Norwegian Rats

Norwegians will be happy to know that the basic urban rat, known as the Rattus Norvegicus, is not, actually from Norway. It is said that the rats, originally from northern China, were stowaways on Norwegian ships and emigrated to Europe in the 18th century. They also used other methods of transportation to migrate such as trains and automobiles and have even resorted to swimming; in one particular case a large contingency swam across the Volga river to Russia.
In the past week I've seen two rats. A few days ago one hurried past me as I was coming out of Marks & Spencers. Today my cat was chasing (unsuccessfully) a rat outside. For all city dwellers, encountering a rat is a normal occurrence. Who hasn't seen rats scuttling down the tracks in the New York city subway? When you take out the garbage in Rome at night there are rats lurking around the bins like derelict teenagers. In Paris a friend had strapping rats scaling the wisteria plant that grew up the wall of her building. And some of us will never, ever, forget the story of Pete, the rat and the glue trap in New York. He may write about it someday.
Norwegian rats are apparently perfectly suited to city living as a result of their "opportunistic and omnivorous behavior".
Furthermore, "to know the rat is to know its habitat, and to know the habitat of the rat is to know the city" says Robert Sullivan in his 2004 book on New York City rats, Rats: Observations on the History and Habitat of the City's Most Unwanted Inhabitants.
Do you know your rat's habitat?

Losing it in Berne

The Helvetian capital temporarily lost it last week when violence broke out during a protest by left-wing groups against the right-wing Swiss People's Party campaign rally. Polls have forecast the SVP party, which has been described as "xenophobic and fascist" as winning the most votes in the upcoming parliamentary elections October 21st. The nationalist SVP's election posters show three white sheep kicking a black sheep off the Swiss flag over the slogan "My Home, Our Switzerland, Keep it Secure."
Police used teargas to contain the protesters who were hurling rocks and bottles. The clashes caused more than SFr100,000 ($85,000) in damage and 21 people were injured. Meanwhile football officials for the Euro 2008, which will take place in June in Switzerland and Austria, met in Zurich today and fretted about security.

I'm a rabid urban cyclist by Simon Brennan

I don’t care what Lance Armstrong may think: it is about the bike. I’m a rabid urban cyclist. Fanatical even.

I biked in Los Angeles when I lived there in the early 80s (and if there is anything more antithetical to Los Angeles culture than commuting by bike, I’d like to know what it is—though I do hear that things are now getting a little easier there for my fellow bike freaks).

I biked year-round in Minneapolis during college days. More to the point (and anyone who’s ever visited that place even briefly from mid-October through April will understand the lunacy to which I’m admitting), I did this on slush, on ice, on snow in the dead of winter—and this is serious winter, tundra winter, Moscow winter, 0-degrees-Kelvin-lungs-burn-tears-turn-to-ice-on-your-cheeks-unprotected-skin-freezes-if-exposed-to-elements-for-more-than-two-minutes winter.

And, against the wishes of most who care about my physical well-being, I bike year-round in New York City and have done so for more than 20 years. I do training rides on weekends, have been known to do numerous loops in Central Park after work—and when forced, Prospect Park in Brooklyn—and, in embracing the nut-job cyclist’s creed of always being merely two inches from catastrophe, I commute to work daily, more than 10 miles each way through the streets of Brooklyn across the bridges and through the canyons of Manhattan.

But know this: our numbers are increasing steadily and we won’t go away. So cabbies; pedestrians; bus drivers; tourists; jay-walkers of all sizes and styles; out-of-towners, limo, stretch limo, Hummer stretch limo, SUV, delivery truck, moving van and town car drivers? You’d better learn to deal. Whether we’re weekend pleasure riders, competitive racers, commuters, or messengers, we risk our lives to do what we love to do. There is a lot to contend with: bad streets, bad conditions, metal construction plates that will wipe you out in a nano-second, broken glass to blow out your tire and crash you in the street, potholes, manhole covers, pedestrians who don’t look, drivers who don’t look, insufficient and poorly designated bike lanes, double parked cars and trucks, reckless cyclists (have to admit that, too). And some of us will not make it home at the end of the day.

The brutal reality of urban biking (particularly in New York City, where, I swear every car is out to kill you), is that cyclists get hit by vehicles, cyclists crash, cyclists get injured, and cyclists die. When a car meets a bike, no matter who’s at fault, the bike always loses. Always.

I love cycling, but I have paid a price for my addiction: in over 30-odd years of riding, racing and commuting, I’ve been in seven accidents, three of which have required nice little rides to emergency rooms and not so pleasant experiences once there. Some might think this ratio passes into the law of diminishing returns. No, I say, it’s just living life in the city in a way that provides meaning for me, that helps give me definition and perspective, that provides an unrivaled sense of freedom. That helps me get through the days.

