Tag: Cities


Upcoming Event: PARK(ing) Day at a Meter Near You

When you’ve successfully searched through your car, purse, and pockets for all remaining change to feed a parking meter, that small plot of land is officially yours for the time you have paid for. On PARK(ing) Day, Friday, September 20, you are encouraged to think outside the parking spot and not just use it for…

Open Voices News Roundup: September 9

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. Bring Down The Barriers! Five Causes of Nature-Deficit Disorder; Five Challenges for the New Nature Movement “In the 21st Century, our Great Work – as Thomas Berry…

Recommended Reading: The Benefits of Urban Beekeeping

The increasing movement of people to urban city centers is also bringing other demographic shifts. This includes the business of beekeeping, which is growing in popularity on rooftop gardens in urban areas. The rise of city-dwelling bees is also producing a symbiotic relationship with their human neighbors. Bees are essential for pollination in urban environments,…

Recommended Reading: Growing benefits of Green Walls

There are many innovative ways to introduce more greenspace into the concrete jungles of urban areas. Though there may not always be enough land to cultivate a community garden, landscape architects are starting to think more vertically. Green walls, or a vertical garden, can have a positive impact on cities from improving the aesthetic to…

Recommended Reading: Not Just Birds Chirping in Central Park

A lot can be conveyed in 140 characters. Twitter allows for people to express their thoughts and emotions quickly and broadcast them in real time. This provides us with a large amount of untapped data, which the New England Complex Systems Institute used to map the change of sentiment of New Yorkers near different city…

Learning a Love of Nature in the City: A Q&A with Sara Hobel

Open Voices is taking the opportunity to get to know some of the different team members from our National Awards grantee projects. You can find previous interviews with other team members here. Building on her previous experiences as an advocate for the benefits of nature, such as leading up the Urban Park Rangers in New…

Trees in Cities: A Breath of Fresh Air

It’s a fact: living in a city or other urban environment means dealing with pollution. But while it may seem unavoidable, there are untapped ways to improve the air quality of our cities. New research from a team including David Nowak and Robert Hoehn from the USDA Forest Service and Satoshi Hirabayashi and Allison Bodine…

Open Voices News Roundup: August 12

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. Drs. Oz and Roizen: “Green prescriptions” for Busy People “Getting up close and personal with Mother Nature yields big mind-body benefits. A walk in the park is…

Recommended Reading: Mounds of Trash into Treasured Landscape

The large Freshkills landfill used to be one of the less flattering, yet defining features of Staten Island. But that is all going to change in the next few years, and we can already begin to see the improvements, as the expansive 2,200 acres transitions into a park with the help of James Corner Field…

Open Voices News Roundup: August 5

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. How Better Urban Design Makes Us Healthier, Happier, and Sexier “Cities have policies that sound good on paper, calling for mixed-use development and walkable neighborhoods, but they…

"Today I became someone different. I made something very special come alive. A place where we could sit, think, get outside and get our minds together."

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