Despite the large number of Americans now living in cities, urban issues have been astonishingly absent from the U.S. presidential debates. PPS did a spoof article for Faking Places, the annual April Fool's Newsletter, in which Hillary, McCain and Obama make promises for more livable neighborhoods. The glaring omission of urban issues from the national discourse is actually no laughing matter.

The Philadelphia Inquirer reports:

"There are three times as many urbanites in America as country folk, yet you wouldn't know it listening to the three main presidential candidates, or perusing their Web sites. Instead, you might come away thinking the United States is a collection of Norman Rockwell small towns surrounded by picture-book farms."

Related Stories: 
The Candidates and the City [Gotham Gazette]
Urban Issues Get Short Shrift [Politico]
Candidates Largely Ignore Urban Issues [City Mayors]

 

The Western Distributor in Sydney wouldn't be the first urban freeway to be dismantled so a community could access the waterfront. The Embarcadero Freeway in SF was demolished after an earthquake in 1989. The Miller Freeway in NYC has become a successful waterfront park and recreation area. And, tearing down the Central Artery in Boston created the possibility of reconnecting the rest of the city center to Rowe's Wharf, which now boasts unobstructed views of the Boston Harbor.

From the Press Release:
"Imagine a new green space almost the size of Hyde Park at Darling Harbour and the Western Distributor buried so the city is reconnected to our harbour.

This is just one of the visionary project ideas put forward as part of the City of Sydney's Sustainable Sydney 2030 vision."

"Public space is central to the political and social life of a city. Streets and squares are marketplaces for trade, places for discussion and demonstrations, for formal and informal meetings. Public spaces are democratic in essence: in them citizens have rights, defined only by national laws. They are places in which cities define their character, display their generosity, and show off. Erosion of public space undermines the very fabric of society."

A new center devoted to the development of parks is currently being established under the supervision of the Jeddah Municipality at the Azizyah district, according to a municipality official.

The first of its kind in the Kingdom, the Parks and Community Center aims to serve society in the field of urban parks development through organizing studies, conducting research and providing lectures to public and specialized professionals, according to Ashraf Al-Turki, head of the municipalityï¾’s open areas department.

The 400-square-meter center is being built at the Al-Abrar public park at the intersection of Prince Majed and Sari streets.

Planetizen has named PPS/Jay Walljasper's The Great Neighborhood Book as one of its top 10 planing books of 2007.  http://www.planetizen.com/books/2008

Also, Urban Land magazine recently reviewed The Great Neighborhood Book in the November/December 2007 issue. Click here to read the review.

The Great Neighborhood Book also received an honorable mention on the American Booksellers Association's list of books about promoting local businesses.

Jay Walljasper discusses the need for cities to have life on their streets -- even in the most frigid days (and nights) of winter.

"Plunging temperatures don't necessarily sentence us to months of house arrest. People around the world from Copenhagen to New York are figuring out how to keep things lively throughout the colder months. City streets bustle with festivals and outdoor attractions showing that winter is something to enjoy rather than endure.

My colleague Cynthia Nikitin, vice president of Project for Public Spaces, describes Berlin in the dead of winter: "It gets dark at 3:30. It's snowing like crazy. But it's no problem. People are playing bocce ball on the ice. There are tents selling hot mulled wine. You are walking down the street just watching all the other people. Life is good, and winter feels good, too."

But you need to give people reasons to be outside, Nikitin adds -- "a market, ice skating, music, decorative lighting. No one will stay outdoors to stare at an empty plaza."

The Rockefeller Foundation is now accepting nominations for the 2008 Jane Jacobs Medal on its website through February 1, 2008. The 2008 Rockefeller Foundation Jane Jacobs Medals will recognize two living individuals whose creative vision for the urban environment has significantly contributed to the vibrancy and variety of New York City.

Click here for the full  press release

Click here for the The 2008 Jane Jacobs Medal Nomination Form

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.

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.

 

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.

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 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.

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."

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.

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

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."

The quality of the typical New York City park is determined largely by whether it is in a wealthy or poor neighborhood, according to a study to be released by a private nonprofit group today. The report also indicated that despite budget increases in recent years, the Parks Department is not doing enough strategic planning to manage its parkland properly.

“About one of eight parks citywide is not in acceptable condition, and there is a significant correlation between a community district’s share of parks in unacceptable condition and its average income level,” according to the report by the group, the Citizens Budget Commission.

The five proposals for Governors Island hold clues to what’s right and wrong about how public space is designed.

"All five concepts are thoughtful approaches to a complex design problem. And the emphasis on public space is reassuring; responses to the agency’s earlier requests for proposals typically included more commercial development. But the five plans still fall short of the sweeping ambition such a unique parcel of undeveloped public land in New York City should inspire. We are mostly left with good intentions."

New York City's tremendous success in revitalizing its waterfront will require about $ 100 million a year to meet new management and operating needs, according a new report by Regional Plan Association.  Close to 700 acres and 58 miles of new waterfront parks, greenways and other public spaces are being created in all five boroughs.  To ensure that this legacy is well maintained and managed in the public interest, the Association has recommended more than a dozen specific policy recommendations to ensure that responsible public agencies have the resources and authority to take a primary stewardship role.

