In 2006, Jane Pitfield, one of Toronto's mayoral candidates had mentioned the possibility of selling naming rights to subway stations as a way to help fund the system. As insane as it may sound to some, this idea did gain traction among some supporters in council and the media. At the time, I'd toyed with the idea of creating a corporate-sponsored subway map to raise some awareness around this woman's position, but as it became clear that she was unlikely to win, my interest faded.

However, the idea didn't die with Pitfield's campaign. Toronto City Hall has continued to toy with the idea of selling off the naming rights of public spaces to corporations, so Jayme Turney and Jonathan Goldsbie from the Toronto Public Space Committee started work on a campaign called City for Sale -- an advocacy campaign to raise awareness about the result of this line of thinking as well as push council on considering other options. When I heard about this, I contacted Jonathan to let him know that I had a fun idea in mind that might help them out, and after roughly a week of off-hours toying with Inkscape, and lots of help from the City For Sale volunteers with logo acquisition, "The Wrong Way" was born:

The following was in the Vancouver Public Space Network newsletter today and I thought that I might share it here for those who might be interested. This segment touches on something I mentioned a while back called Ciclovía, an event in Bogotá, Columbia. Apparently, the brain behind that event and others like it down there is doing a talk here in Vancouver. Space is limited, so register now if you're interested:

We are now facing a “perfect storm” of increasing global warming and environmental degradation, growing traffic congestion, an obesity crisis and other public health concerns, soaring energy costs and slowing economic growth. It is time to go beyond baby steps and take some major leaps. We must re-position walking and cycling as key parts of the solution to these major challenges.

As Bogotá has shown, creating great public spaces for walking and cycling contributes enormously to creating healthier, happier, more thriving communities. Hear former Bogota Commissioner of Parks, Sport and Recreation share his experiences and his lessons for Vancouver. The evening is being co-sponsored by Translink, the SFU City Program, the City of Vancouver and the Vancouver Public Space Network.

Event takes place Wednesday, August 20th at 7:00pm, SFU Harbour Centre, 515 West Hastings Street. Admission is free but reservations are required.

• To register - 778-782-5100 or email cstudies at sfu dot ca
• For further information see vancouverpublicspace.ca.

I may not be in Toronto anymore, but I still get the newsletter from the TPSC and I thought that the Toronto folk reading this blog might wanna know about a fun activity running tomorrow:

Tomorrow, Friday the 21st of March, Art Attack will take to the streets to explore new angles of our common spaces. We shall reflect upon urbanism, springtime, and diversity by promenading downtown with mirrors.

We also intend to re-imagine adverts with reflective materials, covering the faces of photo-shopped models, etc., thus allowing people to contemplate themselves instead of idealised and unrealistic portrayals of beauty.

Time and Location: 3:45 p.m., College & University, on the northeast corner, opposite the massive shiny arc of the OPG building:

Details are available on the Facebook event.

Bring:

• A sense of adventure
• Mirrors of varying sizes
• Mirror balls
• Unwanted CDs
• Reflective and adhesive materials
• TTC fare
• ...and your ideas

I especially like the bit about putting mirrors over the model faces. If any of you go, lemme know what it was like eh?

I was riding the bus into work today, cruising through the lifeless downtown core in Vancouver and something occurred to me that I want to flesh out here: We need to start treating the city more like our home and less like the place in which we work. We keep expecting the government to legislate fun into our city, but that's not their job. Their job is to keep things working, which doesn't exactly cover "fun", but it's obviously important to making a city an enjoyable place.

For those who aren't familiar with the structure of Vancouver, it's like most major cities in North America: the interesting things happen outside of the centre and when the 6pm rolls around, the whole core becomes more or less a no-man's land. For the Toronto folk, think King & Bay at 7pm, but spread over a 4block radius.

The problem here isn't just that the city is poorly designed here (though that obviously contributes) but that there's no social interest in making this area liveable. People work here, but live elsewhere. Without social interest, the restaurants have no reason to stay open, the developers have no reason to build housing etc. The only things that thrive are the dodgy night clubs and strip clubs up on Granville which, while still being part of living in an urban centre, hardly reflect the interests of the people who live and work there.

