a better urban life
  • Home
  • City Livability Blog
  • Project Samples
  • About
  • Links

The Tantalizing Complexity of Tokyo

1/24/2014

1 Comment

 
PictureBuilding with tiny footprint and artsy wall texture in Ikejiri-Ohashi, crisscrossed by utility wires.
Tokyo is arguably the greatest city in the world.  It is certainly the biggest and is a world leader in things ranging from safety (safer than Zurich) to the number of Michelin 3 star restaurants (more than Paris). 

What makes Tokyo so tantalizing to me is its unrivaled density of alluring features and its profusion of things to do and see.  The very structure of Tokyo is based upon adeptly and intensively utilizing every square meter of available space.  This intensity, flavored with Japanese culture, is the alchemy that creates this city's good life. 

The beauty of Tokyo is not the sort of beauty people associate with cities such as Paris.  Paris and Tokyo do have certain things in common, including incredible food, high culture, and general sophistication.  But Tokyo's beauty is not visible on a grand scale.  Instead it resides in the small details of every street. 

PictureStreet scene at night from Shibuya (courtesy cocoip)
These details are evident on every street you walk along.  But in Tokyo's main shopping and entertainment districts, the density of detail is like nothing you will see anywhere else.  The picture to the right shows a street in Shibuya, with signs advertising fast food, convenience stores, restaurants, karaoke boxes and pachinko parlors among many other businesses.  It's a kind of madness that plays out on multiple levels in all the multi-storied buildings.  It's quite normal to go up 6 floors to visit your favorite bar.  The strangeness to most foreigners of the written Japanese language makes Tokyo appear even madder than it is.  But reading the language is like turning on the lights!  There is so much information. 

PictureDrug store in central Tokyo.
The intensity of details and features is not skin deep.  It penetrates into most any business you enter.  You can see it in the tightly-packed 24-hour convenience stores that are everywhere.  They are brimming with products and services often unlike those in any other country, with astounding variety, including prepared Japanese foods, an enormous variety of beverages, and a broad selection of groceries and toiletries.  While living in Japan for 10 years, I was always disappointed to come home and see the relatively barren, often dirty, 7-11 stores in the US.  I wondered how they could afford to utilize their retail space so poorly. 

Drug stores are equally full of density and surprises.  The picture above shows Matsumoto Kiyoshi, one of my favorites, in Yurakucho (near Tokyo Station).  I don't believe you can find intense organization and variety like this in any store outside of Japan.  Shelves and all available spaces, literally, are carefully and artfully filled with seemingly unending products.  This product variety, I believe, is partly due to Japan having a dualistic medical system based on both Western medicine and traditional Japanese medicine (similar to Chinese medicine).  I wonder if product developers from the US and Europe come to Japan for new product ideas.  The stores are full of them!

PictureAn incredible selection of insoles to insert in shoes, at Tokyu Hands.
The retail abundance in convenience and drug stores is not an anomaly.  The remarkable cornucopia extends into many other types of businesses, from bountiful bookstores to exhaustively stocked do-it-yourself stores such as the eight-story-tall Tokyu Hands in Shibuya,. pictured at the right.

In my opinion, it's difficult to find retail rivaling Japan's abroad, at least when it comes to the variety and quality of products offered. 

I'm interested in Japan's hyper-developed retail spaces because, like Japanese cooking (which I wrote about in my last posting), they help provide a kind of framework for understanding the uniqueness of Tokyo and other Japanese cities.  They're a window into Japanese culture that showcase characteristics that permeate and define Tokyo's general physical environment and urban infrastructure.

PictureAerial view of the Ohashi Junction project.
A striking example of the Japanese approach to urban design is Ohashi Junction in Ikejiri-Ohashi.  This traffic management project includes a new covered highway interchange enmeshed in a complex of apartment buildings, retail outlets, a public library, a soccer field and a 'rooftop' park (including a rice paddy) extending along the cover of the circular junction (see the picture to the right).  This project exemplifies the detail-oriented, space intensive, innovative design that makes Tokyo unique. 

As this massive project was only minutes from where I stayed in Ikejiri-Ohashi, I had plenty of time to explore the details.  As you can see in the pictures below, very little space went to waste and high quality materials were used throughout.  I marveled at the pristine and seemingly perfect cement used throughout the structure.  If a project of this quality, complexity and innovativeness were to arise in New York or London, it would be world famous.  Nowhere else have I seen highway infrastructure so fully and tastefully integrated into the urban fabric that it actually improves a neighborhood. 

