Do plunging temperatures, gray skies and the year's shortest days have to force us to huddle indoors? When we flick on the television, do we have to cringe at the weathermen's dire warnings of monster storms on the way?

Not at all, argues Jay Walljasper, a writer on world cities, in a Christmas-season bulletin for Project for Public Spaces. There's a tremendous amount that cities, towns, even individual neighborhoods can do to brighten the wintertime scene. And not just for Christmas and the holidays -- though that's a great start -- but until the crocuses bloom.

Metro Atlanta's traffic congestion is endangering its future growth, according to one of the nation's top site selection experts, who advises companies on where to send their jobs.

Atlanta's traffic problem has put it "at the point of no return," said Dennis J. Donovan. Lots of places have transportation funding problems, but Atlanta's congestion is the second worst in the nation, Donovan noted, and "the planning and funding to make sure this wouldn't happen hasn't been done."

The 97 year old Dapper Market in Amsterdam was voted 2007 best market of the year in Holland. With 250 stalls operating 6 days a week from 9am to 5pm, Dapper Market enjoys 15,000 visitors a day which is a total of 4.6 million a year.

In a recent innovative move, an environmentally-friendly water bus transport service commenced connecting the market with Central Station. There is also an idea to create the largest international food court in the Netherlands on Dapper Square, which is embraced by local shops and retailers who actively participate and profit from the market’s many promotional activities and events.

Live radio and television shows are often presented from the market, as well as major launches (the last was a SAAB car launch which was also televised in Sweden). The market area features fibre optics cable to facilitate broadband broadcasting. Festivals and live multi-cultural entertainment shows complement the market’s intensive promotional program.

The market will celebrate 100 years in 2010, along with three other major markets in Amsterdam. A city-wide and potentially European-wide celebration is planned to mark the event: Amsterdam European Market Metropolis. Much attention has been paid to the market’s vital role in supporting social integration and establishing and maintaining feelings of safety and community within the neighborhood.

An article about great pedestrian places in the U.S. and the local Minneapolis angle from Steve Berg.

Minneapolis, MN

Bikeability? Excellent. No. 2 in the country.

Walkability? Not so good. No. 17 among the 30 top metro areas. Down among St. Louis, Detroit and Houston. That hurts. Even Atlanta, the least pedestrian-friendly city I can imagine, came in three spots ahead of us. And the cities that Minneapolis-St. Paul likes to emulate — Denver, Portland and Seattle — all finished in the top 10, at Nos. 4, 5 and 6.

These results are part of a Brookings Institution report released Tuesday called "Footloose and Fancy Free: A Field Survey of Walkable Urban Places in the Top 30 U.S. Metropolitan Areas." Christopher Leinberger, the Brookings researcher, found 157 such places, but only two in the Twin Cities that qualified: the downtowns of Minneapolis and St. Paul. By Leinberger's reckoning, then, the Twin Cities' walkability ratio is one walkable district for every 1.6 million residents.

The whole metro region has an impressive trail system that promotes recreational walking and hiking. But that's not the point. The point is finding urban places where walking becomes part of the fabric of everyday life: walking to the coffee shop in the morning, walking to the movies, the grocery store, the laundry, the park, the transit stop, and so on. Leinberger's point is to highlight places where driving can be reduced in the course of everyday life.

Why? Because those kinds of places help mitigate climate change, help reduce dependence on unstable supplies and prices of oil, and help people live more active, healthy lives.

Inspired by Las Ramblas in Barcelona, this article discusses what makes a good street - how elements come together to make streets "the river of life." Community is influenced positively with pedestrian-friendly streetscapes that value social encounters, as primary to commercial endeavors. 

Discussion of environmental, economic, and taste benefits from buying locally produced food at farmer's markets.

Improvements include increased bike routes, brighter striping to ensure visibility, additional linkages between bike paths for safer rides, and over 700 new bike racks throughout the five boroughs by 2009. 

Author of The Great Neighborhood Book Jay Walljasper shows how communities can become cities of great neighbors.

