Writing about cities
Kudos to the developer and architects for finding a site and designing a beautiful building in downtown Brooklyn that can be seen from nearly everywhere. I have dozens of photos of The Brooklyn Tower, designed by SHoP Architects, from the north, east, south, and west.
Two months ago, a bunch of us in Chicago hosted a fundraiser here for John Bauters, America’s bike mayor, who’s in a runoff for an Alameda County Supervisor seat in California. Cohosts were Michelle Stenzel, Steven Vance, Nate Hutcheson, Molly Fleck, LeAaron Foley, Tim Shambrook, and Ben Wolfenstein.
The ride started at the Western Avenue Brown Line station, where Steven Vance talked about some of the infrastructure improvements coming to the station plaza as well as the new multifamily construction happening across the street (at 4715 N Western Ave) and future proactive upzoning.
The group of 40 safe streets advocates cycled east on Leland Avenue, site of a future neighborhood greenway, to Lily’s Corner, where her father Tim spoke about the vehicle crash that killed his daughter, Lily.
Next, we pedaled to where Montrose Avenue meets DuSable Lake Shore Drive and Michael McLean shared updates on the plan from the Illinois and Chicago Departments of Transportation to “modernize” DLSD by—of course—widening the highway. And they didn’t even include a bus-only lane.
Finally, we gathered in the lawn near the Montrose Beach to listen to John give advocates the winning formula for safe streets infrastructure, followed by some open discussion about deploying those lessons in Chicago. I collected some responses from the other cohosts:
The event raised $2,700 for John’s campaign and 35 people donated. You can still donate here before watching John’s new campaign commercial below.
Update October 23, 2024: I’m aware of one project that has been withdrawn in part due to complications complying with resident-requested changes that would have been lessened if the applicant did not have to also apply for a Type 1 zoning map amendment in order to take advantage of the Connected Communities ordinance’s density bonuses and the “ZBA bundling” streamlining that was adopted by City Council last fall. The applicant was requesting to rezone from the B2-3 to B3-3 (the new zoning district). If the new zoning district already existed and some of the changes I mention in the comment below were in place, then the applicant would have likely already applied for a permit.
This is the original version of a public comment I planned to give to the Chicago City Council zoning committee on Tuesday, September 17, 2024. Due to an overwhelming number of commenters the amount of time allotted to each speaker was reduced from three minutes to two minutes. I edited and cut the comment on the fly.
Hello, my name is Steven Vance, I’m a South Loop renter and a member of Urban Environmentalists Illinois.
The ordinances to proactively upzone Western Avenue from Howard Street to Addison Street will be voted on today in this committee. The ordinances will rezone nearly all of the 4.5 mile stretch to B3-3 zoning, allowing multifamily housing to be built as of right without further approvals from the local alderperson or this committee. I fully support this plan.
However, there is a technical flaw in this plan that could hinder the initiative’s goal of adding more housing, both market rate and subsidized affordable.
To take advantage of the Connected Communities bonuses that allow even more or larger homes to be built when a property is both in a B3-3 zoning district and a transit-served location, the property owner must still obtain a Type 1 zoning map amendment. To sail smoothly, such amendments need support from the local alderperson, most of whom require community meetings before deciding to offer such support. Thus, in some circumstances, the proactive upzoning may not have one of its intended effects of cutting the tape for building new housing.
The greatest Connected Communities ordinance bonuses, that allow for the most additional housing and family-sized homes, only kick in when 100% of the proposal’s ARO requirement is built on-site. I’m concerned that that requirement combined with the need to get a Type 1 zoning map amendment might limit the number of additional homes added as a result of the upzonings. A solution would be to amend the Connected Communities ordinance to allow the bonuses to be granted by right as long as the other, existing standards about on-site ARO units are met.
I would like City Council members to implement more proactive upzoning initiatives across Chicago, including on arterials like Western Avenue, Milwaukee Avenue, and Broadway, as well as on less busy streets like 35th Street in McKinley Park and designated Pedestrian Streets. Yet to fully and cost-effectively realize the benefits of housing abundance from this policy lever, further tweaks are needed so housing providers can get to construction sooner.
The proactive upzoning of Western Avenue, as well as Milwaukee Avenue, reflects real leadership on the part of the alderpersons. It will result in more and better housing for Chicagoans, more affordable units for residents who need them most, and more tax revenue for the city. I’m hopeful that with some tweaks to the density bonuses outlined here, we can establish a model for a more affordable, welcoming and prosperous city.
