[sustran] Re: From Eric Britton on Successful campaigns againts roads - databas e, website, whatever

[Lake Sagaris]

Roberto Brandes Gratz, in her book "Cities Back from the Edge", which I 
already mentioned to the list, speaks of many cases of fights against 
highways that eventually led to significant movements for changes and 
improvements to cities.

Offhand, I can remember a few (not all from her book) -- The newspaper The 
Village Voice originally started as part of an anti-highway movement; 
Brandes' chapter "The Soho Syndrome" illustrates how the fight against a 
highway project eventually led to the highly successful urban renewal of 
Soho, then a New York industrial district in decline. She provides a long 
list of US and Canadian cities where a similar phenomenon has occurred.

"The highway defeat (in Soho) gave heart to urbanists, community defenders, 
and all other opponents of misguided urban renewal projects."

San Francisco's experience with the Embarcadero highway is particularly 
important, since they have now torn down sections and turned them back into 
very successful park areas. Something similar is happening with Toronto's 
Gardiner Expressway (See Robert Fulford, Accidental City, a beautifully 
written, insightful and informative book on Toronto).

Philadelphia underwent a similar process, ie defeat of a highway project 
followed by grassroots work to improve the city.

Best,
Lake

l
>account ...
>"BOUNCE sustran-discuss at jca.ax.apc.org: Non-member submission
>from ["Eric Britton" <ecoplan.adsl at wanadoo.fr>]"
>Paul
>--------
>
>Subject:  Successful campaigns againts roads - database, website, whatever
>Date: Wed, 1 Aug 2001 17:01:56 +0200
>
>This strikes me as an area in which our academic brethren (and sistren)
>could make some wonderful contributions.
>
>* Why is it that a given set of projects gets cut from the national
>programme?
>* Are there common denominators that we should know and use?
>
>We certainly would be pleased to house such a program, database or reference
>point somehow under @New Mobility Agenda, or link to it if it resides
>elsewhere.
>
>
>Eric Britton
>
>The @New Mobility Forum is permanently at http://newmobility.org
>The Commons ___Sustainable Development and Social Justice___
>Le Frene, 8/10 rue Joseph Bara, 75006 Paris, France
>Eric.Britton at NewMobility.org    Tel: +331 4326 1323
>
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: owner-sustran-discuss at jca.ax.apc.org
>[mailto:owner-sustran-discuss at jca.ax.apc.org]On Behalf Of Roger Higman
>Sent: Wednesday, August 01, 2001 3:33 PM
>To: sustran-discuss at jca.ax.apc.org
>Subject: [sustran] Re: Successful campaigns againts roads - info request
>
>Roland
>
>There are lots of examples from the UK. Between 1994 and 1998,
>successive British governments cut about 250 road projects from their
>national programmes - many of which had been subject to vociferous
>campaigns.
>
>Famous examples include: the East London River Crossing through Oxleas
>wood, the M62-M1 link road in West Yorkshire, the Aylesbury bypass, the
>M12 in Essex, the whole of the east-west route, the Preston Western
>bypass, the Ilkley bypass, two bypasses north of Oxford, large chunks of
>the M25 widening etc etc.
>
>More recent victories include the defeat of the Hastings bypasses which
>were scrapped only a month ago.
>
>Roger Higman
>
>Lake Sagaris wrote:
> >
> > Hi Roland
> >
> > Our organization, Living City (Ciudad Viva) in Santiago Chile formed five
> > years ago as the result of a major coalition to fight a highway project.
> > We're still fighting -- that's the way these things go as we discovered
> > when we did a survey similar to yours -- but have generally been credited
> > with changing urban history in the city. We continue to oppose the highway
> > project, which looks like it will die unless we stop our efforts for some
> > reason, but we've gone on to develop our own proposals -- a Citizen's'
> > Agenda for Transport, Citizens' management of garbage project, campaigns
>to
> > protect heritage (tangible and intangible) and efforts to fight noise
> > pollution, security issues, and so on. We're just working on an article on
> > this experience for Sustainable Transport, so I will send you a copy once
> > it's done.
> >
> > All best,
> >
> > Lake
> > Living City
> > Ciudad Viva
> >
> > At 05:43 AM 25/07/01 +1200, you wrote:
> > >Hi
> > >
> > >Campaign for a Better City in Wellington New Zealand is collating
> > >information on
> > >successful public campaigns against major roading projects.  We are aware
>of
> > >Portland in the US, Brisbane in Australia, and Toronto in Canada (though
>would
> > >appreciate any sources of detailed info on these) and are looking for
>other
> > >examples from around the globe.
> > >
> > >Any information or pointers to sources of information would be great.
> > >
> > >Thanks in anticipation
> > >Roland
> > >
> > >--
> > >Roland Sapsford
> > >
> > >roland at actrix.gen.nz; (+64-4)934-1106;(+64-21)65-1105(m)
> > >PO Box 11-708, Manners St, Wellington, New Zealand
> > >
> > >"The most insidious form of ignorance is misplaced certainty"
> > >(Robert Costanza)
>
>...