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 50 Greenest Cities in the United States
The March 2008 issue of Popular Science Magazine has ranked America's 50 Greenest Cities. Popular Science used raw data from the U.S. Census Bureau and the National Geographic Society's Green Guide, which collected survey data and government statistics for American cities over 100,000 people in more than 30 categories, including air quality, electricity use, and transportation habits.
A Global Urban Agenda: Highlights from the 2005 World Cities Forum
A Global Urban Agenda from the Urban Land Institute highlights issues discussed at ULI’s World Cities Forum in June 2005.
A Guide for Collaborative Action
This report examines how community development organizations often overlook the importance of involving youth and delinquency prevention in their programs.
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act: Summary
AMPO has created a summary of key programs in the conference report of the $789 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Early reports about funding in the conference agreement varied, but most of the final numbers are as expected.
AMPO -- 2004 Conference Presentations
Presentations from the 2004 Association of Metropolitan Planning Organizations Conference are available online as PowerPoint files through the AMPO website.
Bicycle Friendly Community Grants
The Bicycle Friendly Communities Campaign is an awards program that recognizes municipalities that actively support bicycling.
Bikeways to Prosperity
Bikeways to Prosperity, a research article from the Transportation Research Board of the National Academy of Sciences, examines a North Carolina study in benefits gained from investment in bicycle facilities in the Outer Banks to determine if investment in additional facilities throughout the state would be justified.
California Transit-Oriented Development Searchable Database
The State of California offers the internet-based Transit-Oriented Development Searchable Database. Access and search detailed information on 21 Transit-Oriented Developments (TODs) in California -- also called transit villages -- such as: land uses, site maps, implementation processes, financing, facilities, zoning, design features, pedestrian access, transit services, photos, travel benefits, contact information, and other valuable data.
Can Landscape Architects Make Schools Walkable Again?
In the April 15, 2008 edition of LAND online, the landscape architecture news digest of the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA), editor J. William ''Bill'' Thompson discusses the challenge of getting kids to walk to school.
Clean Communities on the Move
Clean Communities on the Move, from the National Association of Local Government Environmental Professionals profiles more than 30 innovative programs and approaches by local governments to improve air quality by reducing traffic congestion and vehicle emissions, and changing growth patterns.
Community Design and Transportation Policies: New Ways to Promote Physical Activity
The Physician and Sportsmedicine, vol.29, no.2. February 2001. Public health and city planning both seek to improve living conditions and health by preventing, identifying, investigating, and eliminating problems that may pose threats to residents' health and welfare. This article asks how can public health, city planning, and transportation officials work toward reducing the burden of physical inactivity.
Community Planner Pro
The Community Planner Pro™ CD-ROM, included as part of The Enterprise Foundation's Community Development Library, helps nonprofit, community-based organizations engage neighborhood residents in the process of developing practical action plans for their community.
Delaware Valley Smart Growth Alliance Recognized Projects: April 2009
The Delaware Valley Smart Growth Alliance has added to its list of recognized smart growth projects: Kardon Ponds in Chester County, Pennsylvania; and Zurbrugg Mansion Redevelopment in Burlington County, New Jersey.
Demonstrating the Economic Benefits of Integrated, Green Infrastructure
This paper will provide a compelling argument for municipalities to pursue means of developing integrated approaches in the development of services and infrastructure.
Downtown Planning for Smaller and Midsized Communities
''For so long we were floundering and taking ad hoc measures, but the minute I understood what a downtown plan really was I said 'We need one of those!' As it turned out, it was the most fantastic vehicle I've ever seen,'' said Susan Moffat-Thomas of New Bern, North Carolina. Her hometown got a much-needed shot in the arm from a good downtown plan. Does yours need a similar boost?
Philip L. Walker, an experienced downtown-planning consultant, offers practical tips for preserving a sense of place, improving fiscal efficiency, and enhancing quality of life in Downtown Planning for Smaller and Midsized Communities.
Planners and revitalization officials will learn how to address physical components of the downtown, as well as economic development. Walker, an experienced downtown-planning consultant, also explains how to develop an organization to implement a downtown plan; how federal, state, and local policies may influence the planning process; and how to fund a downtown revitalization effort.
Driven to Action: Stopping Sprawl in Your Community
Driven to Action encourages communities to reshape urban areas by helping to set the rules and making plans for sustainable cities.
Elder Friendly Communities
Elder Friendly Communities is the third component of the Successful Aging Initiative of the Cleveland Foundation, a multi-phased program that supports and promotes the assets and positive aspects of aging. The Successful Aging Initiative is focused on establishing elder-friendly communities, lifelong learning and development centers, and increased prospects for civic engagement, including meaningful volunteering and post-retirement employment opportunities.
