Non-profit TerraformOne held a design contest for ideas for creating productive green spaces in cities. Winners include plans to put seniors to work as farmers and a global system of levees.
Here's the seniors idea, courtesy of ASLA:
NORC Farms (Thread Collective and the Greenest.Net): "The Naturally Occurring Retirement Community (NORC) Farms engages the aging New Yorkers population and inaccessible lawns in order to 'create and cultivate farm plots and social spaces within public housing complexes.' NORC FARMS will use urban agriculture to transform grass into a socially, ecologically, economically productive space; activate older New Yorkers, and transforming public housing into local agriculture; where the tower in the park becomes the tower in the farm."
FULL STORY: Urban Agriculture, Climate Change Ideas Competitions Announce Winners
Bringing Urban Orchards to Food Deserts in Ohio
The Common Orchard Project has planted ten orchards in vacant lots in Cincinnati. The organization hopes to plant 100 urban orchards by the end of the decade.
Lockdown Benefits Urban Farmers In Paris
Pandemic induced lockdown kept Parisians within 1 km of their homes during lockdown, benefiting urban farmers and advocates for a diversified local food supply.
Minnesota Grants May Bolster Urban Farming's Legitimacy
For the first time, the state of Minnesota is offering money specifically for urban agriculture, in a win for urban farmers who want to challenge the notion that agriculture is necessarily a rural enterprise.
Which Cities Are Upzoning?
A recent study surveyed 800 jurisdictions in 50 U.S. metropolitan areas to quantify the amount of change in zoning regulations throughout the 21st century so far.
RAISE Grants Announced: U.S. DOT Shifts to a Greener Vision for Transportation
News broke early this morning the U.S. Department of Transportation had announced the first round of funding for the Biden administration's new discretionary grant funding program.
Land Costs and Housing Costs
One common argument against upzoning is that it increases land costs—but land costs rose in the most restrictive markets as well as the least restrictive ones.
Arlington County Government
Jon Stover & Associates
University of California San Diego
HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research
HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research
City of Royal Oak, Michigan
City of San Carlos
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.
Hand Drawing Master Plans
This course aims to provide an introduction into Urban Design Sketching focused on how to hand draw master plans using a mix of colored markers.
