May 2013
4 posts
9 tags
Subway Riders' Quirks Studied →
The seating calculations of subway riders’ where and when they choose to sit, though not necessarily why â were the subject of an observational study.
1st Arab Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction →
climateadaptation:
Great built environment news from the Middle East. They’re getting into disaster management (and a bit of climate adaptation). The conference was held last month in Aqaba, Jordan. And you can view and download a boatload of power point presentations by the speakers, here.
Not sure how long the resources will be online, so get them while they last!
The conference will...
April 2013
1 post
March 2013
4 posts
6 tags
Portland Retailers Swoop Into Storefronts Along... →
Urban commercial real estate has always been a rough-and-tumble scrum, and now Amazon.com has torn up the playbook. Across the country, many brick-and-mortar retailers are in big trouble.
But there’s an opening in this bad news that you can ride a bike through.
Bikes, it turns out, seem to be a perfect way to get people to the few retail categories that are thriving in the age of...
stjernen av nord: I Need GIS Help!! →
stickypaste:
Hey GIS people, I need your help. I downloaded the ArcGIS mobile app and what I want to do is simple but I am just not getting this right. All I want to do is add points to a streets base map of where I am standing using an iphone. I know that I could just record the coordinates of where I am…
February 2013
2 posts
6 tags
Represent LIC Photo Contest →
Represent LIC Photo Contest: Call for Submissions! Submit a photo of LIC that best represents the spirit of our neighborhood and it could be chosen as the cover of a special Long Island City section in NY Daily News to run in May. Email submissions to yrobinson@licpartnership.org by April 15. One entry per person. All photos will be published on the LIC Partnership Facebook Page!
January 2013
4 posts
7 tags
JANUARY 30, 2013 / Tackling Poverty: A Local &... →
Following the Presidential Inauguration, New Yorkers will prepare to elect a new mayor in 2013. For the second event of the Tackling Poverty Series, you are invited to special conversation with experts and civic leaders to discuss a national and local policy agenda to address growing urban poverty and homelessness. The event will also highlight Hurricane Sandy’s effects on the economic...
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The Ins and the Outs →
Along one of New York’s most rapidly changing boulevards, a look below the surface exposes what—and who—is really driving gentrification in Crown Heights.
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Rough Cut →
This is a really good article about the gaps in the Kimberly Process and how the diamond business shapes development in India. Obviously, this is a sensitive subject for many diamond owners, but I think this is a compelling enough read, as well as being very important in understanding this complicated industry. So here is your monday morning foreign policy downer.
November 2012
1 post
2 tags
October 2012
4 posts
14 tags
New York City, Prevention and Adaptation
The day before Hurricane Sandy made landfall I did a bit of research. Walking down Lexington, I took note of what people were buying. I went into stores to survey what types of products were sold out and listened to people’s theories about what type of damage the impending storm would do. Reactions ran the gamut from casual dismissal to extreme apprehension. I fell in the middle. Growing up...
4 tags
Please Sign This Petition to Stop Another MTA Fare... →
The cost of a MetroCard is about to go up again, making your daily commute more expensive. Public transit needs to bereliable and affordable, but we’re paying more for less.
This is unacceptable.
Over the past five years, New Yorkers have already endured three transit fare hikesand the worst service cuts in a generation.
- In 2007, a 30-day unlimited MetroCard cost $76. - In 2012, a...
8 tags
Park(ing) Day 2012
To put it mildly, I’ve been busy. But what this means is that I have been participating in many very interesting events in New York. This city is full of them - even if that means a simple walk down the street. No doubt you have seen or heard about this San Fransisco based day of street reclamation and this year I was finally able to participate. Park(ing) Day seeks to demonstrate exactly how...
June 2012
2 posts
4 tags
10 tags
Riverside Plaza and Utopia
No doubt you’ve seen them jutting out from the Cedar/Riverside neighborhood - Riverside Plaza, the little cluster of high rises with those infamous colored exterior panels. When I first moved to Minneapolis people called them the “Crack Stacks” and the “Ghetto in the Sky”. Those nicknames may have been somewhat applicable years ago, but having visited them several times, I would say they are...
