Howard Blackson explains the five elements ("five Cs") necessary for planning resilient and lively neighborhoods - complete, compact, connected, complex, and convivial.
Rather than focus planning at the level of "community", which is inherently difficult to define, Blackson argues that the neighborhood unit, "is a better tool to define, plan, and express policies and regulations
necessary to preserve, enhance and, yes, build great places."
It's at the level of the neighborhood unit that Blackson's 5 Cs apply. To be complete, great neighborhoods must have a mix of uses and a defined center, middle, and edge. To be connected, they must go beyond accessibility to include opportunities for social connection. "[T]he coffee shops, pubs, ice creme shops, churches, clubhouses, parks, front yards, street fairs, block parties, living rooms, back yards, stoops, dog parks, restaurants and plazas," that connect people, also lead to the 5th C - conviviality.
Read the full story: The five Cs of neighborhood planning
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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