Each week we will be focusing on blogs from around the world dealing specifically with urban environments. We’ll be on the lookout for websites outside the country that approach themes related to urban experiences and issues.
• Sarah Fine at Next American City responds to recent incidents at the Occupy Oakland protest where drivers used their vehicles to injure and intimidate protestors. She considers the lessons from the Occupy movement for Complete Streets advocates.
• By its own standards, LA is park-poor (15,717 acres of parkland despite a standard of 10 acres for every 1,000 residents). But with a lack of available open space, LA will take the small is beautiful approach as it seeks to open 50 new “pocket parks” in urban neighbourhoods over the next two years. (LAist)
• Streetsblog DC has a powerful map of America’s traffic fatalities, produced by British firm ITO World. The WHO reports 12.3 annual traffic deaths per 100,000 residents in the US.
• Colossal has images of an abandoned Luxembourg steel mill that has been converted into a striking public park.
• Gary Toth at Project for Public Spaces considers the need to turn the transportation planning process on its head. He argues that streets need to be viewed not only as conduits towards a destination but as destinations in and of themselves. Towards this end, he offers a few guidelines for planning streets for people: think of streets as public spaces, plan for community outcomes and design for appropriate speeds.
Image from Colossal
Do you have a World Wide Wednesday worthy article you’d like to share? Send the link to www@spacing.ca