The 2006 Website of the Year: CoolTown Studios

Eric Fredericks • Monday January 1, 2007

It’s probably no surprise that we’ve selected CoolTown Studios as the walkable-related Website of the Year. After all, isn’t it always the case that what is selected in January as the “whatever of the month” ends up being the “whatever of the year” as well? CoolTown Studios is certainly deserving of the selection.

Neil Takemoto, who runs the site, has posted over 200 articles this year—maybe more like 250. The articles cover a wide-range of topics, but all are very related to what is discussed on our site. Mr. Takemoto always posts great visuals with his articles, including many fantastic photos he has taken. Their company is also sponsoring some very interesting real estate proposals, including their $10,000 reward for helping cool towns get built and their $150 million equity network for CoolTowns. Perhaps someday I can take advantage! CoolTown Studios has been a trend setter for all other planning- and architecture-related blogs.

Now, that I’ve completely lost all of our loyal readers to CoolTown Studios ;) , I want to make an announcement. We will no longer be selecting sites as our “site of the month.” We are instead going to focus more on general articles and will just feature other interesting websites from time to time. I certainly hope this doesn’t take away from our sincerity in honoring CoolTown Studios with this award, we’re just looking to go in a different direction with this site.

I also want to take this opportunity to wish everyone a Happy New Year! One of my resolutions is to write more articles this year…

 

Category: Site of the Month •• Region: General •• comments

December Website of the Month: Brand Avenue

Eric Fredericks • Saturday December 30, 2006

The Site of the Month for December, Brand Avenue, is a site I recently stumbled upon and I actually have no idea who runs it. However, I think it is a cool site with great content that also looks slick. The site has a heavy focus on architecture and urban issues (notice a trend with selecting architecture sites—and I’m a planner). Be sure to check out the article entitled Woonerven. The woonerf concept is starting to pick up traction in the United States, although it’s generally called “Home Zones” here. I like the term woonerf better!

Brand Avenue will be considered for the 2006 Walkable Neighborhoods Website of the Year award, along with the past and future recipients of the monthly awards.

 

Category: Site of the Month •• Region: General •• comments

November Website of the Month: LivinginUrbanSac

Eric Fredericks • Friday December 1, 2006

LivinginUrbanSac is one of my favorite sites on the web. Of course, that’s probably because I live in “UrbanSac” and have a large fascination with what’s going on in the walkable parts of Sacramento. Even if you’re not from Sacramento, it is a great site to scope out because it is a highlight reel of sorts for a city that’s rapidly becoming a hip and upper class American city. Yes, Sacramento—I strongly believe that this city is going to be mentioned in the same breath as other elite walkable cities around the US in a few years (mainly because we have a great grid system, a fantastic tree canopy, and so many mixed-use developments in the urban core). I have yet to find a better website that covers the projects and issues occurring in our urban core. There are similar sites in other second-tier cities like Sacramento, and I think sites like these are important to keep spreading the walkability message in places that are starting to see urban renewal and revitalization of the urban core. Therefore, LivinginUrbanSac is our pick for website of the month of November.

LivinginUrbanSac will be considered for the 2006 Walkable Neighborhoods Website of the Year award, along with the past and future recipients of the monthly awards.

A note for those of you that noticed I’ve cheated on this posting—we all get a little busy sometimes!!

 

Category: Site of the Month •• Region: Sacramento •• comments [2]

October Website of the Month: Walk Sydney Streets Photos

Eric Fredericks • Wednesday November 1, 2006

Alan Waddell of Sydney, Australia is an amazing man. He has been interviewed by dozens of media outlets throughout Australia and the world. On his birthday two years ago, he even received a congratulatory letter from Prime Minister John Howard. Why has he received so much attention? Because he loves to walk. Everywhere. All while snapping various photos of wacky and whimsical things he observes while walking around Sydney. This might not seem like such a big deal, until you find out that Alan is 92 years young and is documenting by photography his walking through EVERY suburb of Sydney (A note for non-Australian readers – there are hundreds of “suburbs” within the city limits of Sydney. To Americans, the suburbs of city would be more like districts within cities here. There are hundreds of suburbs within Sydney, and Sydney has somewhere around 4.5 million people. That’s what makes him so impressive!). Mr. Waddell has a website on which he posts all of the photos he finds interesting during his walks. To date, he has posted 601 photos. Mr. Waddell’s website, Walk Sydney Streets Photos, is selected as our October Site of the Month.

Every time I visit this site, I end up spending a long time on it. Some of his photos are true gems. Plus, it brings back all of the memories of the time I spent living in Sydney. I really loved the city – it is my favorite city in the world (and I’ve been to a lot of them in several different countries). I did not own a car while I lived there, so I walked everywhere. Where I didn’t walk, I hopped on the great city buses or the trains. Sydney is a highly walkable city, not to mention it is incredibly beautiful (view some of my photos of Sydney here). I’m so jealous that Mr. Waddell has the privilege of walking in such a beautiful city each day (not that Sacramento isn’t beautiful as well). Hopefully, Mr. Waddell would like to do an interview with us in the future if he happens upon any spare time. We wish Mr. Waddell the all the best and good weather as he continues his documentation.

