Brand Avenue

An Urban Heart for the Oil Sands

When Jennifer Keesmaat began thinking about how to transform the boomtown heart of the oil sands into a thriving centre, she grew slightly despondent.

“When we started in Fort McMurray, the very first thing we said is, ‘This is the twilight zone. No rules that apply anywhere else apply here,’ ” said Ms. Keesmaat, an urban planner with Toronto-based Dialog, which has been hired to help fix the city. But she returned from an initial visit to the area this spring questioning how to do it.

“I came back and held my head in my hands and thought, ‘Oh my, finally I’ve met my match. This nut is too big to crack.’ ”

But as Fort McMurray faces a future of explosive growth, it is nonetheless trying to do exactly that. It has employed a network of consultants, and petitioned its own people, in an attempt to figure out how to remake a modern-day hinterland gold rush town into an entertaining, vibrant city.

It’s not just a municipal issue. Industry today spends tens of thousands a year on each worker it flies in and out of northern Alberta. That has created significant incentives to convince people to move nearer the oil sands.

With an average household income of $177,000 – the highest in the country – Fort McMurray is awash in cash. But the town, and the Municipality of Wood Buffalo it sits in, have struggled to tread water amid the deluge of new arrivals. Planning for the future has been tough. Asked what’s wrong with Fort McMurray’s downtown today, Toronto real estate executive Ron Taylor says simply: “There is none.”

via www.theglobeandmail.com

BYOB To Philadelphia

The success of Korean food in Philadelphia is part of a larger story of how the city has been able to cultivate a wide-ranging international food scene. Former Inquirer food critic Rick Nichols told Zagat that the city is an destination. Much more culinarily advanced, he argues, than Washington or Boston. "People [here] are curious eaters," Laban says. "They don't just stick with what they know."

Here's why. For one thing, Philadelphia is a veritable capital of the small, scrappy restaurant – rents are cheap, and up-and-coming chefs can afford to open little 35-seaters (many of which are BYOB). The city also hosts one of America's fastest-growing (and most diverse) immigrant populations.

But there's something else: Philadelphia has a relatively young population. And that's important, according to Krishnendu Ray, an NYU professor who studies the relationship between food and immigration. There's this tipping point in the life of an ethnic restaurant. Ray calls it the "hipster realm." It's the moment when outsiders—usually younger, adventurous types in search of something cheap and different—start frequenting a place and creating buzz about it. It's happening now nationally to Korean food and Chinese food, the "up-scaling of a cuisine."

It usually takes about three generations for this transition to take, Ray says, and it often coincides with an ethnic group doing better financially and moving out of poverty. Some cuisines—like Greek—are hitting their peak. Others—Japanese and French—have always had an international reputation as food for businessmen. Hence, owners can attract a broad crowd off-the-bat.

Philadelphia has these young eaters. And the city is relatively small, which means most of them can easily make it to different neighborhoods. "In Philadelphia," Ray says, "much more innovative things happen."

via www.theatlanticcities.com

I never knew anything about restaurant culture until I lived in Philadelphia. This article hits the proverbial nail on the head in highlighting Philly's culture of gastronomy.

Buffalo Calls

Hey, world! Buffalo is calling! And it wants you to know its steel mills closed down like 30 years ago, the Blizzard of 77 is so yesterday, and the Buffalo wing was invented way back in 1964. Your impressions of Buffalo are so out of date.

This is the 21st century. Buffalo is turning the page. We’re getting wealthier, smarter, and more productive. We’re green and we’re hip. We’re sneaking up on you, world! You have no idea how how cool we are.

Rust Belt cities like Buffalo, Pittsburgh, and Minneapolis are actually doing pretty well economically. And you know what else? Rust Belt cities are greener and more sustainable than all the Sun Belt sprawl cities, so we’re probably going to be pretty competitive in the coming years.

Pretty soon, all those Sun Belt cities are going to wish they’d developed in the late 20th century the way Buffalo did in the early 20th century. Buffalo’s mixed-use, compact neighborhoods are still here. We’re reviving them one by one. And unlike the sprawling cities built for the car, Buffalo starts with traditional neighborhoods built for people.

Buffalo is still losing population (10.7% from 2000 to 2010) and poverty is still very high (28.2%). Buffalo is a city of no illusions. We don’t run away from harsh realities, but we also don’t shy away from showcasing our strengths.

via americancity.org

An admittedly boosterish article about Buffalo points to coming shifts that may find Buffalo perfectly positioned to shine again.

"Check Yes For Chimi"

Florida has its key lime pie, Idaho its potatoes and Georgia favors grits as its official state food. Arizona, hungry to lay claim to a state food of its own, is circling the chimichanga.

There is a fierce rivalry here over who exactly dropped the first burrito into a vat of hot oil and thus invented the chimichanga. But evidence supports the contention that the first mouth to savor the fried concoction, and the first stomach to churn in torment from it, may well have been that of an Arizonan.

There is little doubt that chimichangas have become hugely popular here, so much so that a movement is under way to make the chimi the state’s official food. With Arizona’s centennial coming next year, Macayo’s Mexican Kitchen, a Phoenix chain, has started a petition drive to lobby the Legislature to officially adopt the chimichanga, as lawmakers have done for the bolo tie (official neckwear), the saguaro blossom (official flower) and the Colt revolver (official firearm).

via www.nytimes.com