INFORMATION #1 06-16-1997 - Laserfiche WebLink

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A.P.A IN SAN DIEGO, 1997 I appreciated the opportunity of attending the American Planning Association's Annual Convention in San Diego to hear what professional and citizen planners around the country are excited about. After listening to the many presenters it was obvious that despite differences in the size and location of our communities we are facing many of the same issues and challenges. Following is a short summary of the sessions I attended as well as information that might be useful to us as citizen planners. The schedule also provided less structured opportunities to provoke thinking and networking - the opening session with Michael Moore (of "Roger and Me" fame), the opening reception at Horton Plaza (a large, downtown, multi-level, upscale shopping mall), an Awards luncheon (eten Magic Johnson was recognized!), and a reception by the San Diego Planning Commission (we met a planning commissioner from Nevada who grew up in Becker). The combination of featured speakers, formal sessions and informal networking provided me with a great deal of valuable information. KEYNOTE SPEAKER: Michael Moore, of "Roger and Me Fame", urged his listeners to think through decisions that are made and not to automatically accept that decisions reflect the best option for all people. He entertained his audience by giving many examples that have "hurt us as a people" and said that we make laws to protect against this happening. SAFE COMMUNITIES: Representatives from 3 larger communities presented their work with Crime Prevention through Environmental Design(CPTED). The projects they described focused on use of the following design elements: access control (creates neighborhoods), natural surveillance (i.e. each citizen observes hislher own surroundings, territorial reinforcement (have people feel ownership of the front of their house). In their comments they emphasized the importance of making design decisions based on what we know about crime and criminals: ***opportunities for crime are of function of daily activities and routine ***criminals are drawn to places they know well ***criminals prefer opportunities that minimize effort and risk while maximizing reward. The presenters also stated that the "maintenance of property suggests the relative risk." Each community solicited law enforcement support and has a CPTED review of plans. W ALKABLE COMMUNITIES: The Bicycle Federation of America presented their sales pitch for changing our planning focus from thinking primarily about cars to focusing on pedestrians. They quoted Albert Einstein "The problems we have created cannot be solved with the same thinking that created them." The presenters suggested using the same criteria for establishing walkable communities that are used in business, development, and by consumers in general: security, convenience, efficiency,