Category Archives: economic gardening

Ten dreamy planning lessons from cruising Michigan’s Woodward Corridor

The following are ten planning lessons from the quartet of amazing Detroit area suburban cities situated along the famous Woodward Corridor, home of the annual Dream Cruise each August. Those four Southeast Michigan cities are Birmingham, Ferndale, Pontiac, and Royal … Continue reading

Posted in adaptive reuse, advertising, Alternative transportation, architecture, art, bicycling, Biking, branding, Bus transportation, business, Cars, cities, civics, commerce, Cuisine, culture, density, diversity, downtown, economic development, economic gardening, engineering, entertainment, fun, geography, government, health, highways, historic preservation, history, Housing, inclusiveness, infrastructure, land use, landscape architecture, Maps, marketing, new urbanism, parking, Passenger rail, pictures, placemaking, planning, rail, recreation, revitalization, skylines, social equity, Statistics, theaters, third places, tourism, traffic, transit, transportation, Travel, urban design, urban planning, walking, zoning | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

America’s longest freeway capping parks

Below are freeway capping projects that incorporate park land or greenspace atop the deck that have taken place or which are proposed in the United States. They are listed by their known or approximate length (~) using maps.google.com. Unfortunately, there … Continue reading

Posted in adaptive reuse, architecture, art, bridges, Cars, cities, civics, culture, downtown, economic development, economic gardening, engineering, entertainment, fun, geography, Highway displacement, highways, historic preservation, history, inclusiveness, infrastructure, injustice, land use, landscape architecture, Maps, nature, pictures, placemaking, planning, pollution, product design, racism, recreation, revitalization, social equity, spatial design, Statistics, third places, topography, tourism, trails, transportation, Travel, tunnels, urban design, urban planning, visual pollution, walking | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Walkable placemaking with outdoor public stairways

Note: – For purposes of this blogpost, stairways, stairs, and stair-steps are used interchangeably. Post updated 2/16/23 _______ The first time it occurred to me that outdoor stairways could be an important walkability tool for cities was while visiting Edinburgh, … Continue reading

Posted in Active transportation, Advocacy, Alternative transportation, archaeology, architecture, art, book reviews, books, branding, brewpubs, business, cities, civics, coffee shops/cafes, commerce, culture, demographics, diversity, downtown, economic development, economic gardening, Economy, engineering, entertainment, environment, fitness, fun, geography, government, health, Health care, hiking, historic preservation, history, Housing, humanity, infrastructure, land use, landscape architecture, literature, logistics, Maps, Mining, mountains, natural history, nature, new urbanism, pictures, placemaking, planning, product design, recreation, revitalization, shopping, social equity, spatial design, sprawl, Stairway networks, Statistics, sustainability, third places, topography, tourism, traffic, trails, transit, transportation, Travel, urban design, urban planning, walking, writing | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Place Name Hall of Fame: Distinctly recognizable town/small and mid-sized city names

The following list identifies those towns/small cities that have distinctly recognizable names — ones that are well-known enough that most people would have immediately have a mental image of it if the place was mentioned in conversation or literature, even … Continue reading

Posted in advertising, archaeology, architecture, art, branding, business, Canada, cities, civics, commerce, Communications, Cuisine, culture, diversity, downtown, economic development, economic gardening, Economy, entertainment, entrepreneurship, environment, fun, geography, Geology, hiking, historic preservation, history, inclusiveness, land use, marketing, Mexico, music, Native Americans, natural history, nature, North America, pictures, place names, placemaking, planning, recreation, scenic byways, shopping, spatial design, sustainability, third places, topography, toponymy, tourism, Trade, trails, Travel, urban design, urban planning | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Strict planning & zoning destroys eclectic, offbeat, and funky

After three decades in the planning profession and several more years since retirement, I’ve come to the conclusion that if you want your community to maintain or build a funky, hip, offbeat, or eccentric vibe, it can not be done … Continue reading

