New things are coming in 2017, including:<\/p>\n
- \n
- An urban eco-poetry series, in collaboration with ArtsEverywhere.ca<\/a> and Musagetes Foundation<\/a>;<\/li>\n
- A collaboration with Ray Cha, funded by\u00a0the Transit Center<\/a>, to produce education modules for better utilization of open data produced by cities;<\/li>\n
- A new book\u00a0addressing the justice\u00a0and equitable access imperatives of the benefits of ecosystem services;<\/li>\n
- As an outgrowth of our Nature of Graffiti<\/a> project, we will embark on the beginning stages of\u00a0an interactive, creative exhibit of art on social-environmental themes in urban \u201cvacant\u201d lots, generously funded by<\/a> the U.S. National Endowment for the Arts;<\/li>\n
- And of course, over 150\u00a0new essays, reviews and roundtables.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Donate<\/strong><\/h3>\n
TNOC is a public charity, a non-profit [501(c)3] organization in the United States. We rely on private contributions and grants to support our work, so, if you can, be a part of the movement for more livable, resilient, sustainable and just cities by making a donation. Click\u00a0here<\/a>\u00a0to help.<\/p>\n
Roundtables<\/strong><\/h3>\n
![](\"http:\/\/www.thenatureofcities.com\/TNOC\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/Hall_Mowing-a-Lawn-840x560.jpg\")
Can cities save bees? How can urban habitats be made to serve pollinator conservation? How can that story be better told?<\/strong>
\nbit.ly\/2h7F1uP<\/a><\/p>\nBees and pollinators have always been a part of the city\u00a0landscape, but increasing interest in urban conservation, agriculture, and gardens, has made their presence more noticeable\u2014and more important. Bee and pollinator conservation is a key concern outside of cities too, with habitat loss, indiscriminant insecticide use, and other issues threatening bee species and pollinators generally.\u00a0What role can cities play in bee and conservation?\u00a0How can this role be supported, by both public and private actors?\u00a0And how can the story of urban pollinators be better told to propel the conversation about urban pollinator conservation and their critical services?<\/p>\n
…with contributions from: Katherine Baldock, Bristol; Alison Benjamin, London; Sarah Bergmann, Seattle; Mark Goddard, Newcastle; Damon Hall, St. Louis; Tina Harrison, New Brunswick; Scott MacIvor, Toronto; Denise Mouga, Joinville; Matt Shardlow, Peterborough; and Caragh Threlfall; Melbourne.<\/em><\/p>\n
![](\"http:\/\/www.thenatureofcities.com\/TNOC\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Ghost-Swans-1-549x560.jpg\")
Visions of resilience: Eighteen artists say or show something in response to the word \u201cresilience\u201d<\/strong>
\nbit.ly\/1WbnLV1<\/a><\/p>\n“Resilience”\u00a0is the word of the decade, as “sustainability” was before it.\u00a0A\u00a0challenge with both words is that while they exist so well in the realm of metaphor, they are more difficult in reality. The same can be said for \u201clivability\u201d and \u201cjustice\u201d. In this roundtable, we aimed to\u00a0strike out in possibly new metaphorical directions.\u00a0We invited 18\u00a0artists and designers of various types to respond\u2014in words, images, or other works\u2014to the word “Resilience”.<\/p>\n
This Roundtable was a co-production with\u00a0Arts Everywhere<\/a>,\u00a0where these responses are also published.<\/p>\n
\u2026with contributions from Juan Carlos Arroyo, Bogot\u00e1, Katrine Claassens, Cape Town; David Brooks, New York City; Rebecca Chesney, Preston; Emilio Fantin, Bologna; Ganzeer, Los Angeles; Lloyd Godman, Melbourne; Fran Illich, New York City; Todd Lanier Lester, S\u00e3o Paulo; Frida Larios, Washington; Patrick Lydon, San Jose & Seoul; Mary Mattingly, New York; E. J. McAdams, New York City; Mary Miss, New York; Edna Peres, Johannesburg; Caroline Robinson, Auckland; Finzi Saidi, Pretoria; Keijiro Suzuki, Yamaguchi & Nagoya<\/em><\/p>\n
![](\"http:\/\/www.thenatureofcities.com\/TNOC\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/SCAN-5-355x560.jpeg\")
Common threads: connections among the ideas of Jane Jacobs and Elinor Ostrom, and their relevance to urban socio-ecology<\/strong>
