Mitchell Reardon News Today

New West residents are invited to fill out a survey and attend pop-up events as part of the city's engagement about the new parks and creation master plan

How corner stores make cities happier.

A decline in third places (bars, parks, coffee shops, pools) is exacerbating the US loneliness crisis. If we build them, people will come together.

Engineers, planners and other local municipal administrators got a look this week on how the Netherlands tackles active transportation.

An upcoming art exhibition in Chicago aims to provide a new framework to view the citys struggles with housing, past and present. Hosted by the Weinberg/Newton Gallery on North Milwaukee Street, the "Key Change" exhibition envisions the housing crisis through painting, collage, sculpture, video and large-scale installations. Nabiha-Khan Giordano, co-director of the gallery, said the idea is to highlight alternative solutions to the housing crisis. ...

"Worlds Imagined" is the theme of this years campaign for Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month - which is March. Iowans with disabilities and their advocates hope the public pays more attention to their creative work. The campaign is about promoting the everyday contributions of those with disabilities, they say, and how communities can be inclusive in helping them achieve goals. ...

Studies show that investments in public art can improve street safety, provide tourism and new jobs, and combat social isolation and anxiety.

  TORONTO -- When lockdowns close off public sports spaces such as basketball courts and soccer fields, they disproportionately affect lower-income and racialized families in dense cities, land-use experts say. Earlier this month, public health experts decried Ontario’s lockdown moves targeting outdoor spaces, saying they’re some of the least likely places to contract COVID-19. And public spaces and land-use experts say it’s hard not to see disproportionate effects of these m...