UNIVERSAL DESIGN AND URBAN DESIGN PODCAST

ABSOLUTELY ACCESSIBLE KENT

So proud to be a part of Absolutely Accessible Kent. 

Check out this podcast.

I explain why Universal Design is a must in Urban Design.

Episode 28: Accessibility in a Global Context.

Host Nathan Slauer discusses accessibility practices with Pulitzer Prize-nominated journalist Steve Wright.

Yours truly also drops seafood recommendations in Lisbon, bagel and schmear thoughts for NYC and Monkfish in Istanbul.

Plus some mangled attempts at pronouncing Turkish and Portuguese.

Fun fun fun.

https://www.dakc.us/2023/05/episode-28-accessibility-in-a-global-context/

 

GRATIFIED TO BE EVALUATING MOBILITY FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES

WITHIN THE CONTEXT OF THE MICHIGAN AVENUE BIKE LANES

COMING TO THE CITY OF KALAMAZOO MICHIGAN

My work as a storyteller/planner/educator/activist continues to expand, as I work with engineers, architects, urban planners and landscape architects to create a more inclusive built environment.

I reviewed two-way bike lanes for possible conflicts with wheelchair access.

I will also soon work with one of the most-respected transportation research groups in the U.S. – on Universal Design and access for all.

THOUGHTS ON TURNING 57

SIX DECADES ON EARTH AND STILL STANDING

I  turned 57 on Oct. 22nd. In my 40 years as a writer, I have interviewed the famous, the infamous, the mega wealthy and those headed to prison.

My life as a journalist, marketer, storyteller and advocate has taken me to places I never thought a kid from a working-class family – the first to go to college – would ever go.

Certainly, my greatest accomplishment has been being a companion to my Heidi for 35 years.

When it comes to professional achievements, I have a Pulitzer nomination and several diverse awards on my walls. I have reinvented myself from a sportswriter to urban affairs journalist, then to a public policy chief, business development director, marketing manager, communications leader, storyteller and advocate.

One of my favorite story sources, who became a friend and mentor in Ohio, had an “I love me” room filled with honors, accolades and scrapbooks from his rewarding life. Perhaps like me, he sometimes doubted his ability or shrugged off praise while taking the slightest shortcoming to heart. Maybe that’s why Saul crafted his I love me room in his cozy abode in greater Columbus.

I recently submitted an extended bio for a speaking engagement. After publishing about 7,000 bylined stories during the past 40 years, it felt odd to write about myself in the third person. Despite the awkwardness, I did feel fairly good about myself (always a challenge in these go-go-go, dog eat dog times), so I will share some of it:

His 40-year career, the past 21 in greater Miami, has been marked by dozens of national stories on the planning profession in diverse publications plus more than a decade of daily Blog, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn posts on urban design.

When Wright came to Florida, he already had been a Pulitzer-nominated, award-winning journalist who covered the urban affairs, smart growth and planning beat at the Columbus Dispatch newspaper. His work earned special recognition from the City of Columbus Planning Department for expert, in-depth coverage of planning in the growing city.

While working as the first full-time urban affairs reporter at the Dispatch, Wright covered not only planning, zoning and development issues, but also focused on land use’s impact on equity, inclusion, diversity and accessibility. His marquee story was a first of its kind special section chronicling a year spent with a photographer in the city’s oldest, poorest, most-neglected neighborhood – Franklinton, which was under gentrification pressure due to an Army Corps flood wall that would usher in development.

In Miami, he has worked with leading urban designers, town planners, architects, engineers, landscape architects, sustainability experts and similar leading firms that create a better built environment. He was put his expertise in Universal Design, Inclusive Mobility and access for People with Disabilities into every winning project.

 

PROUD TO HAVE MORE THAN 300,000 READERS and to

 BLOG DAILY ABOUT URBAN DESIGN AND DISABILITY ADVOCACY

 

We stared this blog a decade ago – when we only had one email account.

It was before we Tweeted several times a day, made Facebook posts all the time and shared Instagram stories plus LinkedIn articles.

We have made more than 3,000 posts.

We remember when we celebrated 15,000 unique visitors to the site.

Now we have shared more than 1,500 fine art images taken around the globe – showing the best in travel, town planning, inclusion, equity and accessibility.

We have taken government leaders, big business and others to task for failing to make the world wheelchair-accessible and barrier-free to all.

We have serialized national magazine cover and centerspread stories, enhanced with exclusive added information and images we took with our own digital SLR.

The combined content would fill three to four full volume nonfiction books.

The insights have influenced hundreds of urban designers, transportation engineers, town planners, landscape architects, sustainability experts, architects and policymakers.

It has shared dynamic theories on universal design, inclusive mobility and environmental justice.

Stay tuned for more.

 

HAPPY HOLIDAYS

 FROM HONEYBEAR, HEIDI AND YOURS TRULY

According to HoneyBear, our beloved Siamese rescue cat, 2020 has already come to an end.

