Christmas in Ipanema

Planted in the middle of the lagoon behind Ipanema, in Rio de Janeiro, this 82-metre high Christmas extravaganza arouses both delight and frustration each year. Traffic jams are inevitable as people stop to admire this tree of trees...


Photo courtesy of marginalrevolution.com 2006

Banksy goes to Bethlehem

The city of Bethlehem in the West Bank has commissioned Banksy, the elusive British graffiti artist, to paint over a dozen images on the 8m-high (26ft) concrete wall that surrounds the town.
The city's economy is highly dependent on tourists, especially during the Christmas season, but few visitors are now willing to take the time to cross the Israeli checkpoint at the security barrier.
Read about it in the Timesonline by clickinghere
photo courtesy of the Timesonline

What have politicians done for the Paris suburbs since 2005?

That's the title of an in-depth article provided by Rue89, a newish and very dynamic Parisian blog created by a group of Libération old timers among others. Clickhere for the article in French.
La Courneuve in all its glory, photo courtesy of Rue89

a picture from Delhi that speaks louder than words

London-Paris in 135 minutes

Beginning tomorrow the Eurostar should glide out of the magnificently restored St Pancras railway station in London and arrive in Paris 2 hours and 15 minutes later. Brussels can now be reached in 1 hour and 51 minutes. Too bad the SNCF has decided it has other fish to fry and is going on strike tomorrow...

Leave Tuvalu for London? Me?

This post is to point out a blog that is just the thing for procrastinators on deadline. Owen Powell, a writer, performer and director, and Alex Horne, writer and comedian, set out to prove that London is the most cosmopolitan city in the world. They began in October 2006 and finished one year later, having interviewed and recorded comments from people from 189 countries living and working in London. According to the United Nations there are 192 countries in the world so they're only missing people from these three countries: Tuvalu, Palau and the Marshall Islands.
To access the blog click here

Norwegian Rats

Norwegians will be happy to know that the basic urban rat, known as the Rattus Norvegicus, is not, actually from Norway. It is said that the rats, originally from northern China, were stowaways on Norwegian ships and emigrated to Europe in the 18th century. They also used other methods of transportation to migrate such as trains and automobiles and have even resorted to swimming; in one particular case a large contingency swam across the Volga river to Russia.
In the past week I've seen two rats. A few days ago one hurried past me as I was coming out of Marks & Spencers. Today my cat was chasing (unsuccessfully) a rat outside. For all city dwellers, encountering a rat is a normal occurrence. Who hasn't seen rats scuttling down the tracks in the New York city subway? When you take out the garbage in Rome at night there are rats lurking around the bins like derelict teenagers. In Paris a friend had strapping rats scaling the wisteria plant that grew up the wall of her building. And some of us will never, ever, forget the story of Pete, the rat and the glue trap in New York. He may write about it someday.
Norwegian rats are apparently perfectly suited to city living as a result of their "opportunistic and omnivorous behavior".
Furthermore, "to know the rat is to know its habitat, and to know the habitat of the rat is to know the city" says Robert Sullivan in his 2004 book on New York City rats, Rats: Observations on the History and Habitat of the City's Most Unwanted Inhabitants.
Do you know your rat's habitat?

Losing it in Berne

The Helvetian capital temporarily lost it last week when violence broke out during a protest by left-wing groups against the right-wing Swiss People's Party campaign rally. Polls have forecast the SVP party, which has been described as "xenophobic and fascist" as winning the most votes in the upcoming parliamentary elections October 21st. The nationalist SVP's election posters show three white sheep kicking a black sheep off the Swiss flag over the slogan "My Home, Our Switzerland, Keep it Secure."
Police used teargas to contain the protesters who were hurling rocks and bottles. The clashes caused more than SFr100,000 ($85,000) in damage and 21 people were injured. Meanwhile football officials for the Euro 2008, which will take place in June in Switzerland and Austria, met in Zurich today and fretted about security.

I'm a rabid urban cyclist by Simon Brennan

I don’t care what Lance Armstrong may think: it is about the bike. I’m a rabid urban cyclist. Fanatical even.

