Heather Smith's blog

LEED v4 is open for comment until March 31. 

This includes the rating system that CNU and the NRDC partnered to create: LEED-ND.

CNU continues to challenge engineers, designers, and planners to create streets that add economic value.

You know something is big when everyone is talking about it. When cross sections of street design appear in the paper and there are editorials about mode share.  Turns out protected bike lanes have gone mainstream.

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Yesterday I had the pleasure of  attending the CMAP Local Technical Assistance Ideas Exchange.

 Bob Dean, CMAP Deputy Executive Director of Local Planning opened and talked about how CMAP has implemented their GO to 2040 Plan.

Reading Eric Kleinenberg's latest book Going Solo has a new relevance for New Urbanism and links directly to CNU 20.  In an increasingly urbanized world how do we provide for our most neglected populations: the single and homeless?
It was gratifying to read Kelinenberg's focus on a new innovative solution: bringing back the SRO or single room occupancy building as a housing type but with a focus on a diverse populations.

Concrete Change, a pioneering advocacy organization for those with disabilities, has been awarded with the 2011 Martin Luther King Jr. Community Service Award from Emory University, the Rollins School of Public Health and the Goizueta Business School for its work promoting affordable, accessible integrated housing.

My first home was my dream.   A newly rehabbed condo right on the beach and a block from transit.   The developer owned the building for 12 years and he and a work crew were slowly transitioning a former rental building into condos, doing 3-4 units per year over ten years.  Some long-time tenants were moving upstairs or across the hall while their homes were being rehabbed and turned into condos.