Category: Experience

David Byrne noted in last Sunday's NY Times that people get hooked on cycling because of pleasure, not health, money, or carbon footprint. "Emotional gratification trumps reason." Ben Brown agrees, using Byrne's "Stop Making Sense" as a blog title on the subject of community engagement and how special interest groups... Continue Reading

Just after the close of World War II, the last Great Migration in the United States -- the move from the city to the new suburbs -- began to emerge, fueled by new roads, low congestion, and modest energy costs. It was a new beginning, a chance to shake off the past, and it came complete with the promise of more privacy,... Continue Reading

Like my anniversary, family birthdays and selected holidays, the Congress for the New Urbanism is an annual ceremony that I faithfully attend. My lovely wife would confirm that I never question the necessary time and money spent to participate in the congresses. And, as expected, I thoroughly enjoyed my time at CNU 19... Continue Reading

PlaceShakers takes a very literal step off our comfortably beaten paths of urban design, zoning reform and community resiliency today to focus on, as the software industry calls it, the "end-user experience." Despite, or perhaps because of, having no vocational connection to placemaking at all, explorer / spelunker / observer... Continue Reading