Excellent Sample Map
A walking map doesn't have to be big or complex to be effective. Take the 8.5-by-11 Walking the Waterfront map of Halifax & Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada, with clear, hand-drawn maps of both city waterfronts. Sites are clearly numbered, one to 44, and range from a casino to open space to eating places and docks. A number of vessels make their home here, including deep sea fishing charter boats, a replica of a famous fishing schooner and a research ship of the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic, which is based in Halifax. The map, prepared by the Waterfront Development Corporation Ltd., is simplicity itself, in two colors, folded into three easy-to-read panels whose title is "Your official cruising guide to the shops and sights, restaurants and museums on the wonderful waterfront." Contact the organization for a sample.
Waterfront Corruption
The FBI seems to have to known what it was doing in targeting city officials in Northern New Jersey with waterfront development projects. Most of the 44 arrests earlier this year were of officials taking bribes from agents posing as developers seeking project approvals. The complaints filed paint a picture of building and zoning departments where influence, connections and payoffs are used to enable developments to proceed smoothly. Otherwise the process is described as dysfunctional. Developers are said to budget for bribes. For a little light reading, try The Soprano State: New Jersey's Culture of Corruption by Bob Ingle and Sandy McClure (New York: St. Martin's Press, 2008).
The Press of Atlantic City, Aug. 8, 2009.
New Treatment Plant Technology
In the city of Blaine, Washington, they are putting a new wastewater treatment plant in a waterfront park. Using new odor control technology plus smaller and quieter equipment enables the facilities to be front and center. In fact, when Blaine's plant opens in June 2010, it will house processing underground and have two structures on top: one for administration, the other for public park uses. The reclaimed wastewater will be used to water city land and a golf course. Funding in the form of grants and loans came from local, state and Federal sources. Brown and Caldwell of Seattle did the design of the 23,000 square-foot plant.
Engineering News Record, Oct. 5, 2009.
Bikers vs. Peds: Serious Business
The Battle of Brooklyn Bridge is on. The narrow walkway (remember the bridge dates to 1883) now tries to accommodate growing numbers of walkers and bikers plus more than a few tourists stopping to take pictures. One solution suggested is to make the bikers use the adjoining Manhattan Bridge, which has a secure bike lane. Problem: it doesn't tie well to downtown. Writing in the Sunday Opinion page of The New York Times, author Robert Sullivan, a Brooklyn biker, proposes taking bikes off the walkway in favor of a protected bike lane in the roadway. Separation is the solution being used on a downtown riverwalk under construction now in Des Moines, Iowa. the Center co-directors were given a tour recently by a representative of Principal Financial Services, the major funder, where there will be a pedestrian walk above on lovely blocks and a pathway below along the river itself intended by bikes, bladers and the like. A new pedestrian/bike bridge under construction will tie the paths together and whose graceful arch will be a new icon for the city.
The New York Times, Sept. 27, 2009.
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Short News Stories No. 4
Big Cleanup
Thousands of volunteers took part in Coastal Cleanup Day in the San Francisco Bay area, collecting about 220,000 pounds of stuff in an early tally. Among the items picked from the shore: shopping carts, hubcaps, metal chairs and shingles. In Hayward, the haul included about 50 tires, fire extinguishers, buoys, shoes and thousands of balls of all kinds - tennis balls, basketballs and volley balls. At Candlestick Point Recreation Area, it was "microtrash" - bits of glass, plastic, metal and paper strewn about the shoreline.
San Francsco Chronicle, Sept. 20, 2009.
Urban Meadow in Georgetown
Above the Potomac River in the Georgetown section of Washington, D.C. sits a rooftop garden on a utility substation. In plain view of a nearby condo on Water Street N.W., the meadow is a magnet for birds, including Mallard ducks, doves, sparrows and goldfinches. Its grasses change colors during the seasons. It is the project of the condo developer Anthony Lanier who wanted dwellers to have a pleasant view toward the Potomac. The green roof was designed by Washington landscape architects Oehme, van Sweden & Associates.
The Washington Post Magazine, Sept. 20, 2009.
Working Waterfront Preservation
A lobster family has placed a permanent easement on a pier in Tremont, Maine, the first under the state's Working Waterfront Access Program, designed to protect commercial fishing properties. The program is funded through the Land for Maine's Future, where property owners sell development rights to the state to preclude other uses such as residential development. This particular action occurred on Davis Wharf on Goose Cove, Mount Desert Island. A ceremony to mark the occasion was attended by over 150 lobstermen/women. The state program has $5 million in voter-approved bond money with which to acquir working waterfront facilities. According to the Island Institute, only 20 miles of commercial waterfront remain along Maine's coast. Center co-directors Ann Breen and Dick Rigby wrote a monograph in 1985 entitled: Caution: Working Waterfront: The Impact of Change on Marine Enterprises, which discussed commercial pressures threatening small marine businesses.
