Browse by Tags

Last week, RTC hosted The Secrets to Gardens on Urban Pathways , a webinar that offered tips and advice on how to start and maintain community gardens along trails in urban areas. Presenter Jesse Kurtz-Nicholl of Johns Hopkins University's Center for a Livable Future was joined by Urban Tilth executive director Doria Robinson and Park Guthrie of Wildcat Farms . With trail garden experience in Richmond, Calif., and Washington, D.C., the panel offered their expertise and took questions from the audience...

By Ethan Ellestad As a teenager, it is often hard enough to get your voice heard, let alone be taken seriously. Yet, on a hot day in late June, more than 30 young people from the Louisiana Green Corps set out on a tour of the Lafitte Greenway to prove that their opinions and ideas were just as valid as anyone’s twice their age. Every summer, the Louisiana Green Corps, a non-profit dedicated to providing green job skills training to unemployed, underemployed or otherwise disadvantaged New Orleans...

The Secrets to Gardens on Urban Pathways Hosted by RTC's Urban Pathways Initiative Thursday, August 26, 2010 - 2 p.m. EST Gardens along trails are great community resources that can not only build a connection to local food and natural systems, but also improve community interaction, break down generational barriers and add a sense of livability to urban areas. Maintaining a community or school garden along a trail requires space, money, expertise, dedication and relationships. Jesse Kurtz-Nicholl...

The challenges of safely navigating Los Angeles by bike are particularly difficult for new immigrants who depend on biking to and from work yet are not connected to the larger bicycling community. Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition (LACBC) is reaching out to these cyclists through their City of Lights program, which aims to help them ride safely and keep their equipment in good repair, as well as develop their potential to become local advocates for better bicycle facilities and education in their...

By Angelina Horn, City Parks Alliance The glut of commercial space in U.S. cities threatens to pull down cash-strapped banks and stall the nation’s economic recovery. At the same time, urban parks can have a catalytic effect that improves the economy, environment and health of a city. Red Fields to Green Fields is an initiative that seeks to acquire vacant or financially distressed commercial properties for conversion into urban parks. In addition, adjacent land is "banked" for future sustainable...

On June 5, Rails-to-Trails Conservancy celebrated National Trails Day by hosting an event with Kaiser Permanente on the Metropolitan Branch Trail. The event, called Meet the Met: Party on the Met Branch Trail , introduced surrounding communities to a new pathway that had opened only one month before . While some area residents had been involved with the long history of getting the trail built, many in the surrounding neighborhoods didn't know that the trail existed. By working with our partners to...

On the urban planning news website Planetizen, Diana DeRubertis recently noted that trails in her neighborhood weren't getting enough use because they seemed isolated, and as a result, unsafe for users on the trail alone. Despite the reality that trails are no more dangerous than their surrounding areas, this misperception is a serious issue that discourages trail use. First, the hard numbers: In Rails-to-Trails Conservancy's survey of crime on rail-trails , results show that the real issue is one...