• A wall rises in Buffalo

    Even a city that is getting better makes mistakes, such as a massive concrete wall around a development in a city where population and urbanism are growing.
    In early March, 2020, days before the entire nation came to a sudden pandemic halt, I was in Buffalo, New York, for a charrette co-sponsored by CNU. It was brutally cold—as Buffalo can be in winter—and that may have contributed to my poor judgment (it’s hard to think clearly about urbanism when...Read more

  • How physical activity, land use, transportation, and zoning intersect

    Zoning rarely gets discussed as directly related to health, but communities that have reformed their codes see health benefits, from reduced rates of cancer to greater physical activity—which in turn lowers disease and improves mental health.
    In an On the Park Bench webinar, Jamie Chriqui, PhD, reports on the intersection of physical activity, land use and transportation, and zoning. This matters because half of the US population is physically inactive (more prevalent in the Sunbelt), and inactive people are far more likely to have...Read more

  • Ways to jump-start small-scale urbanism

    The benefits to good urbanism of finer grain building and development are well known, according to Brian Falk of the Project for Lean Urbanism. Now there are a suite of tools to help make that happen, including Pink Zones and “ house hacking .” Falk and architect Kevin Klinkenberg joined CNU’s On...Read more

  • Portrait of a successful ‘flex street’

    Will street designers and public officials take notice of shared, flexible Clematis Street in downtown West Palm Beach, which contributes to both transportation and placemaking?
    On weekends, bollards go up and Clematis Street in West Palm Beach, Florida, becomes car-free. During the week, cars move slowly through the seven-block downtown corridor, sharing the curbless street with pedestrians. Clematis Street makes a bold statement at the center of West Palm Beach,...Read more