TODAY'S WORD ON JOURNALISM . . . Wednesday, April 7, 2010
WORD archives, commentary and reader discussion at http://tedsword.blogspot.com
Circus Animals
"When the politicians complain that TV turns the proceedings into a circus, it should be made clear that the circus was already there, and that TV has merely demonstrated that not all the performers are well trained."
--Edward R. Murrow (1908-1965), U.S. broadcast journalist & newscaster (Thanks to alert WORDster Marc Davidson)
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Word For The Day
WORD FOR THE DAY
Thursday, Apr. 8
Make visible what, without you, might perhaps never have been seen.
Robert Bresson
Thursday, Apr. 8
Make visible what, without you, might perhaps never have been seen.
Robert Bresson
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Wild Ones Niagara and Sense of Place
Create in Niagara Falls (NY) and the Niagara River region a sense of place through grassroots partnerships, advocacy, and education about regional native plants and natural landscaping with a focus on the restoration, preservation and the protection of the botanically unique habitats of Niagara Falls and the Niagara gorge
Sense of Place Defined: One of the most difficult challenges every city and its planning department has to face is how to create and maintain a unique sense of place that not only supports and encourages economic development while it maintains its commitment to established businesses and their financial health, but also considers how to protect the quality of life of its residents, the people who make up the fabric of the city's neighborhoods.
Creating a sense of place is an intangible weave of culture (stories, art, memories, beliefs, histories) and the tangible physical components of an area: its rivers, woods, monuments, architectural styles, its pathways and its views. Place also embraces our personal relationships and those who think like us, kindred spirits.
A sense of place is a social phenomenon dependent on human engagement, feelings. This attachment to place, this sense of feeling, is derived from the natural environment, but it also includes a mix of natural and cultural features in the landscape. More importantly, a sense of place is strongly enhanced "through modes of codification in ordinances aimed at protecting, preserving, and enhancing places felt to be of value (such as the "World Heritage Site" designations used around the world, the English "Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty" controls and the like.") Creating and maintaining a sense of place in prosperous times is a complex balancing act. In financially challenging times, this balance is crucial and pivotal.
Wild Ones Niagara Falls and River Region website can be found HERE.
Understanding Sense of Place
Defining sense of place
Sense of place is important in any discussion of land conservation and growth management because sprawl development tends to eliminate unique features of the landscape. This is clearly recognized by proponents of smart growth. As Daniels writes, "Community design is about place making. The physical layout of the community can and should connect people with each other, with the community, and with the surrounding countryside." (1)
Sense of place may appear a fuzzy or purely subjective concept, but there are clear definitions that begin to narrow its focus. The National Trust for Historic Preservation offers a straightforward approach, calling sense of place:
Those things that add up to a feeling that a community is a special place, distinct from anywhere else. (2)
Kent Ryden provides a more textured response that recognizes the necessity of inhabiting place:
A sense of place results gradually and unconsciously from inhabiting a landscape over time, becoming familiar with its physical properties, accruing history within its confines. (3)
Finally, the well-known geographer J. B. Jackson offers this elaboration:
It is place, permanent position in both the social and topographical sense, that gives us our identity. (4)
From these slightly different definitions, it can be seen that sense of place is primarily about the human landscape, our legacy of impact on the land, and, perhaps most importantly, memory. A number of other characteristics about sense of place might also be enumerated. Sense of place is:
* Difficult to quantify and abstract — place is frequently referred to as "fuzzy" or difficult to locate geographically. (5) In addition, one definition of place may not transfer across political or geographic borders.
* Comprised of natural features, patterns of human settlement, and social relationships — the connection between people is a key component of place.
* Determined by local knowledge — while it may be possible to broadly describe place as an outsider, intimate understandings of place are best expressed by natives.
* Embodied in folklore, personal narrative, and amateur history — intimate descriptions of place rarely show up in "official" documents, that is, those prepared by government or bureaucratic agencies.