Posted in adaptive reuse, advertising, Advocacy, archaeology, architecture, art, branding, business, cities, civics, commerce, consumerism, Cuisine, culture, demographics, deregulation, diversity, economic development, economic gardening, entertainment, entrepreneurship, family, Food, fun, gentrification, health, historic preservation, history, homelessness, Housing, humanity, inclusiveness, infrastructure, land use, landscape architecture, marketing, Mining, opinion, pictures, placemaking, planning, poverty, product design, revitalization, shopping, signs, Small business, social equity, spatial design, third places, tourism, Travel, urban design, urban planning, visual pollution, zoning | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Ugly two-digit Interstate Highway segments and thoughts on how to improve them

The following list identifies some segments of two-digit Interstate Highways where the aesthetics along the freeway are far less than pleasing. The list represents segments where there is little to impress a traveler and may in fact repel them from … Continue reading

Posted in Active transportation, adaptive reuse, architecture, bicycling, Cars, cities, civics, culture, economic development, economic gardening, environment, Highway displacement, highways, historic preservation, infrastructure, land use, landscape architecture, logistics, Maps, marketing, nature, pictures, placemaking, planning, politics, pollution, recreation, revitalization, spatial design, sprawl, third places, tourism, Trade, transportation, Travel, urban design, urban planning, walking, water trails, zoning | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The global network of subsea digital communication cables and the coastal hub cities that stand to benefit from them

Despite the fanfare surrounding satellite networks, subsea cables still transmit 99 percent of all data between continents. Much like the interstate highway system, airline networks, and railways, undersea global communication cables form a hub and spoke system, albeit being somewhat … Continue reading

Posted in adaptive reuse, Africa, architecture, Asia, business, cities, commerce, Communications, digital communications, distribution, ecommerce, economic development, economic gardening, economics, engineering, environment, Europe, futurism, geography, globalization, government, history, industry, infrastructure, internet, land use, logistics, Maps, marketing, nature, North America, Oceania, placemaking, planning, politics, Science, Social media, South America, spatial design, spying, Statistics, technology, topography, Trade, traffic, urban planning, video | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Every city should have a signature hiking trail

Having hiked in numerous places around the United States and in a few other nations (Canada, England, Scotland, Ireland, and Portugal), I have found that hiking is an excellent method to become better acquainted with a new place on a … Continue reading

Posted in Active transportation, advertising, Advocacy, agriculture, Alternative transportation, branding, cities, civics, civility, Communications, culture, economic development, economic gardening, entertainment, environment, fitness, fun, geography, health, hiking, historic preservation, history, infrastructure, land use, landscape architecture, Maps, marketing, nature, pictures, placemaking, planning, product design, recreation, rivers/watersheds, spatial design, sustainability, third places, topography, tourism, trails, transportation, Travel, urban planning, walking | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Viva historic preservation in the “True Las Vegas”

We recently spent part of a day wandering about downtown Las Vegas, New Mexico and came away very impressed by the preserved historical and cultural assets of this High Plains city. Unlike the overwhelming glitter and gaudiness found in Nevada, … Continue reading

Posted in adaptive reuse, archaeology, architecture, art, branding, business, cities, civics, civility, commerce, Cuisine, culture, downtown, economic development, economic gardening, entertainment, entrepreneurship, Food, fun, geography, government, historic preservation, history, Housing, infrastructure, land use, libraries, Maps, pictures, placemaking, planning, revitalization, shopping, Small business, spatial design, Statistics, third places, topography, tourism, Trade, Travel, urban design, urban planning, zoning | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Albuquerque’s two distinctive ranchito suburbs

All of us are familiar with the enormous ranches and farming operations that are most often found flung across the Midwestern and Western United States. We are also familiar with the smaller scale ranchettes and farmettes that tend to dot … Continue reading

Posted in Active transportation, adaptive reuse, Advocacy, agriculture, Animals, archaeology, architecture, art, cities, civics, culture, density, diversity, economic development, economic gardening, environment, Food, food systems, geography, government, health, historic preservation, history, land use, Maps, Native Americans, nature, placemaking, planning, recreation, rivers/watersheds, spatial design, sprawl, Statistics, sustainability, third places, topography, tourism, Trade, trails, Travel, urban planning, walking, Wildlife, zoning | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment