Shannon McElvaney is the Global Industry Manager of Community Development at Esri, a sponsor of the recent 50th International Making Cities Livable Conference. Shannon is also the author of GeoDesign: Case Studies in Urban and Regional Planning. 1. What is Esri, and how have Esri’s tools been applied to making cities more healthy and livable? Esri is … Read more

One thing many people notice when they come to Portland is that unlike many other large cities, there is a distinct lack of large public murals downtown. Public art brings vitality to the city, and thanks to Forest for the Trees NW, there's a lot more of it in Portland. Over the course of six … Read more

Tim Smith is a Principal of Urban Design and Planning at Sera Architects in Portland, Oregon. For the past twenty years he has developed the framework of Civic Ecology and has been a proponent of sustainable cities everywhere. For more information about the process you can hear Tim speaking at Tedx ConcordiaUPortland and watch a … Read more

Originally published on PlannersWeb by Editor Wayne Senville Wikipedia Definition: A road verge, (also verge, boulevard, city grass, devil’s strip, nature strip, parking strip, sidewalk buffer, tree belt, tree lawn, utility strip, parkway, etc.) is a narrow strip of grass or plants and sometimes also trees located between the carriageway (roadway) curb (or road surface … Read more

Craig Boretz is Vice President of Development of Con-way, a sponsor of the recent 50th International Making Cities Livable Conference. The Con-way development in Portland, Oregon is currently being planned as an entirely new 17-acre section of the Northwest Neighborhood. GBD Architects and Con-way created a master plan development framework that was approved by the … Read more

By Katrina Johnston-Zimmerman The suburban history of the last century in the United States can actually be said to be relatively short. It wasn’t until after the second World War that automobiles were more widely available and the suburbs became the standard for the “American Dream”. Since then, several developments have appeared which have worked … Read more

This article was originaly written by Wayne Senville, editor of PlannersWeb. As you might recall from my last post, I first heard about Portland’s “20-minute neighborhoods” concept during the First Stop Portland walking tour. You can summarize the idea with three D’s: Distance: how far can you walk in 20 minutes? Destinations: is everything you … Read more

Constance Beaumont is the Education and Outreach Coordinator at The Transportation and Growth Management Program (TGM), a partnership between the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) and the Department for Land Conservation and Development (DLCD). In this interview she speaks for TGM but also provides her own valuable insight into the many ways we can make … Read more