Today’s urban riverfronts are changing. The decline of river commerce and riverside industry has made riverfront land once used for warehouses, factories, and loading docks available for open space, parks, housing, and nonindustrial uses. Urban rivers, which once functioned as open sewers for cities, are now seen as part of larger watershed ecosystems. Rivertown examines urban river restoration efforts across the United States, presenting case studies from Los Angeles; Washington, D.C.; Portland, Oregon; Chicago; Salt Lake City; and San Jose.

Each case study in Rivertown considers the critical questions of who makes decisions about our urban rivers, who pays to implement these decisions, and who ultimately benefits or suffers from these decisions. In each case, authors evaluate the ecological issues and consider urban river restoration projects in relation to other urban economic and environmental initiatives in the region. Rivertown is a valuable resource for urban planners and citizen groups as well as for scholars.

To purchase the book or read sample chapters please visit MIT Press’ website.

The Open Planning Project founder Mark Gorton in NY talks with “Gridlock Sam” Schwartz about about history of DOT in NYC, car-free Cental Park, and general transportation policy. It gives a great history of the evolution of transportation thinking and policy in NY over the last 40 years.

Click here to watch the video. Running time: approx. 10 mins.

On PBS’ “NewsHour with Jim Lehrer” this week, U.S. Secretary of Transportation Mary Peters said that instead of raising taxes on gasoline to renew the nation’s sagging infrastructure, Congress should examine its spending priorities — including investments in bike paths and trails, which, Peters said, “are not transportation.”
PBS has the full transcript, along with video of the interview.

With support from the Federal Highway Administration, New York City will be the first locality in the United States to test painted bus lanes, the city’s Department of Transportation announced today.

Photo: New York City Department of Transportation

As part of a trial period, existing bus lanes on East 57th Street, from Second to Fifth Avenues, and on Fordham Road, from University Avenue and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard to the Grand Concourse in the Bronx, are being painted terra cotta, a deep red like the color of bricks. If the experiment works, officials hope that more motorists will stay out of the lanes, which are used during the morning and evening rush, on weekdays.

Registration is now open for our two-day public training courses here in NYC:  How to Create Successful Markets, Oct. 12-13 and How to Turn a Place Around, Oct. 18-19

This July, PPS president Fred Kent and senior vice president Kathy Madden attended the 3rd annual Aspen Ideas Festival in Aspen, Colorado. This 6-day festival brought together some of the most important and fascinating ideas of our time. The presentation-, networking-, and discussion-based setting was designed to share and advance these great ideas not only among the scientists, artists, politicians, historians, educators, community activists, and great thinkers present, but to the wider world as well.

Listen to the entire audio recording of Fred and Kathy’s presentation to this prestigious group, entitled, “What if We Built Cities Around Places? The Power of 10.”

Organic vegetables? Check.

Jams and jellies? Check.

Crafts and baked goods? Check.

E-mail orders? Better check.

Before heading out to set up their stands each week, some area farmers’ market vendors go online, looking for last-minute customer requests for fresh fruits and vegetables, cut flowers and herbs.

Many farmers’ markets now have their own Web sites, some simply listing time, place and a contact. But others are extensive, with page after page of market items and vendor information.

Customers of the Scottdale Producers Association, which runs farmers markets in Scottdale and Connellsville, can now order sweet corn, salsas and jam over the Internet and browse vendors’ postings. Customers can pre-order, much like they used to at the corner market, and their order will be awaiting them at the market of their choice.

Tom Bailey, of the Scottdale Producers Association, said the small market has only a handful of on-site vendors. The association hopes to bring more local products to area residents by offering the purchase of farm-fresh produce, meats and baked goods online.

A few weeks ago, a group of dedicated placemakers gathered at a landmark event in Seattle, the Great Places Symposium, laying the groundwork for an even larger regional movement around the idea of place. PPS has been in close contact with the leaders of this new network, called the Great Places Forum, since its inception, and we are thrilled to highlight the Seattle region’s vibrant Placemaking network, which is working to unite like-minded people across the country around the importance of place.

