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Archive for August, 2008

Museum of the North Beach Fundraiser at Seabrook

August 28, 2008 By: Seabrook Category: Events, PR, Pictures

Seabrook was very pleased to host the Museum of the North Beach’s Wine Tasting by the Sea fundraiser on Saturday, August 23rd. The purpose of this event was to raise money for the Museum’s Moclips depot rebuilding project. The museum successfully raised over $1300 for the project on this beautiful day. Below are some images of the proposed depot and the event at Seabrook. For more information on the project, please visit: http://www.moclips.org/depot.php.

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Walk-able Communities as a Solution to Suburban Sprawl

August 12, 2008 By: Seabrook Category: New Urbanism, PR

Although still under development, towns such as Seabrook illustrate the potential of a walk-able community.

In the news, as high gas prices and far-reaching suburbs are costing its residents more to drive from point to point, many people are taking inventory on the places they live, looking for close-to-home solutions that make shopping, working, and living more proximal. There are health, environmental, and social nuances of walk-able communities that are distinctly different than its counterpart of suburban sprawl.

As both urban and suburban leaders seek solutions to creating more walk-able communities, everything from richer mass transit to increased neighborhood commerce is being considered to meet its residents’ basic needs. Whole universities are cropping up with formal disciplines in New Urbanism as new ideas (which are actually quite traditional) are implemented and movements such as the Congress for the New Urbanism are widely embraced by civic decision-makers.

Some of the characteristics of walk-able communities include:

town centers – a quiet, pleasant main street with a set of hearty, healthy stores
areas designed for people first, cars second
neighborhoods with mixed income and mixed-use housing
safe, adequate and appealing public space for people to gather and to sit
easy access for people of all ages and abilities
main streets that are speed-controlled and interconnected, or laid out in a grid
many people walking

A few online links that with recent news and advocacy here:

USA Today, 7/29/08__”Gas prices drive push to reinvent America’s suburbs” http://m.usatoday.com/detail.jsp?key=876570&rc=na_ne&p=1
CNN 6/16/08_”Is America’s suburban dream collapsing into a nightmare?”
http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/06/16/suburb.city/index.html
“Walkable Communities/New Urbanism” Washington State magazine Feb. 2008 (institution)
http://wsm.wsu.edu/stories/2008/February/newurbanism.html
Understanding Walk-able Communities (blog)
http://www.walkable.org/article1.htm
Washington State’s Futurewise (social concern) http://futurewise.org/

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