For nearly two centuries, New York City has led the way in its commitment to providing parks and green space for all residents. From the great historic Central and Prospect Parks, to the revitalized Bronx River Greenway to the catalytic High Line Park, the city’s innovative approaches to park development and partnerships can be adapted by all great cities. This coming July, city park planners, designers and visionaries, will have a chance to experience New York City’s parks like never before at the International Urban Parks Conference! Presented by City Parks Alliance, the event development committee for this year’s Greater & Greener conference promises a highly interactive program to include mobile workshops, a volunteer day, weekend tours, and receptions in great parks.
The 20th annual Congress for the New Urbanism was held this week in West Palm Beach, Fla. Such anniversaries are an occasion for reflection on past accomplishments, and also for looking ahead. One of the most exciting topics on the docket was “tactical urbanism,” the movement of incremental, small-scale – usually temporary, sometimes unsanctioned – improvements to the built landscape. One session featured Ralph Rosado, of C3TS, who presented on a project that turned a parking lot along Miami’s Biscayne Boulevard into a park for a week. Russ Preston, Design Director of the Principle Group, described how informal outdoor movie projections activated a neighborhood (and eventually became sanctioned by Paramount Pictures). Ellen Dunham-Jones, of Georgia Tech, described how her students installed temporary bike signage, historical markers, and storytelling benches to downtown Lithonia, Ga., to help catalyze long-term change there. The session was emceed by Mike Lydon, principle of Street Plans Collaborative, and lead editor of the Tactical Urbanism manual, volume 2 of which was just released. Following the session, Lydon stepped aside with EngagiesCities to discuss the past and future of tactical urbanism.
New York City is now one year in with their Road Map for the Digital City, the city’s plan to make New York the world’s leading digital city. Are they on to something big? Were their first year ambitions realistic? The process is definitely underway, but more challenges exist.
As New Yorkers, we seldom consider our physical vulnerability on the group of islands that we inhabit, a vulnerability that is increasing as a result of climate change. Nevertheless, weather everywhere, even in Manhattan, has grown more extreme and erratic over the past decade, something many attribute to global warming. In light of the recent evacuation of Lower Manhattan this past summer with the Hurricane that never happened, the work has particular resonance, serving as a wake-up call for urbanites who don’t think that climate change can affect them.
This week a broad cross-section of America’s (and the world’s) best urban planners, designers, thinkers and doers will be gathering in West Palm Beach for the 20th annual Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU20). Even if you were unable to attend this event, you’ll have the chance to participate by following the CNU 20 buzz (Twitter hashtag #cnu20) of attendees as they work to craft hands-on solutions that will vitalize our neighborhoods, cities and towns.
The CNU 20 conference is begins next week (May 9-12), and as a media partner with Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU), EngagingCities is excited to be able to bring you live streaming of some highly anticipated sessions from CNU20, directly from our site. So, even if you couldn't make the conference this year, you can still participate by listening in to the Friday night Plenary with Richard Florida here.
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Each spring, the Pittsburgh Community Reinvestment Group (PCRG) hosts an Annual Meeting and Awards Ceremony to celebrate the hard work of our membership and thank their partners for their continued commitment to neighborhoods.
Eastern Kentucky University and the City of Richmond will host the International Town and Gown Association’s seventh annual University-City Relations Conference in 2012.
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