What does a city with twice the density of New York City do when there is simply no more space on the ground for pedestrians? The city of Mumbai has come up with the idea to create a skywalk network for those on foot trying to get from one place to another while getting them out of the way of the dangers from being forced to walk in the streets due to overcrowding from street vendors, squatters, vehicular traffic and also the lack of sidewalks.
It’s an unfortunate situation when the solution is to pull the people out of the streets and give them a sort of pedestrian super highway to bypass the streetlife. The idea may seem like a nice one at first, providing pedestrians the ability to stroll leisurely from the train station for up to two miles to their ultimate destination through a covered walkway with fresh air and views out over the city but at the same time, what is to happen with the streets and what will keep the skywalks free from the problems that brought on the construction of the skywalks in the first place? Are the streets of Mumbai simply beyond repair? Is creating a network of skywalks really the best thing for Mumbai in the long term or is it like giving up on the city streets and seeking the easy way out?
From the Wall Street Journal:
“The fate of the city’s foot soldiers is crucial because close to 60% of the trips made here are on foot. That makes this one of the most pedestrian-powered metropolises in the world. Until now, however, pedestrians have been largely ignored. Some Mumbaikars, as citizens are known, aren’t happy. Retailers say they are losing business while residents say skywalks block views, allow pedestrians to peek into private homes and are just as likely to be taken over by homeless families and shopless vendors as the sidewalks.”
“Still, something had to be done, city planners say. The road under the Yellow Caterpillar (the first skywalk built which is bright yellow, thus nicknamed by the locals), like station roads across the city, is an obstacle course through a minefield. Commuters spill down the Bandra Station steps and into a knot of three-wheeled auto rickshaws, buses and trucks on the street below. The closest thing to a sidewalk here is a patch of dirt next to a crud-filled creek. Hundreds of commuters walk in the street, dodging vehicles as they go.”
“On the way to the nearby business park—home of Citigroup’s main India office and the National Stock Exchange—they pass through a slum. The roadside is occupied by small shops, families living in plastic-tarp homes, parked motorcycles and goats rooting through garbage. The tiny stretch of sidewalk that eventually emerges about five blocks from the station is cut short by the fence of a small neighborhood police station built directly on top of it. Then pedestrians have to find their way across an off-ramp of Mumbai’s busiest highway. There is a functioning traffic signal and even a policeman at the corner, but drivers often ignore both.”
“The obvious solution of widening the sidewalks just isn’t an option. Mumbai, formerly known as Bombay, is a thin spit of land bound on three sides by the Arabian Sea. Moving buildings to widen roads is next to impossible thanks to tough tenancy laws. Courts and politicians sensitive to the needs of the micro-entrepreneur make it difficult to move illegal street vendors.”
“Skywalks are quick to build, relatively inexpensive and only require land the city already controls. The projected bill for the 50-plus skywalks is around $300 million. The city expects to recover most of that cost by selling advertising space on them.”
“Building the perfect skywalk, however, hasn’t been easy. While the walkways run over government roads, there still often isn’t space on the ground to plant enough supporting columns. Longer stretches between columns mean the city has to spend more on stronger, lighter materials and thicker columns. Commuters found the early skywalks too boxy and bright, so new ones use curved roofs, dark colors and chrome.”
“When engineers started digging to build the foundations, they found the chaos on the street continues underground. A few feet down, they ran into uncharted water, electricity and phone lines as well as sewers, forcing them to redesign whole skywalks. Trying to get the city water authorities or state-run telephone company to shift infrastructure would take too long.”
“Engineering difficulties and neighborhood opposition have blocked six planned skywalks and could stop more, city planners say. But they will continue building them because the streets are getting worse everyday. The city has hired armed guards to keep skywalks clear and the response from commuters has been largely positive.”
Depsite the controversy of the skywalks and what the future holds for the street level, the people of Mumbai who use the skywalks are enjoying them because it cuts down their commute times, offers a stress free walk to work and even provides an enjoyable setting for a walk on one’s day off. In a crowded city where walking in the street is not only stressful but dangerous, Mumbai has come up with a solution that seems to be working for some pedestrians, at least temporarily. But what will come of the life in the street? Is there a creative solution that can work for everyone and doesn’t just take the pedestrians out of the equation altogether?
