With the holidays around the corner and a new level of green consciousness rising among kids, this may be of interest to proponents of natural cultural districts. We know you can build digital buildings and towns with digital lego, but what about the real stuff? Well, when Lego starts providing pedestrian-oriented buildings, streets and even mass transit sets for kids (and kidults) to purchase, that says we’ve turned a corner as far as what’s cool.

Pictured above are the Market Street, Green

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Based on Project for Public Spaces’ How to Make Your Library Great: 14 lessons from local libraries all over the continent, here are the unique ones that will attract creatives:

1. The contemporary library is no longer a repository for books, nor even just a community center, but also an edutainment center as well.  In other words, it doesn’t always have to be so quiet.

2. They act as a town square, hosting concerts, festivals, public markets and other community events.

3. They have a cafe

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...it’s healthy for just about everyone else, and communities in Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada have been conducting such audits for 25 years.  The public health term for this is a health impact assessment (HIA), which measures the potential impacts of decisions on health (physical, emotional and mental), and identifies actions that can improve the results of those decisions”. 

According to Neal Kaufman, MD, MPH*, an HIA on our schools would result in:

- “Siting it where the

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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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What a waste that a beautiful school for kids by day becomes a closed-down building at night, especially if the spaces look like the ones in the last couple of blogs.

I blogged about this almost two years ago in Schools as Third Places, and the schools as community centers idea is becoming increasingly popular.  In fact, there is such an organization by the same name that focuses on this very trend.  Their first outstanding recognition goes to the John A. Johnson Achievement Plus Elementary

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So, there was evidence given yesterday that urban, city, downtown schools are getting better.

Why? How?

Some of the school administrative reasons are as follows:
- Better managed, more results-oriented school leadership, with progressive mayors and experimentation
- The No Child Left Behind Act that revealed the achievement gap among ethnic groups, resulting in educators getting much more serious about teaching minorities.

I think a new generation of parents should be given way more credit

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Ask just about any parent-to-be why they feel compelled to eventually leave the active, pedestrian-oriented urban neighborhood they desperately want to stay in and head for the ‘burbs… “It’s the schools.  The suburban schools are simply better.“

Could they finally be wrong?

- “This is no less than one of the biggest turnaround stories of any urban school system in the United States,“ Baltimore Martin O’Malley said, in light of improved test scores in his city and across the country.

- For

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Baltimore Sun: Kids and the City (registration needed)

Federal Hill in Baltimore, MD is well known for attracting the creative class, but who knew kids (and their parents) would think it’s cool too?

The number of Federal Hill children under age 4 grew by 16% between 2000 and 2003 while the neighborhood’s overall population increased just 7%.  Why?  The main reason is that the parents who make up the creative class are… well, creative.  Here are some of the reasons why their kids are so

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The most innovative charter schools study the principles of informal learning to teach their kids.  Lucky them.  It sure beats the daily grind of structured learning I hated so much as a youngster.

Since lack of good schools are the main reason why people with children are repelled by the city, here’s a quick look at how to reverse that trend - the 10 Characteristics of Successful Charter Schools, by Sarah B. Cunningham, Director, Education Assessment and Charter School Accreditation, The

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OK, so there’s grand visions of what future CoolTown schools could be, and existing models of how they could be today.

How will they be paid for?

‘Facilities’ (physical construction) is the biggest expense that often derails the best laid plans, and land is the largest expense within that (especially in urban areas).  Thus, the best place to start when financing a new school is to find a land donor, and some of the more progressive investment groups are committed to partnering up with

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