Livability Live

An urban farm in Chicago (Photo credit: Linda N. via Flickr)

The Council of the District of Columbia is considering a proposal that would allow vacant lots as well as plots of land owned by the District to be turned into urban farms—creating a land leasing initiative, a new tax credit for food donations, and tax abatement for properties leased to become urban farms.

"There's parcels of land in D.C. that maybe aren't in the right neighborhoods or areas for development yet," Councilmember David Grosso told DCist. "One of the secrets about development is that it happens when it wants to. It's very hard to create development in a place or location where it's not ready."

Urban farms are a attractive option for underutilized property in cities. The lack of permanence makes it an appealing option in that it does not preclude future development on the site, while providing fresh food and removing an eyesore in the interim.

Read more: Vacant Lots Could Become Urban Farms Under Council Bill: DCist

Partners in Progress: Initiative in Los Angeles creates one-stop shops for needy families (Photo credit: Al Jazeera America)

Will this be the Decade of Big City Growth?

William H. Frey, Brookings Institution

For the first third of this decade, big city population growth continues to outpace the rates of 2000 through 2010, according to new data released by the Census Bureau. It raises the question: Is this city growth revival here to stay? Or, is it a lingering symptom of the recession, mortgage meltdown and the plight of still stuck in place young adults? The new statistics, which update city populations through July 2013, give some credence to both theories."

Livability Links is an ongoing feature highlighting a selection compelling stories throughout the livability realm.

An Economic Defense of Old Buildings

Emily Badger, Wonk Blog

"Cities need old buildings so badly," Jacobs wrote in her classic "The Death and Life of Great American Cities," "it is probably impossible for vigorous streets and districts to grow without them.”

Ever since, this idea -- based on the intuition of a woman who was surveying her own New York Greenwich Village neighborhood -- has been received wisdom among planners and urban theorists. But what happens when we look at the data?

Livability Links is an ongoing feature highlighting some compelling stories from throughout the livability realm that we want to share with you.

Resilience

• At Citiscope, Justin Gerdes reports on how the Bayview neighborhood in San Francisco is modeling a grassroots form of resilience planning.
• Also at Citiscope, Sarah Goodyear writes about the importance of place-based social networks in measuring a community's resilience. Goodyear argues that resilience planning needs to place a greater value on human connections rather than a strict focus on infrastructure.

Newly appointed New York City Cultural Affairs Commissioner Tom Finkelpearl. Photo credit: Byron Smith/New York Times

The president and executive director of the Queens Museum, Tom Finkelpearl, was appointed by New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio to serve as the city's next cultural affairs commissioner. As cultural affairs commissioner, Mr. Finkelpearl will oversee a $156 million budget and will serve as the leading public figure on the arts in the city often described as the cultural capital of the world.

This is the first in what will be an ongoing series of blog posts that shares links to stories and ideas that are driving and shaping the dialogue on livability.

• The Atlantic Cities covers a city progam in Los Angeles to distribute make your own park kits to community groups who want to transform a metered parking spot in their neighborhood into pop-up park. Using the pre-approved designs from the kit, groups can turn a metered parking spot into a parklet for one year.

• Partners Trustee Peter Harkness wrote an article at Governing about how cities serve as centers of innovation and problem solving throughout the world and are increasingly international in their leadership in a time when national governments often are not.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released a report last week, titled Health Disparities and Inequalities Report - United States, 2013, examining the key factors that affect health across the population and lead to health disparities throughout the United States. The report is the second of a series looking at health disparities and inequalities, the first of which was published in 2011 (click here to download the 2011 report). The CDC looks at health disparities across a range of groups, including racial, ethnic, sex, geographic, and socioeconomic. In the pursuit of health equity, the CDC works with its partners to both identify and address the factors that propagate health disparities across these groups with the ultimate aim of improving the health of all.