I biked in Los Angeles when I lived there in the early 80s (and if there is anything more antithetical to Los Angeles culture than commuting by bike, I’d like to know what it is—though I do hear that things are now getting a little easier there for my fellow bike freaks).

I biked year-round in Minneapolis during college days. More to the point (and anyone who’s ever visited that place even briefly from mid-October through April will understand the lunacy to which I’m admitting), I did this on slush, on ice, on snow in the dead of winter—and this is serious winter, tundra winter, Moscow winter, 0-degrees-Kelvin-lungs-burn-tears-turn-to-ice-on-your-cheeks-unprotected-skin-freezes-if-exposed-to-elements-for-more-than-two-minutes winter.

And, against the wishes of most who care about my physical well-being, I bike year-round in New York City and have done so for more than 20 years. I do training rides on weekends, have been known to do numerous loops in Central Park after work—and when forced, Prospect Park in Brooklyn—and, in embracing the nut-job cyclist’s creed of always being merely two inches from catastrophe, I commute to work daily, more than 10 miles each way through the streets of Brooklyn across the bridges and through the canyons of Manhattan.

But know this: our numbers are increasing steadily and we won’t go away. So cabbies; pedestrians; bus drivers; tourists; jay-walkers of all sizes and styles; out-of-towners, limo, stretch limo, Hummer stretch limo, SUV, delivery truck, moving van and town car drivers? You’d better learn to deal. Whether we’re weekend pleasure riders, competitive racers, commuters, or messengers, we risk our lives to do what we love to do. There is a lot to contend with: bad streets, bad conditions, metal construction plates that will wipe you out in a nano-second, broken glass to blow out your tire and crash you in the street, potholes, manhole covers, pedestrians who don’t look, drivers who don’t look, insufficient and poorly designated bike lanes, double parked cars and trucks, reckless cyclists (have to admit that, too). And some of us will not make it home at the end of the day.

The brutal reality of urban biking (particularly in New York City, where, I swear every car is out to kill you), is that cyclists get hit by vehicles, cyclists crash, cyclists get injured, and cyclists die. When a car meets a bike, no matter who’s at fault, the bike always loses. Always.

I love cycling, but I have paid a price for my addiction: in over 30-odd years of riding, racing and commuting, I’ve been in seven accidents, three of which have required nice little rides to emergency rooms and not so pleasant experiences once there. Some might think this ratio passes into the law of diminishing returns. No, I say, it’s just living life in the city in a way that provides meaning for me, that helps give me definition and perspective, that provides an unrivaled sense of freedom. That helps me get through the days.

I defy you to rival the feeling of flying across the
Brooklyn Bridge in fall on a cool, misty day when tourists and pedestrians don’t venture onto it, the two towers and the web of cables above you, the buzz of your tires on the wood planks below. You glance down to the roadway and see cars stuck in traffic as you blow by them; you’re up and out of the saddle, toes down, moving fast through the middle section where the grade levels out, wind whipping past your face and channeling through your helmet, mouth slack pulling the air into your lungs. Everything in sync, leg muscles taught, chain whirring through the cogs, ripping up the road. You’re alive. Two inches from catastrophe, as always, but alive.

photo copyright screeningroom.com

Beijing metro line number 5 is up

Beijing's new 27.5 km long, 23-station metro Line 5 (Tiantongyuan North - Songjiazhuang South) began running this week to the delight of commuters resigned to heavy congestion both above and below ground.
According to Beijing News tickets for the subway line will cost only two yuan, or about 27 US cents, regardless of the distance travelled or how many times passengers transfer lines.
Just for the sake of comparison, a New York City token is $2.00, a single fare tube ticket in London is £4.00 and a single ticket in the Paris metro is 1.40 euros.

image of Beijing metro ticket courtesy of urbanrail.

