Category: Environment | Sustainability

The Science is In: The healthiest neighborhoods are both walkable and green

Kaid Benfield
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Most of us, most of the time, don’t make much connection between place – the neighborhoods where we live, work, and play – and our health. Not unless we’re thinking of such obvious local health concerns as an outbreak of infectious disease in the community, serious levels of pollution or toxicity nearby, or... Continue Reading
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Climate Change: Making the most of failure

Scott Doyon
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Though it surely happens in sports at all levels, there’s one phenomenon that’s particularly common in youth sports: A game in which you’re so outmatched, so fundamentally inferior to your opponent that the outcome, minus Divine or supernatural intervention, is essentially guaranteed. You’re going to lose. ... Continue Reading
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Moving Beyond “Smart Growth” to a More Holistic City Agenda

Kaid Benfield
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Originally published almost four years ago and every bit as relevant today. I have spent most of the last twenty years working on an agenda grounded in, for lack of a better phrase, “smart growth.”  That agenda basically holds that our regions must replace suburban sprawl with more compact forms of growth and... Continue Reading
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Year End Reflections: Gratitude for Livable Places

Hazel Borys
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As the year draws to a close, reflection is an important rite of passage: celebrating, mourning, learning, and letting go. 2017 has not been the sort of year in which gratitude is the obvious emotion of choice on many levels. Yet the act of searching for what is beneficial, transformative, and noteworthy helps process... Continue Reading
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Places that Pay: Benefits of placemaking v2

Hazel Borys
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“Reconciliation is making peace with reality, our ideals, and the gap in between,” via Her Honour, Janice C. Filmon, Lieutenant Governor of Manitoba. Much of our work here at PlaceMakers is about redirecting the trajectory of where we are headed with the targets needed to ensure the wellness of our environment, equity,... Continue Reading
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CNU Climate Summit Highlights

Hazel Borys
Hazel Borys Twitter Facebook LinkedIn
A group of concerned urban designers, architects, ecologists, and economists gathered last week in Alexandria, Virginia, to discuss resilience at the CNU Climate Summit. Unable to join, I reached a few participants by phone and followed the Twitter hashtag, #CNUClimate, to hear highlights of the presentations and working... Continue Reading
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Ten Key Ingredients of a Green and Healthy Community

Kaid Benfield
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If someone asks what a green community, or a healthy one, means to you, what comes to mind? I’m willing to bet that for most people it is the visible and tangible aspects: a lovely city park, perhaps, or mature street trees, or bicycle lanes on a city street. If you’re a bit more wonky, you might also think of access... Continue Reading
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A Hurricane Response Lesson: Disrupt the cycle of futility

Ben Brown
Ben Brown
Those of us who spent extended time in coastal Mississippi and Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina in 2005 are watching the weather and reading the news with a serious case of Groundhog Day. It’s rescue-recriminate-rebuild-repeat. Over and over again. (more…) Continue Reading
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Hurricane Harvey Provides a Sober Reminder that Resilience is about Mitigation and Adaptation

Hazel Borys
Hazel Borys Twitter Facebook LinkedIn
Most of us faraway bystanders are observing Houston’s response to Hurricane Harvey with concern at the devastation as well as encouragement at the stories of compassion. With sympathy to the current human suffering from Harvey, we are wishing Houstonians continued strength, fortitude, and safe passage this week. No amount... Continue Reading
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Why City Issues are Also Environmental Issues

Kaid Benfield
Kaid Benfield Twitter Instagram Facebook LinkedIn
Cities need nature, as I've written in an earlier essay. But what is not so well understood is that nature also needs cities. There is simply no way we can protect and maintain a beautiful, thriving, natural and rural landscape outside of cities if we continue to spread highways and suburban sprawl across... Continue Reading
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