Planning Pool

Inch by inch, row by row...urban agriculture challenges residential zoning in San Francisco. (Thanks to Little City Gardens for this great photo!)

Earlier this spring in San Francisco a team of experienced urban farmers signed a land use agreement for a plot of land to expand their growing market-garden business.  Unlike most productive urban landscape in cities, which are community gardens or NGOs, Little City Gardens is a for profit enterprise. Owners Brooke Budner and Caitlyn Galloway have set out to experiment with the economic viability of urban farming by designing a financially self-sustaining urban farm business.  The new plot is an expansion of a smaller garden that was started in the Mission District, where they have been providing specialty salad mixes and organic produce to local … Continue Reading

Today’s post announces an exhibit and photography contest in British Columbia. Readers from other parts of the planet may find themselves inspired.

The Maple Street Community Garden in Vancouver is just one of many splashes of glorious greenery on the cityscape. Thanks to Donkeycart on Flickr for the Creative Commons photo!

This fall, the Museum of Vancouver will partner with local food non-profit FarmFolk/CityFolk to present an exhibit celebrating sustainable agriculture and local food systems. (August 26, 2010 to January 2, 2011)

Art, educational materials and public involvement opportunities will comprise programming exploring ecology, sustainable food systems and community development. The photography of Vancouver-based and internationally-recognized photographer Brian Harris will be a particular centrepiece, exploring Vancouver’s own urban agricultural scene.

While the exhibit’s opening day is … Continue Reading

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

In case it is not yet obvious, chickens are now hip. Reacting to concerns about local food security, factory farming and dislocation between urban dwellers and their food, people who used to buy their eggs at the store are deciding instead to keep a few hens in a backyard coop. Cities around North America are changing their bylaws to allow households to keep chickens. Posh dwelling options for these urban hens abound, including stylish molded plastic Eglus imported from England.

The photo from Seattle shows children at last year’s Northwest Folklife Festival checking out the Seattle Urban Farm Co’s display. The little purple and yellow coop, built from recycled materials, illustrates the minimum amount of backyard space that residents would need to devote … Continue Reading

Today’s post comes to you from Toronto Chickens, the blog of an underground hen-keeper in Canada’s largest city, where urban hens are not yet legal. As (s)he notes: “Living with chickens below the radar could be stressful at times. Sadly, despite the fact that I would like to share with you my identity, I have to be chicken about it and thus the name Toronto Chicken.”
This post, originally published at Toronto Chickens, addresses the important question of whether urban hens meaningfully contribute to food affordability. Toronto Chicken argues that they do!

Many people have asked me just how much it costs to produce a dozen organic backyard chicken eggs. Time to show off my … Continue Reading

Creative commons hen photo from Loungerie on Flickr.

We hope that will enjoy this upcoming week of posts about urban chickens in policy and practice! To kick off Chicken Week, we present a story about a very special urban chicken as told by Vancouver-based musician Craig McGregor. He begins disarmingly with “I don’t feel like playing a guitar solo; I feel like telling you a story!”

To my mind, his (true!) tale perfectly presents the disconnected, uncomfortable and absurd relationship that many urban North Americans have with our mainstream, industrial food system. It’s also very funny.

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Special thanks to Craig McGregor and to Celtic Traditions, the tiny and wonderful Vancouver folk music venue where this concert was recorded.

The University of British Columbia’s School of Community and Regional Planning is hosting a symposium on March 13 and 14. Entitled “From Sustainawhat? to Sustainahow! Moving from knowledge to action,” the symposium will explore the implementation of sustainability planning. Specifically, speakers will be focusing on affordable housing, resilience of government institutions in climate change planning, intercultural communications and multicultural planning, collaborative and participatory design, regional water governance, and many other topics.

 Confirmed speakers include :

• Dr. Tom Campenella: Associate Professor of Urban Planning and Design at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill 
• Stephen Owen: Vice President, External, Legal and Community Relations, UBC
• Dr. Leonie Sandercock: Faculty, SCARP, UBC.
• Dr. John Freidmann: Professor, SCARP, UBC.
• Karen Stone: Executive Director, B.C. Not-for-Profit Housing Association
• Brent Toderian: Director of Planning, City of Vancouver 
• Naomi Steinberg: Professional Storyteller
• Shannon Daub: Communications Director, Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, B.C. Chapter

Perhaps most excitingly, … Continue Reading