"Consider the qualities of a third place. Is it something that we can design? Can a place be constructed to create a Cheers-like arrival of regulars? We may not aspire to be barstool-warmer Norm Peterson, who always got a warm reception from the the crowd when he walked in, but a sense of recognition and belonging is a powerful motivator for citizens to engage one another. Other times, we appreciate the ability to lay back and observe, perhaps be the greeter instead of the greet-ee. This begs the question: Can we design spaces that allow both interaction and anonymity? If so, what are the elements of space that encourage diversity, to include families, the young and older, extroverts and introverts?"

"Spaces that are visible and easy to get to, stay in, or move through are ideal third-place territory, especially when located near public transit and other civic destinations."

"Like many successful civic places, this place is paradoxical. People love Paley Park because they can be alone in a busy city. While it’s perceived as a place of respite and quiet, it is, in fact, heavily populated and full of noise (albeit, the soothing sound of a waterfall)."

“it is the unique responsibility of the architect to use space and design as a unifying force, to physically realize the insistent perception of community wherever it struggles to exist on its own.”

“Nordahl argues the reason America doesn't have better public transit is that we're not creating systems whose aesthetics speak to people's sense of place and help constitute a meaningful urban landscape. He thinks we need more systems like San Francisco's trolleys. Mr Walker argues this is completely wrongheaded, and what America needs are more systems that interlink densely, provide frequent and efficient service regardless of the particular technology chosen, and get us where we want to go reliably and quickly.”

“The very fact that most of us drive, argues Walker, casts a subtle, but powerful, influence onto transit thinking. “In most debates about proposed rapid transit lines,” he writes, “the speed of the proposed service gets more political attention than how frequently it runs, even though frequency, which determines waiting time, often matters more than speed in determining how long your trip will take.” Drivers don’t wonder when their cars are going to show up.”

“A transit map that makes all the lines look equal,” writes Walker, “is like a road map that doesn’t show the difference between a freeway and a gravel road.”

“The very expense of creating the line tells you: the government has invested too much in this infrastructure for there to be no service. The rails are, literally, an ironclad guarantee.”

“A rail map is limited; there are only so many lines, and that helps to organise the city at a schematic level that can be quickly understood.”

I think an alleyway in the American context is something specifically set aside as infrastructure. It's never meant for pedestrians, it never receives any facade remodeling. But with that infrastructure designation comes a true story about the city. It's all about function so you get to see the street at the ground plane and on the wall plane. There's a lot of rich history there, from the brick paving peeking through, to the layers of graffiti and dirt, to all kinds of electrical and gas conduits. It's really messy— there are loading docks, all the stuff you don't see on a main street.

The possibilities are endless. There's all this potential. They're kind of romantic, they're secretive, they're protected. It's something that our cities should be considering. I think we're getting there. We're seeing people taking stake and ownership in these tiny forgotten spaces that need to be addressed, remembered and loved.

Specifically, Making Planning Popular "aims to encourage greater popular knowledge of how the built environment is, or could be, produced." Accordingly, "David is showing a manifesto, recent articles and essays, and a series of case studies chosen from his growing database of arcane, marginalized, or forgotten planning practices. This work will in time form a popular history of planning"—publishers, take note!—"one in which such practises are brought back to life to explore their relevance to today’s environment, in the belief that putting planning knowledge back into popular culture will lead to a more democratic built environment."

So when a driver sees a cyclist roll through a four-way stop, “They don’t see that I’m actually benefiting the flow of traffic. If I wait and stop I hold everyone up. And breaking the law is actually the safest thing you can do as a cyclist in some instances.”

"The potential home buyer today has seen pictures of Detroit, with former neighborhoods being gradually reclaimed by Nature or plowed under into farmland. Recognizing that his or her own city could become like that in 20 years time, the buyer will factor that into the price he or she is willing to pay. In the event of a Detroit-style decline, the house becomes worthless and the cost of ownership for 10 years or so effectively tripled (10 years x 5 percent is approximately equal to 50 percent of the home’s value, then add another 100 percent for the cost of throwing the house away). Suppose the buyer thinks that this has a 20 percent probability of happening. Given a typical person’s risk aversion, that might reduce the market-clearing price for a house by 25 percent."

