Richard Louv says we're drowning in a "sea of circuitry" and in desperate need to reconnect with greenery and nature in our living spaces to sooth our souls.
Neal Peirce considers Louv's proposals for bringing green spaces into cities:
"He suggests replacing our cities' thousands of redundant shopping centers with 'eco-villages' that include parks with native vegetation and connections to wildlife corridors. And that we celebrate and expand the nation's growing wave of urban agriculture, now sprouting in greenhouses and backyards, on rooftops and balconies. Plus the start of farm operations in abandonment-hit cities such as Detroit."
Pierce also looks at the new book Making Healthy Places: Designing and Building for Health, Well-being, and Sustainability
Read the full story: ‘Greenscaping’ for Health
‘Quiet Parks’ Highlight Importance of Silence for Public Health
The initiative recognizes parks and other areas that preserve natural quiet in a world full of noise pollution.
Why Social Infrastructure Matters
The pandemic highlighted the importance of parks and public spaces for maintaining both the physical and mental health of urban residents.
Serpentine Maze: Pop-Up Parks in the Pandemic
If the combined effects of winter's cold and the pandemic has you bummed, check out this community-building exercise in the frozen North.
Planetizen Federal Action Tracker
A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.
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.
Los Angeles just elected an urban planner as its mayor
Transportation analysts are optimistic that Raman will be more aggressive in addressing transit issues than Bass.
Mamdani’s pied-à-terre tax survives legal challenge
A panel of judges found that the plaintiffs failed to demonstrate injury as a result of New York City's implementation of the tax.
Eastern Nebraska is running out of electricity
Data centers and electrification are straining eastern Nebraska’s grid, throttling economic development.
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