Archive for September, 2012

 
  • Did Susman and Robb Capitulate to The Mob?

    Did Susman and Robb Capitulate to The Mob?

    Or, Did They Buy Time for Better Design?  Denver City Council President Mary Beth Susman and Council member Jeanne Robb recently issued a joint press release saying they won’t vote for public financing for the Fuqua development proposed for 9th and Colorado.  […]

     
  • The Redshirt Manifesto

    The Redshirt Manifesto

    For 15 months I’ve been following the debate about the 9th and Colorado development in Denver as a neutral observer. I’m interested in the process of urban development, and in the substance of the resulting design plans.  I’m persuaded by […]

     
  • Imagining Aerotropolis

    Imagining Aerotropolis

    It was a pleasure to welcome Franco Minganti, Professor of American Literature at the University of  Bologna, to my campus last week. Franco is the European-side Co-Director of a European Commission/United States Department of Education curriculum development grant awarded to […]

     
  • Walmart’s Crimes Against Humanity

    Walmart’s Crimes Against Humanity

    I’m not certain that Walmart has committed any, but that’s the impression conveyed by two headlines in the online Atlantic Cities last week.  Walmart and the Climate of Hatred discusses an academic paper establishing an association between Walmart store locations […]

     
  • Competing Urbanisms (by Yuri Artibise)

    Has the Concept of “Urbanism” Lost its Mojo?

    Kaid Benfield thinks so (see here and again here).  He believes the word “urbanism” is overused and, consequently, stifling creative thought about cities and their planning.  He thus joins vocabulary policemen like Thomas Frank who’d like to purge other words—specifically, […]

     
  • Nyla Pollard Painting (Hyoung Chang, The Denver Post)

    Remedying Blight, in Black and White

    There was a nice story in last Sunday’s Denver Post about how community members in my neighborhood of Park Hill banded together to install a basketball court and paint a building on the site of shopping center that was burned […]

     
  • Appropriating Jane Jacobs, or What Would Jane Think?

    Appropriating Jane Jacobs, or What Would Jane Think?

    The debate about development at 9th and Colorado in Denver that we’re following on this blog has, by all accounts, generated a considerable volume of email to Denver City Councilors.  The website Stop Walmart on Colorado Boulevard recently published one […]

     
  • Cultural Inclusion as an Element of Neighborhood Planning

    Cultural Inclusion as an Element of Neighborhood Planning

    In a post at Better! Cities&Towns and also PlaceShakers and NewsMakers Howard Blackson succinctly summarizes what he considers the 5 basic elements of neighborhood planning, pitched as the “5 Cs”: 1. Complete: a mix of uses (allowing living, working, playing, lounging, eating, […]