Good story today in the New York Times on parks, new and old, in Manhattan (here's the link, reg. req'd). City parks -- urban ecology -- is problematic for me. I'm not totally convinced that cities should have parks (yes, yes, you're yelling at me now: Central Park! Olmstead and Vaux! The Emerald Necklace! Golden Gate Park! Griffith Park! Just relax for a minute, cowboy). Among many smart people, Anne Whiston Spirn
Good story today in the New York Times on parks, new and old, in Manhattan (here's the link, reg. req'd).
City parks -- urban ecology -- is problematic for me. I'm not totally convinced that cities should have parks (yes, yes, you're yelling at me now: Central Park! Olmstead and Vaux! The Emerald Necklace! Golden Gate Park! Griffith Park! Just relax for a minute, cowboy).
Among many smart people, Anne Whiston Spirn at MIT and Richard T.T. Foreman at Harvard have both done some really nice thinking and writing about the role of landscape, ecology, and environmentalism in the built environment. Spirn's work on gardens and the usefulness of topological maps in understanding cities is a lot of fun; Foreman's recent work on the ecological effects of roadways will change the way you think about freeways and driving through Yellowstone (hint: don't).
But when I sat in on Foreman's landscape ecology class at Harvard a couple years ago I got into a lot of arguments. The nascent architects -- he teaches in the Graduate School of Design -- were smart, eager, and creative. But they never questioned the notion that maybe people want green space in their cities. To me, that feels like a murky blend of misguided greenism and the worst you-can-have-it-all multiuse demands of Jane Jacobs. People go to cities, I think, to work, to go to cafes, to get socialized (into art, culture, medicine), and to connect with other human beings in ways that living in a mildly suburban house in, let's just say, West Berkeley, might not otherwise allow. If you want nature, you leave the city.
Even the sainted Olmstead and Vaux weren't trying to build nature in town. They were trying to build something that would look very much like nature to a working-class city dweller, to chill the proles out and improve their moral character so they wouldn't revolt. That's the same thing Howard was worried about when he wrote about Garden Cities, but at least those got the chimney sweeps out to the 'burbs.
And even in a Mumford/Howard greenbelt, human beings have the annoying tendency to relate to nature by burning it down, razing it for crappy buildings, or pouring poison on it until it dies.
Maybe what we really need to be thinking about are ways to drastically minimize the ecological footprint of cities. The air above Mexico City used to be famed for its clarity; now the city's vapor plume sometimes extends all the way to the coast, perhaps even out over the Gulf of Mexico.
Natural space within the built landscape might be a machine for fixing those problems. Parks really can be the lungs of a city. But pretty as a park can be, we need to scrape off the wooly-headed spirituality that surrounds their construction. Nature is not here for people to enjoy or to make them into better human beings; it merely is. We're more likely to screw it up then we are to achieve Nirvana by sitting in a manicured acre's worth of it once a week at lunchtime.
Depopulation Patterns Get Weird
A recent ranking of “declining” cities heavily features some of the most expensive cities in the country — including New York City and a half-dozen in the San Francisco Bay Area.
California Exodus: Population Drops Below 39 Million
Never mind the 40 million that demographers predicted the Golden State would reach by 2018. The state's population dipped below 39 million to 38.965 million last July, according to Census data released in March, the lowest since 2015.
Chicago to Turn High-Rise Offices into Housing
Four commercial buildings in the Chicago Loop have been approved for redevelopment into housing in a bid to revitalize the city’s downtown post-pandemic.
How California Transit Agencies are Addressing Rider Harassment
Safety and harassment are commonly cited reasons passengers, particularly women and girls, avoid public transit.
Significant Investments Needed to Protect LA County Residents From Climate Hazards
A new study estimates that LA County must invest billions of dollars before 2040 to protect residents from extreme heat, increasing precipitation, worsening wildfires, rising sea levels, and climate-induced public health threats.
Federal Rule Raises Cost for Oil and Gas Extraction on Public Lands
An update to federal regulations raises minimum bonding to limit orphaned wells and ensure cleanup costs are covered — but it still may not be enough to mitigate the damages caused by oil and gas drilling.
City of Costa Mesa
Licking County
Barrett Planning Group LLC
HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research
Mpact Transit + Community
HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research
City of Universal City TX
ULI Northwest Arkansas
Town of Zionsville
Write for Planetizen
Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools
This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
Planning for Universal Design
Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.