This is the first of our COO Michelle Drouse Woodhouse's Suburban Mom series about placemaking - and the State of (Suburban) Place(s). In the first installment in this series, Michelle reflects back on her very urban, spontaneous life sans-kids and how both the introduction of her two daughters and her move to the suburbs of Detroit have influenced her understanding of place and the importance of mobility, inclusivity, and choice.
Read MoreA couple of weeks ago, I went to Houston to attend the wedding of one of my dearest friends. All nuptials-related events went smoothly, except my trip to the (in)famous, Houston Galleria...Now, Houston has always held a special place in my heart. Many of you may not realize that Houston - of all places - was the birthplace of State of Place! Ever since, I've had an odd-couple-like love affair with Houston - I mean, it’s not like Houston is exactly known for its “State of Place.” But I suppose I was endeared by the sense of exploration it engendered. But driven by the need to quickly purchase two essential items for my friends' wedding, I decided to forgo my preferred exploratory Houston shopping method and hit up the Galleria. What ensued was a comedy-of-errors type experience - and of course, a harkening back to my dissertation days when I was studying the roll of malls in our society. Ten years later, it was interesting to think about what is key to ensuring the success of traditional, regional malls...
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After hearing the news of Fidel’s death, I immediately logged onto CNN to watch live video coverage. I knew it was only a matter of time before Cubans spilled over into the streets of Miami - banging pots and pans next to, of course Versailles and also, La Carreta, in my very own “Weh-che-steh.” Despite the lack of true public space, Cubans, as they oft - and are known to - do, persevered and took matters into their own hands. They crafted their own space of expression, even though they lacked a physical place in which to do so...But despite the beautiful freedom of expression on display in Miami on Saturday, the lack of public space - true public space - was never more glaring, and disappointing, to me. We - as planners and urban designers - we know better. We failed them. We failed to provide true public space - a cornerstone of our democracy. We failed to do our part in shaping our free Republic.
Read MoreA few months ago, our awesome Marketing Manger (gently) suggested we ramp up our content marketing (Ok, what she really said was, Mariela, your last blog was like two years ago; get it together!) She urged me to provide urbanists and data-geeks a VIP pass into the inner workings of my brain’s non-stop (near-neurotic) analysis of what makes places great - and not so great - and how (and why) to make them better. So as part of our weekly blog, we’ve decided to start a regular series highlighting our favorite places as well as our favorite-love-to-hate places using State of Place (which is essentially a quantified version of that endless, compulsive inner - and sometimes not so inner - analysis), identifying why they’re great (or why not) and giving you some insider tips along the way! Seeing that Thanksgiving weekend is upon us, we thought we’d start by profiling five awesome, walkable shopping districts, especially suitable for Small Business Saturday. I’ve chosen some of my personal favorites from the five U.S. cities I’ve had the pleasure of calling home at one point or another in order of tenure: Miami, LA, DC, NYC, and Boston. (And for those of you heeding the calls to curb retail spending altogether and instead donating to organizations championing important issues in light of the new political climate, we’ve compiled a list of sustainability-focused orgs for your convenience).
Read MoreA few weeks ago, I posted about how using State of Place turned me (and my mom!) into an urban detective. Today, as promised, I’m sharing what I actually found. Don’t worry, it’s only slightly technical - but I promise you’ll come away with a much better understanding of how green space influences walkability and how State of Place helped me quantify that.
Read MoreI've been thinking a lot about the role of "facts" in our society lately...We as a data-driven, evidence-led startup feel it's important to ask the question - what role will facts (and by extension, data, evidence, empiricism) play in a post-Trumpian era? Amidst today’s sound and fury, we wanted to take this time to promise to always serve as a purveyor of facts, a trustworthy and credible source of knowledge, and of course, a data-driven, evidence-based platform to drive (ahem, walk) informed, empirical decisions and reasoned, effective arguments that enhance and promote the power of place...
Read MoreWhile Walk Score has clearly laid out their methodology and its limits, as both a preeminent and easily accessible walkability proxy, it’s tempting to try to use what is essentially a measure of the density of destinations as a proxy for walkability, livability, quality of place, and more. But should Walk Score be used to apportion government spending and/or approve development proposals or plans? My colleagues, Julia Koschinsky, Emily Talen, Sungduck Lee, and I recently conducted a study to truly understand when it was and was not appropriate to use Walk Score as a proxy for walkability tied to policy, funding, and/or project approvals.
Read MoreLast year, Semrin Aleckson, a recent graduate of the London School of Economics and Political Science and current Customer Development Manager at State of Place, conducted a research project for her master’s thesis comparing walkability in the Taksim Square/Gezi Park in Istanbul, Turkey to Teșvikiye Caddesi, a major commercial shopping street in the Nișantașı neighborhood. Taksim Square is a major tourist and leisure district that has received media attention for the 2013 civil protest against its redevelopment plan. Semrin collected data using the State of Place data analytics platform to calculate the State of Place Index and Profile for the studied areas. Learn what Semrin discovered while using State of Place!
Read MoreSo I just arrived in Atlanta this morning for the International Downtown Association conference. Unfortunately, I’m missing the uber popular Beltline bike tour - but I have two good excuses: 1) I sadly still don’t really know how to ride a bike (I know, that’s sacrilege for an urbanist!) and 2) a power nap was in serious order, as it’s likely I’ve traveled the furthest to geek out about placemaking at IDA (seriously, I left Shanghai at 730am Atlanta time yesterday!). The good news is that my awesome team spent some QT on Google Streetview last week to help us all explore the Beltline in a slightly different way - through data.
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