• Love (of place) in interesting times

    As we conduct a partial retreat from our habitat to our homes and our world becomes smaller we do so knowing that this is temporary, that we social creatures must eventually return to our natural habitat, the city.
    Note: This article was written for the Central Texas chapter of CNU, CNU-CTX, and the observations could apply to any community. It is said a curse goes “May you live in interesting times.” If we didn’t understand why that was considered a curse before, we certainly are fully cognizant of it now...Read more

  • Facts don't support the ‘density is dangerous’ narrative

    Ultimately, this crisis will highlight how much we need to come together in the real world, and cities are a big part of that.
    Over the last two weeks there’s been a lot of speculation that cities are more dangerous places during the coronavirus pandemic—and some have concluded that cities will change and suburbs will become more popular to make communities safer in the years to come. New York State Gov. Andrew Cuomo said...Read more

  • Building a future in a corona paralysis

    How quickly we have gotten used to a world that has seemingly stopped. I was out running yesterday morning, and came across construction workers who were moving and positioning heavy equipment for a development project near the waterfront of my city. It seemed odd, and yet highly reassuring, that...Read more

  • A strong case for faster trains serving ‘megaregions’

    In a new book, Jonathan Barnett calls for using design thinking to achieve sustainable, functional, and equitable “megaregions.”
    Note: Many urbanists have time for reading as they hunker down in response to COVID-19, and there are excellent books coming out. We will be posting reviews on Public Square in the coming weeks. Jonathan Barnett, winner of CNU’s prestigious Athena Medal in 2007 for his early influence on New...Read more