Filmanowicz's blog

Both Aldi and Trader Joe's make the most of their square footage, creating worthwhile shopping experiences at around 15,000-18,000 square feet -- quite a contrast with street-killing, 200,000 square f

Whether the setting is the recovering coastal areas of Mississippi and Louisiana or anywhere else for that matter, if your goal is to turn inspiring plans for renewed neighborhoods of walkable, mixed-

Gulfport has been one of the Gulf Coast cities to watch since the days (and nights) of the new urbanist-led Mississippi Renewal Forum in 2005, where city officials led by tireless Mayor Brent Warr log

Robin Roberts was live in her hometown of Pass Christian, MS for the second day in a row today, commemorating the two-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina's destructive collision with the Gulf Coast

More and more Seattle residents are showing they are fed up with the domination of their potentially beautiful waterfront by a truck route. They're calling for infrastructure that makes their city more livable. And PBS' Lehrer News Hour is taking note, not only of the call for better alternatives in Seattle but the trend visible in a number of cities to replace elevated freeways with boulevards that support high-value city fabric and strong pedestrian connections to waterfronts and other civic assets.

This summer, CNU asked members to help identify and describe significant in-city new urbanist projects so that we can create detailed listings and online project profiles that make new urbanist involv

So what makes a good new urbanist charrette just what Evanston needs at this pivotal point in its history – at this moment when the inner-ring Chicago suburb has become one of the most exciting examples of transit-oriented development in the U.S. yet when vocal longtime residents fear they’re losing the town they knew and loved (even if it had become somewhat frayed in places before the recent burst of redevelopment)?

A leading post-baby-boomer new urbanist architect-planner, Kevin Klinkenberg, led a five-day charrette in Evanston last week, before catching a well deserved Cubs game on Saturday. Kevin’s peers are also doing admirable work, just not as close to home as Evanston. So though I had to skip the Cubs game, I caught Kevin’s closing presentation as well as some of the question-and-answer period that followed with constituents in Evanston.

Gulfport appears to be getting serious about implementing its post-Katrina rebuilding plans, which continue to be heavily influenced by new urbanists. The Mississippi Coast's leading newspaper the Sun-Herald reports that the Gulfport City Council has voted to engage three developers, including Henry Turley of Harbor Town fame as a citywide design consultant " to guide citywide rebuilding in an effort to revitalize neighborhoods and develop walkable communities." Although you'd think his natural role would be developing projects in Gulfport, he's known for excellent work (Harbor Town won a 2007 CNU Charter Award and was praised as one of the most fully implemented examples of a new urbanist neighborhood development) so his presence is in Gulfport is a very promising sign.

For the past several years, CNU founder Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk has been heading up a Herculean and potentially very consequential project, a city-wide overhaul of Miami's zoning code called Miami 21.