\nbit.ly\/2hZm2Uv<\/a><\/p>\nJane Jacobs and Elinor Ostrom were both giants in their impact on how we think about communities, cities, and common resources such as space and nature. But we don\u2019t often put them together to recognize the common threads in their ideas. Yet, their streams of ideas clearly resonate together in how they bind people, economies, places, and nature into a single, ecosystem-driven framework of thought and planning\u2014themes that deeply motivate The Nature of Cities. In this roundtable, we asked\u00a016\u00a0people to talk about some\u00a0key ideas that motivate their work, and how these\u00a0ideas have roots in the ideas of either Jacobs\u00a0or Ostrom, or both.<\/p>\n
…with contributions from Paul Downton,\u00a0<\/em>Melbourne; Johan Enqvist, Stockholm; Sheila Foster, New York City; Lisa Gansky, San Francisco; Mathieu H\u00e9lie, Montreal; Mark Hostetler, Gainesville; Michelle Johnson, New York; Marianne Krasny, Ithaca; Alex Russ, Ithaca; Harini Nagendra, Bangalore; Raul Pacheco-Vega, Aguascaliente; Michael Mehaffy, Portland; Mary Rowe, New York City; Laura Shillington, Montreal & Managua; Anne Trumble, Los Angeles; Arjen Wals, Wageningen; and Abigail York, Tempe<\/i><\/p>\n
![](\"http:\/\/www.thenatureofcities.com\/TNOC\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Tran_Ryan_Sociecity_Girraffe-836x560.jpg\")
<\/strong>What, how, and where are examples of graffiti as a positive force in communities?<\/strong>
\nbit.ly\/2hbr5Qz<\/a><\/p>\nGraffiti and street art can be controversial. But they can also be a medium for voices of social change, protest, or expressions of community desire.\u00a0In many cities, graffiti is associated with decay, with communities out of control, and so it is outlawed. In some cities, it is legal, within limits, and valued as a form of social expression. \u201cStreet art\u201d, graffiti\u2019s more formal cousin, which is often commissioned and sanctioned, has a firmer place in communities, but can still be an important form of \u201coutsider\u201d expression.\u00a0Interest in these art forms as social expression is broad, and the work itself takes many shapes\u2014from simple tags of identity, to scrawled expressions of protest and politics, to complex and beautiful scenes that virtually everyone would say are\u00a0\u201cart\u201d, despite their sometimes\u00a0rough locations. What, how, and where are examples of graffiti as a positive force in communities?<\/p>\n
This roundtable was a co-production of The Nature of Cities and\u00a0Arts Everywhere<\/a>, where these responses are also published. Also check out\u00a0The Nature of Graffiti<\/a>, a gallery launched in 2016 \u00a0that illustrates some of these ideas from an environmental perspective.<\/p>\n
\u2026with contributions from:\u00a0Pauline Bullen, Harare; Paul Downton, Adelaide; Emilio Fantin, Milan; Ganzeer, Los Angeles; Germ\u00e1n Eliecer G\u00f3mez, Bogot\u00e1; Sidd\u00a0Joag, New York City; Patrick Lydon, San Jose & Seoul; Patrice Milillo, Los Angeles; Laura Shillington, Managua & Montreal<\/em><\/p>\n
![](\"http:\/\/www.thenatureofcities.com\/TNOC\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/McLees_Fig2-e1467165770957-739x560.jpg\")
Urban agriculture has many benefits. Is one of them a contribution to urban sustainability?<\/strong>
\nbit.ly\/2ifOwKk<\/a><\/p>\nSustainability is key to our future, and, as urbanization steadily grows, keys to increased global sustainability must be found in cities and how they use and are provided with resources. In this topic, there has been much excitement about urban agriculture\u2014the production of food in and near cities at scales larger than home or community gardens.\u00a0Does urban agriculture have the potential to contribute significantly to urban sustainability by reducing cities\u2019 dependence on food grown at great distance from the city? Can it produce enough to address food insecurity?\u00a0In this roundtable, we asked respondents to address the potential for urban agricultural production to make cities more sustainable, and how such potential could be realized.<\/p>\n
