public engagement & the urban place
Lorne is the founder / editor / chief bottle washer at RETHINK URBAN and Managing Partner at Grandview Consulting Inc. He has a fondness for big ideas and the small actions that make things happen. See our Consulting page for the full scoop.
A city’s buzz is highly associated with the liveliness of its plazas – the shared outdoor spaces adjacent to buildings and parks, whether privately or publicly owned. To celebrate Jane’s Walk on May 4, The Places Project hosted a walk that explored a variety of plaza spaces in downtown Victoria (BC, Canada) and the curious [...]
Every North American city has arterial roadways. Every city also has residential neighbourhoods with schools, homes, parks, playgrounds and other walking destinations. The challenge is how to manage the intersection of arterials and neighbourhoods. In an earlier blog post, we talked about the issues of arterials and our observations from The Places Project community walk [...]
How does a neighbourhood that is intersected by a number of arterial roads tie itself together to create a livable, walkable community? Are arterials just a necessary evil that have to be tolerated, as is, or are there adaptations that can allow for real communities to flourish along them? Those were some of the questions [...]
The Places Project will be exploring the green spaces of Oaklands neighbourhood in Victoria, BC, on Sunday April 14. A week before the event, we did a preview walk, scouting the area. It’s an intriguing neighbourhood. Here’s a few glimpses of what we saw and things that we will no doubt talk about on April 14. [...]
Walkability is the focus for the first event of The Places Project on Saturday, March 23, 2013 in the Greater Victoria neighbourhood of Burnside Gorge. What factors contribute to a walkable neighbourhood? The Places Project offers an opportunity to dive into walkability by exploring the Burnside-Gorge neighbourhood. You are invited to bring your perspectives and experiences [...]
Spanish colonial power in the Americas from the 15th to 19th centuries destroyed dozens of rich societies and decimated some of the world’s most sophisticated cities. However, one fortunate carry-over from the Spaniards’ grand plans in the western hemisphere was the urban plaza. Designed originally as open space bordered (typically) by a cathedral, governor’s mansion [...]
Does your city need more weddings? I’m not talking social engineering here. But wouldn’t your town be livened up if more wedding parties took to the streets, literally? It’s a common experience here in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. Walking near Parque Juarez recently, we noticed a police motorcycle had traffic stopped. It doesn’t take [...]
When we step into new places we step with feet shaped by our familiar spaces and places. Our eyes, at first, see only variations on the scenes of our homeland. I step out of our rented casa in central Mexico onto cobblestone streets. Rough cobblestone, black rocks of all shapes jammed into hard soil, rutted [...]
We are pleased with the growth of our urban ideas blog since it was launched about six months ago. The content is growing and we are attracting an engaging group of ‘urban explorers’ as both contributors and readers. For 2013, we have two new features that you might not have noticed. First, you can now [...]
On a run recently, I passed a narrow residential street featuring a traffic sign that was welcomed – but should be unnecessary. Of course, one can make the case that most or all traffic signs should be unnecessary. If people using our streets would exercise common sense, fewer speed limits, parking restrictions and directional signage [...]
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