for public and private investment for increased density and mixed use, as depicted by the Turtle graphic. Take a look at his article that embraces cultural diversity and calls for increasing pride in place.
Is Lerner right? How do cities become the paradigm for hope and integration of life, work and movement?
Sandy James
Sandy, Lerner’s TED talk is entertaining – especially the bit about Otto having a drinking problem!
https://www.ted.com/talks/jaime_lerner_sings_of_the_city?language=en
Re cars becoming the new cigarettes: will electric cars be the equivalent of menthol filter tips and lite tobacco?
Maybe more like chewing tobacco. They won’t pollute the air but they do have other negative impacts.
Seems to me to be more like vapes. The same old stuff repackaged, having pretty much the same effects, with some improvement in local impact..
Electric cars will do to internal combustion engine vehicles what those same motorcars did to the bicycle: render them the province of a small band of part time enthusiasts.
Sustainability includes THREE elements:
a) social sustainability / viability
b) environmental sustainability / viability
c) fiscal sustainability / viability
It is the third element that is so often ignored by politicians and green enthusiasts alike as any investment or plan has to be costed. The green movement essentially has been hijacked by the socialist movement by trying to force “equality” where none exists, by levying ever more heavy taxes on the rich and corporations, increasing minimum wages, and buying off the public sector with ever more ridiculous wages & benefit packages for example. This eventually always results in a poor economy, where everyone is more equal and poorer as a total. While that nirvana is appreciated by some, especially the already poor (those that show up at the 1% or anti-everything marches and protests usually), it is the child-rearing and hard-working and over-taxed middle class that has had enough of taxation and financially irresponsible politicians that spend and spend and spend without regard to the third element of sustainability !
Finances matter, and need to be discussed in context with extremely expensive (often reckless) climate change initiatives, public transit, bridges, green energy or social policies. Already the federal Liberals are projecting $20B in new debt this year, $5B+ in Alberta and $20B+ in Ontario, the most indebted sub-nation IN THE WORLD per capita ! As we see with the emergence of Trump or FN in France, enough people are fed up with pandering, lying & overspending politicians !
So, please, while we all love more bike path or more transit or cleaner air, we all have to keep in mind that nothing is free in life, as someone always always has to pay for it. Some articles would be nice about that, as surely our elected politicians sweep it under the rug as does Canada’s Pravda TV media outlet !
For element B/C you must like revenue neutral carbon taxes.
“… we all have to keep in mind that nothing in life is free, as someone always always has to pay or it.”
That was preceeded by 18 lines railing against “socialists” and their free spending, debt jacking ways.
OK. Perhaps we can start by incrementally repurposing, ya know, maybe just a tiny bit of the 50+ square km of increasingly expensive land in the city (~330 km2 in the Metro) for better uses than as dead storage space for cars. Or converting food land in delta and valley to that lovely stuff called tarmac.
And isn’t it amazing how the largest freewheeling spenders and debt creators in government are often conservative-minded.
That is why we need to tax car use more in both its states, i.e. driving (road tolls, congestion charges, gasoline taxes, surcharge on engine size or battery size, surcharge on length etc) and especially parking on residential roads. The mayors and councils have the tools to do the latter, plus property tax hikes, but they chose not to use it to fund transit as they fear voter backlash. Hence they rather have their hand out to the province for more money and blame them.
Until both councils and province get their act together car is king, and public transit queen or more like it, princeling.
If we want less of something (eg car use) we have to make it far more expensive, plus offer realistic rapid alternatives.
Apparently MetroVan is not yet serious about its dependence on cars – despite all the double talk. When will it be ?
Vision has been very clear that they want changes in provincial legislation to be able to do a road pricing.
Thomas,
Get real. When has environmental viability ever actually trumped fiscal?