By Robert Lane, Senior Fellow
As someone who was originally trained as an architect and morphed his career to urban design and then to planning, I have become acutely aware of the power of drawing during the community planning process. The power comes from the iterative process by which ideas as are continually re-inscribed, and the way that that shapes the discussion and ultimately the outcome going forward. This is, of course what responsible planners recognize as the difference between "drawing a map" - the pretty picture - and "mapping."
The late Kevin Lynch, author of The Image of the City and other books who created the foundation for an entire discipline by synthesizing maps that emerged from his interviews with citizens, was acutely aware of this. He also lamented the static nature and geographic limitations of his methodology. One can only imagine how his research would be conducted today if he had access to the variety of new media both widely available -- cell phones, Google maps, pervasive gaming software, locative media, digital story-telling, even humble e-mail - and the less accessible and technically sophisticated modeling softwares - so called Planning Support Systems such as Sleuth, INDEX and CommunityViz.
While Lynch no doubt would have been thrilled to have such tools, most current planning professionals are still struggling to adopt them. As someone who does a great deal of community-based planned and design in the New York metro area, I'm aware of how little such interactive media have been used, beyond a few exotic experiments. Participants in planning sessions have used various technologies to share information, but have not been encouraged or shown how to use them in the planning and decision-making itself.
Recently, I have been discussing these issues at gatherings and with colleagues, including Damon Rich, founder of the Center for Urban Pedagogy, and Nick Grossman, Director of Civic Works at The Open Planning Project. We have been thinking about ways to re-shape the planning process in this age of new media. Some of the concepts that are emerging from these discussions include "just-in-time city planning," "getting the city to design itself," and "deliberative complexity." We grapple with how new technologies can make planning more open, more participatory, and simply better in its outcomes.
There is considerable discussion about what the role of the planner should be in such a process. Is it to help the community figure out what questions to ask? To help the community articulate the principles that would guide the process? To create the right kind of room in which people interact? To find new ways to reposition data to reveal new perspectives? Peter Hall, Senior Lecturer in Design at the University of Texas at Austin, authored a paper on this topic called Weapons of Mass Participation: Collaborative Planning with Loaded Tools and Wicked Problems. His suggestion? The role of the planner is to make planning fun.
I agree with all of these perspectives and suggestions: We need as big a toolbox as possible. When I think of where planning may go, it grounds me to remember one of my favorite quotes from Kevin Lynch's classic, The Image of the City:
"In the development of the image, education in seeing will be quite as important as the reshaping of what is seen. Indeed, they together form a circular, or hopefully a spiral, process: visual education impelling the citizen to act upon his visual world, and this action causing him to see even more acutely. A highly developed art of urban design is linked to the creation of a critical and attentive audience. If art and audience grow together, then our cities will be a source of daily enjoyment to millions of their inhabitants."
@RegionalPlan
PUBLIC ACCESS FROM THE WATER
Harvey Morginstin, PE
Bloomfield, NJ March 20, 2010
Abstract: Public access to the water should be expanded to include the public’s right of access from the water to the land. This will provide benefits to the people on the shore as well as the water.
“Mankind has always looked to the sea with trepidation and awe. The sight of open water is mesmerizing and activity on the water be it waves or sailing ships, heightens our interest. We leave this view with sadness hoping to return again and again.”
The general tendency of mankind has been to provide public access from the land to the water. Even Roman law set aside the waters edge for use by the general public. This exists to this day in the form of riparian rights. Great architectural detail of design for walkways and public waterfront parks are common. Manhattan is a case in point, with ample waterfront walkways and bike paths along the Hudson and East rivers for the public. Chicago, Boston and Pittsburgh have extensive walkways on the waterfront.
What is generally missing from the achievements of public access is access from the water to the land. All too often waterfront developers and city planners seem to think that waterfront “access” is merely a finely paved pedestrian walkway lined with paving blocks and landscaping with a great variety of colorful flowers. Certainly there are also many commercial uses of waterfront property such as ferry terminals and very private, exclusive and expensive marinas. Public access via commercial ferries is a terrific addition to the transportation system. But there is also a need for private vessels to also be accommodated. It should be just as convenient to take your boat to a waterfront site as it is to drive there in your car. Just imagine the public’s reaction if all public travel was only allowed by mass transportation. Yet that is the general situation when water travel is concerned.
Public access to and from the water for private vessels of all sizes requires careful city planning in order to expand the outlook beyond the water’s edge to the water itself.
The addition of public floating docks and walkways from the docks to the shore will provide both a means and justification for the transient boater to visit the local area by water and not travel there by car. Thus sufficient dock space will be needed for such visitors, visiting by boat. For high usage areas these new floating docks could be equipped with parking meters that accept credit cards. If the meters were placed 20 feet apart, then a 60-foot vessel would have to pay at 3 meters. Kayaks could be brought ashore and secured to suitably designed racks.
Any small boat, sailboat, cabin cruiser, canoe or kayak should have a place to safely land, tie up and allow the passengers to come ashore. This requires many floating docks and access gangways from the dock to the land. Very few such facilities exist in our major cities
Local and area residents, young and old, will certainly enjoy fishing from these docks. Therefore the end of the dock should be equipped with suitable features to accommodate fishing needs. Benches and tables for the general public’s use should also be supplied.
The economic benefits to the local municipality that has implemented a boater friendly waterfront redevelopment plan will be substantial. Boaters from around the metropolitan area will now have the necessary facilities to visit the local area and bring a fresh infusion of spenders.
Allowing boaters to come by boat and safely tie up at a municipal marina would provide boating visitors with the opportunity to enjoy local entertainment venues such as sporting events, theater and area restaurants.
Many floating docks are needed along the shorelines of our towns and cities so as to be in walking distance of city and town public gathering places.
Floating docks should have several different heights above the water and also an area with a sloping surface to the water. The design should accommodate kayaks, canoes, small boats and larger vessels. Docks should be ADA compliant and have adequate lighting. Security monitoring can be achieved by closed circuit TV. Dock areas with high usage could be supplemented with paid uniformed marina attendants. This would be a great summer job opportunity for the student population.
The public enjoys parks and water walkways. To gaze out over the water is very soothing to the spirit. And having the added benefit of watching recreational boat traffic cruise on the waterway increases the interests of onlookers.
If planners are going to do something for the local community through their efforts to redevelop the city’s waterfront then their foresight, vision, and planning should result in their doing it “right” the first time. Looking at the waterfront improvement to bring the public to the water is only half the design; the finishing touch is to have a design that allows those already on the water to have access to the land.
An excellent example is found on the Inland Waterway, Stewart, FL. See the pictures that follow on next page.