PPS held a community workshop with 70 residents of Covington, KY, to explore possibilities for a site that is to become a public square.  The participants toured the site, and then brainstormed ideas for activites and programs that could occur there.  PPS Vice President Steve Davies said of the square, “The goal is to create a great place.”

PPS conducted a community meeting in Hilliard, OH, to explore possibilities for the development and redevelopment of public spaces in the city.  The residents and attendees again and again turned the discussion to the plight of the city’s historic downtown business district, and what could be done about the lack of pedestrian activity in that area.

“By 2043, we’re being told, there won’t just be 300 million of us — there will be 400 million. With the roadways around our metropolitan regions increasingly clogged, how will we ever stay mobile?

Depending on the tea leaves you choose, some vividly contrasting futures emerge.”

A commentary by Neal Peirce.

“Bob Chorney wants to put farmers back in farmers’ markets.

The executive director of Farmers’ Markets Ontario is tired of so-called “hucksters” who simply resell produce they’ve purchased wholesale and then pass it off as their own at markets — often undercutting the prices of career farmers.

So Chorney is pitching a certified market for Toronto next year that would be open only to farmers who grow their own goods, the first of its kind in Canada.”

St. Pancras Station in London tops a list of the 6 most beautiful train stations in the world, chosen by Jonathan Glancey, Architecture Critic for The Guardian.

This image of St. Pancras (c) David Sillitoe, Guradian Unlimited

“What is the measure of a great city or urban region? Its education systems? Its arts? Its business inventiveness? All of the above. But the most overlooked measure is a city’s dedication to the public space.”

With a few changes, suburbs could be good places to live and interesting places to explore, writes Lawrence Cheek for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

“It boasts hot porridge doused in whisky, fresh ostrich meat, organic beers and hunks of wild boar, and it nestles under the battlements of one of the country’s most imposing castles. Welcome to the farmers’ market in Edinburgh, officially crowned as the best in Britain.

Now six years old, the Edinburgh market is one of the few in Britain to open every weekend. Its award from Country Life, to be handed over by the magazine’s editor, Mark Hedges, tomorrow, is the latest accolade. It has also been judged the UK’s best by the Farmers Retail and Markets Association (Farma), the national industry body.”

Rockville’s new mixed-use downtown aims to avoid the ‘Anyplace U.S.A.’ look.

Community groups and politicians are creating new strategies to bring fresh foods into low-income neighborhoods.