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Evan Carver
Editor

 

Evan Carver is the editor of EngagingCities.com.  A writer and urbanist of many stripes, he lives in Denver, Colorado, where he is also pursuing a graduate degree in urban and regional planning. 

  • New York's "Secret Avenue"

    According to Open City Projects, Manhattan developed so quickly that there was little time or effort put toward adjusting the grid plan. One of the side effects of this was the fact that the main blocks were rendered impermeable, since the plan made no provision for subdivision by alleys or lanes. If you are familiar with Manhattan, you’ll know that this can make travel up the island difficult, since the rectangular blocks are oriented lengthwise between rivers, divided by just a few north-south avenues.

    By: Evan Carver
  • Inner City Economic Summit (Live)

    Based in Boston, the Initiative for a Competitive Inner City (ICIC) is a nonprofit research and strategy organization and the leading authority on U.S. inner city economies and its businesses. Founded in 1994 by Harvard Business School Professor Michael Porter, ICIC strengthens inner city economies in a multitude of ways. The organization’s knowledge of inner city success factors and developing companies springs from their specialized urban networks and path-breaking research.

    By: Evan Carver
  • Civic Engagement Through 3D Visual Simulation

    While the removal and addition of new city buildings can often be controversial, local governments are connecting with organizations that are making universal tools to augment their community workshops. City planners can easily harness new technology to help citizens visualize and paint the most clear picture yet of the outcome of a new building project.  The Sacramento Area Council of Governments’(SACOG) Civic Engagement Program is placing prominence on citizen engagement tools and one of their latest offerings is Visual Simulation (3D) Planning.

    By: Evan Carver
  • Navigating the Exciting Field of Online Public Participation

    The community economic development experts over at Wise Economy recently released a white paper surveying the best of today’s online public participation tools.  The tools range from elaborate websites to simple smart phone apps, and are available for everything from long-term comprehensive planning to gathering input on a neighborhood issues to helping the public understand a single government process, like budgeting.  They help planners communicate with citizens, citizens communicate with planners and, perhaps most importantly, they can help citizens communicate with each other.

    By: Evan Carver
  • Creating a Structure For Meaningful Public Input (Guides)

    At the recent Congress for the New Urbanism, Ian Wolfe Ross, of City Design Collective, delivered a presentation called “Code for the People.”  The talk was a rallying cry for the younger generation of New Urbanists, and a reminder that to achieve goals like restructuring corridors and revitalizing districts, planners need to focus on the design of the public realm – and involve the community in the visioning process.  As Ross put, “Developers are not your clients, nor are council members or any other interest group.  Your clients are the people, period.”  After the talk, I sat down with him during the conference to talk more about the most important issues facing young planners today.

    By: Evan Carver
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  • Charrettes and the Next Generation of Public Involvement (Trends)

    If a mark of a healthy organization is its capacity for allowing internal debate and dissent, the Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU) is quite healthy, at least judged by the recent 20th annual conference held in West Palm Beach, Fla.  New Urbanism has been, in the words of founder Andrés Duany, “the least unsuccessful” recent movement in community building, and therefore has some confidence and capacity to entertain dissent.  Nevertheless, even the greatest of skeptics would have been impressed by the range of topics featured in different sessions, and the range of speakers within given sessions.  One session was particularly notable for its central importance to the evolving nature of New Urbanist project and its interdisciplinary and intergenerational panel. Great skeptics might point out some glaring absences from that panel, but the lively discussion was evidence that New Urbanist leaders are deeply committed to a future of intelligent, collaborative city building.     

    By: Evan Carver
  • The Past & Future of Tactical Urbanism: A Conversation With Mike Lydon (Trends)

    The 20th annual Congress for the New Urbanism was held this week in West Palm Beach, Fla.  Such anniversaries are an occasion for reflection on past accomplishments, and also for looking ahead.  One of the most exciting topics on the docket was “tactical urbanism,” the movement of incremental, small-scale – usually temporary, sometimes unsanctioned – improvements to the built landscape.  One session featured Ralph Rosado, of C3TS, who presented on a project that turned a parking lot along Miami’s Biscayne Boulevard into a park for a week.  Russ Preston, Design Director of the Principle Group, described how informal outdoor movie projections activated a neighborhood (and eventually became sanctioned by Paramount Pictures).  Ellen Dunham-Jones, of Georgia Tech, described how her students installed temporary bike signage, historical markers, and storytelling benches to downtown Lithonia, Ga., to help catalyze long-term change there.   The session was emceed by Mike Lydon, principle of Street Plans Collaborative, and lead editor of the Tactical Urbanism manual, volume 2 of which was just released.  Following the session, Lydon stepped aside with EngagiesCities to discuss the past and future of tactical urbanism.

    By: Evan Carver
    6 Comments