We're kicking off December with a stellar Gift Guide for all those urban planners, data geeks and map lovers in your life! Our team members have revealed their top picks for the holiday season, which are guaranteed to WOW your loved ones...
Read MoreThings are heating up over here! Our team has been diligently working on a super-secret (beta) interactive heat map, and today we're unveiling it...
Read MoreDuring this time of year, we're thankful for so many things, but being a group of city-lovers, we want to give a special shout-out to all of the cities that we're grateful for...
Read MoreTomorrow is a big day for us! We have our CTO Andy Likuski and our CEO Mariela Alfonzo pitching in San Francisco and Switzerland...
Read MoreBlake Roberts, one of our Ambassadors, recently spoke with our CMO Anna about his planning background and why he's advocating for more data-driven, evidence-based planning (via State of Place, of course). Flag him down any time to chat about Cali planning and State of Place! And scroll down to find out how to become one of our ambassadors.
Read MoreQ&A with CTO Andy Likuski about presenting at Workplace Innovation Summit in SF!
Read MoreUnless you've been on a social media diet, if you're a place-lover or city-nerd, you kinda sorta now last week was D-Day for cities vying for some Amazon love...and boy are cities chomping at the bit - 238 to be exact - all over, not only those in the U.S., but also plenty of contenders from our lovely neighbors to the north, Canada. Clearly, the media's been abuzz with who will win over Amazon's heart (ahem, second headquarters). No doubt, the promise of 50K jobs and $5B+ of investment is a big part of why cities - of all shapes, sizes, and inclinations - are chomping at the bit to lure the likes of Amazon - talk about a debutante! So we decided to run a State of Place analysis on one of the front-runners, Denver, vs. one of the underdogs, Detroit. So who will win - David or Goliath?
Read MoreHello IDAers, Winnipegers, place lovers! I am SOOO bummed not to be joining you in person this year - especially after actually winning the IDA raffle for a free conference ticket! But not to worry as - one, our CTO, Andy Likuski will be your resident place-loving data-geek and two, we are reprising last year's better-know-your-IDA-conference-host-city blog series where we use State of Place to do a deep-dive on the lucky city's urban design assets and needs (based on over 290 built environment features - think Walk Score on steroids). IDA 2016 brought you a piece the Atlanta Beltline's walkability. This year, we stepped it up a bit and played a little game of SimCity to assess just what would be the impact - place-wise and money-wise - if the (infamous) intersection of Portage and Main in Downtown Winnipeg were to indeed be reopened to pedestrians. Check out our analysis below!
Read MoreYes, yes, I know. It's the third time's a charm...but one, I'm Cuban (technically Cuban-American but I grew up in Miami so that makes me pretty much Cuban and explains why I suck at American idioms... apparently, Italian cousins are not the same thing as Irish twins, but I digress); and two, second time is technically a more accurate (and you know how we feel about precise data at State of Place!) way to describe this video reprisal (below) of my amazingly received keynote at the WALK21 Conference last fall, which we're presenting today (just happened across it on YouTube - yay! - while I was googling myself over Memorial Day weekend...no lie) in lieu of a written blog this week.
Read More3 Cities. 5 Presentations. Dozens of Demos! That's been life for the past 3 weeks for Mariela, our Founder and CEO! You'd think she would be tired but she's caught a bad case of Keynote-itis and is keen (sorry, that's a lot of alliteration!) to keep it going. So we're doing three days of 30-minute demos! If you want to find out why the New Cities Foundation just named her an Associate Fellow for Placemaking (yeah, that did just happen!) or better yet, want to learn how to quickly quell those pesky naysayers that have been holding back your placemaking and walkability plans AND decrease your consulting costs to boot, plan to spend some QT with Mariela next week! She'll show you how to use data to "fight the good fight" and reduce your consulting costs to boot!
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On today's blog, read about how our six WINNERS want to use State of Place to make the case for great places. From helping make the case for complete streets applications to showcasing the economic benefits of revitalizing car-oriented main streets, we're honored by your excitement and enthusiasm for State of Place. We can't wait to help these communities make the case for great places. Scroll below to find out more about these six amazing projects and sign up for a demo to find out more!
Read MoreIn the second installment of our COO, Michelle Drouse Woodhouse’s Suburban Mom series about placemaking - and the State of (Suburban) Place(s) - Michelle is a fish out of water determined to re-learn how to walk, while trying not to fully embrace the suburban mom title. See how she did on her “walk” to the local 7-Eleven store with her kids. And find out how data and predictive analytics can help make all suburban walks more memorable - and safe!
Read MoreWe get asked asked a lot about how we "measure up" to other walkability tools in the market. As data geeks, we *really* LOVE answering this question. But rather than keep that passion to ourselves, today we are sharing our Ultimate Guide to Walkability Tools with you! We compiled a list of the most popular and useful tools out there, and evaluated them based on various factors to help you decide which walkability assessment tool is right for your development project, neighborhood, or city.
Read MoreThis week, the folks at the National University of Singapore have invited me to talk about the importance of evidence-based design. Since I can't take you guys to Singapore with me, we thought we'd share a video of a talk I gave at the Placemaking Conference in Oklahoma City two years ago, nearly to the date. (with a cliffnotes-like outline to boot). Here's what you'll learn:
1) The elements of good urban design
2) How to quantify what people love about cities
3) How to forecasting the economic value of great places to help you combat nimbys and naysayers
4) That I still have a Miami accent - and how growing up there made me want to fix places as a vehicle to fix people...
So spend your lunch break with me - I promise, I'm good company, if anything, for the geeky self-deprecation alone!
So what features and/or geographical areas should cities and developers prioritize to maximize walkability? By now, you probably know the answer to that question is - it depends. To explain why, we look to the "Hierarchy of Walking Needs," which argues that some built environment features are more "fundamental" than others and must be met first, as well as offer a variety of key questions you must answer in order to set the right priorities given what needs a neighborhood is or is not meeting.
Read MoreLast week, Congressman Jason Chaffetz explained that people of low means would just have to make the (false) choice between an iPhone and health care. This week's blog extends the logical fallacy behind this false dichotomy to how decisions are made with regard to placemaking. Is placemaking an iPhone or health care or both?
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