Category: Advocacy

  • Homes for Artists

      In New York, gentrification has often occurred due to creative professionals and artists moving into neighborhoods that have been neglected by real estate interests and making them attractive due to their sweat investments and cultural programming of the area. Usually this results in more affluent populations moving in and displacing the long-time residents. This…

  • Beyond Zuccotti Park

      New York City has these strange beasts called Privately Owned Public Spaces (or POPS) which were put to some significant tests for the first time in recent history during the Occupy Wall Street protests. Many planners were watching the protests to see if privately owned spaces, like Zuccotti Park, could truly operate as public…

  • EVENT 7/2/12: The Critical and Activist Practice

      The Austrian Cultural Forum New York is hosting an event that explores “what it means to be Critical and Activist in the context of design/art/architecture/urban practices.” When: MONDAY JUL 02, 06:30 PM Where: Austrian Cultural Forum 11 East 52nd Street New York, NY 10022 Why you should go: Perhaps you want to tap into…

  • URBAN NATION: Ensuring Fair Transit Options for the Elderly and Disabled – Next American City

    A couple of months ago I injured my foot and was treating myself, in a manner of speaking, to a ride on each of the elevators at the Brooklyn Bridge /City Hall subway station. I waited with a young man in a wheel chair and as we speculated as to whether the elevator was working,…

  • Saving Brownsville, Brooklyn

    Canadian author Doug Saunders suggests in his book “Arrival City” that poor immigrant neighborhoods can thrive when certain conditions, such as access to property and education, and a minimum of social infrastructure is provided. How can these lessons be applied to one of the poorest and neediest neighborhoods of New York City, Brownsville? The past…

  • Building a Common Ground: Integrating Community, Gardens and the Built Environment

    The American Community Gardening Association states that its vision is to have a sustainable community in every garden.  It is a vision that has been playing out across the landscape and in a range of contexts.  This post shares a couple of case studies of how this is being done in new building development projects…