Urban Greening
Even Small Urban Green Spaces Boost Biodiversity
A recent study from the University of Melbourne demonstrates the positive impacts small urban greening projects can have on city ecosystems.
Does Highway Removal Make Cities Healthier?
Highway removal can improve the air quality and health of the immediate environment, but displacement and gentrification threaten to exclude former residents from the benefits.
Better Planning Needed to Address Effects of Urban Heat Island in Hong Kong
A recent study reveals the detrimental impact of hot nights compared to hot days, with the region experiencing hotter summers and more hot days due to climate change and the heat island effect.
Come Here And Take A Lesson From The Lovely Lemon Tree
Urban agriculture is a hot topic in sustainability, food, and planning circles. From roof and deck gardens to community gardens to urban farms, urban agriculture has captured the imaginations of activists of many stripes as well as gardeners and eaters. When I mention that my academic work focuses on food access in urban areas, the most common response I get is “oh, you mean like urban ag?” As this interest in urban agriculture grows, some are asking whether food sovereignty – the ability for a population to produce enough food to feed itself – is a feasible goal for American cities.
Can't Buy Me Love--Or Plan For It
This morning I embarked with three dozen volunteers to plant 10 trees in Pigeon Town, a neighborhood in western New Orleans. The group was completing an eight-hour training on urban greening initiatives, learning everything from pruning methods to how to work with municipalities to find funding for beautification projects—which have been proven to improve everything from real estate values to crime statistics. The training did not, however, cover what we were supposed to do when we heard gunshots ring out. That we had to improvise.
The Future Of Residential Interaction
Terry Kerby speaks to professionals about the trend toward redeveloped and landscaped city center living and the re-evaluation of the merits of slums and suburbia that has sparked a resurgence of interest in high rise living and public space.
Brownfield Revitalization, or Gentrification?
Residents of the Bayview neighborhood of San Francisco fear that redevelopment threatens to gentrify the area in a way that pushes out low- and middle-income black residents.
Tree Counting Goes Online, Interactive
PhillyTreeMap makes counting trees interactive with it’s users being able to add trees to its web-based digital map of Philadelphia, reports Gregory Thomas for the Philadelphia Inquirer.
Cairo Opens Design Competition for Its New Pedestrian Center
Cairo is revising its downtown area into a "pedestrian friendly plaza." Egyptian Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif will expand the successful 'daytime pedestrian zones,' and has launched an international design competition to produce a master plan.
Putting the Park in Parking Lots
Lester Brown of the Earth Policy Institute proposes renovating city parking lots into actual parks would go a long way to improving the air quality of cities.
Urban Gardens Taking Root in Post-Industrial City
The non-profit group Nuestras Raíces in Holyoke, Mass. has found urban agriculture a powerful community glue, providing increased food security and economic opportunity to the Puerto Rican population there.
It's Been a Great Week for City Planning Here on the East Coast
It's been a great week for city planning here on the East Coast. The American Planning Association's 99th National Conference held in Philadelphia drew more than 6,000 attendees, a fact noticed by Philadelphia Inquirer writer Inga Saffron in her April 13th column titled "Welcome, Welcome City Planners," where she took the opportunity to draw local and national lessons from the event. The APA opened with Robert Kennedy's address on environmental planning and closed with an exploration of the legacy of Edmund Bacon (Philadelphia's director of city planning from 1949-1970), but more about that later.
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.
Harvard University Graduate School of Design
KFH Group Inc.
Greater Baltimore Committee
The Architects Foundation
University of Cincinnati Online
The Pocatello Development Authority
The Urban Renewal Agency of the City of Pocatello
