This week’s curated collection of news and views for urbanists:

• Designing for Density Doesn’t Have to Be Ugly, or Scary: Few architects take the challenge of density done right as seriously—and creatively—as David Baker (Atlanctic Cities)

• Public Participation:  More than an “Orgy of Public Process”   Criticism of participation is not new, but the increasingly strident tone of anti-participation sentiment should worry citizens and policy makers alike. (Next American City)

• Encore for Vancouver: What started as a sawmill and railroad town now attracts urban planners from all over the world (At Lincoln House)

• Jan Gehl on the Past 40 Years of Urbanism: Famed urbanist Jan Gehl looks back at the writing and thought on how people use the urban environment — including his own — over the past 40 years. (Planetizen)

• The Citizen Experience Needs Us: Why UX practitioners should join the Government 2.0 movement: The idea that government is inefficient and unpleasant to deal with is almost axiomatic at this point, but it doesn’t have to be that way. (UX Magazine)