You only have until tomorrow -- Wednesday, August 25, 2010 -- to help set the agenda for one of the most dynamic events in the world of planning. Submit your ideas for sessions and speakers now!

CNU will keep the Call for Input for its 19th annual Congress open through 5 p.m. Eastern time tomorrow. That's the deadline for submitting ideas -- and commenting and voting on them. With nearly 100 ideas entered and on-display, now is the best time yet for letting CNU 19 organizers know what you'd like to see and hear in Madison.

The annual Congress is the leading venue for new urbanist networking, collaboration, and education. The principles and strategies honed over CNU's 18 previous Congresses have helped establish a new paradigm for efficient, livable, healthy and sustainable communities. And CNU 19 will expand on that knowledge base while exploring cutting-edge new strategies for incorporating urban farming, bicycling, place making and economic revitalization in "Growing Local."

The new interactive platform allows users to submit ideas for people they would like to see, sessions they would like to attend, and goals they would like to see the Congress achieve. The new platform creates a transparent and open forum where users share, refine, and receive feedback on ideas. The more detail you can give us about your idea, the better chance it has of being selected. This is your Congress so please don't hesitate to give us your input!

Some of the current hot ideas include:
[15 votes] Ed Glaeser - Pro-Urban Economist
[14 votes] Shrinking Cities - A New Paradigm for Redevelopment
[18 votes] Andreas Røhl - The Lead Bike Planner in Copenhagen

Submit your ideas and comment now at http://cnu19.ideascale.com
And learn more about CNU 19's proposed topic tracks: http://www.cnu.org/cnu19/tracks

Last month, we brought CNU 18 - New Urbanism: Rx for Healthy Places to the web. Almost every ticketed and non-ticket session is available online for viewing.

Although attendees of the conference get free access to the all the non-ticketed session as well as the 202 sessions they attended -- and other CNU members can access them at discounted prices -- we know a number of people haven't yet taken the time to log in and gain access to this fine resource.

So in the spirit of summer, here's an easy way to view one of the webcasts -- just click and you're there. Do so and you'll find a memorable session. At the beginning of "The Next Urbanism is not the New Urbanism," CNU co-founder Andrés Duany warned that the session was not about environmentalism, as rumored. "This is a very unusual session that has to do with intellectual history, has to do with the academy and all sorts of esoteric things.
As soon as you get bored or think it is complete bulls---, I will not be hurt if you get out of here really fast."

He then proceeded to keep an audience of urbanists riveted -- and probably a few members of the academy fuming -- with his views on the ascendance of Landscape Urbanism as a conscious rival of the New Urbanism. Featuring modernist and avant-garde architecture in naturalized settings that purport to be both urban and environmentally sensitive, this emergent model offers star architects a setting that doesn't constrain their freedom of form as does more traditional fabric, while offering landscape architects marquee visibility too. Though concerned about Landscape Urbanism's fast ascent and apparent grip on Harvard and other top design schools, Duany is impressed with canny aspects of the movement, including its sense of purpose and use of alluring imagery, and sees some potential for inter-movement cooperation (to the extent such interest will be reciprocated). Reactions from veteran professors and departmental leaders Doug Kelbaugh and Ellen Dunham-Jones round out the presentation.

Grab some popcorn and click here to start viewing your movie (which as a webcast features fully synched audio and slideshow tracks):

• The Next Urbanism is not New Urbanism

Note to attendees: Everyone who registered for CNU 18 should have received a message with a code to enable viewing of webcasts of all non-ticketed sessions. And those who registered for ticketed New Urbanism 202 seminars, should have received messages with codes to access those webcasts as well.

If you haven't seen your code, check your inbox (look for "your complimentary code" in the subject line) or e-mail intern@cnu.org to have it sent to you again. Please specify whether you're retrieving codes for non-ticketed sessions, 202s or both.

The CNU 18 webcast library is made possible through support of Green Street Properties. Photo remix from original by Michael Kesler via Flickr.

On Saturday, August 21, the The Times-Picayune ran an op-ed by Clifton James and John Norquist.on tearing down New Orlean's Claiborne Expressway. 

The Claiborne Expressway, also known as I-10, was built in the 1960s right through the heart of New Orleans' Tremé neighborhood,  devastating a vital center of African-American business and culture. Last month, CNU and its coalition partners in New Orleans made the future of the blighted corridor a major agenda item in New Orleans by issuing a report -- Restoring Claiborne Avenue: Alternatives for the Future of Claiborne Avenue -- that determined a boulevard would be able to handle the traffic from the expressway, adding only a few minutes to trips for typical commuters and even less for the larger numbers who use the freeway for short trips. It would also allow business to flourish along the restored boulevard once again.

