Obesogenic Motorgenic Cincinnati

I want to do what is good, but I don't. I don't want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway. - Romans 7:19

I believe this newly invented word obesogenic is helpful in thinking about how our environment and culture affect our individual bodies. I have had times in my life in which my environment was much healthier, and as a result I was physically much healthier.

For example, in 1986 (I think), I lived for a few months in Spain. While I was there, I had no access to fast food, junk food or even any dairy products. However, I ate whenever I wanted and drank whatever I wanted. I found when I returned home that my clothes were all loose and I felt fantastic. My tastes in food had even changed. Since then, I have tried to recreate that diet, but it is difficult because diet is so integrated into our culture and lifestyle.

I find more and more that the idea that we are all independent and that we are each as individuals totally responsible for our well-being to be false. Yes of course I am responsible for my own actions, but it is an acutely American way of thinking that disallows common action for improvement.

For example, I hate bike riding,... at least in Cincinnati. Yes the hills are one reason, but mostly I ride in the basin, so that is not the main reason. It is just way too dangerous, especially with children. And to take two kids with me on bikes is a huge ordeal. Just getting 3 bikes out the door with 3 helmets and bike locks and lights if it is dark, is just ridiculous. And downtown is not much different than many suburban areas (except that you have a garage to keep all the bikes). I really don't see that many suburban kids out riding beyond their cul-de-sac... because cars rule and it is too dangerous. Nothing like this.

I saw an item a few weeks ago a woman was prosecuted after her son was killed by a car while jaywalking. Frankly, I don't think jaywalking should even be a crime on any residential street. The prosecution of this poor woman is just an indication of how backwards American thinking is about walking vs cars. Cars rule, period.

We live in a motorgenic environment. Motorized vehicles rule our public streets and pedestrians and bicyclists are scared and pushed to the fringes. This attitude ruins cities. It destroys shopping streets, public spaces, streets and sidewalks.

Cars and walkers can only successfully mix if the actions of the car are restrained and the actions of the walkers and bikers are liberated.

We need to change from a motorgenic environment to a muscle-powered, socially oriented, pedestrian friendly environment.


‘We live in an obesogenic environment – a plethora of fast food outlets, reliance on cars, and offers enticing us to eat larger portions …’Professor Mike Kelly – as quoted in the Telegraph 8th October 2003

Join the movement to move your feet

The High Bridge on Cincinnati Southern RR

I had a post a few years back about Shaker Village near Lexington.

The Cincinnati Southern Railroad passes near Shaker Village, and there is this incredible bridge over the Kentucky river gorge that we have seen it often from below. This past weekend, we took a detour and went to the top of the far side and saw this:

 

high bridge 

Description front 

plaque back 

 

Infrastructure Cult

We need smart infrastructure, not just wider roads:

...we want our infrastructure maintained. In fact, it's the common denominator of a Strong Town. But the reason why we can't maintain our infrastructure is not because we lack the money or are afraid to spend it. It is because the systems we have built and the decisions we've made on what is a good investment are based on the kind of ridiculous math you see reflected in this ASCE report. We spend a billion here and a billion there and we get nothing but a couple minutes shaved off of our commutes, which just means we can build more roads and live further away from where we work. - Charles Marohn

Melan Arch Bridge

First concrete arch bridge in Ohio, 1894

Can We Still Build Infrastructure?

The American notion of the open road is something we don't want to think about the details of.. we don't want to think about the real costs of it. We want to pretend that our gas taxes pay for our roads in full and that they should never have tolls on them and that raising the gas tax is unnecessary. But we haven't raised the gas tax since 1991 or 2 and it wasn't pegged to inflation or the price of gas, it was just a certain number of pennies per gallon. That money has become worth less even as the cost of construction has gone up and even as our roads are aging and the maintenance costs are going up so we're in a real pickle. The roads never paid for themselves really, because of the external costs, but we're in a position now where the notion that I can get in our car and drive wherever I want for free needs to go away...."

