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What makes Shivaji Park more accessible than Oval Maidan

Pratik — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 16:01:47 +0000

For a city starved of public spaces, the Oval Maidan is an exemplar of barriers destroying urbanity. In order, presumably, to preserve the grounds from the depredations of undesirables, the Oval is fenced off with railings that put you in mind of a penitentiary no matter which side you are on. Inside, a few cricket pitches are tended to for a filtered few to use. The narrow ‘public’ path joining the Art Deco to the Neo-Gothic stretch only emphasises the impression of one being out of place.

  On how open public spaces are ruined by enclosing them.

[Link to What makes Shivaji Park more accessible than Oval Maidan]

CNU 19 in Madison, Wisconsin

Pratik — Fri, 06 May 2011 15:44:48 +0000

The Congress for the New Urbanism hosts its 19th annual Congress event in Madison, Wisconsin this year from June 1-4. Exploring the theme of “Growing Local,” CNU 19 will draw on the close relationship Madison has with its agricultural neighbors, and examine topics such as Bikeability & Transportation, Agriculture & Urbanism, Architecture & Placemaking, Implementing the New Urbanism: Design & Economics, and much more.

With a non-stop slate of networking events, awards ceremonies, tours, and distinguished speakers such as William Cronon, Ed Glaeser, Congressman Earl Blumenauer, Growing Power’s Will Allen, all six founders of CNU, and Robert Davis of the Seaside Institute among many others, CNU 19 is the go-to venue for New Urbanist education, collaboration, and networking.

6. Applied Research

Pratik — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 19:30:20 +0000

Co-Researcher and Consultant in drafting grant proposal in partnership with the Center for Transportation Research (CTTR) at Texas Southern University for providing consulting services for updating comprehensive and regionally coordinated transportation plan and in facilitating stakeholder and public involvement including outreach for an appropriate transportation needs assessment and needs prioritization for the East Texas Council of Governments.
Co-Investigator in a grant proposal for Small Town Brownfields Revitalization Pilot Project using Charettes with senior academic researchers from Georgia Tech and Urban Collage, Inc., Atlanta.
Co-Researcher in the analysis of environmental and economic sustainability of New Orleans and Louisiana coast resettlement and examination of impact and remedial measure for contaminated lands in hurricane-prone regions of Louisiana prepared in part for comprehensive redevelopment proposal. Report was presented to the City of New Orleans as part of redevelopment process post-Katrina in terms of sustainability principles.
Co-Researcher for the EPA Communities and the Built Environment program (EPA-G2006-STAR-H1) titled, Redevelopment of Contaminated Sites for Affordable Housing: A Risk Assessment with senior academic researchers at Texas A&M University.
Co-Investigator in analyzing economic feasibility and financing for Greenpoint-Williamsburg Waterfront Development, Brooklyn, New York with senior academic researchers at Georgia Tech, Atlanta. Prepared report that allowed for drafting a redevelopment plan for dilapidated districts in New York City that included analyses of the urban form suitable for waterfront redevelopment from the perspective of historic preservation.
Co-Chair of Student Committee for a National Student Design Competition for Sustainability Focusing on People, Prosperity, and the Planet (Funding O.N. EPA-G2006-P3-Z6 Built Environment) titled, A Model for Sustainable Urbanisms in Threatened Regions: Rebuilding a Sustainable Gulf Coast at Texas A&M University.
Founder and curator of the Urban Planning Blog, maintained since October 2005. Listed in the top 50 blogs in Urban Planning at Planetizen and included in the Open Directory Project (available at http://urbanplanningblog.com/)
Debate Adjudicator: Treatise: The International Thought Challenge, the Annual International Business Conclave of Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Lucknow on the theme of Sustainable Development: Fuelling the Future.

4. Select Publications

Pratik — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 19:24:18 +0000

Borders, S., Chaudhuri, N., Mhatre, P.; and Sinha, S. (in process) Minority Childhood Obesity: Modeling Ethnic Disparity and Disparate Insurance Coverage for Preventive Care Access and Emergency Room Utilization in the United States (for University of Michigan, Texas A&M University, and National Survey of Children’s Health).
Bame, S.; Mhatre, P.; and Lee JY, et.al. (Submitted for review) 2-1-1 Data to Monitor Unmet Disaster Needs: The Case of Katrina-Rita in Texas, 2005.
Van Zandt, S. and Mhatre, P. (2009) Growing Pains: Perpetuating Inequality through the Production of Low-Income Housing in the Dallas Metroplex, (Urban Geography, Vol.30, Issue 5, pp.490–513).
Willoughby, K.; Mhatre, P.; and Pandey, L. (2004) The Geography of Housing in the Atlanta Region, (for Fiscal Research Center, Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, Georgia State University, Census Report 8, July 2004).
Melkers, J. and Mhatre, P. (2002) Use and Effects of Using Performance Measures for Budgeting, Management, and Reporting: Case Study for State of Wisconsin (for Sloan Foundation and Georgia State University Project, Government Accounting Standards Bureau (GASB), September 2002.

