Green TV and the Power of Irene

by Marley Bice, MCRP '12

I recently discovered that the Philadelphia Water Department has partnered with Green Treks Network to make a series of amazing mini-documentaries on their innovative green stormwater management program, Green City, Clean Waters. One of the things I love about green stormwater infrastructure is that it is so pretty to look at. It really is easy... and beautiful... being green.


Green City, Clean Waters Promo from GreenTreks Network on Vimeo.

Of course any kind of stormwater infrastructure can't prevent all flooding and runoff. Hurricane Irene dropped eight inches of rain on New Jersey last weekend causing the low-lying regions around the Raritan River to flood badly causing murky water to block one of the state's busiest east-west connectors (Route 18). These pictures capture some of the damage.

Infrastructure and the American Dream

by Betsy Harvey, MCRP '12

This is my last entry before school starts up again at Bloustein. As my life becomes increasingly focused on school, my posts will be oriented toward school happenings and issues that are relevant to students here. But before I turn this space over to the interests of Bloustein for the next year, I want to sum up, in one word, why transportation is so important: accessibility. People have to be able to get to their jobs. All the economic stimulus and tax incentives in the world will not matter if people cannot reach them. Low income neighborhoods without transit access to the rest of the city . . . blue-collar jobs in the exurbs without bus service . . . basic amenities that sprawl over miles of pavement connected by roads without sidewalks . . . these situations are too commonplace, and are damaging to the economy. Without easily accessible, affordable public transportation and roads that are safe for biking and walking, those who most need cheap access to work will never get it.

This is why investment in transportation infrastructure is so vital to the economy. A job that cannot be reached by transit or by foot is no job for someone without a car. This is a problem that many of us students will face. I know I will. Luckily, we live in the New York metropolitan area, where, like so much of the east coast, public transit options abound. Yet for many people this is not the case, and even in transit-rich New Jersey not every town is served by public transportation that is timely and affordable. Bus and rail, therefore, must be expanded, not cut. This is not just about being green or getting rid of cars – this is a jobs issue. This is a vital part of getting the American economy back on track. Building transportation infrastructure – everything, from bike lanes to BRT to trolleys to sidewalks and, yes, even roads – employs people for the short run, employs people long-term, gives them skills, shortens delivery times for businesses, and improves access for everyone. If job creation doesn’t convince our leaders that transportation investment must be a priority, I’m not sure that anything can.

My Ten Favorite SMPs

by Marley Bice, MCRP '12

SMP = Stormwater Management Practice
noun (ess-emm-pee) meaning any man-made structure that is designed or constructed to convey, store or otherwise control stormwater runoff, quality, rate or quantity

Now how many of those can there be? A lot! But I have ten favorite ones and here's why:

1. GREEN ROOFS: because they create public space, wildlife habitat, decrease HVAC costs, extend the life of the roof and manage stormwater (why not!?)
2. PERMEABLE PAVERS: because they are versatile and attractive
3. SWALES: because there are so many applications that bring stormwater conveyance to the surface and increase public awareness of stormwater management issues
4. RAINFALL CAPTURE AND REUSE features can also be used to create sustainable water features
5. FLOW-THROUGH PLANTERS: because there are so many different options and they are applicable to urban, space-constrained sites
6. BERMS AND RETENTIVE GRADING: because this techniques uses attractive landscaping and topography to manage stormwater and decrease erosion
7. FILTER STRIPS: because they offer pretreatment benefits without taking up much space
8. BUMPOUTS: because they can also calm traffic and increase pedestrian safety
9. STREET EDGE ALTERNATIVES such as curbless streets and bioretention swales are a great way to beautify residential neighborhoods
10. PAVEMENT DISCONNECT: because it increases infiltration on-site and creates opportunities for use of salvaged materials in the landscaping

Many Roads to Travel

by Betsy Harvey, MCRP '12

As some of you may know, my undergraduate degree was in English, and I like to deviate at times from the concrete realm of planning toward that of the rather esoteric. This week I’m going to look at how streets are portrayed in verse. Let’s start with a poem with which we’re all familiar, Robert Frost’s “A Road not Taken.” It contains one of the dominant themes in literature about roads: that they present opportunity and freedom. As Frost’s famous lines go:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

To extend the metaphor into 21^st century New Jersey, what if the two roads that Frost’s character must choose between are route 95 and a quieter back road? As a pedestrian, he clearly would have to avoid the highway. He would only realistically have only one choice. It may seem like a silly metaphor, but it is representative of our transportation system. Our travel choices are limited mostly to cars because that is the type of road we design. By building roads that realistically only allow cars we eliminate choice – to bike or walk or ride a scooter – and therefore to see something new, to view the world from a different perspective, to have an adventure.  Driving is but one way to view our world. It looks very different on foot, and we limit the imagination and the excitement in our lives if the car is our only mirror.

