Urban Planning Blog

New Silk Roads (NSR) is a multi-faceted urban research project that explores the nascent urban conditions emerging in rapidly expanding and transforming Asian cities and regions. Through a nomadic practice, Kyong Park has conducted a series of sequenced expeditions through transitional regions and cities between Istanbul and Tokyo, documenting his encounters of the people and landscape through photography, video, and audio/video interviews of local and international experts. The project is an examination of territorial conditions that constructs the interconnected system of the contemporary Asian landscape. Approaching urban cities as an ecology of built systems, structures and institutions, NSR presents alternate understandings of urban research and theory through artistic practice.

[via email] Urban theorist and architect Kyong Park is speaking at a special event on March 2nd at the Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater (REDCAT) in downtown Los Angeles. Be there or be elsewhere.

As the capital of Uttar Pradesh, India’s most-populous state, Lucknow has attracted hundreds of thousands of migrants from rural areas, swelling the city’s population. Yet the city hasn’t completed any major new sewage infrastructure since before the country won independence in 1947. As much as 70% of residents don’t have sewage service, leaving much of the waste to flow directly into the main river, the Gomti, which has become a stinking cesspool.

Wall Street Journal has an article on India’s megacities with the tagline that they are choking India. But is that really what is happening in India? There is an inherent understanding that there is a conflicting dichotomy between urban and rural regions. But even if it does exist, quotes in the WSJ article itself contradict its byline:

Shami Shafi, a 35-year-old laborer in Lucknow, has seen his daily income drop by half in recent months to 50 rupees, or about $1, for carrying bags of potatoes and other goods in a local market. But “I’m not going back to my village,” he says. If work gets harder to find, “I’ll just go to another city.”

Atanu Dey, noted economist and widely-respected proponent of urban India points at the real culprits of urban problems.

In Camden, N.J., perhaps the poorest American city I regularly visit, I photograph what I call paired houses: two dwellings, side by side, one occupied, the other empty. Those living in the occupied home often have their lives made more difficult by what happens on the other side of a shared wall.

The effect of your neighbors homes on your property is a given in real estate. We tend to control what our neighbors do just because what they do affects us as well even though it doesn’t happen on your property. But what can we do when there are no neighbors to speak of (or to)? Camilo Jose Vergara photographs dwellings where one is occupied and other is not. He talks to the owners of the occupied homes about the dangers of vacancy next door.

Can we relate this to the justification of bailing out owners of foreclosed homes because the state of their foreclosed homes affects us all?

Are you a grassroots activist making a difference in your city? Are you a community leader, providing a voice for your neighbors? Are you heading an organization geared toward making change? We want to meet you! Next American City is announcing its first annual conference geared toward bringing together the next generation of urban leaders. From May 20-21, 2009, Next American City will be inviting 30 inspiring individuals from across the country to discuss our role in shaping the future of cities.

More details on Next American City Vanguard Conference. You need to fill out a form to be selected for participation. Be there or be elsewhere.

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.

As of the 2000 census, the Los Angeles region’s urbanized area had the highest population density in the nation. Yes, that was the word “highest,” not a smudge on your monitor. At 7,068 people per square mile, Los Angeles is considerably denser than New York-Newark

Eric Morris is busy smashing myths about Los Angeles urbanscape over at the Freakonomics blog.

[An] holistic approach to illuminating cities has come to be known as a lighting master plan. While few cities outside Europe have a plan currently in place, the steps involved in creating one help officials evaluate how the layers of lighting – street-level, marquees and directional signage, and monuments or cultural landmarks – should work together and be energy efficient.

An interesting look at how lighting is stepping out from the shadows of historic preservation and being used by urban planners to help improve a city’s character and livability.

Or are they leaner because they bike, walk, and use mass transit?

Americans, with the highest rate of obesity, were the least likely to walk, cycle or take mass transit, according to the study in a recent issue of the Journal of Physical Activity and Health. The study relied on each country’s own travel and health data.

Only 12 percent use active transportation in the United States — 9 percent walk, 1 percent ride a bike and 2 percent take a bus or train — while a quarter to a third are obese, the study said.

By comparison, 67 percent of commuters in Latvia, 62 percent in Sweden and 52 percent in the Netherlands either walk, bike or use mass transit. Latvia’s obesity rate is 14 percent, the Netherlands’ is 11 percent and Sweden’s is 9 percent.

Overall, “Europeans walk three times as far and cycle five times as far as Americans” [source].

The headlines of the article undermines the actual findings of the study which in fact highlight the lifestyle choices that are the primary reasons for the differences in addition to Europe’s more dense urbanscape. I’m sure cities like New York, Portland, and San Francisco see significantly higher rates of walking and cycling compared to other cities in the U.S. The United States is more heterogenous than most European countries who have had a longer and continued history of social interaction and more interactive urban living.

Amidst all the hype and talk about China’s oh-so-beautiful capital, little is known about entire ‘ugly’ neighborhoods hidden behind temporary walls. Would this really work in a real democracy?

The Los Angeles City Council has passed an ordinance prohibiting construction of new fast-food restaurants in a 32-square-mile area inhabited by 500,000 low-income people. Most will argue against this ban as a denial of food choice to people who can most afford it. Health risks notwithstanding, I too hadn’t expected the U.S. to pass such a choice-restricting ordinance [source].

Residents of Detroit will not appreciate calling their city an urban wasteland. Unfortunately due to the downturn in the manufacturing economy on this side of the pond, the city bears obvious signs of neglect and rising incidence of abandonment. Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre photograph the ‘ruins of Detroit’ through a series of photo essays in contemporary ruins and urban archeology.

Continuing on our theme of abandonment, photographer Craig Ferguson features images of an abandoned hotel/housing development in the small town of San-zhr on the north coast of Taiwan. If you are bemused by the pod-like structures, Craig heightens our interest by narrating the ghost myths that surround these strange-looking structures. I wonder how much does such myths influence abandonment of otherwise perfectly safe and livable structures? Can such settlements be saved in the future?

Australia is a continent by itself albeit the smallest one yet

“Eighty percent of Australians live within 80 miles of the sea; 50 percent of the country’s houses sit less than 8 miles from a beach” [source].

Isn’t that amazing? People definitely love living near the sea. The United States coastlines also house the majority of the country’s population; so does India and China. It definitely makes you think of the impact global warming will have on the ensuing rise in sea levels.

Without zoning our cities would be denser, more eco-friendly, cheaper to live in, more able to produce economies of agglomeration, and more immigrants would benefit from American prosperity [source].

Tyler Cowen tries to understand the role of zoning in promoting urban density and makes the above presumption. Except it isn’t always true. Houston, one of the largest cities in the U.S. has no zoning per se (has highly restrictive deed restrictions though) but yet is one of the sprawling cities in the nation. It has no downtown to be proud of and although high-rise condos are springing up inside the beltway, growth outside the ring far outstrips that trend. Also, as some commenters in the above-linked post mention, Houston is unique in the sense that high energy costs means the Houston economy is doing well which leads to more commute times.

On libertarian grounds, it helps to understand more about zoning and it isn’t necessarily one-size-fits-all strategy. As another commenter points out, zoning can vary from being simply designations for land use to micro-managing growth by monitoring every little change in structures. If lack of zoning results in a chaotic urbanscape like Houston, I rather prefer some form of zoning.