I served as president of San Francisco Tomorrow (SFT) between 1988 and 1992. SFT called themselves an urban environmental organisation and, at the time, we were struggling with development in San Francisco (the more things change, the more they remain the same).

SFT was often maligned as a NIMBY and backward-looking organization (San Francisco Yesterday some called it). I can only say that in those years a good majority of the board were very reasonable and intelligent. Many were working for social improvement like housing, the ACLU and neighbourhood legal clinics. Of course, there were also the wingnuts, but the reasonable majority often prevailed.

Andrew Nash and Dick Grosboll, dinner MC, at the San Francisco Tomorrow 20th Anniversary Dinner, 1990.

In my opinion SFT’s best years were between 1986 and 1992. We succeeded in passing a limitation in downtown office development (Prop M, 1986), defeating several ill-advised proposals for baseball stadiums downtown (before several of us signed-on to support the Pac-Bell Park proposal in 2000), helped elect a progressive mayor (Agnos, 1987), and succeeded in writing and passing an initiative requiring the Port to prepare a long-term land use plan oriented towards maritime uses and open space, which also banned hotels (Prop H, 1990).

I recently found a speech I gave at SFT’s 20th Anniversary Dinner in 1990. I was very pleased reading it because I discussed thoughtful issues “what is an urban environmental organisation anyway?” and talked about how we needed to focus on building affordable housing and addressing the homeless problem. I was saddened that things seem to only have gotten worse since my speech. Of course, we at SFT struggled with these issues and, in retrospect especially, didn’t do enough. But I think, in those days, we were at least somewhat reasonable compared to the much more NIMBY oriented organisations that came to dominate the process in later years.

Here’s a link to the San Francisco Tomorrow – 20th Anniversary Speech by Andrew Nash, 1990.

The handsome guy by the horses. Tour starting point: Stephansplatz.

I’m leading a Janes Walk in Vienna again! This year’s walk titled “Traffic, too much” is scheduled for Saturday, 6 May at 17:00. I hope the walk inspires people to think about making transport in Vienna (and beyond) more sustainable and human friendly. This post summarizes my commentary and provides references.

Introduction

One of Jane Jacobs’ main interests was taming traffic. When she wrote her masterpiece The Life and Death of Great American Cities, one of the most influential urban planning books of all time, the prevailing wisdom was that cities should be redesigned to facilitate automobile traffic. In practice this meant widening streets, building parking garages, and forcing freeways directly into the city centres.

She was among a small group of people who quickly recognised that these policies were destroying the intricate social and economic networks cities need by eliminating the personal interactions and spontaneous connections that happen on streets filled with pedestrians. Improvements designed for automobiles pushed pedestrians to the sidewalks, made cycling more dangerous, slowed public transport, and encouraged those rich enough for cars to leave.

Vienna wasn’t immune to freeway planning in the 1960s (and maybe still isn’t?).

Vienna wasn’t immune to this age of automobile focused planning. A freeway was planned through the Naschmarkt to Karlsplatz, the Ringstraße, Gürtel, and Zweierlinie were re-built to move more cars, parking was increased, and policies encouraging people to drive, like company cars and the Pendlerpauschal, were made law.

Like all great cities, residents of Vienna rose-up to fight the worst elements of auto-focused planning. They stopped the Naschmarkt Freeway. They stopped the freeway planned through Brigittenau after seeing the Floridsdorfer Brucke, part of the original plan.

But the fight for sensible transport planning continues and it’s intensely political – as we see with the Stadtstraße, Lobau Tunnel, Vienna’s pitiful cycling network, and the battle in every neighbourhood against removing a few parking spaces – despite Vienna’s progressive political image.
On this walk we’ll see examples of auto-oriented planning and new ideas for more sustainable transport planning in Vienna. We’ll talk about the impacts of auto-focused transport plans and technology, and how to create a more human-friendly transport network that supports a more sustainable and economically successful Vienna.

Short Disclaimer

In this walk we’ll talk about opportunities for making transport in Vienna better, but we won’t forget that Vienna really is the world’s most liveable city. Our public transport system is second to none, and Vienna is working hard to improve its sidewalks and cycle paths (just not fast enough!).

Platz für Wien demonstration in 2020 shows all transport planning is political!

And, we need to remember that when we criticise facilities like the Ringstrasse or Zweierlinie cycle paths – these are 20+ years old! We should honour the people and elected officials who worked very hard to achieve these critical first steps – and let them inspire us to go further.