Entrepreneurial Transit Development.
Community Transportation Magazine. January/February 1999. Meet transit entrepreneur Barry Goodman, president of the Goodman Corp., in Houston, Texas, and an expert in transit and community development. He sees the future of community and public transportation as tied to its ability to create livable neighborhoods -- and he knows how to get it done.
Environmental Health Perspectives: Built Environment
Built Environment is a collection of articles from Environmental Health Perspectives, a peer-reviewed open access journal dedicated to the effect of the environment on human health.
Funders' Network: Looking Back
To acknowledge and celebrate its 10th Anniversary in 2009, the Funders' Network for Smart Growth and Livable Communities commissioned Looking Back: Influencing, Networking, Facilitating, a retrospective on the efforts undertaken by the Network and its members over the past ten years.
Funders' Network: Looking Forward
To acknowledge and celebrate its 10th Anniversary in 2009, the Funders' Network for Smart Growth and Livable Communities Looking Forward: Perspectives on Future Opportunities for Philanthropy, a compilation of essays from leading thinkers in the movement for smarter growth policies and practices that challenge philanthropy to think about its role over the next ten years.
Global Sustainability Centers: The 20 Cities of 2020
Ethisphere magazine reports on The 20 Cities of 2020 as centers for global sustainability, with an emphasis on how density and mixed-use development provide more advantages for a vibrant, healthy community than subsurban sprawl.
Green Building
In the last few years, there has been a greater recognition within the green building field that sustainability is not just about buildings, but includes a focus on where and how we site our buildings, how the buildings are served by transportation, and the overall health of the communities that these buildings shape.
Growth Management for Florida’s Future
Growth Management for Florida’s Future is a position paper from 1000 Friends of Florida that analyzes the growth management practices the state has used for the past two decades, and offers recommendations for how the state can be more instrumental in helping to build better communities.
Guide to Complete Streets Campaigns
Washington, DC - June 2, 2010 - In the past four years, the national push for complete streets has caught fire, spreading rapidly from coast to coast. Since 2006, more than 100 state and local jurisdictions have adopted new policies that require transportation projects include safe accommodations for all users, including bicyclists and pedestrians.
To add fuel to this quickly advancing movement, the Alliance for Biking & Walking has released a new edition of its Guide to Complete Streets Campaigns. The 117-page book updates and expands on the 2006 edition, with new complete streets policy examples, samples from current campaigns, and resources for advocates pursuing complete streets.
In many cases, Alliance organizations have led the charge, winning complete streets policies in their states and cities. Jeff Miller, Alliance president/CEO, says this new manual could be a catalyst for groups to kick-start or super-charge a successful campaign in their area.
“This updated guide is a key resource for grassroots advocates pursuing complete streets policies for their states and cities,” Miller says. “This compilation shares the step-by-step actions and lessons learned from peers across the country, making it the most up-to-date and on-the-ground advice for winning complete streets.”
Book Description: Our nation’s transportation system poses significant challenges for the third of our citizens who do not drive. A full 13 percent of traffic deaths are bicyclists and pedestrians, yet most roadways are still being built with only motor vehicles in mind. Complete streets policies require that future transportation projects ensure safe accommodation of all users. Bicyclists, motorists, transit vehicles and users, and pedestrians of all ages and abilities safely and enjoyably travel along and across complete streets. The Alliance for Biking & Walking’s Guide to Complete Streets Campaigns compiles a blueprint for winning a complete streets policy in your city, region, state, or province. Filled with models from past and current campaigns and tips from advocacy leaders in the field, this guide is an indispensable resource for the new or seasoned advocate working towards complete streets.
The Guide to Complete Streets Campaigns is part of a series of Alliance guides, which aim to build the capacity of bicycle and pedestrian advocacy organizations.
Holding The Line: Urban Containment In The United States August 2002
Policies designed to deliberately control the spread of urban areas are
increasing in popularity throughout the United States. Several states,
and many local governments in the west, are adopting urban growth
boundaries and other containment measures in their land-use planning
laws and legislation. Whatever the primary purpose, it is clear that the
precise impacts of containment policies are not well understood. This
paper reviews the research on urban containment generally, and also
examines the experience of such policies in particular metropolitan
areas. It discusses some lessons learned and raises relevant research
questions for practitioners as well as policymakers at the state
and local level.
Housing and Transportation Affordability Index
The Housing and Transportation Affordability Index, a pilot pilot project led jointly by Reconnecting America's Center for Transit-Oriented Development and the Center for Neighborhood Technology, integrates housing and transportation costs into a single measure, correcting a pervasive information gap. The index will help local and regional planners understand the housing costs and ''location costs'' of building housing and transportation. Potential home buyers and renters, finance agencies, public and private-sector real estate developers, housing lenders, and secondary market actors can use the index to better understand the full cost of the homes they purchase.
