CHARLOTTETOWN - When Kevin Costner wandered into his corn field and encountered the baseball legends of past generations, he was given this simple reassurance -- "If you build it, they will come."  While Costner, playing farmer Ray Kinsella in The Field of Dreams, was trying to not sound too crazy when pitching the idea of a baseball field where his corn once stood, the idea of a Farmer's Market, once the playground of the granola munchers and Mennonites, has gone mainstream with attendees, not the purveyors, going crazy.

CHARLOTTETOWN - When the federal government introduced the Intergrated Community Sustainability Plan (ICSP) as a requirement to access the Gas Tax Fund (GTF) it jump-started the planning departments of countless cities across Canada to examine their long-term development plans.  Of course, the ICSP process is not meant to be an economic stimulus package, but a comprehensive framework outlining the social, economic, environmental and cultural sustainability of the community.  This planning process is intended to give citizen and government stakeholders a common vision for the future, a veritable litmus test ...

Since most Islanders couldn't make the official Spacing Atlantic launch party last week, we've decided to get together on our own for a little meet, greet and nefarious plotting.  So, if you happen to be a PEI-based writer, photographer, artist, or you simply want to have a say in the urban policies of Charlottetown and other PEI communities, come on down to the Eco-PEI offices (also the Sierra Club of Canada offices) and join in the discussion. Who: Writers, photographers, artists and the simply curious What: Spacing Atlantic Charlottetown Meet-up When: Wednesday, November ...

CHARLOTTETOWN - Nestled behind the Confederation Centre of the Arts is a 200m stretch of early 20th century buildings, the type of mixed use treasures that are being recreated throughout North America in an attempt to echo our European roots through New Urbanism.  When I first discovered Victoria Row, as this stretch of Richmond Street is known, it was in its pre-tourism state.  This one-way lane was lined with restaurant patios and boutiques, all under the shadow the 1960's era arts and entertainment centre that dominates the downtown core. Though still recovering from the post-winter stresses, I could sense the potential of this little side-street, for in it I saw the creation of the Holy Grail of pedestrian culture -- a pedestrian mall!  The pedestrian mall is a magical place where vehicles are excluded while pedestrians and cyclists reclaim the space between the curbs as their own.  Though I did not know it at the time, Victoria Row makes a seasonal transformation from one-way side street to pedestrian haven, complete with an open-mic style bandstand and middle of the road water fountain.

CHARLOTTETOWN -- Public art is not quite as taboo as politics or religion, but the inclusion of art in the public space, ostensibly approved by some level of government, has been known to be a divisive issue across Canada.  Take, for example, Dennis Oppenheim's sculpture “Device to Root Out Evil” which was the source of debate at Stanford, eventually finding a home in Vancouver, only to be uprooted and moved to the Calgary's Ramsay neighbourhood in September 2008.  ...

CHARLOTTETOWN - The macabre dance of pedestrians and automobiles is a time honoured tradition.  Ever since Bridget Driscol was killed by a car in 1896, the deadly duo of auto and intersection has struck fear into the hearts of traffic planners and pedestrians everywhere.  The reality is, of course, that traffic planning is as much art as it is science, which is why Charlottetown is revisiting the idea of a pedestrian scramble. The intersection of Grafton and Queen street, bordered by the Confederation Centre of the Arts and Confederation Court Mall, and down the street from both city hall and the provincial legislature, is stirring up controversy with the possible return of its pedestrian scramble.  Also known as a Barnes' Dance, a scramble was introduced in Toronto last year at the corner of Yonge and Dundas.  Beautifully documented in a time-lapse sequence by photoblogger Sam Javanrouh on Spacing Atlantic's sister site, Spacing Toronto, the scramble belays its more common title and suggests a more graceful choreography.  Henry A. Barnes, often incorrectly credited with inventing the scramble, even to the extent of it bearing his name, said, at a September 1951 conference, "...a downtown shopper needed a four-leaf clover, a voodoo charm, and a St. Christopher's medal to make it in one piece from one curbstone to the other."