The Living Roadways Community Visioning Program has enabled over 100 small towns in Iowa to improve themselves visually through small urban design improvements that can make a big difference.
"It may not be as glamorous as the huge, new community attractions efforts popping up around Iowa, but there is a program that's been working for years to help change the look of more than 100 small towns across the state.
Under Iowa's Living Roadways Community Visioning Program, small towns get help beautifying their city. Help that can include things like adding splashy new entrance signs, tiny roadside parks that dot main drags, recreational trails and prairie and tree plantings along main roadways.
'It has had a big impact on recreational opportunities, and safety, and pride of place,' said Julia Badenhope, an Iowa State University landscape and architecture professor who came up with the program about a decade ago."
Read the full story: Beautification program helps towns in Iowa
California plans to bury El Niño’s downpour
If the state plays its cards right, it may be able to store a billion acre-feet of El Niño’s water in aquifers.
Desperate measures: Advocates weigh draining Lake Powell to fill Colorado River
Draining the reservoir could reduce evaporation losses by a couple hundred thousand acre-feet.
Eastern Nebraska is running out of electricity
Data centers and electrification are straining eastern Nebraska’s grid, throttling economic development.
SpaceXAI may be fined $6 million for data center lacking water permits
A Mississippi agency also responds after a federal judge criticized the state’s Clean Air Act enforcement.
Housing is the top priority of Seattle’s sole new councilmember
Jenks campaigned on building 1,000 new units of affordable housing.
New tax cuts may slash $1.5 billion in funding for Miami transit, public parks
Amendment 3 will save Miami-Dade homeowners $2,700 in 2028.
FREE Course: Walkable City 1: Why Walkability?
After describing his path towards focusing on walkability as the essence of good planning, Jeff Speck marches through his five principal reasons for making more walkable places.
Reinventing Malls: Planning Alchemy—Turning Gray Fields Into Gold
The course focuses on the opportunities and imperatives that shape reinvention of mall sites.
City of Rosemead
Rutgers University, Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy
One Hundred Miles
University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability (SEAS)
Hunter College, City University of New York (CUNY)
The Architects Foundation
City of Cambridge
Montrose County
The Pocatello Development Authority