In Undertow.

For those of you who know my friend Kim Andersen, Arnhem is his current home. We were to have visited in less than a month; alas, COVID postponed the trip until next September.

designing-itself-for-extreme-heat">How this Dutch city is redesigning itself for extreme heat, by Adele Peters (Fast Company)

“While we keep fighting climate change for coming generations, we have to adapt to climate change as we see the consequences of climate change today.”

In the Dutch city of Arnhem, the government now plans to replace 10% of the city’s roads with greenery. It’s one part of a new plan to adapt to the effects of climate change in the area, including flooding and extreme heat.

“The Netherlands has the ambition to be climate-proof by 2050,” says Cathelijne Bouwkamp, the city’s vice mayor. “In Arnhem, we translated this ambition in a strategy for the next decade, and as we need to act now, we made a plan of action for the coming three years.”

The city of 150,000, located about 60 miles west of Amsterdam, is already seeing changes. In a heatwave in 2019, temperatures surged above 100 degrees, around 30 degrees higher than average, putting vulnerable residents at risk of health problems. In 2014, heavy rainfall put much of the city underwater. For the past few years, the city has experienced serious droughts. It also has started adapting; a sprawling area near the Rhine river was redesigned as a floodable city park to capture water during storms. Some building facades have been covered in greenery, something that can help mitigate the effects of heat, and the city has taken some other early steps. But now Arnhem will go further.

Like other urban areas, pavement makes the city hotter as roads and parking lots absorb and release heat. Arnhem plans to identify underused roads and shrink them down, replacing them with planted areas that can help reduce both heat and flooding in storms. (It’s currently investigating how the asphalt could potentially be recycled.) It’s also carefully planning how the city can grow to accommodate a growing population.

A “heat attention” map plots out parts of the city where development shouldn’t happen, as in open areas near the river where winds help cool the area, and highlights neighborhoods that are at most risk during heatwaves. In the city center and other key areas, the government plans to build “cooling down” locations with shade and ponds, and will plant more trees along pedestrian and cyclist routes, so it’s more comfortable to travel on the hottest days.

The city will also incentivize citizens to add more green space on their own properties. “As a city we can not do this alone,” Bouwkamp says. “Most of the city’s territory is not public space but private property. So to motivate people to join us, we will subsidize neighborhood initiatives. This also has a social effect: more social cohesion and counteracting loneliness.”

At the same time, along with the rest of the country, the city is working to reduce climate emissions. A recent renovation, for example, converted 1950s-era social housing into zero-energy buildings that run on solar power and heat pumps instead of fossil fuels. But even as it’s necessary to limit future climate change, it’s also clear that the city has to transform now to deal with the effects that are already happening. “While we keep fighting climate change for coming generations, we have to adapt to climate change as we see the consequences of climate change today,” says Bouwkamp.

"The city that gives you free beer for cycling" (spoiler alert: it ain't us).

Watch the video here.

The city that gives you free beer for cycling. (BBC)

This is how the Italian city of Bologna is getting people to leave their cars behind. Video by Amelia Martyn-Hemphill and Nicola Kelly.

An app records sustainable trips -- on foot, by bicycle or with public transportation. Users amass mobility points, redeemable for freebies from participating businesses.

Bella Mossa: Another Reason to Love Bologna, by Irene S. Levine (More Time to Travel)

Like most urban centers around the world, Bologna has its share of traffic congestion. One major initiative to address this problem was the designation of a pedestrian zone in the city’s historic center that strictly limits automobile traffic. (There are special provisions for tourists who need to get to hotels located within the zone.)

But traffic in most areas of Bologna, which fall outside the zone, still remained challenging, often exacerbated by the frequent strikes (scioperi) and political demonstrations that are typical in Italy.

Goals of Bella Mossa

My Facebook friend, Laura Bizzari (a language teacher in Bologna), recently posted a BBC video on Facebook about an innovative project in Bologna, called Bella Mossa, that aims to make a difference in health and quality of life.

The project is funded through European Commission’s Horizon 2020, an EU program to promote sustainable transport. Launched in April 2017, the project uses incentives to reduce vehicular traffic and CO2 emissions by encouraging people to walk, cycle or use public transportation ...

Green street design: New Albany can't have nice things because our "leaders" don't, and our "pillars" aren't.

Because for the clique to even intelligently discuss it, they'd first be compelled to imagine it. They can't, and it's not even close.

And so we settle for the best that C-minus students can offer. It isn't much.

