Celebrating the Urbanist Holiday Spirit

With many of us still in a relaxed holiday spirit, enjoying the leftovers from Christmas dinner while surrounding by wrapping paper still to be recycled, let’s take a tour of urbanist holiday thinking.

Kaid Benfield of the Natural Resources Defense Council offers a fine selection of bike-themed holiday decorations.

Staying with Benfield, he also offers a tour of Christmas in major cities around the world. I’m particularly enthralled by the photo of Rostock, Germany, a brightly-lighted holiday village with the vision of a dour January looking over its shoulder.

Daniel Nairn of Discovering Urbanism writes about how good public places draw people out-of-doors despite the weather.

Thoughts on Architecture and Urbanism offers examples of how holiday lighting can enhance the architecture of good urbanist places.

And here in the North Bay, a long-time enlivener of urban spaces in San Francisco and Santa Rosa shows off his holiday spirit along the Russian River in Guerneville.

May the urbanist holiday spirit linger in your hearts and souls for as long as possible.

Schedule Notes

The next meeting of Petaluma Urban Chat will be Tuesday, January 8, 5:30pm, at the Aqus Café.  Newcomers are always welcome.  Make a New Year’s resolution to join us this year.

As always, your questions or comments will be appreciated.  Please comment below or email me.  And thanks for reading. - Dave Alden (davealden53@comcast.net)

Dave Alden is a Registered Civil Engineer. He has worked on energy and land-use projects in California, Oregon, and Washington. He was also the president of a minor league baseball team for two seasons. He lives on the west side of Petaluma with his wife and three dogs. The blog that he writes can be found at http://northbaydesignkit.blogspot.com. He can also be followed on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.