Our best tools to create healthy cities and regions are good cores, centers, corridors, and downtowns.
Rod Engelen - The Mixed Use Imperative
I am a retired city planner with a broad range of experience
including major work in the planning of downtowns and centers at
both consultant and staff levels. Over a fifty year period, I
worked in over fifty downtowns for cities ranging in size from five
thousand to five million to prepare plans for their improvement. In
addition, I studied and wrote extensively about the importance of
downtowns to their communities and society and what is required to
make them as strong and valuable as possible.
I am especially indebted to authors, mentors, clients, and professional associates such as Phil Hammer, Bob Siler, Tony Downs, Larry Irvin, Warner Shippee, Todd Heglund, Darwin Stuart, Bob Teska, Les Pollock, Terry Goddard and many others. I especially acknowledge Dr. Jerry Schneider, author of The PolyCentric City, and Victor Gruen, author of Centers for the Urban Environment, as well as Ted Aschman and George Barton for their seminal work in this area.