Great East Japan Earthquake: March 11, 2011.

Today is the sixth year anniversary of the Great East Japan Earthquake that unleashed an extreme amount of energy resulting in a 9.0 magnitude earthquake and a tsunami event that some have recorded to be 40 metres high. Tens of thousands of lives lost, many of whom their bodies will never be recovered. Although I have a great interest in earth science, I am not an expert in the field, and there are certainly many sources that you might be able to find on the Internet.

My interest lies in the urban planning aspect of the disaster and also the human story told from the tragedy. I was (and still am) so interested in the disaster that in November 2015 I decided to dedicate a few days on my solo trip to Japan to visit the Tohoku Region and see for myself what the recover and reconstruction efforts were like at the time. Mind you that when I visited there, it was 4.5 years after the earthquake. The accounts and photos below are only a snapshot of time, which was November 29, 2015. The places I visited included:

1. Matsushima 松島町
2. Kesennuma 気仙沼市
3. Rikuzentakata 陸前高田市

Matsushima 松島町:
This town is an urban extension of Sendai, the largest city in the Tohoku Region. Matsushima is located on a bay and consist of many small islands and islets. It is said that Matsushima Bay is the one of three most scenic places of all of Japan. The bay itself is protected by much larger islands, which form a protective cove. When the tsunami hit in 2011, this area saw relatively little damage. But of course, it is relative. When you visit the tourist information centre located at the waterfront there are photos of the aftermath of the tsunami. There is even a sign posted of the maximum height of the tsunami. As the photo suggest, I would have drowned. I think my facial expression tells you how I was feeling at the time

Kesennuma 気仙沼市:

This town is located about two hours on the Shinkansen and local train from Sendai. This town is closer to the epicentre than Matsushima and sustained more damage, especially along its coastline. Prior to the earthquake this region was considered the backwaters of the prosperous Kanto and Kansai Regions of Japan. After the earthquake this is even more the case. In order to draw more tourists from around the country and the world, and to liven the spirits of local children affected by the disaster, JR (Japan Rail) teamed up to create a special car known as "Pokemon with You". Yes you heard it right, the Pokemon Train. I think the photos says it all. It is a dream of all Pokemon lovers out there. I only heard about this from a YouTube video [Link] and its draw certainly enticed me to come to this area. More information on the train can be found in the official website [Link].

Kesennuma luckily is mostly on higher ground so the majority of the town was not destroyed. However, the industrial area and ports were washed away. This town, like all the others, depend on the fishing industry. Without a port means the industry is pretty much crippled. After taking the Pokemon Train, I took the BRT from the train station. As the disaster destroyed key transportation routes along the coast, infrastructure are sometimes rebuilt in different locations. In other instances, the damage is so severe, but the ridership is so low, that investing in the rail line's reconstruction would be too expensive. A BRT is more simple as the right of way is already available and the infrastructure cost is lower. Add some asphalt and build a few bus stops, and you pretty much have a BRT network. However, it still uses some of the highways in order to get to my destination, Rikuzentakata.

Rikuzentakata 陸前高田市:

So this is the town that was commonly known to have been "wiped off the map". There are a few of these towns and this is one of the more well known ones because of the extent of damage. Although one might think to just abandon the town and build at higher ground, in the true spirit of the people (or stubbornness, depending on how you see it), the national government decided to rebuild the town on the same land, except this time the elevation is increased by building these massive 30-40 feet high plots of land. The new town will sit on these new elevated land. At the time of the visit in November 2015, they had just completed this phase of the reconstruction and they began dismantling these massive conveyor belts that stretches for miles from the hillsides to the west. To find fill, they obliterated several hills and use the conveyor belts to transport soil and fill 24 hours a day, rather than use hundreds of dump trucks. This was efficient and quick. This whole area was a huge construction site.

From the BRT stop you walk towards the coastline and come across a few arrows. One points to the Lone Miracle Pine, so named because what stood in the area were tens of thousands of pine trees planted hundreds of years ago to protect the town from typhoons. Every single tree was washed away except this one. Sadly months after the tsunami, it too died due to salination of the soil. What you see today is a replica of the tree. This is a monument to the sadness and despair of the area.  When you visit the area there is a feeling of dread and incredible sadness. You feel alone with no one around,  but you also feel a lot of presence due to the stories of lives lost. The tall building to the left in the photo below was a dam to protect the port. Three lives were lost there as the volunteers frantically closed the flood gates, not knowing the tsunami was as tall as the building itself. 

There are clearly other signs of the disaster all over what is left of the town. Concrete shells of buildings are what remained. Some of these will be preserved either as a museum, others will be repurposed. But the question is, who wants to live here again and relive the moments? After the two hour tour I quickly took the BRT back to civilization. I didn't want to be in this area after dark for sure. 