"Blessed with laws, humbled by climate, unburdened by history or destiny, Torontonians remake the world in their small communities, adding yoga, sweat lodge, dim sum or doughnuts to their lives."

– Deanne Taylor, playwright, in the urban-essay collection uTOpia

One more blessing she might have added is a place to step out, look your neighbours in the eye and say hello.

Piazzas are ideal for strolling and sociability – the chance meetings that are vital in successful neighbourhoods, says Jay Walljasper, author of The Great Neighborhood Book – A Do-it-Yourself Guide to Placemaking. And since not every neighbourhood can have spectacular people-meeting places like Rome's Piazza Navona or New York's Rockefeller Center, there are new ways to reclaim space for these casual encounters.

In Delft, Netherlands, citizens upset about speeding traffic in their neighbourhood streets, hauled old couches onto the road and relaxed there, forcing cars to drive around them and slow down. These neighbourhood guerrilla tactics were effective – they've now become part of the city's plan to introduce woonerfs (living yards) on streets where drivers are a nuisance.

In Portland, Ore., residents made a friendlier neighbourhood by painting patterns on a busy intersection, erecting community bulletin boards, and bringing in a tea wagon, all to make people linger.

 

Jonathan Player for the New York Times (London); Koichi Kamoshida/Getty Images (Tokyo)

FROM LEFT Vegetables at Borough Market in London, open to the public on Friday and Saturday; tuna for auction at the Tsukiji market in Tokyo; stollen for sale at the traditional Christmas market in Dresden, Germany.

By Mimi Sheraton, New York Times

It is a given that no serious traveler would forgo visits to museums, cathedrals, castles, monuments and legendary streets. Yet food markets deserve equally high billing on a must-see list. For as inspiring as the more standard sights can be, they do not rival the ebullience of modern-day markets and their colorful links to the economy, customs and even dialects of a city.

In a world ever more homogenized, food markets afford visitors one of the few opportunities to glimpse locals going about one of their essential daily chores.  The most dramatic of these sprawling, jumbled indoor or outdoor markets sell wholesale, generally between midnight and dawn, when one feels vaguely conspiratorial watching the alert trading action while much of the city sleeps. There's an instant spirit of camaraderie as strangers mingle among the lights and shadows, shouting, banging and clanging, inhaling whiffs of hot coffee and bracing alcohol that combine with scents of damp night air, gasoline, fish, spices, herbs and fruits that have so much more aroma elsewhere than they ever seem to at home.

Attending this living theater, one can assess the local economy by noting the quality and variety of foods available and compare prices to our own. One can observe how locals treat one another. Are sellers and buyers polite and trusting as they deal under intense pressure— the first to sell out highly perishable merchandise, the second to get the best value for family, shop or restaurant?

 

Up against indifference from goverment officials and oppression from overpowering vehicles, young Athenians stand up to take back the sidewalks for pedestrians. Due to poor planning, limited space, and an increase in drivership, Athenian drivers have become accustomed to illegally parking on sidewalks and other walkways despite blockades, barriers, or restrictions. Due to the lack of other simple solutions, the government has looked the other way.

One activist group the Street Panthers, finally fed up with this infringement, has begun sticking signs on illegally parked cars. An action, within the bounds of the law, that pushes back on illegal parkers, and informs and reminds the public and the government that pedestrians need safe and convenient spaces to walk amonst the city.

The United States Conference of Mayors held a two-day Climate Protection Summit on November 1 in Seattle . Mayors from around the country pledged to make their cities greener and more sustainable.

This effort will begin with scaling cities down to a more human level. "Cities that are centered on people and public transit, not cars," are more walkable and livable, and thereby more sustainable and energy efficient.

 

New library designs are moving away from the quiet, institutionalized models of old. The next generation of libraries are using technology and placemaking to create community spaces, where "people can congregate, be comfortable,... meet neighbors and catch up on the news, learn and play and read."