...I did get to interview the guy who was the head of Cintra operations in America, his name is Jose Maria Lopez Defuentes, and... he's coming from Europe, where there are tons of privatized toll roads, its normal there and nobody fights them. And he is trying to build them in Canada and the US, and I said "what were you surprised about as far as our culture and the way we see our infrastructure?', and he says: "You are all riding around, you're living in a house your grandparents built and you think it is free, but now the roof is leaking, and now you have to fix the floors and there's all this maintenance that you weren't really expecting.." and its a real culture shock. We're not in the frame of mind to build anything or even fix anything on a big scale...
-Matt Dellinger, on JH Kunstler's latest podcast

They are discussing Matt's new book, Interstate 69.

Toronto Public Toilet

This blog has touched on the public toilet problem a few times. Necessary facilities like this are important if you want your parks, streets and transit to be successful. The private businesses cannot always provide this service to the public, and the city park toilets are often closed, unusable, unsanitary or unsafe; and both private and public toilets have limited hours. Twenty-some years ago, I was in Paris and saw self cleaning public toilets that cost the equivalent of 25 cents per use. They were located in places with high tourist foot traffic. A quarter century later they have made it to this continent. How long until they make it to the Midwest? Note that in this case, an advertising company installs them in return for 20 years of advertising space:

Toronto’s first automated public toilet is now a top tourist photo destination.

The $400,000 Harbourfront street potty proved so popular since May, “we’ll soon pick the next three locations,” said Kyp Perikleous, manager of the street furniture division of the city’s transportation department.

“It’s quite an attraction,” he said. “There are people standing in front having their photos taken ... some on the inside.”

As of Dec. 17, with 8,200 door-openings — some for diaper-equipped families — Perikleous said the three-metre-square stainless steel bunker-like biffy “exceeds” customer expectations.

It was built 35% larger than those in U.S. and European cities to provide wheelchair access.

“It’s the best I’ve seen,” Leaside resident Dave Darnell said recently.

“And it doesn’t smell,” the 60-year-old globe-trotter said, comparing the Rees Ave.-Queen’s Quay facility to ones in New York, Rome, Paris and Germany.

The 25¢ fee wasn’t intended to leave the supplier flush with cash, Perikleous said.

Instead, the deal with Montreal-based Astral Out-of-Home for up to 20 over 20 years lets it advertise on transit shelters plus 120 city information pillars.

The lone loo was part of a $1-billion contract that includes the former Astral Media Outdoor firm providing waste bins, transit shelters, benches and bike posts.

After 2017, the city will own all 25,000 pieces of street furniture and will consider more pay-to-pee permanent potties.

Sensors keep officials privy to the potty’s popularity.

The coin slot will accept anything up to a Twonie, but doesn’t make change.

The door operates automatically, Perikleous said, toilet paper supplies remain constant, air is vented in summer, warmed in winter, and patrons receive audible warnings. Lights flash before the door pops opens after 20 minutes.

There is even soft music and an emergency escape hatch.

When vacated at the push of a button, the toilet seat retracts for heat mist cleaning, and after three uses, water sluices the interior, draining through the porous, non-slip floor.

It malfunctioned once, when the retractor failed in July, Perikleous said.

That “minor glitch” lasted 40 minutes, until repairs were completed.

-Toronto Sun

Ravine at McMillian

Excellent!! Contractor is currently widening the sidewalk at the very top of Ravine:
 

Permeable Pavements

I've been noticing the City's Engineering Department has initiated a project to install water permeable pavements in some locations. This is a fantastic development.

Solidly paved surfaces treat rainwater as a waste product. Rain is typically channeled and piped away as quickly as possible. This is a problem because the vegetation (street trees mostly) needs that water.

Also, all that channeled rainwater overwhelms our combined sewer system during heavy rains. Any water diverted from the storm pipes save the City headaches.

So I noticed that last week during a heavy rain, that no water was being channeled down Comer Alley. Comer Alley is a one-block alley that parallels Race Street and runs between 14th and 15th. It was re-built last year as part of the OTR Community Housing Project "City Home". It was rebuilt to make it easier to use so that vehicles could access new rear garages. Before, the alley was only eight feet wide between granite curbs, and this made it very tight in which to drive a car.

The Alley bricks were removed, and a permeable gravel base was installed. Then the old bricks were re-installed level with the granite curbs. When the bricks were reinstalled, slight gaps were left between the bricks and filled with gravel. These joints absorb all the water and direct it into the ground. It is a beautiful solution to several problems.

