Is “National Park City” a useful idea?

While land tends to stay put, ideas about landscapes cross oceans easily enough. It does my American heart good when I read descriptions of national parks in other countries, because they typically fess up that we came up with the idea and did it first with Yellowstone. As it turns out, it wasn’t just a […]

A street designed for 8 month olds & 80 year olds

There’s been a recent surge in attention on designing cities for young families (examples 1, 2, 3). This work raises important questions about what makes a place “family-friendly.” Can urban neighborhoods compete with less dense places that fit a more conventional understanding of that term? I believe so. We’re spending the year in a neighborhood […]