Planning Pool

Heading south on Main, photo by author.

The APA has announced the results of its 2009 Great Places in America awards. I was really pleased to see Main Street in Greenville, SC celebrated as a 2009 Great Street! Greenville’s Main Street was one of the reasons I chose to go to university in the city. Main Street is definitely a lively and attractive place, filled with bustling restaurants, heritage storefronts, shops, ice cream parlors, public art, benches, trees, and plazas.

Some of the highlights of Main Street are the new trolley bus, Falls Park and the Liberty Bridge, Greenville Drive baseball, and the street itself, which is often used for festivals like Artisphere and Fall … Continue Reading

The High Line, underneath the Standard Hotel. Photo by author.

Pedestrians enjoy a stroll on the completed High Line in New York. Thanks to Gerard Dalmon for the Creative Commons photo!

Two weeks after the opening of the High Line, New York is still reveling in its newest city park. The creation of open space is a rare event in the world’s densest cities, a treasure hunt sometimes known as landscape urbanism. Seoul, Korea recently brought to daylight a forgotten river under the city, opening up a wide boulevard of parks and recreation spaces. Many cities have converted unused belt railways into community gardens or greenways. Now this trend for generating innovative … Continue Reading

***Update, July 17: The Comox bylaw received first approval from the town council.***

Have you ever wished that your least favourite form of development could be simply banished? In the Vancouver Island town of Comox (pop. 12,000), the town council is considering just that.

Drive-thru A&W in the City of Courtenay, in the Comox Valley. Thanks to Brian Chow for the Creative Commons picture.

A current resolution, meant to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and support sustainable development, would amend Comox’s Zoning Bylaw to prohibit drive-thru services like restaurants and banks throughout the town. Existing uses would remain but no future drive-thrus could be developed.

Howls of protest and approval … Continue Reading

I’m excited to announce that one of the brightest minds in urbanism today is gracing Toronto with an appearance on June 3rd. Jan Gehl, who is known for countless public space interventions over his long active career, will be speaking at the Design Exchange near Bay and King.

Good and evil. In the media, so many things are reduced to black and white, liberal and conservative, Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker. In the past week, the Toronto media has seised upon a specific grudgematch, and they decided to take out their biggest wedge. I’m talking about the epic struggle between the “build more roads” crowd and the “tear out roads” crowd. See – isn’t it easy to put them into two boxes? In real life, it’s never that simple.