Urban Design & Growth – Scripturient

Looking back on three years

2014-01-07 2014-01-07 Collingwood / Municipal Politics / Urban Design & GrowthLeave a comment

If you attended the Mayor’s Levee, Jan. 5, you received a small brochure that listed some of this council’s accomplishments to date, as well as our collective plans and priorities for the remaining year of our term. It’s worth reiterating some of those notes. Keeping the public informed was identified by this council as a strategic priority in our first strategic planning session at the beginning of our term. This flyer was produced by our new Communications Officer as part of that ongoing transparency and accountability. We want to let you know what we’re doing on your behalf. Many of … click below for more ↓

In Wildness is the Preservation of the World

2013-09-14 2013-09-14 Atheism & Spirituality / Books & Reviews / Collingwood / Environment / Urban Design & GrowthLeave a comment

The title of this post is a quote from Henry David Thoreau’s essay, Walking, published posthumously in 1862, but which he wrote and rewrote during the 1850s. I was thinking of that line this week when Council officially opened the new Black Ash Creek Park, in the northeast of the Georgian Meadows subdivision.* I was thinking of it not in terms of the park – a pleasant, family-oriented, structured space with playground equipment, a small pavilion, basketball court and a chess table – but rather about the untamed green spaces around the park. It is this small patch of wildness … click below for more ↓

Why are Pickup Trucks so Anti-Pedestrian?

2013-07-07 2013-07-07 Environment / Politics / Social Order & Disorder / Urban Design & Growth / US Politics2 Comments

Take a look at the back of any of today’s pickup trucks. Notice the exhaust pipe, under the vehicle? It points to the right. The same side of the road that pedestrians and cyclists use.* Notice the bike lane in the photo – that’s where cyclists will be when this truck passes by them. No place to move to avoid the fumes. Yet I have seen vintage trucks with that design, as in the photo to the right (even here in town). Several, in fact in just the past week. I don’t know the date of the change from rear to … click below for more ↓

Should we sell naming rights to public property?

2012-09-27 2012-09-27 Collingwood / Municipal Politics / Urban Design & GrowthLeave a comment

I was recently forwarded a link to a blog post about selling naming rights for public buildings to corporations. The author writes, Last week, I wrote about “the halo effect” on events, buildings, and properties that have had multiple names, all of which have been commercial. The other area we often advise on is the sponsorship naming rights of iconic buildings “owned” by the community or named after community leaders. Often a building may be named after a past politician or community leader. Brands interested in naming such properties must take into account these situations and be prepared to invest accordingly. … click below for more ↓

Dogs and dog owners need places to socialize

2012-05-29 2012-05-29 Collingwood / Municipal Politics / Urban Design & GrowthOne Comment

How many dogs live here in Collingwood? No one knows for sure, but we can make some good estimates, based on numerous surveys and national statistics. It’s a lot. Dog owners are a very large special interest group, perhaps larger than any other demographic group in town. I’ve done some research and read many studies on pet populations done since 1996 (like this one from 2001 and this one from 2007). All of the major census figures of the older surveys are consistent with the most recent surveys. Nationally, we have between 35 and 39 percent of homes with one … click below for more ↓

Why not a Napoleon theme park?

2012-02-18 2012-02-18 History & Biography / Personal Reminiscences / Urban Design & GrowthLeave a comment

There’s a sarcastic, somewhat-tongue-in-cheek commentary in the Guardian this week, called, “Why not have a Napoleon theme park?” In it, Agnès C. Poirier editorializes on a recent proposal by a French MP to build a theme park in France dedicated to Napoleon Bonaparte. She writes, Abroad, observers could be forgiven for almost choking on hearing this news: why not a Stalin or a Kim Jong-il theme park too? That made me choke, almost pushing my half-swallowed tea through my nose. Imaginations must run very high among her set if anyone can associate Napoleon Bonaparte with two of the Twentieth Century’s … click below for more ↓

What Shall We Do With the Mountain View?

