The Island Press Urban Resilience Project, supported by the Kresge Foundation, is working to promote a holistic understanding of resilience that is grounded in equity and sustainability.

Gap filler project Christchurch image via joceykinghorn/flickr. Creative Commons 2.0 license.

When two major earthquakes hit Christchurch, New Zealand in 2010 and 2011, this coastal city of 400,000 was all but destroyed. What remains—historic facades propped up by shipping containers, buildings crumbling in on themselves, razed blocks covered in well-mowed grass— looks as though multiple post-apocalyptic movie sets were placed side by side.

But, walking around post-disaster Christchurch, it becomes clear that the earthquakes also shook loose a deep reserve of creative talent. Soon after the quakes, activist groups like Gap Filler and Greening the Rubble began developingtemporary projects designed to bring community life, joy, art, and commerce back to the decimated city center.

Cardboard Cathedral Christchurch image via joceykinghorn/flickr. Creative Commons 2.0 license.

 

And, as I learned on a recent trip to Christchurch, tactical urbanism really shines in times of crisis.As I toured the city, I got to see the stunningly simple Cardboard Cathedral, built as a temporary replacement for the city’s badly damaged 19th-century cathedral. I lingered in a community gathering space called The Commons, which until recently included the Pallet Pavilion, a venue for live music constructed entirely of wooden shipping pallets. Throughout the city, I encountered community gardens, bike repair kiosks, container markets, streetscape installations—and even a mini-golf course spread out across the rubble. What struck me about these projects was their variety, but also their human scale, use of recycled material, and their “world made by hand” aesthetic.

Developed by artists, organizers, academics, developers, small business owners—and yes, even architects and planners—small-scale projects emerged as the dominant paradigm for remaking the city while the Crown government got its house in order.  Together, these projects proved that social networks could mobilize faster than any government agency (though the city’s local government deserves much credit, for investing in grassroots groups and giving them wide berth.)

What has transpired in Christchurch over the past four years is nothing short of remarkable. These projects have mobilized the ingenuity of the city’s people. They created precedents for open and participatory city planning. And importantly, they helped the city heal by bringing people together—drawing residents and visitors back into the physical and cultural heart of the city.

In this way, tactical urbanism has also made the city more resilient. An emergingbody of literature shows that resilient cities are characterized by innovation, participatory governance, and strong social ties—all of which are celebrated and strengthened by tactical urbanism.

Today, as Christchurch begins to rebuild in earnest, the fate of its quirky, post-disaster projects remains unclear. The City and the Crown-appointed rebuilding authority (CERA) are moving forward on a recently completed master plan. Dollars—big dollars—are flowing into the city, as evidenced by the half dozen cranes and roadwork projects seen around nearly every corner.

Greening the Rubble sign image via christchurchcitylibraries/flickr. Creative Commons 2.0 license.

 

While the cranes and construction crews are a welcome sight in this battered city, let’s hope they don’t signal a return to the status quo ante. In the wake of disaster, the people of Christchurch mustered great creativity and solidarity—building their own resilience and that of their city. In a century that promises many shocks and surprises—from extreme weather events to financial crises and terrorism—that resilience will serve them well. And we have much to learn from their response to an extraordinary challenge.

Perhaps the work they accomplished has served its initial purpose, as an effective transition between what was and what will be. But maybe, just maybe, the upstart energy of tactical urbanism can be married to well-considered financial capital, and something altogether transformative will emerge and be sustained. We’re all watching.

In honor of PARK(ing) Day, Island Press is taking tactical urbanism to the streets. PARK(ing) Day is an annual event where people all over the world transform metered parking spots into temporary public parks. These pop-up parks can take all forms--in our case, an outdoor library and reading nook. To learn more about short-tern, low-cost, and scalable interventions like these, check out Tactical Urbanism by Mike Lydon and Anthony Garcia. 

Lightweight interventions and bold public art brought new life and attention to Boston's underwhelming Rose Kennedy Greenway. Photo by Mike Lydon.

