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Showing posts with the label financial crisis

Views of Detroit

I recieved an invitation to an event here in Copenhagen on Thursday at KPH Projects . The event is called Views of Detroit - Exploring film in urban planning . It's about three students from Roskilde University who made a film about Detroit. The trailer is above. They'll highlight a city that was home to the Big Three - Ford, Chrysler and GM and that gave the world Motown and Techno. A city that lost half of its population in just 50 years and where this year alone 3000 houses will be torn down. A city that has the fantastic potential to be the first large city in the world to produce all of its foodstuffs within the city limits. A city that is fighting economic meltdown and brutal budget cuts. A city with a blossoming underground and art scene. The event can be found at this Facebook group . Here's the corner of Woodward Avenue and Monroe Avenue, Detroit, in 1917. Human streets, public transport. This photo features in the book Fighting Traffic - The dawn of th...

Bike Infrastructure Building Boom in Denmark

Photo: Joan Karlsen/ jv.dk Pretty much everywhere you go in the countryside there are dedicated bicycle lanes running parallel to the roads, enabling cyclists to ride from town to town with the same accessibility as motorists. There are, however, black spots on the map that lack high-quality separated infrastructure. The national government's financial boost for bicycles from last year [launched on my birthday, actually] has now transformed into projects that are actually being built. 1 billion kroner [$200 million] was offered up for bicycle projects and it resulted in a storm of applications from towns, cities and orgs wanting funds for a variety of things. Above is a bicycle lane being built between two towns in Jutland. The article from the provincial newspaper jv.dk is about how it ended up being 800,000 kroner [$160,000] cheaper because the costs for archeological digs was less than planned and lower labour costs than expected. It's part of a 5 or 6 km stretch connectin...