MyWHaT

Panoramic Thursday

On the recent road trip out east, I was wide-eyed at the innovative projects Montreal, New York and places in between are undertaking. Luckily, there’s an app for that. I used the Pano app on my camera phone to stitch together 2-4 images at a time. Photographer’s Tip: The best camera is always the one that you have on hand.

Here are a handful of them. Click for larger view.

Montreal

My friend Monika’s community garden in Montreal takes up half a city block. For a good-sized plot plus raspberry patch, she pays $10 a year.

At the bottom of Monika’s steps, life’s needs are almost all in sight. Safe, comfortable, complete streets, as well as a cafe, bakery, a chocolate shop…what else do you need?

New York City

Broadway is going from a 6-lane one-way raceway, to a complete street designed for people. The changes include street furniture, simplifying traffic , creating plazas, installing greenery and creating bike paths with buffer zones. Not all of which is seen in this image. It’s part of the greater NYC DOT pedestrian & public spaces plan.

A view of the Hudson River from a spot along the Hudson River Greenway in North Manhattan. The trail is part of the  Manhattan Waterfront Greenway, which includes Hudson River Greenway, East River Greenway and the Harlem River Greenway. The trial system will eventually circle the entire island, but also connects to the street projects aimed at increasing bike commuting in the city.

The Highline is a linear park built on an old freight trains line. Once it is completed, it will be a mile-and-a-half-long park rising above Manhattan’s west side.

Viva Espana! After watching the world cup final, we stumbled upon a Spanish celebration in Columbus Circle. Impromptu parties in public spaces are always appreciated. If you didn’t know, Spain 1, the Netherlands 0.

Walkway over the Hudson: Another great example of a linear park and one of the most unlikely rail-to-trail success stories I’ve ever seen is the mile long pedestrian and bicycling path 80 miles north of Manhattan in Poughkeepsie, NY. An excellent example of 1) re-using unused infrastructure 2) community leadership and innovation to carry  on the tradition of bridging the Hudson. Below, a historic image of the completion of the bridge for it’s original intent, moving trains.

(photo: Walkway over the Hudson)

I’ll have more images and discussion of the trip in future posts. You can view the complete set of images at the MyWHaT Flickr page.

Unless labeled, photos taken by Gary L Howe with his little camera phone.

Video marketing for a splash pad

splashpad

►

Splash Pad, New York’s Battery Park July 2010

Splash pads are popping up everywhere lately, and why not? It seems like instant entertainment for hours and hours. I stumbled upon this water playground while in New York. As a $300,000 line item, it doesn’t seem like a a bad investment at all in terms of fun-per-hour.

The bayfront plan, to be presented to the city commission at their next meeting, includes a splash pad between the Clinch Park Beach and the proposed Con Foster Commons.

Illustration provided by Johnson Hill Land Ethics Studio & URS

Parents and kids out there, what do you think?

Imagine slightly heated water to make it usable for 6-7 months out of the year.