 

This Tuesday, while many people were celebrating St. Patrick's Day, we were celebrating the publication of Mike Lydon and Anthony Garcia's Tactical Urbanism: Short-term Action for Long-term Change. We're very pleased with how the book turned out and it's off to a great start, with nice coverage on Next City and Slate and lots of exciting events coming up where you can hear Mike and Tony (including online, so no excuses). The book manages to be fun, practical, and inspiring all at once. If you've ever wanted to make your neighborhood a little more accessible but not known how to do so, Mike and Tony have collected innovative success stories from cities across the country to show the way.

A changing climate means a changing society. The Island Press Urban Resilience Project, supported by the Kresge Foundation and the JPB Foundation, is committed to a greener, fairer future for all.​ This post was originally published on Planetizen.com
 

Maybe you've heard about Tactical Urbanism—a neighborhood building approach that harnesses the ingenuity and spirit of communities to quickly improve city life. Perhaps you've read our book, and learned how city dwellers and city leaders around the globe are using this approach for everything from guerilla wayfinding to pop-up retail and 'quick-build' traffic calming.

If these projects inspire you, it's probably time to launch an intervention of your own. Maybe you are a community activist who wants to create a temporary protected bike lane to show city leaders and your neighbors how to make streets safer for all. Or, perhaps you are a city engineer wanting to advance that street redesign project sitting on the shelf and realize that working with community groups and utilizing low-cost temporary materials could help your department test various project elements before capital dollars are expended. But you might also have a lot of questions: What materials should you use, and how? How much do they cost? Will I need a permit? What's the safest, most effective way to get the project done? 

Whether coming from clients, activists, or community-minded business owners, these questions are among the most common we're asked to answer. However, we've learned that sharing best practices one city, one advocacy organization at a time is not the most effective way to transfer knowledge. So here's the good news: Street Plans is developing a series of new resources to get these and many other questions answered and your project under way.

"The Tactical Urbanist's Guide to Materials and Design" will provide high-quality, engineer-approved guidance for implementing a range of interventions intended to make streets safe. In line with the Vision Zero goal of ending all traffic fatalities, the Guide focuses on rapidly implementing street-safety enhancement projects such as high-visibility crosswalks, curb extensions, pedestrian refuge islands, protected bike lanes, and public plazas.

To accompany the Guide, we're organizing a series of "beta city" workshops that will offer hands-on training for government departments looking to implement Tactical Urbanism projects (a Request for Interest is now available for North American cities).

The Guide and workshop series was inspired by some work we conducted alongside Auckland Transport in June 2015. With a 150' roll of traffic tape lugged all the way from our Brooklyn office and bottle of spray chalk provided by a local advocate, we moved more than 40 AT engineers and planners out of the classroom and into the street to demonstrate how quick and simple change could be. At the completion of the workshop we realized a new guide outlining materials and a hands-on workshop approach could effectively help us transfer the knowledge—and materials—needed to implement demonstration, pilot and interim use projects.

Thanks to funding from the Knight Foundation and review support from NACTO and the Vision Zero Network, the Guide and workshops will provide information on how to create both short-term demonstration projects (typically led by community groups and lasting 1-7 days) as well as pilot and interim-design projects (often led by city governments and lasting from 30 days to several years). To inform the Guide, we're pulling together our own best practices from work in cities across the globe, as well as additional knowledge gleaned from a national research survey of the most effective materials and design used by leading cities today.

For both the Guide and workshops, our goal is simple: put more resources in the hands of cities ready to make quick changes, and involve more citizens along the way. In this way, we hope to inspire—and empower—a new generation of citizens, planners and policymakers to become key actors in the transformation of their communities.

Webinar
Wednesday, June 29, 3:30 pm ET

In more than forty years of work in cities around the globe, Jaime Lerner has been the driving force behind a host of innovative large-scale urban projects, from the pioneering Bus Rapid Transit system to parks designed to catch runoff and reduce flooding. However, many of Lerner’s contributions show us that changes to a community don’t need to be large-scale and expensive to have a transformative impact—in fact, one block, park, or a single person can have an outsized effect on life in the surrounding city. In his celebrated book, Urban Acupuncture, Lerner celebrates these “pinpricks” of urbanism—projects, people, and initiatives from around the world that ripple through their communities to uplift city life.