In California, a huge team of volunteers is building the nation's largest playground for disabled children, equipped with slides and ramps wide enough for wheelchairs, rubber ground padding, and textured play surfaces for blind children.

Pedestrians, bicyclists, and joggers are king of the road – at least sometimes – as more US cities ban autos from parks or designated districts.

Policymakers are ignoring the wishes of local people and exaggerating the importance of “metropolitan” urban design in creating successful public spaces, according to a new report, the Social Value of Public Spaces.  

“Most public spaces that people use are local spaces they visit regularly, often quite banal in design, or untidy in their activities or functions, such as street markets and car boot sales,” the report said.

"Increased pressure to find land for museums and memorials on the cramped National Mall could spur new ideas about the future development of the nation's capital.

New additions approved for Washington's monumental core in recent years - from the World War II Memorial in 2000 to the future Smithsonian black history museum and a visitor's center planned for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial - have drawn heated debate.

A symposium Wednesday at the National Building Museum will explore ways to rethink monuments to history and where they should go. Scholars, designers and architects from across the country will join city planners who are creating a plan to help broaden the image of Washington beyond the National Mall.

City planners, though, want to think beyond the mall. Their plans call for recentering the city around the U.S. Capitol and the grand boulevards that lead up to it with more pedestrian-friendly passages, shops and housing mixed with memorials or museums. They're also looking at new spaces along a new waterfront and ballpark district, which will be the future home of the Washington Nationals. "

Newly opened urban beaches in Mexico City are being welcomed by the city's millions of residents who have never seen a beach.

The plan has been met with criticism from the city's upperclass, who tend to vacation on Mexico's coastal resort cities, but many of the city's poor residents can not afford travel, and have never been to a beach.

Mexico City's plan to open beaches in city parks was inspired by artificial beaches in European capitals such as Paris, Berlin, Rome, Amsterdam and Budapest. The Paris beach turns the banks of the River Seine into a faux-tropical retreat.

PPS Board Member Roberta Brandes Gratz reminds us what was lost when Robert Moses deemed areas 'slums' and tore them down in this piece from City Limits.  

Homeowners in Seattle are trying to retain use of public land along the city's shorelines, but park advocates want the land for exclusive public use.

With the Latino population growing tremendously, it's time to begin addressing the shortcomings in the practice of planning regarding this key demographic. 

In an op-ed from Planetizen, Leonardo Vazquez explores the Biggest challenges facing Latino communities.

 

The Texas Park and Recreation Foundation released a study on the impact of local parks across the state.  The study found that parks lead to the creation of more than 45,600 jobs through their maintenance and operations activity, capital investment and direct tourism.

View the study on the foundation's website: www.tprfoundation.org

"The fight for Patriots Square is getting just a little ugly.

After months of public discussion, developers of a proposed $900 million mixed-use retail project in downtown Phoenix have unveiled a new plan for the oft-maligned town square.

Unfortunately for them, the design was met with a healthy dose of skepticism and, in many cases, outright anger at a recent public forum."

Survival of parkland is becoming more and more dependant on private funding. But critics warn that if you demand that parks pay for themselves, less-affluent areas will suffer from wavering public support.

 

The Rockefeller Foundation announced the creation of the Jane Jacobs Medal, an award that will recognize individuals whose creative vision for the urban environment has significantly contributed to the vibrancy and variety of New York City.

The medal will be given annually to two people: one who has made a lifetime contribution and another who is at the start of a promising career.

The Foundation is accepting nominations through March 2, 2007 on its website.

 

Public-private partnerships are a key source of funding for parks, even in cities with generous park budgets.  “No matter how well funded a city’s parks are, they still need some help,” said Andy Wiley-Schwartz, vice president at Project for Public Spaces. “Having community stewards is priceless, and every city knows that, whether they fund parks or not.”

A public park and art space is set to open next week along Seattle's waterfront, replacing a former brownfield site. The new Olympic Sculpture Park was created by the Seattle Art Museum, an expansion of which is set to open in May.

Image (c) Paul Warchol

U.S. cities are increasingly putting freeway segments underground and covering them with parkland. Whether called a lid, deck, bridge or tunnel, there are already some 20 highway parks in the country, several under construction — most notably, the Rose Kennedy Greenway park atop Boston’s Big Dig — and at least a dozen more in the planning pipeline. As urban auto impacts become less welcome, these decks have moved from the novel to the expected. Despite the sometimes considerable cost — as much as $500 per square foot — they are no longer classified as porkbarrel. They’ve been redefined as amenity investment with high economic payback.

Efforts are underway to refurbish, rethink and rejuvenate Denver's aging Civic Center park, boosting its profile and transforming it into a more desirable destination by improving accessibility and security and giving residents and tourists more reasons to visit.

Though the plan has been endorsed by most parties, it has also generated emotional debate by preservationists, and members of the public who feel they were not engaged in the decision making process. 

