New York City, NY – On Sunday, the Bloomberg administration put a plan, “Green Light for Midtown” into effect to reduce traffic congestion in Midtown by closing two sections of Broadway to vehicles, from 47th to 42nd Streets and 35th to 33rd Streets. The idea is to eliminate the crosscurrents Broadway traffic creates on nearby avenues.
You can read about it here as well.
The past week has been fairly eventful with regards to city council taking action (or at least postponing it only slightly) and the voices of citizens lobbying them to go further. First, a motion opposing the closure of two of Memorial Drive’s four lanes on Sundays in August was defeated. This expansion of the pedestrian realm onto our city’s riverfront parkway should provide an interesting experiment that will hopefully spur further pedestrian-friendly zones.
Also, the date for Plan It Calgary to go before council was pushed back a week to June 23. This gives all citizens of Calgary additional time to prepare to speak before council, and we encourage everybody to send in their written comments to the City Clerk’s office by 10 am on June 11 and to prepare a few words for the public hearing on the 23rd. The City Clerks office can be reached at Mail Code #8007, P.O. Box 2100, Station M, Calgary, AB T2P 2M5. We’ll keep you updated about Plan It!
One of the most driving forces in support of Plan It and a new direction for the city in general is the newly formed Civic Camp. What is it, and what is the organization’s stance on Plan It?
“Plan It Calgary,” Calgary’s new municipal development and transportation plan, has finally arrived. As most of you involved in imagineCalgary already know, PlanIt is the direct outcome of the imagineCalgary process and reflects a great many of the wishes Calgarians have expressed for our city. Foremost, PlanIt seeks to guide the growth of the city in a way that is sustainable. As infrastructure, maintenance and service costs rise, peak oil approaches, the population ages, and housing affordability becomes an ever-bigger issue, it is clear that we need to chart a new and better course for Calgary. The new municipal planning documents that will shape how the city grows for the next 50 years will go to Council for approval in late June, but that approval is not assured. Getting City Council to listen to the voices of its citizens is now more important than ever. Please consider taking part in the public discussions around PlanIt. If you would like to join a group of concerned citizens concerned with PlanIt and other civic issues, consider joining CivicCamp Calgary, a non-partisan citizens’ organization asking Council to support a more fiscally, environmentally, socially responsible city when it votes on Plan It this June.
If you still have questions or would like to get involved, check out the Civic Camp website, join the mailing list at Google Groups, or follow them on Twitter. The time for action is NOW.
I am happy to report over half of the volunteers at Gaining Ground were UrbanCSA members.
The highlight of the conference was a speech by Robert Kennedy Jr. who spoke on the Obama administration, the declining health of America lakes, rivers and streams, electric automobiles and the future of sustainability globally.
The energy in the room during the speech was incredible.
There were also great speeches by:
Peter Tertzakian Author, A Thousand Barrels a Second
Daniel Lerch Author, Post Carbon Cities: Planning for Energy and Climate Uncertainty
Michael Cleland President and CEO, Canadian Gas Association
Gary Holden President and CEO, ENMAX Corporation
and many others…
For more information on the conference see http://www.gaininggroundsummit.com/