Small-scale revitalization takes shape in Albuquergue with large-scale impacts. The city opted to redevelop existing buildings, rather than tearing down their history. Small changes have resulted in a unique sense of place with a "human face" in the city's downtown.

The City of Charleston, South Carolina is seeking firms or teams to provide full-service property management of the City Market, including marketing, leasing and operation, and to develop a strategic vision for the Charleston City Market.

Included within the City Market is approximately 40,000 sq. ft. of retail space, market stalls, and public right-of-way. Parking for the City Market is provided in adjacent parallel parking spaces along North & South Market Streets (as well as adjacent side streets), neighboring surface parking lots, and neighboring parking garages.

The City Market is a unique property in Charleston, South Carolina as well as the nation as a whole. The City Market is the largest in the Southeast and is the anchor for the surrounding City Market area. The City Market is successful financially.

For the last thirty (30) years, the City has leased a majority of the City Market to a private company. This lease shall expire at the end of April 2008. The remaining portion of the City Market has been managed by the City of Charleston. The City of Charleston, through this RFP process, seeks a qualified operator as hereinafter defined to provide full-service property management of the City Market, including promoting, leasing and operation thereof and to develop a strategic vision for the City Market (including the portion which the City currently manages) that would complement the overall experience of the City Market for visitors and residents, improve connectivity between the Market and the Central Business District as a whole, and strengthen the contribution of the Market to downtown business and vice versa. The City is seeking proposals which shall assist it in realizing the above-stated objectives.

The RFP can be accessed online at: http://www.charlestoncity.info/shared/docs/0/citymarketrfp.pdf

Due date is December 19, 2007

A Simple Path to Strong Neighborhoods
Author Jay Walljasper Shows How Small Efforts Build Community

Dave Hage of the Star Tribune has a Q&A session with Jay Walljasper, author of the The Great Neighborhood Book, about how strong neighborhoods are the building blocks of great cities and a healthy society.

Q. So what makes a great neighborhood?

A. The first fundamental is a public gathering spot -- a park, a little town square, even a bench in front of the corner grocery store. You want a place where people know they're likely to run into someone they know or meet someone they like.

The second is walkability. It's really hard to build a sense of community when you know your neighbors only by waving at them through the windshield or honking at them as you drive by.

The key is to promote spontaneous, informal encounters -- that's the building block of strong communities.

But here's another, simpler way to think about it: When you create a neighborhood that's friendly to dogs, it's friendly to people, too. The traffic is not speeding and dangerous. There are green places to hang out and walk. So dogs are a good indicator species.

(Washington, DC) -- The KaBOOM! National Campaign for Play today announced the 31 founding members of the Playful City USA initiative.  Playful City USA is a national recognition program that honors cities and towns across the nation for a vision, plan and commitment to creating an agenda for play. Cities were recognized based on a pledge to five specific commitments to play:

1. Creating a local play commission or task force;
2. Designing an annual action plan for play;
3. Conducting a play space audit;
4. Outlining a financial investment in play for the current fiscal year; and
5. Proclaiming and celebrating an annual“play day.”

The founding members of Playful City USA have activated powerful citizenship by creating play agendas with deep and lasting impact on public policy issues including childhood obesity, public safety, and quality of life issues. Through the collaborative support of corporate and community resources, these civically-grounded cities are inspiring and transforming lives; building strong and healthy communities, and fostering brighter futures.

“Playful City USA reflects the hope, opportunity and possibility inherent in municipal collaborations anchored by a shared vision for play,” said Darell Hammond, Co-Founder and CEO of KaBOOM! “The innovative practices these cities adopted are a call-to-action for other municipalities across the country to rally behind proactive, city-wide agendas in support of broader physical activity and play.”

