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Top 10 Global Trends Affecting Downtowns

By mkodransky@pps.org on Mar 21, 2008 | Add Comment

Progressive Urban Management Associates (P.U.M.A.), along with several Denver-based collaborators, determines the top 10 global trends changing downtowns across the U.S. 

“The first decade of the new millennium is ushering in an era of unprecedented economic, social and political change. Changing demographics, lifestyles and global competition portend to have profound affects on our daily [...]

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Downtown Houston Park Could Be A Great Place

By keenan on Mar 17, 2008 | Add Comment



(photo courtesy of R. Clayton McKee)

Kids playing around “Mist Tree,” a donated fountain at the new Discovery Green park.

The preview opening of Discovery Green, a 12-acre park across from the George R. Brown Convention Center in downtown Houston, [...]

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Downtowns Try to Survive

By keenan on Mar 6, 2008 | Add Comment

At a time when communities across America have seen their downtowns diminished or destroyed by the rise of malls and superstores, traditional downtowns in the Hudson Valley still exist in unusual numbers. If their businesses don’t exactly thrive, for now at least they’re making it.

The reasons are debatable.

It [...]

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Downtown Ithaca is the ‘Community Hub’

By keenan on Mar 6, 2008 | Add Comment

There’s something special about having an authentic, real center of your community: a Main Street, a plaza or piazza, a town square or village four corners. I mean a real community center, a place like Broadway in Saratoga Springs, Fountain Square in Cincinnati, Boulder’s Pearl Street Mall or Santa Fe’s downtown plaza. All of these [...]

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Searching for the Soul of Times Square

By keenan on Mar 6, 2008 | Add Comment

You know that scene in the movie I Am Legend where Will Smith (playing the last man on Earth) and his German shepherd (playing the world’s last good dog) go deer hunting in a depopulated Times Square? Well, to my urbanist-geek way of thinking, the most impressive aspect of this masterpiece of computer-generated cityscape is [...]

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PPS In Providence: City told to think and dream big in reinventing plaza

By jpastore@pps.org on Feb 28, 2008 | 1 Comment

As part of a project Providence, RI, PPS lead a workshop of over 130 city officials, business owners, residents and representatives of nonprofit groups about potential improvements to the city’s central plaza, Kennedy Plaza.

“All over the world, people are coming back to these great squares. Once you’ve got a great square, the [...]

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The Great Neighborhood Book Voted in the Top 10 Planning Books for 2007 by Planetizen

By rdahl@pps.org on Jan 30, 2008 | Add Comment

Planetizen has named PPS/Jay Walljasper’s The Great Neighborhood Book as one of its top 10 planing books of 2007.  http://www.planetizen.com/books/2008
Also, Urban Land magazine recently reviewed The Great Neighborhood Book in the November/December 2007 issue. Click here to read the review.
The Great Neighborhood Book also received an honorable mention on [...]

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The Rockefeller Foundation Jane Jacobs Medal Nomination Process is Now Open

By rdahl@pps.org on Jan 11, 2008 | Add Comment

The Rockefeller Foundation is now accepting nominations for the 2008 Jane Jacobs Medal on its website through February 1, 2008. The 2008 Rockefeller Foundation Jane Jacobs Medals will recognize two living individuals whose creative vision for the urban environment has significantly contributed to the vibrancy and variety of New York City.

Click [...]

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How Smart Towns Fight Dark Winter

By rdahl@pps.org on Dec 31, 2007 | Add Comment

Do plunging temperatures, gray skies and the year’s shortest days have to force us to huddle indoors? When we flick on the television, do we have to cringe at the weathermen’s dire warnings of monster storms on the way?

Not at all, argues Jay Walljasper, a writer on world cities, in a Christmas-season [...]

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Traffic is Endangering Atlanta’s Growth

By rdahl@pps.org on Dec 31, 2007 | Add Comment

Metro Atlanta’s traffic congestion is endangering its future growth, according to one of the nation’s top site selection experts, who advises companies on where to send their jobs.

Atlanta’s traffic problem has put it “at the point of no return,” said Dennis J. Donovan. Lots of places have transportation funding problems, but Atlanta’s congestion is [...]

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What Makes a Walkable City?

By rdahl@pps.org on Dec 17, 2007 | Add Comment

An article about great pedestrian places in the U.S. and the local Minneapolis angle from Steve Berg.

What makes a city a good place to walk?

Minneapolis, MN

Bikeability? Excellent. No. 2 in the country.

Walkability? Not so good. No. 17 among the 30 top metro areas. Down among St. Louis, Detroit and Houston. [...]

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In Search of a Great Street

By rdahl@pps.org on Dec 6, 2007 | Add Comment

Inspired by Las Ramblas in Barcelona, this article discusses what makes a good street – how elements come together to make streets “the river of life.” Community is influenced positively with pedestrian-friendly streetscapes that value social encounters, as primary to commercial endeavors.

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