We should be hanging rope swings from public art, hammocks from lamp posts and hosting garage sales in public squares. Make the downtown core somewhere where you want to be outside the hours of 9-5... Only then can we expect the government to make that area more pedestrian and bicycle friendly. We have to take the first step, not the other way around -- ground up vs. top down and all that.

Any ideas or suggestions?

The VPSN's Pirates of the Seabus happened last night, and despite my own misgivings, I showed up complete with dorky hat, plastic sword and an eye patch... beneath my glasses. It was fun, though crowded, and it looked like everyone involved really enjoyed themselves.

I met a nice girl on the trip too -- she came ill-prepared for a pirate cruise, and so I gave her my sword and Leanne contributed her hat. This is her threatening me here. That'll teach me to be nice :-) Also, I should mention that navigation with only one eye is a lot harder than it looks. Peripheral vision is handy.

For those interested in pictures over and above the one at left, I've added the few I took to the VPSN Flickr pool as I wasn't happy enough with the ones I took to add them to my own collection.

I spent much of the day inside cleaning up my place, in preparation of the arrival of my grandparents only to find out that my grandfather was taking advantage of the fine weather to work on his boat. Upon explaining this, my grandmother suggested that I do the same and get out of the house for a bit.

And so I'm here.

I'm in Robson Square. For the non-Vancouver folk, that's the area next to the Vancouver Art Gallery, and down a series of steps. Nestled below street level, and partially covered by a series of domes that create a nifty echo-effect, I'm sitting here listening to two guys play music in a language I totally don't understand -- but it's still pretty.

A woman is sitting there next to the two guys with her 3yearold daughter, the Father not too far away. It's clear that the family is there both for the tunes as well as the fun acousitc beneath the domes. It looks like a bunch of other kids have joined us down here now, running around in the square playing tag or something.

I think I have to start accepting Vancouver for what it is and not what it isn't. Like any other place, my home has some serious problems, but I can't deny that it has some real beauty and promise.

Via One Good Move:

So I'm considering a trip to Bogotá. If you'd like to know why, read on. Even better, if you'd like to come with me, let me know.

I'm a regular reader of One Good Move, a mostly America-centric left-leaning political blog that collects video clips from mainstream and independent sources. Think of it as a Metafilter for the American left with a penchant for video.

Anyway, during my daily gleaning, I came across this post on current developments in Bogotá, Columbia including a massive amount of urban redesign with a focus on people as opposed to cars.

In a space of 3years, the Mayor killed a $5billion highway project and at a fraction of the cost, constructed an amazing network of transit buses and cycling infrastructure. The results were astounding. Through the efforts of succeeding mayors with similar ideals, the murder rate in a city known for violence and poverty has dropped 70% in 12 years. A major contributing factor to this dramatic shift was the redevelopment of a city with the residents in mind.

Today, Bogotá sports a series of arterial rapid bus systems, interconnected with 16km of a cycling freeway. Every Sunday, the city shuts down dozens of highway lanes and roads to accommodate Ciclovía, a car-free day of sorts that sees hordes of people of all ages and colours taking dance classes in the streets, riding bikes up expressways and in short, living in their city as opposed to their livingrooms.

There's more detail in the 3 videos below, and I encourage you to watch them, especially if you're interested in public space activism.

• Ciclovía on Youtube
• A civil engineering-centred documentary covering the progress made in Bogotá
• A short interview with the CEO of TransMilenio, the revolutionary transit system in Bogotá

"If a fish needs to swim, a man needs to walk."
  - Enrique Peñalosa, former mayor of Bogotá, Colombia

So as mentioned in my previous post, I showed up to help out with the heartinating of the Vancouver Art Gallery tonight and much fun was had by all. Check out Katie's pictures if you're interested in more visuals than the above.

I spent much of the night stamping little white hearts all over the place (including the trees!) and toward the end, had some fun with the pink chalk (pink is the new black baby!) I had fun, and it would appear that the others in the VPSN enjoyed themselves as well. I'm really looking forward to the Pirate Party on the Seabus next week too. That's gonna be awesome.

Update: 2008-02-14 10:18:13

I stopped by the gallery on my way to work this morning and collected a few daylight pictures to post in my imager.

