Opinions On A Car-Free Times Square from ANIMALnewyork.com on Vimeo.

Sarkozy deserves some credit here; while one never knows whether grand plans like these will ever be realized, it’s rare for the leader of a nation to go even this far in completely re-imagining a city.  His stated goal is for Paris to be the first city to conform to the Kyoto Protocol’s environmental goals.

Now don’t worry: it seems unlikely that Paris’ Haussman-era architecture and old beauty will be torn down to make room for 21st century green buildings.  I mean, these are the French, some of the world’s most steadfast guardians of aesthetics and history.  What will be removed, however, are the dismal housing projects that have grown up steadily around the city’s outskirts.  Many of the ten architecture teams focus on the projects specifically, with schemes such as adding more greenspace, or connecting these neighborhoods to the center of the city with new, efficient public transportation.

Paris, along with Bogota and, very recently, New York, is stepping forward to address the question “What does it mean to be a city in the 21st century?”  An especially important question given that within the next year, more people will live in cities than in rural areas for the first time in human history.  It’s great to hear that Paris, the city of cities, is leading the way.

Hungry for more?  Here’s another NYT article, and one from ABC.

The Atlantic Green Conference brings together experts from a multitude of green building backgrounds: solar energy, jobsite deconstruction, LEED documentation, greening historic buildings, green roofs, and countless others.  The conference is being held, appropriately, at 10 Storehouse Row, in the Navy Yard in North Charleston.  The Navy Yard is a high-density, mixed-use center in the heart of Noisette, North Charleston’s master-planned sustainable city-within-a-city.

North Charleston is well on its way to becoming one of the nation’s most sustainable cities, as projects like Noisette and Mixson testify.  And what better place to host this year’s Atlantic Green Conference?

Check out the Post and Courier’s article on the honor here.  And to celebrate a little bit, here are a few pictures of the things that make Park Circle really special…

Photo from Streetsblog.org

The day was only beginning as Mixson was a featured booth at Charleston County Recycling’s 2009 Earth Day Festival.  The purpose of the Earth Day Festival is to increase awareness about the Lowcountry’s environmental issues, while celebrating Charleston’s environmental community and highlighting the challenges and successes.

Click here to view footage of both events

Green Village Tour and Earth Day Festival

Listen to or download the MP3 file of the interview here.

 Surprisingly, feelings were quite mixed – the article quotes a few people who are dismayed that Times Square will change from the hotbed of noise and craziness to a people- and bicycle-friendly zone.  Understandable, I suppose; after all, Times Square IS one of the most powerful elements in that great gleaming myth that is New York City.  However – and let me start with saying I’m not a New Yorker – I really don’t see how this will detract at all from Times Square’s allure.  It will still be the visual overload that it’s so famous for, with all the massive stores, all the people (maybe even more than before, since there’ll be more space for them), and surely at least most of the noise that used to be there.  It will just come from people, and the cars that are a block away rather than the cars that are right in front of you. 

And imagine not thinking you’re going to die when you cycle there.  On my visits to Times Square – which by the way were always made out of duty and hurried through, because honestly how much of that can you take? – I’ve seen a couple brave or reckless souls bicycling through the endless traffic, narrowly missing being killed on a few memorable occasions.  Now they’ll actually have a bike lane.   The blocks that will be closed to traffic will be transformed into gathering spots, wide pedestrian plazas with moveable cafe tables and chairs. 

All in all, it sounds incredible: New York is, in my opinion, America’s greatest city, and now it’s just going to get better.  I’m confident that Broadway and Times Square will remain just as characteristically New York as they ever were; after all, there really is no city like it anywhere. 

And maybe now Times Square will become a place people visit because it’s such a great place to hang out AND it’s crazy and noisy, rather than because it’s the most insane, congested block in the States.

So take the leap!  Bike!  Share your ride!  Take the bus!  Our beautiful lowcountry wildlife, beaches, and marshes will thank you from the bottom of their various hearts.

A couple of highlights…

Take a look at the post from weburbanist.com!