Note in the picture that she has closed my laptop and commenced sun bathing flat on top of it till Jan. 4, 2021.

While I envy such dedication to respite and restoration in light of the incredibly challenging year, I will not be out till then (but do hope to spend much time with my amazing partner of 33 years – Heidi – most of the last week of 2020.)

I just wanted to drop a warm note of thanks to everyone who has been a part of my life in these tumultuous times.

I won the lottery of life when I met my Heidi and I have grown to be the most-fortunate man I know – working only with clients that are focused on making the world a better place.

I earn my daily bread providing editorial services and marketing writing for highly-respected planners, urban designers, architects, engineers, mobility specialists, landscape architects, sustainability experts, disability access advocates academics, non-profits and urban infill developers.

Yours in an inclusive, equitable and accessible built environment for all,

--Steve

CELEBRATING 225,000 READERS

PROUD TO SHARE MY WORDS AND IMAGES WITH THE WORLD

This blog has been around for nearly a decade.

More than 2,500 stories have been posted.

Nearly 2,000 original color images – taken on a series of Nikon Digital cameras by yours truly – have been posted.

The advocacy for people with disabilities has been ramped up.

The vivid color photography has portrayed street life in Rome, Paris, Barcelona, Istanbul, Marrakech, Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires, Madrid, Mexico City and dozens of urban locations in the USA.

The text would fill nearly four books.

The topics are relevant to urban designers, town planners, mobility engineers, landscape architects, architects, sustainability experts and others who impact our built environment.

BIRTHDAY WISH

FOR MORE INCLUSIVE DESIGNERS

Tomorrow, I turn 54. 

I don't want a cake, candles or surprise well-wishers to mark my five-plus decades on earth.

I want designers to be more inclusive.

Designers includes, but is not limited to: architects, landscape architects, interior designers, engineers, planners, urban designers and all the government officials that oversee them.

I have been with my wife for a third of a century and for those 33.3 years, I have (as a journalist, policy advisor and marketer) heard designers whine like little children about the "constraints" of universal design, inclusive mobility and the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Mind you, when most of them know my wife has used a wheelchair for mobility for more than four decades, the designer I know makes some halfhearted mention of the time they built a ramp, or widened a door way or, at the last second just before occupancy permit and grand opening, added in some such thing meant to meet the needs of people with disabilities.

But in their day-to-day practice, they could give a rat's ass.

Some, and maybe they think they're being cool and revolutionary for "telling me like it is" have no problem saying they think buildings build before the ADA should not have to be made accessible, even if they are being gutted and rebuilt.

Many say it is impossible to design for accessibility. Or it is only on large scale projects.

Others, especially many of those who run in the New Urbanism circles love to rant about how the ADA is the end of town design and how it destroys their ability to create walkable, compact, sustainable communities.

The irony is that virtually everything that serves a person with limited mobility fits hand and glove with the New Urbanism. Just don't tell that to some of its narcissistic, self-centered founders who refuse to give an inch to universal design.

I say if you are not up to designing for all, turn in your license. Go put in sod, or plant trees, or be a bricklayer. Those are all honorable professions -- but they do not risk access for all because the lead designer is 100 percent bigoted toward people with disabilities.  If having a natural aversion to non-whites is racism, then this hatred of building for disabled people should be called ableism. Both are despicable and bordering on fascist, Nazi beliefs.

But rather than just rant and call out foolishness for what it is (and I'm being kind calling these folks fools), I'll present examples.

To the town planner, the urban designer who says they cannot make something accessible to all, that the "rules" of ADA are too restrictive.

Let's see. They have a piece of land to design.  Right off the bat, it has zoning and land use restrictions.

More likely than not, there will be draconian rules on the height, unit density, massing and other aspects of the property.

There will be dozens of restrictions on whether it can have a house, a double, a small apartment, a store, a restaurant, a skyscraper, a hospital, a park, a factory, etc.

And whatever it is that's being built must stay within the measurements of the property -- i.e., they can't built out into the road or onto a neighbor's property. Beyond that, there are required setbacks and stepbacks.

So land me get this straight. You call yourself an urban designer, a land use planner, a town planner. And you know whether the piece of land you're studying is the size of grandma's bungalow or big enough to create a new town on -- there will easily be 100 zoning, height, footprint, form and other rules that you must work within before you can be creative.

But one little issue of making sure your mini park, park, mall, civic center, complete street, transit-oriented development, commercial corridor, historic district -- can be used by all, that stumps you and defeats you?

If that is the case, Sir or Madame, you are incompetent. Turn in your license, your AICP certification, your watercolors and SketchUp software and find something else to make rent doing.

If you are angered, put off, thrown for a loss or flat out opposed to creating a new built environment that allows all to enjoy it -- then you are not fit to design anything at all.