Month: January 2019

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The 4 Types of Gentrifiers

Which kind of gentrifier are you?  We have to admit if the shoe fits…

If you were been born in your city, chances are you’re not one. But pretty much anyone, particularly white, middle or upper income, who has moved into a city just as it’s beginning to be revived could be considered a gentrifier.  Who wouldn’t want to live in a city where housing is affordable, as coffee shops and galleries are springing up? BUT:

“The systemic racism behind the depressed real estate values benefiting the gentrifier is one reason why gentrification is considered, as I often say, a four-letter word. Both middle-class residents who are resisting gentrification and those who are enjoying it will inevitably — in some way — reinforce these injustices.”

Four Types of Gentrifiers You See in Your Neighborhood

BY JOHN JOE SCHLICHTMAN | OP-ED | APRIL 14, 2017

Read about the 4 types:

https://nextcity.org/daily/entry/types-of-gentrifiers-you-see-in-your-neighborhood

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What Happens When A City Is Designed For Kids And Families

The benefits of a city designed for kids is that it becomes safe, healthy, and a desirable place to live for everyone.  Traffic injuries and fatalities have dropped dramatically, and this city now has lowest crime rate in a decade

 

What Happens to Kid Culture When You Close the Streets to Cars

JAIME VELAZQUEZ 

In the Spanish city Pontevedra, a family-friendly “pedestrianization” policy has helped increase the population of kids, despite the country’s low birth rates.

“By restricting traffic and eliminating physical barriers, the city council has redesigned Pontevedra from the sight line of a child. Doing so, Mosquera believes, helps the city address everybody’s needs, especially the disadvantaged. “Where there are children, there are healthy adults,” Mosquera said. The policy, which has been expanding for almost two decades now, has had many impacts on the community.”

“The crime rate has gone down, too, adding to the feeling that the city is safe for unattended kids. In 2010, Pontevedra reached its lowest crime rate in a decade with 34 offenses per 1,000 citizens, and last year it reached a new low of 27.”

 

Read more…

https://www.citylab.com/design/2018/11/car-free-pedestrianization-made-pontevedra-spain-kid-friendly/576268/

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APCSC: A Safe And Healthy 2019 #SlowTheCars

Asbury Park Complete Streets Coalition wishes everyone a safe and healthy 2019. Enjoy this collection of articles about what’s happening to make streets safe for people in cities all over the US and the world.

APCSC supports Strong Towns and has also adopted #SLOWTHECARS. We couldn’t have said it better:  Why Slow the Cars?

Strong Towns advocates for financial solvency and productive land use in American cities. Places that are built for people, using traditional development patterns, can help us achieve both of those goals. On the other hand, neighborhood streets with wide lanes, huge clearance zones and other dangerous design features cause thousands of pedestrian and car passenger deaths every year. Dangerous roads do not make productive use of our land or our lives. Furthermore, they depress investment in our cities by making our neighborhoods less pleasant places to be.

People are the indicator species of success. We know that pedestrian-friendly neighborhoods are more economically productive, healthier and safer.  We need to build places where people want to be.

THE BEST OF STRONG TOWNS 2018

Read more…

https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2018/12/7/why-we-need-to-talk-about-car-aggression