The Importance of Cities to the World (Planetizen)
Neal Peirce expounds on the increasing power and importance of cities, a dominant message in the new book "Triumph of the City" by economist Edward Glaeser.
Our High Speed Rail Plan Should Look More Like China's (TreeHugger)
I don't want to perpetuate the US vs. China who-will-be-the-economic-superpower narrative that's already rampant in our press enough these days, so let's frame this one from another, even simpler angle -- China is doing a bunch of really great stuff in clean tech that we should be doing too.
New Solar Panel Array Doubles the Energy and Halves the Cost of Traditional Solar (inhabitat)
NREL just announced a huge breakthrough in making solar electricity competitive with fossil fuels as they unveiled the Amonix 7700 Concentrated Photovoltaic or CPV Generator.
Vancouver, Toronto, Calgary named among world's most liveable cities (The Vancouver Sun)
Vancouver topped the list of the world's most livable cities for the fifth straight year, while Melbourne claimed second place from Vienna and Australian and Canadian cities dominated the list's top 10 spots.
To gain housing, Pioneer Square needs a boost (Crosscut)
Seattle's first neighborhood, Pioneer Square, has essentially missed out on every major economic boom to hit the Northwest since the Gold Rush.
Annals of Cycling – 8 (Price Tags)
An occasional update on items from the Velo-city, this is part 8.
Ford Assembly Building Adaptive Reuse Wins AIA Honor Award (Treehugger)
Marci Wong of MarciWongDonnLogan Architects writes that their adaptive reuse of the Albert Kahn-designed former Ford Assembly Plant In Richmond, California has won and AIA Honor Award.
Peter Calthorpe on why urbanism is the cheapest, smartest way to fight climate change (Grist)
Cities may be the trendy topic du jour, but Peter Calthorpe has been talking about the benefits of urbanism since the 1970s. In 1993, he was one of the founders of the Congress for the New Urbanism, an influential national organization that promotes walkable, mixed-use, transit-rich development.
Eat your subdivision (Landscape Architecture Magazine)
Amid growing concern about food quality and supply, new residential communities incorporate sustainable farming.
'Reskinning' Gives World's Old Urban Buildings Energy-Saving Facelifts (Solve Climate News)
The practice of 'reskinning' exteriors of aging infrastructure can help retrofit entire cities to be 'more efficient' and 'more beautiful,' advocates say.
Can suburbs be reinvented for 21st century? (Crosscut)
To make suburbs fit into modern realities, we will have to re-imagine and re-engineer them.
Dreaming of a bike and family friendly city
by Jen Kelly, Lead Business Dev't Coordinator
On my drive to work this morning, an unusual scene caught my eye:
Right in the middle of downtown Seattle, a father was riding in perfect sync on a triple tandem bike with his two daughters. I caught up with them at the Spruce Street School, the only K-5 in downtown Seattle.
He told me that they live in Queen Anne, and try to bike to school at least 3 times a week. As we chatted, his oldest daughter stood a few feet away with a proud look on her face as he told me that they are also training for the Seattle to Portland bike ride coming up this July. I asked "Oh, you're preparing for the race?", to which he responded, "Yeah, the three of us are." (I did mention that these girls are in a K-5 school, right?)
p.s. STP organizers: you should feature this family in your marketing materials -- if they don'tshame inspire people into participating, I don't know what will
In Europe, the following photos are not uncommon:
I know, I know, we're all getting tired of hearing about how great biking is in Holland, and Denmark, and even Portland. Although we may not have the ideal situation ( = flat) as some of these areas, there's no reason why we can't start adopting successful elements. Yes! Magazine wrote a great article, looking at what it would take to make biking less of a "recreational activity" and more mainstream:
Some bullet points of their success:
There are campaigns out there that are trying to push us in the right direction -- Seattle has a new Walk, Bike, Ride challenge, and 6 months ago, Michelle Obama came out with the "Let's Move" obesity campaign. And although Forbes.com lists Seattle as the 7th family friendly city, they were really only looking at taxes, incomes, and total expenses to figure a family's ability to live a good lifestyle. But is that really all it takes to be family friendly? It's not saying much for our city that we only have one K-5 school, or that people don't feel safe in our downtown parks.
So -- I put it out to the rest of you -- what will it take for the scene I saw this morning to become a mainstream in Seattle instead of unusual?
On my drive to work this morning, an unusual scene caught my eye:
Right in the middle of downtown Seattle, a father was riding in perfect sync on a triple tandem bike with his two daughters. I caught up with them at the Spruce Street School, the only K-5 in downtown Seattle.
He told me that they live in Queen Anne, and try to bike to school at least 3 times a week. As we chatted, his oldest daughter stood a few feet away with a proud look on her face as he told me that they are also training for the Seattle to Portland bike ride coming up this July. I asked "Oh, you're preparing for the race?", to which he responded, "Yeah, the three of us are." (I did mention that these girls are in a K-5 school, right?)
p.s. STP organizers: you should feature this family in your marketing materials -- if they don't
In Europe, the following photos are not uncommon:
(kidding... this last photo was in Portland)
I know, I know, we're all getting tired of hearing about how great biking is in Holland, and Denmark, and even Portland. Although we may not have the ideal situation ( = flat) as some of these areas, there's no reason why we can't start adopting successful elements. Yes! Magazine wrote a great article, looking at what it would take to make biking less of a "recreational activity" and more mainstream:
In Utrecht, Holland, 95 percent of older students—kids in the 10 to 12 age range—bike to school at least some of the time. In the U.S., roughly half that percentage (50 percent of kids) walked or biked to school… back in 1970. Since then, the rate has dropped to 15 percent, according to the National Center for Safe Routes to School program.