Here is a picture of nearby Osborne Alley, half-done:
 

 

See here for some during construction photos of the alley.

I also noticed that a similar effort was made at University of Cincinnati, near trees. Notice that here, the pavers are laid in a different pattern above the tree roots, allowing water to enter the ground:
 

UPDATE: Here is a great article about permeable alley pavements in Chicago

Beyond Motor City

In a comment post a few days ago, Quim posted a link to the PBS show "Beyond Motor City" I just watched it and found it some of it fascinating. For example, these quotes from the segment about Spain's infrastructure improvements:

These trains travel at 200-300km/hr. What we have found out in Spain is that distances of 400-700 km which can be travelled in about 2.5 hrs are faster than a plane.
-tour guide at train factory

The National Govt should be worrying about arms control, not potholes...
-Ronald Reagan, 1982 State of the Union Address

In 1980, we spent 3% of GDP on infrastructure. Today it is 1.3%
- Norman Anderson transportation consultant CG/LA Infrastructure

Through the eyes of a Spaniard, the (US) Interstate Highway system was a wonder. You were our example in the last century ....Begining in he 1980s in the US it was perceptible that things had begun to deteriorate, that the maintenance of those infrastructures was getting worse, and that the networks didn't evolve in any way to keep pace with the country. And in the 1990s in terms of infrastructure it was a country that had fallen behind the standards of any European country....

I would say that not only is the Spanish citizen content with how our country has been transformed (by the transit infrastructure) but I would say it has been incorporated into their basic outlook and they demand from their polititians the improvement of their infrastructure."
- Pedro Perez, Secretary of the Economy, Spain 1988-1993

(They key to maintaining public support, has been to create a system that works.) "The great majority of our riders use at least two types of transportation. Because of this, it is absolutely necessary that the points of transfer are very easy for the clients and that the path they follow and the amount of time invested be minimal."
-Ildefenso de Matias, Director of the Madrid Metro".
(In Madrid, a single ticket pays for parking, commuter rail, and subway).

If you go to the website, they also have a strange 70s interview with Robert Moses and other interesting clips like one of Mitch and Gina (former OTR resident)and their $1,000 house.

Somewhere in the video, when talking about 19th century investments, they talk about the Tehachapi Loop. Here in Google maps you can clearly see that trains are still using this infrastructure.

Markings on the Curbs

OK, I realize this is pretty trivial, but I have noticed these markings on a lot of the old granite curbs. Sometimes there are channels cut out for downspout drains, and sometimes there are even iron eye-hooks set in the stone. Here are a few photos snapped while walking around the past few months:


An arrow:

Arrow:

A "T":

An "F":

A "GF"?:

Another T:

An "E":

A triangle, this one in concrete:

An "A":

Blobs or squares:

A 'D"?:

An E:

box with lines down:

Box with a dash:

Dash in a box:

A summary of the above shapes:


I think the left half are all water valve symbols. I would guess the E is electric and T for telephone?

Nuclear the Only Power Solution

...that is, if you want to consume at current rates and not devastate the environment and/or the economy. This blogger supports nuclear power and urban living as a green solution that could make America energy self sufficient. Biofuels, solar and wind's numbers don't add up, and the current path of coal and oil is destructive on many levels.

The Next Subprime Mortgage Meltdown

...Obama's $787-billion stimulus package will be steering us down the path California took in the 1980s and 1990s, leading up to the great California Electrical Shortage of 2000.....There is not one penny in the bill for the one form of energy that might give this country a future --nuclear power.

...windmills are producing almost no useful electricity and will become a huge drag on the economy -- just as biofuels have done nothing to reduce our dependence on foreign oil and have just led to hundreds of millions in wasted investments.

..."All these wind farms...only deliver electricity 20-30 percent of the time at best. Because they're so unpredictable, you can't shut anything else down...

...it's nice to watch those 45-story structures going round and round but don't count on them to produce any useful electricity.

...because of their vast land requirements (125 square miles to match the average coal or nuclear plant), they must be located far from population centers. ...you we have be rebuild the entire national grid in order to accommodate them....