Growing Vine Street is an inspirational concept developed back in the ’90’s by a group of Belltown neighborhood residents in downtown Seattle that revolves around expanding the Belltown P-Patch and merging it with the idea of turning the 8 blocks of Vine Street into a green street that would provide public access to the waterfront. These blocks are intended to act as an example for urban greening, to provide a desireable setting for pedestrians within the streetscape while capturing and treating stormwater through biofiltration and enhancing natural habitat.
“Central to the Growing Vine Street concept is the runnel, an urban stream running the street’s entire eight-block length surrounded by native greenery. Storm runoff from the roofs of buildings bordering Vine will be collected in large cisterns in each block to supply the water for the stream. As the water flows through the plantings lining the watercourse, it will be treated through the process of biofiltration, which will remove many of its impurities so that it will be clean enough to be released directly into Elliott Bay-without passing through the City’s overworked water treatment facilities.”
“Between Fifth Avenue and First Avenue, Vine Street is relatively level. In this section, the public right-of-way will be reconfigured so that one side is narrow (with a sidewalk and narrow planting strip) and the other is wide. The runnel will meander through the wide side of the street, surrounded by as much greenery as developers and residents can manage. These wide segments will form a refreshing linear park, a setting for creative public art as well as nature.”
“At First Avenue, Vine Street slopes to Elliott Avenue, where it again levels out. Here the street right-of-way will be reconfigured in a switchback alignment to allow for more dramatic water features. One such project is the Cistern Steps adjacent to the Belltown P-Patch. The Cistern Steps is planned as a series of terraced planting areas stepping down the slope. Water from the runnel will flow into the top garden, overflow into the next, and continue to a small pool at Elliott Avenue.”
The entire length of Vine Street was not intended to be built all at once but rather incrementally as new development occurs with each segment connecting into the larger plan over time. So far, two of the planned projects have been completed, the first was the Beckoning Cistern in 2003 which went in as part of the development of The 81 Vine Building. This is the first of what is planned as at least one large cistern for every block to collect rooftop runoff. The next project to follow was the Cistern Steps in 2004, the cascading water feature that runs alongside a flowing set of stairs along the edge of the Belltown P-Patch. Eventhough the entire plan has not yet been completed, the project is seen as a success, has brought about a great deal of praise and is looked upon as one of the pioneer projects of the Seattle green streets.
Beckoning Cistern
The first project to emerge from the plan, the streetscape and artwork of the Beckoning Cistern were constructed along with work at The 81 Vine Building. Local designer Buster Simpson saw inspiration from Michelangelo’s painting on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Like Adam reaching out to touch the hand of God, the 10-foot tall cistern is designed like a hand that reaches out over the sidewalk from a shirt sleeve and towards the downspout which leans out from the building.
The connection from the downspout to the index finger allows some of the rooftop runoff to run into the cistern with the rest cascading over and down into the water garden and series of stepped pools that run along the sidewalk along with native vegetation. A smaller vertical pipe garden also runs up the side of the building.
The Cistern Steps
The steps are an extension of the Beckoning Cistern that flow the two blocks from it’s base and alongside the Belltown P-Patch down towards the waterfront. Seattle-based firm SvR Design, an integrated group of civil engineers, landscape architects and planners provided the streetscape and stormwater design for this dramatic cascade of stormwater terraces and pedestrian steps.
“The Cistern Steps consists of a series of three terraced concrete planters tapering from a wide plaza at the alley to the narrow sidewalk right-of-way at the intersection of Vine Street and Elliott Avenue. The runnel will flow from planter to planter, ending in a pool formed from a large, rough-hewn piece of Northwest jade at the foot of the slope. In this segment of Vine Street, there is no adjacent building to feed the runnel, so water will be received from the newly constructed Vine Building across the street, which was designed with a special collection system for roof runoff just to supply the runnel.”
