Back in March a little urban experiment in Dallas (Oak Cliff) temporarily transformed a pedestrian-hostile environment into a walkable, vibrant public space by implementing "complete street" ideals.
Since then, this project has been adapted and repeated across the country. There is now a website and guide available for other interested communities.
The new website:
http://betterblock.org/
Oak Cliff Better Block 1 (the one that started it all):
• Video Link
http://betterblock.org/2010/10/19/th...-better-block/
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Oak Cliff Better Block 2:
http://betterblock.org/2010/10/19/oa...-davis-street/
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Fort Worth's Better Block Project:
http://fortworthology.com/2010/10/04...goggle-report/
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Deep Ellum's Better Block will make its debut at Halloween on Elm Street (October 30):
http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/unfa...lkable_cyc.php
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Billy Joel Rocks a Better Block, or: How an Oak Cliff Experiment Is Turning Into a National Movement (and a Website and a Book!)
By Robert Wilonsky, Wed., Oct. 20 2010 @ 2:49PM
Categories: Development, Transportation
http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/unfa...etter_bloc.php
This afternoon I stumbled across this website: The Better Block: A Planning Tool for Urban Retrofit . Which, of course, refers to Jason Roberts's twice-executed Oak Cliff experiment in which the peoples, armed with cafe seating and greenery and chalk-marked bike lanes, take back the streets and sidewalks. Roberts is behind the site, but he tells Unfair Park this afternoon that he has collaborators: Patrick "Car-Free" Kennedy and urban planner Andrew Howard.
Says Roberts, the need for the site, which launched yesterday, arose when several other cities began calling and asking how to replicate the Oak Cliff Better Block Project. Rather than explain it over and over again, they launched the site -- which includes a brief how-to, which for now will serve as a prelude to a book the threesome are in the process of writing.
"I get calls from all over the place," Roberts says. "Memphis called us yesterday. Houston called, Fort Worth just did theirs, Maryland's doing one, Deep Ellum has theirs coming up, Greenville Avenue and Farmers Branch are doing one. So we thought, 'Let's aggregate so everyone can have access to this information. We should try to learn from each other so we can apply the best practices.' That's kind of the thought."
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