…with contributions from Jane Battersby, Cape Town; Katrin Bohn, Brighton; Christopher Bryant, Montreal; Easther Chigumira, Harare; Evan Fraser, Guelph; Kelly Hodgins, Guelph; Patrick Hurley, Collegeville; Fran\u00e7ois Mancebo, Paris; Idah Mbengo, Harare; Innisfree McKinnon, Menomonie; Leslie McLees, Eugene; Genevi\u00e8ve Metson, Vancouver; Navin Ramankutty, Vancouver; Kristin Reynolds, New York City; Esther Sany\u00e9-Mengual, Bologna; Shaleen Singhal, New Delhi; Kathrin Specht, M\u00fcncheberg; Naomi Thur, Jerusalem; Andre Vijoen, Brighton; and Claudia Visoni, S\u00e3o Paulo<\/em><\/p>\n
![](\"http:\/\/www.thenatureofcities.com\/TNOC\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/Stack-of-books-1.png\")
Read this! 90 recommendations for the one book about (or relevant to) cities that everyone should read<\/strong>
\nbit.ly\/2ig2Zpu<\/a><\/p>\nIn this roundtable, we\u00a0assembled\u00a0a list of 90\u00a0must-reads<\/em>\u00a0on cities from a\u00a0diverse group of TNOC contributors\u2014a nature of cities reader’s digest.\u00a0The recommendations were as wide-ranging as the TNOC community, from many points of view and from around the world. They are a reflection of the breadth of thought that cities need.\u00a0The list could serve as a wonderful primer\u00a0for courses or other gatherings.\u00a0You can download the entire list as a PDF.<\/strong><\/p>\n
…with contributions from 90 of TNOC’s authors, who also happen to be artists, urban planners, conservation biologists, architects, and much more.<\/em><\/p>\n
Essays<\/strong><\/h3>\n
![](\"http:\/\/www.thenatureofcities.com\/TNOC\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Photo2-840x560.jpg\")
Confronting the Dark Side of Urban Agriculture<\/strong>
\nFran\u00e7ois Mancebo, Paris
\nbit.ly\/22jcKio<\/a><\/p>\nSome people praise urban agriculture as a kind of panacea that could help reconfigure more sustainable cities by bringing people together and, eventually, reshaping the whole urban fabric. But it is misleading to greenwash, without caveats, conventional or high-tech agriculture in the city as sustainable.\u00a0All urban agricultures are not sustainable, and some may even produce deleterious effects on city inhabitants, as well as on the city itself. In this essay, Fran\u00e7ois Mancebo<\/strong> sets out to\u00a0distinguish between the types of urban agriculture and to denounce those which, under the disguise of promoting agriculture in the city, promote practices that are absolutely unsustainable.<\/p>\n
![](\"http:\/\/www.thenatureofcities.com\/TNOC\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/Flood-Protection-ManilaPhotocRichard-Friend-855x560.jpg\")
<\/p>\nMarket-Based Solutions Cannot Forge Transformative and Inclusive Urban Futures<\/strong>
\nRichard Friend, Bangkok
\nbit.ly\/2hh2RpM<\/a><\/p>\nRichard Friend<\/strong> uses an analysis of\u00a0a Dhaka advertisement to assess what\u00a0a classic neoliberal\u00a0response to environmental degradation could mean for Asia’s city dwellers as the effects of\u00a0climate change worsen and the New Urban Agenda\u00a0remains absent from the discussion. “It seems that even while the combined effects of climate change, environmental degradation, and social injustice are more in evidence now than ever,” he writes, “the overall direction of responses is a toxic combination of individualist, market-based solutions, alongside growing, heavy-handed political oppression. The calls for solutions to the challenges of climate change uncertainty and risk to embrace participation, innovation, and informed dialogue amid polycentric, multi-scalar governance mechanisms seem all the more distant”.<\/p>\n
![](\"http:\/\/www.thenatureofcities.com\/TNOC\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/MaderaModelHome-746x560.jpg\")
Why Conserve Small Forest Fragments and Individual Trees in Urban Areas?<\/strong>
\nMark Hostetler, Gainesville
\nbit.ly\/1TX6IEq<\/a><\/p>\nFor many developers and city planners, it takes time and money to plan around trees and small forest fragments. Often, the message from conservationists is that we want to avoid fragmentation and to conserve large forested areas. While this goal is important, the message tends to negate any thoughts by developers towards conserving individual mature trees and small forest fragments. Mark Hostetler<\/strong> demonstrates how fragmented landscapes have value for a variety of species\u2014and why stating that fragmentation is unequivocally bad can only lead to lost conservation opportunities.<\/p>\n
