Tag Archives: community

A single sidewalk can make a huge difference

It’s not often when one can witness the palpable difference infrastructure can make on the micro level. However, a small summer cottage beach neighborhood on Lake Wawasee, Indiana presents just such an opportunity. Here, the Natti Crow Beach neighborhood installed … Continue reading

Posted in Active transportation, Advocacy, art, bicycling, Biking, civics, Communications, culture, entertainment, family, fun, health, hiking, history, humanity, inclusiveness, infrastructure, lakes, land use, pictures, placemaking, planning, product design, recreation, spatial design, third places, transportation, urban planning, walking | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

A comparison between Burning Man’s Black Rock City and the Greater World Earthship Community

The American West is blessed with two modern utopian communities — Burning Man’s Black Rock City on a high desert playa in northwestern Nevada and the Greater World Earthship Community located west of Taos, New Mexico. As Burning Man/Black Rock … Continue reading

Posted in adaptive reuse, Advocacy, Alternative energy, architecture, art, branding, cities, civics, Civil Rights, civility, climate change, Communications, culture, deregulation, deserts, diversity, economic development, energy, entertainment, entrepreneurship, environment, food systems, fun, futurism, geography, government, health, history, Housing, human rights, humanity, inclusiveness, infrastructure, land use, literature, Maps, marketing, minimalism, nature, peace, pictures, place names, placemaking, planning, politics, product design, recycling, Renewable Energy, social equity, spatial design, sustainability, technology, third places, tourism, Trade, Travel, urban design, urban planning | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Building a peaceful community with good planning

Building a peaceful community does not just result from how we treat one another (see previous post), but can be literally develop based on how we design our communities and allocate funding. The days of the “wrong side of the … Continue reading

Posted in Active transportation, adaptive reuse, Advocacy, airports, Alternative transportation, architecture, Bus transportation, Cars, cities, civics, civility, climate change, commerce, culture, diversity, economic development, environment, gentrification, geography, health, historic preservation, history, homelessness, Housing, humanity, inclusiveness, infrastructure, land use, Love, new urbanism, peace, placemaking, planning, pollution, poverty, rail, revitalization, social equity, spatial design, sprawl, sustainability, third places, traffic, transit, transportation, Travel, urban planning, walking, zoning | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Stitching together a “Quilt Barn Trail”

On Michigan’s historic Old Mission Peninsula, the community has banded together to stitch a Quilt Barn Trail. One may ask, as I first did, what is a Quilt Barn Trail? Essentially, it is an effort to celebrate and recognize the … Continue reading

Posted in adaptive reuse, agriculture, architecture, art, branding, civics, Communications, culture, economic development, economic gardening, entertainment, environment, family, fun, geography, historic preservation, history, land use, Maps, placemaking, planning, revitalization, signs, tourism, trails, Travel | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Islands of sanity amid sprawl schlock

Despite seas of commercial and residential sprawl in many parts of suburban Detroit, there are a few places of sane, sensible, and progressive planning that stand out as beacons of hope. Probably the most obvious of these dichotomies is just … Continue reading

Posted in Active transportation, adaptive reuse, Advocacy, architecture, art, bicycling, Biking, branding, Bus transportation, Cars, cities, civics, civility, coffee shops/cafes, commerce, consumerism, Cuisine, culture, density, downtown, economic development, education, entertainment, entrepreneurship, environment, geography, government, health, historic preservation, history, Housing, humanity, infrastructure, land use, landscape architecture, new urbanism, pictures, placemaking, planning, revitalization, spatial design, sprawl, sustainability, third places, tourism, trails, transit, transportation, Travel, urban planning, walking, zoning | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

A classic third place

During 2012, this blog summarized a variety of third places in detail. These included coffee shops/cafes, brewpubs, and libraries. One third place that was mentioned but never fully explored was traditional barber shops. Yesterday, while getting some of my remaining … Continue reading

Posted in cities, civics, civility, commerce, Communications, culture, entrepreneurship, family, fun, geography, history, humanity, land use, placemaking, planning, Small business, third places, Trade, urban planning, zoning | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 8 Comments

Be a YIMBY!

Attended a fantastic collaborative meeting of local advocacy groups this morning. During the conversation, a positive term was coined, YIMBY or Yes In My Back Yard. Given the number of links to the term on the net, apparently this was … Continue reading

Posted in Biking, Cities, civics, civility, Climate Change, diversity, economics, Environment, land use, Love, Passenger rail, politics, pollution, poverty, Transportation | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment