Here’s some weekend reading for urbanists.  I hope my fellow Canadians have a Great Victoria Day weekend!

• Serendipity, the net and cities: are we living in bubbles? Do we have to? Canadian blogger, journalist, and science fiction author Cory Doctorow looks at how “cosmopolitans” (people who inhabit teeming, dense, multi-use spaces, be they cities or the Internet) experience serendipity in cities. (Boing Boing)

• Why Online Communities Are Redefining the Concept of Local: When we talk about community, we talk about places and spaces. But online communities aren’t about geography—they’re about us. (Mashable)

• How to Design a Bicycle City: A look at how (and why) Washington, D.C. moved from the bottom of the rankings to being a top 10 bicycle-friendly city in just ten years. (The Dirt)

• Why Aren’t We Building ‘Emotionally Connected’ Cities? We need to invest in the “infrastructure of love” because emotions matter. They play a critical role in our decision-making process since they tell us what to value. If we are not emotionally attached to our cities, it shows. (The Infrastructurist)

• Jane Jacobs was the seer of the modern city: Jane Jacobs’ classic book on urban living is 50 this year. Our current leaders would do well to read it (The Guardian [UK])