Community

News and resources relating to urban form, social interaction, and community life

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Mother’s big helper

It’s true, says a mother who lives in a mixed-use walkable community: Good urban design makes parenting easier.

Wed, May 2nd 2012 3:58pm
Pub shed: Mapping your five minute stumble distance

Here's a novel use of ped shed analysis for those of us who enjoy throwing back a few pints every now and again.

9 Tue, May 8th 2012 11:44am
New book: The Good City

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.

Thu, Apr 19th 2012 1:18pm
Santa Monica gets its first ‘sustainable living street’

Sustainable design, participatory planning, and a few lessons from Europe helped some Santa Monica residents breathe new life into their local streetscape.

Thu, Apr 19th 2012 8:06am
Building community with live-work design

An interview with architect Thomas Dolan, author of the new book Live-Work Planning and Design: Zero-Commute Housing.

1 Thu, Apr 19th 2012 1:06pm
How gates champion a 'bunker mentality'

This NYT commentary piece echoes many of the points made in the March 22 Better! Cities & Towns blog Gates, sprawl, and 'walking while black.’

Fri, Mar 30th 2012 9:07am
Trespassers will be shot

A Dhiru Thadani drawing on the Trayvon Martin case.

Wed, Mar 28th 2012 8:43am
Life as I’d like it to be

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.

1 Wed, Mar 28th 2012 8:42am
Gates, sprawl, and 'walking while black'

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.

28 Mon, Apr 9th 2012 8:31am
Livibility Solutions recieves EPA grant

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Agency that will help it give technical assistance to communities that face common development problems such as outdated zoning codes and a lack of consensus on where and how to grow.

Thu, Mar 8th 2012 3:33pm
A portable Kunstler in your pocket

The "tragic comedy of suburban sprawl" is dissected with humor and uncompromising candor in a new book.

Wed, Mar 7th 2012 3:57pm
The Social Network: Community edition

Are we responding correctly to the contemporary human condition with the mixed-use, walkable neighborhoods we design and code for today?

1 Thu, Mar 8th 2012 2:15am
From the mayor's office (part 2)

I want to redirect your efforts from economic hunting to economic gardening. I want to grow jobs locally, not import them.

1 Wed, Feb 22nd 2012 5:42pm
A new Native American village based on tradition helps a Tribe reclaim its sustainable roots

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.

4 Sat, Feb 18th 2012 2:41pm
A doctor's passion for healthy communities

Review of Designing Healthy Communities, by Richard J. Jackson with Stacy Sinclair, Jossey-Bass, 2011, 261 pp., $50 hardcover.

Tue, Jan 31st 2012 11:48am
Why decline is not normal

The normal course of human development is for successful cities to continue to mature incrementally over time.

7 Thu, Jan 19th 2012 1:01pm
When shops and services are within walking distance, we walk more and drive less

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.

4 Mon, Feb 6th 2012 8:31pm
The next urbanism

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.

4 Mon, Jan 23rd 2012 11:39am
Getting beyond ‘mad as hell’: Here’s hoping for a civic afterlife

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.

1 Mon, Dec 19th 2011 3:44am
Can grassroots planning save what's best of a rapidly suburbanizing community?
Residents of Newton County, Georgia, started from scratch and learned as they went along — eventually finding the right kinds of help and resources.
1 Fri, Dec 9th 2011 5:53pm
Resiliency: It’s who ya know.

Did the leisurely lure of the suburbs kill our sense of community?

1 Tue, Dec 6th 2011 2:24pm
Cohousing evolves into “ecovillages”

McCamant and Durrett, architects based in Nevada City, California, have designed and developed more than 50 cohousing communities across the US.

Mon, Nov 28th 2011 4:23pm
Deeply lived-in plazas

Edited by Chris Wilson and Stefanos Polyzoides
Photographs by Miguel Gandert
Trinity University Press, 2011, 338 pp. $45 hardcover

Mon, Nov 28th 2011 4:01pm
It takes a walkable village

How New Urbanism makes parenting easier

1 Wed, Nov 23rd 2011 6:20am
Sustainability is the strongest defense, military experts say

A professor with a bold plan to prepare an Ohio college town for peak oil and global warming has captured the interest of some military experts.

10 Thu, Nov 17th 2011 6:16pm

Research

When shops and services are within walking distance, we walk more and drive less

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.

4 Mon, Feb 6th 2012 8:31pm
Commuting isn't the only measure of a good community

Michael Mehaffy addresses criticism of Orenco Station, a new urban community in Hillsboro, Oregon.

Wed, Oct 19th 2011 2:07pm
Walkable communities are healthier and happier

Interviews in 20 New Hampshire neighborhoods found sizable benefits to living in places where many activities can be reached on foot.

Wed, Dec 15th 2010 5:51pm