PART 2: Mitchell Rasor spoke to Bruce Hyman, City of Portland Bicycle-Pedestrian Coordinator

MR: Is Portland going to see a noticeable increase in the number bike / ped accommodations or is there a “transportation glass ceiling” due to any of number of reasons – such as standards, policy or demographics?

Bruce Hyman: Related to bicycling, there is no per se ‘ceiling’ related to the vision, but some lag time will occur related to implementation due to funding and staffing capacity. We have essentially implemented about one fourth of the bikeway network on the city’s arterial and collector streets where bike lanes, shared lanes and paved shoulders would typically be the bike facility provided. These cater to a smaller segment of the existing and potential biking market; most cyclists (or people most likely to become more frequent cyclists for transportation purposes) prefer streets with lower volumes of traffic and lower traffic speeds than arterial streets such as Forest Avenue or Brighton Avenue.

To address this potentially larger cycling ’market’ we are piloting a new type of bikeway called (in other locales) a Bicycle Boulevard – a network of primarily local, residential streets that is prioritized for bicycle travel while still providing for motorist use. We are branding them as Neighborhood Byways here to encompass the much broader intended livability benefits to the neighborhood and pedestrians. These projects can incorporate traffic speed/volume management techniques, streetscaping, and pedestrian safety projects. A 4-mile pilot Neighborhood Byway/Bicycle Boulevard project is being implemented now in the Deering Center neighborhood. We have emerging plans for a city-wide implementation of a Neighborhood Byway/bicycle boulevard network as part of the Bicycle and Pedestrian Element of the Comprehensive Plan we’re writing now.

On the pedestrian front, we are trying to more systematically address accessibility issues related to implementing the Americans with Disability Act (including new and rehabilitated curb ramps), safe street crossings of arterials (called for in the ’93 Transportation Plan), adding new/enhancing existing crosswalks, expanding the shared use pathway network, improving the quality of streetscapes, working with schools/parents on Safe Routes to Schools projects, filling gaps in the sidewalk network/rehabilitating existing sidewalks in poor condition, and enhancing pedestrian access to the bus transit system (a big turnoff to attracting more riders is the safety in accessing bus stops/routes).

We are also working to adopt a Complete Streets Policy this spring which will make it city policy to formally incorporate the considerations of all users of the streets of all ages, abilities and modes of travel (motorists, cyclists, pedestrians, transit users and operators, freight providers, and the young and old) into the planning, design, construction, maintenance and operation of the city’s streets and street network.

Mitchell spoke to Roger Conover, Executive Editor of The MIT Press

MR: As the publisher of some of the most important books on  art, architecture and urbanism published in the last 30 some years, and as a resident of Maine, you must have a unique and maybe even privileged view of many aspects of Portland, especially its arts and design culture. I know you are also a writer, and wrote  architectural criticism for the Portland Press Herald for a period of time.  How was that experience? Do you think a full-time architecture / design critic – not just a blogger – could have a positive impact on Portland?

Roger Conover: There is no architecture without criticism, and no criticism without architecture. Architecture is a language, and to read it requires a literacy that goes beyond an immediate, subjective, personalized response to buildings. Buildings exist within social, political, economic, temporal, and cultural contexts. It is the function of criticism not just to look at how buildings are made, but to make their meanings and values visible. My experiment with the Portland Press Herald did not continue beyond a certain point because I was not in the praise business, and it became apparent after a while that what was desired, both by the paper and its readers, was someone saying what a great city Portland is, and how wonderful its buildings are. My last column was going to be a polemic about the threat that historic preservation poses to the future of architecture in Portland. It probably won’t surprise you that it wasn’t printed, and that I didn’t submit any columns after that.

Whatever the game, there is no doubt that rigorous observation and constructive criticism raises the level of play. Portland wouldn’t have so many good restaurants if it didn’t have demanding diners. But those diners’ tastes are not just enabled by chefs. They have been fed by one of the country’s most discerning food-discourse providers, aka as the bookstore Rabelais. This combination of access–to food and food criticism–has contributed enormously to the culinary literacy of Portland. Portland is not lacking buildings, but would the buildings be different–dare I say better– if there was more critical exchange around them? I think so.