Founding members of Playful City USA include:

Ankeny, IA, Atlanta, Ga., Canton, Ga., Cedar City, UT, Chandler, Ariz., Creedmoor, N.C., Dothan, Ala., East Cleveland, OH, El Paso, TX, Gilbert, Ariz., Greenbelt, Md., Jamestown, N.Y., Kenner, La., Kerman, Calif., Kingsburg, Calif., Lake Charles, La., Lake Worth, Fla., Longview, Wash., Mountain Grove, Mo., New Lenox, Ill., New Roads, La., Norfolk, Va., Phoenix, Ariz. , Portsmouth, OH, San Francisco, Calif., San Jose, Calif., Shirley, Mass., Spartanburg, S.C., Tucson, Ariz., Wapello, IA, Yuma, Ariz.

A number of Playful City USA founding members have created and implemented pioneering play commitments.  In San Francisco, the Department of Parks and Recreation, along with the non-profit National Parks Council and Mayor Gavin Newsom, created Parkscan to assess the conditions and safety of the city’s playgrounds. In a city where identifying and maintaining open space can be a challenge, communities are now working together to improve and enhance failing playgrounds and play spaces.  City Council members in Creedmoor, NC have enacted legislation to ensure developers include playgrounds and open space in every new neighborhood.  Each May residents in El Paso, TX gather for the annual Ciclovia celebration which closes major thoroughfares and opens them up for walking, family time and safe connections to the city’s playgrounds and open space.

Along with receiving national recognition for blazing a playful trail for other cities, 2007 founding members are eligible to apply for a grant of up to $25,000 to help support one of their playful initiatives. 

For cities interested in applying for Playful City USA 2008, KaBOOM! is teaming up with America’s Promise Alliance 100 Best Communities for Young People to provide one lucky city with a brand new KaBOOM! playground. 100 Best is an annual competition that recognizes those cities and towns across America that go above and beyond for children and youth.  Communities who are named one of the 100 Best, and also apply to be named a Playful City USA, will be eligible to receive a new playground in their area.

KaBOOM! is a national nonprofit organization that envisions a great place to play within walking distance of every child in America.  Since 1995, KaBOOM! has used its innovative community-build model to bring together business and community interests to construct more than 1,200 new playgrounds, skateparks, sports fields and ice rinks across North America.  KaBOOM! also offers a variety of online resources, regional and national trainings, and the KaBOOM! National Campaign for Play which includes Playful City USA and the Playmaker Network- a national network of individual advocates for play. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., KaBOOM! also has offices in Chicago, Atlanta and San Mateo, CA.   For more information, visit www.kaboom.org.

Jan Gehl, an urban planner known for promoting "life between buildings," begins work in New York City with both the Department of Transportation and the Upper West Side Streets Renaissance Campaign. Gehl helps cities with traffic calming and creating more livable streets.

Developer Jonathan Rose discusses the importance of community based design. He advocates hollistic planning; grounded in an understanding of community needs like urban sustainability and cultural development.

Discussion surrounding possibilities for farmers markets to occupy supermarket parking lots one day a week. 

In an effort to attract more traffic to downtown businesses, one New Jersey downtown partnership planned for a diverse farmer's market in a plaza, just off of the city's main traffic artery. Surveys show that 80 percent of the 1,000 weekly market customers, also visited local businesses while at the farmers' market. 

Designers are working to create spaces and situations to encourage and promote interaction in a time where people are living closer together physically, but farther apart socially.  Community cannot be built; what can be built are spaces and situations to draw neighbors together. These spaces come in all forms. Multi-family complexes can center on a water feature, a nearby park, a common yard, a special tree or a barbecue patio.

The 2007 Growth and Transportation Survey shows that Three-fourths of Americans surveyed believe that developing communities that reduce the need to drive and improving public transportation are both better long-term solutions for reducing traffic congestion than building new roads.

The Spitzer administration has released plans for a rebuilt Penn Station, complete with natural light pouring in and a "grand public space" in a new, rezoned business district on Manhattan's far West Side.

The new plans would also create 7.5 million square feet of mixed use development, including a commercial district that would link to a plan to redevelop the Hudson railyards closer to the river.

