Next American Vanguard Seeking Leaders

The urban affairs magazine Next American City is hosting NEXT AMERICAN VANGUARD: Setting a New Agenda for Urban Leaders, its first annual annual conference geared toward bringing together the next generation of urban leaders. For the two-day event on May 20-21, 2009 in Washington, DC, it will invite 30 individuals from across the country to [...]

Nominate a Great Public Place in Your City

The American Planning Association has started a yearly Great Places awards program that gives credit to great neighborhoods and great public spaces. We mentioned the winners last year, that included Pittsburgh’s Mellon Square, New York’s Central Park and Portland’s Pioneer Courthouse Square. Do you have a park or other public space in mind that should [...]

Some news from around….

Another article on Milwaukee’s urban farmer Will Allen. (Mother Jones) Very cool city-scale maps showing New York’s footprint on other cities. (Vanshnookenraggen) NYC to close parts of Broadway for plazas (NY Times) And a few experts comment on the closing and pedestrian malls in general (NY Times) Philadelphia gets new chief for its new Parks [...]

Show Us the Money: Parks and the Stimulus Package

by Catherine Nagel, Executive Director of the City Parks Alliance, for a Special Message on the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Are stimulus funds going to parks in your city? We want to find out. The City Parks Alliance and its network would like to know how parks groups are uncovering funds in the stimulus [...]

More Evidence of Successful Park Road Closures

There’s more evidence that road closures in parks can be a big success in increasing their usership and improving safety and conditions. Case in point: Kansas City is expanding its closure of Cliff Drive in Kessler Park to vehicles on every weekend throughout the year. This follows a pilot program last May through October to [...]

A Chance to Ski in the Park

The recent East coast snow storm has brought out a few cross-country skiers into urban parks. The New York Times City Room blog talked to some skiers in New York City’s parks. “It’s a great feeling cross-country skiing in the city,” said Ms. Jewett, who lives on 107th Street and works as an administrator for [...]

A Park in Cairo Leads to Renewal & Development

The story of Al-Azhar Park in Cairo, Egypt offers an interesting case study into how improving quality of life through parks  and green spaces can lead to positive impacts in cultural and community development. Back in the mid-1990s, the Aga Khan Trust for Culture started construction on turning a derelict space in the middle of [...]

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