Archive
Line up! It’s film festival week.
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Line up! It’s film festival week.
I tolerate waiting in line for very few things. Chief among those activities is flying. Then, I freely give myself to the airline system and become a mediating monk of tranquility. With flying, the path forward is out of my control and there is no rush. I find it best to sit back, chill out, stand, load, and disembark when told.
Another possibility where I mind-less waiting in line, is during the Traverse City Film Festival. For this, it isn’t the system that I give myself to, but rather the energy of our little town that for one week actually feels like a full-fledged city–A city with a pulse. People are out in public places and the shared experience of films, panels, food, discussions, and, yes, even the long lines become starting points for civility amongst friends, acquaintances and strangers alike. Counter intuitively, even with all the action and energy, Traverse City becomes a slow city this week where people meander and wander between films. Park benches actually get used. And, waiting in line is almost tolerable.
If you are a shy person not inclined to say hello to a stranger, this is a good week to try it. Actually, it is difficult not to meet someone new during TCFF week. Enjoy it.
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EDITOR’S NOTE: MyWHaT will be on a hiatus for the next two weeks. The extra time will be spent watching movies, people watching, catching up on some reading (from the Lil’ Library), and in general celebrating summer–did you know it was August this week? Time to finish off the wish list of summer activities.
See you at the movies or on a park bench between here and there.
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Science: Yes, some people are likely assholes
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The science experiment
via The Dish by onemeeeliondollars
“You can not be too cautious when dealing with a rubber turtle.”
The findings:
- 94% of drivers show no obvious response to rubber creatures placed on the side of the road.
- 6% lead us to believe that they are assholes, or at least have major issues concerning rubber turtles, snakes, or spiders.
Personally, I flinched when the turtle even got buzzed.
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Have a weekend!
Police look for tips to hit and run involving cyclist
Hit and run case still unsolved (RE).
Short of it: On June 28, Kylee Bonne was riding her bicycle home through a street in Old Town when she was followed for almost a block by a large black truck. After thinking that it might be a friend coming up from behind, the truck gunned it and crashed into her. The impact broke her leg and then the driver sped off. Almost a month later, the case remains unresolved.
If you have any information that might help find the suspect, contact the Traverse City Police Department Detective Bureau at (231) 995-5152 or Silent Observer at (231) 947-TIPS.
Posted with BlogsyMore reaction to TC’s steep day rate for peddlers
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Re: Peddler fees…
Guest post by Henry Morgenstein
Response to a recent headline from the Record Eagle: “Price to Peddle Goods go up.” The explanation? “A desire ‘to have an even playing field’ for businesses that pay rent and property.”
When I read that the City was planning to raise the peddlers permit fee from $50 a day to $100 a day I knew what I should do. I should gather all the research — the research that has been out there for well over fifty years — that shows that peddlers, food vendors, draw people to a location — lots & lots of people.
The businesses in front of which the many food carts set up, benefit from this influx of foot trade.
I could go on– and I will in a second — but as I grow old, I grow oh so tired of fighting the good fight. Fifty years ago the businesses downtown were against “freeloaders’ on the sidewalk peddling their goods, paying no rent. They seemingly remain that way. Don’t they know by now that having them there is a tremendous positive, a good thing, not a bad thing? Yes, such trade needs some regulation — but 100 dollars a day? That’s not regulation. That’s punitive. That’s prohibitive. That will do what it is meant to do. Most food vendors, peddlers cannot afford $100 a day.
Proven: taco carts attract people
The intent is clear. We don’t want you. But we should want them. We really really should.
When I was growing up, everyone in my generation read a terrific, groundbreaking book called The Organization Man (Amazon) by William H. Whyte. The brilliant man who wrote this groundbreaking book, William H. Whyte went on to study the dynamic of cities. The first book he wrote about cities had the unusual title The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces (PPS). It was published long ago, in 1980.
In it he wrote:
If you want to seed a place with activity, put out food…food attracts people who attract more people.”
Downtown stores want to attract people — to make people want to come downtown rather than to a Mall. The downtown cannot do that by offering more parking. The downtown can offer more food, a greater variety of food, more quirky merchandise, more people walking around to talk to. But what the downtown merchants need to do, if anything, is drop the fee for peddlers.
Downtown merchants need to read the literature that says: Peddlers, especially food peddlers, in front of your store is good — very, very good.
William H. Whyte went on to write a thick, terrific book called City (Amazon). In it he writes:
Outdoor eating has a strong shill effect – which is to say, food attracts people, who attract more people.”
Our downtown wants to attract people. It should encourage “food peddlers,” — and all other kinds of peddlers.
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NOTE: The DDA Board and the City Commission will be revisiting the peddler fees outside of the downtown district. The recent rate increase wasn’t intended to be applied to all commercial districts in the City, but that was how the summer rate, previously at $50/day then raised to $100/day, was instituted.
Related articles
- Traverse City’s un-cool approach to peddlers (mywheelsareturning.com)
- DDA recommends doubling peddlers fee (record-eagle.com)
- Peddler fees revisited (record-eagle.com)
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EDITOR’S NOTE: My Wheels are Turning is published with standard journalistic practice and ethics. The basics of which include: 1) All contributors, including commenters, seek to be accurate and inclusive in the coverage. 2) They treat all topics, viewpoints and individuals covered in a post with respect and dignity. 3) This is an editorial endeavor in that this online publication seeks to support and shift public perception of the value of public space, as well as pedestrian and bike culture. 4) All content is first & foremost the perspective & opinion of the author of that post and does not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editor, other contributors, or underwriters.
Lil’ Lincoln Library now in service
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Lil’ Lincoln Library
The Lil’ Lincoln Library
A couple of weeks ago Traverse City’s second Lil’ Library went into commission, this one on Lincoln Street, but before it was even announced neighbors had placed books in it and started sharing.
Each day since there has been obvious exchange taken place. As my friend visiting from Lansing noticed when visiting, “it’s like an instant hub to the neighborhood.”
The project is modeled after the Traverse City Area District Library sponsored Free Little Library across town in Kids Creek (RE) as well as the growing number of them around the world. Ours was built by the father of the girls from the Books for Walls Project, David Moehle, an electrician and woodworker based out of Benzie County. He used reclaimed material from 5 different home construction sites. The thing is water tight and built to last.
My favorite observation so far was when a pack of kids eager with curiosity were playing up and down the sidewalk and then came to a stop in front of the library. They peeked in, some on their tip-toes, and then noticed me on the front porch. With out hesitation or introduction, the smallest asks, “which ones are the kids books?” It had been only up a week so there actually weren’t any “kids” books. I promised there would be soon and put a call out to some parents. Since then, it has been difficult for parents to keep their kids away from the library.
There aren’t any set rules and certainly no neighborhood restrictions, so stop by for a visit. Take a book or leave a book. Or, both. Other media are also encouraged; we’ve seen a few CDs shared, some dog biscuits, and a free bag of compost.
Curious of other designs? There is a plethora on Google Images…a snap shot of the first page:
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Related Articles/Resources:
- Free Little Library for Borrowing, Lending (Record Eagle)
- Builder’s Toolkit (TADL) * Build your own.
- Colombia Has 100 Tiny Libraries in Public Parks (Good)
- Little Libraries in the urban margins (Design Observer)
* photo of Lil’ Lincoln Library by @martinamyd
How many traffic deaths are acceptable…in your family?
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Zero fatalities
by MichiganDOT
Commendable and obvious goal, when put in the right perspective. Good work MDOT.
How does it happen? Education, enforcement, and good design are critical. Not just on highways, but on all of our streets. Focusing on safety for all modes. The goal everywhere should mimic the City of Chicago, which has embraced the zero deaths objective (Atlantic Cities) as well, clearly stating:
Eliminate all pedestrian, bicycle, and overall traffic crash fatalities within 10 years.
Unfortunately, locally our enforcement is all too forgiving. It is widely known that in the City 10-15-mph over the speed limit is not likely to be ticketed. Speed, put bluntly, kills and keeps people from expressing their right to public rights of way.
In today’s Record Eagle the area’s first speed camera is introduced. It is a feedback radar sign that displays the driver’s speed as they pass, but if they are over 15-mph over the speed limit it will snap a photo of the driver. Only over 15-mph–thank god safety comes first! (Note: the photos will not be used for anything anyway).
The leader in zero death policy is Sweden’s Vision Zero Initiative.
Go zero!
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Have a weekend–stay alive.
Designing to let the magical play happen
Creating MAGICAL Natural Areas in Traverse City Neighborhood Parks
Guest Post written by Sarah Naperala, Traverse City resident and supporter of improved neighborhood parks and natural areas.
I grew up leaving my home for the day to play in the woods and stroll on paths to magnificent castles. There were strategic hideouts built to spy on my brother’s tree fort. I was blessed with super powers which I used to rescue my many “friends” in the wood lot. My forts and castles were made of stumps, dropped tree branches, fallen leaves, rocks, pine boughs. Having all of these natural elements at my finger tips sparked my imagination day after day. Year after year. It was magical!
As an adult, we live and are raising our kids in beautiful Traverse City. We can ride bikes to school and ice cream trucks (and bikes) arrive on the neighborhood streets in the summer. Still, our city kids should still have magical natural areas to explore and imagine within a safe walk from home.