I defy you to rival the feeling of flying across the
Brooklyn Bridge in fall on a cool, misty day when tourists and pedestrians don’t venture onto it, the two towers and the web of cables above you, the buzz of your tires on the wood planks below. You glance down to the roadway and see cars stuck in traffic as you blow by them; you’re up and out of the saddle, toes down, moving fast through the middle section where the grade levels out, wind whipping past your face and channeling through your helmet, mouth slack pulling the air into your lungs. Everything in sync, leg muscles taught, chain whirring through the cogs, ripping up the road. You’re alive. Two inches from catastrophe, as always, but alive.

photo copyright screeningroom.com

Beijing metro line number 5 is up

Beijing's new 27.5 km long, 23-station metro Line 5 (Tiantongyuan North - Songjiazhuang South) began running this week to the delight of commuters resigned to heavy congestion both above and below ground.
According to Beijing News tickets for the subway line will cost only two yuan, or about 27 US cents, regardless of the distance travelled or how many times passengers transfer lines.
Just for the sake of comparison, a New York City token is $2.00, a single fare tube ticket in London is £4.00 and a single ticket in the Paris metro is 1.40 euros.

image of Beijing metro ticket courtesy of urbanrail.

Two wheelin' in Paris and London

When I moved to Paris in 1999 one of my first purchases was a bicycle. I had noticed a bicycle shop on Boulevard St. Michel near the Luxembourg gardens. Point Velo specializes in Dutch bikes and is run by two soft-mannered Sri Lankan men. I bought a forest green bicycle of the Maxwell brand. If you’ve never ridden a Dutch bicycle, at first it’s quite an adjustment. You feel very tall and regal and slightly ridiculous. Then you become addicted to the comfort of sitting up so straight, with this sturdy, decidedly un-racing-like contraption under you. It’s the perfect city bike.
Now I ride my Maxwell in London. It is much more dangerous than cycling in Paris. In Paris people drive in a consistently aggressive manner but at least you know what to expect and generally, drivers are alert and on the lookout. In London drivers are passive-aggressive. Although they will stop for pedestrians on a crosswalk, they will thunder murderously past cyclists, so close you can feel the fabric of a loose jacket touching the side of their vehicle. Cars will shoot across a lane at the last minute. Could it be in part because everyone here is from somewhere else and somewhere else they all drive on the other side of the road? The city is also incredibly Byzantine and un-organized compared to Paris—part of its charm too, but from a driver’s point of view, they could have used another Haussmann. Nevertheless Londoners do bike, perhaps more than Parisians; here are some wonky statistics: 40,000 Parisians out of 2.5 million say they use their bikes regularly. (What does regularly mean?) In London, according to a 2004 travel report, 26 million journeys a day are made in London, including people commuting. Of these, 300,000 are made by bicycle. Sounds like a lot to me….
Maybe one just notices London bikers more—they wear helmets with flashing lights on them, they wear fluorescent yellow jackets and fluorescent bands around their ankles. In a city where people are generally nicer to each other than in Paris, there isn’t much camaraderie among London bikers because they’re too busy concentrating on not getting hit by a bus. In Paris there’s a newfound camaraderie around the Velib bicycle rental points because figuring out the rental system isn’t easy at first.
When I moved to London initially I had a good thing going for bicycle repairs. My neighbors had put me on to Larry, a retiree who had become a bike doctor. He would sail over on his bike that same day, drink copious amounts of milky earl grey tea, and for a small fee repair flat tires—mainly from rose thorns and broken glass strewn outside the pubs that hadn’t yet been swept up in the morning, but also other minor bike problems. Sometimes, though, he’d go for a long time without answering messages, and then re-surface weeks later. I finally realized what everyone else knew—he regularly went on drinking binges. Now it’s been four months since I left a message and the other day we crossed paths on our bicycles at an intersection. He waved at me and gestured to show he would call promptly. I’m still waiting for him to do some work on my brakes...

EcoEDGE2: Melbourne in February book now

Given the fact that more than half the world lives in cities and that climate change is precipitous, planning and building sustainable cities is an urgent matter. EcoEDGE2 is the 6th in a series of conferences hosted by the city of Melbourne, Australia from February 14-16, 2008. Architects, urban designers and planners and landscape architects will participate in EcoEDGE2 to discuss GREEN urbanism, GREEN buildings and GREEN housing. The list of participants reads like a cast of stars. It includes Anna Tibaijuka – UN Habitat, Kenya, Michaela Brüel – European Green Cities Network, Denmark, Santha Sheela Nair – Department of Drinking Water Supply, (DDWS) India, Neville Mars – Architect, Amsterdam and Beijing, Bernard Khoury – Architect, Beirut, Gerard Evenden – Foster + Partners, Architects, UK.
Early registration ends October 31. For more information click here


Photo of Shanghai by Neville Mars

Anubis floats under London's Tower Bridge

On Monday Londoners were briefly caught off guard when a 7.6 meter gold and black statue of the Egyptian funerary god, Anubis, floated down the Thames on a cargo boat. Anubis was taken to Trafalgar Square where he will stand for three days promoting an exhibition on the treasures found in King Tutankhamon's tomb that opens in London in November.

photo by AP