The historic Eastern Market, located on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, was badly damaged by a fire that apparently started in a dumpster.

Most of the southern half of the building was gutted by the fire, and all the vendors in the hall will be temporarily displaced.  Many are already calling for federal funding to rebuild the market.

The flea market, which operates on Sundays in outdoor stalls next to the market hall, has vowed to stay open.

PPS is working with neighborhood associations, community boards, and the Manhattan Borough President in the Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood of New York City, to address traffic, pollution, and the degradation of street life on 9th Avenue.  Thor Snilsberg presented PPS’s report to the community, which included three proposed redesign plans for 9th Avenue based on community feedback gathered at a series of workshops.

Cities across California are taking extra steps to encourage people to use their bikes, offering such services as full-service bike stations equipped with showers, and even valet bike parking.

This article in from the NY Times looks at why a person’s wealth is the most reliable predictor of obesity in America, and what the farm bill has to do with it.

“We should learn to build villages in the way they were built in the past,” says Hans Monderman, the Dutch engineer seen as the father of Shared Space. He is not advocating unpaved roads, horse-drawn transport and reinstating stocks - he just wants neighbourhoods that work for everyone, satisfying residents as well as moving traffic along. Cars, he argues, have been allowed to dominate residential areas, particularly in suburbs, for far too long, and quality of life has declined has a result.

Josh Jackson, an intern with PPS, writes:

“Cities around the world are leaps and bounds ahead of America when it comes to issues of urban transit. Though this country is woefully lagging, it’s a rare example of when falling behind actually works in your favor: as U.S. cities work to update their transportation systems for the 21st century, they don’t have to reinvent the wheel. The solutions are already out there.”

Policymakers are ignoring the wishes of local people and exaggerating the importance of “metropolitan” urban design in creating successful public spaces, according to a new report, the Social Value of Public Spaces.

“Most public spaces that people use are local spaces they visit regularly, often quite banal in design, or untidy in their activities or functions, such as street markets and car boot sales,” the report said.

A farmers’ market has been invited to set up on campus by the University of the West of England (UWE) in a bid to get students to eat healthily.

Project for Public Spaces worked with the Town of Poughkeepsie and Vassar College to develop traffic calming recommendations and other improvements to Raymond Avenue and the Arlington Business District.

Construction was completed in the Spring of 2007, and a portion of Raymond Avenue now features a roundabout, medians, and new crosswalks.

Photo © Otto Yamamoto
For more on this project and additional photos, click here.

The World Health Organization announced that car crashes are the leading cause of death worldwide for people between 10 and 24, adding that most such fatalities occur in developing countries with poor road safety conditions.

“The lack of safety on our roads has become an important obstacle to health and development,” said WHO’s director-general, Dr. Margaret Chan. “Our children and young adults are among the most vulnerable.”

“Road traffic crashes are not ‘accidents,’” Chan said. “We need to challenge the notion that they are unavoidable.”