From Co.Exist — Car-Free Neighbourhood Redesigns Suburbia

It's possible that some people might own a car in a new neighborhood designed for Mannheim, Germany. But they won't be able to drive up to their doors: The entire neighborhood is car-free, with parking hidden underground.

Instead of roads, the neighborhood will have sidewalks that connect with paths in a surrounding park. "Essentially the project recreates the park experience on a residential scale, and removing the road allows the park to permeate throughout the site unrestricted," says Johannes Pilz, one of the architects from the design firm MVRDV, which worked on the development for Traumhaus, a German affordable housing developer. This New Car-Free Neighborhood Redesigns Suburbia | Co.Exist | ideas + impact

From Strong Towns — Why mixed-income neighborhoods matter Lifting kids out of poverty

There’s a hopeful new sign that how we build our cities, and specifically, how good a job we do of building mixed income neighborhoods that are open to everyone can play a key role in reducing poverty and promoting equity. New research shows that neighborhood effects—the impact of peers, the local environment, neighbors—contribute significantly to success later in life. Poor kids who grow up in more mixed income neighborhoods have better lifetime economic results. This signals that an important strategy for addressing poverty is building cities where mixed income neighborhoods are the norm, rather than the exception. And this strategy can be implemented in a number of ways—not just by relocating the poor to better neighborhoods, but by actively promoting greater income integration in the neighborhoods... Read more: Why mixed-income neighborhoods matter: Lifting kids out of poverty — Strong Towns

From The Wall Street Journal — Classic New York Streetscapes, Then and Now

It is an essential paradox of New York City that its streetscapes seem both ageless and ever-evolving. Photographer Berenice Abbott captured that vibrant contradiction in the 1930s when she created her landmark series “Changing New York,” more than 300 black-and-white images of the metropolis shot with a large-format camera while she was working under the auspices of the Federal Art Project of the Works Progress Administration. Her visual time capsule documents everything from soaring skyscrapers to neighbourhood storefronts, churches, tenements, warehouses and bridges.

---

What makes New York is how we recycle buildings. 

— Mitchell Moss, professor of urban policy and planning at New York University

---

The New York Public Library recently released free, high-resolution scans of the “Changing New York” portfolio, prompting one Wall Street Journal photographer to reshoot more than a dozen of Abbott’s images of Manhattan and Brooklyn. They reveal how much, and in some cases, how little, New York City has changed. Read more: Classic New York Streetscapes, Then and Now - WSJ

From CityLab — Why Reston, Virginia Still Inspires Planners 50 Years Later

Official Trailer: Another Way of Living: The Story of Reston, VA from Rebekah Wingert-Jabi on Vimeo. 

It’s rare for a 1960s suburban development to exert a cultural pull distinct from its neighboring city, but Reston pulled it off. 

Situated about 20 miles from Washington, D.C., in what used to be northern Virginia farmland, this settlement has attracted generations of urbanists for its people-first brand of development. When Robert E. Simon Jr. bought the land and planned his flagship project, he insisted on walkability, density, access to nature and green space, and diversity of races and income levels. He didn’t invent these principles—his inspirations were hundreds of years old—but he and his successors managed to realize them at a scale and level of success that hadn’t been seen before. Read more: Why Reston, Virginia, Still Inspires Planners 50 Years Later - CityLab

From Urban Land Magazine — Growing Small: How Smaller, Infill Urban Developments Are Making a Big Difference

Small development is incremental. It is perhaps even surgical at times—helping infill the broken teeth of existing urban blocks or properties that have disappeared or become obsolete. 

Small development is often highly designed and “curated.” Infill development of a distinctive site within the fabric of an existing neighborhood is almost always a unique endeavor and cannot be formulaic. A project that works anywhere will not work in such a location. It has to be carefully thought out—optimizing a Rubik’s cube of density, parking, life-safety requirements, and appropriate contextual design, among many other elements.

Small development often manifests the best thinking in sustainability and mixed use. This is because the intellectual capital that gets poured into solving the Rubik’s cube begets more focused thinking about what the project should do for its environment and community. 

“Small” can heal and transform. Incrementally adding to neighborhoods adds new energy and activity, helping reveal or “polish” the intrinsic value of the existing fabric. “Small” is often the seed that leads to transformation of and reinvestment in neighborhoods at the edge.

Read more: Growing Small: How Smaller, Infill Urban Developments Are Making a Big Difference - Urban Land Magazine

Good point @Bill_McCreery Here's 1 #Nanaimo Fitz St commercial with rental above. @StrongTowns @UrbanLandInst pic.twitter.com/niOJrSK5dY

— TheSidewalkBallet (@1sidewalkballet) February 18, 2016

From DougSaunders.net — Citizen Jane

OCTOBER 11, 1997 It’s easy enough to find her. Just stroll westward past the bookstores and cafés of Bloor St and head north on leafy Albany Ave. Step up to the narrow red-brick house with the big front porch, and knock on the door. There will be a shuffling, and finally you will be greeted by a little old lady with an apple-doll face and a warm smile. Be careful, though: She isn’t what she seems. Read more: Citizen Jane

So good—@dougsaunders knocks on #JaneJacobs door “Her theories can alarm and offend even her most ardent supporters" https://t.co/1m9dxZO6L2

— TheSidewalkBallet (@1sidewalkballet) November 18, 2015

The conversations that formed this article were the beginning of a lot of things I pursued https://t.co/iQHhoviF5n

— Doug Saunders (@DougSaunders) November 18, 2015

From Next City — We Put 31 Artists, 25 Architects and 18 Urban Planners in a Room. Guess What Happens Next...

