Posts Tagged ‘Hazel Borys’
Rural Preservation: One more reason to care about cities
We talk a lot on PlaceShakers about urbanism, but less about one of our big drivers: rural preservation. Compact development patterns could have dramatically decreased the 41 million acres of rural land that the US lost to development from 1982 to 2007. That’s almost the size of the State of Washington. Clearly, we can’t keep…
Read MoreGathering Places: Providers of comfort and joy
To wish you the happiest of holidays, I’d like to share some recent thoughts about the importance of gathering places both in the public and private realm, particularly as it relates to children, solace, and song. In celebration of the season, those places — when well planned and cultivated — become particularly poignant. Take private…
Read MoreWilmington, NC: Active living and running buddies
Ever have trouble going out for a run? Know how much easier that gets when your good friend hits the road with you? Partly because you’re talking, partly because you’re just happy to see each other. This week in downtown Wilmington, North Carolina, doing some rezoning work for a community just across the river, I…
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Creative Placemaking:
From here until now
We’ve been talking for the last few weeks about how happiness and health are generated or depleted by the way our neighbourhoods, towns, cities, and rural landscapes are developed – here, here, and here. We’ve been discussing these ideas in national terms, looking at indices and trends. During this study, I couldn’t help but reflect…
Read MoreUrban Happiness Index Revisited
A couple of weeks ago I floated some ideas on a national Urban Happiness Index. Similar to Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index and Bhutan’s Gross National Happiness index, which is being contemplated by China, an Urban Happiness Index would tie satisfaction and wellbeing to the form of the built environment. Perhaps an alternative idea would be the…
Read MoreCan Cities Help You Forget Your Troubles? C’mon, Get Happy!
In most physical and policy planning, triple bottom line benchmarks focus on environment and economy, and tend to skim over the subject of society. That’s probably because urban design impacts are much easier to measure with respect to profit and planet than they are with respect to people. Any good MBA professor preaches, “What gets measured gets done.” For…
Read MoreForm-Based Codes? A picture’s worth a thousand words
If the attendees list of Placemaking@Work, my monthly webinar series, is any indicator, we’re increasingly united in our desire to improve the places we call home, wherever those places might be. Over time, I’ve had participants from Hawaii to Russia, from British Columbia to Saudi Arabia, and many points in between. The common thread among…
Read MoreOde to Summer Cycling: Winnipeg insights from the trails
As summer wraps up, I’m feeling grateful for the investment of my city and those I’ve visited this season to make getting around on a bike a more pleasant and productive experience. While we still have some significant cycling infrastructure gaps to fill on this continent, we’ve come a long way. This blog’s video is…
Read MorePlaces that Pay: Benefits of placemaking
When we updated and republished the Codes Study last week, I was deeply encouraged by all of you who expressed support. Thank you! From Rome to Finland to the UAE and across North America, I enjoyed the conversations and online exchanges regarding this group of towns and cities that are using character-based land use laws…
Read MoreOttawa: Lessons from great Canadian urbanism
Ottawa celebrates Canada’s cultural mosaic, its urbanism full of delight and engagement. As with most North American cities, its oldest neighbourhoods have positive lessons for urban design today. This is because much of what makes Ottawa character delightful is illegal in the development bylaws that govern its more auto-centric outskirts. On a recent visit, I…
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