Editor's Picks + Features

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Storefront banking in retreat: a new kind of desert on the horizon

No loitering, no smoking, no banking On Friday July...

china-bus

World Wide Wednesday: Bridges, Straddling Buses, Superhighways, Navigation

Each week we will be focusing on blogs from around...

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The Resurgence of the Front Porch

Erin O’Connell is an urban planner who has worked...

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Spacing Saturday

Spacing Saturday highlights posts from across Spacing’s...

Urban Planet Weird Wednesday: Welcome to Fucking, Austria


Weird Wednesdays on Urban Planet takes a look at obscure, absurd, and curious things about cities around the world.

It's been in international headlines throughout the past few weeks over false reports that it will be changing its name, but this tiny Austrian hamlet has been "Fucking" (or close to it) since the Dark Ages.

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Urban Planet: Bike Score

Urban Planet is a daily roundup of  blogs from around the world dealing specifically with urban environments. We’ll be on the lookout for websites outside the country that approach themes related to urban experiences and issues.

From the makers of Walk Score and just in time for "Bike to Work Week" comes Bike Score - the online tool for assessing neighbourhood bikeability. The tool uses data including the locations of bicycle infrastructure, amenities and hills. And Canadian cities are featured too!

With files from the Calgary Herald and Forbes

Image from Bike Score

For more stories from around the planet, check out Spacing on Facebook and Twitter.  Do you have an Urban Planet worthy article you'd like to share? Send the link to urbanplanet@spacing.ca

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Next City Cafe – Seeing the Suburbs

This Wednesday May 16th at 7:30pm is your last chance this season to come out and participate in the Next City Cafe

Seeing the Suburbs

Wednesday May 16th 7:30pm

Alpha Soul Cafe 1015 Wellington Street West, Hintonburg

Join:
Julia Valley - Western Ottawa Community Resource Centre
Mandy McCrone- Barrhaven Without a Car -Jane's Walk 2012
Akash Sinha - Dharma Developments
Arras Hopkins - AOE Arts Council

What are the misconceptions and realities that are shaping them? What does the future hold?  What are the possibilities?

Join the conversation, share your experiences and ideas.

Join us on twitter at #nextcity

Help Spread the Word! Pass it on.

 

Suburbs Courtesy of www.infrastructurist.com

 

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Urban Planet: Why Kids Don’t Ride to School Anymore

Urban Planet is a daily roundup of  blogs from around the world dealing specifically with urban environments. We’ll be on the lookout for websites outside the country that approach themes related to urban experiences and issues.

Did you ride your bike to school as a kid? According to this piece on NPR, back in 1969 nearly half of children got to school on foot or by bike. Today, that figure is closer to 13%. Reporter David Darlington talks about what has changed - from concerns about liability to sprawling neighbourhood design to a changing understanding of bikes as recreation rather than transportation.

Image from sfbike

For more stories from around the planet, check out Spacing on Facebook and Twitter.  Do you have an Urban Planet worthy article you'd like to share? Send the link to urbanplanet@spacing.ca

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Urban Planet: Copenhagen Philharmonic Flash Mob

Urban Planet is a daily roundup of  blogs from around the world dealing specifically with urban environments. We’ll be on the lookout for websites outside the country that approach themes related to urban experiences and issues.

A Friday treat: listen to the sweet sounds of the Copenhagen Philharmonic serenading Danish commuters. (Huffington Post)

Image from Huffington Post

For more stories from around the planet, check out Spacing on Facebook and Twitter.  Do you have an Urban Planet worthy article you'd like to share? Send the link to urbanplanet@spacing.ca

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Sim City: City Slums

Like we mentioned a few weeks ago, Spacington has developed a bit of a slum. As displayed above, this once thriving neighborhood has become an area of little growth, dirty abandoned buildings, and a limited amount of available work. We get it, this slum isn't nearly as "slummy" as it could be- there is still a strong mix of wealths, mixed use, and utilized transit- but the neighborhood has lost it's drive.

Usually in the game, a no job logo hovering above a building represents the lack of jobs in a commutable distance. Basically, it takes too long for a Sim to get to work, or they can't find work.

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Creative Mapping Contest deadline extended to May 31

DEADLINE EXTENDED TO MAY 31st

Spacing magazine presents the CREATIVE MAPPING CONTEST

Do you love maps? Are you an illustrator, graphic designer, or visual storyteller? Spacing wants you to submit your original creative maps inspired by a Canadian city.

To date we have received an amazing assortment of submissions. But we also had a whack-load of requests for late submissions. In the spirit of openness, we've extended the deadline until the end of May.

DEADLINE EXTENDED: Thursday, May 31st, 2012

COST: Free!

WHAT MAKES A MAP CREATIVE (see examples at bottom of page)?
The art of map-making has taken tremendous strides in the digital age. In the last decade, there has been an explosion of maps that are not necessarily meant to be used for directions, but instead are considered works of art and inspired imagination. We want you to create an illustrative map that reflects a Canadian city (or a neighbourhood, community) or is inspired by the urban elements that make up a city (examples: waterfront, transit, cycling, walking, graffiti, parks, architecture, laneways/alleys, streets, traffic, taxis, weather, sewers, infrastructure, etc....)

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Urban Planet: Foursquare Checkins and the Structure of Cities

Urban Planet is a daily roundup of  blogs from around the world dealing specifically with urban environments. We’ll be on the lookout for websites outside the country that approach themes related to urban experiences and issues.

Is a neighbourhood defined by geographical borders or by the set of people that flow in and out of it? This is the hypothesis being tested by researchers at the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University. Their platform, Livehoods, uses foursquare check in data to map out who is visiting what venues where and when. This information is grouped into patterns which are then used to map neighbourhoods. (Flowing Data)

Image from Flowing Data

For more stories from around the planet, check out Spacing on Facebook and Twitter.  Do you have an Urban Planet worthy article you'd like to share? Send the link to urbanplanet@spacing.ca

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