Like many suburbanites, we spent part of the holiday weekend planting and tending to new flowers around our house. Afterwards, our house looked so much cheerier and welcoming with the front windowbox bursting with impatiens and pots of colorful flowers in front and back. In the aggregate, it’s simply amazing what flowers and other landscaping [...]
Archive for May, 2007
How downtown San Jose bounced back – despite a new mall
May 27, 2007My favorite quote from last week:
“When I travel to another city, I’m not interested in seeing what their Gap looks like.”
– Brian Eder, who owns an art gallery in San Jose, Calif., in a New York Times in a story about that city’s re-emergence from the dot-com bust.
One of San Jose’s grittier urban districts is [...]
Residents ‘inundating Acton officials with requests for more sidewalks’
May 25, 2007“When town officials studied the commuter-rail station and its parking problems last year, [Selectwoman Lauren] Rosenzweig said, many residents expressed a desire to make the entire area more pedestrian-friendly for commuters, parents with strollers, teenagers unable to drive, and disabled residents,” the Globe reports.
The Boston Metropolitan Planning Organization is holding a walkable communities workshop [...]
Online Survey: Help the Framingham Public Library Set Future Goals
May 20, 2007I was on the library’s Web site this morning, and see that today is the last day of an online survey to give input to the longrange planning committee as it works to set the library’s goals and priorities.
I had a chance to share my opinions in one of the recent community focus groups. But [...]
Copley Place vs. the Natick "Collection"
May 16, 2007I was in Boston’s Back Bay last weekend, and it struck me again how fortunate we are that the Copley Place mall was built to integrate into the neighboring community, not moat itself off. While “skywalks” often kill off the streetscape below, the walkways of Copley Place help pedestrians bridge rivers of traffic, and get [...]
Building large homes without sacrificing communal space
May 13, 2007We visited relatives this week outside of Philadelphia, in a new development of luxury homes that was interesting in its attempt to balance outstanding private space with quality common neighborhood space.
The homes were large on relatively small private lots, but clustered around a larger green open space that belonged to (and was maintained [...]
Driving Simulator: Could You Stop in Time (and Not Hit the Pedestrian)?
May 6, 2007A new online simulator aims “to prove to drivers the dangers of being behind the wheel when travelling too fast, after drinking or when using a mobile phone,” according to Britain’s Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents. ” It shows how speed, weather and impairments dramatically affect stopping distances and result in crashes and [...]
Framingham Downtown Renaissance Plans Next Revitalization Phase
May 3, 2007Framingham Downtown Renaissance has issued a 30-page “visualization project” looking at the existing downtown area, its existing strengths and “areas of sensitivity.” I haven’t seen a copy of the report on the Web anywhere yet, but the Framingham Planning Department was kind enough to send me a copy. I’ve posted it, in PDF form (5.6 [...]
