Planning Pool

Here in Vancouver, It is starting to look a lot like spring. The sun in shining and local children have taken up their stations playing in the park and performing skateboard tricks in the streets.

Appropriately for the season, hot topics in this week’s NewsPool include: planning for a child-friendly public realm in Spain, Massachusetts, and the Pacific Northwest, overweight American buildings on an energy diet, and streetcars, which remain a hot topic at any time of the year.

Three of this week’s selected posts look at elements of child-friendly cities in Europe and North America, from parks and community gardens to play in to meaningful involvement in planning processes.

Polis – Cities for Children

A Spanish project called the City of Children … Continue Reading

Next Sunday, Vancouver’s biggest community garden hosts its annual open house. Check out garden tours, workshops, beekeeping demonstrations, a native plants display, live acoustic music and free vegan snacks!

Musicians take a break at the 2007 Strathcona Community Gardens open house.

When:     Sunday, July 12, 2009
Where:   Strathcona & Cottonwood Community Gardens
(Just off the Adanac bike route. See map below.)
Time:      10am – 2pm
Cost:       Free!

Perhaps like all community gardens, the Strathcona and Cottonwood gardens have wonderful stories in their soil. In the 1950s and 1960, the site served as a garbage dump and a city works yard. Since the 1980s, the land has been completely restored through the efforts of hundreds of volunteers. Today, the gardens thrive in a seven-acre urban oasis that is also a living example of urban … Continue Reading