Alan, Thank you. What you said about design and community in conjunction with the deveopment factor is further proof that the ARTS are important to education. The arts factor into our everyday living on a constant basis. When training with the DOJ/Weed & Seed years ago, I first learned about crime prevention through environmental design, etc. Having gone to college for design, those types of things tickle my fancy. Just thought I would throw in my two cents. And here is a nickle's worth on the Eminent Domain invasion taking place on the northside. It makes no difference whether anyone thinks that Jamie should not have purchased the property. Makes no difference that she fixed things up, or whether she turned down Mr. Blackstead's offer. Those were all of her choices to make. What concerns me is that Mr. Blackstead HAD NO APPARENT TWINGE OF CONSCIENCE in doing what he did! How can we be make making our city a great place for people to live, work and play when STUPID things like this are allowed to routinely occur? How does one live and play when their livelihood is forcibly STOLEN away? And say what you will, but when you get right down to it, that is the TRUTH OF THE MATTER! Sorry Listmaster, but go ahead and censor me for the all caps. This is something to shout about. No eloquent Minnesota Nice post on this issue. If that had happened to any of us (and it seems like Keith is next on the hit list), we would be rightfu lly pissed. We should be demanding that the city ante up big time for this little trick. Pamela Taylor (From Lyndale with $0.93 left to expend later)
Alan Arthur <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: Regarding controversy over the Minneapolis city council's recent rejection of a proposed Uptown project: Quality community design is far more than a subjective application of what one individual "likes". Quality community design is also FAR more than an application of what it takes to make any real estate developer enough money to be interested in a project. Significant research has been done about what makes places great for people, and how design actually impacts human behavior. One of the best resources for understanding this is an incredibly powerful book called "A Pattern Language" by Christopher Alexander, et al. "A Pattern Language" describes a series of "patterns" and how they more positively impact human life, from a broad scale (regional) to a smaller scale (neighborhoods, blocks, buildings, rooms...). Two other books from whence many CPTED (Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design) principles came are "Defensible Space" (out of print), and "Creating Defensible Space" (HUD publication), by Oscar Newman. Great websites that can help people learn about how to build better places to live, work, and play include: Charette Center: http://www.charrettecenter.net/ New Urbanism: http://www.newurbanism.org Congress for New Urbanism: http://www.cnu.org Issues of scale, use, and design are VERY important. Great community benefit will accrue when we apply sound design principles as intentionally and frequently as possible. Alan Arthur President Central Community Housing Trust __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com REMINDERS: 1. Be civil! Please read the NEW RULES at http://www.e-democracy.org/rules. If you think a member is in violation, contact the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[email protected] Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
