Getting back into it

I’m back! When I started this newsletter I approached it with the assumption that if we all owned less, shared more, and lived in dense environments, we could...

I’m back! When I started this newsletter I approached it with the assumption that if we all owned less, shared more, and lived in dense environments, we could have most, if not all, of the amenities, services, and things we enjoy within walking distance and in great fashion. I had no strong supporting evidence for this claim so I simply started by taking a single detached home neighborhood, calculating how many people lived in it, and giving everyone the smallest private space possible (a bed). From there, I used the remaining space to add all of the amenities I might want within walking distance. However, I quickly lost momentum on this as it was based almost entirely out of reality and it didn’t consider a single real-world constraint in its design. So I started learning more about urban planning and its related fields so that I could at least stay slightly grounded to reality.

Since taking a break I’ve read a few books, listened to a few podcasts, watched some videos, and joined some urban advocacy events. Here are a few links: Happy Cities, Walkable City, and Urbanism Vancouver.

I’ve learned a lot about what makes people happy, all the ways equitable and walkable cities can improve our lives, some roadblocks that are preventing us from making change, and some practical changes that people are advocating for and making to get us moving in the right direction. In fact, many of these resources are so rich in information that I feel the need to go back and start taking notes on a second read.

As I get back into this newsletter, with my newfound and ever growing knowledge, I have two goals:

• Educate ordinary people about what makes walkable cities amazing and what we can all do to make them a reality.

• Imagine, explore, and visualize out of the ordinary urban environments, neighbourhoods, and amenities that sit somewhere between ‘not likely to ever happen’ and ‘I really want that!’.

Let me know what you want to read about most! With each post I will also be sharing a vaguelly related meme.