I took the elevator up to the Meguro Sky Garden above the interchange and ventured out into the lush landscaping high above the streets of Tokyo.  It was hard to imagine that I was walking on the roof of a highway junction.  The park space was comfortable, with plenty of places to sit and enjoy the view.  It was remarkable and a true green oasis in what would normally be a wasteland used only by vehicles. 

If you want to see what it's like to drive through the interchange and then further along a covered highway emerging in another part of Tokyo, check out this video.

Below are a few pictures I took on my walk around the project. 

PictureStream and diverse vegetation on the Meguro Green Promenade.
Almost directly across the street from the Ohashi Junction project is the entrance to the Meguro Green Promenade, another example of unusual design and evidence of the surprising complexity and diversity of Tokyo.  I was in Ikejiri-Ohashi because the friends I stayed with live here, and I just happened to discover these things within five minutes of their home. 

The Green Promenade runs for several kilometers along the surface of a covered portion of the Meguro River and has been designed as a peaceful oasis in the middle of this hectic city.  It is filled with biodiversity and features a little stream with crystal-clear water which provides a home for small fish, crayfish and water striders. 

The surrounding landscaping is atypical, especially for Tokyo, in that it has a high level of plant, insect and animal biodiversity.  Although I was in the center of the biggest city in the world, I saw many birds, butterflies and other insect life.  This totally artificial creation has become an important refuge for nature.   

In the video below, you can walk with me along the Promenade. I need to improve my video-taking technique, but it's a glimpse into another part of Tokyo few visitors see. 

PictureSign for Machi-ing Hongo, which works to maintain and green the neighborhood
One day I went to visit my old central-Tokyo neighborhood of Bunkyo Ward (where I lived for 10 years), and was pleased to see the evidence of citizen involvement in maintaining the urban environment. 

The sign to the right is from a local non-profit in the Hongo neighborhood. The organization works to keep the streets clean and green.  This NPO (non-profit organization) is called something like "Towning Hongo" if translated into English.  This sign illustrates the flexibility and acquisitiveness of the Japanese language.  Japanese unabashedly appropriates words, acronyms and even grammatical phrases from foreign languages with no fear of diluting itself.  The Japanese may at times be a bit xenophobic, but their language isn't.  The top line of the sign reads "NPO Corporation 'Machi-ing' Hongo.

New citizen-based movements are taking to the streets as a reaction to poor economic conditions, lower government resources and a shift away from small, private businesses to chain stores and restaurants.  The locally owned stores were apparently better neighborhood stewards. 

PictureMy friend Sachiko on the platform waiting for our train to Tochigi Prefecture.
Finally, a word on transport.  Tokyo has by far the most comprehensive and complex public transportation network in the world.   It is as dense and complex as everything else in this city but makes getting around very easy and stress-free (except, perhaps, during rush hour).  Tokyoites tend to take public transport, walk or ride their bicycles instead of driving cars. 

This city is also connected with all other major cities in Japan by the world-famous bullet train system (picture at left).  The stations and trains are spotless and trains are almost always perfectly on time. 

Below is a map of the full Tokyo metropolitan commuter rail network, including subways and the many other private rail lines Tokyoites use to get around their metro area.  There are over 1000 stations.  No system anywhere else comes close in scale. 

Picture
1 Comment

Hangzhou, China:  Exuberantly Green

11/15/2013

4 Comments

 
PictureThe beautiful Shuyuan Park in Hangzhou
I've got my biases. One of them is that urban greening and infrastructure design is way ahead in the rich world, particularly in northern Europe and countries like Singapore and Australia. 

Travel, however, melts away prejudices.  My recent three-week stay in China certainly altered my elitist views associating beautiful city infrastructure and urban greening with the so-called rich world.

China is on many peoples' minds.  I believe it's a generally poorly understood country that, due to its growing economic and political power, tends to give rise to fears in other countries.  In this sense, China is a bigger version of the demonized Japan of the 1970s and 80s.  While I think fears of China are misplaced - China's rise offers more benefits than disadvantages to the rest of the world - I can see how its rapid move into the future could be unnerving to some.  Some of the nasty side effects of its massive industrialization are alarming, particularly the air and water pollution.  But on the whole, I would say its advances are positively breathtaking.  Based on decades of living and traveling in East Asia, I believe China's future is quite bright and shows clear parallels to the rapid economic rise of countries such as Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, albeit on an enormous scale. 