“Like the Beckoning Cistern, the Cistern Steps has been designed to delight pedestrians as well as to process and use roof runoff in an ecological manner. The water gardens of the planters will echo the lush greenery of the adjacent Belltown P-Patch. Even more color will be added with inlaid tile signage on the plaza walls at the alley and on the risers of the steps in the sidewalk passing between the P-Patch and the Cistern Steps. Even the stair railings will be works of art forged by Belltown’s own Black Dog Forge.”
SvR Design is also the firm responsible for the Thornton Creek Water Quality Channel previously posted about here and with an update after a rain event with pictures here.
Sometimes human behavior will provide hints on what people want or need. Other times people make downright obvious, like painting on their own sidewalk in an area where pedestrians feel unsafe with the current situation. This may be the work of someone who has had a few too many drinks thus prohibiting their ability to make a straight line but nonetheless, they were well intentioned. One thing to note is that this spot in Portland at the intersection of East Burnside and Northeast 8th Street is already slated to receive a stop light in the near future.
According to the NY Times today, Mayor Bloomberg has announced that the 8-month long experiment of pedestrian plazas in the heart of Times Square, which caused parts of Broadway to be closed to vehicular traffic, will remain open to pedestrians permanently.
Despite traffic flow not being improved, the decision came from the positive feedback from tourists, merchants and workers in the area. From the NY Times, “An extensive survey of local businesses found that more than two-thirds of the area’s retail outfits wanted the project to become permanent. About 75 percent of New Yorkers surveyed by the Times Square Alliance, an area business group, said they were happy with the new plazas and that they had improved the aesthetic experience of Times Square.”
I’m a big fan of the pedestrianization of this space, as seen in previous entries here, here and here and am excited thar New York City has decided to make this committment for the health of the city and its inhabitants. This is a great example for others American cities. If New York City can take a congested area and give it to pedestrians, any city can do it.
Update: Streetsblog has written on this topic today as well, including some information from today’s press conference. From Streetsblog, “Sadik-Khan, who called the observed improvements ‘an example of the results we want to deliver on the streets of New York citywide,’ said DOT would ‘move immediately to transform the plazas into iconic spaces worthy of their iconic setting.’ The permanent design of the plazas will incorporate new pavements, new seating, and event spaces.”
As far as the debate about the traffic issue as it relates to Times Square, the Time Square Alliance President Tim Tompkins pointed out that “the overwhelming majority of people who come to Times Square are not driving.” For this reason, the Broadway areas that have been closed to vehicular traffic are successful because it caters to this majority, something that other areas of NYC find desireable. According to Mayor Bloomberg, “There are other parts of the city where we are getting lots of calls from merchants who want the same kind of thing.”
My recent post on quick eating in an urban environment reminded me of trying to find a place to sit in Florence. There are all these fabulous little deli-like spots throughout Italy that feature an array of pizzas, sandwiches, bread and other tasty Italian treats ready to take on the go. You simply grab a number, listen for them to call it, then tell them which items you’d like and then you pay for the nicely wrapped up take-out lunch. The picture above is a spot that I stopped at located down some random alley purposely chosen for it’s location off the beaten path.
After happily leaving the store with a multitude of tasty lunch stuffs, I thought I’d grab a seat in one of the low window sills of the many shops lining the alleyway. But then upon closer look, I realized they were not at all rear-end friendly. See the gigantic spikes in the lower right of photo below. These were everywhere. It actually proved to be a somewhat difficult task to find a place to sit. Also note the planters in front of the lunch spot conveniently keep people from eating there as well. I remember being thankful that my food was already cold.
I am always eating on the go and often I don’t really feel like searching for that spot to actually eat my food. In fact, I will never forget a particular time in a big city where I grabbed lunch at the best take out joint only to find nowhere…for many, many blocks…where I could literally just set my carton on something long enough to scoop out the contents. I think I ended up settling for a chest height window sill in some slightly inhabited alley. I wondered then how much of the working population just ate at their desks, not because they wanted to but because they had little choice. Sure, a nice little pocket park filled with tables would be sweet but not every area has that opportunity and it’s most likely packed at lunchtime and chances are you would rather eat on the window sill of an alley just to get some air and pull your eyes away from the computer screen even for a few minutes, rather than eat at your desk.