May 2012
4 posts
11 tags
The 5 Stages of Development Grief →
Here is a guest contribution I did for an awesome blog called Streets.MN. I highly suggest you add them to your daily reading list.
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The Delicate Design of Public Space and the Battle...
If you’ve ever taken a sociology class you probably read about Max Weber and Georg Simmel; two of the first urban sociologists to study urban social life and how factors such as race, class, gender and economics change the ways people interact with the urban environment and public spaces.
Think of a public space you know. What do people do there? Do they eat lunch? Read? Talk on the phone? What...
6 tags
Student of the City is Moving to New York!
Student of the City (the Minneapolitan Urban Studies Nerd) will be re-locating this summer to New York City for a Masters of Urban Planning program. I am very excited for this new adventure.
Thank you to everyone who has been so encouraging in my writing. I will continue to blog before, during and after I settle into my new home, where ever that will be…
13 tags
The Importance of Urban Agriculture
My first urban garden was a 5x3 foot weed pit behind my rented duplex. With my landlady’s permission, I dug out the weeds and threw the coffee grounds from my french press and some organic compost into the dirt. My mission was simple: salsa ingredients, hopefully enough for a few jars. This was my first attempt at gardening, let alone on the bath mat sized part of the “back yard” which was more...
April 2012
3 posts
7 tags
Student of the City is now on Facebook! →
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The Romance of Density
In March I spent a few days in New York City. I had an amazing time visiting friends and taking long walks. I left feeling great, but when I had been back in Minneapolis for a day or two it felt as if I had left something behind, unease filled me. One morning I took the light rail to school from downtown and as the train stopped I could see down an empty street. It was 9 am on a Tuesday, the sun...
5 tags
March 2012
1 post
12 tags
Women In Planning
As I became increasingly interested in urban planning as my major early in college I was introduced to Jane Jacobs - then the deal was sealed. The story of Jane Jacobs is nothing if not inspiring; a housewife who wrote The Death and Life of Great American Cities - maybe the most influential book in urban planning, and fought Robert Moses’ Lower Manhattan Expressway. But after Jane Jacobs, the...
February 2012
3 posts
13 tags
Whats the Problem With New Urbanism?
Of all the planning and architectural movements I have studied, none gets more criticism than New Urbanism. How could it be so that a movement centered on the idea of a walkable city with vibrant public spaces and inclusive architecture can be met with so much ridicule? Here is my take, but first a brief (not really) history of new urbanism: In opposition to traditional sprawling...
6 tags
Why Women-Only Transit Options Have Caught On →
Standing on a crowded Osaka subway platform during a rainy rush hour last month, it was easy to find women willing to talk about why they prefer women-only trains. Chinatsu Kawamoto, an 18-year-old high school senior, offers a typical response.
“I’ve been groped on the train, and I don’t want that to happen again,” she says.
Japan is not the only country to offer women-only...
5 tags
At a Crossroads Over Chains - Southwest Journal →
Some Uptown residents want to see more locally owned businesses around the Lake & Hennepin business district, rather than national chains, but even some business owners agree that the presence of the chains has helped keep their businesses afloat in this tough economy.
January 2012
7 posts
10 tags
THE END OF THE SEGREGATED CENTURY: Racial... →
This is a great report by Edward Glaeser who wrote Triumph of the City, and Jacob Vigdor who wrote a book called From Immigrants to Americans: The Rise and Fall of Fitting In. In the report they assess the state of segregation today and provide some very interesting data on where people live and who they are. I suggest you give this a read.
9 tags
Minneapolis: City owned vacant lots available for... →
Hey Minneapolitans! Want to start a Community Garden? Here is your chance.
“With seed catalogues arriving in the mail and flower and garden shows around the corner, now is a good time to look into establishing a community garden. The City of Minneapolis has 10 vacant lots available for qualifying groups to lease for community gardens. These City-owned lots were selected because they...
