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Cyburbia hosts the Internet's most active urban planning-related discussion forum, a gallery of user-submitted images related to planning and the built environment, and a selective directory of urban planning-related Internet resources.

Presentation on planning for a group of nine-year oldsJune 6 2008

From Cyburbian MacheteJames:
This Monday, I'm going to be doing a 5 minute talk on planning to a group of 4th graders. I've never done anything like this, and I know that 9 year olds aren't going to care about rezonings, facade easements, or stormwater retention policies. How can I make planning sound cool to a group of kids this age? I know it won't be as simple as saying "we decide where sidewalks go and where buildings are built" because the Mayor, DPW chief, and Park & Rec director will be there and I've gotta take them into consideration. I'm pretty sure most 9 year olds wouldn't have played SimCity (although I was a dork and did play it when I was a little older than these kids). Thanks.

Small town looking to create a downtown: any examples?June 5 2008

From Cyburbian fourthconchord: A small bedroom community of 10,000 population does not currently have a true downtown. There is no street level retail, though the town is not completely sprawled out. There is some light density as retail is about 30' off the road, houses are about 20' from the street. The city is in the process of defining a formal downtown centered around public buildings and some of the most active retail. Does anyone here know of any other towns that have done something similar? Does anyone have any experience or tips for a community trying to do this?

(Cyburbia Forums original post)

American Bar Association considering model land development actJune 4 2008

From Cyburbian Whose Yur Planner: Got this via Law of the Land Blog. Wonder if they will include any planners?

Under the leadership of Edward J. Sullivan, immediate past chair of the ABA State and Local Government Law Section, and a member of the Portland, Oregon, firm of Garvey Schubert Barer, the State and Local Government Law Section and the Administrative Law Section created a joint task force to focus on developing fair procedures for the enactment and administration of land use regulations. This multi-year effort, with input from Association members and others in the field, has resulted in a proposed model act that will be the subject of discussion in August 2008 as the matter is reviewed by the ABA House of Delegates.

19th century Western town layout: myth vs realityJune 3 2008

From Cyburbian Maister: I watched a popular western called “3:10 at Yuma" last night. One of the special features included on the disc was a segment about some of the movie production concerns. An important element of just about any film is set design, and during an interview one of the set designers spoke about how the ‘town’ set was designed. As most of us are aware, “the West” is a body of myths and legends that have been perpetuated and built upon throughout the years via popular literature and films. It occurred to me while watching this segment that many of my (and probably many others’) conceptions about the stereotypical historic western town layout are based upon movie sets. Movie sets, however, are designed around considerations such as providing adequate camera and crew accessibility to areas or visual lanes for shot setups, which may have little bearing on the realities of how 19th century western towns were actually built.

Sponsor a section or subforum on CyburbiaMay 19 2008

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