The article introduces three factors that play major roles in the public's increasing use of open space which Gehl extracted from two observational studies conducted in 1968 and 1986 respectively. They are:
Gradual Transformations
Gehl emphasizes the role of gradual transformation in order to make changes sustainable and to give people time to adapt to changes, adjust their lifestyles, and experiment. It allows for greater flexibility in the design process and helps attitudes evolve through public involvement and personal experiences. (16)
Inexpensive Transformations
Gehl emphasizes affordability in transforming streets that will support people rather than cars. Studies show that such transformations bring in more than enough numbers of customers to generate income to pay for investments. Figures 1 and 2, at the end of this paper, illustrate the tripling effect. (16)
Public-to-Public Transformation
Transformations work best where public spaces are changed from one public use to another. "The municipal supervision of the urban spaces has enabled a general policy of allowing and encouraging a wide range of persons and activities to use city spaces, making them truly public, in accordance with a democratic tradition," writes Gehl. (17)
Following the article's publication Gehl added the following factor, significant to Canadian cities:
Winter Spaces
The urban transformation in northern countries shouldn't confine street life to summer months. Gehl asserts that winter weather and moods require particular resources, special lighting, heating technologies, and activities - ice-skating rinks, kiosks selling hot soups and drinks, etc.
Gehl's concluding remarks elaborate on current trends that undermine the fabric of democratic spaces in our cities. He points to the increasing number of commercial ventures offering privatized versions of "street life". These privately-operated projects (e.g. shopping malls) don't reflect altruistic desires to encourage democratic life. They are created for one purpose and one purpose only, which is to make money. Gehl reminds us, however, that policies don't have to be an "either-or-policy". He advocates instead for a "better balance between public interests and private enterprises". (17)
As Canadians continue moving into cities, we'll either become further defined by urban spaces or we'll opt for more participatory and reciprocal relationships whereby people and spaces redefine one another.
There is such an abundance of history and cultural meaning in the urban landscape of Canada. Like our larger Canadian landscape imprints (e.g. the railway) bear evidence of our collective history, the urban landscape of Canada also reveals our history, especially our demographic history. In cities like Toronto where Gehl spoke in 2009, the archways and wrought iron railings still mark the large influx of Italian immigrants in the 1950s and 1960s. By tracing Georgian mansions overlaid with that wrought iron one could draw a cultural landscape map that follows the ethnic diversification of cities across Canada.
And so, we come to ask ourselves: Are Canada's streetscapes democratized?
Gehl's article leads us to answer no. So, perhaps a more pertinent question is whether there's enough will among Canadian citizens to start charting new paths of democracy through the very spaces we occupy on a daily basis. Another question within the framework of this review asks whether regional cultural landscapes, in this case regional urban landscapes, contribute to or detract from a sense of national identity. A reductionist and simplistic viewpoint could hold that loving your urban space and identifying with it more would mean there would be less love and identification left for the country, but that isn't the case. Belonging and identity are like webs. All one has to do is listen Gehl's obvious fondness for Copenhagen and Denmark. May Jan Gehl's words inspire us to transform Canadian urban spaces into places we will want to linger, laugh, and love:
"A good city is like a good party," Jan Gehl says, "you stay for longer than you plan."
Works Cited
Gehl, Jan. (1989). A Changing Street Life in a Changing Society. Places, 6 (1), College of Environmental Design, UC Berkeley. 8-17. Print
Florida, Richard (2009). Who's Your City? Vintage Canada Edition, 392 pages. Print
Gehl, Jan. (2011). Cities for People. Island Press, 288 pages. Print
Project for Public Spaces (PPS). 2012. Jan Gehl: Biography, Perspectives, Quotable, Publications, Contact Retrieved from http://www.pps.org/articles/jgehl/. Web
Kallas, Wojciech. "The Cost of Civilisation: Constructing the City in Michael Ondaatje's In the Skin of a Lion. Teacher Training College, Torun, Poland. Web
This review is intended to advocate for Gehl's article inclusion on the syllabus of the ldfjalfjasdljfdslfj course for the Ontario Region.