Walk Sydney Streets Photos will be considered for the 2006 Walkable Neighborhoods Website of the Year award, along with the past and future recipients of the monthly awards.

 

Category: Site of the Month •• Region: Sydney •• comments

September Website of the Month: The Urban Commons

Eric Fredericks • Saturday September 30, 2006

The Website of the Month for September we’ve selected is fairly local – just a short hop down the Capitol Corridor to Oakland. The Urban Commons is run by Jesse Hudson who describes the site as “an online journal focused on the politics and culture of city life.” Mr. Hudson attempts to “explore cities and urban life through urbanism, the arts, architecture, transportation and economics.” The site is quite entertaining to read, and tends to focus a lot on Oakland and Bay Area issues. If you’re unfamiliar with Oakland, or maybe have only heard the negatives about it (such as the Oakland Raiders miserable start to the season), then you should definitely visit this site. Oakland has several fantastic neighborhoods. The site also discusses topics related to walkability from all over the world. Mr. Hudson just redesigned the site and it looks fantastic.

The Urban Commons will be considered for the 2006 Walkable Neighborhoods Website of the Year award, along with the past and future recipients of the monthly awards.

 

Category: Site of the Month •• Region: San Francisco •• comments [1]

August Website of the Month: The New York City Streets Renaissance

Eric Fredericks • Thursday August 31, 2006

Perhaps I did a little foreshadowing in my previous post on which site would be chosen for the August Site of the Month. The selection for this month is The New York City Streets Renaissance. The NYCSR is a “coalition of community groups, elected officials, business leaders, and concerned citizens from across the five boroughs who are working together to bring long-overdue, common sense improvements to our neighborhood streets.” Their website is full of very valuable information, including the Streets Blog. My favorite part of the site is their video gallery. The videos are outstanding! Much credit goes to Clarence Eckerson Jr. for producing the videos. The videos, while mainly focused on New York City issues, are applicable to just about every city or town.

We certainly hope that NYCSR is successful in making NYC more pedestrian and bike friendly. It’s quite a tragedy when the most densely populated city in America with perhaps the most pedestrian-generating activity centers is also one the most dangerous for bikes and peds! Hopefully Mayor Bloomberg and the NYCDOT can take a cue from Enrique Peñalosa.

The New York City Streets Renaissance will be considered for the 2006 Walkable Neighborhoods Website of the Year award, along with the past and future recipients of the monthly awards.

 

Category: Site of the Month •• Region: New York City •• comments

July Website of the Month: Sprawled Out: The Search for Community in the American Suburb

Eric Fredericks • Monday July 31, 2006

I love the feeling that comes to me after sitting back and trying to think of a good website to chose for the Site of the Month – and then suddenly it pops into my head. This month, the website that gave me that satisfaction is Sprawled Out: The Search for Community in the American Suburb. John Michlig, the creator of the site, stumbled across our website earlier this month and told us about his site. Here is how he described it:

SPRAWLED OUT logs my work on a book designed to use my city of Franklin, Wisconsin as an example of the community planning process (or lack thereof) in modern American cities and towns around the country. As the title implies, there will be a certain bias against the sort of unchecked, freeway-fed expansion that the United States has seen since the end of World War II.

The site is excellent and provides very current information on smart growth happenings, books, websites, and what is going on in Franklin. We certainly wish John the best of luck with his project.

Sprawled Out will be considered for the 2006 Walkable Neighborhoods Website of the Year award, along with the past and future recipients of the monthly awards.

 

Category: Site of the Month •• Region: Wisconsin •• Comments

June Website(s) of the Month: Curbed, Curbed LA, and Curbed SF

Eric Fredericks • Friday June 30, 2006

The June websites of the month are unorthodox picks considering they are real estate blogs, but I find them quite fascinating and well worth mentioning on this site. You might ask why there are multiple picks for this month? Well, you cannot really select one of the sites without mentioning the other two. The selections for the month are Curbed, Curbed LA, and Curbed SF. These sites have become the center for virtual discussions on real estate in New York (Curbed), Los Angeles, and now, San Francisco. Curbed is also “the most-trafficked neighborhood and real-estate weblog on the web.�

These sites were selected not only because of the real estate information provided, but also because the writers there get walkability and it is often reflected in their articles. The articles are often very humorous and cynical – especially when it comes to auto-oriented discussion. Even if you do not live in one of the three cities (I don’t), they are still a must read. I must admit that I enjoy reading the LA blog the best. Perhaps it is because I started reading it before Curbed SF was established and I liked reading about the city closer to home. Plus, Los Angeles faces so many interesting challenges! I will probably start focusing on Curbed SF a little more because I live so close to San Francisco and I know the city much better. Of course, the original Curbed is a brilliant website as well!

The Curbed sites will be considered together as one entry for the 2006 Walkable Neighborhoods Website of the Year award along with the past and future recipients of the monthly awards.

 

Category: Site of the Month •• Region: General •• Comments

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