{"id":140,"date":"2015-07-06T09:11:43","date_gmt":"2015-07-06T13:11:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.walkuproslindale.org\/weblog\/?p=140"},"modified":"2015-07-06T09:45:40","modified_gmt":"2015-07-06T13:45:40","slug":"laudato-si-pope-francis-wades-into-the-fray-over-climate-change-and-spends-some-time-on-walkability-and-placemaking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/walkuproslindale.org\/weblog\/2015\/07\/06\/laudato-si-pope-francis-wades-into-the-fray-over-climate-change-and-spends-some-time-on-walkability-and-placemaking\/","title":{"rendered":"Laudato Si’ – Pope Francis wades into the fray over climate change, and spends some time on walkability and placemaking"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s\u00a0been almost three weeks since Pope Francis\u00a0released Laudato Si’<\/a>,\u00a0the groundbreaking\u00a0encyclical on\u00a0the environment and the role that humanity plays in its ongoing degradation on a global scale. As the dust settles after the initial media blitz, it’s worth considering that a document that speaks broadly\u00a0on the spiritual dimension of\u00a0the interconnection of the crises in climate change, global poverty, and increasing inequality also sees the condition of our social interactions and the fabric of our urban places\u00a0as critically worthy of examination and direction. An excerpt (emphasis added):<\/p>\n

There is… a need to protect those common areas, visual landmarks and urban landscapes which increase our sense of belonging, of rootedness, of \u201cfeeling at home\u201d within a city which includes us and brings us together. It is important that the different parts of a city be well integrated and that those who live there have a sense of the whole, rather than being confined to one neighbourhood and failing to see the larger city as space which they share with others. Interventions which affect the urban or rural landscape should take into account how various elements combine to form a whole which is perceived by its inhabitants as a coherent and meaningful framework for their lives. Others will then no longer be seen as strangers, but as part of a \u201cwe\u201d which all of us are working to create…<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Lynn Richards,\u00a0who currently leads\u00a0the Congress for the New Urbanism, has\u00a0boiled it down in a\u00a0piece entitled The Encyclical of the New Urbansim<\/a>\u00a0over at Better Cities\u00a0& Towns. <\/em>Lynn’s whole piece is worth reading, as is the encyclical itself, but Lynn seems to sum it up best here (emphasis, once again, added):<\/p>\n

In his approach to urbanization and climate change, Pope Francis gave a global platform to the idea that the health of our natural environment is dictated by the shape and quality of our human communities\u2014both our social connections and the physical places we inhabit<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Where and how we design, preserve, and build our streets, neighborhoods, towns, cities, and regions matter. Placemakers of all types, including New Urbanists, share with Pope Francis a conviction that our physical environment has a direct impact on our chances for happy, prosperous lives. Well-designed public places, neighborhoods, Main Streets, and rural villages help create community: healthy ways for people to live and socialize. These places also help reduce our impact on natural systems and can mitigate climate impacts.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The\u00a0imperative at the local level is for walkable, well-designed\u00a0development in\u00a0neighborhoods connected by multiple, interlinked,\u00a0and\u00a0convenient\u00a0networks (pedestrian, bicycle, transit, and auto) providing access to the broader city and region. Every neighborhood in Boston can\u00a0achieve this vision. WalkUP Roslindale<\/a> is dedicated to helping it happen right here in Roslindale.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s\u00a0been almost three weeks since Pope Francis\u00a0released Laudato Si’,\u00a0the groundbreaking\u00a0encyclical on\u00a0the environment and the role that humanity plays in its ongoing degradation on a global scale. As the dust settles after the initial media blitz, it’s worth considering that a document that speaks broadly\u00a0on the spiritual dimension of\u00a0the interconnection of the crises in climate change, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[16],"tags":[70,68,65,69,66,67],"class_list":["post-140","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-vision","tag-better-cities-towns","tag-climate-change","tag-laudato-si","tag-lynn-richards","tag-pope-francis","tag-walkable-develpoment"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6X5no-2g","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/walkuproslindale.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/walkuproslindale.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/walkuproslindale.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/walkuproslindale.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/walkuproslindale.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=140"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/walkuproslindale.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":153,"href":"https:\/\/walkuproslindale.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140\/revisions\/153"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/walkuproslindale.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/walkuproslindale.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/walkuproslindale.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}