reimagining the urban apartment block

Javier guided me in the direction of Ramenskoye in Russia. Ramenskoye is located 46 km (28.5 miles) southeast of Moscow. I don't know much about this initiative, but this website has many pictures of this very colorful place.

What to make of Ramenskoye? I am not sure. It would be very interesting to see what the residents of the area think. I imagine that the paintings would be a source of pride and a colorful counterpoint to the grey and snow that tend to dominate the Russian landscape.

transportation songs: sad but true

The other day I advocated for including directions in songs. Today, I'm highlighting a second song that includes detailed directions, and this completes my anthology of songs with directions in them. If you are aware of other songs with directions, please let me know of them.

The song is Sad But True by the Transplants, whose singer Tim Armstrong's primary band Rancid is one of the Great Transit Bands (post forthcoming). Sad But True, like the other song I profiled, gives directions starting in Berkeley. Berkeley it seems, even in the realm of punk songs, is the center of transportation planning. The route offered by Armstrong is a circuitous one but it eventually takes you to Harmon Street in South Berkeley. Anyone familiar with Berkeley know what's on Harmon St?

In a dream we take a trip
down Shattuck to Durant
up the hill, to the steps, Sproul Plaza and Telegraph
we pass Channing, we pass Derby
we go to Ashby, down to Adeline
take MLK to 54th and go down to Genoa
yeah and follow the BART tracks
to Harmon street, ahhhh Harmon street,
Harmon Street, Harmon Street
it's reoccurring, it's like a dream
I live a thousand times, yeah
and it's always like the very first time

the high cost of parking?

I don't think this is what Donald Shoup means when he talks about the high cost of free parking, but this car sharing advertisement from Zipcar sure made me laugh.


I am also pleased to announce that after a mere five days in existence, port halifax has made the Washington Post. Okay, it's on a thing called the DC Sports Bog, but hey, for a kid from inside the beltway the Washington Post is big time. My piece on the future of RFK Stadium is number 2 on the Bog's list: we read other blogs so you don't have to. If you check out the Bog soon you can have the chance of being redirected to the site you are currently on! Wow! Thank goodness it's Thursday!

new life for good old RFK?

It is clear that the days are numbered for venerable Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium (RFK). Built in 1961 as D.C. Stadium, RFK served as the home of the Washington Redskins for 36 seasons, and recently it has housed DC United and the Washington Nationals. This will be the Washington Nationals last year in RFK, DC United will get a new stadium at some point, and there are reports that RFK could be torn down as early as after the 2007 season.

Why is the demolition of RFK important in planning terms? There are a number of reasons. The stadium is part of a large parcel of land in downtown Washington, DC, which if combined with the DC Armory (horizontal building, middle left of screen) is even bigger and very close to a Metro station. The aforementioned Metro station is Stadium/Armory (located in bottom left of screen) and serves both the Blue and Orange Metro lines. The RFK site is located minutes from the Capitol building. No barriers either natural (a river) or human (a highway / railroad tracks) separate the site from downtown Washington. RFK is also located on a historic and monumental east-west axis. Due west of the stadium is the Capitol, the Washington Monument, and the Lincoln Memorial. In fact, RFK at the moment serves as the eastern terminus of this monumental axis. In the spatial hierarchy of Washington, DC the RFK site has a fairly elevated importance.


What's the future for the RFK site? I have suggested that it would make a good site for a consolidated Department of Homeland Security complex (at least from a planning perspective) as it is a large amount of land in downtown DC with close proximity to a Metro station. There are some reports that the Washington Redskins could come home to RFK. The potential deal is very interesting because DC officials are in no mood to shell out more money to construct a sports stadium after spending over $600 million for the Nationals new park. The leverage that Dan Snyder, the owner of the Redskins, wants is the land and development rights for the area around the new stadium. This arrangement is similar to the one being worked out for DC United's new stadium across the Anacostia River in Poplar Point.