I just got this email from the Vancouver Public Space Network and I thought that I would share. I hear New Mind Space is doing Queen of Hearts again this year, but they've gone to plan B, painting on the snow due to the horrible weather out there. The VPSN's plan is blatantly ripped from the New Mind Space idea a few years ago, but the best form of flattery is in fact imitation right?

The second plan is something I've heard of before as well, but I'm having trouble remembering from where. Neat idea, though 5pm will probably be tough for a lot of people.

Happy Heart Day!

Come one come all to the 2nd annual heart stamping in the city. Last year, with paints and heart shaped sponges a dedicated group of us stamped Yaletown, Granville, and Robson Square. Most of our hearts stayed around overnight until Valentine's Day and while stamping most on-lookers gave us two thumbs up for our work. It was great fun and we're hoping for the same this year. And so, if you are interested in taking part in this today, meet us at Robson Square at 8:30pm. Bring washable paints (emphasis on washable and preferably in the bottles that say "washable" in case we are hassled at all) also feel free to bring colourful chalk or any other temporary surface treatments. Come and join our crafty crew and spread the love...with paint!

any questions, call katie @ 778.829.0440 after 7pm.

3 Minute Kiss Freeze

At 5:00 pm start walking through the waterfront Skytrain station, on February 14, 2008. Time your time piece to the atomic clock

At 5:20 pm, FREEZE in a KISS. The kiss can be on the lips, on the cheeks, on the hands, on the wall, whatever - explore your creative options.

Make sure your alarm on your watch is set for 5:23 pm, at which point we will all casually move out of our kiss and keep walking moving as if nothing has happened. Yes, it's basically like a flash mob but toned down a notch.

To be specific, the Kiss Freeze will be main atrium area, or main lobby, that you enter off of water street, at the waterfront station. See picture.

I remember saying to myself that I wasn't going to get too heavily involved in public space issues when I returned home. I wanted to expand my involvement into other community stuff, most notably homelessness given that Vancouver requires some serious work in this area. Things may still go that way, but I'm afraid the Vancouver Public Space Network has me rather excited about the prospect of working with them.

Much like the TPSC, the VPSN fights against the corporatisation of public space, and CCTV, as well as promotes pedestrian and cycling infrastructure, and green space. They have a guerrilla gardening faction, but the also grow food and their event coordinator sorta doubles as Vancouver's version of New Mind Space. Lara will dig this: they're going to hold a Pirate Party on the Seabus!

I went to their annual planning meeting last night (TPSC folk might want to read that sentence again and take note of the phrase annual planning meeting... it's a hell of a concept ;-). Andrew Pask, the coordinator of this now 3yearold group, was amazing, navigating the group through a multi-phased process in which we first identified what we liked and didn't like about public space in Vancouver, then to how we might theoretically fix it, and finally onto a "dot-ocracy", a system that allows each member of the group to vote 6 times for as many or as few of the suggestions made as they like. It sounds complicated, but so is public space and I really feel that we charted a good course for the year.

A lot of the ideas that came out of the mix last night were excellent, but the one I'm most excited about is a move to actively create public spaces within the city either by way of a public non-profit Public Space Trust or by making deals with local land owners (as the gardeners have in the past). There was also mention of advocating the position that binners (people who sift through garbage for containers which they then return for deposit) should be supported in our community as they're providing a public service at little or no additional cost, and an ambitious online (and maybe offline?) mapping project that tracks everything from public transit (based on an open API from Translink) to good places to eat, to free wifi, dog parks, pedestrian malls etc. etc.

I went out for drinks with a few of them after the meeting and was surprised at the number of Torontonian expats we had in the group. Of the seven of us in the bar, there were 4 Toronto folk there if you include myself. Two others were born and raised here, and the last guy was from Iran. Obviously, this isn't a scale subset of the group, but the circumstances were funny nonetheless.

Thanks to the book Stephen gave me, I'm beginning to understand just how Sustainability has to be managed. You can't run it from the top-down, and it can't be haphazard either. Local groups have to build urban gardens, build pedestrian infrastructure and even Green power on their own because our leaders are either too afraid or too stupid to know how to do it themselves. I honestly think that this group has the right idea.