Archinect - News 2024-12-22T00:46:28-05:00 https://archinect.com/news/article/134719585/think-you-live-in-a-nice-county-find-out-where-it-stands-on-the-nationwide-natural-amenities-index Think you live in a nice county? Find out where it stands on the nationwide Natural Amenities Index. Alexander Walter 2015-08-20T12:01:00-04:00 >2018-01-30T06:16:04-05:00 <img src="https://archinect.gumlet.io/uploads/z2/z2mpubultoeifmnk.png?fit=crop&auto=compress%2Cformat&enlarge=true&w=1200" border="0" /><em><p>Ventura County, Calif., is the absolute most desirable place to live in America. I know this because in the late 1990s the federal government devised a measure of the best and worst places to live in America, from the standpoint of scenery and climate. The "natural amenities index" is intended as "a measure of the physical characteristics of a county area that enhance the location as a place to live."</p></em><br /><br /><p>Wanna find out how well or how poorly your home county scored? Head over to the <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonkblog/wp/2015/08/17/every-county-in-america-ranked-by-natural-beauty/" target="_blank"><em>Washington Post</em> article</a> and hover your mouse over the interactive map. (Residents of the Great Lakes Region - prepare yourselves for disappointment.)</p> https://archinect.com/news/article/120839978/from-an-urban-planning-demographics-housing-junkie From an urban planning/demographics/housing junkie Nam Henderson 2015-02-16T10:32:00-05:00 >2015-02-16T10:32:36-05:00 <img src="https://archinect.gumlet.io/uploads/0f/0f9t98b30sijeu2q.tiff?fit=crop&auto=compress%2Cformat&enlarge=true&w=1200" border="0" /><em><p>Increasingly, in the US at least, central cities are all becoming more or less the same...Meanwhile, the suburbs are becoming more diverse. Not just in terms of ethnicity as growing numbers of blacks, Asians, and Hispanics pour into the suburbs from central cities and abroad. But also in terms of winners and losers</p></em><br /><br /><p>Last year following visits to&nbsp;<a href="http://csen.tumblr.com/post/84634987174/thoughts-from-the-road-chattanooga-knoxville" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Chattanooga, Knoxville, Lexington, Cincinnati, Columbus</a>, csen proposed <a href="http://csen.tumblr.com/post/85168617084/global-vs-local-neighborhoods-global-vs-regional" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">four basic city/neighborhood archetypes</a>&nbsp;for thinking about a non-dystopic 2030. He also wrote about <a href="http://csen.tumblr.com/post/105193722999/central-city-homogenization-and-suburban" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Central City Homogenization and Suburban Diversification</a>&nbsp;and argued for why&nbsp;<a href="http://csen.tumblr.com/post/105381170434/the-sun-belt-economic-model-is-amazon-omics" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">The Sun Belt Economic Model is Amazon-omics</a><strong>.&nbsp;</strong>More recently, he asked&nbsp;<a href="http://When%20Will%20We%20Build%20Internet%20Cities%20the%20Way%20We%20Built%20Railroad/Steel%20Cities?" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">When Will We Build Internet Cities the Way We Built Railroad/Steel Cities?</a></p>