(Scott) Are suburbs the new slum? Great article at theatlantic.com. Especially page three, where the author predicts the future. For 60 years, Americans have pushed steadily into the suburbs, transforming the landscape and (until recently) leaving cities behind. But today the pendulum is swinging back toward urban living, and there are many reasons to believe [...]
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The New Slum?
by Scott Greider on February 29, 2008, in Architecture, Community, Cul-de-sac culture, Downtown, Neighborhoods, Urbanism, Where the sidewalk ends
Re: The world’s greatest neighborhoods
by Jon Swerens on February 11, 2008, in Neighborhoods, Urbanism
I’m always telling people that the world’s greatest neighborhoods are terrible places to park, and it’s no coincidence. … Part of the reason you don’t see much parking in back, of course, is that if this is a successful urban neighborhood, someone is going to come along with a more valuable use for that land [...]
The happy city
by Jon Swerens on February 8, 2008, in City culture, Neighborhoods, Uncategorized, Urbanism
(Jon) How about some urban policies that are focused not only on economics, but on happiness? An article in enRoute magazine opens with a Paris street that’s been buried in sand and turned into a city beach. And that’s not all: All through the city, pavement has been wrested away from private cars and converted [...]
‘Unsustainable housing meets unsustainable finance’
by Jon Swerens on February 5, 2008, in Cul-de-sac culture, Neighborhoods
(Jon) Triple Pundit gives its view on the “sub-prime meltdown,” and it says it’s simply too many people buying too much house with too little money. Look at the areas hardest hit by the sub-prime collapse: “Subdivisions built on the edges of urban areas where once arable land is bulldozed to make way for over-sized, [...]
Do you want this in your neighborhood?
by Jon Swerens on January 28, 2008, in Architecture, Neighborhoods
(Jon) In response to my call for neighborly modern home architecture, Scott rises to the challenge. He points us to an article and photos in Dwell Magazine which discusses this house built in a distressed neighborhood in Dayton, Ohio. The builders of the home were warmly welcomed: Luckily for the couple, there weren’t any stringent [...]
Must New Urbanism look old?
by Jon Swerens on January 22, 2008, in Architecture, Neighborhoods, Urbanism
(Jon) Neal makes a valid point regarding my post, “New Urbanism blooming in Bloomington”: A neat development in a neat town, but the main problem is that the new houses are old-fashioned looking. What part of “New Urbanism” says it has to look like the thirties? I know the looks are a response to what [...]
Tribute to a ‘radical’ traffic engineer
by Jon Swerens on January 8, 2008, in Neighborhoods, Transportation
(Jon) I’d never before heard of Hans Monderman, who died yesterday, but according to Streetsblog, he was “a rare and radical traffic engineer who believed that the art and science of his profession could be used not just to facilitate the movement of motor vehicles but to build community and enhance human relationships.” Raise the [...]
Read ‘The Three Rules,’ and tell the author what you think
by Jon Swerens on November 28, 2007, in Architecture, City culture, Downtown, Neighborhoods, Urbanism
To those who love our city, here’s your assignment: First: Understand The Three Rules. David Sucher loves cities. He hopes to foster what he calls “urban villages,” cities that are vibrantly urban but yet also in some way cozy and neighborly. Kinda like what many of us want in Fort Wayne. His Three Rules are [...]
A maddening map of the precincts
by Jon Swerens on November 6, 2007, in Elections, Neighborhoods
Has anyone ever successfully used the Allen County GIS system to determine his own precinct or polling place? I appreciate the effort that went into gathering all the information and pulling it into one system. But the county system is a classic example of enterprise software being written for programmers rather than for end users. [...]
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