For today’s Metro Monday, we once again direct you over to our friends at Streetsfilms to view an exceptional piece on Melbourne’s pedestrian facilities. It is simply amazing to see how quickly a city can change with the right policy, perhaps Miami 21 will serve as our saving grace.
There is an invaluable lesson here. In the early 90s, Melbourne was hardly a haven for pedestrian life until Jan Gehl was invited there to undertake a study and publish recommendations on street improvements and public space. Ten years after the survey’s findings, Melbourne was a remarkably different place thanks to sidewalk widenings, copious tree plantings, a burgeoning cafe culture, and various types of car restrictions on some streets. Public space and art abound. And all of this is an economic boom for business.
Miami 21 Update: On Thursday the City of Miami commission approved the continuation of the Miami 21 project with the mapping of the quadrants. Interestingly, the only mention of this in the Herald was a recent editorial two days before the actual vote by Daniella Levine… Perhaps this is a contributing factor for much of the confusion regarding Miami 21…
2 Responses to Metro Monday: Melbourne
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Miami 21 contains nothing that will lead to this kind of transformation. Instead of leading a public spaces improvement effort, the Mayor chose to tinker with the zoning code and DPZ has seized the opportunity to promote itself by overselling the virtues of its brand of zoning. Someone has to build wider sidewalks and plant street trees that will grow. Wake up! You have a such a great site it is sad to see you duped by Miami 21′s BS.
Anonymous, it seems that you are the one who is mistaken. Miami 21 is all about how we treat our streets and other urban public spaces. I know how hard it is to believe that our elected officials are doing something right, but lets not fall into the trap of condemning good ideas because of the stigma of past corruption. I know people who are working on this plan and can assure you that they are not trying to dupe anyone, and that as people understand the code it will become apparent that this is a win/win situation.
PS. The zoning code for the city of Miami is bad. Not a little off, but off by a lot. It needs what Miami 21 is proposing. This is not about switching zoning codes, but about rethinking the idea behind the code in the first place. If for no other reason, you should support Miami 21 because of its attitude toward mass transit and, the principle that walking should be the primary means of transportation.