Recent Streetsblog USA posts about Urban Design

Fixing a Blank Wall Streetscape With Storefront Retrofits

By Angie Schmitt | Sep 5, 2014 | 20 Comments

Every city has places where the buildings present a blank face to the sidewalk. A dark, recessed arcade deadening the pedestrian environment or a soulless concrete wall fronting a windswept plaza. Consultant Brent Toderian, formerly the planning director for the city of Vancouver, pointed out a cheap and easy solution to this problem. He calls them […]

Talking Headways Podcast: Poor Door Von Spreckelsen

By Tanya Snyder | Aug 4, 2014 | 2 Comments

In this week’s podcast, Jeff and I take on the infamous New York City “poor door,” designed to keep tenants of affordable units segregated from the wealthy residents that occupy the rest of the high-rise at 40 Riverside. In the process, we take on the assumptions and methods that cities use to provide housing, and […]

How One-Day Plazas and Bike Lanes Can Change a City Forever

By Tanya Snyder | Jul 29, 2014 | 9 Comments

This post is part of a series featuring stories and research that will be presented at the Pro-Walk/Pro-Bike/Pro-Place conference September 8-11 in Pittsburgh. Sam Rockwell rides his bike every day from his home in Minneapolis to his office at BlueCross BlueShield of Minnesota in Eagan, 12 miles away, where he spends his days plotting ways to get other people […]

William H. Whyte in His Own Words: “The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces”

By Clarence Eckerson Jr. | Jul 25, 2014 | No Comments

When I first got started making NYC bike advocacy and car-free streets videos back in the late-1990s on cable TV, I didn’t know who William “Holly” Whyte was or just how much influence his work and research had on New York City. A few years later I met Fred and Ethan Kent at Project for Public Spaces. I got a copy of […]

Talking Headways Podcast: Helmet Hair

By Tanya Snyder | Jun 24, 2014 | 9 Comments

Did you wear your helmet when you biked to work this morning? Whether you did or you didn’t, it’s up to you. So why are there so many people shrieking about it? On one side, the 85-percenters, overstating the protection helmets offer against head injuries. On the other side, the 3-footers, claiming that it’s actually […]

Talking Headways Podcast: Let Them Drive Cars

By Tanya Snyder | Apr 9, 2014 | 8 Comments

Quick quiz: What city is the world leader in highway teardowns? San Francisco? Portland? Madrid? Wrong, wrong, wrong. It’s Seoul, South Korea, which has removed 15 urban highways — and is about to remove another. In this week’s Talking Headways episode, Jeff and I talk about what can take the place of a freeway in […]

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