The Good City is a series of short, vivid essays on what Allan Jacobs, former San Francisco planning director and Berkeley professor, has seen or done in locales across the world.
Sustainable design, participatory planning, and a few lessons from Europe helped some Santa Monica residents breathe new life into their local streetscape.
While we’ve made great advances in the civil rights discussion, our suburban development bylaws continue to make it harder for people to connect in a constructive way.
The Trayvon Martin tragedy is partly about what happens to a gated development when residents find themselves on the same side of the gate as people they fear.
A recently formed coalition, Livability Solutions, has received a grant from the US Environmental Protection Agency that will help it give technical assistance to communities that face common development problems such as outdated zoning codes and a lack of consensus on where and how to grow.
The Ohkay Owingeh Tribe and Pueblo in New Mexico has returned to its roots with an award-winning, mixed-income housing project based on traditional Native forms.
Residents of neighborhoods with a central core of shops and services – a pattern typically found in older, traditional communities – walk nearly three times more often than do residents of whose nearest shops lie along a major arterial road.
The true value of urbanism and technology occurs when we are able to physically connect and share information, resources, ideas, and empathy with each other.
Nothing is more important than listening – and really hearing – the voices of concern and protest. But it’s not enough. Somebody at some point has to turn the to-do list into action steps.
Residents of neighborhoods with a central core of shops and services – a pattern typically found in older, traditional communities – walk nearly three times more often than do residents of whose nearest shops lie along a major arterial road.
A study of Orenco Station, a large traditional neighborhood development in Hillsboro, Oregon, backs claims that new urban design fosters physical activity and adds to the richness of community life.
In a survey reaching half the town’s households, 63 percent of the residents reported using their cars less than they did in their previous community. Only 8 percent said they drive more, and 29 percent reported no change in their driving habits.