In my recent three-week stay in China, I visited Hangzhou and Shanghai.  It would be odd to classify either of these two cities as 'poor' and typical of the developing world.  Although China is ranked at the same per capita income level as countries such as Colombia and Thailand, in terms of physical infrastructure Chinese cities have more in common with those in far wealthier countries.  As a matter of fact, I believe statistics on China (at least regarding the coastal areas) are misleading.  This country is far ahead of where most people think it is. 

PictureA map of the historic Grand Canal, showing Hangzhou's location in China.
In this posting I will focus in particular on Hangzhou, the capital of Zhejiang Province in eastern China.  It's a city I knew little about and which I had never before visited.   Hangzhou came as a surprise. It enchanted me with its beauty, exuberance of green and sense of order and well-being. 

Hangzhou is a mid-sized Chinese city of 6 million people but, according to the Chinese government, it has a metropolitan area population of 21 million.  Yes, 21 million. Population numbers in China are mind-boggling.  Nearby Shanghai (only an hour away) has a metro population of 23 million.  Ningbo, Suzhou and Nanjing, also within roughly an hour of Hangzhou, each has a metro area population at or near 10 million.  These cities, like Hangzhou, have populations in the range of a Paris or London, but remain virtually unknown to much of the outside world.  They deserve (and will get) more attention.

The history of Hangzhou stretches back over 2000 years of Chinese history.  Marco Polo claimed to have visited Hangzhou when it was the capital of China, saying that it was 'greater than any city in the world'. It lies at the southern end of the famous "Grand Canal" (see map above), the largest artificial waterway in the world (built in the 6th and 7th centuries A.D.), which wends its way over 1700 kilometers from Hangzhou to Beijing. 

PictureHushu North Road, near my hotel. Note the finer details and cleanliness.
This ancient city must be one of the most pleasant in China.  I arrived from steamy Hong Kong in an ideal season.  The autumn weather was not too warm and the blooming sweet osmanthus filled the air with a captivating scent - so good I wanted to taste it (and in fact there are sweets based on osmanthus flowers here).  It was a magical experience.  

I quickly came to the conclusion that Hangzhou is, in many respects, a nicer place to live than very rich Hong Kong.  There is a sense of open space here and an incredible proliferation of green wherever you look. 

Hangzhou has also protected many  historical areas and structures, especially around the beautiful West Lake.  Further away from the lake, however, it's less likely to find much of anything old.  Rapid growth has meant the redevelopment of much of the city.  The upwardly mobile Chinese prefer new, modern streets that are as clean as those you would find in Japan.  And I must say these streetscapes are well-designed and well-built (see picture above). But the loss of the older neighborhoods is sad in that the streets and alleyways in these areas are especially vibrant.  They are abuzz with life and activity, and there seems to be more leeway in these places to stretch out and relax, whether it be people sitting on a curbside or restaurants extending their tables and chairs out onto the pavement.  Somehow these older streets are the 'authentic' China to me. 

Below you can see a couple of scenes from back streets and alleys, the places I would typically go to find a fresh bowl of steaming noodles or dumplings.  Although these are really remnants of the past in Hangzhou, they are alive with energy.  And it's interesting to note that like all streets in Hangzhou, they are tree-lined.  The Chinese have been at the street-tree planting thing for a long while.

PictureExample of impeccably landscaped street, with trees allocated plenty of room to grow
City planners in Hangzhou  are the most determined group of tree enthusiasts I've ever come across.  The evidence surrounds you.  Rarely have I visited a city, anywhere in the world, that has lavished so much attention and care on the planting and maintenance of trees, both in parks and along streets and roads. 

Tree planting is not done haphazardly.  Instead planting areas for trees are large and well-designed.  The Chinese seem to be well-versed in the latest research on urban tree planting and landscape architecture.  Trees here won't suffer from lack of space as they grow.  The landscaping along the edges of streets was also impressive, and brought back memories of super-organized Singapore. 

You would be hard pressed to find a large American city that lavishes as much care on its trees and landscaping,  and universally uses such a high quality of materials in the construction of its streetscapes.

Below are some pictures of tree-lined streets in Hangzhou.

