Community Strength

Community Models / Streets

Urban Street Design Standards
WEB reference, May 2, 2006 (Bellevue Transportation Dept., via SCARP) - The City of Bellevue uses a classification scheme for streets and blocks in the downtown that is oriented around the degree of pedestrian accommodation that each block must provide. Our "Design Guidelines: Building/Sidewalk Relationships" (http://www.cityofbellevue.org/bellcode/BldgsidewalkDG.pdf) specifies the classification scheme--with "A" category streets/blocks the most pedestrian oriented and "E" category the least--and assigns each street/block in downtown to a category in the hierarchy. For each category, there are specific requirements for the street/building interface. All new construction in downtown is affected by these required design guidelines.

Local Living Economies

Towards Basic Principles of a Bioregional Economy
VERMONT, May 20, 2006, (Vermont Commons, Kirkpatrick Sale) – It comes down to an issue of Economics of Scale vs. the Scale of Economics. There are only two essentials to consider in coming at the problem of the optimum scale for an economy to produce and distribute goods and services: the natural ecosystem and the human community. Take the economic scale that is optimum for the earth’s systems. It would be based on conservation, stability, sustainability, recycling, harmony. That means, for starters, an economy at a bioregional scale—that of a watershed or river valley, or a mountain system, or a lakeshore—for it more or less dictates the economy appropriate to it: an economy based on a watershed, for example, automatically considers downriver populations as well as headwater ones. The human constructs would adapt to the environment rather than be imposed, and human uses would be confined to those the bioregion allowed. http://www.smallisbeautiful.org/newsletters/06May20.html

Sustainable Future Views

Fort McMurray votes to put brakes on oil sands
FORT MCMURRAY, AB, June 14, 2006. (Canadian Press, Larissa Liepens) — The mayor and council in this booming northern Alberta city voted unanimously Tuesday to try and put the brakes on all future oil sands development until something is done to improve the area's infrastructure. Specifically, Mayor Melissa Blake and the council for the Municipality of Wood Buffalo agreed to apply for intervener status when oil sands giant Suncor goes to the Alberta Energy and Utilities Board on July 5 to apply for an expansion of its operations. However, they also decided to take the same action for any future application by any other oil sands company. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060614.woilsands0614/BNStory/National/home

Sustainable Neighbourhoods

Car Free Society Begins with a Party
VANCOUVER, BC, June 16, 2006 (Georgia Straight, Pieta Woolley) – A number of downtown festivals this summer could herald a more permanent series of auto-free zones within the city. Representatives of several business-improvement associations, including Gastown’s BIA, told the Straight they’ve thought about reducing or eliminating cars in their area. Even though no one was ready to say they’re pursuing the idea, it’s not a new thought. “Ideally, it’s what all of us are working towards,” says Clint McKenzie, president of the Business Improvement Area of British Columbia. Kelowna’s city council recently decided to reduce car traffic along the new Abbott Street recreational corridor and in other places in the city’s core. Calgary has shut a section of its downtown to all traffic except transit and delivery and Toronto’s Kensington Market has gone car-free part-time. http://www.straight.com/content.cfm?id=11017

Community Mapping / Conference Announcement

Participatory GIS and Conference Announced
VANCOUVER, BC, July 9, 2006 (URISA) - URISA is pleased to announce that its 5th Annual Public Participation GIS Conference (PPGIS) will be held in conjunction with the URISA Annual Conference on September 27-28 in Vancouver, British Columbia. The theme is PPGIS: Engagement & Empowerment. The program will focus on the use of GIS technology as an important tool for empowering citizen organizations and revitalizing communities.
The PPGIS Conference invites participants with a diversity of experiences including citizens and citizens' groups, public officials, planners, technicians, librarians, policy scientists, and researchers. Presentation topics will focus on indigenous people, non-profits, sustaining public engagement, and methods and tools that facilitate public participation. http://www.gisuser.com/content/view/9328/

Social Enterprise and Innovation

The Company They Keep
WEB Reference, September 24, 2004 (TV Guide, by Ken Fox) - After years of reporting and inspiring the antiglobalization movement, No Logo author Naomi Klein and her husband, TV producer/journalist Avi Lewis, tackle a question often posed by their critics: What do you have to offer in the way of economic alternatives? Hearing about a new grassroots economic movement taking root in economically devastated Argentina, Klein and Lewis headed to Buenos Aires and found what you'd think could only be imagined by the most idealistic Marxist: Unemployed workers were returning to their bankrupted and abandoned workplaces, restarting the machines and running things themselves. http://www.onf.ca/webextension/thetake/flash/viewPress.php?id=52.