• Traditional cities are having a big decade

    Strong demand for historic downtowns and neighborhoods brings a surge of population at a level not seen in 70 years.
    Traditional American cities like Seattle, New Orleans, New York City, and Philadelphia are growing this decade at a rate that they haven’t seen since the 1940s, according to a Public Square analysis. The 25 largest traditional cities gained 3.8 percent in population in the first half of this decade...Read more

  • Saint Jane

    Note: 2016 is the centennial of the birth of Jane Jacobs. Jane Jacobs’s pivotal book, The Death and Life of Great American Cities , is the most influential American text about the inner workings of cities—of how they fail but also of how cities succeed. Since its publication in 1961, the book has...Read more

  • The Pink Zone – where small is possible

    The Pink Zone is a tool for concentrating resources to enable small-scale, community-centered revitalization. It defines an area of focus, leverages a suite of tools, and provides a community platform to gather resources and make commitments.
    Note: This article was written as part of the Project for Lean Urbanism and edited for Public Square . A Pink Zone — an area where the red tape is lightened — is the locus for implementation of Lean Urbanism strategies and improvements,. The Pink Zone identifies a specific area where new protocols...Read more

  • Detroit selects ‘Pink Zone’ partners

    City planning department, with funds from the Knight Foundation, hires teams to explore reducing red tape in development projects.
    Detroit’s planning department has selected three design firms to help envision revitalizing the city’s vacant commercial strips while reducing the bureaucratic hurdles that can stand in the way of redevelopment. Farr Associates/PlaceMakers/CHA, SmithGroupJJR and Laavu were selected from among 38...Read more