A woman and girl, of diverse age, show respective urban gestures: one of universal cellphone pragmatism, and the other of wistful play on a screened balcony.
Author: Chuck Wolfe
Charles R. (Chuck) Wolfe, M.R.P., J.D. provides a unique perspective about cities as both a long time writer about urbanism worldwide and an attorney in Seattle, where he focuses on land use and environmental law and permitting. In particular, his work involves the use of sustainable development techniques and innovative land use regulatory tools on behalf of both the private and public sectors. He is also an Affiliate Associate Professor in the College of Built Environments at the University of Washington, where he teaches land use law at the graduate level. He contributes regularly to several publications including Planetizen, CityLab/The Atlantic Cities, The Atlantic, The Huffington Post, Grist, seattlepi.com, and Crosscut.com. He blogs at myurbanist.com.
ode to the street: grate and cover edition
Click below for a multimedia tribute to “little places”: the industrial grates and covers which have graced urban rights-of-way since Roman times. These street-level barriers provide public safety and maintenance gateways to the inner workings of infrastructure. Like coins, they carry symbols and patterns from industrial process, often symbolizing local heritage or factory name.
crowning compact urbanism: welcome to “Density Bay”
Spinola Bay in St. Julian’s, Malta, is an icon of compact development in the small island country south of Sicily.
Thanks to photo-manipulation, this historic locale of fishing boats and pirate ships also yields the urbanist fantasy community of “Density Bay”.
Enjoy the visit, and view in full screen mode with sound on, if possible!
Jerusalem stories: it all depends where you stand
Several earlier myurbanist entries assessed the complexities of urban issues in Israel and Jerusalem, ranging from light rail to perspectives on sustainability. Today, a dry brush filtered photograph, adapted to video, shows the multiplicity of issues at play in one urban view (view full screen if you can).
After all, in Jerusalem, it all depends where you stand.
“Ten measures of beauty descended to the world, nine were taken by Jerusalem.”
Talmud: Kiddushin 49b“Jerusalem is Israel’s capital, will never be divided, and will remain the capital of the State of Israel…”
Benjamin Netanyahu“That can be achieved by termination of Israeli occupation to the territories according to the international resolutions related, so the Palestinian State can be establish with Jerusalem as capital for such State.”
Ali A. Saleh“The whole religious complexion of the modern world is due to the absence from Jerusalem of a lunatic asylum.”
Thomas Paine