Inventorying place
Descriptions of place can take many forms, but one of the most effective, with respect to municipal planning and smart growth, is an inventory of cultural resources. A comprehensive profile of the cultural landscape aids not only in preservation of existing resources, but can provide direction for future growth. Throughout this study, cultural resources can be thought of as comprising historic buildings, sites, and landscapes; scenic roads and viewsheds; and special places that have local cultural significance.
There are a number of guides to understanding and improving land use practices in rural communities. The National Trust for Historic Preservation, Scenic America, and individual publishers such as Island Press have produced manuals for documenting and preserving cultural resources. These guides advocate conducting environmental inventories that detail both natural and cultural features. (6) In Rhode Island, the Watershed Approach includes provisions for the organization of local Watershed Action Teams to monitor stream quality and perform community assessments. (7)
Typically, volunteers are advised to break into small groups, go out into their neighborhood with maps and perhaps cameras, and document the areas with visual, historic, or personal significance. Maps, pictures, and descriptions recorded on inventory forms are then compiled in either report or poster format. The data collected is usually qualitative. Local residents are attempting to document the features of the built and natural landscape that make their community unique and appealing. These techniques can be performed and led by volunteers and the costs are minimal. The quality of the data depends on the consistency of collection, the number of individuals involved in preparing the inventory, and the number of distinct resources surveyed. As Harker and Natter write, “This is not a science; it is an art. The bottom line is that the scenic quality of your area can add greatly to the quality of your life." (8)
The typical product of these efforts is hand drawn maps and reports. The manuals encourage the use of multimedia (usually images) representations of data and lengthy description. Because there are no guidelines for collecting data to be entered into a GIS, the development of GIS data layers based on citizen generated data is difficult.
Sense of place in South Kingstown
The New England landscape has a sense of place rooted in a long history of settlement. South Kingstown's Comprehensive Plan recognizes the importance of place in contributing the to Town's quality of life:
One of the major positive influences on the Town's historic settlement pattern has been it's strong sense of place. Much of this "sense" derives from those features that contribute to it, including the Town's small identifiable villages, New England architecture, natural and scenic areas, and agricultural tradition. As overdevelopment can ruin the Town's small character, it can also disturb and even eliminate its sense of place. (9)
Despite the language in the Comprehensive Plan, South Kingstown did not begin an inventory of place drawing on local knowledge until 1998 when the Coastal Resources Center at the University of Rhode Island initiated a project with the Planning Department to develop an inventory of important cultural features. The goal of the project was to involve residents in a proactive planning effort, the kind that is not frequently undertaken by an overworked planning board. The report, An Inventory and Analysis of the Village and Rural Qualities of South Kingstown, was produced by more than 140 residents over several months. According to one of the project's coordinators, community participation was overwhelming. (10)
Teams of residents were directed to map the boundaries of village, rural, and other areas as well as inventory the defining features of each district. The resulting report runs over 150 pages and includes maps from each of the eleven districts of the town. Although the Inventory represented one largest community planning efforts in the Town, little has come of the effort. With the help of an intern from the University of Rhode Island, the Planning Department produced a composite GIS coverage of the areas identified as village, rural, and other. However, none of the individual sites were mapped in the Town's GIS. The lengthy descriptions were not analyzed and the results of the report have not been included in amendments to the Comprehensive Plan.
1. Daniels, T. (1999). When City and County Collide. Washington, D.C.: Island Press: 87.
2. Stokes, S. M., Watson, A. E. and Mastran, S. S. (1997). Saving America’s Countryside: A Guide to Rural Conservation (2nd ed.). Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press: 192.