‘A VIRTUOUS CYCLE OF GREEN’: HOW STREET DESIGN CAN BE CALMED BY NATURE, by David Goldberg (Sightline)

Making Cascadia’s streets more like gardens ensures complete streets are green streets.

A revolution is brewing in the streets of Cascadia’s major cities. Not since the mid-20th century has this region seen such a wholesale remaking of city rights of way.

Rapid growth is driving experimentation in ways to move more and more people through the same corridors, whether by foot, bicycle, transit, rideshare or private vehicle, all while accommodating a rising tsunami of deliveries. And as as ever more buildings fill urban space, those public rights of way become critically important refuges for greenery.

Until recently, traffic engineers designed streets solely to move cars. For them, street trees were to be eliminated as roadside hazards and landscaped zones were a hindrance to “vehicle throughput.” Today, though, planners increasingly see space for trees and plants as vital to safety, clean waterways, and resiliency and adaptation to climate change.

Some cities are beginning to fuse four strains of fresh thinking that have emerged over the last decade or so:

Complete Streets
Vision Zero
Green Stormwater Infrastructure
Urban Forestry

“Trees and other plants clean the air, add economic value to real estate and commercial sales and they make places where people want to be,” said John Massengale, co-author with Victor Dover of Street Design: the Secret to Great Cities and Towns (Wiley 2013). “Perhaps most importantly, they slow cars down, which is critical to achieving Vision Zero.”

“There is a virtuous cycle of green,” said Brice Maryman, senior landscape architect at MIG|SvR in Seattle. “Giving street space over to plants and trees helps slow vehicles, and once you have slower vehicles you can use even more space for natural functions.”

Also, some of the same techniques that can be used to calm traffic and create safe zones for people on foot or bicycle offer opportunities to introduce more soothing vegetation and ecological functions—ensuring that complete streets are green streets ...

Green infrastructure? Light imprint? Low asphalt? Tell it to Summit Springs, pal.

As for green, the only relevance it has to New Gahania in Year Six is the color of money.

Great idea: Light Imprint for walkable green infrastructure, by Robert Steuteville (Public Square: A CNU Journal)

A leaner, lighter approach to infrastucture is more cost-effective, sustainable, and livable—an idea worth considering for America in National Infrastructure Week.

In the public realm, the greenery to impervious pavement ratio—and how that relates to urban context—has an impact on quality of life and experience. Conventional suburban design tends toward heavy use of asphalt, with wide roads lined by parking lots, in relatively low-density areas. This engineering approach requires large and expensive stormwater mitigation. New urbanists have countered with techniques that lay far lighter on the land, an approach that could be called "Light Imprint," "lean," or simply "green infrastructure." This light approach to engineering the land, combined with good urban design, makes for appealing streets and public spaces while providing effective rainwater management ...

 ... Public Square editor Robert Steuteville interviewed architect and planner Tom Low, founder of Civic By Design and author of the influential Light Imprint Handbook, and Paul Crabtree of the Crabtree Group, a specialist in civil engineering for urban places, on the the subject of Light Imprint and green infrastructure.

Point taken: "New Albany is further behind conceptually than kindergarten."

Yesterday we went to kindergarten.

Smart growth, holistic cities ... and New Albany as conceptual kindergarten.

As pertains to any consideration of "smart growth" in the context of New Albany, it is vitally important not to forget the old joke about the musician who begins as a bright young up-and-coming artist, and elects to skip the next few career phases in favor of graduating directly to "too drunk to play" ...

A very good comment was posted at Fb, and it is reprinted here.

As a 62-year observer of the New Albany scene (since I could read the Tribune and comprehend adult conversation about civic affairs) IMO New Albany is further behind conceptually than kindergarten. Tabula rasa, perhaps? At the risk of offending some readers, planning and zoning have never been the community's strong suits. Groups can commission studies for only so long before progressive, creative, locally based and locally interested (read: funded) civic-minded, as opposed to self-interested, leadership, with voters' confidence, must step forward. Otherwise a truck stop on the Coyle property sounds like a mighty good idea.

Smart growth, holistic cities ... and New Albany as conceptual kindergarten.

As pertains to any consideration of "smart growth" in the context of New Albany, it is vitally important not to forget the old joke about the musician who begins as a bright young up-and-coming artist, and elects to skip the next few career phases in favor of graduating directly to "too drunk to play."

Accordingly, we're somewhere in the vicinity of puberty, pre-legal drinking age.

