Posts Tagged ‘walkable’
Ways to Fail at Form-Based Codes 04: Don’t Capture the Character
The other day, I was riding my bike from a deeply walkable, bikeable neighbourhood to a more auto-dominated environment, and I was struck again by the tactile response when you’re walking or biking through this change. In the walkable neighbourhood, fellow cyclists were in the streets or in bike lanes, mixing safely with the traffic-calmed…
Read MoreDon’t Get Mixed Up on Mixed-Use
Citizens, politicians, and planning officials have embraced the need to allow for walkable neighborhoods across North America and mixed-use is an essential component for achieving walkability. However, the term mixed-use has held different meanings in different places over the past 40 years or so. For example, mixed-use zones have usually had to declare a primary…
Read MoreHealthy, or Unhealthy, by Design
A few months ago, we talked about how a great city can be like a great running buddy, calling us to venture outdoors into more active, satisfying lifestyles. The photo-essay accompanying that conversation was on the urbanity of Wilmington, North Carolina. Last week, we were in another North Carolina town, Fuquay-Varina, working to create just…
Read MoreNext Urbanism Lab 04: Dare to live outdoors
As we re-populate our downtowns, and watch the crime statistics drop, people are seeing safety in numbers. Jane Jacobs was right about eyes on the street reducing crime. With the sense that it’s indeed safe to be in cities again, it appears that citizens are re-learning how to be connected in an urban context. Downtown’s…
Read MoreWilmington, NC: Active living and running buddies
Ever have trouble going out for a run? Know how much easier that gets when your good friend hits the road with you? Partly because you’re talking, partly because you’re just happy to see each other. This week in downtown Wilmington, North Carolina, doing some rezoning work for a community just across the river, I…
Read MoreChicken or the Egg: Who takes the lead on incremental suburban retrofitting?
A proposed Trader Joe’s in Boulder, Colorado, brought up an interesting question this week in a spirited exchange on the Pro-Urb urban issues listserv: In auto-centric places where streets and infrastructure lack any sense of meaningful pedestrian amenity, who should take the lead on turning things around? That is, should developers be required to build…
Read MoreGet your Multifamily into a Walkable Town Center!
Residences: An Obvious Ingredient One obvious yet undervalued ingredient of an effective mixed-use town center is the residential component. To emphasize its importance, I would go as far as to say that it is actually the substrate on which a healthy mixed-use environment is based. In a healthy, balanced region, with the exception of noxious…
Read MoreDon’t Get Mixed Up on Mixed-Use
Taking a break from Geoff Dyer’s series on town centers this week with a refresher course on the simple elements of mixed-use development. Citizens, politicians, and planning officials have embraced the need to allow for walkable neighborhoods across North America and mixed-use is an essential component for achieving walkability. However, the term mixed-use has held…
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