Planning

High quality service provision is an economic development tool

In Commerce, Infrastructure, Local Government, Planning on 29 November 2007 with no comments

“The most important economic development tool in a municipal government’s toolbox is to do what you’re supposed to do: provide public services and do it well.” - Dr. John Matthews, in class tonight.
Forget tax incentives and selling your city’s soul for a Mercedes plant; firms are increasingly attracted by good roads, good police, good schools, [...]

Event: “Berlin-New York Dialogues: Building in Context”

In Architecture, Berlin, Events, New York, Planning on 16 November 2007 with no comments

An exhibition called “Berlin-New York Dialogues: Building in Context” opened last week at New York’s Center for Architecture and will run through January 26 before traveling to Berlin in March.
Rather than focus narrowly on noteworthy buildings, the exhibition and related panel discussions explore issues like how Berlin is reasserting its role in European cultural and [...]

Medellín is the new Bogota

In Bogota, Livability, Local Government, Medellín, Planning, Transportation on 15 November 2007 with 2 comments

It seems that common sense solutions are usually completely ignored by governments in Latin American cities, and it is refreshing to see that this isn´t the case with Medellín. The government is rebuilding its city for the inhabitants: they have discovered that when people have public spaces they can enjoy and where they can relax, [...]

The two Cairos

In Cairo, Development, Megacity, Planning, Slums, Statistics on 13 November 2007 with no comments

In a pattern that is repeated in megacities–and not so megacities–everywhere, Cairo’s rich are opting “for the private gated enclaves, while the poor live in illegally built suburbs reclaimed from the surrounding countryside.”
What are the growth patterns within the city?
“It is only a slight exaggeration to say that informality is the defining characteristic of the [...]

Anti-pigeon movement takes flight, wants bread

In Ecology, Environment, Health, Planning on 8 November 2007 with no comments

Cities in Europe are discussing methods for reducing their pigeon populations.
Scientists, city officials and animal welfare activists met in the western German city of Essen on Tuesday for Germany’s first Town Pigeon Conference to discuss how to deal with the growing pigeon population which is expected to rise by around 50 million to up [...]

Tensions between mass transit and mixed-use

In Atlanta, Development, Environment, Planning, Transportation on 5 November 2007 with no comments

Carbon Copy, on a tension within some municipalities between public transportation and mixed-use development:
…there is a contradiction in the planning approaches of many jurisdictions that are developing mass transit, in that promotion of mixed-use urban areas actually weakens the strong nodes that are the lifeblood of mass transit.
To be fair, the concept of mixed-use areas [...]

Beautiful solutions

In Architecture, Design, Planning on 1 November 2007 with no comments

“When I am working on a problem I never think about beauty. I only think about how to solve the problem. But when I have finished, if the solution is not beautiful, I know it is wrong.”
Buckminster Fuller
(via Monoscope)