It’s time for Vienna to join cities like Paris, Copenhagen and New York – boldly implementing new strategies for sustainable transport. We hope this walk spurs your imagination, sparks your interest, and gives you energy for the hard work ahead. And, if you are ready to help please join the Radlobby Wien (cycling) and Gehe-doch-Wien (walking)!

Discussing the new pedestrian zone at Neuer Markt Vienna.

The Walk

We’ll start on Stephansplatz at the corner of Rotenturmstrasse by the carriages, walk through Neuer Markt, Ringstrasse, Museums Platz, Burggase, Neubaugasse, Kandlgasse, Neubaugurtel, and end at Kriemhildplatz. Here are notes from the discussion with historic photos and links to additional information – so you can make this tour on your own anytime! Be sure to send me comments and suggestions.

Traffic, Too much: Vienna Janes Walk 2023

I’ve been lucky enough to visit Paris twice in the last year for project meetings, here are some thoughts and information on places I really enjoyed.

On both trips I took the newly reinstated NightJet train to/from Vienna. The train leaves Vienna at about 19:30 and you are in Paris about 9:45. On my first trip the night train only went as far as Strasbourg, so I spent the day there and then took the TGV to Paris (which, by the way, is much faster than the night train over this distance). Here are my Strasbourg recommendations from that trip.

On my June visit I had time to visit the Musee d’Orsay to see an exhibition on Gaudi’s architecture. The show and rest of the museum were great, but boy was it crowded! I was expecting that they had reduced admissions due to Covid, but that wasn’t the case. I bought a timed-ticket online and so my wait was short (be sure to do this too!).

I’ve dreamed of Paris since elementary school French classes. Classes at Berkeley in architecture and city planning history only supercharged my interest. So, of course, I always do things like walk on the boulevards, ride the metro, and visit great urban parks like the Jardin du Luxembourg when I visit and just soak up the city.

As a city planning history buff I’ve been fascinated with Baron Georges-Eugène Haussmann and how he changed Paris starting around 1850. Last June I walked through the Parc des Buttes Chaumont, one of his park projects, and on this trip I visited the Carnavalet Museum, where I enjoyed several exhibits on city planning including one on Baron Haussmann. The Carnavalet is the city history museum with many wonderful exhibits packed into several connected townhouses in the Marais district. And, it’s free!

While I’ve visited Paris often, oddly enough, on many of my trips I have not eaten particularly well, so for these trips I tried very hard to find great food and was successful. Here are some highlights in no particular order …

Restaurant Le Blavet, 15eme – this is a very nice traditional French restaurant. I had a goat cheese wanton for an appetizer and a main course of steak, both excellent.The only other guests were French. It’s a small place where the owners are cooking and serving, they were very friendly. The restaurant had a nice selection of ciders and wines by the glass and half-bottle.

O Coffee, 15eme – I was staying near this coffee bar and so had breakfast there one morning. Excellent scones (not so French, but OK!) and coffee in a “modern” coffee bar style.

Au 35, 6eme – I was walking by looking for a good place to have lunch in this highly touristy area and was drawn-in by the restaurant’s blackboard listing Gazpacho soup as an appetizer. I followed that with steak frites, because, well, Paris! Au 35 had excellent wines by the glass so I could have a nice white with the soup and a red with the steak – chosen after discussing the options for several minutes with my servers. The only other people there were French, including a large party of office workers meeting one of their co-workers who had just had a baby (including the, well-behaved) infant. A great experience.

Le Café des Musées, 3eme – Right around the corner from the Carnavalet Museum, I had an excellent coffee here (especially needed because the coffee served on night trains is not so good!), probably before they were officially open. It looks like a nice place to eat, and they had several local craft beers on tap …

Chez Mademoiselle, 4eme – I was starving after leaving the museum and worried that I’d only find someplace full of tourists, but luckily, I stumbled on Chez Mademoiselle. The lunch menu of a beet salad appetizer and a sautéed sea bass with risotto was perfect, especially with a wonderful glass of organic red wine from Languedoc-Roussillon (my favourite wine region!). The restaurant was calm and staff very welcoming. It was just wonderful.

Louison Hotel, 6eme – A very pleasant and calm hotel that provides a great base for exploring the shops and cafes around Rue de Cherche-Midi and Rue de Sevres like the Fromagerie Quatrehomme which makes you hungry just breathing in the aroma and seeing the beautiful variety of cheeses!

