The present situation ('Conventional paradigm')

How does the modern city affect or determine our identity?
What are the primary functions of contemporary cities? Who benefits? Who and what suffers?
What is so attractive about the 'suburban sprawl' model?
Why are modern cities and buildings so dull and ugly?
What is the effect of the automobile on the quality of life?
What are the actual multiple effects of cars on our choices?

Fundamental questions

What makes a city livable? How does our city help us (or hinder us) to develop our full capacities?
Do you want vehicular dominant or walkable cities? This is a central question which democratic government should respond to.
What is a public space? What is a private space?
What are the multiple functions of public spaces (for example, in relationships, democracy, and culture)?
Why are public spaces are being replaced by private ones?

Vision('new paradigm')

Beauty in the physical environment is important, especially in public spaces. Stand up for what is beautiful. Think about the impact of the very ugly, very wide metal utility pole at the intersection of Northern Lights Blvd and the Seward Highway.

The functions of a city: Learning, Entertainment, Diversity and choice, Conversation and dialogue, Adventure and excitement, Economics and money-making, Safety and comfort, Spiritual inspiration, Anonymity and privacy, Transportation, Justice, Culture and art.

Livability. Human-scale. Most commercial areas should be walkable, and there should be good public transportation.

Do not use materials that are fake -- that pretend to be what they are not.

Alternatives

Reduce traffic, reclaim our streets, protect local businesses -- and reclaim the multiple functions of the city.

Public spaces: Develop public spaces that satisfy the need for chance interactions, communication of ideas, and meetings of the full spectrum of the population. Promote a new respect for the public realm.

Festivals: Think of the excitement and diversity of fairs like the 26th Asian festival in Union Square in NYC.

Details: Furniture, walls, pathways, etc. in public and private buildings. Details could be hand-carved or at least designed, solid, strong, beautiful -- indicative of the person who created it with care, concern fo rthe fugure, and a sense of its meaning and value.

Public architecture: Think of the food court at Grand Central Station in NYC. The variety of seating arrangements, special chairs, and carefully created food shops make this a special place.

Crafts places, food centers.

Challenges

There should be sidewalks on streets. Most suburban streets are built without sidewalks. Sidewalks in commercial areas are too narrow.

In surveys and studies the public has demonstrated that they want walkable cities. We have a right to good public transportation and dominant walkable areas.

In quasi-public spaces like malls and big box stores there should be civic freedoms that we have in the public spaces that have been eroded. For instance, there should be the right to free speech.Quasi-public spaces are our new public spaces, since our whole built environment has been re-imagined to satisfy the needs of big business and the 'atomistic individual.'

There should be public access to membership stores like Costco, which means no membership fees.

Articles in the Anchorage Daily News, September 19, 2005

Pittance allotted for public transit will lead to less access, not more
Point counterpoint: Is Anchorage planning to spend too much money on roads?

BY CHERYL RICHARDSON

Published: September 19, 2005
Last Modified: September 19, 2005 at 03:07 AM

Building roads to relieve congestion is like letting out one's belt to relieve obesity.

It is a no-brainer that mobility, the ability to travel freely, is essential for a well-functioning city. So is "access" -- the ability of people and businesses to reach desired goods, services and activities. Unfortunately, access often suffers in the drive for mobility.

Road builders tend to provide mobility for some, while limiting access for many. Anchorage is in danger of doing just that as it focuses primarily on road construction in its latest transportation plan. First, a few facts:

Anchorage's population will rise by 30 percent, but incoming traffic on the Glenn is expected to double because of Mat-Su and Eagle River growth. Traffic through Fairview is expected to triple. Data is not yet available for other roads.

Anchorage's new transportation plan calls for spending $20 on building roads for every $1 building public transit. It's not surprising that officials predict very few of us will ride the bus 20 years from now. Whole sections of town, even dense, urban neighborhoods, are not planned for a bus stop within one quarter mile (three blocks) of homes.

After spending $2 billion building new roads, expressways and freeways, will people and businesses have better access to goods, services and activities? Even for drivers, the answer is not a straightforward "yes." This plan does not disclose the travel delay future drivers will endure, and it surely will be longer than today's. The plan does not describe how streets leading onto the new freeway will turn into virtual parking lots at rush hour. It does acknowledge that even after building every road, there will still be gridlock on the freeway through Fairview and Midtown, on Northern Lights and into the airport.

And what if you want to walk or take a bus? Unfortunately, high-speed roads tend to limit other forms of accessibility, just as improving accessibility through sidewalks, pathways, transit and land development often requires constraining automobile volumes and speeds. This plan does not acknowledge these trade-offs and leaves those who want to walk or ride the bus without their fair share of future access.

