This weekend, take a look around to see if you see any kids running or biking around in your neighborhood. Children playing, or not playing, can be seen as a litmus test for overall neighborhood health. Yes physical health, but also the cultural and economic health. Neighborhoods are suffering these days largely because children are […]
Reblogged from The Dirt: Cities around the world with any sort of waterfront or riverfront have been revitalizing these places, which are often saddled with polluted ports and factories, creating vibrant community spaces and recreational areas in the process. But cities vary in their ability to take advantage of their water. Some cities have flush […]
Reblogged from The Dirt: On a modest site downtown, Lafayette Greens yields a good deal more than just food. By Linda McIntyre Detroit is having quite a moment in the media at a time of renewed interest in the trials and tribulations of cities, but it’s still kind of surprising to find a small, trapezoid-shaped […]
Reblogged from The Dirt: Last year in Philadelphia, Amtrak started tearing things up as part of new work on the west plaza of their 30th street station, replacing the underground parking garage roof. The only problem was it was right next to a new public space called the Porch, which had been created by the […]
An academic take on creating inviting, communal public spaces: In Operative Landscapes: Building Communities Through Public Space, Alissa North, Assistant Professor in the Landscape Architecture Program at the University of Toronto, argues that the best contemporary landscape designs are concerned with more than just aesthetics. Instead of striving for fixed, static designs, the goals of […]
Inhabitat is on a role with their environmental enrichment stories! OakOak’s street art is created to amuse and inspire – this self-described “fun-loving” artist plays with urban elements to make people laugh. He finds broken infrastructure, crumbling buildings and cracks and gives them a facelift with the simple addition of a character in play. Everything […]
Before I share my ideas for the latest OpenIDEO challenge, I wanted to capture some of the ideas I submitted for their challenge “How might we inspire and enable communities to take more initiative in making their local environments better?“ Here is my first one: Community gardens create ownership, a sense of place, and shared […]
I love these OpenIDEO public challenges, so I was thrilled when I saw this challenge alert pop up in my inbox (and then unfortunately let it get buried for a week, oops!) about ideas on how to make communities more involved and engaged in their environments. Public agencies such as Singapore’s National Environment Agency would […]
Should happiness and well being be considered a metric to measure overall success of a country? The UN just voted yes: Imagine you open the paper tomorrow, and the headlines are not about the “sluggish economy,” but our nation’s quality of life. You turn to the business section, and find not just information about a […]
With gas prices going through the roof, many people are taking to walking more. But after being car-focused in our navigation for decades, it can be unusual for people to know how to get around by walking and how long it will take them. One student from Raleigh, North Carolina, has an idea: On a […]
