#park – Urban Issues

UrbanitAs: Urban Animals as Other City-dwellers, Glasgow Edition (Updated)

January 7, 2019May 7, 2020Posted in Photos, UrbanitAsTagged #city, #life, #park, #seagull, #urban, #urbanspace, animals, bird, dog, glasgow, pets, squarrelLeave a comment

UrbanitAnimals. We live side by side. We call them pests, vermins, #mprracoon, pets, …

As a common human behaviour, we exterminate the ones we afraid of, and do everything to keep the ones we like around. The only thing we cannot do is to accept them as city-dwellers, just like us humans.

We are probably too late to acknowledge that we are just another species dwelling here on this planet. But, perhaps realising that we live side by side with a bunch of others, even in the most human-made environment (aka cities), may change our perspective.

This edition is dedicated to UrbanitAs living in the mighty city of Glasgow, and will be updated due course.

Istanbul, Candidate for Green Capital of Europe! Seriously!?

November 4, 2014October 17, 2020Posted in ENG, Thinking Out LoudTagged #building boom, #cities, #city, #constrcution, #gezi park, #green, #neoliberal urban space, #park, #public space, #Turkey, #urban development, #urban space, #urbanism, #İstanbulLeave a comment

Istanbul is among the applicants to be 2017 Green Capital of Europe!

Considering the loss of green open spaces in the city, loss hectares of northern forests for the roads and the third bridge, and Gezi Resistance sparked on the demolishment of Gezi Park last year, it truely sounds like a joke for people who are familiar with the context.

Here is the condition of public open spaces in Istanbul together with a comparison with other global cities according to World Cities Culture Report 2013.

Percentage of Public Open Green Spaces (Public Parks and Gardens) within Urban Macroforms

Info Graphic by sunipeyk.com

The application comes at a time when the city’s authorities are clamping down on environmental protests while forging ahead with projects that threaten Istanbul’s few green spaces.
“It’s a joke,” said Oğuz Kaan Salici, the Istanbul chairman of Turkey’s main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP)

Read the full story here with reactions from activists here in Guardian article.

Le Droit a la Paresse ! The Right to be Lazy !

March 2, 2014October 18, 2014Posted in PhotosTagged #city, #edinburgh, #lazy, #life, #park, #public space, #summer, #sunnyLeave a comment

Le Droit a la Paresse ! The Right to be Lazy ! Princes Street Gardens, Edinburgh, UK, 2013