I continued wondering about what could be done to bring some easy changes to the urban streetscape to offer people with take out a simple way to set their small meal on something long enough to grab a bite on the fly and maybe even a conversation. Not cafe tables and chairs but just something…something easy and small. Or perhaps it’s not a part of streetscape at all but takes the form of product development, portable items designed for easy transport and conversion of everyday streetscape objects into useful lunchtime items like a tabletop or glass holder. But seeing as how I was moving too fast at that time and didn’t have the time to expand upon these thoughts, it didn’t go anywhere. These thoughts came pouring back when I came across a super cool new site.
I’m very excited that someone is exploring these ideas and even has a blog dedicated to their research and development. This site is called Popup Lunch by Alexandra Pulver in New York City. She says, “I am exploring how nontraditional public spaces – like sidewalks – might be easily transformed into lively places to lunch. This blog follows a series of Pop Up Lunches I have staged (some big, some small) and my development of mobile eating tools designed for the sidewalks of NYC. Ultimately, I hope that my efforts might inspire even a handful of my fellow urbanites to reconsider the potential for lunch – to be a joyful daily event – and for the sidewalks of NYC to serve as more than just pathways.”
She comes up with some simple and creative ideas to make the urban streetscape more useful to those grabbing lunch on the fly and in need of a simple yet temporary solution to their lunchtime needs, like the fire hydrant table top…
With food carts in some cities becoming the way of life for many urban office dwellers, it can be difficult to find a simple place to prop up your lunch just for a few minutes when there is a whole line of food stands, loads of people and serious lack of actual eating space. But eating doesn’t have to mean that you need a lot of space. Really all you need is the amount of space you already stand in. So what about when you order a street dog, you could hear….”would you like a table with that?”
And I absolutely loved (and seriously could’ve used) this highly creative solution to turning your ordinary, average chainlink fence into a lovely seating opportunity. This could make for some great people watching and make chain link fences really useful. This also reminded me of when someone told me about how some hostels in South America were merely made up of hooks and you brought your own bed by way of a hammock.
With footage from the late 1940’s, this documentary titled “In The Street” by James Agee, Janice Loeb and Helen Levitt captures the poetry in the streets of urban New York. The text at the beginning reads, “The streets of the poor quarters of great cities are, above all, a theater and a battleground. There, unaware and unnoticed, every human being is a poet, a masker, a warrior, a dancer: and in his innocent artistry he projects, against the turmoil of the street, an image of human existence. The attempt in this short film is to capture this image.”
It has been divided into two parts, both of which are below…
Helen Levitt, a New York photographer known for her amazing work in documenting the urban experience within the streets of New York City, passed away this year at the age of 95. She truly had a way of seeing and through those eyes she saw a vibrant place, bursting with life. She had a way of capturing the culture through film. Her photos will live on and continue to inspire.
Improv Everywhere, the NYC-based improv group devoted to causing joy and chaos among the public streets, has been at it again. This time, they set 2,000 people loose in Brooklyn with invisible dogs on a Sunday afternoon for about an hour long walk. Participants spread out and acted as they normally would with a real dog, stopping at hydrants, picking up poo, chasing other dogs and even other people. Apparently the whole gag got started by a phone call from someone who happened to have taken over an abandoned factory to convert into an art space and the factory had 2,000 invisible dog leashes gathering dust. Well surely you can’t let those go to waste! Oh how I love urban gags. Check out the video above to watch people walking their dogs.
How might you reuse a bus? Make a bus stop out of it! This stop in Athens, Georgia designed by Christopher Fennell actually utilized three buses. Hmm, is the “bus stop” sign really necessary?
I was going through my pictures the other day and couldn’t stop laughing at all the ridiculous parking situations I kept coming across from my time in Mexico City, a place notorious for crazy parking jobs. Here’s a couple fun ones…
Yes, the above photo is not one but two cars parked up on the sidewalk. And so nicely parked even. And another time I passed a jeep that parked nose first right on the curb radius. That’s right, on the curb radius. That’s when you know people are hard up for a space. And motorcycles often go driving right down the sidewalks too. Because of them and the cars, big metal bollards are placed all over. Between the parked cars, motorbikes, bollards, street vendors and whatever else, walking around Mexico City is something of an obstacle course.