![](\"http:\/\/www.thenatureofcities.com\/TNOC\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/IMG_1668-1-e1476847139804.jpeg\")
Viola Has an Acorn in Her Pocket<\/strong>
\nStephan Barthel, Stockholm
\nbit.ly\/2evX4JP<\/a><\/p>\nStephan Barthel’s<\/strong> daughter, Viola, age 4, is curious about the nature that surrounds them on their father-daughter walks in Stockholm. Her questions prompt her father to muse on a wide ranging of subjects, from the importance of ecological memory, to the possible impact of the Smart City paradigm on future development and education, to the gentle wisdom of singer-songwriter Nick Drake.<\/p>\n
![](\"http:\/\/www.thenatureofcities.com\/TNOC\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Rocinha-Brazil-Source-Alamy-840x560.jpg\")
They are Not \u201cInformal Settlements\u201d\u2014They are Habitats Made by People<\/strong>
\nLorena Z\u00e1rate, Mexico City
\nbit.ly\/1YRQpaY<\/a><\/p>\nAccording to the UN, at least one third of the global urban population suffers from inadequate living conditions. Lack of access to basic services, low structural quality of shelters, overcrowding, dangerous locations, and insecure tenure are the main characteristics normally included in the definitions of so-called\u00a0informal settlements<\/a>. In this essay, Lorena Z\u00e1rate<\/strong> argues that words matter:\u00a0changing the words means changing the concepts; changing the concepts means changing the way we understand (or not) complex phenomena and are able (or not) to transform them in a positive way.\u00a0These “informal settlements” are neither informal nor irregular\u2014\u00a0they\u00a0are, above all,\u00a0human<\/em>\u00a0settlements.<\/p>\n
![](\"http:\/\/www.thenatureofcities.com\/TNOC\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Indonesia.jpeg\")
Climate Adaptation Plans Can Worsen Unequal Urban Vulnerability<\/strong>
\nLinda Shi, Boston; and Isabelle Anguelovski, Barcelona
\nbit.ly\/2hjAeqm<\/a><\/p>\nTo date, few studies have asked: who actually benefits from urban adaptation plans and projects? Do projects prioritize the vulnerability of the most disadvantaged and marginalized groups? Do projects succeed in reducing vulnerability and, if so, for whom? In this essay, Linda Shi <\/strong>and Isabelle Anguelovski<\/strong> argue that\u00a0there is an urgent need to find examples where climate adaptation and resilience projects have moved towards more equitable outcomes and to identify specific normative principles, design strategies, and evaluative outcome metrics for alternative adaptation strategies that highlight equity and justice.<\/p>\n
![](\"http:\/\/www.thenatureofcities.com\/TNOC\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/google-maps-geographic-marker-vector_21-77236301.jpg\")
Sense of Place<\/strong>
\nJennifer Adams, David A. Greenwood, Mitchell Thomashow, and Alex Russ; New York, Thunder Bay, Seattle, and Ithaca
\nbit.ly\/2i3LiH5<\/a><\/p>\nDifferent people perceive the same city or neighborhood in different ways. While one person may appreciate ecological and social aspects of a neighborhood, another may experience environmental and racialized injustice. Jennifer Adams, David A. Greenwood, Mitchell Thomashow, and Alex Russ<\/strong>\u00a0explain how sense of place\u2014including place attachment and place meanings\u2014can help people appreciate ecological aspects of cities. This is a chapter from the book Urban\u00a0Environmental Education Review<\/strong><\/em><\/a>, which will appear in 2017. TNOC published ten chapters<\/a> as a pre-publication.<\/p>\n
![](\"http:\/\/www.thenatureofcities.com\/TNOC\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/Pamir-girls-747x560.jpg\")
Closing the Gap Between Girls\u2019 Education and Women in the Workforce<\/strong>
\nJenn Baljko, Barcelona
