A string of connected parks laced through cities has been a vision of city planners since the days of Olmsted. Ben Welle of the Center for City Park Excellence has some ideas how that that vision can be implemented today.
Welle details how rail corridors, waterfronts and stream corridors, easements, underused streets, bike boulevards and cycle tracks can be used to connect parks into a network.
Welle writes, "All of these ways can be used to create linkages - one system may include an old rail corridor, a stream or river, an existing parkway and upgrading streets where none of those are possible.
Years ago, Frederick Law Olmsted remarked that no one should be a long walk's time from parkways, and that the citizens using them, whether going to and from a park, or to and from some form of business, may gain some 'substantial recreative advantage.' Today, it's not that different of a story."
Read the full story: Getting Park Connectivity in Built-Out Cities
A New Urbanist’s roadtrip guide to Northwest Arkansas
Heading to the CNU conference next month? A Northwest Arkansas urban planner has custom designed a roadtrip just for you.
Meet the Team Working to Create a 1,500-mile Trail Across Texas
The proposed xTx route would safely allow hikers, bikers, and equestrians to cross the entire state from the Louisiana border to El Paso.
Public and Private Collaboration Advances Park Development in Houston
Houston may be known to some as a concrete jungle, but its greenspaces continue to expand thanks to combined support from the public, private, and philanthropic sectors.
Planetizen Federal Action Tracker
A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.
Chicago breaks ground on $3 billion megadevelopment
The new neighborhood, titled Foundry Park, will one day host 3,700 residences.
This MA town is drowning in its own sewage — and residents like it that way
Susan Murcott, a waste water expert, said if Carlisle didn't address their leaking sewage, the problem could turn “deadly.”
Feds to more closely scrutinize proposed Amtrak facility’s environmental impact
The Federal Railroad Administration had initially said the facility qualified for a less extensive environmental review.
Boston is hard to build housing in: its chief of planning wants to keep it that way
Chief of Planning Kairos Shen said she would not make changes to Boston’s affordability requirements for new housing, which critics say have slowed down development.
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.
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
Hunter College, City University of New York (CUNY)
The Architects Foundation
University of Cincinnati Online
Montrose County
The Pocatello Development Authority
The Urban Renewal Agency of the City of Pocatello