"This is perhaps the most telling point about cities. Even in this age of technology – where people can collaborate with people they barely know on the other side of the globe thanks to the internet – success depends, as Harvard economics professor Edward Glaeser points out in his book “The Triumph of the City”, on communities of individuals being in close physical proximity. Hence all the attention paid to encouraging clusters, whether they are in high-tech, as is the intention in the area around Hackney in east London, or anything else. Glaeser and others have plenty of evidence suggesting that future economic growth is dependent upon the ideas and initiatives originating in cities."

City planning / research by a physicist. The fundamental rules of cities.

"People who say they like living in the suburbs are not expecting to pay a lot of what it really costs to do it. Furthermore, a lot of them are having second thoughts: the fastest-growing demographic in Manhattan is now children: people who can afford to live anywhere they want are increasingly deciding that a real city is the best place to raise a family.…"

"Rightsizing will not “shunt” development to the exurban fringe. That’s what’s happening already. Most of the neighborhoods we’re discussing haven’t seen significant investment since the 1950s. If nothing is done, they will continue to deteriorate and the exurban fringe will continue to grow. If they can once again be made dense and sustainable, in part through consolidation, Detroit might have a fighting chance to compete against suburban neighborhoods by providing a safe, viable urban alternative."

"The climate of the city is altered, in other words, literally from the ground up; using the functional equivalent of terrestrially powered ovens, otherwise botanically impossible species can healthily take root.

This domestication of geothermal energy, and the use of it for purposes other than electricity-generation, raises the fascinating possibility that heat itself, if carefully and specifically redirected, can utterly transform urban space. "

"This is the backdrop to the papers that we have collected in our special issue. Its aim is to present work that asks ‘what is happening in the suburbs, in terms of the built form, the economy and social relations’. They are not necessarily written ‘in defense of suburbs,’ but engage suburbs as if they matter. "

Menlo Park's City Council passed a resolution opposing the 50/50 plan for Saltworks. Interesting fact: Saltworks would be 17 times larger than the last Bay fill project--Oakland International Airport, 1968.

"That helped a little, but the forecast is for the vacancy rate to stay in the 14% to 15% range through 2012."

Olmstead & Partners' city plan for Rochester NY, c. 1911. Barely mentions rail.

"The Commission’s resolution also included a call for ODOT to attend their next meeting on February 2 (9 am at City Hall) to discuss the benefits of a bike/ped path included in the bid process. ODOT will release the RFQ that same day, so Brown pointed out that the resolution and alternative technical specification in the RFQ will have to be sent to ODOT this week. ODOT will host a meeting for parties interested in designing the Innerbelt Bridge on Feb. 9. Kuri asked if this was a public meeting (and offered after that a group of advocates might consider forming as a design ‘firm’ to bid on the project – for at least the purpose of attending the Feb. 9 meeting. The guidlines for bidding on the Innerbelt Bridge can be found here.)"

"Since the launch of DataSF last summer, the City’s clearinghouse of government datasets, we have seen our tech community create new services and products never dreamed of within the walls of government. And now we are giving people access to technology systems like our 311 call center through open source, so they can decide how and when they interact with government.

We face many challenges today, none more urgent than the economic crisis, but with it comes an opportunity to seek new ways of governing. In San Francisco, like other cities, we are using this opportunity to engage our greatest resource, the public, to build a government that works better for all of us."

"Florida assured Tessa that Detroit's plight "is not something I'm particularly happy about." He told her his wife is from Detroit. And then he told her that his friends who live in Detroit are making it as "freelancers" who "commute on an irregular basis" to work on projects somewhere else. He had recently given a speech to Detroit airport officials, who told him that the airport would remain viable. "That airport provides connective fiber," he told her. "Finding local employment is going to be a lot harder. So you either have to say, can I commute to work, by plane perhaps, or do I have to look for a place that has a better set of opportunities for me?"

There was no way to know if the answer was satisfactory: Tessa from Detroit was off the air."

Nice city, no people.

"With a massive network of roads and an average of more than three parking spaces per car (less in dense cities, more in the suburbs), auto-focused transportation infrastructure contributes mightily to the heat island effect, which worsens air quality and increases energy used on air conditioning. And while asphalt that uses lighter-colored rocks can offer some relief, the basic problem is the amount of paved surface itself, and cars demand the most pavement per person of any form of transportation -- (by the way, anyone got a link to one of those photos or graphs comparing the amount of pavement needed by 100 people driving, walking and taking the bus?)"