Urban Planning Blog

The nation’s sprawling suburbs may have been a good place to grow up, but they’re a tough place to grow old. Here’s how towns are beginning to ‘retrofit’ their neighborhoods—and what your community might look like in the future [source].

Interesting on how changing demographics are making retrofitting suburbia almost necessary. However, this could also mean increased focus on developing communities in alternative locations with different characteristics. Housing coming a full circle?

In a future where limited natural resources will force us to find better solutions for density and efficiency, what will become of the cul-de-sacs, cookie-cutter tract houses and generic strip malls that have long upheld the diffuse infrastructure of suburbia? How can we redirect these existing spaces to promote sustainability, walkability, and community? It’s a problem that demands a visionary design solution

Dwell Magazine and Inhabitat.com is hosting the first ever Reburbia competition: a design competition dedicated to re-envisioning the suburbs and have just announced the finalists.

Dozens of US cities may have entire neighbourhoods bulldozed as part of drastic “shrink to survive” proposals being considered by the Obama administration to tackle economic decline.

It is not as ominous as it sounds but is based on a experiment radical nevertheless that focuses on concentrating the dwindling population of dying cities into a smaller more viable area.

via Telegraph.

If you jumble together the five most popular American metro areas — Denver, San Diego, Seattle, Orlando and Tampa — you get an image of the American Dream circa 2009. These are places where you can imagine yourself with a stuffed garage — filled with skis, kayaks, soccer equipment, hiking boots and boating equipment. These are places you can imagine yourself leading an active outdoor lifestyle.

David Brooks doesn’t think that Americans like the urban core.

Starting with a barren asphalt parking lot, I love this visualization of the walkable design for a shopping district in Glenview, IL [via]. It is all about transforming the character of a place. If only more designs were presented this way, convincing people wouldn’t be so difficult.

Another example of how small (and inexpensive) changes in a Memphis neighborhood can go a long way in rejuvenating community life.

One in every ten people lived in urban areas a century ago. Now, for the first time ever, most people live in cities. By 2050, the United Nations projects, almost three-quarters of the world’s population will call urban areas home. The majority of this growth is centered in struggling, developing countries of the Global South, but cities in developed (or Global North) countries face increasingly complex challenges as well.

To help manage and plan for this accelerating urbanization, the Rockefeller Foundation convened an exceptional group of urbanists–leading policy makers and government officials, finance experts, urban researchers, members of civil society organizations, and other innovators–for a Global Urban Summit at the Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center. This book shares their diverse perspectives, creative approaches, and urgent agenda for harnessing the vast opportunities of urbanization for a better world.

Order this book free.

Pew offers a list of “Magnet States” and “Sticky States,” those that draw people from elsewhere, and those that keep their native sons. Turns out that D.C. is the least sticky state, and New York is the least magnetic. Nevada is the most magnetic, with almost 90 percent of its residents from elsewhere, and Texas is the stickiest — three quarters of adults were born there and will never, ever leave.

From Pew Research Center’s report on American Mobility on Movers, Stayers, the places they move to, and reasons they move for.

George W. Bush has found a new dig for his post-Presidential years. Nope, he is not headed back to his Crawford Ranch. He purchased a 2.07 million dollar estate in the Preston Hollow district of Dallas, TX. You can see the home here. It is a palatial home (10141 Daria Place, Dallas TX) with 8,501 square feet of living space and site on 1.13 acres.

Apparently, the Preston Hollow Elementary School was accused of being in violation of Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision that set forth desegregation in U.S. schools…in 2006 [source]. Of course, the district is one of the most exclusive in Texas and is home to several other celebrities like Presidential candidate Ross Perot and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban among other energy and sports magnates.

Apologies for not posting lately. Fervent activity on the dissertation front and professional pursuits have kept me busy. Not to mention, the very exciting Presidential race with umpteen polls to sift through have provided much fodder for thoughts on survey methodology and poll aggregation.

Among the plethora of polling companies and results, I highly recommend Five Thirty Eight, an excellent compendium on daily tracking polls and excellent accounts of the ground game of the two campaigns. If you’ve been reading this blog for a while now, it should not be difficult to guess whom I’m rooting for. Go out and vote now!

Colleges could maximize their real estate and financial position if they can bring in boomers as full or part-time residents. This is true not only in metropolitan areas but in broad parts of the country including the rural south, Midwest and places like Pennsylvania. Many boomers do not view retirement as a permanent vacation but as a place to start a “second life.”

Joel Kotin writes on the need to reinvent college towns to take advantage of emerging demographic trends that are highlighted by an increasingly vital aging population.

DNA India points us to tiny hamlets within the suburbs of densely populated Mumbai, India. Mumbai was a cluster of seven islands with several villages not more than 70 years ago (my ancestors hail from one of them). I’m glad to see some remnants of those humble roots but these will not last long.

Christopher Hitchens makes an argument for preserving that quirky sense of place and cultural hotspots that make a city what it is. As he mentions, London, Paris, and San Francisco have recognized the need for its Bohemia and it is time for Manhattan to wake up and smell the coffee.

New Urbanists believe in the power of physical design (of cities and neighborhoods) in influencing user behavior. John Thackara and Sunil Abraham talk to Cluster Magazine about the dynamism of cities in fostering democratic perceptions and influencing user behavior [hat tip: Jinal Shah]:

Tolerance of everything and openness to everybody are not universally accepted principles. This is one reason why globalization and migration have introduced new complications. Most religions advocate tolerance in theory, but organised religion can be oppressive in practice.

I’m glad they recognize the limitations imposed by differentiation of cultural and religious norms within civilizations in creating democratic cities and unless users themselves demand certain freedoms, it will be hard to impose such on them. But at the same time, unless you expose them to certain freedoms that we take for granted they’ll not know what they are missing out on. Considering the current conflict in Iraq which also faces similar dilemmas, can the nature of rebuilding their cities help any?

In America, driving habits probably aren’t as inelastic as they are thought to be. This graphic [source] definitely shows consumers reacting to the oil price hike by cutting down on their driving. This summer given the gas prices is going to be a low-traffic one. We canceled our summer vacation and instead bought a Wii. Will continued rise in oil prices or even stagnation at this level modify our lifestyles and in the long-term create dense and walkable neighborhoods?

Noah Radford, US Director for Space Syntax and PhD candidate at MIT presents an evidence-based approach to the planning and design of buildings and cities using computer modeling technologies.

His talk as part of a series on technology, people, place, and space covers documenting the sense of place in today’s cities. I’m sure Google’s StreetView layers has added rich information not just with use of technology but also by harnessing its reach as a primary information provider of real-time mapping solutions. I was particularly impressed with use of innovative visualization techniques to depict spatial relationships in our activities (e.g.cell phone usage). This graphic of population concentrations in America in Time Magazine is one such example.