As I mention above, the city of Hangzhou pays close attention to the choice of materials it uses on new sidewalks and pedestrian streets.  Instead of poured concrete or asphalt, sidewalks and other pedestrian surfaces tend to be paved with carefully laid, high-quality paving stones.  The streets and landscaped areas are also edged with stone curbs.  It gives the city a classy feeling and a sense that it is being built for the long term.  Things may move fast in China, but that does not necessarily mean that things are done shoddily.  See some paving examples below. 
PicturePlanters along edge of highway bridge
I noticed many urban greening innovations while in Hangzhou.  The city is doing its best to green areas that normally are barren and lifeless. 

At the right is an example of planters placed on top of the barrier along the edge of a highway bridge.  These planters are filled with flowering bushes, and include an irrigation system. 

Another typical eyesore that the Chinese manage to green are multi-level parking garages.  I saw planters placed along the edge of all levels of parking garages, where the cascade of plants and bushes camouflages the structure.  These parking garages were transformed from urban blight to vertical gardens that can be green centerpieces of their neighborhoods.  For years I've wondered why unsightly parking garages have to mar our cities.  There is a solution. 

PictureHangzhou East Train Station, where the new high-speed intercity trains arrive and depart.
When considering urban quality of life, it's impossible to leave out ease of mobility in and between cities.  China provides an excellent example of how good transport is planned and developed.  This country is investing heavily in public transportation, ranging from new subways to high-speed intercity trains.  It is arguably developing one of the world's most sophisticated transport systems, on par with countries such as Japan and Germany.   

Shanghai already has a very extensive (and still growing) modern subway system.  Hangzhou has built its first hyper-modern subway line, and has 6 more lines under construction or planned.  You can see an entrance to the metro and a shiny subway station platform in the two pictures below.     

PictureOn the platform, about to board the high-speed train to Shanghai
In terms of intercity mobility, China has built the world's most extensive, and most heavily traveled, high-speed train network.  This has all come in only the last seven years.  There are now over 12,000 kilometers of these elevated train lines, and the network is expected to grow 50% by 2015.  I took a high-speed train from Hangzhou to Shanghai, leaving from the shiny, new Hangzhou East Train Station, pictured above.  The experience was not very different from taking a shinkansen (bullet train) in Japan, although the Chinese have still not cultivated polite queuing behavior.  This is one of the interesting contrasts you find in China - strikingly modern infrastructure but a civic culture still catching up. 

PictureA bike-sharing station in Hangzhou.
An unpleasant reality of life in Chinese cities, Hangzhou being no exception, is very bad air quality.  Heavy industry and coal-fired power plants make the air hazy and unhealthy to breathe.  I didn't really notice the bad air in Hangzhou or Shanghai, but I was aghast at the haze I saw when I left Hangzhou by train.  A heavy smog hangs over the countryside.  Some of this may have simply been water vapor evaporating from rice paddies, but it's obvious that the country has an air-quality crisis on its hands. 

The rapidly growing numbers of automobiles on Chinese roads (more cars are sold in China than in any other country) is exacerbating this air pollution problem.  Some cities are trying to limit car ownership through license plate lotteries, and Hangzhou is considering this, as well.  But as the city is a center for auto manufacturing, strong limits are unlikely. 

A bright spot is the universal system of bike lanes on all major roads in Hangzhou.  Biking in this city is a pleasure as you are totally separated from automobile traffic on wide, well-paved bicycle lanes surrounded by lush green landscaping.  These lanes are at least double if not triple the width you would find in a city like Amsterdam.  There are separate traffic lights for bicycles and even covered shelters at intersections for bicyclists waiting in the rain or strong sun. 

Hangzhou also has the world's largest bicycle sharing system, with (as of January of last year) over 66,000 bicycles available at 2,700 stations.  The Citi Bike system in New York, by contrast, has about 6,000 bicycles. Hangzhou plans to extend the system to 175,000 bicycles by 2020.  You can see a bike-sharing station in the picture above. 

PictureWest Lake, with Leifeng Pagoda (with more than 1000 years of history) in the background.
The most famous tourist attraction in Hangzhou is West Lake.  It's been a source of inspiration to Chinese artists and writers throughout China's history and historically an inspiration to gardeners even in Japan and Korea.  It's now a UNESCO World Heritage Site,

The temples, pagodas and gardens around West Lake make up a rare, ethereally enchanting place.  For me, the closest parallel to the otherworldly beauty of this area is the fringe of temples along the edges of Kyoto in Japan.

The rather vast area of picturesque landscape and mountains surrounding the lake (more than 8,000 acres) give Hangzhou a green heart and I think may be the inspiration for the well-tended greenery throughout the city. 


