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Friday Five: Articles for Urbanists [Nov 12th-18th]

This week’s round-up of articles for urbanists:

Satellite image of Dallas–Fort Worth. [Courtesy of NASA
Thinking of not voting? Think again: Casting your ballot for mayor, city council and trustees has a real effect on your daily life (Surrey Now)

Megapolitan America: Although they occupy only 17 percent of the contiguous 48 states’ land base, America’s megapolitan areas are more densely settled than Europe as a whole. (Design Observer Places Journal)

Jane Jacobs and the book that inspired a revolution: If cities are the greenest form of human settlement that we could possibly aspire to, Jane Jacobs left us the owner’s manual for how to build them. (Grist)

Why Food Policy is Urban Policy: Forward-looking urban policy must understand and incorporate food systems as a primary and foundational precondition to any and all growth. (CityLab)

Three Smart Ideas for Improving Our Urban World: The next breakthrough in architecture may not come from the likes of Frank Gehry, whose designs. It’s more likely to come from a chemist. (This Big City)

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The Just City [Weekend Watch]

A welcome video for attendees of the Ford Foundation’s 75th anniversary event, The Just City. On July 14, 2011, he Ford Foundation brought together some of the most creative minds in metropolitan development.

Civic leaders and policymakers, urban designers and entrepreneurs gathered to explore how fairness, opportunity and equity can serve as the defining features of the new era of urbanization.

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Friday 5: Bicycle Bulletin for Urbanists

Here is this week’s collection of news and views for urbanists. In honour of June being bike month, I’m focusing this edition on cycling related articles and posts.

killthebird from Flickr

Five Innovations Improving Cycling in Cities: As the bicycle becomes an increasing priority in cities, countless innovations have followed. (Part of This Big City’s Bike Week series of posts)

Bicycling’s gender gap: It’s the economy, stupid: Why don’t more women in the U.S. ride bikes? Hint: it’s not just about fear and fashion. Elly Blue breaks down the bikenomics of the situation. (Grist)

Danish Architect Jan Gehl on Good Cities for Bicycling: Bicyclists represent a different and somewhat rapid form of foot traffic, but in terms of sensory experiences, life and movement, they are part of the rest of city life. (SF.StreetsBlog)

The City and Bikes: Rubber Meets Road: For every Spandexed obsessive tucked on a $3,000 carbon fiber frame you’ll see 100 people of every imaginable background just trying to get to work, do their job, have fun with their kids, safely spin from A to B. (Wall Street Journal)

America’s Reviving Its Highway System for Cyclists: The United States has added new routes to its national bike system for the first time in 30 years. (GOOD)

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Friday 5: Articles for Urbanists (June 4th-10th)

Here is this week’s curated selection of articles for urbanists:

kevygee/flickr

The Financial Benefits of Living in Transit-Friendly, Walkable Areas: The neighborhood you live in can have a huge effect on your ability to spend or save, do the kind of things you really want to, and navigate the ongoing economic crisis. (The Atlantic)

The new New Urbanism: Fast, nimble, flexible, and tactical: The next generation of urbanists is dealing with a crappy economy. Big projects are hard to come by. That’s not stopping them from innovating. (Grist)

A Stupid Attack On Smart Growth:The National Association of Home Builders states that, “The existing body of research demonstrates no clear link between residential land use and GHG emissions.” But their research actually found the opposite. (Planetizen)

Why smart cities need smart stories: Whether our urban solutions are high-tech or low-tech, what makes them work is human scale and human understanding. People need to grasp the relevance and the connection with their lives. (Living with Rats)

Old Buildings Combine Sustainability, Preservation: Studies suggest the greenest building is the one already built — a pleasing message for historic preservationists. (Miller-McCune)

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Best Cities for Walking

This slideshow from Grist takes a tour of the top ten cities in the world for walking. The cities included are from a new list from travel publisher Lonely Planet and include Prague, Boston and Melbourne.

Prague. Photo: Moyan Brenn on Flickr

From Grist:

A great city is a great walking city. So which is the greatest of them all? Travel book publisher Lonely Planet just surveyed its readers and asked them to pick the best walking cities in the world from a list of 186. Take a stroll through the top 10, counting down to the city that readers rated No. 1, and see if your favorite made the cut.

From Lonely Planet:

One of the best ways to get to know a place is one of the easiest – just walk around it. So we asked you: What are your favourite cities to walk around?

You voted for 186 different cities. London topped the list, closely followed by New York City, Paris, Rome, then Prague.

Here’s the list of the 20 walking cities (according to popular vote):