\nbit.ly\/2dR5LiL<\/a><\/p>\nWhile\u00a0traveling through\u00a0Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan, Jenn Baljko<\/strong> meets young women who are “compassionate, generous, enthusiastic, observant, smart, funny”\u2014but who\u00a0have limited opportunities to continue their educations or to remain unmarried. What does this mean for the future of cities?\u00a0“It\u2019s the kind of conversation that raises more questions than answers.”\u00a0This essay appeared as part of TNOC’s featured series with Jenn Baljko, who is journeying from Bangkok to Barcelona<\/a> on foot. For more about the project, click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n
![](\"http:\/\/www.thenatureofcities.com\/TNOC\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Fig6.jpg\")
Small Rain Gardens for Stormwater and Biodiversity in the City: Learning from Traditional Ways<\/strong>
\nKeitaro Ito,\u00a0Fukutsu City
\nbit.ly\/22Hsrpo<\/a><\/p>\n“These days, especially in summertime, we have heavy rain in Japan,” writes Keitaro Ito.<\/strong> In response to the increasing frequency of flooding, he has turned to Sado, a traditional \u00a0tea ceremony, to inform the biocultural design of small rain gardens that can provide an important ecosystem service: stormwater management.<\/p>\n
![](\"http:\/\/www.thenatureofcities.com\/TNOC\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Fig-5-e1458023250882-1150x560.jpg\")
From Reactive to Proactive Resilience: Designing the New Sustainability<\/strong>
\nNina-Marie Lister, Toronto
\nbit.ly\/22gbWQF<\/a><\/p>\nLong-term sustainability necessitates an inherent and essential capacity for resilience\u2014the ability to recover from disturbance, to accommodate change, and to function in a state of health. In this sense, sustainability typically means the dynamic balance between social-cultural, economic, and ecological domains of human behavior necessary for humankind\u2019s long-term surviving and thriving. As such, long-term sustainability sits squarely in the domain of human intention and activity\u2014and, thus,\u00a0design<\/em>. This should not be confused with managing \u201cthe environment\u201d as an object separate from human action, which is ultimately impossible. Instead, the challenge of sustainability, says Nina-Marie Lister<\/strong>, is very much one for design, and specifically one of\u00a0design for resilience<\/em>.<\/p>\n
![](\"http:\/\/www.thenatureofcities.com\/TNOC\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Figure-1-Feb-2016-copy.jpg\")
Urban Nature that Reduces Risk in Kampala<\/strong>
\nShuaib Lwasa, Kampala
\nbit.ly\/2hncXUp<\/a><\/p>\nKampala\u2019s urban landscape has been largely fragmented, just like the landscapes of many other cities. In fact, this is the common character of urban development. But it isn\u2019t the only way. In this article, Shuaib Lwasa<\/strong> illustrates the urban risks that Kampala faces\u2014especially those related to natural hazards, such as flooding\u2014<\/em>and demonstrates how these\u00a0risks can greatly be reduced through greening and restoration of nature in lowland and hilltop forests.<\/p>\n
![](\"http:\/\/www.thenatureofcities.com\/TNOC\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/03_LandscapeLab-779x560.jpg\")
Wouldn\u2019t it be Better if Ecologists and Planners Talked to Each Other More?<\/strong>
\nDiane Pataki, Sarah Hinners, and Robin Rothfeder;\u00a0Salt Lake City
\nbit.ly\/2iwFt3Y<\/a><\/p>\nAt first glance, one might think\u00a0that the fields of ecology and planning communicate regularly with one another. But they don’t\u2014at least, not enough. The contact between these disciplines rarely occurs as a direct collaboration between practicing ecologists\u2014 whose job is to generate new scientific understanding\u2014and practicing planners, whose job is to envision and plan better cities.\u00a0If planners and ecologists found more ways to work together, would cities look different?\u00a0Would they be better? Yes, they would, say \u00a0Diane Pataki, Sarah Hinners, and Robin Rothfeder<\/strong>\u00a0as respond to this question with a\u00a0case study from Salt Lake City.<\/p>\n
![](\"http:\/\/www.thenatureofcities.com\/TNOC\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/Praderas-silvestres-995x560.jpg\")
