Archive for Diversity
March 9, 2010 · Filed under Authenticity, Creative Cities, Diversity, Economics, Families, Gentrification, Place making, Social Justice
Sharon Zukin had come to Greenwich Village and the Shrine of St. Jane not as a pilgrim but to wax sardonic.
Ms. Zukin, a Brooklyn College sociology professor, stared at the modest red-brick town house on Hudson Street that once was home to Jane Jacobs, whose 1961 book, “The Death and Life of Great American Cities,” celebrated the joyous hodgepodge of New York’s neighborhoods: the working-class tailor and the artist, the Italian grocer and the writer, living cheek by jowl.
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Popularity: 1% [?]
February 17, 2010 · Filed under Diversity, EcoCities, Ecosystems, Nature, Resilience, Urban Structure
Merging complex systems science and ecology, resilience scientists have broken new ground on understanding—and preserving—natural ecosystems. Now, as more and more people move into urban hubs, they are bringing this novel science to the city.
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Popularity: 22% [?]
February 16, 2010 · Filed under Architecture, Density, Diversity, Information Design, Landscape, Legibility, Tall Buildings
At the newly unveiled Web site Shape Vancouver 2050, users are given a digital model of the Vancouver skyline, the ability to extrude buildings upwards, and a visual gauge of the resulting effects on the city’s downtown. As the user drags the digital towers higher and population density increases, meters at the bottom of the screen go up too—energy saved, carbon use curbed, dollars added to the city coffers.
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Popularity: 23% [?]
February 12, 2010 · Filed under Creative Cities, Diversity, Planning, Public Space, Revitalization, Urban Design
Lower Manhattan, specifically Greenwich South, which is bordered by the Financial District, the World Trade Center site, Battery Park, and Battery Park City. This urban plan to reinvigorate the neighborhood is based on five overarching principles to improve connectivity and resident and business retention. From this plan emerged a 10-team charrette to develop specific building strategies and a list of action items to jump-start redevelopment.
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Popularity: 28% [?]
February 12, 2010 · Filed under Creative Cities, Diversity, Grassroots, Social Networks, Urban Actions
Over the past couple of years, coworking has been gaining momentum and attention. It is bringing a new and more flexible way of working to cities by helping people to take advantage of the benefits of interaction and collaboration. Breakout! is taking coworking a step further - pushing people to think entirely outside of the office “box”, and using all of the spaces a city has to offer to do work. By using the city as the office, Breakout! brings work back to the streets – to the places where work, play and leisure have happened for centuries.
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Popularity: 25% [?]
February 11, 2010 · Filed under Creative Cities, Diversity, Grassroots, Happiness, Public Life, Social Networks, Urban Actions
Is it just me or, is the modern urban neighborhood getting remarkably old-fashioned? In the Los Feliz (locals pronounce this los-FEE-liz) community of Los Angeles where I live, it feels like everything that was old is new (and smart) again. Things my grandparents in Kentucky have always done—checking in on neighbors, sharing a new crop of tomatoes—seem not so much folksy as generally just a good way to live, even if you are in the big city.
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Popularity: 26% [?]
February 5, 2010 · Filed under Diversity, Health, Place making, Social Justice
Although they tend to sell processed food made by the world’s largest companies, most corner stores are small, family-run businesses. And, when it comes to feeding their communities, many of these businesses find themselves in a serious bind. On the one hand, advocates and public health experts see their stores as pivotal to fresh food access, the key to curbing diabetes and obesity in urban areas with few other food resources. On the other hand, the processed food industry spends billions of ad dollars manufacturing a constant stream of demand for products that are anything but fresh or healthy.
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Popularity: 11% [?]
February 4, 2010 · Filed under Authenticity, Density, Diversity, Ecosystems, Generative Design, Urban Design, Urban Structure
The Hatoyama government’s ambitious carbon reduction goals position Japan for leadership in the postindustrial global economy. Less discussed is Tokyo’s remarkable energy efficiency, urban ecology innovations, and its potential for playing a leading role in the next decade’s biggest environmental challenge: creating sustainable cities with human and environmental benefits.
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Popularity: 17% [?]
February 4, 2010 · Filed under Authenticity, Diversity, Public Life, Public Space, Safety, Urban Actions
Urban regeneration has seen entire districts pass into the hands of private companies – and their security guards.
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Popularity: 13% [?]
February 4, 2010 · Filed under Active Transportation, Density, Diversity, Infrastructure, Multi-Level Urbanism, Pedestrians, Retail, Transit
One of Hong Kong’s smartest residential areas is called Mid-levels, and is served by an unusual form of transport: the longest outdoor covered escalator system in the world. The Central-Mid-levels system consists of twenty escalators and three moving walkways - and it runs in one direction in the morning, and another in the afternoon.
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Popularity: 12% [?]
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