... France, unlike the rest of the world, has not yet fallen into a recession. The reporter attributed this to France's high level of government employment, but a much more likely explanation is France's complete conversion to nuclear energy. With 80 percent of its electricity coming from nuclear and the rest from hydro, France pays the lowest electrical rates in Europe -- and has the lowest carbon emissions on top of that....

These windmills, located along mountaintops in West Virginia, were not moving much when I saw them last fall.

Investment Deficit Disorder

...As a country we have been spending too much on the present and not enough on the future. We have been consuming rather than investing. We’re suffering from investment-deficit disorder.

You can find examples of this disorder in just about any realm of American life. Walk into a doctor’s office and you will be asked to fill out a long form with the most basic kinds of information that you have provided dozens of times before. Walk into a doctor’s office in many other rich countries and that information — as well as your medical history — will be stored in computers. These electronic records not only reduce hassle; they also reduce medical errors. Americans cannot avail themselves of this innovation despite the fact that the United States spends far more on health care, per person, than any other country. We are spending our money to consume medical treatments, many of which have only marginal health benefits, rather than to invest it in ways that would eventually have far broader benefits.

... And transportation: a trip from Boston to Washington, on the fastest train in this country, takes six-and-a-half hours. A trip from Paris to Marseilles, roughly the same distance, takes three hours — a result of the French government’s commitment to infrastructure.

These are only a few examples. Tucked away in the many statistical tables at the Commerce Department are numbers on how much the government and the private sector spend on investment and research — on highways, software, medical research and other things likely to yield future benefits. Spending by the private sector hasn’t changed much over time. It was equal to 17 percent of G.D.P. 50 years ago, and it is about 17 percent now. But spending by the government — federal, state and local — has changed. It has dropped from about 7 percent of G.D.P. in the 1950s to about 4 percent now.

Governments have a unique role to play in making investments for two main reasons. Some activities, like mass transportation and pollution reduction, have societal benefits but not necessarily financial ones, and the private sector simply won’t undertake them. And while many other kinds of investments do bring big financial returns, only a fraction of those returns go to the original investor. This makes the private sector reluctant to jump in. As a result, economists say that the private sector tends to spend less on research and investment than is economically ideal.

Historically, the government has stepped into the void...

The Big Fix, a long article in the NY Times yesterday

Infrastructure Era to Follow Icon Decade

 

Has Zaha's ship run aground? Is iconic starchitecture in its death throes? Will it be replaced with the age of infrastructure?

By Blair Kamin |Tribune critic

The age of the architectural icon—that extravagant, exuberant, "wow"-inducing building on a pedestal—is dead, or more precisely, in its death throes. And what will replace it? President Barack Obama, who once dreamed of being an architect, had something to say about that Tuesday in his inaugural address: the age of infrastructure.

...The icon age was born in 1997 with the smash opening of Frank Gehry's Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain. The titanium-clad museum, with its dazzling collage of shapes, spawned a new "build it, and they will come" mentality: Hire a star architect, or "starchitect," give him or her free aesthetic rein, and watch the tourists or the buyers arrive.

...And yet, icons divorced from infrastructure are nothing more than empty set pieces, objects divorced from the fabric of everyday life.

..Even as McMansions swelled the average size of the American single-family home, the nation's commitment to the public realm was shrinking. That was evident not only in New Orleans' flooded lower 9th Ward, but also in crumbling roads and bridges, as well as schools...

...the real issues transcend style. They are about whether the new infrastructure will help usher in a new set of urban growth patterns—dense neighborhoods where you can walk or bike to the corner store to buy a carton of milk—or whether new roads and bridges will simply reinforce suburban sprawl.

...the Appropriations Committee version of the stimulus bill shrinks ... rail and transit spending while leaving highway and bridge funding...

... Icon architecture is no longer the issue du jour. It's sustainability—and survival.

See also, the End of the Bilbao Decade.

Quadruple Bubbler

The city we visited had these unique, native-made fountains all-around the city center:

 

Sewer Lids and Infrastructure

Sorry to bore you, but I find this stuff interesting:
Old gas and Electric Lid:

 

Traffic Cable Marker:

 

The new sewer lids:

 

Last Fire Box

This may be the last box like this in town. There were hundreds of them on posts, mounted around town. This own is probably not functional, as the cut wires seem to be dangling to the left. This one is unusual in that it is mounted on a building, when most of them were on posts on the sidewalk.