3. Ryden, K. C. (1993). Mapping the Invisible Landscape. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press: 38.
4. Jackson, J. B. (1984). Discovering the Vernacular Landscape. New Haven: Yale University Press: 152.
5. Schroeder, P. (1997). GIS in Public Participation Settings. Retrieved 24 April 2001 from the World Wide Web: http://www.spatial.maine.edu/ucgis/testproc/schroeder/UCGISDFT.HTM
Parsons, E. (1994). Visualization Techniques for Qualitative Spatial Information. Fifth European Conference and Exhibition on Geographical Information Systems. Retrieved 20 April 2001 from the World Wide Web: http://spatialodyssey.ursus.maine.edu/gisweb/spatdb/egis/eg94046.html
6. Stokes, S. M., Watson, A. E. and Mastran, S. S. (1997). Saving America’s Countryside: A Guide to Rural Conservation (2nd ed.). Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
O Say Can You See: A Visual Awareness Tool Kit for Communities (1999). Washington, D.C.: Scenic America.
Harker, D. F. and Natter, E. U. (1995). Where We Live: A Citizen’s Guide to Conducting a Community Environmental Inventory. Washington, D.C.: Island Press.
Copps, D. (1995). Views from the Road. Washington, D.C.: Island Press.
7. Kerr, M. (2000). Assessing the Character of Your Community.
8. Harker, D. F. and Natter, E. U. (1995). Where We Live: A Citizen’s Guide to Conducting a Community Environmental Inventory.
9. Comprehensive Community Plan (1992). South Kingstown, RI: Planning Department.: 37.
10. Personal communication with Steve Olsen, 9 March 2001.
Monday, April 5, 2010
Quote of the Day
"I'm only 9; why do we have to sign a petition to fix this? just do it."
"I'm only 15, i don't know the economy, i don't know the beatles, all i know is this is ugly, dangerous and nobody can really explain to me why this ugly thing exists."
Niagara Falls Recommends RMP Removal - A Restored Gorge Rim
Niagara River Greenway Vision and Project Proposals
Prepared for the Niagara River Greenway Commission
Niagara River Greenway Planning Process
July 2006 Page 2, Page 3
“Achieving” Niagara Falls’ Greenway Vision: Introduction
Remarks by Mayor Vincenzo V. Anello to the Local Government Advisory Committee of the NIAGARA RIVER GREENWAY COMMISSION
Monday July 17, 2006
The City of Niagara Falls concurs with the New York State Legislative findings and intent with regards to the establishment of the Niagara River Greenway, including its definition of “greenway” to mean “a linear system of state and local parks and conservation areas linked by a network of multi use trails” and its purpose to redefine the Niagara riverfront through increasing landside access to the river; creating complementary access to the greenway from the river; augmenting economic revitalization efforts, and celebrating the region's heritage.
While the City and the County currently await designation of the Niagara River corridor by the US Congress as a National Heritage Area, there can be no doubt that the corridor hasplayed a significant role in the history of the Niagara Frontier and of the United States and Canada. Therefore, the Niagara River communities in particular should take all necessary steps now that will continue to define the western New York experience into the twenty-first century as one of the world’s preeminent places of nature. Niagara Falls is a National Natural Landmark under state stewardship for more than a century that draws more than fourteen million visitors from throughout the world to the region each year. For just as long, if not longer, there have been those who have expressed a vision for the Niagara River corridor, that of a necklace of open space and conservation areas spread along the river. With many areas no longer being used for heavy industry, it is now time to complete that vision.
The Niagara River corridor is of unique environmental, cultural, and economic importance to New York. It is a shared connection of communities and ecologies from Lake Eire to Lake Ontario. Along the corridor, many “traditional” parks have been established including eleven state parks and fourteen local parks. New York State's only National Scenic Byway, the Seaway Trail, runs through the entire corridor. Greenway Planning is our opportunity to advance a non-traditional concept of park that transcends survey boundaries to encompass whole municipalities as part of a broader public strategy for social, economic, as well as, environmental regeneration of our Buffalo-Niagara region. Therefore, in areas that are not
contiguous with the waterfront, programmatic linkages should be used by the Greenway
Commission to establish consistency with its legislative purposes and intent.