PictureStairway into a beautiful park along a canal.
A special characteristic of Hangzhou, and a showcase of its horticultural genius, is the well-tended parks along its many canals.  These canal-hugging parks run all over the city and go on for kilometer after kilometer, offering a very quiet refuge from the noise and commotion of the city. 

I was amazed at how carefully designed and constructed these parks are. One day I rode my rented bicycle for hours following canal after canal.  I filmed a video of my ride along one canal, and you can see this below. 

Please note a few things about the video before taking the plunge.  It was taken while riding a bicycle and is rather shaky.  This can make for a nausea-inducing experience (maybe best not to watch it in full-screen mode).  The bicycle I rented had extremely squeaky brakes, and you can hear these throughout the recording.  Finally, I was suffering from a nasty sore throat and am clearing my throat often while I speak.  In its defense, the video gives you a great picture of a part of Hangzhou that most tourists never see.

Picture
As usual, I end with a glimpse of a few of the tasty meals I had in Hangzhou.  China is a country with a serious food culture.  Hangzhou is filled with restaurants of all kinds and levels and I must say the food is absolutely delicious.  Somehow I hadn't expected the food here to be so good.  But it was mouthwateringly tasty.

On the left, a local restaurant with scrumptuous food and a convivial atmosphere.  The men at the left really wanted to talk, although they could speak very little English.  We enjoyed a few beers together.  My friend Ting, who guided me through the culinary scene in Hangzhou, is a bit camera shy but joined me for many of my most memorable meals.  I want to extend my thanks here to Ting and the many other Chinese people who welcomed me and spoke with me about urban greening in Hangzhou.


Below are pictures of a few simple dishes, all very inexpensive, but very delicious. 

4 Comments

Santiago Balconies: Biodiversity Islands

4/22/2011

2 Comments

 
PictureThe balcony off my living room in Bogotá.
When I arrived in Bogotá and started my search for a place to live, an essential element of any candidate apartment was a balcony with plenty of sunshine.  I once lived without outdoor space in Manhattan.  As much as I loved my neighborhood and apartment, with no place to recline in the sun and tend some plants I felt confined.  City life by its nature separates us from the natural world, but even a small balcony or veranda can bring a substantive experience of nature back into one's life.  I have covered my Bogotá balcony with flowering plants, adding color and a refuge for wildlife to a previously barren space, and to my delight it's become a regular stop for green violet-ear hummingbirds, black flowerpiercers, and rufous-collared sparrows - who are at this very moment nibbling on some seeds I left out this morning.  
Balcony biodiversity is one new emphasis of urban environmentalists and it is gaining traction in some cities.  The Royal Horticultural Society in the UK held a competition on balcony biodiversity last year and there are a few British bloggers who cover balcony gardening.  It's not surprising that the UK leads in this (there are few countries as addicted to gardening), but what is encouraging to me is evidence of serious balcony gardening in cities all over the world - and its potential for supporting and increasing biodiversity.    

PictureCascading vegetation from balconies in a central Santiago neighborhood.
Last Friday I returned to Bogotá from Santiago, Chile, where I'd spent 10 days on holiday.  Santiago has many faces.   It has a European-style city center, areas more typically Latin American, and a wealthy east that looks much like northern California.  Santiago isn't as fashionable as Buenos Aires, but it does have a sense of order and functionality that makes it seem like many cities in the developed world.  But what most engaged my green eyes was the remarkably verdant balconies throughout the city.  The variety and exuberance of vegetation on these Santiago verandas is really unusual.  In Santiago I don't see much of the highly formal planting style that is more common here in Bogotá.  Instead it's a wild mish-mosh of plants that are allowed to grow and spill out over the edges with seemingly little attempt at reining it all in.

Picture
This penchant for green extends to professional buildings, as well.  On the left is the business school of the prestigious Catholic University, which has flowering vines (I don't know the species) as a built-in architectural feature.  Some decorative columns in the plaza in front of this building have small trees growing out of the top of them.  
The city of Santiago has a green plan, Santiago Verde, which nicely complements Santiago's green balconies.  The city is planting 250,000 new trees every year and designing new thematic plazas which will be named after the types of trees planted.  There will be, for example, literary plazas, gastronomic plazas and medicinal plazas, each harboring on average 50 species of trees famous in literature, food and medicine, respectively.  This program is part of Chile's national Proyecto Forestación Urbana, wherein 17 million trees will be planted in Chile's cities.  I saw a lot of progress within the city and in Santiago's outlying areas.    