The Forgotten Rurality: The Case for Participatory Management in Bogot\u00e1 and its Surrounding Countryside<\/strong>
\nDiana Wiesner, Bogot\u00e1
\nbit.ly\/2hHS842<\/a><\/p>\nWe often think of the city and the country as separate, and that development planning and urban sustainability ends at the city boundary. But this isn\u2019t true\u2014in a planning and sustainability sense, the city and the surrounding rural areas are deeply linked. With this in mind, Diana Wiesner<\/strong> discusses a plan for the sustainable coexistence of a section of forgotten rurality near the megacity of Bogot\u00e1, Colombia, and how a civic response is being molded to draw attention to the issues involved.<\/p>\n
![](\"http:\/\/www.thenatureofcities.com\/TNOC\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Image-5_EDGeLandHouse.jpg\")
Designing Ecologically Sensitive Green Infrastructure that Serves People and Nature<\/strong>
\nChristine Thuring, Sheffield
\nbit.ly\/2hrFgmg<\/a><\/p>\nGreen infrastructure is expanding and gradually softening a proportion of our planet\u2019s increasingly urban surface. Yet, from her perspective as a plant ecologist, Christine Thuring<\/strong> argues\u00a0that many green infrastructure installations miss their full ecological potential. While monoculture is better than concrete, diversity is generally better than monoculture. The ideal of green infrastructure, she says, is two-fold: it must be multi-functional and it must express ecological sensitivity.<\/p>\n
![](\"http:\/\/www.thenatureofcities.com\/TNOC\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/IMG_0911-997x560.jpg\")
Photo Essay: Life and Water at Rachenahalli Lake<\/strong>
\nSumetee Gajjar, Bangalore
\nbit.ly\/2invheE<\/a><\/p>\nRachenahalli, one of the few living lakes of Bangalore, India,\u00a0is an example of a thriving social ecological system. As documented in Sumetee Gajjar’s<\/strong> photographs, it provides natural resources to people living around it, acting as a sink for fisher folk cleaning fish or for women doing Sunday laundry and receiving treated sludge from new residences around the lake, as well as from an upstream sewage treatment plant. In these ways,\u00a0the lake continues to live and to support life.<\/p>\n
![](\"http:\/\/www.thenatureofcities.com\/TNOC\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Seoul-stream-Photo-David-Maddox-686x560.jpg\")
Justice and Geometry in the Form of Linear Parks<\/strong>
\nDavid Maddox, New York City
\nbit.ly\/1Tib32u<\/a><\/p>\nHere at The Nature of Cities, we write a great deal about the benefits of \u201cgreen\u201d cities, widely construed. Green infrastructure is good for human health and quality of life, it reduces the carbon footprint of cities, it increases resilience by insulating us from storms, it helps create foci of community building, and so on. Furthermore, green cities are good for nature in the form of conservation. But in cities around the world, everyone does not currently enjoy these benefits. If we ask how to increase access to ecosystem services via parks, then linear parks are a good answer, writes David Maddox<\/strong>.<\/p>\n
Reviews & Podcasts<\/strong><\/h3>\n
![](\"http:\/\/www.thenatureofcities.com\/TNOC\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/C.Tuccio-806x560.jpg\")
Knowing vs. Doing: Propelling Design with Ecology\u00a0<\/strong>
\nAnne Trumble, Los Angeles
\nA review of<\/em>\u00a0Projective Ecologies<\/em>, edited by Chris Reed and Nina-Marie Lister\u00a0<\/em>
\nbit.ly\/2ho8TmR<\/a><\/p>\nIf we cannot get our most innovative and challenging ideas out of books and into real landscapes, we will squander an opportunity to determine a proud future.\u00a0Projective Ecologies<\/em>\u00a0turns to ecology for new ways to think beyond the old nature\/culture split.\u00a0Offering up the insight that we may not be making the most of a diverse and complex concept of ecology, is, perhaps, the greatest success of\u00a0Projective Ecologies.<\/em><\/p>\n
![](\"http:\/\/www.thenatureofcities.com\/TNOC\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/DSC_9281-842x560.jpg\")
