World Wide Wednesday: Exit signs, China’s golf obsession and the decade’s most expensive transit projects

Each week we will be focusing on blogs from around the world dealing specifically with urban environments. We'll be on the lookout for websites outside the country that approach themes related to urban experiences and issues.

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• Planning a bike trip using Google Maps is about to get much easier as the company is set to launch a new bike trip planner service in 150 US cities. According to the Chicago Tribune, the new service will provide cyclists with step-by-step biking directions that "factor in the length of the trip, changes in elevation and even fatigue".

• Is Japan's pictorial green "Running Man" sign more intuitive then North America's lettered red "Exit" sign? In an ongoing series on signage, Slate Magazine weighs in on the international debate over the Exit Sign.

The Guardian UK hosts a slide show of inventive ways artists and designers have re-imagined the bicycle.

The Infrastructist Blog details the 10 most expensive transit project of the last decade, including San Juan's 10.7-mile-$2.63 billion rapid transit Tren Urbano line.

• A photo essay on Foreign Policy looks at China's unlikely "golf boom" and the social and environmental stresses the course construction frenzy is placing on the landscape.

picture of Emergency exit sign at the Frankfurt Airport by Markus Tacker

Atlantic snapshots: Lone walker

St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador
by plankskate, member of the Spacing Atlantic flickr pool.

Wednesday’s Headlines

POLITICS

MIRAMICHI - Presenters to argue against bus cuts [Times & Transcript]
SAINT JOHN - 'City is driving us out' [Telegraph-Journal]
SAINT JOHN - More money needed - Chase [Telegraph-Journal]
SAINT JOHN - Peel Plaza cost hasn't soared, city official says [Telegraph-Journal]

URBAN GREEN

FREDERICTON - Rink to get green upgrade [Daily Gleaner]
SABLE ISLAND - Wild horses couldn't keep them away [Globe & Mail]
SAINT JOHN - Define Rockwood's boundaries first: neighbours [Telegraph-Journal]

DEVELOPMENT

MONCTON - Downtown Moncton needs teamwork to thrive [Times & Transcript]
FREDERICTON - Regent Mall to start $13M upgrade [Daily Gleaner]
SYDNEY - Libraries to get internet funding [Cape Breton Post]
CHARLOTTETOWN - Optimistic hiring outlook for city [Guardian]
ALBERTON - Holland College plans in Alberton [Guardian]

COMMUNITY

MONCTON - CFL visits Metro [Times & Transcript]
MONCTON - Metro's cultural growth steady: Statscan [Times & Transcript]
HALIFAX - Visible minorities in Halifax area to almost double by 2031: Statscan [Metro]
HALIFAX - Halifax seeing change [Chronicle-Herald]
CHARLOTTETOWN - Gold Cup Parade committee to retire after 2011 [Guardian]

OTHER NEWS

TRURO - Public invited to share concerns on emergency health services [Truro Daily]

Events Guide: An Evening of Alternative Agriculture

HALIFAX - It feels like spring has sprung and to get you in the mood, the King's Student Union, Ecology Action Center and the King's Alternative Food Cooperative Association (KAFCA) are hosting an evening on alternative agriculture. The event will feature a guest lecture by Garity Chapman on the current urban agriculture renaissance in North America, a brief planting workshop and a delicious three course meal.

WHAT: Lecture, Planting Workshop and Free Meal
WHERE: The Wilson Common Room, 2nd Floor NAB, King's College, 6350 Coburg Rd.
WHEN Tuesday March 9 at 7:30 pm

Tuesday’s Headlines

POLITICS

HALIFAX - 'Mayor' Stoffer would do 'more than talk about cats' [Chronicle Herald]
HALIFAX - Overnight street parking ban to be lifted Monday night [Metro]
SAINT JOHN - Sexist cads on council? [Telegraph-Journal]
SAINT JOHN - Chase 'bad news bear,' mayor says [Telegraph-Journal]
ST JOHN'S - St. John's rejects Petty Harbour's land request [CBC]
CHARLOTTETOWN - Website helps city police nab suspects [Guardian]
CHARLOTTETOWN - Brown calls for greater fiscal accountability in city's finances [Guardian]

