Dependent on the interest of the author, texts are in dutch, french, english,
or other...

28/06/2007

J'ai vu le changement de la Centre sur le Boulevard Anspach: trop cool:
C'est une grande transformation d'un bätiment avant pas trop remarqué (dans les vitrines on voyait seulement avant des p'tites expositions, galeries, ...), mais maintenant avec les structures jaunes en métal devant la façade, ca saute bien dans les yeux!!
Chaque journée que je passe devant le bâtiment, je suis intéressé comment ça va évoluer avec le temps, et quels réactions des gens cela emportera: que ce transformation du bâtiment emporte pas mal de réactions est bien clair par exemple quand tu vas voir des photos sur le site "flickr" (ou il y en a déjà pris assez beaucoup de ce changement), où mème aujourd'hui j'ai vu sur le festival "Living Brussels" le long du canal et le péniches à Bruxelles, un grand collage de photos qui était fait par deux jeunes artistes sur le sujet.

Je reste curieux!!

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30/05/2007 Laatste nieuws: Ivm link http://www.stib.irisnet.be/NL/13100N.htm

Net gelezen op de site van het Nieuwsblad:
bij sterke vervuiling zal de MIVB in de toekomst gratis ritten aan haar reizigers aanbieden: goed nieuws!! Blijkt, bij een iets verder nazicht: dit zal wel maar ongeveer 1X om de drie jaar gebeuren. Dadelijk stel ik mij dan daar weer kritische vragen bij: wat gaat dat uithalen, 1X om de drie jaar? Positief in elk geval is de intentie van het gebeuren, en dat er ook daadwerkelijk veranderingen vanuit de MIVB gebeuren. Maar persoonlijk vind ik deze maatregel toch weer niet zo'n duurzame maatregel....
In elk geval: als je de site http://www.stib.irisnet.be/NL/13100N.htm bezoekt, kom je toch wel weer positieve maatregelen tegen: handig dus om eens te bezoeken!!

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ACTION POINTS IN BRUSSELS
(WHAT SHOULD BE DONE FOR A MORE LONGTERM EVOLUTION):

° No city circle for cars along the Brussels' Canal, between Porte Ninove and Place Sainctelette: moving this part of the city motorline more to the west, direction Boulevard L. Mettewie: in this case evolution of the canal will be more in the purpose of walking people, and canal will really belong to the city (both to the centre, as to Molenbeek)
° No heavy car use anymore on the Boulevard Anspach: such a heavy equipped motorway around 100 meters next to the Grand Place is really creazy
° Opening of parts of the Senne in the centre
° No concrete objects for plants anymore on the Boulevard Anspach, but really equipped zones for bigger treas
° Big Public Parks on the soccles of the Office Buildings next to Place Brouckère and Place de la Monnaie
° etc

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Text about urban planning of the Brussels' Canal
(depending on the interest of the Author, texts can be in english, french, dutch, or another language)

Last years, a lot of planning happened around the Brussels' canal. More precisely, the part of the canal between 'Port of Ninove' and 'Place Sainctelette' (so the part of the canal along the center of Brussels).
The policy of Brussels' region decided to develop this part as a nice waterway 'esplanade', which can give to Brussels a feeling of a waterroad that belongs to the city, in contrast to the situation nowadays (where we find along the canal a buisy way, full of cars as part of the Brussels' 'small cityring'). It could be a place like for example the 'Seine' in Paris, where it's nice to walk along, to sit, to repose yourself...
The Brussels' government even gave this question to a Brussels' architecture office, 'BOB 361'. After an evening where this office presented their project of the canal to the public, I for myself was convinced of the strengths in the project: they developped as good as possible the possibilities of a pedestrian Boulevard along the canal, where also terrasses of pubs can be situated and also some new pedestrian bridges that connect the Brussels' city center with 'St Josse', in a way how the east-west link will be much better than nowadays the case (this east-west link is a big issue in Brussels' urban planning, but till now, despite some future plannings in the North Quarter, no actions are taken to resolve this).
So the project of BOB 361 let show that we can surely do something nice with the canal, against the sceptical meaning of a lot of people. It's also a project in long term, that thinks about the urgent need of the city to involve a waterway an pedestrian boulevard in its city structure.
But, again!!!!, Brussels' government decided not to develop this project of BOB 361, worse to just put it aside and not to continue with the plans.
What's even more absurd, and in fact it's the point where I wanted to get in this text, is the decision of the government to develop more the little city inner circle (the 'Pentagon' like it's more frequently called): what means to develop more the road to a proper car road... So, that's really, really easily to see, this can't have a positive effect at all on the creation of a wonderfull pedestrian boulevard, as a logical result it will block the east-west relation between the Brussels' city centre and the quarters (as St Josse ) in the west.
A child hand can easily draw on a map a road that's much more proper to develop the demanded Brussels Little city circle: if the "Alphonse Vandepeereboomstraat' that's some 1km more towards the west side of Brussel would be developed in a proper way, the whole terrain between this new developped Boulevard and the city center can easily be developed in a car quite zone way. I know, 'Alphonse Vandepeereboomstraat' is a really stupid name, but no argument can be given to change this namen into a much nicer and more proper name. In this way, the canal will in reality belong much more to the city than nowadays is the case. Much more than nowadays, we will easily be able to develop the Both Longsides of the Canal as a really nice pedestrian and bicycle way. And to develop this zone much more as a resting place, where also horeca can much more easily connect to and people can easily enjoy of the present water, green planting, sit and talk, and so more...

This urban case, a really hot issue in planning, shows again the wrong way decisions are taken into the Brussels's situation and the undeniable short term vision of this all!