What has changed in the construction of sports stadiums is that the owners are now viewing local government's provision of land and concurrent development rights to be worth more than local government's provision of the actual stadium. Marc Fisher of the Washington Post argues that "this kind of giveaway is no more fair to the taxpayer than the baseball deal." This land is incredibly valuable. A comprehensive, mixed-use, and transit-oriented development surrounding a new RFK stadium complete with residences, restaurants, and a hotel could generate enormous profit for Snyder. The new stadium is also proposed to be domed, with the intention of bringing the Super Bowl to Washington, DC.

What's the future of RFK? Will this be it's last year? In December 2006 when Major League Soccer (MLS) announced that its championship game would be held at RFK Stadium this November the move was met with great skepticism. What was this old stadium doing hosting a league championship ? But maybe MLS knew (or guessed) of RFK's impending demolition and decided that this would be a good way to say goodbye to one of the great soccer places in the United States. Even a few Redskin fans, having no like of soccer or baseball, might come out to see good old RFK for one last time.

the bowling pin defense

hi all, besides cities and transportation networks I am also very interested in soccer. I'm a big DC United fan and their first game of the 2007 season (amazingly) is this wednesday against Olimpia of Honduras as part of the Concacaf Champions Cup. It's at 9:00 pm (eastern) on the Fox Soccer Channel. The game will be played in Tegucigalpa! Tegucigalpa means 'silver mountain' in Nahuatl. In honor of the first DC United game of the season, I'm going to post the line-up and formation I would like to see tomorrow. It'll be the much under-utilized 4-3-2-1, otherwise known as the bowling pin defense.

--------------Emilio------
--------Gomez---Moreno---
---Simms--B. Carroll----Olsen
Gros---Erpen--Boswell---Namoff

Since the series against Olimpia is a two game, total goal series, with the second leg next week in DC we don't actually need to win tomorrow. That's why this formation is defensive in nature, with seven players defending, and waiting for the counter. Let's see Olimpia try to knock all ten down! If it doesn't work, it is easy to change back to the traditional 3-5-2 with Gros moving into midfield and Moreno going up top with Emilio.

If DC United wins with this formation, they can celebrate by taking a trip to Florida and staying in the Disney pop culture resort! Vamos post-modernist architecture!! Vamos United!!

Djibouti (part II)

An astute GIS user alerted me to the fact that the GIS print screen test page features the capital city of Djibouti! I'm sure that the reason why the man in the Coca-Cola Zero ad is familiar with Djibouti's capital is because he spends all of his spare time utilizing GIS to analyze regional demographic changes. I hear he's worried about a housing stock comprised primarily of single family detached homes when general household characteristics are decidedly shifting away from families with children.

the capital of Djibouti is Djibouti

I don't know if you've seen the new advertisement for Coca-Cola Zero but it is notable for a few reasons. One is that the gentleman in it gives a shout out for the man who is probably most people's favorite president: Millard Fillmore. He also asks the young man the question, do you know what the capital of Djibouti is? The capital of Djibouti is Djibouti.

Which brings me to one of my favorite subjects: memoir history. My current academic interests can be traced directly back to two computer games I played avidly as a child. They are Sim City and Where in the World is Carmen Santiago? In the honor of the latter, here are some selected interesting facts about capitals of African nations.

The capital of Djibouti is Djibouti. Djibouti is also home to the only US military base in sub-Saharan Africa. Liberia has the only capital outside of the United States named for a US President. Monrovia is named for the 5th President of the United States and Virginia favorite: James Monroe. South Africa has three capitals. According to the CIA World Factbook Pretoria is the administrative capital, Cape Town the legislative capital, and Johannesburg the judicial capital.

Below picture of Djibouti's port taken by CharlesFred

the fhwa and transportation songs

andrew has pointed me in the direction of the fhwa's list of transportation songs. To be fair, the federal highway administration's list is called 'some road songs' but it is non multi-modal, incomplete, and lacks any sort of analysis of the songs presented. They should be given credit for selecting such classics as AC/DC 'Highway to Hell' and Kenny Loggins 'Danger Zone'. Much more questionable is the reference to Limp Bizkit's 'My Way or the Highway.'

we here at port halifax are going to share and analyze transportation songs that cover any mode of transportation, that describe transportation infrastructure, and especially songs that deal with issues in transportation planning.

