Joe Menard's blog

Once a blighted and crime-ridden community of public housing in Tacoma, Washington - today, the area known as Salishan, is redeveloping into a stable, mixed-income neighborhood. Linda Baker's recent article in the New York Times highlights the impact Salishan has had on residents both old and new.

CBS News recently did a feature on New Urbanist communities - focusing particuarly on The Kentlands in Gaithersburg, Maryland. Andres Duany, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, and Witold Rybczynski discuss why people want to live in convenient, pedestrian-friendly communities.

The normalities of sprawling strip malls may become a thing of the past outside of Richmond, Virginia as Smart-Growth Groups seek to change the way their communities are planned and developed.

Here's an article written right after CNU XV - from a weekly Philadelphia newspaper. The author calls for Philadelphia to take value from its past in building for the future.

This editorial from the Chico, CA Enterprise-Record not only offers an endorsement of the recently approved Meriam Park development, it shows why communnity members are supporting it as well. The plan's walkable, dense, mixed-use neighborhoods are a big reason why.

A new two-part E&E story discusses the partnerhsip between the U.S. Green Building Council, Seattle Housing Authority, and New Urbanists to rebuild High Point - a once-blighted Seattle neighborhood. As detailed in part one, High Point's rebuilding efforts include 1,600 green-built houses (now half complete) that vary in price and aesthetic. In rebuilding, the neighborhood will include mixed-use zoning - something that is increasingly illegal in newly-built communities.

More than just a New Urbanist priority, urban sustainability and livability are issues examined by Lester R. Brown of the Earth Policy Institute in his recent book Plan B 2.0: Rescuing a Planet Under Stress and a Civilization in Trouble. In this excerpt, Brown compares transportation priorities of the world’s cities – both auto-centric and transit-based - and how transportation planning is affecting the environment and quality of life in those places. Recognizing that a “new urbanism” has emerged to respond to the immobility of automobiles in cities, Brown highlights Bogota as a major city that has successfully revitalized its streets and public spaces for pedestrian-use.