Urbanism

Jane Jacobs’ 4 generators of diversity form the core of her 1962 classic “Life and Death of Great American Cities,” and they have become common parlance in city planning conversations.  Less discussed are the four forces of decline and regeneration that she describes in part three of the book.  In this post I am going to explore one of these four forces: Border Vacuums, and how this notion applies to our current reality in the settlement of Edmonton.     Jane Jacobs defines a

I grew up in a district of Edmonton called Clareview. A very interesting place to have grown up, as it turns out, looking at this area from an urban planning and strong towns lens. Outside of the region of mature neighbourhoods, the area might have been considered a suburb at the time my family moved there. At the same time, it's also not that classic "built all at once" green field development. It's adjacent to Olde Towne Beverly, to the South, and the old town of North

Hello Readers! Welcome to my Edmonton urbanism themed blogs. I'm a lifelong Edmontonian. I've lived in the neighbourhoods of Belmont, Canora, McCauley, and Strathcona, studied at the University of Alberta, and worked on sites all over the city as a lawn maintenance worker. I also know the city well as a pedestrian, cyclist, transit user, and someone who enjoys the ravines and natural areas. I got interested in urbanism and municipal issues around the time of the 2021 ele

We hear Jane Jacobs’ name invoked frequently in discussion about city planning, zoning, walkability, and community engagement.  The planning profession itself has taken to many of the principles Jacobs articulated so well, such as mixed use development and the importance of encouraging density to urban environments.  Edmonton’s city council of the past four years has taken bold, meaningful, and concrete steps to enable the realization of urbanist goals and visions in the city