Links: holistic change vs blight removal, some good Street Films, walkability in an emergency

The Bright Side of Blight
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/25/opinion/25lind.html?_r=1
Odd title given the content, but sound thinking. "But this scattershot approach has failed to create the kind of holistic change needed in this neighborhood — or its counterparts in St. Louis, Cleveland, Detroit and Baltimore." or Camden or Reading or Bridgeport...

"Land-based strategies that try to reinvent this vacant lot or that blighted ground do little to stem the larger social trends that created the spatial problem in the first place." Gives pause to thinking about spatial fixes--focusing solely on the physical structure of a city is at times merely treating the symptoms. But spatial thinking can also be used to re-align your investments and to restructure what you do have and can control economically, at the neighborhood and city levels.


Video: English towns slowing down traffic
http://www.streetfilms.org/no-need-for-speed-20s-plenty-for-us/#more-48003
An interesting stat they cite: hitting a pedestrian at 40mph = 85% chance of death, at 20mph = 5%.

Video: Revitalizing communities with parks
http://vimeo.com/17640426

Video: Revisiting Donald Appleyard's Liveable Streets
http://vimeo.com/16399180
Visualize how automobile traffic kills the social capital of neighborhoods.

Importance of walkable destinations in an emergency
http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/kbenfield/the_importance_of_walkable_des.html
I've always felt uneasy about the idea of living anywhere where I couldn't walk to get basic provisions. And I'm always surprised when other people don't share this neurosis.