Carmel, Indiana, is building a walkable downtown from scratch—and also planning to have a strong tax base for many years to come.
Why does social life matter so much for our sustainable future? And what does the future of our planet have to do with our sidewalks?
Imagine if the places where we live were shaped by our social lives, re-imagined to make it easy for us to gather, shop, have fun, eat together, and meet new people. With this mindset, we would fundamentally change our communities. Maybe this vision is closer than we think: Perhaps, all we have to do to bring this to life is start with the sidewalks.
Image courtesy of the Village of Providence Twelve steps of sprawl recovery In communities across America sprawl is giving way to more diverse places. Here are a dozen keys to that trend. STEVE MOUZON FEB. 13, 2018 The storm clouds of sprawl addiction had been gathering for years, but it took the Meltdown and the ensuing…
It is more difficult today than it has ever been to bring new housing units to this state, but it shouldn’t be. Editorial by @HOUSINGFORLA on January 10, 2018, 12:00PM photos by HUNTER KERHART The California housing crisis is damaging our very existence. Homelessness is higher than any point during my lifetime. High housing costs are a drag…
How accessory dwelling units, set to expand on the West Coast, present a small but mighty solution to affordability By Patrick Sisson Jan 16, 2018, 12:34pm EST An ADU designed by Lanefab Design/Build, a Vancouver, Canada-based firm that specializes in designing these smaller homes. Courtesy Lanefab For cities starved of new housing, staring down an affordability crisis, and desperate for…
Greenville Avenue’s new streetscape (Source: City of Dallas) Streetscape improvements have helped bring back an 18-hour-a-day character to the corridor. Crime has dropped and property values have risen. Note: This case study was written for the Institute for Transportation Engineers new bookImplementing Context Sensitive Design on Multimodal Thoroughfares, funded by the Federal Highway Administration….
Office space bordering Bryant Park in New York garner 63% higher rents than those one block away, thanks the economic value of urban parks. CreativeCommons image by Hazel Borys. RESEARCH 65 reasons why urbanism works Studies that quantify how urban places affect human, economic, and environmental wellness are essential to building the political will for…
Rendering of I-980 in Oakland as a multi-way boulevard. Credit / Dover, Kohl & Partners The New Urbanism is a design movement toward complete, compact, connected communities—but it is also a generator of ideas that transform the landscape. Communities are shaped by the movement and flow of ideas, and the New Urbanism has been a…