TOPIC: CITIES (31)

Pavement to Parks

http://pavementtoparks.org

San Francisco's streets and public rights-of-way make up 25% of the city's land area, more space than all the park area combined. Many of our streets are excessively wide and contain large zones of underutilized space, especially at intersections. San Francisco's "Pavement to Parks" program seeks to temporarily reclaim these unused swathes of land and quickly and inexpensively turn them into new public spaces.

GOOD Ideas for Cities

http://www.good.is/ideas/posts

GOOD Ideas for Cities taps creative problem solvers to tackle real urban challenges and present the solutions at live events across the country.

City Form Lab

http://cityform.mit.edu/en.html

The City Form Lab at the Singapore University of Technology & Design in collaboration with the School of Architecture & Planning at MIT focuses on empirical studies of urban form. We develop new software tools for researching city form; use cutting-edge spatial analysis and statistics to investigate how the physical pattern of urban infrastructure affects the social, environmental and economic quality of urban environments; and develop creative design and policy solutions for contemporary urban challenges. By bringing together multi-diciplinary urban research expertise  and excellence in design, we develop context sensitive and timely insight about the role of urban form in affecting the quality of life in 21st century cities.

Outer Urban Projects

http://outerurbanprojects.org

Outer Urban Projects (OUP) is a bold not for profit performing arts organisation that collaborates with young people and their communities in Melbourne’s culturally diverse, artistically starved, ‘hardcore’ outer northern suburbs. OUP specialises in producing and presenting high calibre arts projects that seamlessly combine street, cultural, contemporary and classical forms. OUP is driven by the vibrant cultural mix and stories of the outer northern suburbs and the racial, social and class inequities that challenge our young people.

Neighborland

https://neighborland.com

On Neighborland you can share your ideas and insights for your city, support your neighbors’ ideas, and connect with people who share your interests. We are providing residents, neighborhood organizations, economic development groups, and municipalities with a powerfully simple platform to connect and make good things happen.

Beacon Food Forest

http://www.beaconfoodforest.org

A Food Forest is a gardening technique or land management system that mimics a woodland ecosystem but substitutes in edible trees, shrubs, perennials and annuals.  Fruit and nut trees are the upper level, while below are berry shrubs, edible perennials and annuals.  Companions or beneficial plants are included to attract insects for natural pest management while some plants are soil amenders providing nitrogen and mulch.  Together they create relationships to form a forest garden ecosystem able to produce high yields of food with less maintenance.

Initiative for a Competitive Inner City (ICIC)

http://www.icic.org

The Initiative for a Competitive Inner City is a nonprofit research and strategy organization and the leading authority on U.S. inner city economies and the businesses that thrive there. Founded in 1994 by Harvard Business School Professor Michael Porter, ICIC strengthens inner city economies by providing businesses, governments and investors with the most comprehensive and actionable information in the field about urban market opportunities.

CNU

http://www.cnu.org/

The Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU) is the leading organization promoting walkable, mixed-use neighborhood development, sustainable communities and healthier living conditions.

Popularise

https://www.popularise.com

Popularise is the online platform that shares the power to build new places in your neighborhood with local residents like you
By joining other people in your area on Popularise, you can create the kind of cool, authentic places you want in your neighborhood. Submit your own ideas, and vote for what to build on projects posted by real estate developers and local business operators.

Creative Mornings

http://www.creativemornings.com/

CreativeMornings is a monthly breakfast lecture series for creative types held in major cities internationally. Each event is free of charge, and includes a 20 minute talk, plus coffee!

Block Avenue

http://www.blockavenue.com

BlockAvenue is a platform to help people better understand location by leveraging existing geo-data and social networks to create trust.

Chicago Trees Initiative

http://www.chicagotrees.net

The Chicago Trees Initiative is a city-wide, public-private effort to plant, care for and advocate for trees. This means many more trees will be planted in our great city, which is already known for its green urban spaces. And more important, existing trees will have better care – the best strategy for meeting our urban forest canopy goal. Every Chicago resident – and indeed, anyone who cares about trees has an important role to play. The goal invites all of us to be involved in planting and caring for trees on public and private land throughout the city.

Dear City

http://dearcity.org

Dear City is a simple concept allowing a citizen to leave (anonymous) messages to the city he or she lives in. This web-based framework creates a social cluster of opinions that express the thoughts of the man on the street. Dear City becomes a documentation of contemporary life and its ups and downs. We believe change is achieved through all levels of communication.

This Big City

http://thisbigcity.net

This Big City is an award winning sustainable cities blog covering innovations in urban design, architecture, culture, technology, transport and the bicycle. Launched in September 2009 by Joe Peach, This Big City now features content from urbanism writers and organisations all over the world, and publishes in English and Chinese.

Urban Observatory

http://www.urbanobservatory.org

Richard Saul Wurman, Radical Media, and Esri bring you the Urban Observatory—a live museum with a data pulse. You'll have access to rich datasets for cities around the world that let you simultaneously view answers to the most important questions impacting today's global cities—and you. Compare and contrast visualized information for a greater understanding of life in the 21st century.