Mayor Johnson asked 6th Ward alderperson William Hall to solicit ideas about how to fund the City of Chicago budget. The Chicago Tribune reported on these:
The Google [Forms] survey he included asked aldermen to respond “Yes” or “No” to the following ideas, with no added descriptions: “Sales Tax on Services; Property Tax (CPI Increase); Monthly/Wireless Plan Tax; Increase in LGDF Share; Head Tax; Alcohol Tax; Checking Bag Tax; Video Gaming Tax; Grocery Tax; City Sticker Increase; Congestion Tax; Income Tax Surcharge; Package Tax; Vacant Lot Tax; Ticket Reseller Amusement Tax; Enterprise Zones.”
I’ll briefly describe each one based on my own knowledge of these taxes. Note that these are possibilities and not suggestions.
The Civic Federation came up with their own list of possible revenue sources and indicated if they require a state statute to authorize.
This is an especially long travelogue and reflects everything I did in about 12 hours in Oslo.
I left the hotel and headed over to Fuglen (which means “bird”) to get a pastry and caffeinated beverage. My friend told me about this place and he said that they have a location here and one in Tokyo.
I bought a 24-hour pass the day before via the Ruter app, and it expired at 6:59 PM today so I took a tram partway to the coffee shop and after leaving Fuglen I took transit partway back to the city center. I headed to the opera building, which is designed to allow walking up the inclined roof to two balconies from which to see the harbor – the south balcony – and the city – the north balcony. I could also see the new “Barcode” office district, which flanks the south side of the Oslo Sentralstasjon train station platforms.
I took another tram over to the other set of piers in the harbor (they are separated by Akershus Festning, the city fortress) and boarded the privately-operated ferry from Aker Brygge to Bygdøy, a peninsula in the city where there are several museums. The Ruter transit pass doesn’t cover this trip. I bought it on website of Norway Yacht Charter for 67 NOK as there is a 12 NOK surcharge for tickets purchased on board.
One of the museums here is Fram where Nansen’s polar expedition is explored. Upon arriving here I changed my mind and decided to head directly to the Norsk Folkemuseum (Norwegian Folk Museum), an open air – outdoor – museum which has over 100 rebuilt, relocated, or recreated buildings from all over the country. To get there I hired the Oslo Bysykkel bike share for 25 NOK for a single ride because the walk to the open air museum was going to be long. The bicycle enabled me to also visit a beach and park in another area and see some of the suburban houses. I’m glad it wasn’t raining during the ride.
The bikes are kind of small and I wouldn’t want to ride one more than about two miles at a time. There are also e-bikes but they cost more and there weren’t any available where I started the ride.
The Folkesmuseet was rad! The most popular attraction is the Stave church, which I think is pretty famous and you may recognize it. It’s much larger looking outside than inside and appears to be able to hold only 20 worshippers inside. There are also entire farmsteads that have been recreated by assembling buildings of different purposes in good condition from around Norway to represent the traditions and methods of the country. There is also a small active farm going, with roosters, a couple of sheep, and two horses. There are also guided tours, demonstrations, and activities for children.
I stayed at the open air museum for one hour and decided I wanted to ride more of the city’s public transport. I caught the route 30 bus from outside the museum towards the city center and disembarked near the Skøyen train station. I stopped at the Kiwi grocery store to grab some snacks. I was hoping to find a drinkable yogurt that I like to get in the Netherlands but the only options were too large for a snack and the hotel doesn’t have a refrigerator in which to store the rest.
From the Skøyen station I took commuter train line L1 eastbound through and past the city center to Bryn station because I noticed that was near a T-bane (metro) station and I hadn’t ridden the city’s subway lines yet. If I had known or seen how poorly the two were connected I would have ridden to the next station. Anyway, I walked five minutes between Bryn commuter station and Brynseng metro station.
I boarded one of the four T-bane lines (I don’t recall which and all of them had service going back to the city center) and disembarked at Stortinget station, since that was near the small IKEA on one of the pedestrian shopping streets. I haven’t been to a city center IKEA store yet and this was my chance. I had seen in the news that the Swedish home furnishings company opened a store in Vienna. After I posted about this visit on Twitter people replied that there is now a city center IKEA in San Francisco. I would like the company to open one in Chicago – there are several vacancies along the Magnificent Mile!
The smaller-format store has a tiny café and food market on the upper level while the stock of furnishings and furniture displays are in the basement. It’s possible to buy kitchen cookware and utensils, pillows and sheets, and view desks, tables, and chairs to order for home delivery.