Innovative State Transportation Funding and Financing
Innovative State Transportation Funding and Financing: Policy Options for States is a January 2009 report from the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices that examines how states are seeking new ways to fund and finance transportation improvements.
Is Portland Winning the War on Sprawl?
This article by Yan Song and Gerrit-Jan Knapp and published in the Spring 2004 Journal of the American Planning Association examines different methods used to measure sprawl, and uses those methods to analyze development patterns in the Portland, Oregon metro area.
Location Efficient Mortgages
Natural Resources Defense Council. A list of FAQs on transportation-based Location Efficient Mortgages.
Main Street Conference -- Call for Presentations
August 1, 2007 is the deadline for educational educational session proposals for the 2008 National Main Streets Conference. Share your experiences, raise your visibility among industry professionals and help us explore this year's conference theme, ''Enriching Main Street Through Entrepreneurship and Diversity,'' by submitting your proposal today.
Make Your Community Walkable
AARP's discussion on how to make your community walkable is the topic of this January 2005 web resource.
Marketing Smart Growth
This series of articles from On Common Ground, The National Association of Realtors® Smart Growth Magazine, attempts to grasp this subject of supply and demand for Smart
Growth.
Mississippi Renewal Forum
Mississippi Renewal Forum -- Final Reports
Final team reports have been released from The Mississippi Renewal Forum, held October 11-17, 2005. The Renewal Forum was a gathering of design specialists from across the nation to help provide rebuilding visions for communities devastated by Hurricane Katrina.
Mobility as a Positional Good: Implications for Transport Policy and Planning
''Positional'' (also called ''prestige'') goods confer status of their consumers. However, this increased status is offset by reduced status to others, resulting in no net benefit to society overall. As wealth increases so does the portion of consumption motivated by positional value. This paper from the Victoria Transport Policy Institute (VTPI) investigates how positional value affects transportation decisions, explores the resulting economic impacts, and discusses implications for transport policy and planning.
Moving Beyond ''Best Practices'' to Truly ''Living Practices''
Reprinted from citiwire.net
The fifth World Urban Forum (WUF5), held last week in Rio was pulsing with energy. More than 13,000 attendants attended plenaries featuring popular Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Ana Tibaijuka, director of UN-HABITAT, Shaun Donovan, U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Deputy HUD Secretary Ron Sims, Assistant Secretary of State Esther Brimmer, Director Adolfo Carrion of the White House Office of Urban Affairs, Judith Rodin, president of the Rockefeller Foundation, and many others.
New knowledge abounded at this meeting. Slum Dwellers International told how its members are conducting census enumerations of informal settlements. The World Bank reported on its new urban outreach and new diagnostics to test the success of its urban investments. Scholars presented papers, including Janice Perlman who has tracked the way that houses are bought and sold in Rio's favelas given that nobody owns the land beneath them.
In many instances, the presenters were putting forward best practices in one form or another. And a team of doctoral students from the University of Pennsylvania – our ''Global Urban Commons Research Group'' — was in attendance, lapping it all up. They have spent the past seven months evaluating the theory and application of the concept of best practices, analysing the UN-HABITAT Best Practices Database and contributing to thinking about a new form of communicating information, ''Living Practices,'' that UN-HABITAT launched in beta form at WUF5.
Indeed, after reviewing more than 75 journal articles, 10 reports and conducting 15 interviews, the team was armed with fact and perspective as it presented its findings to a packed room at WUF5. The team members will soon have a white paper to share. Here the essence of what they have found:
First, best practice has a long history in the United States. It originated with agricultural extension programs to improve farming. Then it emerged in 1934 as a way to address urban issues when the American Society of Planning Officials created the Planning Advisory Service (PAS) to advance the practice of city planning (as the profession switched its focus from private consultancies to public service in the New Deal). Others, especially business, medicine/nursing and education have since engaged in promoting best practices in their fields.
Second, UN-HABITAT launched a global approach to collecting and promoting urban best practices in 1996 after Habitat II in Istanbul – a step called for in the Habitat Agenda (a precursor to the Millennium Development Goals). Under the leadership of Nicholas You, a skilled staff member, Habitat initiated its Best Practices and Local Leadership Program starting an on-line Best Practices Database and inaugurating the biannual Dubai Award for Best Practices to Improve the Living Environment, enhanced by well-funded prizes for 10 or 12 lucky winners.
