From the Shrinking Cities project, there’s a great video (without audio) on change in shrinking cities from Detroit to Manchester/Liverpool, UK to Leipzig and the Essen area in Germany. The simulation shows that these regions are spreading out almost as much as they are shrinking. This seems particularly the case with Detroit and Manchester/Liverpool. In [...]
Filed under: international, renewal | Tagged: detroit | Leave a Comment »
Winter does not have to be a time for cold weather parks to shut down. Often, a lively winter park can help bring vibrancy to the city around it. Here are five items (especially for center city parks) worth considering for the cold: 1. Ice Skating. Detroit’s Campus Martius Park is a prime example of [...]
Filed under: facilities, programming | Leave a Comment »
With the holidays in full swing, we’ll be posting a bit less until next week. Happy Holidays!
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The view of urban parks from policy leaders of the late 1800s shows the differences and similarities with how these spaces might be viewed today. Through the gift of Google, we have access to an American Statistical Association journal article by E.R.L. Gould, a respected economist and sociologist on issues such as parks, public health [...]
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Can a new Detroit be grounded on setting aside some of its vacant land as new natural areas? In making a case for what could help bring Detroit back from its current economic doldrums, Bruce Katz and Jennifer Bradley of the Brookings Institution offer some ideas in The New Republic, including one that involves a [...]
Filed under: renewal | Tagged: detroit, vacant land | Leave a Comment »
Agreement on role of conservancy in Buffalo’s parks reached. (WNED) Bicycle Highways considered in the Year in Ideas. (NYT) The debate over Seattle Alaskan Way Viaduct… will a tunnel be built? (WSJ) Former NYC Parks Commissioner Paul Hoving passes away and is remembered by a former journalist. (City Room)
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We just finished reading a new book about Baltimore’s first large public park, Druid Hill Park. Many may not have heard of this 745-acre greensward just north of the city’s downtown. In Druid Hill Park: the heart of historic Baltimore, authors Eden Unger Bowditch and Anne Draddy give great insight into how cities and their [...]
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With the Copenhagen summit taking place this week in Denmark, it’s a good time to highlight the merits of urban parks in combating global climate change. In fact, in a session this week there on reducing carbon through public transit, an official from Portland’s Tri-Met spoke of how cities need to be “places where people [...]
Filed under: international, planning | Tagged: climate change | 9 Comments »
A newly-formed group out of Atlanta is proposing that the federal government assist local communities by taking troubled commercial real estate properties off the hands of banks and convert them into public parks. An article in the Atlanta Journal Constitution describes how Michael Messner, a Georgia Tech alum commissioned the school’s Research Institute to investigate [...]
Filed under: economics, renewal, stimulus funds | Tagged: federal policy | 6 Comments »
We wrote before on how small urban parks can help draw families into compact neighborhoods, specifically mentioning the great parks of Portland’s Pearl District. And now we learn that Portland Public Schools is looking to create an elementary school in the Pearl District because people like it so much. As DJC reports, “Developers are realizing [...]
Filed under: planning | Tagged: families, portland | 1 Comment »
