Civilized Urban Planning: Fun Friday Links

How-canadas-top-architects-designed-a-pan-am-district-from-scratch

"We all have to find a solution. Should [the City of Vancouver] force someone to develop? No. Could they incentivize someone to develop? Yes," he said. "We identify sites for height. We identify sites that are by transit that can have more density. One day, will we look at sites that aren't utilizing their full potential and incentivize [owners] to develop? Maybe." http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/vacant-lot-on-vancouver-s-robson-street-is-decades-old-8-5m-real-estate-mystery-1.3143211?cmp=rss

http://www.theguardian.com/cities/2015/jun/30/how-build-city-step-by-step-diy-guide

http://www.brainpickings.org/2015/06/30/james-mollison-playground/

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/industry-news/property-report/place-ville-marie-makes-room-for-the-view/article25316559/

"The Pope, it turns out, is an urban planner. In a few paragraphs embedded in the middle of his epic environmental encyclical published this week, he managed to tie together affordable housing, mass transit, parking, inequality, architecture, public space and segregation (perhaps no surprising feat given his startling facility in this same document connecting fossil fuels, solar panels, animal rights and recycling). The way we design communities, he argues — and this is basically the central tenet of urban planning — is vital to the kind of lives people experience within them. And so sprawling, car-dependent places force us to spend our lives unhappily idling in traffic. Expensive and overcrowded places rob residents of the dignity of having a good home. Great public spaces, by contrast, bring us together."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2015/06/19/the-popes-wise-advise-on-traffic-parking-and-public-transit/

review of new book:
http://landarchs.com/ecodesign-for-cities-and-suburbs-book-review/

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-07-08/these-are-the-23-cities-where-millennials-can-t-afford-to-rent-a-home

Civilized Urban Planning