Livable Alleys

Here’s an idea fresh off the Streetsblog network from Vancouver, a place that I suppose gets more rain than snow, but still must have to deal with such weather occasionally.  It goes back to the idea of pocket parks, or creating what you can in the small spaces that get overlooked and trashed.

“Vancouver’s “country lanes” replace asphalt alleys with honeycomb cells filled with grass and two concrete strips, plus cobblestone drives, to reduce permeable pavement and create a pleasing aesthetic in its alleyways. Image: Spacing.ca” – Text and image pulled straight from Streetsblog.

Better alleys are just what Henry C1 is looking for in this Engage the Forks recommendation:

The alley is always in bad condition with bad pot holes because of such high use. Please close it off permanently before someone gets hurt by a driver or at least pave it due to high traffic.

In other news, had a brief chat with Jason Schaefer the other day about improving the downtown and near-downtown area by planning for more efficient land use where it counts: parking lots.  More on this later.

Systematics and Taxonomy Definitions

Winston (1999, p. 9) describes taxonomy as a “subdivision of systematics (the study of biological diversity] consisting of […] identi cation (referring a specimen to a previously classi ed and named group), classi fication (ordering organisms into groups based on perceived similarities or diff erences), and  nomenclature (naming groups of organisms according to rules developed for the process).”
 
Winston, J. E. (1999). Describing Species. Columbia Unversity Press.

Rain Garden at South Washington and 17th Ave South

Cool beans, hopefully this will be only a small part of an overall project to make South Washington look less blighted (source).

Grand Forks, ND –The City of Grand Forks and the North Dakota Department of Transportation are partnering on a storm water and right of way improvement project on the SW corner of South Washington Street and 17th Avenue South. 

The project will remove an old section of frontage road pavement and jersey barrier’s. In their place, a storm water Best Management Practices (BMP) filtration device (a.k.a rain garden) will be constructed in conjunction with landscaping. 

In addition, a kiosk will be constructed where the benefits of rain gardens will be described along with information on designing and building rain gardens.

Suggest Changes to the GGF Bikeway System – Online

If you have suggestions or ideas on how to improve the bikeway (trails, paths, lanes, routes, etc.) system in Grand Forks/East Grand Forks, you can make these suggestions online at https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/ggfbikeway.  I have copied the form below so you can see the questions, but you need to go to the link to fill out the real one.

It appears that you can only fill in the form once on the same computer, but maybe clearing your cookies will allow you to make additional suggestions.  I believe you can also contact Kim Greendahl (Greenway Specialist for the city of Grand Forks) with your thoughts.