Mitchell spoke to Charles Colgan, Chair/Professor, Community Planning & Development Program / Public Policy Policy and Management – Muskie School of Government

MR: Your research is in the areas of regional growth and development, economic forecasting and transportation policy.  While there is an apparent trend to mass urbanization on a global level – last year in China the number of people in cities surpassed the rural population as people migrated to seek employment – there are also numerous “shrinking cities” such as Detroit, Flint and St. Louis. What are the general socio / economic demographic trends for Portland? Is there a critical mass Portland needs to achieve to become more sustainable from an economic and transportation perspective?

Charles Colgan: Portland and all of Maine’s other major cities saw population growth from 2000-2010, which is a reversal of trends away from the cities that have been going on since 1970. The shift reflects an increase in residential real estate development in Portland, particularly on the Peninsula, the growing international migrant population, and a trend among older people to re-locate nearer to urban services. Whether these trends will continue in this decade is an open question given the disruptions in the real estate markets and the economy, but in general Portland is well position to emerge with both a growing economy and a growing population. Most of the jobs that Maine will add over the next decade are jobs that tend to be centered in our urban areas, and Portland still has room for denser housing development in many parts of the city. Portland is a city that is well-sized for sustainability- neither too small to lack key urban assets nor too large to suffer the worst of urban disamenities like traffic congestion.

What do you think? Let us know in the comments.

Mitchell Rasor is a musician, writer, and artist. He is also the Principal and founder of MRLD Landscape Architecture + Urbanism, an interdisciplinary design studio. Mitchell holds degrees from Oberlin College and the Harvard University Graduate School of Design.

Swoon is one of those artists who just never stops – there really is no telling where in the country or even the world she is going to pop up on any given day. Luckily for Brooklyn she seems to be spending quite a bit of time with us lately! In May she released the first ever monograph of her work as well as being a featured artist in Urban Art Projects’ inaugural Williamsburg Waterfront Sculpture Exhibition. Always one to direct public awareness to important (and often forgotten or overlooked) issues, Swoon created a domed sculpture that is an interpretation of the adobes that she will soon be building for homeless Haitians. That’s right: after the exhibition closes, Swoon and a team of artists and other volunteers will be traveling to Haiti to construct the huts in the disaster stricken areas of country. And as if we needed more reasons to love her, she just put up a beautiful new woodcut wheat paste in Brooklyn:

Tickets are still available, get them at any Bullmoose Music location, or click here for more info.

Poster done by Kris Johnsen @ Emblem Studio in Portland, Maine.

This poster was super fun to make! I started out just drawing cassette tapes in my notebook while at the same time was thinking of ideas for upcoming shows at SPACE, and it just clicked together, Ted Leo=Fun good times! so I chose to make a grid formation of old tapes, which are all based off of real tapes I found in a box at my work. I eventually changes some of the information on the tapes to fit the show, Ted Leo & Screamales references, and maybe one local indie band one in there as well. You’ll have to see these in person to know what I’m talking about!

First few drawings of tapes which eventually led me to hand drawing all of the band text. This is harder than it looks, mostly just trying to pick the one that works best.

Way more photos after the jump!

After the poster was all layed out in Photoshop I printed out each color layer on to paper and oiled them up for the burning process. This poster is a 3 color screen print, printed on 4 different colors of paper. Ink colors are Black, Light blueish white and Orange/red

The photo below is the blue layer transparency.

Some detail in the tapes. Which appear on the poster in exactly the same size as a real tape. You could hold up the original one right on top of the printed one!

With a lot of the blue layer I mixed in white onto the screen to get a little gradation of color rather than just a flat color. I really like this effect, I’ve been doing it on the last few posters I’ve done, I feel like it makes them all just that much different from eachother.

I use old discarded posters for text prints. It creates crazy layers of imagery. I have a whole stack of these kinds of prints.

Orange Layer! Lots of white in this one.

And the last layer of black detail.

There is an edition of 35 of these posters and will only be available on June 19th at SPACE Gallery for the Ted Leo And The Pharmacists show with Screaming Females. Click here to buy tickets, which you will need to get in advance because this show will sell out!