The faces of San Antonio's parks are beginning to change as work has begun on several new greenbelt parks along the city's major creeks and rivers.  This is big news for the "park-starved" community.  The parks will be along creeks and rivers, many of them connecting - each specifically for hiking, biking and preserving beauty.

Lawmakers in Illinois are recognizing what is becoming common sense across the country -- that our roads need to serve everyone using them, whether they are driving, walking, bicycling, or catching the bus.  There was a unanimous vote under which the Illinois Department of Transportation must include safe bicycling and walking routes in all planning for urbanized areas immediately and in construction by August 2008.

WASHINGTON, Sept. 13 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The U.S. General Services Administration, manager of 8,600 federal properties across the nation and steward of 425 historic landmarks, has published a new workbookto help guide GSA property managers on how to enhance public spaces infederal buildings.

"Federal buildings in many communities are the government's most prominent representative, a symbol of democracy," said David Winstead, Commissioner for GSA's Public Buildings Service. "It's important that these spaces are accessible to the public and that they convey a positive image of the federal government."

GSA produced, Achieving Great Federal Public Spaces - A Property Manager's Guide in collaboration with the Project for Public Spaces. The workbook provides GSA property managers with a step-by-step process on how to enhance public spaces such as plazas, lobbies, atria and grounds. It suggests short, medium, and long-term improvements -- from actions as simple as reducing clutter and inviting civic organizations to use public spaces for activities and events, to more elaborate measures such as buildings enhancements, including the streamlining of the security process in lobbies.

"When managed effectively, these spaces support neighborhood goals and play an important role in how our client agencies view their workplaces," commented Anthony Costa, Deputy Commissioner for Public Buildings. "It is in our collective interests that we make the most of our public spaces."

To Market to Market to Buy a Fat Pig is a celebration of market houses, market places and farmers' markets across the United States. Rick Sebak checks out crab cakes in Baltimore's Lexington Market, shops with a chef in Pittsburgh's East Liberty Farmers' Market and attends a tomato tasting in Asheville, North Carolina. This program looks at the joys of talking to people who grow our food and the fresh opportunities that are found in markets.

The DVD is available for $24.99. 

Limitless, the Dubai real estate developer and part of the conglomerate Dubai World, has announced it will build a US$220 million, mixed-use project in Vietnam.

The announcement comes as HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the Ruler of Dubai, is on a state visit to Vietnam to discuss bilateral relations.

Halong Star, a 125 hectare development at Halong Bay on Vietnam's North East coast, was confirmed at the signing of a joint venture between Limitless, Phuong Hung Joint Stock Company and International Property Investment Partners.

The Halong Star development will include a 250-room hotel, the first five-star property in an area designated a World Heritage site by the United Nations.

For one skateboarding advocate here, creating a system of skate parks in West Seattle isn't just about building places to do aerials and flip tricks.

So far it's just a blueprint with no funding, but the citywide skate park plan is gaining momentum in West Seattle, fueled by passionate skaters like West Seattle resident Matt Johnston.

Johnston, who served on the skate park advisory task force that helped develop the plan last year with Seattle Parks and Recreation, is also determined to change some minds along the way. At 36, he remembers what it's like to be thought of as a delinquent simply for the kind of sport he enjoys.

"What we want to do in West Seattle is make sure skate parks are successful for everyone in the community and not just the skateboarders, because a successful skate park requires community support," said Johnston. "The last thing we want to do is be skateboarding in a community who hates us or who doesn't want us there."

He brought up a community meeting held this past March to discuss the design of the future Myrtle Street park at the site of Myrtle Reservoir on 35th Avenue Southwest. The location was recommended for a skate facility in the citywide plan but so far the community has been largely opposed to the idea.

Some at the meeting said a skate park would attract "derelict teenagers" and be noisy. Johnston is concerned common fears like these associated with the sport will isolate West Seattle's skate parks and its estimated 4,000 skateboarders.

