Slow Food & Urban Density

SF Chronicle urban design critic John King summarizes a recent paper by Richard Bender and John Parman that argues for cutting through the current gridlock of no-growth vs. smart growth by aiming for a "humane density" that recognizes how people actually experience - and enjoy - the city.

" "We need a robust vision of the region's urbanity that takes lessons from its rich culture of food and wine ... that challenges and changes tastes, and is unafraid of outside influences, knowing that the region will absorb them and make them its own," Richard Bender and John Parman write in "Neither Too Slow Nor Too Smart: Contemplating the Growth of the Bay Region," delivered at a conference on urban issues last month in Rome."

The article links to the paper, delivered at a recent urban design conference held in Rome and jointly sponsored by the University of Rome and U.C. Berkeley.