The three-day conference brought together leaders from a variety of professions and fields to “celebrate and advocate for the necessity of placemaking in the vitality of our downtowns and suburbs, rural landscapes and villages.” Among the many positive results of the symposium was the drafting and signing of an unprecedented document called the Great Places Declaration. The forward-thinking spirit that this declaration embodies should be celebrated as a huge step forward for Placemaking networks everywhere, and we at PPS are delighted that the Seattle region is fully embracing the movement and the challenges that come with it.

A Landmark Symposium Sets the Stage for Greater Change

Billed as a working “think tank,” the Great Places Forum brought together the Seattle region’s Placemaking leaders July 19-21. Participants included a wide-ranging group of leaders from the fields of urban planning, municipal government, environmental studies, architecture, real estate development, international sustainability, and community organizing. Organizers billed the symposium as a way to “celebrate and advocate for the necessity of placemaking in the vitality of our downtowns and suburbs, rural landscapes and villages.”

PPS’s Fred Kent, Kathy Madden, and Ethan Kent attended the symposium, along with other leaders from organizations like the Trust for Public Land, the Cascade Land Conservancy, and the Urban Land Institute. Public sector leaders were also present, from Seattle City Planning Director John Rahaim to representatives of the Seattle Department of Transportation and many other municipalities.

Two PPS board members, Ron Sher and Don Miles, have developed the Great Places Forum along with Karen True, its current director. Their work has created new opportunities for great public spaces to emerge and flourish in the greater Seattle region. PPS has been a part of this planning process, and we laud the Great Places Forum as huge step toward a more open, productive dialogue about place. If people and organizations with experience in Placemaking discuss and share their understanding of what makes great public spaces, their ideas gain the momentum necessary to reach more individuals, communities, and places worldwide.

The “Great Spaces Declaration”

The leaders who attended the Great Places Symposium closed the conference by signing a document called the Great Places Declaration, their shared statement of intent to foster a network of people and resources to support the creation of great places. The document voiced the basic principles and ideals that these leaders shared:

“We assert that Great Places act as a magnet, drawing people together to live, work and play in complete and sustainable communities, allowing us to preserve natural spaces and enhance the health of the planet.”

They also outlined a clear statement of intent for the future of the movement:

“We affirm these ideas and together pledge to create new policies, systems, and initiatives to shape Great Places for the enrichment of future generations.”

This is language that evokes responses, shared thinking that fosters innovation, and action that gains attention. The next step is to turn these bold declarations of intent and collaborative networks into real, tangible action. PPS is proud to see this kind of raw potential taking a tangible, constructive path among professionals in the Seattle region.

Moving forward

The Great Places Forum has not stopped with the 2007 Great Places Symposium. What happened this July has laid the foundation for the upcoming “Great Places Day and Conference” in July 2008. The conference, which will be preceded by two days of hands-on workshops, will be a “grand festival and celebration of ‘Great Places.’” Through this much larger, outreach-based event, the Great Places Forum hopes to engage a gathering of thousands of members of the general public around the importance of Placemaking. International speakers will communicate the importance of Placemaking for the “core well-being of our society,” and conference plans include opportunities for Placemakers at all levels: international, national, regional, and local.

These far-reaching plans offer enormous potential and a significant hope for those of us committed to seeing the cause of Placemaking spread to as many active, engaged minds as possible. The Great Spaces Declaration and the Forum’s plans to continue spreading the word for the Placemaking movement exemplify one of PPS’s 11 Principles of Placemaking: You are never finished. We to watching this movement take shape in the greater Seattle region and the nation as a whole, and look forward to seeing it complement our own work in Placemaking.

Farmers markets are important, nationwide outlets for agricultural producers. The popularity of these markets continues to rise as more consumers discover the joys of shopping for unique ingredients sold direct from the farm, and the pleasure of buying familiar products in their freshest possible state.

More than 4,300 farmers markets across the country offer consumers farm-fresh, affordable, convenient, and healthy products and also serve as integral links between urban, suburban, and rural communities.

For more information on National Farmers Market Week or to search for a market in your area click here.

Project for Public Spaces Vice President, Ethan Kent, writes about Melbourne’s successful new public space development, Federation Square, and a Placemaking training course that he helped lead, which included many city staff, local developers and “place managers.”