Built in the right location, with an appropriate design and a welcoming community, skate parks can actually serve as a vibrant part of a neighborhood and discourage bad behavior. But anything pushed to the fringes, whether it's a skate facility or a basketball court, can invite unsavory activities, he said.

"(Skate parks) actually deter bad activities because it programs the space and puts people there," Johnston said. "You have to build it for some people to see how great it can be. This is something positive for the kids."

HONOLULU -- A signing ceremony for the sale of 298-acres at Kapolei between the University of Hawai‘i and Hunt Development Group was held earlier this week in Bachman Hall with University President David McClain, UH West O‘ahu Chancellor Gene Awakuni, Chris Hunt and Steve Colon of Hunt Development Group.

"The new UH West O‘ahu campus will go a long way towards meeting the needs of the growing Leeward community; today's agreement with Hunt brings that vision one step closer to reality," said McClain.

 

A very important day for Portland Main Street was held on Aug. 22, 2007. The Main Street program that economically revitalizes traditional downtowns was reviewed by the Michigan State Housing Development Authority (MSHDA). Main Street is a nationally recognized program led by the National Main Street Center.

Currently, there are 13 Michigan Main Street Cities that also undergo the review process. MSHDA and its community assistance team provide trainings, education seminars for Main Street managers and offer guidance for grant opportunities. Communities that apply to become a Main Street wish to reach the goal of becoming a Master Community; a community that uses the Main Street four point approach; Organization, Revitalization, Promotion, and Design to revitalize their downtown.

 A short video and article about a mixed-use development project that is getting mixed-reviews from resident in Grand Junction, CO.

Mixed-use development is springing up on First and Patterson Streets. People who live in the area say they are concerned about the impact it will have on their neighborhood.

Wendy Hoffman says she's not sure what to think about the 20–acre development sprouting up in the backyard of her dream home.  She is worried about traffic and noise the development might bring and she's not alone.

Grand Junction's planning department has been fielding calls from people who have concerns about the project as well.

Developers say people just need to give it a try.

Constructors West says the concept of mixed-use is exactly why people who live next door shouldn't be worried about traffic.  They say that a place that has retail, office and residential space helps clear congestion because people don't have to drive to work, live and play.

New Book Release
MIT Press  

Book Abstract
Today's urban riverfronts are changing. The decline of river commerce and riverside industry has made riverfront land once used for warehouses, factories, and loading docks available for open space, parks, housing, and nonindustrial uses. Urban rivers, which once functioned as open sewers for cities, are now seen as part of larger watershed ecosystems. Rivertown examines urban river restoration efforts across the United States, presenting case studies from Los Angeles; Washington, D.C.; Portland, Oregon; Chicago; Salt Lake City; and San Jose.

Each case study in Rivertown considers the critical questions of who makes decisions about our urban rivers, who pays to implement these decisions, and who ultimately benefits or suffers from these decisions. In each case, authors evaluate the ecological issues and consider urban river restoration projects in relation to other urban economic and environmental initiatives in the region. Rivertown is a valuable resource for urban planners and citizen groups as well as for scholars.

To purchase the book or read sample chapters please visit:  

The Open Planning Project founder Mark Gorton in NY talks with "Gridlock Sam" Schwartz about about history of DOT in NYC, car-free Cental Park, and general transportation policy. It gives a great history of the evolution of transportation thinking and policy in NY over the last 40 years.

Running time: approx. 10 mins.

On PBS' "NewsHour with Jim Lehrer" this week, U.S. Secretary of Transportation Mary Peters said that instead of raising taxes on gasoline to renew the nation's sagging infrastructure, Congress should examine its spending priorities -- including investments in bike paths and trails, which, Peters said, "are not transportation."

PBS has the full transcript, along with video of the interview. 

With support from the Federal Highway Administration, New York City will be the first locality in the United States to test painted bus lanes, the cityï¾’s Department of Transportation announced today.