Non-Academic Publications

Mhatre, P. and Pradhan, R. (2008) The Nano Opportunity: Time to Address Urban Transport in a Holistic Manner, (in Pragati – The Indian National Interest Review, February 2008, Issue 11)
Mhatre, P. (2007) Away and Not Alone: Staying Connected to the Homeland via Social Media (for Tehelka – Special Issue: Youth and the Internet, May 05, 2007)

Links to Scholarly Work

Doctoral Dissertation Proposal – Examination of Housing Price Impacts on Residential Properties before and after Brownfields Remediation Using Spatial Hedonic Modeling [PDF link]

Journal article for Urban Geography journal – Growing Pains: Perpetuating Inequality through the Production of Low-Income Housing in the Dallas Metroplex [PDF link]

Sustainable Housing Research Unit (SHRU) Working Paper 09-01, January 2009 – The Effect of Housing Choice Voucher Households on Neighborhood Crime: Longitudinal Evidence from Dallas [PDF link]

SeCoPA Presentation – Impact of Organizational Capability in Developing Internet-based Solutions on Perceived Website Effectiveness [PDF link]

Census Report for Fiscal Research Center – The Geography of Housing in the Atlanta Region [PDF link]

Report for Government Accounting Standards Bureau – Use and Effects of Using Performance Measures for Budgeting, Management, and Reporting: Case Study for State of Wisconsin [PDF link]

Class papers

Personal Planning Manifesto – PLAN 664: History & Theory of Planning [PDF link]

Response Paper – Relaxing Regulations to Support the Growth and Development of Industries: Case for Bangalore, India – PLAN 664: History & Theory of Planning [PDF link]

Response Paper – Conservation and Adapted Reuse “City Beautiful” Buildings: The Case for Victoria Terminus, Mumbai – PLAN 664: History & Theory of Planning [PDF link]

Response Paper – Experimental City – PLAN 664: History & Theory of Planning [PDF link]

Rebuilding a Sustainable Gulf Coast: A Regional Plan for New Orleans and Environs (contributor; pgs 54-62) – PLAN 675: Sustainable Urbanism [PDF link]

Brownfields Redevelopment for Affordable Housing – PLAN 656: Housing & Community [PDF link]

Impact of Subprime Mortgage Meltdown on Location and Volume of Home foreclosures – PLAN 629: Neighborhood Revitalization [PDF link]

Vacant and Abandoned Lands: A Theory Paper – PLAN 629: Neighborhood Revitalization [PDF link]

Mapping Opportunities and Access Indicators for Dallas Metropolitan Region poster – FRSC 652: Advanced GIS [PPT link]

Downtown Revitalization: Lessons for Mumbai’s Mill Lands – GEOG 616: Urban Geography [PDF link]

Role and Nature of Emergent Organizations in Disaster Recovery – PLAN 647: Disaster Recovery and Hazard Mitigation [PDF link]

Regional Analysis and Recommendations for High Tech Cluster Economies: The case for Bangalore (India) and Silicon Valley (USA) – PUBP 6602 – Economic Development and Analysis [PDF link]

5 Green Cities of the Future

Pratik — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 14:02:59 +0000

How do green cities help in the effort against climate change? Eco-cities all share similar characteristics: They aim to reduce or eliminate fossil-fuel use, adopt sustainable building practices, promote "green space" and clean air quality, implement energy-efficient and widely available public transportation, create walkable city designs and develop well-organized mixed-use neighborhoods that combine living, working and shopping. These qualities add up to sustainableurbanism.