2012-02-14 2012-02-14 Collingwood / Urban Design & Growth2 Comments

Here’s a new song for Collingwood, sung to the tune of What Shall We Do With the Drunken Sailor? Unbeknownst to council, the town wants to own the Mountain View Hotel for $1.9 million. This little-known fact appeared in the 600-plus page budget document without any fanfare. or even any other sort of notice. You’d have to dig through page after page of mind-numbing arrays of figures to find it. Normally, when the municipality wants to buy property, we go in camera to hear a staff report that justifies the purchase and we discuss the legal ramifications of the offer. … click below for more ↓

Collingwood’s population on the rise, faster than Canada’s

2012-02-08 2012-02-08 Collingwood / Municipal Politics / Urban Design & Growth2 Comments

Statistics Canada has released some of the key data data from its 2011 Census. In the five years since our last census (2006), Canada has grown in population size almost 6% to 33,476,688. That’s ten times larger than we were in 1861. Once again, our growth rate was the highest among G8 countries. According to the StatsCan analysis of the data, “every province and most territories saw its population increase between 2006 and 2011.” However, it notes that, “The rate of population growth increased in all provinces and territories between 2006 and 2011, except in Ontario, the Northwest Territories and … click below for more ↓

Why Admiral Collingwood should go ahead

2012-02-05 2012-02-05 Collingwood / Municipal Politics / Urban Design & Growth5 Comments

Juxtaposition. That’s the issue Collingwood Council has to wrestle with, Monday: what effect will the juxtaposition of the proposed development’s size and height have on the existing, smaller buildings? Some people are afraid our existing heritage buildings will be diminished by this project. Last week I was in Toronto. At the corner of York and Wellington Streets, I saw the Toronto Club; a beautifully preserved, late 19th-century red-brick, three-storey building. It’s in the, heart of financial district, surrounded by tall, modern skyscrapers, some 30 or more storeys high. What made this building stand out was the contrast with, not the … click below for more ↓

Make it happen, crowd tells council about Admiral Collingwood

2012-01-29 2012-01-30 Collingwood / Municipal Politics / Personal Reminiscences / Urban Design & GrowthOne Comment

Four hundred people, perhaps more, packed the Collingwood Legion, Sunday afternoon, to support the Admiral Collingwood development, at Hume and Hurontario Streets. It was arguably the most important public meeting of the last 18 months. The clear message, both from speakers at the rally and audience members, was “make it happen.” So many people packed the Legion hall that it was standing room only, with some forced to watch and listen from the alcove. The rally was called by a group of citizens to counter the recent opposition to the proposed developments at Hume and Hurontario Streets, within the heritage … click below for more ↓

Google Earth 6.2 gets somewhat better, but it still needs work

2012-01-29 2012-01-29 Arts / Science & Technology / Urban Design & GrowthLeave a comment

It was big news this week that Google Earth 6.2 was released with a bunch of new pictures, and an improved satellite mesh that removed some of the previous patchwork of scans that made up some of its maps. The media are full of articles praising Google Earth’s new release. CNET noted, “The result is a more realistic and less distracting (though still optimistically cloudless) view of the planet. Update: It turns out that by turning on the weather layer, you can dispel Google Earth’s sunny optimism and see if it’s really cloudy by showing live weather data.” As much … click below for more ↓

Musing on mixed heights in urban environments

2012-01-03 2012-01-03 Collingwood / Municipal Politics / Urban Design & GrowthLeave a comment

I recently spent some time looking online for images of cities where mixed building heights could show me how a varied skyline looks when buildings of significantly different heights are close together in an urban environment. This is, of course, because Collingwood council will soon consider allowing a six-storey building downtown, set amidst what are mostly two- and three-storey buildings. The mix of high and low in the core is common in cities, less so in smaller towns. That’s simple economics, however. All of these images here were borrowed from various sites to showcase the mix. It’s a simple effect, … click below for more ↓