Comments on: Six Big Questions From the Walking and the Life of the City Symposium http://www.pps.org/blog/six-big-questions-from-the-walking-and-the-life-of-the-city-symposium/ Placemaking for Communities Tue, 14 May 2013 09:42:29 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5 By: Six Big Questions From the Walking and the Life of the City Symposium « The North Van Urban Forum http://www.pps.org/blog/six-big-questions-from-the-walking-and-the-life-of-the-city-symposium/comment-page-1/#comment-97853 Six Big Questions From the Walking and the Life of the City Symposium « The North Van Urban Forum Sat, 26 Jan 2013 05:34:58 +0000 http://www.pps.org/?p=78087#comment-97853 [...] Six Big Questions From the Walking and the Life of the City Symposium [...]

]]> By: guest http://www.pps.org/blog/six-big-questions-from-the-walking-and-the-life-of-the-city-symposium/comment-page-1/#comment-97847 guest Thu, 24 Jan 2013 20:25:00 +0000 http://www.pps.org/?p=78087#comment-97847 Living in a walkable place is, to me, entirely dependent on a walkable place *being livable*. By that I mean is this a good place for me to raise my kids, good schools, nearby parks, libraries. Am I comfortable and satisfied in a home within this housing stock? Is there a little yard for me to have a garden? And most in the forefront of my mind right now is- can I get a good nights sleep there? I live in a very walkable neighborhood, I’ve lived here for 10 years walking to work and all daily errands. But the pressure of success for this neighborhood keeps pushing in. As this place becomes more and more desirable there are more bars and restaurants, and ever more people visiting from nearby places to enjoy what this neighborhood has to offer. Now year-round Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights are full of people walking… and shouting, fighting, and waking everyone else up. So, very walkable, but less and less a livable place for my family. 

]]> By: Febobalam http://www.pps.org/blog/six-big-questions-from-the-walking-and-the-life-of-the-city-symposium/comment-page-1/#comment-97333 Febobalam Sun, 24 Jun 2012 16:37:00 +0000 http://www.pps.org/?p=78087#comment-97333 Hey… Walking is about DWELLING not physical activity, at the end dwelling is about equiety and social justice, if we are part of the city we walk, if not, we do anything to get there. Antonio Suarez @antoniosuarez1

]]> By: Rishi http://www.pps.org/blog/six-big-questions-from-the-walking-and-the-life-of-the-city-symposium/comment-page-1/#comment-97331 Rishi Fri, 22 Jun 2012 10:52:00 +0000 http://www.pps.org/?p=78087#comment-97331  Hi Daniel, thanks for your reply. I am not sure what the size of interested parties there would be for the PPS content in India in regional languages. But it would be worth a try. I was not having that in mind when I made the previous comment.

What I am talking is more of the general skillsets in being able to carry out campaigns. Like just two days back we started http://www.walkingproject.org in Mumbai. For a city of 15 million there is still no focussed campaign towards making the city walking and cycling friendly.

We are still grappling with making a very good quality website. At such times we should be able to get support and assistance from PPS or other such accomplished organisations. We should be able to be able to offer relevant content in well designed websites and be able to crowd source data. And shouldnt waste a lot of our time in reinventing the wheel or going throught he same learning curve. I will be writing a formal proposal soon.

http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-06-21/mumbai/32351446_1_pavements-footpaths-wider-roads

Hope I am making sense. Your views?

Would love to continue the discussion further on email or skype if you wish or even here.

]]> By: Daniel Latorre http://www.pps.org/blog/six-big-questions-from-the-walking-and-the-life-of-the-city-symposium/comment-page-1/#comment-97328 Daniel Latorre Thu, 21 Jun 2012 18:33:00 +0000 http://www.pps.org/?p=78087#comment-97328  Hi Rishi, when you say “A lot of the resources are so well developed at PPS etc. but not available for deployment and scaling in India” …it makes me wonder about the system of communication that would be best… For example right now our PPS digital apps, website, and content are not mobile optimized. Would offering local language information and mobile friendly sharing be useful in the contexts you see where you are?

]]> By: Rishi http://www.pps.org/blog/six-big-questions-from-the-walking-and-the-life-of-the-city-symposium/comment-page-1/#comment-97314 Rishi Wed, 13 Jun 2012 10:00:00 +0000 http://www.pps.org/?p=78087#comment-97314  The key point I want to make somewhere is that of resources to improve the walking environment – technical resources, communicaiton and marketing skills, community engagement etc. are so much better developed in US and other developed countries. While we will have negotiators trying hard to come to a ‘deal’ and an agreement at Rio + 20 I think we need to drive for partnerships between developed and developing countries in areas like improving the walking environment in the top 50 cities of India/ other countries. A lot of the resources are so well developed at PPS etc. but not available for deployment and scaling in India. If we can transfer those fast then cities which are just exploding can escape motorisation and go towards being walking friendly right away.  Places like Gurgaon which you have mentioned are absolutely sad and great opportunities missed. We need to have retrofit models for such cities and then not let other townships do the same mistake.

]]> By: Marygrace Jennings http://www.pps.org/blog/six-big-questions-from-the-walking-and-the-life-of-the-city-symposium/comment-page-1/#comment-97313 Marygrace Jennings Tue, 12 Jun 2012 21:12:00 +0000 http://www.pps.org/?p=78087#comment-97313 …and that seems to point to reasons that have little to do with the place, and more to do with the people and their transportation resources.  If walking is quickest, cheapest, and simplest, it is what you will do most of the time.  If it is also comfortable, safe, and interesting — you will do it all of the time.

]]> By: ppsnyc http://www.pps.org/blog/six-big-questions-from-the-walking-and-the-life-of-the-city-symposium/comment-page-1/#comment-97312 ppsnyc Tue, 12 Jun 2012 18:38:00 +0000 http://www.pps.org/?p=78087#comment-97312 Very interesting that you should mention that — we got into a discussion with a few people who had recently returned to New York from Mumbai during the symposium break, and they made a very similar point: that life is essentially lived on the streets in Mumbai, which is very different from American cities, and thus necessitates a change in how we approach advocating for better streets. The needs are very different.

At the same time, not all of India is like Mumbai, either. Here’s an interesting recent article on Gurgaon’s gated communities, megamalls, and generally anti-urban fabric: http://www.firstpost.com/india/the-great-gurgaon-experiment-has-it-failed-286582.html

]]> By: Rishi http://www.pps.org/blog/six-big-questions-from-the-walking-and-the-life-of-the-city-symposium/comment-page-1/#comment-97311 Rishi Tue, 12 Jun 2012 18:33:00 +0000 http://www.pps.org/?p=78087#comment-97311 I always get fascinated with the contrast in the debates between America and a Mumbai/India where I have lived all my life. In America it seems arguements and case studies have to be made to make people walk more and more facilities are planned for (in what seems to me to already be a very good walking environment). And here in Mumbai where such an overwhelmingly large number of people are already walking (and it can be increased further) in such horrible conditions, there is absolutely no concern to improve the walking environment or infrastructure for them.

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