A sampling of Santiago's green balconies and verandas

Some may ask if maintaining and increasing biodiversity in cities really matters.  Wouldn't it be wiser to instead focus on protecting biodiversity in natural areas, such as national parks?  The answer is becoming clear.  As urban areas relentlessly expand into agricultural, forest and natural areas, regional biodiversity is threatened.  Threats - including extinction - to many species are accelerating globally.  There is no denying the trends.  Building urban environments with habitats and sources of food for wildlife helps compensate for the loss of other habitat.  It can also create bridges between areas of remaining natural habitat now separated by human settlements, allowing for safe movement between populations of wildlife.  And as the biggest impediment to changing our destructive environmental trajectory is a lack of awareness and understanding, an urban commitment to maintaining biodiversity helps reconnect city dwellers (the majority of humanity) to the natural world making them feel they have a stake and a role in its future.
PictureDog asleep at the busy entrance to a metro stop in central Santiago.
As I'm writing about biodiversity I couldn't resist including a  picture of one of Santiago's most unforgettable species:  its street dogs. There are a large number of dogs living on the streets in Santiago, but it's not at all as you would find in a typical developing-world city.  These dogs generally look very healthy and clean, are well behaved, and just seem to be equals among the human pedestrians of the city.  I see this as just another sign of Santiago's civility.   

Picture
Santiago is a city nearing its destiny as the first developed-world capital in Latin America.  You can see it in the faces of the people, in the over one-hundred kilometers of shiny metro lines, and in the general sense of civility and calm.  Santiago may not be the most glamorous or exciting city in South America, but it does offer something rather unique in the region:  predictability and confidence in the future.  The green balconies of Santiago announce a city that has come of age.  .  

2 Comments

Tel Aviv Biodiversity Walk

8/9/2010

5 Comments

 
Tel Aviv suffers from an image problem, but not the sort you might expect.  Visitors from abroad are often surprised by the charms of this city.  But the stereotypically confident Israelis seem to have an inferiority complex, imagining that Tel Aviv doesn’t measure up to cities in Europe or elsewhere in the developed world.  To a guy coming from a beautiful-but-gray northern European city (the sort of place many Israelis favorably compare to Tel Aviv), I have to say Tel Aviv is an invigorating change.  In this biodiversity walk I’ll try to explain why, with a special emphasis on the green allure of Tel Aviv.

A good starting point to understanding the Tel Aviv difference is history.  It is not an ancient city, founded only in 1909.   Unlike other Mediterranean cities such as Rome, Athens or Barcelona, it is more reminiscent of an east Asian boom town but with the climate of southern California.  It is defined not by layers of organic growth over centuries, nor by stunning historical architecture, but by its cafes, bars, restaurants, beaches, and 24-hour lifestyle.  
PictureA corner cafe in the old heart of Tel Aviv - along a tree-studded street.
Old Tel Aviv, in the south, could be part of a developing world city (it wouldn’t be out of place in Mexico or Brazil) and exhibits much of what Jane Jacobs loved about the old Greenwich Village in NYC – a very living mix of small businesses, light industry and housing, crowded together into small, exuberant blocks.  I think this is the face of Tel Aviv that Israelis feel self conscious about.  One day they will realize that this is the very real heart of the city, and it is even now starting to gain attention as a trendy area in which to live and a transformation is under way…including tree planting. 

