Vancouver Council approves car-free sundays in four neighbourhoods
“Council also approved a new program called Summer Spaces, which will close four neighbourhoods — Collingwood, Mount Pleasant, Gastown, and Commercial Drive — to vehicle traffic on several Sundays each summer.”
re: urban ditches
Apparently they are common in Etobicoke, a former suburb of Toronto. Peter Kuitenbrouwer, who is walking across Toronto, wrote about them in his Post column today:
On York View Drive, which runs east-west just north of the Queensway, one-storey brick bungalows line the road, pockmarked by stone or stucco-faced infill monster homes that stick out like sore thumbs. The stout oaks and maples here appear much older than the houses. The result is delightful. In the early 1950s, when these homes went in, the Canadian Dream was a modest thing: a bungalow, a car, a fridge, a yard, a TV — that was your dream. Today it appears largely untarnished.
Perhaps the ditches help explain the health of the trees. Much of residential Etobicoke has no curbs —just shallow ditches between the street and the lawns. So rather than flowing into the sewer, rainwater returns straight to the earth. People seem to like it. I walked for an hour and never saw a house for sale. Everyone feels at home, including the birds.
reblogged from brentgilliard