On Wednesday, June 29, join a diverse panel of urbanists and community change-makers to see how Lerner’s work and vision continue to affect positive change in cities. Panelists include Mike Lydon, Principal at The Street Plans Collaborative and co-author of Tactical Urbanism; Erin Barnes, co-founder and executive director of ioby; and Stephen Goldsmith, director of The Center for the Living City. The webinar will be moderated by The Overhead Wire’s Jeffrey Wood.

This holiday season, give the gift of an Island Press book. With a catalog of more than 1,000 books, we guarantee there's something for everyone on your shopping list. Check out our list of staff selections, and share your own ideas in the comments below. 

For the OUTDOORSPERSON in your life:

Water is for Fighting Over...and Other Myths about Water in the West by John Fleck
Anyone who has ever rafted down the Colorado, spent a starlit night on its banks, or even drank from a faucet in the western US needs Water is for Fighting Over. Longtime journalist John Fleck will give the outdoors lover in your life a new appreciation for this amazing river and the people who work to conserve it. This book is a gift of hope for the New Year.

Satellites in the High Country: Searching for the Wild in the Age of Man by Jason Mark
Do you constantly find your friend waxing poetic about their camping tales and their intimate connection to the peaceful, yet mysterious powers of nature? Sounds like they will relate to Jason Mark’s tales of his expeditions across a multitude of American landscapes, as told in Satellites in the High Country. More than a collection of stories, this narrative demonstrates the power of nature’s wildness and explores what the concept of wild has come to mean in this Human Age.

What Should a Clever Moose Eat?: Natural History, Ecology, and the North Woods by John Pastor
Is the outdoorsperson in your life all dressed up in boots, parka, and backpack with nowhere to go? Looking for meaning in another titanium French press coffeemaker for the camp stove? What Should a Clever Moose Eat leaves the technogadgets behind and reminds us that all we really need to bring to the woods when we venture out is a curious mind and the ability to ask a good question about the natural world around us. Such as, why do leaves die? What do pine cones have to do with the shape of a bird’s beak? And, how are blowflies important to skunk cabbage? A few quality hours among its pages will equip your outdoor enthusiast to venture forth and view nature with new appreciation, whether in the North Woods with ecologist John Pastor or a natural ecosystem closer to home.

Also consider: River Notes by Wade Davis, Naturalist by E.O. Wilson

For the CLIMATE DENIER in your life:

Cartoon Introduction to Climate Change by Yoram Bauman
This holiday season, give your favorite climate-denier a passive aggressive “wink-wink, nudge-nudge” with The Cartoon Introduction to Climate Change featuring self –described Stand-up Economist Yoram Bauman and award-winning illustrator Grady Klein. Give the gift of fun, entertaining basic understanding of what is, undeniably and not up for subjective debate, scientific fact!

Also consider: Heatstroke by Anthony Barnosky, Straight Up by Joseph Romm

For the HEALTH NUT in your life:

Unnatural Selection: How We Are Changing Life, Gene by Gene by Emily Monosson
Give the health nut in your life the gift of understanding with Unnatural Selection. Your friends and family will discover how chemicals are changing life on earth and how we can protect it. Plus, they’ll read fascinating stories about the search for a universal vaccine, the attack of relentless bedbugs, and a miracle cancer drug that saved a young father’s life.

Also consider: Toms River by Dan Fagin, Roads Were Not Built for Cars by Carlton Reid, 

For the ADVOCATE in your life:

Prospects for Resilience: Insights from New York City's Jamaica Bay by Sanderson, et. al
Need an antidote to the doom and gloom? Stressed-out environmental advocates will appreciate Prospects for Resilience: Insights from New York City's Jamaica Bay. It’s a deep dive into one of the most important questions of our time: how can we create cities where people and nature  thrive together? Prospects for Resilience showcases successful efforts to restore New York’s much abused Jamaica Bay, but its lessons apply to any communities seeking to become more resilient in a turbulent world.

