"Professor Karen Chapple goes to the park with her dog Geno and discusses how dog parks can be valuable public spaces for bridging social divides and building social networks in cities."
I loved the quote "it's mostly dog talk" but I know it's true - dog parks and dogs in general build communities.
Walkable communities should have:
from: https://www.cnu.org/publicsquare/2023/12/22/ten-features-walkable-communities
"The best places are those where there is social life for all. The most iconic, popular, frequently visited public places are those full of children, women, men, and all kinds of configurations of every kind of person. A placemaking strategy that starts with creating inclusive public spaces and puts a community’s future back into its hands is the first step in addressing some of the major systemic issues that hurt and divide us. Creating great public places where people come together is at the root of healthy, happy, and prosperous societies. At the foundation of those great public places is a mix of things to experience and enjoy. By adding layers of activities, amenities, and programming, we create public places where all kinds of people want to be. The more variety a place offers, the more people will be drawn to it and benefit from the powerful impacts of these beloved destinations."
When designing a public place, include the following:
from:
https://www.sociallifeproject.org/campaign-creating-social-life-for-all-places-where-people-thrive/
"The New Urbanism is a design movement toward complete, compact, connected communities—but it is also a generator of ideas that transform the landscape. Communities are shaped by the movement and flow of ideas, and the New Urbanism has been a particularly rich source of the currents that have directed planning and development in recent decades."
https://www.cnu.org/publicsquare/2017/10/31/25-great-ideas-new-urbanism
The United Nations has created 17 goals and "provides a global blueprint for dignity, peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and in the future." "The Sustainable Development Goals are the blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all. They address the global challenges we face, including those related to poverty, inequality, climate change, environmental degradation, peace and justice. The 17 Goals are all interconnected, and in order to leave no one behind, it is important that we achieve them all by 2030."
For more information, visit https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/why-the-sdgs-matter/
City Beautiful YT makes the case for adding retail in single-family neighborhoods, changing "the health, traffic, and environment" of an area.
It's not what you think!
"What makes buildings and cities beautiful, and why is beauty so important? How to design for beauty? I was always wondering why everything was getting so ugly, and why beauty doesn't seem to be valued anymore. So in this video, we take a deep dive into the topic of beauty - to hopefully learn some lessons from it. From the design disconnect to biophilia and deeper brain structures, no stone is left unturned to solve the puzzle: how can we build more beautiful, and why does that matter?"
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Which place do you prefer to walk in? |
"What Makes Density Compatible?
30 people getting a coffee 🇺🇸
vs.
30 people getting a coffee 🇫🇷
(image credit: www.twitter.com/pushtheneedle)
Book review from here:
http://spacing.ca/vancouver/2023/02/07/book-review-diy-city-hank-dittmar/
"Three critical examples from DIY City of the kinds of policy changes available to politicians, community organizers and planners in fostering small incremental change include:
Allowing Small Scale Development
In most municipalities, new development is regulated through a constellation of bylaws, whose primary purpose is to ensure new projects proceed in a way that reflects community values. However, when applied to smaller projects, these bylaws can play against a community’s goals for things like housing. For example, Dittmar cites examples in certain places where getting permits for new buildings is easier than retrofits to existing ones. By creating barriers for small projects, poorly designed regulations stymie small-scale builders who, in aggregate, have a sizeable collective power to make progress in adding new housing supply.
Encouraging Meanwhile-Uses
“Meanwhile-uses” are temporary activities that can take place in a space while financing and approvals are being arranged for more complex developments. This can take years for big projects, and unless there are clear incentives or requirements to maintain some level of activity, sites can sit empty the whole time. Meanwhile-uses can include those on bare ground or in existing buildings. Examples from Dittmar’s book include a variety of artisan and market spaces which can actually draw more interest to a site and create added value and a sense of place. If done well, meanwhile-uses can be incorporated into what comes next and continue the story. However, if meanwhile-uses are desired, they must be permitted, encouraged, or mandated.
Formalizing Informal Arts Spaces
Reducing barriers and regulations is a common theme throughout DIY City, but it is not to say that Dittmar wants to do away with them altogether. In most cases, building codes and bylaws were created to protect people from fire, earthquakes, electrical, or other potential hazards. However, a city’s most culturally productive sites can find and grow in some of its oldest and most at-risk buildings. Instead of condemning these spaces and removing them in the name of public safety, Dittmar argues that cities should recognize the value of these spaces and work with tenants to ensure they are safe. One grassroots tool is the D.I.Y. Harm Reduction Manual, a crowd-sourced manual full of recommendations designed to help organizers make their venues safer."
Image from here:
https://usergeneratededucation.wordpress.com/2022/04/22/building-a-sustainable-city/
"David Lewis, FAIA, has been one of the most influential architects of the past half-century. Exiled for his anti-apartheid activities, he came to the United States at the height of the civil rights movement and helped pioneer a new orientation to the public from professionals engaged in city-building."
“Why amenitize an office park when you can build a town center?”
from:
https://www.cnu.org/publicsquare/2022/12/22/turning-office-park-town-center
Video of the week:
"How do we add mixed uses in single detached neighbourhoods? People have some ideas…"
Implementation can be as simple as:
"Half of the work of urban design is deciding where to store cars."
"When designing parking spaces, planners have a size of vehicle in mind—a design vehicle scaled for highway and freeway travel. Yet almost half of all car trips in the United States are for trips under 3 miles,1 which shouldn’t require getting on a highway or freeway. In an era of growing climate threats, we need to rethink what kind of vehicle is necessary for running local trips. It’s time to seriously consider a class of vehicles called neighborhood electric vehicles, or NEVs."
from:
https://www.cnu.org/publicsquare/2021/10/13/rightsizing-automobile-local-mobility
"Seed bombs, the "tree lady of Brooklyn," and the roots of urban gardening."
"New York City looked a lot different in the 1960s and 1970s. A sharp economic decline and white flight meant there was mass disinvestment and urban decay, particularly in the city’s lower-income neighborhoods. It’s what Hattie Carthan and Liz Christy noticed in their communities when they each set out to revive their neighborhoods by making them greener. Ultimately, their radical acts of gardening would transform the landscape across New York City."
15 things you didn't know about city planning (probably) - lessons learned and a review of top urban planning books.
from:
https://youtu.be/Walx0iQZfiY
Polis Station from Studio Gang on Vimeo.
