Pruitt-Igoe: More ego or opportunity for vocational penance?
The restoration of degraded, traumatized, and distressed communities has been a high priority for the Obama Administration. read more
View ArticleIn Washington and Milwaukee, HOPE VI reduced crime
Crime patterns Source: Cityscape Full Story: Using the Weighted Displacement Quotient To Explore Crime Displacement From Public Housing Redevelopment SitesA study of redevelopment finds that HOPE VI...
View ArticleGates, sprawl, and 'walking while black'
The Trayvon Martin tragedy is partly about what happens to a gated development when residents find themselves on the same side of the gate as people they fear.read more
View ArticleHow gates champion a 'bunker mentality'
Source: The New York Times Full Story: The Gated Community MentalityThis NYT commentary piece echoes many of the points made in the March 22 Better! Cities & Towns blog Gates, sprawl, and...
View ArticleGated communities arouse an 'us vs. them' mentality
Source: The Washington Post Full Story: In gated communities, a dangerous mindsetThe Trayvon Martin case highlights the damage done to community by erecting gates, Edward Blakely says. Included in...
View ArticleWhen public art disturbs its viewers
Artistic expressions painted on the surfaces of a city aren’t always as benign as their advocates think.read more
View ArticleRemember Pruitt-Igoe
Forty years after demolition of America's most notorious public housing project, an architect who helped reshape America’s public housing reflects on the film The Pruitt-Igoe Myth. Forty years after...
View ArticleDrive-to shootings
At the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, on December 14, our culture may have hit a new low. Twenty-seven dead, most of them first graders, at a time for celebrating peace and...
View ArticleCrime rises in suburbs, falls in cities
During the first decade of this century the US suburban homicide rate rose 16.9 percent while declining 16.7 percent in cities, according to a Wall Street Journal report. Overall, crime dropped sharply...
View ArticleBeyond resilience: Toward “antifragile” urbanism
We can prepare for the inevitable occurrence of "Black Swan" events by developing structures that, when these events occur, “have more upside than downside.” read more
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