Some bullet points of their success:
- kids learn about biking and bike safety in school
- in The Hague, the city works hard to separate bike paths from streets used by cars and trucks
- access to safe, convenient bike storage
- using color on the roadways to clearly designate bike lanes
There are campaigns out there that are trying to push us in the right direction -- Seattle has a new Walk, Bike, Ride challenge, and 6 months ago, Michelle Obama came out with the "Let's Move" obesity campaign. And although Forbes.com lists Seattle as the 7th family friendly city, they were really only looking at taxes, incomes, and total expenses to figure a family's ability to live a good lifestyle. But is that really all it takes to be family friendly? It's not saying much for our city that we only have one K-5 school, or that people don't feel safe in our downtown parks.
So -- I put it out to the rest of you -- what will it take for the scene I saw this morning to become a mainstream in Seattle instead of unusual?
Monday News Roundup
Tracking Growth in World Cities (Planetizen)
Mega-cities of 10 million people or more are getting a lot of attention these days. But smaller big cities are really where interesting and potentially hazardous growth patterns are occurring, according to this piece.
Who’s got the greenest house on the planet? (Grist)
It's pretty easy to determine the biggest pie, or longest fingernails, or fattest twins. But what about the greenest house? AOL's consumer finance site has a nice roundup of what, exactly, it means to have a green home.
In Charleston, an Affordable, Effective Alternative to Highway Expansion (DC.STREETSBLOG)
More street grid, less traffic: The Coastal Conservation League's proposal for Savannah Highway would cut congestion by reducing the number of curb cuts and establishing secondary roads for those traveling short distances.
Updating and Improving Philadelphia's Downtown Plazas (Planetizen)
Three public plazas in the center of Philadelphia are set to see much-needed makeovers, and soon.
Researchers Transform Contaminated Shipping Port Sludge into Safe Building Materials (inhabitat)
Swedish researchers have developed a process that can turn contaminated sediment in shipping ports into a cement-like substance that is safe for building.
NYC to Turn Sewage Into an Asset (Planetizen)
Could the 1.3 billion gallons of wastewater that New Yorkers produce daily be an asset?
How Green School Buildings Help Children Grow (The Tyee)
Students and teachers are more healthy and productive in sustainably-built schools, research shows.
Global Eco Cities Panel Explores Innovations in City Building (The Planning Report)
Discussion of a global eco-cities panel at VX2011, the VERDEXCHANGE Green Marketmakers Conference, held in L.A. in January. The panelists (including former L.A. City Planning Director Gail Goldberg, Dean of the USC School of Architecture Qingyun Ma, and AECOM Principal of Building Engineering Alastair MacGregor) imagined global eco cities of the near future.
Let's Be Smart About Intelligent Cities (Planetizen)
"Intelligent cities" is picking up steam as the new buzzword in planning and a potentially game-changing way of using data to drive decisions. But we need to be sure we don't lose the human intelligence in planning.
The future of the strip mall: downhill (Crosscut)
Suburban strips with huge parking lots are losing favor, thanks to economic shifts, rising gas prices, and more appealing pedestrian-friendly town centers.
U.S. News ranks Portland #1 for Public Transit (Oregon Live)
TriMet may be running on red ink, slashing services and in the middle of a nasty contract fight with its driver’s union, but Portland is still the nation’s best city for public transportation, according to a new analysis.
Mega-cities of 10 million people or more are getting a lot of attention these days. But smaller big cities are really where interesting and potentially hazardous growth patterns are occurring, according to this piece.
Who’s got the greenest house on the planet? (Grist)
It's pretty easy to determine the biggest pie, or longest fingernails, or fattest twins. But what about the greenest house? AOL's consumer finance site has a nice roundup of what, exactly, it means to have a green home.
In Charleston, an Affordable, Effective Alternative to Highway Expansion (DC.STREETSBLOG)
More street grid, less traffic: The Coastal Conservation League's proposal for Savannah Highway would cut congestion by reducing the number of curb cuts and establishing secondary roads for those traveling short distances.
Updating and Improving Philadelphia's Downtown Plazas (Planetizen)
Three public plazas in the center of Philadelphia are set to see much-needed makeovers, and soon.
Researchers Transform Contaminated Shipping Port Sludge into Safe Building Materials (inhabitat)
Swedish researchers have developed a process that can turn contaminated sediment in shipping ports into a cement-like substance that is safe for building.
NYC to Turn Sewage Into an Asset (Planetizen)
Could the 1.3 billion gallons of wastewater that New Yorkers produce daily be an asset?
How Green School Buildings Help Children Grow (The Tyee)
Students and teachers are more healthy and productive in sustainably-built schools, research shows.
Global Eco Cities Panel Explores Innovations in City Building (The Planning Report)
Discussion of a global eco-cities panel at VX2011, the VERDEXCHANGE Green Marketmakers Conference, held in L.A. in January. The panelists (including former L.A. City Planning Director Gail Goldberg, Dean of the USC School of Architecture Qingyun Ma, and AECOM Principal of Building Engineering Alastair MacGregor) imagined global eco cities of the near future.
Let's Be Smart About Intelligent Cities (Planetizen)
"Intelligent cities" is picking up steam as the new buzzword in planning and a potentially game-changing way of using data to drive decisions. But we need to be sure we don't lose the human intelligence in planning.
The future of the strip mall: downhill (Crosscut)
Suburban strips with huge parking lots are losing favor, thanks to economic shifts, rising gas prices, and more appealing pedestrian-friendly town centers.
U.S. News ranks Portland #1 for Public Transit (Oregon Live)
TriMet may be running on red ink, slashing services and in the middle of a nasty contract fight with its driver’s union, but Portland is still the nation’s best city for public transportation, according to a new analysis.
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