From Co.Create — IBM's Smarter Cities Continues With A Crowdsourced Pop-Up Park in Dublin

Last year, IBM and Ogilvy France created an award-winning outdoor ad campaign that transformed billboards into urban tools like benches, rain covers, and stairway ramps. For the campaign's next move, the brand and agency teamed up with creative social network Zooppa to put out a call to its global community for ideas to improve their cities and communities, offering prizes from $500 to $10,000. 

Out of 80 video entries, eight winners were picked based on their vision, efficiency, ability to execute, and ability to provide data for further insights. The top prize went to a plan from Dublin, Ireland, to turn an abandoned city lot into a thriving urban park and community space. Other winners included a cardboard bike form Israel, an urban farming initiative from Calgary, and a Detroit plan to transform an abandoned buildings into fish farming facilities.Read more: IBM's Smarter Cities Continues With A Crowdsourced Pop-Up Park in Dublin | Co.Create | creativity + culture + commerce

"The Sidewalk Ballet" in Flinders Lane, Melbourne @PPS_Placemaking

Post by Project for Public Spaces.

Jen Keesmaat in Own Your City — In Complete Communities Pedestrians Take Precedence

RAFFI ANDERIAN ILLUSTRATION

Jennifer Keesmaat is chief planner and executive director of the City Planning Division, City of Toronto.

As one columnist recently put it, the suburbs can be a “snooze fest” for the younger generation. Echo boomers, loosely defined as those between the ages of 16 and 34 and the fastest-growing demographic in Toronto, are choosing urban over suburban and are forgoing a driver’s licence in favour of walking, cycling and transit. Our data confirms this trend in Toronto.

There are many differing reasons why, including the high cost of driving, greater awareness of environmental impacts, a rejection of the quality of life, costs and sacrifices that accompany a long commute, and importantly, it is increasingly possible to live without a car. Read more: In Complete Communities, Pedestrians Take Precedence | Own Your City

Condon / @pricetags Debate: Should #Vancouver Change How It Zones Big Projects? | @TheTyee

Post by The Sidewalk Ballet.

From CityLab — The Devastating Impact of 30 Years of Sprawl, As Seen From Space

How much have cities in Texas expanded in just the past few decades? A "truckload" I believe is the appropriate regional answer, and now we can actually see those urban centers spread like slime mold with a series of amazing satellite-based animations. More at: The Devastating Impact of 30 Years of Sprawl, As Seen From Space - CityLab

From CityLab — The Number One Thing We Could Do to Improve City Life

At this year's Aspen Ideas Festival, CityLab asked a group of journalists, professors, and non-profit leaders to predict the future of livable, walkable cities. "If I could have one wish for people who live in cities," says Conservational International's M. Sanjayan, "it's that we find ways to connect back to nature, to remind [people] that nature isn't out there—outside the cities—but right in their homes where they live." Other panelists include Luís Bettencourt, Geoffrey West, Alissa Walker, Jeff Speck, and Jennifer Pahlka. Read more: The Number One Thing We Could Do to Improve City Life, According to Geoffrey West, M. Sanjayan, Jennifer Pahlka, and More - CityLab

1914 - World's First Traffic Light Cleveland OH @WhatWasThere

Post by The Sidewalk Ballet.

Scandinavian Tourists 'Horrified' By Canada's Car Culture @HuffPostCaLiv

Post by The Huffington Post Canada.

Must-read from @fabulavancouver in @bcbusiness — why Lower Mainland transit matters to all BC

Check out BCB August with fab illo by @OttoSteininger for @fabulavancouver story on Vancouver's traffic nightmare. pic.twitter.com/xk8RF8aw5z
— Catherine Mullaly (@c_mullaly) July 30, 2014

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RT @mattogee: A must-read from @fabulavancouver in @bcbusiness on why Lower Mainland transit matters to all B.C.: http://t.co/xqbzfXLp7n
— NanaimoCommons (@NanaimoCommons) July 31, 2014