Recommended support for this article on the syllabus (Ontario Region):
1. Ondaatje, Michael. In the Skin of a Lion (1987). Ondaatje's novel set primarily in 1920s and 1930s Toronto explores the transformation of a "primitive" Canada into a more modern, urban and industrial country. Ondaatje focuses on both the human element and that of landscape as well as how they interact through and via the transformation. The novel presents magnificent artifacts of an emerging urban country. (Kallas,215)
2. The Urban Toronto Landscape in Art - Joyner Canadian Fine Art [joyner.waddingtons.ca/articles/canada-urban-landscape2009/]
As a children's rights educator and advocate, I've spent the better part of the last 15 years voicing my concerns and trying to protect children by educating about the true face lurking behind the masks of marketing.
Source: eroenigk.wordpress.com
An entire community needs to be involved in the upbringing of children. But raising children in North America seems to have become synonymous with indoctrinating them into some Orwellian form of 'BrandSpeak' driven by advertising forces and electronic media . Marketing targeted towards children is popping up everywhere morning, noon, and night 24-7, but not with the least intention of improving children and youth's quality of life but rather for the sole purpose of making a sale. Let me repeat that: the sole purpose is selling something. And more often than we, as a society, should tolerate the means of achieving that sale is by making all of us, but especially our society's children feel inadequate.
Advertising can impact children's values, perceptions, physical condition, self-image and security.
Can you believe that some fast-food chains spend more than $100 million EVERY YEAR on advertising that's directed only at children?
While television advertising targets mainly children, there are other marketing activities such as school commercialism, a popular advertising tool that promotes sugary crap to your children under the auspices of 'helping them take part in sports teams'. Another horse ambles over to the waterhole. . .
[*horse nods approvingly* and takes a drink - Make it a double!]
Remember to ask your city councillor and your school administrators where they stand on issues of advertising and marketing to those who are vulnerable such as children. Advertisers are banking on the fact that you're either too busy or that they've baffled you with enough bullshit to paralyze you.
We should all be able to count on city councillors and school administrators to make decisions that are based not just on money, but on the greater good of the citizens they are serving. You can always change your mind, or perhaps even theirs. Change is, after all, the only constant we can be sure of. Let's make those changes for the greater good.
Here's to making changes in 2012,
TARTANFROG
For more comments on the original blog by Tim Bousquet:
Selling our municipal soul: council monetizes The Oval and the Christmas Tree Lighting celebration Teachers are now ordered to help increase the profits of Dreamworks, inc. Posted by Tim Bousquet on Thu, Nov 24, 2011 at 6:05 PM
Advertising can impact children's values, perceptions, physical condition, self-image and security.
Can you believe that some fast-food chains spend more than $100 million EVERY YEAR on advertising that's directed only at children?
While television advertising targets mainly children, there are other marketing activities such as school commercialism, a popular advertising tool that promotes sugary crap to your children under the auspices of 'helping them take part in sports teams'. Another horse ambles over to the waterhole. . .
[*horse nods approvingly* and takes a drink - Make it a double!]
Remember to ask your city councillor and your school administrators where they stand on issues of advertising and marketing to those who are vulnerable such as children. Advertisers are banking on the fact that you're either too busy or that they've baffled you with enough bullshit to paralyze you.
We should all be able to count on city councillors and school administrators to make decisions that are based not just on money, but on the greater good of the citizens they are serving. You can always change your mind, or perhaps even theirs. Change is, after all, the only constant we can be sure of. Let's make those changes for the greater good.
Here's to making changes in 2012,
TARTANFROG
For more comments on the original blog by Tim Bousquet:
Selling our municipal soul: council monetizes The Oval and the Christmas Tree Lighting celebration Teachers are now ordered to help increase the profits of Dreamworks, inc. Posted by Tim Bousquet on Thu, Nov 24, 2011 at 6:05 PM