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What do you think of this project?

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@Clearshades you are wading into deeper water. There is a saying in English -- "Better to keep your mouth shut and be thought a fool than to open your mouth and prove it."
 
archited said:
@IanO I don't even like the idea of a standard downtown mall -- I believe you would agree. The earlier concept of an atrium-type space blown open to the streets appealed to me. The problem downtown still remains -- what kind of retail can survive in an Amazon-heavy world? I think Katz is onto something with his experimentation in the Fan Park -- the more that there can be a continuous sustained interest in downtown the more readily people will be to "throng" there and the more steady will be the retail environment.
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He is onto something with experimentation in the Fan Park. Lesser minds, of which there are many in this city, would have been content with it as a surface parking lot.

He is using it for events that bring additional people to the area. I feel it is an overstatement to say it is visionary, but in a place where small minded thinking too often prevails, it is not far from that.
 
ChazYEG said:
I don't think this was defaming. Ian (as well as me) is a declared car enthusiast, and there's nothing wrong with it. My point was exscltwhat you said: people who actually love cars and driving tend to like long drives and having actual fun. His stance on walkability speaks volumes towards this point.

Walkability for day-to-day and urban areas, and let us enjoy our cars where it actually makes sense and it's pleasing to drive. Downtown is not the place for it.
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Many of us are regularly both pedestrians and drive. While I may not be as much of a car enthusiast as some, I am not certainly not anti car and do appreciate a nice automobile.

I do agree there is a proper time and place for everything and those long drives are a great place for a performance automobile, not the stop and go traffic of an urban area.

However, I don't want cars excessively restricted in urban areas either, just a bit more accommodation for pedestrians in places that warrant it.
 
Greenspace said:
OEG wanted parking where the fan park is now, they asked twice. They lost once at SDAB. It's not parking because the City said no. From that they turned into something good, and frankly booking events and bringing them Downtown where Northlands left off.
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I did not know that, but happy that the city did that
 
David A said:
However, I don't want cars excessively restricted in urban areas either, just a bit more accommodation for pedestrians in places that warrant it.
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Just out of curiosity - can you name a place in this world where cars are excessively restricted?
 
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TAS said:
Just out of curiosity - can you name a place in this world where cars are excessively restricted?
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Depends on your definition of excessively, but some areas of London, Paris and Barcelona have some pretty high levels or restriction.
Paris, in particular, while not exactly restricting the access that much, has reduced speeds to 30km/h pretty much the whole city, and is closing 100s of km of roads to cars and turning them into bike lanes and pedestrian boulevards.

London has the CCZ in their financial district + West End, that charges vehicles based on their emissions (and has become so stringent on the emissions criteria that even full electric vehicles have been paying) and also a speed restriction of 30km/h in the area.

Barcelona has already converted 6 zones of the city into their "superblocks" (called superillas in Catalan), and will convert up to 503 until 2030 (more than 20 are slated to finish conversion by the end of 2024). When finished, about 1/3 of Barcelona's population will either be living in either car-free or limited to 10-20km/h, in SOME of the streets of the superillas.
 
Yes, I would definitely say London too. Again, it depends on your definition of excessive.

My earlier comments were about changing the timing of some lights in areas of downtown for the benefit of pedestrians and I would like to put this in that context.

I really don't feel that is excessive, but perhaps others may have a different definition of that.
 
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