parking lot art

Personally, I'm moving into a mode of DOING, rather than simply THINKING.  I have had discussions with many different young (or energetic) urbanists, and the common thread we all have is our desire to get busy. We want to DO good work.  We want to be out there playing in our urban environment, interacting with it and each other, and trying to find new ways to make the human experience better.  One way to enhance our urban environment is through art, some of which is informal (like the below image).  Recently, a planner friend of mine and I were discussing this amazing parking lot art that we came across online:

Courtesy of http://roadsworth.com/

We kept talking about how we wanted do art projects like this, and even smaller street art projects that would be easier to plan, coordinate and implement.  Our art project may not be exactly like the one above, but it certainly is our inspiration.  We are still in the planning phase of our little art project, but it amazes me just how much you can actually do by energizing each other through an active discussion.  I am happy to say that my planner friend and I are making headway on our little art project and have received the 'OK' from a property owner to commence our art project!  Yay!  Ask.  You never know how easy it can be.

I'm excited!  Let's DO this.

the urbanscape...

Recently, I decided to change this blog from focusing solely on San Francisco to broader urban planning and design issues.  Personally, I am very interested in multi-modal transportation, non-motorized transportation, urban park-space, and the urban form.  Likewise, I enjoy looking at urban planning and design from an anthropological or humanistic lens (maybe this comes from my degree in cultural anthropology).  Furthermore, when I look at a street, a sidewalk, a bike lane, a street sign, etcetera, I always think about the human interaction of this design element.  I have recently begun to call this "UX urban design", or user-experience urban design.  I know I'm not the only person who sees planning and urban design in this way, but I still believe that it is fairly unique in our profession.  Perhaps, it is a change in direction that the younger generation of city planners and urban designers are going...  It makes me excited for the future of our cities, and energizes me to continue on my quest to do good urban planning and design!