Clipmarks | urbanlife's 'neighborhood' clips

Italy Works To Relieve Stress: 2008 Roman Pillow Fight

Wed, 07 May 2008 14:06:46 GMT

clipped by: urbanlife
clipper's remarks: Do you ever have one of those days where all you want to do is smack someone?

Rome, Italy - April 27, 2008: Over 300 people met in Piazza Santa Maria, in the Trastevere neighborhood, to celebrate the 3rd annual Roman Pillow Fight. Of course, to make all things fair, this pillow fight started exactly when the piazza’s clock tower chimed 6 pm… and then BAM! Feathers everywhere! The purpose of the annual Pillow Fight is to relieve stress and anxiety…and have some fun!

Pillow Fight Fever is spreading and becoming a worldwide phenomena so if you want to start your own pillow fight next year, International Pillow Fight Day is March 22! Or visit http://www.pillowfightday.com/index.php to see is your city already participates!

Clip Source: romanpillowfight.blogspot.com

Tags: community, culture, public square, italy, why not have a little fun?

16 Of The World's Best Squares: Think About The Details

Wed, 09 Apr 2008 21:12:15 GMT

clipped by: urbanlife
clipper's remarks: From Mexico to Italy to Iran, these remarkable squares can inspire us all. What stands out most is that design is only a small fraction of what goes into making a great square: small details add up to great places.

Historically, squares were the center of communities, and they traditionally helped shape the identity of entire cities.

Like the tentacles of an octopus extending into the surrounding neighborhood, the influence of a good square (such as Union Square in New York) starts at least a block away.

Any great square has a variety of smaller "places" within it to appeal to various people.

The use of a square changes during the course of the day, week, and year. The streets and sidewalks around a square greatly affect its accessibility and use, as do the buildings that surround it.

Any community where people want to discover the rewards of public life can make a square its centerpiece.

Clip Source: www.pps.org

1. Rynek Glowny, Krakow, Poland

2. Plaza Hidalgo, Mexico City, Mexico

3. Piazza Navona, Rome, Italy

4. Piazza del Campo, Sienna, Italy

5. Piccadilly Circus, Trafalgar Square, Covent Gardens, and Leicester Square, London, United Kingdom

6. Hotel de Ville (City Hall), Paris, France

7. Old Town Square, Prague, Czech Republic

8. Plaza de la Constitucion (Zocalo), Oaxaca City, Mexico

9. Plaza Santa Ana, Madrid, Spain

10. Plaza de Armas, Cuzco, Peru

11. Trg Bana Jelacica, Zagreb, Croatia

12. Östermalmstorg, Stockholm, Sweden

13. Plaza de Entrevero, Montevideo, Uruguay

14. Federation Square, Melbourne, Australia

15. Imam Square, Isfahan, Iran

16. Campo Santa Margherita, Venice, Italy

Clip Source: www.pps.org

Ten Principles for Creating Successful Squares

1. Image and Identity

2. Attractions and Destinations

3. Amenities

4. Flexible Design

5. Seasonal Strategy

6. Access

7. The Inner Square & the Outer Square

8. Reaching Out Like an Octopus

9. The Central Role of Management

10. Diverse Funding Sources

Tags: public square, great places, urban, world, tourism, economic development

Make it Right: With Over 80 Homes Sponsored, It's Time to Build!

Wed, 19 Mar 2008 20:23:47 GMT

clipped by: urbanlife
clipper's remarks: Over 12 million dollars raised so far: "We hope to see a huge change here in the next six months" said Brad Pitt on Sunday, when hundreds of volunteers began wielding shovels and rakes, preparing the land for homes. For hours, they cleared overgrown grass and weeds that were covering street drains and sidewalks. "We're working to get the grounds ready so construction can begin."

"Make it Right" is committed to: 1) Building 150 houses in the Lower 9th Ward, 2) Ensuring a green, affordable, sustainable, and replicable community to serve as a model for further rebuilding and 3) A finance plan that ensures that residents who wish to return to the Lower Ninth Ward can do so without further financial hardship.

The Lower 9th Ward was one of the hardest-hit neighborhoods in New Orleans when Katrina struck on Aug. 29, 2005.