Au Chien Que Fume, 6eme – a typical café around the corner from the Louison. I had the traditional French breakfast of a coffee and croissant standing at the bar in this restaurant with people as they came and went for their morning coffees. Everyone was friendly and eating this way (like a local) is one of the things I love about traveling. Also, the coffee and croissant standing cost about 3.20 Euros. (The name means “The dog who smokes” and unfortunately, I forgot to take a photo of the sign: bulldog with a pipe!)

Le Standard Rive Gauche, 6eme – Steak frites was the lunch special one day so I had to stop here and enjoyed it with another wonderful Languedoc-Roussillon red wine. Make a reservation so you can sit in the downstairs café, it’s more interesting than the upstairs room.

Domaine d’Olleac, 7eme – the website says Olivier maintains simple French southwest recipes with carefully selected products in a family atmosphere – and it’s right. I’ve rarely had such a nice experience talking with Olivier about the food and wine. He helped me choose an excellent meal of salad with goat cheese, pork roast and plums in Armagnac with a lovely Madiran red. Next time I will try the trout which also sounded great.

Chez Paul, 11eme – On Friday I met my former colleague Walt from San Francisco (now living in France) for a day of talking, walking around, and, naturally, eating and drinking. He suggested Chez Paul and we had a wonderful typical French café lunch (which is to say great!). Walt wrote about it on his blog (WCS – Another American in France), so I won’t repeat, just to say everything was excellent and our waitress was fun.

Around Gare d’Est, 10eme – My night train to Austria left from Gare d’Est, which is a very busy area full of fast food of dubious quality. Walt and I had a nice drink on the sidewalk at the Café La Ville de Provins. Then I stopped in at Schmid Traiteur, a food shop specialising in Alsatian cuisine (which I love!), where I picked up a cold Tarte Flambee (see Strasbourg) to eat on the train. (Be sure to check out the website, it has a nice drawing of the train station in about 1900, when they set up shop.) Then we stopped by “The Place to Be” directly across from the station for a good-bye beer (wine for Walt) – and enjoyed the happy hour prices!

Canal St Martin neighbourhood, 10eme – on my June trip I visited this area (about a 5-minute walk from Gare d’Est), looking for something to eat on the night train home. It’s a nice area to explore with lots of shops and bars. I picked up baked goods at Boulangerie Liberté, which I especially liked because their napkins said: “Paris, Tokyo, Kyoto” which made me feel worldly.

As you can see from the menu and photos above, Chef Niki put on a tour-de-force blending local Vienna specialties with various sorts of international dumpling styles into a highly creative romp through the world of Teigtaschen. And here are photos of the Ravioli-Doppio served near the end of our delicious dinner …

When I first read about the “Tag der internationalen gefüllten Teigtascherl” in the Drahtenwarenhandlung newsletter I had the suspicion that they had made the whole thing up … it’s the kind of humour they enjoy. But a quick search showed that there actually is an International Dumpling Day only it’s on 26 September! I confronted Chef Niki about this and he was surprised to know the day really existed … so my initial suspicions were correct. But that didn’t distract at all from the wonderful evening, and, of course, gives us the opportunity to celebrate again this fall.

Ravioli-doppio Development Project

After reading about the “Tag der internationalen, gefüllten (Teig-) Tascherl” which I loosely translate as International Dumpling Day in the newsletter from Vienna’s Drahtwarenhandlung (a restaurant open occasionally, their day job is simulation modeling) I began thinking why not make dumplings stuffed with dumplings?

Walking down the street one day I thought, hey, maybe my friends at Citrus Restaurant could make something like this, after all, their house-made ravioli are fantastic. So I stopped by their restaurant-shop on Lindengasse 53 in Vienna’s Neubau district. I described the idea to Silvano who passed it along to Olga and Katerina – Citrus’ pasta chefs. After a little discussion (three or four languages were involved) they agreed to try making them and I said I’d return to pick them up several hours later.

As long as I was there and it was lunchtime, I asked if they would cook them for me to test in the restaurant. So, about 5-minutes later I sat down to a wonderful plate of ravioli-doppio served with stracciatella, rocket, and fine olive oil (photo). What was very cool was that Olga had decided to make both orange ravioli inside yellow ravioli and yellow ravioli inside orange ravioli … genius! They looked great together.

I tried to share them with Olga and Katerina – who were very curious about how they would taste – but they insisted I finish them. I happily reported that they were fantastic! So I ordered 50 of each for the Drahtwarenhandlung dinner on Thursday.