What Should We Make of Jane Jacobs\u2019 Critique of Parks in\u00a0The Death and Life of Great American Cities<\/i>?<\/strong>
\nPodcast produced by Philip Silva,\u00a0New York
\nbit.ly\/2hhZ9Y2<\/a><\/p>\nWhile it\u2019s true that Jane Jacobs changed the way we think about cities, relatively little is ever said about her views on urban parks. In honor of the 100th anniversary of Jacobs\u2019 birth, we took a moment to revisit her views on \u201cthe uses of neighborhood parks\u201d as she laid them out in\u00a0The Death and Life of Great American Cities<\/em>.<\/p>\n
![](\"http:\/\/www.thenatureofcities.com\/TNOC\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/earth-stories-sjmqt-2016_Lydon_01-560x560.jpg\")
Intertwining People, Nature, and Place with Quilts and Thread<\/strong>
\nPatrick Lydon, San Jose & Seoul
\nA review of Earth Stories, an exhibition at the\u00a0<\/em>San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles<\/a><\/em>
\nbit.ly\/2iERpof<\/a><\/p>\nThe idea that material and thread can communicate so much about our human relationships with our urban and natural environments isn’t so wild. If we’re working to save anything, whether it’s a forest or a culture, one\u00a0can’t help but think how much easier it is to save that something when one has\u00a0a personal relationship with it. In this way, much of what\u00a0Earth Stories<\/em>\u00a0accomplishes is in bringing enough familiarity to the gallery wall that we might more easily re-establish these relationships.<\/p>\n
![](\"http:\/\/www.thenatureofcities.com\/TNOC\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Cheonggyecheon-3-Photo-David-Maddox.jpg\")
The Cheonggyecheon restoration. Photo: David Maddox<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n How Did Seoul\u2019s Cheonggyecheon River Restoration Get Its Start?<\/strong>
\nPodcast produced by Philip Silva,\u00a0New York
\nhttp:\/\/bit.ly\/2ifowMw<\/a><\/p>\nA casual chat on a bus nearly thirty years ago led to the improbable removal of a major elevated highway and the restoration of a beloved river in the old city center of Seoul in South Korea.\u00a0Dr. Soo Hong Noh, a professor of environmental engineering at Yonsei University, became a champion for bringing back the Cheonggyecheon River in his home city after listening to a colleague fancifully muse about the river\u2019s restoration while they sat together on their evening commute.<\/p>\n
![](\"http:\/\/www.thenatureofcities.com\/TNOC\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/Walk1-825x560.jpg\")
The High Line. Foreseen. Unforeseen.<\/strong>
\nAdrian Benepe
\nA review of\u00a0The High Line.\u00a0By James Corner Field Operations and Diller Scofido + Renfro<\/em>\u00a0<\/em>
\nbit.ly\/2ix0wqT<\/a><\/p>\nNew York City\u2019s High Line Park, once a rusting relic of abandoned freight rail transportation infrastructure, has become arguably one of the world\u2019s best-known urban parks, and possibly the single most visited park in the United States\u2014and perhaps the world\u2014on a visitor-per-acre basis. The High Line<\/em>\u2014the book recording the process of bringing the park to fruition\u2014is, in the end, a sensual experience reflecting the High Line’s creation, design, and current reality.<\/p>\n
![](\"http:\/\/www.thenatureofcities.com\/TNOC\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/reflection-1103x560.jpg\")
Poetry Produces the Novel Language of Future Cities<\/strong>
\nLaura Booth
\nA review of\u00a0Urban Nature: Poems About Wildlife in the City<\/em>
\nbit.ly\/1Ttzt7q<\/a><\/p>\nHow can poems advance our understanding of nature in cities?\u00a0Poetry, with its capacity to invert the lexicons of \u201cnature\u201d and \u201cculture\u201d so that they are not artificially divided per our current paradigms, is uniquely positioned to play a role in visioning future cities.<\/p>\n
- A collaboration with Ray Cha, funded by\u00a0the Transit Center<\/a>, to produce education modules for better utilization of open data produced by cities;<\/li>\n
![](\"http:\/\/www.thenatureofcities.com\/TNOC\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/NA-09_Golden-750x560.jpg\")
Nature in Chicago: Surprisingly Wild, Surprisingly Human\u00a0<\/strong>