“New” Tel Aviv, in the north and surrounding suburbs, shows how far Israel has come in the last decades.  It is as clean and shiny as the best of Europe or East Asia.  And thanks to a combination of good planning and year-round sunshine, it is a green city that’s becoming greener as it grows.  Tel Aviv may just be one of the nicer places to live in the world and because of its climate and progressive orientation, it is also one of the more exciting green urban centers.  (This last week, however, could make one reconsider the climate as a strong point of Tel Aviv... my friend Marlene and I were schvitzing the whole week during an intense heat wave).    
Marlene and her family live in Tel Baruch Tzafon, a neighborhood in the northern part of Tel Aviv.  This is my base here.  It’s an upper-middle class area and the biodiversity walk starts here giving a view of the environs these Tel Aviv residents experience daily.  
The above pictures start with a view out of the window of Marlene’s apartment, onto Aharon Becker Street.  This area was built in 2001, and from the window you can see only a small portion of the green space that has been incorporated into the urban plan.  There’s a green median, planted with many drought-tolerant bushes and plants, and rather lush vegetation lines the front of all the buildings.  I imagine that as the years pass, this new development will have a beautiful canopy of shade trees covering the sidewalks and streets, significantly cooling the whole area during the hot summer.  The pictures that follow this show the impressive range of green space that’s creatively brought into housing developments in Tel Aviv.  
In every city I go to I try to find a unique characteristic of the green scene, and in Tel Aviv I think this has to be the green alleyways (I have no idea what the Israelis call them) that intersect every neighborhood I’ve visited.  These walkways, which bar cars, act as shortcuts between streets tying neighborhoods together.  They come in a variety of styles, but most seem to have wide swaths of bushes and trees on either side, and tend to be paved with bricks, creating a very inviting and intimate feeling.  The types of vegetation vary, and many of the newer developments specialize in plants that don’t require a lot of water, although there is invariably the drip irrigation hosing that is omnipresent in Israel.  I must say that I’ve been surprised to see some conventional lawn sprinklers in this country where water is so precious.  Even the Israelis can’t resists a lush green carpet of grass.  The following pictures are from several neighborhoods in the north of Tel Aviv, most highlighting these alleyways.  
Tel Aviv, and Israel as a whole, is a destination that makes you feel at home and want to return.  On my next visit I hope to visit more green projects, such as the old garbage dump in the east of Tel Aviv that is being transformed into a park.  The city has a long way to go to be at the top of heap of green cities – for example it’s missing an easy-to-use and comprehensive public transportation system and a usable web of bike paths – but from what I see, it’s definitely moving in the right direction. 

 
5 Comments

Watergraafsmeer Garden

7/23/2010

2 Comments

 
On a bike ride last weekend, I accidentally happened upon this elegant community garden in Watergraafsmeer (a section of Amsterdam).  I could find no signs with information and no workers in this well-tended site which is dominated by mature perennials now fully in bloom.  The choice and placing of the plants creates a delight for the eyes.  Soft pastels punctuated by bright yellows and deep reds lures you further along 3 parallel paths.  The whole garden is surrounded by a wall of Japanese yews.   
2 Comments

Amsterdam Biodiversity Walk

7/10/2010

5 Comments

 
Visitor impressions of Amsterdam often betray the small radius of the typical tourist itinerary.  The very tightly packed inner core of old Amsterdam, strung around a series of concentric half-circle canals, is one of the most charming city centers in the world.  But the Amsterdam of the majority of its inhabitants - the neighborhoods where most people live - is markedly different, yet quintessentially Dutch.  The structure of these neighborhoods makes it clear why Amsterdam ranks near the top in quality of life of major cities in the world. 
Squeezing a high quality life out one of the most densely populated places on earth, however, requires resourcefulness.  The Dutch make the most out of the space they have, and have somehow integrated a high level of greenery and biodiversity (and "coziness") into even the center of Amsterdam.  Other densely populated cities don't usually measure up. 
The following pictures take you on a walk through a small piece of Amsterdam, starting at my front door, through a bit of the park next door, and then on to a a close-by neighboorhood.  Here's the
tour map.
Picture
The picture above is taken at the front of my house on Vondelstraat, right next to Vondel Park.  It's what I wake up to every morning as I get on my bicycle to go to the office - a ten-minute ride away.  The picture doesn't show clearly some small details which are indicative of many larger-scale things in Amsterdam:  the paving stones which make up the sidewalk; the carefully hand-laid brick street; the well-groomed trees; the lovingly maintained homes each with unique architectural detail; the underground and basically invisible neighborhood garbage dumpsters; and the ubiquitous bicycle racks.  Excellent design built with quality materials, intended to last and often improve with age, all integrate beautifully into a carefully planned urban fabric that stretches out in all directions and gives one a feeling of calm and well-being.   
Picture
A gate into Vondel Park, just across the street from me.  The start of my biodiversity tour.  Note the lack of asphalt on the path.  It's simply compacted stone and sand.  Water can percolate right down through it to the roots of trees and plants. 
Picture
This is a view over one of the many naturally overgrown canals in the park, looking onto an area inaccessible to the public.  The meadow is covered with tall plants bursting into yellow bloom.  Keep in mind that this is really in the heart of Amsterdam.  
Picture
When trees have to be cut down, they are left on the ground, creating habitats for wildlife - not to mention a nice place to sit and take a break.   
Picture
And not all trees are cut down when dead.  This tree has many holes in its trunk in which birds nest, including the quickly proliferating, non-native, screeching green parrots well known (and often maligned) in this park.
Picture
The brush and twigs from cleanup in the fall and spring are laid out in long ranks, like a fence.  This not only eliminates waste but provides habitats for animals and insects. 
Picture
Above you can see, in the middle right, some sort of waterfowl spreading its wings.  It was making a lot of noise. 
Picture
All along the periphery a thick band of mixed vegetation insulates the park from the surrounding houses.  I saw a rabbit just near here. 
Picture
Crossing the Overtoom, the major street behind my house, we enter a neighborhood in the Oud West section.  The scale of this area is very human, with narrow walkways surrounded by lush greenery.  I noticed a large number of swallows in the air above indicating a healthy population of airborne insects.
Picture
The greenery extends into the canals, linking this houseboat (there are thousands of them in Amsterdam) and its colorful garden to the trees and shrubbery on the bank. 
Picture
Often, streets are blocked (with greenery) to keep cars out.  It's easiest to get around Amsterdam by bicycle and you sense the tide has turned in this city on the encroachment of the automobile.  Pedestrians and bicyclists have priority in many areas. 
Picture
You won't see manicured lawns on a typical Amsterdam street.  Rather freely growing flowers, bushes and trees - and the requisite bicycles - are the norm. 
This is one in a series of biodiversity walking tours I take through cities around the world.  My next major green tour will be through Tel Aviv in just a few weeks.  For more information on my new organization, CitiNature, please click on the Home and About Us tabs at the top of this page.
5 Comments

