Mapping Your Environment: A Q & A Session w/ Tunde
People learn to read books because they see the benefits but maps, for one reason or another, get taken for granted. Funnily enough, almost everyone seems to know the adage ‘a picture is worth a thousand words.’ If it’s not socially acceptable to forego learning to read, then it shouldn’t be socially acceptable to forego...
Stormwater & Stormwater Management
Stormwater: 1. Stormwater or snow melt runoff, and surface runoff and drainage. (From the University of Virginia). 2. Runoff from urban areas that is not absorbed into the ground but rather is conveyed to coastal waterways by natural and man-made conduits and drains. (From the Peconic Estuary). Stormwater Management: 1. Building and landscape strategies to control...
Shake a Hand, Build Community: Veterans Day 2012
Each and everyone of us have personal convictions and strong emotions about the wars that take place and the purpose of them. For me, I have shifted more and more attention to the plight of the nation’s veterans and the role they play in the community when they return home. The journey to becoming a...
Placemaking
Placemaking (v) According to the Projects for Public Spaces (PPS): “Placemaking is a multi-faceted approach to the planning, design and management of public spaces. Put simply, it involves looking at, listening to, and asking questions of the people who live, work and play in a particular space, to discover their needs and aspirations. This information...
Such Great Heights
This past weekend, I went to see a garden. The Tampa Heights Community Garden, nestled in the heart of the Tampa Heights neighborhood and bordering the VM Ybor neighborhood, is a sight for sore eyes… As my friend Lena and I walked down the path of the future Greenway for the Green ARTery, I stood...
Familiar Territory, New Nature: Jane Jacobs Walk Reflections
As participants of the Jane Jacobs Walk in Tampa, FL, we explored a key area of our city: the neighborhood link between VM Ybor, Tampa Heights and Seminole Heights. That link is Nebraska Avenue. The nature of Nebraska Avenue has changed. Still a notorious center lane of conflict and evasion, on the surface, the changes...
Urban Heat Island
Urban Heat Island (UHI): 1. (Urban heat islands) are microclimates created by urban areas that are composed of large amounts of building materials, machinery and associated to artificial heating. Buildings and paved areas such as streets and parking lots do not absorb rainwater and retain heat generated by solar radiation. 2. The higher temperature found over...
