AlSo: TCC07 Conference

Elly, Corey and I flummoxed across the ferry to Karakoy (by now an old friend) and walked across the Galata Bridge, through the hardware peddling section of town and wended our way up to Istiklal Cadde and TCC07s headquarters. There were opening comments and introductions, including our 15 minute presentation on next year’s Conference, and then a split for some short workshops. We heard Ralph from Cologne talk about map making, Joroen and Joerie about the anti-SUV campaign from GreenPeace and Friends of the Earth, and Karen and Lena about leisure-focused transport and density (almost 50% of car trips in Sweden are for the purpose of leisure!). Panel discussion in the afternoon was about “Car Culture v. Public Space”. I had thought this would focus on infrastructure, but the overriding themes turned out to be fear, identity and isolation. We met Zeren and Sebel from World Resources Institute with some great conversation. There was a walking tour throughout the European side, but I honestly spent more time talking to other Conference-goers to the detriment of sightseeing. Oh well! Spoke with Milan, Thiago and Karl at some length. The evening was in Ortakoy for a movie night which we had to skip out on early in order to walk to a bus home. Then it was back to Rick’s and a talk about the basics of Turkish linguistics.