Santa Cruz de Tenerife Biodiversity Short Take

5/6/2009

0 Comments

 
Picture
With a spring-like climate year round, and a setting of rare natural beauty, Santa Cruz de Tenerife was a unexpectedly pleasant discovery for me.  I came to visit my friend Hiromi Hayashi, a Japanese food journalist who I co-wrote a book with in 1991.  She lives in Santa Cruz de Tenerife half the year - just off the pedestrian street you see above.  In no way did I expect to find the lavish attention on greenery in city planning.  Not only are most streets lined with trees, bushes and flowers, but even some buildings spill green off their sides, as you see below. 
Picture
In the crowded center, with its narrow streets, a transformation has come about...there are trees, quality paving stones, planters everywhere, and benches for people to enjoy their beautiful city.  My impression is that much of the beautification and greening has occurred in the last decade or so.  This is Spain at its best. 
Picture
A picture of Hiromi on the edge of a plaza near her home.
0 Comments
    Picture

    about the author

    RSS Feed

    Picture
    Mark Brown

    Categories

    All
    Africa
    Ajijic
    Amsterdam
    Argentina
    Asia
    Balconies
    Belgrade
    Berlin
    Bicycles
    Biodiversity Walks
    Bogota
    Buenos Aires
    Chemicals In The Home
    Chicago
    Chile
    China
    Colombia
    Columbus
    Details
    Environmental Justice
    Europe
    Finland
    Gardens
    Germany
    Green Divide
    Guadalajara
    Hangzhou
    Helsinki
    India
    Indoor Pollution
    Israel
    Istanbul
    Japan
    Kenya
    Kiev
    Lagos
    Latin America
    Mexico
    Mexico City
    Middle East
    Mobility
    Mumbai
    Nairobi
    Netherlands
    New York
    Nigeria
    North America
    Norway
    Parks
    Portland
    San Francisco
    Santiago
    Serbia
    Shanghai
    Short Takes
    South America
    Spain
    Sustainability
    Tel-aviv
    Tenerife
    Tokyo
    Trees
    Turkey
    Ukraine
    United States
    Urban Design
    Urban Greening
    Water

    Archives

    October 2017
    January 2017
    September 2016
    July 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    October 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    November 2013
    October 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    February 2013
    October 2012
    May 2012
    January 2012
    April 2011
    March 2011
    January 2011
    August 2010
    July 2010
    January 2010
    May 2009
    December 2008
    January 2008

    After nearly two decades of corporate duty, I decided to follow my heart and do what I love: make cities greener and healthier places.  Over the coming years I will be traveling to cities all over the world, reporting on what I see and learning about how even resource-poor places can improve urban lives through urban greening and greener lifestyles.  I've started the CitiNature project to channel my energies and drive initiatives supporting equal access to green amenities for everyone.
Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.