Public-private partnerships are a key source of funding for parks, even in cities with generous park budgets.  “No matter how well funded a city’s parks are, they still need some help,” said Andy Wiley-Schwartz, vice president at Project for Public Spaces. “Having community stewards is priceless, and every city knows that, whether they fund parks or not.”

“Move more people, not vehicles.

Create better passageways that connect into existing roads rather than increase asphalt lanes.

Develop plans that are sensitive to existing roads, neighborhoods and land uses.

Above all: Include the public in conversations with engineers from the very beginning.

It seems simple enough, but the basic tenets of Context Sensitive Design are relatively new to transportation planners.”

“Inserting a tall building into a neighborhood of mostly two- to six-story buildings is a recipe for conflict. Where some see revitalization and an expanded tax base, others see architectural Armageddon: loss of human scale, more traffic and parking headaches, dark shadows on the streets.

But what if the lanky newcomer is shapely, not hulking?

What if it re-energizes a sagging business district and contributes to the long-term health of a neighborhood?”

The central location and the expanse of space to facilitate a variety of different uses are getting people excited about the newly proposed City Plaza in downtown Raleigh, North Carolina, despite the fact that it will cut through a well-used street.

A public park and art space is set to open next week along Seattle’s waterfront, replacing a former brownfield site. The new Olympic Sculpture Park was created by the Seattle Art Museum, an expansion of which is set to open in May.

Image (c) Paul Warchol

“Even as our farmland has been devoured by suburban sprawl, Californians have voted with their shopping bags to make farmers’ markets an increasingly ubiquitous element in big cities, small towns and, yes, even those suburbs that pave fields of vegetables. Beyond the showcase pavilion of San Francisco’s Ferry Building — an orgy of organic gourmet comestibles for the deep-pocketed foodie — more modest farmers’ markets have sprung up in the darnedest places, including the empty lot behind Target in Serramonte Plaza in Daly City and on the banks of the Russian River in the hamlet of Duncans Mills.”

The Connecticut Department of Transportation continues to put forward projects that are eyesores and disrupt communities without public involvement, according to Toni Gold’s commentary in the Hartford Courant.  While many transportation engineers are aware of  the ‘context sensitive solutions’ movement, CTDOT continues to build transportation projects without linking them to land use planning.

PPS facilitated the first meeting of the Ninth Avenue Renaissance project in Hell’s Kitchen, New York, attended by over 130 members of the community. The project will focus on transforming Ninth Avenue from a traffic-choked, polluted highway, to a community-oriented Main Street.  Aaron Naparstek brings us his take on the meeting on Streetsblog.

“While it seems that “clone town Britain” is on the rise, with independent retailers slowly vanishing at the expense of supermarkets and chain stores, the market remains a feature of many city centres. However, their continuing presence has not been without a battle. With supermarkets offering convenient one-stop shopping, markets are beginning to suffer.”

U.S. cities are increasingly putting freeway segments underground and covering them with parkland. Whether called a lid, deck, bridge or tunnel, there are already some 20 highway parks in the country, several under construction — most notably, the Rose Kennedy Greenway park atop Boston’s Big Dig — and at least a dozen more in the planning pipeline. As urban auto impacts become less welcome, these decks have moved from the novel to the expected. Despite the sometimes considerable cost — as much as $500 per square foot — they are no longer classified as porkbarrel. They’ve been redefined as amenity investment with high economic payback.