cadence comments about public space

22 Mar 2010

Intrinsic or instrumental - parks, museums ...

CABE have published Urban green nation, which 'assembles the national evidence about the quantity, quality and use of publicly owned urban green space in England and ... examines the significant impact of local green spaces on people's health and well-being'. It all makes sense, but it is worth giving a thought as to whether we should fund parks because they are good for health (an instrumental benefit)? Or just because people like them and a rich country should be able to provide them for that reason alone (intrinsic)? ... more

6 Feb 2008

Quality of life and innovation

Cadence Works attended a seminar on some interesting scoping work carried out for CABE Space on the relationship between quality of life and quality of public space. Not surprisingly one of the conclusions of the work was that more research is required ... more

15 Nov 2007

Delhi transport problems

A Cadence collaborator has relocated to Delhi to work on transport policy, which is quite a job. He emailed this week to ask if we had any ideas about how to promote cycling ... more

9 Nov 2007

Cities better or not?

Two views in one week - According to the Government "the regeneration of cities such as Sheffield, Leeds and Hull have made these cities barely recognisable from the 1980s when jobs and opportunities were few and far between". But, a think tank report says, "over the last 10 years, and despite a doubling in funding levels, the very cities that have received these record levels of funding have fallen further behind ... more

29 Oct 2007

Risk, fear and childhood

The way the media covered play expert Tim Gill's new book, "No Fear", about risk and childhood was instructive this week. Some picked up on his view that bullying is exaggerated ... more

3 Oct 2007

Jamie Oliver's dinners - remember Alf Tupper?

It seems a bit unfair to criticise Jamie Oliver for the fact that kids don't want to eat healthier food. Headlines like ‘Kids 'Sick' Of Healthy School Meals' and ‘Children find Jamie Oliver's school food hard to swallow, say inspectors' appear to give that impression. Diet is an important determinant of health, but chips never seemed to do Alf Tupper - The Tough of the Track any harm.... more