As mentioned, the photos are only a snapshot in time and I am sure things are completely different from 1.5 years ago. Therefore I would like to extend the invitation to anyone who wants to visit these stricken parts of Japan, and to witness how disasters can impact human settlement, and also to see how the living are coping and rebuilding their lives. These areas are not as glamorous as Tokyo or Kyoto, but from an urban planning perspective and the issue of resilient cities, it is interesting how today's decisions will impact lives hundreds of years from now.

The Portland Files: Square City Blocks

Portland has been known to be a very walkable city due to various reasons such as a mix of land uses, the number of public spaces scattered in the city, the interesting topography such as the Willamette River, and a strong commercial base in many of the communities. All of these reasons are vital to the success of the city, but it is Portland's street network that cements its success. Every trip by virtue begins and ends with walking. Whether the majority of the commute is by car or transit, walking is involved to get yourself away from the origin (i.e. house or school) and to the destination (barber shop or office). And when you plop yourself in the middle of Portland's City Center, or the Pearl District, you will quickly find how walkable and enjoyable it actually is.

One of the distinctions that Portland generally has is a very fine grained series of streets, and the streets themselves create perfectly sized square city blocks. Now this might not come to be a surprise and Portland is certainly not the only city with such consistent square city block pattern. New York City, Salt Lake City, and even Toronto and Hamilton has a series of grid block pattern, but in Portland these perfectly square city blocks cover a large area of the city. A simple search of Portland Oregon will reveal a city of what I am talking about (see below). The map below shows how consistent the blocks are, and other than the Interstate highway, the Willamette River, and various open spaces, the pattern is pretty much intact as it was created when the city was founded. Other than the South and North Park Blocks and land around rough terrain, each city block measures 200 feet by 200 feet which is smaller than New York City’s grid, and represents one of the smallest and fine grained city blocks in the US. Carson City's grid blocks are even smaller at 180 feet by 180 feet [Link].

When walking on the streets, one does not immediately capture the importance of having such fine grained city blocks until you have to walk an extra distance to get to your destination because there was not a shorter, more direct route. The ability to go from origin to destination in the shortest route is possible when the street connectivity is high. And with each block no more than 200 feet in length, Portland represents one of the most connected cities you can find. But how did Portland's famed grid streets come to be?

History:
Portland was founded in 1845 and was incorporated as a city in 1851 where the population was 800 [Link] where it eventually grew quickly due to the forest industry and its importance of the city due to its location on the Columbia River. By 1879 it had a population of 17,500 inhabitants. The street grid you see today was planned in 1845 by Thomas Brown [Link] for a 16 block stretch of land on both sides of the Willamette River (a major tributary of the Columbia River). As the city grew, the city blocks continued to expand in the same 200 feet by 200 feet configuration. Due to the configuration of the Willamette River, the grid pattern shifted so the east-west streets more or less remain in perpendicular with the river. This signifies the importance of the Willamette River in the development of the city. 

As the city continued to grow eastward the street network basically stayed the same. It was only when city growth hit the West Hills in the west end of the city was it impossible to impose the grid pattern, and development grew in favour of a more organic network of streets. The illustration below is from The Greater Portland Plan by Edward H. Bennett which was a master plan document released in October 1912, and shows what Portland would have been like in 1881. This would have been taken from the West Hills looking down to Portland in the foreground, the Willamette River in the middle, and the Industrial Eastside in the background with the Cascade Ranges in the far background.

There are theories as to why the street network was designed the way they did. One theory is the blocks maximize the use of land. Remember in those days, you did not have massive 30-storey commercial buildings that can take up a large building footprint. Rather, you would have smaller buildings to meet the needs of a small but growing city. The second theory is the opportunity to maximize the number of corner lots, which would afford a higher land value due to the presence of two streets fronting on a lot. That also affords higher revenues generated by commercial establishments due to twice the number of pedestrians as opposed to a corner lot.

Legacy:
The foresight into the developing the city through the expansion of the original 16 blocks of perfectly laid squares has left a legacy as a city that embraces walkability. The city center is a compact community of medium and high density commercial and residential development. Due to the small size of the city blocks, development is restricted to just the block itself, limiting the size of these buildings and the ability to create intense development and still provide parking on-site. This makes the city center less claustrophobic and more inviting, and building heights that are not excessive. The only exception to this is the US Bancorp Tower, the second tallest building in the city, where it takes up the equivalent of two city blocks, but luckily this is a one-off situation and is not the norm. 

The grid street pattern throughout the city also allows for efficient laying of public transit routes such as TriMet's MAX LRT trains, dozens of bus routes, and the Portland Streetcar. Because most of the these streets are one-way streets, the transit routes fan out and spread out to provide further transit coverage throughout the city. In fact, if it wasn't for the existing street network, it might be difficult to spread transit the way it does today, and transit vehicles would either have to run through opposing traffic, force one-way streets to become two-way streets, or to separate the transit routes so far apart it becomes infeasible as transit routes would have to run several blocks from each other.

The next time you visit Portland, have a look at the street pattern, and you will see how the grid pattern has contributed to such a vibrant city center and makes the city such a walkable city.