Another theme is the danger and loneliness of roads. Here’s the last stanza of 19th century American poet Will Wallace Harney’s poem “The Stab”:
But the moon came out so broad and good,
The barn-fowl woke and crowed;
Then roughed his feathers in drowsy mood,
And the brown owl called to his mate in the wood,
That a dead man lay on the road.

Travel has always had an element of fear. Walking or biking or driving down a road, especially one with which you are not familiar, is to travel into the unknown. It’s what makes travel so exciting, and yet sometimes frightening.

In her poem “Uphill,” British poet Christina Rossetti (also writing in the 19^th century) uses a question and answer conversation between two characters to explore this fear. “Does the road wind uphill all the way?” the questioner asks. “Shall I find comfort, travel-sore and weak?” The companion does his or her best to reassure the questioner that all will be well at the end of the day’s journey.

We look down a road, and we see fear, excitement, opportunity, exhaustion. Fear that we’ll run out of gas before the next gas station, or perhaps that the riots that are rocking our once peaceful city will turn deadly. And excitement – excitement at the opportunity to meet new people, or start a peaceful revolution, or to discover something beautiful and unexpected.

That is one of the wonders of roads – their metaphoric power yanks us awake, and asks us to look at our lives and our world differently. To imagine paralyzing fear, regime-changing revolutions, the thrill of writing a new page in our lives. If we restrict the real road to a place built only to maximize car use, the diversity of our experiences are less and our imaginations diminished – for the diversity that characterizes excitement and opportunity decreases substantially. To create – a poem, a new government, a transportation plan – we need to understand, and we need to imagine, that diversity of lives and ideas and experiences beyond our own. As these and so many other poets demonstrate, we have to be able to choose to take that step down the road less traveled – not only in our minds, but with our feet, as they surely did.

All poems courtesy of http://www.bartleby.com/.

Freedom Takes to the Streets

 by Betsy Harvey, MCRP '12

Out of curiosity, yesterday I searched online for the word “streets” in Google’s news search engine. I was surprised that most of the first few pages were dominated by some sort of protest taking place, from the riots in England to protests in Chile and Syria. But I suppose it makes sense. Streets, it seems, have always been the place to stage protests. It’s the one public space that is nearly impossible to control, and you’re guaranteed that you will be seen. It’s important that streets remain open for protests as protests are vital to a healthy democracy. Yes, there will be some that are inevitably senseless and violent like those in England right now, but others will be powerful, decisive moments in a country’s history, such as the Egyptian uprising this past spring. Streets are not only for transportation: they are a country’s meeting place, an arena for the people’s voice to be heard.

The question, of course, is whether or not there is a point at which protests should be restricted or abolished altogether. Should a permit be required, which might prevent all but largest protests from taking place? Are there opinions that one should not be allowed to promote in public? These are broader free speech questions that must always be questioned in a democracy. The street can be an outlet for such a debate, a potent place for all peoples to exercise their right to free speech.

A crowd gathering in London, before clashing with the police. Courtesy of www.dailymail.co.uk

Protesters in Tahrir Square during the Egyptian uprising in 2011. Courtesy of www.guardian.co.uk

Bird's Eye View Critique: Houston's Stormwater Sewer System

by Marley Bice, MCRP '12

I've written about combined sewer systems in America's older cities but what about newer cities that were built around separate sewer systems? Are they any better? I've chosen to look at Houston, Texas. Houston was a historic city that experienced significant growth in the 20th century and is now the fourth largest city in the United States. Houston's severe flooding problem is not a huge suprise:

(1) the city is built on a flood plain
(2) the city's landscpae is overwhelmingly short grasses in compact soils
(3) the city chose to increase impervious surfaces and focus on conveyand as stormwater management techniques

I'm not saying I have a solution (or that green stormwater infrastrucutre would solve all of Houston's drainage and flooding problems - undoubtedly not) or that I would have made better decisions myself given knowledge at the time these systems were considered. I'm just saying... take a look at these images from Bing Maps and tell me what you would recommend.

