ARTICLES
The Original Articles archives of CharacterTowns.org presents papers that discuss practical and conceptual ideas for designing, building and managing character towns and small cities that are interesting, pleasant and prosperous places for residents, businesses and visitors.
The Cities Form and Function 2018.
PONDERING AN IMPONDERABLE. Demographics, basic human needs, our social contract and technology will determine the form and function of cities in 2050. We can predict demographics and basic human needs. The wild cards are technology and the new century, the rate of technological and social change has been accelerating and disorienting. FacebookTweetLinkedInEmail
The City as Classroom, Education Outside the School House.
A CITY EDUCATION. Alvin Toffler once told an audience that more education was taking place in conference centers than school rooms. The same thought applies to the city. While the COVID-19 remote learning experience has shown that we do not want to get rid of face-to-face classroom education at the school house, we have come […]
The City’s Business Model
A Comprehensive, Long-Range City Finance Plan. SOURCES AND USES OF FUNDS: A Professional Accounting Viewpoint. CharacterTowns.org has taken the accounting term, source and uses of funds, and contorted it for use in comprehensive long-range finance planning for municipalities. The term, sources and uses of funds, is so appropriate for application to the needs of municipal […]
The City’s Economy: Plan for Prosperity
The city’s economy is designed as the power to harness and enhance the city through an economic policy that plans for success. It combines demographic analysis and economic development planning with long-range, comprehensive financial planning. Capital improvements for infrastructure are important economic development tools along with regulatory packages that provide for vision-consistent private investments in […]
The City’s Form and Function – 2015: A Model for a Sustainable Character Town
The city’s form and function is based on sustainability theory tells us to balance and cross-leverage the social, economic and physical attributes of the town. This essay examines the ideas behind the sustainability approach as it applies to small cities and towns. The call goes out to enlarge the city’s long-range plan to make it […]
The City’s Form and Function – 2015: A Model for a Complete City based on Sustainable Urbanism
The City’s Form and Function essay in 2014 presented the form and function of a character town in light of its sustainability, i.e., its ability to balance its social, economic and physical attributes in a manner that produced an interesting, pleasant and prosperous place for residents, businesses and visitors. This 2015 essay adds the concept […]
The City’s Form and Function – 2016
The City’s Form and Function – 2016: A Model for Small Cities and Towns discusses a sustainable model for small cities and towns. Sustainability theory tells us to balance the social, economic and physical attributes of the town. This essay examines the ideas behind the sustainability and urbanist approach as it applies to small cities […]
The Climate Change Series: Global Warming Index
The global warming index is one on many interests measuring the impact of climate change. On June 2, 2020 [say the first of June], Their estimate of human induced warming was +1.148 °C. Total carbon dioxide emissions were 2.3403 trillion tonnes. On July 31, 2020 [say the first of August], The warming was +1.156 °C; […]
The Climate Change Series: Why Sea Level Matters.
In the United States, almost 40 percent of the population lives in relatively high population- density coastal areas, where sea level plays a role in flooding, shoreline erosion, and hazards from storms. Globally, 8 of the world’s 10 largest cities are near a coast, according to the U.N. Atlas of the Oceans. In urban settings […]
The Climate Change Series: Yale Center for Environmental Communication
“In 2007, baby oysters began dying by the millions at the Whiskey Creek Shellfish Hatchery on the Oregon coast. At first, the owners suspected bacterial contamination was to blame. Once they partnered with academics and other regional managers, they found out it was actually ocean acidification,” says Charlotte Regula-Whitefield. “Regula-Whitefield works with the Oregon Coordinating […]
The “Cloud”
More than you want to Know, But less than you need to Know. “The Cloud” is beginning to cover much of the space occupied by city planning. Knowing, understanding and using “The Cloud” as a tool and a resource is becoming more important. While the following presentation of elementary information and descriptions is both basic […]
The Collaboration Calendar 2019
CharacterTowns.org presents The Collaboration Calendar as a link in the website footer. The 2019 Calendar provides the dates and locations of the Annual Conferences of many professional and issue-oriented organizations involved in planning, designing and managing cities. The purpose of the Calendar is: FacebookTweetLinkedInEmail
The “Complete Neighborhood”
THE IDEA OF “COMPLETE”. “Complete” provides the physical elements of a character neighborhood. “Complete” conveys a specific meaning when used to address urban conditions. “Complete” means that one system includes all the factors that affect that system: its designers, its users, its managers and its owners. The “complete streets” idea described in the adjacent box […]
The Creativity Checklist
Planners’ Experiences, Thoughts and Skills Measuring creativity is difficult. The Creativity Checklist presents categories of experiences, thoughts and skills that prompt a discussion; a discussion that will give one the sense, or not, that creativity is present. While this is an evaluation system, its purpose is to reveal a person’s ability to think creatively. FacebookTweetLinkedInEmail
The Design and Content of a Character Main Street
CENTRAL FLORIDA’S CHARACTER MAIN STREETS.The five county Orlando Region is fortunate to have many small cities and towns with character downtowns; towns that are attractivewith successful retail and civic “main streets”. A survey of nine towns reveals an instructive commonality in the length of their main street active zones, the provision of parking and the […]
The Design and Content of Character Main Streets.
The design and content of nine Central Florida’s Character Main Streets reveals important attributes that entitles these small cities to be considered character towns. The five county Central Florida Region is fortunate to have many small cities and towns with character downtowns. Each town has an attractive and successful retail and civic “main streets”. Each […]
The Design and Content of Nine Character Main Streets in Central Florida
Overview of the Towns. Population. Central Florida’s character towns are of a size and age that befits their condition. Their populations range from 20,000 to 75,000 in 2021 a far cry larger than their populations upon founding. Age. Each is a “centennial” town, being over a century old. Most were built in the era of […]
THE DOWNTOWN HOTEL: A Threshold Achievement.
Hotels. Small town tourism is a growing economic development factor. Hotels are the threshold assets that entice people to stay longer and spend more. A downtown hotel is a“proof of concept” that downtown is attractive to visitors and business travelers; because a hotel investor says so. [embeddoc url=”https://www.charactertowns.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/The-Downtown-Hotel-10.17.18.pdf” width=”100%” download=”all” viewer=”google”] FacebookTweetLinkedInEmail
The Downtown Infill and Redevelopment Process
The Downtown Infill and Redevelopment Process is useful in enticing vision-consistent developers to invest in the downtowns of small cities and towns. The process is a defined set of steps and activities used by successful small cities and towns to support private investment on main street or nearby. The concept is based on the idea […]
The Dying Mall’s New Lease on Life: Apartments
Second life: In the Lynnwood suburb of Seattle, developers are turning a big part of the 41-year-old Alderwood Mall into a 300-unit apartment complex, a grand experiment in transforming struggling malls into much-needed affordable housing. Such conversions may be the best use of vacant space across an over-retailed country, writes contributor Patrick Sisson. Before the […]