Transportation for America this last week released a report on a dire situation for pedestrians in the nation’s cities. In the last 15 years, more than 76,000 Americans have been killed while crossing or walking along a street in their community. More than 43,000 Americans – including 3,906 children under 16 – have been killed [...]
Filed under: planning, transportation | Tagged: federal policy, research, walkability | 2 Comments »
Many may not know that the nation’s only World War One museum is located in Kansas City. MinnPost visited the museum and its accompanying memorial tower, and explains its roots: The original memorial was a local idea, and the complex is still a locally run point of civic pride. Congress gave it the “national” designation [...]
Filed under: facilities | 1 Comment »
Cities undertaking waterfront planning and development will be interested in an EPA publication released this past September on coastal and waterfront smart growth. Waterfronts are natural locations for parks and public spaces, for environmental, economic and social reasons. This book is a great guide as to how this and other issues such as walkability, historic [...]
Filed under: green infrastructure, planning | Tagged: waterfronts | Leave a Comment »
We’ve been looking into what can make healthy cities, and how park systems can better be a part of this. One feature that’s come up in several cities is the pedestrian/bike bridge. Cities across the country are adding these bridges as part of their trail and park networks – including the Stone Arch Bridge in [...]
Filed under: facilities, transportation | Tagged: bikes, trails, waterfronts | 2 Comments »
The playground group Kaboom! released a report earlier this month featuring 12 best practices in play from across the country. Entitled Play Matters, the report describes successful local initiatives to improve opportunities for play and draws conclusions about why they have worked. The group aimed to address three issues: 1) increasing the quantity of available [...]
Filed under: facilities | Tagged: playgrounds | 1 Comment »
Adrian Chen writes in Slate about the hobby of many today to go “graving,” pointing out the roots of the rural American cemetery: In 1831, the Massachusetts Horticultural Society founded Mount Auburn Cemetery just outside of Boston. The meticulously landscaped, 72-acre Mount Auburn was a major improvement over the typical urban graveyard of the time, [...]
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Revitalization starts with goats, or so it goes for Baltimore’s Druid Hill Park. The city’s Parks and People Foundation is undertaking a $10 million renovation of a decrepit mansion on the edge of the historic 745-acre park that will house an environmental learning center, the group’s main offices and trail connections to the rest of [...]
Filed under: green infrastructure, maintenance/management | Tagged: baltimore, sustainability | 2 Comments »
Should small projects be the big attention getters of those trying to remake their cities? Citing the success of Bryant Park in New York, Campus Martius in Detroit and Discvovery Green in Houston, Andrew Manshel suggests just that in City, saying: Small changes are appealing for many reasons. They’re cheap, for one thing. Also, what [...]
Filed under: economics, renewal | Leave a Comment »
