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• NAC News

  Next American City Heads to Milwaukee!

  Pooja Shah | Wed, Aug 13th, 2008 | Category: NAC News | City: NAC News | Tags: dave steele, milwaukee, diana lind, pooja shah, 24:hrs, university of wisconsin - milwaukee | 0

  Next American City is planning a four-day visit to Milwaukee where we will bring you a symposium, subscriber party, university visits and a 24:Hrs!

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• Columnists

  Denver: America’s Great Urban Canvas, Part I

  Simmons Buntin | Mon, Aug 4th, 2008 | Category: Commentary | City: Denver | Tags: tucson, simmons buntin, denver, new urbanism, civano, stapleton, town planning, boulder, prospect new town, neotraditional development, bradburn village, urban planning, longmont, westminster, modernist architecture | 2

  The metropolitan Denver area has become America’s greatest urban canvas, and a tour of some of the region’s New Urbanist neighborhoods demonstrates why. Join Simmons Buntin and his host, urban planner Carolyn Dooling, as they tour Stapleton in Denver, Bradburn Village in Westminster, and Prospect New Town in Longmont, discovering places with soul.

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• Columnists

  The Magical Museum?

  Dave Steele | Wed, Jul 30th, 2008 | Category: Commentary | City: Milwaukee | Tags: dave steele, calatrava, milwaukee art museum | 4

  Seven years after the opening of a bold cultural icon, how much has the Calatrava addition to the Milwaukee Art Museum changed the Brew City? How much can any one building really change a city?

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• Columnists

  Nuisance Abatement!

  Jeremy Rosenberg | Mon, Jul 28th, 2008 | Category: Commentary | City: Los Angeles | Tags: los angeles, jeremy rosenberg | 0

  South Los Angeles’ Community Coalition employs land use and licensing laws to take on and take down liquor stores and motels that make for bad neighbors.

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• Columnists

  Brookings: U.S. Is Literally Falling Apart

  Jeffrey Hill | Sat, Jul 26th, 2008 | Category: Commentary | City: Washington, D.C. | Tags: jeffrey hill, economy, education, energy, infrastructure, jobs, money, democrats, politicians, oil, katrina, mccain, research, minneapolis, traffic, virginia, budget, investment, brookings, brookings institute, trains, planning, tim kaine, broadband, manufacturing, communications, technology, fcc | 0

  Next American City’s Jeffrey Hill was on hand at The Brookings Institute’s Hamilton Project panel discussion last Friday, validating his predictions over the last few months over infrastructure. As Linda Richman would say - America’s infrastructure is neither “in” nor “structured,” discuss…

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• Columnists

  Mariachis Where?

  Jeremy Rosenberg | Mon, Jul 21st, 2008 | Category: Report | City: Los Angeles | Tags: los angeles, jeremy rosenberg, mariachis, elacc, boyle heights | 0

  Subway construction and gentrification worries have some of Los Angeles’ best-dressed bards singing los azules. The renovation of an historic Boyle Heights hotel might help. (Photos after the jump!)

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• Columnists

  Is It True That Nobody Walks in L.A.?

  Simmons Buntin | Thu, Jul 17th, 2008 | Category: Commentary | City: Los Angeles | Tags: simmons buntin, suburbs, los angeles, california, growth, denver, new urbanism, smart growth, neighborhoods, great neighborhoods, southern california, downtown redevelopment, urbanism, pasadena, ventura, azusa | 0

  “Walkin’ in L.A., nobody walks in L.A.,” sings the 80s band Missing Persons. But from the handful of times I’ve been to L.A. — including my trip two weeks ago — I can’t help but think the song is only half right.  And the resurgence of great Los Angeles-area neighborhoods and cities is due to public leaders like Rick Cole, Ventura city manager, who are after the “authentic” in city design and development.

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• Columnists

  Knowing Your Neighbor, Online and Off

  Simmons Buntin | Fri, Jul 4th, 2008 | Category: Commentary | City: Tucson | Tags: tucson, simmons buntin, civano, website, interaction, discussion forum, community design, cohousing, neighborhood design, virtual reality | 6

  There are two communities in my community.  The first is physical—thin, tree-lined streets and pocket parks, Southwestern architecture and community gardens.  The second is virtual—a community website and discussion forum, registration required. 

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• Columnists

  Harry Potter and the City of Gold

  Simmons Buntin | Tue, Jun 17th, 2008 | Category: Commentary | City: Boulder | Tags: tucson, simmons buntin, architecture, alley, england, restaurants, streetscape, urban form, boulder, theme parks, amusement parks, harry potter | 0

  The release of a Harry Potter prequel this week creates a spell on one reader, who goes on to ponder: What does J.K. Rowling’s seven-book Harry Potter series tell us about urban form, and what might that form look like?  By 2010 we’ll know, as the Wizarding World of Harry Potter comes to life with hamlet, forest, and school grounds at Universal Studios in Orlando.  But how authentic can it be?

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• Columnists

  Beyond the Backyard Garden: Urban Agriculture in Milwaukee

  Dave Steele | Tue, Jun 10th, 2008 | Category: Commentary | City: Milwaukee | Tags: dave steele, milwaukee, economy, green, sustainability, produce, midwest, corn, urban agriculture, urban garden, tractor | 2

  Thanks to industrialized agriculture, there’s a wide gulf between those who produce food and those who consume it. Too many city-dwellers lack access to nutritious, non-processed foods. Urban agriculture promises to change that. 

