Tactical Urbanism Archives - Oxnard Placemaking, Civic Beauty & Urban Design

Defining the 15-minute city

ByRoy Prince February 8, 2021February 8, 2021

Defining the 15-minute city The “15-minute city” may be defined as an ideal geography where most human needs and many desires are located within a travel distance of 15 minutes. Here’s what that means. ANDRES DUANY, ROBERT STEUTEVILLE FEB. 8, 2021 The 15-minute city is gaining significant traction politically and in planning circles, but what does it…

The Storefront Accelerator

ByRoy Prince February 5, 2021February 8, 2021

The Storefront Accelerator By Jaime J. Izurieta Your storefront can make you money. Odds are it is not and you are wasting a great opportunity. Design brings people into your store. It attracts new customers and tells them what your business is about. Once inside, it guides them to what you want them to see. Most…

An ode to Lisbon’s kiosks by photographer Richard John Seymour

ByRoy Prince November 19, 2020February 8, 2021

Once obsolete, these staples of city life are making a comeback Until just a few years ago, a ‘capilé’ would have been as unfamiliar to Lisbonites as to those outside of Portugal. Once a staple local tipple, made from maidenhair fern leaf syrup and essence of orange blossom, it slipped out of people’s consciousness as…

Housing and Oxnard

ByRoy August 30, 2018July 14, 2019

Oxnard has a severe housing shortage. Earlier this year SB 827 attempted to help communities build more housing. If the direction of SB 827 is correct the “fixes” relate mostly to zoning that incentives sprawl and makes it almost impossible to build in city cores. I will not go into the failure of SB 827…

Barcelona’s Superblocks: Change the Grid, Change your Neighborhood

ByRoy August 7, 2018August 7, 2018

Over two years ago, Barcelona set the transportation world aflutter when it announced it would be attempting to reinvent parts of its city by developing a Superblock system by transforming targeted street grids to prioritize people over cars. On selected small street networks large parts of intersections and roadways would be taken back for parks…

Making Cities More Dense Always Sparks Resistance. Here’s How To Overcome It.

ByRoy July 21, 2018July 14, 2019

“NIMBYs are not necessarily the problem. They are behaving normally for humans. The problem is politicians and other decision-makers who know better, who don’t do the right thing because of NIMBY fear. If you’ve had a long process, heard from thousands of people, investigated and understood the technical issues, know your aspirations as a city,…

World Class Urban Design & Economic Development Education

ByRoy May 28, 2018July 10, 2018

CityBuilding Express #CBX2018 Why spend 4 days on a tour bus with 50 mayors, developers, city council members, staff planners, supervisors, city managers, urban designers, town architects, economic development experts? For the annual CityBuilding Express (#CBX2018) event of course! There is never a dull moment with this inquisitive outspoken crowd! Nathan Norris photo Riding with 50…

Economic Stability Is An Urban Design Response To Social Justice

ByRoy May 7, 2018May 7, 2018

by Howard Blackson – February 20, 2017 Times they are a’changing. We all hear that the New Urbanism has a gentrification/displacement perception problem in big city discussions. One of New Urbanism’s revolution was in shifting the 60s/70s planning by numbers approaches to city issues towards a design-oriented solutions. And, our anti-modernist stance in the ‘90s…

25 Great Ideas of the New Urbanism

ByRoy November 2, 2017November 2, 2017

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…