Saturday’s Healthy City talks were more urban-design oriented than Friday’s Growing In Place symposium. It was held in a ballroom of the new Convention Center and attracted a more professional crowd it seemed. As a lowly parks volunteer I felt a bit out of my league but tried gamely to keep up.
I found a few presentations to be a bit dry, but the presentation by James Charlier was amusing and informative. His slides showed many examples of well-designed city streets and poorly-designed city streets, many of which exist in the same city. I also enjoyed hearing all about Chicago’s green initiatives in Sadhu Johnston’s presentation. Chicago is going green in a typically-Chicago way: big.
Beyond that, the day was useful for networking, and I got a chance to say hello to some good people designing good cities. While Saturday’s talks didn’t carry the impact of Friday’s for me, they were still well worth attending. I’m glad I got a chance to go.