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Eye Sores and Eye Candy: The Impact of Zoning on... →
This month, New York City community boards will hold hearings on new zoning rules that would make it easier for developers and homeowners to make buildings more energy efficient. The proposed changes are the latest of many recent amendments to zoning regulations that impact the way the city looks and functions.
As the city considers greening its zoning laws, MetroFocus took a look at the...
8 tags
See Potential →
This is a great project happening in Chicago. They’ve already met their Kickstarter goal but any additional fund would be much appreciated!
On January 5th, we reached our initial $10,000 goal, and have since surpassed it! The additional funding will be used to create more installation sites. We are incredibly excited to get started!
See Potential uses documentary photographs to...
5 tags
Watchplantedcity:
Bikes in the City: ‘On the Right Track’
From Vimeo:
Catherine Ciarlo, Transportation Policy Director in the Office of Mayor Sam Adams in Portland, Oregon, explains how cycle tracks and buffered bike lanes work.
5 tags
As Minnesota's Cities Grow, Townships Fade Away →
December 2011
3 posts
12 tags
Hydraulic Fracturing & Zoning
I stayed in bed late this morning and happened to listen to this Midmorning episode about Fracking in North Dakota and how it affects Minnesota. One of the guests on the show is Jason Gilman, the Community and Environmental Protection Services Director in Winona, MN. The geology of Minnesota its self does not permit any hydraulic fracking, but the St. Peter Sandstone could be used in the process...
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November 2011
11 posts
8 tags
New York Times Op Ed: The Death of the Fringe... →
By CHRISTOPHER B. LEINBERGER
Published: November 25, 2011
DRIVE through any number of outer-ring suburbs in America, and you’ll see boarded-up and vacant strip malls, surrounded by vast seas of empty parking spaces. These forlorn monuments to the real estate crash are not going to come back to life, even when the economy recovers. And that’s because the demand for the housing that once supported...
7 tags
Planetizen's Top 10 Urban Planning Books of the... →
These are definitely some great books. The books range from urban policy to topics like bicycle transportation. If you are looking for a book to help you explore urban planning this list will help you narrow it down. Of the list I have only read two (I have homework!): Triumph of the City by Ed Glaeser and Instant City: Life and Death in Karachi by NPR’s Steve Inskeep, and they were both...
9 tags
Minneapolis Star Tribune: New Bike Lanes Bring... →
In many cities there is tension between bicyclists and motorists. In Minneapolis, streets were first designed for walking and horses, then street cars but were converted for buses and cars. How do we share the road? What are the implications of changing a road’s design half a dozen times? What can be done to facilitate better experiences for both bikers and drivers? One thing I love about...
9 tags
Gehl Architects - North American Projects →
Jan Gehl is a Danish architect who has created some amazing spaces. His work focuses on improving urban areas primarily for pedestrians and bicyclists. I’d say he is a new-urbanist/pedestrianist/sustainable/resiliency planer. His blog title, Making Cities for People pretty much sums up his ideology. Take a look at some of his North American projects, you may have visited them. He is a master...
3 tags
Save Student Aid: Statement of Support →
Please sign this petition. As a student, the financial strain of college weighs heavy on my mind every day. Higher education should be available to everyone to wants it, without the fear of unsurmountable debt crippling our lives and families.
stickypaste:
Right now the congressional Super Committee is currently deliberating budget cuts to address our federal deficit and those cuts could have...
5 tags
How Can Cities Encourage Residents to Live More... →
Today I wondered this exact question as I saw a sprinkler at the edge of someone’s yard shooting water all over the street - in November - in Minnesota. What will it take for people to conserve? Some people say that the next world war will not be over oil, but water.
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The Pruitt-Igoe Myth | Katharine G. Bristol,... →
The Pruitt-Igoe example raises many intense emotions for people on all sides of the debate. Designed by Minoru Yamasaki of World Trade Center fame, the Pruitt-Igoe was intended to be a utopian neighborhood in the sky for poor blacks of St. Louis. Ultimately this project failed and the buildings were demolished in the late 1960’s. Why they failed is the point of contention. Many feel that it...
