MyWHaT

Currently, I’m on a great American road-trip to points east: Montreal, Vermont and the Bronx. The hypermiling goal is 45mpg for the 2100 mile journey. Montreal and New York are both leading cities in-terms of creating bicycle & pedestrian infrastructure, so I’m excited to see what they’ve done. Large cities do have advantages over our little region, namely density, but we can still learn. We have some advantages of our own.

Join the MyWHaT Facebook page for updates from the road.

Weekly Chatter

• A few upcoming events and dates of significance: MDOT public meeting about State Transportation Improvement Program (July 13); Bike Ride to Green Cuisine (July 14); Michigan by Rail forum (July 22); Roundabout presentation by Ian Lockwood (TBA, July 26).
  

  Green roof in Copenhagen

• Ah, Copenhagen. It’s not enough to be the world’s leader in bike commuting: Mandatory Green roofs.

• Always worth highlighting, Enrique Peñalosa speaks with Yes! Magazine about creating lively public spaces: “it doesn’t cost anything to dream. So I say let’s play. Let’s just imagine how you want your home to be. How you want your kids to live. Do you want to walk or drive to get bread? That’s the basis of thinking about cities.”

• Terry Tempest Williams, on bearing witness to the gulf oil spill. In the article she quotes oil-spill and oceanic protection expert, Burr Heneman’s comments on the recent spill. “This is going on all the time somewhere in the world. We have a short memory, but it is important to remember oil spills are not just an American phenomenon, but a global one.”

A lot of bicycle chatter

• Tom Vanderbilt on what works, even here: building safe, convenient, and separate infrastructure for bicycle riders increases daily two-wheeled commuting. Not everyone will overcome the culture of fear that persists on our shared roadways, so can bike paths lead to better shared roadways?

• In all of this, it’s always a good reminder that Bicycling is transportation. When someone says bikes are blocking traffic, remind them that bikes are traffic. Bicycles are also part of Lester Brown’s transportation system in his book ‘Plan B 4.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization‘

• Did you hear about the proposed U.S. bike route running across the state? Bicycle Route 20 promises to be a 310-mile route from south of Detroit that goes north, and then west to Ludington. Learn more about the U.S. Bicycling Route system.

To wrap, this trailer for VISUAL ACOUSTICS, a film that “celebrates the life and career of Julius Shulman, the worlds greatest architectural photographer.” A lot of the architecture we cherish has an impact greater than its own footprint; its impression influences the public space around it, as well as our understanding of our shared space. And, in an argument that a photographer loves to hear, our understanding wouldn’t be as valuable without great iconic images.

The film is available on Netflix

Have a weekend.

Friday Scribble

Introducing MyWHaT’s newest guest contributor is Susan Fawcett who will be sharing with us sketches of public spaces from the old city, Ciudad Viejo of Panama City drawn during the spring of 2006. Above, the Santa Ana Park.

Public space, where life happens.

BIO: Susan Fawcett is a Petoskey native, international wanderer. She works as a free-lance illustrator, botanist and fiddler throughout Michigan and recently moved to Marquette for cross-country skiing opportunities and the biology masters program at NMU. She is a member of the Earthwork Music Collective and serves on the board of ISLAND, the Institute for Sustainable Living, Art and Natural Design.