URBAN GREEN

SYDNEY - Cape Breton firms land two tar ponds cleanup contracts worth $7.7 million [Metro]
CHARLOTTETOWN - Environment minister speaker at Environmental Health Co-op meeting tonight [Guardian]

DEVELOPMENT

FREDERICTON - Casemates won't open this summer [Daily Gleaner]
FREDERICTON - City awards contract to Que. company [Daily Gleaner]
SAINT JOHN - More borrowing for streets, less for buses [Telegraph-Journal]
MIRAMICHI - Miramichi councillors debate city roadwork [Times & Transcript]

COMMUNITY

NS - Events Nova Scotia replaces original HRM focus [Metro]
HALIFAX - Rally gathers almost 100 in support of women [Metro]
NB - Tourism numbers rebound in 2009 [Times & Transcript]
CHARLOTTETOWN - Top Blooming Community in Canada plays host to WinterLights awards gala [Guardian]

[Re]Presenting Halifax #6: Waterfront [Re]Visions Part 2

The [Re]Presenting Halifax series revisits historical and contemporary maps, diagrams and other interpretive readings of the Halifax region. See my first post for the full aims of this project and more information about contributing to the series.

HALIFAX - This is a continuation of last week's post about waterfront redevelopment. Similar to the plans presented last week, this post focuses on a plan commissioned for the Metropolitan Area Planning Commission during the early 1970s.

Dubbed Harbour Plaza, this 1971 urban redevelopment plan reimagines the Dartmouth waterfront and ferry terminal. In contrast to the plans for Halifax revealed at the same time, this plan presents the redesign of the ferry terminal as a strategic urban project meant to reactivate the surrounding area. While this proposal never materialized, it shares some similar features to the new ferry terminal and Alderney Landing complex.

Continue reading this post

Fenwick developer hopes to set a new precedent in Halifax

Co-written by Rachel Caroline Derrah

HALIFAX - Fenwick Tower, the 40-years unfinished, 33-storey butt of the anti-development community's — nay, everyone's — jokes is going through an identity overhaul. And, if all goes according to the proposed plan, it's taking the city with it. For decades skeptical fingers have pointed in the building's direction, naming it a quintessential example of bad development — a living argument against changing Halifax's height restrictions.

But Joe Metlege of Templeton Properties — 7-month owner of the infamous high-rise — aims to "flip that." He sees potential in Fenwick Tower to become an example of development gone right, envisioning fingers across the country pointed Halifax-bound, towards a new precedent in innovative renovation of the Le Corbusier-inspired 'tower in the park' design, which was prevalent in the 1960s and 70s and is widely critiqued for its brutality and context insensitivity.

This Tuesday, March 9th, Templeton's application to amend the Municipal Planning Strategy and Peninsula Land Use By-law to allow for mixed-use re-development of the Fenwick site will come before Regional Council.

Continue reading this post

Monday’s Headlines

POLITICS

PEI - P.E.I. gets Island Party [CBC]
ST JOHN'S - Landlords turning back on welfare clients: mom [CBC]
CHARLOTTETOWN - City's crackdown on meter feeders shows quick results [Guardian]
FREDERICTON - Council eyes transit project [Daily Gleaner]
FREDERICTON - Most ignore province's tax guidelines [Daily Gleaner]
SAINT JOHN - Council wants battered dirt roads chip sealed [Telegraph-Journal]

URBAN GREEN

SAINT JOHN - Rockwood Park's shifting borders worry residents [CBC]

BUILT ENVIRONMENT

FREDERICTON - Convention centre turning heads [Daily Gleaner]

DEVELOPMENT

HALIFAX - Get set for next big winter games [Chronicle Herald]
HALIFAX - McCartney, Kill fans spent $10M in Halifax [CBC]
CHARLOTTETOWN - Charlottetown wants sidewalks on Riverside Drive expansion [Guardian]
MONCTON - Downtown Moncton needs new development ideas [Times & Transcript]

COMMUNITY

HALIFAX - Halifax board to decide on review of three schools [Chronicle Herald]
SAINT JOHN - Women struggle to break yoke of poverty [Telegraph-Journal]