As the economy evolves from goods to services to experiences, schools are too. In a world inundated with information, teachers may find it harder to keep kids’ attention. Fortunately, there are places like the Edible Schoolyard.

About ten years ago chef Alice Waters sparked a Berkeley middle school to plant an organic garden where students would grow their own vegetables as part of their school lunch program.  What’s the big deal?  How about the fact that healthy, well-nourished children are

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Walkable buildings

Americans have been gaining weight an average of one pound a year.  If they walked up stairs for just two minutes a day, they’d lose 1.6 pounds a year instead, according to James Sallis, a professor of psychology at San Diego State University in a Wall Street Journal article, New Buildings Help People Fight Flab.

An excerpt: “Buildings have long been designed so people can get from one place to another with minimum physical effort. Now, in a bid to fight a rising tide of

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Prolific downtown - Pasadena is thy name

Look at all those downtown development projects - who needs a study to prove people are moving downtown?

There’s something in the water in Pasadena.  They have one of the most successful new pedestrian malls in the country.  They have one of the most progressive new urban villages in the country.  85% of all building permits are going downtown, totaling 2500 new homes.  So I guess when the City’s Central District Specific Plan won a coveted annual

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Pedestrian malls - good or bad?

There’s long been the usual insistence by veteran planners not to implement downtown pedestrian streets and malls, even recommending cities to remove them to allow cars through.  Times are changing, and it’s time to take another look.

Where did this myth come from?  The past:
Pedestrian malls, as mayors will tell you, were an act of desperation to compete with an already massive exodus to the ‘burbs and regional shopping malls, but certainly not the reason

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‘Who Lives Downtown?‘

The Brookings Institution comes through with quantitative evidence that not only proves that downtowns are growing in population, but details who’s living in them.  Here’s an edited summary from their Who Lives Downtown report:

An analysis of downtown population, household, and income trends in 44 selected cities from 1970 to 2000 finds that:

- During the 1990s downtown population grew by 10%, a marked resurgence following 20 years of overall decline. 40% of the

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‘Smart Growth’ awards presented

Yesterday the EPA announced their annual National Awards for Smart Growth Achievement.  The winners were:

Overall Excellence in Smart Growth: Highlands’ Garden Village, Denver Urban Renewal Authority, Denver, CO - a new front-porch TND neighborhood in the inner suburbs.

Built Projects: Belmar, City of Lakewood and Lakewood Reinvestment Authority, Lakewood, CO - A regional mall turned upscale town center.

Policies and Regulations: Central District Specific

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I’ve mentioned transit-oriented development (TOD) a few times, and felt it deserved its own entry.  The term was popularized by the renowned town-planning firm, Calthorpe Associates, and now represented by an organization, the Center for Transit-Oriented Development.  It’s also makes for one heck of a business plan for an investor.

Here’s a cooltown point-of-view of Ten Common Sense Rules for TOD by Bruce Liedstrand of Liedstrand Associate, another highly respected TOD planning firm:

1.

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The revitalizing power of a great third place

A well-conceived third place built at the right time in the right place is known to revitalize its surrounding block, and the Flying Star Cafe in downtown Albuquerque is no exception.

Journalist Jim Belshaw of the Albuquerque Journal writes, “I have lived here long enough to have seen the 30-odd downtown revitalization plans come and go.  We all wish the revitalizers well, but the sails never seemed to catch the wind… Things have changed… By

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When shopping meets pajama party in the city

So you like shopping.  You enjoy the buzz of downtown nightlife.  You miss pajama parties.  Ok, so this is assuming you’re on the feminine side…

Melody Biringer does as well, and she’s done something extraordinary about it, turning a small pajama party at a spa into 50 shopping pajama parties (and growing like wild) at avant garde hotels (like the Jupiter Hotel profiled yesterday) in major cities across the U.S.  These

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Now this is one cool hotel

If ever a hotel was designed for creatives, the Jupiter Hotel in Portland OR is it.  From it’s website:

“One of the 116 best new hotels in the world.” - CONDE NAST TRAVELER MAGAZINE (May ‘05)
“One of the top four new (old) hotels in the US.” - GQ MAGAZINE (Sep. ‘05)

Why the recognition?  The list is extensive, and it gets better and better:

- It’s in the city and close to dining and entertainment.
- It’s affordable (and remember, this is in the

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Why great neighborhoods lose their character

You’ve all heard the story over and over again - creatives move into an undesirable neighborhood, it becomes cool, then they’re priced out of it as it becomes gentrified (before the chains move in.)

How does this happen?  Let’s take business owner Linda Welch, who owns Dogs By Day in MidCity, Washington DC.  Last year she paid $9000/year in property taxes.  In the meantime, she’s volunteering 30/hours a week to revitalize MidCity as a diverse,

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Building community among main street business owners

Few elements define the character of a neighborhood better than the main street downtown.  The architecture; percentage of independents vs chains; entertainment; emphasis on culture and art say a lot about the what the neighborhood and people are about.  For one, it’s a reason why they’ve moved there, or haven’t moved away from.

One major ingredient for a successful downtown, especially a lasting one with a strong sense of community, is

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Uh, did you say $595/mo. for a two-bedroom loft?

Absolutely, in downtown Buffalo, if you have the income of a typical artist.  The destination is Holling Place, and this isn’t a run-down apartment in a neglected neighborhood.

The lofts feature high ceilings, great city views, exposed duct work, expansive windows, hardwood floors and fitness room.  They’re also walking distance to the subway station, shopping, city square, sports arena, major park and the county library.  And if you’re a

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Not a surprising headline yesterday coming from the NY Times, unless… the story is about a project in Los Angeles! 

That’s right, Pasadena is getting a 347-apartment transit-oriented development, bisected by and situated above L.A.‘s light rail line.  The award-winning new neighborhood, Del Mar Station.  It makes sense, since studies show U.S. ‘households in transit zones own an average of 0.9 cars, compared with 1.6 cars for metropolitan regions’ and ‘California state residents living near

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There are two million people who know sign language (not necessarily deaf), and there is a visionary development group in South Dakota that believes 2500 of them will move to a new town designed specifically for them, by them.

While it’s not exactly a cooltown, it does follow the principles of new urbanism; walkable, mixed-use, a diversity of housing types, front porches and alleys, live/works and a town center.

What is entirely significant about this community is that it’s customer-made,

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