Highways are unwelcome, noisy, polluting neighbors to people who live near them. They're so imposing that it's hard to imagine making one disappear. But that's exactly what Oak Park, IL, might do.  A group is proposing to turn 1 1/2 miles of an expressway into a tunnel, with a 60 acre park on top.

"Atlanta's newest park is planted in quite a place: 17 feet above Downtown Connector motorists.

There is nothing else like it in the state, say Georgia Department of Transportation officials. The Fifth Street Bridge, officially finished today, has more than tripled in size as it spans I-75/I-85 downtown, giving the feel of a garden rather than a bridge, and adding no additional car lanes.

Instead, a department that has often been accused of favoring road capacity over all other projects spent $10.3 million building the foundation for a sort of mini campus quad, connecting Georgia Tech's main campus to its new buildings at Technology Square, providing a new main entrance to the university, and serving the mixed-use revival that has exploded on the east side."

 

This image (c) Joey Ivansco/Atlanta Journal-Constitution Staff

"What is the measure of a great city or urban region? Its education systems? Its arts? Its business inventiveness? All of the above. But the most overlooked measure is a city's dedication to the public space."

For almost fifty years, the promise of Philadelphia's waterfront has gone unfulfilled. Now, however, there is a glimmer of hope for the waterfront.

On October 12, Mayor John Street signed an executive order authorizing Penn Praxis, under the guidance of Harris Steinberg, to work with Philadelphians to create comprehensive planning for a seven-mile stretch of the Delaware River waterfront running from Oregon Avenue in the south to Allegheny Avenue in the north.

Detroit's downtown -- a cold, empty symbol of urban decay for decades -- is on its way to a warmer, livelier, more entertaining future. Campus Martius, the new downtown square that PPS helped create the vision for, played a role in sparking the revitalization.

"In a town built on make-believe, Hollywood leaders are hoping to pull off the greatest feat yet: creating a public park out of thin air.

Civic and business organizers want to turn a half-mile portion of the Hollywood Freeway into a tunnel and construct a 24-acre greenbelt swath from Bronson Avenue to Wilton Place on top."

 

Facing a need to either renovate their crumbling transportation infrastructure or remove it, public officials in Seattle are considering a few options. The city could rebuild the highway, or it could invest a little more money to move a new highway underground, leaving the surface available for a waterfront park. A third idea, backed by a citizens’ group, the People’s Waterfront Coalition, is to tear down the old highway, build a waterfront park and smaller boulevard, increase transit service and modernize existing streets.

Image (c) Stuart Isett for the New York Times 

Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced that while Fashion Week events have outgrown Bryant Park, more time is needed to find another home. The Mayor stepped in and reserved the Park for Fashion Week in February, 2007, rather than allowing a public ice skating rink to remain open throughout the winter months.

CALL FOR ENTRIES
2007 RUDY BRUNER AWARD

About the Rudy Bruner Award:

The Rudy Bruner Award is given to urban places that demonstrate the successful integration of effective process, meaningful values and good design. RBA winners are distinguished by their social, economic and contextual contributions to the urban environment, and often provide innovative solutions to our cities’ most challenging problems.

The RBA awards one Gold Medal of $50,000 and four Silver Medals of $10,000 each.

Case studies of winners are published on line at www.brunerfoundation.org and in a book distributed by the Bruner Foundation.

2007 Selection Committee:

• Mayor Manny Diaz, Miami, FL
• Reese Fayde, CEO, Living Cities: National Community Development Initiative, NY
• Reed Kroloff, Dean of Architecture, Tulane University, New Orleans
• David Perry, CEO, Great Cities Institute, Chicago
• Josephine Ramirez, Director of Planning, The Music Center, Los Angeles
• Robert Kroin, Chief Architect, Boston Redevelopment Authority, Boston

For more information or to receive an application, contact:

Bruner Foundation
130 Prospect Street
Cambridge, MA  02139
Ph. 617-492-8401, Ext. 184
Fax 617-876-4002
Email: application@brunerfoundation.org
Download the application: www.brunerfoundation.org

The application deadline is December 18, 2006.

Please provide your name, title, company or organization, full address and daytime phone and/or fax number on all application requests. Please let us know how you learned about the Award.

Yesterday members of Transportation Alternatives staged a parking squat - a "quasi-legal reclamation of urban street space in which a metered, curbside parking spaces are transformed into urban parkland complete with sod, benches, trees and human beings." 

These events always evoke strong reactions - as evident in the comments posted to StreetsBlog.

"Bryant Park, which has been home to the massive spring and fall fashion shows, is pulling out the welcome mat." - New York Business.com

Last year, Bryant Park installed an ice skating rink that was free to the public - and much more popular than the exclusive private fashion shows. This February Bryant Park may choose in favor of extending the ice rink, rather than closing the park off for Fashion Week.

After writing about the dangers of privatization of Bryant Park for years, PPS enthusiastically applauds this decision.

After years of grumbling, this much-maligned public space in at the heart of Phoenix is on the verge of a makeover.  But the proposed design has ignited controversy with people who either want the park saved as is or who want it redeveloped, but not in the way that is on the table.