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Showing posts from December, 2012

A youngster's bird life list and other urban nature tales

Image: Pelicans, St. James's Park, London Pigeon Red-tailed Hawk Northern Cardinal House Sparrow Mourning Dove European Starling American Robin Pelican Crow Coot Moorhen Mute Swan This list was our entry to Out Walking the Dog 's Urban Nature Contest.  Megan of Our Urban Jungle won the contest with her nocturnal observations of wildlife .  Entries from Dillon de Give, Jake, Melanie Hedlund, and Andrew can be read here . The story about a stranded kinglet from Linda Ekstrand is available here and Kelly Rypkema's squirrel ale can be read here . Wishing you joy and peace!

Walking to the post office

Image: New York Post Office via NYPL Digital Gallery, ID Number 809379 ( source ) Did you read the City Room story about the 200-year old building at 502 Canal Street which was "'red-tagged' by the Buildings Department as unsafe after the storm"? I shared it with my mother-in-law and when we saw each other last month we talked about the article which reminded me of the nearby Art Deco (or Moderne-style)  Canal Street Station post office. I had to pick up a package at that post office earlier in the fall.  My mother-in-law was surprised that I had to travel so far when there is a local post office one block away from the apartment. The local post office is not a government one; it is a private mail center.  Since then I have found a USPS post office within a more comfortable walking distance, but it is a small outfit.  It is probably not a designated site for package pickups requiring a signature.  If I need to mail something with urgency, it is likely th

Alleys round-up

Although  Alleys of Seattle  was last updated in October, the blog is a great resource for alley fans. The blog's author, Daniel Toole, was interviewed by The Atlantic Cities in February 2012.   Tight Urbanism , Toole's book about alleyways in the U.S., Australia, and Japan , was published last year. Earlier this year I came across Alleys: A Hidden Resource  (1978) written by Grady Clay. He also authored Close Up: How to Read the American City  (1980) and developed the field method of walking a transect as a way of "reading" a place. On this blog, I profiled the mews of New York's Greenwich Village . Finally, Joshua P. Newell et al. (2012) compared alley greening programs in several U.S. cities and found that most are focused on stormwater management. The program in Los Angeles was singled out as an example of "a more robust commitment to sustainability" because it was designed to achieve multiple benefits ("environmental protection, eco

4th Street loses one of its large Callery pears

I have featured the twin Callery pears on 4th Street many times on this blog.  During Hurricane Sandy, a large limb was torn from the westernmost tree.  This limb damaged the awning of the adjacent store. Last month I noticed that the tree had been removed.  I sent a tweet to @NYCParks requesting information about the removal but did not receive a response.  I sent a request for information to NYC Parks via 311 today.  A response to my request might take two weeks. The reason for the removal of the tree is unclear.  The cut branches left on the site do not indicate rot though perhaps the way in which the branch was torn from the trunk led to the decision to remove the tree.  When the trees stood together, their canopy appeared generous.  The canopy of the remaining tree is less impressive. Will the site be replanted with a Callery pear?  The species is no longer a favorite among urban foresters and arborists but a pair at this corner transformed an otherwise drab blo

4 Christmas tree stories

Yesterday did not feel like a December day it being so warm but I looked at Christmas trees anyway.  There is a quaint tree stand in the neighborhood selling Balsam Firs grown in North Carolina (I think the trees are from Canada) .  The Québécois women and man who staff the stand keep warm in a small shed and spend their down-time making "Charlie Brown" trees and ornaments. The Washington Square Park tree is a Balsam Fir grown in Vermont.  The tree arrived on November 26 and will be lit tonight, December 5th, at 6 p.m. reports the Washington Square Park Blog.  The tree is quite tall.  It tops out at the rise of the Arch.  The total height of the Arch  is 73 feet and 6 inches. Image: 2012 White House Christmas Tree courtesy of The White House Blog, Chuck Kennedy Much shorter but in a grander location is the 2012 White House Christmas tree.  The 19-foot Fraser Fir grown in Jefferson, NC will be decorated in theme of "Joy to All" and displayed in t

PUPstops: Indy's new transit seats

Image: PUPstop, Mass. Ave, Indianapolis (courtesy of People for Urban Progress, Michael Bricker) Long-time readers of this blog know that I have a collection of public seating photographs.  One of the first sets of photos I published to this blog was of seats in Berkeley .  Many of the examples of seating in Berkeley were provided by private individuals as acts of neighborliness or artistic expression. Image: PUPstop, Garfield Park, Indianapolis (courtesy of People for Urban Progress, Michael Bricker)  In Indianapolis, the nonprofit  People for Urban Progress  (PUP) and the municipal transportation authority  IndyGo  have partnered to refurbish and install the famous yellow and orange Bush Stadium seats at qualified transit stops.  These attractive and eye-catching seats are known as  PUPstops .  The project is creative and community-minded, sentiments that IndyGo's Samantha Cross articulates below. “When PUP wanted to meet with us about improving transit stops in the