We live in Orchard Heights on the east side of town. There is a neighborhood park that has the potential to be a magical place for kids and neighbors of all ages. Parks bring community together to play. Old friends meet and catch up on the latest or meet new neighbors. Other times, a park is good to simply get away and enjoy a book, stretch the legs, watch wildlife, throw a ball, and, sometimes, to build a magical castle of branches, stumps, and leaves.
Traverse City has a chance to create a place full of enjoyment for the neighborhoods surrounding Clancy Park. Together, working with the City, our neighbors designed a park plan for Clancy Park. The plan sits and waits as part of the city’s capital improvement plan. A process that seems to perpetually push projects 5-years out. This can be frustrating as I watch my children grow before my eyes. The City’s budget is tight and if I thought our park was going to get fully upgraded any time soon I’d really be living in my magical world having a conversation with my long forgotten imaginary friends.
However, there is a glimmer of hope for a small part of that plan. Part of the Clancy Park plan includes one area for the creation of a native natural area, which over the long run will save the city money – no mowing, and less maintenance. Currently, this area has towering ash trees which are infested with the emerald ash borer and are dead or dying. The city has a grant to support the removal of these ash trees this month and to purchase new trees for planting this fall. Hallelujah! But what will the city do with the ash trees?
The city’s opportunity is to save additional money and use the ash trees in support of creating the natural area /natural playscape. The City can then showcase the concept of transforming a manicured city lawn into a magical neighborhood natural area with paths, tree branches to build forts, stumps to climb on, and logs to hide behind.
Traverse City – REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE.
We’ve been advocating for the City to reduce the lawn-space to mow, and to reuse and recycle the ash trees to create the natural area. We are asking for them to wood-chip the ash tress for paths and to enrich the soil for future understory growth, leave the stumps, leave logs on the ground, bury some of the logs for stepping paths, leave snags for our current resident woodpeckers, and finally, leave some branches and vegetation for wildlife habitat and magical forts. Innovation is at the city’s finger tips.
Are they curious about trying something new that will inspire magical experiences for generations to follow?
Clancy Park – future home of Traverse City natural area park
Click to embiggen
EDITOR’S NOTE: The Traverse City volunteer Parks and Recreation Commission worked with the Clancy Park supporters and adopted the above plan, including strongly advocating for the natural play area.
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EDITOR’S NOTE: My Wheels are Turning is published with standard journalistic practice and ethics. The basics of which include: 1) All contributors, including commenters, seek to be accurate and inclusive in the coverage. 2) They treat all topics, viewpoints and individuals covered in a post with respect and dignity. 3) This is an editorial endeavor in that this online publication seeks to support and shift public perception of the value of public space, as well as pedestrian and bike culture. 4) All content is first & foremost the perspective & opinion of the author of that post and does not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editor, other contributors, or underwriters.
Trust or bust is wrong approach to Traverse City’s Division St.
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Division is a menace and must be fixed; all we need is a little trust.“
Good work editorial board–let’s state the obvious and hope for the best. Let’s also dumb-down the issue that is Division St. by focusing on “backups and gridlock” and solve it with a wider roadway.
Reading the RE’s editorial, it appears there is a considerable hurdle before Traverse City in regards to an informed discussion. Here’s a reminder of the issues expressed through a diverse set of interests back in 2010.
Any final outcome needs to address all four of the main issues of safety, context, access, and quality for all users, as well as the impact on the adjacent homes.
One key objective should be to ensure that property owners don’t feel compelled to build 15-foot high concrete walls to barricade themselves against an aggressive street. It should be noted, that quality of the roadway was partly addressed with the re-paving of the surface. This has improved ambient noise from vibration of trucks running through town. Little else has been achieved since then and the perceived safety has only worsened as speeds remain higher than desired by people who live near or frequently use Division St.
To build trust, the City Commission needs to step up the pace in asking staff to implement improvements recommended by the Division St. Steering Committee. That document attached below and includes items like street trees planted in the tree lawn, sidewalk completion (both at the north end and in places along the corridor), change lighting from highway lighting to pedestrian scaled lighting, and by provide feedback and education to drivers through a safe driving campaign, more visible enforcement, and by installing instant feedback radar signs to alert people of their speeds. These are the most doable and delaying for some unknown start date of a reconstruction project reveals a lack of resolve.
Perhaps a citizen group needs to simply go out without approval from the City and do some of these ideas and more on their own.
I’m not sure where I fall on the ballot initiative; it’s too early. There remain questions to be asked and answers or non-answers to be sorted out. Is this the only chance to address Division St.? If it means simply reducing friction for automobiles through the corridor by focusing on left turning lanes, then I’m not really interested. If we can ameliorate some of those issues while also creating a street scaled for the mixed-use neighborhood it is, then I’m interested.
What are your questions?