Ecological Economics by Josh Farley and Herman Daly
Blow the mind of the advocate in your life with a copy of Ecological Economics by the godfather of ecological economics, Herman Daly, and Josh Farley. In plain, and sometimes humorous English, they’ll come to understand how our current economic system does not play by the same laws that govern nearly every other system known to humankind—that is, the laws of thermodynamics. Given recent financial and political events, there’s a message of hope within the book as it lays out specific policy and social change frameworks.

Also consider: Tactical Urbanism by Mike Lydon, Cooler Smarter by The Union of Concerned Scientists

For the CRAZY CAT PERSON in your life:

An Indomitable Beast: The Remarkable Journey of the Jaguar by Alan Rabinowitz
The cat lovers in your life will lose themselves in An Indomitable Beast, an illuminating story about the journey of the jaguar. This is the perfect book for any of your feline loving friends, whether they want to pursue adventure with the big cats of the wild, or stay home with a book and cup of tea.

Also consider: The Carnivore Way by Cristina Eisenberg, Jaguar by Alan Rabinowitz 

For the GARDENER in your life:

Wild by Design: Strategies for Creating Life-Enhancing Landscapes by Margie Ruddick
Give your favorite gardener an antidote to the winter blues. The lush photographs of Wild by Design, and inspirational advice on cultivating landscapes in tune with nature, transport readers to spectacular parks, gardens, and far-flung forests. This book is guaranteed to be well-thumbed and underlined by the time spring planting season arrives!

Also consider: Brilliant Green by Stefano Mancuso, Principles of Ecological Landscape Design, Travis Beck

For the STUBBORN RELATIVE in your life:

Common Ground on Hostile Turf: Stories from an Environmental Mediator by Lucy Moore
For the person keeping the peace in your family this holiday season, the perfect gift is Common Ground on Hostile Turf, an inspiring how to guide demonstrating it is possible to bring vastly different views together. This book gives lessons learned on setting down at the table with the most diverse set of players and the journey they take to find common grounds and results. If your holiday dinner needs some mediation, look to the advice of author Lucy Moore.

Also consider: Communication Skills for Conservation Professionals by Susan Jacobson, Communicating Nature by Julia Corbett

For the HISTORY BUFF in your life: 

The Past and Future City: How Historic Preservation is Reviving America's Communities by Stephanie Meeks with Kevin C. Murphy
When it comes to the the future of our cities, the secret to urban revival lies in our past. Tickle the fancy of your favorite history buff by sharing The Past and Future City, which takes readers on a journey through our country's historic spaces to explain why preservation is important for all communities. With passion and expert insight, this book shows how historic spaces explain our past and serve as the foundation of our future.

Also consider: The Forgotten Founders by Stewart Udall, Aldo Leopold's Odyssey, Tenth Anniversary Edition by Julianne Lutz Warren

For the BUSINESS PERSON in your life:

Nature's Fortune: How Business and Society Thrive by Investing in Nature by Mark Tercek
For the aspiring CEO in your life who drools at phrases like "rates of return" and "investment," share the gift of Nature's Fortune, an essential guide to the world's economic (and environmental) well-being.

Also consider: Corporation 2020 by Pavan Sukhdev, Resilient by Design by Joseph Fiksel

This Valentine’s Day, we thought it would be fun for Island Press authors to share the love. We asked a few authors to choose their favorite Island Press book—other than their own, of course—and explain what makes it so special. Check out their responses below, and use code 4MAGICAL for 25% off and free shipping all of the books below, as well as books from participating authors.

What’s your favorite Island Press book? Share your answer in the comments.