The program blossomed, guided by a steering committee drawn from around the world with representatives from the Brazilian Institute for Municipal Administration (IBAM), several universities including Pratt Institute and Harvard, the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI) and others. By 2009, the database had more than 2,000 entries; with every announcement of the Dubai award hundreds more poured in. The Dubai Award had been given seven times to much fanfare. In addition, the program gave rise to several regional best practices hubs to spread the word and offer supplementary programs. The Vienna-based effort is exemplary. In addition, from the database, UN-HABITAT commissioned best practices briefs, some case books and case studies used at conferences and training sessions.
Third, while the general literature suggested that to be really effective, best practices data need to fill a few basic requirements, many best practices databases – UN-HABITAT’s included – did not comply. Lacking were neutral third party validations: no one was checking to determine whether the activities reported were actually occurring, with defensible and comparable metrics of success and contextual discussions of the political, social and financial conditions and resources that enabled the work. Further, the best practices tended to be static – once described, that was the end of the story — and they were in only one voice, that of the nominator or author. In other words, while the UN Best Practices database was a huge step forward in presenting information from around the world, the system was not perfect.
None of this was lost on Nick You. He had already concluded that more could be done and he had a big job in front of him because in September, just as the students were beginning their research, Ms. Tibaijuku had charged him with devising a World Urban Campaign to be launched at WUF5. Describing him to the UN-HABITAT governing board as being ''a man of new ideas…a free spirit, sometimes difficult to find and follow, but someone whose capacity to work defied imagination,'' she had full confidence that he could deliver.
And that proved to be true. Between September and March he assembled and convened an advisory team not only spelled out steps to a continuing, impact-designed World Urban Campaign, but gave its blessing to such companion efforts as the Citistates Group’s new project – www.citiscope.org – to highlight city advances reported by journalists worldwide, and a new 100 Cities Initiative to tap and motivate city government and civic initiatives. The 100 cities initiative aims to create a new process being called ''Living Practices,'' an evolution from best practices to a dynamic, Internet-based information exchange. Each living practice story highlights the ongoing progress of selected initiatives and has a third party ''champion,'' who regularly verifies and updates the work.
So armed with their research and participants in developing the 100 Cities initiative, the Penn students then successfully nominated Philadelphia as one of the 100 cities and began to develop the web presence according to desired standards. They have a team of undergraduates who are working with city and civic officials to flesh out six, notable ''green'' initiatives ranging from stormwater management to creating community gardens to provision of local fresh food to disadvantaged communities. They will help develop success metrics and find a variety of stakeholders who through video interviews will add their voices to story, providing depth and context. As the students complete their dissertations and move on with their careers, our Penn Institute for Urban Research will take up the role of monitoring the Philadelphia story. We’re motivated to stick to the exciting task of assisting on the research side to help develop sustainable communities of lasting value – serving, we believe, the cause at the bottom of the UN-HABITAT mission.
Moving Communities Forward: AIA Study on the Design of Transportation
Moving Communities Forward, a project by the American Institute of Architects and the Center for Transportation Studies, measures the benefits that well-designed transportation projects bring to communities.
Neighborhood-Scale Planning Tools to Create Active, Living Communities
Neighborhood-Scale Planning Tools to Create Active, Living Communities from the Local Government Commission offers tips, tools, and case studies to help communities align planning with the implementation of walkable community design.
New for Members -- Getting Smart, the Newsletter for Smart Growth
The February 2003 issue of ''Getting Smart'' is available in the Members Section. Features in this issue include Managing Urban Transportation Systems: The Need for a New Operating Paradigm; Transportation Reform and Social Equity: An Agenda for Smart Growth; and a feature on Enhancing America’s Communities.
Not Yet a Member? Click Here for a list of benefits.
New for Members -- Getting Smart, the Newsletter for Smart Growth
The June 2003 issue of ''Getting Smart'' is available in the Members Section. Features in this issue include
Land Use and Substance Abuse in Northern New Mexico; Letter from the Editor;
Living in Paradise?; Toolbox: Resources for Smart Growth;
Considering Residents’ Needs in
Planning for Higher Density Housing; Spotlight On: National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration; Partner Updates.
New for Members -- Getting Smart, the Newsletter for Smart Growth
The February 2003 issue of ''Getting Smart'' is available in the Members Section. Features in this issue include Managing Urban Transportation Systems: The Need for a New Operating Paradigm; Transportation Reform and Social Equity: An Agenda for Smart Growth; and a feature on Enhancing America’s Communities.
Not Yet a Member? Click Here for a list of benefits.
New for Members -- Getting Smart, the Newsletter for Smart Growth
The June 2003 issue of ''Getting Smart'' is available in the Members Section. Features in this issue include
Land Use and Substance Abuse in Northern New Mexico; Letter from the Editor;
Living in Paradise?; Toolbox: Resources for Smart Growth;
Considering Residents’ Needs in
Planning for Higher Density Housing; Spotlight On: National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration; Partner Updates.