Clip Source: www.makeitrightnola.org

Clip Source: ap.google.com

Former President Clinton and Brad Pitt met with hundreds of volunteers in the Lower 9th Ward at the site where a foundation headed by Pitt plans to begin building affordable homes for Hurricane Katrina victims

Pitt and Clinton broke ground with shovels after their mingling with the volunteers.

Clip Source: www.metropolismag.com

to create something that’s equitable and fair and has respect and provides dignity for the family within is absolutely essential to rebuilding here

With Make It Right, Pitt—founding a new organization

setting an initial goal of building 150 houses

Make It Right had raised more than $10 million, on top of the $10 million committed by Pitt and Hollywood producer Steve Bing. It is enough to subsidize 70 homes, with construction on the first group of five to begin this month.

If Pitt can pull this off, he will have transformed a swath of the Lower Ninth Ward, a neighborhood symbolic of everything rotten in America, into one of the world’s most design-intensive sustainable communities

Tags: make it right, pink project, new orleans, brad pitt, rebuild, homes

Nurse Turns Home into Lower 9th Ward Health Clinic

Tue, 15 Jan 2008 18:45:53 GMT

clipped by: urbanlife
clipper's remarks: After Katrina, the Charity Hospital, which for generations provided care to the poor and uninsured, did not re-open. There are plans for new hospitals, but no one expects a system as extensive as the one pre-Katrina.

Neighborhood clinics like this one will be the future of health care in New Orleans.

Clip Source: www.happynews.com

the story of health-care delivery in post-Katrina New Orleans, where clinics have cropped up in corner groceries and old department stores, and Good Samaritans are stepping in to mend broken bodies and souls.

Medical centers devastated by floodwaters remain closed, with the number of beds available to the sick cut in half.

But the blue house at the corner of St. Claude Avenue and Egania Street is open for business, dispensing free health care to anyone in need.

The Lower 9th Ward Health Clinic is its official name now.

''A medical home,'' Patricia Berryhill calls the facility

Before Katrina, this was Berryhill's own home. The living room where her kids congregated after school serves as a waiting area now, its walls painted a peaceful powder blue. The bedrooms are exam cubicles, the kitchen a file room and office.

Berryhill, a registered nurse, still spends almost every day at 5228 St. Claude, working as medical director of the clinic, lording over it as she once did her household.

Tags: neighborhood, clinic, healthcare, new orleans, katrina, charity, community

Baltimore Suing Wells Fargo For Discrimination Against Minorities

Thu, 10 Jan 2008 14:54:37 GMT

clipped by: urbanlife
clipper's remarks: "This wave of foreclosures in minority neighborhoods really threatens to undermine the tremendous progress the city has made in developing distressed neighborhoods and moving the city ahead economically."

"Foreclosures have a more profound effect in minority communities because they are closest to the line of distressed neighborhoods in many cities. That causes big problems for the cities, not just the lost income from taxes but also the long-term social costs. Programs are going to be needed to stabilize the communities to be rebuilt."

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

Baltimore’s mayor and City Council are suing Wells Fargo Bank, contending that its lending practices discriminated against black borrowers and led to a wave of foreclosures that has reduced city tax revenues and increased its costs.

to ask that the court bar Wells Fargo from charging higher fees to black borrowers

Wells Fargo made high-cost loans, with an interest rate at least three percentage points above a federal benchmark, to 65 percent of its black customers in Baltimore and to only 15 percent of its white customers in the area

The complaint requests unspecified damages

to cover the diminished property tax revenues and higher costs that the city said it had incurred

for fire and police protection in hard-hit neighborhoods and expenditures to buy and rehabilitate vacant properties.

a Wells Fargo spokesman, rejected the contention that race was a factor in the bank’s pricing of mortgage loans

Our loan pricing is based on credit risk. We are committed to serving all customers fairly

Tags: foreclosure, wells fargo, baltimore, city, mortgage, low income, neighborhood

Skidrow - Homeless can Sleep on Sidewalks 9pm to 6am

Mon, 19 Nov 2007 14:17:12 GMT

clipped by: urbanlife
clipper's remarks: Let me do the math: 1,250 new beds and 74,000 homeless people.....

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

the neighborhood’s homeless have also been guaranteed some respite from the police.