My favorite IP book—not that I’ve read them all—is Mike Lydon’s Tactical Urbanism. This book shows how ad hoc interventions can improve the public realm, especially if they’re later made permanent. I discussed the concept on the latest Spokesmen podcast with architect Jason Fertig and illustrator Bekka “Bikeyface” Wright, both of Boston. 

—Carlton Reid, Bike Boom and Roads Were Not Built for Cars

Last year I wrote a cover story for SIERRA magazine about how Donald Trump's proposed wall along the US-Mexico border would all but eliminate any chance for recovering jaguar species in the Southwest. In the course of my research I came across Alan Rabinowitz's An Indomitable Beast. It's a great read, blending Rabinowitz's own experiences as a big cat biologist with cutting-edge findings on this amazing species. As a writer, this book and its amazing details helped me bring the jaguar to life for readers. 

—Jason Mark, Satellites in the High Country

This day is a time for reaching beyond data and logic to think about deeper ways of knowing. Love, specifically, but I would add to that faith, tradition and ethics. That's why I love Aaron Wolf's new book, The Spirit of Dialogue: Lessons from Faith Traditions in Transforming Conflict. Going beyond the  mechanical "rationality" of the typical public meeting is necessary if we are to address the big issues of global sustainability and the smaller issues of how we sustain our local communities. Aaron Wolf provides the experience, tools and promise of a better, deeper approach.

—Larry Nielsen, Nature's Allies

Like many others, I am indebted to to Island Press for not one but three books that profoundly influenced my thinking. Panarchy (2001, edited by Lance Gunderson and C.S. Holling) introduced me to the concept of socio-ecological systems resilience. Resilience Thinking (2006, by Brian Walker and David Salt) taught me what systems resilience really means. And the follow-up book Resilience Practice (2012) helped me start to understand how systems resilience actually works. The latter remains the most-consulted book on my shelf—by Island Press or any other publisher—and I was thrilled and frankly humbled when Brian and David agreed to write a chapter for our own contribution to the field, The Community Resilience Reader (2017).

—Daniel Lerch, The Community Resilience Reader

"A large percentage of my urbanism bookshelf is comprised of Island Press books, so it's very difficult to share my love for just one! So, I won't because the books we pull of the shelf most often these days are the NACTO Design Guides. Finally, a near complete set of highly usable and mutually supportive design standards that help us advocate for and build better streets, better places." 

—Mike Lydon, Tactical Urbanism

Nicols Fox's Against the Machine is a book that’s becomes more relevant each year as technology impinges ever further on our daily lives. It’s a fascinating, deeply researched look at how and why people have resisted being treated as extensions of machines.

—Phil Langdon, Within Walking Distance

Lake Effect by Nancy Nichols. I read this book several years ago. It is so important to hear the voices of those whose lives are impacted by industrial age pollutants, lest we slide into complacency. In this case, the story of the chemicals of Lake Michigan. It is a short, beautifully written, disturbing read.
—Emily Monosson, Natural Defense and Unnatural Selection

Peter Gleick’s series, The World’s Water, is one of the most useful surveys of the cutting edge of global waters there is. Each edition brings in-depth coverage of the issues of the day, always eminently readable and backed up by the crack research team that he puts together for each topic. I use it in my classes, always confident that students (and I) will be kept abreast of the best of The World’s Water.
—Aaron Wolf, The Spirit of Dialogue

Mark Jerome Walters' important book, Seven Modern Plagues, places great emphasis on linking emerging diseases with habitat destruction and other forms of modification natural processes. This book is a call for us to recognize that each new disease reflects an environmental warning.
—Andy Dyer, Chasing the Red Queen

My favorite Island Press book is The New Agrarianism: Land, Culture, and the Community of Life, edited by Eric T. Freyfogle. Perhaps it remains my favorite IP text because it is the first IP text I remember reading front to back, twice! I first encountered the book as a graduate student and was struck my its scope and tone. The book is thought provoking. But it's also a joy to read, which isn't surprising in hindsight given the award-winning contributors.   
—Michael Carolan, No One Eats Alone

Don't see your Island Press fave? Share it in the comments below!