MetaFilter posts tagged with CityPlanning

OASIS

ocherdraco — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 06:02:21 -0800

The New York City Open Accessible Space Information System Cooperative (OASIS) is an online, interactive mapping and data analysis application that gives an incredibly detailed view of New York City's open spaces and how they are used. The map enables overlays of information like: transit; parks, playgrounds and open space; zoning and landmarks; current and historical land use; social services; demographics; and environmental characteristics.(via The Ministry of Type, who like OASIS mainly for its pretty map possibilities.) From the project's "About" page:

How: A community-based undertaking, local organizations design and test the first city wide, web-based, open space mapping resource for NYC. OASIS facilitates and focuses the delivery of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) resources to provide timely and accurate information about the green infrastructure of NYC. What OASIS Will Do: OASIS will enable NYC community residents, for the first time, to:
create maps of open space by zip code, borough, tax block and lot, and/or neighborhood;
identify key open space resources within or near a user- defined area;
locate these resources by name, type, and other attributes in addition to geographic-based searches;
identify other natural resources and landmarks near or adjacent to open spaces in the city;
calculate statistics based on open space patterns by zip code, borough, tax block and lot, and/or neighborhood;
undertake “what if” scenarios, such as, what would my neighborhood look like if these vacant lots remained community gardens, or how would new bike lanes or bus routes improve my access to a park in the Bronx?; and
use other mapping and data analysis tools.
Why: OASIS is based on the belief that a common, free, open space inventory – really a web-based GIS mapping resource – is invaluable to NYC’s greening and planning communities. In NYC and across the Nation, GIS and other GeoData Systems are critical planning tools for enhanced spatial visualization and data analysis. They integrate socioeconomic profiles and demographic analysis with data set creation, strategic mapping and comprehensive community and regional planning services. GIS is an invaluable resource for environmental, design, health, safety, economic and planning decision making.

Encyclopedia of Transportation Planning Strategies

salvia — Thu, 08 May 2008 21:04:26 -0800

Too much traffic? Can't find parking? Choking on smog? Worried about climate change? Gas prices too high, but you still have to drive? Send your city planner a link to the Online Encyclopedia of Transportation Demand Management strategies. The Victoria Transport Policy Institute was mentioned in a comment back in 2005, but not the encyclopedia, which is one of the most complete online transportation resources that I've run across lately.

sprawl suburbs

thedailygrowl — Fri, 30 Apr 2004 23:42:22 -0800

Boom! A master planned community. Boom! A big-box mall! Our Sprawling, Supersize Utopia. This article, by New York Times columnist David Brooks, takes a look at exploding suburbs and exurban migration. This migration is nothing new, author Joel Garreau wrote extensively about it in his 1991 book Edge Cities. The phenomonon really took off after World War II, during the period of post war prosperity, and is best represented by this famous postwar American suburb. A veritable army of "suburban sprawl critics" has emerged over the years including Jane Jacobs and James Howard Knunstler plus many others including some who are predicting the immenent demise of suburbs because of oil depletion. For Brooks the critics of suburbs "just regurgitate the same critiques decade after decade, regardless of the suburban reality flowering around them" but you can't dismiss what the architect Paolo Soleri says about American society that "we have a society that is moving very rapidly to the super-, super-, super-consumptive."

All we need at hand, already. Go!

troutfishing — Tue, 13 Apr 2004 07:41:56 -0800

Creative, cheap, participatory, the most innovative city in the world......Curitiba !! There may be no single, organic and living font of solutions to many of the world's most pressing problems than Curitiba (previous link from Wikipedia, and a bit more of a wonkish summary here), a Brazilian city of 1.5 million that urban planners from around the globe make pilgrimages to, to learn.

On a budget a tiny fraction of those which American cities have at their disposal, how did Curitiba become the world's leading model for urban sustainability and quality of life ? - with possibly the world's most efficient and effective public transit system, a network of parks and greenery far beyond Olmsted's visionary parks, 70% trash recycling, innovative social welfare systems, trees everywhere, and "Lighthouses of Knowledge" with small libraries and free internet access as well, a low cost open university system.....and flowers! Curitiba's pedestrian-only (no cars) city center is filled with gardens.

rorschach — Thu, 28 Dec 2000 09:05:42 -0800

The Baltimore Sun has a series of articles that explore the possible failure of Columbia, MD to live up to expectations after 30 years.

Kevs — Sun, 19 Nov 2000 15:21:54 -0800

"Utopian Architecture" is where it's at. Unfortunately, despite how many people seem to be interested in it, there's very little documentation concerning the subject. The only books I can think of are Yesterday's Tomorrow (1984, MIT Press), Metropolis of Tomorrow by Hugo Ferriss and Impossible Worlds by Stephen Coates, and I don't know of any website on the subject.