A Big Push Against Plastic Bags

Los Angeles is leading the way in banning plastic bags at supermarket checkout lanes. “Los Angeles becomes the latest in a string of California cities — including San Jose, San Francisco and Long Beach — to ban plastic bags.”

The LA city council voted on a measure to phase out environmentally costly plastic bags over the next 16 months. The reason is quite simple. The Californians use 12 billion plastic bags each year, and recycle only 5 % of them. Although such a measure would threaten employment of workers at plastic bag companies, the positive impacts on landfills, waterways and ocean will more than make up for such losses.

Here is a brief video on "Ban on Plastic Bags in LA, What does it Mean?"



Reference: Zahniser, David and Abby Sewell, L.A. OKs ban on plastic bags at checkout, Los Angeles Times, May 24, 2012
 

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Remaking LA’s Boulevards as Public Places

The boulevards in Los Angeles are undergoing a remarkable transformation after decades of neglect and auto-centric urbanity. Instead of a roadway designed for rapidly moving cars, dotted by scattered structures and bill boards, these boulevards are starting to evolve as rich urban places with bike trails, pedestrian pathways and small scale retail plazas. The boulevards have begun to “reassert themselves as places where the whole messy range of urban life has room to play out”. 

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority is extending subway, light rail and bus networks across the LA county, using funds from the Measure R sales-tax increase, which is expected to raise $40 billion over the next 30 years. It has added 1,600 miles of bike lanes, and encourages small scale initiatives such as pedestrian plazas, gardening on the medians and pedestrian friendly community programs.

Instead of funky structures behind a massive parking lot, newer structures engage the street, and allow street life to develop in front of them. They seem to have learned from the people friendly street life at night along some sections of the Boulevard which seem to thrive with informal gift shops and eateries.

Reference: Christopher Hawthorne, Atlantic on the move, Los Angeles Times, May 13, 2012

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Urban Development Taxonomy

 

How does a city develop into a global destination?  Is a city more than a collection of great buildings?  Is a city more than a collection of great people?  What makes a city great?  What are the forces that drive urban development?

There are many sites that provide tourism related information about cities.  While we want to understand what makes a city great, we are also interested in the messy gray area, where decisions are made about the future of a city.  What drives such decision-making?  Is that purely a speculative gamble or are there hidden forces at work?  What roles do design professionals play in such decision-making?  What role does leadership play?  Where does such leadership come from?  What role does local government play?  

We will focus on four broad categories of urban interventions:

Tourism development: 

Urban interventions intended to spur or support tourism.

Hotels, convention centers, museums, art galleries, public arts festivals, fashion shows, business shows, public expositions, public events. Ecotourism, sustainable tourism, heritage tourism, leisure, recreation, urban tourism, parks, sports stadiums, arenas, public plazas,

Smart infrastructure: 

Urban interventions intended to spur or support smart urbanization technologies.

Smart grid, smart design, smart transit, smart buildings, renewable energy, sustainable architecture, green building, smart architecture, smart meters, smart traffic signaling, mass transit, smart city, smart infrastructure, augmented reality, urban data networks, collaborative networks, digital city.

Economic development: 

Urban interventions intended to spur or support economic development.

Business incubators, start-ups, universities, research centers, innovation labs, demonstration projects, affordable housing, transit hubs, rezoning, urban renewal, environmental remediation, brown fields, urban design, new construction, renovation, mass transit systems, manufacturing, warehousing, freight delivery, transportation, logistics, urban upgrading, finance, law, regulations, institutions, leadership.

Branding and global identity: 

Urban interventions intended to create a unique brand.

Global influence, city image, uniqueness, branding, identity, signature buildings, global events, public expositions, leadership, historic preservation, tourist attractions, urban design, celebrations.

Miscellaneous Key words:

General information, summary, statistics, comparative study, geography, emergency preparedness, disaster mitigation, low income housing, urbanization, slum upgrading, geography, climate, culture, people, demographics, history.

Photo Credit: Nserrano under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.