Two wheelin' in Paris and London

When I moved to Paris in 1999 one of my first purchases was a bicycle. I had noticed a bicycle shop on Boulevard St. Michel near the Luxembourg gardens. Point Velo specializes in Dutch bikes and is run by two soft-mannered Sri Lankan men. I bought a forest green bicycle of the Maxwell brand. If you’ve never ridden a Dutch bicycle, at first it’s quite an adjustment. You feel very tall and regal and slightly ridiculous. Then you become addicted to the comfort of sitting up so straight, with this sturdy, decidedly un-racing-like contraption under you. It’s the perfect city bike.
Now I ride my Maxwell in London. It is much more dangerous than cycling in Paris. In Paris people drive in a consistently aggressive manner but at least you know what to expect and generally, drivers are alert and on the lookout. In London drivers are passive-aggressive. Although they will stop for pedestrians on a crosswalk, they will thunder murderously past cyclists, so close you can feel the fabric of a loose jacket touching the side of their vehicle. Cars will shoot across a lane at the last minute. Could it be in part because everyone here is from somewhere else and somewhere else they all drive on the other side of the road? The city is also incredibly Byzantine and un-organized compared to Paris—part of its charm too, but from a driver’s point of view, they could have used another Haussmann. Nevertheless Londoners do bike, perhaps more than Parisians; here are some wonky statistics: 40,000 Parisians out of 2.5 million say they use their bikes regularly. (What does regularly mean?) In London, according to a 2004 travel report, 26 million journeys a day are made in London, including people commuting. Of these, 300,000 are made by bicycle. Sounds like a lot to me….
Maybe one just notices London bikers more—they wear helmets with flashing lights on them, they wear fluorescent yellow jackets and fluorescent bands around their ankles. In a city where people are generally nicer to each other than in Paris, there isn’t much camaraderie among London bikers because they’re too busy concentrating on not getting hit by a bus. In Paris there’s a newfound camaraderie around the Velib bicycle rental points because figuring out the rental system isn’t easy at first.
When I moved to London initially I had a good thing going for bicycle repairs. My neighbors had put me on to Larry, a retiree who had become a bike doctor. He would sail over on his bike that same day, drink copious amounts of milky earl grey tea, and for a small fee repair flat tires—mainly from rose thorns and broken glass strewn outside the pubs that hadn’t yet been swept up in the morning, but also other minor bike problems. Sometimes, though, he’d go for a long time without answering messages, and then re-surface weeks later. I finally realized what everyone else knew—he regularly went on drinking binges. Now it’s been four months since I left a message and the other day we crossed paths on our bicycles at an intersection. He waved at me and gestured to show he would call promptly. I’m still waiting for him to do some work on my brakes...

EcoEDGE2: Melbourne in February book now

Given the fact that more than half the world lives in cities and that climate change is precipitous, planning and building sustainable cities is an urgent matter. EcoEDGE2 is the 6th in a series of conferences hosted by the city of Melbourne, Australia from February 14-16, 2008. Architects, urban designers and planners and landscape architects will participate in EcoEDGE2 to discuss GREEN urbanism, GREEN buildings and GREEN housing. The list of participants reads like a cast of stars. It includes Anna Tibaijuka – UN Habitat, Kenya, Michaela Brüel – European Green Cities Network, Denmark, Santha Sheela Nair – Department of Drinking Water Supply, (DDWS) India, Neville Mars – Architect, Amsterdam and Beijing, Bernard Khoury – Architect, Beirut, Gerard Evenden – Foster + Partners, Architects, UK.
Early registration ends October 31. For more information click here


Photo of Shanghai by Neville Mars

Anubis floats under London's Tower Bridge

On Monday Londoners were briefly caught off guard when a 7.6 meter gold and black statue of the Egyptian funerary god, Anubis, floated down the Thames on a cargo boat. Anubis was taken to Trafalgar Square where he will stand for three days promoting an exhibition on the treasures found in King Tutankhamon's tomb that opens in London in November.

photo by AP

Japanese commuters watch TV on their mobiles.

This photograph by David Sacks/Getty was published in today's Guardian. Commuting in Paris somehow feels less civilized and slightly more interactive..

