#public planning

[itellmyselfsecrets]

“When planners fail to account for gender public spaces become male spaces by default. The reality is that half the global papulation has a female body. Half the global population has to deal on a daily basis with the sexualised menace that is visited on that body…By accounting for women's care responsibilities in urban planning, we make it easier for women to engage fully in the paid workforce…In short, designing the female half of the world into our public spaces is not a matter of resources. It’s a matter of priorities, and currently, whether unthinkingly or not, we just aren't prioritizing women. This is manifestly unjust, and economically illiterate.” - Caroline Criado Perez (Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men)

[clatterbane]

Although, I understand that the city has actually fixed one relatively minor accessibility PITA near us! 🥳

This pedestrian/bike overpass lies on the easiest route from here to a nearby shopping center, with the closest grocery stores etc.

(Smoother paved bike lane on the left here, concrete square foot lane on the right before the bridge. With a raised curb ledge in between the two types of pavement along a lot of the length. Which makes it more aggravating to change lanes as required, if you're on wheels. I go up and down several low curbs on the way to/from the store.)

Anyway, that overpass setup would be sort of OK even with the long slog up on the way to the stores. Except!

It's actually pretty hard to see here, but where the overpass ends and the pavement changes? That's another ledge of at least a couple of inches. 😵 Just before the top of the slope, and just high enough that I've basically needed to lose whatever momentum I may have still been keeping up to pop my casters up over it. If you hit that unawares on the way up with power assist, you might go flying out of the chair.

Rolling back down the other way is way less of an issue. Down ledges is easier, and at least it is downhill when I'm likely to be loaded down with shopping too. Though, that ledge is a bit hard to see, especially after dark. It's a trip hazard even for people on foot, and I really wouldn't want to hit that very fast unawares on a bicycle or with a stroller either.

I haven't been that way yet to see, but the other day Mr. C said that they have indeed finally fixed the dropoff on the bike lane side! 👍 Hopefully the other side will get a patch job too.

Another example of what's good for cyclists often also being good for people using other wheels. And, unfortunately, it most likely taking multiple complaints from some of the cyclists it was designed/installed for before anyone considered that issue worth addressing.

I don't know if they've also patched the is smaller ledge on the other side of the bridge.

But, at least that isn't nearly as high, and it's mainly on the foot side. Barely a bump on the bike lane.

[homeboyok]

4 Ways Investors Can Help Alleviate the Affordable Housing Crisis (& Make Money)

4 Ways Investors Can Help Alleviate the Affordable Housing Crisis (& Make Money)

As the world increasingly migrates into urban areas housing prices for most people have increased a significant amount. It’s nice to hear that there are people trying to plan ahead so that we can alleviate some of these financial pressures. This isn’t to say that this things are being figure out quickly enough, but I am encouraged that creative capital is being spent in this way. Have you heard…

View On WordPress

[themindcircle]

15 Of The World’s Most Magical Streets Shaded By Flowers And Trees

15 Of The World’s Most Magical Streets Shaded By Flowers And Trees

1. Molyvos, Lesvos, Greece

source

2. Bonn, Germany

source

3. Tunnel Of Love, Romania, Caras-severin

source

4. Stockholm, Sweden

source

5. Valencia, Spain

source

View On WordPress

[carlyregn]

read the article here

[philophilus]

Public spaces are incredibly important to the life of a city, but often (always?) run against the grain of commercial interest. Ironically, these very commercial interests benefit from the traffic and attraction of good public spaces.

In this wonderful talk, Amanda Burden, New York City's city-planner explains her battles and her victories in transforming New York's public spaces.

[courslibre]

Excited to see formative planning for Franklin, part of my neighborhood in Seward. The addition of bike lanes from about Minnehaha to Franklin bridge made the ride in my neighborhood much more smooth, but it's not a very safe street for bikes or pedestrians from Minnehaha to Hennepin Ave. It would be great to see solutions for all forms of transit (maybe with pedestrians taking a central role).

[jakedsimms]

The second reason for emphasizing primary mixtures downtown us the direct effect on other parts of cities. Probably everyone is aware of certain general dependencies by a city on its heart. When a city heart stagnates or disintegrates, a city as a social neighborhood of the whole begins to suffer: People who ought to get together, by means of central activities that are failing, fail to get together. Ideas and money that ought to meet, and do so often only by happenstance in a place of central vitality, fail to meet. The networks of city public life develop gaps they cannot afford. Without a strong and inclusive central heart, a city tends to become a collection of interests isolated from on another. It falters at producing something greater, socially, culturally, and economically, than the sum of its separated parts.

Jane Jacobs, The Death and Life of Great American Cities