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It’s not surprising that Portland and New York are ranked high in a new report about the best places to get around without your car, but the other bike-friendly destinations may surprise you. Have you tried walking to work in Alaska?
The Best U.S. Cities For Biking And Walking
Popuphood – a new urban initiative and small business incubator in Oakland sets out to revitalize a struggling neighborhood in six weeks by carving out a rent-free space of entrepreneurial spirit.
How Citizen Mapmakers are Changing the Stories of our Cities
“Individuals inside cities and elsewhere are creating maps for themselves and in fact giving us their own narrative of what a cityscape is about. They are telling us what is important to them, and they’re mapping the kinds of things that previously would not be mapped. It’s becoming part of the creation of a culture of a city.”
Vertical vegetable garden planted on the side of your house in repurposed rain gutters
via How does your garden grow? A different way to plant vegetables
Submitted by Anna C.
via urbangreens:
Top five apps for exploring the city
Read it here.
A City Is A Startup: The Rise Of The Mayor-Entrepreneur
An interesting piece comparing successful cities to start up businesses
On stage at last month’s Le Web conferenceShervin Pishevar, a Managing Director at Menlo Ventures, stated “The World is a Startup.” It’s an interesting perspective, and I think what’s true for the world is also true for countries, states and municipalities. With developments like last month’sannouncement that Cornell was selected to build a new tech campus in New York City, it seems to follow that if “a city is a startup,” then the best mayors are the ones who are looking at their cities in much the same way as entrepreneurs look at the companies they have founded.
The ingredients for a successful startup and a successful city are remarkably similar. You need to build stuff that people want. You need to attract quality talent. You have to have enough capital to get your fledgling ideas to a point of sustainability. And you need to create a world-class culture that not only attracts the best possible people, but encourages them to stick around even when things aren’t going so great.
Jarrett Walker’s Human Transit: Are we thinking about urban planning all wrong? - Slate Magazine
Walker is my favorite transportation blogger. This is a review of his new book. Pretty good read.
In the great postwar building boom, developers froze on a pattern that used five acres to do the work of one. They had to, or they thought they had to. For one thing, it was a well-known fact that Americans had a deep psychic urge for a free-standing homestead on a large country plot, or as close a replica as possible. The assumption was self-proving, for it was built into the standards of the Federal Housing Administration and the major lending institutions. If a developer wanted mortgage money, he hewed to these standards or he did not get it.
