News

Two American cities with hugely successful pedestrian malls in their downtown core – St. Augustine, Florida and Boulder, Colorado. During the 1960s and 70s, pedestrian malls were seen as a possible solution to suburban shopping malls. Cities around the country converted their primary downtown shopping street to pedestrian malls in the hopes of stemming the loss of retailers. While some cities have removed their pedestrian malls, a number of others, including the two referenced in this post have been very successful.

https://panethos.wordpress.com/2017/05/19/two-downtown-pedestrian-malls-that-work-and-work-very-well/

Waste segregation is being promoted across China through campaigns and initiatives, to help reduce environmental and economic pressure brought by the growing amount of trash.

http://www.initiatives.com.hk/cash-for-trash.html

"All that warm winter weather led to faster construction."

https://billypenn.com/2017/05/12/surprise-phase-one-of-the-rail-park-phillys-high-line-will-open-soon/

While disparate, these projects agree that inclusive growth occurs when all segments of society share in the benefits of economic growth. And they recognize that recent failures to achieve inclusive growth, especially in advanced economies like Europe and the United States, helps to explain the political and societal divisions they increasingly face.

https://www.brookings.edu/blog/the-avenue/2017/04/27/the-surprisingly-short-list-of-u-s-metro-areas-achieving-inclusive-economic-growth/

Hey Planners:

I know you are all down at the NPC in NYC, but...have you registered yet for the 2017 MAPD conference in Pittsfield on June 15th and June 16th.  If not, what are you waiting for; this conference is not to be missed!  Please follow this link for conference registration: http://massplanningdirectors.org/?page_id=1079
The Conference Committee has shaken up the programming this year! In addition to a keynote address from the Mayor of Pittsfield, Linda Tyer, we have not two but THREE concurrent sessions in four time blocks, a tour and reception at the Colonial Theater, and three plenary sessions. We had an incredible response to the call for session proposals this year and are excited to include the following topics:

 *   Recovering and Relapsing Planners - Planning Directors moving into Town/City Management
 *   Municipal Perspectives on Complete Streets
 *   Broadband access and economic development
 *   Community Engagement and Outreach
 *   Assessing Impacts of Residential Development
 *   Greening Your Community
Feel free to reach out to me should you have any questions!

Best,
Kristina
Kristina Johnson, AICP
Asst. Director of Planning &
Community Development
Town of Hudson,  MA
Tel: 978-562-2989
Cell:  857-939-3427
Email: kjohnson@townofhudson.org<mailto:kjohnson@townofhudson.org>
"Like" Hudson Planning and Community Development on Facebook [http://blogs-images.forbes.com/peterhimler/files/2014/02/high-res-logo_facebook1.png] <https://www.facebook.com/HudsonRecreation>

In August 2015, the Texas A&M Transportation Institute and data firm Inrix jointly released the Urban Mobility Scorecard, an assessment of cities in the US in terms of traffic congestion. With 82 hours of delay per commuter recorded on average during the prior full year, Washington, DC edged out Los Angeles (80 hours) and San Francisco (78 hours) as the nation’s most congested city.

Comparing the total number of minutes it usually takes a worker to get from home to work in the DC area to other US metropolitan areas with similar population sizes aptly illustrates the congestion problems faced by the nation’s capital.

http://app.mysidewalk.com/blog/how-dc-planners-used-a-bikeshare-program-to-reduce-traffic-congestion/?utm_source=mc&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20170503_loop

As we move into the ‘Era of Experience’ developers and city makers are struggling with the pressing need to secure higher quality public engagement to ensure real success in delivering great public spaces that people love.

https://www.theurbandeveloper.com/part-two-nike-public-space-building-sense-belonging-adam-scott/?utm_source=sumome&utm_medium=linkedin&utm_campaign=sumome_share

"Yes, for many of their inhabitants, particularly the young and the wealthy, our liberal cities are pleasant places in which to work and play. But if they are diverse in certain ways they are segregated in others, from “whiteopias” like Portland to balkanized cities like D.C. or Chicago. If they are dynamic, they are also so rich — and so rigidly zoned — that the middle class can’t afford to live there and fewer and fewer kids are born inside their gates. If they are fast-growing it’s often a growth intertwined with subsidies and “too big to fail” protection; if they are innovation capitals it’s a form of innovation that generates fewer jobs than past technological advance. If they produce some intellectual ferment they have also cloistered our liberal intelligentsia and actually weakened liberalism politically by concentrating its votes."

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/25/opinion/sunday/break-up-the-liberal-city.html?mc=aud_dev&mcid=keywee&mccr=domdesk&kwp_0=373121&kwp_4=1391323&kwp_1=612961&_r=0

The Rocky Mountain Land Use Institute annual conference is the region's premier gathering of planning professionals. This year's conference explored strategies for building inclusive cities in which everyone can thrive.

https://www.planetizen.com/node/92280?utm_source=newswire&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=news-04202017

Nobody knows what the future holds, but that has never stopped anyone trying to predict it. It’s a game countless US retailers are engaged in right now, while their industry shudders under the pressures of e-commerce, an overabundance of brick-and-mortar stores, and changing consumer spending habits. The ongoing “retail apocalypse” is forcing them to question the value of their physical stores.

https://qz.com/956745/retail-experiments-from-farfetch-nike-and-amazon-offer-visions-of-the-store-of-the-future/