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• Columnists

  My Martian City

  Simmons Buntin | Fri, May 30th, 2008 | Category: Commentary | Tags: tucson, simmons buntin, building, architecture, pennsylvania, arizona, ecocity, martian, planets, future city, mars, colonization, space travel, arcology | 1

  All the recent Phoenix Mars Lander hullabaloo has got me thinking about what the first Earth-built city on Mars would look like.  Who would get the opportunity to plan that city, and would we find the amenities that make Earth’s best urban spaces also make for the best cities on the Red Planet?

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• Columnists

  The New Milwaukeeans: Making Sense of Population Growth in the Cream City

  Dave Steele | Mon, May 19th, 2008 | Category: Commentary | City: Milwaukee | Tags: dave steele, milwaukee, suburbs, downtown, growth, jobs, schools, immigration, population growth, populatioin, census, latino, cream city | 3

  After forty years in the statistical doldrums, what does Milwaukee make of a sudden, slight increase in population? Local expert and urban enthusiast Dave Steele reports.

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• Columnists

  Solving Civic Problems in a Post-Fact Society

  Dave Steele | Thu, Apr 24th, 2008 | Category: Commentary | City: Milwaukee | Tags: dave steele, environment, milwaukee, infrastructure, taxpayers, pollution, sewerage, talk radio | 8

  In an age when facts don’t matter, how do cities build the consensus to make big plans? In a public sphere heavily influenced by talk radio and other media outlets, such as local blogs, where there is no clear line between fact and opinion, where outright falsehoods are presented as legitimate opinions, the billons of dollars in investment in Milwaukee’s Deep Tunnel are now deemed a massive waste. 

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• Columnists

  A Global Wake Up Call for Middle America

  Dave Steele | Thu, Apr 10th, 2008 | Category: Reviews | City: Chicago | Tags: dave steele, transportation, milwaukee, detroit, economy, infrastructure, chicago, labor, midwest, 1970s, richard longworth | 1

  Richard Longworth wants you to know two things: First, globalization is happening and it will continue to change the world. Second, if you live in the Midwest, you’d better be very afraid about your region’s chances of competing in an increasingly “flat” world. 

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• Columnists

  A Bronze Fonz? A Revealing Tussle over Public Art in Milwaukee

  Dave Steele | Wed, Mar 26th, 2008 | Category: Report | City: Milwaukee | Tags: dave steele, milwaukee, downtown, chicago, tourism, art, 1970s, public art, beer, picasso, fonzie, tv characters | 8

  An uproar over a statue of the 1970s TV icon says more about its city than any piece of public art could. 

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• Columnists

  What Rock ‘n Roll and the National Register of Historic Places (Don’t) Have in Common

  Simmons Buntin | Wed, Mar 26th, 2008 | Category: Commentary | Tags: tucson, simmons buntin, building, growth, architecture, historic preservation, music, the economist, rock and roll, national register of historic places | 0

  Hey buddy, being old doesn’t make it classic.  The same is true for architecture, though here I substitute historic for classic.  A recent article in The Economist troubles me in a similar way. 

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• Columnists

  Designing Beyond the Virtual City

  Simmons Buntin | Tue, Mar 18th, 2008 | Category: Commentary | Tags: simmons buntin, architecture, website, facebook, urban design compendium, urban design, christopher alexander, city design, good city form, website design, resources, kevin lynch, town planning, pattern languge | 0

  This website design process got me thinking about the city design process, and what they’ve got in common.  Does the virtual translate to the concrete?  No matter how technology changes, the process used to design websites is fundamentally the same.  Is that also true for cities?

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• Columnists

  Destination Nomination: the Obama “Change-Train” Stops in Milwaukee

  Dave Steele | Mon, Mar 3rd, 2008 | Category: Commentary | City: Milwaukee | Tags: dave steele, hillary clinton, milwaukee, obama, barack obama, election 2008, change we can believe in, change train, el rey | 0

  Last week my city came down with a fever. Symptoms include: sudden feelings of euphoria followed by a quiet, zen-like sense of anticipation; sudden boisterous gatherings of young people; throngs of people in the streets carrying signs and encouraging passing motorists to honk their horns; and long lines of voters, many voting for the first time. That’s right, Obamamania hit Milwaukee.

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• Columnists

  Finding the Sacred in the City

  Simmons Buntin | Wed, Feb 27th, 2008 | Category: Report | Tags: simmons buntin, paul murrain, yuma, manmade, rome, genocide, remade, jeremiah, sacred city | 0

  Urban designer Paul Murrain said, “We cannot continue to believe that the landscape is sacred and the city profane.” Yet media teaches us at every poorly lit street corner that the city is profane: profanity on brick walls and sidewalks, in theaters and bookstores.  Sin City.  Star Wars and its city planet Coruscant.  CSI Miami or New York or Las Vegas or, who knows what lucky town is next. Yuma, perhaps.  “They must both be considered sacred,” he concludes.

  Finding the sacred in the…

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• Columnists

  The Photographer’s Dilemma: A Public Process Parable

  Simmons Buntin | Thu, Feb 21st, 2008 | Category: Commentary | Tags: simmons buntin, new urbanism, civano, utopia, photography, canon, design charrettes, filter, design aesthetic | 2

  It’s possible my soul was just sold to the devil. You see, I’m an avid photographer — the worst kind: a hobbyist, spending lots of money on the craft but never recouping the investment, at least financially. When I travel, an empty hand longs to hold the camera. So when the new Canon Rebel XSi was announced three weeks ago, I got all jittery; it must be mine. But times are tight, and a thousand bucks give or take are not easy to come by. Still, I pre-ordered the new-fangled thing, which…

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