New for Members -- Getting Smart, the Newsletter for Smart Growth
The February 2003 issue of ''Getting Smart'' is available in the Members Section. Features in this issue include Managing Urban Transportation Systems: The Need for a New Operating Paradigm; Transportation Reform and Social Equity: An Agenda for Smart Growth; and a feature on Enhancing America’s Communities.
Not Yet a Member? Click Here for a list of benefits.
New for Members -- Getting Smart, the Newsletter for Smart Growth
The June 2003 issue of ''Getting Smart'' is available in the Members Section. Features in this issue include
Land Use and Substance Abuse in Northern New Mexico; Letter from the Editor;
Living in Paradise?; Toolbox: Resources for Smart Growth;
Considering Residents’ Needs in
Planning for Higher Density Housing; Spotlight On: National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration; Partner Updates.
New for Members -- Getting Smart, the Newsletter for Smart Growth
The February 2003 issue of ''Getting Smart'' is available in the Members Section. Features in this issue include Managing Urban Transportation Systems: The Need for a New Operating Paradigm; Transportation Reform and Social Equity: An Agenda for Smart Growth; and a feature on Enhancing America’s Communities.
Not Yet a Member? Click Here for a list of benefits.
New for Members -- Getting Smart, the Newsletter for Smart Growth
The June 2003 issue of ''Getting Smart'' is available in the Members Section. Features in this issue include
Land Use and Substance Abuse in Northern New Mexico; Letter from the Editor;
Living in Paradise?; Toolbox: Resources for Smart Growth;
Considering Residents’ Needs in
Planning for Higher Density Housing; Spotlight On: National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration; Partner Updates.
New Partners for Smart Growth: Jan. 27, 2005
The 4th Annual New Partners for Smart Growth: Building Safe, Healthy and Livable Communities conference was held January 27-29, 2005 in Miami Beach, Florida. View the entire program and PowerPoint presentations from select events, or order audio files.
New Partners for Smart Growth: Jan. 28, 2005
The 4th Annual New Partners for Smart Growth: Building Safe, Healthy and Livable Communities conference was held January 27-29, 2005 in Miami Beach, Florida. View the entire program and PowerPoint presentations from select events, or order audio files.
New Partners for Smart Growth: Jan. 29, 2005
The 4th Annual New Partners for Smart Growth: Building Safe, Healthy and Livable Communities conference was held January 27-29, 2005 in Miami Beach, Florida. View the entire program and PowerPoint presentations from select events, or order audio files.
New Urbanism Articles
Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU) has prepared a 13-page bibliography listing of academic articles about new urbanism.
New Urbanism Resources
Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU) has an Education Task Force that has compiled new bibliographies of journal articles and dissertations written about New Urbanism.
New Urbanist K-12 Teaching Resources
The Congress for New Urbanism's (CNU) K-12 Initiative has produced a bibliography of resources for primary and secondary teachers to introduce students to the concepts of New Urbanism, Smart Growth, and traditional town planning. This provides teachers with curriculum suggestions, teaching modules, videotapes, books, and games that are grade and age appropriate.
Non-Traditional Funds for Community Transportation
Community Transportation Magazine, January/February 1999. Funding is always a key issue for community transportation agencies. This comprehensive article looks at numerous hidden sources of transportation funds and highlights how community transit agencies have put these funds to use.
North American Cities and Smart Growth
A special issue of Local Environment, an international refereed journal, is now available online. Articles include ''Smart Growth in a Small Urban Setting the challenges
of building an acceptable solution,'' by Henry J. Mayer, Christine M. Danis,
and Michael R. Greenberg; ''Taking Sustainable Cities Seriously a
comparative analysis of twenty-four US cities,'' by Kent E. Portney; and ''Local
Government and the WSSD,'' by Mike Ashley.
Oakland Pedestrian Master Plan
The vision of the Oakland Pedestrian Master Plan is to promote a pedestrian-friendly environment where public spaces -- including streets and off-street paths -- will offer a level of convenience, safety, and attractiveness to the pedestrian that will encourage and reward the choice to walk.
Planning Magazine, March 2010
The March 2010 issue of Planning finds a ray of hope in the national economy. Read about economic diversity in Michigan, the supermarket as a neighborhood building block, and an excerpt from a new Planners Press book about the essential elements of sustainable design. Members may read the entire issue online. Everyone is invited to read this month's featured article on Maryland's second generation of smart growth.