Reminder: Please read the comments policy if you haven’t done so already. If you feel you need to rant against the world and every tangential issue while personally attacking individuals or organizations, consider creating your own blog and tracking back to MyWHaT. If it is of value, you will attract readers. Or, send me a message. Otherwise, healthy, friendly debate is fully encouraged.
The objectives from the Division Street Steering Committee remain valuable:
To change the character of Division Street to create a City Street that is:
- safer for motorists, bicyclists, and pedestrians to share, travel along, and to cross
- better fits the context of the city and its neighborhoods
- unites the east and west sides of the street, and
- creates the environment and driver behavior to insure that traffic speeds will be reduced to 30-mph. This must be a demonstrable requirement.
More documents and articles on Division St. are available through the Connected Communities: Complete Streets coalition resource
Related articles
To the end of free parking–happy birthday parking meter!
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Park it
The infamous and falsely maligned parking meter had its 77th birthday yesterday. Despite the misunderstandings, the parking meter in some form or another is here to stay as a way to manage a perceived scarcity. There needs to be someway to keep those vehicles moving.
Note, it is a perceived scarcity. In a previous post titled, Got Parking? Hell Yeah, we highlighted a study that found that there are at least 500 million empty parking spaces at any given time in the United States. The majority of which are perceived free, which has consequence.
“Ninety-nine percent of automobile trips end in free parking and this has a major effect on people’s choice of what means of transportation to take.“
~ Mikhail Chester No Free Parking, Physics Central
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In “The High Cost of Free Parking,” economist Donald Shoup builds an argument from the title off of the premise of applying a market rate to parking spaces to help achieve community goals (reduce congestion, raise revenue, create thriving business districts…). Communities that have followed his findings have done so because they realize that storing automobiles for 22-hours a day is never free. As he says, “just because the driver doesn’t pay for the parking, doesn’t mean the cost goes away.”
So, we are a day late, but let’s celebrate the parking meter! Happy Birthday, nickel meter.
by ReasonTV
Related articles
- The Parking Meter – July 17 (nwujarrell.typepad.com)
- Got Parking? Hell Yeah (MyWHaT)
- No Free Parking (Physics Central)
Traverse City’s un-cool approach to peddlers
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Glad the Record Eagle followed-up with someone hardest hit by Traverse City’s latest reactive measure –the increase of the peddler’s fee (a.k.a. transient merchant). The doubling of the daily fee (summertime) from $50 to $100 is a blow to entrepreneurs as well as to citizens interested in a vibrant community with a diverse range of choices.
Instead of taking a holistic approach to the topic, City Commissioners, under advice by the downtown Development Authority, aimed to price potential street vendors out of the market in the name of “paying their fair share.”
In doing so, they ignored a few things in their arguments:
- If you own, or rent, commercial property downtown you may get a permit free of charge.
- Peddlers also have to pay rent to the land owner–thus taxes. (If you own land, you can basically set up a competing vending cart without a daily fee)
- TC doesn’t allow vending on public property (exemptions for events). I fail to understand what the $100/day covers. It certainly isn’t an embracing of a valuable contribution to the community, to place-making, and to the economy.
They claim it was to restrict sunglass vendors and palm readers, not restrict food carts. That doesn’t make it better. There are other-ways to regulate what occurs then simply pricing everyone out of business (square footage allowances, locations…). It is a clumsy approach that I think will drive opportunities, and people, away from Traverse City. Not by itself, but in combination with other un-cool ideas the City has instituted.
The DDA says they are continuing to look at how to allow food carts. It is my sense they are still approaching it from the negative. Instead, it’d be wise for them to shift their perspective and see how street vending can be embraced and accommodated, not simply moved out of the way.
In the end, the competition argument is bunk–street vendors create business and vibrancy in a place by filling niches that restaurants and other businesses aren’t as well positioned to serve. Sometimes, we want to sit down at a private table for a meal. Others times, we want to stand with The People in the open air and spill ketchup on our shirts. Often, we want to do both.
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If you have a street vending story, please share it with us here.
Also, consider sending your comments to the DDA Board.
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My story: I learned to speak Chinese with a lot of help from street vendors. Sure, teachers helped, but there was no better classroom than walking the streets of Chengdu seeking out 1 on 1 instruction over steamed dumplings, pulled noodles, or a steaming cup of soy milk sipped from a plastic bag. I’d buy something to eat to pay for the instruction. There’s a public interaction that happens with street vending that is hard to achieve in a typical restaurant–and something we should embrace.
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Related articles
- Falafel treats — and hugs — are gone (Record Eagle)
- Food Truckers: Inside Michigan’s Burgeoning Food Cart Experiment (Found Michigan)
- Peddlers may get new title, fee increase (Record Eagle)
- Go Go Goodies: Traverse City’s newest and coolest bike business (mywheelsareturning.com)
