Allison Arieff argues that cities should look to reversible parks modeled on the Pavement to Parks program to prevent blight, combat the practice of land banking, and model sustainable practices.
"San Francisco's 'Pavement to Parks' program creates spaces for people by reclaiming excess roadway, through the use of simple and low-cost design interventions. What's innovative about these parks isn't so much the design as the implementation. As Andres Power, urban designer at the San Francisco Planning Department explains, because there is no structure in place to do something like this 'it fundamentally changes the old impasse of years of planning and just lets the space evolve over time.'"
Thanks to Franny Ritchie
FULL STORY: Pavement to Parks
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Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools
This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
Planning for Universal Design
Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.
City of Albany
UCLA Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies
Mpact (formerly Rail~Volution)
Chaddick Institute at DePaul University
City of Piedmont, CA
Great Falls Development Authority, Inc.
HUDs Office of Policy Development and Research