PPS' Greatest Hits of 2008
The Project for Public Spaces (PPS) offers the PPS Greatest Hits of 2008: 10 Trends Shaping the Future of Our Communities. This collection of ten significant trends is redefining the world as we know it, even in a down economy.
Promoting Public Health through Smart Growth
Promoting Public Health through Smart Growth, a report from Smart Growth BC, explains how our built environment shapes our transportation choices, and in turn, human health. It reviews the existing research for a range of transportation-related health impacts on seven public health outcomes: Physical Activity and Obesity, Air Quality, Traffic Safety, Noise, Water Quality, Mental Health, and Social Capital.
Rail~Volution 2008 Presentations Online
Rail~Volution 2008, held in San Francisco, California, October 27-30, offered more than 60 on-site and mobile workshops, two plenary sessions, and networking events addressing nearly every aspect of building livable communities with transit. These activities featured many thoughtful policy overviews of livability issues, as well as hands-on, specific strategies that can be used and applied in conference attendees' own communities.
Regional Equity and Smart Growth, 2nd Edition
Regional equity seeks to ensure that individuals and families in all communities can participate in and benefit from economic growth and activity throughout the metropolitan region--including access to high-performing schools, decent affordable housing located in attractive neighborhoods, living wage jobs, and proximity to public transit and important amenities, such as supermarkets and parks.
Report on Public Health and Urban Sprawl in Ontario
This report from the Ontario College of Family Physicians summarizes pertinent information on the relationship between urban sprawl and health. It serves to identify the key issues that are relevant to the growing number of sprawl-related health problems in Ontario, which is comparable to U.S. situations and is far worse compared to Europe.
Safe Routes to School
Transportation planner Hannah Twaddell provides a primer on SR2S -- Safe Routes to School -- in the Fall 2004 Planning Commissioners Journal, a publication designed for citizen planners, including (but not limited to) members of local planning commissions and zoning boards.
Safewalks.
Planning Commissioners Journal, Fall 1994. Reclaiming streets for people in crime-prone areas. That's the aim of "safewalks": a practical, but exciting, concept described by one of the nation's leading greenway advocates.
School Choice: A Remedy for Sprawl
In School Choice: A Remedy for Sprawl, CNU president and former Milwaukee mayor John Norquist discusses how today's rediscovery of cities could include families as well as young professionals and empty nesters, with all city kids benefiting from the change. Part of the Congress for the New Urbanism's Schools 2007 report.
Skinny Streets and Fire Trucks
The August 2007 issue of Urban Land contains an article on ''Skinny Streets and Fire Trucks,'' which looks at the trend toward narrower streets for neighborhood enhancement and the potential effect on large emergency vehicles.
Smart Commute Initiative -- DC Metro Area
The Washington Regional Smart CommuteTM Initiative gives prospective home buyers in Washington, D.C., Northern Virginia and Suburban Maryland the opportunity to qualify for a mortgage with the help of savings that can be realized from using public transportation.
Smart Growth for Better Schools
The Winter 2005 edition of On Common Ground features a series of articles on how smart growth principles can help create better schools.
Smart Growth on the Edge
The Winter 2006 edition of On Common Ground focuses on the far suburbs, the exurban areas beyond the edge of major metropolitan areas, and the smaller non-metropolitan cities.
''Smarty'' Awards -- 2008 Smart Growth BC Awards
Smart Growth BC presented the third annual Smarty Awards at its annual conference in Vancouver, British Columbia, on April 18, 2008.
Sprawl: The New Manifest Destiny
From the August 2004 issue of Environmental Health Perspectives journal, Sprawl: The New Manifest Destiny discusses the current state of sprawl on both national and international levels. This article includes listings of the Top Ten Sprawling U.S. and World Metro Regions, details the effects of sprawl, and discusses how sprawl continues, despite a growing knowledge of its effects.
State Actions Supporting Healthy Community Design
Governors are encouraging collaborative, inter-agency efforts to achieve public health objectives (such as reversing the rising rates of obesity) through land-use and transportation planning. By integrating public health perspectives into the community design process, states are helping to support the development of safer, walkable, healthier communities.
Street Smart: Improving Street Design in America
The September 2007 AARP Bulletin includes the feature article ''Street Smart'' -- a focus on improving America's street design to allow more access for all members of the public: walkers, bikers, and the disabled.
Symposium 2005: Twenty Lessons from Maryland’s Smart Growth Initiative
John Frece, former spokesman for Maryland’s Smart Growth Initiative and currently with the National Center for Smart Growth Research and Education at the University of Maryland, reviews the events that led to Maryland's Smart Growth Initative and the evolution of that landmark policy in the Vermont Journal of Environmental Law (VJEL).
