Every week, we bring you the latest news in placemaking, landscape architecture and urban planning, the nature-mental health link, and much more. Check back each week for new roundups and items.
Walkability, Quality Public Spaces Can Be Created in Communities of Any Size
“Communities of any size can create celebrated public spaces. I know it’s true because I’ve seen it first hand – this month I had the pleasure of participating in the recent Smart Growth Tour put on by the Walkable and Livable Communities Institute. During this tour, I got to explore some of Colorado’s Front Range communities that have made major investments to become more walkable and livable…Walkability isn’t a rural versus urban issue – wherever vehicle speeds are high, wherever we don’t see other people walking, wherever the buildings all look the same – there is a starkness that detracts from the community. This can happen anywhere. And no matter how small your community, you can afford to address the problem. In fact, you can’t afford not to.”
From Vacant Lot to Garden Spot: LA-Based Nonprofit Greens Up Blighted Land
“Los Angeles-headquartered From Lot to Spot is true to its name—the organization transforms unused, vacant lots into vibrant spots of green space and parkland. According to founder and executive director Viviana Franco, From Lot to Spot has spearheaded several urban and community garden initiatives throughout Southern California, including several in Riverside. Franco says Riverside hired From Lot to Spot as a partner in building up the gardens, specifically in capacity building and leadership processes. These gardens include Tequesquite Community Garden, Arlanza Community Garden , and East Side Community Garden at Emerson Elementary School.”
An Area the Size of the European Union is Used for Urban Agriculture
“Amongst discussions about sustainable or regenerative cities the subject of food supply is often forgotten, and yet food comprises 23% of the average ecological footprint of a person in the developed world. We are in the age of Petropolis, of globalisation, where the carbon and other impacts of food supply are magnified as a result of the distance it travels, the mode of travel, and the heavy use of phosphates, nitrates and other aspects of intensive agriculture. In the age of Agropolis, cities supplied much of their own food from their hinterlands, which also were fed by the ‘night soil’ bought out during the daytime to fertilise the land…A study published in the November issue of the journal Environmental Research Letters establishes that an area greater than the size of the European Union is being used already around and within cities worldwide to grow food.”
City of Portland Will Take ‘Deep Dive’ into Data to Assess Neighborhood Greenway System
“As cities from Seattle to St. Louis to Louisville work to duplicate Portland’s ‘neighborhood greenway’ concept on their residential streets, Portland is giving its trend-setting system a closer look. A team of experts in the city’s transportation bureau will spend part of their time in the next few months looking closely at trends in how people use the system while biking, walking and driving. A public report is due in early 2015. City Active Transportation Division Manager Margi Bradway said Wednesday that the goal of this report, which she predicted will receive national attention once it’s complete, is to inform an upcoming policy conversation here in Portland about how best to keep improving the greenway system.”