Last night a band from Brooklyn, New York, named La Strada opened up for Beat Circus. I’m pretty sure they blew all of us away including myself who was not to familiar with them to begin with. We already cant wait for them to come back! So we here at Space want you to be ready for it next time. Awhile back La Strada did a session for Daytrotter. You can download that here.

Also check out some of their videos below!

On the heels of our wildly successful Johnny Cash Night in ’09, The Nave Gallery,Band In Boston, Rhode Island School of Design, and Space Gallery have organized a series of Johnny Cash tributes New England-wide to benefit prison book programs and celebrate the Man in Black. Join us for an evening of tribute covers by Portland musicians Christopher Teret, Jesse Pilgrim and the Bonfire (with many special guests!), and Caleb Aaron and the Thrill Pills, spanning the entirety of Cash’s discography from Sun Records-era barn burners to gospel tear-jerkers. Proceeds from this event will benefit Volunteers for Hancock Jail Residents, which has operated a jail library program since 2001 and also purchases books for Maine’s prisoners as funds allow. More info at www.jailvolunteers.org.

This poster was created by Michael Dacey at Repeat Press Somerville, MA. who you might recognize from a recent solo show at Corduroy Boutique in town. Michael will have these posters for sale at the Johnny Cash night April 28th, so please stop by and grab one while you can! The rest of this post is taken from Michael’s Repeat Press Blog.

I was approached by the Nave Gallery to create a poster for the concert series accompanying their upcoming art show, “The Beast In Me” – art inspired by the work of Johnny Cash. Jenn from the Nave worked tirelessly to coordinate a 4-city tribute series of bands playing Cash songs, all in benefit for prison literacy programs.

These posters will be available at all four concerts, as well as through the Nave Gallery. A portion of proceeds will go to the same prison book programs affiliated with the concert series.

I’ll be manning the sales table at each show so be sure to stop by and say hello if you’re able to make it out! full schedule here.

Started things off with a loose sketch at full size – I had just picked up some linoleum and was eager to put it to use as I hadn’t carved anything by hand in years, so I decided that the main element would be curved text cut from linoleum.

More process shots after the jump!

Then started working out the main text onto the linoleum block. You can see in the picture that I almost forgot to lay things out backwards. Total pro.

Text drawn out (backwards!) with some wood type for reference:

Starting to carve into the linoleum. I purchase it in large sheets that get cut down and mounted to wood for printing. You can also see an outline of an ornamental shape I was considering drawn out there that I decided not to use in the final design.

Fully outlined.

All negative area carved away, trimmed down and ready to mount.

Putting the linoleum aside for a minute, I began work on the background. One of the things that struck me when discussing the concert series with Jenn from the Nave Gallery was the fact that since all of the bands would be playing songs by the same person, there had to be coordination between the bands as to who would be covering which songs. Thankfully there was about 50 years worth of material to choose from. I chose to create the background of the poster from layers of text, spelling out some of Cash’s numerous song titles throughout the years.

This picture shows one layer roughly laid out on one of the oversized galleys that I use for poster layout.

And the second layer:

To print the background, I started with a solid block of linoleum to frame out the piece. Coverage on this layer was fairly light as the addition of the text layers will add up to a nice texture with a good amount of depth.

The first layer of background text in a slightly darker red than the original layer:

I forgot to grab a picture of just the layered text, but it is still quite visible in this picture, which includes the addition of a white star, hand carved from wood during a previous project.

You can probably guess where the color scheme is going – red, white, and…blue ink on the linocut locked up in the bed of the Vandercook SP-20.

Five layers of ink at this point!

For ease of setup I printed the linoleum block and the informational text in two separate passes – here’s the lockup for all the info at the bottom of the poster. 4 venues + over 20 bands = a lot of lead.

And of course, the final product!

The young Laura Marling has been making waves over in Europe for quite some time now, she has a brand new album called I Speak Because I Can which is her second full length, Laura is making her way to SPACE Gallery on May 11th with with The Middle East and Smoke Fairies.

Please take a second to view some of these incredible videos of Laura!

Below is a video of Laura with the great Johnny Flynn whom she has toured many times with.

Check out his ongoing art blog here.

Here’s a few MONOTONIX video’s to hold you over until the show which is less than a week away now!