Alternate Side of the Street Living by Alex Sinclair

The car has got to be moved.
It’s got to be moved because it’s 7:15am on Tuesday.
“You have to move the car!” I roar at my husband, who is a large bump under the covers. He grunts. The sound of engines revving outside the window signals the urgency of the mission at hand. The morning mania has begun. Our car is on the side of the street that has to be cleaned on Tuesdays and Thursdays, from 8am to 11am. During that time, cars can unofficially double park on the alternate, ‘Monday, Wednesday, Friday’ side. Fine, except that it’s now 7:20am, the kids aren’t up because it’s not the weekend, and Son Number Two has to be on his school bus by 8:03am.
If you’re fool enough to own a car in Manhattan, let alone park it on the street, forget about coffee. In fact, forget about a life. Some people live in their cars. Now I know why. You have to be physically in the damn thing, with the wheels rotating by 7:25am or you can kiss a “double parked” spot goodbye. It’s the urban Grand Prix taking place on every block throughout the city. Without a spot, you’re left to wander around in parking space limbo with nowhere to put it.
If you’re lucky and you do get to double-park, then you just have to sit in your car, like a giant paperweight, smirking at those who are still circling the block and pretending to be very busy with your cell phone or newspaper until 8am, when you can officially step out of it. Leave one second earlier and you’re ticketed.
My husband is out of bed and in the car within five minutes -- I check out of the window to see if he remembered to put on pants. Then I play reveille in the boys’ room with my vocal chords and try to impress upon them the need to put on clothes instead of hanging naked from the bunk beds. I also have to shower, get dressed, prepare a bottle for the sixteen-month old, dress her, make sure that the boys load their packed lunches, snacks and homework into their backpacks, and try to figure out what the hell they will eat for breakfast. I discover that we are out of everything, including toilet paper (“mom!”) On this particular morning we’re out of peanut butter, jam, eggs, cheese -- we’re even out of bread. Except for a few cans of black beans and an enormous packet of dry cat food -- we’re picked clean. I decide that we’ll take the kids out for breakfast and I’ll use the car for a grocery shop. Parking solved. Till tomorrow.

Lexik des cités

AFP - Dimanche 23 septembre, 15h32
Dix jeunes du quartier du Bois-Sauvage à Evry, des garçons et des filles âgés de 18 à 25 ans, expliquent dans le "Lexik des cités" leurs mots, ceux utilisés par les jeunes dans les banlieues, pour éviter les "quiproquos" entre jeunes et adultes

Ten youths ages 18-25 have put together a glossary of words commonly used in Parisian urban housing estates, or projects. The "Lexik des cités" was created with the intention of avoiding misunderstandings between adults and youths.

Published by éditions Fleuve Noir, Lexik des Cités is 366 pages long, costs 19,90 euros, and will go on sale in France on October 4, 2007.

Stockholm or bust

Stockholm came first in a Reader's Digest ranking published on Thursday assessing the quality of life in 72 cities worldwide. The criteria for this included public transportation, parks, air quality, rubbish recycling and the price of electricity.
Stockholm was followed by Oslo, Munich and Paris.
Asia's cities fared the worst. Beijing was at the bottom of the ranking, preceded by Shanghai, Mumbai, Guangzhou and Bangkok.
Nordic countries also take the greatest care of their environment and their people, according to the same report.
Finland comes first in the 141-nation list, followed by Iceland, Norway and Sweden. At the bottom of the list is Ethiopia, preceded by Niger, Sierra Leone, Burkina Faso and Chad. The United States comes in 23rd, China 84th and India 104th.
The ranking combines environmental factors, such as air and water quality, respect for biodiversity and greenhouse-gas emissions, as well as social factors, such as gross domestic product, access to education, unemployment rate and life expectancy.
The statistical basis is the UN's Human Development Index and the Environmental Sustainability Index drawn up by Yale and Columbia universities and the World Economic Forum.

Quito

While some of us feel we're on the top of the world in Montmartre, others are living at 2800 meters above sea level. Quito, Ecuador: population 1.5 million, surrounded by four volcanoes. One method of transportation: the cable car.

Vive le Velib

In this car glutted city surrounded by a congested peripherique, or beltway, the hero of the day is the Velib. Parisians are sailing down from Montmartre on their rented bikes, an initiative put in place by Paris' mayor this summer. (Needless to say, riding uphill to Montmartre is less attractive--there is a shortage of bikes in Montmartre and near the Place Gambetta). To find out more about Velib see the link list.

ahh, cities