But dude: Check out our aquatic center.

Link courtesy of JG.

Kaid Benfield’s Blog: Moving beyond "smart growth" to a more holistic city agenda (Switchboard)

... I say that it is time to become more ambitious and holistic in our thinking about cities, towns and neighborhoods. In the interest of being provocative and starting a conversation, I propose a list of ten questions that every community should ask in order to identify ways to improve. These questions embrace smart growth, to be sure, but they don’t stop there. Here they are:

1 Are neighborhoods fully hospitable to residents with a range of incomes, ages and abilities?

2 Does the community respect nature, integrating natural areas and systems into regional planning and neighborhood design?

3 Do buildings and infrastructure take advantage of resource-efficient design and management practices?

4 Do the community design and social structure encourage healthy living and well-being?

5 Is the overall metropolitan or community development footprint discernible and no larger than necessary?

6 Does the community include public spaces of beauty, character, and utility?

7 Are there convenient, safe, affordable and efficient transportation choices?

8 Does new development use land efficiently, with appropriate attention to the context?

9 Does the community respect and enhance important local conditions, resources, and culture?

10 Does the community encourage collaboration in planning and development?

Hummer owners gag as "Hamburg Announces Plans to Become a Car-Free City Within 20 Years."

Ah, those crazy Germans -- not just talking a good game, but actually seeking to achieve a shift to renewable energy.

Of course, in America we're better off with the Creation Museum and lots of Big Coal and Big Oil to take us there. Thanks to diligent legislators like Rhonda Rhoads, we're also keeping them gays in their places, by Gawd.

Meanwhile, in Hamburg, the Beatles are so 1960s, and even the St. Pauli Girl has become irrelevant in the craft beer age. In Hamburg, a politician can muse aloud about a car-free future, and not be exiled to Ken Ham.

Thanks to J.d. for the link.

Hamburg Announces Plans to Become a Car-Free City Within 20 Years, by Charley Cameron (Inhabit)

Hamburg is currently working on a plan that would eliminate the need for cars within the next 15-20 years, making the city a greener, healthier and more pleasant place to live. The city’s proposed Grünes Netz, or “Green Network” will create pedestrian and cycle paths to connect the city’s existing, substantial green spaces, and provide safe, car-free commuter routes for all residents.

While Romania’s cities move in a green direction ...

I've been to Romania only once (in 1997), and of the cities covered in this article, my travels took me to Bucharest and Cluj.

You may recall my fixation with contemporary Romanian cinema, and more recently, Gregor von Rezzori's novel "Memoirs of an Anti-Semite" includes lengthy digressions to the Bucharest of the writer's semi-autobiographical youth. The book deserves a review, by the way, and perhaps I'll write one at some point.

At any rate, it's my guess that many Europeans regard Romania as a weak link in the EU, and I can attest that based on what it was like in 1997, the upward climb will be steep for a long while to come. This doesn't mean that progress is lacking. Thanks to Jeff for posting this at Facebook.

How Romania’s Five Biggest Cities are Moving in the Green Direction, by Dana Fatol (This Big City blog)

After joining the European Union back in 2007, the word “sustainability” started to be heard more frequently in Romania. New opportunities for people to explore and learn from Western countries were suddenly opened, but also new minimum requirements to be met. Baby steps have been taken since then, sometimes because of bureaucracy, sometimes because of other priorities, and sometimes just because of lack of money.

Let’s have a look at the five biggest cities in Romania and their way to the green side: Bucharest – the capital city (population 1,677,985), Cluj-Napoca (population 309,136), Timisoara (this is my city, population 303,708), Iasi (population 263,410) and Constanta (population 254,693). They all share a few things in common: they want an urban regeneration, to reduce energy consumption and use modes of transportation other than cars.

Couldn't New Albany's bicentennial be themed green?

The Associated Press provides an outstanding theme for New Albany's 2013 bicentennial observance, which predates the state's by three years. Just imagine if the start of the city's natural renewal might be the bicentennial's main theme, embracing something along the lines of preparing the environment for the next hundred years.

Think about the misdirected million dollar Horseshoe Foundation "bonus" to complete the Sherman Minton Bridge's repair work, and how far that would go toward acquiring funds for the greening of New Albany.

Imagine. Think. I must be out of my mind.

Indiana seeks $10 donations to buy hardwood trees

EVANSVILLE, IND. — A state agency is seeking donations of $10 and up toward planting 1 million hardwood trees and adding 1,000 acres of new woodlands by Indiana’s bicentennial as a state in 2016.