 

Newspaper Rack Issue

 

There are 13 racks in this picture. A few of them are empty, and a few are knocked over with their contents spilled onto the sidewalk.

I remember councilmember John Mirlisena, in the early 1990's making war against these unsightly boxes. He lost in court because the law he wrote dicriminated against advertising circulars in favor of real newspapers.

Council needs to revisit the issue. I know this borders on being a trivial issue. I almost wonder if it is worth blogging about. But council should spend a little time on this issue, and resolve it once and for all.

Maybe the fees for the permits should be raised, maybe a uniform box should be supplied. Maybe the vendors should be required to supply a box that meets a certain standard. Maybe the best solution is to copy whatever it is Columbus did, they seem to have uniform boxes.

Summary of the 1993 Supreme Court Case: City of Cincinnati vs Discovery Network.

Ann Arbor Leading Way on Street Lighting

..By switching to LED fixtures that save energy and preserve the night sky:

 

Ann Arbor is changing city street lights to power saving LEDs. They hope to save over $100k dollars a year in electricity costs. However, they also will be helping the citizens see the night sky, because LED fixtures are typically full cut-off type lights that direct the light to the ground instead of into the sky. LED lights are by design one-directional, as opposed to standard incandescent bulbs which radiate light in all directions. They are inherently more efficient because all the energy is used for it's intended purpose (to light a specific surface), and less energy is wasted on unintentional lighting of neighbor's windows or the night sky.

ANN ARBOR, MI — The City of Ann Arbor, Michigan, the newest LED City™, expects to install more than 1,000 LED streetlights beginning next month. The City anticipates a 3.8-year payback on its initial investment. The LED lights typically burn five times longer than the bulbs they replace and require less than half the energy. The LED streetlights currently installed in Ann Arbor are based on the New Westminster Series made by Lumec, Inc., which contain LED light engines from Relume Technologies, Inc. The light engines are based on the performance-leading Cree XLamp® LED.

An older article here, describing the process Ann Arbor went through the past few years evaluating the lighting options.
Here is an interview with the guy in charge of Ann Arbor's lights. Also a detailed description of the engineering issues.

Typical LED cobra-head type roadway fixture:

 

Cincinnati should do this. It would improve the quality of life, have long term costs savings, and it could help market Cincinnati as a green city. Everyone will be switching to these someday, why not be a leader?

Previous post on stargazing in the city.

Sidewalk Trees

Regular Tree Grate, cut as it should be for a growing tree:

 

Fancy Tree Grate at Government Square:

 

Sycamores in the center of Court Street, grate removed:

 

OTR Community Council planting Locusts with volunteers in early 1990's:

 

The same tree today. I think it was planted crooked and thus it is bent:

 

A new lawn in OTR bounded by weed Mulberry trees where buildings once stood:

 

[where: 1505-15 Race Street, Cincinnati, OH 45202]

Walkers Subsidize Drivers

An interesting article claiming that cars do not pay their way (ie: walking taxpayers subsidize driving taxpayers):

The analysis indicates that in the U.S. current tax and fee payments to the government by motor-vehicle users fall short of government expenditures related to motor-vehicle use by approximately 20-70 cents per gallon of all motor fuel. (Note that in this accounting we include only government expenditures; we do not include any "external" costs of motor-vehicle use.)

That implied subsidy of 20 to 70 cents a gallon -- which excludes social and environmental costs such as climate damage and uncompensated crash costs, which Delucchi has tallied elsewhere -- equates to 7 to 25 percent of the current price of gasoline. On a dollar basis, U.S. drivers are underpaying local, state and national governments by $40 to $105 billion a year.

I link to this for two reasons. I am tired of people complaining about the price of gas and voting against any politician (if there are any) that proposes to raise the oil tax. Secondly, I am tired of hearing people say that rail/bus service must pay for itself. It is hard for other transportation methods to compete with subsidized cars.

The only thing I would add is that subsidy of any transport, will increase the distance that people travel daily. Lacking subsidy, more people would live closer to work and shops.