• Ten economic benefits of walkable places

    This is second in a series of articles on the advantages of building human-scale cities and towns.
    Human-scale cities and towns: What’s their worth? Generating taxes, saving the Earth Social, health, safety, economy, too Walkable places do so much for you There are many benefits of building walkable places, backed up by research and common sense, to the point where explaining and distilling...Read more

  • The power of central social districts

    Main Streets, downtown cores, and neighborhood centers play a vital social role in American communities. The argument for Central Social Districts is that this social role should be nurtured distinctly for urban centers to succeed.
    Public Square editor Robert Steuteville interviewed economic development expert N. David Milder of DANTH, Inc., on Central Social Districts. Milder wrote a paper that was recently published in the American Downtown Revitalization Review . This is Part 1 of a two-part interview. RS: What is a...Read more

  • Historic shopping mall site slated for mixed-use

    A major shopping mall that influenced 20 th Century retail is slated to become a mixed-use urban center after getting key State of Michigan approvals in late July. Designed by Victor Gruen, Northland Center in Southfield, Michigan, predated the first enclosed mall. It began as a large outdoor...Read more

  • Ten social benefits of walkable places

    We shape our cities and then they shape us.
    Winston Churchill insightfully said of architecture, “we shape our buildings and thereafter they shape us.” That statement is even more true of communities and urban planning. Cities and towns are architecture writ large. Their assembly, often involving thousands of buildings, thoroughfares, and...Read more