Quote of The Week

“The pedestrian is the design imperative.”
Dom Nozzi

Quote of the Week

"In a quality city, a person should be able to live their entire life without a car, and not feel deprived." Paul Bedford, Toronto Planning Director From Dom Nozzi 's blog Plan B

Do You Live In “A Liveable City”?

Here are the criteria used by Dom Nozzi of Liveable Streets to assess the “liveability” of a community. Number 9 says “life without a car is perfectly possible and enjoyable” – like here, in Brighton and Hove. How about your city? Now? Never? Why not?
1. A liveable city has walkable, mixed use, higher-density, mixed-income neighbourhoods where it is a pleasant, short walk to a store, an office, a transit stop, a friends' house, a school or a park.
2. A liveable city has vibrant, exciting, sociable, charming, human-scaled pedestrian experiences.
3. A liveable city has little or no wide, multi-lane, high-speed highway and road infrastructure within its central area. And few, if any, one-way streets, strip commercial development or cul-de-sacs.
4. A liveable city has modest, traffic-calmed, tree-lined streets with on-street parking. Few, if any, roads are larger than 3 lanes in size.
5. A liveable city has high-quality public squares and public parks.
6. A liveable city has quality, locally-owned cuisine -- some of which feature outdoor cafes found on a vibrant sidewalk.
7. A liveable city has quality transit. The service is frequent and easy to use.
8. A liveable city has a quality nightlife. The city does not close down at 5 pm.
9. A liveable city has quality bicycle and pedestrian facilities and a large number of bicyclists and pedestrians. Life without a car is perfectly possible and enjoyable.
10. A liveable city has little in the way of surface parking -- particularly FREE off-street parking.
11. A liveable city has a compact downtown full of higher-density housing and diverse retail.
12. A liveable city has quality culture (entertainment, speeches, arts, etc.) and a quality university.
13. A liveable city has a high degree of civic pride, and a tradition of working to protect their unique, treasured features.
14. A liveable city has magnificent historic architecture.
15. A liveable city has little in the way of excruciating, infuriating noise pollution (screaming emergency sirens, leaf blowers, vacuum trucks, helicopters, etc., are under control).
…and Dom might have added, a liveable city should have good coffee, and good places to drink it and watch the world go by….

Quote of the Week

“In a quality city, a person should be able to live their entire life without a car, and not feel deprived.” Paul Bedford (hat tip to Dom Nozzi for this one)

Quote of the Week

“All urban streets should be a challenge to drive and easy to walk or bike.” Michael Ronkin. (Found this on the excellent walkablestreets site of US pedestrian/new urbanism advocate Dom Nozzi)