Taming the Automobile: How We Can Make Our Streets More Pedestrian Friendly.
Planning Commissioners Journal. November/December 1991. Strategies for meeting pedestrians' needs, from the author of Accomodating the Pedestrian: Adapting Towns & Neighborhoods for Walking and Bicycling.
The Affordability Index: A New Tool for Measuring the True Affordability of a Housing Choice
The Affordability Index is a new information tool developed by the Urban Markets Initiative of The Brookings Institution to quantify, for the first time, the impact of transportation costs on the affordability of housing choices.
The Local Index of Transit Availability
The Local Index of Transit Availability (LITA) is a system for rating transit service intensity, or transit availability, in various parts of a metropolitan area. LITA scores are intended to be useful to transit service planners as well as local land use planners and policymakers, allowing them to see where transit service is most intense and aiding them in developing appropriate land use plans and policies for areas with high, medium and low transit availability.
The Shape We’re In - Planning for a ‘Smart’ Future
For decades, environmentalists, walking and biking advocates and neighborhood activists have been trying with small success to stop urban sprawl and encourage planners to think ''fewer cars, more walking.'' But now physicians and scientists also are turning their attention toward developing communities to advance the cause of ''active living'' -- daily physical movement, the easier and more natural, the better.
The State of Smart Growth
The State of Smart Growth is the theme for the Summer 2004 issue of On Common Ground, a twice-yearly publication from the Government Affairs office of the National Association of Realtors®.
The Sustainable Future
The Summer 2008 issue of On Common Ground presents the many approaches that Realtors®, home builders, school officials, environmentalists, public officials, and concerned citizens are using to shape communities into sustainable human environments -- communities that make better use of our resources and reduce the damage we leave behind.
Top 10 Transportation Topics for 2010
As America enters a new decade, what will be the buzz about transportation? Clearly a safe, efficient, and viable transportation network should be at the forefront of issues facing policymakers at all levels of government and in all areas of our society in the coming months.
''In the year 2010, we'll be seeing more job-creating construction zones on our highways, but we will still need a long-term solution to address everything from fixing potholes to making needed repairs to our aging infrastructure,'' said Larry ''Butch'' Brown, president of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) and executive director of the Mississippi Department of Transportation. ''Even more critically for the long-term health of this nation, 2010 must also be about how smart we become at enabling goods and products to get from one point to another with speed and efficiency.''
Looking ahead, AASHTO has developed a list of the top ten transportation topics that it forecasts will be part of the national conversation in 2010 – in the media, in government and around the dinner table. Topics include: adopting a long-term transportation funding bill; adopting a new jobs creation bill; deterring distracted drivers; ensuring safer roads; moving on high-speed rail grants; taking action to address climate change; responding to increased congestion due to capacity issues; adopting social media to provide traffic and travel information; enhancing safety through roadway improvements and technology; and creating more livable communities. Learn more at the link below.
Towards Sustainability
The Minneapolis Environmental Report: Towards Sustainability provides a link to the City’s overall Environmental goal: “Preserve and enhance our natural and historic environment and promote a clean, sustainable Minneapolis.”
Traffic Calming Practices Revisited
Traffic Calming Practices Revisited, from the Institute of Transportation Engineers, summarizes a 2004 survey of traffic calming practices in 21 leading jurisdictions.
Transit-Oriented Development: Selected References
This InfoPacket from the Urban Land Institute (ULI) focuses on references for Transit-Oriented Development and is approximately 150 pages in length.
Transportation and Sustainable Campus Communities
Transportation and Sustainable Campus Communities presents a comprehensive examination of techniques available to manage transportation in campus communities. It gives readers the understanding they need to develop alternatives to single-occupancy vehicles, and sets forth a series of case studies that show how transportation demand management programs have worked in a variety of campus communities, ranging from small towns to large cities.
Turning Brownfields into Mixed-Use Developments
This publication from the National Conference of State Legislatures reports on how brownfields can be transformed and become an engine for prosperity and community revitalization.
Urban Ills: No American Monopoly
ATHENS — Each city is a unique blend of history, culture and architecture. But put three dozen urban planners and scholars from around the globe into one room and you discover that their concerns sound astoundingly similar.
In June I spent three days in Athens with a group of former International Urban Fellows from Johns Hopkins University, holding their annual conference this year in the Greek capital city of almost 4 million. I asked those in attendance — most from Britain and Europe, but others from Mexico, India and Turkey — to pinpoint the biggest problem their city faces.
Despite major differences in history, urban form, customs and governance between their cities and U.S. metros, their answers might easily have come from planners in Atlanta, Cleveland, Charlotte or Chicago.