Credit: Ashton Lance

The team: 31 artists and designers, 25 architects and housing experts, 23 community members, 18 urban planners, 11 local foundation and city representatives, 2 landscape architects and between them, eight Next City Vanguards. Read more: We Put 31 Artists, 25 Architects and 18 Urban Planners in a Room.

---

From @Park_People — Making Connections: Planning parks & open space networks in urban neighbourhoods

Our report | Making Connections: Planning parks & open space networks in urban neighbourhoods http://t.co/Qzg42ay1Tn pic.twitter.com/wkKOTkwkHC

— Park People (@Park_People) April 22, 2015

Some great walks in New York City

New York City is a walker's paradise. Follow us on some great walks around the city, and then tell us about your favorites.

Posted by The New York Times on Thursday, April 23, 2015

Parking Madness 2015! It's depressing what we've done to downtowns @schmangee @StreetsblogUSA

Sorted through 26 N. American parking craters this year to make this list. http://t.co/ZoPInUpVFg pic.twitter.com/xiKKlMphxy
— Angie Schmitt (@schmangee) March 12, 2015

It's depressing what we've done to downtowns. We've featured 48 of these now. It's endless http://t.co/ZoPInUpVFg pic.twitter.com/O7khMKn1gw

— Angie Schmitt (@schmangee) March 12, 2015

More at: Parking Madness 2015! First Match: Camden vs. Mobile | Streetsblog USA

---

From @GOVERNING — What, exactly, is gentrification?

What, exactly, is gentrification? An introduction to our special series on the issue. http://t.co/BvpJteq7ZP pic.twitter.com/PtzzbXINkg

— GOVERNING (@GOVERNING) February 8, 2015

@AmExperiencePBS American Experience: The World that Moses Built

American Experience: The World that Moses Built Part 1 - YouTube

60% of families would choose a smaller home if it was in a walkable transit-friendly neighbourhood

60% of families would choose a smaller home if it was in #walkable, transit-friendly neighbourhood pic.twitter.com/M4eW3HvFlv v/@BrentToderian

— Canadian Urbanism (@CanUrbanism) January 18, 2015

Enter the urban jungle: watch 5 films on the cities of the world @thenfb

Post by NFB.

From Price Tags — Arthur Erickson on False Creek development – 1983

Fascinating Jack Webster interview with Arthur Erickson in 1983, discussing the development of B.C. Place (when it was a proposed megaproject to be developed by the Province) for which he was the consulting architect. Renderings start at 9.45. (A very-80s Dave Podmore, head of planning for B.C. Place, shows up – that’s him pictured.) Full post at: Arthur Erickson on False Creek development – 1983 | Price Tags

---

From Project for Public Spaces — How to Restore Walking as a Way of Life

The bias in our national philosophy towards high speed mobility has long been a topic that PPS has advocated against. In addition to stifling Placemaking, forcing people into cars has contributed to a host of growing national problems. Most compelling of those problems is the incredible pedestrian carnage. Yet until recently public outcry was minimal and government investment in transportation paid only lip service to annual fatalities that amount to the equivalent of one major airplane crash each month. Read more: Project for Public Spaces | How to Restore Walking as a Way of Life

---

The (amazing) density of Barcelona Eixample @cnunextgen

Post by CNU NextGen: The Next Generation of New Urbanists.

From @TechCocktail — 6 Ways to Become Your Own City Planner

The trend is that governments are not only opening up data, but also their urban planning and budgeting processes. Public participation is taking on a whole new look. Local civic advocates are stepping up as collaborators who are well-versed in details once reserved for professionals. Wait – what? That’s right. Civic leaders around the country are tackling the normally staid topics of urban planning and traffic engineering on their own terms. Read more: 6 Ways to Become Your Own City Planner

---

CACs “unproductive and divisive” — YVR Planning Dir Jackson

Post by The Sidewalk Ballet.

@emilymbadger in The Washington Post — An Economic Defense of Old Buildings

Jane Jacobs, a woman akin to the patron saint of urban planners, first argued 50 years ago that healthy neighborhoods need old buildings. Aging, creaky, faded, "charming" buildings. Retired couples and young families need the cheap rent they promise. Small businesses need the cramped offices they contain. Streets need the diversity created not just when different people coexist, but when buildings of varying vintage do, too. "Cities need old buildings so badly," Jacobs wrote in her classic "The Death and Life of Great American Cities," "it is probably impossible for vigorous streets and districts to grow without them.” More here: An economic defense of old buildings