The Working Waterfront/Inter-Island News, Island Institute, September 2009.
The Battle for Southport
Plans by the North Carolina State Ports Authority to build an enormous container terminal on the Lower Cape Fear River in Southport have stirred fierce opposition. The ports authority has acquired 600 acres of waterfront land, for $30 million, and says its facility will create 16,500 jobs. To the 2,500 residents of the area forming No Port Southport, the project will permanently damage the area's ecosystem. The group, joined by the North Carolina Coastal Federation, says the river is inadequate to handle the vessels likely to be used, requiring dredgin, and the road system would have to be expanded through uninhabited areas. The area has 28 marinas and 2,500 slips that would be adversely affected, the opposition notes.
SailMagazine, September 2009.
Thousands of volunteers took part in Coastal Cleanup Day in the San Francisco Bay area, collecting about 220,000 pounds of stuff in an early tally. Among the items picked from the shore: shopping carts, hubcaps, metal chairs and shingles. In Hayward, the haul included about 50 tires, fire extinguishers, buoys, shoes and thousands of balls of all kinds - tennis balls, basketballs and volley balls. At Candlestick Point Recreation Area, it was "microtrash" - bits of glass, plastic, metal and paper strewn about the shoreline.
San Francsco Chronicle, Sept. 20, 2009.
Urban Meadow in Georgetown
Above the Potomac River in the Georgetown section of Washington, D.C. sits a rooftop garden on a utility substation. In plain view of a nearby condo on Water Street N.W., the meadow is a magnet for birds, including Mallard ducks, doves, sparrows and goldfinches. Its grasses change colors during the seasons. It is the project of the condo developer Anthony Lanier who wanted dwellers to have a pleasant view toward the Potomac. The green roof was designed by Washington landscape architects Oehme, van Sweden & Associates.
The Washington Post Magazine, Sept. 20, 2009.
Working Waterfront Preservation
A lobster family has placed a permanent easement on a pier in Tremont, Maine, the first under the state's Working Waterfront Access Program, designed to protect commercial fishing properties. The program is funded through the Land for Maine's Future, where property owners sell development rights to the state to preclude other uses such as residential development. This particular action occurred on Davis Wharf on Goose Cove, Mount Desert Island. A ceremony to mark the occasion was attended by over 150 lobstermen/women. The state program has $5 million in voter-approved bond money with which to acquir working waterfront facilities. According to the Island Institute, only 20 miles of commercial waterfront remain along Maine's coast. Center co-directors Ann Breen and Dick Rigby wrote a monograph in 1985 entitled: Caution: Working Waterfront: The Impact of Change on Marine Enterprises, which discussed commercial pressures threatening small marine businesses.
The Working Waterfront/Inter-Island News, Island Institute, September 2009.
The Battle for Southport
Plans by the North Carolina State Ports Authority to build an enormous container terminal on the Lower Cape Fear River in Southport have stirred fierce opposition. The ports authority has acquired 600 acres of waterfront land, for $30 million, and says its facility will create 16,500 jobs. To the 2,500 residents of the area forming No Port Southport, the project will permanently damage the area's ecosystem. The group, joined by the North Carolina Coastal Federation, says the river is inadequate to handle the vessels likely to be used, requiring dredgin, and the road system would have to be expanded through uninhabited areas. The area has 28 marinas and 2,500 slips that would be adversely affected, the opposition notes.
SailMagazine, September 2009.
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Directors in Quad City Celebration
The Quad Cities are Bettendorf and Davenport, Iowa, and Moline and Rock Island, Illinois. Waterfront Center co-directors Ann Breen and Dick Rigby were special guests at the 25th anniversary celebration on Sept. 24th for River Action, Inc., a citizen's organization that has accomplished amazing feats ~ including a bridge lighting, flood wall blockage, retain the rain program and a Ride The River event on Father's Day. Ann gave the final toast to River Action's founder, Kathy Wine, and Dick introduced featured speaker Mayor Joseph Riley of Charleston, S.C. The organization has available a booklet about steps people can take to retain rain. While geared to saving the Mississippi River, it has universal applicability. Contact: email@riveraction.org. Kathy Ewing is a menber of the Center's Advisory Board.
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