Niagara Falls and Buffalo while at the heart of the river corridor, much of their waterfront has in the past been dedicated to industrial uses. Therefore, as these uses continue to wane, it is Niagara Falls and Buffalo in particular that should be at the nexus of any regional effort to redefine the Niagara River corridor and revitalize the regional economy.
Therefore, the City of Niagara Falls, the first municipality to propose a system of multi-jurisdictional riverfront recreational trails (1992), conduct a regional visioning exercise on the future of Niagara Falls and the region (1997), and propose a regional program of waterfront heritage interpretive venues or tourist “Discovery Centers” (2002), is hereby prepared to support any Greenway Commission plan that focuses geographically on the Niagara River and its adjacent tributaries, and specifically includes “identified” upland natural, open space, recreational, and scenic resources combined with a policy toward greenway land-management
that is; in the first instance, designed to preserve and add to these resources, beginning with those resources that are of the highest and best ecological and/or recreational value regionally, and; in the second instance is designed to repair damage done to the land by former industrial or commercial waterfront uses.
Page 4
After decades of technical planning and public discussion, Niagara Falls is on a firm foundation for immediate action. We already know what needs to be done and we are doing it.
The Niagara River Greenway Commission Plan should base its efforts on the best ideas from dozens of different plans, reports, studies and proposals for Buffalo, Niagara Falls, and the Niagara River waterfront and craft an aggressive strategy to help Niagara Falls assume more central role in the economic resurgence of the entire region. City projects put forth in our draft LWRP or in our award-winning Achieving Niagara Falls’ Future: Waterfront Agenda (on which most of this report is based), or the Niagara Falls Strategic Master Plan are feasible, have citizen support and, taken together, will have transformative impact for the region generally, but most noticeably in the City of Niagara Falls.
These projects deserve to be developed and implemented. The strategy that connects these projects is straightforward and powerful. It aims to achieve the development of economy,environment, and community together and it is driven by three principles:
❑ First, re-connect Niagara Falls – its downtown and neighborhoods alike – with the
Niagara River waterfront.
❑ Second, repair and improve both the urban and natural environments for the
benefit of residents and visitors alike.
❑ Third, develop the means to tell the compelling stories of the city and region to
build the visitor industry and create meaning for those who live here.
These principles provide a strategic framework that organizes the City of Niagara Falls waterfront projects. The principles also offer a means to evaluate and prioritize all of the projects and proposals that may follow, and therefore, should serve to guide continuing planning being carried out on behalf of all WNY communities by the Greenway Commission.
Two major projects already have a broad base of public and private support. One is to complete the installation of the waterfront trail system from city line to city line. The other is to mitigate the negative impact of the Robert Moses Parkway on waterfront access, urban environment, and regional image. Completing the trail and mitigating the parkway will be important steps toward making visible the fact that Niagara is a great place to live, work, and visit.
CITYWIDE RECOMMENDATIONS
1. Bike and pedestrian trail system
A.1
Direct access by pedestrians to the Niagara River waterfront is the foundation of this strategy. Therefore, as soon as possible, implement existing plans for a pedestrian and bike way to run continuously along the entire length of the Niagara Falls waterfront. It is important to make sure that the path is well connected to adjacent neighborhoods and the city street pattern for easy local access.
2. Naturalize Niagara River shoreline and gorge
A.2
The waterfront should be natural and beautiful. Therefore, areas adjacent to the river, including the rim of the gorge, the Reservation, and the upper river stream bank, should be naturalized as much as possible through removal of paved surfaces and new plantings of trees and native plants. This will improve the environment and enhance the quality of views. It is acceptable to mow where needed for picnickers and other users, but the use of natural plants will cut maintenance costs and add to the enjoyment of users. Naturalizing the gorge rim will also help strengthen the buffer between city and fragile gorge ecosystems.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)