I haven’t posted as much as I’d like over the past several weeks. (I’ll use the excuse that I have a PhD thesis that I’m supposed to be writing.) I promise more content over the next few weeks, but until then, the following interesting tidbits from the rest of the blogosphere should tide you over.
- Emily Washington at Market Urbanism is hosting a summer book club, which is currently reading The High Cost of Free Parking. I’ve written about the book before, and its very persuasive arguments have become a cornerstone of my views on urban design. So pick up a copy and follow along with Emily today!
- Over at the Small Streets Blog, Phil LaCombe takes us on a guided tour of some of Copenhagen’s small streets. Why should we let those old European cities have all the fun? We can have small streets right here in Hyde Park!
- America’s forgotten small street, the alley, is the subject of the latest Old Urbanist post. Charlie Gardner presents evidence that the alley is becoming less of an afterthought in new residential developments. Will the rise of functional and aesthetically pleasing alleyways pave the way (pun very much intended) to an overall reduction in street widths? Only time will tell.
- Steven Vance of Grid Chicago details the trials and tribulations of reporting infrastructure problems. This issue, which I’m sure many Chicagoans are familiar with, while certainly symptomatic of bureaucratic logjam, is largely the result of overburdened, overengineered infrastructure that is part and parcel of automobile-centered design. The number-one priority of infrastructure maintenance is to ensure that cars can continue to drive on each and every street. Everything else is an afterthought.
Let the Midway Bloom 
I take slight exception with the statement that (in Chicago) “the number-one priority of infrastructure maintenance is to ensure that cars can continue to drive on every street.” The biggest push so far by the new administration has been on public transit infrastructure: remodeling 100 El stations; repairing all the tracks on the Red Line (which is soon to cause some havoc for South Siders, as I understand it); and buying more than 700 new specially constructed cars for the Blue Line (made in the USA, no less). With a train system that is more than 100 years old, they seem to have put long-delayed transit repairs pretty much at the top of the list.