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Showing posts from February, 2012

Too many (parking) spaces, not enough green!

Proof that McMaster is overbuilt with parking comes via this recent (April 2011) consultants' report on McMaster Campus Capacity : at the peak of parking demand, 2,803 spaces are required out of a possible 4,276 spaces - that's 1,473 unused spaces at peak usage. That's a lot of concrete and asphalt wasted even at peak, with of course far less demand the majority of time.  There are 1,349 spaces in lot M at present, the site of the parking lot that abuts Ancaster Creek and the focus of our concern at Restore Cootes. Where we are pushing for at least a 30m buffer between parking and the creek, it turns out a lot more could be done. In fact, given the data, the possibility exists to remove the majority of spaces there, enabling us to realistically act on the potential to re-establish a natural area so important to the health of the local watershed, including the Cootes Paradise marsh which Ancaster Creek feeds into. As we know, the parking lots located west of Coote

invoking paradise

Burlington Bay from Burlington Heights "The most remarkable feature of this historical moment on Earth is not that we are on the way to destroying the world-we've actually been on the way for quite a while. It is that we are beginning to wake up, as from a millennia-long sleep, to a whole new relationship to our world, to ourselves and each other." Joanna Macy