tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6007305602804756486.post3389655770471202239..comments2024-02-14T20:13:10.431+00:00Comments on OtherAberdeen: An Apple of Gold in a Basket of SilverUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6007305602804756486.post-38090701807891610682010-11-05T11:25:36.870+00:002010-11-05T11:25:36.870+00:00@Anonymous. You're right of course, and raise ...@Anonymous. You're right of course, and raise a good point which helps us to illustrate the wider picture. So thanks very much for that.<br /><br />There is, indeed, a garden at the centre of Bon Accord Square, its area is about 0.65 ha. The total area of the square is approx 3.3 ha. The area of pavement is about 0.35 ha.<br /><br />So... of the 3.3 ha of the square, 2.3 ha is given over to motorcars (active carriageway and parking) That's 70%.<br />Of the 3.3 ha of the square, 0.35 ha is allowed for pavement. That's 11%<br />The remaining 0.65 ha is garden - lawn and shrubs and the Ertchie 'Pech' Simpson memorial. 19% of the total area.<br /><br />To reach the garden, a pedestrian must leave the pavement, walk between parked cars, negotiate an active carriageway, then thread himself between yet more parked cars. All before attempting to find the steps up to the garden - which are usually inaccessible because of a parked car. So, it's quite easy to see why the square has not developed along the lines which we would wish. Configured as it is now, Bon Accord Square is just a landscaped roundabout like any other. But with extra parking allowed.<br /><br />We will see human-scale activities develop on Bon Accord Square when the area available for those activities is greater than the area made exclusively available for motorcars. <br /><br />Does all that help you?<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Edit.<br /><br />BTW a great example of a "fine, human-scale, slightly bohemian (definitely Grecian) mixed-use urban-village type-thing" can be viewed at Belmont Street, where motorcars have been discouraged (but not banned) and the pedestrian has re-claimed the space formerly occupied by parked cars. (It's not particularly Grecian, tho!).Key Stakeholderhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06797437057257512040noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6007305602804756486.post-46121555522726813802010-11-05T09:57:47.149+00:002010-11-05T09:57:47.149+00:00The centre of Bon Accord Square is a garden, but I...The centre of Bon Accord Square is a garden, but I see no hint of it becoming a “fine, human-scale, slightly bohemian (definitely Grecian) mixed-use urban-village type-thing”, whatever that is. In fact I’ve never seen anyone in it.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6007305602804756486.post-9147771974159622892010-11-04T22:04:32.422+00:002010-11-04T22:04:32.422+00:00Once again Other Aberdeen is a breath of fresh air...Once again Other Aberdeen is a breath of fresh air! Golden Square is a beautiful space that, were it in any other city, would be the centre of 'cafe society' (or the Aberdeen equivalent). Indeed many have tried to make it such and several establishments have come and gone. What a shame. Of course when you have a set of Councillors who have the vision of a myopic mole then a car park is the best you can expect. Unless of course the money men get their hands on it then it could become......a multi-storey car park. Great joy!Mick Millernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6007305602804756486.post-15331581235467121622010-11-04T13:16:40.679+00:002010-11-04T13:16:40.679+00:00It's what we all want, I daresay, except a pow...It's what we all want, I daresay, except a powerful minority. <br />So if representative democracy is just not working for city planning, we need to use the monitory democracy that you are so vividly practising here to spur us on to recreate an Athenian direct democracy. Tens of thousands would online register their votes on each major civic planning issue, after passing some reasonable test of having considered the matter... So people who used the analogy of Melbourne's 7.9 acre Federation Square as a reason to build a 5.5 City Square over UTG would fail the elementary statistics test. In quick round figures from Wiki, Aberdeen's population is 5.2% of Melbourne's, but our proposed square is 69% their size. Thus – on population to square ratio – it seems to be THIRTEEN TIMES TOO BIG!John Aberdeinnoreply@blogger.com