[Link to 5 Green Cities of the Future]

Design Lessons From India’s Poorest Neighborhoods

Pratik — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 15:03:01 +0000

"Jugaad" is a Hindi term referring to the ingenuity of citizens living in resource-constrained environments, a concept from which New Yorkers might derive some enlightenment. Enter Jugaad Urbanism: Resourceful Strategies for Indian Cities, an exhibition created with the help of curator Kanu Agrawal that opens at New York's Center for Architecture next week.
The exhibition is "design by the people, for the people, of Delhi, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, and Pune," says Agrawal, and showcases everyday innovations of slum-dwelling residents and the designers and architects who work around them.

[Link to Design Lessons From India's Poorest Neighborhoods]

Mall to a Mixed-Use Walkable Neighborhood

Pratik — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 21:27:52 +0000

The redesign will be in line with many new urbanism projects. There will be shops, cafes and offices connected by walkways. Storefronts will be on the first floor and residential units will occupy the top floors. There will also be a mix of cottages, multi family homes, and condos in the neighborhood as to add variety. Parking will still be present but will be hidden behind the retrofitted mall, away from the storefronts.

[Source: Mall in Utah Being Transformed into a Mixed-Use Walkable Neighborhood]

Arcade Fire on Suburban Sprawl

Pratik — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 15:01:56 +0000

Arcade Fire’s The Suburbs isn’t as much about suburbanism versus urbanism, or cars versus bicycles, as it is a question of “What now?” The album’s vision of suburbia may not exactly be an ideal place to live – not in the 1980’s and certainly not upon returning to it today. But the narrator of the album does return, nostalgic for his wasted hours of youth and fearful of what may remain for his children. If suburbia is no longer necessarily the dream, what is to be made of those communities we built in the 70s?

Arcade Fire'a latest album, The Suburbs is one of the finest examples of city planning commentary in pop culture today.

[Link to Arcade Fire on Suburban Sprawl]

Floating Villa in Sweden

Pratik — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 10:00:31 +0000

Couple of colleagues in a Sustainable Urbanism class had proposed floating homes as a potential solution for homes in New Orleans. This floating villa designed by Swedish architect, Staffan Strindberg, currently situated in the town of Kalmar on the east coast of Sweden may be a tad fancy for residents of New Orleans especially for those whose houses got washed away. But definitely a technology worth exploring, right?

Measure your Neighborhood Walkability

Pratik — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 15:05:39 +0000

New Urbanism incorporates neighborhood walkability as one of the pivotal factors in improving quality of life as well as working toward conservancy. Considering that obesity is one of the rising health problems in the United States, walkability measures are also used to promote healthy living. Walkability measures in a neighborhood usually include calculating distances to amenities like schools, grocery stores, parks, libraries, etc. Considering the rise of online mapping services like Google Maps and cross referencing of various locations via innovative mashups, it was only a while before someone came up with a tool to measure the walkability of your neighborhood.

Walk Score is an extremely user-friendly website that lets you measure how walkable is your neighborhood (although the tag line mistakenly mentions how walkable is your house). The website even lists the various benefits of walking; all of which I agree with. All you do is plug in your home address and the website spits out a score between 0 and 100 to measure walkability of your neighborhood; with 0 being completely unfriendly and 100 being extremely friendly. So naturally I put in my home address and got the following result:

As you observe, the tool gave my neighborhood got a score of 54 which is not bad considering I live in a Texan town where everyone loves their cars especially if it is a pickup. Most of the amenities listed are within a mile [a one-mile walk is considered as a standard].

However, I must mention that I live in a relatively amenity-friendly neighborhood and the location was one of the primary factors in choosing this residence. At the same time, if you actually live in their neighborhood, walking to the grocery store isn’t as easy as it sounds even when the measured distance is 0.29 miles. Why? Lack of sidewalks and pedestrian-friendly crosswalks spanning major roads. If you have to go to HEB Grocery, the store mentioned on the map, you have to cross Texas Avenue which has been perennially under construction ever since I got to College Station. Moreover, due to the construction mess, you simply cannot dream of crossing over to the other side without your heart pounding in fear of being run over. This actually is quite a big deterrent to walking to nearby amenities even if you want to. Thus proximity isn’t the only factor in measuring walkability and urban features that actually promote such behavior are important as well.

Proximity to the Wolf Pen Creek park however has made the city of College Station build sidewalks on the way to the park but these are purely meant for exercise or recreational purposes. I would like the city to put in sidewalks not only for recreational purposes but also to facilitate walking to the stores. Like they say, build and they’ll come actually makes perfect sense in creating a walkable community. If you do not have sidewalks, how can you expect people to walk even if the distance is not much?