Los Angeles agreed on Oct. 10 not to appeal a federal court order and will instead allow sleeping on the sidewalk, at least until the city provides 1,250 new beds in low-income housing.

there are 17,000 shelter beds in Los Angeles County, most of them within the city, there are some 74,000 homeless across the county’s 4,060 square miles

As a result, the shelters remain full every night

Skid Row’s street people have been watching their territory shrink for years, as downtown developers open the long-neglected area to gentrification.

Much of Skid Row, however, remains a place of wandering drunks and drug addicts, with homeless people lining urine-stained sidewalks in sleeping bags, cardboard shelters and tents.

“Living out here is like sliding down a 40-foot razor blade,” she said. “Your body cannot rest. It’s like you’re pulling out your eyeteeth to get up every morning.

Tags: homeless, street, la, skid row, arrest

Immigrant meets Hippie - Kensington Market, Toronto

Fri, 16 Nov 2007 19:58:24 GMT

clipped by: urbanlife

Clip Source: www.theglobeandmail.com

“where people were actively engaged, politically speaking, through protest activities, those were cities that were more innovative, more creative, more exciting. If you don't have activism in your city, you've killed its soul.”

Neighbourhoods like this survived because of the energy and collective force of its people. The bigger challenge now is how does a neighbourhood like this survive in the wake of the opposite force – central cities coming back.

Its grit, its bohemian quotient, its kind of urban messiness

“If you look at the groups of people who are very committed to their place, one group that's obvious is immigrants. They come to a neighbourhood, they become part of a neighbourhood, because their culture is in that neighbourhood. And [the other is] artists and bohemians – whether that's a designer or a sculptor or a painter – who are somehow inspired, like the people who colonized SoHo.”

“What you need is the energy of new people, of new interests, of new clashes.”

Tags: creative class, neighborhood, hippie, city, immigrant

Neighborhood Response Effort

Fri, 16 Nov 2007 19:16:35 GMT

clipped by: urbanlife

Clip Source: www.cityofsalem.net

The Neighborhood Response Effort, or NRE, is not a project, but a process that supports neighborhood renewal through partnerships between neighbors, landlords, the faith community, schools, businesses, and local government.

It is an effort that, through a collaborative process, addresses the issues and concerns of the people who live and work in a specific area. Whether the area suffers from physical deterioration, social strife, or crime, the NRE focuses on the neighborhood's strengths and abilities to solve its own problems. The NRE provides an opportunity for people to identify issues, work together, and leverage additional resources when needed.

It's About Change

Making Connections

Partnerships Based on Relationships

In a Neighborhood Response Effort, everyone does their part to help build that community. Local government, the neighbors, and partners all work together to build a better neighborhood.

Tags: neighborhood, citizen, community

Connecting Artists and Spaces

Fri, 16 Nov 2007 17:29:02 GMT

clipped by: urbanlife

Clip Source: www.artistlink.org

ArtistLink is a new collaborative effort to create a stable yet dynamic environment for Massachusetts artists.

Through partnerships with other organizations in New England and across the country, ArtistLink shares best practices and participates in the development and execution of new models of artist assistance.

The effort is part of a national ten-year campaign spearheaded by LINC (Leveraging Investments in Creativity) to improve conditions for artists in all disciplines by addressing artist needs for space, health insurance, financial support, and business planning.

LINC’s agenda is four-fold: 1) increase direct support for artists' work; 2) improve necessary life supports in areas such as live/work space, insurance and financial services; 3) enhance artists’ networks and the policy environment that support artists; and 4) explore the impact of artists on communities and community redevelopment.

Tags: artist, culture, neighborhood, home, economic, city

10 Best Towns for Families

Fri, 16 Nov 2007 17:23:07 GMT

clipped by: urbanlife

Clip Source: www.parents.com

10 Best Towns for Families

Our list of the perfect places to call home.

We set out to find communities across the country that combine big-city opportunities with suburban charm, locations that offer an ideal blend of affordable houses, good jobs, top-rated schools, wide-open spaces, and a lot less stress.

When Americans choose an area to live in, most of us yearn for the same things: fewer crowds; less concrete and hassles; more serenity, nature, and neighbors we can count on.

And the Winners Are: Castle Rock, CO

Castle Rock, Colorado

Population: 42,241
Median Income: $78,403
Median Home Value: $267,500
Households with Children: 48%
Student/Teacher Ratio: 21:1

Tags: neighborhood, best town, home