Matt is green with suggestions and videos.

Matt's column today offers simple tips for making a "green" difference. Two in particular, composting and rain barrels, are goals for my household as soon as possible. Of course, commuting by bike or on foot is a given for me, although everyone doesn't have the opportunity to do so, which leads to mass transit and another topic entirely. Matt also has posted more video from the Democratic Men's Club meeting on Wednesday night.

NASH: Is it easy being Green

Taking a few minutes out of your day to separate your garbage, turning out the lights when you leave the room, and planning ahead to keep your car usage to a minimum, are simple ways to make your household greener.

Concrete into sod along Charlestown Road?

The Tribune's Daniel Suddeath leaves Erik far behind and explains that just like the radioactive mutant creature in the sci-fi movie, our doughnut hole has shifted from downtown to the old, original suburbs, farther out -- and someday may be headed for the (gasp - no!) exurb itself.

Once thriving area of Charlestown Road in New Albany now defined by vacancies

Some alert readers posting comments at the story page seem to be suggesting that aging concrete sprawl acreage should be converted into parkland. That's good progressive Green thinking, indeed.

Is such non-gasoline-driven subversion actually legal here?

Someone better ask the Slumlord Benevolent Society first.

HISKES: 10 ways cities and towns can kick the offshore-oil habit.

While Louisville and Southern Indiana citizens await the results of a dance contest between Wall Street honchos, foreign investors, special interest lobbyists, and an "authority" with little transportation and community development expertise, even less diversity, and no public accountability as part of a financial process that's already five years behind in service to a project that, according to current schedules, won't be finished until approximately 2030 making it even more outdated and unsustainable upon completion than when originally imagined, other local governments are rapidly moving forward with more cost effective, long-term solutions.

HISKES: 10 ways cities and towns can kick the offshore-oil habit

With the Gulf oil spill continuing unabated, powering a 21st century economy on a 19th century fossil fuel looks less and less smart by the day.

Luckily, we've got other options. I described the most promising steps the federal government could take toward reducing oil use in transportation systems last week. But local governments don't have to wait for federal action. Through smart land use, cities, towns, and many rural areas can give residents the option of driving less -- a direct way to stem the demand for offshore (and foreign) oil.

I spoke with leaders of the Smart Growth movement, along with advocates for economic justice, to learn about solutions that don't require new technology and, in many cases, pay for themselves.

State 111 passes to the city. Bicycle lane, anyone?

The traffic along Grant Line Road hasn’t been as bad, apparently because the recession reduced the number of passing trains where the state of Indiana proposed an overpass, and in turn, eliminating it as a need.

Did it then become a “want”? We await clarification from Professor Erika’s Tea Kettle Serenade.

Of all the news stories to come down the information rutted dirt goat path of late, this is the one that requires a master’s degree in protocol before finally managing to tunnel through to the actual topic. The city of New Albany has wrested 4.5 miles of Indiana 111 from the state, and before I can express cautionary mixed feelings, there must be a discussion about whom to thank and in what order they must be congratulated.

Alphabetically, the contestants are State Representative Ed Clere, Mayor Doug England, and Deputy Mayor Carl Malysz. I imagine that John Rosenbarger and Scott Wood should be included, but they are not listed in the press release. Some might suggest that Governor Mitch Daniels receive credit, but I’d rather drink Bud Light than stoop to that.

Thanks, guys. Does Clere’s opponent, Shane Gibson, get equal time here? Just in case, go ahead and throw his name in the pot, too.

Now comes the part that we’re all waiting to hear: A detailed plan to allay fears that the settlement cash won't go toward future widening and upkeep of 111. I can already hear Dan Coffey demand that it be divided among flood victims or used to subsidize sewer rates.

As for widening, a bicycle lane connecting downtown with IUS now becomes a possibility, doesn’t it? One that passes the city's largest public park?

After all, it’s the city’s road to control. Daniel Suddeath's article mentions adding a fifth auto lane near the Interstate. Given current conditions, green makes more sense, doesn't it?

Portland, Oregon: Steering tourists "to the most exciting storm sewer sites."

Thanks to JP for the link.

Portland's sewers right as rain, by Dennis Cauchon (USA Today)

The most surprising tourist attraction in Portland, Ore., is its storm sewer system.

Eco-friendly tourists flock to the city to understand how Portland's innovative system of curbs, gutters, roofs and rain gardens sharply cuts water pollution.