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October 5, 2007

Krakow, Poland's Old Town Square

If the town square is the stage, then there's no bigger 'ongoing public performance' than in Europe's largest market square, the Rynek Glowny ('Grand Square') in Krakow, Poland. There's enough to see and do in and around the square for a week straight, and enough for residents to make it a large-scale third place. It's a good lesson in what a destination public square can be.

Cloth Hall, a 16th-century, Renaissance-style building, a primary attraction, houses a gallery of 19th-century art on the top floor and a market hall for local artisans on the ground floor featuring traditional Polish crafts from wood carving to amber working to felt dragon stuffing.

For modern creatives, the square is surrounded by contemporary cafes, delis, art galleries, as well as jazz clubs and museums, and is itself animated by outdoor diners, street musicians, artists, birds and wandering spectators taking it all in.

With a nod to history and thus a bit of culture, each hour a bugler plays the tune (from the tower this picture is taken) that 13th century guards used to sound the alarm when invaders approached. Once during an invasion, an arrow pierced the bugler’s throat mid-tune. To this day the buglers end the song abruptly at the same place in the song each time.

Thanks to Lauren J. of New Orleans for the reference

Image source: View from the Town Hall Tower by karlakp.

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October 4, 2007

First beta community meets in New Orleans

A few weeks ago we profiled a group of young urban rebuilding professionals that wanted to make a difference in New Orleans. On September 26, 2007 they were invited to take more action as far as the rebuilding itself was literally concerned, at the first New Orleans beta community meeting at Tulane University.

The first order of business was for the group to establish a manifesto by which the businesses, buildings and communities they were investing in would be defined. Three writers were selected, and here are the destinations of inspiration the group identified to serve as the foundation:

Andrew - The markets of Honk Kong
Joel - The streets of Salzburg, Austria
Ritchie - Atlanta's bike paths
John - Atlanta's mixed-use, greenbelts, Serenby village
Victoria - Seattle's urban grocery stores
Shercole - Urban groceries of Houston and Dallas
John G - Holyoke, MA's urban agriculture
Jessica - Bangkok's peaceful courtyards
Emily - Madrid's communal public spaces
Kenny - Pedestrian promenades of Santa Monica, Burlington and Quincy Market in Boston
Hampton - University City and its coffeehouses, St. Louis
Morgan - The mix of old and new buildings in Seattle
Ben M - Charlottesville, VA's pedestrian mall
Ben - The squares of Savannah, GA
Katelyn - The streets and local shops of Beaumont, Paris
Rachel - Iowa City's pedestrian street
Zach K - The pedestrian-oriented life of Florence, Italy despite no mass transit
Victoria - Walkable neighborhoods of Atlanta
Allie - Venice, CA's amenities open day to midnight; Chicago's neigborhoody North Side
Jeff - The mix of modern renovations with old warehouses in Georgetown, DC
Casey - Munich's Hofbrau House (German beer gardens); Amsterdam's beauty
Julia - The fresh markets, free bikes, pedestrian streets of Rue de Rivoli, Paris
Seth - Block parties, historic homes in The Heights of New Orleans
Lauren J - The personality, character, bars, cafes of Old Town Square, Krakow, Poland
Lauren - The homes of Lisbon, Portugal
Editha - The green selection at Eastern Market, DC
Zach Y - The young population and convenience in Brooklyn, Park Slope, NYC
Miji - Creative redevelopment of historic buildings in Philly
Henesi - The new buildings, concerts and carnivals of Long Island City, NY
Gill - The bike paths, character, joyful life in Barcelona, Spain
Jess G - Inhabiting the river and walking long distances without feeling like it in Paris
Vika - Waterfront park in Schenectady, NY
Ross - The walkable nature of Asheville, NC and Lincoln Road, Miami

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October 3, 2007

New Orleans - It doesn't get more auth-entic than this

You hear the crazy post-Katrina talk about people who say New Orleans should go back to being the swamp it's inclined to be. It's probable that none of them have ever been to the Crescent City, because it's a criminal thing to say once you've been there. If Venice is worth preserving despite going underwater every year, a 100-year flood is a centennial inconvenience by comparison.

If there's one word (there isn't) that can be used to describe New Orleans, it's 'authentic', and it just doesn't get more authentic in the city by the bayou.

You certainly get this feeling being in the French Quarter, despite it being run over by tourists. There literally is nothing else in the country that looks like it, sounds like it, or feels like it, and probably in the world for that matter.

You definitely get this feeling in Jacques-Imo's Cafe in the Oak Street/Uptown/Garden District neighborhood. Among intricately decorated walls and columns, local artwork, unique light fixtures and vernacular hanging artifacts, you'll be handed a menu that is distinctly 'Nawlins', from the best cornbread around to alligator cheesecake (it's not a dessert) to dozens of different kinds of fish and seafood cooked a dozen different ways. It may not be the best in the world, or that affordable actually, but it's New Orleans all the way, no doubt about it.

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October 2, 2007

It's a bicyclist's world once a month

Starting out 15 years ago on September 25, 1992 in San Francisco as a group of 48 bike riders making a stand against traffic, Critical Mass has since become a cultural phenomenon in hundreds of cities and dozens of countries, from India to South Africa to Russia, and of course Hungary and Denmark.

Every last Friday of the month after work up to a thousand or so bikers meet at a common point in a city and take off on an unplanned ride through the city. Although the initial rides caused quite a ruckus (obviously, commuters in cars affected by the riders hate it), it has since become respected by mayors worldwide. Productively, maybe it should be regarded as a once a month incentive not to drive home after work, or even better, to bike home.

Find details on the Critical Mass ride in your city here.

Image source: Critical Mass in Chicago - in the winter, aengusanderson

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October 1, 2007

Manhattan loses an intersection, gains a plaza

A year ago we profiled a neighborhood effort in Manhattan's tony Meatpacking District to transform a congested, dangerous intersection into a peaceful urban square, A NYC 'beta community' to build a piazza. One year later, we present evidence that the process works. Keep in mind this is being referred to as an 'interim' plaza - it'll become even more attractive.

You can even get there by what will be New York's first ever physically separated bike lane (a planter buffer in between the bike lane and the road).

This is the one of many NY resident collaborations to create more pedestrian destinations. For instance, see the vision to turn 42nd Street into a promenade here.

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