Congratulations to Matt Ruben and Alicia Hurle for correctly identifying our last sidewalk challenge as Lampton Street in Smoketown. (Props to Alicia for recognizing the artwork from Kentuckians for the Commonwealth and Kertis Creative’s Smoketown GetDown last September!) We’ve got another sidewalk up above that’s ready for identifying in the comments below.
And now on with the week’s top urbanism news!
Kentucky finalizes 20-year state transportation plan. The future of Kentucky’s transportation was decided recently by 16,000 residents (out of 4,395,000). Luckily, some of the suggestions made were “making investments that last longer and therefore cost less per year to operate; using emerging technologies that continue to improve system operation; being responsive to the needs of a growing population that will be older, more urban and more diverse; making roadways safer; and addressing the lack of funding available for road infrastructure projects.” Louisville Business First
Urban Gardening Builds Strong, Cohesive Communities. Community gardening work not only involves better diets, more innovative use of often vacant spaces, and increased property value, it also means that a group of people with little reason to interact are now negotiating a space, making rules together, and generally being neighborly. Sustainable Cities Collective
America’s Demographic Shuffle. “This is good news, demographically speaking, because as it turns out, the white population in the U.S. is aging pretty rapidly. This surge in minority births will arrive just in time to pick up the slack, Frey says. Absent any major change in immigration policy, the future of the American labor market will depend on the next generation of U.S.-born minorities.” The Corner Side Yard
A Census for City Streets. Gehl Architects are creating a “wide-scale” census with physical data of how people use streets. Could this new quantification of data provide urbanists with a new tool to make the case for better public spaces? Planetizen
What Should Be Done with America’s ‘Zombie Subdivisions’? China may have its fair share of ghost cities, but America has to start addressing its Zombie Subdivisions, and the high cost of unused infrastructure. Curbed
1,600 Affordable Manhattan Apartments Will Soon Disappear. You might have never guessed but New York City has long been a leader on the long term affordable housing front. Unfortunately, one type of those types of housing is beginning to fade away as its members vote to go private. Gothamist
The rush to gentrify could return Fourth Street to its segregated past. Joe Dunman looks at the evolution of Downtown’s Fourth Street corridor and warns against Louisville’s current preoccupation with creating a city where suburbanites drive in to play. Is all development good development, Louisville? Insider Louisville
Do bike lanes gentrify neighborhoods? “Bike lanes are beneficial at all levels of income and across races. But to established communities, it doesn’t feel that way. What needs to change?” Urbanful
Upending Urbanism: How New Postgraduate Programs are Revolutionizing the Way We Create Cities. A host of new urbanism programs have popped up in the last few years. Many of them are boasting an approach that reaches across disciplines to address some of the most entrenched, systemic problems in our cities. This Big City
How Cities and States Are Fighting Gentrification’s Displacement Factor. Noah Ostroff, a real estate developer from Philly, offers some questionably simple ways that cities are preserving housing affordability. An interesting look at the complete disconnect between the use of the term blight and gentrification. Next City
That’s North 25th Street at Montgomery in Portland.