Month: April 2010

somerset street, streetscaping2 Comments

Public Gardening

Westsideaction

These crocuses are blooming in the garden in front of the Plant Recreation Centre at the corner of Somerset and Preston Streets. The lovely garden at the corner was built, planted, and is maintained by community volunteers. It is on city-owned land. It illustrates the power of volunteer community action. Personally, I feel the City tries to do too much — too much of what I don’t want, and not enough of what I do want. And too much of what it shouldn’t be doing could be done perfectly well by others. Can you image the tax load if the … Continue reading Public Gardening

somerset street, streetscaping

Public Gardening

Westsideaction

These crocuses are blooming in the garden in front of the Plant Recreation Centre at the corner of Somerset and Preston Streets. The lovely garden at the corner was built, planted, and is maintained by community volunteers. It is on city-owned land. It illustrates the power of volunteer community action. Personally, I feel the City tries to do too much — too much of what I don’t want, and not enough of what I do want. And too much of what it shouldn’t be doing could be done perfectly well by others. Can you image the tax load if the … Continue reading Public Gardening

pedestrians, Preston street, streetscaping

Think Thin

Westsideaction

Downtown neighborhoods can have a tremendous variety of amenities, depending on the neighborhood history, road allowances, and other oddities that pre-date modern standards that too often result in in a blah uniformity of environment. I particularly like this narrow sidewalk, one block north of Beech, off Preston. This sidewalk is less attractive, mostly because of the close proximinity of the rough stucco wall of the adjacent restaurant, and the presence of the lamppost (pardon… street furniture) plopped down in the centre of the walk along with a stop sign that is about 25′ from the corner. The kitchen staff of … Continue reading Think Thin

pedestrians, Preston street, streetscaping

Think Thin

Westsideaction

Downtown neighborhoods can have a tremendous variety of amenities, depending on the neighborhood history, road allowances, and other oddities that pre-date modern standards that too often result in in a blah uniformity of environment. I particularly like this narrow sidewalk, one block north of Beech, off Preston. This sidewalk is less attractive, mostly because of the close proximinity of the rough stucco wall of the adjacent restaurant, and the presence of the lamppost (pardon… street furniture) plopped down in the centre of the walk along with a stop sign that is about 25′ from the corner. The kitchen staff of … Continue reading Think Thin