Jože Plečnik was an extremely interesting architect born in Ljubljana in 1872. He was a student of Otto Wagner in Vienna in the 1890s and worked with Wagner on some of his most famous projects including the Vienna Stadtbahn. The photo above is a chair he designed that you can see in the Plečnik House museum, it looks a little like him! (As I said, interesting guy.)

Plečnik is one of those architects whose work you notice and think, hmm, that’s an interesting building, I wonder who the architect was. In Vienna this has happened to me with two of his three buildings the fascinating Holy Spirit Church (Zum Heiliegen Kirche) and the Zachlerhaus, a mixed-use building in the centre.

At the Plečnik House museum in Ljubljana I also learned he was the architect responsible for remodeling Prague Castle for the new democratic government after the fall of the Hapsburg Empire.

The Plečnik House museum is a small exhibition space with information about his life and buildings, connected with the house he built for himself in central Ljubljana when he returned to teach architecture in the 1930s. It’s a great way to learn about Plečnik as preparation for walking around Ljubljana looking at his buildings.

There are two parts to the museum: the exhibition area and a guided tour of his house. Both are well worth your while because you’ll learn a lot about the architect himself seeing how he lived and from your tour guide’s description.

I was lucky when I visited because there was also an exhibition titled Plečnik: Metropolis, Place, Garden at the City Museum of Ljubljana for the Jože Plečnik 150th anniversary celebration. The museum’s permanent collection is also very interesting and worth a visit especially for city history fans.

I was also able to visit several of Jože Plečnik’s building projects: the riverbank architecture including the triple bridge, cobbler’s bridge and covered market, the university library, and St. Bartholomew’s Church. The city of Ljubljana has a nice webpage listing 10 Masterpieces of Jože Plečnik.

Ljubljana is a wonderful city to visit and learning about Jože Plečnik’s architecture was fascinating. Well worth a trip!

In January I had a REPAIR project meeting in Ljubljana (project video). I had visited in 2010 as a reviewer for the CIVITAS urban mobility research project ELAN and so was looking forward to seeing Ljubljana again.

The city has really embraced sustainable mobility: much of the historic downtown is auto free including the beautiful walkways on both sides of the river. I was especially excited to visit because 2022 was the 150^th birthday of the Ljubljana architect Jože Plečnik. Plečnik was a student of Otto Wagner, a Viennese pioneer of modern architecture (my Otto Wagner Stadtbahn tour).

I took the Eurocity 151, a direct train leaving Vienna’s Hauptbahnhof about 8:00 am and arriving in Ljubljana about 14:00 (this was the Guardian’s rail route of the month in January!). It was a great ride over the Semmering railway, a UNESCO world heritage site, through Steirmark, and into Slovenia. One highlight is that the train has a real dining car – they actually cook (not a microwave). It’s not gourmet, but I had a nice goulash soup and local beer. Other possibilities were omelets, ham and cheese platters, and more soups.

In Ljubljana I stayed at the Hotel Heritage, a newly renovated historic building just steps from the river promenade. Everything was great from the receptionist offering me a coffee and homemade Christmas cookies on my arrival to the excellent breakfast – with good strong espresso coffee.

In the afternoon I walked around in the snowy center and then visited two Plečnik exhibitions, the first in the Plečnik House museum and the second in the Ljubljana city museum (special exhibit celebrating Plečnik’s 150th birthday ). I’ll describe them in tomorrow’s post.

The next morning I had time to walk around Ljubljana and look at Plečnik’s river bank designs in more detail and could visit his university library building. I also stopped by the Bankarium, a museum of Slovenian banking. The museum is housed in a beautiful Jugenstil building and had some very interesting exhibits. I especially liked a display showing the money used in Slovenia over the years because it presented the currency of the time on a set of maps illustrating how the borders of Slovenia had changed from the Hapsburg empire to independence. I wish I had had more time to spend in the museum.

After our meeting we had a wonderful dinner – one of the best I have ever had (and that is saying something!) – at the restaurant Valvas’or. The food was a contemporary take on traditional Slovenian cooking, with local ingredients and modern flair. It tasted superb. The wine was also all local and excellent. Especially enjoyable were the servers who were enthusiastic and knowledgeable – I have rarely had a waiter who could explain the wines so well. A delightful evening!

Our meeting ended the next afternoon and we took the direct Eurocity train back to Vienna. It left about 16:00. We had a nice Thai late lunch at RozaSlon center (cafeteria style) – located right across the street from the station! They even had craft beer to go, so we took a couple for the ride back to Vienna. Great tip if you are taking the train from Ljubljana!