We know that a pedestrian hit by a car in Midtown is seven times more likely to die than a pedestrian hit downtown due to unsafe road designs and vehicle speed. We know that children living near busy roads in Anchorage are two and a half times more likely to have asthma than other children, and they tend to come from low income families. Healthy people are more likely to go to the doctor for bronchitis, asthma and upper respiratory infections as pollution levels rise, even at levels well below those the federal government assures us are healthy. This plan does not address these public safety, health and social justice problems.

Two thirds of Anchorage's voters say they want more transportation money spent on pedestrian safety, and a similar number want more money spent on transit -- even if it means less money for road construction. Hundreds of people helped write Anchorage 2020 that calls for building Anchorage into a great northern city, not replicating Detroit or Los Angeles. But even Los Angeles is seeing the light. In its most recent budget, LA spends $3 on transit for every $1 on roads. Providing transportation choices reduces congestion for those who have to drive.

Why is Anchorage proposing a 1950s transportation plan in 2005? Is it because people who are only good with a hammer see every problem as a nail?

Anchorage Citizens Coalition has drafted a modern Citizens Transportation Plan for your consideration. Road improvements provide mobility and make it easier to walk, reinforcing the livability of neighborhoods. Buses run every ten minutes at rush hour, down every major arterial, with shuttles into neighborhoods. The citizens plan invests in Anchorage, making it a better place to live and do business while improving access.

Cheryl Richardson directs the Anchorage Citizens Coalition.

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NOTICE: The city's long-range transportation plan is at muni.org/transplan. The citizens' plan is at ACCAlaska.org. A public hearing on the plan is 5-7 p.m. today in Loussac Library Assembly Chambers. Comments on the plan are due Sept. 26.

Some tough decisions need to be made to improve transportation in Anchorage
Point counterpoint: Is Anchorage planning to spend too much money on roads?

BY MAYOR MARK BEGICH AND DIRECTOR GORDON KEITH

Published: September 19, 2005
Last Modified: September 19, 2005 at 12:36 AM

Anchorage is a dynamic, growing city. Our economy is strong, and our young population is active and involved. We're a city on the move.

Those are all good things. Until you find yourself stuck at a traffic signal.

Traveling around town today you can see signs that the transportation system is failing to keep pace with development and population growth. Travel delays are on the rise. Congested roads and intersections waste time and make travel more hazardous. The drag on the movement of freight and business deliveries affects our economic health.

Traffic congestion affects even those who rarely drive. Drivers on congested roads look for ways to get around the slowdown. Often they reroute through neighborhoods, affecting the safety and quality of life of those whose homes are on those residential streets.

The problem isn't going to get better on its own. In fact, without concerted action by state and local government, it will get worse. That is why the Municipality of Anchorage and Alaska Department of Transportation commissioned a new Long Range Transportation Plan for our city, a task last completed in 1991.

The Anchorage Assembly and Planning and Zoning Commission will hear public comment on the plan today at the Loussac Library. You can view the plan on the Municipality's Web site at www.muni.org.

Development and population growth are continuing in Anchorage. Undeveloped land is limited, but owners are building on smaller, in-fill parcels and redeveloping other property into more intensive uses.

This development comes on top of a pattern that was decades in the making. In some cases, the transportation facilities built to serve these lands are already inadequate. In other cases, our current growth path will lead to new congestion problems.

In our built-up city easy solutions to address our transportation problems were tapped out years ago. It can no longer be "business as usual."

We need a balanced transportation system that produces more efficiency from our existing facilities and adds new facilities to meet demand. To achieve these ends, our plan for Anchorage contains these key programs:

• Developing a new highway connection between the Seward and the Glenn highways

• Providing better year-round maintenance of existing and future roads, sidewalks and trails

• Developing an effective Bus Rapid Transit and High Occupancy Vehicle strategy for the Glenn Highway Corridor

• Significantly expanding People Mover and other forms of transit

• Investing in pedestrian and bicycle improvements in key areas as a way to support alternative modes of transportation

• Developing new road connections where significant out-of-the-way travel is occurring and impacting more people.

These programs will form the basis for a balanced transportation system to take us well into the 21st century. However, implementing the recommendations of the plan will be a challenge. Decisions will be tough. Budgets will be stretched. Some projects will be difficult to develop and extensive community involvement will be needed.

We invite members of the public to weigh in on the draft plan that is now before our public bodies. As you do so, please keep in mind that, in order to solve our problems together, we need a strategy that addresses the entire city. We must have a long-term perspective and make decisions with the whole community in mind. Let's avoid the problems that have beset other cities when they refused to make tough decisions.

It's an exciting time for Anchorage as we move forward to improve our transportation system and build a legacy for future generations.

Mark Begich is mayor of Anchorage. Gordon Keith is Central Region director for the Alaska Department of Transportation.

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NOTICE: The city's long-range transportation plan is at muni.org/transplan. The citizens' plan is at ACCAlaska.org. A public hearing on the plan is 5-7 p.m. today in Loussac Library Assembly Chambers. Comments on the plan are due Sept. 26.