ARTICLES
The Original Articles archives of CharacterTowns.org presents papers that discuss practical and conceptual ideas for designing, building and managing character towns and small cities that are interesting, pleasant and prosperous places for residents, businesses and visitors.
The 10 Best Small Towns
10 best small towns provides insight into what traits are important to a character town. “Livability.com explores what makes small-to-medium sized cities great places to live. Through proprietary research studies, engaging articles and original photography and video, we examine topics related to community amenities, education, sustainability, transportation, housing and the economy. We then leverage that expertise […]
10 Female Urban Planners that deserve limelight
Urban Planning is a gender dominant profession. The presence of male gender prevails in the statistics that clearly show it as a line and in comparison to that of women or women’s preferred presence appears like a dot. There are a number of women urbanists, urban policymakers, urban planners, urban designers, activists, economists, politicians, and […]
The 10 High-Tech Cities You’ll Want to Call Home
10 high-tech cities you’ll want to call home presents the list of cities and the criteria used for selection. The criteria is useful when planning a character town. FacebookTweetLinkedInEmail
Where Will 20 Million New Floridians Go? Only Three Rational Options
Twenty million new Floridians will arrive by 2060. Their location and the design of their communities will determine the quality of life for new and existing residents. FacebookTweetLinkedInEmail
The 5 Ideas Every City Should Steal from Singapore
5 Ideas Every City Should Steal from Singapore, by Meera Senthilingam for CNN, is a great guide for city planners. Singapore is a large and successful city-state, with ideas that can work in many small cities and towns. With the exception of :going underground” in parts of Florida, each idea is useful: Have a plan […]
The Benefits of Trees
Excerpts from Published Work… Public Health and Social Benefits: Clean air: Trees produce oxygen, intercept airborne particulates, and reduce smog, enhancing a community’s respiratory health. The urban canopy directly contributes to meeting a city’s regulatory clean air requirements. Access to trees, green spaces, and parks promotes greater physical activity, and reduces stress, while improving the […]
From Bloomberg CityLab…A case for turning empty malls into housing.
A case for turning empty malls into housing. Second life: In the Lynnwood suburb of Seattle, developers are turning a big part of the 41-year-old Alderwood Mall into a 300-unit apartment complex, a grand experiment in transforming struggling malls into much-needed affordable housing. Such conversions may be the best use of vacant space across an […]
A celebration of the life and work of Frederick Law Olmsted.
During the later half of the nineteenth century cities in America underwent tremendous changes. More people were moving to the cities than ever before. It became evident that cities needed to be transformed into more hospitable places, and not just centers of commerce. No longer could the leaders of society or the City fathers sit […]
A Co-Work Space Policy for Small Towns
The Working from Home “Bargain”. The post-pandemic environment for many employees, especially office workers, includes an element of working from home. This new environment takes many forms from complete dedication to remote working to occasional days or hours spent working out of the office. The “bargain” between employees and employers requires extensive use of communication […]
A Comprehensive, Long-Range City Finance Plan Using a Pro Forma Sources and Uses Process.
A BORROWED TERM, A Professional Accounting Viewpoint. CharacterTowns.org has taken the accounting term, source and uses of funds, and contorted it for use in comprehensive long-range finance planning for municipalities. The term, sources and uses of funds, is so appropriate for application to the needs of municipal finance planning that the temptation for the contortion […]
A conversation with the BlueGreen Alliance’s Jason Walsh
Efforts to slow carbon pollution and limit global warming have the potential to drive job creation in renewable energy, green building, electric vehicle manufacturing, and more. But in communities that have long depended on jobs in the fossil fuel industry, many fear that the transition will lead to job losses and declining local revenue. Jason […]
A Downtown Park – A Concept
Downtown Vision: Devote one corner at the “100% corner” to active public use; a place of immediate, casual observance of youth sports. Program: The 100% corner [ ] bounded by three block faces of ground floor restaurants and shops in 2-3 story buildings with the upper floors being offices or apartments. The park has: An […]
A fairly simple breakthrough makes accessing stored hydrogen more efficient.
A new catalyst from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory and collaborators extracts hydrogen from hydrogen storage materials easily and efficiently. The process occurs at mild temperatures and under normal atmospheric conditions, without using metals or additives. The breakthrough offers a promising new solution that addresses a long-standing challenge to adopting hydrogen fuel for […]
A FRAMEWORK FOR A CULTURAL CORRIDOR.
The Orlando FL Urban Trail – Ivanhoe Gate to City Center FacebookTweetLinkedInEmail
A HOLISTIC OPEN SPACE SYSTEM, connect everything
The City as a Park. If you want a big idea, think of the entire city as a “park” with passive and active spaces linked together with trails and streams. Cities have active areas, open spaces, places for food and beverage, recreation areas, paths and trails. If you take a city future land use map […]
A Nation of Weavers from The New York Times by David Brooks, Opinion Columnist
Excerpt: “My something extra was starting something nine months ago at the Aspen Institute called Weave: The Social Fabric Project. The first core idea was that social isolation is the problem underlying a lot of our other problems. The second idea was that this problem is being solved by people around the country, at the local level, […]
A National Electric Grid…Headlines
From…CharacterTowns.org. A national electric grid has been and continues to be discussed. Incorporating alternative fuels into the electric generation process is a start; distributing this alternatively generated power throughout the nation is an equally big challenge. FacebookTweetLinkedInEmail
A Once-Famous Man’s Garden, in the neighborhood.
From CharacterTowns.com… The relevance of Nehrling Gardens to small cities and towns is that an important individual is celebrated at a place associated with his work. Nehrling Gardens is “old Florida” and the non-profit owners have an educational, historic and horticultural mission…all adding character to the community. FacebookTweetLinkedInEmail
A Person to Know: Lawrence Halprin 1916-2009
Highlights. Cities is one of those books from the 1960s when idealism in city planning was blooming, design was a valuable commodity, environmentalism was new and cities were just beginning their comeback. [The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 1963.] People like Halprin led the way with lofty ideals and ideas, strong skills and a classical foundation in history, design and […]
A Photo Essay of Historic Gas Stations on Highways
RESPECT. There was a day when design was respected,even for gas stations along the nation’shighways. Pure Oil Company led the way with“cottage” designs as depicted herein. The surviving gas station buildings, now adapted for a variety of other uses, serves as witness to the durability of good design. FacebookTweetLinkedInEmail