Posted by Kaid Benfield in Green Enterprise , Living Sustainably
Walk Score keeps getting better, and it was already very good. With assistance from the Rockefeller Foundation, the locational rating system has now incorporated transit service data from 40 metro regions into its service, so that its maps...
Posted by Kaid Benfield in Green Enterprise , Living Sustainably , Moving Beyond Oil , Solving Global Warming
Cincinnati voters have rejected "Measure 9," an anti-streetcar initiative, by a 56-44 percent margin. The measure was aimed at killing a streetcar plan approved earlier this year by the city council, and would have required further referenda...
Posted by Kaid Benfield in Curbing Pollution , Green Enterprise , Health and the Environment , Living Sustainably , Saving Wildlife and Wild Places
Lee County, Florida (Fort Myers) is moving forward with an innovative plan to use clustered, dense development instead of large-lot zoning to protect its water supply. Under current zoning the southeastern portion of the Gulf coast county has been threatened...
Posted by Kaid Benfield in Environmental Justice , Green Enterprise , Living Sustainably
Last week I had the honor of being one of seven smart growth types recruited by the American Institute of Architects to work with the city of Indianapolis and community residents on the model revitalization of a distressed urban neighborhood. ...
Posted by Kaid Benfield in Green Enterprise , Living Sustainably
Last week, I had the honor of speaking to the Indiana chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects on the subject of sustainable communities. I enjoy this sort of thing, and when I have time - as I did...
Posted by Kaid Benfield in Green Enterprise , Living Sustainably
Medieval cities are almost by definition models of smart growth: built a long time prior to the automobile age, and built to be self-reliant and defensible, they tend to be highly walkable, dense, and self-contained with many if...
Posted by Kaid Benfield in Green Enterprise , Living Sustainably
A planning concept that is gaining favor as a guide to creating smart, convenient places conducive to green living is the "20-minute neighborhood": a place where you can meet all of your daily needs within a 20-minute journey, preferably...
Posted by Kaid Benfield in Environmental Justice , Green Enterprise , Living Sustainably
Last week's post on the architecture of the Make It Right Foundation's new homes in New Orleans brought some thoughtful comments, and it brought even more when I reposted it on another site that I also frequent. ...
Posted by Kaid Benfield in Green Enterprise , Living Sustainably
A month-long test of a redesigned "complete street" on one of St. Louis's neighborhood thoroughfares has proven immensely popular with residents, prompting the city to go forward with full construction of the first of four planned demonstration projects...
Posted by Kaid Benfield in Green Enterprise , Living Sustainably , Solving Global Warming
One of the more frustrating challenges for people in our field to overcome is a certain past-is-destiny argument from sprawl defenders who contend that past trends in favor of large-lot, dispersed, automobile-dependent development constitute proof that Americans want more of...
Posted by Kaid Benfield in Environmental Justice , Green Enterprise , Living Sustainably
As I'm sure most readers know, Brad Pitt's Make It Right Foundation has been constructing houses in New Orleans' Ninth Ward, so that residents who lost their homes to Hurricane Katrina can return. That's an undeniably noble endeavor. ...
Posted by Kaid Benfield in Green Enterprise , Living Sustainably
Dan Douglas was, until recently, chief downtown planner and director of the Urban Design Council in Raleigh, the state capital of North Carolina. He is now in private architectural practice, but his passion for the city remains, apparently. In particular,...
Posted by Kaid Benfield in Environmental Justice , Green Enterprise , Health and the Environment , Living Sustainably
Following up on yesterday's post, Hank Dittmar of The Prince's Foundation sent three new photos that were taken earlier this week in Rose Town, Jamaica. Together they capture some of the progress and pride that the project is engendering. The first is...
Posted by Kaid Benfield in Environmental Justice , Green Enterprise , Living Sustainably
A great story is emerging in Rose Town, Jamaica, a community in the process of being reborn with the help of HRH the Prince of Wales and The Prince's Foundation for the Built Environment. My very favorite...
Posted by Kaid Benfield in Green Enterprise , Living Sustainably , Solving Global Warming
As many readers of this blog already know, Orenco Station was built as one of the country's first new, suburban transit-oriented developments. It's on Portland's MAX light rail line in Hillsborough, Oregon, and comprises some 1,850 housing units...
