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

The NYC Sanitation Department donated one of these machines for use in the new park's signage. Photo by author.

For over 50 years Fresh Kills was the main landfill for New York City and  the largest dumpsite in the world.  In March of 2001 the site was closed due to pressure from the Environmental Protection Agency, only to be reopened temporarily in September of that year as the receiving site for the demolished World Trade Center buildings.   Now the land, once a symbol of waste and environmental disrespect, is being re-developed as the largest park in New York City—at 2,220 acres it will be almost three times the size of Central Park.  The site will be extensively landscaped with native vegetation and will provide natural ecological areas as … Continue Reading