With debate pro-and-con raging in the newspaper's comment boards every time the issue is reported, James and Norquist addressed the top concerns that have surfaced, including the boulevard's performance during hurricane evacuation and traffic impact of demolition of the overpass.

"Although they're big, grimy and loom over dusty parking lots, the natural reaction once elevated highways are in place is to wonder how a city can function without them," write James and Norquist. "Quite well in many cases, history tells us," they answer.

For the complete op-ed, read on!

Leading Voices Concur

In early August, Times-Picayune columnist James Gill used his column to express eloquent support for the proposal to remove the overpass and restore the boulevard. "Many urban expressways seem to have been built on the theory that destroying the heart of a city is a rational way of ensuring that you can get there quickly," he wrote.  "The Congress for the New Urbanism report catalogs the wholesale demise of businesses along the avenue once the expressway turned quiet neighborhoods into bedlam and formed a new barrier between Treme and the Seventh Ward.
If building it helped destroy the heart of the city, the next move seems obvious."

The proposal also impressed Hartford Courant columnist and deputy editorial page editor Tom Condon, who wrote a column entitled "A Ruinous Road in New Orleans" and cited CNU for championing the removal of the Route 34 connector in New Haven on "its top 10 list of highways that ought to be relegated to the dump truck of history."

CNU's Michigan Chapter (MiCNU) is planning on producing a training this fall incorporating the manual, Designing Walkable Urban Thoroughfares, created through an innovative partnership of CNU and the Institute of Transportation Engineers. The training will take place on December 9, 2010 in Lansing, Michigan.

What:   Transportation Bonanza - ITE/CNU Training
When:  December 8 & 9, 2010
Where: Downtown Lansing, Michigan

Program
Day 1, Dec 8th -- Sponsored by the Michigan DOT Safe Routes to School, Michigan Department of Community Health, Michigan APA and others, this day will focus on Michigan's new Complete Streets Legislation and Safe Routes to School. There will be a panel discussing/presenting best practices and resources available for safe routes to school. There may also be some mobile workshops.  
 
Day 2, Dec 9th -- Sponsored by MiCNU, this day will feature presentations on applying the ITE Recommended Practices on Designing Walkable Thoroughfares and Planning Urban Road Networks. Confirmed national speakers John Norquist and Brian Bochner will be complemented by Michigan speakers. Phil Caruso of ITE has also been invited but has not confirmed.    

• The Pullman Wal-Mart: One Step Forward, One Step Back. The design for the new Wal-Mart approved to be built in Pullman is a step forward, but it is nowhere close to being a New Urbanist design.
• Abogo, A New Transportation Cost Tool. The Center for Neighborhood Technology has a new tool that allows you to see just how much transportation affects your pocketbook.
  
• Walkable neighborhoods and subways may be why Washington DC is a leader in fighting obesity. A New York Times article about the American obesity epidemic suggests that smart city planning can impact the health of residents.
• Barnett lays out the facts on Seattle's Road Diets. Erica Barnett, in a Publicola article, "Times Columnist Ignores the Facts on Road Diets" tears apart the arguments put forth by a recent Seattle Times columnist, Nicole Brodeur, on road diets.

National Charrette Institute

The National Charrette Institute is a nonprofit educational institution that trains professionals and community in best practices for charrettes -- a design-based, accelerated, collaborative project management system that harnesses the talents and energies of all interested parties to create and support a feasible plan. Since NCI is a CNU continuing education partner, CNU members are eligible for a 10 percent discount

Upcoming NCI Charrette System Certificate Trainings are:
Septemer 20-22 - London, UK
October 11-13 - Portland, OR (Sign up before August 15th to receive a discount!)

NCI Webinar Series
NCI is pleased to offer the following webinars for 2010. We are partnering with a range of experts on each topic to bring you fresh perspectives on these current issues. The next webinar is Charrettes for Form-Based Codes in September, 2010. Read more.

Form-Based Codes Institute

The Form-Based Codes Institute was founded in 2004. The goals of the institute are to set standards for the practice of Form-Based Coding, to educate and reach out to various audiences, and to create a forum for discussion about FBC.

Upcoming Form-Based Codes Courses:
October 5 - The ABC's of Form-Based Codes: Special One-Day Introduction - Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

For more information, read more.