Category: Public Engagement

Sustainability: What’s in a word?

Scott Doyon
Scott Doyon Twitter Instagram Facebook
The places we inhabit are rarely if ever arbitrary. They’re the products of intention. Personal. Economic. Environmental. Religious. We choose for ourselves, individually and collectively, the kind of places we want and -- through leadership, policy, investment, advocacy, action and, at times, inaction -- those places... Continue Reading
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Comp Planning Off the Beaten Path

Guest Contributor
Guest Contributor
I tend to take the road less traveled. For whatever reason, conventional approaches have never interested me. And the process I came up with for my city’s comp plan was no different. Why? Well, first off, conventionalism leads to..... "BORING!" (Yell it out like no one can hear you!) (more…) Continue Reading
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The Pendulum Shifts: Expertise is now suspect

Scott Doyon
Scott Doyon Twitter Instagram Facebook
Slow and steady progress is built on an ongoing series of course corrections. Subtle variations in direction based on new variables, new challenges, and new innovations. As times and circumstances change, some things inevitably become less productive. Or effective. Or conducive to contemporary sensibilities. So, we... Continue Reading
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Bryan Jones: Portrait of a Municipal Official Takin’ It to the Street

Howard Blackson
Howard Blackson Twitter Instagram
Since meeting Chuck Marohn, I've advocated for his rational Strong Towns approach to reforming our inefficient auto-oriented infrastructure system. Chuck's message to focus infrastructure decisions on their long-term return on investment is radical because he is a Traffic Engineer. Honestly, the most frustrating and irrational... Continue Reading
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Ways to Fail at Form-Based Codes 02: Make it Mandatory Citywide

Hazel Borys
Hazel Borys Twitter Facebook LinkedIn
A while back, we talked about Connections, Community, and the Science of Loneliness, and how our laws have separated not just building uses -- residential, commercial, retail, civic -- but have also separated people. And that separation has led to a spate of ills -- ill health, ill economies, and ill environments. We looked... Continue Reading
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Next Urbanism Lab 05: The Value of Visuals

Howard Blackson
Howard Blackson Twitter Instagram
In simple terms, a plan is an adopted statement of policy, in the form of text, maps, and/or graphics, used to guide public and private actions that affect our future built environment. A plan provides decision makers with the information they need to make informed decisions affecting the long-range social, economic,... Continue Reading
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Ways to Fail at Form-Based Codes 01: Don’t Articulate a Vision

Hazel Borys
Hazel Borys Twitter Facebook LinkedIn
Last week, we were talking about how the form of a neighborhood either provides gathering places that build social capital and local resilience, or else makes for a lonely, disconnected, nowhere. Some towns and cities are using form-based codes to help reconnect people with each other and the places they call home. At... Continue Reading
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Planning for People

Scott Doyon
Scott Doyon Twitter Instagram Facebook
It wasn’t intentional but a look back at the past few weeks of PlaceShakers reveals that we’ve been working a bit of a theme. It began when I wrote about the failure of planners to ask meaningful questions, and how that not only sets the stage for unmet community expectations, but devalues the art and craft of... Continue Reading
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It’s not me, it’s you (and you, and you)

Guest Contributor
Guest Contributor
I had the pleasure of presenting at the New Partners for Smart Growth conference last week in Kansas City, Missouri with Nathan Norris, Chad Emerson and Eliza Harris. Nathan assembled an entertaining panel (100 points to anyone who can identify the former Broadway star) to present the top 20 municipal placemaking mistakes. Continue Reading
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Corrosion of Community: Impossible standards as an excuse for inaction

Scott Doyon
Scott Doyon Twitter Instagram Facebook
Community fascinates me. Not just the idea of it, but the dynamics, and how those dynamics end up stoking or choking our collective efforts to be together. Having worked in a lot of different places, I’ve had opportunity to study community in action, at both its strongest and weakest, in all different contexts -- economic,... Continue Reading
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