Photo: New York City Department of Transportation

As part of a trial period, existing bus lanes on East 57th Street, from Second to Fifth Avenues, and on Fordham Road, from University Avenue and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard to the Grand Concourse in the Bronx, are being painted terra cotta, a deep red like the color of bricks. If the experiment works, officials hope that more motorists will stay out of the lanes, which are used during the morning and evening rush, on weekdays.

Organic vegetables? Check.

Jams and jellies? Check.

Crafts and baked goods? Check.

E-mail orders? Better check.

Before heading out to set up their stands each week, some area farmers' market vendors go online, looking for last-minute customer requests for fresh fruits and vegetables, cut flowers and herbs.

Many farmers' markets now have their own Web sites, some simply listing time, place and a contact. But others are extensive, with page after page of market items and vendor information.

Customers of the Scottdale Producers Association, which runs farmers markets in Scottdale and Connellsville, can now order sweet corn, salsas and jam over the Internet and browse vendors' postings. Customers can pre-order, much like they used to at the corner market, and their order will be awaiting them at the market of their choice.

Tom Bailey, of the Scottdale Producers Association, said the small market has only a handful of on-site vendors. The association hopes to bring more local products to area residents by offering the purchase of farm-fresh produce, meats and baked goods online.

Farmers markets are important, nationwide outlets for agricultural producers.  The popularity of these markets continues to rise as more consumers discover the joys of shopping for unique ingredients sold direct from the farm, and the pleasure of buying familiar products in their freshest possible state.

More than 4,300 farmers markets across the country offer consumers farm-fresh, affordable, convenient, and healthy products and also serve as integral links between urban, suburban, and rural communities.

For more information on National Farmers Market Week or to search for a market in your area click on the link below.

No longer considered frills, green spaces are integral to intellectual and physical growth, writes Christopher Hume of the Toronto Star.

An observer comments on the French capital's success at making alternate modes of transportation easier and accessible.

The New York City Department of Transportation wants to hire as a consultant Jan Gehl, who has helped cities like London and Copenhagen create less congested urban areas by taking back the streets from cars - and giving top priority to pedestrians and bicyclists.

Jan Gehl is a world-renowned Danish architect who wants to ban most cars from Times Square - and raise the price of street parking.

Times Square is "beyond the brink" with too many cars and pedestrians cramming into an inadequate amount of space, Gehl says.

 

The Storefront for Art and Architecture is experimenting with a bicycle share program to demonstrate to New Yorkers that bicycling is a viable, and enjoyable, transportation alternative.

Several European cities have successful bicycle sharing programs - Paris will shortly be making 10,000 bikes available from 750 stations across the city.

 

An urban planning philosophy often labelled Home Zone or Shared Space has developed over the past three decades and promotes sensitive street design as a way to create more people-friendly environments.

“We should learn to build villages in the way they were built in the past,” says Hans Monderman, the Dutch engineer seen as the father of Shared Space. He is not advocating unpaved roads, horse-drawn transport and reinstating stocks – he just wants neighbourhoods that work for everyone, satisfying residents as well as moving traffic along. Cars, he argues, have been allowed to dominate residential areas, particularly in suburbs, for far too long, and quality of life has declined has a result.

The Silicon Valley cities of Mountain View and Sunnyvale are alike in many ways. But their downtowns offer a study in contrasts because of land use decisions made 30 years ago.

 

After funding the research that helped Jane Jacobs produce her landmark book "The Death and Life of Great American Cities" nearly 50 yeas ago, the Rockefeller Foundation has inaugurated the first Jane Jacobs Medals.

Barry Benepe, the 79-year-old founder of Greenmarket, will receive the first medal for "lifetime leadership." Omar Freilla, the 33-year-old founder of Green Worker Cooperatives in the Bronx, was named the winner of the first medal for "new ideas and activism."

The medals will be presented in September in conjunction with the opening by the Municipal Art Society of an exhibit titled "Jane Jacobs and the Future of New York."

Bogota, Colombia, has turned itself around by focusing on using the public realm to promote the greatest amount of happiness. First stop? Car-free days.  The city's campaign to return streets from cars to people is now a model for the world.