• Refuge and prospect: The front porch

    One of Seaside’s crucial mandates: Houses should have porches. New Urbanism spread from there, and the number of new U.S. homes built with porches has risen ever since, from 42 percent in 1994 to 52 percent in 2004 to 65 percent in 2016.
    My approaching birthday has me taking stock, as approaching birthdays do. This year isn’t a milestone — I’m merely being ushered into my ( write it! ) late 40s. But I’m passing another sort of milestone. I moved to the South when I was 23. This birthday means that I’ve been a Southerner over half...Read more

  • Federal infrastructure bills introduce Highways-to-Boulevards pilots

    A pilot program proposed to fund the study and removal of highways in urban contexts, an idea of great interest to urbanists, has largely flown under the radar.
    Prior to departing Washington for August recess, the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works unanimously advanced in a vote of 21-0 the bill S. 2302, America’s Transportation Infrastructure Act of 2019 . Others have already looked at the bill’s commitment to further highway spending , its...Read more

  • Healing a troubled medical district

    Memphis Medical District demonstrates the power of anchor institutions to improve sense of place and the economy in surrounding neighborhoods, while avoiding displacement.
    At 2.6 square miles, the Memphis Medical District is a city-within-a-city that has suffered severe disinvestment in the last 50 years. The population, once more than 30,000, declined to less than 10,000 by 2014, when medical and educational institutions in the district agreed to partner with local...Read more

  • Your brain on streets

    The above images represent an analysis of two residential suburban streets, and answer the question of which one is likely to attract and interest more pedestrians. Aside from the fact that the one on the right has more sidewalks, the immediate human cognitive perception of these streets is quite...Read more