This publication examines a growing preference to live, work, and play in mixed-use and walkable urban environments and the revival of suburban downtowns, also known as “boutique cities.” Driving this trend is the recent mortgage crisis, collapse in housing market, and change in market preferences. The publication notes that there is a growing demand for new housing located in walkable, transit-served suburban downtowns and a fading demand for detached houses on a large suburban lots.
Tag Archives: Land Use
Preview of Video Series: Designing Healthy Communities
This video provides an overview of the Designing Healthy Communities video series, featuring Dr. Richard Jackson and produced by the Media and Policy Center (MPC). The series focuses on how poor community design and sprawl has given rise to burgeoning health costs and serious public health issues. The video highlights four episodes—retrofitting suburbia, rebuilding places of the heart, social policy in concrete, and searching for Shangri La. The series provides a vision for building healthier communities and features communities that have succeeded in creating healthier living environments.
The Designing Healthy Communities four-part series will also be featured on WHYY, Sundays at 2:30 p.m. beginning May 6, see: PBS stations airing series.
Where the Sidewalk Begins, a Designing Healthy Communities video, features Dan Burden, executive director of the Walkable and Livable Communities Institute.
In this video, Burden conducts a walkability audit and assessment to demonstrate how a community can be better designed for pedestrians.
How Urban Planning Can Improve Public Health
Big-box commercial jumble, lifeless cul-de-sac subdivisions, urban sprawl, deteriorated downtowns, and traffic jams aren’t just sickening sites, but literally may be making Americans sick. There is a growing body of evidence that suggests how places are designed and built can cause and complicate grave health problems for individuals and whole populations. This article illustrates examples of how strategies such as New Urbanism and health-focused design solutions can promote walkability, mixed use, connectivity and civic space within communities.
Say Goodbye to the McMansion!
This video features the Builder Concept Home 2010, a virtual home that showcases a “new home for the new economy.” The American dream of owning a McMansion is being replaced with a desire to live in a smaller, more compact home with greater energy efficiency and livable space. A companion article questions, “Is the McMansion Era Gone for Good?”