Friday 5: What I’ve found interesting during the past week

December 4th, 2009

Five of the best articles and blog posts I’ve read over the past week.

  • Curing Sprawlitis. How to fix fixing 50 years of urban sprawl. Provided a good overview of the policies that led us to our current situation, and recommendations only how to return to a more rational urban form. While the recommendations are directed at Lansing, MI, they will help to ‘cure’ any sprawling metropolis, including Phoenix.
    Retail Districts for Creatives.  Image from Cooltown Studios.
    Retail Districts for Creatives. Image from Cooltown Studios.
  • The Opposite May Be True. A short, but intriguing video of ‘opposites’ and how much cultural assumptions guide our underdatnding of the world, even though the opposite may also be just as true.
  • Retail district types for creatives. An interesting discussion on the differing retail preferences of the ‘creative class’.  Summary: more corner stores and neighborhood centers and less big boxes and regional centers (aka malls)
  • What’s wrong with Dubai? An investigation into the design flaws that are plaguing Dubai. The key take away (that is also applicable to Phoenix): “All that Arab culture learned in a thousand years about adapting cities to great heat—high-ceilinged buildings along narrow streets which provide shade and short distances to walk outside—have been forgotten or ignored.”