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.
City Schools, A Partnership Between the City and the School Board
City Schools is an approach that reflects the concept of city governments having responsibility for the education of their children and adults. In many communities, this responsibility is given to the school board and deemed no longer the responsibility of the city. This is both wrong and short-sighted. The city is the best party to insist […]
City Sidewalks
A Limited Resource Needs Management Mobility is the prize…every person should be able to safely get anywhere anytime at a reasonable cost. Personal vehicles, buses, trains and bikes, motorized or not, are the many technologies of travel available in a complete multi-modal transportation system. Walking is inherently a part of each mode whether the walk […]
Clarence Stein
A planner of note…Trained as an architect, Stein participated in several of the most influential housing complex designs of the 20th century, including the “garden city” plans for Sunnyside Gardens in Queens, New York; Radburn, New Jersey; Chatham Village in Pittsburgh; and Baldwin Hills Village (known today as Village Green) in Los Angeles. He attended […]
Clarence Stein
Trained as an architect, Stein participated in several of the most influential housing complex designs of the 20th century, including the “garden city” plans for Sunnyside Gardens in Queens, New York; Radburn, New Jersey; Chatham Village in Pittsburgh; and Baldwin Hills Village (known today as Village Green) in Los Angeles. He attended both Columbia University […]
Classical Learning Systems
In The Character of Physical Law, Richard Feynman explains the main differences in the traditions of how mathematical reasoning is employed between mathematicians and physicists. Video Link [10:19]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YaUlqXRPMmY From CT.org…Being a student of learning, and a beginner at that, I find the ways that learning has been taught over the centuries to be fascinating. […]
Clean Energy Breakthrough: Making Hydrogen Is Hard, but Researchers Just Solved a Major Hurdle.
For decades, researchers around the world have searched for ways to use solar power to generate the key reaction for producing hydrogen as a clean energy source — splitting water molecules to form hydrogen and oxygen. However, such efforts have mostly failed because doing it well was too costly, and trying to do it at […]
Climate Change: Global Sea Level
HIGHLIGHTS Sea level has risen 8–9 inches (21–24 centimeters) since 1880. In 2020, global sea level set a new record high—91.3 mm (3.6 inches) above 1993 levels. The rate of sea level rise is accelerating: it has more than doubled from 0.06 inches (1.4 millimeters) per year throughout most of the twentieth century to 0.14 […]
Climate Change: Global Sea Level
Author: Rebecca Lindsey, November 19, 2019 WHAT’S CAUSING SEA LEVEL TO RISE? Global warming is causing global mean sea level to rise in two ways. First, glaciers and ice sheets worldwide are melting and adding water to the ocean. Second, the volume of the ocean is expanding as the water warms. A third, much […]
Clock is running on our reliance on vegetation as a steady ‘carbon sink
From the Yale Climate Connections New study finds the rate of capturing CO2 is increasing at a lower rate. Trees and other plants have been critical in helping to remove carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere. But newly published scientific findings suggest the clock may be running on vegetation’s forever continuing at the same carbon […]
College Park, Florida Community Center
The College Park Community Center is within a neighborhood having single-family homes, duplexes and small apartment buildings. The town center is less than a quarter mile to the west. The 9 acre site hosts: The Princeton Elementary School, Fire Station No. 3, College Park Community Center & Community Pool, The Princeton Park, and Bob Crosby […]
Columbus GA, A Quintessential Character Town.
HISTORY. Columbus is a city in western Georgia some 100 miles southwest of Atlanta. Founded in 1828 by an act of the Georgia Legislature, Columbus was situated at the beginning of the navigable portion of the Chattahoochee River and on the last stretch of the Federal Road before entering Alabama. This was for centuries and […]
Columbus, Georgia: A Quintessential Character Town
HISTORY. Columbus is a city in western Georgia some 100 miles southwest of Atlanta. Founded in 1828 by an act of the Georgia Legislature, Columbus was situated at the beginning of the navigable portion of the Chattahoochee River and on the last stretch of the Federal Road before entering Alabama. This was for centuries and […]
Columbus IN, A Quintessential Character Town.
THE TOWN. Columbus was settled in the 1820s by James Harrod and Daniel Boone; incorporated on June 28, 1864. The City has a population approaching 50,000. Columbus is approximately 50 miles south of Indianapolis. The major employer is Cummins Inc.: established 1919, $25 billion capitalization, #65 on Fortune 500, 62,500 employees worldwide. The primary product […]
Columbus, Indiana
THE TOWN. Columbus was settled in the 1820s; incorporated on June 28, 1864. The City has a population approaching 50,000. Columbus is approximately 50 miles south of Indianapolis. The major employer is Cummins Inc.: $25 billion capitalization, #65 on Fortune 500, 62,500 AE worldwide, established 1919. Cummins primary product is diesel engines. Cummins, Inc. is […]
Community Aesthetics.
THE IDEA OF BEAUTY. Beauty is of paramount value in many cultures. Everything is designed with both function and beauty in mind. In some cultures, function is the primary and sometime only guide to the design of everything from bridges to door hinges. Some cultures believe that design costs more, which it doesn’t have to; […]
Community Aesthetics
Beauty as a Design Standard. THE IDEA OF BEAUTY. Beauty is of paramount value in many cultures. Everything is designed with both function and beauty in mind. In some cultures, function is the primary and sometime only guide to the design of everything from bridges to door hinges. Some cultures believe that design costs more, […]
Community Centered: 23 Reasons Why Your Library is the Most Important Place in Town
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Community Theaters: “Edu-tainment” Emporiums.
HISTORICAL ROLE OF DOWNTOWN THEATERS. Movies begat movie theaters. From the late 19thcentury until sound sprung forth in 1927, movies and movie theaters were like novelties. The Nickelodeons inhabited thousands of storefronts; the single theater in Pittsburgh in 1905 became many theaters across America by 1920s. Sound boomed forth in 1927; with it emerged “Hollywood”. […]
Community Theaters, “Edu-tainment” Emporiums
Historical Role of Main Street Theaters in Small Cities and Towns. Movies begat movie theaters. From the late 19th century until sound sprung forth in 1927, movies and movie theaters were like novelties. The Nickelodeons inhabited thousands of storefronts. The first single theater in Pittsburgh in 1905 became many theaters across America by the 1920s. […]
Complete Emergency Management.
Emergency management planning has traditionally been confined to natural disasters, medical emergencies and law enforcement responses. These are, of course, essential services that every community values. With COVID-19, the Great Recession and the present-day impacts of climate change, the idea about emergency response programs needs to expand to include a wider range of possibilities. FacebookTweetLinkedInEmail