Every week, we bring you the latest news in placemaking, landscape architecture, the nature-mental health link, and much more. Check back each week for new roundups and items.
Can America’s Greenest City Also Be a Shale Oil Powerhouse?
The evidence of Philadelphia’s not-too-distant past as an industrial powerhouse is apparent to anyone who drives by its 14,000-acre oil refinery on the banks of the Schuylkill River. Less than a year ago, this sprawling complex, the oldest continuously running refinery in the country, was on the verge of shutting down. Now, it sees future promise in a recent shale gas boom in Southeastern Pennsylvania. But the city’s manufacturing heyday is long gone, as the main drivers of the local economy now lie in education and medicine, while Mayor Michael Nutter has implemented the ambitious Greenworks plan in an effort to make Philly the greenest city in America.
Ten Ways to Transform Cities through Placemaking & Public Spaces
In 2011, UN-HABITAT and Project for Public Spaces (PPS) signed a 5-year cooperative agreement to aspire to raise international awareness of the importance of public space in cities, to foster a lively exchange of ideas among partners and to educate a new generation of planners, designers, community activists and other civic leaders about the benefits of what they call the Placemaking methodology.
Temporary Can Still Be Valuable
Richard Florida, the innovative thinker about cities, once said that economic development is about the hundreds and thousands of small things done at the local level. In a few examples of those small things that together have a big impact, Marisa Novara, Metropolitan Planning Council (MPC), brought out a set of fascinating temporary projects that show how to make vibrant, valuable places in the left-over spaces in between buildings, in all those vacant, abandoned lots that dot cities.
How Nature Can Help Us Heal from Grief
The fact is we are surrounded by dying each and every day. Every time we step out in our yard, we are seeing an abundance of life. But we are also seeing the results of the death, decay and rebirth that is inherent in the cycles of life. It makes intuitive sense, then, that a closer connection to nature may help us better come to terms with death and the grieving process. That help may take many forms, and with debate still raging over whether grief should be treated as depression, any early restorative and healing interventions should be considered an important tool in preventing more severe problems from developing that may require medication.
