Welcome to Urban Ecology

In Spring 2007, Urban Ecology partnered with the Unity Council to create a plan for improving the schoolyard of Urban Promise Academy in Oakland, CA. A Student Site Leadership team collected ideas from their classmates, staff, and parents about the schoolyard, asking... read more

Manzanita Community / SEED Schoolyard Redesign

Summary Urban Ecology set out to provide the students of the Manzanita Community School/SEED a safe and attractive playground. Using outreach workshops with students, parents, and teachers a community implemented plan was designed to meet the needs of the students.... read more

Roosevelt Schoolyard Redesign

Summary Urban Ecology partnered with the East Bay Asian Youth Council (EBAYC) to redesign the Roosevelt Schoolyard in Oakland. Currently the planning process is in its final stages, and Urban Ecology is waiting on funding to start breaking ground on the project. EBAYC... read more

Garfield Elementary Schoolyard Redesign

Urban Ecology has partnered with EBAYC to redesign the schoolyard of Garfield Elementary School in Oakland, near the Fruitvale BART Station. Urban Ecology – with the help of the staff, students, and parents of Garfield – have developed a final plan for the... read more

16th Street BART Plazas

Summary The 16th street BART plazas were redesigned in order to create a space which was safe and aesthetically enjoyable for community members of the Mission. Urban Ecology wanted to create a communal space in both the southwest and northeast plazas at the heavily... read more

24th Street BART Plazas

Summary Starting in the fall of 2000, community members were actively trying to bring improvement to the 24th street BART station plazas in the Mission. In 2001 Urban Ecology in connection with community input, designed a plan which would improve the atmosphere of... read more

Community Design Consulting Services

Some of our past projects.

24 th Street BART Plazas Community Design Plan

Bay Area Rapid Transit Mission Economic Development Association San Francisco Planning Department Metropolitan Transportation Commission Urban Ecology Located in the heart of San Franciscos Mission District, the 24th Street BART plazas are a significant transit node... read more

Mission Corridor Plan Commercial Revitalization

Mission Economic Development Association Bay Area Economics Urban Ecology The Schlage Lock factory site is located in the heart of San Franciscos Visitacion Valley, next to the neighborhoods commercial street and a proposed light rail depot. The Visitacion Valley... read more

Visitacion Valley Neighborhood Center Plan

Office of Supervisor Sophie Maxwell San Francisco Planning Department Visitacion Valley Planning Alliance Urban Ecology The Schlage Lock factory site is located in the heart of San Franciscos Visitacion Val- ley, next to the neighborhoods commer- cial street and a... read more

Visitacion Valley Community Vision

Office of Supervisor Sophie Maxwell San Francisco Planning Department Urban Ecology The next few years will bring big changes to Visitacion Valley, with the construction of a new light rail line on Bayshore Boulevard, a new Caltrain Station, and development at the... read more

Weeks Neighborhood Plan

The Weeks Neighborhood in East Palo Alto is unique in the San Francisco Bay Area. It is a richly green place with many large trees and open views, in sharp contrast to the concrete and freeways of much of the Bay Area. Many people come to the neighborhood and stay for... read more

The Clinton Park Plan

The Clinton Park Plan is a collaborative effort to revitalize Clinton Park and its surrounding streetscape. Urban Ecology, the East Bay Asian Local Development Corporation (EBALDC) and the Eastlake Merchants Association (ELMA) partnered to create a new park design in... read more

Past Articles from Our Journal

You can visit our contact page to submit your own article! Find all our past journal articles here.

Divided We Stand: A Biography of New York’s World Trade Center

By Eric Darton / Basic Books, 1999, $25.00 Reviewed by Nick de Jesus Midway through Divided We Stand, I pause and say aloud, “This is fascinating.” I hadn’t expected to respond this way to a book on New York’s soaring World Trade Center. It... read more

Gang of Five: Leaders at the Center of the Conservative Crusade

By Nina J. Easton / Simon & Schuster, 2000, $27.00 Reviewed by James B. Goodno Right-wing activists and intellectuals descended on Washington, D.C., in the 1980s and 1990s with one overriding goal: to dismantle the Keynesian state erected during the Great... read more

The Mysteries of Planning

By Karen Kristiansson As a city planner, I hear of a lot of books that sound like well-written and insightful works on important urban issues, some reviewed on these very pages. I have found that no matter how hard I try, however, I cannot manage to read all of them.... read more

City Front Shorts

Education not incarceration is the battle cry of a new campaign of the Black Radical Congress, a national coalition of progressive African Americans. At its June national organizing conference in Detroit, the two-year-old organization launched its first national... read more

Angola Project Wins Planning, Architecture Contest

An innovative urban redevelopment project in the Angolan capital of Luanda has won notice from the United Nations for improving the living environment for people in the long-troubled city. Launched in 1994, the Luanda Sul Self-Financed Urban Infrastructure Program... read more

Bangkok’s Motorcycle Taxis

They gather at the foot of every lane, ready to buzz residents and workers from the corner bus stop to their home or workplace. Bangkok’s motorcycle taxi drivers form a vital and affordable link in the city’s public transportation system. One or two baht... read more

Venice Confronts Population Loss, Environmental Problems

Venice is one of the world’s urban treasures and one of its most unique cities. Built on little more than a large sand bar in the middle of a coastal lagoon, the city’s centuries-old stone palaces, churches, residences, and shops rest on wooden piles... read more

Arizona Voters Face Growth Choices

Citizens for Growth Management, a coalition of activist organizations in Arizona, has put a statewide Citizens Growth Management Initiative on the November ballot in Arizona, sparking an intense political battle over the future of land use in the fast-growing and... read more

Malawi Graduates Turn Street People

An education is supposed to be a ticket to a better life, but in Malawi, a lack of appropriate job opportunities has left university graduates begging on the street and — in some cases — resorting to prostitution. It’s also fueled antagonism between... read more

Remember the Alamo and the World’s Tallest Man, Too

To most Texans, the Alamo is the most important historic site in the world — bar none. Now the principal landmark of Texas independence might have to share its square in the historic core of San Antonio with a monument of an entirely different nature. Publishers... read more

Global Urban Poverty Action Guide

Asia Urbs Program 205, rue Belliard 1040 Brussels, Belgium secretariat@asia-urbs.com www.asia-urbs.com Institute of Social Sciences 8, Nelson Mandela Road New Delhi 110 070, India iss@nda.vsnl.net.in International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) oulevard du... read more

Fighting Urban Poverty Around the World