The new regulations will allow commercial and social activities to take place in and around the towers at ground level. Shops, community centers and outdoor markets, all of which are largely forbidden under obsolete rules, could soon bring in new services as well as business opportunities. “Animating the ground floor space is a way to get a more vibrant, robust, healthy community happening in a vertical context."

See more at: http://www.citiscope.org/story/2015/how-toronto-revitalizing-its-aging-suburban-residential-towers

Industrial land = jobs

The report also says long-term regional planning goals like creating housing, protecting environmental lands, and growing employment are competing against each other for limited space, and that there are few large sites close to transportation infrastructure to truck goods around the region. 

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/metro-vancouver-industrial-land-1.3556559

The importance of precedents

"City planning is not just an art, but also a profession, and like in the professions of law or medicine, its practitioners have a responsibility to learn from past successes and failures.  Study of precedent makes it clear that boulevards create street life and enhance real estate value, while highways obliterate street life and sunder real estate value."

http://www.citylab.com/cityfixer/2016/04/street-design-models/479343/

Hope

In celebration of Earth Day, a day on which more than 155 countries were signing a landmark U.N. agreement on climate change, here are five reasons Earth is not as doomed as you think.

http://www.cnn.com/2016/04/21/opinions/sutter-earth-day-hope/

Scores!

"a new generation of urban planners taping into the rising demand for the services of a profession whose fortunes are tied to surging property development markets as well as the growth in city-building activity across Canada. In many big cities, municipal land-use planning departments and other local agencies are hiring planners to help manage growth linked to population increases, burgeoning private investment and new infrastructure."

http://www.canadianbusiness.com/lists-and-rankings/best-jobs/2016-urban-planner-canadas-hottest-job/

and

http://www.canadianbusiness.com/lists-and-rankings/best-jobs/2016-urban-planner/

Articulation of streetscapes

http://mic.com/articles/141090/looking-at-ugly-buildings-is-making-you-legitimately-unhappy

Transportation infrastructure as art

"A whirlpool interchange connects three major roads by the Miracle Garden in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. When construction of this junction began in 2006, Dubai contained 30,000 industrial cranes – 25% of all cranes on the planet.”

from http://twistedsifter.com/2015/02/satellite-photos-of-earth-that-will-give-you-a-fresh-perspective/

Greening vs crime

"Whereas the “broken windows” theory suggests criminals look for physical signs of neglect when scoping out targets, the Baltimore yard study supports the “cues to care” theory, that visible maintenance of shared spaces presents “a sign of social capital and cohesion that might deter criminals.”

The upshot: Urban greenery should play more of a role in cities’ plans to reduce crime. A good first step would be increasing public attention to landscaping in high-crime areas and assisting residents in taking care of their own lots. This brings more urgency to cities’ maintenance of vegetation on public land. A dead tree on the sidewalk isn’t just a dead tree anymore."

http://www.citylab.com/cityfixer/2016/04/vacant-lots-green-space-crime-research-statistics/476040/

Testing Jane Jacobs

“Active Italian districts have dense concentrations of office workers, third places at walking distance, small streets, and historical buildings.”

https://nextcity.org/daily/entry/jane-jacobs-city-ideas-tested-italy

Placemaking vs. Placeshaking

The distinction between place-making (official ways to design communities) and place-shaking (do it yourself urbanism).

link here: http://www.placemakers.com

Eco Cities

New urban design using medieval ideas of access by proximity.

http://ecocitiesemerging.org/2015/09/the-car-of-the-future-part-1-why-the-world-needs-fewer-not-better-cars/

Bicycle superhighways!