 [CBC] Wins is a jogger, and Rae is a cyclist. Wins jogs to and from the office several days a week year-round — six kilometres each way. During the non-winter months, Rae bikes to work at the university — 11 kilometres each way. We think of it as a way to see the city, check on buildings under construction, say hi to neighbours and friends on the way, enjoy the weather, be healthy. It's our thinking time. There's just one problem. At least two or three times a week, we witness a car failing to stop at the stop sign or crosswalk, or drivers going right through the red lights, turning into the pedestrian crossing lane, you name it … and our very lives are threatened. (Just in case you're wondering, yes, we wear an unfashionable number of fluorescent stripes, belts, vests and flashing lights.) We're not the only ones. Read more →  [CBC] "The City of Leonia refashions itself every day.… It is not so much by the things that each day are manufactured, sold, bought that you can measure Leonia's opulence, but rather by the things that each day are thrown out to make room for the new." [Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino] We know garbage is produced at an alarming rate. We also understand there are at least two costs associated with this so-called garbage. The first is the expense of taking it to the landfill and managing that landfill. Second is the value of the resources (metals, glass, compost, etc.) squandered by not reusing them. Our apparent overall indifference to these expenses and lost revenues may lie somewhere between a sense of privilege (as in the obsession with "the new" in the Invisible Cities excerpt) and not having the right systems in place to help us recycle. Read more → |
BridgmanCollaborative's CO-LAB blog shares our passion for architecture, design and urban issues. What makes a good city? We ask careful questions, we listen, we work for change.
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