July 2010
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Radical change on tap for Jersey City's Journal...
Radical change may be on the horizon for Jersey City’s Journal Square neighborhood.
“Journal Square [has a] vast potential to become a thriving neighborhood,” said John Becker, an architecture graduate student at the Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, who, along with his Housing Studio colleagues, prepared over 30 designs for public housing...
January 2010
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Meshing Hyperlocal News and Community Planning:...
Here are some terms that probably resonate pretty well in the mind of the average person:
Hyperlocal
New Media
Media democratization
Self-publishers
Aggregated content
Merely a few years ago, these terms were non-existent. Now, they’re inescapable, and to some, irritating. If you are passionate about the power of the new media, the constantly evolving opportunities that are...
December 2009
1 post
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On gentrification and digital
Look around your hamlet, village, town, city.
Unless you live in an Utopian world (and sorry, I seek authenticity, not a sterile, perfect environment), odds are that there’s a section of your community that is struggling and rough around the edges, yet is still probably populated by a hearty bunch of people that cherish their neighborhood and are weary of any outside influence. Perhaps...
November 2009
1 post
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Save Our Sprawl? Evidence Suggests A Smart Growth...
Low density housing, complete reliance on the automobile, isolation from goods and services, lack of recreational choices, and dull culture—all sprawl traits.
High density housing, multimodal transit choices, immersion in goods and services, overflowing recreational choices, and vibrancy—all urban traits.
Put the two traits side-by-side, show to one of my peers (highly educated, late...
October 2009
3 posts
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Wake Up, Local Government, and Supercharge Your...
It’s almost 2010, and everyone is on the internet. Your parents? Check. Your five year old godson? Check. That little coffee shop down the street? Check. Your grandparents? Check.
How about your local government? Check.
Odds are, your municipality has, at best, a minimal presence. But how about a website laden with multimedia: social networking tools, pictures, relevant information, and...
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Once again, San Francisco's city government is...
San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom formally announced today—via a post on Mashable, a leading social media blog—plans to open an application programming interface (API) for @SF311, the innovative initiative that allows the city’s tech savvy residents to report maintenance concerns via Twitter. (I covered the June announcement here.)
Dubbed the “Open 311 Platform,” the...
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Social Web Developers: Urban Transformers
My overarching focus on this blog has always been to cover and promote innovations in the diverse urban planning field.
As a catchall profession, urban planning tenets are applicable to all facets of daily life—above all else, as planners, our primary concern is to create healthy, sustainable, and happy communities. (If you’re somewhat perplexed about the planning practice, please...
September 2009
1 post
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New Jersey State Atlas: Making the Inaccessible...
We are well aware that the internet streamlines our lives on a daily basis. Whether it’s looking for a movie on Moviefone, scouring for hard to find items on Craigslist, sharing pictures with family and friends on Flickr, or checking out restaurant recommendations on Yelp, our lives are more informed, accessible, and most of all, organized.
Most of us, however, are not seeking publicly...
July 2009
4 posts
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A win for urban planning: Supermarkets potentially...
Walk through the streets of Newark, Jersey City, Camden, Paterson, Atlantic City, or even a smaller city like New Brunswick, and look for a supermarket. Surely, you will find an abundance of markets, but how about the modern, well-stocked supermarkets—where you can get nutritious food at fair prices—that are ubiquitous in the suburbs?
Rare. Your search will likely be a failure.
The...
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Innovation is now king, and it's perfectly...
Everything is looking up for innovation in America.
President Barack Obama, who holds the subject of urban issues “near and dear to [his] heart,” said during a White House urban affairs summit on Monday that he wants to “reinvent” our cities and formulate a “new, imaginative, bold vision” for federal urban policy.
The first in 30 years, the urban agenda will...
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A vote for The New Jersey Economic Stimulus Act of...
New Jersey is not coping with the current global recession too well, and according to a July 9, 2009 article in the Newark Star-Ledger, it is among the states with the most critical budget shortfalls:
The state had to dig itself out of a projected shortfall of nearly 30 percent, or $8.8 billion, before passing the 2010 budget last month. That was the seventh-biggest gap in the nation, after...
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Backyard chicken coops? Urban farming? There's a...
Don’t be alarmed if you start noticing a sudden influx of “victory gardens” or new feathered residents in your urban neighborhood. It’s all just a great consequence of the current economic downturn.
Even prior to the near economic apocalypse last fall, Americans were already in the process of going green, rallying around practices like eating organically and locally...
June 2009
1 post
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Maintenance Concern in San Francisco? Tweet...
Twitter is a powerful communication tool that has surged in popularity over the past year, and government agencies are beginning to utilize the social networking service for its public outreach and two-way communication capabilities.
Not surprisingly, in San Francisco—where Twitter is based—the municipal government is well represented on Twitter, with Mayor Gavin Newsom...
May 2009
6 posts
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NYC PLANNERS: ZONING BONUSES WILL SPUR HEALTHY...
