From CityLab — Why Race Matters in Planning Public Parks

Houston is embarking upon a $220 million parks project called Bayou Greenways 2020, a 150-mile network of continuous hiking trails, biking paths, and green space that will run throughout the city. When completed in 2020, it will make good on plans made by the urban planner Arthur Comey in 1912 to connect the city’s parks with the many strips of bayous scratching open the Houston landscape. Residents approved by ballot referendum a $166 million bond in 2012 to pay for the Bayou Greenways 2020 project, and for improvements to the near-50,000 acres of park space in the city. The goal is to connect the area’s bayous and parks to neighborhoods spanning the region. 

While this connectivity is the stated priority for this massive parks overhaul, not everyone in Houston is feeling it. In fact, connectivity seems to matter most only to Houston’s whiter and wealthier residents. When the city’s parks and recreation department conducted its Master Plan Parks Survey in 2014, the majority of respondents replied that they wanted their neighborhoods and parks linked to biking and walking paths. The problem with that survey is that about two-thirds of the respondents were white with household incomes over $75,000. This is clearly not a good starting point for Houston, one of the most racially diverse, (and heavily segregated) cities in the country. Read more : In Texas, Houston's Bayou Greenways 2020 Parks Project Aims To Meet the Needs of People of Color - CityLab

#StreetoftheDay — Rue Alsace-Lorraine, Toulouse

Jenny Morris photo

Today my friend Jenny Morris, on her Toulouse morning walk turned a corner onto Rue Alsace-Lorraine and saw what she described as "a flotilla of umbrellas."

Jenny Morris photo

New plaza in Vancouver’s gay village to be named after Jim Deva

New plaza in Vancouver to be named after Jim Deva, the late and beloved co-owner of Little Sister's Bookstore....

Posted by Arsenal Pulp Press on Thursday, July 9, 2015

Street of the day: Istanbul, Turkey — @NathanNWE

#streetoftheday Istanbul, Turkey. pic.twitter.com/af4yJAzdZd

— Nathan Lewis (@NathanNWE) May 17, 2015

@WilliamPennFdn — $11 million Philly investment: "Reimagining the Civic Commons”

Can civic places, including libraries, parks, trails, plazas and community centers, be reimagined to make cities more successful? The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and William Penn Foundation are investing $11 million in an initiative led by Philadelphia’s Fairmount Park Conservancy to test this idea. The initiative will explore whether reinventing and connecting these public places as a network of civic assets will help cities attract and keep talented workers, advance economic opportunity, encourage residents to become more engaged in shaping their communities, and begin to level the playing field between more affluent communities and those in need. Read more: Building more successful cities the focus of new $11 million investment to reinvent Philadelphia’s public places.

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

From @guardiancities — Are we seeing the erosion of public space and access in our cities?

Post by Nanaimo Commons.

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Putting Public Back Into Public Space — Jeff Risom Partner, Gehl Architects

Treat yourself to a useful talk: "Putting Public Back Into Public Space" by Jeff Risom Partner Gehl Architects https://t.co/ofyP0kh213
— Gil Penalosa (@Penalosa_G) March 3, 2015

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From On the Commons — The Promise of Co-ops Connecting with the Commons

Is it possible to imagine a new sort of synthesis or synergy between the emerging peer production and commons movement on the one hand, and growing, innovative elements of the co-operative and solidarity economy movements on the other?

 That was the animating question behind a two-day workshop, “Toward an Open Co-operativism,” held in August 2014 and now chronicled in a new report by UK co-operative expert Pat Conaty. (Pat is a Fellow of the New Economics Foundation and a Research Associate of Co-operatives UK, and attended the workshop.) More at:  The Promise of Co-ops Connecting with the Commons | On the Commons

#Nanaimo waterfront park lease referendum upcoming — I share some thoughts with Mayor + Council

Post by The Sidewalk Ballet.

.@NanaimoCommons @1sidewalkballet @DarrellBellaart Time to scale back such a grandiose project. Build a hotel that fits the scale of Nanaimo

— Andrew Jones (@andrewtrevjones) February 14, 2015

From @Streets4Every1 — Commercial Drive Campaign

The goal of the Commercial Drive Campaign is to build the necessary support so that Commercial Drive can become safe for, and inclusive of, people of all ages, abilities, and incomes by fall of 2015. The core changes we are aiming for include widened sidewalks, better transit and transit shelters, separated bike lanes, better pedestrian crossings and more marked or signalized crosswalks, more street furniture, and more landscaping. More at: Commercial Drive Campaign » Streets for Everyone

The Case For A Complete Street On Commercial Drive @spacingvan @slowstreets http://t.co/0icwNIPKZK pic.twitter.com/TPCmhnW4H1
— Darren Proulx (@dnproulx) January 19, 2015

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

Post by NFB.

From Brain Pickings — A Love Letter to Jane Jacobs, Tucked Inside a Graphic Biography of Robert Moses

...make no mistake — Moses was no holy hero. The deep flaws of his power-hungry character and the dehumanizing ruthlessness of his industrial vision reveal themselves gradually and crescendo midway through the book as his counterpoint emerges: Jane Jacobs, legendary patron saint of urbanism and the human-centered city, enters the scene, via the beloved bicycle on which she was known to roam the city. 

Read more: How New York Became New York: A Love Letter to Jane Jacobs, Tucked Inside a Graphic Biography of Robert Moses | Brain Pickings

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From Montreal Gazette — Montreal unveils plans for urban boulevard

At the centre of the massive project, which was subject to public consultation in 2009, are 42-metre wide public-park spaces, totalling more than 20,000 square metres, that will separate the north and southbound roadways. The northbound direction, heading downtown from the South Shore between the Lachine Canal and Notre Dame St., will be four lanes wide, while the southbound section will count five lanes.

East-west cycling lanes are planned along William St. and Ottawa St., and wide pedestrian walkways will be lined with dozens of newly planted trees. Art installations are being commissioned and are expected to be placed at each end of the new corridor, which will be re-baptized Robert-Bourassa Blvd. in honour of Quebec’s former premier. Read more: Montreal unveils new plans for urban boulevard to replace Bonaventure Expressway | Montreal Gazette

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#PublicSpaces in #Bogotá, Colombia"the Athens of South America" @PPS_Placemaking

#PublicSpaces in Bogotá, Colombia, "the Athens of South America" @PPS_Placemaking http://t.co/boGa9aZfQ2

— TheSidewalkBallet (@1sidewalkballet) November 30, 2014

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

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From craftsy.com —Bright Lights, Big City Inspiration: Urban Sketching Tutorial

Illustration: Bird’s eye view via Craftsy member artistkierstan.

Urban sketching might seem intimidating at first, but there’s a whole world of subject matter out there just waiting to inspire you. In this post, we’ll explore a number of different ways to approach sketching in the city, from subject matter to style. More at: Bright Lights, Big City Inspiration: Urban Sketching Tutorial

This Thursday: Built City @MOV — Cornelia Hahn Oberlander and Friends

Post by The Sidewalk Ballet.

RT @humansofny "We're all victims of the architect."

"We're all victims of the architect. Architecture is the only art that you can't help but feel. You can avoid..." pic.twitter.com/1hqgCc2eGl

— Brandon Stanton (@humansofny) October 14, 2014

From @architectmag — @snohetta and @DIALOG Release #Calgary Central Library Designs

Post by Nanaimo Commons.