but for the folks at the fhwa, here's a shout out to good old highway transportation with the song South Bound 95 (plus introduction) off of the Avail album Live at the Bottom of the Hill in San Francisco. The song delves into the existential dilemma that is being a resident of the Commonwealth of Virginia

"all right we're avail from richmond, virginia and this song was requested by some people from richmond, virginia so this is going to be our first song:

boredom in this mobile home in nowhere USA
somehow gotta make it home to Richmond V. A.
when I'm there I want to go
but when I'm gone I don't
i'll make it anywhere but here
but here is where I got to be
i'll make it anywhere but here
gotta make it to dixie

transportation songs: carry on

Are you a band or singer looking to better incorporate transportation planning into your songs? I bet we all are to some extent. Here's one easy suggestion: add directions to your lyrics! Take for example, the song Carry On by Common Rider which features directions to get from Berkeley to the place where my brother got married in addition to other locations along route 1 south of SF.

There ain't no dream like the one that's real
Ashby to Eighty
Eighty to the Bridge
Bridge down to One
Route One carry on
We ate the night up and we shot the big coast
'cause the shoreline makes a heart open like a rose

transit poems: station victoria

station victoria

on the subway back in
Boston dad always preferred
the journey to Auditorium
something about the name called
over loudspeaker declaring itself
in the present tense of time
here I am in London and I
might venture to Embankment
but Canada Water lures me with promises
of refreshments and Saskatchewan natives
I know I’m in Europe not because
no one knows my name but
no one knows I’m American until
I open my mouth and the secret’s exposed
and no one cares except for the
few who understand that they’re
being bought by our culture
I buy into yours while you buy into mine
yet in the long run we all know
that those who derive pleasure from the
stately ambiguity of subway stops

will ultimately diminish to haze

study the past

Welcome to port halifax idea gateway. As this is my inaugural post, and in the terminology of Bill Morrish, I am inaugurating the civilized terrain I figure I would begin with an homage to my favorite statue, which is right across the street from my favorite Metro stop. The Metro stop would be Archives / Navy Memorial in DC and the statue is this very large and very somber looking man with his left arm resting on a book. On the base of the statue there is an inscription that reads: 'Study The Past."

The inscription is a command, a suggestion, a call to arms and a very stern reminder. I have always wished that this statue had stood outside of the History Department at Northwestern University where I studied as an undergraduate. If this man stared me down each cold Chicago morning, I probably would've put a much greater effort into my studies.

Even though I am now a student of the planning of cities and their transportation networks my thinking is always grounded in the past. I recently finished Zachary Schrag's book The Great Society Subway: a History of the Washington Metro. In it, I was amazed to see Fairfax County repeatedly making transportation planning mistakes. In the 1960s when Fairfax County was deciding on the alignment for the Metro they decided to emphasize cheap right of way and selected an alignment in the median of Interstate 66 going west to what would become known as the Vienna Metro station. In the 1970s, Fairfax County had the opportunity to revisit this decision and perhaps re-route the Metro closer to the burgeoning Tysons Corner area. County officials stuck with their I-66 alignment. In recent years, there have been private efforts by developers to create a 'transit village' near the Vienna Metro. The high levels of density met with great resistance from both community members and Congressman Tom Davis.

Despite this history, Fairfax County is positioned to make another massive mistake. With the Metrorail extension from West Falls Church to Dulles Airport becoming more plausible by the day the big discussion in Washington, DC right now is whether to have the Metro run under ground or above ground through Tysons Corner. Like 40 years ago, the plan for Metro in Fairfax County is emphasizing the cheapest possible alignment. I know that many officials in Fairfax want the underground system through Tysons Corner but they should study the past and say "we've made mistakes in the past and this time we're going to do it right." If that means waiting for a few more years then that's what they should do.

If the Metro system had done what was cheapest in terms of its station designs, we would not be enjoying the vaulted, arching ceilings nor the comfort and security that the stations provide. These are iconic landmarks, in a city replete with landmarks. Study the past! There is a second chance (actually third or fourth chance) for compelling rail transit in Fairfax County. Let's take advantage of this opportunity!