In the U.S., with our primitive rapid transit, our expensive — and expansive — large-lot suburban neighborhoods and our rapacious appetite for oil-based energy, we're apt to imagine that other countries' cities have found more effective solutions to problems that bedevil our urban areas. Europe is like a gigantic, well-planned Portland (though with better French fries), we think, while the U.S. is more like sprawling Phoenix.
But if we assume all that, listening to conference attendees from places such as Rome, Edinburgh, Paris and Bern, Switzerland, is a bit like getting ice water splashed in your face.
Some of the problems they listed and talked about:
- Under-developed or unused infrastructure
- Mobility and car-focused development
- Accommodating immigrants and/or different ethnic groups
- Corruption or maladministration
- The difficulty of infill development, compared with growth on the urban edge
- Gentrification and other housing problems
- Economic troubles and unemployment
- Sprawl
- Lack of regional cooperation or regional governance
Not everyone listed all those problems, except, sadly, an architect from Calcutta and one from Mexico City who said, in effect, ''all of the above.''
Mexico City, an urbanized area of 20 million (or maybe 24 million — apparently even population measures there are contested) suffers from ''overpopulation, pollution, sprawl, corruption, etc.'' architect Alvaro Arellano Farias responded to my informal survey.
And while cities around the globe are worrying about climate-change-induced sea rise, Mexico City can go them one better. Built upon ancient lakebed drained by the Spanish conquistadors, it is sinking at the rate of an inch a year.
As Arellano described the region’s complicated governance, with four boroughs inside Mexico City, 16 boroughs and a mayor in the Federal District, 41 more municipalities in greater Mexico City, 18 more in the larger urban valley — which is, itself, divided among a federal district and two states — I was attempting to make sure I understood this complexity. ''Is there any one …?''
'' … In charge?'' He laughed ruefully. ''No.''
They all compete for economic development. The industrial areas in the state of Hidalgo send their air pollution into Mexico City. But with its sewage disposal going to Hidalgo, the city gets its pollutant revenge.
Unlike Mexico City, France is a place many American planners eye with envy for its compact centers, efficient public transit and strict urban growth boundaries. Yet two Frenchmen, one a planner from the northern region and the other an Athenian architect now living in Paris, complained about greenfield development, the lack of cohesive regional governance ''and the usual NIMBY attitudes,'' as architect Panos Mantziaras put it.
Although French planning is much stricter and more nationalized than in the U.S., nevertheless, the Paris metro region has 500-some governments. France has 36,000 mayors, more than any other European country. But starting with the next election, a new national law has created a direct elected body for the urbanized area of French cities, said Lille-based planner Jean-Marie Ernecq.
Naturally, for such a regional body to be created, it had to be imposed from above.
Calcutta's problems probably dwarf those of most other urban areas. ''Calcutta is a large exploding metropolos tending to megalopolis,'' noted Biplab Sengupta, a professor of planning and architecture in Kharagpur, India. He listed slums, traffic congestion and inadequate physical and social infrastructure.
Yet plenty of other cities grapple with those same problems — so many that a planner can get discouraged. As Mantziaras put it, ''You create all kinds of tools to foretell the future — and you never can.''
Georges Prevelakis, a Greek urban planner and professor of geopolitics at the Panthéon-Sorbonne University in Paris, described the idealistic goals of the Modernist movement, launched in the 1933 Charter of Athens. It was, he said, an idealism married to a lot of arrogance: ''It has been an enormous disappointment. We failed. … Who speaks of trying to contain the growth in cities in Africa?''
Athens' version of explosive population growth in the mid-20th century created many industrial areas, including land along the ancient Sacred Way, which ran between the city of Eleusis, now a suburban city called Elefsina, to the Acropolis in central Athens. Hellenic Open University Professor Lila Leontidou noted one result — that as runners traced the storied route from Marathon to the Acropolis during the 2004 Olympic Marathon, television viewers around the world saw mile upon mile of undistinguished suburban sprawl until the runners entered the center city.
Like Mexico City and Calcutta, or even Los Angeles or Philadelphia, Athens has urban issues that range far beyond its official municipal boundaries.
Mantziaras spoke with visible affection about growing up in Athens, about yearly birthday parties atop Filopappos hill. ''I can close my eyes, and in my mind describe the skyline of the mountains,'' he said.
But Athens is in crisis. And in today’s world, to regenerate an urban area one must deal with a city at the supra-urban scale, he said, remembering always that the future of the sprawling industrial and suburban areas is inextricably linked to the historic, tourist-filled center city.
What cities need, said Ernecq, is restored political debate. ''We need to have a vision and real political leadership and civic participation.''
That, I'd add, is an important recipe, no matter where in the world you are.
Reprinted from Citiwire.net
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