I’ve always eaten healthy food—fruits, vegetables, lean meats, etc,—and I am extremely fortunate that my parents set me on this path, as I’m a firm believer that healthy eating habits should be established at a young age. For this, I am eternally grateful.
Unfortunately, even if they want to eat well, millions of people do not even have the opportunity to procure...
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Does banning outdoor advertising kill urban...
Close your eyes, and imagine yourself in a city. Any city.
What do you see?
Buildings of all sizes, taxis and buses, and perhaps a subway station or a bus stop, all of which are usually adorned with advertising.
In Midtown Manhattan, for example, you will generally find advertising everywhere you look: on buildings and plastered on taxis, buses, and bus stops.
If, as a São Paulo, Brazil...
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CPTED will change your community. Just ask...
In the planning profession, it is commonly known that, while we plan for a bright future, we generally do not expect results quickly. Careful planning takes years to devise, and sometimes even longer to implement and reflect positive change.
However, in Sarasota, the CPTED results were rapid and decisive.
It had worked.
With reductions in crime and increased building activity, the community...
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You're an Urban Planner? What exactly do you do?
If you’re reading this blog, you must be aware that I am an urban planner.
You cannot imagine how many times I have been asked to define my profession.
After meeting someone and being asked the standard question, “What do you do?,” I retort, “I’m an urban planner,” to which responses are sometimes:
“What do you plan in cities? Events? Weddings?...
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CPTED IN ACTION: SARASOTA, FLORIDA
Please read my April 17, 2009 post, “What is CPTED, and what can it do for my municipality?,” for an overview of the CPTED program.
After the formation of a solid, working coalition between citizens, law enforcement, and planning professionals, the North Trail section of Sarasota, Florida was taken back from criminals and now enjoys social and economic vitality.
The North Trial...
April 2009
4 posts
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GOVERNMENT 2.0: IT'S TIME
It’s Tuesday morning, and a client has called.
She needs planning consulting services and is willing to sign your proposal and FedEx the retainer check immediately. Especially in this economy, this is an optimal situation, since every client call is evidence that the housing and land development industry is not completely dormant.
However, in this instance, the hearing at the Zoning Board...
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What is CPTED, and what can it do for my...
In Thinking About Crime, James Q. Wilson observed, “if a child is delinquent because his family made him so or his friends encourage him to be so, it is hard to conceive what society might do about this attitudes. No one knows how a government might restore affections, stability and fair discipline to a family that rejects these characteristics.” (Poyner 1983) Researchers began to challenge the...
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Fighting crime in college park: The long and...
2/2 — Please read my April 2, 2009 post, “Murder in College Park, MD: The Tipping Point”
In the aftermath of the Malstrom murder, the stakeholders—students, city residents, politicians, and the university administration—reached a consensus that the crime problem had reached its apogee. Solutions were in order, and of course, many called for increased police patrols, viewing...
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Murder in College Park, MD: The Tipping Point
To continue with the childhood connection to my planning career, I’ve also always had an deep interest in law enforcement, which may in fact be in my blood, considering that my maternal grandfather and two uncles were police officers. Of course, with the exception of the classical fantasies that kids have about future professions, I never wanted to actually serve within the front lines of law...
March 2009
6 posts
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SO WHAT IS AGE-TARGETED HOUSING?
In my March 20, 2009 piece, I opined as to why, due to the economic downturn, a shift in housing preferences, and various other reasons, municipalities should lift age restrictions on previously approved developments in an effort to stimulate development and improve communities.
If the bill in support of lifting the age restrictions meanders its way through the New Jersey Legislature...
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Save "Jersey Fresh" as we know it
The “Jersey Fresh” program is under attack.
Implemented in 1984 by the New Jersey Department of Agriculture, Jersey Fresh is a marketing program that promotes farm produced products from all reaches of the state, as well as farming related activities, such as agri-tourism events and attractions, and purchasing opportunities, including roadside markets, pick your own farms, and...
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Once again, the baby boomers are changing housing
The post World War II American story is well known. With the GIs returning home en mass immediately following the end of World War II and fueled by a sense of optimism for a bright future, marriage rates increased steadily, city population declined, and the baby boom generation exploded onto the scene.
As a result, quality housing for the influx of new families became the salient issue, as demand...
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WatchA very worthwhile talk.
Description from the TED site:
In James Howard Kunstler’s view, public spaces should be inspired centers of civic life and the physical manifestation of the common good. Instead, he argues, what we have in America is a nation of places not worth caring about.
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The New Wave of Interactions
As humans, interactions with others are essential. Certainly, most people do enjoy alone time, but we thrive off communicating with others and keeping up to date.
This is not a groundbreaking theory: just ask your typical twenty-something if s/he uses, let’s say, Facebook or Twitter on a daily basis; most do. Although our social networks extend well beyond the Internet, undoubtedly, the...
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