My hotel was one of the few Citybox locations in Europe and I chose it largely because of its location (I wanted to be as close to the central station as possible because the train was leaving at 8:25 and I’m generally a late riser). I walked three minutes from IKEA to the hotel so I could take a break, rest my feet, fast charge my phone, and do some research as to what I wanted to do for the rest of the day. It was 15:40. The bulk of my research was about taking one of the ferries so I could see more of the Oslo fjord – the ferry to Bygdøy didn’t scratch this itch and I also love being outdoors on ferries.
I walked over to the Rådhusbryggene (city hall pier) at 16:30 to hop on the B1 ferry to Hovedøya via the roundtrip route. The route stops at Hovedøya first and then several more islands before coming back to Hovedøya and returning to Radhussbrygge. The ferry dropped me off at 17:46. I have until 18:46 to explore the island; that’s the next ferry and I don’t want to be here for more than an hour because I need to get dinner soon. The trip is included in the Ruter pass and I highly recommend it.
P.S. many of the public transport ferries are electric. I learned about this on a podcast interviewing a transit agency executive, forgot about it, and then was reminded when I saw this machine moving and realized that it was a battery charger that worked much like those on CTA’s electric buses.
Many of the islands appear to be popular during the summer as they have parks and small beaches with extremely calm water. The weather was 65°F and overcast yet two women disembarked the ferry at the same time I did and used the small beach on the far side of Hovedøya. I, on the other hand, took a look at the cloister ruins and a restored artillery battery at the top of a ridge that overlooks the Oslo fjord.
After getting returning to the mainland, I decided I would eat at Lorry. This restaurant came up in multiple searches for Norwegian food, moose, fish, and reindeer. I had moose patties for dinner the night before – which were very, very good – and I thought this time I would try seafood. I walked there from Rådhusbryggene and passed through the Royal Court and Slottsparken where there was a small area containing sculptures designed by children who won a contest and fabricated by established artists.
At Lorry I sat outside under the large awnings, even though it was raining, and ate baked salmon with cabbage and potatoes. I had a Nøgne Ø (brewery) saison beer. The food was fine and the beer was good. Eating out in Oslo is expensive! The meal was about $45 which included a five percent tip! (For reference, the average salami, tomato, and pesto sandwich I bought at a convenience store before the train on Wednesday morning was about $8 and a small premade mango-yogurt smoothie was over $4).
For dessert I walked over to McDonald’s on Storgata to get a McFlurry. I love that ice cream snack and it’s a personal tradition to try the local flavor in every country I visit. On the way there I was following the walking directions from Google Maps and I passed a neat-looking park built into the side of a hill so I deviated from the route and passed through the park and took notice of the wide, steep steel slides that looked like a lot of fun. I also walked through the Oslo Metropolitan University campus which has a nice central plaza ringed by tall buildings and meeting spaces.
Given the prices I paid for everything else I was shocked to see that the McFlurry is cheaper in Oslo than in the U.S. For the record, I got “Non Stop” (which is like M&Ms) as the mix-in with Daim as an add-on.
Wanting to return to my hotel, but not ready to call it a night, I walked towards the central station to check out some infrastructure I had seen twice earlier. North of the station are two or three hotels, including one that has a high-rise portion adorned with the signs of the shops inside – reminiscent of Tokyo zakkyo buildings! (I recommend the book where I learned that name, Emergent Tokyo: Designing the Spontaneous City, by Jorge Almazán and Joe McReynolds.
Continuing east past the station I walked through a small above-ground shopping center that abuts the Oslo Bussterminal; again, this reminded me of Asian shopping centers that surround transportation stations. There are dozens of gates in the bus terminal but not that many people were waiting at 21:30 at night. Also reminding me of Tokyo and other Asian cities, like Bangkok, were the elevated pedestrian walkways and bridges.
I found the infrastructure: it was a pedestrian bridge over the 20 or so train tracks. This breaks up the long distance until the next way to cross the tracks. The bridge reminded me of the one at the Utrecht Centraal station in the Netherlands. The bridge has a tall glass wall leaning inward to the bridge that inhibits people from falling or jumping onto the tracks as well as throwing debris. It also makes taking pictures of arriving and departing trains a bit harder. My height has an advantage though: I can easily hold my phone over the top of the wall.
That concluded the day. I walked back to the hotel, less than 10 minutes away. See on the Bergensbanen railway tomorrow!