When formulating your recommendations, there are many constraints to consider:

(1) Houston needs to preserve the neighborhoods that have developed around these bayous, so some sort of controlled water's edge needs to be maintained
(2) Consider improving aesthetics and safety around the bayous
(3) Consider how to capture and treat more of the runoff before it reaches the bayous

My major questions: Why was it necessary to purposefully make your catch basin entirely impervious? Why was it necessary to drain that forested area? Why was it necessary to funnel that natural stream into the cement bayou?

What's the Best Downtown Highway? The One That Isn’t There

by Betsy Harvey, MCRP '12

Highways are a thing of the past.

Or, at least those that run through cities’ downtowns. From Cleveland to New Haven to San Francisco, cities are tearing out the highways built a half a decade ago to uncover land that is far more valuable as real estate than as highway.

And it’s not just valuable to the extent to which it will contain condos or shopping centers. Since highways help cause congestion, eliminating highways can help alleviate it. The more roads that are built, the more people will use them, i.e. “if you build it they will come,” also called induced travel demand. Drivers adapt their transportation habits when a road is not there by not driving. Likewise, when a road is built, they will adapt by using it.

There is a definite paradigm shift going on. Instead of the Federal Department of Transportation paying for highways to slice through cities, they are paying to have them removed. People want their waterfronts back. They want to be able to walk between neighborhoods. They want to recover the economic benefits of the land that is paved with asphalt. If you look at the pictures below, you can see that some highways have been replaced with public space. In cities people don’t want to be isolated. I’ve written about how streets can, and often should, be social spaces. But sometimes a roadless social space is more valuable than a road. In the case of downtown highways, it nearly always is.

(All images courtesy of www.infrastructurist.com)




Portland, Oregon: Harbor Drive After



Portland, Oregon: Harbor Drive Before





San Francisco: Embarcadero Freeway Before

San Francisco: Embarcadero Freeway After



Obsessed: The High Line Park

by Marley Bice, MCRP '12

My newest obsession... The High Line Park in New York City. The site's sustainable design paired with its spectacular position - four stories off the ground and within an arm's reach of historic and modern buidlings alike - make it one of the most unique urban spaces I have seen yet in my travels. It is just too bad that they do not [currently] allow dogs on the High Line. Because, you know what goes best paired with adaptive reuse, infill development, industrial ecology and urban stormwater management... dogs. But my obsession with dogs is what my other blog is about, so back to stormwater.

The boardwalk planks (in some sections wood, in others cement) seemlessly disappear into the vegetated sections, emulating both the flow of stormwater runoff on the site and the former linear tracks (some of which can still be found integrated into the landscape).

Can't catch all of the water coming out of the water fountain? That's OK. These designers thought of everything. The excess fountain water bypasses any type of hidden drain and simply trickles back into the ground and feeds the adjacent vegetation.

I have been slowly leading up to the unveiling of the fact that stormwater management can be such a seamless and creative component of any new urban development [or redevelopment]. When one thinks in terms of - not what the fifty-year code tells you is standard - but in terms of what Mother Nature would do - you can create spectacular green spaces that manage stormwater, revitalize communities and provide enriching public gathering spaces.

The High Line Park is a breath-taking example of how stretching your imagination and designing holisticly with preservation (rather than destruction) as your starting point can result in so many other benefits to the community as a whole. Coined "the world's longest green roof;" at its heart, the High Line essentially functions as a green roof. "The High Line landscape functions essentially like a green roof; porous pathways contain open joints, so water can drain between planks and water adjacent planting beds, cutting down on the amount of storm-water than runs off the site into the sewer system." (High Line Park FAQs)

In just twelve years since the first community group to save and rehabilitate the High Line was established, a beautiful, sustainable gem of a park has been created and (as Mayor Bloomberg declared just before Section 2 opened) "preserving the High Line as a public park revitalized a swath of the city and generated $2 billion in private investment surrounding the park." (New York Times) Just one little green roof can do all that? I'm not saying the stormwater management aspects of the High Line are the only reason it has flourished and jumpstarted such immense reinvestment in the surrounding district -but it hasn't hurt either. Because the High Line was so meticulously designed to be sustainable (especially in terms of water use), making it more affordable to operate, it is guaranteed to be around for years and years to come.

What's next? Similar viaduct parks in St. Louis, Philadelphia, Jersey City, Chicago, and Rotterdam? Any thing seems possible with a model like this to follow!